Making Lemonade Out of Lemons by Merrillee Whren

My regular blog day is the 14th of each month. I have no excuse for not posting. I just forgot. We all forget stuff from time to time. So today I'm making lemonade out of lemons. Today is Susan Berry's day to post, but a dear friend died, and she didn't feel like posting. So I decided to jump in and put up a post.

You may wonder about the photo above. A little over a year ago, we lost our big mesquite tree in a microburst that threw our patio furniture everywhere. In the background, you can see the trunk of the tree twisted from the storm. The top of the tree is lying in the yard. Thankfully, it missed our house, but it did fall on my little lemon tree. The lemon tree has survived, but it didn't produce any lemons this year. However, I have neighbors and friends with plenty of lemons to share every year.

In many of my books, my characters must make the best of a bad situation. My Front Porch Promises series is filled with such stories.

 In A Match to Call Ours the heroine must make the best after losing her job, so she takes the job of a nanny for two twin girls. In A Place to Call Home the hero must find a way to deal with an unjust conviction and being sent to prison. In A Love to Call Mine, the hero has to deal with a cancer diagnosis. In A Family to Call Ours, the heroine has to show her boss's son that she is not there to take advantage of his parents. In A Song to Call Ours, the heroine has to deal with a broken down car and getting stuck in a small Tennessee town. In A Baby to Call Ours, the hero and heroine must navigate the troubles a marriage of convenience can bring. In A Place to Find Love, the heroine has to learn to work with her former boyfriend's brother and not stir up old resentments. Since I write romance, there is always a happy ending, but getting there is always a challenge, a challenge my characters step up and meet.

What is a time you had to make lemonade out of lemons?

 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.