Trying Something New! by Merrillee Whren

No, I am not taking up cattle ranching, but the hero of my latest book is. Cowboys are a favorite of romance readers, but I have never written a story with a cowboy in it. The closest I've come is a part-time farmer in Country Blessings and a medical writer who owns a ranch and pays cowboys to run it in A Match to Call Ours. 

When people think of cattle ranching, they probably think of Texas, Montana, or Wyoming. Would it surprise you to know that Florida is a big cattle ranching state? The photo above was taken in Florida. That is where my ex-rodeo cowboy, Wyatt Bayer, finds a new job after recovering from a career-ending injury in his small home town of Kellersburg, Ohio. That's where he becomes reacquainted with my missionary heroine, Caroline Keller. What will happen when the missionary and the cowboy meet again many years after they both left their home town?

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Besides trying my hand at writing a cowboy story, I've also tried to make my first book trailer. My granddaughters introduced me to i-Movie on my i-Pad. So this is what I made with their help. If you would like to view the trailer click here.

Have you tried something new recently. If so, what did you try?

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.

Cow Appreciation Day by Merrillee Whren

Sometimes when I'm trying to figure out what to talk about on my assigned blog post day, I must resort to celebrating some well-known or not-so-well-known holidays. Last year on July 14, I talked about Bastille Day, so that one was out. July 14 is also National Nude Day, but I didn't think that would work for Sweet Romances. It is also Pandemonium Day, and any other year, I would have chosen that one. But we've all had enough pandemonium this year. 

My other choices were Mac and Cheese Day or Cow Appreciation Day. I chose to talk about cows because I remembered having the above photo. I love to use this photo and have people guess where it is taken. Very few people guess that I took this in Florida somewhere on a road as I traveled between St. Petersburg and West Palm Beach. When I saw the cows, I had to stop and take a photo.

Besides the beef that we get from cows, we get milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream as by-products of dairy farming. When I was a little girl, I helped my grandpa milk the cow on his farm. When we were home in Montana, we got fresh milk from the lady down the road. I used to watch her separate the milk from the cream. Then she poured the milk into a jug, and we carried it home. Our other neighbors had a few cows, and one day before I went to school, we stopped and watched a calf being born. I had no idea that those experiences would one day inspire a scene in a book. A Match to Call Ours takes place on a Montana ranch. It is the first book in my Front Porch Promises series. You can read an excerpt if you click on the title.

 

The third book in my Pinecrest series will release on July 21, and it is now available for preorder. Order your copy now. 

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How will you celebrate Cow Appreciation Day? I think I'll have some yogurt. I'm pretty sure my hubby will have ice cream if he hasn't eaten it all. 

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.

A beach read to take you away...by Kristin Wallace

It's been such a craaaaaaazy year. I barely know what day it is, let alone the month. The world seems to have stopped sometime in March, like a weird Twilight episode. Since most of us have been on

lockdown, it might be a good time to take a virtual vacation. How does Florida sound? A quaint beach town filled with characters you will love.

I'm talking about my Shellwater Key Tales series. The books have been out for awhile, but now I'm getting ready to release a 4-book Box Set, "Four Tales From Paradise". (I already put together a box set with three holiday novellas.)

These books follow 3 childhood friends who return to their hometown when their lives fall apart. They become involved in reviving the old Paradise Dinner Theatre. 

Four Tales From Paradise – Shellwater Key Tales 

Three childhood friends return to their hometown at a crossroads in life. One slightly past-her-prime dinner theatre in need of some TLC will show them that love, and healing, is still possible by the time the curtain rises.

Left Turn At Paradise (Layla & Grayson’s story)

Layla McCarthy has spent most of her life trying to outrun the wild reputation of the mother who abandoned her as a baby. Raised by her grandmother, one of the first female surgeons in Florida. Layla puts all her faith in building a career, only to lose everything when her business partner absconds with the company funds. Then she learns her grandmother and great aunt have bought an old, rundown dinner theater in her hometown of Shellwater Key.

Bringing The Paradise back to life will play a key role in bringing about a brand new act in her life. Including a romance with Grayson Kendall, the enigmatic and sexy director hired to produce the first show. At the same time, the mother who abandoned her as a baby returns seeking redemption.

Can she learn to forgive her mother and open her heart to love? 

Coming Home to Paradise (Beth’s story)

This is the companion book to Left Turn At Paradise, telling the story of Layla’s mother, Beth McCarthy.

After years of trying to outrun the memories and guilt, Beth McCarthy has come home to Shellwater Key to make amends. She has survived deadbeat relationships, single motherhood, and a fight with cancer. Now, she faces the most difficult battle of her life…finding a way to connect with the legendary mother she was never able to please…and earning the forgiveness of the daughter who has every reason to hate her. She might even have a chance to find the missing piece of her heart when Layla’s father comes back to Shellwater Key looking for answers. 

Straight On Toward Paradise (Emma & Reece’s story)

As a teenager, Emma Bertram’s perfect family splintered when her father left her mother for another woman. Anger and bitterness, along with the demands of being a professional chef, have kept Emma apart from her father and his new family for years. Then her father and stepmother are killed in a car accident. Returning to her childhood home of Shellwater Key, Emma learns she has become guardian of her two half-sisters.

What Emma knows about raising children could fit on a restaurant napkin. Then there’s her father’s law partner, Reece Casings, who has no trouble telling Emma what she’s doing wrong. The buttoned-up, so-wrong-for-her, but oh-so-handsome lawyer makes Emma’s blood boil. Or is it heart race? 

In the end, Emma will have to learn how to forgive her father…and herself…and trust in love and faith again if she ever hopes to serve up a happily ever after for everyone.

Last Stop At Paradise (Callie & Noah’s story)

When Callie Dalton’s charismatic televangelist husband falls into disgrace, she and their children is taken down with him. Now, he’s dead, and Callie is left with no other choice but to return to Shellwater Key…and the memories of the mother who tragically died there when Callie was just a girl.

A job as the House Manager at the Paradise Dinner Theatre seems like a chance to start over. However, every instinct warns that the sexy and mysterious carpenter, Noah Johnson, could be the most dangerous complication in her life…and her wary heart. 

When she learns his secrets, will she be able to face her own tragic past and embrace the possibility of a love that will finally set her free?

Four Tales from Paradise will launch in a few days so look for it. All of the Shellwater Key Tales books are in Kindle Unlimited right now so you can scoop them up for free if you're a subscriber. 

Check my Amazon Author Page for all of my books. 

Kristin Wallace is a USA Today Bestselling Author of sweet contemporary and inspirational romance filled with "Love, Laughter, and a Leap of Faith". It's not too late to pick up her holiday box set featuring three Christmas romances (Finding You At Christmas, Falling For You At Christmas, and Loving You At Christmas). Christmas in Shellwater Key is available on Kindle Unlimited so go ahead and scoop it up now. 

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Solo Travel: Florida in February by @MagdalenaScott

Have you read about the recent increase in solo travel? It's becoming more prevalent, especially with women. I've read quite a bit about it. Now I'm getting a taste of it first-hand.

I love to see new places, and life keeps turning me into a person who is on her own. I realized I can either stay home all the time or take the plunge into solo travel.

So far this year I've taken a small plunge (a weekend at one of our lovely Indiana state park inns while attending a traditional music festival), and a big one:

Ten Glorious, (mostly) Sun-Drenched Days

From February 15th through 24th, I was on a motorcoach tour from Louisville, KY all the way to Key West, FL, and back--over 2,000 miles. We relaxed at St. Pete Beach and did the tourist thing in Fort Myers. We rode an airboat in the Everglades! We had two nights in Key Largo and saw the sunset at Key West. We were buffeted by cold wind at Kennedy Space Center (oh well, can't always have great weather, and it was 17 degrees back home!) and explored our country's oldest city, St. Augustine.

Since the coach was big but the group was small, everyone had plenty of room to stretch out and be comfortable. Most of my fellow travelers were married couples or pairs of friends or relatives sharing the trip and the expense. I was traveling solo--my first big trip on my own. Two other ladies were doing the same. (I'm very proud of us!)

Over the years, I had heard from many friends that Toby Tours does a great job, so I was confident that the trip would be fun and well-organized. Sure enough, the driver and tour director were terrific, and everyone on the coach was fun to be with. When you travel with a group, you have to follow the prescribed schedule, but this trip also allowed some free time. Two favorite memories were made when I struck out on my own: a lazy day and meandering stroll along St. Pete Beach, and days later, a brisk walk to St. Augustine Lighthouse.

I was fortunate to get a delicious dose of sunshine before coming back home to skies that are as gray and rainy as when I left.

Would I take another motor coach tour? Yes. I'd also like to try a solo trip by rail.

But since Selina missed me terribly, she and I have been discussing the possibility of an RV. That way she could come along on my next adventure.

For now, she's glad to have me home, and I'm thankful for the memories made.

Florida in February was just about perfect.

Is solo travel something you have done, or would be interested in trying?

USA Today Bestselling Author Magdalena Scott is a practicing minimalist, having downsized from a 3,000 square foot house to a studio apartment, where her Giant Closet continues to resist taming. When not writing at home or spending time with family and friends, she loves to travel–carry-on baggage only–and is always pleasantly surprised at the kindness of strangers.


Website: https://magdalenascott.com/

Rain...Rain...Go Away...by Kristin Wallace

I live in South Florida and normally our weather looks like the above picture. It's the Sunshine State. We're known for the...well...the sun.

However, for the the last 6 days it's looked more like the pictures below. There's been street flooding. It even caused the huge, local outlet mall to close because the parking lot flooded. 

            

Since I've lived here for so long, I'm used to the sun. In fact, I can't stand to go more than 2-3 days without it. It's depressing. All you want to do is sleep. I don't know how people who live in rainy places do it. I've been to San Francisco once and while it's a very beautiful city, I had trouble with the foggy weather. To me it was like the sky was touching the ground. I felt almost claustrophobic and after a couple days I needed to get out. I'd be equally unhappy with a dreary, cloud-covered winter in the north. The forecast predicts even more days of rain so maybe I'll have to put up posters of sunny locales. Or stare at pictures I've taken on my phone, like this one...

How do you feel on rainy days? Do you like it? Or does it make you stir crazy? What do you do to feel better?

Kristin Wallace is the USA Today Best Selling Author of inspirational and contemporary

romance, and women’s fiction filled with “Love, Laughter and a Leap of Faith”. She is the author of two best selling series, Shellwater Key Tales (sweet contemporary romance) and Covington Falls Chronicles (inspirational romance). Her tenth published novel released April 24^th - Last Stop At Paradise, Book 3 in the Shellwater Key Tales.

For info on all of her books, visit Kristin Wallace Author

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