My Greatest Valentine's Day... EVER!

Last year, I blogged about my sudden, quite unexpected warming towards Valentine's Day. As a middle-aged divorcee, unsuccessful Dating Site veteran and lonely romance writer, I had all but given up hope of finding true love. In fact, I had stopped dating altogether for several years. Little did I know, a romance story of epic proportions was already being written for me by Fate himself. One with a happy ending to boot!

This time last year, I took what I felt was my last chance and joined a dating site one final time. I planned to give it one month. If love didn't find me this time, I was giving up, once and for all. I had already resigned myself to lonely, late nights of watching TV in bed with only a bowl of potato chips and perhaps a Persian cat to keep me company. The only romance I was sure to experience would be in old movies and books.

But there it was. Only hours after my dating site ad appeared, I got a 'wink message' from 'ScBob'. He was my age and ruggedly handsome (just like the leading men in my romance stories). His Profile painted him as a sincere, widowed family man who seemed to have a good sense of humor and no anger management issues. Exactly what I was looking for. I didn't realize at the time that he lived more than 50 miles from me, so I went ahead and accepted his offer to take me to dinner.

He was a gentleman and a good conversationalist. We ate, laughed and swapped life stories. After a quick kiss goodnight, I had a feeling we'd be seeing each other again.

Today, February 12, is our one year anniversary. We're celebrating it by getting married! At 6pm today, exactly one year after our first meeting, we'll be saying "I do".

Some people think it was a whirlwind romance. I believe we were waiting patiently all these years to finally meet and begin our lives together. I can't remember what life was like without him. Our 'song' is 'Don't Want To Miss A Thing' by Aerosmith.

It scares me to think how close we were to never meeting at all. I hadn't heard of 'Senior People Meet' before, but their pop-up ad nagged at my heart-strings until I decided to give love one more chance. When Bob signed onto the dating site that day, he planned to discontinue his membership. If I had joined even one day later, he never would have seen my picture or wrote to me.

So... for all the hopeful romantics out there wishing for their own Valentine's Day miracle... don't stop believing. This year could be the one you've been waiting for.

Six Sentence Sunday 2-20-11

Hello again! I'm so excited to be part of Six Sentence Sunday! It's been a lot of fun so far! This excerpt is from 'LeeAnn Vaughn: A Way With Murder' again. 

Last week, we met Arnold Longfield, a despicable, callous husband who's planning to murder his wife. This week, he's just injected her with succinylcholine. He already called 911 and carried her to the bathroom while waiting for them to respond. He plans to tell them she's suffering from an asthma attack.

He knelt down beside Lenore and looked directly into her eyes. “What’s that, dear? You can’t breathe?” He chuckled as he placed his fingers under her chin and tilted her face up towards his. “Don’t worry. An ambulance is on the way. You hang in there a little longer, okay?”

Six Sentence Sunday is the lovely idea of Sara Brookes, and it’s a chance for novelists to post on their blogs six sentences from a current work-in-progress, finished novel making the agent-editor rounds, or published masterpiece. A central website, appropriately entitled Six Sentence Sunday, then hosts a set of links, enabling anyone interested to check ‘em out.

Interested writers are encouraged to join the fun. Read the instructions here.

Six Sentence Sunday 2-13-11

I'm almost finished my next novel 'LeeAnn Vaughn: A Way With Murder'.  LeeAnn's a middle-aged nursing supervisor at a small hospital in South Jersey. With a divorce behind her, an exasperatingly unfocused daughter with a young son to worry about, a philandering, unemployed boyfriend, a father with Alzheimer's in a nursing home to care for and the daily struggle of fighting menopause, she leads a pretty normal life.

But when a woman is brought into the emergency room and dies after an asthma attack, LeeAnn suspects... murder. No one takes her suspicions seriously, so she sets out to prove it on her own. Using only the skills she learned watching forensic television shows, a wild imagination and a caring heart of a nurse, she puts herself and her family in danger. Here's an excerpt:

Lenore was snoring and a bit of drool oozed out the corner of her mouth. She had taken off her shoes during the flight and he now imagined that he could smell her feet. Any other time, Longfield would be disgusted, but this time, he smiled. He knew the years of suffering with his wife’s numerous personality flaws were almost over.  In three more days… she‘ll be dead.
“We’re getting ready to land, sweetheart,” he whispered into Lenore’s ear. “See? I told you there was nothing to worry about.”

Six Sentence Sunday is the lovely idea of Sara Brookes, and it’s a chance for novelists to post on their blogs six sentences from a current work-in-progress, finished novel making the agent-editor rounds, or published masterpiece. A central website, appropriately entitled Six Sentence Sunday, then hosts a set of links, enabling anyone interested to check ‘em out.

Interested writers are encouraged to join the fun. Read the instructions here.

Win a Kindle!

My novel 'Passing Whispers' will be released by Devine Destinies on December 1, 2010. To help celebrate the event, I am running a contest! Log onto YouTube anytime from December 1 to December 7, 2010  (creating an account is free and easy... takes only a minute) and make a comment under my 'Passing Whispers' book trailer. You will get one entry for every comment you make. On December 8, 2010, we'll pick a winner who will receive an Amazon Kindle and a free down-loadable copy of 'Passing Whispers'. Good luck!

BONUS! If you share the book trailer on your blog or Face Book Page, you get TWO additional entries every time you post it (no limit) between NOW and December 7th! Just let me know you did it.

Passing Whispers The Making of the Book Trailer

While I'm waiting for the official book trailer to be produced and edited, I made a behind the scenes video of the MAKING of the book trailer. We learned a lot, but it was great fun! Enjoy! Feel free to leave a comment or share the link. Thanks!