A Little Romance...

by J. D. Faver

Welcome to August, National Romance Awareness Month.  

While I'm pleased that this very hot month has been dedicated to Romance Awareness, I'm also shaking my head. Do you know how HOT it is?

Romance equates to warm embraces, skin contact and so much more that involves heat-producing activities.

Whoever decided that August was the month to be aware of romance was obviously not living in southeast Texas where it's hot and sticky...and did I mention, HOT?  The census bureau confirms that more babies are born in August. (Ahem, both of mine were) That being said, I would think that November, and cooler temperatures, would be more likely to spark a little romance than this muggy, sultry summer heat.

If a hopeful Lothario brings chocolate, you better stow it in the fridge because, even as he walks from his air-conditioned car to your air-conditioned door, the chocolate will become a little ooky. Same goes for flowers. Better get those long-stemmed beauties in a vase quick before they faint.

Just went outside with my dog. We were both ready to come inside in a matter of minutes...maybe it was seconds. Gah! C'mon September.

Sending you a cool excerpt from my romantic thriller, ON ICE. Hope you enjoy it.

~J.D.

                                  ~*~

It snowed again that night. Rene stared out the window at the powdery flakes falling to earth. The full moon cast a silvery glow over the whiteness, contrasting against the dark of the trees. She shivered, contemplating her aloneness. She thought about Brett’s home, so snug and secure. What was he doing now? Was he staring out the window, thinking of her? The lonely howl of a wolf broke the stillness of the night.

She pulled on her jacket and boots and stepped quietly onto the porch. The crisp, cold night air tingled against her cheeks. The wolf howled again. Rene crunched out into the snow, taking in great lungfuls of the chilled air. It only hurt a little now. Throwing her head back, Rene answered the wolf, howling mournfully. The sound resonated, creating a hollowness when it died away. The eerie silence was broken when the wolf howled its reply.

“Mom?” Seth held Sara’s mittened hand as they watched her from the porch. They wore warm down-filled jackets, their breath sending cartoon-like balloon shapes from their mouths. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I was just keeping the wolf company.”

“The wolf?” he asked.

As if on cue, the wolf’s howl cut into the icy night.

“The wolf.” Rene held her arms out to the children. They ran to her, still holding hands. She embraced them, and then holding their hands, danced them around in circles. As she danced, Rene howled to the wolf. Sara threw back her head and let out a shrill, wolf-like howl. Seth and the wolf joined in.

“Let’s go in,” Rene said. “It’s cold and we have to get up early tomorrow.”

Rene slept well, but dreamed a strange jumble of dreams. She was dancing in the moonlight. First, she danced with the children, then with Brett. Then it was Mark. She ran as Mark changed into the wolf and chased her. She stopped and turned on her pursuer. Rene became the bear. Rearing up on her haunches, she growled and slashed her powerful claws at him. Waking suddenly, she lay in the dark listening to her heart thudding against her ribs. She smiled in the darkness, feeling powerful and secure.

~*~

ON ICE is currently available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Ice-Contemporary-Romantic-Thriller-ebook/dp/B00758KQ22/ref=la_B0050KEWMM_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344013888&sr=1-1

Hot Stuff Cool Cat

After a super mild winter in southwestern PA, it seems we are to be hurled into a scorching summer. I may complain about the snow, but am so not a summer person. My brother had his Memorial Day picnic on Sunday. A hot, sunny day of 91 degrees F and a heat index of 95. It was fine for the pool people. The rest of us were equally wet, melting in the sun. He had plenty of shaded areas, but there is simply no escaping the heat.

I was in charge of bringing the cake. I made one with yellow cake mix and mandarin oranges, topped with vanilla pudding, crushed pineapple and Cool Whip®. Totally refreshing cake.http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/luscious-mandarin-orange-cake/02e67811-b56b-4047-8804-9cf3992dd249 But all I could think of on Saturday night was that it was going to be hot out there. Ice pops or Italian ice would taste great. The problem would be keeping them frozen. That’s when the proverbial light bulb went off!

I have an ice shaver in the house. Two, actually. One is electric and one manual. After a hunt for the electric one, I made sure it worked. But what if everyone wanted one at the same time? Maybe I should bring the manual one. Dug that one out of storage. I love the shaved ice on the manual machine, but it really calls for a special block of ice. With nothing to lose, I tossed in some ice cubes to see how it would work. As long as there was a lot of ice in the holder, it worked fine.  Two ice machines packed and ready to go.

The plan was to run by Wal Mart and get the syrup, spoons and Styrofoam® cups – and ice. Good plan. Wal Mart only had one brand of ice syrup that I could find so bought several flavors. (Be warned, the Hawaiian Punch® brand green is not lime. The label says it’s some kind of berry, but it tastes like green apple.) Loaded the goodies in my cart and headed for the check out.

At the register, I had the checkout girl ring up 2 large bags of ice. Loaded everything into the car, including the two 22 lb bags of ice, which I put in the cooler. The lid didn’t close completely, but figured it would be fine for my short trip. Turned out that one of the bags had a hole in it – couldn’t have possibly been from my lugging and tugging – so I took out one of the ice cubes and popped it in my mouth. They weren’t cubes at all, but the cylinders with a hole in the center, exactly the ice I didn’t want. The last time I had bought this brand, they were cubes. Stopped at the local convenience store and asked the clerk if he knew if the ice was cubes or cylinders. After looking at me strangely, he believed they were cubes. Since there were bags in the inside cooler, I checked. Yep. Cubes. Just what I needed for the ice shaver to work correctly. So even though I wanted two bags I could only get one because I had no idea where to put the thing. I had an insulated bag in the car so dropped one of the cylinder ice bags into it. I now had 66 lbs of ice and have sweat dripping from every pore on my body. Seriously thought about just sitting on one of the bags. Naturally, there was no place close to park when I got to the party so I had to stop in the middle of the street and wrestle with the cooler and then the insulated bag, Forget the other stuff!

By the time I made it to the party, my 66 lbs of ice was no secret. One person wanted to know if I planned on opening a stand. Grrrr… Just for the record, we did use a good 30 lbs of ice.