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 :)

It’s back to school time again and I’m not ready for it. It could be because this time my daughter is starting her second year of college and I know I shouldn’t be as concerned for her because she’s already got one successful year under her belt, but I am. I’m worried that she’ll think she’s got college all figured out and start making stupid mistakes.
I worry about this because I can vividly recall being 19 and know the kind of dumb things that I did. I have always wanted better for my kids and to be honest I still do, but I especially want more for her at this age. I think I look back on my cusp of being an adult and see all the avenues I didn’t take. I’m not someone who looks back on the past with regrets but I think I could have chosen an easier path and that’s what I truly want for her.
Plus I’ve moved and this year I will be five hours ahead of her instead of three hours behind her. I was living in California and now I’m in England…she goes to school in New York. I was lamenting to her, how will I know you are back in your dorm safely? I made her call and talk to me any time she was walking back to her dorm and she said I will text you and I will be fine.
And she will be. I just have to trust her to make all the right decisions even in the midst of those dumb mistakes that are bound to happen at her age.
The thing that I remember most about that age was that I thought I was more mature than everyone else my age and that my parents just didn’t get it. Its so sobering to see my daughter do the eye roll thing that I know I did to my mom when she was trying to give me advice at the same age. I warned her she will become me as I am slowly becoming my mom but she doesn’t believe it.

What about you? Did you know it all when you were an “adult” and maybe make a few mistakes? Or did you really know it all? If so, don’t tell me I don’t want to think I was the only one who didn’t have a clue!

Happy Reading!
Kathy

My latest release from Harlequin Desire is The Rebel Tycoon Returns. It is the second book in the Texas Cattleman’s Club (a long-running Desire mini-series). Macy and Chris both grew up in Royal, Texas and if I learned anything from the five years I spent living in Texas its that life there is different. Macy was the head cheerleader, beauty queen who only had to whisper a desire and her father gave it to her. Chris was the son of a wildcatter from the wrong side of the tracks but he had the smarts, the good looks and the football playing skills to wow Macy and for a short time she and Chris were one hot item. But then Macy in her shallowness dumped him because he didn’t have enough money to run in her circles. But that’s the past and present day Macy is dealing with body image issues and Chris has more money than Midas.

These characters were so much fun for me to write because I share something in common with each of them. The first one is Macy and I have battled my entire life with my weight and have been heavy and thin by different turns but it doesn’t matter what’s on the outside, inside I always feel like the fat girl. Macy’s issue is beauty because she was once a beauty queen but a horrible car accident left her scarred and though her daddy’s money paid for the best plastic surgeons so that she is that pretty girl once again–Macy still sees the scars when she looks at herself.

For Chris he grew up poor–something i did as well. And though he has enough money to hold his own with the wealthiest residents of Royal, he still feels he’s lacking and that makes him just a bit arrogant and edgy being back home.

In both of these characters cases they are dealing with not feeling like the people they present to the world. That’s something I think many of us deal with everyday. I’m not sure about you, but I always try to look the part when I leave my house. If I’m doing an “author event” I like to look like a successful writer. If I’m going to a PTA function, well then I try to look like the picture perfect mom and the burden of looking right falls to my husband and kids as well. But at home is the only place that I’m really me. Crazy curly Medusa hair, jeans and a ruffly blouse (its odd how much I love ruffles!)

What about you? Do you wear a “mask” in public? Where do you feel most comfortable?

I used to be in choir when I was in high school and in college and the first time I sang that song I fell in love with it. It would have been nice if I’d heard it prior to singing it, but really that was a mixed blessing because if I’d heard the original in all its soulful beauty I’d have known we were bound to fail to live up to it, but I didn’t know about it, and thankfully our version was pretty darn good!

In writing I think I’ve had the same experience. When I wrote my first book I had no idea what I didn’t know and blissfully wrote a story that involved the things I liked in books. Some suspense (with an obvious bad guy), great clothes for my heroine, and hot sex with the hero! That first book was so easy to write. I guess my writing voice was dying to get out and I produced 30 pages a week easily.

But there was so much I didn’t know. Like question marks which I slighted and never used. Can you imagine? One of my critique partners flat-out asked me what’s your deal, why do you hate question marks?

I learned so much from that book and I was hooked on writing. After that I knew I had to keep writing because I loved it so much. And each new manuscript I produced made me learn more. But I never felt inadequate to the task and two manuscripts after my first attempt I made a sale.

I still think there is a lot I don’t know about writing but I also get really close sometimes to something beautiful and I’m so thankful for the journey each book sets me on.

Have you ever done that? Tried something without realizing how much you didn’t know?

Its Oscar season and I can’t wait to hear who the winners are on Sunday night. I’ll be tuned in hoping to see a few of my favorites walk away with the golden statuette. Watching the award shows always makes me want to dress up in something impossibly inappropriate for my suburban home and give a speech to thank the people in my life who’ve helped me out.

I’d thank my parents and sisters for the noisy household I grew up and especially my mom for sending me outside all the time when I was growing up and teaching me to use my imagination to entertain myself. I’d thank my husband for making the little moments in life count and showing me that loving someone goes way beyond romantic gestures. I’d thank my children who show me nuances in creativity that I didn’t realize I’d missed. And I’d thank my friends for all the laughter.

Your turn! Who would you thank?

I’m giving away an autographed copy of TAMING THE VIP PLAYBOY to three lucky blog participants today.

Most of my life has been sort of charmed. I don’t mean in the way that I’m beautiful or have everything that I desire; I mean that I’ve been happy. Really happy. The older I get the more I realize how

"Mom and Dad expecting me!"

lucky I am to have been born to my parents who are truly great people. They are incapable of saying no. I don’t mean in the spoiling your kids rotten way, I heard no often enough growing up and we didn’t have a lot of material things, but as I got older I needed someone when times got tough I knew I could always just call my mom or dad and say I need you and they’d be there.

A few years ago my really good friend Beverly Brandt had been nominated for a RITA for her book the TIARA CLUB and she couldn’t find the exact dress she wanted. My mom (and all the women in my family) sews. So I said to B that my mom could do it. I said to this to her as we were talking on the phone so she knew I had no time to call my mom and ask her, I just knew that mom would never say no to something like this. But what I realized after Beverly and I finished talking was that my mom wouldn’t say no to me.

I’ve tried to be that way with my kids. I don’t say yes to everything only the really important things. The things that can change their lives and make a difference, the things that will show and remind them that the world should be a nicer place.

My heroine in TAMING THE VIP PLAYBOY has this same kind of charmed upbringing (to be honest I based her loosely on my youngest sister). She was a very talented dancer from a young age and her parents and her older sister sacrificed to make sure that Jen was taken to dance rehearsals and eventually to competitions. They did this not because they had to but because they realized that Jen lived to dance and that she needed their support. She needed to safety net of her family to fall back on.

And in the book Jen is falling from some really tough breaks. For the first time in her life, she’s not feeling very charmed. This happened to me almost four years ago and I had no idea who to turn to, but instinctively went first to my parents and then my closest friends for support. In TAMING THE VIP PLAYBOY Jen’s parents are dead and she has only her older sister and young nephew to turn to, which she does. And they offer her a safety net that she uses to rebuild her life and to some extent herself.

I’m not sure what kind of family you have. My wise friend Beverly says we build the families we didn’t have from the friends we choose and I feel very lucky that I have both a great family to start with and one that I’ve built from friends.

I hope you all will check out TAMING THE VIP PLAYBOY its in stores today. And for one lucky blog participant I will send an autographed copy of the book.

Tell me in what ways are you charmed? Is it by your family or maybe you have an incredible talent? What is it that makes you special?

Thanks everyone for sharing your guilty secrets! The winners chosen randomly by my daughter are: eap, Sandra G. Rogers and Kristen.

Please email me at kathy@katherinegarbera.com with your snail mail address.

Thanks!
Kathy

I’m pretty excited about my February release from Silhouette Desire because it has one of my guilty pleasures in it. I think I’ve blogged about Dancing With The Stars before but I couldn’t resist doing it again. You see the show was the impetus for this new series. I don’t know what it is exactly about my personality that makes me feel guilty about just watching television but I always do unless I can find something usual to use it for. Normally I watch cooking or history stuff that I can learn from, but at my age the chances of me becoming either a star or a professional dancer are getting slimmer so I needed a reason to watch Dancing With The Stars guilt free and I found it in Jen Miller.

Jen is the heroine of Taming The VIP Playboy and she is a professional ballroom dancer. In my original version of the story Jen and Nate were participating in a fictional version of the show but that idea didn’t have enough conflict so we ended up with Jen being a professional dancer in the hottest Miami nightclub…Luna Azul owned by none other than Nate.

But back to guilty pleasures–having found a real reason to watch it I gobbled up everything I could on Dancing With The Stars including going on the Internet and reading blogs by the stars and the dancers. It was so much fun and it had a purpose!

I have three copies of Taming the VIP Playboy to give away today and I’m going to choose from one of you! Tell me what your guilty pleasure is and like me do you find a way to indulge in it without feeling too guilty?

Kathy

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that the only true gift is a portion of yourself. This time of year when Christmas is just days away and the commercialism of the season is hard to avoid…all those last minute sales, all those e-mails about finding the perfect gift, its easy to overlook the fact that most of us would be happy with just a little something from those we love.

I have moved a lot in the last few years some of it physically from home to home but a lot of mentally as I’ve struggled with the ups and downs of life. But the most important memories I have of that time are shared laughter with far away friends and quiet conversations stolen in the maelstrom of bad times. Those are the gifts I cherish the most.

Always the most important gifts from those closest to me are those of their time. And I am so happy to have my daughter home from college and my middle-school son on vacation to have the gift of time with them this holiday season.

What are you favorite gifts that come not from the store but from the heart?

Happy holidays to you all.