Another year draws to a close. Are you like me, looking back and wondering how everything didn't get done? Or wondering how you got so many things done?
I've got to admit, this year went a bit different than planned, not always in a bad way. I had two books release, which is the personal goal I have set myself for now (after almost killing myself doing four a few years ago). And I have contracts for two more to release next year. But ...

It's hard to believe it's been two decades since the picture above was taken. That was at our wedding rehearsal and we were giggly and excited to finally be where we'd been longing to be for years. Getting married!
The vows we exchanged with each other are the same vows that appear in my book, For Better or For Granted. Those vows were some I heard my dad use in someone else's wedding, and when it was my turn, I asked him if we could use them too. he looked through his files and printed them out for us.
My father-in-law performed our ceremony (nice having two preachers in the family so you have options). You can see him in the background of this photo.

Sometimes people ask me if there's any of my life woven into my stories, any reality. Of course there is. It would be rather impossible to write something and not have a little bit of personal experience come through. So much of my life has shaped me and the way I think, and that comes out in everything I do, including my writing.
Naturally, I include other little things on purpose too. For instance, in my latest story, For Better or For Granted, I included our wedding vows. No, we didn't write our own vows. I guess we could've, but neither of us had any desire to do that. Instead, I remembered some vows my Dad had used with another couple a few years before we married. And I remembered loving them. So, I asked him if he could dig them out for us to see if we wanted to use them. And I still loved them.

If you guys have followed me for long at all, you know I write romance. No suspense. No mystery. Just straight-up romance. Which means no bad guys, usually.
That being said, for some reason, "bad guys" keep creeping into my writing lately. Last year, when I was writing my fairy tale retelling, of course I had to have a villain. ;) And it was really fun having someone to blame a lot of the heroine's problems on.
But my latest book, For Better or For Granted, is not a fairy tale. It's about as opposite as you can think of because it's about a happily ever after that's falling apart. So, why would it need someone to make it worse?

School nurse by day. Lonely by night.
Genevieve Stewart loves her job and the high school where she passes out bandages, sends home sick kids, and updates shot records. It was her dream job. And it got even better when Scott started paying attention to her five years before.
Having him drop by her office to bring her coffee, chat for a minute, even steal a kiss--it was ideal. How many other women were blessed to see their love during working hours? Needless to say, she figured life after marriage would be even better. But it isn't.

I've always been told to write what you know. And I do, to a point. Obviously, every now and then I have to write from research or from someone else's knowledge, because I can only know so much.
However, have you ever heard "live what you write?" I haven't. But it seems to be the way my life has been going in some ways the last few weeks.
What do I mean?
Well, as I've said before, I have a book releasing in just over a month. For Better or For Granted is set in a high school, with my MCs the principal and the school nurse. The principal, aka Scott, is also the former basketball coach. So, we have some fun school setting/co-worker romance/sports/etc going on. Well, I don't know how much you remember about high school, but I used some of my own memories and then I incorporated some things from school experiences my husband has had over his years of teaching, and then I made some stuff up. But I'm not telling which parts are which. ;)

It's that time of year. The time when we wrap things up for 2023 and start looking ahead to what 2024 holds.
I'm going to be honest. 2023 just about wore me out. When I first agreed to four different book releases this year, I wasn't thinking straight. Or wasn't remembering how much time that took on top of everything else I was doing in my life outside of being an author. Needless to say, I'm not ready to do that again for a while.
​That being said, I'm still going to be releasing books next year. Yay!

We're three months into 2023. Normally, I'd have some sort of exciting news to tell you about what I'm working on. Want the truth?
I haven't written much this year.
​It's a shocker, right? Well, not so much, considering everything else I've been doing. And I did start the year off with a book launch in February, which took up quite a bit of time. So does editing. And my other jobs. And my kids. And you get the idea.
These aren't excuses, though. Simply life. All that to say, there's not much new to talk about right now. But ...