Hello, everyone! Big thanks to Delilah for letting me hang out with you today in her place. I always appreciate it and always have a great time.

I just had my birthday a couple of days ago. For some people, they’re not a big deal. For us, they’re mostly a family thing, though when my kids were younger, we of course did the parties with classmates so they could do something fun, like hayrides, or bowling, or whatever the fun thing was that year. Now that they’re grown, it’s just immediate family and occasionally one of their friends for dinner, cake and presents. For us, as parents, it’s usually the same, minus their friends.

But I remember family birthdays from when I was a kid, where sometimes extended family came (and I have a very large extended family), usually grandparents, or when we were in school, best friends. My mom always made our birthday cakes, and we got to choose what we had for our birthday dinner—I had lasagna a lot of years because I loved Italian food. I remember how much fun it was with the whole family around the table, eating a special dinner, then digging into a delicious homemade cake.

When you’re a kid, you don’t fully appreciate those days, I think, or at least I don’t believe that I did. When you’re a kid, you think things will always be the same, right? That your family will always be together, that home is always going to be there. Also while wishing fervently for the time to come when you can date, or drive, or any number of other milestones. And before you know it, you’re not home anymore, or at least not in your childhood home, your family is spread over seven states, and those family days are fewer and far between.

Anyone else has moments when they look back at these things and wish you’d paid closer attention, or to just go there for one day, one hour? Maybe it’s just the birthday. There are a lot of July birthdays in my family, and they all seem bunched up in a 7-10 day period, including a couple on the same day. But these days, we’re reduced to birthday cards in the mail, phone calls, text messages, and Facebook because none of us live close together.

So this is my long-winded way of saying pay attention to those days when you get to be with the people you love, always. If you’re lucky, you’ll continue to have lots more of them, and you’ll still have all the good memories. If you’re not as lucky, you will have the good memories, and even though they aren’t the same, they’re still a really nice thing to have as a substitute.

These days, we’re making new memories, just with a smaller group, and I know better now. These days and moments are precious and deserve full attention. My family birthday dinner will be this coming weekend. I am not making my own cake but ordered one from a place I love as a splurge, and our little group will have a good meal, followed by amazing cheesecake, and I will cherish every moment of it.

Since I last visited here, I have a new novella out, so I have an ebook version to give away in the winner’s format of choice. Just tell me something you know now that you wish you’d known “then” about birthdays. Or maybe just a favorite birthday memory? Everyone who shares by 11:00pm on July 30, 2020 will be entered in the giveaway.

Light the Way Home

Single dad Nate Baxter has his hands full with his son and his haunted lighthouse. He doesn’t have time to spend with a woman…especially one who won’t stick around, like his ex-wife.

But Lucie Russo’s not like other women Nate’s met. She’s sweet and sexy, and his mouth waters every time he’s around her.

Will a family emergency cause him to break his relationship rules? And if he does, will his heart be broken too?

Get your copy here!

Excerpt from Light the Way Home…

Lucie had been on Mac’s Light Island for almost three weeks, but the view from the back door of her temporary home still took her breath away. Right now, she realized she’d been standing there staring, slack-jawed, at the sunlight glinting off the grey-blue ocean waves for a good five minutes. Shaking her head, she pulled the door shut and stepped down onto the sidewalk, feeling in her purse for her car keys.

She closed her fingers on the fob as a giggle reached her ears. She turned to the white picket fence that bordered the property next door as a big multi-colored ball sailed over it, toward her. “Oh!” She caught it before it hit her in the face, then started across the grass, balancing the ball on her hand.

Another giggle sounded as she neared the fence, so she adjusted her direction a tiny bit and came to a stop looking directly down onto a tousled blond head.

“I think you lost something,” she said.

The little boy’s face tipped up quickly, his blue eyes wide with surprise–as if he couldn’t believe she’d found him already.

Lucie grinned and held the ball higher.

He smiled as he got to his feet, brushing off his jeans-clad knees.

From seeing him playing outside several times already, she’d guessed he might be four, but now at close range, she scaled that back to three.

“Hi, I’m Hayden,” he said, holding out his right hand.

It was her turn to be surprised. She shook his hand, bemused. “Hi, Hayden, I’m Lucie.” Not too many three-year-olds had such good manners. Aside from the ball toss at her face, that is. “Nice to meet you.”

He glanced up at his ball. “Me an’ my dad are your neighbors.”

“I see that.” She noted he hadn’t mentioned his mom. “Who were you playing with?” She gave the ball a little bounce.

“Maybe you wanna play with me.” Guileless blue eyes locked on her face.

Ah. She squelched the pang in her chest. “I wish I could, but I’m on my way to town. Maybe we can play another time?” she added when his grin vanished.

“Like this afternoon?”

“Hayden!”

The deep voice got her attention–and the boy’s–just before a tall, sandy-haired man rounded the back corner of the next-door house.

Lucie’s mouth went dry. Wowza!

About the Author

Elizabeth Andrews has been a book lover since she was old enough to read. She read her copies of Little Women and the Little House series so many times, the books fell apart. As an adult, her book habit continues. She has a room overflowing with her literary collection right now, and still more spreading into other rooms.  Almost as long as she’s been reading great stories, she’s been attempting to write her own.  Thanks to a fifth-grade teacher who started the class on creative writing, Elizabeth went from writing creative sentences to short stories and eventually full-length novels. Her father saved her poor, callused fingers from permanent damage when he brought home a used typewriter for her.

Elizabeth found her mother’s stash of romance novels as a teenager, and—though she loves horror—romance became her very favorite genre, making writing romances a natural progression.

Along with her enormous book stash, Elizabeth lives with her husband of twenty-six years and spends plenty of time with her two young adult sons who have recently flown the coop. When she’s not at work or buried in books or writing, there is a garden outside full of herbs, flowers, and vegetables that requires occasional attention.

You can find out more and keep up with news at her website: www.ElizabethAndrewsWrites.com