It is my pleasure to share a guest post by the authors of this anthology of sweet romance short stories, as they answer...
T.E. Hodden
Being English, Autumn could be heralded by the first frosts or new sports season. But more so than any of these, or Halloween, it is Bonfire Night, and paying a penny for the guy, that is quintessentially Autumnal. Bonfires, history, fireworks, and sparklers.
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Nemma Wollenfang:
In my back garden, there’s a humongous Beech tree. One of the biggest in the area. It’s the last to go into leaf, and the last to drop its leaves, so it’s hardly a reliable indicator of when Fall has begun. However, its resident family of squirrels always seem to know, they go into a gathering frenzy. More than once I’ve gone into the garden and had them bark at me from the lower branches and begin to pelt twigs and nutshells at my head! Just because I’ve disturbed them. Never mind that I’m only there to refill their feeder, kindly providing them with extra ammunition. Under that tree is not a good place to sit and read at this time of year. In early summer they’re okay, and have been known to feed from my hand, but when Fall hits they just go crazy.
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In my back garden, there’s a humongous Beech tree. One of the biggest in the area. It’s the last to go into leaf, and the last to drop its leaves, so it’s hardly a reliable indicator of when Fall has begun. However, its resident family of squirrels always seem to know, they go into a gathering frenzy. More than once I’ve gone into the garden and had them bark at me from the lower branches and begin to pelt twigs and nutshells at my head! Just because I’ve disturbed them. Never mind that I’m only there to refill their feeder, kindly providing them with extra ammunition. Under that tree is not a good place to sit and read at this time of year. In early summer they’re okay, and have been known to feed from my hand, but when Fall hits they just go crazy.
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Patricia Crisafulli:
I know it’s fall when the wind picks up, rustling the branches of the maples trees along the parkway, tossing my hair in my eyes, and sending me back inside for a sweater before I venture out on a walk. More than anything else, it is the quality—and quantity—of that wind that makes me know the seasons are changing. The stirring of the air marks transitions—a literal change of scenery from the deep green of late summer, to the first yellows, oranges, and reds of autumn, and then the bare brown of November. If I could, I’d spread my arms and soar right along with it, to wherever that wind would take me.
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I know it’s fall when the wind picks up, rustling the branches of the maples trees along the parkway, tossing my hair in my eyes, and sending me back inside for a sweater before I venture out on a walk. More than anything else, it is the quality—and quantity—of that wind that makes me know the seasons are changing. The stirring of the air marks transitions—a literal change of scenery from the deep green of late summer, to the first yellows, oranges, and reds of autumn, and then the bare brown of November. If I could, I’d spread my arms and soar right along with it, to wherever that wind would take me.
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Claire Davon:
I rarely wash my car. I tell myself that it’s to preserve water under the desert conditions that exist in my adopted home city of Los Angeles, but the truth is that I don’t…I just don’t. Popular belief would have it that we have one season. Not so! We do have (some) weather. Fall is when you might just see this strange stuff called rain fall from the sky. It’s great! Free car wash! Since Southern Californians usually go from July to October without rain it is the single best indicator that a new season has arrived. That’s how I know it’s fall here in the land of sunshine.
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Laura Lamoreaux / T.L. French:
Dish I look forward to the most at Thanksgiving:
My first Thanksgiving in Texas, there were a lot of dishes around the table that I had never tried before—a deep fried wild turkey that somebody’s husband had shot a few days ago, cornbread stuffing, and sweet potato soufflé. Each dish was like a revelation—but none more so than the sweet potato soufflé. At home in Arizona, the only thing I had seen people do with sweet potatoes was that thing with the marshmallows on top. Topped with toasted pecans and gobs of brown sugar, this soufflé is all of the highlights of fall, plus an extra helping of Southern charm. The wonder of new friendships, and the adventure of starting life in a new place, will always be captured for me in the taste of sweet potato soufflé.
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Love Under the Harvest Moon
A Sweet Romance Anthology
By Various Authors
Release Date: November 14, 2016
Claire Davon – Opposite Directions (Contemporary Romance)
Blurb: Vanessa left her small Iowa town for the bright lights of Miami, also leaving behind the boy who devastated her young self by cheating on her with another local girl. Returning after four years to take a teaching job, she finds her attraction to Zane has not diminished in the time she’s been away.
Zane also works at the school and offers to show Vanessa the ropes. She cannot deny her attraction to him is still there, but is unsure if she should act on it. He broke her heart once, could he do so again? Or would their older, wiser selves be able to navigate the tricky waters of love and forgiveness, leading them back to each other’s arms?
Nemma Wollenfang – Amidst the Strawberry Fields (YA Romance)
Blurb: Good grades, happy home, pampered life, perfect boyfriend – sixteen-year-old Beth has it all. She tells herself that… a lot. That is until the new students arrive from the recently-built Traveller’s Site, led by the rakishly handsome Razovan Verlak, who begins to turn her world upside-down. The school didn’t want them, the town tried to avoid them, and Beth is determined to ignore him—them. But Raz is not to be ignored, and he has his sights set on her.
With the autumn harvest due in, and her boyfriend and the usual harvesters notably absent, Beth and her mother have to accept alternative help to bring in their farm’s crops. And Raz is all too eager to oblige. But Beth is uneasy, and with good reason. Raz and his crew have developed a worrying reputation around town. Assault, vandalism, theft – it seems there’s nothing they haven’t done…according to rumour. But are the gossips to be believed?
Will Beth listen to the disturbing tales and keep her distance? Or will she decide for herself and get to know the real Raz as they work together, amidst the strawberry fields?
T.E. Hodden – Autumn Leaves
Blurb: So there I was, on the worst afternoon of my life, surrounded by the kind of argument that left me shaken and single. And there, in the park is Autumn, a beautiful, funny, sweet, trans-girl, who seems to be the only person in the world having a worse day than me. And that...that doesn't seem right.
So, here we are. I have one day, to make her smile, and change her world, before Autumn leaves to face her winter.
Laura Lamoreaux and T.L. French – A Harvest Homecoming
Blurb: When Tanya Sheldon loses her job and her marriage in the same day, she thinks her life is over. Unable to find anything else, she agrees to take a teaching position in her old high school, but moving back to Silver Lake turns out to be harder than she expected when old feelings come to light.
Tanya rejected Jake Green when they were younger, but now he’s all grown up and teaching across the hall. And for a minute, Tanya thought she might have something in her future other than a box of cats. But the moment is gone when Jake’s beautiful girlfriend Ashley returns. After learning the hard way what it’s like to be cheated on, there’s no way Tanya will let herself fall for Jake.
Patricia Crisafulli – Moon Dance
Blurb: For Anna Oliver, life is one big to-do list and her responsibilities, large and crushing. Divorced and a single mother, needing to care for her own mother who is struggling with a cancer diagnosis, Anna has returned to her too-small hometown, which cannot compare with the life she enjoyed in Brooklyn. Now she is overqualified for her job in a community library and overburdened by everything.
When a storm brings down a tree on her roof—revealing damage that the insurance company won’t pay for—Anna feels as split in two as that old ash. Then someone unexpected comes into her life, and she must confront her need to trust, which seems far too difficult and risky. But under the harvest moon, anything can change.
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