November 2024: Refilling My Creative Well with Cross Stitch

October 2024 Romance Book Recommendation: Birding With Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb

Hands up if you, like me, are a bird fan? I haven’t always been as enamoured of our feathered friends. But when my daughter took a liking to birds I somewhat overcame my fear of them and now I love watching them. We often see chickadees, nuthatches, house finches, and sparrows at our feeders. We also get juncos, flickers, woodpeckers, and bluejays, depending on the seasons. Robins in the spring. Partridges year round. The occasional hummingbird flits through too. And the other night we heard an owl in the park area by our house.

There is something very calming about watching the birds. I read somewhere that watching or even hearing a bird can improve your mental health for hours. And it just so happens that my province of Saskatchewan is home to an exceptional number of birds. Whether birds live here seasonally, year round or migrate through the province, Saskatchewan is an excellent choice for a birdwatching holiday.

Saskatchewan Birding Tips from Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation organization. You can get advice, book tours and find out what birds are where.

Birding With Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb

Published: Simon and Schuster, June 2024

Categories: Contemporary Romance / Romantic Comedy

Blurb:

Thoughts:

Until next time…

What’s everyone else reading?

My Favourite Trope Series: Enemies to Lovers

We know them. We love them. Them being our favourite tropes. And they might the reason we gravitate to certain stories. Within the romance genre there are many subgenres and many tropes. Just like in television and the movies.

It’s important to note that Enemies to Lovers or Hate to Love, although one of my favourites, can come with some challenging or problematic behaviours and scenarios. The power balance is very important in enemies to lovers stories. Unfortunately, there are storylines out there that don’t have that balance. I’m thinking of stories about women who are enslaved or captured and end up in a relationship with their captors.

Even though the main characters must be antagonists, they must both be seen as redeemable. As readers, we’re rooting for both of them even if they have a lot of work to do before they are ready to be in love. There must be tension and conflict but there must also be transformation. They must overcome their mutual acrimony to be able to develop their romantic relationship.

Some of my favourite stories with an Enemies to Lovers trope:

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe (One of my very favourite books!) Young Adult.

Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid, Book 2 in her Game Changers Series. Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. Swoon. One of my all time favourite romances and Ilya Rozanov is one of my all time favourite characters. The whole series is fantastic. And steamy! MM Romance. Contemporary Romance. Hockey Romance. Canadian Author.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry Contemporary Romance. Romantic Comedy.

Other favourite tropes I’ve covered: Starting Over in a Small Town; and Reunited or Second Chance at Love.

My novel Off The Grid would be definitely fall under the Enemies to Lovers trope!

Until next time…

Are you a fan of the Enemies to Lovers trope? If you are, drop any recommendations in the comments!

October 2024: Refilling My Creative Well

I mentioned last week that I’d been reading a lot. The last ten months have been full of strife, stress and worry. Life often leaves us feeling depleted. It’s important to fill your creative well. And my well felt very, very empty. I couldn’t see my way to doing the things that I have always done to feel creative. And because my creative well fuels my writing, I haven’t been writing very much at all. But it’s time to change that and to be able to do that I have to once again fill my creative well.

My sister gave me a watercolour journal for my birthday. I cracked it open and feathered through all thee crisp clean pages waiting for colour. I love playing around with my watercolours. Nothing too serious. I find inspiration on Instagram and Pinterest and go from there. Lots of times I’m happy with the results. But mistakes will be made. There will be times when I don’t like the colour combinations I’ve used or the strokes or the idea anymore. Or a host of other things. But none of that matters because it’s all about the journey. It’s about exploring. Not about criticizing my efforts.

I’m also working on a very little something for my granddaughter. It’s something I’ve never tried before, a little attempt at a tiny magazine. She may like it, she may not. And that’s okay. It’s not something precious. It’s just a little something I wanted to try that might make her smile. What she does with it is up to her.

So there it is, a little look into my creative process lately.

Until next time…

How are you filling your creative well these days?

September 2024: Romance Book Recommendations

So, book recommendation time!

Curves for Days by Laura Moher (Book 1 in the Galway Series)

How is Rose Barnes supposed to build the home (and life) of her dreams when her big, burly contractor keeps scowling at her?

Those Three Little Words by Meghan Quinn (Book 2 in The Vancouver Agitators Series)

Consider Me by Becka Mack (Book 1 in the Playing for Keeps Series)

The Cock Down the Block by Amy Award (Book 1 in The Cocky Kingmans Series)

Always the nerdy girl, never the girlfriend~

Until her cocky best friend and his *ahem* rooster take charge.

Look, I’ve had it bad for the girl with all the curves next door forever. She turned me down in high school and since I’m not a total douchecanoe, I lusted after her all by myself in my shower, and we stayed just friends for years.

Now she’s the adorkable librarian next door and I’m the star quarterback of the best pro football team in the league. So when she asks me to be her fake date to her all-girls school reunion I am totally down to show her off to the mean girls who bullied her back then so they can see just how incredible she is. I’ll be the best boyfriend they’ve ever seen. The best fake boyfriend that is.

Until I find out from her slightly-stalkery classmates that she still has her v-card. I don’t see how that is even possible. Not with how sexy and sweet she is. Could it be because she knows she belongs with me?

So there you are, four contemporary romance book recommendations that are worth checking out.

Until next time…

Drop and book recommendations in the comments!

September 2024: What I’ve Been Doing

April 2024: Round Up

My Favourite Trope Series: Reunited or Second Chance at Love

I want to share a bit more about one of my favourites: Reunited or Second Chance at Love

What he’s sworn to protect, she’s willing to sacrifice to save those she loves…

March 2024: Round Up

Goodbye, March! Hello middle of April. You were full of busy days, both warm and cool, just like you’d expect from March. A gradual warming cooled by a big bout of snow. That’s okay, we’ve had a couple of very dry years and this winter didn’t change that. We need the moisture. That said, I’m sure glad it won’t be sticking around. But enough about the weather…

I’ve been keeping my New Year’s goal of always having flowers in the house. And of course we dyed eggs for Easter. Like I mentioned, we had a big dump of snow. I got a new baby. Another snake plant. I also repotted some plants. And March as been full of cozy lounge wear, including this sweatpant and sweatshirt combo from Hernest, a Canadian ethical and sustainable clothing company.

A good friend put together a delicious Anne of Green Gables themed lunch. It was a delectable mix of different dishes and, of course, there was raspberry cordial. My friend found recipes from Lucy Maud Montgomery online. Apparently Lucy Maud loved cooking and was very talented in the kitchen, much like my friend.

Until next time…

What is everyone most looking forward to in April?

March 2024 Book Recommendation: Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon

Murder on the Red River, A Cash Blackbear Mystery by Marcie R. Rendon

Blurb:

1970s, Red River Valley between North Dakota and Minnesota: Renee “Cash” Blackbear is 19 years old and tough as nails. She lives in Fargo, North Dakota, where she drives truck for local farmers, drinks beer, plays pool, and helps solve criminal investigations through the power of her visions. She has one friend, Sheriff Wheaton, her guardian, who helped her out of the broken foster care system.

One Saturday morning, Sheriff Wheaton is called to investigate a pile of rags in a field and finds the body of an Indian man. When Cash dreams about the dead man’s weathered house on the Red Lake Reservation, she knows that’s the place to start looking for answers. Together, Cash and Wheaton work to solve a murder that stretches across cultures in a rural community traumatized by racism, genocide, and oppression.

Thoughts: