Rebecca Zanetti's Blog, page 9
September 7, 2015
For a Month, I Had No Clue My Now-Husband Thought We Were Dating
Hi all! I’m Charly, Rebecca’s assistant. We thought it’d be fun to do a ‘Romance: The Good, the Bad, and the Disastrous’ theme with guest bloggers throughout the summer months. Every Monday and Thursday, we’ll have a guest blogger talk about fun stuff like horrible dates, good dates, etc. Some bloggers will have a contest, and some won’t – it’s totally up to them. If there is a contest, I’ll randomly draw a winner from the post comments, send the winner’s email address to the guest blogger, and they’ll take it from there. Rebecca will jump in and blog when she can. For now, enjoy as we play!
I met my husband because of tequila and a roommate’s paranoia. Our first date was a blind one, the kind you arrange yourself. At the time, I lived in California’s San Francisco Bay Area with my married friends Bobby and Andrew. I knew Bobby from college and he had met Andrew while working in the UK. Their marriage was legal in Great Britain, but at that time, the US did not recognize their union. Andrew’s immigration status was therefore always iffy, a topic he and I discussed almost as often as my love life, or lack thereof. Even though the Bay Area was predominantly male, I worked in a small IT company where everyone was older than me by at least ten years. And there was a reason the women there used to say “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.” Many of the guys were introverts who weren’t comfortable talking to potential partners. They weren’t comfortable talking at all.
One Thursday night while Bobby taught evening classes, Andrew and I indulged in our usual activity of watching NBC’s lineup while enjoying a pitcher or two of margaritas. As the cast of Friends sorted out their love lives, I once again complained to Andrew about my lackluster dating record.
This time, he held up his hand to stop my whining and threw a newspaper at me. “Check out the personal I circled for you.”
“You’re shopping for guys for me through the ads. Seriously?”
We usually made fun of the ads in the Bay Area free newspaper, but never read them for real. I turned to the ad Andrew had picked out and read the beginning: “Bashful Brit looking for monogamous relationship…” I threw the paper back at him.
Instead of laughing as I expected, he took my hand. “Darling, you really need to get out more. Why don’t you give this bloke a call and see what happens.”
I began to answer, but the opening music of ER interrupted me and as we settled in for an hour in the emergency room of Chicago’s fictional County General Hospital, Andrew sighed. “Why anybody thinks that guy Clooney can act is a mystery. He’ll never get another role after this show.”
I punched his shoulder to shut him up. I was quite happy watching Dr. Ross flirt with the nurses.
Two hours later, I dialed the numbers listed in the ad. Maybe the tequila in that last pitcher had suppressed my inhibitions. Maybe I couldn’t live down a dare that Andrew had thrown in after our first pitcher. Or, maybe I wanted what Bobby and Andrew had and thought meeting a Bashful Brit was a step in the right direction.
* * *
That weekend, I was cat and house sitting for my boss. In addition to giving me some time away from living with a couple, his house offered a multi-million-dollar view of the San Francisco Bay. On a clear day, I could see from the Bay Bridge to the abandoned salt ponds just north of San Jose. At night, car headlights illuminated busy streets like El Camino Real and the blinking lights of air planes going in for landing at SFO reflected in the shiny glass towers of the Oracle Corporation. I spent as much time watching the view as I did taking advantage of my boss’ big screen TV. I was enjoying a movie when my phone rang and when I answered, Andrew’s panicked voice startled me. “I’m going to be deported.”
Not again, I thought.
Every time our landline had a hang-up or callers asking for people we didn’t know, Andrew was convinced the calls were from the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS).
“This English bloke called and asked for you. After I took a message, he wanted to know if I was British. When I said yes, he said, ‘fancy that’ and hung up on me.”
“What was the guy’s name,” I asked.
“Mike.”
“That’s the guy we called on Thursday night. He probably thinks I collect British guys.”
I couldn’t stop laughing, but Andrew was not amused. “You have to call him back and go out with him to make sure he’s not an INS agent.”
* * *
Mike was pleasant, but a bit nervous on the phone, as was I. Even though he seemed suspicious about me sharing a house with another Brit, we made tentative plans to go out for dinner later in the week. I called Andrew back to assure him that Mike was a software engineer. Not convinced, he answered, “I won’t believe it until you actually go out with him.”
* * *
On Mike’s suggestion, we met for dinner at an Indian restaurant. The date went fairly well. We chatted pleasantly between short awkward silences. As we walked out, Mike suggested we’d to an Irish pub to meet up with a few “mates” of his.
I knew Mike was a regular when the waitress greeted him by name. When we stepped deeper into the smoky interior, a group in a corner shouted out “Mike” similar to the way Norm used to be greeted on Cheers.
More people than I could keep straight introduced themselves, including a striking blond, who happened to be Mike’s very recent ex-girlfriend. As the evening progressed, the crowd swelled and Mike and I ended up on opposites ends of an L-shaped couch. Sitting next to his ex, I chatted with her about her job while a nervous Mike tried to overhear the conversation. A beautiful Asian woman obstructed his view. She’d had some kind of corrupted data problem and wanted Mike to figure out how to fix it. A very charming guy sitting on my other side, who had introduced himself in a sexy Welsh accent, offered the opinion that just because the Asian woman was someone Mike had slept with, he shouldn’t feel obligated to give her free technical support.
At this point, Mike’s ex stretched out her very long legs so that the Welsh guy and I could admire her new pedicure. Her black with white polka dots nails perfectly matched the bows on her high-heeled sandals. I compared her feminine footwear to my black Dr. Martens, her short flirty yellow skirt to my black Levi’s, and decided that anybody who used to go out with this stylish woman was not my type. As I stood up, Mike hurried to my side and declared he’d walk me to my car. Before I drove away, he asked me out for the following weekend. I politely declined.
Back home, Andrew was sitting up waiting for me. “So, is he with the INS?”
“I don’t think you have to worry about that. The guy is too busy chasing women to have time hunting expired visas,” I answered.
* * *
Mike called a few times and asked me out again I declined each time, using my graduate thesis as an excuse. Then one evening, he called to invite me to a barbecue at the cute Welsh guy’s house.
“Hm, Welsh you say?” I pretended to search my memory. “Oh yeah, I think I remember him now.”
The barbecue was in full swing when we arrived. Mike walked me around the place, introducing me to everyone. All the guests were male except for four women seated in the kitchen. They had a large selection of Snapple placed on the table.
“Hey,” a stunning black haired beauty called out to me. “Pull up a chair. We’ve got important business to attend to.” She shooed Mike out. “This is no place for a man. Go outside and cook with fire.”
Another short-haired, fast-talking woman explained what the task at hand was. “So we have a big bottle of vodka, but no orange or tomato juice. The goal is to figure out which flavor of Snapple works best in our drink.”
As the tasting continued, the women grilled me about who I was, what I did and how I’d met Mike. I wasn’t sure he wanted it known that he’d placed a personal add, but since we hadn’t synchronized our stories, I figured it was better to stick to the truth. My new friends seemed a little taken aback, but quickly recovered. They told me stories about Mike and I got to know a different person than the one I thought I had gone on a date with. Their Mike was a great friend, a fantastic coworker, and always the first one to lend a helping hand.
Eventually we ran out of vodka, perfectly timed with the hosts deciding to move the party to the pub, which was walking distance from the house. I asked Mike if he expected his ex to show up. He looked embarrassed when he answered, “She’s only been there once before. I have no idea why she was here that last time. I know how that must have looked.”
By the end of the evening, my view of Mike had altered completely. Now I was quite keen on going out with him.
And we did see each other, several times per week. Each time Mike walked me to my car after and we talked for a long time before he left to go home. Except for a hug or two, there was almost no physical contact. I figured he’d moved me into the friend zone and I’d lost my chance.
* * *
About six weeks after our first date, my birthday came around. I invited Mike to join me and some friends at a club in San Francisco. We had a great time dancing and hanging out, but again, Mike acted more like a friend than someone interested in dating. He lived in the south bay, about an hour and a half from San Francisco, so when the club closed I asked Mike if he wanted to just crash at our place. He accepted and when we got to the our townhouse, he bounded up the stairs to my bedroom.
I followed, slightly confused. “What are you doing?” I asked.
“What do you mean? You asked me to spend the night.” Mike stripped off his clothes and made himself comfortable in my bed.
“Yeah, like on the couch.”
“Oh, is it too soon in our relationship?”
“What relationship?”
“We’ve been dating for a month.”
“We haven’t even kissed.”
“I can fix that.” Mike reached for me and I lost a few minutes as his lips touched mine. When I came too again, I was even more confused.
And a little hot. Okay, a lot hot.
“I can’t believe you didn’t know we were dating,” Mike said. “I’ve been pursuing you forever.”
“How have you been pursuing me?” I was still confused.
“I’ve been calling you weekly.”
I may have been bad at interpreting Mike’s sign of intent early in the relationship, but I definitely got better. Or, maybe he just communicated clearer. Five months later, we moved in together. Four months after that, Mike proposed. This year, we celebrated our sixteenth anniversary.
ABOUT ASA MARIA:
Asa Maria Bradley grew up in Sweden surrounded by archaeology and history steeped in Norse mythology, which inspired the immortal Vikings and Valkyries in her paranormal romances. She also writes romantic suspense and currently resides on a lake deep in the pine forests of the Pacific Northwest with a British husband and a rescue dog of indeterminate breed. Her debut book VIKING WARRIOR RISING is released by Sourcebooks on November 3.
Visit Asa at www.AsaMariaBradley.com and sign up for her newsletter to get book news, bonus materials, and fun giveaways.
LATEST RELEASE:
Viking Warrior Rising:
Immortal Vikings are among us.
Leif Skarsganger and his elite band of immortal warriors have been charged to protect humanity from the evil Norse god Loki.
Under attack from Loki’s minions, Leif is shocked to encounter a dark-haired beauty who fights like a warrior herself. Wounded and feverish, the Viking kisses her, inadvertently triggering an ancient Norse bond. But when Naya Brisbane breaks away and disappears before the bond is completed, Leif’s warrior spirit goes berserk. If Leif doesn’t find her fast, he’s going to lose himself to permanent battle fury.
But Naya doesn’t want to be found…and he’ll do anything to find her. Because they’re both running out of time.
Release date November 3 and available for pre-order at:
![[Books-A-Million]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1418189194i/12697195.png)
GIVEAWAY
What’s the most confusing courtship or date you’ve experienced? Leave a comment below for a chance of winning a prize package consisting of: a $10 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift certificate (your choice), a cute Viking Ducky, and some fun Viking souvenirs I brought back from my visit to Europe this summer.
September 3, 2015
My Worst Date
Hi all! I’m Charly, Rebecca’s assistant. We thought it’d be fun to do a ‘Romance: The Good, the Bad, and the Disastrous’ theme with guest bloggers throughout the summer months. Every Monday and Thursday, we’ll have a guest blogger talk about fun stuff like horrible dates, good dates, etc. Some bloggers will have a contest, and some won’t – it’s totally up to them. If there is a contest, I’ll randomly draw a winner from the post comments, send the winner’s email address to the guest blogger, and they’ll take it from there. Rebecca will jump in and blog when she can. For now, enjoy as we play!
I was eighteen and a freshman at San Diego State University. One of my friends, Mike, had a brother, Jason, who was seventeen and was a senior in high school. Mike’s brother could not find a date to the senior prom. He told me about this, and I was sympathetic to Jason’s plight, especially since I didn’t have a boyfriend my own senior year, and I also had trouble finding a date to prom the previous year.
I ended up going to my prom with a friend, Marty, but because I had a platonic relationship with my date, it wasn’t as fun as it could have been, if you know what I mean. Lol.
Anyway, Mike told me that his brother was often told that he looked like Tom Cruise (Top Gun was the 1986 movie of the year at the time, by the way, and yes, I am totally dating myself), so I was more than eager to be Jason’s date. At the time, I didn’t wonder why Jason couldn’t find his own date. I mean, hell, he looked like Tom Cruise, right? So why would he have a problem?
The night he picked me up, I finally understood why. Jason drove an old Chevy Nova – not that I’m a car snob and judge people by their vehicles (I’ve never been shallow like that), but it was a stick shift, and within five minutes, I realized that he didn’t know how to drive one. I owned and drove a five speed, so I was a manual transmission pro.
Being unfamiliar with the Nova and a manual transmission, he stalled the car at every light, but that wasn’t the worst of it. At dinner, he looked at the menu and announced how expensive it was. Yup, I ordered a salad instead of the halibut, what I really wanted.
Then when we left for the prom (besides being jolted once again at every shift and stop), when we arrived at the prom (a ball room at the Hilton on Shelter Island), he didn’t have enough money to pay for parking at the venue. It was a good thing my dad gave me fifty bucks – just in case. I paid for parking, and then once we were inside, he didn’t have enough money to purchase photos. Yeah, I paid for that, too.
By the time we were on the dance floor and he tried to kiss me, I was so disgusted, that I pulled away and told him that I didn’t want him to smear my lip gloss. I also refused to go to any after party with him, using the excuse that I couldn’t be out after two o’clock a.m., and when he dropped me off at home, I gave him a quick kiss and a thank you, pulling away when he tried to stick his tongue in my mouth.
After that night, I never talked to Jason again. He never called me, probably knowing I wouldn’t want him to (based on my actions that night), and I was glad. We just didn’t click, and the date was too awkward to try and repeat another one under different circumstances. I spent over two hundred dollars on that dress, and it didn’t pay off for me.
Of course, I never saw the prom pictures from that dreaded night, but now as an adult when I look back on that event, I realize that Jason was just an inexperienced teenager who was trying to make the best out of prom night.
I have no idea what ever happened to Jason. I don’t remember his last name, so I can’t even look him up on Facebook. But even though that was my worst date of my life, I wish him well, and I can only hope that he is a happy, successful husband and father who owns a car with an automatic transmission.
ABOUT KALLI:
Kalli Lanford, a native of San Diego, California, grew up hanging out at the beach, playing sports, and eventually attending San Diego State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English and master’s degree in education. When she’s not nerding out at San Diego Comic-Con or watching Star Wars and The Lord of the Ring’s movies for the umpteenth time, she can be seen doing normal people stuff like cooking delicious meals for her family (she attributes all of her culinary skills to the Food Network) and attending her son’s football games. In her spare time, she writes new adult fiction, her biggest passion, and loves listening to hard rock music and going to concerts. She hopes to live long and prosper, and that you will, too.
Email Address: authorkallilanford@gmail.com
Website: www.authorkallilanford.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorkallilanford?ref=hl
Twitter: @KalliLanford
Instagram: authorkalli
FAVORITE QUOTE:
“When you talk, I forget that you’re not human.”
– Excerpt from Gamma Rift
LATEST RELEASE:
GAMMA RIFT:
His secret (alien) crush…
I may be a Prince, but there are things that trouble me about my father’s royal rule—the forced abduction, experimentation, and torture of alien creatures. The king has a new prisoner who’s a carefully kept secret…
There’s a young female who belongs to a little-known civilization I have been studying extensively. They are human, belonging to a small, undeveloped planet called Earth. She is pretty in a way I find unusual and compelling. Sometimes I sneak into the adjoining cell and we talk about everything and nothing, even as I find myself yearning to touch her strange, soft skin.
Skin that is being subjected to invasive tests and experiments. A body that’s scheduled for a live dissection in fifteen days. And a life that will be terminated unless I risk my future and life to help her escape…
August 31, 2015
Teenage Dating in Wartime
Hi all! I’m Charly, Rebecca’s assistant. We thought it’d be fun to do a ‘Romance: The Good, the Bad, and the Disastrous’ theme with guest bloggers throughout the summer months. Every Monday and Thursday, we’ll have a guest blogger talk about fun stuff like horrible dates, good dates, etc. Some bloggers will have a contest, and some won’t – it’s totally up to them. If there is a contest, I’ll randomly draw a winner from the post comments, send the winner’s email address to the guest blogger, and they’ll take it from there. Rebecca will jump in and blog when she can. For now, enjoy as we play!
First I’d like to thank Rebecca for the opportunity to post on her blog.
While thinking about an interesting story to write, I remembered one my parents were fond of telling about their courtship. My parents grew up in The Netherlands. The year my father turned thirteen World War II broke out, he and my mother spent their teenage years living under the Nazi occupation of Holland. Schools remained open but all after school activities such as gymnastics or swimming were canceled by order of the German Military Governor.
My parents attended different schools that were next to each other. The Dutch education system at the time separated children after elementary school, they then attended schools that specialized in the career path they planned to pursue. My mother attended the business school to become an accountant and my father attended the technical school to become an electronic engineer. They met one day while walking home.
The city of Ijmuiden is a sea port and sits on the channels were the great locks form the shipping passage between Amsterdam and the North Sea. Because of its strategic location much of the populations were removed and the Nazi’s used the port for their own boats as well as building a huge cement bunker to house some of their submarine fleet. As a result the people who remained in the city were subject to strict curfews.
My father got a job with the Dutch telephone company and was given special papers that allowed him to travel around the city. The papers also protected him from the German press gangs. Young men in occupied cities were routinely rounded up and transported to Germany where they were forced to work in the munitions factories.
There were no opportunities for my parents to go out on dates since everyone was confined to their homes as soon as it was dark. My father would visit my mother at her house as often as he could. You know how things are when you’re dating and in love. You really don’t want to part and goodbyes can take a while. More than once, my father had to make his way home after dark by sneaking through backyards and allies in order to avoid the German patrols.
As the war continued, food became scarcer in the city and my father would ride the bicycle from his work to the outlying farm lands to barter with the farmers for vegetables and grain. One day he was able to barter for wheat and filled both of bicycles leather bags with it. One bag was meant for my mother’s family and the other for his own. He delivered the first bag to my mother’s house and stayed until it was after dark. The bicycle made sneaking home the back way much more difficult and this time his luck ran out, he was caught by a Nazi patrol.
They lined him against a wall with several other people they’d discovered out after curfew. They interrogated everyone; some people whose stories were not to their liking, were taken into custody. My father showed them his telephone company papers and he was allowed to leave. He told the officer that he needed his bicycle back and the man said to take any bicycle from the pile they had confiscated. He replied that he needed his own bicycle back because it had his tools in the bags. The officer hesitated but allowed him to pull his bicycle from the group. Had the officer examined the saddle bags, my father would have been shot on the spot.
Dating during your teenage years can be awkward, but a World War seriously complicates things. Have you or any of your relatives ever experienced something like this?
ABOUT AUGUSTINA:
Augustina Van Hoven was born in The Netherlands and currently resides in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, two dogs and three cats. She is an avid reader of romance, science fiction and fantasy. When she’s not writing she likes to work in her garden or in the winter months crochet and knit on her knitting machines.
www.augustinavanhoven.com
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FAVORITE QUOTE:
“No, I’m not fine. A beautiful woman is haunting me. I’m jealous of a dead man. I just realized I’m engaged to someone I don’t know well enough to marry. And what I really want to do right now is kiss a ghost.”
– Excerpt from The Kiss of a Rose
LATEST RELEASE:
The Kiss of a Rose:
A DISTANT PAST
In 1882, Rose Van Buren loved the wrong man and paid for it with her life. Now, more than a century later, the angel Gabriel has granted her another shot at living. In exchange, she must convince a smart, handsome, up-and-coming lawyer to set aside his lofty ambitions.
A FUTURE PRESENT
Stephen Winship is headed straight for the governor’s chair. He has a brilliant career, solid allies, and a seemingly perfect girlfriend. But night after night he finds himself dreaming of a heavenly beauty, a luminous but long-dead girl. Like some altered Ghost of Christmas Past, she shows him her own tragic tale in order to “save him.” And he’s beginning to see Rose is risking her heart as much as baring her soul. Yet falling for her will cost him everything—and open him up to a happiness he never imagined.
GIVEAWAY:
$10 gift card from Amazon
Leave a comment to be entered into the gift certificate give away. A winner will be picked at random.
August 27, 2015
HOW I MET REBECCA ZANETTI – No, really. I’m not making this up
Hi all! I’m Charly, Rebecca’s assistant. We thought it’d be fun to do a ‘Romance: The Good, the Bad, and the Disastrous’ theme with guest bloggers throughout the summer months. Every Monday and Thursday, we’ll have a guest blogger talk about fun stuff like horrible dates, good dates, etc. Some bloggers will have a contest, and some won’t – it’s totally up to them. If there is a contest, I’ll randomly draw a winner from the post comments, send the winner’s email address to the guest blogger, and they’ll take it from there. Rebecca will jump in and blog when she can. For now, enjoy as we play!
Do you believe in fate? Do you ever look back on a decision and think “If I’d said no instead of yes, what would have happened?” And of course the reverse is true. Saying yes to something doesn’t guarantee you’ll experience a life changing event, but that’s exactly what happened to me 2 ½ years ago.
It was a dark and stormy night…well that’s an exaggeration and no one ever uses that line anymore, so aaanyway it was a chilly night and it was dark. My husband and I were attending a local charity auction. My husband’s boss’ wife invited us (say that fast three times). We were a bit late, but we made it. We had just enough time to mingle, eat and get a glass of wine before the live auction went well, live.
Here we are in a dimly lit banquet room chatting with our tablemates and drinking another glass of wine (Hey, we were out and without the kids. It was celebration time!). So I’m looking through the program and reading the usual items you find at these fundraisers, golf packages, catered dinners and fantasy vacations there was no way hubby would let me bid on. I continue to flip through and staring back at me is the name of my new favorite author…yup, her! I go into a spasm of joy (for real!) and poke my husband in the arm, a little too hard but I got his attention as well as that of the three neighboring tables. I’m like “I know her” well not really, but I knew of her so I grabbed my phone and showed him and his boss’ wife the proof. I had three of her books on my Kindle app.
At this point I was just so excited to see her name and I that I loved her books, that any thought of bidding on the item hadn’t worked its way into my brain yet. (Hello, two glasses of wine.) I calm down, slightly, and squint and read the paragraph listing what the auction entails. It was to have your name used as a character name in one of her books. Holy cow, how awesome would that be, right? So I do some quick calculations in my head and figure out much we could afford, and it’s for a good cause so I patiently wait until her item comes up. People, I’m telling you I was like a gambler with his last ten chips at a craps table. I was relentless in my bidding and just slightly obnoxious, but again, two glasses of wine and a shot of adrenaline running in my veins—I was winning this baby.
And I did! The rest of the evening passed in a blur until we made our way to the cashier to pay for my enthusiastically won item. My husband and I are standing in line and I feel a tap on my shoulder, no it not’s her—yet. It turns out it was one of her friends who wanted to see if wanted to meet, you know HER! I’m like Oh. My. Lord. I’m usually calm and collected in most situations but all thoughts of social decorum went out the window as soon as I saw her. I think I said something like this, “Oh my I love your books. I’ve always wanted to write one. I can’t believe you’re here! Do you live here? Jeez let me wipe my spittle off your face.” Okay, that’s an exaggeration – sort of. But I do remember I hugged her and mumbled something about also wanting to write a book. I’m sure I scared her to the point that she’d never agree to be part of this event again. Poor thing, she was so nice to me and I fangirl’d all over her.
About a month later we met for coffee. She asked me a few questions, but mostly we talked about her books, how she got her start and where her ideas came from. It was a turning point for me. She was one of the most gracious people I’ve ever met. She told me all about the Romance Writers of America organization and that I should join the local chapter—it’s fun, she said. She encouraged this stay-at-home-mom to take a leap. She gave me some swag and told me the book (SHADOWED) would be published in the fall. We left with the promise to keep in touch and I left there thinking what if?
Fast forward to the present. I did join the local writer’s chapter, but it took me about six months to work up the courage to go to my first meeting. I’ve met some wonderful writers, gone to a handful of conferences and yes, I’ve written a couple books, start to finish! My first will be out next year. Oh, and Rebecca you ask? She has become a mentor, friend, and cheerleader in this crazy business of writing. I no longer fan girl her every time I see her because at this point that would be just too weird, maybe. But I will always read her books, sing her praises and think “what if I had said no?” and thank the fates I didn’t.
Thank you Rebecca for your kindness in opening up your blog to writers no matter if they’ve published yet or not. You my girlfriend, ROCK!
ABOUT DEBRA:
Debra Elise lives with her husband and their two sons in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. She loves to read, nap, write, and watches entirely too much reality T.V. She also enjoys a good nap (oops that’s a repeat), hanging out with other author-type individuals and teasing her three ‘boys’ into displaying their killer smiles. Most days find her carpooling, avoiding laundry and daydreaming about her characters and how to make them come alive for her readers.
You can find Debra on the following sites:
GOODREADS
TWITTER
FACEBOOK
PINTEREST
INSTAGRAM: DebraEliseAuthor
TUMBLR: HappilyEverAfterWriter
FAVORITE QUOTE:
“Ah, the age old question. Can men and women be just friends? Is that what you’re looking for Kelsey? Seems a shame don’t you think? When two people meet and there’s an intense, instant spark, not to test it out? See where it leads them?” Maverick asked.
– Excerpt from Saving Maverick
UPCOMING RELEASE:
SAVING MAVERICK – Releases Early 2016:
Maverick Jansen, star pitcher with the Idaho Outlaws and resident bad boy of baseball, finds himself in deep trouble—again. Kelsey Sullivan, Media Consultant and childhood friend of the team’s new owner, has her own issues—working with male athletes is at the top of her list.
Their worlds collide when a video goes viral and Mav and Kelsey fall into a complicated game of PR strategy by day and searing passion by night where both find a new meaning to fast and hard.
GIVEAWAY
I’ll ask this again, do you believe in fate? Leave a comment below with your thoughts and/or fill out my Rafflecopter raffle for a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card.
August 25, 2015
My Dual (VERY FUN) Interview with Alexandra Ivy about our Anthology
So, we decided to kind of interview each other in celebration for ON THE HUNT by emailing questions back and forth, and this is what we came up with. Enjoy!
REBECCA: So, Alexandra. Why paranormal, lady?
ALEXANDRA: Buffy!!! I was busy writing historicals when I found Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I knew I had to try writing that fabulous combination of horror, humor, and sex.
What’s your favorite genre to write?
REBECCA: Oh, that’s a tough one. I really like both paranormal and romantic suspense…and pretty much combine the two in most of my books. I loved Buffy, too. And Angel. Definitely Angel.
Question: What’s the weirdest experience you’ve had as an author?
ALEXANDRA: After I started writing my Guardian series I received a letter from a lovely reader who said that her family in Hungary were vampires, and wondering if my vampires might be related to them. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or lock my doors.
Question: If you could meet any writer (dead or alive) who would it be?
REBECCA: Definitely J.D. Salinger. I’d take him a bottle of something good and then sit and hopefully chat for hours. I think he’d be so fascinating if he were still around and would see me.
Question: Tell us about your hero in ON THE HUNT.
ALEXANDRA: Mika is a hunter Sentinel who allowed the love of his life, Bailey, to walk away years ago. When he runs across her in the Louisiana swamps he’s determined not to lose her again.
Question: What’s the schedule for your typical writing day?
REBECCA: I love the idea of having a typical writing day – lol! I think when school starts, things get a little more organized. So I’d get to the kids off to school, have coffee, answer emails, and then sit down and write, write, write.
Question: What’s the coolest fan letter you’ve received?
ALEXANDRA: It was my first one lol. It took me years to finally get published, and even then I could quite believe it was real. When I received that letter it was proof that I was actually published and someone who wasn’t my family had actually read the book!
Question: If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?
REBECCA: Well, I’ve been a lawyer, art curator, Senate aid, college professor, and hearing examiner…so I’d probably try something totally new in the sciences. It’d be fun to study genetics, I think. Or physics.
Question: Okay. Tell us something odd about you.
ALEXANDRA: I’m a huge punk rock fan. I love listening to the Ramones and Green Day and even Sid Vicious.
Question: Do you create female characters that are like you?
REBECCA: I’m not sure, to be honest. My female characters usually have it more together than I do, I think. Sometimes I’ll pick a trait from one of my sisters and incorporate it in a heroine, but just a trait or two.
Question: Tell us about ON THE HUNT.
ALEXANDRA: Mika is on the hunt for a young Sentinel who is missing from the monastery where he was being trained. The clues lead him to his ex-lover Bailey who healed the young warrior before he disappeared into the swamps. Together they must halt the human cult who is determined to destroy their people.
Question: Your turn! Tell us about your story in ON THE HUNT
REBECCA: I’m so excited about this one! It’s the beginning of a new series. A terrible bacterium has been let loose and quickly kills people. Survivors are different…but we don’t know how yet. The hero in Scorpius Rising is Deacan McDougall, a badass soldier from Scotland, and the heroine is Nora Medina, a brilliant scientist and his ex-wife. There’s a lot of tension and unfinished business between these two, and they heat up the pages, I think.
Question: A lot of fans think we marry or date guys like the heroes we create. True or false…and expand. J
ALEXANDRA: True! Granted, my hubby and I have been married for over thirty years, so neither one of us would grace the cover of a romance novel, but all of my males are more beta than alpha. They tend to be nurturers, and protectors, and sensitive, just like my husband. I love to read dark, tortured heroes, but I just can’t write them.
Question: Which of your characters is your favorite, and why?
REBECCA: Oh man, that’s such a hard question! I like all the characters. Right now, the first one who springs to mind is Cee Cee, the heroine in WICKED EDGE, which will be out in November. I just finished edits for that one, and I have to tell you, she is crazy wild. Or just crazy.
Question: If you could be anybody else, just for a day, who would you be?
ALEXANDRA: Kate, Duchess of Cambridge. Yep, I’m shallow. I would love to be married to a prince and live in a castle. And all those servants…sigh. If I never have to wash another dish, or clean another bathroom I’d be a happy lady.
Question: Tell us your favorite dating story. It can be romantic or horrifying 
August 20, 2015
How a night of streaking led to my Happily Ever After
Hi all! I’m Charly, Rebecca’s assistant. We thought it’d be fun to do a ‘Romance: The Good, the Bad, and the Disastrous’ theme with guest bloggers throughout the summer months. Every Monday and Thursday, we’ll have a guest blogger talk about fun stuff like horrible dates, good dates, etc. Some bloggers will have a contest, and some won’t – it’s totally up to them. If there is a contest, I’ll randomly draw a winner from the post comments, send the winner’s email address to the guest blogger, and they’ll take it from there. Rebecca will jump in and blog when she can. For now, enjoy as we play!
Thanks so much Rebecca for inviting me to visit your blog!
This year is my tenth wedding anniversary, and it’s gotten me thinking about sixteen years ago, when I first met my husband Colin.
I was in college and pals with his younger brother. Over wine and a game of dominoes, I fell headfirst into a mega-crush. But I tried to play it cool with the hot older guy. After all, Colin lived about six hours away and he was twenty-two to my eighteen.
I didn’t want to let it go, though. Impulsively, I sent him an email saying it was nice to meet him in a kind of flirty way. For a week, I obsessively checked my inbox and never got a reply. So I shored up my pride and carried on.
A couple months later, I wound up staying at his house with his brother and continued trying to play it cool (even though I planned my outfits meticulously). I was crazy about him, and feeling awkward about him ignoring my message. And most of all, I still didn’t want to let it go. In an even more brilliantly impulsive move than my email, and while wearing my pajamas, I knocked on his bedroom door. He professed not to have received the message I sent, seeming puzzled and polite, but a little aloof. The next morning, my pal assured me Colin was just trying to spare my feelings. That time it was harder to shore up my pride.
About six months after that, the pal was turning 21, and I went to his apartment, where all of his friends from home and Colin had come from out of town to celebrate. There was a lot of drinking, which devolved into a silly romp across the college campus, and most of the guys running naked through the sprinklers after midnight.
A girl has to look, right? Even if she’s trying to play it cool.
Needless to say, my mega-crush turned into insta-lust at the sight of him, lanky and wet under the moonlight (OK, and also some campus streetlights). I promptly struck up a conversation with someone else. But once he got dressed, my now-husband pulled me aside to ask why I was being so weird—I guess I wasn’t playing it as cool as I thought.
I honestly don’t remember what I replied, or how we ended up back in my dorm room naked. I do know someone named Colleen got my first “wink” email. I could fill in more details, but it would be my authorial imagination not my memory doing the work! We spent most of the next two days there in my room, and I tried to remain in the moment enjoying my very first naughty weekend, even though I knew it would soon end. But over brunch on Sunday, he asked me if I wanted to try to keep seeing each other long distance.
Without hesitating, I said yes.
In hindsight, it feels like the universe kept trying to shove us together in the way of all the best romance novels. Those long distance years were hard. I was young–only a sophomore. For six months I lived in England. He moved all the way to California. But three years later I moved in with him in San Francisco. We worked our asses off at being grown-ups and learning how to be together. But from the moment I first met him, I knew he was the one and it would be worth all the effort.
Our story is the inspiration for every romance novel I write, because I believe happily ever after is like that—even when we are perfect for each other, fated to be together, we still have to fight for it, sometimes over hundreds of miles and against all kinds of obstacles (both of us happen to be as stubborn as the most mulish romance heroes).
I don’t know how I knew, at eighteen and over a game of dominoes, that Colin would be the husband and father he is now. This morning he left the house before 7a.m. to buy a new garbage disposal and install it before going in to work at his high-tech job. The whole time he mostly-patiently tolerated our four-year-old son trying to help him “fix the sink” with a plastic wrench. I bustled around doing the morning chores, my heart so full of gratitude for our life.
From that wet run through the sprinklers to the family we have become, I feel both enormously lucky we found each other, proud of how we have grown together, and like nothing else could have possibly happened, because we were clearly meant to be.
ABOUT AMBER:
Even as a kid, romance writer Amber Belldene could never pull herself away from a book. She hid her Nancy Drew novels inside the church bulletin to read during sermons – an irony that is not lost on her when she preaches these days. Amber is an Episcopal priest who believes sexuality is vital to spirituality, love is beautifully messy, and stories are the best way to explore human truths. Evidence of these convictions can be found in Amber’s steamy paranormals and quirky, hot contemporaries, which have been published by Omnific, Entangled, and Lyrical/Kensington. She lives with her husband and two children in San Francisco and can be found at www.amberbelldene.com.
FAVORITE QUOTE:
“She pressed her hand over his heart. He’d hardly known the damn thing was there until she’d showed up and insisted on touching it it all the time.”
– Excerpt from The Siren’s Touch
LATEST RELEASE:
The Siren’s Touch:
Hitman Dmitri Lisko is determined to avenge his father. Once he takes out the man he believes is responsible for his family’s tragedies, he’s done killing for good. But a mysterious woman may tempt Dmitri to change his plan.
Sonya Truss was murdered in a Ukrainian village in 1968. Now she’s reappeared in San Francisco as a rusalka—the ghost of a wronged woman. And she’s thirsty for the blood of her killer. But she has to make things right before she’s trapped between worlds forever.
Sonya’s enigmatic siren powers stir Dmitri’s long-buried chivalry, and he finds himself compelled to help her. He also can’t resist giving her a taste of the pleasures she never experienced while she was alive. Soon they discover that touch has surprising consequences. Yet when their shared mission comes to cross-purposes, they must choose between deadly sacrifice—or surrendering to the one act that can save them both.
Buy The Siren’s Touch at these online retailers:
GIVEAWAY
Do you have a crazy college romance story? Leave a comment for a chance to win your choice of an eBook from Amber’s catalogue. You can find the list here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6537150.Amber_Belldene or here http://amberbelldene.com/books/
August 17, 2015
The Beach Sucks. (No, Really.)
Hi all! I’m Charly, Rebecca’s assistant. We thought it’d be fun to do a ‘Romance: The Good, the Bad, and the Disastrous’ theme with guest bloggers throughout the summer months. Every Monday and Thursday, we’ll have a guest blogger talk about fun stuff like horrible dates, good dates, etc. Some bloggers will have a contest, and some won’t – it’s totally up to them. If there is a contest, I’ll randomly draw a winner from the post comments, send the winner’s email address to the guest blogger, and they’ll take it from there. Rebecca will jump in and blog when she can. For now, enjoy as we play!
Sand is abrasive.
They don’t tell you that. And by “they” I mean all those commercials, books, and movies during which the naughty bits happen on a glorious stretch of beach while tranquil waters lap at the shore. Seriously, is there anything hotter than that sexy duo going at it in the surf while the waves tumble on white sand, churning at precisely the right depth to lightly caress all that heated flesh without doing a darn thing to douse the passion? Totally swoon-worthy, right? Well, guess what happens when you try that in real life.
You freaking drown.
Okay, not literally. I mean, I’m here to tell the tale, but seriously-not-literally, you drown. Those of you familiar with the way waves work already know some tend to tiptoe a bit further up the beach than others, but unless you’ve been sprawled on said beach under some insanely hot guy (or, you know, just lying there not under anyone at all), you probably won’t understand just how dramatic a couple of inches can be. (I’m talking about the water here, mind you. Not the hot guy, although his inches definitely count.) In the tumbling surf at the ocean’s edge, two inches is the difference between romance and a nasal purge. Sputtering, coughing, and picking sand crabs out of your orifice can be a mood killer, but let’s pretend you got it right. Let’s pretend everything is utterly perfect…and then let me ruin your day.
Because sand sucks.
It’s in the water. It’s abrasive. And it’s not conducive to adult activity in or out of the water. Yep, I said out. Because if you managed to crawl away from the surf without losing your, erm, drive, there’s always take two, maybe on a blanket in the dunes surrounded by swishing sea grasses. Yeah, now that’s romantic.
Only, nope.
First (and perhaps foremost), there are biting things, and I’m not talking about your hottie. Here, we have yellow flies, but let’s not rule out sand fleas, mosquitoes, and whatever critters are breeding on your slice of the coast. That’s not the most exciting way to get your butt smacked in the middle of a romantic encounter, lemme tell you. But I digress.
You know how sand gets on EVERYTHING? Well, it gets on your man. And it’ll get on you. Intimately. So now we’ve replaced the pounding surf for the pounding of sand paper. THERE IS NO GOOD WAY TO EXPERIENCE THIS KIND OF ABRASION. Although…is there really a BAD way to experience a pounding seaside encounter that leaves you with a handprint on your ass?
Yeah, I thought not.
Disclaimer: Sarah makes things up for a living, so there’s no real reason to believe she’s been abraded on a public beach. Or in a public ocean. She’s innocent and her husband is a saint. (Stop laughing.)
ABOUT SARAH:
Sarah and her husband of what he calls “many long, long years” live on the mid-Atlantic coast with their six young children, all of whom are perfectly adorable when they’re asleep. She never dreamed of becoming an author, but as a homeschooling mom, she often jokes she writes fiction because if she wants anyone to listen to her, she has to make them up. As it turns out, her characters aren’t much better than the kids, but nevertheless, you’ll find her writing sexy contemporary romance for Entangled Publishing until they throw her out. To learn more, stalk accordingly.
Website – http://www.sarahballance.com
Newsletter – https://confirmsubscription.com/h/t/0B801D3AA4F986BF
FAVORITE QUOTE:
“Estelle, if I take off my pants, I can guarantee my ass will be the last thing either of us are worried about.”
– Crosby Chase, Five Things I Love About You
LATEST RELEASE:
Five Things I Love About You:
Five things to love about NYC. But she only needs one…
Dumping a jar of pickles on the hot girl at the grocery store wasn’t Crosby Chase’s finest hour, nor was getting bitten in the butt by the demonic cat on her fire escape. But he is going to change her mind about his beloved city, damn it. In fact, if they could just make it five minutes without falling into bed, he bets Estelle he can find five things she’ll love about New York.
Falling in love wasn’t part of his plan. And with an entire country between them, Crosby realizes he doesn’t need five reasons to make Estelle love New York.
He needs one big reason to make her stay…
GIVEAWAY
Tell me the absolute worst place you’ve ever gotten sand. Yes, even if it’s THERE. One person, chosen at random without consideration to the severity – or hilarity – of their respective sand incident, will win a $25 Amazon gift card. (International giveaway)
August 13, 2015
The Wisdom of 1980s Teen Romance Movies
Hi all! I’m Charly, Rebecca’s assistant. We thought it’d be fun to do a ‘Romance: The Good, the Bad, and the Disastrous’ theme with guest bloggers throughout the summer months. Every Monday and Thursday, we’ll have a guest blogger talk about fun stuff like horrible dates, good dates, etc. Some bloggers will have a contest, and some won’t – it’s totally up to them. If there is a contest, I’ll randomly draw a winner from the post comments, send the winner’s email address to the guest blogger, and they’ll take it from there. Rebecca will jump in and blog when she can. For now, enjoy as we play!
A frightening yet wonderful thing happened at my house this summer. My youngest became a teenager, and there are now three of them here so they outnumber the adults (though not the dogs, as there are four of them). I’m not going to get into the trials and tribulations of having a houseful of teenagers, but I will say that my youngest is the only girl, and one of our favorite summer activities this year has been watching 1980s teen romance movies. Before you cast judgement on me, I would love to be participating in outdoor activities with my kids, but we live in Texas and it’s too hot to go outside. By July, it’s even too hot to swim because the water in the pool is in the 90s. Why yes, I am from the north. How did you guess?
So anyway, though we’ve been watching movies together for a long time, it was with renewed purpose this summer. My daughter attended her first school dance this year, and I was rather shocked when she said how awkward it was for her. Don’t get me wrong, I was as awkward as a cow on roller skates at my middle school dances, but my daughter is a dancer. She has been dancing since she was three. Surely at least a few of the literally hundreds of hours of dance training should have prepared her for this moment. Right? *Thinks back to my junior high dances* Or not. It finally dawned on me that it’s not about being able to dance, it’s about navigating all the rest of the stuff that happens at dances. The subtext of dances if you will.
Luckily, I am a child of the 1980s. I graduated from high school in 1989, so all of my angst-filled middle and high school years fell within that decade, and I firmly believe that it produced some of the best movies ever made, and certainly the best teen movies to help deal with all of that stuff, or at least realize that you’re not suffering alone.
In no particular order, here are my top five 1980s teen movies (plus one because I couldn’t narrow it down to just five):
1. Pretty in Pink – First off this movie has a special place in my heart because I watched it about fifty gazillion times. In 1986, our house burned down. Luckily no one was hurt, but it meant we had to live somewhere else for several months while the house was rebuilt, and the contract for our rental house ended before the house was finished, so we lived in a hotel for a month during the summer. I even had my own room, and there was a pool. But I was fifteen and couldn’t drive yet, and neither could most of my friends, so there wasn’t much to do except watch cable. Anyway, just in case you live under a rock and have never seen it, this is a Cinderella/wrong side of the tracks story that I love for its sheer angsteyness.
2. Sixteen Candles – Anyone who has an older sibling can relate to this one. Samantha’s family forgets her sixteenth birthday, which is eclipsed by her sister’s wedding. She’s plagued with grandparents, an exchange student, and a horrible younger brother, but in case you were worried, it all works out in the end when she lands her crush, the hottest guy in school and a senior to boot. This one is more comedy than anything else, but the ending it to die for. At least for a teenage girl. And me.
3. Say Anything – Finally, a movie that Molly Ringwald doesn’t star in. I have to admit, I didn’t catch this one in the movie theater and had to watch it on the VCR. This one really serves up the socially awkward heroine who falls for the charismatic guy.
4. Footloose – There are so many things to say about this one. First, what small town high school had a men’s gymnastics team? That’s right. None. But if you can get past that, the awesome music and righteous quest to dance will sweep you away. This is another movie that has a special place in my heart. I grew up in a smallish suburb outside of Cleveland, Ohio, and once football season ended, there was nothing to do except go to the movie theater, which cost like a dollar to get into, had two screens, and played the same movies for a minimum of two months. Yep, that’s right. I saw this one at least ten times, but the bonus was that I knew the lyrics to all of the songs before I bought the album. Yes, record album, which is apparently coming back into style, so it’s a good thing I still have it.
5. Better Off Dead – Another John Cusack movie. When Lane’s girlfriend dumps him for the captain of the ski team, he decides to wallow in his misery and engages in a series of half-hearted suicide attempts that are doomed to fail. However, as shocking as this may be, he ends up with a much better girlfriend in the end. This one has some of my favorite movie quotes ever. The first is from the diabolical paper boy who won’t leave him alone and chases him throughout the movie saying, “I want my two dollars.” My other favorite is from one of Lane’s failed suicide attempts which results in blowing up his neighbor’s mother. Don’t worry, she survives, and Lane apologizes. “Gee, I’m real sorry your mom blew up, Ricky.”
6. Dirty Dancing – No, it’s not a favorite only because of shirtless-for-most-of-the-movie Patrick Swayze (though of course that doesn’t hurt). There’s so much I could say about this one, but I’ll leave it at this: it has all the feels. All of them. Every single one. I have a story about this one, too. I got my driver’s license the day this movie released, and I was very excited to drive by myself to the next town over to watch the movie with a friend. On the way home, feeling all accomplished an adult with my new license, I flashed my lights at an oncoming car to warn them there was a police car up ahead (that stretch of road was a notorious speed trap where they’d ticket you for going only a mile above the speed limit). Anyway, in my zeal, instead of flashing my lights, I turned them off and nearly crashed on the dark, twisty, unlit country road. Lesson learned.
ABOUT ALLY:
Ally lives in Texas and is convinced her house is shrinking, possibly because she shares it with three kids, four dogs, a cat, a rabbit, and several reptiles. Oh, and her husband. She likes to curse in Russian and spends most of her spare time letting dogs in and out of the house and shuttling kids around. She writes historical romance set in Regency England and Imperial Russia, as well as middle grade and young adult literature under the pen name Ally Mathews.
She loves to hear from readers and you can find Ally on her website, Facebook, and Twitter, though she makes no claims of using any of them properly.
FAVORITE QUOTE:
“I know there is more that happens between a man and a woman.”
“You do?”
Embarrassed by her boldness, she glanced away from him. “Not from my own experience.”
“Well, I certainly hope not.”
She hazarded a glance toward him and quickly looked away. “But there are many animals at Gilmanton. In the spring, the sheep are quite…amorous.”
~And Then the Moon
LATEST RELEASE:
And Then the Moon:
After unexpectedly inheriting a viscountcy, Duncan Newfield must join society. He seems to be the only one not enjoying the Midsummer Night’s Ball – until he discovers Lady Madalene Parish hiding in the garden. Her father, Lord Gilmanton, has ordered her to accept a marriage proposal, any marriage proposal, by the end of the season. A bargain is struck and they enter into a fake engagement, but once they realize they might be perfect for one another, unexpected complications arise that may prevent them from having a future together.
GIVEAWAY:
Leave a comment with your favorite 1980s movie for a chance to win a print or ebook copy of Just a Kiss or How to Beguile a Duke, winner’s choice.
August 10, 2015
Romance, Stanley Style: Good, Bad, Disastrous? Maybe Just Plain Weird!
Hi all! I’m Charly, Rebecca’s assistant. We thought it’d be fun to do a ‘Romance: The Good, the Bad, and the Disastrous’ theme with guest bloggers throughout the summer months. Every Monday and Thursday, we’ll have a guest blogger talk about fun stuff like horrible dates, good dates, etc. Some bloggers will have a contest, and some won’t – it’s totally up to them. If there is a contest, I’ll randomly draw a winner from the post comments, send the winner’s email address to the guest blogger, and they’ll take it from there. Rebecca will jump in and blog when she can. For now, enjoy as we play!
The jury is still out on whether this was meant to be or not…
I met Mr. Stanley when we were both in college. He was a couple-years-older bartender/bouncer, I was a (slightly?) tipsy bar-butterfly (as opposed to a bar-fly). My friend was dating one of his fraternity brothers and they decided we should meet. We did. As in, I tripped over him, and landed face-first onto the edge of a pilsner glass. He got me a Band-Aid. I still have a little scar on my forehead.
I must have impressed the heck out of him (judgement issues, anyone?) because the man actually sent me flowers and asked me on a real date! And then several more. By Christmas time, he was taking me to the local animal shelter and buying me a puppy.
Alas, by spring, the blush had faded on our relationship. Mr. Stanley was ready to think about graduation and getting a real job and living somewhere besides our Midwestern ivy-league island of ignorant bliss. I, however, had some more years of education ahead of me, and no interest in settling down. We said “Bye.”
Okay, we really said stuff that wasn’t very nice and each prayed never to see one another again. At least, that’s how I remember it.
Anyway.
I finally graduated with my bachelor’s degree, and decided to stick around a couple of more years, because…Grad School—the slick slacker’s method for avoiding real life as long as possible. Eventually, however, I had to get a real job. I started working in Cincinnati.
About six months into “life,” my coworker was bugging me about my relationship-free situation, and interrogating me about the past. I mentioned a guy who’d lived in Cincinnati (guess who?), and she decided that we HAD to find him. She got on the phone and started calling every Stanley in the phone book (that’s how old we are. The phone book was an actual, paper thing). But we were unsuccessful.
I said, “You know, it didn’t end well between us, so it’s probably for the best.” I hadn’t seen or spoken to him, or even heard about him in years, so figured he was probably married with six kids, or something.
That weekend, I went to our college town to visit some friends, and went into my old watering hole, which had, somehow, managed to survive without my financial input (although it WAS under new ownership, now that I think of it…).
Anyway.
A guy that Tom bartended with, back in the day, was still working there. He saw me, and he said, “Oh, wow. You’re never going to guess who I just got off the phone with! Hey, here’s his phone number!”
So I called. Tom says he couldn’t decide whether to just hang up, or ask if I was calling to ruin his life again, so he just said, “Hey, what’s going on?”
Twenty-five years later, we’re still trying to decide who rescued whom from a life of ignominy and desperation.
So. Fate? Or just weird coincidence?
ABOUT TERI ANNE:
Teri Anne Stanley is a scientist turned romantic—or a romantic in a lab coat. Or something like that. She began her writing career with scientific articles—followed by a three-ingredient recipe column, but wasn’t allowed to write naked parts for them—so now she writes romance.
She’s also worked as a fashion designer for female body builders and a sex therapist for rats. In her spare time, she’s a neuroscience research assistant. Along with a variety of offspring and dogs, she and Mr. Stanley live just outside of Sugartit, which is—honest to God—between Beaverlick and Rabbit Hash, Kentucky.
Website: http://teriannestanley.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TeriAnneStanley
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeriAnneStanley
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/TeriAnneStanley
LATEST RELEASE:
DRUNK ON YOU (A Bourbon Boys Story):
Undiluted desire, served straight up…
Justin Morgan would happily drown the pain of his injured leg—and the guilt he brought back from Afghanistan—in bourbon. Except, there won’t be any booze if he doesn’t rescue his family’s century-old distillery from financial ruin. The problem? Allie McGrath, the youngest daughter of the distillery’s co-owners and the one woman he can’t have. If he can’t keep their attraction under control, there’s a solid chance they’ll send the whole enterprise crumbling to the ground…if he doesn’t
Hayden Thorne knows that behind Fenn’s hardened
exterior is a man worth fighting for. Yet to save him from the past that still haunts him, Hayden will have to abandon every inhibition she’s ever had and venture into Fenn’s intoxicatingly sensual world. Each tantalizing second she spends in Fenn’s searing embrace is more delicious than the last and soon Hayden begins to think that she may never want to leave such torturous bliss . . .
August 6, 2015
The Way To A Man’s Heart
Hi all! I’m Charly, Rebecca’s assistant. We thought it’d be fun to do a ‘Romance: The Good, the Bad, and the Disastrous’ theme with guest bloggers throughout the summer months. Every Monday and Thursday, we’ll have a guest blogger talk about fun stuff like horrible dates, good dates, etc. Some bloggers will have a contest, and some won’t – it’s totally up to them. If there is a contest, I’ll randomly draw a winner from the post comments, send the winner’s email address to the guest blogger, and they’ll take it from there. Rebecca will jump in and blog when she can. For now, enjoy as we play!
We’ve all heard the saying, “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. Well, in my husband’s case, it was true. Or at least one of the ways to his heart. I also have a love of the outdoors (we went back-country camping on our honeymoon) and I play a mean game of cribbage.
My mother-in-law was a good cook of the meat and potatoes variety, but there wasn’t much variety. She had a dozen dishes that she cooked well, and she didn’t experiment. So when hubby and I started dating, and he’d come to my house for supper, he was in for a treat. I still lived at home, and my mom and I would whip up a feast. We were always trying out new cuisines and new recipes, and quite often hubby was the guinea pig. He did not mind at all.
I still love to cook and am always on the hunt for something new. Our two boys were eating suppers from many ethnicities when their friends were eating chicken fingers. Not that there’s anything wrong with chicken fingers, we ate our fair share of those too. (Both boys went through a phase where the food had to be brown. I grew tired of oven-roasted potatoes very quickly.)
To this day hubby says he’s the luckiest husband around because he comes home to a gourmet meal every day (he does the clean-up), and there’s always dessert.
ABOUT LUANNA:
Luanna Stewart has been creating adventures for her imaginary friends since childhood. As soon as she discovered her grandmother’s stash of romance novels, all plots had to lead to a happily-ever-after.
Born and raised in Nova Scotia, Luanna now lives in Maine with her dear husband, two college boys and two cats. When she’s not torturing her heroes and heroines, she’s in her kitchen baking something delicious.
Writing under the pen name Grace Hood, she has two novellas published with The Wild Rose Press. Now she is excited to have a book published under her own name with Entangled Publishing.
Luanna’s website:
http://www.luannastewart.com
LATEST RELEASE:
Portrait of a Girl:
When her wealthy art dealer father died, Heather James was expecting a fortune. Instead, his bank account was empty and Heather’s working in a bakery, wondering exactly what happened to her father’s millions…until someone tries to kill her.
Tony Simons is on the trail of an art theft cold case that’s practically giving him frostbite. He’s hoping that by sticking close to Heather—the daughter of his deceased prime suspect—he’ll find the answers he needs. Instead, he’s finding himself distracted by a gorgeous woman who drives him crazy in every way imaginable…
Now Tony’s in serious trouble. Even if Heather can’t—or won’t—tell him where the stolen paintings and money are, she may well have stolen his heart.
And now someone wants her dead…
GIVEAWAY:
Do you like to cook or bake? And do you make tried-and-true recipes or do you experiment? Leave a comment. One lucky commenter will receive a $5 Amazon gift card.
