‘Tis The Season for Holiday Romances ..... ..... ..... by Debora (Deb) Noone w/a Delsora Lowe

     I think I have been doing more reading than writing lately. It didn’t help the writing cause to have my computer in the shop for almost three weeks. Now trying to get back in writing mode with only a week before my daughter and her family arrive for the holidays and “camp out” at my son’s house, about a forty-minute drive away. Presents, menu planning, and reserving time to see family will be priority for the next few weeks. Plus, getting to a few varsity hockey games for my in-state grandson.

Having said that, my Kindle will be my respite.

As usual, I have purchased more holiday books than I can read before 2025 roars in. But I am one to read holiday books all year round – especially in the colder, darker months of January and February. And I love reading holiday books for other holidays through the year.

I also love writing holiday short romances. I was privileged to sell both an Easter and a Thanksgiving story to Woman’s World this year – one of my BIG writing goals for 2024. Fingers crossed... I hope to release a book with short romances (around an 8-minute read for each,) sometime in 2025!

Here’s to Happy Holidays to all! And don’t forget to start thinking about personal and professional goals for 2025.

Books I have read so far:

  
December 2, 2024

  

November 25, 2024

November 11, 2024

November 14, 2024

December 16, 2019

November 18, 2024

November 4, 2024

November 1, 2024

Books I plan to read ASAP:
And… I am sure I may spot a few more that I want to send to my e-reader before 2024 ends. As I said, a sucker for holiday romances.

November 5, 2019

 

November 8, 2022

September 11, 2024

 

And to help with holiday prep - the 2nd edition cookie cookbook for the Dicken's series - ENJOY!

 

October 31, 2024

 

 

Do you love reading holiday books?

Do you set personal goals at the beginning of each new year? And do you try to stick to them? Or run out of paying attention to goals before the year is out?

 

In case you are interested in another holiday book or three…

Holiday Hitchhiker

Amazon

Books 2 Read

The Inn on Gooseneck Lane
also in print

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Apple

 

Come Dance with Me

Amazon

Books2Read

~ cottages to cabins ~ keep the home fires burning ~

Delsora Lowe writes small town sweet and spicy romances and contemporary westerns, from the mountains of Colorado to the shores of Maine.

Author of the Starlight Grille series, Serenity Harbor Maine novellas, and the Cowboys of Mineral Springs series, Lowe has also authored short romances for Woman’s World magazine (most recently, an Easter romance in the April 1, 2024 edition.) The Love Left Behind is a Hartford Estates, R.I. wedding novella with Book 2 on the way. A Christmas novel (The Inn at Gooseneck Lane) and novella (Holiday Hitchhiker – the youngest brother of the Mineral Spring’s ranching family) were the most recent releases. Look for book 3 of the cowboy’s series, as well as book 2 of the Hartford Estates series, to be released in 2025.

There's no place like ...

Some writers can work in noisy coffee shops, in front of the TV, or while listening to a curated soundtrack specific to their work-in-progress, but not me. I need quiet and a room of my own. But sitting at my desk for hours at a time isn’t healthy, so, particularly at this time of year, I step outside.

 Warm sun on my face, fresh air in my lungs, and beauty all around refills my creative well.

I draw inspiration from the sights and sounds and smells of the ocean.

           

Woodland hikes, often with a surprise or two, suggest other details to add to a story.

Just ten minutes down the road is inspiration of the urban kind. The heroine in my next release plans to buy the house she has loved for years. 

She especially loves this front door.

After an invigorating hike, or a day of arduous plotting, there’s no better way to unwind than a cool beverage with a relaxing view.

Or I can end the day in my own backyard.

              

Luanna Stewart has been creating adventures for her imaginary friends since childhood. She spends her days writing spicy contemporary romance, romantic suspense, paranormal romance, and historical romance. When not torturing her heroes and heroines, she’s in her kitchen baking something delicious. She lives in Nova Scotia with her patient husband, a spoiled cat, and five hens. 

  

Website ~ Bookbub ~ Twitter ~ Instagram ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads ~ Amazon Author Page 

Born in the wrong decade...

I really struggled with this month’s topic because I feel incredibly ordinary. I haven’t discovered anything, or invented anything, or written an international best seller – yet. But then I realized my life hasn’t been ordinary compared to many of my peers who were born in the ‘60’s, grew up in the ‘70’s, and matured in the ‘80’s.

Midway through college, I took a year off to be a nanny in the UK. Not only did that cement my love of travel but it gave me a tiny glimpse of life as a mum and homemaker (in addition to the two children, my duties included preparing supper and some light housekeeping) and I loved it.

When I got married a couple years later, I kept getting asked, by friends and relatives, when would I get a job. I had no idea what I wanted to be “when I grew up”, plus I was busy developing my love of cooking and baking, and perfecting the folding of fitted sheets. I was inordinately proud of my well-organized linen closet. Needless to say I was in the minority amongst my friends, all of whom had careers outside the home. I was asked on numerous occasions, “don’t you get bored being home all day?”. To which I’d with respond with heck, no, I’m too busy painting walls, or tending the garden, or making jam.

A few years later I was busy being a mum, sewing baby clothes and playing with Legos, followed by soccer and lacrosse practice, and flute and guitar lessons.

I’ve never felt stuck or trapped or like I was missing out. I should have been born a few decades earlier when women were expected to stay at home after marriage, and indeed were looked at askance if they wanted to continue working. Instead I was looked at askance for wanting to be a full-time homemaker – how could I possibly feel fulfilled by reupholstering the furniture or mowing the lawn or baking cookies? By the way, I make really good cookies. <grin>

I daresay I’m one of the few women my age who irons pillowcases, tea towels, and napkins. I get a thrill seeing them stacked neatly on the shelf in my well-organized linen closet. Now I’m off to fight with my hubby (recently retired) over who gets to use the vacuum cleaner.

FAVORITE PLACE: Home

By Kristin Holt

www.KristinHolt.com

I’m a homebody. I’m fond of climate control, no matter the weather. I’d take an hour on the couch, a good book in hand over an hour spent in a crowded place, every single time. It’s more than physical comfort. Home can and should mean peace, quiet, safety. Home, ideally, encompasses association of family members. Home means belonging. Home means love.

Where else would phrases like “Home is where the heart is” and lyrics “Oh Give Me a Home… where seldom is heart a discouraging word…” and “I’ll be home for Christmas… You can count on me…” come from?

Perhaps that’s why many novels (I’ll focus on my genre, Historical Romance) include characters’ desires to belong and feel included. These desires are nearly universal to the human family. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs argues this as important enough to immediately follow basic survival requirements.

Whether “home” is a physical place or a sense of completion with another person (I am a romance writer), I suggest:

“Home is a key component of a compelling story.”

Both Josie and Lessie Hadley believe “home” is only with their identical twin sister. With no physical home, they choose a mail order bride situation where their grooms (cousins and business partners) will keep them together. By the end of each book, their understanding of Home and Family has expanded significantly to include husbands dearly loved.

A peek inside the beginning of Josie: Bride of New Mexico:

One of the best parts of having a sister, especially a twin sister— even better an identical twin sister— was everyone understood the two were a matched set, a pair.

Where one went, the other followed.

They belonged together. She’d always had someone. She was never alone.

The train picked up speed, the trees moving past in flashes of green and the first hint of autumn’s colors.

Josie swallowed her homesickness. The useless emotion wasn’t welcome for she had her sister, her strong, indomitable twin who had always been able to figure everything out.

She always put her trust in her sister. This time would be no different.

Lessie’s arms tightened about her. “Don’t worry, Josie. We’ll always have each other. I promise you that.”

“I know.” Her sister had never let her down. “I know.”

A peek inside the ending of The Drifter’s Proposal, when Malloy realizes he’s finally found “home”:

His heart, full to bursting, overflowed. How had he ever thought himself content without this woman by his side?

“Merry Christmas, darlin’.” His voice cracked. Tears threatened. He’d been gored by a bull, thrown from a bronco, busted a leg back in ‘92, and never once had he cried. He hadn’t known himself able.

“I don’t want to live without you, Adaline Whipple, not one more day.” His breath appeared as white clouds of steam in the frigid air. “Marry me. Let me sink my roots right here in Mountain Home with you. Give this homeless cowboy a place to belong.”

A peek inside the middle of WANTED: Midwife Bride, a new release exclusively within Mail Order Bride Collection: A Timeless Romance Anthology (2-9-16):

This tiny three-room cottage was the right place for her.

Here, it was easy to believe no other life existed.

…

…She marveled at the many ways he’d shown her love, affection, acceptance, appreciation— in every little thing. So much more than the new shingle. He’d made her his full partner in every way. He’d gone so far as to ask her opinion on financial matters. They’d visited the bank, and Joe had instructed the bankers to allow Naomi full access to their joint accounts.

Never had she felt more loved, more valued, more trusted.

She wanted their union to last the duration of their lives.

She wanted forever.

What do you think of my hypothesis?

Is a sense of “home” (structure/place and/or belonging and completion with another person) a key component of a compelling story?

Please reply to this post, and share with anyone who might find it appealing.

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Copyright © 2016 Kristin Holt, LC

What am I Really Thankful For?

By Diana McCollum

Normally when someone asks me what I'm thankful for, I say all the most common answers. And I am thankful, truly for these things:  Family, health, home, friends.

Mom, daughter katie, grandson Eli, Me.

I want you, and me, to dig a little deeper. Sure I'm thankful for family, but I'm also thankful for a family I can count on, I can be proud of, and I can laugh with and cry with and know they won't judge me.

I am thankful for my health. I've been lucky enough that I only take one prescription drug. I exercise regularly, I'm thankful I can afford to pay for a trainer at the gym and she keeps me on track. Because frankly, I have no will power when it comes to working out. But if I pay Johann Trass, I'm there every Monday, Wednesday and Friday!

Not only am I thankful for the beautiful home we share with my Mom, but I am thankful for living in beautiful Central Oregon. We have the desert 5 mins east of us and the Cascade Mountains. With Mt. Bachelor 15 mins to the west of us, gorgeous country!

 

Cultus Lake Cascade Mts.

Now I come to friends. It took a while to meet new friends when we first moved to Central Oregon. I can now count 12 ladies, who are all writers, as my friends. We only meet once a month and I so look forward to those get togethers.

I have friends that live in California, Kansas, Washington, England, Australia, and Canada etc. Some of these friends I've met in person and have been able to continue our friendship through the internet. I've met many new friends through the internet, Google +, Twitter, Writing Loops, Facebook etc.

So I'm adding a new thing to my "Thankful List", I am so-o-o thankful for my laptop and the internet. I'd be pretty lonesome without them. And these friends are also very caring and helpful. Some I may never meet in person, but we are still close.

What things besides family, health, home and world peace, you know the normal things people mention, are you thankful for?    

Bio:

A lifetime avid reader, DIANA MCCOLLUM loves creating worlds where anything is possible. Always with an element of the paranormal her stories end with a happily-ever-after.

Website: Dianamccollum.weebly.com

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