BHB welcomes Robin Lee Hatcher!

My good friend and fellow author Robin Lee Hatcher is visiting Blue Heart Blessed today to chat about her new book, Wagered Heart. Here's the teaser on the back cover:

"When Bethany Silverton left the genteel life of Miss Henderson’s School for Young Ladies back in Philadelphia for the raw frontier town of Sweetwater, Montana, she had no idea how much she would enjoy the freedom and danger of this wild country.

A conservative preacher’s daughter, Bethany can’t resist the challenge of charming the most attractive cowboy in town into attending her father’s new church. She never dreamed that the cowboy would charm the lady.

But Hawk Chandler isn't the only man vying for Bethany's affections. Ruthlessly ambitious Vince Richards thinks Bethany is perfect for him: attractive, gracious, just the woman to help him become governor. And he is determined to get what he wants at any cost.

Drawn to one man, an obsession of another, Bethany's quiet life is thrown into turmoil. She wagered her heart on love. Now she has gotten more than she bargained for—and the stakes are about to become life and death."

Here's what the critics are saying: Romantic Times Book Reviews: "Hatcher knows how to pack romance, laughter, tears and lovable characters into her stories." and Relz Reviewz: "Robin Lee Hatcher's latest offering is a romance reader's delight! The romantic tension between Hawk and Bethany ignites on their first meeting and doesn't let up until the final page. While the outcome is a forgone conclusion, Robin's talent with the written word and her unerring ability to create engaging characters, sets this story apart from most other historical romances. Hawk and Bethany's journey is fraught with misunderstandings, personal tragedy and the schemes of a treacherous man adding excitement to a tale that overflows with simmering attraction and blossoming love. Interspersed with humour and electrifying dialogue, Wagered Heart is a summer treat not to be missed."

BHB: Hey, Robin, how would you describe the evolution of your writing career?
RLH: I began my career as a novelist writing historical romances, a natural fit for a booklover who has always loved history and is a romantic at heart. When God drew me out of the general market in order to write faith-based fiction, I discovered I also had a passion for telling contemporary stories that tackled relevant topics of our time -alcoholism, marriages in crisis, prodigal children, faith in light of tragic loss. But that didn't mean I lost my love for historical romantic fiction. I didn't. I just wasn't writing them very often. That is about to change. Wagered Heart is my first faith-based historical romance release in three years.

BHB: What did you like best about heading back to your writing roots?
RLH: I loved watching Bethany, a preacher's daughter, and Hawk, a rancher, come to life on the page, and it was great fun immersing my imagination in 1880's Montana. Wagered Heart will be followed in January by another single title historical, When Love Blooms. This book is also set in the 1880's but this time in the rugged mountains of central Idaho where Emily, a young governess, falls in love with her employer, a man who thinks she is ill-suited for the hard life he could offer her.

BHB: What do you have on the distant horizon?
RLH: I am currently writing the first book of a new series that feature heroines who have unusual jobs for their time; the series opens in 1915. Plenty of problems and romance ensue. In other words, I'm having a wonderful time when I sit down at my computer each day.

Thanks for coming the Blue Heart Blessed blog, Robin!

On Friday: Is there such a thing as an ugly wedding dress?

Showers of great ideas

I've been to my share of bridal showers and for the most part, they've be lovely, but rather generic events. Here's a website with some great ideas on how to throw a unique bridal shower that everyone will remember.

Here are a few ideas that stood out:

Honeymoon Location: Let's say the newlyweds are headed to Paris for the honeymoon. Use that location for a Paris-themed party with French food, gifts with a French theme (cookbooks, perfume, decor that is all French). Or if they're headed to Mexico, have a fiesta-themed shower and use the Mexican theme for the food and the gifts.

Firsts! Have each shower guest bring a gift for a specific "first" the couple will have, like their first Christmas together, the first time she burns dinner (!), their first night apart, the first tiff, the first picnic, the first Valentines Day, etc.

Every Month: Each guest is assigned a month of the year and brings a gift that correlates. This allows the bride to receive seasonal items such as a picnic basket forJuly or gardening supplies for March or Christmas decorations for December.

Water: From the site - "One of my bridesmaids is throwing us a couples shower and she was struggling with a theme. My fiancé came up with the idea of an 'H2O Shower.' Our guests will need to bring something either associated with water or the word 'water.' Some of the ideas we came up with were: pitcher, glasses, towels, rain suits, umbrellas, water toys, Waterford crystal, something with a watermark, etc. Needless to say, I was very proud of him for coming up with such a great idea and one I had never heard of. Some really creative items people could bring include water chestnuts, watermelon, water balloons, etc."

(I love this one!) Personal Library: Ask each guest to bring a book, journal, magazine, or gift certificate from a book store to help build the bride and/or groom's personal library. The person who contributed this idea said, "You will be surprised on how well it will go over."

Got an idea? Share it!

A true story of a blue-heart dress redeeemed

Have I got a story for you today!

If you've read Blue Heart Blessed, you know the premise of the story is this: A gal named Daisy who's dreamed of her wedding since she was a little girl gets stood up at the altar ten days before the big day. To ease her broken heart and relieve herself of the dress of her dreams, she opens a secondhand wedding dress boutique, sewing a blessed little blue heart in each dress to infuse it with hope.

My friend Tina has a story to share about the dress she wore when she married her forever sweetheart. The dress was like Daisy's. It had a past. Tina bought it to wear at a wedding that never took place. Here's her story:

• Blue Heart: So, Tina. Something happened on the way to the altar. What was it?
• Tina: In the short time my fiance and I were engaged I grew up and he didn't. He was a friend during high school and we reconnected and started dating a few years later, but I realized we were in no way equally yoked. We shared a love for words and memories from our youthful past, but that was it. A month or so before the wedding, I alone canceled the gorgeous reception room that overlooked the water in Coronado, the quaint little old English style chapel with stained glass and wood pews, the pastor, the beautiful white frilly wedding cake that held a layer of fresh peaches and cream tucked between two layers of white cake, and all the flowers. But I kept the dress. I loved the dress.

• Blue Heart: Wow. What happened next?
• Tina: A couple years later, when I was taking a teacher training class for Sunday School teachers, I met my wonderful husband. Finally a groom I could and do love. When I met Rick, I explained to him about the dress and Mr. Wrong. Rick didn't care what I wore, so I decided to wear the dress. Well, it didn't fit me once I finally started planning for the new wedding, which was a couple of years after the the one I had planned with Mr. Wrong. So I had to have the dress let out and there was no way to fix it in the bust for my particular shape. So I had to stuff the dress with a couple pair of my dad's socks!

• Blue Heart: Funny! So where's the dress now?
• Tina: I hate to say it, but the dress is now in the garage in a garment bag. I realized too that I had put too much emphasis on the wedding, not enough on the marriage. Easy to do when you're looking forward to that day, but looking back I see how each day since has been just as important. I've worked to become a student of my husband, to find out what I can of him and love him deeper, to value him more in this very short life, as the gift God has blessed me with in the husband that he is. I want to savor time with him and make memories that we'll always clutch to our hearts as we mosey our way toward our golden days.

• Blue Heart: So when you see that garment bag hanging there, what goes through your mind?
• Tina: I guess it's that feeling that for one day it adorned me and I was a princess, but my husband still calls me his bride and that makes me feel more lovely than the dress did. So the dress was like a marker in life, helping me to see my old expectations and dreams. It reminds me that God has blessed me richly in small and simple moments, with new dreams and in ways I could never have imagined. So funny, if I could do it over again, I would just have family and a few friends, go to the mountains and (now in my mind, since I'm fantasizing, I'm a perfect size 8--LOL!) and I would wear a white long sleeved henley tee with 501 jeans and be barefoot with a small handful of daisies, and the early morning sun would be streaming in golden rays through the tree tops and the birds would be singing up a riot. And we'd cook bacon and pancakes over a campfire for the reception, with coffee. So totally different than what I had. Funny how the older I get the more appreciative I am of the simple things.

Very cool story, Tina.

Hey, you readers out there, if you've a wedding dress story to share, just head to my website and use the Contact link to send me an email. Looking forward to hearing your stories!

Blue Heart Blessed on the radio

I'll be joining Amy Hammond Hagberg on her radio show on Thursday and we'll be talking, among other things, about my latest release, Blue Heart Blessed.

It's a call-in show, so if you want to chime in, here's what you need to know: The 60-minute show airs live every Thursday at 12 noon Central time (1 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m. Mountain, 10 a.m. Pacific). Callers are welcome to join the conversation and ask questions during the show by calling (347) 324-5425. You can also listen online by visiting http://www.blogtalkradio.com/godunplugged.

During the live show you can also participate in the chat room and ask questions that way. In order to join the conversation via chat, however, you'll need to register (but Amy says it's free and easy). If you can't join us live, no prob! You can listen any time by visiting the archives. Read more about the host and the discussion on Amy's website, http://www.hesreal.com/.

Hope to "hear" you there!

People ask me sometimes how much ME is in the characters I create. There's usually a little something of my DNA wrapped up in my main characters. In Blue Heart Blessed, I gave Daisy a number of my own personal quirks, one of them being a fondness for gelato.

I don't know when I had my first gelato. I think it might have been in Germany in 1991 at a little dessert shop in Landstuhl village. We were newly stationed at Ramstein Air Base and still living in a hotel as we awaited the arrival of our household goods. It was divine, that stuff. Little bowl, tiny paddle spoon. Intense flavor. I was hooked.

So I gave Daisy this little part of me and I created a non-existent gelateria in her little corner of Uptown Minneapolis. Yum. Giving her this tiny later of personality didn't make her more like me, though. It just made her more human.

So are you wondering what gelato is? Maybe you've never had it, eh? You need to put that on your list of things to do today, if that's the case. Gelato is an Italian frozen dessert made from milk and sugar. Ice cream it is not. Ice cream is fluffy. Gelato - which has 35% less air than ice cream - is dense. That makes the individual flavors (like mango-cocounut or strawberry-pistachio or capuccino chip) super-charged. And true gelato has no cream at all. “Gelato” is an Italian word for “frozen” and comes from the Italian word gelare, which means “to freeze.”

My favorite gelaterias now that I'm back on the West Coast are Gelateria Frizzante on Prospect Ave in La Jolla (exquisite) and Pappelecco - A gelato lounge in Little Italy, downtown San Diego. Pappalecco is as authentic as it gets. The wait staff is Italian, the other customers are often Italian, they speak Italian, and you are in Little Italy. You are very nearly in Europe itself. Close your eyes, open your mouth, slide the gelato in and you're there. . .

I can almost taste it.

Joy at your best friend's wedding

Dear Daisy, my jilted bride in Blue Heart Blessed probably would've needed the following advice if my ending had been a little different, and I don't think I'm spoiling anything for anyone who hasn't read it yet by telling you that.

When your best friend gets married and you're still waiting for Mr. Right to show up, you can get a little snarky without really meaning to. I can't say that I've been down that road, but I can imagine it. I can imagine it might be really tough to summon authentic joy for your BFF when she's getting married and you are not. You might need a little help in the happy department.

This article showed up on MSN and I thought is made a lot of sense. I paraphrase it here in my words:

Number 1: It's okay to feel a little snarky: Pretty good advice, actually, because you are always better off being honest with yourself about how you really feel. The writer says don't feel guilty about forcing yourself to smile. It's going to be a day that challenges you. Don't pretend you can make it an easy one by simply wanting it to be easy. You are human, not divine.

Number 2: Don't make more of it than it really is: Yes, a wedding is a day like no other, but the day after your best friend is a bride, she is a wife, and she will face all the struggles and hurdles that married couples face. Marriage is grand, of course, but the wedding itself is a bit unrealistic. Most married couples face REALLY hard days, at some point or another. That's why we remind the bride and the groom of the better-or-worse factor. Your best friend isn't marrying a dream. She is marrying a human being, just like herself, with flaws.

Number 3: No begrudging the groom: He is not your enemy. He has not taken your place. Your best friend is capable of loving and caring for more than one person. Don't compare your own date to the groom, either.

Number 4: Find new ways to enjoy where you're at in life: If you're single, branch out. Find a new hobby, take on a new challenge, volunteer somewhere, learn a new skill, audit a class. Don't leave yourself lots of unused hours for feeling sorry for yourself.

Number 5: Have fun. You probably can if you really want to. And if you don't want to, you probably won't. . .

The promise with a ring to it

A friend of mine just got engaged, just changed the way her left hand will look for the rest of her natural life. And the way she will feel about her left hand. In time she will feel only partially clothed when her left hand is without its rings! It will seem as if things are off kilter, not quite right. Incomplete.

I've always loved the imagry that engagement rings evoke. The endless circle, no true beginning, no end. The precious metal. The diamond - a resilient chunk of carbon that is dazzling after it's been tried and troubled. I love the way the ring rests on the hand as a sparkling reminder to everyone, including that woman, that she is loved in the most remarkable way.

I've wondered over the years why men's engagement rings have been slow to catch on. The groom-to-be has as much to look forward to as the future bride and celebrates the same anticipation. You can find men's engagement rings at jewelry stores and online, but honestly, I haven't seen one worn by any guy I know.

I think it would be kind of cool if I did.

I like to think if both the woman and the man wore engagement rings, the growing commitment to each other would mirror the one has for the other. Symbols are pretty powerful. That's why we bother with them.

Perhaps one day . . .