The crazy holidays have ended, thank Baby Jesus.
I was just sitting here in a daze, thinking about the past few weeks. Make that the past year. This was my first year as a published author!
What a year! I wanted to thank everyone for the kind notes and messages you’ve sent my way. I’ve loved every one. It thrills me when you reach out to tell me that one of my stories has made you laugh or had made your day a little brighter. Thanks so much!
I turned in a book mid-November and thought, ah, finally, I can get my life together now and get ready for the holidays. Take a breath and all that. But then I got hit with a set of edits. And right after I finished those, I got hit with more edits–this time for my Montlake book that will be coming out in June. My holiday fantasies of sipping wine, wrapping gifts while listening to Michael Buble croon about how it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas faded fast. And my house looked like nothing but a disaster!
I always said th
e two worst months as parents with small children are May and December. What I learned this year is even if the kids are not little, December is still brutal!
There is a scene in the 2006 version of Pride and Prejudice where Keira Knightly is staring into space and days and nights are rising and fading around her as she continues to stare. Well, that was me, sitting at my desk. Dawns and dusks blew past. Children came home from college and grad school. Somehow the tree got put up–haphazardly. All those treasured homemade ornaments never quite made it on the tree this year. And still I sat. Bye, have fun! I called to my family. I’ll still be sitting here when you return! Just dust me off when you get back!
Hubby spreading good cheer.
Don’t get me wrong–I am so, so grateful to be writing! It was just a little cray-cray to be on deadline all through the holidays with the house full of people and chaos.
I did manage to have some fun despite working. We cooked, we baked, we dined, we spread a little good cheer.
18 yr. old son–I guess he grew some 🙂
We got all the kids into the kitchen helping out, including my male child, even though he outgrew his apron that my dear friend sewed for him when he was five.
And we got to see the new Star Wars movie as a family, which was really fun.
The edits somehow got done and turned in. Even though this holiday was crazy and imperfect, i.e., the decorations were weak, the cookies got done late, and no Christmas cards got sent, and I did all my shopping in one day–I think we managed to have what really counts–the time with family.
Below is a pic of my favorite present. My husband bought me a giant dry erase board to plot with and he hung it up in our basement (it weighs forty pounds!). I cannot tell you how thrilled I am about this gift!
As we leave the craziness of the holidays behind, I wish you all a wonderful 2016 full of blue sky and clear vision and dreams that come true.
Or, in lieu of a perfect year, I wish you peace and love and the things that really count. Happy 2016!
Image from freefoto.com, 1223_09_1_prev
Tour de Philly
Liberty Bell Mums
First of all, thanks so much, everybody, for your support of This Love of Mine, which released earlier this month! Really appreciate all the kind comments. And the newsletter sign-ups and Facebook likes.
And just to let you know–I have giveaways going on at Fresh Fiction from now till the end of the year. One click is all it takes for a chance to win a book.
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to visit my Darling Daughter #1 who recently moved to Philadelphia. I had so much fun discovering this amazing city that I wanted to share some pics.
First, there were these fabulous mums in front of the Liberty Bell. You can’t really see the Liberty Bell (behind the glass doors) in that pic so there it is again (below) with my daughter in front of it. It was my first time seeing it! I was really touched by the inscription on the plaque on the wall outside of it which said “Cracked and silent, yet world famous, the bell reminds us to focus on strengths not weaknesses.” (Love that advice for life in general.)
Darling Daughter and Ms. Liberty.
Chocolate mouse, anyone?
We went to the famous Redding Market, where all kinds of fabulous foods, flowers, and other wares are sold. Anyone for a chocolate rat? Or a fabulous warm pretzel?
Amazing pretzels from Redding Market
Wow. Just wow.
One of the most fascinating sites–and hard to miss!–was the massive, iconic City hall building, built beginning in the 1870’s. It has a 27-ton stature of William Penn, the city founder, at the top. We took an elevator to the top of the tower and saw Mr. Penn’s giant arm! It was awe-inspiring.
The best part of the trip, of course, was being with my adult child, of whom I couldn’t be more proud.
We’ll take our blessings any way we can find ’em!
Taking a Risk for Love
My heroine of This Love of Mine, Meg Halloran, is not a risk taker. She’s a dutiful daughter and a hardworking bridal shop owner struggling to get her business off the ground, and she’s overwhelmed in many ways.
She’s fantasized about Ben Rushford, an ER doctor, for too many years, and she finally decides to kick the habit. And it’s at that point that fate has other ideas.
Initially, Meg is the kind of woman who gets tongue-tied in front of Ben. She thinks she’s not the kind of woman he prefers and she couldn’t be more wrong. Ben is keeping a secret that impacts both of their lives and which has kept him away from her for years.
The thing I love about Meg’s evolution is that she gets thrown into a crazy situation and she gives it her all—even though it takes her way, way out of her comfort zone. She goes from barely being able to converse with Ben to being his dignified, articulate date in front of his potential future employers. She gets up and dances—something that makes her very, very nervous. She goes to a camp for diabetic children with Ben armed with Deep Woods Off and finds herself scaling a muddy obstacle course in a competition.
Her motto may as well be this one…
But Meg is no pushover. She learns through the course of the book to value her own self worth. She finds she’s the only one who can push through the great barriers Ben has erected around himself and get to the bottom of the heartbreaking secret he carries. The courage it takes to be honest comes at a great risk, one she is very uncomfortable with taking. But she takes that risk for love.
Ben, too, puts up a happy-go-lucky front for everyone although his inner self is a lot different. He is an upstanding, hardworking, good, good guy, (and hot), but he hasn’t been able to reach out to Meg for years. I love this story because both of these characters free each other in totally different ways. Love, forgiveness, acceptance, and the total honesty that breaks down barriers and frees a person to be the person he or she was meant to be–their best self. (And yes, this is why I love romance!)
Hope you enjoy the trouble Meg and Ben get into…and have a few laughs along the way.
Happy Fall!
Miranda
This Love of Mine is available starting October 6th. (See my book page for retailers.)
Heart and Sole: A Story of Second Chances
Who doesn’t want a chance for a do-over? In anything—maybe you think about The One Who Got Away. Or maybe you wish you’d picked a different career. Or came from a different family (although, sorry, can’t help you with that one :).
My heroine of Heart and Sole, Maddie Kingston, is a desperate woman who’s made some mistakes. It took her five years to get through college because she kept changing her major. Her father begged her to get a business degree so she could help out in the family shoe company but she majored in graphic design instead. Her parents loaned her money for a start-up that went belly-up instead. And she darn near married a sweet talkin’ cowboy who was wrong for her in every way. Oh, and not to forget…a year ago she slept with That Guy from her past that she Just Can’t Forget…only to learn that he’s about to decimate her family’s company. Oops.
But she has Heart. Oh, a lot of it. And she’s got the courage to put everything on the line to save the family business for her ailing father even though she has zero experience. She’s the sibling that quits the only secure job she’s ever had to go back home to help. And she uses every last penny of her savings, plus her sister’s honeymoon money, to bid on the one man she hates in a charity bachelor auction because he’s the only one who can help her save the business. Only two problems…he’s about to take it over. And she doesn’t really hate him.
A huge and mysterious family feud that’s gone on for a generation has kept these two star-crossed lovers apart. Their loyalties may be divided, but the sizzling hot chemistry that flares between them doesn’t really give a flying about that.
I loved writing this story because it’s hopeful. Because in our lives, like Maddie’s, things often don’t work out quite the way we expect. Families squabble, and we make bad choices sometimes that cost us a lot of emotional pain.
Maddie finds the courage to venture way out of her comfort zone and dare to dream big, dare to take huge risks that will lead to her fulfilling her own dreams in ways she can’t even imagine. Add to the mix one heart-of-gold (but misguided) (and wounded, of course he’s got to be wounded!) billionaire who gets dragged back to their podunk little town who can’t help but fall for her despite his loyalty to his own grandfather and you’ve got Heart and Sole. Life may be complicated but things can work out…especially with a few laughs along the way.
Hope you enjoy it!
Cover reveal for Heart and Sole!
Here’s one hottie billionaire, who graces the cover of my first Entangled release, which is out July 14. He’s so adorable, what do you think???
