Every year when I do my blog post for March 14, I can't help but mention Pi Day. I know it's a day that refers to something mathematical, but it's also fun to think about that other pie, the one you can eat. My favorite kind of pie is peach with blueberry coming in a close second. What is you favorite kind of pie?
I have a couple of books in which characters bake and eat pies, none of them my favorite. My book, A Family to Call Ours, takes place mostly in the fall. What kind of pies do we think about in the fall? Apple and pumpkin pies. You can find more information about this book here.
In my book, A Baby to Call Ours, a marriage of convenience story, my heroine is trying to learn to cook and wants to make her new husband his favorite foods. His favorite pie is apple. Here's a short excerpt from the book.
Jimmy never
talked about his work, but she had a feeling he was trying too hard to please
his uncle. But what reason did Jimmy have to rush home at night other than his
workshop? Certainly he didn’t rush home to see her. She wasn’t sure why that
made her sad.
Now
everything was different. She had no baby on the way. Did Jimmy feel trapped in
this marriage? She wanted to talk to him about it, but she didn’t know how to
bring it up or what to say. He still needed a wife. A divorce wouldn’t look
good to his uncle. She wished she knew what Jimmy wanted. She wished she knew
what she wanted. Her emotions floundered in a sea of confusion.
Shaking away
all the troubling thoughts, Kelsey got out of the car. Jimmy would be home
tonight after another out-of-town trip. She wanted to buy some groceries to
make him a special supper to celebrate his return. She had surprised herself at
how much she enjoyed cooking. Besides fried chicken, Mary had told Kelsey that
he loved steak and baked potatoes. That should be easy to fix, if she could
figure out how to light the grill.
Kelsey
grabbed a shopping cart and pushed it into the store. She headed for the
produce department in search of the perfect baking potatoes. After she selected
two, one large and one small, she spied the apples. Did she dare try to make an
apple pie, another one of Jimmy’s favorites? She would try.
After she
selected the apples, she moved on to the large display of cheeses. Jimmy loved
cheese in the sandwiches he often took in his lunch, and she wanted to get him
something special. While she perused the cheeses, she heard two women talking
as they stood on the opposite side of the display. The mention of Jimmy’s name
caught her attention.
“Do you know
who’s back in town?” asked one woman, not waiting for the other woman to
respond. “Whitney Hamilton.”
“She hasn’t
been back in years, even to visit. Why is she back?”
“Her dad’s
health has really declined in the last six months. I think her mom begged her
to come home to help.”
“I wonder
what she thinks about both Mitch and Jimmy being married.”
“I don’t
think she cares that much about Mitch. She always had her sights set on Jimmy.
He was the one she was in love with, even when she dumped him for Mitch.” The
woman sighed. “Jimmy Cunningham can sure turn some heads with those good looks
of his.”
“Yeah, but
then he runs off and marries some young thing that he barely knew.”
“Someone told
me they thought she was pregnant, a one-night stand that resulted in a rush to
get married.”
“I heard they
don’t even live together. Is that true?”
“I don’t
know, but it wouldn’t surprise me, if Whitney has her way, that Jimmy won’t be
married for long. Those two couldn’t stay away from each other even when she
was engaged to Mitch.”
Kelsey wanted
to run out of the store. If those women saw her, would they know who she was,
or were they just talking about some nameless, faceless woman who was part of
the small town’s rumor mill? She would forget the cheese, grab the steaks, and
get out of this store.
Hoping the
women couldn’t see her, Kelsey kept her face turned away as she found her way
to the meat department. Hurriedly she looked over the steaks and grabbed a
couple of packages and threw them into her cart and barreled down the aisle
toward the checkout lane.
When Kelsey
finally reached her car, she tossed the plastic bags containing her purchase on
the passenger seat as she slid behind the wheel. While she drove home, she let
those women’s comments replay in her mind. Had people guessed about her
pregnancy? Well, now there was no baby.
Kelsey’s
heart twisted, and the tears flowed. She wasn’t even sure she knew why she was
crying. The loss of her baby. All the pretending. The thought of losing Jimmy.
Maybe all of it pressed down on her spirit. What had happened to the cheerful
college student she’d been last fall when she’d first met Jimmy?
In the last
three months she’d cried more than she’d probably cried in her whole life. Her
mind replayed the conversation from the grocery store again and again as she
drove into the garage. She kept hearing what the one woman had said. Those two couldn’t stay away from each other. Did Jimmy still love Whitney? Did
she still love Jimmy and intend to go after him even though he was married, as
those women had surmised?
You can find more information on this book
here.
Do you plan anything special for Pi Day?
Merrillee
Whren is the winner of the 2003 Golden Heart Award presented by Romance
Writers of American. She is married to her own personal hero, her
husband of forty-plus years, and has two grown daughters. Connect with
her on her Facebook page and sign up for her newsletter.
All around me life is starting to bloom. Things that were dull and brown are now brightening to glorious greens. And flowers. I adore flowers, so seeing the bursts of color popping up just makes me happy. 
Life renewing itself, getting to witness that each year, is definitely one of my favorite things about spring. 
USA Today, Wall Street Journal, & Publishers Weekly Bestselling author JANICE LYNN lives in Tennessee with her Prince Charming and their princes and princesses, her vivid imagination, an adorable Maltese named Halo who's the true royalty of the house, and bunches of unnamed dust bunnies that moved in after Janice started her writing career. In addition to writing romance, Janice is a nurse practitioner, a quilter, a military mama, and an avid supporter of the Quilts of Valor Foundation. www.janicelynn.com 
