RETURN TO CUPID TEXAS

By Guest Author Sylvia McDaniel

Sweethearts Candy

My fondest memories of Valentine's Day are from elementary school. Of course, I'm old enough to remember Valentine's Day parties and the little valentines you gave to your classmates. I have fond memories of going through my valentines to see what everyone wrote on the cards, looking for that special person in your class.  Every year someone would give you a little box of Sweethearts, the heart-shaped candies with sayings on them.  I remember putting a Kiss Me heart on the desk of a little boy that I liked in the third grade. He was my first boyfriend until Susan, that naughty temptress, lured him away.

For fun, I thought I would see if I could find some history on how these candies were created. Wikipedia had a full page devoted to these cute little candies. They began in 1847 when Oliver Chase invented a machine that cut lozenges from wafer candy. He built a candy factory and his brother, Daniel made a stamp that you could press into the candy with different sayings. At that time, the candies were made for weddings and had some unique sayings.  The heart-shaped candies that we know didn't get their start until 1901. Every year, Necco produces over 100,000 pounds of hearts each day from February through mid January.  In 1990, the company that owns the candies updated the sayings.

Curious to see what the updated sayings were, I bought a bag of Sweethearts. Now, I have an extremely busy life, but I decided I would write down all the sayings in that bag of candy. There were 56 different sayings, which I'm not going to bore you with here, but I'll give you the ones that I don't remember and thought were unique. So here they are: Game on, Reach 4 It, Race Me, Friend Me, Let's Ride, Hey Babe, Time 2 Dance, Shake It, UR Hot, UR It, Wink Wink, Soul Mate and Text Me! Glad to see the candy makers are keeping up with the times, though Race Me is kind of strange? Race me to the bedroom?

 Receiving a Valentine is always fun and every year my husband gives me a sweet card, candy and/or flowers. This day we all celebrate love with our significant others, our children and family. As Romance Readers and Writers, this day is made just for us.

What if you lived in a town called Cupid, Texas and there was a superstition that if you danced naked around the Cupid statue at midnight, the first person you saw was your true love. Would you do the Cupid dance for love?

If you’re looking for a fun series that will leave you with a smile on your face, then check out Return to Cupid, Texas. The Box set is only .99 cents through February 15th. Here's the buy link:

http://books2read.com/u/mdNROW

USA Today bestselling author Sylvia McDaniel has published more than thirty western historical romances, contemporary romance and even a few sci-fi novels.  Known for her sweet, funny, family-oriented romances, Sylvia is the author of The Burnett Brides a historical western series, The Cuvier Widows, a Louisiana historical series, Lipstick and Lead, a western historical series and several short contemporary romances.


Married for over twenty years to her best friend, they have one dachshund that reigns Queen Supreme over the house, a new puppy who is challenging the queen and a good-looking, grown son who thinks there’s no place like home. She loves gardening, hiking, shopping, knitting and football (Cowboys and Bronco’s fan), but not necessarily in that order.
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