Quick and Easy Grilling Recipes! By Raine English

I love May. The leaves are on the trees; the flowers are in bloom; and it’s warm enough to grill outside.

Here are two of my favorite quick and easy grilling recipes:

Soy-Sesame Grilled Shrimp

1 ½ pounds large shrimp, shelled and deveined (24 to 28)

½ cup minced onion

½ cup soy sauce

2 tbsp. light brown sugar

2 tbsp. sesame seed

2 tbsp. salad oil

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. lemon juice

½ tsp. pepper

½ tsp. ginger

About 5 minutes before grilling:

In a large bowl, combine all marinade ingredients. Add shrimp: toss gently to coat. Skewer shrimp and grill about 10 minutes or until shrimp are pink, turning once.

Grilled Rosemary Zucchini

6 medium zucchini, cut in ½-inch slices

½ cup chopped onion

1 tsp. rosemary

1 tsp. salt

½ cup butter or margarine

About 1 hour before serving:

On a large sheet of heavy duty foil, mix zucchini with onion, rosemary, and salt. Dot mixture with butter or margarine; fold sheet of foil over and seal ends. Grill over medium coals 25 minutes or until zucchini is tender-crisp.

What are some of your favorite quick and easy grilling recipes?

~*~

USA Today bestselling author Raine English writes sweet small-town contemporary romance, along with steamier paranormal and Gothic romantic suspense. She’s a Daphne du Maurier Award winner and a Golden Heart finalist. Too Good to Believe, book three in her sweet series, Love Always, is available now. It features three childhood friends who encounter a lot more than anticipated while searching for love. To receive information on all her new releases, you can sign up for her newsletter, visit her website, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter.

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Why Margaret Daley Writes a Series About Single Dads

Why I’m Writing a Series about Single Dads
By Margaret Daley

It would be easier for me to write a series about single moms, but I wanted to tackle a series about single dads. My son is a single dad of two little girls. The past few years I’ve watched him deal with raising two girls on his own. It’s never easy when you are a single parent and I wanted to illustrate the trials and tribulation one can go through.

In this first story I threw an uncle who becomes guardian of his two nieces. He was a bachelor one day and a father the next when his brother died. The whole family had to adjust to a new situation and grieve at the same time. To up the stakes, like my son, I wanted the hero to deal with the opposite sex. It’s one thing for a man to relate to a boy and entirely different with a girl‑especially an extra emotional one.

I have two granddaughters about the ages of the little girls in The Firefighter Daddy. I had fun with some of the scenes and traces of real life are in a lot of the scenes—their love of animals, especially dogs and cats, their love of attempting to cook, their drama.

I had fun writing The Firefighter Daddy and look forward to more in this series. I have one single dad in the support group with a special needs child. With my background as a teacher of special needs, I wanted to address issues of raising a child with special needs.

If you have children or grandchildren or deal with kids, what is a funny incident you had with them?

Blurb for The Firefighter Daddy:
Firefighter Liam McGregory is used to staring down five alarm fires—but becoming a father to his two little nieces has him sending out a call for help. When the girls return a lost pup to its beautiful owner, Liam thinks widow Sarah Blackburn is just the person he needs—or who the children need. He's promised to never marry again. ' Sarah takes his deal: she'll watch his kids and he'll watch her menagerie of pets—but the new father is off-limits. But two determined little matchmakers can be hard to resist when they need a mom to make one big happy family…

Bio of Margaret Daley:
Margaret Daley, a USA Today’s Bestselling author of one hundred books (five million plus sold worldwide), has been married for over forty years and is a firm believer in romance and love. When she isn’t traveling, she’s writing love stories, often with a suspense thread and corralling her three cats that think they rule her household. To find out more about Margaret visit her website at http://www.margaretdaley.com.

Facebook: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/238174.Margaret_Daley
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Monthly Contest: http://margaretdaley.com/contest/

In Search of the Perfect Cover Image Part II by Merrillee Whren

For my blog post last month, I talked about finding the perfect image for my latest book cover. I needed a picture of a front porch with two adult chairs and and a child's chair. I posted photos that I had taken on our trip to Florida where I found a front porch and added a child's chair. Here is one of those photos.

 

I wasn't satisfied with any of the photos that I took that day. There was something wrong with each one of them. None of them was perfect. Enter search number two.

We had the privilege of going to the Kentucky Derby this year. Prior to the Derby, we visited long-time friends who lived in Ohio. We were getting to see their new house for the first time. I was also hopeful that I would find another front porch to photograph during our trip to their small Ohio town. Imagine my delight when I saw their front porch. Here's one of the photos I took.

While we were still visiting them, I sent the photos to my cover designer. After a few tweaks, this is the new cover of the third book in my Front Porch Promises series. Books two and three will be released in the next few months.

 

Here's a reminder of what the covers for the first two books look like.

 I've lived in a lot of different houses. Some of them had front porches that were made for sitting like the ones on these covers. What kind of a front porch do you have?

Again I will be giving away a copy of the first book in the series, A Place to Call Home, to one person who leaves a comment. The winner's name will be drawn on May 15, 2016.

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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  thirty-five plus years, and has two grown daughters. Connect with her on her Facebook page and sign up for her newsletter.

A New Friend

For those who don’t know me, I’m Cindy Flores Martinez, and I’m thrilled to be a new member of the Sweet Romance Reads group.

I’ll start by telling you a few things about myself.

*I live in a suburb of Los Angeles where I’ve lived all my life.
*Besides writing, I’m interested in graphic design.
*I have a cat that I rescued when his owners no longer wanted him.
*I enjoy making my own healthy chocolate.
*I like action films and crime investigation shows.
*My debut novel, Mail-Order Groom, started as a screenplay. I tried to produce it as a film, but after not finding the success I wanted, I decided to turn it into a novel. That’s where my journey with writing sweet romance began.

And so it continues.

.

To celebrate meeting new friends, here are a few sayings about friendship.

A true friend reaches for your hand and touches your heart. ~attributed to Heather Pryor
Strangers are just friends waiting to happen. ~unknown
There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship. ~Thomas Aquinas
A true friend is the best Possession. ~Ben Franklin (1706-1790)
Hold a true friend with both your hands. ~Nigerian Proverb

The Travel Bug by Josie Riviera

OK, I’ll admit it. I love to travel. Fortunately, through the use of frequent flyer miles, I’ve traveled to some of the most beautiful cities in Europe. 

One of my favorite cities is Venice, Italy. The city is exactly how you’ve envisioned in the many gorgeous films and photos. There are no streets, only canals. 

The summer after my daughter graduated from high school, we traveled to Venice. (Yes, that's her below!)

 We stayed at an exquisite bed and breakfast, Locanda Orseolo. This B & B  is situated on one of the canals, and the gondolas and singing gondoliers go right by the window!

 

Sure, my daughter and I got lost several times navigating the narrow, winding alleyways, but that was OK, because we’d stop and enjoy a gelato or pizza or pasta or....you get the idea!

Yes, Venice was hot in August, and crowded, but we’d return in a heartbeat. I read recently that 50,000 tourists visit this amazing city every day.

If you have the good fortune to visit, don’t miss The Rialto Bridge, the Grand Canal, and St. Mark’s Basilica. (Note—these attractions will be hard to miss!)

Do you love to travel? What is your favorite place to visit? Leave a comment and one lucky winner will receive a free ebook copy of one of my sweet romances. The winner can select their choice of either I Love You More, A Snowy White Christmas, or Seeking Catherine. Winner will be announced May 12th.

In the meantime: check out my Amazon giveaway:

‪#‎AmazonGiveaway It's back and even better! Enter to win a free copy of I Love You More!

https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/3a2efc2c98d5b3bd

No purchase necessary.

And coming soon: Oh Danny Boy, set in Ireland, where I'll be headed in July to see my daughter graduate from University. Stay tuned!

Author Josie Riviera lives in the Charlotte, NC, area with her wonderfully supportive husband of 40 years. They share their empty nest with an adorable Shih Tzu who constantly needs grooming and an old house forever needing renovations.

“Like” her Author Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Josie.Riviera/

And connect with her on Facebook

sign up for her blog and subscribe to her newsletter on her website: https://josieriviera.wordpress.com/

Follow her on twitter: https://twitter.com/Josieriviera

 Instagram: josie_riviera

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Tea Party by Shanna Hatfield

I don't know what it is about the month of May, but it makes me think of tea parties.
 
As a little girl, I often set up tea parties my niece (only four years younger) and I enjoyed using my very best plastic play dishes. Then my grandma gave me a child's set of Blue Willow dishes.

 

To say I was excited would have been a gross understatement. I set up tea parties every opportunity I could. We dined on such delicacies as cheddar cheese and saltine crackers, but they tasted so much better on the pretty dishes.

Everything about the idea of a tea party appealed to me - the beautiful dishes, the delectable treats, the opportunity to dress up.

When I started working as a newspaper reporter, I volunteered to cover any "teas" or similar social events because I loved going to them. 

The year my cousins decided to host a tea party, I drove four hours one way just to attend. Scones, quiche, fresh fruit that was so flavorful, tea sandwiches and decadent desserts as well as some really tasty tea comprised the menu. The table was set beautifully. The three hostesses pulled out their mom’s china and tea sets. It was so special to use those dishes because it made it seem like a Aunt Louise was there enjoying the party right along with us even though she'd passed away several years prior to the event.

We all were asked to wear a hat and that in itself was a hoot. Those who didn’t have hats were able to choose one from a vintage collection a cousin borrowed from a friend.

This is my most wonderful Aunt Robbie and my cousin Julie. The two of them are silly and amazing. Which makes for a lot of fun at family gatherings. It also made for some fun photos at the tea party. (And seriously, everyone needs an auntie like mine.)

Another fun tea party came in the form of a bridal shower. We are all asked to wear a Victorian hat. Of course I was game for the idea.


Guests walked in the door to find this absolutely gorgeous table.

 

And I fell in love with this tea cup. It was so pretty. I briefly considered if the hostess would miss it if it accidentally climbed into my purse and went home with me. It stayed behind when I left, though.

I think, more than anything, the idea of a tea party makes me smile because it provides a hint of the elegance of yesteryear. It also allows us, for even an hour or two, to recall those wonderful adventures and dreams we had as little girls, envisioning our futures as we poured tea and ate crackers.

To celebrate the release of my latest sweet romance novel this week, I'm hosting a Tea Party on Facebook this Friday, May 13, from 10-11 a.m. (PT). I hope you'll join in the fun!

What about you? Did you play tea party as a little girl? Have you ever attended or hosted one?

~*~

 

Convinced everyone deserves a happy ending, hopeless romantic Shanna Hatfield is out to make it happen, one story at a time. Her sweet historical and contemporary romances combine humor and heart-pumping moments with characters that seem incredibly real.

    When she isn’t writing or indulging in chocolate (dark and decadent, please),  this USA Today bestselling author hangs out with her husband, lovingly known as Captain Cavedweller.

 

  Find Shanna’s books at:

Amazon | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | Apple

Shanna loves to hear from readers! Follow her online:

ShannaHatfield | Facebook | Pinterest | Goodreads | You Tube | Twitter | Newsletter

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Love is Important by Christine Bush

Love is important.  I think romance readers and writers know that for sure!

We like it on the page, in the story, and also in our own lives.  Sometimes though, real life love doesn’t read like one of our favorite novels.  What can help us find our own happily ever after?

In my “other life” as a marriage and family therapist, I’ve come to love a book that was written several years ago (but still readily available) by Dr. Gary Chapman, and I wanted to share his message.

 

The book is called “The 5 Love Languages”. Have you read it?

His theory is that there are five ways that we “express” love.. and also five ways that we “perceive” love.

As every person is an individual, with specific personalities and life experiences, people may have a different priority of these languages, and they often differ within the “couple”.  If we do not understand our partner’s love language, or don't define and express our own, miscommunication and resentments can build.

Here they are.  Which is your main love language?

Affirmation:  People with this language SAY the words, and usually need to HEAR the words.  “I love you.  Thank you. You mean a lot to me.” No, they can’t guess what you mean, and they can’t imagine it. They need to HEAR it.

Time:  Eyeball to eyeball.  No tweeting, facebook scrolling, reading the paper.  These folks need your undivided attention. They  get affirmed by your time.  “Can’t we just spend time together?” “Are you listening to me?” “Can you just sit down and talk?”  Not being willing to do this feels like a giant insult, if this is the priority love language.

 

Gifts: It’s not about an expensive bauble. It’s about the thought.  These folks feel loved by giving or receiving gifts.  It might be a single flower. A cup of coffee.  A poem.  Or stopping at the store because you heard they need eggs.  Proof that you thought of them.  Took the time. A gift makes the sun shine for someone with the “gift” love language.

Service:  Some people show their love by “doing things” for people.  Carrying a bundle. Opening the door.  Help with the dishes. Picking up the laundry. Washing the car. It’s about somehow making the workload LESS.  For service people, getting (or giving) help affirms the appreciation of all the person does.

 

Touch: It’s not just about the sex. It’s about touch.  For some, love is shown by a simple pat on the shoulder, a touch, a hug, a hand held while sitting on the couch or walking down the road.  Not touching feels like holding back, like personal rejection.  These folks like skin to skin, even in the most simple way.

Many of us have more than one.

So often we think we know.  We have made assumptions about our partner’s love language, and we’ve modified our own. Sometimes it’s hard to admit what we need or to dare to ask a partner to define their needs.  But the truth is, daring to put words to the feelings can make a GIANT change in a relationship. Long term.  I love when I see this.

Chapman’s book has some fun “quizzes” to take with your mate that prompt some good conversation and communication.  I recommend it.

He also has another book that talks about families, about what our children need in their “love language” from us, and what they might learn about ours.  Also powerful.

What’s your love language?  I’d love to hear.

Christine Bush is the award winning author of many books and novellas of sweet romance and light mystery. She also writes Middle Grade Fiction. When she isn’t writing, she can be found working with clients as a Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice, or teaching Psychology at a local college.  She lives with her family and two crazy cats in northeastern Pennsylvania, and loves to hear from readers and aspiring writers.

Her latest book “Cindy’s Prince” can be found at  http://www.amazon.com/Cindys-Prince-Christine-Bush-ebook/dp/B00IFSRVJ2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1393781746&sr=1-1&keywords=christine+bush+cindy%27s+prince

www.ChristineBush.com