Around the Fire is in Love With May!

May is one of my favorite months. This year marks my 29th Anniversary with Pete. We were married in Lafayette Federated Church on May 14th, 1994. Though we almost burned down the church with the Unity Candle. When we went to light it, the hot wax ran down our hands, and we nearly dropped the candles. 
Here's a picture of us with my son, RJ. He was a little stiff but a good sport, except he didn't want to stand with the flower girl. 
May is also my birthday month. When I was a kid I thought the parades were for me. Lol, nope it was traditional Memorial Day. From 1868 to 1970, it was observed on May 30, now it's the last Monday in May.
Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day and is a federal holiday in the United States for honoring U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the armed forces.
Traditionally, people visit cemeteries and memorials on the day to honor and mourn those who lost. Many place American flags on the graves of military personnel in national cemeteries. Memorial Day is also considered the unofficial beginning of summer in the United States.
Happily this Month my lovely daughter in law will graduate from nursing school. Congratulations to Veronika her pinning is on May 11th. I hope you'll send your prayers and good wishes for a long and fulfilling career as she touched lives with her healing hands.

Congratulations to Joannie, last month's winner of a signed copy of Sea Hunter via my newsletter. If you are interested in my monthly drawing you should sign up. Here's the link
mailchi.mp/bb4a75d3c449/mortar-pestle-free-sample-book
I know I've been doing birthdays, but this month I changed it up a little and to see who was married in the Merry Month of May? Sign up and maybe you'll be my next random winner.
​We just returned in time for my author signing at Brook Hollow Winery in Columbia, NJ's Day of Wine and Romance hosted by Roz Lee.
​This is the first time I've seen my sister since December. We're a bunch of clowns in my family, so mugging for the camera is a natural thing. Notice the shoes or lack thereof. 
If you missed this one I'll be at the following places planned so far this year.
Passaic County Book Festival
Saturday, June 10, 2023, @ 11:00 am
Weasel Brook Park
745 Park Drive, Clifton, NJ, 07012
RomantiConn 2023: A Romance Author Signing Event Jul 8
Trumbull Marriott Shelton 180 Hawley Lane Trumbull, CT 06611
For more information and tickets
https://www.kittyberryauthor.com/romanticonn-author-event.html
 
Fall In Love New England 2023
Join sixty-plus romance authors entertaining readers in a fun-packed two-day event. Ticket options are available. October 20 & 21, 2023
Oct 20, 11:00 AM EDT – Oct 21, 7:30 PM EDT
Marlborough, 181 Boston Post Rd W, Marlborough, MA 01752, USA
https://www.fallinlovenewengland.com/ booksprout.co/reviewer/review-copy/view/106783/sophias-magic-beans
​If you never thought you could be a book reviewer, here's your chance. Sophia's Magic Beans is available for a limited time on Book Sprout. What you do is vist the link, download the book, read, and then add a review. What is the review? Simple.
1.    I just read ____________________
2.   By ___________________________
3. Genre or type of book ____________________________-for example Romance, fantasy, mystery.
4.   Rating from 1 to 5 ______________________
5. One or two sentences about what you like and or disliked. ______________________________.
See how easy! Reviews are important to authors and help other readers find our books.
I received this email just the other day!
Congratulations on being a winner in this month's Creme de la Cover Contest!
All of the credit goes to Sydney Winward, the cover design artist. She's also an amazing author and woman. You should check her out at
https://sydneywinward.com/ 



My prize is a full-page color advertisement in June's issue of InDtale Magazine.
You can get a peek at the magazine at
https://indtale.com/ here.



I was looking for a quote for May but found this one and love it. Sometimes we're so busy chasing that we just forget to be. 
“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
— Nathaniel Hawthorne
 
So enjoy this Merry Month of May. Oh, there's a poem.
O the month of May, the merry month of May,
    So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green!
O, and then did I unto my true love say:
    "Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my summer's queen!
    Now the nightingale, the pretty nightingale,
    The sweetest singer in all the forest's choir,
Entreats thee, sweet Peggy, to hear thy true love's tale;
    Lo, yonder she sitteth, her breast against a brier.
    But O, I spy the cuckoo, the cuckoo, the cuckoo;
    See where she sitteth: come away, my joy;
Come away, I prithee: I do not like the cuckoo
    Should sing where my Peggy and I kiss and toy."
O the month of May, the merry month of May,
    So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green!
And then did I unto my true love say:
    "Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my summer's queen!"​
Thomas Dekker (c. 1572–1632