Snow, snow, and more snow.

Yesterday was my day to post a message and the theme was the magic of love. But mother nature decided to prove just what a tough task mistress she can be. She announced yesterday that winter is officially here by snowing for twelve hours, and the weather man predicts it will snow most of today.
What's magical about it? Blizzards have their own special magic, especially if you make it to the grocery store BEFORE the snow starts. What's love got to do with a blizzard?
Well, first of all, my hubby did all the cleaning of the snow off the vehicles, and drove me to the local print shop to get my ARCS printed. It's only 6AM here, but he will spend a good chunk of the day taking snow off the walks and the deck. Weather like this always makes him want to cook something. He'll make biscuits, and cook dinner.
I think I'll fire up the bread maker, make spaghetti sauce, and do a whole lot of Christmas wrapping. And yes, a day like today is perfect for writing.
For those of you who have never been tucked away in your house during a blizzard, you are really missing something special. EVERYTHING is white, the ground looks like a huge white sea, and the air is alive with whirling snow.
When this white deluge is over, all our neighbors will be out clearing snow. I can hear snowmobiles outside my house already. In this kind of weather, four wheel drive vehicles and ploughs travel together to get essential personel into hospitals and fire departments. There are snow routes through the city that are kept open.
There is a mountain of snow on our front lawn. I have a sneaking suspicion that our power is about to fail, so I'll stop for now.
Stella MacLean

A WEEKEND WRITER NO MORE --

Wednesday is about writing, and I certainly have something to share today.

On Monday of this week, I submitted a letter of resignation at my day job. I say it’s time. My writing friends say, it’s about time.

After fifteen years of working in education and employment programs with disadvantaged clients, the last seven of which also included a second job - writing novels for Harlequin - I had reached a crossroad. It’s not because I wanted to tell my employer to “take this job and shove it.” In fact, I’ve derived immense satisfaction from assisting people to earn their GED diplomas, construct resumes for their job search, and provide food from our pantry when they needed sustenance. I have enjoyed the camaraderie of co-workers whose goals were similar to mine. Lunchtime with some of my peers has resulted in good friendships.

I have also enjoyed receiving a paycheck every week! Writers are self-employed with income arriving sporadically.

I will miss the day job; I do not leave it lightly. But time is passing.

I know I am fortunate to have tasted success as a novelist. The pleasure of connecting with readers who write to me about my stories, the author friends I’ve made, and the joy I’ve had in delving deeply into the craft itself cannot be overstated. I’ve loved it all! And want more. My goal is a full-time writing career. Are there stories I might imagine if I had more time to dream, or to conduct research? Do I have the skills to flex more writing muscle? Frankly, I don’t know. But I want to find out. And time is passing.

I have already lived the dreams of every little girl – falling in love, becoming a young wife, a new mother, an equal partner in a wonderful marriage. I count my blessings every single day. And although time is passing, there is a season for everything. This is my season for a new dream.

I wish you many seasons and many dreams.

Linda, who loves reading and writing Everlasting Love stories

Holiday Magic

As many of us have, I’ve just emerged from five days of stepping outside my daily routine to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends. I have hosted the celebration at my home for the last twenty-seven years, when the table has been set for anywhere from six to thirty people. We always seem to manage to find room for those who cannot be with their own families—friends of my children from California or Texas or Louisiana; exchange students from Austria or Croatia; German colleagues of my husband who first discovered apple pie and sweet potato casserole at our dining room table. It’s a great joy to me to prepare and share a meal with others that echoes dishes created by the many women who preceded me in the kitchens of my life.

My home since last Wednesday has been filled with sunlight and laughter; the warmth of a woodstove and the quiet of young people curled up on couches reading; the beat of the latest rock group thumping through the floorboards from the rec room in the basement and the energy of fifteen teenagers devouring turkey fajitas and chocolate chip cookies; my husband’s arms around me as we luxuriated in four days of no alarm clocks or early morning commutes.

It was a magical time to slow the often frenetic pace of our lives and acknowledge all the blessings we have—in our children, in each other. Yesterday afternoon, as I emerged covered in twigs and leaf fragments after spending three hours plucking piles of oak leaves from our yard (one of the costs of living in New England), my husband simply embraced me in the middle of the driveway—a thank you for sharing the work and enjoying a glorious day.

It is these moments of peace and gratitude and generosity that are the true magic of long-lasting love.

Fun Friday

Something fun for this Friday?
Real easy. Shopping, shopping and more shopping!
But I'd like to add a twist to this idea.
Let's call it an educational opportunity.
Why not have a guy's night in? That is, while you're shopping, why
not have the man in your life do the post-Thanksgiving evening meal?
Sure, he'll probably serve leftover turkey,but it's for a good cause.
Here's the educational part; if he doesn't cook now, he'll have an easy meal
on which to begin his chef experience. If he's already a good cook, he'll do
something really amazing with yesterday's turkey.
Either way, the lady of the house will get a well deserved break.
Stella

Thanksgiving Rituals

I know this is supposed to be Writer's Wednesday, but as Thanksgiving is tomorrow I thought I'd deviate a little from the schedule. I've been cooking all day-- doing the baking, pre-cooking the sweet potatoes, making the stuffing, etc. so that tomorrow will be a fairly restful day and I can spend it with my family (watching football with the boys) and our guests (more of the same).

I have to admit, I haven't been near a computer all week-- at least not to write anything more in-depth than a couple of blog posts. But sometimes, I think what I've done this week-- clean, cook and ready the house for Thanksgiving-- is as important to my writing as sitting in front of the computer and pounding out the words. Because it's renewed me (except, of course, for the cleaning which just exhausted me) and reminded me how grateful I am for my family and friends and all the other wonderful things in my life.

I wish all of you a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving, filled with love and happiness. May each of you experience peace and happiness as this holiday season kicks off.

Tasty Tuesdays all over again.

My husband and I once owned a house on the shores of Minas Basin, which has some of the highest tides in the world. It’s a beautiful spot, but somewhat remote. This meant that you had to be a really good grocery list maker to have all the necessary ingredients in the house, and a freezer to match.
The community in which we lived had many social events involving food, or course.
This recipe is one that came out of chasing around the kitchen looking for ingredients to make a promised dessert—ingredients I’d left off the infamous list. With the Thanksgiving holiday upon us, this would be a quick dessert, and a pretty one as well.
You need one of those prepared graham cracker crusts. (Or you can make one with 2cups of crushed graham crackers and ½ cup of butter, blended together, pressed into a pie plate, baked @ 375F and cooled.)
Then blend together an 8 oz package of Philadelphia Cream cheese with 1 cup of white sugar, and ½ cup of whipped topping. This makes a creamy white layer to go over your cracker crust. Spread a can of cherry pie filling over the top and refrigerate for a couple of hours. This bright red dessert with a dollop of whipped topping and a sprinkle cinnamon on top will work at home for your family, or any event where you need to take a dessert.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
Stella MacLean

Magical Monday Even When it Rains

It's raining today and the cold cut right through my new polar fleece poncho as I ran my errands . The sky is a familiar steel grey, the color that lets me know winter is fast approaching. My gaze clings to each brightly painted leaf, especially the orange and yellow ones. They'll be mush on the ground in a matter of days.

October is my favorite month of the year, due to the autumn and riot of colors. I love a crisp, cold day, and an excuse to heat up the kitchen with the oven in order to bake something delicious. November is a close second, as it's still fall and there's Thanksgiving and all the preparing that entails.

But also with November comes the reminder that all good things end. Fall is ending, the days end early, and I'm reminded that my time anywhere, be it a duty station or even here on earth, is finite. This makes it doubly important that I chose whom to spend my time with and how to spend my time, each and everyday.

This parlays into my writing. I chose to write fiction, and romance fiction, that gives me and my reader not just a HEA (Happily Ever After) but explores the how's and why's and why not's of a life-long love.

Because that's what I'm doing each day, in my own life. How about you?

Happy, Joyous Thanksgiving to all of you!

Fun Friday

Because of the rain beating into the ground and making a river out of our street, it's my turn to drive children to school this morning. As I wend my way back home through the traffic, I find myself wishing I could just take off and do something totally useless. Yeah...something that added nothing to my day, except an escape.
But I'm so well trained to "do" things, "look after" things, meet everyone's expectations of me, I stayed the course and came home.
So, I'm home, reading the Everlasting Blog, and thinking that maybe I should finish my blog and turn off my computer for today.
And then?
Then, I'd like to dig through all my old CD's and find some very venerable old friends and their music. That would include Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, and maybe a few tunes from the Rolling Stones. And of course, Eric Clapton.
While the music's playing, I'm going to dig out all those old photos I've kept boxed up through the years, and I'm going down memory lane with my family. And as soon as the stores open, I'm going to buy as many photo albums as I can carry and bring them home.
I love old pictures, remembering family reunions, and seeing just how peculiar my parents looked in their bulky, black-framed glasses. I treasure the old black and white shots of cousins peering shyly toward the camera, and the way so many of our family pets were captured in these shots.
Today, I'm going to be disciplined about having my down time, my fun time.
Today is for me.

KEEP THE EVERLASTING LINE ALIVE

I decided to write today about this wonderful new line called Everlasting Love that seems to be struggling. The more of the books that I read the more I want to stand on a mountain top and proclaim how great they are. The books are so well crafted and the stories have all been varied and real to me as a long time reader of all types of books. They're more than romance, they're family sagas and relationships bound under one cover. And because of the word count they're books a reader can finish in a couple of days. Finishing the book doesn't mean letting go of the characters. I find the one's I've read stick in my mind. They are books I will re-read. So I hope if we have readers or other writers still visiting this site that you will continue to support this line by buying the Everlastings and by telling friends about them. Christmas is coming and what better gift to give than a book which a recipient can open and enjoy time and again? If you've never tried the line, you are really missing some fantastic reads.

EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE...

This month sees the release of my eleventh novel for Harlequin Books. Eleven. Every one of them was a challenge to write. I sweated the ideas. I worried about the characters. I wondered about what happens next. Words, words, words! I needed words. But I needed them put together in just the right way for readers to care about the characters as much as I did and want to turn the page. Smoothly written prose that doesn’t touch the emotions might as well not be written.

Every once in a while, however, a story comes along that almost writes itself. THE SOLDIER AND THE ROSE was that story for me. Like a waterfall from which I was the source, came words and ideas so quickly, so instinctively, that once I started writing, I knew this story had been sitting inside my heart for a long time. A story of everlasting love. A story of family.

Stories of my own family’s beginnings in Brooklyn, NY dangled in front of me, and I immediately had the setting for this book. Not only could I picture the house and street, but I smelled the aromas coming from the kitchen – I still make those recipes – I remembered the hair styles and dresses that I’d seen in pictures of my mother and aunts. I recalled the sense of community as they talked about their young lives through the years of the Great Depression and WWII.

Most important of all was the family itself. That wonderful satisfaction and security of belonging to a family that loved me carried over from my early days in Brooklyn to the present time. Although they are gone now, the older generation is with me still - in my heart- at all times. Isn't this also what an everlasting love is about?

So, Charlie and Rose Shapiro, the soldier and his rose, were shaped by the hard times of the 1930’s and 40’s, but like all lovers throughout history, discover that love transcends anything life can throw at them.

Please join me tonight for a chat about THE SOLDIER AND THE ROSE and about Everlasting Love - the books or the reality. I hope to see you in the chat room at NovelTalk at 9:00 ET / 8:00 CT. You can use any name to sign in. Here’s the link:

http://www.noveltalk.com/chat/default.asp.

Two copies of the book will be given as prizes.

Best,
Linda