Category: Life

Life

Decking the Halls: Christmas at my house

Here’s something you might not know about me–I used to get paid to decorate Christmas trees. Lots of them. Big ones (one that required a 20-foot ladder) and small ones. Real ones and fake ones. It sounds fun, but when you’re on your twentieth tree of the week and you still have your own waiting to be done at home, it gets old fast. What I can say is this, I learned a lot. Such as wired ribbon is your best friend and you can fill up a lot of space in a tree with some nice big bows. (Yes, we made our own bows. Cutting pliers and floral wire lived in my pocket back then.) Silk flowers worked well too, stuck into the branches. Items found in nature are just as good. I became very in tune with what was growing around the homes I was decorating–and even on the drive over. No Juniper, or Holly, or Cedar, or pine bough laden with cones was safe from me and my cutting pliers when I needed texture and filler to decorate with. A little greenery goes a long way. Tie an old stack of books with a bow and shove […]

Events, Life

These Boots Were Made for…

So what’s with the combat boots? That’s a good question, and one I’ve been asked a few times over the past two days since posting on Facebook that I was breaking in my new combat boots because they gave me blisters. You’d think I’d posted some sort of Obama/Romney debate point, judging by the number of responses I got on one little profile post stating I was following my USMC friend’s advice and soaking the boots in water, then wearing them wet to shape them to my feet so they wouldn’t hurt anymore. Which they did. Hurt, I mean. A lot. Well, the comments and advice and questions and criticisms came fast and furious, showing me exactly who was manning their Facebook feeds that sunny Sunday morning. This led me to believe that how one breaks in one’s combat boots is a very personal decision. And yes, I resisted when my friend told me to fill my brand new Bates boots up with water and soak them until the pigskin turned dark. I would never dream of soaking my cowboy boots in water. Granted, my snakeskin cowboy boots have also never given me bloody blisters the way the initial, short-term […]

Life, Romance eBooks, writing romance

A Prince Among Men: Prince Harry in Afghanistan

It was February of 2008. I’d written my military romance MODEL SOLDIER, set in Afghanistan, and as I watched the morning news, one story caught my attention. Britain’s Prince Harry had secretly been deployed to Afghanistan for 3 months. The news had just been leaked by the press and, now that he was exposed, Harry was being yanked out of the warzone. My writer’s brain was spinning. Can you say sequel? How perfect was this? I knew the Brits supplied air support to the forward operating bases where US and Afghani troops were stationed. A plot began to form–facts, wrapped in fiction. What if? What could have happened in this situation? That is the basis of A PRINCE AMONG MEN (March 2013) , the follow-up book to MODEL SOLDIER (Dec 2012) in my Red, Hot & Blue series, being rereleased through Samhain Publishing (originally put out back in 2008 by Linden Bay Romance). And how timely too, because as opposed to the climate in February 2008 when the 23-year old Harry was first, and secretly, deployed to Afghanistan (read about it in the Guardian), today, in 2012, the 28-year old Prince is in the news daily. Unfortunately, his presence is […]