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That time when I was in Paris for New Years Eve…

A few years ago, my sister wanted to visit Europe for the first time. She tried to find a friend to go with her--another available friend who could frolic over Christmas break when she had one week of vacation between Christmas and New Years.  She couldn’t find anyone. People were visiting family or they were short of funds. My parents, concerned with her going by herself to foreign countries, asked me if I would go with her. I lived in Europe in my twenties for a year and a half and was somewhatly still fluent French.  But we were poor.  My husband was still in grad school. We lived a simple life on his small stipend, and I stayed home with our three kids. And Christmas was a family day.  When my parents offered to for pay my airline ticket, my husband agreed to let me go. All we had to pay for was lodging (we stayed at hostels), food, and travel within the country. So we were off!  We scheduled our itinerary to be in Paris for New Years eve! How exciting, right? To be in the city of

Publishing schedule revised for 2023 (and 2024)

Summer is heating up here where I am at, which is good because that means all I want to do is sit inside all day in the AC and write instead of doing outdoorsy things. I've been wildly productive and I've been working on a few things this summer: Sin and Sinister (paranormal vampire and werewolves mystery series set in Monte Carlo) is finally done. I had struggled with the ending and put it down to work on more pressing things. My Alpha readers are looking it over for plot holes and other major revisions I might need. More plotting for this series is ongoing! Seasons of Sugar Creek First Kisses. This is the backstory of Roland and Debra and how they had their first kiss Homecoming evening in 1972. It's been fun to write a retro piece. It's almost finished probably at the 80% mark.  The Autumn Fallout ( also part of Seasons of Sugar Creek )  is 100% done with the first draft. I'll be sending that to my Alpha readers this week for major plot/character suggestions. I

Research links for Wylder Bride

 If you're interested in the historical research links for Wylder Bride, I will leave them here. Have fun! https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/brief-history-boston-brahmin/ https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/events/1870_1880.htm https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/gunsmithing-tools/10108 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E4jwmPj6hg https://www.classicamericangunsmith.com/glossary-3/glossary-t/timeline/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flintlock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallurgy https://www.aircontrolindustries.com/us/blacksmith-forge-us/evolution-of-forge-fan/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuyere https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/brief-history-boston-brahmin/ https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Bunker-Hill http://grimsdyke.com/victorian-dining/ http://www.historyofpencils.com/writing-instruments-history/history-of-writing-implements/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Amazon_history https://www.mentalfloss.com/article

The 2022 Gift Guide

Bookmark this page and refer to it for all gift-giving occasions for 2023!  Every year I like to make a Christmas list suggestion, mostly for people like me who are just starting their Christmas shopping and who have no idea what to get their loved ones. I may be using affiliate links in this post, but that doesn't increase the cost for you, it just helps support my writing habit. Big Gifts Middle School-Aged Kids (10-12) 1. 3-D Printer.   My husband and I are thinking of getting this for my 12-year old son. SHHHHHH! Don't tell him! Although if he looked over my shoulder while scrolling through my Facebook page, he would probably see one. Those darn tracking cookies! They're going to ruin Christmas!  We looked at a couple of models including this smaller one by Toy Box  which has more bio-friendly PVA plastics, but almost twice the price tag. The Toy Box one comes with 8 filaments included, which normally cost around 12 bucks. My husband said the deck might be too small fo

Boston in the Fall

 There's that silly song that says the singer has never been to Boston in the Fall. But guess what, now I have!  I went back in May when my husband had a work trip and I joined him. I was staying in town and just walked Back Bay into the North End to see the touristy areas and to walk the Freedom Trail. But this time, I took my mother and drove from Connecticut. Travel tips if you plan to go: Park and Ride if coming from out of the city. Crazy traffic. Crazy parking.   If you don't want to drive all the way into the city and battle those two things, you can park at a garage at one of the terminuses of the train lines. We parked at Braintree for $9 and took the Red line in for $2.40 each way. Be warned: there are no public bathrooms at the train stations. At least I never saw any.  Go Wednesday through Sunday to ensure you can see all the sites. Bunker Hill, USS Constitution, and the Old North Church--some of my favorite sites, were closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Spend all da

Christmas in July

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Hello! I have a special announcement just in time for Christmas in July! I've teamed up with five other sweet romance authors to create a series called The Seasons of Sugar Creek. We founded a fictional town in Vermont with all the small town feels and created events for each holiday season. This year we're doing Christmas and to celebrate, we're making these book boxes available on Kickstarter for July ONLY! What you get! All the tastes, the sounds, the smells and experiences of Sugar Creek with 4-6 handpicked, Sugar Creek-inspired holiday gifts carefully selected and curated, two special edition, author signed HARDCOVER sweet romances/women's fiction, and a collectable Sugar Creek ornament all valued over $100 in each of the three collectible boxes. These will be delivered to your door (US residents only) in December. You can order one for yourself or for your book-loving friends. Who would you give one to? I'll probably send one to my mom and my mother-in-law.  H

Father's Day Tribute and Gift Guide

 My father was not a perfect man, but he was a good man. He did his best, but sometimes he fell short. And that's okay.  He passed this year. I had the opportunity to go out and help my mom in those final few days. We walked with angels as we took care of his needs and took note of any final wishes. After we put him on hospice, a pastor from another faith came to see us. My mom was terribly busy, so I sat with him in my parent's living room, discussing things. I mentioned we come from a faith-filled home, that my father did his repenting as he went along. He asked if there were any unresolved issues, conflicts or ill feelings in our family. Thankfully, all of our issues had been resolved. It was so nice to not have these lingering conflicts. Peace prevailed. It looks us a while to get there, but our family has had remarkable time to heal. The last question the paster asked was if our Bishop, the leader of our local congregation, had come to visit. This surprised me, because he