THE MONTH OF LOVE #99¢ SALE!

 By Caroline Clemmons

Welcome February, treated as the month of love. Actually, it’s only one of  eleven others that offer the same opportunity for love. At least, I hope love in your life is not restricted to February. <G>

Probably, we are each hoping for something special on Valentine’s Day. Do you prefer flowers, jewelry, candy, dining out, or all of those? Even a verbal wish and a hug can make my day. That’s not to say I’d turn down any of the aforementioned Valentine’s gifts.

Hero never forgets to do something special. Now that his Parkinson’s prevents him from driving, he calls on our youngest daughter to act as his personal shopper. Luckily for me, she does great work.

Ah, well, on to reminiscing. Do you remember the first Valentine candy you received from a guy? I do, as well as how surprised—make tha shocked—l was to find it in my school locker. I was in the seventh graden, and far from a femme fatale. His cubby was only a few down from mine. Of course, he was watching when I opened my door. I have no idea what I said, but it must have been acceptable because he stuck around for several years. I had thought the boy was my pal Margie’s boyfriend. So did Margie. Need I say she stopped being my buddy that day?

While I was a housewife, I was always a room mother. When our oldest daughter was in kindergarten, for her class Valentine’s party I made for myself a white double-knit pantsuit trimmed in red. Shudder. Good grief, seeing that photo now is embarrassing! At the time, I thought it was just right for Valentine’s Day. Times and tastes definitely change, don't they?

Our daughters are polar opposites. The oldest never met a stranger and loves talking to people. The youngest is extremely shy, but learned to hide it later. They do look like sisters and I sometimes made them matching dresses (for some reason that now escapes me). I knew our youngest daughter didn’t like her second grade teacher, who had been her sister’s teacher two years earlier. At the class party, the teacher gushed on and on about how much alike the girls were and how she enjoyed them. Maybe she knew I played bridge with the principal.

Memories of good times are fun to recapture. I hope you have good memories and are making new ones to savor later.

By the way, if you’re looking for tales of romance, adventure, and happily ever after, the first book of my Texas Hill Country Mail Order Brides series is what you need. Plus, it's on sale for only 99¢ on Amazon. GENTRY AND THE MAIL ORDER BRIDE can be found at this URL:’

https://www.amazon.com/Gentry-Texas-Country-Order-Brides-ebook/dp/B0B6YN6QHK

 Here's the blurb:

Sometimes the perfect match is the one you didn’t expect.

Nothing much riles Gentry McRae. He works hard on the ranch he co-owns with his best friend, and is content with his life. He’s proud of all they’ve accomplished in the ten years since the war. That is, until his partner dies and leaves a fourth of the ranch to his mail-order bride—and wills the bride to Gentry.

“Now just a doggone minute, I don’t plan to marry for years!”

But, a single woman can’t reside on a ranch where four men live without ruining her reputation. What’s a good man to do, except marry the woman when she arrives?

Heidi Roth has been spurned for being too plainspoken and too tall. In addition, her sister constantly makes fun of her for those reasons. That’s why—with many doubts—she’s willing to travel for months from Bavaria to Texas to marry a man who once lived in her town. When she arrives, she learns her prospective groom is dead, but left her a fourth of his share of a ranch. She has serious doubts, but agrees to wed Gentry to protect her reputation. From the next day, one event after the other happens. Is this the life she wants?

 

Happy Valentine’s Day.

 

 

This Is The Skin Of A Reader, Bella by Laura Hunsaker

 With the Tik Tok ban, then it coming right back in less than 24 hours, I noticed that the algorithm changed. I love seeing book recs and book reviews on the socials, but one thing I don't like is when people bag on other readers for what they read. And for some reason the new algorithm feels I need to see readers bashing other readers for what they like.

I know that this blog is full of authors who write the spectrum from closed door to spicy, so I feel like we are all pretty respectful of each others' books and readers. Usually the people who mock readers aren't readers themselves. But every now and then, I see something online that disappoints me in the book community.

All the Fourth Wing, and ACOTAR hate is driving me bonkers. It wasn't my jam, but if someone is coming to reading through whatever trends on BookTok, that's a good thing. This is more than just someone saying they didn't like a book. It's very much, "Oh you only read smut, that's not a real book." Or "Fourth Wing isn't even smut, don't say you read smut when it's just Fourth Wing." See? There's no winning here.

Twilight.

It's easy to poke fun at, it's easy to bash. I am absolutely guilty of joking around with my daughter about Twilight. However. I feel like the difference is that I loved Twilight. Twilight is what got me back into reading, back in 2008. I had just had a baby and I hadn't read for pleasure in so long, that the hype got me. I tore through that series. Then I went to the library and found some Paranormal Romance that hooked me and the rest is history.

In my opinion, whatever gets people reading is a good thing. And I feel like we went through this with Fifty Shades of Grey back in the day. And I know we'll go through it again, but I would love to see readers supporting readers, rather than bashing them. And Romancelandia is usually really welcoming. I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone start something that's new to them, and suddenly everyone around is saying things like, "You are so lucky to read this for the first time!" Or "welcome, you're going to love it here." So you can see why I was so disappointed in what TikTok apparently feels I need to see; readers mocking what other readers love.

That's a no from me. So let's each rec our favorite series. Doesn't matter the genre. Share your favorite books with us! Mine would be the Ilona Andrews Hidden Legacy series. It's top tier and probably my most re-read. What's yours? 

DO YOU MAKE RESOLUTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR?

                                                     by Judy Ann Davis

I’m not a fan of making resolutions and putting pressure on my life or increasing stress. I do believe that we can make decisions or intentions for our betterment as we look to the future. Life itself, with all its quirks, is often pressure enough without strict guidelines, rules, or repetitive activities for successfully living each day.                                                            

Thus, I will strive to. . .

Live each day to the fullest and allow the activities of that day to take me on new, winding journeys I never expected. “Ninety-five percent of the people who died today had expected to live a lot longer.” 

--Albert M. Wells, Jr.

Be more patient with people, family, processes, my writing, distractions—even slow elevators. We must learn that, like the farmers, we can’t sow and reap the same day.

Exercise more, listen more, laugh more. . . and let the future come one day at a time, as it always does.

Enjoy my home to its fullest, despite the work, dust and menial chores that surround me which often gobble time set aside for writing. After all, home is where you hang your heart.

Dream . . . or rather allow myself the luxury to dream. Dreams are the heart of creativity. “The poorest of all men is not the man without a cent, but a man without a dream.”

Handle criticism graciously.  “If it’s untrue, disregard it. If it’s unfair, keep from irritation. If it’s ignorant, smile. If it’s justified, learn from it.” --Anonymous

Be grateful for the doors of opportunity. . .and for friends who oil the hinges. As writers, we need our family, our friends and other writers who understand the trials and toils of the writing process.

Help find and better define truth in the world. We have lost sight of the importance of truth and honesty in our lives. Our media and people today have failed to delineate the difference between fact versus opinion. “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”--Aldous Huxley

Understand  and accept that peace does not mean the same thing (or have the same definition) for all the people who inhabit our world. Therefore, as part of a U.S. military family, I will pray for a peace that will remove all our men and women from combat in foreign lands and bring them home to the safety of American soil. “God blesses those who work for peace, for they shall be called the children of God.”   Matthew 5:9

Reiterate my daily mantra in the New 2025 year to all who will listen:

                 “Never let anyone steal your  joy.”      

 

Happy New Year!

                                                 LINK to my AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

   

The Trees Are Full of Ice by Liz Flaherty

I wrote most of this for a blog in January of 2021. There isn't ice in the trees today, although it was zero when I came to the office this morning. There is much about today that is cold. Bittersweet. Even though this blog is a memory, it's a reminder to me of how to go on from here. Wishing you diamond days. - Liz

The trees are full of ice today. The sun shines on them and they are just beautiful. It's as if they're covered with a multitude of diamonds. It's funny that the thing that draws our attention to the beauty is also the thing that destroys it, isn't it? Not funny so much as bittersweet. 

Along with the brilliant trees came an ear worm. "Some days are diamonds," John Denver sang, "some days are stones." Bittersweet again, the thoughts of an artist gone too soon, as well as the song itself. 

We've seen a lot of it in the past year. Lived a lot of it. I don't know about other writers, but it's made it harder to create a story. I'm not using Covid-19 when I write, and I catch myself thinking things like they can't go into a crowded restaurant or there can't be a girlfriends trip or even they wouldn't touch hands that soon. Where's the hand sanitizer and they hardly know each other. 

But there have been some good things, too. Some sweet moments among the bitter. I've been writing in sprints, which had been both successful and fun. I'm writing a new story, with people I'm having fun getting to know, in a subgenre I'm not completely comfortable with.

I'm finding during this up-and-down time that I have new resentments, new things creating changes I'm not sure I want. I read curmudgeonly posts on Facebook that both annoy me and...gulp...I can identify with, and I hear these words from the song: "More and more I can see there's a danger in becoming what I never thought I'd be..."

Oh. Okay. 

Bittersweet is beautiful. My grandmother kept it in a little copper vase that hung on the wall. It's also, according to some reports, toxic. So is giving in to the bitterness that comes visiting every day. But we can learn from it without giving in. We can use it without giving in. The days that seem to be stones from sunup to beyond sundown, what Anne Shirley called "Jonah days," exhaust us. And yet, this is how we do it, isn't it? One day at a time. One foot in front of the other. Without giving in. Watching for diamonds.

Baby, It's Cold Outside by Joan Reeves

Of course it's cold outside—it's January. But that's not really what I'm talking about. 

I'm defending the song of the same name because it's rarely heard in today's world. Once, you'd hear it during the holidays until some people interpreted the song as a date-rape warning. That's all it took for radio stations to ban it.

The song, written by Frank Loesser and his wife, Lynn Garland, was first sung at their New York City home in 1944. They performed it as a humorous way to tell their guests that it was time to go home.

In 1949, the song was featured in the MGM movie "Neptune's Daughter" which starred Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalbán. Then in 1950, it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Recorded by many artists from Dean Martin to Lady Gaga, the song was placed on some kind of "hit list" but not the kind that celebrates popular music but the kind that seeks to have music banned.

I never saw it neither as a rape anthem nor a as a man coercing a woman into having sex. Too me it was funny and about a man pleading with a woman for her affection. Maybe I'm a naive, but the song was written back in the day when courtship still meant courting—not forcing. I grew up in a couple of decades beyond the song's creation, but I still didn't think it was offensive.

I do think we live in an era when people seem to be looking for offense where none is intended. I think Mr. Loesser and his wife would be shocked that the song they wrote is now banned from the airwaves.

WHAT DO YOU THINK

I'd be interested in hearing what you think about this topic. If you leave a comment, please leave your approximate age because perhaps age has something to do with what is found offensive.

If you'd rather read a romantic comedy than discuss this topic, may I recommend JUST ONE LOOK? 

Seduction can be pretty funny—especially when both sides play dirty!

What would you do if the gynecologist subbing for your regular doctor turned out to be your old high school crush? Psychologist Dr. Jennifer Monroe does what any normal, well-adjusted woman would do. She makes an excuse, sends the doctor and the nurse from the room, dives into her clothes, and flees—hoping she'll never run into him again.

Unfortunately, her running away makes conscientious Dr. Matt Penrose conclude she has a problem and wants to refer her to another doctor for her exam, but she refuses to take his calls. Dallas is a big city. What are the odds these two will ever meet again? 

Even money, when Fate lends a hand.

JUST ONE LOOK is a Kindle Unlimited free read for subscribers. 

Wishing you a warmer January than probably seems possible at this point!

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You Kids Get off My Lawn! by Bea Tifton

I am in middle age. I’ve had to come to the realization that I’ve more years behind me than before me. But that’s okay. I have a good life and I plan to live for many more years and to treasure each year in the future. The other day I saw a meme asking what surprised people about getting older. I started thinking about that.

One thing about which I didn’t think when I was young is losing places that were a part of my growing up years. A few months ago I blogged about an antique mall that meant a great deal to me being torn down for eminent domain. But I’ve also seen many stores I grew up frequenting going bust. My grandmother spent her whole career as a Sears associate and my mother worked there when she was in school. We were a loyal Sears family. But we watched it go from a good, solid middle class department store to something rather sad. And we lost TG&Y dime stores, where Mom let us look at all the fabulous junk and even buy something with our allowance or get a piece of candy from her as a treat. Furr’s Cafeteria. Gone. We went to one after church every week for years because the manager was a friend of my father’s. I loved it because we got to choose our own food and even got dessert. That was a way of life that’s just--gone.

And cultural norms have changed. I’m not standing in my yard yelling, “You kids get off of my lawn!”  What I actually mean is, I’m just getting used to the two generations below me who, as a norm, don't have the same social conventions. Many don’t use please and thank you, don’t smile and say hello, etc. And now older people who were raised that way don’t do it, either. That’s the opposite of how that should be going. My neighbors don’t wave back. People don’t make eye contact. No one answers their doors. I found a lost dog the other day and the neighbors, who were just coming out when I was about to ring, directed me to the dog's home next door to them, but I couldn’t get his darn owners to answer. I could see them running past the window. Frustrating.

Now we have new grammar rules. Language is constantly evolving.

Words like “tacky” or “jerk” don’t seem to be used anymore. My students honestly didn’t know what I meant when I said something about the current news was tacky. And the loss of idioms with which I grew up. Or using imagery in writing. We’re losing a beauty to language. Luckily, there are exceptions, like the gifted young poet Amanda Gorman. I try to keep up with slang so I'll understand, but honestly some of it really annoys me. And don’t get me started about the lowering of standards with news reporters and grammatical errors.

I’m at the age where I can go two ways. I can be a person I call a dinosaur who doesn’t keep up with technology or social media, who grumbles constantly about “The Good Old Days” (whenever they were), and those annoying young people, or I can evolve. Change with the times. I choose to change. But I’ll still give a moment to remembering and I’m sure I’ll still shake my head occasionally or grieve in some small way. I’m only human, and I’m planning to be one of those old ladies who’s a force of nature. One must adapt as one ages, after all.

 

Photo Credits: Pexels.com
SHVETS Productions "An Elderly Woman in Pink Long Sleeve"
Wikimedia Commons: RodTV65
Pexels.com
Werner Pfennig "Television Reporter in Front of a Conference Room" 
RDNE Stock project "Woman in Black Hat Holding White Disposable Cup" 
 

Mistress of DOOM~ Sherri Easley

 

I am the mistress of DOOM. There I said it. No, it has nothing to do with horror stories, per se. It honestly has to do with the many piles of stuff all over my house.

Fabric, yarn, boxes (nothing like a good box), purses cut out, purses I want to cut out, new notebooks I started, new notebooks I haven’t started, mail, clean clothes, clothes to mend… get the picture?

I recently learned that all those piles that we with ADHD make have a name. They are called DOOM piles.

"Didn’t Organize, Only Moved". 

I am going to use that pile. I am going to finish what was started. It is organized- at least for me. Leave it alone- I know where it is.

If you google search the term, there’s a lot of advice on how to master your DOOM piles, but I will get to mine… eventually. I really don't need an intervention. 

Anyone else guilty of creating DOOM (piles)?

Winter Wonderland by Bea Tifton

 Filling in for the lovely and talented Caroline Clemmons.

Winter is finally upon us in North Texas. We are still going back and forth from mild to cold temperatures, and we have yet to have a hard freeze. We have small dogs in our family, and a couple of the cuties were sporting light Christmas sweaters during the holidays. When it’s cold enough again, I’ll put on some winter ones instead.

Now that our climate is getting warmer, Christmas sweaters for people are usually out of the question. Christmas shirts are the norm now, long sleeved if we’re lucky. And forget white Christmases.

We seldom have snow in North Texas. It’s more usual to have ice once or twice a year. So the much awaited snow days are really ice days. But sometimes, we do have snowy weather. It usually melts within a day. One year when I was a librarian, our students who were native to Mexico were so excited because the forecast said there was a remote chance of snow. The other teachers and I were gently trying to explain that it just didn’t snow much here because we didn’t want them to be disappointed. That night it dumped several inches, the most I ever remember. School had to be cancelled for a week. The kids were in heaven. And the teachers didn’t mind missing a few days, either. That was before schools had to meet remotely even during bad weather days.

When it’s going to ice or snow in North Texas, people panic. They run to the grocery store as though it was the Apocalypse. All milk, bread, and bottled water disappear as people hurry to get to the last remaining groceries in the free world.  We don’t have fleets of snow plows so things pretty much come to a halt.

Because I don’t get to experience it, I love to look at photos of snowy winters. I don’t have to do any winterizing or experience the inconvenience of trying to travel  during extreme weather. Sometimes I think I’d like to live in a part of the country that gets a little cooler in the winter, but I don’t want to live anywhere where I’m required to plug in my car to keep the battery from freezing or anything. Living in Texas, there’s no danger of that.

 

Do you have snowy winters where you live? Leave a comment below.

Photo Credits: Pexels.com
Ricardo Perez-Saravia "A Hairy Dog Wearing a Christmas Costume"
Hunt on Photo Studio "Girl Wearing Winter Clothes Having Fun Playing on Snow Fall"
Jonathan Peterson "Photo of Forest With Snow"