Thanks so much for having me on your blog, Delilah!

Happy New Year to everyone! I can hardly believe it’s 2014. Another year bites the dust! And what do I find in the stores now that Christmas is over. Valentine’s candy, cards, and assorted gifts! I have to admit I love Valentine’s Day. Sometimes the hubby and I go out, sometimes we stick close to home. This year it will be on a Friday, so it’s kind of a perfect date night. I’m thinking fondue. A reader recently told me that was her special Valentine’s date last year.

Heads up here, I’m doing a drawing for an ebook copy of my erotic romance Kinky Neighbors. Leave a comment on this blog along with your email address (this is will not be used for advertisement, it’s only so I can contact you if you win).

And because I love Valentine’s Day, this year I decided to be a part of a brand new Valentine’s anthology with never-before-published stories from some wonderful writers, Pamela Fryer, Haley Whitehall, Raine English, Lois Winston, Melinda Curtis. And me! We’re all in Love, Valentine Style!

Here’s a blurb for my story which is called Be My Other Valentine.

Five years ago, Grace was given a sacred duty by a woman dying of cancer: Every Valentine’s Day, Grace must deliver a special cake to a girl named Valentine, addressed from the girl’s mother in heaven. But this year, Grace’s van gives up the ghost before she delivers her cargo.

His daughter Valentine is all Brian has left of his wife, but he’s forgotten the cake Valentine receives every year, and they’ve moved to a new house with no way to contact the baker who follows his wife’s wishes.

In their quest to fulfill a dying woman’s last request, can Grace and Brian find their own Valentine?

So Grace is a fabulous baker and she makes wonderful specialty cakes for birthdays, weddings, and all occasions. Of course, I’m not a baker! So when I was putting the story together, I had to come up with some cool cake ideas. The little girl in the story, Valentine, is 5, so I had to think up all the cakes Grace has made over the years. I have to tell you, the internet is a fabulous tool. You can find just about anything you want with just a few keystrokes. So here’s a couple of web pages where I found some really fun cakes!

https://spoonful.com/recipes/dessert-recipes/birthday-cake-recipes

https://spoonful.com/recipes/creative-cakes-gallery#carousel-id=photo-carousel&carousel-item=3

What’s great about this site is that there are recipes and instructions for making the cakes yourself. They’re great for a kid’s birthday party. I once made my husband a cake in the shape of cat. It was actually kind of cute, but the cake itself tasted terrible! Grace would never make a terrible cake. But she did make several of the creations I saw on this cool website! Here’s a little excerpt of the story:

He reached over to open the door. “It’s cold, get in.” When she hesitated, he added, “If your car won’t start, you won’t be able to turn on the heater.” He smiled and patted the seat next to him. “And I have seat warmers.”

“Oh God, you’re evil. I’ll put the cake on the floor behind the passenger seat. It won’t slide as much when you’re driving.”

He kept the engine running and pushed the buttons for both seat warmers. Her van was visible around the corner, and they would see when the tow truck arrived.

Settling beside him, she asked, “So I’ve been dying to know if your daughter likes the cakes.”

He smiled. Valentine was the light of his life. “She adores them.”

“Which one did she like best?”

He supposed it was like a painter or a musician or a writer asking if you liked their latest work. Her cakes were an art form. “The lamb. Or maybe that was just my favorite. Because Valentine was very partial to the pink and red ladybug.” There’d also been an amazing butterfly, its wings topped with colored fruit jellies arranged to look like a pink monarch, and a Finding Nemo fish, which had been pink instead of orange and accented with red stripes instead of black. “You’re very talented.”

Even in the shadows of the car, he recognized her blush. “Thank you. Valentine? For her birthday? I didn’t realize that was actually her name. Her mother didn’t say.”

His mood immediately spiraled. He hadn’t known what Marilyn planned until she’d done it. And when he’d seen the credit card bill later, he almost choked. But she was gone by then, and over the years, he’d realized what she’d given Valentine was worth every penny. In fact, it probably wasn’t enough. This woman—he hadn’t even asked her name—had already provided far more than the money Marilyn had paid her. A childhood’s worth of cakes, a mother lode of love. Why would she go to such lengths for a woman she didn’t know and a child who hadn’t even been born when she made the deal?

Hehe, there are the cakes! You can see samples of the lamb (they called it a sheep), Nemo, the butterfly, the ladybug. Of course, I changed the color to match Valentine’s favorite. Gosh, I should have used the panda, that one was cute, too! And what cake did Grace make for Valentine this year? LOL, you’ll have to read the story to find out!

Don’t forget to leave a comment and your email address to be entered in the drawing. You can find Love, Valentine Style exclusively on Amazon.

You can find me at:
Website: www.jasminehaynes.com
Blog: www.jasminehaynes.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jasminehaynesauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasminehaynes1
Amazon page: https://amzn.com/e/B001IR3N76
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/130583.Jasmine_Haynes

Thanks again for having me, Delilah!

Jasmine Haynes