What Do You Want Your Sweetie To Bring You for Valentine's Day?

Every month in my newsletter I ask my readers a question and have them respond. This helps me get to know them, and hopefully they learn about me as well, since I answer every single email. This month I asked them what they wished their sweetie would give them for Valentine’s Day. Some of their responses were so sweet and caring that I’m sharing them with you!

“I wish my sweetie would just plan a trip and take me away.  For once, I don't want to be the one who does all the planning and the packing.” Kim

“I wish my sweetie would get me a pound of Alaskan King Crab legs and we’ll have a wonderful dinner.  I’m just not a red roses kind of girl.  Maybe this year-lol I've asked him for the last 33 years.  I should put a sticky on his car steering wheel I think.” Jai

“Unfortunately, my sweetie has to fly over 1400 miles away on V day to go to his first sweetheart, his mom. I give him willingly to the woman that raised a good man, that needs him now, more than ever, being that he is her oldest boy.” Carla

Cupid Comes Calling: Book Babies and Birthdays

Today is a super special day. I mean, mega-important, stop-everything-you're-doing-and-savor kind of day. Because...
It's my hubster's birthday. He's turning the big 4-0.
But, like a very fine wine, he only gets better with age. I've been celebrating his birthday with him since he was 14... A lot of years ago, I know. And even though there are times we're more likely to growl at each other and cuddle, I do hope there's many more years to come.

It's kind of fitting that I'm celebrating his birthday AND my latest book release around the same time. Why? Well, I'm glad you asked. My latest book is
a Young Adult romance. (see the hubby's age when we met above) It's about a big-city girl moving to a small Texas town and falling for a pretty amazing cowboy.

NO, this is not auto-biographical. But it did make me nostalgic for those wrapped-up-in-each-other-because-the-rest-of-the-world-doesn't-exist passion. And, I admit, I did have a really wonderful time spinning a little of my teenage romance into Wyatt and Allie's love story.
I'm pleased to say, I think the book turned out pretty sweet! I'd love to hear your thoughts on it, if you read it.

Here's a little Cowboys & Kisses teaser for you!

Linda Steinberg ~ Cupid Comes Calling ... but sometimes, it's not the right time

Sometimes Cupid comes calling but it’s not the right time. Usually, he doesn’t come back.  But, fortunately for me, he did. 

Jim and I met in college. He was sitting across from me at the dorm cafeteria and I thought he was cute.  He had Elvis sideburns and a thick shock of sandy colored hair that swept over his forehead past his glasses. I was a senior, pretty much thought myself too mature to date anyone but another senior. So  I asked, quite cleverly, I thought, if he was a junior. “No,” he answered, in that laconic manner I have come to know and love. I breathed a sigh of relief. Then he added, “I’m a freshman.”

Barb Han - Black Hair and Dance Moves Caught My Eye

 

I was on the long road to finishing college (I worked my way through) and was about to turn twenty-seven. I’d gone out with friends to celebrate early. Sitting around the table at a nightclub, and being in between relationships, I realized I’d never dated a guy with black hair. In fact, I tended toward blue eyed, sandy-blond types. You know, Kens. I’d even dated a guy named Ken in high school. I know, Barbie and Ken. *gags*

While contemplating that thought, I made an announcement to my friends. The next guy I dated was going to have black hair. So, naturally, I look up and the first guy I see walking by the table has black hair. 

My friends laughed so hard, I took it as a challenge. 

CUPID COMES CALLING -- LOVE LETTERS FROM NOTRE DAME

It was the 1950’s. The decade of poodle skirts, car hops, Elvis, and Rock and Roll. My dad played the tenor sax in a big band for local dances around Fort Worth. The leader of that band was my mother’s uncle, Jimmy.

In the summer of 1952, when my mother was 15, she used to go to the dances where her uncle’s band played. When the band had a break, my dad came to sit at the table with his pal, Jimmy, and Jimmy introduced them. Mom says Daddy barely spoke to her. He was handsome, well-dressed, and older,(17) while she was a girl his mother considered “from the wrong side of the tracks”. Her parents were divorced, she moved from rented house to rented house every time her step-father lost a job, or her mother got bored.
In reality, Daddy was smitten from the first moment he laid eyes on her. But he was really shy. An only child of older parents, he grew up sheltered and his parents had very high expectations for his prospects. That fall he went off to Notre Dame. A year and a half later, he was home for Christmas break and Uncle Jimmy needed a date for his pal, (my dad) so they could double date, and called my mom. Mom says she had a big crush on Daddy, though he hardly spoke to her at all, but he asked her out for the next 2 nights! In mid-January he left for the spring semester at Notre Dame. And, though he returned to Fort Worth during the summer and Christmas breaks, he wrote to her from the Indiana university several times every week.

My mom has kept those letters all these years. His correspondence was fairly tame, detailing his daily life, but the progression of his feelings is there, though mostly subtle. Here are a few snippets.

Kathy Ivan: Cupid Comes Calling (But He's not Knocking Down My Door)!

I hope you're having fun visiting with the Plotting Princesses and reading all these wonderful stories about love, happiness and finding that "perfect one." Make sure you keep coming back and leave a comment to be eligible for the $200 gift card at the end of the tour.

I've loved reading all these stories of first meetings and happily ever after. Love and romance is a huge part of my life. After all, it's what I write every day. Bringing together two people. That spark of attraction. Eyes meeting across a crowded room. Sharing that first magical kiss.

Okay, time for my confession. I'm single, as in never been married. I've never made that perfect connection. Sure, there have been people in my life that I've loved and still care about. But that one special person, the deep heartfelt connection you know will last for all eternity? Um, hasn't happened for me (yet).

Cupid Comes Calling: When Long Distance Goes the Distance

Cupid has a sense of humor. Just ask my dear friend Marie. Her first date with Edward began with Catholic Mass. Her second threw her amidst 60+ members of Edward’s family, after which Edward’s dad pulled Marie aside and asked about her relationship with his son.

With a wry half-smile, she replied, “Define ‘relationship.’” 

It was a fair point. Months had passed between their first and second dates. More than that, Marie’s career had moved her 1,200 miles away from Edward.

This was the mid 80s. She and Edward were both employed by a Fortune 500 company as professional nerds engineers. From early on, their coworkers had sensed their potential as a couple—both of them super smart gaming geeks—and tried to set them up. But while Edward was all for it, Marie hesitated.

“He was scary,” she told me with a laugh. But a Star Trek convention came to town and their wily coworkers arranged for Edward to be the one driving Marie home afterward. The two talked all night about the many things they had in common, and he finally asked her on an official date.

The result was Mass plus dinner plus “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (during which Marie laughed before the jokes happened because she saw them coming).

Immediately thereafter, Marie moved clear across the country.