The months of August and September are filled with back to school. My social media feeds are packed with “First day of school” pictures, teacher gifts, and posts about ridiculously long carpool lines. As a homeschool mom, fall makes me want to buy school supplies and I keep hoping someone will send a bouquet of […]
The Heartbeat of Love (& a #giveaway)
It’s crazy to think about it, but next week, my husband and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary. I’ve been married for more than half my life, and I’ve known that man for thirty-one years. Sometimes I think I know him better than I know myself. (Shh, don’t tell him I said that, though. […]
After Happily-Ever-After
Today is my 10-year wedding anniversary. <3 We’ve been through a lot in ten years. Besides the challenges of blending families with six kids, we’ve survived three Achilles surgeries, one heart surgery, two house floods, three totaled vehicles, cancer, and more. I don’t think this is what anyone dreams of when they promise to stick […]
Hero or Zero?
The title is a bit of a misnomer. I hope you’ll forgive me for that. What is a hero, anyway? Since I write romance novels, you would think this question is easy to answer. I suppose it could be broken down and analyzed by different genres, but, again, I write romance. There are even specific […]
Quiz: Could You be a Heroine in a Romance Novel?
It’s wedding season! I love hearing all the stories of how couples got together. It inspires me to write better because, really, there are a lot of overused tropes out there. I’ve overused them myself. Though I’m happily married, and I feel like my love story would make good fodder, do I really have what […]
Awkward Proposals
Was your proposal PERFECT? You know. Flowers, starlight, candles, down-on-one-knee perfect? Straight-out-of-a-romance-novel perfect? Well, mine wasn’t. Are you confused? I was, too. You see, my then-boyfriend and I had been dating for over two years. He was getting ready to graduate in a month, and everything was up in the air. I was stressed out […]
Where To Next?
I find myself fantasizing about locations lately—specifically getaways. See, this August marks my twentieth wedding anniversary. We haven’t gone anywhere without the kids for longer than a weekend, but this year we decided to plan a *real* vacation, just the two of us. And after being cooped up for over a year with hardly more […]
Will You Marry Me by Deb Kastner
My husband Joe and I met on a blind date. Mutual friends invited us to dinner to meet each other and we hit it off the moment he walked in the door. I was dazzled by his huge blue eyes and friendly smile, and I already knew he was a godly man. (Although if I […]
Dreaming of a Castle Wedding… (Plus #FreeBook)
I know, right? What was I thinking? For a romance novelist who prefers beach weddings (and the occasional landlocked weddings), I don’t know what came over me when I decided to be adventurous and write a romance novella with a wedding set in a castle. Perhaps to other authors, it’s no big deal, but to […]
The Blended Family
Happy February! Before we talk blended family, I wanted to thank everyone for their kind messages and prayers regarding the loss of my mom. We’re still in a state of shock, to be expected, and both my sister and I are overwhelmed with the business side of the transition. It’s been hard to focus on […]