There is something just magical to me about the holiday season...and I'm not talking about the commercialization of the Christmas holiday or how the sales on Black Friday exceeded retailer's forecasts.  I'm talking about the intangible things that if you really think about hard enough...are really the most valuable things of all...
Being happy and joyous is a state of mind that we have to sometimes consciously choose because we have let the bustle and stress and demands of our lives surround our hearts and minds with a lot of grey muddle...or my new term this week...sloshy shit...(long story).
Isn't it a shame that we can't all go back to seeing the world through the eyes of a child just for this one time of the year?  I wonder what would happen...would we be so filled with joy and wonder that we would strive to bring peace to the world instead of being so caught up in controlling, and owning, and earning, and getting one over on the next guy? I'm sure that was what John Lennon was trying to convey in his song "Imagine"...don't you?

We got our first snow here in Indiana two weekends ago and it started as just a misty little flutter of white floating through the air and by the time I came out of the local Dollar General it was coming down in such masses one would have thought that every single angel in heaven was excitedly smacking each other in the head with pillows and laughing gleefully as their pillows emptied on the landscape below.  A lot of people would have complained...whether it be about the driver in front of them driving too slow...or the wet mess on the floorboard of their car...but not me!  Nope!  I went outside and enjoyed every bit of that wonderful white stuff that was turning my autumn brown yard into a white carpet of beauty.  I watched as my little female goat would tentatively stick her nose out to see what that stuff was that was falling from the sky.  I went out to try to build a snowman even though the stuff wouldn't pack and pelted the horse with it instead...and he loved it!  Then I went inside and built a fire and enjoyed the rest of my weekend writing, baking and doing crafts...not to mention a few late night chats.

​This Thanksgiving we had our dinner at my friend's mother's house.  And I looked around the room and realized just how blessed I was and how proud I was of my daughters who had come up with the idea to begin with.  Their unselfish willingness to share their holiday   and fill it with amazing food, roughhousing children, a begging dog, and a whole lot of warmth and consideration for others.  No, they don't always get along like this but for one day there were no arguments, unkind words, or frowns.  Truly a blessing.

​I've spent most of this holiday weekend doing the regular chores, then writing or crafting, baking or just sitting around and watching movies. And I reflected. I may not have all the things that some people have, but I have more than what I did a year ago. I had losses throughout the last year but in  place of what I lost, there was something new and better in its place...even if it was just a wealth of wisdom and a sense of peace.  Again, nothing that you can touch with your fingers but certainly that which you can touch with your heart and mind.

This holiday season, I hope that each of you will look at the world through the innocence of a child like you did when you were young.  Before the world told you what to see and how to see it. Open your mind and heart to possibilities that you only dreamed of doing some day.  Take that walk in the snow.  Build that snowman.  Hop on a sled and go flying down the hill screaming excitedly like a banshee in the night. Smile at that stranger in the store or take a stroll through the toy aisle and set off all the gadgets at the same time.  Go pump gasoline in your pajamas and barn boots.  Call in to work and spend the day walking through the park or the woods.  Find your peace and listen to your heart.  And remember this...with each day that we arise to another daybreak we are given a gift...a life...a chance to make our dreams a reality.  Another day to be thankful for those who have come into our lives as blessings and lessons... with that, I want to share this from the dedication section of my upcoming book...

There are angels among us. Whether they be the ethereal celestial beings portrayed by artists through history or the people that come into our lives to protect us, guide us, teach us or save us from ourselves.
I am grateful for every angel that has crossed my path throughout my life, because without them, I would not be the person I’ve come to be. 

Thank you to each and every wonderful person that has crossed my path for any reason this past year and may you all have a very wonderful holiday season!!!

Romance. There are many different meanings. What does it mean to you?
Wow…what a question to ask a hopeless romantic such as me.  Perhaps, one of the reasons that I write romance is because I BELIEVE in it. But what is it? What is this thing called romance that can be so elusive? Of course, it resonates differently for each individual, but that wasn’t the question was it?
Ok, I’m going to take a shot at this…
Romance to me is not just a title of a book genre. It’s the emotion that is invoked when romance comes knocking on my door. It’s not a dozen red roses or expensive jewelry or dinner at a fancy restaurant. Not at all. Romance to me is the thoughtfulness put into a handmade card or gift. It’s wildflowers picked from the woods during a peaceful walk. It’s cooking dinner at home or eating pizza in a park pavilion during a rainstorm.
Romance isn’t invoked with money, it’s created with giving the one thing that you can’t take back or do over. It’s the time a person spends to get to know someone and then treating them to those things that show they were important enough to take the time to know them and acting accordingly. I’ve had those relationships where an expensive gift was a person’s way to show their feelings, but didn’t necessarily mean to me as much as it would to the next person. Not that it wasn’t a nice gesture but really, to me a person who takes the time to know me…really know me…is probably the most romantic thing in the world because anything that comes naturally out of that knowledge is going to be romantic to me.
Knowing someone…really knowing someone…has got to be one of the most intimate gestures that I’ve encountered. Someone observing that a lot of the clothing I wear or flowers that I notice are purple and then showing up with a birthday cake that has purple flowers because they KNOW my favorite color is purple. Noticing that I’ve worked hard all week and taking the time to do a redundant chore or two so that I can take the time to relax, even for just a few minutes, instead of coming home and doing chores. Or recognizing that I’ve put hours of time into cooking a holiday dinner and taking me in hand and insisting that I sit down and eat instead of waiting for everyone else. Someone that is patient enough to let me sleep on the sofa for a couple of hours on a Saturday night because they just knew that I desperately needed to rest after months of working toward my college degree. It’s that person that takes the time to get to know my family and make the effort to include them, rather than exclude them, from our lives. It’s going to be that person that thinks of me in the morning and proves it by sending a simple morning text to wish me a good day. It’s caring enough to answer that desperate text in the middle of the night when a nightmare shattered my sleep or a difficult issue had the effect of destroying my peace.
Romance is a quiet New Year’s Eve sipping champagne until you are both silly drunk and then making love when the clock strikes midnight. It’s sending a live plant to my work on Valentine’s Day so that the whole world knows that I am important to someone. It’s sitting on the rooftop on July 4th to watch the fireworks where there’s no crowds to fight with. It’s a quiet vacation tucked away in a mountain cabin or going hiking in the woods or going horseback riding while the frost is still fresh on the grass. It’s sitting in a pub drinking a glass of beer and watching the rain outside. It’s a snowball fight in the middle of a blizzard. It’s a song that will forever remain imprinted in my heart and mind because it was the first time we slow danced together.
If you haven’t figured it out, I’m a simple person at heart. When I write a romance novel—whether it be a contemporary, sweet tale of love or a steamy, exciting otherworld paranormal romance—you will find that the tender gestures of romance from my hero or heroine are going to be uniquely mine. My own vision of romance as it would tug at my heartstrings. It may not be what romance is to you or to someone else, because romance is going to be unique to each person. It’s going to be the things that cause butterflies to flutter in my stomach or my heart to melt. That’s what romance is to me.
For more explanations of what romance is to other romance authors, please head over to read Katie O’Connor’s view at her blogsite located at http://katieoh.blogspot.com.