Yesterday on the morning news show the weatherman said it was going to be blustery. I have only ever heard that word in the wonderful world of Winnie the Pooh. And it tickled me. Its a word I hardly ever get to use and I have to say I over-used it all day yesterday. :)  Its odd because the wind kept gusting but it was a beautiful sunny day.

Another word that I love is assuage. I just like the sound of it as it rolls off my tongue. There aren't a lot of chances to use it in everyday life. Both my husband and my son roll their eyes when I get on my ooo, I love that word kick. So I sometimes sneak it into manuscripts.  Yesterday while listening to Former President George W. Bush read a letter that Lincoln had sent to a widow who had lost five sons in the civil war, he used this word.  It was magnificent and brought tears to my eyes.  Here is the sentence...I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement.

There just aren't enough instances in every day life to use words like that but when they come along I can't resist.

What about you? Are their words you love to use? I get vexed when I can't use my favorites! Just kidding.

Kathy :)

The winner of Ashley March’s guest blog on September 8 is Kirsten. Kirsten, email Ashley at ashley@ashleymarch.com with your address so she can send you the copy of ROMANCING THE COUNTESS.

One of the questions I’m often asked in an interview is, “Tell us something readers may not know about you.” I tend to fudge this question. “I have a sixth toe on my left foot” (I don’t) or “My parole officer says not to answer that.” (He didn’t.)

It’s actually one of the hardest questions for me. As my fellow JQ sisters know, I am hardly a mystery wrapped in an enigma. My parents loved me, I had friends in school, I married a wonderful man, and we were blessed with two beautiful children. Are you asleep yet? I know. That’s the thing about happiness. It’s not terribly interesting to read about.

At any rate, having had to answer this question recently, I came up with a list of Things You Might Not Know About Kristan. Here they are.

1. I once played tennis with E.B. White, the author of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little. He won.
2. I knew all the words to “Folsom Prison Blues” when I was five years old. My kindergarten teacher sent a note to my parents, asking them to speak to me about song choice. It remains one of my favorites.
3. I decided to be a doctor after my first visit to the ER. The doctor told me I had beautiful eyes, and I was smitten, even at the age of four.
4. I decided to be a romance writer when I was 36 years old.
5. When I was 16, Anthony Quinn kissed me on the cheek.
6. I once tasted 54 different cheesecakes when I served as a baking judge at the Connecticut State Fair.
7. I exchanged insults with Stephen King at a Red Sox game (he started it!).
8. I punched a would-be mugger in the face and broke his nose.
9. Jeesh…running out of steam here…um…I can imitate almost any accent pretty respectably.
10.  My cat sleeps with me every night. The dog sleeps with me only when McIrish is at the firehouse.

Okay, okay, so 9 and 10 are a little lame. But I gave it my best shot! So how about you? Tell me three things that most people would be surprised to hear about you.

Phyllis,

Email me through my website and give me your address and I’ll put the book in the mail to you!!

Thanks to everyone who commented!

Research has shown that if you have an animal on the cover of a book it will sell better. I think our own Jaunty, Kristan Higgins, should be crowned the Queen of the Pet Covers. Such cute little animals making a cute cover even, well, more cute.

I’ve never had a pet on the cover of any of my books. I’ve had pets in the books, but I must confess the problem is…I forget about them. I mention them once and then you don’t see them again. In real life you can’t forget about them. Why? Because they won’t let you.

I think my pet peeve is when someone hasn’t done their pet research. They choose a certain breed and have them act in ways that breed doesn’t normally behave. Of course we all know not all blue heelers or shih tzus (the two breeds I have at home) behave the same…but I do know that you’d never want to put a blue heeler in an apartment or have a shih tzu as a watch dog.

I’d be interested in knowing if you’d ever read a book where the animal behaved in an unbelievable manner…or if you have a pet story to share. I’ll be drawing a winner Sunday night from everyone who comments and that person will win my current release, If The Ring Fits!

Molly!    Congratulations!  I just drew Molly’s name as the winner of the signed copy of Lucky Girl I offered in my blog on Monday.  Molly, please check your email for a note from me.

My family is so important to me.  The concept of family makes its way into just about every book I write. The book I’m writing for the Fortunes of Texas series (An Unexpected Fortune, May 2012) is all about family dynamics, as is my three-book Special Edition series, which will hit the shelves toward the end of next year. I’m working on a proposal for a juicy southern family saga. Naturally, all this writing and research about family has me thinking a lot about where my people came from.

A good friend of mine can trace her family tree all the way back to Henri II, of France and Charlemagne. I was enthralled and envious to hear this. I’ve always wanted to know my ancestry, but short of urging my retired father, who’s busier now than when he was doing the 9-5 grind, to take up the project, I’ve never done much toward that end ( in all my spare time ). But having heard about my friend’s roots, I’m once again inspired to learn about my lineage.   Plus, I’m convinced that this friend and I must be distant cousins since we both have relatives from the Ozarks – could those roots stretch all the way back to France? Maybe that would explain why I’m such a Francophile.

Several years before my grandmother passed away, I asked her to write down the birth dates and deaths of as many relatives a she could remember. But even she could only recall four or five generations. I wish I had time to take up the project, but since I don’t, my goal is to busy my father with solving the puzzle of our past.

Have you ever traced your family tree or do you know of anyone who has? Any interesting findings?  Any good tips on how to start the process and what to expect along the way?

First of all, thanks to the Jaunties for hosting me today as part of my ROMANCING THE COUNTESS Book Tour! I’m so excited to be back here again!

It seems like this question has been coming up a lot lately: Why did I decide to be a romance writer? What made me want to write romance? Okay, so maybe these are variations of the same question, but they all boil down to my relationship with writing romance.

And so far, when this question has been asked, it’s been asked through an oral interview. The first one was an interview for my local paper, and the second one was Tuesday night on the Romance Lately live video show. (Which was recorded and archived, so if you didn’t get a chance to see Shana Galen and I blushing as we talked about the “anatomy of a sex scene”, then here’s your chance. )

Watch the recording of Shana and Ashley’s Romance Lately show.

However, the truth is that while I might be a pretty good writer (and I can say this without sounding like I’m bragging because my hubby told me so ), I am not articulate at all when I speak in person. I ramble, I cut my sentences off, I pretty much don’t make sense. =)  It’s one of the ironies of life. So, now that I have the chance to write a blog for the Jaunty Quills, I want to answer this question again, because this time I know I can do it right.

Why have I chosen to write romance?

The truth is that I’ve been in love with love stories as long as I can remember.

My parents divorced when I was 5. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it, but I can tell you that ever since then I’ve hated divorce. I hate that it’s a concept used so easily in our society, and that it’s something that can be put on the table at any moment when a couple gets into an argument. Perhaps this is one reason why I write romance, so that I can always ensure that the couples have an HEA, no matter what issues they have to overcome in their relationship to get there.

I remember when I watched TV as a child I enjoyed the shows with the romantic relationships the best. I always wanted Zack and Kelly to end up together in Saved by the Bell. Of course, on Full House I always wanted Jesse to end up with me, but that’s another story (and,if you can believe it, John Stamos is still as hot today as he was back then). When watching movies I’m drawn to those that focus on romantic relationships.

I started reading romance when I was a pre-teen and haven’t stopped since. I actually believe that every little girl (at least in my experience) yearns for that special someone—not because we NEED someone else to fulfill us, but because we want that partnership and we want to feel loved and cherished. When I read romance novels, I get to experience this again and again and again. When I write romance novels, it’s the same feeling, except I can write characters that come from my heart and plots that I’m interested in seeing that I’ve never read before.

To be honest, I started writing because I wanted something more out of life than a typical 9-to-5 day job. And I started writing romance specifically because that’s what I loved to read most. But the reason why I continue to write romance and the reason why I believe I will write romance until I die is simply because I’m an optimist and I need hope. As a mother I’ve become suddenly and shockingly aware of all the truly horrible things that happen around us in our world (don’t get me started on how much I dislike our media for focusing on these things). My heart breaks nearly every day because of the reality of the human evil and the natural disasters that occur around us.

But, as a romance writer, I can give back hope and love. As an optimist, I believe that humans are capable of immense love. I show that in my romance. I like to write about characters that are flawed because I know that we are all flawed (well, at least I am; I don’t know about you guys , and I like to give these flawed characters hope through love. It sounds so simple when I say that love really can make a difference, but I know that as a romance reader you will understand what I’m talking about.

When I first started writing romance, I wrote because it was fun. It was an experiment, to see if I really could do this publishing thing. Of course, I was overjoyed when I did become a published author, and then I realized that I had readers (who are fabulous, by the way)! The messages I have received from readers telling me how much they enjoyed my writing means the world to me, and the personal ones mean that much more.

I’m going to tell you guys something very personal, if only to illustrate the power of a romance novel in two different ways, and why I am constantly inspired to write romance.

My mother died last year at the age of 49 due to lung cancer. She was only diagnosed a month before her passing, so it was very sudden. When I returned to my hometown for her memorial, I took a book with me, a romance novel. Specifically, it was Sarah MacLean’s historical debut, NINE RULES TO BREAK WHEN ROMANCING A RAKE. The night before the memorial, I started that book. I started it then on purpose, so I wouldn’t have to think about the next day. And I stayed up all night until I finished it. That book was my escape, and it truly did help. I don’t think anything else could have taken my mind off of my mother’s death or made me laugh at that moment than a romance novel. And that book will always be special to me because of it was there when I needed an escape the most.

That’s the first illustration of the power of a romance novel. The second illustration follows below.

Three months after my mom died, I found out that my step-dad married someone else. I was stunned, shocked, angry. So many words to describe how I felt. But basically I was heartbroken and I couldn’t understand. I can’t go into further details, but his new marriage in addition to other things that had happened made me question whether he’d truly loved my mother. At the time of her death, they’d been married for 18 years. Shortly after I found out, I pitched the proposal for ROMANCING THE COUNTESS. I’d had the idea for the book for a while, but suddenly it just felt like it was the right time to write it.

In ROMANCING THE COUNTESS, an earl and his best friend’s wife are drawn together after their spouses—who were having an affair—die in a carriage accident. One of the challenges of writing this book was how to deal with the hero and heroine who had loved their spouses in the past. How could they move on to loving someone else so soon after their spouses’ deaths, even if the spouses had cheated on them? When I began writing this novel, I didn’t realize it was a form of catharsis, that I was writing to explain something that I didn’t understand from my own life. But once I finished it, I realized that I was seeking to find a way to explain how my stepdad could move on so quickly and seemingly so easily after my mother died. The result of writing ROMANCING THE COUNTESS is that I found compassion for him. Somehow writing it as if it happened to one of my characters made it seem understandable. And that, for me as a writer, is the second illustration of the power of a romance novel. Not only can reading romances that another person writes help us; writing romance can help us, too.

As I finish this blog post I realize that I’ve actually rambled quite a bit, just like I do when I answer questions in person. However, as you can see, the answer to why I write romances isn’t simple: there are many reasons. Perhaps it all comes down not to the reason why, but to the way I approach my writing, and this can be seen in the tagline on my website: Choose love. Believe in love. Hope in love. To me this is the essence of the romances I want to read and the romances I want to write, and in the end, perhaps that is all that matters.

Thank you for taking the time to read about why I choose to write romance. I’d love to hear about any personal connections you’ve made with romance novels. Or, if you don’t feel comfortable with that, I’d love to hear why you choose to read romance novels over books in other genres.

One random commenter will be chosen to win a copy of my newest book, ROMANCING THE COUNTESS, and will get a chance to send a copy of my debut, SEDUCING THE DUCHESS, to a friend (open internationally)! Also, find out how to win the ROMANCING THE COUNTESS Book Tour Grand Prize of 50+ romance novels by visiting www.ashleymarch.com! 

Many of you might remember when I announced earlier this year that The Professor and I had become parents in a rather unorthodox way – we are currently foster (though very soon, adoptive) parents to two very precious little girls. To say that this has changed my life is a gross understatement. Those of you who are parents know this. I mean who hasn’t heard when they’re pregnant – a baby changes everything. Isn’t that even the tagline for some commercial – though I can’t recall what the product is. In any case my life these days doesn’t really resemble my life from even this past March.

It’s obviously affected my day-to-day activities and my writing has suffered. In hindsight, I wish that when they’d arrived I decided to simply take some time off, have maternity leave, if you will. But I didn’t do that. Instead I tried to write amidst the sleepless nights and the emotional stress of becoming overnight parents to two little girls who have not been given the best in life. And frankly it hasn’t gone well and it’s driven me a little nuts, unnecessarily I think.

But alas that’s not even what I want to talk about today. The other thing that has been shoved to a back-burner is my own health. Now I know what you’re all thinking, I can’t be a good mom if I don’t take care of myself first, but honestly how many of you actually do this? Before the girls I was an avid Weight Watcher, I never missed a meeting and I’d lost nearly 40lbs. I think I’ve only been to like 3 meetings since April and well, let’s just say at some point I stopped pretending and just put the program on hold.

Well, today the girls started a Mother’s Day Out program that they’ll attend twice a week. And it just so happens my WW meeting is on Tuesday mornings. It felt so great to walk in there this morning and start over. I told my leader that’s exactly what I wanted to do. I don’t want to even think about these past few months or the weight I’ve gained back or how I haven’t exercised and I haven’t made healthy eating choices. Today is day one, a new beginning.

Now I could wallow in this and think about how many new beginnings I’ve had. I’m one of those who has struggled with my weight my entire life. But I know from experience thinking those sorts of thoughts only hurt me. And the fact of the matter is, my weight will always be an issue. Even if I lost all that I wanted to lose, I would still have to work my program to maintain because I have food issues. This is not an unusual problem otherwise we wouldn’t be the fattest nation. So I know I’m not alone.

My question to you, is how do you get back on the wagon? What are things you do to get your mind in the game, whether it be getting back to the gym, eating better or starting something else you might have let fall to the wayside.

Part of my day job revolves around scheduling appointments for patients. While a lot of them are done over the phone, there’s a steady stream everyday of patients making their next appointment while in the office.

A lot of people just schedule randomly, take an appointment card reminder, and call to reschedule if there’s a problem. Many note their appointments in their smart phones right then and there, while a good deal still use weekly or monthly appointment books to keep track of theirs and family members’ events and appointments.

I used to be in the last category until I bought an iPhone. It was so much simpler to note appointments electronically and have the added feature of an alarm that can be scheduled from two days to minutes beforehand.

It’s great. When it works. I’ve noticed lately that every time I “sync” my phone to my computer, something goes screwy.   Hmm, what’s with that?

So tell me, what is your surefire way to keep track of appointments and family schedules? If you use your phone, have you noticed any glitches with appointments staying put? Any problem with accidentally deleting scheduled stuff?