Can I just tell you how happy I am to be in a new year?? Not that some great things didn't happen to and for me in 2021, but, honestly, it felt like the year was never going to end!
2022 is offering me a bunch of new opportunities and experiences and I am super excited to get the year rolling.
First, I've joined a wonderful team of sweet romance writers for a new series titled LAST MAN STANDING. It's a collection of romances centering on that guy we all know - the one who vows never to get married and is - literally - the last single guy in his group. MY guy's name is Chance Miller and he's a - wait for it - divorce lawyer. So, you can imagine all his reasons for never taking a walk down the aisle, hee hee. Here's the cover and the book will be available in September 2022.
In March I have a brand new series starting titled HEAVEN'S MATCHMAKER. I am revisiting the tiny town of Heaven, NH made famous in my A Match Made in Heaven series. The first book, MIX & MATCH, centers around a lonely, divorced nurse named Jasmine Green and architect Donovan Boyd - whom the world met in BAKED WITH LOVE. There are currently 4 books in the series, but you know me....there are more in my head! The book is up for preorder right now.
For Magnolia Blossom Publishing I have two books coming out this year in their Paranormal Romance division. The first, THE HAUNTING OF WILTON JUNE is the sequel to last year's MERRY'S GHOST where Merry's brother Will finds his HEA with a botanist who has a secret - a pretty great one for Will. Details on the release date will be forthcoming. The second will be about a contemporary witch who's also a realtor. Can you think of any spells to get someone to buy a house, LOL! Details will come soon.
And I'm returning to the tiny town of DICKENS for another DICKENS HOLIDAY ROMANCE during the holiday season. SASHA'S SECRET SANTA will continue the Dorrit's Diner series I started last year, featuring Amy Dorrit and her adopted children. I'll also be releasing my very first Dickens Romance ANGEL KISSES AND HOLIDAY WISHES as a standalone book in the summer.
Finally, I've got a hush-hush project with three of my favorite authors. I can't say too much but I can give you a few hints: pirates, ghosts, and a popular tavern. Intrigued? Hee hee.
That's all the new stuff I've already got on the docket for 2022 and I am sure more will pop up!!
What a great way to begin a year.
Until next month, kids ~ Peg
Peggy Jaeger writes about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can't live without them. Follow her blog, Writing is my oxygen.
I love this topic/theme this month because I am a HUGE fan of movie partnerships - be they male/female, male/male, or female/female. The dictionary defines a partnership as a relationship of two or more people. For my purposes today, it's a duo.
Some of the best movie partnerships ever made were released prior to the 1960's. You can debate this point with me all you like, but just know - I bring receipts to the table on this topic, hee hee.
Who can forget all the wonderful romantic and screwball comedies of movie partners Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn?
The studios knew what they were doing when they put these two megastars together. Both stars had class, wit, beauty, and a wry intelligence that let the audience in on every joke - even when it was about them! Although they only appeared together in 4 movies, they are all gems. Rapid-fire banter, comedic timing that's simply perfect, and two actors who could take a zany script and breath life into it while acting as foils for one another have made this duo my number one screen partnership ever!
Katherine Hepburn was also paired with a man who would become the love of her life in real life, Spencer Tracy.
Together, these two stars defined the on-screen romantic comedy partnership movies of the 1940s and beyond. They made a total of 9 movies together and their sizzling chemistry onscreen was lived out off-screen as they had an affair for over 30 years, ending only with Tracy's death.
Six movies from 1934-1947 pitted Nick and Nora Charles and their dog Asta against gangsters and murdering socialites and had them doing it all wearing evening gowns and tuxedos. A fast, witty back and forth banter, coupled with class and comedic timing, this married partnership was - and still is - a favorite among old movie buffs.
And just so you don't think I only watch old black and white movies from almost a hundred years ago ( LOL) I do have some favorite partnerships from a more recent time.
Who can forget the original Girls Gone Wild weekend movie, Thelma and Louise?
Gina Davis and Susan Sarandon epitomize the girls-who-love-each-other-as-besties and ride-or-die chicks. Their relationship is forged in friendship, moves into a deep and respecting love for one another that ends in the ultimate sacrifice. This movie proved girls can be partnered with girls, onscreen, in an unsexual way and bring in revenue for the studios. No men required.
The original Lethal Weapon movie centered around a suicidal cop ( Mel Gibson) and the man ordered to partner with him to keep him from doing something stupid ( Danny Glover).
Over the span of four blockbuster movies, these two formed a professional partnership where they truly covered the other's back in every way, and a personal friendship that also defines the ride-or-die buddy movie theme. Life and death plays a huge role in each of these movies and the two bffs and partners-for-life navigate through them with angst, wit, charm, and...guns.(LOL)
Bad Boys takes wisecracking, uber-talented Will Smith and partners him with out-of-control Martin Lawrence, to form one of the big screen's favorite and loudest(!) associations.
These two play like an old married couple, finishing the other's thoughts and sentences and being able to predict just what the other will say or do. Perfectly written and excellently acted, you get the feel Smith and Lawrence hang out together after the movie is done, shoot the breeze, and share a bottle of Cuervo Gold.
So...what makes a great movie partnership and how does it relate to social partnerships, marriage, and relationships in general, you ask? Well, I'm gonna tell ya my thoughts on that.
Every partnership above is based on mutual respect, humor, caring about the well-being of the other, having the other's back in every conceivable way, and a deep, abiding friendship and love that can't be broken.
Isn't that what we want in our own personal relationships?
Don't we want someone who can make us laugh, have our six( Jethro Gibbs reference, there), protect us, respect us, and care for us, all the while letting us be who and what we are and supporting that?
Emotional give and take, clear-cut communication techniques, and an overwhelming sense of rightness at wanting to be together, cap the list.
If you want to take a master class in writing witty banter, learning the yin and yang that makes a great couple, or merely want to be entertained for a few hours, check out the movie partnerships above. You won't be disappointed.
I've tried to incorporate all the characteristics I love in movie partnerships in my own romance books and I think I've been fairly successful. One place where a successful pairing is key is in the romantic suspense department. My upcoming ROM/Suspense A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: AIDEN is a story built on mutual respect and trust between Private Eye Aiden Keane and Librarian Alexis Buckley.
Look for this book to be released in the Fall of 2021. Book one in the series, A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: RICK is available now.
Want to connect? Here's where to find me most days ( when I'm not watching old movies! LOL)
I love the topic for this month because there's something so special about living in a country where the 4 seasons take on such different looks. I'm going to talk about New England, 'cuz that's where I hang my hat, and we always joke about the seasons this way: don't like the weather? Wait five minutes. It'll change.
This is sososo true.
New England boasts the 4 typical seasons, and a few more: Winter, mud season, sugar season, black fly season, spring, summer, fall, leaf-peeping season, and back to winter again.
A New England fall is like none other, as typified by the above photo. Autumn, or as the locals call it Leaf peeping season, brings in valuable tourism dollars as people from all over the world come to the area during the peak leaf changing months of September and October, to view the area's colorful majesty. A New England winter is also like none other. We have the full compliment of winter sports from skiing to skating, to ice fishing.
It's no wonder most of my small town romances take place in New England and during every season.
In First Impressions, the hero and heroine go apple picking in an orchard that's featured on the cover on a September day.
In my Match Made in Heaven series, the O'Dowd sisters live in the fictional town of Heaven, NH. Dearly Beloved takes place in the Fall, Today, Tomorrow, Always in Winter, and the newest, Baked with Love in Summer. All three books are rich in local seasonal descriptions.
Hope's Dream is a winter-themed book and takes place in Vermont ( another New England state!) Notice the skiing motif on the cover! So typical of Vermont!
Vanilla with a Twist is set in a vacation community in New England during the summer.
I can never choose a favorite season when I'm asked to because they are all so special and each one offers something wonderful.
So...what's your favorite season? Inquiring minds want to know.
I simply love the topic this month: Share you favorite children's book.
Honestly, this was the fastest blog piece I've ever penned.
On my own blog, Writing in my Oxygen, I've talked numerous times over the years about my number one book for children, the one I always give as a gift to expectant mothers, or when I've been invited to toddler birthday parties.
Now, I'm going to be honest and tell you I didn't read this book as a child. In fact, I'd never heard of it until my own daughter was born, 30 years ago. The book was given to me as part of a baby shower gift and when I read it after every one had gone home, I fell absolutely, head to toes in love with the message within its pages.
Self motivation and self actualization flow from this story so effortlessly, that even as an adult I was rooting for that little engine to get up over the mountain. The theme of the book - believing in yourself - is such a wonderful, universal theme that even today in various aspects of my life I find myself thinking you can do it at times when I am questioning myself.
That little engine told himself time and time again, around every twisty curve, up every steep hill, I think I can.The phrase is repeated so many times in the book THAT should be the title! I THINK I CAN.
The best part of the tale - for me - is the ending where the engine, having gone over the punishing mountain, around all the dangerous, twists and turns, and has reached his final destination declares, I knew I could.
As adults, how many times have we felt that we couldn't go on? Complete a task? Even make it through another day of seemingly insurmountable problems? In this day and age and with so many things coming up on a daily basis that require our time, focus, and energy, there are moments when we all feel that we just can't go on. We can't take on one more project, tackle one more dilemma, deal with one more emotional issue. It just gets to be...too much.
The message of The Little Engine that Could is to just believe that you can do anything you set your mind to if you, in fact, believe you can do it.
For me, personally, I would never have tackled a brand new writing career at the age of 55 if I didn't have some of that little engine's gumption in the back of my mind. I thought I could write something people would read. I thought I could get what I wrote published. I knew I'd made my dream come true when my very first publisher bought my book.
Self actualization and belief in yourself are things we should teach our children from the get-go in life. That's why I now give this book at every baby shower I attend, and at most children's birthday parties I'm honored to be invited to.
Believe in yourself...as Martha Stewart says, "It's a good thing."
My newest book, a fairy tale redux of Sleeping Beauty, titled WOKE, releases on 7.1.2020. In my version, Aurora doesn't wait for love's true kiss to awaken her...
Waking up each day is a gift…. On her 21st birthday, someone slipped a potent drug combination into socialite Aurora Brightwell’s champagne putting her in a coma for the next ten years. It’s been a long road back, and it’s time to reclaim the life she lost and find out exactly what happened on that fateful night. Financier Kincade Enright has his own reason for helping Aurora discover who poisoned her, but for the time being he’s keeping that - and his true identity - to himself. What he can’t keep hidden though, are his growing feelings for the one-time paparazzi darling and party-girl. When this prince of finance joins forces with the former sleeping beauty, nothing can stop them from finding the answers they seek…or prevent the powerful emotions developing between them as they search for the truth.
Peggy Jaeger writes contemporary romances and rom coms about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.
Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, Peggy brings all aspects of life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness, and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she has created the families she wanted as that lonely child.
As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go "What??!"
The theme this month is Marching to the Beat of a Different Drummer.
If they ever write a biography starring me, that's definitely the title. With the subtitle Shit Happens!
For as long as I can remember - and that's pretty far back - I haven't been like anyone else in my family. Let me explain...
My family members smoke and drank. Often. To excess, many times. I have never had a cigarette and don't drink alcohol.
My parents never graduated from high school and certainly didn't go to college. I have a Masters Degree in Nursing Administration with a minor in Geriatric Psychology.
My parents have never been on a plane or traveled outside the United States. I've already filled up two passports.
My parents, although raised Catholic, haven't been inside a church since I was married 33 years ago. I attend Mass every week.
My parents don't read. Anything. Not newspapers, not books, not magazines. All the information they get is from television. I not only read 2-3 books a week, I write 3-4 per year, and I have have a daily blog, plus I write monthly columns for 2 other blogs and participate in a weekly blogging challenge through Long and Short Reviews e-zine.
My parents are isolationists. They have no close friends and rarely leave their house. I have a wide circle of friends I love, even though I'm an introvert.
There were many times in my life I truly wondered if my parents found me on a door step or a pumpkin patch because I am nothing like them. At all.
Genetics is usually a key factor in how people will behave, and what your genes don't decide, your environment will. I can't explain why my faith has carried me through my life when my parents didn't choose to participate in it. I can't explain why I knew - knew without an iota of doubt - that education was the way for me to advance in the world. And there's no viable explanation why my marriage has lasted longer than both my mother's and father's remarriages have.
So, I just accept the reality that for some reason I am different from the people who birthed and raised me. Those differences have led me to some amazing paths in my 59 years and will probably continue to do so. The whole nature vs. nurture hypothesis is one I think about. A lot. For me, it just seems that my true nature was, and is, to be different. Or to use the theme for this month, that it's made me march to the beat of a different drummer for all those around me and who raised me.
I write RomCom and contemporary romance books about strong women, the families who support them and the men who can't live without them. And if I had to say it, those women, too, march to the beat of a different drummer!
I love Social Media so much! You can usually find me here:
January's theme is to share a funny story about family/friends. Mine is about my wedding day.
I've been married 175 years.
Well, really 32, but it seems like 175 - in a good way!
I got married on December 26th and
the actual date was hailed as the coldest 12/26 in 75 years. Not a good omen to be sure.
The day started with a fight
between my mother and me about my choice of eye shadow. Stupid, right?
It went downhill after that.
I'd decided to walk myself down the
aisle instead of choosing between my father and stepfather. Neither would
capitulate to the other because neither thought the other had a "right" to give me away. My
decision almost left me parentless at the wedding.
The Priest had a serious case of conjunctivitis and no one wanted to receive communion from him,
esp. when we all saw him rubbing his eyes throughout the ceremony.
Would you?
The pinkeye must have challenged
his memory because he forgot about the readings I'd chosen and the people I'd chosen
to do them, and read his own choices, leaving my friends in the ecclesiastic
dust.
The Parish didn't allow rice to be
thrown for good luck, but did allow birdseed, so I'd made hundreds of little
linen packets filled with seeds that guests could open and then toss for good
luck, with the added gift that the birds would get fed. Why the Church thought
there would be any birds present on my wedding day, the coldest day in 75
years, is a mystery, but... Some guests ( not my side of the wedding) thought it
was hysterical to toss the whole packet at us, ending with me being bruised
and battered before we got to the reception.
Not funny at all.
Remember that fight about the
eyeshadow? It escalated when my mother found out she was sitting on the left
side of the room. She wanted to be on the right. Why? Who the heck knows. She
was in the throws of menopause and the hormones were making her -- and everyone around her -- nuts.
My stepfather fought with the DJ
because he said the music was too loud.
It wasn't.
My father fought with the DJ
because he didn't like the music.
Too bad.
My husband of an hour fought with
the photographer ( who really was a pain in the butt) because he kept
interrupting us whenever we tried to visit out guests.
That part's true.
My grandmother fought with the wait
staff. She thought the food was over cooked and under-salted. It wasn't. But
she'd been nipping from everyone's champagne glasses at her table, so....
One of my step-uncles, the one that
family gossip said was an enforcer for the local Mafia capo, had a gun tucked
into his waistband and made sure the wait staff saw it and knew it was loaded.
He also moved his chair to a space where he could sit with his back to a wall
and keep an eye on the entrance doorway to the ballroom.
To this day I wonder if he was expecting a mob hit attempt and wanted to be prepared to shoot it out, shades of ScarFace.
I'd purchased little 4 packs of
Godiva chocolates for favors for everyone and had placed a box at
every place setting - almost 200. They cost me a small fortune but, hey, you only (want) to get married once, right? My step cousins very loudly complained the candy
tasted "cheap." This started an argument between my menopausal mother
and her equally hormone-raging sisters-in-law and their children about manners and keeping one's mouth shut.
It didn't end well.
By the time we got to the cake -
chocolate buttercream frosted with chocolate cake and Swiss mousse for filling,
tensions were so high in the ballroom, I seriously wondered if an Animal
House-like food fight was about to erupt.
My husband's side of the room tried to ignore the mounting tensions on my family's side of the room, but I did notice a few of them checking their watches often. Probably wondering how much more of this ridiculousness they had to endure, or if they should leave now before the fists started flying and the cake started sailing through the air.
All in all, I couldn't wait to
leave the reception myself and wished hubby and I had flown to Vegas for the weekend
and gotten married by an Elvis-clone like I'd wanted.
Now you may wonder why I'm sharing this under the umbrella of a "funny story." Well, to me it is. Now, 32 years later, I can laugh out loud at all the ridiculousness, personality clashes, and plain craziness that encompassed the day. It was the perfect non-auspicious beginning to a long and successful marriage.
My darling daughter is getting married this year and you can bet her wedding will be nothing like her father's and mine.
First of all, I'm on meds for menopause....hee hee.
Bio: Peggy
Jaeger writes contemporary romances and rom coms about strong women, the
families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.
Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there
is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or
ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving,
Peggy brings all aspects of life into her stories: life, death, sibling
rivalry, illness, and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever
after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters,
brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their
way. Through her books, she has created the families she wanted as that lonely
child.
As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging
bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about
life, writing, and stuff that makes her go "What??!"
