“All who joy would win must share it.

 Happiness was born a Twin.” –Lord Byron.

My father loved poetry.  I adored my father; therefore I love poetry, too.  I’m sure there’s a name for this reasoning in the math or logic world, but I don’t know what it is. (Fallacy? )

Anyhow, as a result, I frequently interpret my life in famous quotes, which makes me very annoying to a lot of people.  This is not a deduction on my part.  They actually tell me so.

But I can’t help it.  Poetry isn’t just pretty.  Sometimes, it is capital-T Truth. Like this past Sunday night.  One of my books won a contest, and I didn’t have anyone to tell.

Well, I told the cat, who roused momentarily, in case “Holt Medallion” meant “tuna fish,” but then went back to sleep.

I was happy, of course.  I was.  Ecstatic.  Really.

But His Highness was out doing errands.  My son and daughter were busy being young and cool.  My special writer buddies were living their own lives.  It was Sunday night.  NBA finals night.  The Tonys night.  Let’s use that pizza coupon night.  Discover you’ve nothing to wear to work tomorrow and do emergency laundry night.

I couldn’t just start texting, busting into their family fun as if my news trumped all that. So I sent a few emails and waited.  And waited.  I felt like water trying to boil on a cold burner.

Finally, my husband came home, and all my considerate “remember you’re not the center of the universe” restraint evaporated.  I bounded out to him, ignoring his struggle to lug in heavy boxes, and shouted, “Hey!  Guess what about ME?”

He’s not the type to squee, but he is not a fool.  Despite having no idea what the Holt Medallion is, he grinned, made a big fuss, hugged me, and the pot finally began to boil.  Once all next-of-kin had been notified, I posted on Facebook.  The famous “like this” friendliness began to flood in, and suddenly I was bubbling over with joy like a crazy woman.

So, for me at least, Byron got it right.  Happiness really was born a twin.

(Hey…just occurred to me that my dad might have loved this quote because he, himself, was a twin!)

What about you?  Does an unshared joy feel a little flat?  Who is your go-to person–the one you can’t wait to tell?

Since this is my first post with the wonderful Jaunty Quills, and I’m so excited about having new friends to share the writing world with, I’m giving away books to three of the people who comment here.  If you win, you can choose either WILD FOR THE SHERIFF, the book that leads into my upcoming July release, or THE VINEYARD OF HOPES AND DREAMS, the book that just won the tuna fish…I mean Holt Medallion.

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I hope you’ll check out BETTING ON THE COWBOY, which will be available July 1. It’s the second in my Sisters of Bell River Ranch series from Harlequin Superromance.

I just finished reading a book for my book club called The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. It’s the story of Hadley Richardson, Hemingway’s first wife, how they met, married, and how the marriage ended. It’s not my typical reading material, and that’s what I love (and hate) about this book club. It pushes me to read books I would otherwise never pick up, and a lot of the time I agree with that first inclination.

I enjoyed The Paris Wife. It was engaging and well-written and I have a connection to Hemingway because my mother was born in Oak Park, IL, and my grandparents knew Hemingway’s father. The book is touted as being quite accurate, as far as these sorts of books go, but I’m sure that doesn’t mean every line is exactly what Hadley Richardson thought. And even though I am an author I find myself much more sympathetic to Hadley than I am to Ernest. He tends to exhibit what we would now label as “diva behavior.”

But there is one paragraph about Ernest Hemingway I could totally relate to. It really does sum up what so many of us love about being a writer. Here it is.

“I couldn’t reach into every part of Ernest and he didn’t want me to. He needed me to make him feel safe and backed up, yes, the same way I needed him. But he also liked that he could disappear into his work, away from me. And return when he wanted to.”

I remember when my daughter was a newborn and she never (or so it felt) slept or stopped crying, and I was exhausted and the days went in slow motion, the thing that saved me as I rocked her endlessly was being able to escape in my mind. I plotted much of The Rogue Pirate’s Bride walking and rocking that baby. I’m not a plotter, but I needed to go somewhere else besides that dark nursery and that wailing infant.

And still, when tragedies that don’t touch me occur, I escape into writing. On the day of the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, CT, like many of you, I was saddened and horrified. I sat and watched the news reports coming in, each one more surreal than the last. When I couldn’t take any more, I turned off the TV and internet and escaped into my work in progress. Regency England and the world of my own making could sweep me away for a time. I could return when I wanted.

What about you? How do you “escape”? Christmas is over, but I’ll give one person who comments a choice of one of my recent books–The Making of a Duchess, The Making of a Gentleman, Lord and Lady Spy, The Rogue Pirate’s Bride, or When You Give a Duke a Diamond.

I’m a quote collector. I love stumbling across a quip or a pondering that strikes a chord.  It probably started back when I was a kid and my mother – trying to help me loosen my mind-grip on whatever was troubling me – offered the Prayer of Serenity. Now, I have the saying taped to my computer and refer to it when I’m struggling with something I have no control over. Sometimes it’s my saving grace.

Another of my favorite quote comes from the philosopher Voltaire: “Perfect is the enemy of very good.” It serves as a gentle reminder when I’m having trouble letting go of something … say, a book I’m writing… because it’s not quite there yet…. Sometimes I want to stop – or worse yet, not even start- because I can’t get it as perfect as I think it should be. Then I remember, it will never be perfect, because nothing is perfect. Perfect is, indeed, the enemy of very good.

Jordana Fortune, the heroine of my latest book, FORTUNE’S UNEXPECTED GROOM – book five in Harlequin’s latest Fortune’s of Texas series, would’ve benefitted from Voltaire’s little ditty. In her quest for perfection – being the perfect daughter; cultivating the perfect life; finding perfect love– she almost misses out on “living” altogether.  That is, until fate blows her right into the arms of Tanner Redmond and turns her entire belief system upside down.

Along their journey, Tanner and Jordana realize that the most perfect kind of love is imperfect; it encourages a person to be herself and knows that even on those very human bad days there’s a safe haven in the forgiveness of unconditional love… which reminds me of another favorite quote from Marilyn Monroe: “I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control, and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, you sure don’t deserve me at my best.”

Those are words we can all remember when we’re feeling less than perfect.

Do you have a favorite quote? If so, please share it with us. Each person who comments will be entered in a drawing to win a copy of FORTUNE’S UNEXPECTED GROOM.

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Be sure to check out all six books in the newest Fortunes of Texas: Whirlwind Romance series

Available Now:

FORTUNE’S CINDERELLA – by Karen Templeton

FORTUNE’S VALENTINE BRIDE – by Marie Ferrarella

MENDOZA’S MIRACLE – by Judy Duarte

FORTUNE’S HERO – by Susan Crosby

FORTUNE’S UNEXPECTED GROOM – by Nancy Robards Thompson

Coming in June 2012

FORTUNE’S PERFECT MATCH – by Allison Leigh