Happy September!

Fall is finally upon us here in Indiana. After a pretty mild summer, the Fall temperatures came roaring in last week.  The AC is off. The windows are open.  The smell of my fall Bath and Body Works candles that I snuck in the house last week from my latest order making the entire house smell like a fall bakery.  Every thing just seems right in the world still surrounded by chaos.

It's honestly my favorite time of year to be outside.  I spent much of last week's downtime re-decorating the porch for the season.   It's quickly becoming one of my favorite spots in this house to write.  There's just something about wrapping up in a hoodie or blanket with a mug of warm apple cider from a local orchard that just makes me happy.

Do you enjoy this time of year? What's your favorite Fall activities? For those of you in the southern hemisphere, what's your favorite part about Spring?

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​Happy August!
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The title of this month’s newsletter might be a little shocking to some of you. In fact, you may be scratching your head right now because how would it be possible that I almost didn’t get married when… in fact, I’ve been married for quite some time. With our 10th wedding anniversary and my 34th birthday today, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the last ten years almost didn’t happen at all. Most weddings are these fairytale affairs that we dream about as kids. Mine wasn't, but before we get to that point, I need to go back a bit. 

After a year of constant changes with him having to give up a full-ride grad school scholarship to come home to have surgery, our entire plan was in flux. Instead of moving to California after our wedding, we were going to be staying close to home. Really close. As in in his hometown and five miles from my own hometown. Perfect right? Well, not really. My job was over 65 miles away, which meant, my five-minute commute from my apartment turned into 90 minutes of highway hell. But with everything that had changed for him, I was willing to make it work. The weekend before our wedding, I said goodbye to my first grown up apartment and moved back home. Since he was a minister, it was out of the question that we would be staying together before the big day so while my furniture and cat lived with him, I moved back in with my parent’s for a few more days.

Things were different being back home, but 24 hours into the arrangement, my world almost exploded. After a strenuous softball game, the night before, my then fiancé started having issues with what he thought was bad leg cramps. As the next day came, he was unable to walk without severe pain. In true Glen fashion, he wrote it off as a sports injury until I came by on my way home to check my cat and to spend time with him. It took literal seconds for me to see something was wrong, but his stubbornness refused to go to the hospital. Until I called in the big guns. My dad. With his help, we convinced him to be seen, and had we not, I wouldn’t be celebrating my 10th wedding anniversary with him.

The next few hours were a whirlwind of doctors, tornado warnings, and trying to be strong for him. He had a massive blood clot in his leg from his last bro road trip. That clot had broken up in what the doctor could only describe as “the most pulmonary embolisms he’s ever seen in someone still alive.” Not exactly what you wanted to hear, but he was right. Glen shouldn’t be alive. The fact that he made it through is a testament to his strength and determination. It was the single most frightening time in my life except for his second bout with blood clots just six years later that tried to take him away from me again.

With Glen in the hospital, we made the decision to cancel our wedding and reschedule it for the following week. My birthday. The one day that I didn’t want to get married but knowing how much it would take to help him recovery, giving him that goal was the fuel he needed to survive. Sure, we had to find a new reception venue, minister, freeze our wedding cake, order new flowers, and so much more, but looking back now, all of that was truly a drop in the bucket in comparison to losing him.

Our first ten years may have been a roller coaster of ups and downs, but I wouldn’t change it for all the money in the world. It’s those experiences that have shaped me into the woman I am today. Experiences that I put into my very own fictional worlds. Relationships aren’t easy, but when you have to fight for them, it makes those special moments even sweeter.

Happy Anniversary, Mr. Paige. Let’s see what the next ten years bring us.

It's official. I am NOT a green thumb failure.  After many stops and starts with getting my new garden area tilled and prepped for planting, all my plants are finally in and thriving. Shocked? So am I. Between Indiana wavering between spring and winter for several weeks to sweltering heat the last few days, it's been a weather whirlwind for my precious plant babies.  Every day, I pop out to our garden to check on our plants.  Since they aren't any sports to watch on TV and most of my normal television shows this time of the summer are delayed due to COVID19, my garden is my new source of entertainment.  Though, I do wish the weeds would get with the program and GTFO of there.  I spent two weekends in a row tackling them, and they just keep coming back.  Jokes on them because my new small cultivator will arrive this week and the battle with the weeds will come to an end...I hope.

The only plant causalities that I have had are two of my twelve Brussels sprout plants, which were totally my fault thanks to a wayward sprinkler during a water session.  My tomatoes are blossoming and the wax beans are really taking off.  I am so excited for the next few weeks as my Early Girl tomatoes should start producing in Mid-July. ​

Happy January, Everyone!

It doesn't seem possible that another decade is upon us. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun, and if how fast 2019 went by is any indication, 2020 is about to get crazy.  
And, what better way to kick off 2020 than with a new book announcement.  Not only a new book, but a new series, and an amazing co-write with one of my favorite people on the planet. Geri Glenn.  We've kept this secret under wraps for a few months now, but we are so excited to finally make the announcement now that we have a GORGEOUS cover ready to go. The debut title in our new series is hot, hot, hot, and we can't wait until release day.  Stay tuned for more information about this series. 
I am also working on both Demons & Desires and Devil's Queen. No definitive release date just yet, but I will be announcing them as soon as I send them off for editing.   
On top of that, I do have a few other books up my sleeves that might just be coming this year as well.  New series. New genre! All kinds of good things coming.  
2020 is my year, and I can't wait to see where it takes me. 

See you next month!

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Happy November, Everyone!

If you follow me on Facebook or just about any other of my social media platforms, you may have seen a post that I began circulating around mid-week last week.  Tragedy has struck members of our chosen family, but before I talk about, I want to go back to the beginning. 

In late 2009,  Mr. Paige, then my fiance, headed off to California with full-ride scholarship for his Master's degree, and a dream that I would be joining him in the summer after our wedding.  Living apart was one of the hardest times of my life.  We coped the best we could, but it wasn't easy planning a wedding when one half of your partnership was on the opposite end of the country.  A month into his move, I received a call that I never expected. 

Glen had hurt himself on a youth group trip to Six Flags.  He assured me he was okay, but turns out, he wasn't. He struggled for weeks to get medical care and an answer for his shoulder when a guardian angel came into our life in the form of our friend, Pat.  A woman in her 70s who was a board member at my husband's church.  She showed up to Glen's apartment with a few of the church men in tow, and moved him into her house while he sought medical treatment. She drove him to class, helped him do his laundry, typed papers for him. etc. You get the idea.  Throughout the months he lived there, they became close. You see, Pat, had lost her to youngest son to drug addiction. Her husband followed soon.  After losing two important people in her life, Pat began giving back. Her home became a shelter to those who needed help. Friends in need became her family. 
 
Even after Glen was forced to move back home for medical treatment, she never let him give back her house key.  This wonderful woman even flew in for our wedding that next summer, and even came home for the weddings of friends who had come with us on our annual trip out to see her.  Her home became our home. A refuge for us all.  

In July 2018, our annual trip was something much different. The minute we arrived, Pat's beautiful smile was a little dimmer.  You see, Pat's breast cancer that she had bravely fought off the year before was back. This time in her lungs and very aggressively growing. Something that she knew weeks before we arrived, but hadn't told us.  We made it a mission to spend as much time with her as we could that week because I knew how bad it really was. 

Two weeks after we got home, she passed away.  Her death hurt us both so much. Hurt the friends who she had welcomed into her home and life as family.  But, her legacy wasn't over yet.  Her son, Darren, continued her life's work by offering her now vacant home to our friends and their family, filling it with love once more.

That is until last week when a plane tragically crashed into the master's bedroom, and destroying the house. With a friend's husband and 18 month old son inside the home. Thankfully, they escaped, but their home. Our home was gone. Watching the national news coverage brought so many memories back for me this week. The love we shared in that house now gone. Our memories there the only thing left.   You can read more about the crash here. 

Until I realized tonight that it was just a house. Not the definition of her life.  Her spirit and her love is still with us, and a part of me truly believes that she kept our friend's safe. That she protected them from harm. The house may be gone, but her love will always live on.

Now, I know that this isn't the kind of story you expected to read this month, but it's the story that was on my heart when I sat down to start writing this month's newsletter.  I hope that you found hope in it because even if you lose every physical possession you own, life and love is all that matters.  And with Thanksgiving this month, I can't help, but feel thankful for Pat being in our lives and how she impacted those around her. 
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Hug your love ones a little tighter today.