The Romance Lives Forever blog is featuring the San Juan Island Stories Anthology on their next cover post. Kayelle Allen, a romance author herself, loves to feature all kinds of romance. You can click on the tags to browse other books in the same genre. It’s so exciting to be featured! Check it out: https://romancelivesforever.blogspot.com/2014/07/cover-love-san-juan-island-stories.html
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Thanks!
Thanks to everyone to entered for your chance to win a copy of the San Juan Island Stories!
May 1 ~ May Day Facebook Party ~ comment to win an e-copy of the San Juan Island Stories Anthology
April 27 – May 9 ~ GoodReads Giveaway ~ enter to win 1 of 2 autographed, sparkle-covered print copies of the San Juan Island Stories Anthology
May 1 – 31 ~ MFRW Featured Author ~ comment to win a print copy of the San Juan Island Stories Anthology + the Passion Planner (a $25 value all by itself!)
Now that we’re coming up on the hot months of July and August, I want to get out and play like it’s the last summer of high school.
Do you remember when you got three months off? (Well, not if you went to one of those crazy year-round schools.)
I wasted those gorgeous lazy days watching Matlock and melting an ice cube in my boiling-hot bowl of chicken-flavored Top Ramen.
Now I’m less of a Matlock watcher and more of a day-traveler. The kid-me loves exploring with wide-eyed curiosity and experiencing unforgettable hands-on fun. With that in mind, here are five unusual Pacific Northwest adventures designed to re-awaken the kid-you for under $100 per person, from my estimation of least to most extreme:
1. Be White and Nerdy – Portland, Vancouver, Seattle, everywhere – Price depends on your location, so keep an eye out for a decent (wacky?) Groupon and tour your city from the back of the majestic segway. You too can strap on the knee and elbow pads, safety glasses, and skin-tight suit and have as much fun cruising your own hood as Weird Al.
We did this last year and it was SUPER FUN. Flying around Washington Park at 12 mph and then parking the segway for a coffee in the Pearl District rocked.
2. Relive the Hunger Games – Portland, OR – For less than $70 you can till your own bow from locally harvested wood and pretend you’re Katniss in the woods. They have additional classes for shelter-building, edible plants, and zombie attack survival. You can probably find a class nearer to you — here is a more expensive one that’s held in Monroe WA.
3. Blow Something – Seattle, WA – Like a paperweight or a flower. For $85 you can schedule a private 30-minute lesson on how to blow glass. Add color and one of the five basic shapes to what is essentially a stone that has been melted to 2400 degrees. These classes are everywhere so check your local glassblowing studio for prices and availability.
4. Wax your Board – Florence, OR – When you get tired of the bag of cheese curds you purchased at the Tillamook Cheese Factory (om nom nom so tasty CHEEZE) you can work off the extra calories on the slopes. The sandy slopes, that is. Now for as little as $10/day ($15 if you want goggles and a helmet) snowboarders can cheer that winter is far away. Don’t forget sunscreen and a camera to capture those heart-warming moments when you plow face-first into the dunes. (Check out this video to feel like you were there.)
5. Fly the Friendlier Skies – Seattle, Portland, etc. – If you’ve always wanted to test how you would fare during an emergency mid-flight evacuation, but the idea of actually plummeting 12,000 feet through open atmosphere to your potential death gives you pause, try indoor skydiving! Less than $60 for a 2-flight introductory session, you get all the benefits of throwing yourself into a vertical wind tunnel and none of the potential life insurance issues.
It’s Time to Party!
hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers (#MFRWorg)
JOIN ME & over a dozen other authors as we share excerpts from our contemporary romances. Get ideas for some new books to enjoy this spring. With all heat levels represented, there’s something for everyone. Join in on the hourly contests and win prizes. This is a party you do not want to miss and it’s going on all day on May 1st.
Confirmed Participating Authors INCLUDE:
Victoria Barbour – Vicki Batman – Paloma Beck – Gemma Brocato – Candy Caine – Lisa Carlisle – Carly Carson – Margie Church – Karen Cino – Wendy Lynn Clark – Margo Bond Collins – Kandie Delley – Emerald – Candace Gold – Lily Harlem – Susan Jaymes – Mona Karel – Patricia Kiyono – Adriana Kraft – Jan Meredith – Siobhan Muir – Martha O’Sullivan – Skylin O’Thomas – Victoria Pinder – Irene Preston – Jana Richards – Christi Williams – Sabrina York
It has been one year since I purchased the hot tub that CHANGED MY LIFE.
When I bought it, I was warned that I would never use it, that my electrical bill would go up, and that “hot tubs are great – when they’re working.”
But, I had dreamed of hot tubs for years. So, we bought it and restored it and now we’ve had it for one year. What about the warnings and the naysayers?
Well, they were all ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.
Our electrical bill doubled, and in one month, even quadrupled what it had been the previous year. Our hot tub broke six times in four months and was out of commission for weeks each time. In the hottest heat of the Indian Summer, we didn’t even crack the cover. And what no one had warned us about was that our water bill went up too – especially when the pump rotated backwards and drained the hot tub, TWICE.
In spite of the cost, the hassle, and the heartbreak — there is nothing like getting all ready for a nice, toasty dip and opening the cover to find a cold tub with an error code on the control panel — this has still been one of the best purchases of my life.
Here is the full story:
(The article below was written in my free newsletter. Not subscribed? Sign up!)
Much of the research for “Chance of Happiness” was done earlier this year when I bought a 15-year-old hot tub off someone’s back porch.
This hot tub has changed my life.
First, almost everything in “Chance of Happiness” related to fixing up the hot tub actually happened to us. We found a deer leg under the shell. (HOW???) The tub was most likely filled with antifreeze, which we bailed, thus causing the acrylic siding to crack. We nearly lost the moving trailer and the moving truck to a muddy field with a steep incline. My last naive thoughts about how easy it would be to transfer power died when the more experienced member of the moving party got out a multimeter and an axe.
Once we got it home and into the backyard – a task that involved breaking at least one city ordinance – we had to rewire the house for the new electric load. The hot tub board was fried; we bought a new board and that broke, then received a replacement, which broke again — twice. One day we came home and found the hot tub half drained because the rebuilt motor had run backwards. This feat our 63-year-old hot tub mechanic had only ever seen one other time. Our electric bill doubled; our water bill doubled; we paid four months’ worth of bills in that one month of service. And we still hadn’t even gotten to try it!
When I was telling everyone about my amazing restoration project, several coworkers confessed to having given up and gotten rid of their hot tubs. They were expensive, too much work, and never used much.
But having a hot tub was my dream.
A bubbling blue hot tub was what rich people had, like fast cars and personal chefs and maid service. I was so shocked to discover that I didn’t have to save up $10,000 to buy a gleaming model like at the showrooms. The restoration was not cheap or easy, but my dream was so achievable. What had I been waiting for all these years?
Six months after the first purchase, the Perseid meteor shower came to earth.
I spent it outside.
In my hot tub.
With my loved ones, together, staring up at the vast starry sky.
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Five Sites That Make Me Happy
Everyone writes for a different reason. My reason is because I want to share that feeling of “the world is an awesome place and I’m so glad to be living in it” with everyone. If you read one of my stories — currently sweet romances about rekindling flames at a five-year high school reunion — the one emotion I want you to feel is that chest swelling lift that life is good. Relationships make people stronger inside. We just have to open ourselves up to love and goodness will come flowing in.
This is super-important to me, because the hard knocks of newspapers and TV and real life can sometimes put me out of a good mood. When I am out of a good mood, I am less productive, less fun to be around, and just…well…less.
When I need to recharge, here are some of my best places:
1. Best Friends Magazine: Rescued animals and volunteers making a difference! I originally read this magazine at my grandma’s house. You can subscribe, view past issues online, or even schedule a tour of their no-kill pet haven in Utah. Each story brings a happy “the-world-truly-does-care” tear to my eye!
2. Good News Network: I’m not a daily subscriber or anything, but I have often thought of doing a daily/weekly/monthly roundup of happy stories I read in the news, and this site alleviates the guilt I may feel for not starting that venture.
3. My Flickr “Kisses” gallery. Each picture tells the start of someone’s happy story…
4. 60 Short Love Stories. Makes Me Think has sad and disturbing stories mixed with the happy ones, but this post has collected 60 of their favorite love stories. Each one is a tiny paragraph, submitted by a reader, all happy and all true. I cruise by and read a few when I need a pick-me-up. It’s like hearing how-we-met stories although they can be love for pets or friends as well.
5. An Engineer’s Guide to Cats. Comedy is extremely subjective, which is why my favorite sites for comedy (damnyouautocorrect.com, Cracked.com, The Onion) may not give you a boost. However, An Engineer’s Guide to Cats is their first and best video. I hope that you will consider bringing an engineer into your life.