When I was a kid, we spent the summer weekends at the lake. Many times those were long weekends which made the fun last longer. We swam, we boated and generally lazed around for a few days eating most of our food over an open fire.                 

I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything, though I’d always wished my family was the type who took the long vacation far from home. I can only remember us doing that a few times, and it was pretty clear my dad wasn’t the type who enjoyed driving endlessly.  We weren’t the Art Griswold family vacationers, but it was dangerously close to it!   

I was in my twenties before I ever visited Disneyland in LA, or saw Mt. Rushmore, or spent a vacation at a posh resort. Sorry, I don’t count the little cabin tucked in the woods by the lake that was little better than shelter from the sun and rain. 

On my first trip to California, I soaked up every detail with glee, something I’m sure I wouldn’t have done when I was much younger.  I fell in love with the beach, with the soothing sounds of waves lapping on sand and rocks.  It was a whole new world to this Midwest girl!  It’s still a  favorite place to unwind. 

I think Webster’s Dictionary defines vacation perfectly, (especially 2 a & b.) 1: a respite or time of respite from something 2 a: a scheduled period during which activity is suspended b: a period of exemption from work granted to an employee for rest and relaxation 3: a period spent away from home or an act or instance of vacating.

Yeah, rest and relaxation.  Now that’s a vacation!

What about you? Did you have favored vacation spots with your family? What’s your rest and relaxation ideal getaway?

Today is the last day to enter the giveaway at Jaunty Quills.   All you have to do is comment for a chance to win a Sony e-reader!

I’m about three days away from turning in book. This is the stage I love and hate. On one hand, it’s usually the first time after months of work that I can actually imagine that this thing I’ve been slaving over might someday be a real book. So, that’s uplifting, right?

On the other hand, I hate my books at this stage. I mean. Hate. Them.

I write my rough drafts very fast. And I never go back and edit or correct as I write. So sometimes I end up with … well, real crap. Don’t believe me? In my book that will be out in August, when I reread the rough draft I realized that every time I introduced a character, I compared them to a dog. There were pekinese, poodles, angry packs of alsatians. Okay, so there were no alsatians. But there were a lot of other dogs. Dozens.

In this book, it’s trot. People trot out examples. They trot out their emotions. Most of them even trot from place to place. It’s like a book about horses. On the bright side, it would make a great drinking game for college students.

Here’s the bad thing, I remember back in my days of unpublished-dommed, I remember reading a published novel from an author that I loved (still love in fact) and being irritated because everyone looped every where.

Now, I should add that I do extensive revisions before I even send my books to the editor. So theoretically I have time to fix all of these things. However I live in fear that I’m going to be rushed and leave in one too many dog metaphors or overly descriptive verbs. So here’s my question. As a reader, how much does that kind of thing bother you? I don’t want names or anything, but has that kind of ever ruined an otherwise decent book for you?

And don’t forget, everyone who comments will be eligible to win the Sony ereader!

So I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my preferences as a reader and those story elements that draw me in again and again. I think most of us are repetitive creatures who like to relive certain story lines or fantasies and because of this we’re drawn to certain authors or story premises. Jayne Ann Krentz gave a talk once about this very thing, about how some of us are drawn to those age-old stories that resonate so deeply. Think about Beauty and the Beast, which is really a re-telling of Cupid and Psyche. And consider all the different formats this myth has been utilized in: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, just about any vampire romance out there (well and werewolf, etc.), my favorite Kathleen Woodiwiss’ book A Rose in Winter, and the list could go on.

But here’s the stuff that works for me again and again, those hooks that if I catch a glimpse of them in the back cover blurb, it’s bound to find a way on my to-be-read shelf.

Best-friends turned lovers – oh my gosh, from movies to books, this one gets me every time. I don’t really know what it is about the scenario because it doesn’t really lend itself to major conflict, yet give me a best-friend story and I’m a goner.

Marriage of convenience – and it doesn’t matter to me if it’s historical or contemporary, this plot devise works for me either way. I love the forced proximity the MOC plot-line creates. The sexual tension is usually really strong in these stories and to just watch two strangers find their way as a couple is just mesmerizing.

Mistaken identity - this can work in several ways, it’s been a popular plot devise in historicals with the girls in pants. But there’s also the pretend fiance/mistress or twin stories, all kinds of ways to play with a mistaken identity.

As a writer I also tend to favor certain story lines and revisit them again and again. For me, I do a lot with the Sleeping Beauty/Ugly Duckling story. Usually it’s a metaphorical sleep where the heroine isn’t quite sure of her own beauty/worth. I also tend to have my hero and heroine like each other on some level, I can’t get into the characters that constantly bicker, that just doesn’t work for me so the conflict has to come in on a more emotional level.

So how about y’all? Are there certain story lines you gravitate toward? What plots makes you pick up a book from an unknown author and give them a try?

Don’t forget about the contest for the Sony e-reader, so comment and you could win!

Congratulations to Edie Ramer, who won Helen Brenna’s drawing for ALONG CAME A HUSBAND.  Please contact me (margomaguire@yahoo.com) with your full address, and Helen will get your book out to you as soon as she’s back from vacation.

And remember – everyone who comments for the rest of the month will be entered into a randomized drawing to win a Sony eReader – Good luck!

It’s a party and I’m the hostess. Tell me what tempting treat you’re bringing and be entered into a drawing to win a Sony e-reader. Remember each time you post until June 30 your name goes into hat. One lucky person will win the e-reader.

Okay back to the party. I’m bringing the little smokies in barbeque sauce. Okay, so they’re sort of messy, but they’re usually a favorite.

Please don’t leave the buffet table empty. Tell me what you’re bringing.

Please welcome Helen Brenna. Helen is the RITA award winning author of romances for Harlequin’s Superromance and NASCAR lines, and her April 2009 release, FROM THE OUTSIDE, is a current RITA nominee.  She lives with her family in Minnesota.                                                     

                                     Timing is Everything

Ever think about what your life might be like today if something major in the past had been different?  What if you’d … let’s say … moved to Kansas with that one guy instead of that other guy moving with you to Miami?  Or you’d bought the BMW rather than the VW Beetle?  You’d chosen the apartment near the lake rather than the one by the park, or bought that house in the city instead of the one in the burbs?

It’s easy to believe that major decisions do indeed change the outcome of our lives, but what if something minor had changed in your life?  What if you’d missed that one stoplight this morning?  Or went into the other checkout lane in the grocery store last week?  What if the outcome of our lives isn’t determined by our big decisions, but by every little minor thing that happens or doesn’t happen in our lives?

 ALONG CAME A HUSBAND, my June Superromance, is in a lot of ways all about timing.

Missy Charms and Jonas Abel (an FBI agent) meet one night about five years before the book starts.  It’s a chance meeting in a bar and they make a spit second decision to have hot and heavy sex in the parking lot.  Only thing is that this supposed-to-be-a-one-night-stand night turns into a whole week of hot sex, a week turns into three months, and three months turns into until-death-do-us-part.  Yeah, they get married.

Except that it wasn’t the right time for them for a lot of reasons.  

Missy ends up asking for a divorce and Jonas, thinking he’s doing her a favor, accepts a long-term undercover assignment and fakes his death.  Four years later, Missy’s living on Mirabelle Island and owns Whimsy, the new age gift shop.  (And no, there is no secret baby!)  When Jonas’s undercover assignment goes bad – he’s shot and bleeding – the only person in the world he knows he can trust is Missy.  But is their timing any better this time around?

So do you think there such a thing as bad or good timing?  Anything ever happen or not happen to you that you just know was all about timing?

ALONG CAME A HUSBAND is the fourth in my Mirabelle Island series, stand-alone books set on a fictitious Lake Superior island off Wisconsin’s northern shore.  With cobblestone streets, Victorian B&Bs, horse drawn carriages and a lot of undeveloped wilderness, Mirabelle is a place I hope you’ll want to come back to again and again. 

I’m giving away a copy of ALONG CAME A HUSBAND, so take a minute and chat with us today.  And stop by my website to learn more about my November release, THE MOON THAT NIGHT, and the 3 more Mirabelle Island books coming in 2011.

Thanks to Margo and all the other Jaunty ladies for letting me visit today!

Helen (Helen’s website)

A thunderstorm is on the way.  I can tell not just because the bright blue sky is being swallowed up by gray clouds.  The air smells different: heavy and damp.  The breeze has also started to pick up, stirring the leaves of the oak and orange trees by my kitchen windows.  In the distance I hear the growl of thunder.  Soon, the rain will start pelting and the lightning will slash across the heavens.

It must be summer.

This time of year in Florida, thunderstorms happen almost every day.  The hot, humid day gives way to an afternoon tempest, which wraps up within an hour or so.  Then the sun shines again.  Since I’m not a native Floridian, and I don’t generally like storms, this pattern has taken a bit of getting used to.

When I was a child, I was terrified of storms, probably because I had (still have) a very wild imagination.  I always associated the thunder and lightning with monsters that just might sneak in my window and end up under my bed, or in a corner of my bedroom, waiting to pounce on me.

My daughter, when she was little, also disliked storms.  Now that she’s a teenager, she thinks the fierce lightning is neat and opens her blinds to watch it.  I remember one particularly bad storm, years ago, when we curled up together and listened to the rain pound on the roof and windows.  And then, the noise increased and became as loud as pebbles being thrown against the glass.  That was hail the size of grapes.  When the storm ended, we ran outside and collected some hailstones and put them in the freezer to show my husband, who was at work.   We had to replace a cracked window in my daughter’s bedroom after that tempest.  Some of our neighbors had to get new roofs due to hail damage.

Then there were the storms associated with the three major hurricanes in August a few years ago.  Very scary.  Blue-tinged, non-stop, flickering lightning.  Lashing rain.  Wind that roared around the sides of our house.  We lost electricity early on with each storm, and I paced the hot, dark house, unable to sleep, dreading the tornadoes that were predicted, while my husband and daughter slept.  While we escaped the hurricanes with little damage, some of our friends weren’t as fortunate.  I gained a new appreciation that year of the power of Mother Nature.

What about you?  Do you like storms?  Dislike them?  Do you have any experiences of storms you’d like to share?  Don’t forget: every comment you leave between now and June 30 counts as an entry for the drawing to win the Sony e-reader!

***

My latest release, A Knight’s Persuasion, Book 4 of my Knight’s Series, doesn’t contain a single thunderstorm.  I remember writing through a few, though, when I was working on this book.   

To read an excerpt, and for details on my other novels, please visit my website.

Well, as anyone whose been reading my posts lately can tell you, I’m waist-deep in nostalgia so far this year — I have been going to concerts presented by some of my favorite oldies (RAIN-Beatle tribute group, James Taylor, Carole King, Pat Benatar -this weekend, SIR PAUL MACCA in August!!!) and spending time with my favorite 80s-heartthrob Rick Springfield…

(forget those rumors that people around here were spreading about my disappearance with him and I don’t care if this photo makes it look like I was hiding out, I was home writing a book on deadline like a good writer should!)

Overall I just feel as though I’m constantly looking to the past.

Tomorrow is the king of all nostalgia days for me — my baby (aka almost-19-year-old child #3) graduates from high school!!

I can’t imagine how this happened though I think I figured it out – by the grace of God! LOL – I mean the graduation part of course.  But this kind of caught me off-guard. Because of the length of time between having my boys (5-5&1/2 years between each of them) I have had ‘school-age’ kids for half my adult life. . . or maybe more? I even remember having one in elementary school, one in high school and one in college at the same time once.  I’ve been the room parent, the fashion-show working, cake baking, car-washing, spaghetti-cooking, raffle ticket-selling, chaperoning, gift-wrapping, soccer/t-ball/baseball mom for so long I’m not sure I know how not to be…all those things!

So, this is not really empty-nest syndrome since he’ll still be living here at home while attending a local college, but it is a line of demarcation of a sort. Another of his steps towards adulthood and independence (pray God!)….the end of an era….

Any of you out there facing the same thing? Any strategies to suggest to me to make it easier? Post a note either commiserating with me or suggesting ways to celebrate and I’ll choose a winner to receive a book and a small giftie. (And yes, I know I am really, really behind in sending out blog prizes but I haven’t forgotten! I have a list and I’m checking it twice…oh, wrong day!)

Thanks in advance for all your suggestions. I’m going to read them tomorrow to keep from crying during the graduation so go for humor….LOL!

Terri is now awaiting the release of book 2 in her Knights of Brittany series from Harlequin Historicals — The Mercenary’s Bride is a July release and will be out this coming week! Stop by her website for more info on her current and upcoming books, her events and signings and other info… www.terribrisbin.com She’ll be posting a complete list of contest and blog winners there in early July, so if you’ve commented or entered, stop in to see if you’ve won! Otherwise, she is gathering together her prodigious TBR pile and getting ready for a few weeks without a writing assignment! Woohoo!

Mary M and Margay are the winners of Michele’s giveaway.

And don’t forget that every commenter for the rest of June will be entered into a drawing for a Sony eReader. Good luck!

Last week, I accompanied my daughter and two friends to the Chicago area for a drum major camp.  As we were boarding the plane, a little girl in front of me decided to demonstrate her stop, drop, and roll skills all the way down the jetport – from the gate to the plane.

Her mother looked at me and shrugged. “I suppose I should be freaking out about all the germs, but for all we know, this plane could fall out of the sky.  What’s a few germs compared to that? Sometimes you just gotta roll with it.”

When my daughter was that age (about four), if she would’ve rolled on the floor in public, I probably would’ve freaked and hissed warnings about straightening up and acting right.  But the little girl on the plane was otherwise well-behaved during the flight and as we disembarked, I found myself thinking about the woman’s serene “roll with it” approach to life.

Little did I know her advice would come in handy on the trip home because it ended up being a nightmare: our flight was cancelled; we were stranded in the airport late at night; the airline wasn’t giving food or hotel vouchers; instead  they were dishing up heaping helpings of very bad customer service. It was awful.

At one point, I felt myself edging toward a meltdown. But as I looked at the three girls who were depending on me to set the tone and get them through this, I remembered the sage woman at the start of our trip saying, “Sometimes you just gotta roll with it.”

So, that’s what we did. After we found a hotel room and ordered in pizza and ice cream, we started to find the humor in the mishaps. Later, I decided to further sooth myself with a little retail therapy via a virtual shopping trip to the Sky Mall (well, they do encourage you to take the magazine…) .

It had been a while since I’d done more than casually flip through the Sky Mall, but I always remembered it offering elegant things I’d love to have but wouldn’t necessarily buy for myself – like upscale office accessories and luxury spa items…

I don’t know if it was my “find the humor and roll with it” mood or if I hadn’t really been paying attention to Sky Mall in the past, but there were some odd things in the catalogue.  Some of them were so funny/surreal I laughed out loud.

So you too can roll with the fun, I will now present – a la David Letterman – my top ten weirdest Sky Mall finds (with a descriptive quote pulled from the catalogue) :

10. Video Recording Sunglasses – $199.95 –  “These are the glasses with a built-in video camera that allow you to discreetly record all that you see.”  Really? Because with the hole in the bridge and bulging ear pieces, no one would ever guess you were up to something…

9. Couture Face Mask – $9.95 –  “Allows users to be stylish while staying healthy…offers the same protection as traditional masks, but without the hospital look.”    What more can I say?  

8. Wrist cell phone carrier – $29.95 – “Make a fashion statement! Best of all, it can be quickly and easily flipped open to answer with a flick of the wrist.” I think I saw this in Napoleon Dynamite.

7. Passing the Bar game- $119.99 – “With ‘Passing the Bar’ flashcards, your favorite law student will spend more time studying in an enjoyable, fun setting.”  A few lawyer jokes come to mind, but I’m not going there.

6. Underwater Pogo Stick – $59.95 – “This is the only pogo stick designed for use in swimming pools that allows you to perform a variety of waterborne stunts as you bounce off walls or bottoms.” There’s probably a reason this is a one-of-a-kind design.

5. Head Spa Massager  – $49.95 – “It’s like thousands of tiny fingers simultaneously massaging your scalp.” And there’s the added benefit of the oh-so-cool Trojan look.  

4. Cat Toilet Training System – $59.99 – “You can teach your cat to use any human toilet in eight weeks or less.” It was the picture that got me with this one. I mean, look at the cat’s face as he’s sitting on the toilet. He looks like he’s saying, “Do you mind??”

3. Telekinetic Obstacle Course  – $99.95  – “This is the game that uses your focused brain waves to maneuver a ball through an obstacle course.”    I wonder if wearing the Head Spa Massager would help here?

2.  There was a tie for second place:

Zombie of Montclaire Moors – $89.95 – “This zombie garden statue brings the flesh-hungry undead to your daffodil bed!”  Seriously?
Mombasa the Garden Giraffe – $995.00 – “Since there’s no hiding this realistically hand-painted, exclusive sculpture, even amidst your tall trees and hedges, your neighbors are sure to be surprised when Mombasa moves in next door.”  Who needs yard flamingos when you can have an 8-foot giraffe?
((((((((Drum roll)))))))))) The number one weirdest find in the Sky Mall magazine is….
The Garden Yeti Sculpture  $98.95 – “Our Garden Yeti sculpture commands a unique presence in home or garden.” Because every family deserves their own personal Sasquatch.

Special thanks to the calm Chicago-bound mom for being a good influence. The next time my attitude starts to blaze. I’ll remember to stop, drop and roll with it… and look for the humor.

Remember, we’re giving away a Sony e-reader, and all you have to do to win is comment on the blogs. A winner will be randomly picked from all those who comment until Wednesday, June 30. So the more you comment, the more chances you have to …win! So here’s a question for you: How do you cope with life’s upsets?

Be sure to check out Nancy Robards Thompson’s Silhouette Special Edition, Accidental Father. RT Book Reviews gives it 4 ½ stars and says: “…This heartwarming story with strong, genuine characters and a strong plot to match is definitely hard to put down.” Available July 2010.