VALENTINE'S DAY--IT'S NOT JUST FOR LOVERS By Kathleen Lawless @kathleenlawless #romancegems

Childhood Valentine Days still stick in my mind.  The excitement of going to school with my cards all addressed, then later bringing home that bursting envelope stuffed with Valentine’s cards from my classmates.  The excitement of seeing who sent me a sentimental greeting and guessing, hopefully, who might have snuck the anonymous ones into my collection when I wasn’t looking 

Maybe that’s when I decided to write romance novels.  Or perhaps that experience set me up for future disappointments.  My husband turned out to be the world’s least romantic man (no surprise he’s been my ex for a long time) and Valentine’s day lost some of its magic.  The first year after my divorce, I booked a romantic booth for two in my favorite restaurant and waited for Mr. Right to show up and ask me on a Valentine’s date.  Alas, Cupid let me down.      

As a single mom, that was the first of many a dateless Valentine’s.  Yet despite all those years when Cupid blatantly ignored me, I still felt it was important to celebrate.  I decorated the house, bought cards and chocolates for my loved ones—family and friends—and made sure my kids had lots of sweet treats.  One year I took heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink icing around to my customers.  I wanted to make sure all the important people in my life felt loved and special.

My efforts paid off, and I’ll never forget the year my youngest son, who was about eleven or twelve at the time, spent all his paper route money buying his sister and I each a long-stemmed red rose on Valentine’s Day.  He told his friends, “My Mom writes romance novels.  Valentine’s Day is bigger than Christmas in our house.”  He’s still that romantic guy, only now his girlfriend gets the flowers.

 

The point to all this is that love takes on many different guises, but it truly does make the world go round.  Why else would romance novels be the number best seller of all genre fiction?  Partnered or not, don’t wait for love to find you.  Go out and spread it around.  Make someone’s day special and yours will be too.  This year I plan to buy a bunch of cinnamon hearts, red and white heart-shaped jujubes, sweethearts and chocolate, and make up little goodie bags to drop off for friends I haven’t seen for way too long as we wait out the health order and receive our vaccine.     

How will you spend February 14^th?  Please share some ideas or your favorite Valentine’s memories below.  I’m always looking for inspiration.   

Since there’s bound to be a slew of Valentine’s romances for sale this week, I’m going to hold off till the end of the month with my next release, ONE FANTASY FALL, quickly followed up with my latest Mail Order Bride Story MAIL ORDER MARTINA in early March.

  

Here’s a snippet and the link:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SLC93KN

             Neither of them are marriage material—but fate decrees otherwise.

          The train platform was empty, the train that had discharged Martina and Charlie in Colorado long gone from sight, and Martina fought down the hopeless feeling that had been with her daily since pa died.  When Charlie tugged at her skirt to be lifted up, she batted his hand away.  “Not now, Charlie, let me think.”

          There had been no takers when she tried to sell the train ticket the unknown Will Thorn had sent to carry her from Harrisburg to Durango, and she wasn’t surprised.  Why would anyone want to come here?  By the time she sold her horse, and paid what she was sure was an inflated price for her and Charlie to stay in a rooming house, her finances were looking bleak, and she had little choice but to board the train.

          Clearly, Aunt Florence had this planned as Pa lay ill.  Pretending to be Martina, her aunt corresponded with some pathetic, lonely rancher out in Colorado. And the mean old biddy’s scheme worked. Martina and Charlie were out of Aunt and Uncle’s lives forever.

          While she was contemplating her next move, a porter came out of the station.  “Won’t be another train along till tomorrow, ma’am.”

          Martina thought to the return address on the latest letter tucked into her reticule.  “How far is it to Ridgemont?”

          “Ridgemont?  Not much there.  Someone expecting you?”

          “A Mr. Thorn,” she said.

          “Which one?” the porter asked.  “The thief or the gambler?”

          That sounded a bit dubious.  “Mr. William Thorn.  I understand he has a ranch.”

          “Wouldn’t call it that,” the porter said, “although the place was something in its day.  Don’t tell me Will’s out of jail?”

          “I—”  Marty swallowed thickly.  “There must be a mistake.”

          “Just saw the ranch’s hand pass through town not long ago.  If he’s still around you can likely catch a ride with him.”

          In an unexpected kind move, the porter picked up her valise in one hand and Charlie in the other.  “You both look pretty tuckered.  Let’s see if we can get you sorted out.”

Happy Heart Day, whatever you do,

Kathleen

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We've Come a Long Way, Maybe by Hannah Rowan

In the process of cleaning out her mother’s house, my friend was astounded and maybe even horrified to come across three books giving advice about sex.  “I can’t imagine my prim mother reading these books,” she said.

(Seriously, who wants to think about their mother reading sex books? The only proper use of a mother’s sex books is for pre-adolescent girls to sneak and read under the covers while Mom thinks she’s sleeping.)

Anyway, knowing I write romance, she offered them to me.

Had her mother still been alive, she would have been near 100 years old.  What kind of advice, I wondered, were women getting way back in the day? I gleefully accepted her offer.

What better time to learn the secrets of blissful love than February, the month of Valentine’s Day?

I’m now traumatized by the whole thing.

In my formative years I learned a lot from True Confession magazine or True Story, and later, much more seriously, such books as The Feminine Mystique (1963) by Betty Friedan, The Women’s Room (1977) by Marilyn French, or Our Bodies, Ourselves (1969) by the Boston Women’s Health Collective, and so many more. I can’t even remember the titles of the many books I read in college when minoring in Human Sexuality.  (Don’t tell my children.)

Probably one of the unifying themes in all of this reading was that they portrayed women as…well…actual people.

Now I come upon such intriguing titles as Married Love, by Marie C. Stopes (1918) dedicated “to young husbands and all those who are betrothed in love.” Banned in the United States, this book, though the language was stilted and many of the ideas about the roles of men and women, husbands and wives are extremely stereotyped, was groundbreaking in that the author not only proposed that women (or wives, since unmarried woman apparently didn’t have sex) were entitled to enjoy sex, and their husbands had very well better learn how to make that happen.

Then along came The Sexual Side of Marriage (1939) by M.J. Exner M.D. Although it reads like a textbook in a lot of ways, this book offers many constructive and practical suggestions for couples to enjoy a healthy love life. Married couples, of course.

The highlight of my delving into the past is The Ideal Sex-Life, How to Attain and Practice (1940) by Dr. J. Rutgers, which comes with the warning that it’s “intended for circulation among mature persons only.”

Do I dare read it?

 Oh, I wish I hadn’t, because among other things it explores the sex lives of chickens as a way to explain mating to children, explores antiquated biological theories, and expounds on the virtues of self-control.  Possibly not very helpful to the newly married person in the early 20^th century who’s just trying to figure out what’s what.

While some of the ideas about women’s sexuality could be considered revolutionary in these books, they all carried an underlying theme that the pleasure of women, specifically married women, was simply another way to make their men happy.

I don’t know what value my friend’s mother found in her reading material, but my friend does have two brothers, so I hope she put some of it to good use.

Who knew that our grandmas were up to such shenanigans? And what will our children find when they clean out our bookshelves?

I think perhaps it’s time to purge my library.

Romancing Cupid by Jan Scarbrough #RomanceGems

When I saw the blog theme for February, I wondered what to write. So, first thing I did was to look up the definition of Cupid.

Cupid, ancient Roman god of love in all its varieties, the counterpart of the Greek god Eros and the equivalent of Amor in Latin poetry. According to myth, Cupid was the son of Mercury, the winged messenger of the gods, and Venus, the goddess of love. He often appeared as a winged infant carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows whose wounds inspired love or passion in his every victim. He was sometimes portrayed wearing armour like that of Mars, the god of war, perhaps to suggest ironic parallels between warfare and romance or to symbolize the invincibility of love.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Cupid”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Feb. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cupid. Accessed 25 January 2021.

Wow! I love the idea of the invincibility of love. As psychic medium Blair Robertson says, love never dies.

Romance novels (and Hallmark Channel movies) are about the conflicts leading up to true love. We love reading about whatever keeps the hero and heroine apart, but we always know they will end up happily-ever-after (HEA). Let’s face it, life is not always HEA. Because of that, we often need to escape into the world of books.

In my book Liz, the hero Chaz thinks: Novels gave the reader the opportunity to experience the possibility of other choices without actually making those choices. In a book, the reader lived a life outside his normal existence, helping him learn about himself—or herself, as the case might be.

I often let my characters say the truths that I’ve learned from a few years of living. Here are a few quotes from my different books:

The big world beyond was scary.

“C’mon, Mel. Make an old man’s dream come true.”

“That’s just it, dreams don’t come true.” She sounded as if she had voiced an inner conviction.
“Sure, they do, Mel. If you make them come true.”

Stef had also said it was dumb to love a man who didn’t love you back. 

“I guess a person can love more than once.”
“Yes, your dad and I are proof of that.” Liz gave a small laugh, her gaze faraway as if she envisioned someone standing across the floor. “And when that happens, you’re blessed.”

What have you learned anything about yourself from reading a romance novel?

Do you believe that love never dies?

 

A Valentine's Gift from the "heart" by Amie Denman

Hello, readers!

I'm a new author joining the Gems, and I'd love to take a moment to introduce myself before I tell you about the best Valentine's Day gift I've ever received. It's Romancing Cupid month at Romance Gems, and I have a great cupid story for you.

I'm Amie Denman, and I write contemporary romances with a "beach" theme. I've been published for ten years, and I'm really thrilled to be part of the Harlequin family and also the indie-published family. For the Harlequin Heartwarming line, I've written ten books, and this graphic of my Starlight Point heartwarming series gives you a feel for my style:

Teaming up with another romance author (who also happens to be my sister and best friend) was my wisest and most creative decision. May Williams and I have a Grand Hotel series (luxury resort), a Grand Islander series (luxury cruise line), and a Kenyon Cove series (small town in Maine). We love collaborating and intertwining our stories!

And now for my Valentine's gift story. My husband is a "maker." A tool & die maker/machinist by trade, he always creates his own solutions for problems and projects. He was an early-adopter of the 3D home printers, and he uses that thing all the time. Recently (overnight last night) he printed new parts for our snowblower instead of ordering them like a (fairly) normal person would. 

Last year, I was away at a conference for three days right before Valentine's Day. When I got home, there was a gift bag with my favorite cookies (Milanos) and also this object:

It's a puzzle heart! If you just keep turning it, it becomes a beautiful heart. I treasure it and keep it on my desk to play with while I'm thinking and writing. My husband downloaded the pattern from an amazing site called Thingiverse in case you're interested in 3D printing, and the heart took a total of seventeen hours to print and then assemble. It was the most romantic, true love gift I've ever received! He even had to plan ahead and order purple filament for his printer (my favorite color). 

It's so lovely to "meet" all of the Romance Gems and the readers of this blog. I hope you have a wonderful February and Cupid is good to you!

Amie

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Procrastination is a Four-Letter Word by Nancy Fraser

Everyone procrastinates. Whether we admit it or not, at some point we've all done it. Some of us are ranked "expert level".

If you ask writers, readers, those who are social media active, most will immediately say, "Facebook", "Twitter", "Instagram", or the old-person nemisis, "Tic Toc".

I thought it would be fun to ask the authors of Romance Gems what they do (other than social media) to keep from writing. Here are some of their answers:

"Pinterest is my downfall. I can be on there looking for all sorts of craft ideas, verses to live by, jokes, recipes, clothes...I mean, the list is endless. And let's not even mention books. If I start searching for books, well, might as well even forget about eating!" ~ Kara O'Neal

~ ~ ~

"I have a sudden need to organize things: my planner, my closet, under the bed..." ~ Laura Hunsaker

~ ~ ~

"Here are my favorite - and by favorite I mean my worst - ways to procrastinate. The things I tell myself I need to do instead of writing:

1. there's a housewives reunion on Bravo that I need to watch now.
2. I need to run to Bed Bath and Beyond because I can't wait to get another useless bathroom item.
3. I need to try this new recipe before I try it on hubby
4. the dog needs to be walked ( when she is currently sleeping)
5. I just want to read to the next chapter in my current kindle book." ~ Peggy Jaeger

~ ~ ~

"I have recently been taking online exercise classes in the morning. Since I’m best in the morning, that’s when I write. These exercise classes interrupt that schedule! I also put other projects ahead of working on a new book — like checking email, writing a blog, or watching live Facebook videos from Saddlebred Rescue." ~ Jan Scarbrough

~ ~ ~

"OMG. I have lists. Once I procrastinate, it's so easy to keep doing it. That's one reason I keep a day planner with my important tasks listed the night before."
Mild Procrastination
1. Read.
2. Binge watch anything that's interesting.
3. Garden.
4. Shop.
5. Craft.

Severe Procrastination
1. Clean house.
2. Laundry.
3. Iron shirts.
4. Clean out the garage.
5. Accounting. ~ Joan Reeves

~ ~ ~

"All I know is that I’m in trouble if I suddenly have the urge to do housework or laundry instead of write. I’ve gotten quite adept at slamming the office door and staying at my desk until the urge passes. The one thing that I find a happy distraction is a phone call from a friend or one of my children." ~ Kathleen Lawless

~ ~ ~

As for me ... I make things Not knitting, not sewing, not even baking (much to my grandchildren's chagrin). I make book covers. My book covers. I have covers made for books I haven't even written yet. Sometimes just imagining a cover gives me an idea for the book, or the impetus to get back to writing.

Here's a half a sneak peek at my April cover for Book 2 of my Cougars & Cubs series.

Oh ... and that 4-letter word: HELP! Sometimes, when we're stalled, we all need a break (e.g., HELP) in whatever form it takes.

Until later this month, stay safe, stay happy, stay well read.

Nancy

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Reading and Writing by Karen Whiddon

Writers write.  I know that, you do too.  Myself, I write five days a week and take the weekends off, just like I did when I worked at the day job.  I even have a set writing time every day, and I stick to it, unless something happens to throw me off my routine.  

Writers also read.  And these days, I've been reading a varied selection of different genres.  Spurred on by the Neflix series Bridgerton, I read Julia Quinn's second Bridgerton book - devoured it actually.  Since I'm not a big historical romance reader, this surprised me, but the story was delightful.  And I'm reading Loreth Ann White's In The Deep now, plus I've finished some Fantasy, a couple of Young Adult fantasy books, and some contemporary romance.  I'm also waiting for Kristin Hannah's new book about the Great Depression, which Amazon has promised to deliver tomorrow.  I love her stuff and I can't wait to dive in.

There's something about curling up on my chair when it's chilly outside and losing myself in a book. 

My next book comes out in April and it takes place in a city I've always wanted to visit.  Unfortunately, I've only visited O'Hare Airport, but someday I hope to see Chicago.  

If you'd like to preorder it, you can do so here.    Buy on Amazon

What about you?  What are you reading?  Any recommendations?  Do share, please.

Romancing Cupid by @JoanReeves #RomanceGems

February rushed in with a sunny, but cold day here in Houston.

One out of our twelve months is now history—a total mystery to me. Why does time fly by?

We're Romancing Cupid this month, and I'll kick it off with a Valentine giveaway for one (1) ebook.

Leave a comment with your email address written out—not as a hot link.

In your comment, answer the question I pose at the end of this post.

You'll be entered to win an ebook copy of Blame It On Chocolate, a funny, sweetly sexy Valentine romance. I'll choose a name Friday, February 5, by random draw from all eligible entries.

I'll write something about Blame It On Chocolate at the end of my post.

February Update

Our theme this month is Romancing Cupid, that plump little fellow with his quiver full of arrows. At least, that's the image popularized a couple of hundred years ago. 

Of course, Cupid wears disguises sometimes, doesn't he? He may appear as a matchmaking mom or best friend or maybe even as a dad

The Spotlight is shining on Hannah Rowan this month. Hannah's writing always give me a chuckle. She's naturally funny.

This month these pages of our blog are being remodeled: Bookstore, Free Books, and Listen to Romance. Please pardon the disarray while I wield imaginary saws and drills as I get those pages back into the lineup.

This should be a fun month since it's all about Romance, the genre we all adore.

Blame It On Chocolate

Chloe Elliot was a good girl. She’d never been a hell-raiser. Never gotten drunk, used drugs, smoked pot, or slept around. She didn’t even curse! 

Since her dad was the son of a minister and the oft-elected mayor, and her mom was the elementary school principal, she'd had no choice but to live a life above reproach. Truthfully, it really hadn’t been that difficult.

Until Hunter Cole returned to his home town.

That was the beginning of Chloe's fall from good girl status. There was something about the man that addled her brain and created havoc in her body.

Hunter Cole reckoned he had the best of all possible worlds. 

He'd played for the NFL, and after two back surgeries ended that career, he was following in his dad's footsteps and working the family ranch.

Even better, he was following his granddad's path and was the sheriff in his west Texas town. Life was perfect.

Until he dropped by the library to say hello to his best friend's little sister.

Chloe wasn't so little any more. In fact, just looking at her made his common sense evaporate. She affected him like no other woman—and he'd had women throwing themselves at him since he was a high school quarterback!

So why was he so bewildered and befuddled when it came to Chloe? Why couldn't he figure out a way to get her off his mind?

Giveaway Discussion Question

What's the best thing your spouse, lover, significant other has ever given you for Valentine's Day? Answer in Comments with your email addy written out. Random Draw Friday night. Winner notified by email over the weekend.

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