I Think It's Time for Another Road Trip by Anna J Stewart

Hi there, sweet romance readers!  Great to be back with you again. Hope you all are getting ready to dive head long into the holiday season full of good cheer.

Me? Well, I'm thinking it's about time for another road trip. As a California girl, I feel pretty fortunate that there are a lot of great places to visit within driving distance to one another.  I'm a bit further north than I used to be, but there are times when the coast and the Monterey area just start calling. It's probably why I set my upcoming Butterfly Harbor series (from Harlequin Heartwarming) there. At least if I can't get there in the physical sense, I can go in my mind.  In case you need a little help imagining, here's some help:

Ahhhhh. You feel better now, right? The idea for this series kind of happened in a flash--one of those a-ha moments writers dream of. It's like striking a vein of gold in a mine. There's a small town just outside Monterey called Pacific Grove. It's a bit of a tourist destination with a large retreat center and tons of small businesses. The houses are eclectic and traditional, the ocean is right over the hill and the weather, honestly, couldn't be more perfect.  Hence the model for Butterfly Harbor.  But my stories needed some added punch, something at stake, and having the town struggle for survival seemed the perfect answer.

THE BAD BOY OF BUTTERFLY HARBOR (on sale 12/1) opens the series. Holly Campbell, a life-long Harbor resident isn't convinced all the new ideas to bring the town back to prosperity are going to work, especially not when it means having to alter the precise schedule that keeps her life running smoothly. She sure doesn't believe the return of Luke Saxon, the town's one-time notorious bad boy returns to take over as the new sheriff. There's a lot of history between these two but there's also a lot of discoveries to be made. At its heart, this book is about forgiveness and persevering through life's sometimes crippling challenges; it's also about the resiliency of the human spirit.

For me, the beauty of the coast helps bring everything into balance, as it does for me whenever I return to the place that inspired me. Two years ago, before I started writing the book, I took a road trip with three good friends (my Monterey girls as I call them). We spent the weekend exploring every inch of Monterey and Pacific Grove and they helped me delve into what makes small towns like these so special and fun to write about.

So as we head into "the crazy" season, where the windchill kicks up and the sun sets sooner than it should and the Christmas carols start ringing through the radio, I'm thinking it's about time to load the girls up, head down south and get some new story ideas, you know, in case anyone wants to read more about Butterfly Harbor.

How about you? What's your favorite road trip with friends? I'd love to hear about them. Share in the comments, please!

In the meantime, have you subscribed to the Sweet Romance Reads newsletter? Our upcoming holiday edition is going to be jam-packed with lots of reading treats for you sweet romance fans. Just click on the subscribe button on the right of this page and you're in!

USA Today and national bestselling author Anna J. Stewart can't remember a time she didn't have a book in her hands or a story in her head. Early obsessions with Star Wars, Star Trek and Wonder Woman set her on the path to creating fun, funny, and family centric romances with happily ever afters for the independent heroines she writes for both Harlequin and Berkley. Anna lives in Northern California where she deals with a serious Supernatural & Sherlock addiction, surrounds herself with friends and family and tolerates an overly affectionate cat named Snickers (or perhaps it's Snickers who tolerates her). Visit her online at www.authorannastewart.com.

D.I.Why by Aileen Fish

I blame it on my father. From the time I was first forming memories, he was making something. Electronics. Furniture from kits. When he and Mom bought some acreage, he built a couple of sheds.

It's in my blood, obviously. I can't help myself. I refuse to pay someone to do something I can do myself. Or, more correctly, something Dad could have done by himself.

Last year in my wild frenzy to make some improvements around here, I bought laminate flooring for my hallway and kitchen. And let it adjust to the environment in the house here...for more than 14 months.

I'm not sure what triggered it this time, but suddenly I had to get the flooring installed. Right. Now. I did what I was supposed to, looking at videos and reading tutorials so I could be sure to do it right. I started measuring and cutting. The cross cuts were fine with my circular saw. My attempts at ripping lengthwise weren't. I was afraid it was operator error but I got back online and discovered the circular saw wasn't the best choice. A jigsaw was.

I headed back to the hardware store--after researching the cheaper brands of jigsaw, of course--and while I was there I picked up the handy-dandy flooring installation tool kits recommended on all the blogs.

When I started gathering tools the next day, I discovered I'd bought one of those tool kits a year ago with the flooring. I'd just learned rule #1: When doing a project of any sort, start it soon enough that you remember where you put all the tools and parts.
Back to cutting wood. The jigsaw was so much easier to use on cross cuts, and I when I noticed my straight lines always veered in one direction, I adjusted the angle of the wood and followed my guide line exactly. I felt so smug.

Then it came to ripping lengthwise again. The jigsaw worked so much better! The operator didn't. My cuts resembles a drunk walking the yellow line in the road. Lesson #2: Don't blame the tools when there's a possibility of operator error.

With enough practice and not too many wasted boards, I managed to make some pretty straight cuts. And learned how to trim the wide parts back to where they should have been cut. Insert happy face here.

One reason I started working on this when I did was because the temperature was down in the nineties for a few days. A very few days. Today as I learned how to use my jigsaw, I was doing so in 100 degree weather. I had a rag handy to keep the sweat out of my eyes. With all the breaks I needed to take to re-hydrate and cool off, rule #3 came to mind. When you live in the desert, plan to do your projects in the fall or winter. Oh, wait, I did plan to do this in the fall...then the winter...and even spring.

I have gotten the hard part done, mostly. The next step is the kitchen where I won't have as many cuts...and hopefully a lot less ripping. The two whole days I've actually been able to work on this, with all the bending and squatting and standing and working on a table that's too low, I learned what I hope is my final lesson:

Leave the DIY stuff to the pros.

~*~

USA Today Bestselling Author Aileen Fish is an avid quilter and auto racing fan who finds there aren't enough hours in a day/week/lifetime to stay up with her "to do" list. There is always another quilt or story begging to steal away attention from the others. Her books include The Bridgethorpe Brides series and the Small Town Sweethearts series. She can be found on Facebook,Twitter, Pinterest, and her website.

Her latest release is a collection of the three novellas and novel that make up the first four books in the Bridgethorpe Brides family. With three more books in the series releasing soon, now's the time to read the series from the beginning.