Let’s start with living in Florida for Memorial Day. It’s 90 degrees and the humidity is growing. In August the usual heaviness will be horrible, again. The northern states suffer snow, and we suffer August. Spending the day at the park without letting my skin burn was a lot of work. The key is water, but even then it doesn’t stop the brightness of the glare that beats down on the skin. While I love all pictures of outdoor weddings and would have loved one, the June date requires us to keep everything inside the air conditioned buildings. Can you imagine the summer humid heat of the former swamp land turned city in a wedding dress? Heck no.

An author friend of mine Aleka Nakis called my dress modern. I call it practical for Florida and still pretty. Poofy will deflate down here. So June Brides up in northern states can plan the perfect summer wedding… mine is all inside buildings.

Anyhow it’s 21 days from now… YEAH! I’m so excited. Writing has taken a backseat, but my writing friends will sit me down today for some writing time. I’m looking forward to it. Today is like a day was before wedding madness took over. Yesterday we had to go to the tux place. The best man is in the hospital because he was told he had cancer, stage one. We’ve known for a month, but I haven’t wanted to push concerning the wedding. But last week, his brother in law stepped up, though he’s on vacation till June 8th. So we had to get a suit from his house, bring it to the tux shop, and then return the suit. I still feel bad even mentioning this as the important thing is the former best man should get well.

My mother has now had two of her brothers die from cancer. One when they were all children and the second was far more recent. My uncle who died played for the 49ers in the 70s, then professional wrestling and he was instrumental in my mom finding her mom again. In the 1950s in Florida, life was far different. Grandma left my grandfather because he beat her and the 8 children. So the state of Florida did not believe a woman who leaves her husband could raise her children alone. The older ones were taken, but my uncle who died was the oldest. He was smart enough to stay in touch and kept his siblings and mom connected. So when grandma proved she could hold a job and raise her children, my mom knew how to find grandma. That’s alot of family stuff, but cancer sucks.

It’s why in Chaperoning Paris the hero grew because he had cancer at one point. Sean having cancer is the reason all the brothers came home, though in the book Sean is a survivor. He lives. But cancer is one of those diseases that can bond a family or break them apart. In my mother’s case, the family torn apart and the abuse can be traced to the childhood death of another of her brothers. I didn’t want that for the Collins family though, so Sean not only lived through cancer, he found love again.

This is the background of Sean Collins. Comes out June 12th, 2014

But this affects the entire family and Daniel is a doctor and falls in love this summer with fiesty Kate. (Out of all my heroines, Kate has a special place in my heart as she’s the fun one. Everyone believes her a horrible socialite a la Paris Hilton, but it’s all an act to keep herself safe from her own self centered family.) Doctor Daniel Collins and Kate Sparrow are based loosely on the Taming of the Shrew, and she’s exactly what he ordered. I received the cover recently, and here is a preview.

I wish I had the cover for a different series that comes out June 12th. The edits are in. Favorite Coffee, Favorite Crush is post college, Gigi returns home and falls in love with her best friend and secret high school crush.  No cancer unless you call mothers who can’t let go of children because of power issues as a type of mental cancer…  Gigi’s mom is a gold digger who would sell her daughter to the highest bidder. Jay’s mom is an alpha woman who runs his father and during college had him kidnapped to get the insurance money for an investment. Jay wants revenge. Gigi craves to be nothing like her mother. So the falling in love is a total accident.

Anyhow 21 days to my wedding! Pinterest, Etsy, amazon and ebay are about to stop being my go to places. I’m waiting patiently for a few packages that include signs like this,

banners like this

pictures from CVS to come back of this

These wedges to arrive for walking around to take pictures. (I have high heels and flats, but I prefer to walk in wedges anyhow.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GUN0N3K/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And if I hate them, I have DSW as a back up plan or I’ve always liked Naturalizer as a shoe.

It’s almost here! I’m so excited for the wedding so sitting to write with friends… it’s going to be a challenge to be still. Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day! I know it was for the Vets to died, and I will end with how my father never knew his father because the Japanese killed him during World War Two. Louis Pinder died a hero, and that’s something that can never be forgotten.