Rick R. Reed's Blog, page 70

New and Notable: A Heart for Robbie by J.P. Barnaby

BLURB:
Waiting for someone else’s child to die so yours can live is the worst kind of Hell.

Celebrated Young Adult author Julian Holmes pits the heroic characters in his Black Heart series against all different kinds of monsters. But when a critical heart defect threatens his son’s life, he finds he has no champion. No amount of books, classes, or practice can prepare Julian for the fight to save his beautiful son’s life Suddenly there are hospitals, transplant lists, and the nightmare of insurance red tape to navigate. In the midst of his trouble, Julian meets Simon Phelps, the insurance coordinator for Robbie’s case. Simon lives so deep in the closet he might never find his way out, but he dreams of exactly what Julian has. Then one night, drunken need and desperation brings them together, and a new fight begins.

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EXCERPT
“You want Daddy to tell you a story?”

The sweet boy snuggled down closer to his father, as if waiting to hear his story. Julian smiled, rubbing the unbandaged side of Robbie’s head with his thumb as he held the baby snug in his arms, oxygen tube in front of his rosy cheeks.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Julian felt Liam smile.

“I’ve probably had stories in my head since I was your age, only they didn’t start coming out until I was a little older and could talk. Once I was able to spell, that was it for me. So, let’s see, a story for my Robbie. Okay, once upon a time, there was a prince named, uhm, Bobby. Now, Bobby was out one day in the forest around the castle playing with one of his friends. The boys were hiding from each other, catching frogs, you know, things that boys do. Anyway, they happened across a robber. He must have been a foreigner, because he didn’t recognize Bobby as the prince over that land.” Robbie’s eyes fluttered closed, soothed by the sound of his father’s voice.

“The other boy ran, telling Bobby to come with him, but Bobby was a prince. No way would he give up his gold to some mere commoner. His father wouldn’t allow it. His father always protected him. Only this time, he didn’t. The robber took Bobby’s gold and put a blade into his chest. By the time the other boy brought help, Bobby was in bad shape.”

Julian stroked Robbie’s little cheek with his thumb.

“King… uhm… Cerulean, okay, don’t make fun, you don’t know that word yet,” Julian whispered to Robbie with a laugh and actually heard Liam roll his eyes from the little spot in the back of his mind. “Anyway, the king, well, he didn’t take any chances and rushed Bobby to Merlin, the greatest wizard in the land. He begged Merlin to help his son. Merlin put the boy on a table and examined him, muttering incantations under his breath. He touched the boy’s pierced chest and felt the coolness of his skin. He told the king that the only way to save his son was to cut out the heart of a dragon to make a very special potion for Bobby to drink. Only that would save the boy’s life.”

Robbie lay quiet in Julian’s arms, his breathing slow and rhythmic in sleep. Julian decided to continue, even if just for himself.

“And he did it, Robbie. That king went out and searched day and night to find a dragon. Finally, he did. He risked his own life to bring the heart back to the old wizard. Merlin used the heart to make a potion for the prince, and once he drank it, the wound in his chest closed up, and he was right as rain.”

He pulled Robbie a little higher on his chest, bringing his lips down to whisper in his son’s ear.

“I’ll find that dragon, buddy. I promise.”


ABOUT J.P. BARNABY
Award winning romance novelist, J. P. Barnaby has penned over a dozen books including the Working Boys series, the Little Boy Lost series, In the Absence of Monsters, and Aaron. As a bisexual woman, J.P. is a proud member of the GLBT community both online and in her small town on the outskirts of Chicago. A member of Mensa, she is described as brilliant but troubled, sweet but introverted, and talented but deviant. She spends her days writing software and her nights writing erotica, which is, of course, far more interesting. The spare time that she carves out between her career and her novels is spent reading about the concept of love, which, like some of her characters, she has never quite figured out for herself.Website | Twitter | Facebook

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Note: This blog post originally appeared on The Novel Approach.

Food, Memories, and LoveIt might just be me, but I believe one of the most powerful ways you can show someone you love them is through feeding them. Growing up, the maternal side of my family was Sicilian. And let me tell you, the Sicilians believe in three things: love, family, and food. You simply did not turn down food when you visited my relatives (and you always sat around the kitchen table when you visited, never the living room).

My mom, who passed away from cancer in 2007, was a product of her Italian roots. Her best food was the simple Sicilian peasant fare she grew up and learned to cook from the aunts and grandmother who raised her. One of her best recipes, and the one she was known for, was her spaghetti sauce and meatballs. To this day, I make her all-day-simmer sauce on lazy Sundays. The smell of it brings her memory back to me more powerfully than any photograph and, yes, that aroma often brings a tear to my eye.

I could not write my “romance with recipes” Dinner at Home, without including that recipe. I share it with you below. I also would like to share a little excerpt from the book, in which my main character, Ollie, remembers making meatballs with his own Italian mom. The excerpt reminds me of the special times I shared with my mother, almost always in the kitchen.

Ollie and Meatballs (an excerpt from Dinner at Home)

“Go ahead, you do it.”

Ollie looks up at his mother, her warm smile, her dark hair and green eyes as she stares down at the five-year-old, expectantly. 

“Like this?” Ollie asks and he upends the jug of milk over a couple of slices of white bread his mother has placed in the sink.

“Rub it in. Get the bread all nice and wet,” his mother says.

“Like it’s getting a bath?” Ollie asks.

His mother laughs. “Like it’s getting a bath.”

Once the bread is thoroughly wet, Ollie picks it up and holds it, dripping, over a bowl of equal parts ground beef, veal, and pork. 

“Now grind it all up,” his mother says. And Ollie squeezes the bread, squeezing and twisting it until it drops in damp crumbs to the meat.

“Very good.” His mom pats his head. “What comes next?”

“The eggs?”

“That’s right.” His mom hands him the first egg and Ollie awkwardly cracks it against the side of the glass bowl. Some of the white runs down the outside of the bowl. “That’s okay,” his mom says when he looks up at her, lower lip out and eyes wide. “You’ll get it right with this one.” And she hands him another egg.

He does, cracking the egg and opening it over the meat and bread mixture so the yolk breaks when it hits. He looks down at the mixture, then back to Mom. “What’s next?”

“You know what’s next.”

“Garlic?”

“Lots of garlic.” She has already chopped the cloves fine and she gestures for him to cup his hands. When he does so, she delivers the pungent smelling stuff into his palms and tells him to scatter it around.
They add dried basil, oregano, onion powder, and salt and pepper. “Now get your hands in there and mix it all up.” She rubs his back as he combines everything, giggling at the wet mushiness of the mixture. She giggles too.

“Now the best part!” Ollie says. “Meatballs.”

His mother pulls a chair from the kitchen table and sets little Ollie on it so he can work more easily. She rolls up her sleeves and says, “Let’s get to work.”

Ollie awakened from the dream with a smile. One of his favorite childhood memories was helping his Sicilian mother make her spaghetti sauce and meatballs every Sunday. He did it throughout his life. He could now make her simmer-all-day-thick, rich, and delicious sauce with his eyes closed. Even though he used all the same ingredients in all the same proportions, it never tasted quite the same. Good, but just not quite the same. There was no substitute for a mother’s love.

Mom’s Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs
(Serves 4-6)

1 29-oz. can tomato puree
1 12-oz. can tomato paste
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoon pepper
1-1/2 teaspoon sugar
Pinch of baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon each oregano, basil, and onion powder
2 handfuls grated Romano or Parmesan cheese (half a cup?)
7 cups water or 1-2 cups red wine with the remainder water (I usually use wine)

Note: Most all of the above ingredients can just be eyeballed. Mix everything in a big pot, add meatballs and pork and simmer for at least four hours. Highly recommended: brown some pork (ribs, chops, whatever’s cheap, a little less than a pound in the pan you’re going to cook the sauce in. Just caramelize it. Once it’s done, pull out, deglaze with a splash of red wine, and begin making your sauce.)

Meatballs
1 lb. ground beef (or beef and pork, or turkey)
1 egg
1 slice bread
¼ cup milk
Salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley, onion powder, basil, oregano (just eyeball all of this)

Take a slice of bread, wet with milk, crumble into meat, and add seasonings and egg. Mix with hands, form into balls, brown in hot fry pan on stove in a little olive oil, and drop into the sauce.

Read another excerpt

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DINNER AT HOME Is Out! Win an Autographed Copy!

Dinner at Home , my "romance with recipes," is officially out! Read on and find out how you can win a free autographed copy.

BLURB

It only takes a few days for Ollie D'Angelo to lose his boyfriend, his job, and his home. Instead of mourning what he doesn’t have, Ollie celebrates what he does: the freedom to pursue his real passion—cooking. He begins Dinner at Home, a home-catering business, and it takes off.

Late one night, Ollie catches Hank Mellinger, a streetwise hood down on his luck, about to rob his car. Ollie soon discovers that appearances aren’t necessarily what they seem. Hank isn’t a criminal caught red-handed, but a hungry young man trying to make a life for himself and the four-year-old niece he’s trying desperately to take care of. 

Instead of calling the cops, Ollie offers Hank a job and a way to pull himself up by his bootstraps. Together, they discover they can really cook... and that their shared passion for food just might lead to a passion for each other.

Read an excerpt

BUY
from Dreamspinner Press in ebook or in paperback
Amazon Kindle

CONTEST
If you want to win a free, autographed copy of  Dinner at Home , you gotta follow the recipe. Here are the simple rules:

1. Go to the Amazon Kindle page for Dinner at Home and click on "Look Inside!" just above the book's cover image. Read the excerpt and answer the following questions.

A. At the opening of the book (Amuse Bouche), Ollie makes a salad for his lover. What are the ingredients for both the salad and the dressing?
B.  What Seattle neighborhood does main character Ollie D'Angelo live in at the start of the book?
C.  What special occasion does Ollie prepare a celebration breakfast for in Chapter One?
D.  What's the name of the charity that houses and teaches Hank Mellinger to cook?

2. E-mail me your responses at jimmyfels@gmail.com
BONUS!! 3. If you're on Twitter or Facebook, send out a message to your followers, urging them to enter the contest. You could say: Rick R. Reed is giving away an autographed copy of his latest book, DINNER AT HOME! Details: http://rickrreedreality.blogspot.com/ 

That's it! I will draw one winner from all e-mails received on Friday, May 16. Unfortunately, because of the prohibitive cost of mailing, this contest is open only to US residents. If you're outside the US and would like to win an ebook of  Dinner at Home , simply follow the steps above (and note that you are outside the US) and I will enter you for the digital version in the format of your choice.

Please feel free to repost this blog! 

Rave Review for An Early Novel

Just received a day-making review for one of my older and most disturbing books, PENANCE, which is about a group of street kids in Chicago and the monster who preys on them. Cindi, from OnTopDownUnder Reviews, said,

"Overall, this is a brilliant work of fiction. Yes, it’s a difficult read, but it’s also one of the best books I’ve ever read...."

Read the review: http://ontopdownunderbookreviews.com/...

Blurb
Bound by misery. Marked by sin. Set free by death.

Barely into their teens, without homes, they dwell in neon shadows, the violent eddies of urban America. They trade their innocence for money, abuse their hopes, and then a monster comes...

A monster without fangs or claws, but more deadly. Because of them, he has lost everything: his wife, his family. And he vows to clean the streets of Chicago...for good.

One of the street kids and a man of the cloth form a desperate pact. Together, they will find the madman whose basement has become a chamber of horrors...

PENANCE was part of Dell Abyss' remarkable horror line, lauded by none other than Stephen King.

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Cover Reveal: Dinner at Home

BIG COVER REVEAL!

My "romance with recipes" just got a new face, courtesy of cover artist extraordinaire, Reese Dante. I'm just thrilled with it. Here's the blurb for the book, which comes out in May:

It only takes a few days for Ollie D'Angelo to lose his boyfriend, his job, and his home. Instead of mourning what he doesn’t have, Ollie celebrates what he does: the freedom to pursue his real passion—cooking. He begins Dinner at Home, a home-catering business, and it takes off.

Late one night, Ollie catches Hank Mellinger, a street-wise hood down on his luck, about to rob his car. Ollie soon discovers that appearances aren’t necessarily what they seem. Hank isn’t a criminal caught red-handed but a hungry young man trying to make a life for himself and the four-year-old niece he’s trying desperately to take care of. 

Instead of calling the cops, Ollie offers Hank a job and a way to pull himself up by his bootstraps. Together, they discover they can really cook... and that their shared passion for food just might lead to a passion for each other.

Dinner from Home will appear soon on Dreamspinner Press's Coming Soon page and you can pre-order. It will be widely available beginning in May.

The Gay Man Who Sought a Straight Woman for Marriage

Note: A condensed version of this essay appears on USA Today's Happy-Ever-After blog today. Read this version to get the uncut truth....

If you talk to writers, especially fiction writers, about the question they get asked most often, I’d be willing to bet at least 99% of them would say the same thing—where do you get your ideas? It’s a question that’s as silly as it is profound. Who knows where inspiration comes from, really? We can give a glib, smart-ass response, like “On eBay,” but the truth is where an idea hails from can often be as much a mystery for the artist as it is for his or her ultimate viewer.

In my case, I was asked that question a lot about my latest book, Legally Wed , which is a romantic comedy about a gay man’s journey to finding real love. I would say, as a resident of Washington State and as a gay man who married his husband on the very first day that same-sex was made legal here, that it was that historic event which inspired me. In fact, that’s the very line I’ve given to interviewers about the book. I’d tell them something like:

If you read the opening to the book, you know what inspired me. It was when Washington state legalized same-sex marriage. My now-husband and I were some of the first people in line down at City Hall in the wee small hours of the morning to get our marriage license on the first day we could. There was such joy at City Hall that morning, both from couples getting their licenses and the employees and supporters who had come out to witness this historic moment. I wanted to write about not just love, but marriage and to do it in a framework that examined both. It’s one of my most heartfelt stories and, in many ways, mirrors my own life.

It’s that last line, “mirrors my own life” that later gave me pause and made me realize where I truly got my inspiration for  Legally Wed .

The whole time I was writing the book, I thought I was just writing a kind of lighthearted tale about a gay man, disappointed in love and hungering for the commitment he saw in his own family of origin all around, getting drunk one night and, on a lark, placing an ad on Craigslist: Gay Man Seeks Straight Woman for Marriage.

It wasn’t until long after I wrote the book, gone through the editing process, and saw the book for sale on bookshelves that I realized my inspiration did not come from just wanting to write, in a fun and touching way, about the hot topic of gay marriage, but how my own life mirrored the book. I think that correlation had been buried deep in my subconscious the whole time I was writing.

See, I was the Gay Man Who Sought a Straight Woman for Marriage.

Unlike my main character in  Legally Wed , though, I did not come up with my idea one drunken night. No, my idea, like my main character’s, was borne of a deep-seated desire for commitment and family. For a young man who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, the road to that fulfillment was through marriage, to a woman. Thirty some years ago, when I married the female love of my life (let’s call her Alison), there was no other road open to me for marriage and family.

In 1982, the idea that two men or two women could get married? I’m sure I thought at the time: never gonna happen. It was so far out of reach as to seem like the stuff of fantasy or science fiction.

So I met Alison and here’s the thing: I fell in love with her. I adored her. She made me laugh. We had a great sex life (sorry, son, if you’re reading this—more about you later). We were a team, a kind of you and me against the world.

Unlike my main character in  Legally Wed , I was not drunk when I proposed. No, I was filled with hope and with the dreamer’s belief that if someone really wanted something bad enough, he could have it.

People ask me: did you know you were gay when you got married? And I tell them, yes, I knew. I had had the feelings from as far back as I could remember. Heck, I was a huge Bette Midler fan at 13—that should have told me all I needed to know!

But seriously, knowing something and accepting it are two different things. I knew I had these feelings, but I pushed them deep down. I refused to examine them. And I knew, with my relationship and marriage to Alison, that those feelings would go away. After all, I loved a woman. I had sex with a woman. I couldn’t be gay, not really. My hope led me to the belief, supported by many more people now back then than today, that I could change.

That change would make me a better man, a better member of society, and ultimately happier.

But like Duncan in  Legally Wed , I was to discover that the marriage of a gay person to a straight one was destined for disaster. It took seven years, the birth of our son, and the intervention of a very level-headed and compassionate therapist to help me see, at last, that I was not some damaged thing, needing to hide my true self away from the rest of the world, wearing a mask. It took seven years (and probably a lot more before that) for me to at last put down the sword and the shield and stop fighting with—myself.

Like Duncan in my book, I realized that I could love and even adore women, maybe even at times prefer their company to the company of men, but ultimately, I needed to be who I was.

It was very hard to say goodbye to Alison, to no longer live under the same roof with our then six-year-old son. But I could no longer live a lie. There were tears, recriminations, court battles, bitterness, pain, but I’m glad to report that all three of us came out the other side still loving one another.

My Duncan and his intended, Marilyn, go through the same struggle, in a much more compressed time frame, and came out understanding that, even though they were not meant to be a married couple, they were meant to be great friends and truly love one another. Their friendship and closeness is a bedrock message of my book.

And, to this day, my love for Alison, even though we’re separated by many miles, continues to be a bedrock for me. I can never remove, nor would I want to, the place she has in my heart. We have a child together and that alone bonds us for a lifetime. Like marriage.

In  Legally Wed , Duncan does find his true love, when he least expects it, when he’s essentially stopped looking for it. The same was true for me. I thought, after I divorced, I would find a parallel relationship with a special guy. And I tried on, let’s just say, many, many pairs of shoes. But none of them fit.

Like Duncan, I gave up. And two months after giving up and deciding that I would be just fine living alone in my dream vintage apartment in Chicago, I met him. That was almost twelve years ago now and he completely spoiled my plans for living alone and the freedom to binge on ice cream and vodka at three a.m.

And I couldn’t be happier. Bruce is the man I stood in line with at City Hall in the wee hours of the morning of December 6, 2012, to be one of the first couples in Washington State to obtain our marriage license. We had a small wedding three days later, in our home in front of the fireplace with our Boston terrier, Lily, at our feet. Even though Bruce and I had been together for more than a decade by that point, we both realized when we woke up the next day as a married couple that we felt different. More committed. But mostly, more like a family….

To wrap things up, I mentioned earlier that Alison and I had a son. The irony about Nicholas was that he too, like his dad, turned out to be gay. When he came out to me in his senior year of high school, I was shocked and a little unmoored. Believe it or not, I had no idea. I asked the question no parent of a gay child should ever ask (and certainly not one who was gay himself!): are you sure?

Of course he was sure. We are sure of the color of our eyes, our height, and everything else that makes us unique. It was a dumb question and one I will forever regret.

I hope that I was able to make up for my initial reaction a few years later, when Nicholas met the love of his life and told me they were going to marry. By then, he had moved to Montreal, where marriage was legal for all people in love, and they would be able to make it official.

Would I be willing to officiate? One of my many happy endings that I am thankful for is that I got to preside over the wedding of my son and his husband, to help see them off into the world together. I thank God Nicholas faced only in small measure the hardships, prejudice, and bigotry I did. He is now a champion against those things and I couldn’t be more proud of him. And I couldn’t love my new son, Tarik, more.

Bruce was among the happy assembled that hot day in August when Nicholas and Tarik said their vows. Our own marriage was still a few years off, still something hoped for, but not something we were at all certain we would ever be allowed to have, which made the day slightly bittersweet.

Also among the assembled that day was my son’s mother and my former wife. We celebrated together and couldn’t have been happier for our son, poised on the brink of a life together with his beloved, full of hope.

That day, my mind naturally, strayed to two other weddings, one in my past and another—hoped for—in my future.

The thought came to me then (and maybe I squirreled it away in my subconscious for a book I would write one day when the time was right): all these marriages I thought of on my son’s wedding day shared one thing: they were about love.

I realized that it's not about what's between our legs, but what's between our ears...and in our hearts.

Love is love.

Why on earth, or in God's name, would anyone want to deny that to his or her fellow man or woman? We can only be strengthened, as families, as a society, by encouraging and celebrating love and commitment.

Blurb
Love comes along when you least expect it. That’s what Duncan Taylor’s sister, Scout, tells him. Scout has everything Duncan wants—a happy life with a wonderful husband. Now that Seattle has made gay marriage legal, Duncan knows he can have the same thing. But when he proposes to his boyfriend Tucker, he doesn’t get the answer he hoped for. Tucker’s refusal is another misstep in a long line of failed romances. Despairing, Duncan thinks of all the loving unions in his life—and how every one of them is straight. Maybe he could be happy, if not sexually compatible, with a woman. When zany, gay-man-loving Marilyn Samples waltzes into his life, he thinks he may have found his answer.

Determined to settle, Duncan forgets his sister’s wisdom about love and begins planning a wedding with Marilyn. But life throws Duncan a curveball. When he meets wedding planner Peter Dalrymple, unexpected sparks ignite. Neither man knows how long he can resist his powerful attraction to the other. For sure, there’s a wedding in the future. But whose?

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The Gay Agenda Revealed

She let the cat out of the bag! There IS a gay agenda!

"I've been a lesbian activist for 40 years. And it's hard to break a habit... I have been saying for 40 years [that] there is no such thing as a gay agenda. But I'm here to tell you that that is not true. There is a gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender agenda, and I'm going to tell you what it is.

"We want to be able to go to school in safety. We want to be able to serve our country honorably. We want to be able to work at jobs we love so that we can pay taxes to the country that sustains us, and we want to protect the relationships and families that nurture us. That is the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender agenda."
(Houston mayor Annise Parker)

Rave Review for Legally Wed from Boys In Our Books

Just came across an amazing review for Legally Wed at Boys In Our Books. It doesn't get any better than:

"More than a romance, more than a personal journey…it belongs in a class of its own. Expert storytelling with strong, solid cast of characters, I can tell you one thing, I am adding my name to Rick Reed’s fan club...I laughed, I squirmed, and I wept…and honestly, that tells me all I need to know. It’s an absolutely remarkable and inspiring tale of love." 

Read the whole review here. 

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Gay Man Seeks Straight Woman for Marriage

This gets my main character in a whole lot of trouble (as drunken decisions often do), but yet there's a silver lining because maybe this is what leads him to that elusive man he's yet to find to find.... (from Legally Wed )
Gay Man Seeks Straight Woman for Marriage So, you’re probably sitting there looking at that headline of mine and thinking, “WTF?” Why, you might very reasonably ask, would a gay man seek a straight woman for marriage? Yes, it has been done, but usually by confused people who did not intentionally set out to join their lives in sexual incompatibility.

First off, sister, get the word sexual out of your mind. This ain’t about sex, nor will it ever be. Nosireebob, or nosireejane, or whatever. This is about a marriage of the minds. A marriage, if you will, of the hearts.

Except for in the bedroom, everybody knows that gay men and women get on better than just about any other combo. And if you don’t agree, move along, there’s nothing for you to see here.

So, now that she’s gone, we can talk. Why do I, an avowed homosexual, want to marry a straight woman? Especially when gay marriage is now legal here in Washington?

Number one. Kids. I want ‘em. You want ‘em. And it’s just easier when you make an omelet with and an egg and sperm. Yum! Of course, the mixing would be done in a lab and not in the natural way, which for me, and I do apologize, is out of the question. I haven’t taken the drive up Vaginal Way and I don’t intend to point my Chrysler in that direction anytime soon.

But I think a gay dad and a straight mom could be a kid’s dream parents.

The other reason I want to marry a straight woman is because I love you ladies. I have two sisters, I have a mom, my best friends have always been girlfriends, and not in a campy slang way, either. I confide easier in women. I enjoy being with them—I tend to be more relaxed, more myself.

Why does a marriage have to be about sex, anyway? Don’t those fireworks fade after a while anyway?

What do the good, long-term marriages have in common? It isn’t the old in-and-out.

No, it’s companionship. Respect. Making a family. Wanting to grow old together.

I have just come to the rather stunning conclusion, at the ripe old age of 38, that a marriage, for me, would be better with a woman.

As Mary Magdalene sang in Jesus Christ Superstar: I’ve had so many men before, in very many ways…. Well, me too. And not a one of them has worked out. Maybe you’ve had similar experiences.

So, maybe you and me, we could be a match? I’d look good on your arm, I’m Italian and some other stuff, but the Italian wins out in my coloring (dark), hair (dark), eyes (green), nose (big), and smile, totally warm. If it matters, I’m about 5’11” in pretty good shape, currently tipping the scales at 175. I keep my hair cut short and usually sport a little goatee. I’ve been told I’m cute by many gay guys.

But not cute enough to marry, I guess.

Maybe you’ll feel differently.

Should we meet up for coffee and find out if this crazy thing just might work?

Read more from Legally Wed when you get your own copy:
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Happy Valentine's Day!

How did it happen that their lips came together? How does it happen that birds sing, that snow melts, that the rose unfolds, that the dawn whitens behind the stark shapes of trees on the quivering summit of the hill? A kiss, and all was said. (Victor Hugo)