Animals add a richness to life, whether they are pets who share our homes, or wildlife we put feeders out for and enjoy seeing in the wild. There are animals who have been trained to become an indispensible aide for those living with disabilities. Animals have also become enormously important in the fields of law enforcement and the military. It’s rare that a human will go through life without having been touched in some way by an animal, so why shouldn’t we expect to find them within the pages of a book.

Anyone who reads historicals or westerns has probably met some unforgettable horses, like Black Beauty or the Lone Ranger’s Silver. We’ve held our breaths while the hero or heroine outran a death-dealing animal in the wild as in the movie JAWS! Rin Tin Tin and Lassie are just two of the many well-known canines from both books and television. Sometimes these fictitious pets bring us to tears, as in Old Yeller or make us laugh like Beethoven and Marley, sometimes they are just cute, cuddly and fun to have around.

Just as having a convincing villain in our stories makes them more complex and interesting, so can a well-written animal character. I’ve had an animal in all of my books in print. Most of them have simply been pets, as the elderly golden retriever in Whatever It Takes, or the adopted cat Bruce in Trusting Will. In the first book in my Camerons of Tide’s Way series, Falling for Zoe, my heroine had a cat, two fish, a parrot and three dogs. Her menagerie was a collection of pets, her own and those left behind by siblings who grew up and went off to college leaving Zoe in charge. It was one of the things her ex-boyfriend couldn’t abide, and the hero of the story admired.

In the second book in the Tide’s Way series, Loving Meg, I featured service dogs. My hero trains German Shepherds for police work as a career and as the book begins he has become interested in training dogs for service work with returning soldiers suffering from PTSD. The conflict, at least part of it, is that his wife Meg is a Marine lieutenant, just returned from a tour in Iraq where she witnessed the death of a military dog trained to find IEDs. Torn by guilt, thinking she might have been partly to blame, the dogs in her husband’s kennels bring on nightmares and flashbacks.

But there’s another dog in this story. Kip is a police canine suffering the after effects of violence that took the life of his handler. It’s far easier for Ben to understand the loss that Kip is suffering  - he’s spent his whole life with dogs and he knows what makes them tick. He desperately wishes he understood Meg’s nightmares better, too. If only she could open up and tell him why the dogs in his kennel make her cringe when they bark or why Kip shadowing her everywhere about the house makes her uneasy.

Loving Meg is a love story between a man who fell in love with his soul mate when she was still a teenager and the woman who has loved him ever since they first met. They have a good marriage and two young sons, but Kip and the deceased Scout make the story interesting. They add richness to the relationship and urgency to the conflict.

I love reading books that have animals in them as well, from the kitten that tangles the knitting yarn, to the horse that carries his master into battle, to the dog that chases a tennis ball until his young boy’s arm can’t throw it even one more time. I was touched by the book, Until Tuesday, which is a non-fiction account of how a dedicated service dog brought a broken and hurting soldier back from the brink to a life full of purpose and joy. The story of Capt. Monteban and Tuesday inspired me to write Loving Meg and to dedicate half of my proceeds from the sale of the book to the non-profit group, K9s for Warriors in Ponte Verdra, Florida.

If you'd like to know more about K9s for Warriors click here>    

To see how other authors have used animals in their books, check out the links to other blogs in this series:

Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Victoria Chatham http://victoriachatham.webs.com/
Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.com/
Margaret Fieland http://www.margaretfieland.com/blog1/
Rachael Kosinski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
Kay Sisk http://kaysisk.blogspot.com
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Marci Baun  http://www.marcibaun.com/
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Anne Stenhouse  http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com/

Early in the last century, our country began to take a leading role on the world stage. Our democracy, built on a firm foundation of freedom to pursue life without interference from autocratic governments, flourished with innovation and confidence. Our business climate led to industrial strength, wealth and success for anyone who wanted to work hard to make their dreams come true. Wave after wave of immigrants arrived on our shores, determined to find their way in this new and vibrant country. They learned the language and labored to give their children better lives than their own. Whatever their ethnicity, they became Americans and in the process made this country stronger and even more diverse.

But somewhere along the way we lost that vision of who Americans are. We stopped being responsible for ourselves, our decisions, and our lives. We lost a sense of respect for our fellow citizens, from our leaders to our neighbors. We tend to ask “what’s in it for me?” to any request for our time, talent or treasure. Our children are growing up in a world where they expect the government to take care of them, to provide food and shelter when they hit difficult times, jobs and job security, and subsidies for college. Illegal immigrants expect amnesty when they break our laws and even many of the legal immigrants expect to cash in on the benefits of living here without working for them.

When I was growing up, if I got in trouble at school, I just prayed my father wouldn’t find out because I knew there would be additional discipline when I got home. In today’s world the miscreant’s father is more likely to head right down to the school to give the teacher a hard time for being too hard on his poor misunderstood child. We might as well remove the word accident from the dictionary because lawyers would have us believe there is always someone who can be blamed and sued for obscene amounts of money. What happened to taking responsibility for the choices we make that result in unpleasant consequences? Or just accepting the fact that sometimes bad things happen and it’s no one’s fault?  When did we stop expecting people to work for the things they wanted or to pay for the bad choices they made?

We’ve let people with no faith dictate the way we live and removed any sense of morality from public life, and yet we act shocked when misbehavior escalates to mayhem. We overlook the dishonesty of our elected officials and continue to elect men and women who have lied to us and made selfish choices that are not in the best interest of the people they have been elected to serve, but more often taken only with the goal of getting elected again. We should be holding our leaders to a higher standard, rather than lowering our expectations.

We’ve failed to teach our children self-discipline, self-respect and patience. We hand out trophies for participation rather than award hard work and excellence. Any expert in child development will tell you that children gain confidence from achievement based on their own efforts, not from empty praise and easy rewards. If a child grows to adulthood without learning how to set goals, and how to make sacrifices and work hard to reach them, how to fail and get back up again, then they end up lacking confidence. The Can-Do mindset that Americans have always been known for in the past fades quickly when we sit back and wait for someone else to make our lives what we expect them to be. And that lack of self-respect easily becomes a lack of respect for everyone else.

It’s time to stop the landslide into mediocrity. It’s time to take a hard look at the wishy-washy, political correctness of our current mind-set. It’s time to start being honest with ourselves and with each other and to demand that people start taking responsibility. An appalling 36.4 percent of eligible voters actually voted in 2014 – the lowest figure since WWII. Apathy is rampant, and it’s the road to ruin. If we don’t want to work for it, we won’t keep it. If we are not willing to fight for our country we will lose it to others who are more motivated and willing to do whatever it takes to defeat us. If America is to remain strong and vibrant for our grandchildren and their children, it’s time to take a serious look at the policies that have eroded our economy and our leadership. It’s time to stop playing partisan politics and make the hard choices that will be required to turn tide.

We have heard a lot about heroism in the news lately, but heroism apparently stops at the front door of Congress and the White House. Unfortunately these views are for the most part, politically incorrect. Which leads me to wonder if the death of America will be at the hand of political correctness and a lack of courage. What a sad epitaph.

For twenty years, I lived on the coast of Maine. It was a beautiful home, one I designed and even helped to build. Then I joined the Peace Corps and was sent to a tiny island country in the South Pacific. I left Maine one snowy February day and less than a week later, stepped out of an Air New Zealand jet and climbed down the stairs to meet the sweltering heat of a late summer evening in Tonga. I was on the adventure of a lifetime and I was excited to be there, but even so, the heat was daunting. But I quickly acclimated and began to enjoy the tropical setting, the warm South Pacific waters, and the soft trade winds that made the island a paradise. Then, two and a half years later, I came home and went back to work. I was fortunate that my first few months were still summer in Maine, but before long the nights turned chilly and soon after the glorious explosion of fall foliage winter set in. Winter seemed to last forever. As beautiful as my home was, I kept pining for the warmth of Tonga. Spring was late that year and the following summer shorter than usual. The following winter, in a desperate attempt to leave the cold and snow behind for at least a few days, I took a vacation to St Augustine, Florida. A friend had been telling me for years, I’d love the historic little city, and she was right. I fell in love with the place. It took me two more years to plan and execute my early retirement and permanent move to St Augustine.

I love my little bungalow on a barrier island with the ocean almost at my feet and I enjoy walking on that beach year round and feeling the sun on my face and being warm. Moving was a happy decision, and I’ve not regretted it for a moment. But the lure of Maine is still in my blood. This summer, I decided to find a cottage to rent foa  couple weeks to enjoy it at its most glorious (unless you count the fleeting fall foliage days.)  My borrowed cottage had a deck overlooking Merriconeag Sound on the northern fringes of Casco Bay where I could eat my breakfast and watch the fishermen hauling their lobster pots, then later in the day see the graceful schooners sailing by and ending with a glorious sunset.

I feasted on lobster so fresh it had probably still been on the boat just hours before it ended up on my plate. I reconnected with a friend I hadn’t seen in over twenty years and had a chance to visit with both of my former bosses and catch up on their news. As standoffish as most New Englanders are, the folk in the little neighborhood I was staying in were super friendly and I feel like I’ve made at least half a dozen new friends. Duff and I walked down to the little harbor by a world famous cribstone bridge every day so he could go swimming, and we checked out a few other little beaches tucked into the rocky shoreline. I had grand plans to spend the quiet retreat writing – specifically finishing my latest book, but as it turned out, I did a lot of reading instead, catching up on some of my vast to-be-read pile.

The fireworks were absolutely spectacular. On the 4^th I sat on my deck and watched fireworks for more than two straight hours. We could see the display as far away as Portland and half a dozen other’s closer to us. And on the 5^th we walked down to that little harbor, sat on a beached dock ramp and watched the most fantastic display I’ve ever seen anywhere. All-in-all, it was a magical two weeks that ended far too quickly – my summers in Maine were always too brief so I guess that was to be expected. BUT – I’ve already reserved this cottage for next year so I’ll be coming back for another taste of Maine.

On Memorial Day we remembered all those who have sacrificed their lives in the course of American history to maintain the ideal of liberty and opportunity, but on this holiday it’s time to reflect on how America came to be in the first place.

We slap burgers on the grill, drag chairs to Main Street to watch the local parade, head to the beach for a day of sun and swimming and await the dark that brings colorful displays of fireworks. Merchants feature big holiday sales to lure customers and the police and emergency medical personnel gear up for a possibly busy weekend. Even in London America’s Independence Day is celebrated with dozens of events, American style food and entertainment. (The Brits are either really good losers or they are celebrating being free of a difficult, strong-willed child.

But how many of us stop to consider the magnitude of what we are celebrating? Or the sacrifices that it took to gain that ideal of liberty? Long before July 4^th 1776 there were British soldiers quartered in commandeered homes in Boston, sent there to keep order and enforce the taxes being levied on the colonies. Shipping was harassed at sea, colonial ships were boarded and men taken by force to become crew on British ships. The men and women who settled in America had come mostly to establish a home where they could worship as they wished without interference and oppression, but the idea of freedom had become more than just freedom of religion. It had become a way of life. A way of life worth defending whatever the cost.

After long months of debate and several petitions sent to the British Parliament and King George, which were mostly ignored, fifty-six men signed the declaration that declared, in part:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”

These men were not young hot-heads eager to start a war, they were soft-spoken men, educated and fair in their dealings. Twenty-four were lawyers or judges, eleven merchants, nine were farmers and owners of large plantations. In signing this declaration they knew they were putting everything they had on the line – their homes, their livelihoods and even their lives. But they signed it because they believed the cause was worth that level of risk. Looking back today, it’s easy to diminish the sacrifices these men made because our history books and folklore are full of the successes of men like Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Yet, among the fifty-six signers, five were captured and tortured during the war that followed, twelve had their homes ransacked and burned, two lost their own sons, and nine of them fought and died in the war that followed. Carter Braxton, a wealthy Virginia merchant had his ships sunk or captured at sea, he sold his plantation to pay his debts, then died a pauper. Thomas Keen served in the Continental Congress without pay while his family went into hiding and his home was destroyed. Several of the signers lost their wives and families as well as their property.

The cost of standing up to declare the birth of a new nation, grown and able to govern itself was very high, indeed.  So, the next time you see those stars and stripes flapping bravely and boldly in the breeze, take a moment and be thankful for the liberty you enjoy today. As you listen to the reverberating booms of fireworks and sigh in awe as color fills the skies, remember for a moment, the men who made it possible.  Freedom is not free and never was.

Anyone who knows me as an author knows my books are character driven, which means I have to create believable characters and I have to know them really well before I plop them down on page one of my book and let them run with the story. Sometimes I think I know them perfectly, and I am so sure I know what is going to happen next that when they take a hard turn away from my expectations, it’s surprising. But it’s also rewarding to know they are strong with hearts and minds of their own.

Most of my books are romances so they have a hero and a heroine created for people to care about. But who could ever care about Miss Nothing but Sweetness or Mr. Perfect and knows it? Often it’s the flaws in our characters that make them loveable. Even the traditional Alpha male who’s as handsome as a god and totally ripped, super smart and capable of lifting a car off a trapped child or shooting a neat round hole in the villain’s forehead from 1000 yards out has to have something to make him human. Maybe it’s his mom who’s ill and he never feels he can do enough to care for her. Or perhaps he has to hide his tears when a good friend dies. He might be haunted by memories from childhood or nightmares of things he’s seen or done. Maybe trusting his heart scares the crap out of him, or maybe he just can’t find the words to tell someone how much he cares.

Some of the heroes I’ve fallen the most in love with don’t even fit that description. In Pamela Morsi’s book, Simple Jess, she creates such a memorable hero who isn’t as smart, or successful and at first glance is the last man you would believe is the hero. But for all the heroic attributes he doesn’t have, he has a heart of gold, and an understanding of what the heroine needs that surprises everyone. If you haven’t read that book, you should. He’s one of my favorite heroes of all time.

It’s equally important for heroines to have their flaws. Sweetness and light and never making a wrong step can get pretty boring pretty quickly. Most readers want their heroines to have some spunk and sass. They want their heroines to make mistakes and find the courage and strength to overcome them. Maybe she did have an alcoholic father who beat her and she has never been able to forgive him, but when she comes upon a man so beaten down by his demons that he has chosen alcohol to forget, she can find the courage to see through the exterior to the hurting human being underneath and reach out to him.

But just as our heroines and heroes need to have flaws to be real, our villains need to have something that makes them real. Even a Mafia don can love his mother, or a hit man can have a soft spot for a dog. Perhaps the man is ruthless about tearing down his adversaries in business, but he never fails to be a gentleman to a woman. I recently critiqued a story that had a villain who was involved with running an enterprise that included enslaving people and rape and worse, yet every now and then the author gave this man a spark of human decency that made me care about him in spite of what he was doing. I began to see how he’d gotten where he was and that he sometimes wished he was not. He was still the bad guy, but flickers of his humanity made him a character with depth that the reader could relate to.

My first book published, Whatever It Takes is a mainstream intrigue and there are several point of view characters: my hero, of course, three other secondary characters who are decent people and one who is not so nice. All of them have secrets or things they aren’t always proud of. My main character has a past he has to face up to and deal with and it is the choices he makes that make him a hero. My villain discovers something about himself and what he’d believed in and dedicated his life to that revolted him and he, too has to make a choice. It is those choices that made them human and turn them into characters the reader can care about and cheer for.

Check out what some of these other great authors have to say about heroes, heroines and villains:

Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Marci Baun  http://www.marcibaun.com/
Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.com/
Rachael Kosinski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
Helena Fairfax  http://helenafairfax.com/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com/

Since I will be on the road on my usual blog day, headed north for another summer in New England, I thought I'd reprise a blog from an earlier summer that a lot of folk enjoyed. For those who've read it before, I hope you still find it amusing and for those who've started following my blog since this was originally posted  . . . enjoy. Duff is still with me, and looking forward to spending another vacation on the island, too. 

         
It's 5:30 A.M. I'm Sound asleep and my cell phone rings. Mind you, this is a surprising occurrence all by itself because my cell phone doesn't get a great signal out here on my island and almost never rings, even when I can call out. But ring it did and the woman on the other end tells me she has my dog at her house. I'm still fighting off the residue of sleep and trying to figure out how my dog, who I left camped on the couch in the cabin when I went to bed in my tent could possibly be somewhere else at this unGodly hour. She tells me his name and that she got my number off his tag, thank goodness for the tag I got him, and then tells me that she is on a road that is miles from where I am.
   So, I scramble out of bed and into some clothes, then head out. Unfortunately, this is not like being home where the car is conveniently parked outside my door. To get to my car, I have to get into a rowboat, row ashore and haul the boat up, then hike up Cardiac Hill to where my car is parked. All of this takes close to twenty minutes and I'm gasping for breath as I unlock the car and fall into the driver's seat. (I really need to get back into shape - maybe I should have a call-out that makes me hustle up this hill several times a day?)
   Duff, when I finally get to the lady's house, hops in the car like "what's the problem Mom? I was just out for a little walk?" He is soooo in trouble! I made him get off the comfy sofa and accompany me to the tent for the night. He wasn't very pleased, but then, he asked for it.
    As if the unauthorized field trip wasn't enough yesterday, when a thunderstorm barreled in on us, instead of retreating to the dark recesses under the bunk for safety, this time Duff decided to try digging his way under the mattress on TOP of the bunk. In the process he shredded the new sheets my sister had put on the bed. So, today I wake up, fortunately after a full night's sleep, and it's cold out. And since it's cold and windy, I decide today is a good day to head to Concord to fix the thunderstorm/fireworks issue once and for all by purchasing a crate for Duff to find refuge in. Once again, we head to shore in the rowboat and climb the hill - so maybe once a day will be a good start on that getting in shape deal? Anyway, I consult the app on my phone to find out where the closest PetCo is and off we go.
   Here's where it begins to seem like my life is turning into a sit-com. I miss the turn in Concord and immediately begin to look for places to get turned around. The first two intersections are clearly labels NO U-TURN, so I finally pull into a parking lot, check the little map on my phone again and head back the way I came. Next thing I know, there are blue flashing lights in my rear-view mirror. The cop doesn't look old enough to be out of high school yet, but I'll cut him some slack since that's probably just my personal perspective given the old lady I looked at in the mirror an hour or so earlier. He asks if I know why he pulled me over. Honestly, I had no idea. I hadn't been speeding. Didn't take the U-turn even though I wanted to and hadn't been yaking on my phone so I said no. He tells me he pulled me over for the U-turn. Then goes on to explain that it's technically illegal to turn into private property, which a parking lot is, to avoid a traffic directive. Are you kidding me? This is New Hampshire. Where they refuse to pass ordinances to make folk wear seat belts or helmets on motorcycles and you're telling me I broke the law turning into a parking lot???
   But he was nice. Young but nice. When I told him I was lost and trying to find my way to PetCo, he gives me detailed directions. Then he takes my license and registration -"just to make sure I'm not running from the law in Florida!"
   So, now I'm back on my island and I got here promising I WILL NOT GO OFF THE ISLAND FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK! But that was before I couldn't remember if I'd actually locked the car when I got back. So, looks like today I'll have two hikes up Cardiac Hill to work on getting into shape, after all. Might as well. It's still too cold to go for a swim.

I grew up in New England and we have our share of wonderful men who truly fit the term “gentleman.” But since moving to the south, I’ve discovered that there is something unique and special about “southern gentlemen.” And I’m finally realizing that difference is part of how they were brought up.

When I was in my twenties and traveling through North Carolina, I had to pull over to change my infant son’s diaper. In the very short time it took to get the job done, three different men pulled over to see if I needed help. I was surprised by the offers because my car didn’t have an obvious flat nor did I have the hood up with steam pouring out and I wasn’t standing at the side of the road looking lost. Each of the men who took the time to pull over and see if they could help were polite and after discovering my reason for stopping, wished me a safe journey as they climbed back into their trucks. That was my first introduction to “southern gentlemen.” I’d had truly distressing things happen along the road in New England, including an accident that rendered my car undrivable long before cell phones made calling for help easy, yet no one stopped to offer assistance.

For several great years, I worked as an office administrator for an investment broker. Doug was thoughtful and generous, interesting and smart and just plain fun to work for. He had also been in the Army for thirteen years, and on leaving active duty, joined the reserves. I used to joke that you could take the boy out of the Army but you couldn’t take the Army out of the boy.  I met him when he was just a Major, but his dedication and commitment to the Army kept him advancing until he retired as a full colonel. When he made Lt. Colonel, he became the commander of the training battalion for the State of Maine, which put in him in charge of five different companies whose day-to-day operations were overseen by regular Army staff sergeants. That was my first introduction to being called ma’am. No one in the State of Maine calls a woman ma’am. In fact, in my entire life, I’d never been called that in any New England state. Answering the phones was one of my tasks, and I always knew I had one of Doug’s “men” on the line when I was greeted with Good morning, Ma’am. I found that small level of respect, inculcated by their military training to be pleasant and very welcome. No matter how brief the conversation, or how urgent the reason for their call, the contrast between their civility and the greetings from regular business clients was refreshing.

So now I’ve moved south permanently and the manners that men and boys learn here has become underscored everywhere I go. The fact that all the bagboys at the grocery offer to wheel your cart out to the lot for you every time you shop was the first thing to surprise me. That NEVER happens in New England even when you are very old, or coping with a handful of small children. The other day I was walking my dog along a road that winds through a county park along the edge of the waterway and I noted, not for the first time, that every single man that drove by me waved as they passed. Nothing flashy, just a brief salute of acknowledgement in passing. In one spot a teenage boy was casting out a fishing net while three very bold herons hovered close by hoping for a snack. I commented that he had an audience and the young man looked up and replied, “Yes, Ma’am.”

There’s a lot I love about where I’ve chosen to live, but this small mark of respect, this ingrained civility that I’m sure the men who show it never even question is a very special bonus.

Trusting Will, book 3 in the Camerons of Tide’s Way series is out and available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play and iBooks.

Will is the younger of the Cameron twins, the middle child in the family of five children. Ben (Loving Meg) has always been the serious twin: patient, conservative, and reliable. Will wants everything yesterday. Although Will is not the youngest in the family, he’s the one everyone else jokingly refers to as the grown up kid. He works just as hard as everyone else, but he plays harder. Philip plays tennis, Ben enjoys golf and Jake (Falling for Zoe) loves to explore the intercoastal waterway in his kayak when his busy life permits. Will, on the other hand, jumps out of airplanes, takes kiteboarding to its limits, and rappels down anything, the steeper and more dangerous the better. Will is a North Carolina State Trooper, rides a motorcycle on the job work and pushes himself to excel in everything he does.

When Will took over his nephew’s Cub Scout den when the former leader got transferred, he discovered he loved working with the eager young scouts, especially Sam, a boy desperately in need of a man in his life. Sam’s mother is a knockout and as soon as he discovers she’s a single mom, Will is determined to pursue her. Now, if only he could impress her as easily as he impresses Sam.

But it's little wonder that Brianna Reagan, who’s already had her heart broken by a man who put his life on the line in the service of his country, isn’t eager to get involved with another bigger-than-life, alpha kind of guy who’s willing to risk his life wearing the uniform of a law enforcement officer and seems to thrive on danger. She might have managed to keep from getting involved with Will at all if only he hadn’t turned out to be so darned good with her son, Sam. If only he didn't make her pulse race when he looked at her with interest in his eyes. If only he didn't always seem to know what she needed, even when she was in denial.

An excerpt from Trusting Will:

Fort Benning, Georgia, three years ago

Brianna Reagan woke with a start, her heart racing, and her chest tight with apprehension. She listened for something unusual. Something unexpected. But there was nothing.

Nothing but the sound of her startled heart thrumming in her ears and her son playing in the next room.

Sam’s piping five-year-old voice issued orders to his army of tiny soldiers. He had always loved the little figures his father had given him, but since the day they’d taken Ed to the airport at the start of his most recent deployment, the little green men had become an obsession.

“Guess what, Daddy? I’m going to be a general when I grow up,” Sam announced, nodding his head in determination. “And you’re going to be really proud of me.”

“I’m real proud of you already,” Ed replied with a suspicious sheen in his bright blue eyes. He stiffened into a formal salute, then unable to maintain the distance, scooped Sam into his arms and hugged him hard before putting him back on his feet and turning to Bree.

Bree dismissed the haunting daydream abruptly, sat up and swung her feet over the side of the bed. As she reached to shut off the alarm she hadn’t needed, she stopped a moment to gaze at Ed’s photo that sat next to the clock. It was his formal military portrait, but even in that solemn pose, Ed hadn’t been able to keep the twinkle of mischief out of his eyes. Sam was a miniature of his dad. Same dark hair, same blue eyes. Same mischievous sparkle. Bree blew the portrait a kiss and slid to her feet. It was time to get Sam moving, get some breakfast into him and head off to work.

At her dresser, Bree dragged a brush through her tangled blond hair and wistfully considered the idea of cutting it. Except that Ed loved it long. She pulled it into a ponytail and worked an elastic band around its thick bulk, then leaned forward to check for new wrinkles. Twenty-seven wasn’t old, but already little lines fanned out from the corners of her dark eyes. Too much worry and stress, she thought as she reached for her robe and headed for the hall.

The solid thunk of a car door shutting out in front of their base-housing duplex halted her in her tracks. She turned and hurried to the window

Her heart froze in horrified denial.

Bree’s world telescoped into a narrow tunnel focused on the flat gray-blue tops of the dress uniform caps moving purposefully up her front walk. Desperately, Bree tried to think of any other reason two officers in dress uniforms would be coming to her door so early on a Monday morning.

But her heart already knew. There could be only one reason these men had come.

Her chest constricted in pain, and her head roared. Her eyes ached, but there were no tears. Not now. Not yet. She raised a clenched fist to her mouth, knuckles white with strain as her heart plunged into the unavoidable knowledge that her life would never be the same again.

Available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Note: Short Stories, Loving Ben and Mike's Wager are free on Kindle.

If you’re a bookworm like me, you probably recognize that empty feeling you get when you read the final words in the latest really great book. I get the same feeling when I’m writing a book, but in the back of my mind I know I can always revisit these people. Maybe, if there’s still a lot of story that could be told, you have this hopeful little feeling that you can write another book featuring the characters you’ve come to love. Surely that’s the emotion that keeps Diana Gabaldon going  even though she’s already produced thousands of pages in seven books about Jamie and Claire Fraser. But as readers, we don’t have that option. We can hope the author has more ideas in store, but more often than not, he or she has moved on to new characters and a new story, often in a new place and even a different time.

So, you’ve just clicked back to the menu in your electronic reader, or closed the cover of this book you just loved and set it aside. What now? Well….. now you want to find another great book. Maybe even better than the last. My first recourse used to be to hurry down to the library or the closest bookstore and see what else this author wrote. Today it’s even easier – just head to Barnes&Noble.com or Amazon.com. Online booksellers have even done some of the homework, showing the covers of books others who enjoyed the book you just finished ‘also bought.’ The most exciting thing is to discover that this author has dozens more books already out and you won’t have to wait until their next book is released. But what if this is their first book, or you’ve already read their other books? What if none of the suggested books appeals to you?

That’s when you start paying attention to your friends who’ve been raving about a new author they just discovered. One of the nice things about Facebook, in spite of the games they play that leave you out of so many posts, or about Twitter in spite of the thousands of posts you can’t possibly keep up with, is that authors and their friends or enthusiastic readers post links to books all the time. Books you might never have discovered otherwise. For people like me, it’s a win-win bonanza.

But today, I’d like to hear about the books my blog readers have read and loved. Or Authors. I especially like to find new authors. So, please, leave me a comment – tell me what your favorite book/author of all time is and also what is the most recent book you’ve read that you just loved and couldn’t stop raving about. I’m going to compile a list of all the new suggestions you ladies and gentlemen make and two of you will win a $10.00 GC to either Barnes & Noble or Amazon – your choice. Be sure to leave me info on how to reach you, preferably an email address, which you can send privately to me via skye@skye-writer.com

Recently someone on FACEBOOK asked the question, ‘What was the first book you read and loved when you were a kid?’  My mom read to me when I was really small and I’m sure I had my favorites, but I don’t recall them. I remember sitting on my dad’s bench reading Mr. Popper’s Penguins to my dad who was building a small wooden sailboat when I was ten or so, but the one book that stood out most in my mind was Heidi by Johanna Spyri. I was totally in love with that book and at least half in love with Peter.

Looking back on it now, I realize that was the beginning of my love affair with romance. Even though it was a child’s story about an orphan, there was something appealing about her friendship with Peter, and in the sequels Peter and Heidi grew up, fell in love and married. My first romance for sure. I grew up as well and graduated to Georgette Heyer who wrote dozens of Regency romances and set the standard for all who followed her. 

Since the days that Heyer kept me enthralled, romance has changed significantly. There are so many genres and sub-genres. Whatever catches your fancy: military heroes, cowboys, wealthy CEOs, vampires, time travel, suspense, mystery, historical, Regency, medieval, inspirational, sweet romance or hot and sexy there is a romance out there to please. The advent of e-books and then the explosion of self publishing has shattered the grip that the big NY publishing houses had on the romance genre and everyone is pushing the envelope. And I think there is a place for all of them.

Romance has also become more diverse and inclusive. When I was young and nearly innocent myself, all the heroines were just that – young and innocent. Now they are all ages, from young adult teenagers to college women, and career women, women who have been married and widowed or divorced, and even older with grown children. And the heroes who were once always older, wiser, wealthy and more worldly have become more diverse. They might be wealthy or they might be farmers, or carpenters or policemen. And both heroines and heroes have begun to represent all of America. Instead of always being white, they are men and women of all ethnicities, skin colors and faiths. That surely has to be a plus for everyone. America is strong because she is diverse and to represent that diversity in romance just makes our reading experience better.

One of the biggest changes I’ve seen though is in the stereotypes. Heyer surely started the feisty heroine with a mind of her own trend and most readers of romance have little patience for heroines who simper and sigh and let the heroes make all the decisions. Heroines have become career women and soldiers, politicians and FBI Agents. A healthy reflection of the freedom that women have today to pursue their dreams independent of men. And our Heroes have changed as well. Once upon a time heroes were all stoic, strong, smart and capable. All of those characteristics are still part of our favorite heroes, but we’ve moved beyond that to accepting men who have been hurt and are struggling and sometimes even being willing to share their pain, especially with the heroine. Instead of standing, legs spread and arms folded across his manly chest on the rolling deck of his ship, untouched by the mayhem of a pirate’s life, he can be hurting inside because of the man he didn’t save, or the mother who turned her back on him. And even more recently we have navy SEALS, soldiers and Marines who can pull off the most amazing feats of heroism under fire and yet be gentle and loving and struggling with the things they’ve seen and done.  Just as I loved Peter back when I was ten, I love these men who push themselves to the limit physically and mentally, who would move heaven and earth for the woman they love and are yet able to admit to the things that haunt them and reach out for help from those who care and be humble with their heroines. This softer side of today’s heroes makes them more complex, more complicated and more loveable.

The one thing that hasn’t changed is that romance is here to stay. More than any other genre in print or e-book, romance tops the list in sales and distribution. Love really does make the world go around, and I doubt we’ll ever get tired of reading happy endings.

Check out these other authors to see what they have to say about Romance today:

Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.com/
Skye Taylor  http://www.skye-writer.com/
Margaret Fieland http://www.margaretfieland.com/blog1/
Helena Fairfax  http://helenafairfax.com/
Anne Stenhouse  http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Marci Baun  http://www.marcibaun.com/
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Rachael Kosinski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com/