It amazes me when people say they have lots of memories when they were only two or three years old. Though I only have a few, they’re very vivid. My earliest memory goes back to when I was three. We were at a camp site (maybe that’s why I don’t like to camp)…and my aunt’s cocker spaniel broke its leash, knocked me down and bit me in three places on my face!

Not a memory one soon forgets. Amazingly I LOVE dogs and even when I was younger I was never afraid of them.

I’m curious. What’s YOUR earliest memory? I’m guessing it has to be something significant..

C’mon… inquiring minds want to know…how far back can you go?

What are the things that threaten marriage besides the obvious (money problems, infidelity, etc)?

I recently read an article that reported on a couple of long-term studies, and there were two factors we don’t usually think of: children, and boredom. Two hundred couples were studied eight years after their wedding, and 90% said that they saw some decrease in “relationship satisfaction” after having children. 

The couples who were more “romantic” before they had children felt it more acutely. The kids cut into their time together. Couples whose relationships had an added dimension of friendship seemed to do better. But the bottom line? Those who made time for themselves on a regular basis – just the two of them – fared better.

Boredom isn’t always easily solved. It can be insidious, and one day a husband or wife just realizes they’re bored – with life, with work, with their spouse.

My own opinion is that you have to be conscious of this kind of erosion and work against it. The experts say that the way couples can do this is to stay close to each other. They should try new activities together – taking a class, traveling to new places. In other words, they should try to be friends. Meet for coffee. Go out to lunch together. Schedule an overnight at a bed and breakfast somewhere.

A weird predictor of marital happiness is the old photo album. Researchers looked at childhood pictures of people and rated their smiles. And those who had the most intense smiles tended to be the most happily married. They don’t know why – perhaps it’s because the smiley ones are more positive people and attract positive people to them. Or maybe they’re just more compliant types, and want to please the photographer when he says “Smile for the camera!” Who knows?

I’m no expert, but I’ve been happily married for 28 years. And I have a lot of friends who’ve been married as long, or longer than me. There’s no easy answer. Even the studies can’t really pinpoint what goes wrong or what goes right. So much of it is pure chemistry, completely un-definable. What do you think? What is the most important part of keeping a marriage healthy?

I’m not normally one to get all geeked-out over new movies but I have to say I love summertime. Especially this summer which has me eagerly waiting for movie franchises which I love. The first one was X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And I have to say it was worth all the waiting. Anything with Hugh Jackman catches my attention and then when you put him in a role like Wolverine I practically salivate. I mean he’s got lots of testosterone and angst. Two things that I think make a very yummy hero!

The next movie I’m waiting for is Star Trek. I want to be honest here and say that I didn’t watch the original series, but did see all the movies and watched TNG. The previews for the new Star Trek look fun and exciting and as my Star Trek pal Jerry said, it looks gritty and real. Not all cleaned up the way TNG always was. I can’t wait to see it on Saturday.

The next movie I’m waiting for is Harry Potter. I’m going to be crass and admit that I’m in love with Snape. He’s so deliciously evil I can’t help liking him. I also really like Lupin–again tortured hero, which I adore.

What about you? Which summer blockbuster are you waiting for? Is it all about hunky tortured guys for you? Or is there something else you are waiting for?

Happy Reading!
Kathy

This past weekend could be considered the big opener for the upcoming summer movies. The Professor and I actually ended up at the theatre twice, once to see Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Wolverine, both were great. There’s nothing like heading over to the theatre, grabbing some popcorn to share and nice cold drink and settling in for some blockbuster entertainment. There are a ton of good ones coming out in the next few months. In May alone we have Star Trek, Angels & Demons, Terminator Salvation and Night at the Museum 2, among others. Then in June we have Land of the Lost, My Life in Ruins (brought to us by the same actress who wrote My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding), The Proposal and Transformers 2. And then comes July and for me that really could just mean one movie Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, but there are a few others that will hit theaters that month as well including Public Enemies, The Ugly Truth and Funny People.

If you want to see trailers for most of these that I’ve mentioned, you can check here. It’s a great way to procrastinate. And you can find a list of upcoming movies here.

As for the ones I’m most looking forward to, I’d have to say…

I can’t believe this opens the day I’m flying in for National, I sure hope I can make a midnight showing the night before!

I’m so looking forward to this one…

So how about you? Which movies are you most looking forward to this summer?

Recently the Geek was sent by his company to a conference in Atlanta. The kids and I went along just for fun. Besides, the Geek was being put up in a very nice hotel. PIcture crisp white linens, plush carpets, travertine tile and silken bed throws. And there I was. With my two young kids.

Now, I in no way want to imply that the staff of the hotel was snooty about the kids. Quite the opposite in fact. They were so gracious and welcoming. They showered us with gifts. No literally. They gave the kids stuffed animals. Treated us like royalty.

And my precocious kids nearly trashed the hotel room. 

They managed to pee on the bathroom floor. (Thank God for tile floors!) Yes, my girl who’s been potty trained for a year now chose that week to have a backslide. And my fifteen month old, who’s shown no signs of training readiness, managed to whip it out himself and pee all over. They jumped on the furniture. They spilled milk on the carpet. And the boy did horrible things–just horrible things–with a single blackberry garnish from my room service dessert. I had no idea a blackberry had that much juice in it. It was everywhere. And one word of advice. Don’t ever let kids order spaghetti and meatballs from room service. 

By the end of the week, I was convinced my kids couldn’t have done more damage if they’d been drunken rock stars. 

I will say this. Our last day, there was a leak in the plumbing on the second floor and the lobby was flooded. And I can safely say, we had nothing to do with that. We were never even on the second floor. Okay, just that once. But surely they couldn’t have busted out a pipe without me knowing it. Could they?

Please tell me I’m not alone in this. Surely there are other children who behave like rockstars behind closed doors.

Chey, you are the winner of TJ’s new book The Promise. Please email Shana Galen (shana@shanagalen.com) with your address and full name, and the book will be on its way!’

Congrats! 

The winner of Shirley Jump’s fabulous book REALLY SOMETHING is Lyoness2009.

Lyoness, congratulations!

You can contact Shirley via her website addy: Shirley@ShirleyJump.com to claim your prize!

Thanks to all who commented!

I’d like to thank the Jaunty Quills for inviting me to blog with them again. Last year, I visited here and talked about my debut novel, The Legacy, a historical romance about the destructive nature of secrets. Set in 1525 Wittenberg, Germany, the novel weaves events occurring during the Early Reformation period into an intimate love story played out on the canvas of history. The Legacy was rated by All About Romance as a Desert Isle Keeper and Buried Treasure for 2008.

Now I’d like to tell you a bit about the follow on novel, The Promise, available now. (The Promise received Four Stars from Romantic Times and is a Night Owl Romance Top Pick.) While writing The Legacy, I came across research describing the lives of the 16th century German mercenaries known as Landsknechts, or servants of the country. These mercenaries were hired by the Holy Roman Emperor, among others, to fight territorial battles between the major powers of the day (France, England, Germany, Spain, and the Low Countries). I was so fascinated with the difficult and spectacular lives of these men, I decided to make one of the Behaim brothers introduced in The Legacy a mercenary fighting in Charles V’s Italian campaigns. Günter Behaim meets and falls for a Spanish blade merchant’s daughter who believes she is cursed. The story takes place in the Italian city-states of Genoa and Pavia right before the historic Battle of Pavia, a turning point from medieval to modern warfare.

Günter was both a challenge and a joy to write from the beginning. He literally showed up unannounced in the middle of my working on The Legacy and was such a compelling character, I was forced to give him his own story (he threatened to take over his brother, Wolf’s, book otherwise). The research I had done on this period of history eventually led me to make him a Landsknecht, but when I had to decide what his story should be about, I was stumped. So how did I come up with an answer? I don’t think I’ve told this elsewhere, so you, Jaunty Quill readers, will be the first to get the low-down.

It’s all Rick Springfield’s fault. Yep, the singer of the deceptively “jaunty” eighties hit, Jessie’s Girl. Don’t know if you remember that one, but it gets a lot of radio play (“I wish that I had Jessie’s girl/Where can I find a woman like that/Like Jessie’s girl…”). In the song, Rick Springfield tells the story (it turns out to be a true one) of how he fell for a good friend’s girl once, even though he knew it was wrong. He just couldn’t help himself. She, however, wasn’t interested in him, and he loved her from afar, trying to reconcile his inappropriate feelings with the friendship he felt for his buddy. I was absentmindedly listening to this song one day on the radio, and a scene popped into my head in which Günter struggles to hide his longing for his best friend’s betrothed, Alonsa, because Günter is an honorable man, and the code of friendship means everything to him. This particular scene never made it into the book. I wound up starting the story after his friend has been critically injured and extracts a promise from Günter that if he dies, Günter will marry Alonsa and protect her. Still, it was the instigating incident for a tale in which Alonsa, despite her growing feelings for him, refuses to wed Günter because of a gypsy’s curse that brings death to any man who loves her. Günter is a complex character—a Renaissance man, a soldier, a romantic, a musician—with whom I loved spending time, and the fact that he reminded me of Viggo Mortenson’s character of Aragorn in Lord of the Rings didn’t hurt too much either.

So there you have it! And thanks to Rick Springfield for the suggestion, unintended as it was. I hope you’ll enjoy Günter’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you might have about either of my books today. Leave a comment and you’ll be entered to win a copy of my debut novel, The Legacy. Jaunty Quills will award the book to one reader who comments on this post between May 4 – May 8.

Also, I hope you will stop by my website to read excerpts, send me an e-mail, check out pictures of conferences I’ve attended, and comment on my blog IMHO, where my next gift basket contest will begin May 6. I’m giving away a basket filled with signed books from Deanna Raybourn, Catherine Kean, Tera Lynn Childs, Monica McCarty, and myself, as well as a $20 gift card to Barnes and Nobles and other goodies to one lucky winner in May. Comment on at least two of my guest hosts blogs during the month to be eligible to win. Hope to see you there.

TJ Bennett

It’s that time of year when NYT’s Bestselling author, Brenda Novak, hosts her online auction for diabetes research. There are always great items to bid on and this year is no different. And in the mix of those wonderful treats you can win, are some things donated by your lovely Jaunty Quills.

So here’s a list of those JQ goodies and for the rest of the month you will be able to find these links in our links section down to your left.

* An autographed advanced reading copy of Seduce Me by Robyn DeHart

* A critique of a partial historical romance novel by an aspiring writer by Robyn DeHart

* An autographed copy of Mistress of Pleasure by Delilah Marvelle (1)

* An autographed copy of Mistress of Pleasure by Delilah Marvelle (2)

* A three chapter critique with a follow-up phone call from Delilah Marvelle

I admit it, I’m addicted to Dr. Phil. I’ve watched talk shows since Phil Donahue was on the air, so it’s not like it’s just the tough-talkin’ Texan who has me hooked. They’re characters. Real, honest-to-goodness, couldn’t-write-this-stuff-and-get-it-past-an-editor characters. Some of these people are certifiable, some of them are simply troubled, some of them are just looking for their fifteen minutes

But one thing that Dr. Phil does is zero in on his guests, and within a few minutes, hit their core issues. That deep emotional conflict that drives that mother to hover over her child’s every move—even though her child is eighteen and about to go to college. That trauma in a grown man’s past that now makes him unable to commit. The dark secret a grandmother is hiding that keeps her from being a part of her grandchildren’s lives.

I’ll be watching the show, seeing Dr. Phil grill a guest, and wham I have the idea I’ve been searching for. Or I suddenly know why my character has that control issue. Or I have another idea, one to file away for later (and there are a ton of those in my little mental files). I’ll see one guest tell their story about being abandoned as a child, and that will get my mental gears thinking about how abandonment might affect the child I have in my current book. Or what the abandoning mother’s perspective might be.

What I see in Dr. Phil’s hot seat are amazing novel possibilities. Marriages in crisis, relationships on the rocks, daughters trying to connect with their mothers, sons on the outs with their fathers, friends who have been betrayed. There are people down on their luck, others who have hit the lottery. You name a character type, and chances are, they’re going to be on the Dr. Phil show before the season finale

So if you’re looking for characters, try turning on the television at 3:00 p.m. EST. Chances are, you’ll find what you’re looking for –sitting on Dr. Phil’s right

Do you watch Dr. Phil or another show like that? Do you get character ideas from there? Or just like to sit back and be entertained?

I’ll choose a winner from one of the comments to receive a copy of REALLY SOMETHING, where you’ll meet a few characters in Tempest, Indiana!

Shirley