#8Sunday #SnipSunday: Love Letters

Love letters is the second story in my short story trilogy, The Lilac Hour, which released just this week.
Here are the opening lines:


We buried Mama under the big oak next to Papa just as the lilacs came into bloom. It was  fitting, Mama being laid to rest at his side in the time of lilacs. I was so full of missing her that I felt my heart would splinter into a thousand tiny pieces, but I found comfort in the thought of  them together up there in the shade of those old trees, overlooking the bay. It tempered my grief ever so slightly, like a feather come to lodge in a dark place.
For the longest time, I would think it was her each time the kitchen door opened. I could see her carrying a bunch of lilacs. “Oh, that sweet smell,” she would say, “If only they could bottle it.” Or I would open the cupboard and expect to find all the cups right-side up, a habit of  hers that fretted me to no end.






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For more about the Lilac Hour, click HERE

#8Sunday #SnipSun: The Lilac Hour

I've been busy writing and getting ready to launch new projects into the world. The Lilac Hour is the last, but not least, of four releases I've had this summer. It's a trilogy of linked short stories about three generations of women in a family. The first story, The Lilac Hour, is about Sara, a women in her eighties.
Here are the opening eight lines of "The Lilac Hour"

We called it the lilac hour. The name came from my Aunt Delilah, who had a jungle of  lilacs in her backyard near the harbor. Every spring, they would open their fragrant buds of deep purple and gentle pink. And so it was that I pointed out those same colors to Zeke as the sun  finished dipping deep into the bay and Zeke said, “Yes, the lilac hour.”
We were young then, Zeke and I, new to marriage and still a little reckless, and I thought the term highly romantic.
That spring, Zeke gathered lilacs, bushels of them, from Delilah’s garden and put the petals on our bed. Still dreaming, I awoke to the stubble of his beard grazing my neck and the delicious sweetness rising from those buds. I’ve never been able to pass a lilac bush without thinking of him, and the tenderness of early love.

The Lilac Hour will be released later this month. For more on the trilogy, click HERE

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The Honor of your reading is requested. The Wedding Day Collection

The Wedding Day Collection made its debut over the weekend.  June is the perfect season for weddings and so these stories about them come in right on time. I'm so pleased that my story, Schroedinger's cake, is included in the anthology.

The honor of your presence is requested to the pages of The Wedding Day Collection, an anthology of tales celebrating that love-inspired event. All of these short stories revolve around the romance of the wedding day. From an unexpected bump and an outspoken wedding crasher to a missing groom, we hope these stories will make you smile and warm your heart.





 Schroedinger's Cake is one of eight stories in this anthology. It's a story about a special wedding cake, the baker who created it, and the guy who bumps into her truck and nearly destroys it.
Here are some of my favorite lines from this sweet as dessert romance story--

* Something in the way he said it, like he wasn’t quite sure of himself, or maybe something in the way he stood there, his lanky body resting on one leg as though she were hanging in an art gallery and he was assessing her value, cut through Gina. She would tell him exactly how she felt about cake murder.

*Evan Dunne’s first thought, as he’d watched the compact brunette get out of the Bennetto’s bakery van, was that she was not what he expected.

*Hancock Falls was a small town. There couldn’t be that many weddings on an October Saturday. And there was only one bride in the world who could make another woman want to commit suicide over a cake.

* “Something like that. Since I’ve already made an ass of myself, I figured I could add dork to the list.” He stuck out his hand. “Evan Dunne. Dork ass extraordinaire.”


For more on the Wedding Day Collection, including how you can buy a copy, please click HERE

#8Sunday: Schroedinger's Cake

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This week marks the release of The Wedding Collection. I'm proud to have my story, Schroedinger's Cake, included an this lovely anthology.

In honor of the release, I'd love to share a bit of Schroedinger's Cake with you.

Evan Dunne’s first thought, as he’d watched the compact brunette get out of the Bennetto’s bakery van, was that she was not what he expected. When he’d hit the van, he imagined a big burly delivery guy would get out and read him the riot act. His second thought was gratitude that he’d avoided major damage to either vehicle or, horrible thought, to the compact brunette.
As he pulled his SUV in the spot next to hers, it occurred to him that she wasn’t about to read him anything. In fact, she seemed not to notice him there at all. She disappeared around the side of the van with such purpose that, when he got out of the SUV and followed, he was surprised to find her sitting on the van’s bumper as though all her determination had drained to the blacktop.
He’d been mistaken. As soon as he’d spoken, voicing his concern, compact brunette’s resolve came tearing back.



For more about the collection, click HERE

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Announcing I'll Be Seeing You!

My short story collection, I'll Be Seeing You is coming to Turquoise Morning Press in July of 2013!

I'll be seeing you is a trilogy of short stories about three generations of women and the loves in their lives:

The Lilac Hour: Sara has been widowed longer than she was married. Now in her eighties, she discovers that anything is possible in the lilac hour.

Love Letters: Maggie rediscovers the letters that her husband Jake wrote long ago. Can she rekindle the passion that was once theirs?

The Road Not Taken: JoAnne meets an old love at Target. Has she made the right choice in choosing her husband David?