Yes – it’s my birthday again. They come around a lot more often now, but that gives me more celebratin’ time. Since I have the first book of my Melting series coming out in June, thought I’d start some buzz.  This is my first series and very close to my heart. Since it’s also gift time, I’m going to give away a bag o’ books from some incredible authors I met at RWA in Atlanta, and end up the celebration with a cover reveal of The Melting – Book One, The Infection. A birthday present to myself!  

You with me? I try to make these things simple – to win, click on the rafflecopter below —
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Denise S won the first bag – the ones for 4/15 and 4/25 still up for grabs!
Tiffany K won the second bag – still have 4/25 to go!
D Wright won the third bag!
And just because I wanted to M Province won a copy of Dance Partner – I love April!!

And no, I’m not telling which birthday this is – it’s not germane to the discussion but come on over and celebrate with me anyway.  The actual birthday is the 5^th, but the celebration will be most of April – cause it’s also my anniversary month! Who knows, I might give away a couple of bag o’ books.  I’ll list winners on the 5th, and 15th  and maybe the 25th as well – I’ll have some reason to celebrate then too.

Hey it is almost Spring and the snow seems to be melting around here. Time to turn to warm thoughts and hands and other body parts . . . What were we talking about?  Oh yeah, Spring!  And we have some great prizes at the hop this time – a Kindle Fire, four different gift cards (one for $75) so be sure the check out the rafflecopter below. And leave me a comment for a chance at one of my small town romances – your choice.

Spring is a beautiful time of year and I’ve always loved it. Got married on April 15 (it was Easter that year, not tax day!) and it was lovely – pansies in the yard at the church, a Spring bouquet in my hands and marrying the best guy ever.  Still married to him coming up on 35 years.

But then there was the honeymoon . . .

Now for the story – Eight weeks before the wedding we were in a car crash that broke my knee. I didn’t have to use crutches in the wedding (used Daddy and Hubby instead) but I couldn’t drive, couldn’t get “home” to make final decisions – so basically Momma got the wedding she’d never had. I wouldn’t have changed much, but I would have liked to have been involved. Of course there was the day my sister called to say Momma had fallen and sprained her ankle.  That’s when I decided all the bridesmaids should have blue crutches to match their dresses. Fortunately that wasn’t necessary after all and having the broken leg did get me out of a receiving line!

Wedding went off without a hitch, I did not fall and we headed off to Bat’s Cave for our honeymoon. I kid you not, Bat’s Cave near Asheville, NC. We stayed in a log cabin that was beautiful and rustic and picturesque. Really wonderful, except . . . 

We were the first to use it that season, it was only April so it hadn’t been aired out. That’s fine with me, what’s a little dust? What I didn’t know was that my new hubby was allergic to dust – and everything that blooms that time of year. Everything. The poor guy was stuffed up to the gills. I went on my honeymoon expecting a lot of heavy breathing and I got no breathing at all.  It’s a wonder he didn’t die right then, not that I could have done much because remember, I’m still on crutches and couldn’t drive.

I remember when we got there we took the first load in (suitcases, some groceries) and then got involved in . . . well, we got involved in something and kind of forgot to go back for the second load. After it got dark we looked out and saw the car doors standing wide open and the dome light on as though we couldn’t get inside fast enough. Okay, that part was kinda true . . . Fortunately someone was close by to jump the battery.

Then there was that part where the pipes under the house burst because of the most recent freeze, so Hubby is crawling under the house fixing plumbing to the hot water heater, while I’m literally heating water on the stove to bathe in. And the next morning we jerk awake to construction next door – right next door loud and early! With the curtains open.

Boy it was a good thing we liked each other in addition to loving each other. A lot of things went very well on my honeymoon (obviously) but these are more fun to tell.  Is it any wonder I write romance novels? And by the way, Fall is my favorite time of year.

Check out my small town romances (click on the picture of Homecoming). I do know my small towns!  Leave a comment and I’ll give away a copy of one of them – your choice!

Be sure and enter!

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http://www.hopswithheart.blogspot.com/

Well, kinda. It is spring break for my university starting Monday, but we started early due to the next winter storm. My house has at least four inches of snow and it’s now sleeting and snowing as I’m looking out the window.  Those big flakes right now!

It’s been a winter like we don’t get down here anymore. I remember snow from when I was a kid–there was the year of the Wednesday snows when it came down every Wednesday and added to the accumulation already there because it hadn’t thawed (missed a lot of school that year! It was great!) And there was the huge snow where I learned to drive Daddy’s car with spiked tires. We had to deliver propane gas for the company regardless of the weather and that was one way to do it. But I don’t think my kids had seen more than an inch or two before we moved to another state more northern than this.

Worked for a university there too and had a forecast for a dusting of snow. When we woke up there were 19 inches of snow on the ground. Couldn’t open any of the doors and the governor shut down the roads to the ire of the university president (who thought he should be governor). Since our yard sloped to the street, every boy in the neighborhood descended on the yard and create a series of snow tunnels they could play in. It became quite an elaborate construction and my daughter could walk along the top. Lasted for weeks. We did not allow anyone to sleep in the tunnels despite the begging.

Nothing like that down here, but it has been impressive this year. Not a lot of people have enjoyed it as I have, but give me freezing anytime over 90 degrees. I can throw on another sweater when I can’t always take anything else off. That said even I’m looking forward to a little warm(er) weather.

Good day to stay inside and read a book.  Stay safe!

This has nothing to do with writing and is definitely a first world problem, but it’s something I see so often now, I’m going to complain.  Hey it’s my blog! 

Why do we need new and shiny all the time? Went to the grocery this weekend – not something I love but has to be done and I’m very familiar with my store so I can get in and out quickly and find what I need. Except this time.  Some corporate marketing wiz decided that everything needed to be rearranged. No doubt there were studies done and there is an excellent reason that laundry detergent needs to be closer to the frozen food rather than leaving the snack foods where they were.  And cookies should definitely be kept away from the breakfast foods – no doubt they battle at night when the lights go out. The problem is, these marketing wiz’s don’t seem to be out in the field very often.

On Thursday (discount day for the elderly) the store apparently had a flood of truly exhausted and frustrated patrons who couldn’t find what they wanted – things that they had been able to find easily before. Their trip went from twenty minutes to over an hour and some of them cannot take that.

It happens on my computer on nearly a daily basis. The refresh icon (which was changed from word to picture that means nothing to me) keeps being relocated on the screen. Now the calendar is hidden in a tic-tac-toe icon and I found out I was far from the only caller to the tech desk to find out what happened there. I’m sure these people need jobs and in order to be thought useful to their companies, they have to keep things changing (maybe so we can’t find them without their help – job security!) but why not develop a “classic” for those of us who don’t crave new and shiny on an hourly basis? See how many people use the classic over the “oooh! new” version and make a decision from that data.  Maybe even (gasp) ask the users what they want – not the high tech users, us worker bees who are just trying to get the job done.

I’ll eventually relearn my grocery store terrain and I switched to Mac to get away from Windows 8. I know I’m not their target consumer and they don’t really care what I think, but I do spend money and I’ll go with classic when I do…