Spending Valentine's Day weekend.... with Lila Munro

For those who make Valentine's Day into a multi-day event or extend into a weekend (like me), here's a holiday post from fellow Rebel Ink Press author Lila Munro.

The Magic of Valentine’s 365/Lila Munro

I was both thrilled and flattered that KT offered me the chance to blog here on Valentine’s Day. How special is that to be able to roll out a new release prior to its publication and on the national day of love at that?!

Long ago and far away I started my writing career as a contemporary romance author, took a left turn into Kinkyville, but still hang around the park late at night in Sensualtown and conjure up tales which don’t involve whips, chains, safe words, and leather clubs. Thus, A Slower, Lower Leap. It’s actually the third and final installment into the series which set me down the path to become a series writer. There will be a bit more on that further down. For now I wanted to address this Valentine’s thing for a few moments.

When people think of Valentine’s Day, they typically get visions of chocolates, roses, romantic dinners, champagne…spending all night with Barry White and the love of their life burning up the sheets. Most people probably even have a most memorable Valentine’s Day where the most spectacularly romantic thing happened to them ever! For me, that’s not been the case so much. You see, I’m a military wife. And as such I’ve spent the majority of my Valentine’s Days alone. Now, that’s not to say I’ve not been the recipient of all the booty associated with the day. I’ve had my fair share of roses, wine, chocolates, cards, letters…and tissues, more wine, more chocolates. In truth, no matter what comes to my door in the form of a delivery, because the man really does send the best gifts, it’s still sad to not be able to spend the Lover’s Holiday with my beloved marine. Don’t get sad for me just yet though. 

While most other people have a most memorable Valentine’s, I am in possession of countless most memorable homecomings and most romantic gestures given at random than probably any woman on the planet. (I like to think so anyway) Homecomings are always a huge ordeal in the military community…and the most likely bearers of tidings in the form of conceptions.  Any guesses as to how that happens…haha. But the most memorable and heartfelt things for me, is when my sweetie makes Valentine’s magic for me on random days for random reasons.

One thing which sticks out beyond compare happened during 2011. In February of that year he left for a one year tour to Afghanistan. At the buses I was told not to listen to a voicemail which would pop up on my phone after I left him. When I got home, it turned out the voicemail was a message for me from him. Instructions on where to find the most heartfelt gesture I’d ever received. My Marshfox had taken the time to write me 365 love letters and store them in a box prior to his deployment and they were dated as to when each should be opened. They ranged from true love notes, to poetry, to songs I should listen to that day…

So, I say to you…Valentine’s? Meh…It’s another day in my book because I get the magic 365…

 Thanks for spending a few of your realmantic moments with me today…And don’t forget to scroll down and enter to win signed copies of books one and two in my Slower Lower series.
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/c5869e2/
Here's more on her Feb. 17 release at RIP,:
A Slower, Lower Leap
Book 3, Slower Lower series
Purchase Links: Amazon, http://www.allromanceebooks.com/storeSearch.html,www.barnesandnoble.com
Blurb:
When you’re the last man standing…
Not only was Logan Delaney the last of his siblings to remain unmarried and unsettled, his entire family believed he’d never find a wife. The baby of eight, he’s been dubbed an irresponsible player and told he’ll never amount to a hill of beans. And at one time, Logan may have been okay with those descriptions, but no more. On a quest to prove his worth, he’s spent the entire summer learning the family business, staying in at night, and saving his money. And if his family would stop meddling in his affairs and trying to dictate who he should and shouldn’t be seeing, he might just show them he’s found the one, Lizzy Jenkins.
And have a bad reputation to blame…
Elizabeth Jenkins had always known Logan Delaney existed, but he’d never so much as turned one glance her way until she handed him his butt on a silver platter in three sentences or less over the phone. After that it seemed at every turn there he was and the more she resisted the heat building between them, the bigger the fire got. Until his family interfered. And why wouldn’t they? Between Logan’s legacy and her baggage, they were a disaster in the making.
Can you be trusted with a fragile heart?
But Logan doesn’t run when he finds out about Colby. In fact, he embraces Lizzy’s special needs son and defies the advice of everyone urging him to leave Lizzy alone. But after one moment of weakness, Logan finds himself knee deep in a marriage complete with the little boy whose father bailed before his birth and Lizzy’s grandfather, who needs constant care as well. Then there's the man who just might be the demise of it all.
Excerpt:
Lizzy watched Colby make yet one more circle around the living room with his arms spread and sighed in frustration. He was oblivious to the disruption he was causing which only added to her exacerbation with the situation. How could she possibly be angry with him when he didn’t grasp the concept of time or what it did to her nerves when his unscheduled moments of innocence hampered what should have been her scheduled life? And it surely wasn’t his fault he was the way he was or that he’d even been conceived at all for that matter. No, his conception was wholly her fault and she’d been paying for it for nearly six years. Alone.
But the truth was, no matter how many times she kicked herself for believing whispered promises in a back seat and guilt swamped her even though medical science would argue it was nothing she’d done to make him this way, Lizzy loved her little boy more than life itself. There were days, though.
Like today, she wanted to sit and cry until there were no more tears left then cry some more. Rarely was it, though, Lizzy had time for such frivolities as tears. What time wasn’t taken up with Colby’s care was spent at her job as the assistant officer manager at the farmer’s market, somewhere she had no intention of working a lifetime and which brought her to yet another responsibility on her list. School. When she wasn’t working or caregiving, Lizzy was an almost full-time student and watched the sun rise on a new day without sleep having studied all night more than once. In a word, she was not only exhausted physically, she was just plain tired. Never in her life would she have imagined being twenty-three and feeling so defeated.
What she wouldn’t give for one night of freedom. One night filled with beers and dancing. Maybe even some hot sweaty sex in the form of someone who would disappear the next day and not look back. Well, that and not leave her knocked up. Alone was fine, with another baby to tend to by herself, not so much.
Of course she had no idea how to go about this stranger for one night sex. The closest she came to any man was when they made deliveries to the market or they drove their grandfathers to the Senior Center for bingo and hung around waiting for the old farts to get tired of dotting cards and fighting the caller over what had come out as B-five but was mistook for B-nine because someone’s hearing aid battery was running low. And although they all knew her fairly well, they avoided her for the most part because of which grandfather she dropped off at bingo. Thank God none of them knew Michael Silcox was the one who’d left her high and dry with a special needs child, not exactly prime bait to fish with in the pond of hooking up. Her name associated with his would only add fuel to the stay away from Lizzy fire as his family owned most of Georgetown.
Bio:
Lila Munro currently resides on the coast of North Carolina with her husband and their two four-legged kids. She’s a military wife with an empty nest and takes much of her inspiration for her heroes from the marines she’s lived around for the past fifteen years. Coining the term realmantica, she strives to produce quality romance in a realistic setting. Her genre of choice is contemporary romance that spans everything from the sensual softer read to BDSM and ménage. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading everything she can get her hands on, trips to the museum and aquarium, taking field research trips, and soaking up the sun on the nearby beaches. Her works include The Executive Officer’s Wife, Bound By Trust, Three for Keeps, the Force Recon series, the Slower Lower series, the Identity series, and the Private Collection. Currently she is working on two new series set to release summer of 2013, the At Your Service line and the Steele Image line. She’s a member in good standing of RWA. Ms. Munro loves to hear from her readers and can be found at Realmantic Moments facebook, www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/LilaMunroAuthor; www.goodreads.com; Twitter You can also contact her via email at lilasromance@gmail.com and you can find all her works at: Amazon; www.allromanceebooks.com; Nook, Bookstrand