Woman + Man + Sex = Funny by @JoanReeves #RomanceGems

Yes, the equation in the title is the formula for romantic comedy because it often works out that way in real life.

Some comedian once said if aliens from outer space observed us having sex that they'd be convinced we were crazy people who should be avoided.

Women were asked in a study some years back what they found most appealing in men. The number 1 answer was not a buff bod or money or charm. It was a sense of humor, especially if a man made them laugh. Women love that. So add romance to the comedy and you have a sexy cocktail.

I cut my teeth on watching old romantic comedy movies on TV. My love of the classic romance comedy is one reason I write in that sub-genre.

When a reader tells me she laughed so hard her family thought she was crazy (review for Still The
One), that just makes my day.

Available At Amazon

I think to successfully write romantic comedy, you must know the genre. The best way is to watch movies from the oldies to the new ones.

Human nature hasn't changed much in all the decades, and we find the same things funny, sexy, and appealing now as we did when the movie greats were getting laughs and getting sexy.

If you’d like to waste invest some time in advancing your appreciation of some of the most critically lauded romantic comedy films, here are a few suggestions.

Golden Oldies

It Happened One Night, 1934, starring Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable. Runaway heiress meets a reporter who wants to exploit her story. Key element? The walls of Jericho. Watch the movie and you’ll understand.

Bringing Up Baby, 1938, starring Katherine Hepburn as a zany rich girl who turns uptight Cary Grant’s life into chaos. Key elements? A baby leopard and a dinosaur skeleton.

Pillow Talk, 1959, was the first pairing of Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Womanizing songwriter and uptight interior designer share a telephone party line, and that’s when the games begin. (Ask your older relatives if you don’t know what a party line is.) A party line was a true test of one’s integrity. My cool hip daughter loves this movie so much she bought a DVD of it and the other Doris Day/Rock Hudson films. In several romantic comedies of that era, Tony Randall was the hero’s best friend and was hilarious in his second banana role in each film. He’s the kind of secondary character every romantic comedy needs.

Lover Come Back Made, 1961, starred Rock Hudson and Doris Day again. In this flick, Rock and Doris are advertising executives who disdain each other’s client recruitment methods. When Doris decides to exact a little revenge, she gets way more than she bargained for. Oh, my! The scene when Tony Randall is driving a heartbroken Doris back to the city, and they stop at a diner is hysterical!

That Touch of Mink Made, 1962, paired Doris Day with Cary Grant in a movie that confronts the virgin versus the player issue. He’s handsome, rich, and charming. She’s lovely and works though she’s not a career woman. They’re equally captivated, but she wants marriage, and, of course, he wants an affair.

Cactus Flower Made, 1969, was Goldie Hawn’s film debut with Walter Matthau as the older rich player, and the renowned Ingrid Bergman as his nurse who's secretly in love with him. What a romp this is! Yeah, it, and all the ones above are outdated in terms of our culture, but I bet you’ll laugh.

Fast Forward

In more recent years, there have been a lot of romantic comedy films made, but most of them fall short. They either throw in elements that are crude, not sexy–and they have no brilliant writers on staff to turn it into funny and sexy–or they’re derivative, lesser films with no freshness.

In no particular order, here are some outstanding RomComs from the 1970's to the current year:

Pretty Woman
Notting Hill
About a Boy
Love Actually
Something New
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Sweet Home Alabama
The American President
Groundhog Day
When Harry Met Sally
The Princess Bride
Better Off Dead
Sixteen Candles
The Goodbye Girl

Heaven Can Wait
What's Up, Doc?
Overboard
Working Girl
Some Kind of Wonderful
Baby Boom
Murphy's Romance
French Kiss
Grosse Point Blank
The Holiday
Leap Year
Always Be My Maybe
In a World
Silver Lining Playbook, some might not see this as a rom com, but listen to the dialogue
Crazy Rich Asians, this also might seem an odd choice, but it plays with preconceptions.

Do some of those I listed strike your funny bone? If not, what are some of your favorites?

Leave comments with your favorite romantic comedy movies. I'll do a random draw this week from all comments left with email addresses and give away a copy of Still The One.

By the way, remember to click Rafflecopter to enter our Beaches and Book Boyfriends Giveaway, or click to go to our Monthly Giveaway page, and enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway there.

July Prizes

Grand Prize: a $20.00 Amazon Gift Card

Second Prize: a $15.00 Amazon Gift Card

Third Prize: a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card

Fourth Prize: 2 print books, each autographed and mailed by the author

5th, 6th, and 7th Prizes: Eboook bundles of 3 Ebooks each

Enter today!

Bless Your Heart by Karen Kelley #RomanceGems

    

  Buy now or

read for free in KU

     I love the South, cowboys, and romance. Until we started traveling, I’d thought everyone was pretty much the same. I guess we are, but I discovered each state had something really special to offer. There were some states we learned not to order Mexican food because it was more often than not closer to original Mexican dishes. I’m too used to TexMex, I guess.

     Buffalo burgers were really dry because they don't have much fat. Frog legs---forget it, I'm not going there.

     But what’s up with Michigan and their mac and cheese? It’s like gourmet food. They even have it as an entrée. I don’t think I’ve ever had mac and cheese as wonderful as what I had in Michigan. Same with their root beer. I love it!

     And I thought curds were something from a nursery rhyme. No, curds actually exist! I ordered some in Wisconsin just to try them. They're wonderful, melt in your mouth, fried cheese. We need curds in Texas, although I’m not sure we could do as well by them.

     And the accents. I love someone with an accent. I have an English friend and I could listen to her talk all day. But not on the phone. If she talks too fast, I can’t understand a word she says. 

     But Texas has always been home and I love being back. All our traveling in the RV inspired me to start a brand new series, It’s A Southern Thang. Yes, I meant to spell thing like thang.

     I love the townspeople, country life, and the falling in love in the first book, Bless Your Heart. I drew on my memories growing up, like my aunt’s sweet tea. How all the cousins eyed the jugs and wondered which one she had made. It was the worse tea I’ve ever tasted. Seriously! It would make your toes curl and your hair frizz. We never had the heart to tell her how awful it was, though. We just talked about her tea when she wasn’t around, but it wasn’t gossip because every bit of it was true.

     Since I titled this first book Bless Your Heart, I've realized how often I actually say it. How funny. If you want to know the meaning, this is how Riley, the hero, explains it:

     Yeah, and I knew when a woman said, bless your heart, it could mean something entirely different. It was all in the way they said it. It could be commiseration if someone in the family died or something, or shock that you’d gone through a traumatic event, like a car accident or were getting a divorce. It could also mean go screw yourself. The words could drip with sarcasm, so you knew they didn’t really give a damn about you. I had a feeling Whitney leaned toward the latter.

     The first book is a little spicy, with humor, and a whole lot of down home country. I hope you enjoy Bless Your Heart as much as I enjoyed writing it.   

     Don't forget to enter our rafflecopter for a chance to win great gifts! 

BEACHES and BOOK BOYFRIENDS is the Romance Gems Julytheme. Enter our drawing for a chance to win 1 of 3 Amazon Gift Cards and fun beach books too! Read the post, leave a comment, and enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway.

Happy Reading,

Karen Kelley

www.authorkarenkelley.com

WRITING WITH A FRIEND

By Caroline Clemmons

Working with another author can be fulfilling or frustrating. I’ve been in both situations. Let’s skip talking about the difficult and concentrate on the positive. Encouraging experiences are a lot more fun to discuss.

Jacquie Rogers and I met online in the Romance Writers of America online group, Hearts Through History. Since then, we’ve become good friends. Jacquie and her husband have visited us, a real treat for Hero and me. Jacquie is a fun, upbeat person who’s a delight to know. Plotting with her takes a long time because we invariably wander off on tangents plus we laugh and laugh.

We have written about sisters three times. The first was for Kirsten Osbourne’s American Mail-Order Brides when Jacquie wrote Merry, Bride of Idaho, and I wrote Patience, Bride of Washington. Merry and Patience were sisters. Merry is named after Jacquie's daughter Mercedes.

That went well so we conspired on a duet—each of us wrote a book and we packaged them together. Jacquie wrote Mail-Order Ruckus and I wrote Mail-Order Promise. We joined them under the title Mail-Order Tangle. That went well but took a bit more coordinating than those above. Once again, the heroines were sisters.

Our latest effort is Orphan Train Brides, which contains A Family for Polly by Jacquie and A Family for Merry by me. Both of us are fascinated by the stories of the orphan trains that transported children from New York across the country. Most of these children were sent to the Midwest. However, there was a man in the North Central Texas town in which I used to live who had been adopted from one of the last orphan trains in the 1920s. He had been well treated and grew up in a happy home.

In fact, most of the children went to better homes—certainly better than living on the streets of New York. Sadly, some were abused and/or treated as servants. Merry and Polly and the two boys who were adopted with them, Bart and Newton, were treated as slaves. Eventually, Jacquie and I will get together and write a duet about the two boys.

In the meantime, Orphan Train Brides was released yesterday. I hope you’ll take time to read it. The two stories are fun and you can count on a happy ending! 

Here's the Synopsis:

Become a bride or lose her children!

Merry and Polly Bird jump at the opportunity when they’re asked to record who takes which children from the orphan train. Determined to liberate five quirky, ragtag orphans not likely to be adopted by caring people, the sisters vow the children will not end up as they had fourteen years ago. Back then, Merry and Polly and the two boys adopted with them from that orphan train worked as slaves and suffered in ragged clothes, horrible living conditions, and with meager unappetizing food.

Mary and Polly’s children love their new home and family at the sisters’ Mockingbird boarding house. The rescue idea appears to have been a great success—until the supervisor from the Children’s Protection Society arrives. Single women are not allowed to adopt. Merry and Polly each has five days to find a suitable husband who won’t steal her share of the boarding house.

(The two novellas in Orphan Train Brides are expanded from previous inclusion in the Under A Mulberry Moon anthology.)

https://www.amazon.com/Orphan-Train-Brides-Caroline-Clemmons-ebook/dp/B07TW8JH44

Excerpt from when the sisters take their newly acquired children shopping and encounter attorney Blake Woolfe on the sidewalk. Abigail invites him to accompany them to Bea's Confectionary Shoppe:

Blake stepped to the counter. “We’ll have sarsaparillas and cupcakes all around.”

Abigail clapped her hands. “Did you hear, Tammie? We get sar’prilla and a cupcake.”

Polly protested, “Mr. Woolfe, surely you don’t intend to treat all of us.”

"My pleasure, ladies and gentlemen.” He paid Bea and then gave a slight bow. After he delivered two of the drinks he went back to the counter for more.

Merry sat and pulled Tammie onto her lap. Abigail and Calvin joined her. Polly and her two sat at the next table.

When Bea and Mr. Woolfe had delivered all of the drinks and cupcakes, he sat at the table beside Calvin. “You don’t mind if I sit beside you do you, Calvin? We men have to stick together.”

Calvin sat up a little taller and almost smiled. “Yeah, we men have to stick together ’cause we’re outnumbered.”

Mr. Woolfe saluted Noah with his glass. “Isn’t that right, Noah?”

Noah grinned and raised his drink as Mr. Woolfe had done. Although Noah still hadn’t spoken, seeing him smile was a relief.

The lawyer carried on a conversation with the children but sent her glances that left her puzzled. He was usually gruff yet he was quite kind to the children.

Merry simply couldn't figure out Blake Woolfe.

July Giveaway

Starts at 12:01am CDT, July 5, Friday.

Ends at 12:01am CDT, July 25, Thursday.

You can click Rafflecopter here at any time, or scroll to the bottom and find the form. Enter often and tell your friends. There are some great prizes up for grabs.

July Prizes

Grand Prize: a $20.00 Amazon Gift Card

Second Prize: a $15.00 Amazon Gift Card

Third Prize: a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card

Fourth Prize: 2 print books, each autographed and mailed by the author

5th, 6th, and 7th Prizes: Eboook bundles of 3 Ebooks each

Beach Book Bonanza

What's better than a Beach Book in the summer? Not much, especially when you're talking about  beach books by these bestselling authors!

Some are sweet; some are spicy; some are downright sizzling hot! There's definitely something for everyone.

My Summer Reading List by Lucinda Race #RomanceGems

Hello again.

It’s Summer and it’s HOT!

So, for the months of June, July and August I’ve embarked on a personal reading challenge. To read at least one book from every author in the #RomanceGems group. Prior to deciding to make this a short-term goal I did have a reading goal on Good Reads. But I’ve gone from twenty-four books as my goal to adding twenty more. But where to begin.

As an author of ten books I have a favorite and I was sure the other amazing authors in our group did too, so I asked. Where do I begin? 

So far, I’ve read Joan Reeves, Bonnie Edwards, Kathy Lawless, Elsa Kurt, Karen Kelly, Connie Vines, Jan Scarbrough and Kathryn Hills. Each novel or series of books I’ve read has been a wonderful diversion in the long wonderful days of summer.

I’ve been diligent to post reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and Bookbub to support this amazing and talented group of authors is very important to do. Writers supporting writers is critical as writing and editing is such a solitary pursuit.

My kindle is full of books to be read and up next is anyone’s guess. But I see some amazing books in my future. If you’re interested in my reviews check out my Goodreads page. Every word is honest and comes from the love of reading. 

When I was telling a friend what I was doing she said it reminded her of the reading list she got from her teachers each summer. I had to laugh at the comparison but this is much better than the assignments of old. I know that as a romance novel junkie I’m going to spend the summer falling in love again and again.

Don’t forget to sign up for this month’s contest. 

BEACHES and BOOK BOYFRIENDS is the Romance Gems Julytheme. Enter our drawing for a chance to win 1 of 3 Amazon Gift Cards and fun beach books too! Read the post, leave a comment, and enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway.

Until next time, 

I wish you happiness. 

Lucinda

My Kind of Hero @karilemor #RomanceGems

So many people talk about book boyfriends and I have to admit I don’t really have any. Not that I don’t like the heroes I read about. I do! But typically, I read romance. In these stories I am looking for a connection between the two main characters.  If I end up with the hero, that means the other character does not. Then it wouldn’t be a romance. Or it would be my romance, and since I’m already married, that would be a problem. I’m not into cheating.  In my life or in my books.

When I do choose my heroes, I have to say I like certain things. And some things I’m not a huge fan of. Jerky alpha billionaire, Pass. Any guy who’s ever cheated on a woman, Pass. Royalty, sheik, hit man. Pass. I’m more into those who serve, like military, police, firefighter, or government agent.  Or I like the manly type who work with their hands. Cowboy, carpenter, or farmer.

One of my good friends checked out my ‘Hero’ Pinterest board and said I definitely have a type. Yup, I do. Physically, I like them trim, clean cut, lean muscles, and swoon worthy. I do appreciate a bit of chest hair as well. But that’s all superficial.

What I really want in a hero is vulnerability. Sure, I want them to be macho and strong, physically and emotionally. But I also want them to be real. To have problems they need to work on. I want them to love their woman with every fiber of their being and fight until the death for them. Since many of my books are romantic suspense, they do exactly that. Well, not quite to the death, but often times close.

It’s great that most books now have the hero’s point of view as well. I love the inner thoughts and the struggles they go through in the story. One favorite is Nikko from Peggy Jaeger’s Cant Stand the Heat. He’s a definite alpha male who takes no guff from anyone. But he’s got this teenage daughter who is going through quite an ordeal. Instead of being the absent father, or the one who rules with an iron fist, he is caring and loving and his daughter is more important to him than anything else in his life. And he constantly tells her so. This man, this father, dug so deeply into my heart, I thought I might bleed.

Another great hero with a vulnerability is Ty from Marianne Rice’s What Makes Us Stronger. Ty is a man who works with his hands and very masculine. But he suffers from depression and struggles to get through life with this around his neck. This is a real issue that so many people suffer from.  I love watching him as he finds a way to make things work with the heroine. Swoonworthy.

I’ve got my own vulnerable hero coming out soon. The book, Elusive Dreams, is the first in my new series, Storms of New England. The series is a small-town family contemporary set in…you guessed it… New England.

Erik Storm is the oldest in his family, with three younger Storm siblings. He has always been popular, handsome, well-liked, and successful. But his time as a Marine over seas left him scarred, barely able to walk, and hiding other medical secrets he never wants his family or friends to find out about. But he promised a dying mother he’d take care of her children. How to do that in the physical shape he’s in?

Tessa Porter has bounced around through a variety of foster homes her whole life. In her teens, she finally came to live next door to Erik’s grandparents in coastal Maine, where Erik spent many summers working at a local restaurant. Due to abuse in her past, Tessa hates to be around people and cringes at any form of touch. But she’s willing to help Erik take care of the children. They are younger and weaker and therefore can’t possibly hurt her.

Unfortunately, a social service worker doesn’t think Erik is in any shape to care for these children, so Erik and Tessa embark on a marriage of convenience to ensure the children will have a stable home and loving family. Both Erik and Tessa face challenges, so creating a family might be the only thing to heal these two scarred souls.

~~~

As soon as I have a cover and release date, I will share. To get up to date news, you can subscribe to my mailing list (I only send out a newsletter when I have a sale or new release or other exciting news). Or you can follow me on BookBub.

Now tell me, what is your favorite kind of hero?


*********

July Giveaway

Starts at 12:01am CDT, July 5, Friday.

Ends at 12:01am CDT, July 25, Thursday.

You can click Rafflecopter here at any time, or scroll to the bottom and find the form. Remember, it opens July 5 so enter often and tell your friends. There are some great prizes up for grabs.

July Prizes

Grand Prize: a $20.00 Amazon Gift Card

Second Prize: a $15.00 Amazon Gift Card

Third Prize: a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card

Fourth Prize: 2 print books, each autographed and mailed by the author

5th, 6th, and 7th Prizes: Eboook bundles of 3 Ebooks each

Beach Book Bonanza

What's better than a Beach Book in the summer? Not much, especially when you're talking about these beach books by these bestselling authors!

Some are sweet; some are spicy; some are downright sizzling hot! There's definitely something for everyone.

Have fun in the sun, and nobody can take your books away!

Writing Series? @ConstanceBretes #RomanceGems

Do you like to read series? or in this case, a few interconnected books? I never started out intentionally writing a series. It just happened. While concentrating on one hero, another hero close to him pops up wanting me to tell his story too!

As is the case with my story, Love Songs. The hero in this story, Jake Ackerson, is a band leader, CEO, and a hot Native American! The woman he loves, Jennifer Summers, comes back to town as a well-known singing artist and agrees to sing with his band temporary while she tries to decide what to do with her life.

While writing this story, Jake's band, White Sands, bass player, Vincent Carter, was demanding his story be told. Why? I have no idea why, of all the characters in Love Songs, his name kept coming up. I think he wanted his happy ever after....

On a lonely road, Vincent stops and helps a real estate agent, Char Johnson by changing her flat tire. Char insists on paying him for his help in some way, so he asks her to go to the wedding of Jake and Jennifer as his date.

Vincent is struggling with trying to keep his brothers and sisters together as a family, but one family member continues to be obstinate and difficult. Meet Patrick Carter. Hero in Jade's Redemption. Patrick tries to separate himself from his family, by moving away and becoming a Police Chief for a mid-size town, where he meets Jade Harlowe, a woman with a shady past, a former police officer now a 911 dispatch officer.

Just when Patrick finally thinks he's got himself separated from his family, Vincent strolls back into his life and wants Patrick to be his best man at his upcoming wedding to Char!

The two brothers share a painful, horrible past. Can they bridge the gap that separates them and be the brothers they both long for?

Am I going to continue with the series? I've been thinking about it. There is still one brother who is believed to be too badly scarred to find love. He's been pretty quiet, but I think he's just too shy to ask for his story to be told.

So, in keeping with the theme this month, Beaches and Book Boyfriends, I have three more book boyfriends to read about besides the one I'm offering below.

Don’t forget to jump in and get your name in the latest giveaway, Beaches and Book Boyfriends. I’ll be giving away a free ecopy of Midnight Escape.

Here's the rafflecopter:

Romance Gems July Rafflecopter Giveaway

Brand New Release! Like An Angel by @BonnieEdwards #RomanceGems

He needs a woman bad. And a good woman even more. But when a woman appears like an angel on the horizon, Brice Logan has to take what he can get…

New York heiress Andi Goodson needs to unplug and unwind, but a prairie farm in Canada is going too far, especially when it comes with a family in need. Coping with real children with real needs is not what she's trained for and certainly not what she wants. 

99c Amazon Exclusive Release Price

But Andi's never been truly needed a day in her life. She's been trained as a hostess, the perfect daughter, the one in a mask of perfection no one cares to look behind. But children? No way!

Brice Logan is desperate to have a woman's help keeping his houseful of foster children together.

When Andi appears, like a misguided angel, he finds he wants more than her help.

He wants her everything.

Can love blossom on a lonely Canadian prairie between two people who come from completely different worlds? 

This month I am asking people to please sign up for my newsletter on our contest. Editing has resumed! I'm at 69K words and counting. Joining my newsletter is the best way to keep informed on my progress on Craving Jake, Return to Welcome Book 3. Bonnie's Newsy Bits

Our July contest is in full swing! Please join us in celebration of Beach Reads and Book Boyfriends.

Full details are on our Monthly Giveaway Page

But here's a brief list of what the Romance Gems have on offer for July:

Grand Prize: a $20.00 Amazon Gift Card
Second Prize: a $15.00 Amazon Gift Card
Third Prize: a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card
Fourth Prize: 2 print books, each autographed and mailed by the author
5th, 6th, and 7th Prizes: Eboook bundles of 3 Ebooks each

Romance Gems July Rafflecopter Giveaway