Tag Archives: harlequin

Put a twitch in your step

24 Wednesday Jan 2018

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Dress_form_(AM_2017.18.1-1)In my head, I’m 40 lbs lighter and ten years younger. Is anyone else like that? Now, I’ve tried on enough clothes to know what size to look for in the store, but in my head, when I see a medium on a rack, I figure it should fit! Which makes me chuckle a little as I type this.

I’m NOT a medium. I’m nowhere close. But seeing myself as a medium in my head isn’t just about size, but about how attractive I feel. For the most part, we’re fed that message that tiny=beautiful. If you look at the supermodels, there isn’t very much woman under those clothes. So I catch myself traipsing along with the societal messages twisted around in my head–seeing the size medium and feeling like that’s for me, because I feel beautiful.

That’s the thing–I do feel utterly beautifully at my current size. (Somewhere around size 14-16, depending on the cut.) I don’t want to change my body–it’s done well for me! I love the way I look and the way I feel. I just need to change my mental attitude about it. Beautiful isn’t necessarily a medium. Beautiful, in my case, is plus-sized.

92574efcfa9a1502a03cd5de9ed50d4d--ashley-graham-plus-size-modelI’m currently starting a brand new book entitled, HIS LITTLE GIRL’S HERO for Harlequin Heartwarming. The heroine in this book is plus-sized and gorgeous. This is my second plus-sized heroine for Harlequin Heartwarming. The first comes out in October of 2018. I like writing plus-sized, beautiful heroines because I think it’s high time we start recognizing that beauty has nothing to do with a clothing size.

When I read a romance novel, I like to put myself into that heroine’s shoes and feel what it’s like to be her for a few hundred pages. And sometimes I enjoy being the tall, lithe athletic type for a little while. But what I love more is seeing a heroine who looks a lot like me, and having her be the most beautiful woman in the room. With some extra padding, ample cleavage, a softened tummy and silky skin. When the hero sees her, he’s put under a spell. Her femininity is intoxicating.

And that’s how I like to feel about myself. No need to starve yourself–just shop in the right stores and put a twitch in your step. 😉

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Beauty begins in the way we see ourselves. 

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Burning the Beans

05 Monday Aug 2013

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I’m a terrible multi-tasker. I like to think that I can juggle ten things at once, but I really can’t. The two things that don’t seem to be mixing well lately are my writing and my cooking.

I’ve been burning everything I cook for the last few days, but I’ve gotten a bunch of great writing done. Seriously–this manuscript is flowing so easily. It just pours out of me, chapter by chapter, and I tend to lose track of time. It’s great for the book, and bad for whatever meal I’m trying to throw together.

My husband works some long hours, and when he gets home from a twelve hour shift, he’s hungry. The other day, I served up some chili (burned at the bottom of the pot.)

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“I’m really sorry,” I said. “It burned, but I think it’s still edible.”

“No, it’s good.” He tucked in and ate a huge portion.

“Does it have that smoky, bbq taste?” I asked hopefully.

He shook his head. “No, it reminds me of my grandmother’s cooking.”

“Really?” (Swell of love!) He was about to earn some Brownie points with that one.

“She always burned the beans,” he said.

What can I say? I’ll bet his grandmother was doing something else at the same time as cooking, too. And I’m sure it was equally important as messing with the love lives of characters on a page. We “interesting women” have to stick together and defend our burned beans to the bitter end. 😉

Staving off “Writer’s Paranoia”

03 Monday Jun 2013

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I finished up a rewrite for my longsuffering Harlequin editor, and I emailed it off. No better feeling!

But that’s also when the Writerly Paranoia sets in. It feels good to get the manuscript off my desk and into my editor’s inbox, but that also means that it’s off my desk. It’s out there—waiting for judgment.

Did I get it right? Will she like it? Will she hate it? Has she read it yet?

Is she reading it now?

Taking a writer who spends hours every day all by herself, cooped up with a computer and a preschooler (so not technically alone, but definitely free of any adult, calming company), and then fill her overactive imagination with questions like these, and the outcome tends to involve comfort eating.

So I stave off the inevitable Writerly Paranoia by starting a new story. This one isn’t brand new—it’s the firefighter story. I’ve done research and decided on my basic premise, so it was a matter of plotting the novel, and getting back into first draft writing. It keeps me occupied. It gives this creative imagination of mine someplace else to wander.

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Much better.