I’ll admit it. I was pitifully unmotivated to write yesterday. Yet thinking of a topic for this blog came to me quickly. Why? I was thinking about that darned sexual tension thing. You know…that feeling you’ve personally experienced where you’re close to someone, your heart is beating a little faster, your breathing is turning hinky, and you’re just…well…turned on. How did you get into this state? Did you just see someone and whamoo it happened? Yeah, it can happen that way, but many times it takes a longer, and it needs to be drawn out to reach that fever pitch of anticipation where two people are ready to tear each other’s clothes off.

When I write a full on, two-backed beast, down-and-dirty love scene, many readers have waited quite a while for me to arrive at that point in the story. Why? Because I’ve got to have sexual tension in my romance. In order for me to like a romance, the author has to have built a sufficient relationship somehow into the story for me to find the love scenes satisfying. There also has to be a darn good plot and characterization for me to enjoy the book, too.

As an erotic romance author, I’ve found that true erotic romance is a finely drawn line. Too little sexual tension and the book becomes boring sex. Yeah, I said it. Boring sex. Many readers will come across a book like this and won’t like it, but they won’t know why they don’t like it. Well done erotic romance is a great romance novel that just happens to be hotter than hot.

I love recommending books to readers, and over the years I’ve read exquisitely written erotic romance. The other day I received a box of quite a few paperbacks from Ellora’s Cave. These stories are all keepers for me. Not only do I love the stories, I loved the way the authors designed the sexual tension (there are so many other great books out there…wish I could remember them all and list them here):

Peppermint Creek — Jan Springer
A Fifth Favor – Shelby Reed
Perfectly Incompatible – Kathryn Anne Dubois
All I Want – Sally Painter
As If You Never Left Me – Elizabeth Jewell
The Price of Freedom – Joanna Wylde
Undercover Mistress – Amethyst Ames

Now, I need some motivation to write that love scene. My hero and heroine need a kick in the pants. Maybe I should watch a favorite sexy movie. Dirty Dancing helped, and so did The Big Easy. Any other suggestions? ☺

There are few things more delicious to me than a fall day. Here in the high desert the very first signs of fall are starting to make their way into view. The days are a tad cooler, the nights cooler, and Denise is thinking about Halloween. He, he!

Yes, as a self-confessed “love-the-month-of-October” freak, I sometimes start preparing for Halloween in late September. What do I do? I dust off the Halloween candles and get them ready. I look in one of my cookbooks for my Witches’ Brew recipe. (Just hang on…I’ll post that here for ya.) A few months ago I bought a cute little Halloween teacup and saucer I plan to use when October gets here. I also have an adorable teddy bear dressed in a Halloween costume that will reside somewhere in the house to give it Halloween flavor. I’m putting on my Manheim Steamroller Halloween music, along with the playlist called Spooky which is on my iPod and iTunes. While I don’t buy candy for kids (because we don’t have any in our gated community), I fondly recall what it was like to enjoy Halloween as a child. And if I don’t forget to set my TiVo, I’ll watch The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown this year. Heck, what would my Halloween be like if I didn’t catch John Carpenter’s Halloween and didn’t celebrate the month by periodically watching some spine-tingling movie.

So yeah, I’m an adult who likes the holiday almost as much as I did when I was a kid. Why? Well, one thing is the sheer enjoyment of allowing the kid in me to show. I may be a grandmother, but sometimes I feel younger now than I did when I was twenty-five. Here’s to loving the kid in us and allowing that child to celebrate. Here’s the recipe I promised:

8 cups cranberry juice
6 cups apple cider
6 orange slices
6 cinnamon sticks
1 liter ginger ale
1 ice cube tray

Poor cranberry juice and apple cider into a large punch bowl. Break cinammon sticks in half. Put one cinammon stick and one piece of orange in each cube holder. Fill an ice cube tray with some of the cranberry mixture. Freeze. Refrigerate remaining punch mixture in bowl. Before serving, add ginger ale and ice cubes.

Now I’ve choosen to spike this punch with red wine (chianti is a good match), but you can leave it non-alcholic if you like. Enjoy this all month or just on Halloween.

Next week I may regail you with more Halloween! Bwwaaaaaahahahahahahahah!

Denise A. Agnew

I received a great review the other day, but there was a nitpick in the review. Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t at all disappointed in the review. The reviewer said she couldn’t understand why the heroine had put up with a philandering boyfriend (not the hero) in her past. The boyfriend had cheated on the heroine more than once before the heroine dropkicked him.

It just made me ponder the question of how flawed can a hero and heroine be before they are no longer heroic? So I thought I’d ask for opinions here. What this made me wonder is if there are readers who don’t appreciate the human flaws and frailties writers often try to include in their heroes and heroines. Do they expect heroes and heroines show some reasonable flaws in their personality? I don’t know about you, but if I read a book where the hero and heroine can have flaws and show me how they learn from their mistakes, how they can have those frailties and still gain the reader’s admiration…heck, that means I’m in for a hell of a good read. Character motivation is extremely important. I know that if characters do things that are out of character that is certainly a no-no. At the same time, if a hero and heroine have no quirks, how interesting can they be? What do you think?

This last weekend I was fortunate to have a lovely time away with my husband. On the last evening of our stay, I started thinking of a topic for this blog. My mind went blank, of course. I’d just had a great meal and merlot. So we’ll blame it on the wine. WINK. Then I thought about a continuing theme that runs through my life. Getting mad at speeders, rude drivers, you name it. One thing my husband and I have tried to do over time is to learn how to ignore speeders and nasty drivers.

Of course, you may think this is a weird topic, but I’ve noticed you can relate ignoring the negative to your writing as well. The more you yell, grouse, and pay attention to rude and reckless drivers, the more of them there are. Have you noticed that? I’m a believer in negative and positive energy. To me, the more negative energy you put out, the more you’ll receive. The more positive energy you put out, the more you’ll get. The old saying about reaping what you sow really applies here. Have you noticed the more you obsess over what annoys the hell out of you, the more it overtakes you? I know, because it’s happened to me personally. I think anger is one thing that can keep people grounded to the bad things in life. Anger can feel liberating, but it can also destroy your writing life.

When you’re writing, if you have a clear goal in mind with why you’re in this writing life, the happier you’ll be. The more you keep to your personal goals and not allow negativity in the writing world influence you, the better you’ll feel and the more likely you’ll enjoy your everyday life as a whole.

Have you kept a firm goal with what you want in life, whether it is in your writing life or in other career goals? Or have you let the negative rule your life?

Last weeks winner is Bonnie Vanak! Congratulations Bonnie. She’ll receive a free download of my out of print historical LOVE FROM THE ASHES.

Denise A. Agnew

No, I’m not talking about global warming, a great day spent on a tropical beach, or a heavy duty survival reality show where you’re stuck for weeks on end with hunky men who can make a raft out of palm trees and sunscreen out of an exotic combination of plant and herb. I’m talking about a new series I’m launching at Samhain Publishing www.samhainpublishing.com in the coming months.

My first story with Samhain Publishing was released in May and is called MALE CALL. At that time I didn’t have a notion of writing anything in a connected story or series. Bang! One day an idea just came to me. After writing about an Army reservist overseas in Iraq writing a woman back home and their complex friendship turning to love, I knew I had to write about more men who experienced wartime and the women they would fall in love with. So, the HOT ZONE series was launched and I haven’t looked back. As of today there will be at least three more titles in this series, although I am writing yet another story I hope will also come out in the series. All of these novellas are set in the fictional small city of Clarksville, Wyoming. Let me give you preliminary blurbs on all the new stories in the series.

In October the next novella comes out and it’s called UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER. She’s archaeology, he’s Special Ops, and both of them teeter on the edge of stepping into the HOT ZONE. She wants the adventure of a lifetime and isn’t willing to sacrifice it for any man.
Archaeologist Fredricka “Freddie” Bodine returns to her hometown for her twentieth high school reunion, unaware that her old crush, Keith Wallace, has blown back into town. A single memory is etched deeply on her brain—the high school prom where she shared an emotionally revealing dance with him. They’d both left town after graduation, feelings unresolved and teen angst firmly in place. All he wants is to keep the girl he loved and lost safe, even if she hates him for it. Keith doesn’t want her to travel to Los Diablos, a lawless area near ancient ruins that he’s visited during his Special Forces ops, and the place where his sister was killed years ago. As they grapple with family pressures and the exploding passion between them, their battle of wills may just lead them to the truth living in both their hearts.

In March 2008 Samhain will release PRIVATE MANEUVERS. Sometimes a woman craves, sometimes a man wants… When the two collide, its guarantee to pitch them straight into the danger lurking within the HOT ZONE. Marisa Clyde wants nothing to do with the soldier who is acting as a temporary bouncer in her uncle’s tavern. Stoic and over six feet of smoldering masculinity, the hunk helped rescue her during a tour gone bad in Mexico. During those few short moments after she first met him, the tension between them screamed off the charts. A devastating hurt in the past blocks her willingness to surrender to him. If she can wait him out now, he’ll only be in town a month and then he’s out of her life. Jake Sullivan watches Marisa like a hawk, well aware his need to protect is messing with his mind and making him care for Marisa way more than he should. Priding himself on clinical detachment in the game between man and woman, he figures once he’s slept with her, she’ll be out of his system for good. But that’s before he experiences her on a deeper level and learns she just might be in danger again.

In June 2008 Samhain releases CLOSE QUARTERS. When all hell breaks loose, sometimes you just need someone to cover you. Neena Williamson struggles to keep her high-pressure job from overwhelming her, and she thinks the demons of her past have long since disappeared. One night, she sees a man wearing the most hideous Hawaiian shirt on earth and vows he’d never fit her image of a hot bod for a local charity’s new hot male calendar. Then the evening erupts in violence, and he proves that first impressions can be dead wrong. Sometimes having a simple cup of coffee can turn into a complicated situation…Mitch Gilroy hides in plain sight, enjoying his low-key handyman job. His former life isn’t open for discussion, and Clarksville, Wyoming is the perfect place to find peace. Then a gunman forces his hand, and Mitch must remember everything he’s tried so hard to forget. Thrown together, Neena and Mitch quickly discover how tangled their emotions can become, and only by working together can they banish the monsters that haunt them and heal a lifetime of regrets.

Hope you enjoyed a little sneak peek into what’s coming from the HOT ZONE! As soon as I found out if yet another story will be released in the series, I’ll let you all know. With these novellas I tried to convey a sense of homecoming and what that can mean to someone who has survived a dangerous situation. Plus, I wanted the character’s pasts to catch up with them in some way, to have them stretch and grow and discover it is possible to find love even when you least expect it. What sort of stories make your blood race? Do you like stories set in dangerous situations, or do you prefer the more mundane and often more realistic home fire settings? Why do you think either danger or homefire appeals to you the most? I’ll select a lucky winner from the posts today to get a free download of LOVE FROM THE ASHES, my out of print historical set during the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Winner to be announced next Wednesday.

Denise A. Agnew

I had a heck of a time thinking of a topic today, so I decided it was a good day for a Wednesday twenty. Not a Thursday thirteen or a Friday ten. Do you know how difficult it was to come up with twenty favorite things? Not because I couldn’t think of twenty things, but because I couldn’t narrow it down to twenty without some serious hair pulling. So here’s the raggety list The first item is a no brainer I didn’t have a bit of trouble thinking of as my top pick.

1. Spending time with my husband.

2. Have several hours to write without interruption of any kind human or mechanical.

3. Reading a fantastic book without interruption for several hours.

4. Eating at my favorite Italian restaurant in Arizona.

5. Eating at my favorite Southwest cuisine restaurant in Arizona.

6. Visiting castles.

7. Eating pizza or popcorn.

8. Enjoying a glass of Columbia Crest Merlot and having that glass last for hours.

9. Watching a spectacular action flick on the big screen.

10. Visiting with my little nieces, nephews, and grandbabies.

11. Feeling younger than I did when I was twenty-five
.
12. Hearing a string of favorite tunes from the seventies and eighties.

13. Thinking about my three years in England.

14. Having a luxury weekend at a resort with my hubby.

15. Discovering a super new author to read that really absorbs me in his or her story so I don’t want to put down their book.

16. Hearing a favorite author has a new book for me to read.

17. Getting royalty checks from my publishers.

18. Realizing I actually get paid to write!

19. Having a peak experience of peace.

20. Last, but not least, being the luckiest woman in the world. In my humble opinion.

So name some of your very favorite things in the world and share them with me! I’ll announce a winner next Wednesday of four of my free short stories that you may not have read before.

Denise A. Agnew

An epiphany came to me while reading a fascinating book called The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker. I highly recommend this book to everyone. I read this book about two years ago and spent significant time highlighting passages that I resonated with in particular. During that time I recognized I had bought into the general mindset of a large portion of the American population. The one that is generated entirely by soaking our heads in the “bad” things that happen. A saturation in media generated pessimissm. I’m not talking about enjoying our favorite sitcom, our favorite weekly drama, or in my case the month long horror fest I enjoy during my October Halloween enjoyment (yeah, I love Halloween). Those things are fantasy. They’re for fun. What I mean is that obsessive overindulgence in watching the news and hearing about all the woes that we now have instant access to twenty-four hours a day. In Gavin DeBecker’s book he says he pretty much stopped watching the news all together. This is not a guy hiding his head in the sand. He’s a security expert. He knows what goes on out there. What he’d noticed, though, is that if you listen to the news every day, take in the mayhem that is brought to your attention in a constant stream of disaster, that you’ll find yourself more fearful than ever. Every day you can hear how this hurricane destroyed this country, this tsunami destroyed this part of the world, this man went into this place and shot all these people…you name it, all the evils and all of Mother Natures awesome and sometimes terrible strength is right there. Some people even go so far as to believe we can control the weather completely…I mean, if Mother Nature gives us the cosmic wedgie of the universe, it isn’t because Mother Nature does what she wants. We’ve got to find someone to blame for what Mother Nature did. (No, I’m not downplaying Global Warming.) Heck, every day on just about every news morning show you can hear a new “Health Alert.” Or you can read your favorite magazine and learn the “ten new ways you could die of this dreaded disease.”

Gavin jokes in his book that he’s surprised the media doesn’t say each morning, “good morning, we’re surprised you woke up alive.” That isn’t exactly what he said in the book, but he did say something similar.

Good news doesn’t sell. Bad news does. Unfortunately, people buy into the bad news scenerio. Watching reality television seems to plug into that base part of us that says it is a great thing to watch other people screw up, fail, and make a fool of themselves. I’m not saying people have to be Pollyannas and shouldn’t watch what they want. They should watch whatever blows their skirt up. I know I love my Supernatural, my Jericho, my…well, I’ve got quite a few shows I enjoy. That’s why have TiVo.

The more I thought about this concept of fear, the more I realized that not only had I run my life on fear and being extraordinarily cautious for a good chunk of my years, but when I watched the news I became crankier, more discouraged, more likely to think the world had become a far worse place than it actually is.

Another great book to read is Malicious Intent by Sean Mactire. It’s a Writer’s Digest book. It’s fantastic for romantic suspense authors because it gives an excellent perspective on true crime and clears up some modern misconceptions about crime. Case in point, the myth that serial killers are a new invention or that women in the past were so much safer than modern women are. Excellent book even for people who aren’t writing suspense.

Have you ever noticed, though, that being overworked, overstressed, and overdone is a badge of honor these days? If you say to someone that you have a good life and you’re not particularly stressed, they quickly want to tell you how horrible their life is and think you must be lying about your life. They sneer and say, “well, aren’t you lucky.” ☺ Because being stressed is in vogue. Learning how to “de-stress” but not actually doing the work to get that way is not in vogue. Having that cell phone plugged into your ear, instant access to everything and everyone having instant access to you is in vogue, too. My cell phone is pretty much for emergencies. After that, if you wanna get a hold of me you have to email me or leave a message on my regular phone or you might get a hold of me if the timing is right and I pick decide to grab the phone. ☺

Another book I highly recommend to “open your mind” is Embracing Fear: How to Turn What Scares Us Into Our Greatest Gift by Thom Rutledge (Gavin De Becker gave a forward in this book, too). I think you’ll find both books eye opening and valuable in more than one way. Check ‘em out!

Once a friend asked me how I could write scary books full of action, adventure, horror, and serial killers. Um, yeah, I do have a few serial killers wandering around in some of my books. One of my new projects is going to feature some pretty nasty people (but it will feature a great heroine and a super sexy hero, by golly). I thought about what my friend asked, because no one had ever asked me that before. I discovered I want to show that bad things can and do happen, but that people can survive, they can live through it, they can grow and learn things about themselves and maybe even become better people because of these misadventures. I want to show my happily ever after in a way that makes the reader feel, in the end, a satisfying sigh. A feeling that good things do happen and happily ever after can happen. Do I believe good things happen and that happily every is possible? Absolutely I do.

Now, close your eyes and imagine you wake up tomorrow and turn on the news. A newscaster says, “Today a whole class full of teenagers decided they’d start a project to help the elderly, and this is the fantastic thing they’ve decided to do….”

Have you found that sometimes you buy into fear that you don’t need to? Tell me about it. I’ll pick a winner from the posts and announce the winner in my blog next Wednesday. Prize to be announced.

Denise A. Agnew

Today is my birthday. Confetti! Champagne! Well, okay, I plan on having a little champagne. I haven’t had any champagne since New Year’s Eve. I have my favorite, Martini and Rossi Asti Spumanti (okay, it’s sparkling wine…not champagne).

In the meantime, my latest Special Investigations Agency (SIA) story, INSTINCT, is out today as well.

Who or what is the SIA? Is it a secret society? A new government agency? If you said government agency, you’d be right. The SIA stands for Special Investigations Agency and it’s the fictional organization created when Rosemary Laurey, Tracy Cooper Posey and I wrote the WINTER WARRIORS anthology for Ellora’s Cave. All three stories featured heroines who are agents.

In the fictional world, the SIA formed twenty years ago to stamp out threats to the world at large, especially those of a supernatural bent. The SIA is an international organization. Although my stories often originate at the SIA main headquarters for the U.S., which is situated at a top secret facility in Colorado, I wanted my stories to include plenty of adventure in other places.

In my story MANEATER featured in the WINTER WARRIORS anthology, the heroine and the hero, both agents for SIA, don’t have supernatural powers themselves. Yet they use their brains and brawn to bring down the genetically mutated creature stalking a high mountain lab. This story had its tongue-in-cheek moments. When I wrote it I wanted the reader to get a laugh along with the adventure.

After the success of the anthology, and major idea brainstorming, I decided to carry the SIA one step farther and shaped full length novels featuring more characters from this premier agency. PRIMORDIAL combines my love for archaeology with a desire to write a story set in a jungle. It is hard to define this book other than to say it is romantic suspense/thriller/and paranormal all wrapped into one. I created Puerto Azul, a fictional Central American country as my setting, then featured an archaeologist heroine and a drop-dead gorgeous agent ready to take on a sinister enemy in order to retrieve a stolen artifact.

In OVER THE LINE, a shorter romantic suspense novel, I gave the classic boss-and-subordinate in-love-story a twist and added a stalker to the mix.

Then came SINS AND SECRETS, which features a hero who isn’t what he appears to be. This story is a complex romantic suspense with one (maybe two) bad guys, and a hero and heroine with psychic abilities. In JUNGLE FEVER, I returned to Puerto Azul, this time with a quickie story that is laced not only with heat, but with a heart-wrenching, romantic story. In HIDEAWAY, I mixed an author heroine who has a severe case of writer’s block with her long time friend and SIA agent. But he’s been injured on a mission and doesn’t remember her.

This June came CLANDESTINE. This story features a character that shows up in quite a few of my SIA novels. She’s finally getting her own romance! Can’t get enough of Scottish men? Not only do I have a Scottish hero in OVER THE LINE, but I also have a Scottish hero in INSTINCT. Here’s a little blurb to get you intrigued.

She can’t release the past…
But the past is about to take hold of her…
SIA scientist Mina Carling shies from contact with Scottish SIA soldier Lucas Sloan. After all, the gorgeous, tough-talking soldier has a reputation for a voracious almost…animal sexual appetite. He’s arrogant, and she doesn’t like him.
He wants nothing to do with a permanent relationship…
Yet one relationship keeps finding him…
Lucas tracks evil entities in the dark places of the world and never seeks more than physical satisfaction with women. Yet something within Mina calls to his deepest male instincts to protect, even though he doesn’t really like her.
Sometimes there are human urges that are just so…animal.
When Mina and Lucas are thrown together at a conference, all the basic instincts they’ve tried to ignore find a way to escape. All the feelings they thought were dislike melt together, in one hot, unbelievably passionate discovery.
**
For excerpts and more information, stop by my website at www.deniseagnew.com. Have a great day!

I’m posting this late Tuesday evening because I have some errands to run Wednesdday morning and didn’t want to get home too late to post.

Ahhhh…seeing a photograph like the one above makes me feel humble. I often use this photograph of a beautiful Colorado setting as computer wallpaper.

Yet there are other things that make me humble and inspire me, too. Watching an interview with J.K. Rowling on Dateline NBC inspired me. After all, discovering you have something in common with one of the most successful authors of all time feels kinda good. No, we’re not related. No, I don’t know her personally, though she seems like a lovely person that I’d like to know. I feel l know her in the way many other authors feel they know each other, understand each other on the most fundamental level. She seems like a humble, hard working, kind person who has a tremendously creative mind with a lot of interesting things to say. I’ve noticed that some of the most famous authors on the planet are often the most unassuming. If a person can remain retiring and grateful in the face of overwhelming adoration from fans and heinous censure from critics, I’ve got to admire them.

Newbie writers sometimes fantasize what it is like to be swamped at a book signing by adoring fans. I’ve never been swamped (I think the most people I ever had lined up at one time to buy my books at a signing was ten people) in the epic proportions of a J.K. Rowling signing. I can say the first signing where I sold thirty-seven books in two hours surprised the hell out of me and went a long way to erasing bad memories of signings where I sold one book. When a reader comes up to me and says with a huge smile how much they love my work, there isn’t anything better. I entertained someone for a few hours with my tale. How cool is that? Now, if I’m at a signing where I sell only one book, I’m rarely disappointed. Because I know it happens and there’s no use becoming upset about the situation.

But, I digress.

I’ve seen J.K. Rowling being interviewed before and each time felt that unique kinship that most writers experience when listening to another writer talk about the emotions and situations connected with writing. Rejection, disappointments, hopes, all of those things come into play. I’ve experienced the same feeling listening to and watching interviews that Dean Koontz has done. I find his writing philosophy refreshing and his attitude intriguing. Same with Stephen King. In particular I find myself admiring King’s outlook about genre writing. In his book On Writing, he tells genre writers not to let the literary world sneer at them. Or at the least, not to allow the sneering to tear down their dreams or to feel less worthy because of the general snubbing genre writers sometimes receive in the literary world.

Rowling, King, and Koonz seem humbled by their success, very thankful for it, and above all they must write because they love to write. Not because they are simply trying to secure that next paycheck. Certainly if they decided to quit writing tomorrow they’d be financially set for life. Yet I don’t see them abandoning their creativity, do you? Is there an author who has inspired you?

Denise A. Agnew
Step off the edge…
Into dark, delicious adventure…

For anyone who saw my post to the blog up for a very short time on Tuesday and may have tried to reply, I’m sorry but I posted it on the wrong day!!! I just got back from a trip to Colorado Monday and apparently my brain was mushy peas. ☺ But here I’m here now.

Who is that couple at the top? It’s my favorite wedding photograph in my wedding album. What prompted my desire to talk about weddings? This last weekend I attended my stepson’s wedding, a unique event unlike any I’d attended before. They enjoyed their outdoor nuptials among a beautiful setting of mountains, towering pines, and by the murmur of a crystal clear creek. Casual and different than most, the wedding reflected what they wanted and how they wanted it.

Since my teen years, I envisioned my fantasy wedding and of course it came into my mind as outlandish and extravagant. A wedding fit for a princess. When Princess Diana wed in ‘81 I was enthralled. When Fergie married Prince Andrew in ‘86, I loved it. I still never thought I’d have anything approaching a fantasy wedding. In ‘90 in walks the man of my dreams and soon plans for a fantasy wedding ensued. I devoured wedding magazines for ideas, and of course the dresses I wanted in the worst way had a tremendously long train. Too expensive and maybe not too practical. But I could dream. I’d figured that I’d have to find something off the rack. Instead, a dressmaker created an exquisite dress for me that combined my fantasies together…Victorian and Edwardian. I was getting a one of a kind dress in a gorgeous concoction of lace, a lustrous creamy off white that almost sparkled golden under lights. On my head I wore a piece that settled like a crown.

Desert Storm came and my soon-to-be husband learned he might be sent to Iraq. We moved our wedding from August ‘91 to January ‘91. One week of planning. A need for a dress. We declared we’d still have the August wedding when he got back. What to wear for a ceremony created in one week? I found a gorgeous dress reminiscent of the dropped waist creations of the twenties. It was a shorter dress…calve length, still full of lace and beading, and a fabric that shimmered in the light. I still have it.

Race forward. My husband didn’t deploy to Iraq, so in August ‘91 we put together our fantasy wedding again as a renewal of vows. I wore my dream creation dress and my husband wore his dress blues. On that day I found the princess within and got to be royalty. To make a long story short, I love weddings. Love to hear about them, love to see the videos. It must be the romance author within me. Did you have a dream wedding? Or have you been a part of one? Tell us all about it, and share in the fantasy.

Until next time, live, love and dream.

Denise A. Agnew