What is Love?
Men have pondered this question throughout the centuries.
Women have only considered  the implications publicly the last thousand years or so,
Due to the belief that, while excellent mothers, they were unable to love deeply.
The Greeks coined the term brotherly love, but never sisterly love.
Was this the start of female backstabbing?
 
What do women really want?
Hallmark tells us cards, as they inform us on every significant holiday.
Commercials would have you believe a life-size teddy bear is every woman’s dream.
Lingerie composed of lace strings resembling more a puzzle than clothing is the way to go.
Florists make up bouquets of both roses and junk food to cater to various appetites.
These things fade, are eaten, and are often hidden away.

​Valentine’s Day causes widespread panic among males anxious to prove their love.
Tired men, picking through cards and clutching stuffed animals and roses, crowd discount and grocery stores.
Some assume whatever gift they choose will be wrong, and decide to forgo the search.
More breakups happen in January than any other month.
Not surprisingly, many couples get back together after February 14th.
This should tell us love is hard to find in a heart-shaped box.

​I saw love walking along the sidewalk one frigid Valentine’s Day.
It was sleeting, making driving hazardous.
On my way home from work, at a stoplight, I watched men slide into the Walgreens frozen parking lot.
They emerged later with balloons and red candy boxes.
An old man and woman walked in the freezing rain.
She with her walker with bright yellow tennis balls and he with the umbrella held over her head.
 
Icicles hung off the old man’s bearded face.
The expression on his face wasn’t one of disgruntlement due to the weather.
Instead, he beamed lovingly at his petite wife.
His other hand rested at her elbow,
Ready to catch her if she should slip on the slick pavement.
I saw love that day.

​I’ve seen it demonstrated on other days in a myriad of ways.
People often think animals can’t love.
I did once, too,
Until I caught my younger dog
Performing an act of selfless love
And calculated deceit.
 
Silently, I rounded the corner to see him open the cabinet door,
Pulling out a pig ear, not for himself as I thought,
But carrying it to our blind spaniel.
He pushed it up to her mouth when she couldn’t find it.
Finally, he chewed on it when it proved too tough for her aging teeth.
When he offered it to her again, she accepted it with delight.
 

Genuine acts of unselfish love bring tears to our eyes.
Grand gestures that expect nothing in return,
Their sole purpose is to bring happiness, joy, even comfort to their beloved.
Would you retype a book for someone who lost it?
Who needed it to submit a full request? Better yet,
Would you do it in a night?

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My husband did.
For me, this is my perfect example of love.
 
What’s yours?
 

Famous People born on February 14th

Hugh Downs
Woody Hayes
Florence Henderson
Jimmy Hoffa
Vic Morrow

Not So Popular Gifts
1. broom, mop, vaccumn
2. cleaning supplies
3. shapewear
4. Tickets to sporting events or 
concert that the woman/wife 
never wanted to go to.
5. Diet book
6. Gym membership ( when you didn't want one.)
​7. Anything similar to what your mate gave his ex.
8. Itemized list of how to please your husband
9. Soap, shampoo, inflatable foot bath ( Anything that looks like you ran to the drugstore at the last minute.)

What is the weirdest gift you ever received?

Popular Valentine Gifts
1. Jewelry
2. Perfume/Cologne
3. Chocolate
4. Flowers
5. Lingerie
6. Gift cards
7. Dinner out
* One of my favorite presents from my husband was he wrote me a love poem. He did a nice job of it, too.

In the television show, The Middle, whenever the Heck family took to the road they’d mention possible roadside oddities they could visit. The attractions were in the Midwest from the giant ball of twine to the world’s largest ball of paint that you could add one more coat, too. These roadside attractions would break up the monotony of a long road trip. As a kid, I don’t remember stopping and seeing any of these, which was a shame because they slowly fade away without paying customers.

Since my daughter and I decided to take old Route 66, The Mother Road, we expected to see a few of these. Obviously, not all, and not on the weekends. It turns out many of these interesting places such as The Dinosaur Museum and The Blue Hole in New Mexico are closed on the weekends. We even found a campground we were planning to camp at was closed on the weekends, too. If you’re planning to take advantage of these historic attractions make sure they’re open when you’re driving by. 

​Our first stop was at the Guinness world record winning town of Casey, Illinois that had a plethora of over sized everyday objects such as a rocking chair and knitting needles. Our second stop was Uranus, Missouri. 

We drove by Uranus with its colorful stores, star lights, and huge dinosaurs in a hurry anxious to get to our hotel. It had been a long, rainy day and we wanted to eat and mindlessly veg out in front of a television. As the passenger, I noticed the place with its antique farm equipment, double decker bus and promises of an exotic animal zoo plus a magic shop, too. It stuck out big time on the flat, empty expanses that surrounded the road. It blinked out of sight as my daughter drove onward in search of our hotel.
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​We found our hotel without incident and discovered it did have the much-wanted fridge and microwave in the room. Hallelujah. We went next door to Wal-Mart and grabbed some food for dinner. On our way, we witnessed three little kids dressed in swimming suits and clutching pool noodles. Their grandmothers were questioning the front desk person about the location of the pool that was on the website.

Red faced, the employee explained that this was a new hotel that would have a pool next year, but they hadn’t even started on it, yet. Before the irate grannies could ask, he also added there was no fire pit lounge as featured on the website, either. The children not quite understanding the situation insisted there had to be a pool. One of the grandmothers herded up the antsy children while the other one informed the hapless employee they shouldn’t advertised what they didn’t have. It was just wrong! That stuck with me because we would encounter many things on our trip that weren’t even close to what they were advertised to be, but not Uranus, Missouri.
​
The next day, we pushed our departure time up an hour earlier so we could return to Uranus. In short, the place is a great photo stop including everything from a booster rocket to an old timey police car. There’s life sized wooden bears and a coin operator fortune teller who had the audacity to tell my daughter she would have an easy life while I would have to work hard for everything. So far, that had been the case.

Inside the main shop and fudge factory was a giant explosion of totally kitschy souvenirs and guilty childhood pleasures including endless flavors of salt water taffy, candy cigarettes, and those little wax soda bottle filled with a syrupy drink. There were souvenirs emblazoned with Route 66 logo, but they’d tapped into all the other high purchase groups including anything with Jesus on it, to Alien bobbleheads, Doctor Who, and Star Trek paraphernalia. It was the perfect place to find a personalized license plate for your bike or a name necklace for your daughter or granddaughter.
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There was a fudge shop smack in the middle of it, too. Yes, we bought some fudge, which was sinfully delicious. Uranus was composed of several buildings. The main one was the store and oddly enough on the back of this childhood fantasy of candy and trinkets was a gun shop. I usually think about buying a high-powered rifle while stopping in for a cold drink and a photo—not. There was a picnic ground located next to the dinosaurs and an ice cream shop, too.

Since we often show up at odd times on our across the country odyssey, we encountered closed signs. This probably won’t happen at Uranus, Missouri which opens, at least most of it, at 8:30 in the morning and stays open late into the night luring travelers with its lights that appeared like glowing stars hovering over the place.
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If you stop, remember to take plenty of pictures.

What happens when an author and her daughter drive across the United States? Come along and find out.

Day One 
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What type of person gets in a tiny car with a roof bag that acts as a sail to make a 3,000+ mile across the Southwest in August? A mother. When my daughter told me, she was going to move across the country to Los Angeles, I was surprised to say the least. When she told me, she was going to attach a trailer to tiny car—I became a nay-sayer. I killed the trailer idea and in came the roof sack. Think of it as a duffle bag for the car. It’s made of what I would describe as pool liner vinyl. In other words, a person with nefarious motives could cut into it, which meant every night we unpacked it, pulled it and its contents inside wherever we were staying. The next day we repacked it. This is my version of the trip.
Day one as the passenger in a very packed car, I had items tucked under my feet, beside me, and in my lap. I was supposed to help with directions and distribute snacks. My snack passing abilities came in handy when traffic came to a dead stop near the Illinois border. A tractor trailer had rolled—possibly due to the rain. The string we had tied the bag to the roof also served as a conduit bringing rain into the car. Oh joy. We decided to stop in Casey, Illinois to visit the gigantic items that got the small town into the Guinness World Book of Records. Even though, it was drizzling, we enjoyed posing for photos by the World’s Biggest Wind Chime or perched inside an oversized birdcage. After our brief break, we headed for Missouri.
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Stay tuned for our next adventure.

Death of a Honeymoon Blurb

Detective Mark Taber and his new bride Donna, an amateur sleuth, are ready to take a much-needed break from crime-solving and finally enjoy their long-awaited honeymoon in the quartz-rich mountains of Arkansas, but unfortunately for them, crime never takes a break.

When their car breaks down at the site of the first murder the county has seen in a century, they find themselves in a bind – no transportation and at the center of an overwhelming firestorm for an overworked sheriff. He needs their help.

Will they temporarily forgo their plans to find a murderer or will the possibility of netting quartz clusters and county fair winning recipes pull them in another direction?

Bark Twice for Danger is the third book in my Indiana-based cozy mystery series. Nala, pre-school teacher turned private eye, is paired up with a rescue dog, Max, who talks. He also helps her solve crimes, but the talking is what landed him at the shelter. People may think they want their dog to talk without realizing they may make brutally honest observations. This helps when tracking a perpetrator––not so much with the image of an adoring pet.

Max isn’t the only helper who Nala can call on. She is surrounded by quirky friends and over helpful relatives including her police captain father who reminds her there is a place at the academy with her name on it. Her mother’s main interest is pairing up her only daughter with a suitable man, this results in awkward situations.
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The person she turns to most is her high school friend, Elvin, who runs a digital security consulting, which allows his to showcase his computer hacking skills by breaking through firewalls, too. Bark Twice for Danger features her building mate, Harry, who runs a superhero costume business–––this is where the fun starts. Comic Con is coming to Indianapolis and Harry needs Nala to help him. Translation: dress up in a superhero costume and work the con. This happens at the same time identity thefts are sweeping the town of Noblesville.

My research included attending the three-day Comic Con with my daughter. We dressed up as Star Trek characters and had our picture taken with Jonathan Frakes. The research involved attending panels, handling live snakes, playing vintage arcade games, and standing in line at the food trucks with other costumed folks. Now, you might ask why even bother to attend?

I needed a feel for the building layout and security procedures. It also helped to get the general vibe of the whole event, which was an upbeat one. The next research trip of Max and Nala is Santa Claus, Indiana, best known for Holiday World theme park.

EXCERPT

What happens to a girl who can’t say no? Most people would assume she’d end up pregnant before her fifteenth birthday. The idea made Abby wrinkle her nose at the impossibility of that happening to her. It would involve someone asking her to do something more interesting than pet sitting their parrot or running papers to a client on her way home. Truthfully, she didn’t mind too much. She didn’t have children to drive to soccer practice or the need to start dinner for her partner when she got home from work. What she did resent was people assuming that since she had no life, she’d automatically do the things they had no time to do.

Delivering papers wasn’t in her job description. Technically it wasn’t on anyone’s in the office. The others were smart enough to make themselves scarce, while Abby merely took the papers and agreed to go out of her way to Carmel to deliver them before the end of the workday. The only perk was she got to leave early to arrive while the client’s office was still open.

After she delivered the papers, she exited the art deco building, only to almost bump into him. She couldn’t say she didn’t notice him. He was the type of male who drew all eyes to him by simply existing. He’d erupted into the parking lot riding a wave of sound and testosterone. Instead of a surfboard, his mode of transportation was a Triumph motorcycle. The bike drew her eye first. Back when she was barely thirteen, she longed for a motorcycle. Her fantasies, however, didn’t include her hanging onto some guy steering the bike. It was always her bike.

That dream had been squashed by her father, who pointed out that motorcycles were the quickest route to a wheelchair or a painful death. Saying her father was risk avoidant would be an understatement. In his work as a vehicle insurance adjustor, he had to speculate on how much damage a person could do to themselves and their vehicles and how much the company would be willing to cover. He applied the same lessons to raising his daughter. In short, her father’s philosophy of child-rearing was everything is dangerous, so don’t do it. Okay, maybe only the fun things were dangerous.
Still, there was the man on the bike. He probably felt her gaze on him, because after he parked close to the building, he lifted off his helmet and shook out his shoulder-length hair as if in a shampoo commercial. He did have gorgeous coffee-colored hair. Their eyes connected for the briefest second, but then she looked away, embarrassed at her ogling.

Mr. Gorgeous Hair headed her way with a smile that caused her to look behind her. No one was there. He held up his hand in greeting. “Ciao, Bella.”

“Hello.” She’d managed to squeeze out the single word.

He had a sexy accent, too, which just about made her combust on the spot. He’d waggled his eyebrows and gave a husky laugh that had her melting inside.

“Oh, that’s how it is. You’re going to act like you don’t know me.” He stopped to slant a seductive smile her way. “You were very friendly before.”

“Ah, I think you have me confused with someone else.”

He held up two fingers to his forehead as if saluting, then winked. “Who knows? We might meet again.”
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Bark Twice for Danger releases today everywhere online at iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, KOBO, and Smashwords.