In good company with February Releases from Love Inspired...

Jenna Mindel here, excited to report that A Soldier's Valentine is on the shelves along with a great line up of fellow Love Inspired Authors!

When preparing to write a book, I typically choose occupations for my characters that I find interesting.  Makes researching super fun getting a peek into some cool jobs.   When I first saw a glassblowing demonstration,  I was mesmerized.  Talk about the perfect kind of work for a hero...

Enter Zach Zelinsky, the latest hero of the Maple Springs series.  He's an army captain who comes home to to pursue his passion of glassblowing and gets more than he bargained for when he meets his new tenant, Ginger Carleton.

Romantic Times Magazine stated that  A Soldier's Valentine is a great read for the holiday.
I hope you think so too. ♥




 As Valentine's Day approaches, have you made any special plans how to the spend the day?


Thank you for stopping in and happy reading!
 Jenna Mindel

Valentine's cards gone wrong... Roxanne Rustand

Here we are, a few days after Valentine's Day, and I am still smiling.  Have you ever received a card or gift that was...well, perhaps not quite what you expected?  A couple years ago, our oldest son grabbed a last minute card for his wife on his long commute home from work.  She was perhaps a little surprised to open his romantic missive:  it was a Spongebob Square Pants card--and the verse said "Happy Valentine's Day--from your SON."

She's a wonderful gal and just chuckled about it.  Then this year, a Twin Cities radio station decided to have a contest to find listeners with the least romantic Valentine's experiences. She called in, they loved her tale and asked her to repeat it on the air, and she and her husband became finalists! 

So just before Valentine's Day, the fifteen finalists met for the big finale at the Mall of America. The guys  were blindfolded, spun around three times, and aimed for fifty sheetcakes  spread out on the floor in which a single, tiny red plastic heart was hidden.  It was an absolute melee--cake and frosting flying--and our son found it!  And with that, they won a more romantic celebration than his wife might have ever imagined when she opened the Spongebob Squarepants card a couple years earlier:  A Valentine's Day dinner at a nice restaurant, a dozen roses...and a seven-day trip to Cancun.

Silver linings, unexpected endings to a funny story about a card grabbed too quickly from a rack....and this happy grandma isn't only celebrating their exciting adventure, but looking forward to going north to take care of the grandkiddies when they go!

I'm also celebrating because I recently signed a new contract to write more books for Love Inspired, a line I love.  It's great to be among the wonderful writers here on the Love Inspired blog...and to be writing for the wonderful readers who read our books!

Before I sign off I'd love to ask if any of you have ever received (or given) an unusual, unexpected or just plain funny gift?  

Blessings,

Roxanne

Roxanne is the USA Today bestselling author of over thirty-five traditionally published novels for Harlequin's Superromance, Heartwarming, Everlasting, Love Inspired and Love Inspired Suspense.  She also has self published three novels, a novella, and also part of a multi-author anthology on Amazon.

www.roxannerustand.com

www.facebook.com/roxanne.rustand

After the Candy, Cards, Flower and Jewelry

This is Merrillee who is thinking about this day after Valentine's Day. The holiday meant for romance has become rather commercialized with the card, candy, jewelry and flower companies all vying for our money. So how do we show romance the other 364, or in the case of a leap year, 365 days of the year? I think romance sometimes comes down to the "little" thoughtful things we do for the people we love.



Here is a photo of an elevator, not the big fancy kind you find in hotels and office buildings, but the kind you might find in a small apartment building. This looks much like the elevator my daughter got stuck in while she lived in Boston. I'm mentioning this because I want to tell you about it as an illustration of doing things for the people we love. At the time, my daughter was dating a young man who spent a couple of hours talking to her through the closed door of the elevator until someone came to let her out. That fellow is now her husband.




You are probably wondering what the above image has to do with romance. I have another daughter, who has Crohn's disease, and she has a good number of medicines she must take in order to keep the disease in remission. Her sweet husband is faithful to remind her about taking her medicine, even when they were dating.




Here is an image of something we might associate with romance and Valentine's Day, but they can be a real delight when they are completely unexpected. My husband gave me a bouquet of red roses when I received a rejection on the first manuscript that I submitted to a publisher. What a special treat! Another bouquet of roses I'll never forget is the bouquet my kids gave me when I won the Golden Heart at RWA in 2003. They weren't at the ceremony because I didn't think there was a chance that I would win, but my husband called them. They were in NY just so the family could get together while I was there. They showed up at the conference hotel with a beautiful bouquet of orange roses that lasted for nearly two weeks even after traveling on a plane all the way from NY to Florida.

So here are some examples of every day things that on the surface don't spell romance, but they are all about love. Do you have a special memory or incident that spells romance to you? Tell us about it.

Valentine's Day? Already?

Hi all, Charlotte Carter here.

I don’t know about you, but I’m still vacuuming up tinsel and pine needles.

In stores, Christmas decorations were shoved out one door and Valentine’s hearts were brought in the other, leaving only a brief window to celebrate New Year’s Day. Time is simply flying by too fast.

Still, I am a romance writer. Valentine’s Day represents the forever kind of love. So I hark back to yesteryear (Chuck and I have been married a long time!) when my husband and I were dating. He brought me flowers and took me out to a nice dinner. Perfect and romantic.

By the time our second Valentine’s Day rolled around, we were married and living in Anchorage, Alaska. (I knew I’d found a good one and did not hesitated to say ‘I do.’) On Valentine’s Day I gave him a card; he gave me . . . nothing!

Say what? Sheepishly, he admitted he thought Valentine’s Day was for couples who were dating. I quietly (but firmly) disabused him of that notion. Romance does not stop when you get married.

Fortunately, Chuck is a quick learner; he hasn’t missed a Valentine’s Day since. (And I’ve learned how to drop hints and reminders that are as subtle as a giant asteroid landing in our front yard.)

So I’m expecting a romantic card and flowers this Valentine’s Day. Rather than going out to dinner, which we do regularly anyway, I’ll cook a nice dinner at home and we’ll leave the crush of couples waiting in restaurants for tables to the dating crowd.

What’s your favorite memory of Valentine’s Day? How do you celebrate now?

Books that leave you smiling - by Charlotte Carter

Big Sky Family, Love Inspired, available now

Montana Love Letter, Love Inspired, 10/2012

www.CharlotteCarter.com