Showing posts with label single parent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label single parent. Show all posts

Saturday, November 4, 2023

Christmas to the Max by Bonnie Edwards

 

I am grateful to Marcia King-Gamble for this invitation to guest here on Romancing the Genres. I’m honored.

I’m Bonnie Edwards and I’ve been writing romance for a lot of years and if there’s one thing I understand about romance it’s this: Everyone in my fictional world deserves a happy ending.

This is the story of a lonely man.

Max Whyte walked into my mind as a convenient ex-husband to a lush 30-something divorcee. The story that introduced him to the world was the start of a trilogy of Christmas stories set between Canada and the US. In Not-so-Blue Christmas, Max didn’t get much more than a mention.

In Invitation to Christmas we learned a little more about him and the reason for the divorce. He and his wife had simply grown apart. They were excellent parents who put their children first.

When it was his ex-wife’s turn to fall in love in One Crazy Christmas, we saw more of Max and how he still supported his ex as a friend and confidant. He was warm and caring and exactly the right person for the heroine to talk to about her disastrous love and broken heart. (which eventually got sorted on Christmas Day.) And so my trilogy, Love at Christmas, ended.

This writer moved onto other series, and a couple of years later I was in need of a new couple to move to my fictional small town in Washington State. The series is titled Return to Welcome and focuses on people who come home and need to regroup.

I had my heroine but where to find a great hero for her? And then it hit me.

Max Whyte’s ex had moved to Washington State and taken his daughters to live with her new husband. What’s a caring, loving father to do but move to be close to them?

Christmas to the Max fell into place quickly. Every once in a while an author has the perfect blend of characters, plot, and setting and the writing goes smoothly and quickly. This is what I call a “gimme” book. No tears are shed, or hairs pulled during the writing of a gimme.

Since Christmas to the Max is a lynchpin book, it links two series and gives my readers of the first series an introduction to the second series. And readers who start on the second series get some background on characters from the first series. Everyone wins!

But no one needs to read either series to enjoy Max Whyte’s happy ending. This is a stand alone book and so are all the others.

Right now, Christmas to the Max is on sale for only 99c and is available to read in Kindle Unlimited.

BLURB:
Just in time for Christmas, building contractor Kaylin Simpson returns to Welcome, WA to give her twins a better life in the small town she loved as a child.

In a town where no one remembers her, it’s tough for a woman to launch a business, especially one dominated by men. Kaylin’s resourceful, determined, and desperate.

Single dad Max Whyte has bought a rundown Victorian house that needs a total renovation. When he saves a young boy from a near-miss with a car, he takes a chance and hires the boy’s attractive mother.

The lovely, talented, and skilled Kaylin soon proves her worth as they work together to rebuild his home—and their lives in Welcome.

The single parents soon share more than tools as they navigate their way through the work together. Sharing all the traditional small-town Christmas events brings them even closer.

Drawn to Kaylin and her adorable twin boys despite his reservations, Max finds that Kaylin's wit and feisty spirit pull at his heartstrings.

Kaylin is afraid to fall for her client, but good sense can be overwhelmed when two hearts fall into synch.

As Christmas draws near, she and Max struggle to find a way to move beyond past hurts to let love blossom.

If you love stories with warmth and the love of family don't miss Christmas to the Max.

Amazon

BIO: 

Bonnie Edwards has been writing all her life, starting with a poem about Santa suffering with gout. She was seven, Santa was a thousand years old. Delighted with writing, she went on to write family sagas, humorous contemporary romance, romantic suspense, erotic paranormal ghost romances and more.

She may jump around within romance, but all her stories come with a tear, a laugh, and a happy ending. Published by Kensington Books, Harlequin Books, Carina Press, and Robinson (UK) Bonnie’s stories stretch from short stories to novellas and novels. Now, she's happy to be publishing her work herself. Her website. Sign up for up-to-date news and deal on Bonnie’s Newsy Bits.

Friday, May 22, 2020

A celebration of...me? by Peggy Jaeger

In this month's topic we are supposed to explore the ways we "celebrate" ourselves.
I have to tell you I had difficulty coming up with an answer that didn't make me sound a. conceited, b. self indulgent, or, 3. narcissistic.

Let me 'esplain...

I was raised in a strict Irish/Italian Catholic home. The only time we celebrated anything was if it was  a Holy day. I never had birthday parties as a kid, because money was tight and my mother considered it a waste  to celebrate something that came around every 365 days.

I was a straight A student but my report cards were never celebrated. It was expected that I do well just because it was...expected. When I brought home my report card, my mother signed it and said, "Keep it up."

When I got into college - the first in my family ever to do so - my parents' only response was to ask how I was going to pay for it.

See a pattern here? I lived almost my entire life this way. Until, that is, the very first time I was published.

The day my first book went on sale was March 5, 2015. That night I celebrated by making myself a cake and opening a bottle of Skinny Girl Cosmo.


That little ritual has now become a pattern. For every book's release day, I make myself a chocolate/chocolate cake and open a bottle of Skinny Girl. As self indulgences go, it's pretty tame. But it's the one way I celebrate me and my accomplishments.

And you know what? It never gets old. Every new book published ( there have been 18 so far with 3 more planned to release this year ) I get a thrill from eating that cake and toasting myself with a cosmo. Of course I also get a sugar high and a little buzzed, but....


How do you celebrate yourself and your accomplishments? Like I said, it took my until I was 55 years old to do so. How about you? I'd love to hear.

Book #18 released two days ago and I'm so happy it's out in the romance-reading world.
VANILLA WITH A TWIST tells the story of a small town, single mother and ice cream parlor owner who's faced some tough choices in her life, and an engineer at a crossroads in his, who walks into her shop one summer's day and changes both their lives for ever.


And yes, I made a cake and had a cosmo on Wednesday! hee hee

Until next month, peeps ~ peg
Follow me on my webpage: https://peggyjaeger.com/