Archives for “love story”

That’s “marriage” for those of you not familiar with The Princess Bride. And, actually, even though Only Girl got married just a few days ago and marriage is much on my mind, I find myself thinking about girlfriends. First, let me happily report that the wedding day was beautiful. Nothing spilled and no one tripped. [...]


I never went on one of those wild spring break trips in college.  I was not the type to sleep in my car, live on the beach.  Let’s face it.  I was never a candidate for “Girls Gone Wild.”  My idea of a wild night is more than two glasses of vino. The very first [...]


It’s been a bad week. A week ago today, one of my oldest friends, a sorority sister, died. I can’t imagine my life without her. But now my life is without her. I’m having a tough time. A few days later, my mother-in-law died. She was the kindest, most loving woman. She loved me unconditionally [...]


As I sit here we are expecting 6-12 more inches of the white and fluffy.  As my yard already looks like this   I’m not happy.   The first few snowfalls are so pretty.  When the boys were small a snow day was a holiday.  (They still are, but once you aren’t in school any [...]


People talk about walking down memory lane by looking at photos or meeting old friends.  The main place I meet the past is in the kitchen. Sometimes in the recipes of course, written in my grandmother’s hand, or my ex-husband’s, or my mother’s. But more, it’s in the pots and pans.  Have you ever noticed [...]


I could hear this song in my head but I had to go and look it up to remember who sang it.  The Miracles.  Oh yeah!  And also Linda Ronstadt. Why do I care you ask?  Because we have a new baby in the family and I am very psyched.  What is it about babies [...]


It is February which means I have survived the worst month in Colorado, which is always January.  The days are short, ending claustrophobically even before I’ve started dinner, and it is often bitterly cold. The worst is the boring weather–indifferent, icy sunshine pouring from a frozen blue sky, day after day after day.   I ache [...]


As the Superbowl this year had no green and no gold (to both mine and Karen’s heartbreak) I actually watched the commercials.  If the Packers were playing I would need the commercial breaks for important things like . . . well, you know.  But for most of the first half I could do important things [...]


One angle of our journey to NZ was a plunge into nature and wildlife.  The mountains are very steep and craggy, and that’s coming from a Rocky Mountain baby, so while we admire them and did get in a couple of hikes, mostly our immersion was in the sea.  The ocean, which is magical and [...]


Now that the holiday season has passed us by (at last!!).  I have unpacked and put away the gifts and chosen my favorite.  It is my new Keurig Coffee Maker.  For years I looked at this item in stores, considered, picked it up, put it back, didn’t get it.  Rinse, repeat. I am a coffee [...]


After a long holiday season, I got to thinking about the things people ask me to bring to the table.  The actual table.  As in food.  We all know Julia gets to bring the booze. I never get to bring the booze.  But they don’t let me bring anything difficult to make either.  IV says [...]


Some authors use photos of their characters to get an image in their heads of how these people appear.  I’ve always been the type who shied away from that because I could never find exactly what was in my head in the real world. In truth, physical descriptions of my “peeps” are hard for me. [...]


MY two front teeth are intact.  (Knock wood!)  Thank you very much. What I’d really like is for those on my Christmas list to tell me what THEY want so I can buy it without exerting any brain power.  My brain power is being drained by 1871 Kansas at the moment and not available for [...]


I’ve written in a lot of genres, but I have yet to write a time travel romance.  This isn’t because I don’t like them, because I do.  A single whiff of time travel in a back cover blurb or review and I’m there.  Same thing with movies.  Planet of the Apes, Peggy Sue Got Married, [...]


Do you remember the first time you signed into an online service? I’ve been thinking about this lately, how the Internet has changed our lives. Mainly, I’m thinking about women and the internet, because I do think it’s had a profound impact on our lives.  I’m writing a novel about four food bloggers, so blogs [...]


Time does fly, except when you’re eagerly awaiting something. Remember when you were a kid–for some of us this is greater stretch than for others–and everything seemed to be so far away? Your next birthday.  Christmas.  Summer vacation.  High school.  Graduation.  Being legal.  Being on your own.  All seemed to be so far out of [...]


There are certain artists who shine through.  No matter what they’re doing, there’s that certain something that  makes them recognizable to others who know them well. For instance, Stephen King wrote several books as Richard Bachman.  A lot of readers read the Bachman books and saw Steve shining through. I’ve read both Nora Roberts and [...]


My family has always been big on games.  Card games.  Board games.  Head games.  Packer games.  Brewers games.  Little league, basketball, pee wee football.  You get the drill.  Games, games, games.  Wheee. As a child, one of my favorite games was SORRY.  Maybe because my grandma would play this with me whenever I asked.  And [...]


We here at the Handeland house watch a lot of television.  Hell on Wheels, Breaking Bad, True Blood, Supernatural, American Horror Story, Boardwalk Empire . . . I could go on but I’ll refrain.  Then there are our old-time favorites.  Shows we’ve watched so repeatedly we know exactly what’s going to happen but we laugh [...]


I am just back from 9 days in Anaheim at the RWA National Convention. Yes, that was NINE days.  As I’m on the board of directors I get to go early.  Whee. However, because I was there early, and we got all our homework done, I also got to go to DisneyLand.  I’d never been. [...]


I love the Internet.  Every day I find a new, cool website to add to my old favorites.  Today we’re going to share and share alike our favorite places to waste time and buy things. My newest time waster is: http://triviatoday.com/ You do have to register, but then you receive a trivia question by email [...]


One of the questions I am asked most frequently is: “Do you write about your life in your books?”  (Although lately I am asked non-stop about 50 SHADES OF GRAY.  Sigh.)  It’s always interesting to me that people would rather believe that I actually know a few werewolves than that I could construct such a disturbing [...]


Do you ever hear someone’s ringtone and wonder just who is calling them based on the song?  I suppose not everyone spends valuable time searching for the perfect ringtone to fit those people who call them often enough to warrant their own tone.  But I do.  I like to know who’s calling without having to [...]


Two Saturdays ago, I had a garden party.  We have finally finished two years of backyard renovations, and I wanted to celebrate.  (It was only later that I learned it was the Queen’s Jubilee, which made it even better!)  I love garden parties, and tea, and little cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off.  I [...]


I suppose I’m dating myself by this title.  Those of us who remember the old commercial with the song “Who wears short shorts?  We wear short shorts.  If you dare wear short shorts, NAIR for short shorts,” are women of a certain age.  Show of hands.  Who used NAIR? At any rate, I’m not talking [...]