Tag Archives: Kensington author

Nice guys

16 Monday Jul 2018

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The best men are interesting. I know that I write about hunky heartthrobs who draw every female eye, but I find that in real life the guys who garner less immediate attention tend to be the ones I like better.

Have you ever noticed that? Ordinary guys… the ones who blend into the background a little more. They’re thinkers. They have character. They stand for something. Oftentimes, they’ve been overlooked for some reason or other, so they know what it feels like to be ignored or passed over. They aren’t relying on their instant charisma or their obvious monetary success to get them what they want. They know how to dig deeper down and to work hard.

They tend to be kinder, too. (The good ones, at least. Some get meaner. Run from those.) The good guys have spent more time with their own thoughts, and less time being pet and told how wonderful they are. They’ve watched other relationships around them, and they’ve formed a few opinions about what they want to receive, and what they want to give. They have a stronger sense of self that’s not reliant on female attention.

In my mind, that’s a real man. Getting to know him is a treat.

Is he rich? Not likely. Is he stunningly handsome? Maybe not to everyone, but every man has an attractive quality. Besides what you find incredibly attractive might not be what I do. Is he smooth? Heavens, no! He hasn’t been romantically involved with that that many women to have honed those skills.

But is he worth the time to get to know him? Is he worthy of your heart, and eventually your vow?

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There are good men out there! They say that nice guys finish last, but I don’t think so. I don’t know about you, but if there’s a guy who doesn’t have all the women flirting with him constantly, who doesn’t flirt back, who’s already made it clear that he’s not the kind of guy who plays a fast game, I think he’s a whole lot more interesting as a person, and a a romantic partner.

And here’s a secret: when that guy who’s been saving himself for the right woman finally unleashes all that pent up romance and passion, it’s so much more rewarding! Trust me, he’s worth it!

Nice guys don’t finish last–they play on a whole different level!

 

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And speaking of the guys worthy of your love…

My newest book will hit the shelves in just a couple of weeks, but you can get a copy now through Harlequin’s site!

4.276178.512.9781335428264_LPFrom stubborn bachelor to family man…
The Comfort Creek Lawmen have a new member

Returning home has stirred painful memories for officer Gabe Banks. But responding to a robbery at Harper Kemp’s bridal shop has upended his world. Harper’s adopted four-year-old is the daughter he never knew existed. Gabe’s no longer the bad boy Harper remembers, but he’s still terrified of commitment. Despite their fierce attraction, Harper must protect her little girl’s heart…and her own.

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A strong enough partition

09 Monday Jul 2018

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Library books are a delicious treat to me. I don’t tend to read while I’m currently writing a novel, because I don’t want the story I’m reading to bleed into the story I’m writing. That does happen to me sometimes. I have a weird laser focus when I write which allows me to finish up a rough draft in about 4-5 weeks. However, that laser focus means that there isn’t a strong enough partition between fiction creating and fiction reading in my brain for me to be able to do it all seamlessly. So, I take some precautions.

When I’m finished writing a manuscript, I reward myself with some reading.

This time, I finished up the rough draft to my upcoming Heartwarming story tentatively called DIAPER DUTY MATCHMAKER. Then my editor send me the first round of edits for HIS LITTLE GIRL’S HERO, which I worked on and sent back, which left me with a beautiful weekend with not much to do but read.

And I made the most of it!

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Hope you got to read this weekend, too!

 

Hail!

02 Monday Jul 2018

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The other day, we got a massive (and very fast) hail storm pass over our section of town. From what could tell from Facebook comments, it was very localized, but look at the size of it!

 

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Somewhere between pea-sized and marble sized. It also came with an absolute downpour that turned the streets into rivers for a few minutes.

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Gotta love those prairie storms. As it was coming down, I could see blue sky behind me, so I knew it wouldn’t last long.

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It was ONLY hail, though. There was one June where we got snow.

And, of course, I grabbed my phone and snapped a few pictures for your benefit. Because what is a storm if you can’t have bragging rights? 😉

Little Coco

25 Monday Jun 2018

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I’m a bird person. I’ve had pet birds since I was a girl, and I get so very attached to them. They have their own personalities, and they’ll bond to people quite easily, if you know how to talk to them.

Well, recently, our little yellow budgie, Coco, had to be put down by the vet. It was a really hard choice to make, but she was getting sicker and sicker, and I think she’d just gotten to the end of her life span. I didn’t want the poor thing to suffer. So I made an appointment with the vet and brought her in.

The vet told me it was the right choice, so I made the painful decision to say goodbye.

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That was a few weeks ago, and I recently got a sympathy card in the mail from the vet’s office, and while I know that they do this for everyone who loses a pet there, I thought it was a really sweet gesture. All the staff signed it, and they even called Coco by name. It was thoughtful of them.

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Our Quaker parrot has been grieving the loss of his little friend, too. He asks for Coco on a regular basis, and I’m not sure how you’re supposed to explain death to a bird. I was hoping he’d forget her after a while, but he hasn’t yet. From time to time he’ll go over to where her cage used to be and ask me repeatedly, “Coco? Coco?”

We all miss her, even Pichu the Quaker. She was such a sweet little bird, and she’s left a hole. Isn’t it amazing how much we can love one little yellow budgie?

Our summer fun

18 Monday Jun 2018

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We have a local historical park that we just love, and this year we got a season’s pass. So guess what we’ll be up to most weekends! 🙂

I thought I’d share a few pictures from our recent trip there.

It’s so much fun! We haven’t had a pass for a few years now, so we plan to make the most of this one over the summer.

I’m a real stickler about not putting pictures of my family up, but this next one has my son in it–he’s the kid in the red shorts. ( ❤ )  And he’s getting so big! I can’t share the family shots, but he’s past my shoulder now, and just keeps getting taller! (Amazing what happens when you feed them, right?)

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I love the feeling of stepping back in time, strolling with my husband down the streets, and just basking in the prairie heat.

So when I’m NOT writing this summer, this is probably where I’ll be found. 😉

The Johns Family

11 Monday Jun 2018

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The other weekend, we went to a local historical park, and they had a caricature artist doing drawings for people, and he was really good!

So the Johns family stood in line for our very own, and this was the result:

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I don’t share photos of my family online, so this is as close as I’ll get to that line. LOL!

In all our goofy glory! ❤

They politely never speak to us

28 Monday May 2018

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In the spring, I like to sleep with the window open. It’s nice to have a cool breeze and a warm blanket. When it gets too warm, I replace the open window with the blast of an air conditioner, but for a few weeks, it’s the perfect sleeping temperature.

Mr. Johns and I lay in bed talking and listening to the outdoor sounds of our neighbours. We’re in an apartment, so it’s not exactly romantic ambiance, but it’s entertaining. We’re early to bed people, and where we live, it stays light a really long time. (We’re pretty far north.) So other people stay up a lot later with the sun, and their voices will filter over to us.

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We don’t normally hear anything interesting. There will be some teenagers walking down the sidewalk–and that’s normally just laughter and unintelligible banter. Sometimes there will be the murmurs of the neighbours smoking in the evening across the way. It reminds me of our city days, when we used to live in downtown Toronto, and you knew way too much about your neighbours, and politely never spoke to them.

I like that time of day when Mr. Johns and I enjoy that cool breeze. We talk, vent, dream, joke about things that amused us that day… and I sometimes wonder if there are other people with their windows open who listen to the fragments of our conversations, too.

If they do, they abide by the Close Quarters Rules of Etiquette and politely never speak to us.

 

The formula for books

24 Thursday May 2018

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I can’t be everything. That is my newly earned wisdom.

I feel like life keeps teaching me the same lesson over and over until I finally get it. And this time around, it’s that I can’t be what other people want me to be. I can only be… this.

And I’ve recently stopped feeling badly about it.

Everyone expects something from you. When I get busy and tired, those expectations get heavier, and I get more resentful of them. Generally, these aren’t huge things. They’re just little things that pile up that are most likely linked to the fact that I’m introverted and most of the world isn’t. Things that feel like an invasion to me, are likely just friendly  gestures by an extrovert.

Here are a few things that are not negotiable about me: 

I don’t drink. I tend to stay in on weekends. I’m not fun at a party. Ever.

I hate babysitting. Like a lot. So things that work for other moms like swapping babysitting just don’t work for me. No matter how convenient it would be for that other mom.

I’m busy. Really busy. And my priorities start with my family and my writing, leaving not a whole lot left in the wake.

I’m celiac, and that doesn’t mean that I get a mildly upset stomach when I eat a piece of toast. That means I get very ill for months on end from a trace of gluten. I can’t just eat at someone’s home. I can’t just eat at a restaurant, either. It complicates social interactions.

Villers_Young_Woman_DrawingBut there are a lot of things I DO do:

I write books.

I can focus like a fiend on whatever project I’m working on, and I’m rather prolific because of that ability.

I love my family with everything I’ve got, and I have a few close friends who are as introverted as I am, and who don’t feel bad when I cancel on them. (I also don’t feel bad when they cancel on me!)

I enjoy my quiet time because it recharges me. My husband and son are both introverts, too, so we all need that quiet time.

I blog, I keep up with people online, and I’m grateful for the relationships I form with people that way.

I might not be able to eat out, but we often bring our friends over to our home to eat.

I’ve realized lately that I have to say No a lot to a lot of well-intentioned people. I don’t like disappointing people who are just trying to be friendly, but I can’t change what I have to offer. I can’t be everything. I can just be the best version of this that I can.

Besides, this is the formula for all those books! 😉

Super duper hot sauce

21 Monday May 2018

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Mr. Johns wanted one thing for his birthday: homemade hot sauce.

I’d never made it before and was a little intimidated, so I looked up a recipe and found this one. So if you’d like to give it a try, it was pretty easy!

Basically, I sautéed up onions, garlic and hot peppers that I’d frozen. Then I added two cups of water and simmered it for twenty minutes until everything was soft.

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After that, I let it cool, blended it smooth in the blender, and added lemon juice (instead of vinegar) and the sugar. Then blended it again.

And here it is! In all its spicy glory. Mr. Johns will have hot sauce to pour on top of absolutely everything.

Much easier than I thought! So I’ll be keeping the man in homemade hot sauce from now on. And it’s hot!

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13 years ago

17 Thursday May 2018

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Thirteen years ago, I married the love of my life. Mr. Johns is the one for me, and that’s never changed.

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I always say that you should never marry someone hoping that the spark will develop over time, because there really is no guarantee that it will! For Mr. Johns and I, we had the spark from the first time we met, and no matter what challenges we faced, I knew he was the one. No man has ever made me feel the way he does.

The other day, we went shopping together, and I was just feeling… unattractive. Everyone has days like that, and that was mine. But I slapped on some makeup, put on a dress (it was pretty warm outside) and we went to the mall. And the whole time we were out, my husband checked me out. 😉 And I have to tell you, that after walking in the mall with a guy who smolders for me and holds my hand, I feel a whole lot prettier! His attention never wanders. I’ve never once seen him check out another woman. I’m his. He’s mine. And he’s very satisfied.

With my husband, I get to be the most beautiful woman in the room. He always tells me that a man should never marry a woman for her personality, but for her looks. He says, “If you’re going to be married to her for the rest of your life, you’d better think she’s gorgeous.” And that has always given me confidence. Obviously, he married me for more than my looks. We’re soulmates–he tells me that in the love letters he writes me on our anniversary each year. But he also thinks I’m beautiful, and 13 years in, I can still draw his eye. After childbirth. After 13 years of aging. After extra pounds and gray hair.

I married the right guy!