I Am Blessed

        Hello, gentle readers! Hope you are all well and staying safe!

        Happy Sunday morning (though by the time you read this, it will be Wednesday)! I realized, after I posted last week, that I am a week behind so this week’s post will put me back on schedule. Not quite sure how that happened. My only excuse is that my brain is full and there’s too much going on. I think I need a rest! We’ll see if that happens!

        It’s been a lovely weekend so far. I did my Saturday and Sunday chores (yes, I have to break up the chores between two days because I’m not a spring chicken anymore). I’ll let you in on a little secret…I hate to clean, but I like a clean house so it’s a necessary evil. Still, I love it when the house smells like Mr. Clean. And yes, I know living in Arizona there will always be dust, but for a few minutes anyway, everything is dust free.

        So, back to the title of this blog. “I Am Blessed”. And I truly am. I have everything I need (and no, I’m not bragging, but for some reason, it all hit home to me and the realization filled me with such happiness, I didn’t know how to contain it).

        What am I talking about? Friendship.

        This feeling of being blessed hit me Friday, when my critique partner and I hung up from our Zoom call (yes, we talk every Friday and believe me, it’s the highlight of my week). We don’t just talk about our works in progress. No, ma’am. We talk about everything. There is no subject that is taboo.

        Then, on Saturday morning, I talked to my daughter-in-law. She, too, has become a dear friend (more than just my daughter-in-law. I’d love her even if she wasn’t married to my son). She is absolutely beautiful, inside and out and I am thrilled she is in my life.  

        I met some friends for lunch on Saturday afternoon and as always, it was lovely. I’ve known these women for over forty years. That’s a long time and we’ve been through it all but we’re always there for each other both when life is hard and when it isn’t.

        Which brings me to my neighbors. I must admit, I have been especially blessed in that regard. My neighbors are wonderful (both past and present). The current ones are younger than I am, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Not in the slightest. It’s amazing to me how close we got so quickly. They are taking the DH and I out to dinner tonight to celebrate Mother’s Day which is so kind, so sweet, so thoughtful (we’re going to a Mexican restaurant that had the most amazing food. If you haven’t tried a Fundido, you should. Absolutely fabulous!)

        So now you know what I’m talking about. I have been blessed. There are people in my life who are more than friends. We’ve become family and I love each and every one of them (there are more examples—people I don’t see much because they’re moved away but we still talk—by phone, by zoom, by email and text). There are those I miss because they’ve passed but I still ‘talk’ to them, especially when I remember the past and the good (and sometimes bad) times we’ve shared.

        When I’m writing my stories, my hero and heroine both have the kind of friends that offer advice, offer comfort, and are always there when needed and I hope that comes through.

        And on that note, I should get back to writing. Wife Unexpected is not going to write itself (and neither will the other three books I’m contracted for).   

        Stay well! Stay safe! And remember to spread kindness wherever you go!

Marie 

In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende

A blizzard in Brooklyn and a car accident is what is needed to bring three lives together and turn them around for the better.  

Richard owns a Brooklyn brownstone with a lower floor rented to Lucia.  Lucia stays in during the blizzard, but Richard forces himself to head for the store.  On his way, he rear-ends a Lexus that Evelyn is driving. 

This small accident creates the three to need more from each other than could be guessed until the story relays the details of their lives.

Richard obtained an academic position at NYU after his regrettable life in Chile.  In Chili, he started with a wife and two children.  Shortly after moving to the states, he no longer has children or a wife.  He sank into a rigid life of work and little socialization.

Lucia moves from Chile when Richard offers her a teaching job and a place to rent.  Her former life had also been full of family losses and humanitarian grievances.  She feels empty and alone.

Evelyn immigrates to the US from Guatemala seeking asylum and a job for a young woman barely speaking English.  

The accident proves more than just a fender bender.  Evelyn has her boss's car.  In the car is evidence of a horrible crime.  

Evelyn, Richard, and Lucia grouped together to plan how to hide someone else's crime to save Evelyn.

During their quest, each learn and begin to love one another. Richard and Lucia find a need to be together, and Evelyn becomes a pseudo daughter to them.   

Their fragile lives are reconstructed out of love.

Happy reading,

Dawn Kunda

What's New?

 

 

        Hello, gentle readers! Hope you are all well and staying safe! 

        It’s a beautiful Sunday morning as I sit down to write this and I have to admit, that I’m loving the weather here in Phoenix right now. The heat of summer hasn’t truly hit though we did have some rather hot days last months. I’m glad they didn’t stick around.

        So, what’s new with me?

        I submitted The Madam & Mr. MacLean to my publisher! Whoooo-hoooo! It’s as perfect as I can get it and I’m looking forward to seeing what my editor thinks. As you may remember, she’s the one who’s been teaching me what I didn’t know I didn’t know. She’s fabulous and I enjoy working with her!

        I’m also working hard on Wife Unexpected…and it’s not going as well as I’d like. I’m still having issues with the beginning but I’ll get there. I really want Faith to have her happy ending. Tysen, too. I think they both deserve it.

        Other than that, the day job is keeping me so busy. It’s a good thing I write in the early mornings BEFORE I head into the office because truthfully, by the time I get home, I don’t have a coherent thought in my head. I’m tired though you’d never know that by the way I hustle around the house at the end of the day.

       And every day I wake up and remember that retirement is coming. Only one year, seven months and twenty-seven days now! I talk about it a lot because I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve had some people ask me with I plan to do…how will I fill my days without the day job? It’s not something I’m worried about. My days will be filled. I’ll be writing of course, hoping to write more than one book a year. I’d also like to go back to doing crossword puzzles, which I love, but haven’t had time to do. I want to read more, too. There are so many books out there by my favorite authors that I haven’t touched (they’re filling up my kindle as I write this). I’d like to pick up crocheting again…I have three half finished projects that are just sitting there in a box, calling to me, not to mention the needlepoint projects that are waiting.  

        Believe it or not, I want to try gardening, too (yes, I know I have a brown thumb and manage to kill every house plant I’ve ever had but I’d still like to try). We had a tomato garden when I was growing up. My father was really good at growing them and some of my fondest memories are of walking out to the garden, picking a ripe tomato right from the vine and eating it like an apple. There is nothing in the world like a Jersey Beefsteak tomato, warm from the sun!I’d like to volunteer, too. I’ll have the time so why not? 

        But the most important thing is the writing. As you may remember, I have a contract for four more books, which I never thought, in a million years, would happen.

        Speaking of that contract, I should get going. Those books aren’t going to write themselves. Stay well! Stay safe! And remember to spread kindness wherever you go!

Marie

Just Friends at the Doggy Spa by Elsie Woods

 Life is grand when you are a dog groomer.  Rita organizes most everything at the elite dog spa attached to the Chateau Rose where the filthy rich and not so humble vacation while dropping off their fury and loveable companions for spa days in England. 

Rita happily accepts the position of maid-of-honor in her best friend's wedding. Whenever I hear that, I know something will go wrong.  Maybe it will go right this time.

Joey, the groom's brother and best man, calls her Buddy.  That'll be a platonic evening, for sure.

Although, when chaos strikes things may work out much better.

And it begins.  A driver drops a boxer off at the entrance of the dog spa and speeds away.  Rita needs Joey to find the dog's owner and take care of the boxer while searching.  The next tragedy sets the stage.  The wedding is in two weeks.  The bride and groom have not made any plans as they claim they're busy.  No flowers, no cake, no invitations, no hall rented, and none of the rest.  

Bride and groom beg Rita and Joey to cover for them.  In other words, plan a wedding in two weeks.  

"Buddy" Rita and Joey are now inseparable.  This is when you really get to know just about everything about each other.  Take the odd with the great and figure out how well all the details fit together like a complete puzzle or one missing pieces.  

I bet all the pieces of the puzzle can somehow squeeze together an create a beautiful picture.

Happy reading,

Dawn Kunda

ROCK STEADY COWBOY by Lexi Post is available for preorder!

 

ROCK STEADY COWBOY 

(Rocky Road Ranch: Book 5) 

by Lexi Post 

is available for preorder!

He's looking for a future. She's still running from the past.

Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon AU | Amazon CA 

Kit Ford is ready for a fresh start when she takes the job as manager of the shooting range at Rocky Road Ranch. With a scarred face, missing fingers, and a career as a biathlete ended by a jealous woman, she's not looking for love. When a handsome cowboy is assigned to show her around town, she makes one thing clear: friendship only.

Nash Goodman wants what he's never had—a family. But every time he gets close to a woman, he ends up friend-zoned. When Kit shuts him down before he even tries, it's the final straw. Done with small-town possibilities, Nash ignores his attraction to her and takes his chances with an online matchmaking service for cowboys.

Kit told herself she didn't want more. But the longer she's around Nash, the harder it becomes to believe her own rules. She wants him—in her bed, in her life, in ways she swore she'd never risk.

Now she has to decide: keep hiding behind walls she built to survive, or fight for the man she's about to lose to someone ready to give him everything.

Releasing May 5th.

Catch up on the whole series here.

About Lexi:

Lexi Post is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of romance inspired by the classics. She spent years in higher education taking and teaching courses about the classical literature she loved. From Edgar Allan Poe's short story “The Masque of the Red Death” to Tolstoy’s War and Peace, she's read, studied, and taught wonderful classics.

But Lexi's first love is romance novels so she married her two first loves, romance and the classics. Whether it’s sizzling cowboys, dashing dukes, hot immortals, or hunks from out of this world, Lexi provides a sensuous experience with a “whole lotta story.”

Lexi is living her own happily ever after with her husband and her two cats in Florida. She makes her own ice cream every weekend, loves bright colors, and you’ll never see her without a hat.

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Critique Partner to the Rescue

 

       Hello, gentle readers! Hope you are all well and staying safe!

       Well, my lovely, talented, and so very intelligent critique partner has, once again, talked me off the proverbial ledge! And it’s a good thing, too!

        As you all know, I’ve been working on Wife Unexpected, the fourth book in The Wives of Bravado County series…and…let’s just say it’s not going as well as I want it to. I have ripped out the entire first chapter and started over. It wasn’t right and that was something I felt deep in my bones. My critique partner felt it, too, so…the change was necessary. Usually, my beginnings are fun and pretty much what I expect (I always enjoy starting a new story…it’s exciting to get to know my characters, set up the conflict, etc.). With this story, I started on the wrong foot, so to speak. It’s all been fixed now and the new beginning is much, much better than the old (I will admit the loss of words was devastating, but seriously, the story needs to start in the right place with the right tone). 

        That being said, since I rewrote Chapter One and changed so much, my problem then became Chapter Two. Yes, I’d already written it, but it doesn’t quite fit with the changes I made to the previous chapter.

        Now, just to understand how I write my stories, I generally write the scenes as they come to me then puzzle them together, and for this particular story, I have already written a number of scenes that occur further along in the book. I just write up to those points, make a few changes where necessary and keep going. You know. Puzzle the pieces together.

        So, during our usual Friday night zoom chat, we went over it and she…started with the questions. Oh my gosh! So many questions, things I hadn’t even thought about, but the biggest ones were “Who is Tysen? What drives him? What does he want? Does he even know? ”Apparently, those questions (and so many others) was exactly what I needed. 

        I didn’t quite ‘know’ Tysen well enough to write him. Faith, my heroine, I knew. She’s been with me for quite some time, and I love her for who she is, but him? I learned so many things about him while my critique partner and I talked (I took a lot of notes) and it seems to have fixed the problem I was having so now…it’s on to re-writing Chapter Two. I’m ready! Whooo-hoooo!

        Stay well! Stay safe! And remember to spread kindness wherever you go!

Marie

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

 Isolation can happen in a city, at work, or anywhere people gather.  Those are the same places that relationships grow.  

Forever a resident of Ireland, Eleanor Oliphant has no intentions of disrupting her strategic and purposeful regime of work and weekends of pizza and soothing vodka.  She has a respectable job, which many may consider boring, a subsidized place to call home, a weekly call to her mum, and her life is plain and simple.  

This is her life-long plan to keep the past from distracting the rest of her life.  

Her coworkers occasionally whisper or make jokes about her detachment, otherwise they ignore her for anything other than work.  The new IT worker, Raymond, is the exception.  

Eleanor's computer has an issue, and Raymond eventually gets to her desk.  She's not impressed with his careless dress and sloppy attitude.  It surprises her when he somehow inserts himself in small parts of her days until they help rescue an older man who's fallen on the sidewalk and needs an assist.  

Raymond is super friendly, ready to give a hand, and always open for a new friend.  Eleanor is the opposite, so she grudgingly responds on limited terms.  Besides, she recently decided to remake herself from the outside, to hide her ugly past, and find the perfect man she saw in an ad for a local concert. How hard can it be?

This is a lovely story of unassuming colleagues getting to know each other, while having no intentions.  As details of their lives are slowly exposed, their need and respect grow.  It's this that helps Eleanor realize what she has to do to be whole and happy and Raymond is a specific ingredient. 

Happy reading,

Dawn Kunda