Well, actually, it's a couple of days after. Valentine's Day, that is. And I'm happy to report that the Love Historicals Valentine's Day Blog Hop was a smashing success. One grand prize winner walked away with a $100 Amazon gift card. That will buy a lot of books. And one lucky person now has a copy of WHERE THE WILD WIND BLOWS loaded on her Kindle.

On a personal note, this Valentine's Day was bare bones for me. Having been married for a very long time, I've reached a point where I honestly don't need chocolates and flowers and dinner out on Valentine's Day. For one thing, I got my box of chocolates from a friend several days before Valentine's Day. You see, my birthday is in Dec., hers and her husband's are in Jan., and my husband's is Feb. 8.  So, to celebrate all 4 birthdays, each year I bake a cake on 2/8, and this year she brought a box of hand-picked Hoffman chocolates. As for flowers, roses are hit-or-miss. Some years they last and some years they don't even open. I like to have a vase of fresh flowers on the entry table, so I buy alstromeria because they last a long time. That brings me to dinner out. This is something my husband and I do on a regular basis anyway. So where did that leave Valentine's Day? We exchanged greeting cards, a hot smooch, a few well chosen words of love, and that, as they say, was that.

For me, Valentine's Day really isn't about chocolates in heart-shaped boxes, a dozen red roses, and dinner at a nice restaurant. It's about loving and being loved. It's about the stormy times when love is tested, the sweet times when you sail under rainbow skies, and for all the times you have navigated life together. And before you say, wait a minute, there is no man/woman/significant other in my life, if you have a pet, there's your love right there.The truest, most genuine kind of love there is.

What was your Valentine's Day like? 

The Love Historicals authors are hosting a Valentine’s Day Blog Hop. Here’s how it works.

 Write down the name of the hero from the scene that appears below, then follow the link immediately after the scene to the next website and write down the name of that scene’s hero. When you have followed all the links and collected all the heroes' names, head over to the Love Historicals site at http://www.lovehistoricals.com/contests/valentines-day-blog-hop and enter the contest to win a $100 Amazon gift card so that you can load up your Kindle with great historical romance novels. 

 But wait! You have two chances to win a prize. You can also win a digital or print copy of WHERE THE WILD WIND BLOWS by liking my Facebook page here: http://tinyurl.com/q36h8oz Then, message me on FB and I’ll choose the lucky winner.

 Good luck, and good reading!

And to celebrate Valentine's Day here's a little something from me to all the lovers out there.
https://animoto.com/play/rVVcWFZgxMGJks3jm0lL7w

Sometimes, it’s not so easy to say “I love you”. Perhaps you’re too shy to utter the words. Or you’re not certain the one you love feels the same way. Or the feeling is new and it scares you. Or maybe, like in the scene below from WHERE THE WILD WIND BLOWS, it’s because the words are spoken in an unfamiliar language.

 Katie and Black Moon have overcome many obstacles to their love. Now, only one remains.

                               ***

 “What are you thinking?” she asked.

            “I was remembering what it was like to hold you like this, before you went away, before the sickness took so many of my people and they were hunted like prey, before the agency at Deer Creek and the soldiers’ iron house. Nothing will ever be the same. The only thing that has not changed is what I feel for you which has only grown stronger since the day I brought you to live among my people.”

            Katie moved out of his embrace and turned her body toward him. Looking into his eyes, she said, “I love you and only you.”

            “My heart rejoices,” he said. “And I–”

            “No,” she cut in. “Not in Lakota. You asked what you could do to make up for what you did. It is this. You can say it in my language.”

            Black Moon hesitated. In all his life he had never spoken the white man’s language except to speak her name. The expression on her face, of love and expectation, told him that it was something she needed to hear.

            He asked, “How is it said?”

            She spoke the words slowly, deliberately. “I love you.”

            For several long moments he gazed into the eyes of the woman who had brought him such incredible joy and such deep sorrow, the one he had fought his attraction to as if fighting an enemy. She was the one star in the heavens that Wakan Tanka had singled out only for him.

He brought his hand to her face and caressed her cheek with the back of his finger, and said softly, “I love you.”

                                  ***