WOW!  What a great Blog Hop!  I had so many great kisses and not one given twice!

I knew exactly the movie Mel Bourn was talking about with Isabeau and Captain Etienne!  One of my favorite movies "Lady Hawke"!  And yes, the kiss between Aragorn and Arwen in LOTR: RotK was smokin' hot!

I want to say a special thanks to Jessica, Nancy, Tracey D., Flchen1, Tammy Ramey, and Shadow for visiting my blog.  Shadow, I'm friends with Laurann Dohner so I'll pass on your kind words!!

And CMTorrens, you're absolutely right...a story kiss can be just as potent!  I love how Lisa Kleypas writes kisses.

So...here are my two winners!  ( I had so many responses I decided to have two winners!)  The first winner is ReneAva!  The second is Anonymous (AKA Jess1)!  Thanks so much to all for visiting my blog!

WARNING: THIS BLOG IS FULL OF SPOILERS!

Recently, I was able to finish watching the BBC show 'Robin Hood', thanks to Netflix streaming.  I had watched the first two series years ago (in Britain tv show seasons are called series) but had dropped Netflix before the 3rd & final series came out.

Truthfully, I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch the ending.  In the 2nd series finale, Marian is killed.  Run through with a sword and dies in Robin's arms just seconds after they marry.  I was totally in shock because 1) this is Robin Hood!  Marian can't die! & 2) I'm a romantic at heart so for true love to be ripped apart in such a manner is blasphemy to me.

So I built up my nerve to watch Jonas Armstrong swashbuckle his way once more through Sherwood.  Let's face it, who wouldn't want to watch Jonas Armstrong do...well, anything!  The man is just divine!  But I digress, and believe me I can do a lot of digressing over JA.  Anyway, I watched the 13 episodes only to have him die by being cut with a poisoned dagger!  The only saving grace was the beautiful way Marian reappears. Robin takes her hand.  She pulls him up, embraces him.


"My wife," he says, happily.
"Now and forever, my love," she answers.

He hugs her tightly and swings her around as light pours over them.  And then it flashes back to his hand and we see it fall away.  We hear his breathing stop.  He has joined Marian in heaven.

Okay, for the romantic in me that was potent stuff!

So why am I writing about a tv show that ended years ago?  Because viewers tune into a tv show because we fall in love with the characters.  We take their journey with them, wherever it may go, even if its only for a little bit.  And when a character we love dies, it's like losing a member of our family.  A piece of our heart dies too.  Yes, I know its all fantasy and make believe, but connecting with characters goes deeper than that.  We are able to live vicariously through them; a brief reprieve from our humdrum lives.

Characters who die onscreen stay with us for a long time.  Robin and Marian's love will remain in my memory each and every time I write a happy ever after.  Fictional they may be, that is why we watch television.  But after all, my world revolves around fiction and true love.

For me, nothing is greater.

***Next week, find out my thoughts about Xena's final episode.

Want to win a free ebook?

Please join me and some of my AMAZING fellow authors for the Erotic Romance Madness Blog Hop!  Starting May 10th and going through the 14th, be sure to stop by and leave a comment at my blog to be entered to win a free PDF ebook...winner's choice!  One random winner will be picked on the 15th, so make sure you leave your email address so I can contact you!

Today was the release day for my new historical Western menage titled The Scarlet Dove!

Thank you everyone who entered my contest!  Unfortunately, there can only be one winner...so I put everyone's name in a bowl and had my five year old son, Hadrian, pick one name.

And that name was...Helene!  I just emailed her!  Thanks everyone who left a comment.  Tomorrow I'll be doing another drawing for winner's choice so GOOD LUCK!

I asked my publisher to change her eye color to match the book description, and they did!

Here is the revised cover!

Release date is April 25th.  ***This is an interesting cover for me.  Liza isn't exactly how I wrote her to be.  In the story she has golden red hair and freckles everywhere.   Otherwise, I really love this cover! Her face has the right combination of unsure woman and steely resolve.  She's very mysterious, I think.  In the background, Apollo is the one taking his clothes off while Blue (Morgan) is simply waiting.  I love it!

I have four books being released for 2012!


The first is my novella titled YOU CAN RUN, with a release date of May 6th thru Loose Id:

My father died on February 27th, 2012, and it was absolutely horrible watching his body implode on itself.  I had to fly from Southern California to Springfield, Missouri where I was told my father was at Mercy Hospital in ICU.  He had had emergency surgery the day before because there was a "mass" on his esophagus, which turned out to be a lump of food that escaped from a perforation in the esophagus lining.  The food collected, growing, and eventually turned his esophagus necrotic, and because the tissue was friable, they couldn't reconnect it to his stomach.

He was on a feeding tube, on a J-tube (which takes away the "waste"), on a ventilator, and had tubes coming out everywhere to help drain all the fluids that were backing up in his system.  It's a horrible thing, to see your father like this.  A man who had always been big and strong and larger than life.  I came late to his life, being 45 when I was born, so there was this disconnect with him.  I was a typical teenage daughter and he was old school.  And now, being older and wiser, I regret not being able to talk to my father on that level.  I was fortunate to have a few days to talk to my dad, to say all I needed to say.  And though he couldn't talk to me he was able to look at me as well as squeeze my hand.

I was lucky.  I had closure.  And also lucky for me, my father took certain issues out of my hand.  I didn't have to make the decision to keep him on life support, my father had already made out a living will with a DNR.  All I had to do was agree with the doctor.  So on Monday, February 27, his ventilator was removed at 10am, along with all the medications that were keeping him alive.  My father lasted four hours and when he died I was holding one hand and my step mother was holding the other.  None of my siblings were there, none of them had the guts or the balls to watch him die.  Truth is, neither did I, but I refused to let my father leave this life not surrounded by love.

Now I'm getting on with life.  I'm having to get back to work, having to wash clothes and go grocery shopping, and it's all surreal.  I keep thinking "This time last month, or this time last week..." Yes, this time last month my dad was alive.  One day I won't think that every day.

First let me say a huge THANK YOU to all who left me comments on my Valentine Blog Hop.  I hope all of ya like your books...and for PaParanormal, please leave me your email address so I can send you a book!

Now, I've posted this once so some of you have read it, but I am blogging this again because I recently had a bad taste in my mouth from someone who had the audacity to say I'm not a real author and that I'm not educated because of what I write.  So...here goes....


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