Montana Memories by Merrillee Whren

 

     From the time I was four until I turned ten, my family lived in Billings, Montana. I remember walking over a mile to school when it was really cold, bundled up in coats, gloves, hats, snow pants, and boots. Blizzards, tall snowdrifts, sledding, building snowmen, and ice skating were a normal part of winter.

     When I started writing books, I decided I would set at least one book in every place I've ever lived. When I set out to write the adult stories of three teenagers who were secondary characters in some of my early Love Inspired books, I decided to set one of those books in Montana. Brittany's story became Montana Match. I relied on my memories of living in Montana. Although I didn't live on a ranch, we had a mini-ranch just down the street from us. Our neighbor raised cows, horses, and goats. We got fresh milk from the lady who lived at the end of our lane. 

     I put my hero on an isolated ranch, but he referred to himself as a gentleman rancher. He lives there, but he has hired hands who do the actual ranching. My hero has adopted twin daughters. One of my best friends in fourth grade was named Rose. She had Crow Indian ancestry, and I used her as a model for my twins. I even named one of them Rose.

     The other books in the series were never purchased by Love Inspired, so I decided to publish them myself, and the Front Porch Promises series was born. The series expanded beyond those three teenagers and their adults stories, and for the longest time, A Place to Call Home was Book #1 in the Front Porch Promises series. However, Montana Match was always intended to be the first book. Recently the rights to Montana Match reverted back to me, so I gave it a new title to go along with the other books in the series. It is now titled A Match to Call Ours, and it has a new cover. 

You can preorder it now for 99 cents. Get the buy links by clicking or tapping here.

What are some of your childhood memories?

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.

 

Favorite Memories by Merrillee Whren

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to remember everything you've ever said or done? Wow! I suppose somewhere in ours brains all those memories might be lurking, but we can't bring them to the surface. When I decided to pick this topic, I realized I have a hard time picking favorites. When I'm asked about my favorite food, I can think of a half a dozen things I love to eat. Same thing with books and movies. There are so many to choose from. So how can I pick favorite memories. I can't. So I'll just share a few.

 Of course, my wedding day is a favorite memory. Here I am with my mom. She walked me down the aisle because my dad had passed away several years before. And sadly my mom passed away seven years later, so I love to remember her.

Christmases with the family. They are such wonderful memories.

And my granddaughters. Those memories are precious.

I could share pages and pages of memories, and I love to look through the photo albums or the photos on my computer and remember the things I've done and seen. When I write a book, I give my characters memories, some good, some bad. Always these memories shape my characters in some way just the same as our memories and experiences shape us.

What are some of your favorite memories?

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.

More than a picnic

Like most modern Americans, our family sees the Memorial Day weekend as the unofficial start of summer and a great time to crank up the barbeque, get out the picnic basket, and plan some family fun. Locally, the weekend also corresponds with the Silver Dollar Fair. We look forward to the fair, food, and fun, yet we know it’s tangential to the holiday’s true purpose.

"All gave some and some gave all." The flags in local cemeteries remind us of the sacrifices made by so many, and some flags fly over the graves of people we hold dear.

Arthur Aylworth, my father-in-law, was a married man in his thirties when the strike at Pearl Harbor plunged America into war. Through a combination of circumstances, he “did” boot camp for both the army and navy, finally serving as a radar technician for the Aaron Ward DM34, the third vessel to be known by that name.

For much of the war, he lived at home in San Francisco with my mother-in-law and my husband’s older brother. Then, almost at the war’s end, the Aaron Ward served in the conquest of Okinawa. During one horrific hour of combat, the Ward took six kamikaze strikes, lost nearly fifty men, and ended broken and flattened, its deck less than a yard above the waves. Art was on that ship’s first and last crew.

Hugh Hubbard, my father, graduated high school the spring after Pearl Harbor and fulfilled a contract he had already signed with the U.S. Forest Service before enlisting in the U.S. Navy. He served as a radioman and rear gunner in small naval airplanes. Dad always brushed away any attention, flatly stating that he had spent the war sitting on a tiny spit of land in the south Pacific, untouched by the fighting.

In September 1999, our family gathered to celebrate my parents’ Golden Wedding Anniversary. Sometime during the quiet afternoon following the party, there came a lull in the conversation. My dad said, “I landed on Funafuti on my twenty-first birthday.” 

While we listened in rapt attention, he told of the full moon that shone over the island that evening and the enemy planes that strafed the men as they dropped into foxholes dug into the coral. He concluded with the morning’s discovery of two men who had died.

My mother asked, “People died on Funafuti?” She’d been married to Dad for more than fifty years and this was the first she’d heard of casualties there. Once those floodgates opened, Dad began to share more and we all began to realize his full involvement in the war’s devastation.

Since our fathers served in World War II, we’ve known others who have fought in Korea, Vietnam, and the Middle East. The politics behind some of the conflicts can be debated, but the effects on those who serve are often only too clear. Wives and mothers, families and friends, also bear some of those scars.

This weekend, while we visit the fair, crank up the barbeque, and gather with those we love, we will also be remembering those who served and those who suffered. We owe them all so much.

Susan Aylworth is the author of 18 published novels. Her latest is SUNNY'S SUMMER, a novel set in the Sierra foothills near her northern California home which examines the aftermath of the devastating #CampFire. She lives with her husband of 49 years, Roger, and one old, arthritic cat. She loves to hear from readers. Find her at www.susanaylworth.com, @SusanAylworth, susan.aylworth.author@gmail.com, or facebook.com/Susan.Aylworth.Author. Also on Pinterest and Instagram.

Halloween Memories by Susan R. Hughes

Halloween is still a month away, but since candy and costumes have already arrived in stores, I figure it’s not too early to get into the spirit of the season – especially since I’ve got a brand-new Halloween romance novella to introduce.

When I was a kid, Halloween was a much-anticipated holiday. My mother always made my costumes by hand, and I was extremely proud to wear them. I wish I had the time and skills to make my kids’ costumes like she did. I remember going with her to the fabric store to choose a pattern and material. My favourite was the bat costume (pictured - me with my friends in 1980).

My friends and I decorated pillowcases to hold our haul of candy. We spent a couple of hours trick-or-treating, hitting as many houses as possible before the neighbours ran out of candy and started shutting off their lights and/or we got too cold (if it was a chilly autumn). We loved the houses that were copiously decorated, and all the better if they had eerie lights and music. We always ended the night at my aunt and uncle’s house, where we’d sit by the fire and stuff ourselves with candy and roasted pumpkin seeds. 

After I got too old for trick-or-treating, I looked forward to someday taking my kids through the neighbourhood and re-experiencing the excitement through their eyes. My girls are ten and six years old now, just the right age to get the most from the celebrations. To this day, we continue the tradition of stopping in at my aunt and uncle’s house at the end of the evening. It just wouldn’t be Halloween otherwise.

My new novella, Halloween Kisses, combines the magic of romance and Halloween. It’s available now on pre-order from Amazon for only 99 cents.

 

One kiss can change everything. Dulcie has had a secret crush on her co-worker Rowan for ages, but she’s too shy to let him know, and preoccupied with raising her rebellious teenage sister. When she bumps into him in the darkness of a haunted barn, she can't resist stealing just one kiss. 

That kiss enchants Rowan. If only he could figure out the identity of the woman whose kiss haunts him. While running from a troubled past, he may find that the woman he least suspects could lead him out of the dark forever.

Susan R. Hughes writes contemporary and historical romance novels set in Canada. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario, with her husband and three children. Learn more about her books at www.susanrhughes.weebly.com

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Life Without Memories by Grace Greene

Memories – they're what we’re made of.

Memories, to a very large extent, are what make us who we are. They form our history and inform our present. The sharing of memories bonds us to others. Memories guide us, provide context, support wisdom, and serve as a foundation for creating stories, for art, for imagination…and for how much more? Without memories, our lives and our stories would be colorless until we build more memories.

But what if we can’t?  

I visited my mom yesterday. She was a smart, capable woman. She was an amateur genealogist. She was a computer whiz when it came to surfing, shopping and saving photos. She was a gardener who grew azaleas, bleeding hearts, and nurtured her beloved peonies. She was a daughter, wife, and mother, a grandmother and great-grandmother, and she was the best paper-doll maker in the whole world. Now she has Alzheimers and lives in a memory care unit in an assisted-living home.

As the disease progressed and she lost parts of herself (not literally, but that’s how it felt to me) I grieved constantly. First, she lost the ability to make new memories and reasonable decisions. Then, in the ten minutes it took me to travel from her home to mine, she’d forget she’d just seen me. Next, fear overwhelmed her because she knew something was wrong with her world, but couldn’t understand what, why, or how to fix it. Then began the trips up the street. Her sweet, loving neighbors who’d known her for decades, would see Mom walking with purpose (to where, she couldn’t say) and would speak to her with kindness, cajole her, then take her home and call me.

Then the dreadful day came when she had to leave her home forever for a new place, a place where she would be safe, if not happy.

My grief has eased as I’ve ceased to fight against reality and inevitability. Now, it’s sufficient for me to see her content and safe, and catch an occasional glimpse of the person I remember. To appreciate a good day. To love what remains. When I visited her yesterday, she smiled and we conversed and laughed. Despite the missing pieces, it was worth more than I can say.

No one expected this. Not her. Not us. No one does.   

Yesterday’s visit got me to thinking about what happens when we are unable to create new memories and, over time, lose the ones we've gained through the years.

The stories of our lives, our experiences, the stories we pass on from generation to generation, fuel the creation of fiction. The places, the characters, the incidents, the voices we hear in our heads when we are writing a book, who demand to be heard – what happens to them when we lose them? Fiction or non-fiction, they become as dust, never to be savored again, no longer able to be shared.

So, what’s the takeaway? What’s the “moral” of this story?

Don’t wait. Do it today.

Tell it today. Sing your song, tell your tale, make new memories even as you cherish and share the old ones.  And while you’re at it, kiss your sweetheart, hug your grandbabies, cuddle your pets – dance the dance and yell and cry and tell the stories of your heart.

On behalf of my mom who’d tell you this if she could – DO IT NOW. 

~ * ~

Grace Greene, an award-winning and USA Today Bestselling author, writes stories of love, suspense and inspiration. Her Emerald Isle, NC books include her debut novel, BEACH RENTAL, which received a 4.5 star Top Pick rating by Romantic Times (RT Book Reviews). The sequel, BEACH WINDS, also received a 4.5 Top Pick rating, and a short story, BEACH TOWEL, and novella, BEACH CHRISTMAS, are currently available. "It's always a good time for a love story and a trip to the beach."

Grace also writes stories set in rural, small town Virginia. "Follow a Virginia Country Road and take a trip to love, mystery and suspense with a dash of Southern Gothic."

A Virginia native, Grace lives in central Virginia. Contact Grace via her website, GraceGreene.com and while you're there, please sign up for her newsletter!   Find her on Twitter as @Grace_Greene and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GraceGreeneBooks.   

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Turn Off the TV Week by Ginny Baird

We recently returned from the beach, and had an awesome family vacation. One of the things that made it so lovely was that all six of our children could come, at least for little patches of time during our rental week. Another element that made the time special was that we got back to basics. We frolicked in the waves, walked on the shore, read plenty of books, and played group games. We also spent lots of time visiting and eating great meals, which we took turns preparing. Something we didn’t do was turn on the TV.

While it’s fun to watch family movies and everyone has their favorite shows, it somehow seemed a waste of precious ocean hours to stay glued to a screen when there were so many better things to do. And so, before we’d even departed, I (as the Mama Bear) I made the suggestion. Why not take time to really enjoy our environment and each other, and leave that droning television set turned off? We were lucky enough to be staying oceanfront. Wouldn’t it be so much nicer to hear the sound of the waves?

Much to my delight, and my husband’s as well, we didn’t receive a peep of complaint all week long. Instead, kids (well, they’re grown kids now, all 18+) and parents savored many of those simpler pleasures that can’t be gotten via pay-per-view. We challenged each other in corn hole, grilled burgers and brats, held a crab-eating fest, and even ate sticky s’mores. Most of all, we made memories, those precious mental pictures that are far more enduring than thoughts of another seasonal episode. While technology now enables us to download TV shows once we’ve missed them, there’s no way to wind back the clock and recapture special moments that might have been made. We’re so glad we took advantage of ours.

~ * ~

Ginny Baird writes contemporary romance novels and novellas, ranging from traditional romantic comedies to short and sweet love stories. She’s recently released Book 4 in her Summer Grooms Series, The Getaway Groom. You can find it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes and Kobo.

Happy Memorial Day from the Sweet Romance Reads Authors!