Love of the Sweetest Kind

“Here?” she whispered to him sweetly.

“We’re alone,” he said discreetly.

“I’ve been good till now!” she sighed.

“But you’re human!” he replied.

“It’s so big!” she hesitated.

“It’s all yours,” he proudly stated.

“Oh, I shouldn’t!” she protested.

“If you love me -!” he suggested.

And so, losing all resistance,

she gave in to his insistence …

and ate every single chocolate in the box!

Happy Valentine’s Day

with a special thank you to my Valentine and Hallmark Cards.

Re-posted from Ruth A. Casie's blog

Keeping the Romance Alive

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, and I ask myself every year whether hubby will surprise me with something, but you know what?

He rarely does.

Some people would say he isn’t romantic, or that he doesn’t care. But I know the truth.

My big bad Italian hubby isn’t one for telling me he loves me. I may not get roses on Valentine’s Day, and we may not go out to an expensive dinner. But two weeks ago my husband, who has said for years that he will never get a dog because they’re too much work…told me I could have a puppy. And you know why he did it? Because he knew it would make me happy and he loves me so much he’ll put up with pee on the kitchen floor, and chewed running shoes, and that wet doggy smell.

I’m all for a day of romance as much as the next person, but even more important are the days when there aren’t any expectations yet the coffee is made for me when I get up in the morning, and the laundry has magically been folded while I was writing madly to make a deadline. My husband knows that my favourite treat is a cannoli (Mmmmm Cannolis) and one random day that really meant nothing in the grand scheme of things, I came home to find that he’d looked up a recipe, gone out for the ingredients and made some from scratch. Those were the best cannoli’s I have ever had.

So no, I don’t expect fancy declarations, or anything else tomorrow. And that’s perfectly fine. I probably won’t make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day for him either…then again, he’s going ice fishing next week and I know when he gets home he’ll really appreciate seeing a big pot of my homemade squash soup and fresh bread waiting for him.

What little things does your loved one do for you throughout the year to show their love, besides the big gestures?

And don't forget to enter our Valentine's Day giveaway here!

JK Coi
www.jkcoi.com

I Wish You Magic

Valentine's Day is Tuesday. I'm not a big believer in the holiday just because I think romance should happen everyday and Valentine's is just a day for couples to spend money they don't necessarily have and single people to feel bad. But... sometimes people get that it isn't about the flowers, or the chocolate, or the jewelry, it's about doing something more magical than you do for someone you love the rest of the year. This is especially true for couples who have been together for a long time.

You see, when people first fall in love, it's (if you're lucky) a little like it is in romance novels. Sparks fly. You dream about their eyes, their smile, the feel of their hand in yours... their mouth on yours. You spend so much time thinking about this new person that when the phone rings and it's them, a tiny part of you believes that they felt your thoughts. New love haunts you. It seeps into your very pores and makes you carry yourself differently. It makes you smile more. Laugh more. And if it's with a person who really clicks with you on multiple levels, you might wonder if they were meant just for you or if you conjured them from thin air.

Every touch...
Every smile...
Every glance...
Every gesture...
Is a tiny piece of magic just for the two of you.

With familiarity though, we lose that. Days become jobs, and kids, and in-laws, and bills. No amount of flowers or chocolate can make up for that. Those things don't bring back the heat and passion of new love. And that's what most of us really want for Valentine's Day. We want the magic.

So my assignment to you this Valentine's Day is to spark some of that in your relationship. Try to let go of all the mundane stuff that clogs your world, and fall in love all over again. While the rest of the world spends money on things that don't matter, give the person you love something they'll remember--give them the gift of magic.

The Magic of Love: A Here Be Magic Giveaway!

Whoohoo! Thanks for all the great comments! Our winners for the Here Be Magic Valentine Giveaway are:
1st prize $50 gift card: Tara W.
2nd prize $25 gift card: Christinebails
We will be contacting you via email to find out your preferred vendor and send your gift card.

Congrats, and we hope you all had a magical Valentine's Day!


Love Valentine's Day or hate it, we all deserve a special treat, to celebrate the day or just get through it. From February 10th until February 14th at 8:00 p.m., commenters on this post will be automatically entered to win that special something dear to every reader's heart - gift cards for books! We're offering two gift cards to you, our special Valentines, one for $50 and one for $25 to Barnes & Noble or Amazon. (Winner's choice!)

So tell us, Here Be Magic readers and lovers, what is something you enjoy about Valentine's Day? Is it more than just an excuse to eat chocolate?

Whatever it is, we want to hear about it! Three winners will be chosen at random and can go to U.S. residents or international readers.

Sponsored by Carina Press authors Christine Bell, David Bridger, Joely Sue Burkhart, Angela Campbell, Ruth A. Casie, Sharon Cullen, Seleste deLaney, Susan Edwards, PG Forte, Loribelle Hunt, Shona Husk, Jeffe Kennedy, Jane Kindred, Julia Knight, Barbara Longley, Linda Mooney, Janni Nell, Tia Nevitt, Nicole North, Cindy Spencer Pape, Jenny Schwartz, Veronica Scott, Keri Stevens, Eleri Stone, Dee Tenorio, Jody Wallace, and Rebecca York

If you put your email address or Twitter handle in your comment, we can contact you, but we will also announce the winners on the blog and Tweet the winner’s names at 10:00 p.m. on February 14th (our twitter handle is @herebemagic if you want to follow along).

The winners will have three days to collect their prizes. If we do not receive a response, another entrant with a listed email address or Twitter handle will be chosen so that we can contact them directly.

So come tell us, what is the one thing that makes Valentine's Day fun for you?

Wishing you and yours much love and magic,

Here Be Magic Authors

Horses being silly--for a reason

Next month, my new book, CAPRIOLE, will be out from Loose Id. Hooray! It's M/M and features Lipizzans based on this herd.

(No. No cover yet, sadly. I am anxiously waiting for it...)

Actually, for a much more detailed blog by a professional writer and breeder about using horses in fiction and for horsey worldbuilding ideas, I point you her posts on Book View Cafe. Me, I don't claim to be a horse girl. I never had a horse crazy stage. I rode a horse once in summer camp when I was maybe nine. I still don't know what color a bay or a roan is, though I do know that most "white" horses are actually gray.

And all this comes in handy when writing fantasy or historical, since so much of it includes horses, and horse details are so easy to get wrong even when you think you're right.

For a few ideas, I'll give you some Lipizzans in action.

Want to have a mischievous horse? The pose above is something the gelding started, and this mare, Tia, learned. A couple of the other mares can do this too. See the hay on the ground? This is where the horses get groomed and saddled, and we give them a bit of hay to keep them occupied. Tia and her buddies like to reach under the fence to get as much hay as they can reach. See the hose? The gelding has figured out if he tugs on it, he can get a mouthful of hay to come out with it.

Ahhh, nothing like a good roll, as Tia and Pandora like to do. Actually, Tia's down for a nap while Pandora is actually rolling, something all the horses like to do for several reasons. It provides a good stretch, it helps with itching, and the dirt helps to keep the flies from being so bothersome. In the summer we hose the horses off to keep them cool (in 100+ degrees, they ask for it,) and they usually go for a roll right afterwards and come up looking like paint ponies.

And here is my horse Carrma, the matriarch of the herd. That's Tia lying down for a snooze. She slept for about forty-five minutes that day. Horses sleep for around four hours a day, and while they can sleep standing up as their legs lock into place so they don't fall down, they do like to get the weight off their feet and will lie flat like Tia here (which panicked me the first time I saw it, because I thought the horse was sick or something.)

Or the horses will sleep curled up like Pandora is. And they don't often do it in front of humans unless they're totally comfortable. We had eight humans with the herd that day, and three horses decided to take a nap all at once, which means the horses really trusted us.

No, that image is not digitally enhanced to add the tongue. Camilla really is sticking her tongue out. It's a way for the horses to relax. Yawning doesn't mean they're tired--it means they're relaxed and releasing tension much the same way humans do. And if you see a horse lick and chew, it means they're happy.

Anyhoo. That's probably more than enough horse picture spam for today. If you have any horse questions, holler, and if I don't know I probably know who would.

All pictures copyright Evey Brett. Thanks. :>)

Flowers of Ancient Egypt

One of the most poignant things I ever read was an account of a small bouquet of flowers found by archaeologists on the floor in the outer chambers of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh’s tomb. The romance writer in me always thinks about the poor woman mourning her beloved, leaving a last offering of wildflowers to accompany him into the afterlife, just before the tomb was sealed forever. What happened to her next?

We’ll never know…unless I write that story someday perhaps! Flowers don’t figure much in my book Priestess of the Nile, but they do appear in some of the other works in progress in the overall connected series. The Egyptians often wore flower garlands in life and in death or emulated them in precious stones such as coral and turquoise. King Tut’s mummy wore this floral collar:

And here’s another example, made with cornflowers, which has miraculously held its color for over 3000 years.

The Egyptians loved flowers, with the blue lotus of course being the most well known. A form of water lily, the lotus had its own feast day. People would sing songs to the flower and then walk to the Nile, holding a silver bowl shaped like a lotus, candle burning in the center. You made a wish and put your bowl in the river and if the candle continued to float and burn, you’d get your heart’s desire in the coming year.

It was said that a god or goddess was present if the lotus perfume was especially strong in the air. Many tomb paintings depict the human holding a lotus, to attract the gods, win their favor and thus make the person’s journey to the Afterlife smoother. Since water lilies open in the morning and close again at night, the Egyptians quite logically took the lotus as a symbol of rebirth and regeneration in the Afterlife.

A second plant of high importance to the Egyptians was the papyrus. Symbol of fertility and life itself, because of the way it grew in tremendous thickets along the Nile, the papyrus and its flowers was the most commonly used decorative element in the stylized architecture and other objects. The papyrus was the symbol for Lower Egypt, beginning around 2600 BC – almost 5000 years ago – as the civilization became complex, the first “step” pyramid was built and many of the governing structures of Egyptian life were established.

Around the time my book takes place, in 1500 BC, the Egyptians had begun depicting the lotus wrapped around the papyrus in their art. When papyrus was depicted with the lotus – symbol of Upper Egypt – the message was the unification of the two lands, under one Pharaoh.

The people of Ancient Egypt weren’t so different from you and me…and an appreciation of flowers as a romantic or symbolic gesture is one thing we definitely share! What’s your favorite flower to give or receive?

10 Realities You'll Never See in a Romance Novel

Romance is a wonderful thing. Happily ever after, men who have sculpted chests and never gain weight, women who have perfect looks and lament their hourglass figures, and billionaires who father secret babies and happen to be sheiks on the side. And let’s not forget my personal favorite, supernatural hotties.

Look, I'm a rabid romance fan, but I can poke a little fun. I'm a huge reader as well as a writer, and I read romance because I love the happy endings the books guarantee. But hey, let's be honest. It's fiction, and to resolve the HEA (happily ever after), a few realities are often skirted in the telling of a good tale. But how funny would it be to read a “real” romance?

Here are a few realities I’d love to see in a romance novel, while knowing if I did read them, I’d laugh myself silly or most likely fail to finish the book. Still, the possibilities abound…

1. Heroes and heroines eating gourmet dishes with broccoli, pepper, or those other tricky foods that remain behind between teeth long after they’ve been consumed. Makes kissing someone with a big green thing that looks like it came from Mars between their teeth not quite so romantic.

2. The happy couple that goes for exotic food and never has gastric problems afterward. “Honey, what is that perfume you’re wearing?” “Oh, I like to call it eau de gas.”

3. Studly, well-groomed heroes who never scratch their asses or adjust themselves in public. Trust me, I was in a job surrounded by men. They ALL at one time or another itch that inappropriate place. As I’ve been told by my six year old when asked why he was messing with a particular area, “Because it’s sticking to me, Mom.” Yep. Apparently they stick.

4. The sick heroine who cries at that pivotal moment and looks beautiful while doing so. No snot, no blotchy skin, no red eyes. Just beautiful misery. Love it.

5. Heroines with natural size-D breasts, 24-inch waists, and 5 % body fat. Huh? Barbie ain’t real. It’s a fact her dimension are off.

6. Bachelor pads that might be dusty or messy, but that’s the extent of it. No mention of mold growing in a bathroom or bedrooms that smell like ass. (And you know, women can be messy too.)

7. Hot, passionate sex in the Amazon after the hero and heroine have gone days without bathing or shaving. Yeah, that’s sexy. Not

8. Historical romances where the heroine is over the age of twenty-six and has no odd facial hair. Not a whisker, lady ‘stache, or uni-brow in sight. Unless she’s a witch of course. Then it’s all, “Burn her at the stake!”

9. A hero who has an average sized penis. It’s always got to be monstrous, huge, thick, engorged, or just big. I’d love to read a book where the guy is average. Where six inches really does equal six inches. Art can imitate life… unless you’re living in an XX movie or a Marie Harte romance. (Haha)

10. Lastly, I just love when the hero gets the heroine an engagement ring on a passionate whim and it automatically fits. Or better yet, he buys her lingerie and estimates her size. “Er, yeah, saleslady.” He holds out his hands. “She’s this big.” Bingo! Here’s a guy who should definitely play the lottery.

What tropes do you wonder about when you read? I’m curious because I know I’ve missed some. And I just think a romance book that had all of the above would be more than comical. It would be a reality.But that’s just not something I want to plunk down my hard earned money to read. Still, it would make a terrific comedy.

Marie
Proud romance writer :)
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