“Kissing and Other Scandalous Pastimes”

Join the fun at The New Romance Café Facebook Page, December 2^nd 12 pm until 9pm for our International Release Party! We’re celebrating our first historical romance anthology. It is one of two winter anthologies we’re releasing this year!

I am so honored to be a part of this awesome group. My friend and fellow Pamlico Writer, Tammera Cooper invited me to check out this group and I fell in love with the page, the people and the program. Andie Wood the page founder and her team of awesome moderators have worked tirelessly to put out five anthologies this year. FIVE! All the proceeds have gone to breast cancer research. In the spring I was able to fill in when a family emergency took out the original author. While I’m so sorry she was unable to participate, I’m so thankful for the opportunity to have been a part of that first anthology.

I hope you will join us as we celebrate the launch of this most recent anthology. For many of us it was a labor of love. “Kisses and Other Scandalous Pastimes,” is our first historical romance. My story, “If Only in My Dreams,” is the story of lovers torn apart by war and duty. When Lydia’s brother is killed at Pearl Harbor, she calls off her wedding. After graduating nursing school, she joins the Army Nurses Corps and leaves her heart in North Carolina.

As we celebrate this, our fourth anthology, “Kisses and Other Scandalous Pastimes,” I’m struck by how much has happened in such a short time. Like the short stories and novellas, we write, we have accomplished much in so little time. It takes true heroes or in this case, heroines to accomplish such great feats. I won’t call names for fear of leaving someone out, but I think these amazing women deserve a bow. I will mention Andie Wood who brought us all together. She wanted a safe place for beginning writers to learn from more experienced writers. A place where we could share ideas and experiences. The New Romance Café Facebook page is a place to share our love of books both reading them and writing them.

When I first started writing this story, I knew I wanted to write about World War II. I love history and for me, this was living history having known so many who played a part in the war from my great aunts who went off to work in munitions’ plants, to my great uncles who served in every branch of the military to my grandfather who was a merchant marine and to my neighbor, who was a Navy nurse. So many stories swirled in my head I didn’t know where to begin. When Lydia first made her appearance, I knew she was going to be from my home state of North Carolina and a nurse. Then Jeremy came on the scene and I tried to decide who he’d be. With a husband who is a mechanic both by trade and talent, I decided that Jeremy, like my husband could take anything apart and make it better. He could drive anything with a motor. Unlike my husband, I thought he might also like to fly air planes. My baby sister’s father was a pilot and flew me around when I was a kid. After I got used to my stomach lurching when he did a loop de loop, I loved it.

In a short story, you don’t have the time or space to really build up a relationship, especially if you are still learning like I am. I thought I’d start with the couple already planning their wedding and work my way back. Figuring out the mechanics of telling the story can be as difficult and as interesting as developing the story itself. I could tell the story in a straight line and that’s often the best way. By flashing back to when Lydia and Jeremy were a couple then back to the war, I hope the story lives up to the title. “If only in my dreams,” is a line from the Christmas classic, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Our Allies banned the song from being played fearing it would negatively affect morale. No matter if you are in a war zone, or just far from home, when you are missing those you love, it is often the comfort of dreams, memories, letters and phone calls that help us through. To me, the song and thus my borrowed title remind us of what is truly important, as the Bible says, the greatest of these is love.

I hope you will join us for our book launch. “Kissing and Other Scandalous Pastimes” is available Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. The other The New Romance Café anthologies are on sale now for a limited time for 99 cents at all major retailers. Check out these wonderful eBooks and know that the purchase of these books support breast cancer research worldwide.

I’ll be your host from 8:30 pm until the end. Don’t forget, December 2^nd, The New Romance Café Facebook Page. You will have to join to participate but you will be glad you did. There will be gifts, prizes and games. It’s a real party. If you stop by, don’t forget to say hello and I’ll put you in a drawing for a $5 Amazon Gift Card.

I look forward to seeing you all there!