With an early Easter out of the way, I am ready to welcome Spring. It is the time of year when I find it increasingly hard to write as I stare out my window enjoying everything that is in full bloom. The bees and hummingbirds are fighting over the jasmine in the yard. The lilies and irises are popping up in the flowerbeds. It is the time of year that I fall deeply in love with my backyard all over again.
Is it really possible to fall in love with something all over again? Some people would say that you never really stopped loving it in the first place, but that you have just forgotten what it felt like.
Being married to the man of my dreams for over thirty years, I have found that what love feels like now has changed over the course of our several decades together. The butterflies fluttering in the belly stopped long ago. I no longer get tongue tied at the very sight of him when he walks into the room. These physical responses have been replaced with something else; an indelible sense of comfort that he knows I’m not perfect and yet he still loves me. He is the one person that slows me down, allows me to catch my breath, renews me. He is my soulmate.
These reassuring feelings of comfort happen over and over again. Just like in my yard, with the changing cycle of the seasons, the beauty is continually renewed and revealed in a multitude of ways and often takes me by surprise.
I believe falling in love happens when you least expect it. Even when you are on a dating website you have to comb through a ton of bad apples before that shiny red one unexpectedly
appears. And when you take that bite and the sweet juice touches your tongue, it is then that you know, you found the one!
The surprise and the mystery of love are just two of the reasons I write romance. I love the excitement and thrill of falling in love over and over again. While I am writing, I actually feel it happen when my characters start to fall in love. It is no longer fictional, because I know from my own personal experience what it’s like to feel safe and whole when I’m with the person I love. Happily-Ever-After is not the goal, it is the gift!
New Release
Diego’s Secret is about the stark truth of falling in love…Secrets, we all have them, some we keep from others, and some we keep from ourselves. It is what makes us vulnerable.
To celebrate the release of my newest novel and as a member of the Reader’s Lounge, you can read the first three chapters of Diego’s Secret.
Blurb:
When two men from different cultures meet, there may be sparks, but what about their values, principles, and social circles? Can love win over attitudes, judgments, and preconceived perceptions?
Eight years ago, at the age of seventeen, Diego Castillo came to the United States illegally from Mexico. Working long hours in the family landscaping business, he now shares a tiny apartment with his two machismo brothers in Southern California. Diego has worked hard to keep his desires for other men a secret from his brothers. He’s worked just as hard to keep his undocumented status a secret from the world he now lives in.
Thirty-two-year-old Winston Makena is beautiful, intelligent, and intimidating. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but no amount of money can relieve the enormous grief he is suffering from his husband’s sudden death. He is one of Diego’s best accounts and lives a life in stark contrast to his gardener’s. Winston’s wealthy upbringing has influenced his ideas, leading him to certain biases.
Winston believes he could never love again. Diego believes that his family’s lives depend on him keeping his secrets. What neither of them know is that the heart knows no such boundaries. Will social divisions, ideology, and secrets destroy both their chances for happiness? Can love really conquer all?
