Traveling for the month of January

January was a whirlwind, and I spent more time away than home, but for two great reasons!

My new year started with an exciting trip to Disney World in Florida to spend a week with my husband, daughter, son, daughter-in-law, and two grandkids. We all had a wonderful trip to celebrate family and my husband’s 50th birthday.

Many of you know that Disney is my happy place, and my husband, daughter, and I go about once a year. My son and his wife have never been, and while he was leery about going to an amusement park with lots of people, he quickly changed his mind. I kept telling him that Disney wasn’t just an amusement park but a world of adventures and excitement.

He realized that Disney does things right, and after his first visit, his attitude changed. When we got home, he asked me when we could all go again. I see many visits in our future as a big group.

I was only home for four days before I was packed to head off to California for eleven days for work. Myself and another fourteen trainers had the opportunity to train an entire school district in the Visalia area on how to help your odds of survival in an active shooter situation. It was a whirlwind of training, and we met many wonderful people.

We also got to spend a long weekend adventuring around the area. Sadly, we didn’t get to go see the famous redwoods because of the weather, but we did get up into the mountains, and then we even drove out to the west coast. I have been to California a few times but have never seen the Pacific Ocean from shore. Our day trip to Cayucos was fun and exciting, and we had a great lunch at a little cafe with brown butter cookies for dessert from a local shop.

I did find it very amazing that thirty minutes one way from Visalia, you were in the mountains. Go in the other direction and pass orange groves, fields of walnut trees, the coastal wine region, rolling mountains, and more before you hit the coast.

It has given me many ideas for books, and now that I’m home, I’m jotting notes down to proceed with some new stories!

I’m also super excited to announce a new book on audio. Wesley, Loving a Young Series, book 1, is now on audio. I am working closely with my narrator as she works to produce the second book, which we hope to have done in a few weeks.

Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Wesley-Audiobook/B0BTV2H2BR?asin=B0BTV2H2BR

Charlotte Bennett is not a fan of strangers. When she sees a man touching her daughter at the park, she reacts without listening. It’s only later, when her daughter is rushed to the hospital that Charlotte realizes how wrong she had been to accuse the stranger of inappropriate behavior.

Doctor Wesley Young only wanted to help the tender-aged girl he witnessed fall, but when her mother attacks him at the park, he’s left stunned. When little Marisol arrives in the emergency department, the mother makes more of an impression on him than the cut she left on his face.

Things heat up quickly when Marisol is no longer Wes’s patient, but when traumatic things from Charlotte’s past are revealed, Wes isn’t sure that Charlotte is the woman for him. Can Charlotte find a way to explain it all so that Wes will accept both her and her daughter?

Watching your child become an adult

Like many of you, I marvel at how quickly time passes. It moves every quicker when you watch your child grow. Once sweet innocent babies, they grow into nosy toddlers almost overnight. Then on to being energetic and curious children, before moody adolescents desperately trying to find themselves and become young adults. It all seems to happen in the blink of an eye instead of years.

I have two children, and I had my first one when I was twenty-one. My second came thirteen years later. My oldest, a boy, has two children of his own. I often wonder when he became old enough to have a career, wife, children, and a home? I watch and listen from the sidelines as my son and his family go through stages of life that I can fondly remember doing myself with him.

My daughter just finished her first year of college, and as I listen to her stories, watch her movements, and her reactions, I am reminded that my little girl is no longer a baby, but a beautiful young lady, on the verge of being a full-blown woman. To some, she might already be a woman, but I still see tiny bits and pieces of her innocence of youth. I still hear the curiosity to understand simple things in life that tells me she still has much to learn. Not that we ever stop, but you get what I mean.

We just helped my daughter buy her first car, and to witness her signing the paperwork, was a sight to see. I asked her how she felt afterward, and she said that it made her feel important, and she felt the weight of it as she signed the document and then sat back, going wow, I just did that. Proud but scary at the same time. I can relate. Remember your first car? What about your mortgage? It is scary.

This summer, our family will probably enjoy one of our last family vacations. Now that my daughter is growing up, she has plans for herself. She has people to see and places to be. We are lucky that she still feels we are important enough to spend quality time with us. Or perhaps it’s just the lure of a beach. Either way, I will take it and enjoy every moment I can before she is off living her own life with a career, home, and family.

Then the nest really will be empty, and I’ll sit back and wonder where the time went. Actually, no, I won’t. I’ll be too busy writing happy stories about people growing up, finding love, and starting their lives—just like my children.

Want to read about siblings growing up and finding love? Make sure to check out my Loving a Young Series on Amazon.

Music and Books!

I’m a huge music person–like I always have music playing. I don’t just stick to one genre either. Some days the classic rock is kicking my speakers, or I break out the vinyl and listen to a few of my dad’s albums, and some days I every have classic piano on. It all depends on what I’m doing and just how high my blood pressure is that day.

Recently I finished writing and editing Riley, Loving a Young Series, Book 4, and I came across a song that was so fitting for Ethan. Here’s the book blurb:

Riley is always the life of the party, and it’s Ethan that is there to pick her up and keep her together. He knows her almost as well as she knows herself, and he knows she will never love him as he does her.

Now Ethan wants more out of life and love, but Riley denies her feelings and insists they are just friends with benefits. When a training opportunity comes up that will get Ethan out of town for months, he jumps on it. It’s the only way to get over Riley and move on.

With Ethan gone and a new guy in her life, Riley finds herself dealing with several emotional issues without the help of her best friend. A family emergency has Ethan feeling lost without Riley there to lean on, but he refuses to go to her and seeks solace with another. Will Riley make the right choices, and finally, admit how she feels, or will she find herself alone and falling further down the rabbit hole.

When I started writing this book, I came across the song, “I’m Never Getting Over You” by Gone West. It hit me square in the chest as I could see Ethan saying these things, and Riley rebuking him. Check out the music video.

To learn more about the Loving a Young Series, check out my series page here:

LOVING A YOUNG SERIES

Riley Releases on February 16th and will be exclusive to Amazon for a little while.

New Year – New Goals

Happy New Year to all of you. I know many people vow to do a certain thing, like quit smoking, eat better, exercise more, spend time with family this time of the year. Personally, I think those are things you should vow to do everyday, but I don’t do those kinds of vows.

Instead, I create goals, especially for my writing. Last year I published 12 books, and like most people, it was a very rough year.

Besides the regular trials and tribulations of life, we had the Virus to deal with. Man did that wreck havoc with my depression and stress levels. I lost one of my fur babies in May and then had my father living with me for 13 weeks while I cared for him while he was on hospice, and then another month of grieving after he passed in September. That’s a whole lot going on with a busy writing schedule.

So this year, I have my fingers crossed that all goes a little smoother, and there aren’t as many emotional ups and downs as there were last year. My goals for this year are to finish writing eighteen stories, and have sixteen published in 2021. That doesn’t count the audiobooks that are underway, or the boxsets that I will join either.

I plan to finish up my Loving a Young Series, and start a spin-off series for them. Plus, I have a couple more Finding Love in Special Places short stories coming this year. There are at least two more Unexpected Series books coming out this year, a couple books in my Rise Again Warrior Series, and I’d at least two more Blue Blood Returns books. On top of that, I am looking at adding to my Pleasure your Fantasies Series, and starting a new series that has not been named yet.

So I have a lot on my plate for this year! Wish me luck!

Huntley is the third book in the Loving a Young Series and is Stacy’s Latest Release! You can grab a copy on Amazon!