Babies in Books

“This is not a monkey. It’s an o-ran-gu-tan.” The three-year-old boy pointed at the picture on his electronic tablet. “You don’t know anything, Mon-Mon,” Scott added as his brothers, Brian and Ethan scowled at me suspiciously. The little sweethearts are triplets.

“Okay, I see. Maybe we can play the orangutan game,” I said with my most amiable tone of voice. I badly wanted to cooperate with the triplets I was babysitting while their mother, my young cousin, was at the doctor.

“No, too tricky for you.” Brian shook his head and Ethan protected his tablet behind his back.

Playing on the tablet was too tricky for a writer and grandmother!!!

A month ago I had the pleasure of hosting fourteen children under twelve for Christmas dinner and their week vacation. Among them we had two sets of twins and one set of triplets. All adorable and so good at using their ipads and their parents’ iphones! Even the three-year old triplets tapped their little fingers faster than I can ever do it.  

I also regularly babysit my grandchildren. The exhausted young parents never hesitate to bring their little angels—or monsters, depending if I’m full of energy or at the end of my patience—to spend two to four weeks with Grandma and Grandpa’s. I love chatting with them.

Is it any wonder that I have become quite an expert at taking care of young children?

“Write what you know,” a well-known editor advised during one of her workshops.

Have you ever featured children in your story?

I had several babies in BABIES IN THE BARGAIN; a teenager in NO MORE LIES; a baby girl and four little boys in AN UNUSUAL CHRISTMAS.

Children add a touch of humor and emotion to our stories, and bring smiles in our lives.

Babies play a major role in my Holiday Babies series.

Books in this series can be read in order or as stand-alone reads.

Holiday Babies Series:

Holly Jolly Christmas: Prequel to the series.

Christmas Babies: A sweet and powerful Christmas Story.

Valentine Babies: Can he love a woman expecting another man's baby?

Mother's Day Babies: Never too late to find love and happiness.

Wedding Surprise: Is it the worst or best wedding surprise?

Christmas Papa: Who's my Papa, Mommy?

On Christmas Eve: We want a mommy for Christmas.

“Mona Risk knows how to pull a reader into the minds of her well-crafted characters. Her work takes us on a journey be it local or overseas.”~Night Owl Reviews.

Hurricane Season

What is a hurricane for you?

An interesting news item? 

A suddenly annoying situation if you have to cancel a cruise in the Caribbean? 

A moment of anguish if you know a relative who lives in the south?

OR is it a fearsome announcement that means prepare yourself because the eye of the storm is heading straight toward your town?

Living in Hurricane Land. 

I live in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and I survived hurricanes Frances in 2004, Katrina and Wilma in 2005, and several tropical storms. Now the TV announces that the hurricane season is starting. Difficult to believe when the sun shines gloriously and the ocean is as even as a lake.

How do you prepare and behave when the forecast predicts a hurricane?

Panic and evacuate as we did during our first summer in Fort Lauderdale or stay and weather the storm hoping it would bypass us?

In Florida, we survived Frances and Katrina, then relaxed and forgot. So when the TV asks everyone to prepare for Wilma, we did it with a calm know-it-all smile on our lips. There was no way on earth we were going to panic and leave our apartment.

Little did we know that two days later we would be sitting in the living room of our apartment, listening to the wind blow at hundred-fifty miles/h. The sound was horrific. I've never seen or heard wolves in my life but to my feverish mind the wind sounded like the howling of a pack of wolves. We lost electricity and telephone. The elevators stopped. The hurricane shutters tightly closed left us in the dark except for a candle lit in the bathroom and another in the kitchen.

In the middle of the day, more precisely at 11:20 am I felt the building shake. We lived on the eighteenth floor and the ground moved under us. I grabbed my husband’s hand and said, “Do you think the building can collapse?” He said he was more worried about the glass door to the balcony shattering. Together we stuck towels against the panels to stop the shaking of the glass and the seeping of the water.

After ten hours, the noise subsided and the storm abated. We climbed down the eighteen floors and reconnected with our neighbors. We were among the lucky ones who hadn’t suffered broken windows or major damage. One of our neighbors reported that the wall between her bedroom and the neighbor’s living room had collapsed.

The next day the neighborhood was unrecognizable with devastation everywhere, cars smashed on top of each other, broken electric lines lying across the street, uprooted trees, windows, chairs and tables messing the beach sand.

But the hurricane brought people together, those without damages helping those severely affected. We gathered on the terrace of the building, barbecued and ate together for five days while waiting for the electricity to be restored. Many buildings remained without water for ten days and our friends came to shower in our place. Some residents had to leave the apartments for two to three years to allow repairs to be done at turtle pace and insurance to cover the cost.

Eleven years have gone since Wilma but whenever I hear the word hurricane, I always remember Hurricane Wilma and I wonder what is in our forecast for the next four months.

So what does a hurricane mean to you? 

Amazon

Husband for a Week is a novella that made the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists as part of Summer Fire Box.

Jonathan Ramirez values his law practice and doesn’t believe in commitment, especially not to Isabella Cantari, a sassy young woman, who seems to attract trouble wherever she goes. Sicilian vendetta, fake husband, and an irascible matchmaking grandmother complicate Jonathan and Isabella’s lives. Can love conquer all?

my newsletter: http://mad.ly/signups/111038/join

www.monarisk.com

Summer Plans

Do you have a trip planned for this summer? Memorial Day weekend is just ahead. My wedding anniversary is coming up in June. Father’s Day is shortly thereafter. Then the Fourth of July… Official holidays, personal celebrations, or a getaway – maybe you have a special go-to place like a mountain cabin or a beach house, or do you like to see new places and fresh faces when you get away? 

My husband and I have been talking about getting away. Several times over the past year we’ve discussed and planned, but stopped short of actually booking a trip. Life, I guess. Family obligations that can’t be accounted for within a schedule like my mom in a memory care unit, or job obligations, or – you name it – there’s always something ready to hold you back from taking off on adventure. 

We planned to take a trip to the UK in May but didn’t go through with it. We’ve looked at cruises, not really caring where it sails, but only wanting to be on the ship and watch the ocean go by. We’ve considered short, more local trips to the shore or to the mountains, but each time I pull my Go-For-It finger back from the keyboard. Not yet. 

So when? Will it be when this current book project is finished? There’ll be another to write. As for family – there’s no guarantee of health and stability on any given day or week regardless of age or condition, so timing may be a gamble, but waiting is a sure way to never get away. Or do you just enjoy the planning more than the actual trip? Many do.

What holds you back? Whether it’s from traveling or doing something else you’ve dreamed of? What keeps you anchored in the planning stage, never to take off and do it? Where would you go if you had the chance to travel without restriction?

~:~:~

Grace Greene writes women's fiction and contemporary romance with suspense. A Virginia native, Grace has family ties to North Carolina. She writes books set in both locations.

The Emerald Isle books, BEACH RENTAL and BEACH WINDS, are set in North Carolina where "It's always a good time for a love story and a trip to the beach."

Or travel down Virginia Country Roads in KINCAID'S HOPE, A STRANGER IN WYNNEDOWER, and CUB CREEK and "Take a trip to love, mystery and suspense." Her newest release, LEAVING CUB CREEK, is the sequel to CUB CREEK.

BEACH RENTAL, her debut novel, won the Booksellers Best contest in both the Traditional and Best First Book categories. BEACH RENTAL and BEACH WINDS were each awarded 4.5 stars, Top Pick by RT Book Reviews magazine. KINCAID'S HOPE received a 4 star review from that same magazine.

 

Grace lives in central Virginia. Stay current with Grace's releases and appearances at www.GraceGreene.com and sign up for her newsletter. Grace loves to hear from readers.

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