Please raise your hand for me if you grew up on fairy tales. Be it Disney based or Grimm based or Hans Christian Anderson based, they all had one thing in common. No matter how dire the circumstances, love always finds a way. A beautiful sentiment, wouldn’t you say?

Even in my 30′s, I am still in hot pursuit, not of my prince, for I was fortunate to not only find him but keep him, but of trying to come across the ultimate fairy tale. I dream of capturing and writing about the awe and magic of what I once felt as a child. Only from an adult point of view. Which means a very wicked, very warped and very devious point of view. That includes sex. Which I think is something we as adults can relate to so much more than a traditional fairy tale. But here’s a question for you. Should we, as adults, be turning our backs on fairy tales? Before you answer, allow me to throw this at you.

You all remember the Frog Prince Tale, yes? Of course you do. The Princess happens upon a slimy, little frog when she loses her golden ball in a pond. She asks for its help in retrieving it, but alas, the frog refuses to cooperate unless she makes out with him. The Princess is naturally disgusted by his proposition but a golden ball is worth a lot of money. So she compromises herself in the name of said golden ball and kisses him. Then lo and behold! He turns into a gorgeous prince. Ah, yes. If only relationships were really THAT simple.

For a child, the idea of a frog turning into a prince due to a simple kiss is a form of magic that feeds their vivid imagination and allows them to pursue dreams. But for an adult? It’s freakin’ absurd. Which is why it’s no surprise romance novels are scoffed at by our society. They seem unrealistic, too romantic and childish. This day and age, money is what defines success. Not love. The idea of love, romance and family is being assassinated and replaced by CEO businessocracy. Slaving over a business leaves little to no time for love, yet alone family and that’s supposed to be okay. Sadly, due to the hardships in life, we as a society have allowed this warped perspective to take over our lives and in turn have left behind the idea of the fairy tale. We forget that its purpose was to teach us life lessons about life and love. A lesson we all could use. The story of the Frog Prince was told to demonstrate the power of trust and the power of a kiss. That a kiss can cause one to close their eyes one moment and when it was over and the eyes are re-opened, an emotional connection occurs that changes everything. The princess wanted a prince, so she got one. In the most unexpected of places. A lily pond. Something we as cynical adults can learn from.

Now what is fascinating about the Frog Prince Tale is that whoever wrote the story actually knew something that most people didn’t. That a frog CAN turn into a prince. How? There are certain frogs, like the Bufo Marinus, which secrete a toxin that wards off predators and when licked (or kissed as in this case) it causes the burning of one’s skin, the burning of one’s eyes which may or may not lead to hallucinations. So sadly, the heat rising through the body of our princess had nothing to do with passion or love whatsoever. And the prince didn’t actually exist. But the frog did!! How is THAT for a fairy tale? All that really matters, though, in the end, is that she lived happily ever after. Even if it was with a frog.

So my question to you today is this. Do you remember what your favorite fairy tale was and why? And more importantly, do you still believe in happily ever afters or are you one of THOSE? My hope is that regardless of the journey you are on that you try to take the time to relive the magic and awe that love has to offer. Go forth, find that bloody lily pond (or romance novel) and dip your toe into it. Better yet, go skinny dipping. Either way, don’t fall into the conspiracy of trying to kill fairy tales. For in the end, you are only killing your own hopes and dreams of having a happily ever after.

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas…everywhere you go. Christmas music plays over mall loudspeakers. Snow dusts the ground. Stores are vying for our business. With the holiday season also comes… a dilemma. A time when I ask myself– should all things be equal?

Okay, I’ll be a little more clear. Do I spend the same amount on my son-in-law that I spend on my daughter? When I married my husband, his parents always gave more at holiday times and birthdays to their son than they did to me. I understood. I was just an out-law, er I mean, in-law. But I can’t say that I didn’t notice. Or that, at times, I didn’t feel a little bit bad.

Because we have just one daughter and now one son-in-law, I’ve made the decision to keep things equal…on holidays and on birthdays. I’m not sure I could do this if I had four or five kids. Or maybe I’d just cut back and everyone would get less. Or maybe I’m just making too much out of something that’s no big deal.

What do you think? Should all things be considered equal when it comes to gifts??

Some of the Avon authors have posted their favorite holiday recipes here. Just click on the holiday icon as shown below -

It’s at the top of the page, so click on it to get started with a recipe for Lorraine Heath’s Heavenly Divinity.

Somewhere down the line is my recipe for Wildly Delicious Fudge (which happens to be incredibly easy to make). Also on my recipe page, as well as my home page, is a link for an excerpt from my next release from Avon, Wild. Scroll down to the picture of the Wild cover,
and click on the excerpt button just below it. I hope you enjoy it!

When I’m crafting characters for a book, I try to think a lot about their personalities. I don’t want characters who are too much alike. Where’s the fun or tension if both the hero and heroine agree all the time? I don’t enjoy books where there is constant bickering, but there has to be some lively repartee to keep me interested.

In real life, I don’t care so much for tension. I’m all for peace and harmony with friends and family. But I guess the adage is true that opposites attract because my hero and I are different in so many ways. Sometimes this can be fun, and sometimes it can be the cause of much lively repartee.

Let’s take the holidays. I think they are guaranteed to produce lively repartee. One area where USF and I exchange ripostes is in gift-giving. One of us is a saver, and one of us is a spender. In an effort to protect the innocent, I wont’ tell you who is who.

Suffice it to say that we don’t agree on how much to spend on gifts for others or ourselves. One of us loves to show love through lavish, expensive gifts. The other loves to save money and is stressed out by expensive gifts.

In my books, the hero is almost always rich. Sometimes the heroine is as well, so spenders vs. savers is not really much of an issue, but one of these days I’m going to make it a lively conflict for the right set of characters.

So what about you? Do you seem to attract your opposite?

Actually, I just have an announcement, but I’m not scheduled to blog today.

I wanted to let people know that I’m participating in a fundraiser for Jo Leigh (who writes as Jolie Krammer). She lost her husband to cancer this summer and has a mountain of medical bills. The fundraiser has some amazing things in it. Here’s the link to the website with the information:
http://www.forjoleigh.com

There are some really cool things up for auction. If you’re a writer you might be interested in:
manuscript critiques from Brenda Chin, Birgit Davis-Todd, and Jennifer Jackson. (!!!!)
chapter critiques from many fabulous authors — including me, but I’m far from the most fabulous listed.
mentoring by fabulous authors

If you’re reader or fan:
wonderful collections of books
signed copies of books by great authors like … well, me. But also people like Carly Phillips, Isabel Sharpe, Lori Wilde, Nancy Warren and a ton more.

Just all kinds of wonderful goodies. So check it out. I’m going to bidding myself, so just keep your paws off that collection of all of Leslie Kelly’s backlist.

We’ll now return to our regularly scheduled blogging.

I have a theory that we all have an angst meter. Or rather we all fall somewhere along the angst meter. Allow me to explain. Now first of all when I say angst, I mean the agony and depression meaning rather than the nervousness meaning. But I feel like we all have a saturation level of how much anguish we’re willing to take when it comes to the entertainment mediums. Now I have come up with three handy categories to identify the levels of angst.

First and foremost we have books. People who read angsty novels can take the highest level of anguish, simply because reading tends to take several hours to a week or longer to complete a book. Books that would fall into this category would be anything by Nicholas Sparks, Jodi Picoult and practically any book on Oprah’s book club. There are also some romance novels that can fall into this category, not so much in that the entire book is sad, but that there are parts that are so heavy, they tend to overwhelm. I read one years ago called The Marriage Bed by Stephanie Mittman, and I swear I started crying in chapter one and didn’t stop until long after I loved the book.

Next up we have the movie category. It’s second because at the most these films tend to only take up three hours of our lives. Here we have flicks like The Hours, Atonement, The English Patient and PS I Love You. There are hundreds more in this category and again the movie might not end on a bad note, but the intense emotion throughout the movie is what matters.

Finally our third category is songs. Angst-ridden music that just tugs at your heart, there are artists who have made entire careers on these tunes. Sarah McLachlan, for one. Lots of love ballads are tear jerkers. And country and western music is full of wrenching songs like John Michael Montgomery’s The Little Girl or Reba McEntire & Kenny Chesney’s new duet Every Other Weekend. I’ll admit, this is where I fall and country music is at the top of my list. I love it because it almost always tells a story and the angst in that 3.5 minutes is just about all I can handle. My mom, on the other hand, loves sad books and movies, but can’t stand sad music. Go figure.

There are so many popular angsty movies that I’ve never seen simply because I know that I won’t be able to handle them. It’s never really about whether or not I’ll like them, but I’m one of those people that gets totally lost in characters, and the emotion tends to overwhelm me. I actually cried so hard in one movie that I got sick afterwards and vomited in the parking lot afterwards. Is that too much sharing? So there are certain flicks I steer clear of. Last Christmas though my mother MADE me go see PS I Love You with the rest of the women in my family, now I knew ahead of time that this would not be a movie for me. I told her so. And I was right. I hated it. I cried and cried and cried and there was no funny to relieve me. I know that husbands die, but I don’t want to think about that, even for two hours. Same goes for books, I don’t intentionally read books that I know are going to run me through the emotional ringer. Just not my thing. Call me a coward, I can take it.

Here’s one of my favorite angsty songs, though there are tons more.

So how about you? Where do you fall on my angst meter?

Did everyone have a great holiday weekend? Tired of turkey yet? How about shopping — get any fabulous Black Friday deals?

Now that T-day has been paid respect, I can take a deep breath and get into the Christmas holiday. I like to acknowledge Halloween and Thanksgiving before moving on.

Last year for the first time ever I did the getting in line at 4 a.m. thing to get a great deal on a couple GPS units. With a newborn in the house I was awake anyway, and since I bundled up warm enough (for once, it wasn’t raining) it was actually kind of fun. Interesting camaraderie with those waiting in line, too — I can see why some people do this every year. My feet hurt by the time I finally got in the store, but saving $300 made it better. I later learned a friend was about 200 hundred people ahead of me, getting a great deal on a flat screen TV.

This year, I slept in. We’re holding off on big-ticket purchases, and fighting those huge early crowds for ten to twenty bucks in savings just wasn’t worth it. In fact, I’m making most of my gifts this year. I already have most of the materials on hand, just need a few bits and bobs. There were big crowds and long lines at the fabric and crafts store Saturday, but everyone was polite and patient, and one shopper even gave me a coupon I’d forgotten to clip.

Driving home, I saw my first Christmas tree of the season, tied to the roof of an SUV like an urban version of a hunting trophy. I had a little pang of sadness since we’ve decided not to put our tree up this year. A toddler who doesn’t quite understand “no” yet + a six foot tree covered with twinkling lights and pretty ornaments = recipe for disaster. Or at least a big mess. By next year we should be okay, since most of our ornaments are unbreakable from having to be cat-proof all these years.

Hard to believe, but the Christmas tree is a relatively new tradition. My Regency characters have never had one. In 1816 England, having a cut evergreen indoors and decorating it with candles, ribbons, perhaps apples and candy, was still new, practiced mainly by the Royal family. Queen Charlotte brought many of her German traditions with her, and Christmas trees in Germany go back to at least the 1500s. But the practice really didn’t become widespread until after this drawing circulated in 1848 showing Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their children gathered around a candlelit tree. Families then began following the trend in England and the US.

I remember the color wheel in front of our tree in the 70s, casting red, yellow, blue and green light over the tree that was already draped with multi-colored light strands plus several packages of tinsel to simulate icicles. I can hear Cheech and Chong back in the day saying “wow, man,” and gazing at it for hours because it was pretty captivating even if you were sober. My husband and I never used them because of the hazard to our cats, but I just found out the beautiful icicles I loved as a kid were made with lead. Ugh.

We’ve never had a flocked tree, coated to simulate snow. I thought artificial trees were preposterous and maybe even blasphemous until I developed bad allergies. Having the perfect size, shape and species tree stored under the bed, ready to pull out at any time, eliminates what used to be one of the most stressful and argumentative aspects of the holiday. And no sneezing or runny nose.

A few years ago, it was the thing to have an upside down tree. Is that still in? We never followed the trend of hanging icicle lights on the house, either. Just a simple, single strand along the roof line.

What about you? Traditional? Trendy? Skip it?