In a couple of recent meetings, the facilitators did icebreakers where they gave you two options and you had to choose 'would you rather'...you get the picture, correct?

I have been struggling for ideas for my blog, so the light bulb came on and flickered a few times so I thought...what the heck...why not?

The advantage to me doing this on my blog is that I get to pick the choice options that I want to answer.  After all, it is MY blog...right?

So, for the first one...would you rather see ten minutes into the future or 3 years into the future?  For me, it takes forever to make certain decisions because I over think everything. Part of my problem comes from the uncertainty of what the future holds.  If I make the wrong decision now, how badly will it come back to bite me later? Or how will my decision affect how I want my life to turn out in the future. So, this one is a really easy one...give me a 3 year glimpse into the future...or even more if possible!

Moving right along...would you rather have $50,000 free and clear legally or $150,000 free and clear that was illegally obtained?  Easy!  I am so over the folks that do illegal things to others in order for financial gain.  Sure, the larger amount would be great but in all honesty...the $50,000 would pay off the one thing that hangs over my head like a dark cloud...my student loan!  You know the ones that no matter how much you pay each month the stupid balance NEVER seems to go down and in some cases even grows?  Yeah, $50,000 to pay off my student loan and still have a clear conscience that I got the money to pay it off without breaking any laws...perfect!

How about a time travel question?  Would you rather travel 100 years in the future or 100 years in the past?  I have no interest of seeing the world any more modernized and technological than it already is.  Or possibly ruined by the things we are doing now.  When I think future, I think of Mad Max, Divergent, Hunger Games, etc.  No thank you.  Give me the early 1900s and a trip across the United States to the uncharted west.  That would give me the experience of a lifetime! 

Ok...last one for today...would you rather get married in an arranged marriage or spend your life single without dating anyone?  Come on...really?  I'm a romance writer...what kind of romance could there possibly be in an arranged marriage?  I know what kind of man my parents would have hooked me up with.  No thanks.  He would probably be boring, homely and very bossy.  I can handle homely but boring or bossy is way too much for me to fathom.  Single would be a much better option...and define dating please...never said a word about a hook up right?  Or a booty call...or friends with benefits...that's not the same as dating is it?

Enough  entertainment for tonight...check back next week for more ramblings from the woods starring me!  Have a great week everyone!!

This week I joined the Romance Writers Weekly Blog Hop and the question posed this week was about how I choose the location for my books.  Interesting...

As a writer who really gets into the imagery, I prefer to use places that I've been for my settings. That way, I can really describe what I saw, heard, felt, and even smelled.  Now, with that said, it doesn't mean that I don't use fictional names for those places...just to give the story a little charm.

For example, my Possum Creek series which includes Coming Home and A Home For Dixie and the upcoming Home Safe is a fictional town in the Smoky Mountain foothills close to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.  The reason that I chose this setting is because I absolutely LOVE that area and have been there several times.  In fact, one of these days I hope to be able to buy my very own mountainside cabin as a hideaway from the world.  I love the scent of the mountains with the mountain laurel, red bud trees in the spring, rhododendron, the fragrance of falling leaves and wood fires from the chimneys of the cabins.  There's nothing quite like smoke on the mountains and the bold colors of autumn foliage or the smell of horses as you ride out on a frosty autumn morning. 

In my stand alone contemporary romance Yesterday's Promises, the setting is in the hills of Kentucky which is also another favorite place for me to go.  Up until last year, I had a dear friend who lived down there and when day to day life got to be too much I knew I could go down there and just hide away and enjoy the peace and quiet that sitting in a rocker on the front porch can bring.  You have the beautiful thoroughbred horses in the pasture land along interstate 75 and the barn quilts that grace the age old barns. There are small towns with friendly people.  Alas, now when I want to visit my friend all I have to do is walk down the road a piece and my visits to Kentucky since then have been for business or book signings.

My Sisters series which includes Blessed Be takes place at a fictional lakeside town in the northern Midwest.  This town  is truly fictional and was a little bit more difficult to add imagery, but I did manage to drum up some of my memories of being at the lake in northern Indiana when I was a young girl for writing this series.

 Of course, my all time favorite setting--especially for paranormal--is the Crescent City.  There's nothing like the steamy seductive setting of New Orleans with its wealth of history. Haunted history.  The ghosts of time gone by in the form of pirates, plantation owners, voodoo priests and priestess, ship captains, and the illustrious prostitutes that wandered up and down the streets of the French Quarter.  Smoky blues and feisty jazz...sidewalk artists and street performers...mule drawn carriages and streetcars...The city in itself breathes romance and seduction.

Along with my own knowledge of the locations that I use for settings off my romance novels, I also do a ton of research.  That is especially true when I use the actual city as the setting because I want to make sure that if a reader from the city or region can be able to relate to the accuracy of locations and history.  Now, do I research ahead of time?  Of course not!  I'm not a plotter or a planner...I'm a fly by the seat of my pantser.  My stories take form as I go so when I need to accurately depict a location or a bit of history I don't know I end up flipping open the browser and Googling what I need to know.  I've looked at maps in the middle of the night and read about horrific histories over lunch.  My end goal...to make sure that my readers are engaged in every minute detail of my stories!

So, it's all about location...for more about how romance writers pick their settings go see what Carrie Elks has to say on her blog at http://www.carrieelks.com

Wouldn't you just love to be sitting on this bench right now with the spring sunshine warming the top of your head and the fragrance of spring flowers filling the air surrounding you?  I know that I sure would!
Don't get me wrong...I like something about every season...the hot sun and smell of freshly cut grass with the birds singing in the summer...the crisp frosty mornings and bright foliage in the fall...sparkly white snow glistening on tree branches in the winter while I sit inside in my warm pajamas with a good book...but after all that...I am ready for the birth of a new year with the arrival of spring!
Someone posted photos today of the first crocus popping their pretty purple heads up out of the brown grass and I am reminded of a time when I was a young girl and my mom's crocus actually came barging their way out of the snow.  I can still picture those purple blooms in sharp contrast against the white landscape.
While glancing through some photos on my phone from a couple of years ago I found some that I took while running an errand to Kentucky for a friend in mid-March.  Driving along the Blue Grass Parkway where all of the red bud trees lined the highway was certainly a fantastic way to run a four hour errand!
I saw the first robin today as I walked out to take some treats to the animals and that reminded me of many a spring when these red breasted feathery creatures marked the end of winter as they plucked dried grass, leaves, and other items to build the nests where they will soon be laying their bright blue eggs.
The horse was galloping around the enclosure today with the goats tagging not too far behind.  He is looking a little rough from the mud and the shedding of his winter coat but he wasn't quite so cantankerous today as he has been in past weeks.  Hopefully very soon the deer will be coming out of the woods with their young ones to forage around along the fence row...even though they have a pesky habit of looking in my bedroom window bright and early on the weekends.
I hope each and every one of you wake up every spring morning and take the time to smell the fresh air filled with the fragrance of petals, clean air, and spring breezes...lift your face to the sun and let a little bit of its warmth fall upon your skin...and listen to the sound of birds singing their welcome song to a new year of beautiful and glorious seasons...