Why I Write Romance

Why I Write Romance


The answer is really simple. I believe in it. Oh, not the hearts, and candy, and roses, sort of romance the hawkers sale during Valentine's, but the happily ever after.

If you've been reading my blog in the past 7 or 8 months, you know my father is dying of cancer. My mother has a sever blockage in her carotid artery and is having mini strokes. About 2 weeks ago, she had a bad fall in their garage - the washer won. She looked like a raccoon for about a week, but thankfully she didn't break any bones, which is a miracle.

Dad cried as the medics took her out.

Honestly, none of us thought Dad would make it this long. They stopped any kind of treatment 3 weeks ago. He's been in and out of hospice, and we had another scare today. However, he rallied and managed to get out of bed, eat a little, and was sitting at the kitchen table when I left.

He doesn't want to leave Mom.

Their 53 years of marriage haven't been perfect, but it's been perfect for them.

That's why I write romance. It's not a dream, or fairy tale. It does exist, and I've been fortunate enough to have been surrounded by it. My parents found it, my sister and her husband found it, and I found it (17 years this Saturday).

Jessie

Some Serious Catching Up

I haven't been very active lately, but with my parents' health on a rapid decline, well, things get pushed back, and back, and back. Dad is still with us, but I'm afraid it won't be for long.

My website is down. I'll be getting a new one in a few days, but until it's up and running, I'll be using my MySpace page (www.myspace.com/jessieverino).

I'm getting a little writing done, and will finish Statues soon. Look for it in November in Phaze Fantasies from www.phaze.com.

I'm also attending the Women's Expo again this year, and there are some very exciting things going on there. Check out their website at www.womensexpoauthors.com to see the fantastic, and I mean fantastic, list of authors attending, such as Christine Feehan, Dr. Bill Bass, Barry Eisler, Angela Knight, and the list goes on and on. There are also seminars and a dinner scheduled.

Jessie

Oscar, Everybody Loves You, Oscar

Well, I’m sure the winners love him, but the non-winners probably don’t have a whole lot of nice things to say about him right now. However, whether your favorite movies brought home a little gold statue last night or not, everybody can win at Phaze. In honor of winners of last night’s Oscars, all Surges at Phaze are 50% off through Friday! That’s a lot of bang for your buck! And, Sci-Fi, Romantic Comedy, Historical and BBW are all 25% off this week. So feel the Surge and get a jolt of Sensual Energy.

Jessie

The In-Betweens

The cold temperatures finally moved on, and it's supposed to be in the 60's tomorrow. In-between winter and spring.

I'm working on a few new projects. In-between books.

My Mom is now in the hospital, and Dad had his port put in for the upcoming chemo treatments. He can't go to the hospital to see Mom, because his immune system is already so compromised from the radiation treatments. In-between caring for each of my parents.

My DH is working a short call and will probably be unemployed again by the end of the week. In-between jobs.

The other secretary in our office quit, and now I'm working 9-10 hours a day. In-between co-workers.

Man, when you read it that way, it sound like I should be depressed, or stressed, or any other of the various negative emotions out there. It's not easy being in-between all this stuff, but I have great family, great bosses, great editors, and God. I can feel good about the little things I've accomplished. I can feel good about my son and his family getting a house. I can feel good about the fact that Mom & Dad both have fantastic doctors and great attitudes. I can feel good about my bosses understanding my situation and knowing I could be called away at any moment. I can feel good because my IT guy brought me a king size Snickers, and I haven't even opened it yet. I can feel good, because I'm surrounded by love and friendship.

Thanks to everyone who has sent a prayer or thought our way.

I hope everyone is feeling as good as I am right now. If not, I'll send warm thoughts and prayers your way, and a smile.

Jessie

Cold Temps & Salmonella

I don't eat a lot of peanut butter, but about two weeks ago, I bought a jar (low fat Peter Pan) to keep in my office. Working 9-10 hours a day, I felt the little protein boost in the afternoon would help. Uh-huh. Just my luck, the jar I bought is one in the infected recall. I haven't had severe symptoms, except for last Sunday, but I have eaten at least a tablespoon of peanut butter almost every day for the past two weeks. I'm sending the lid back and getting a refund. But what's really scary is I've been delivering dinner to Mom & Dad a couple of nights a week. I haven't handled their food, only the packaging, and I do wash my hands, but we spend almost every minute in their kitchen when I'm there. Thank goodness I haven't handle any of Dad's insulin or needles. I've got to make some phone calls.

To all those buried under snow, I hope you have power and water, and please stay safe. It's cold here (downright frigid for the South - lows in the teens), and I'm ready for spring. The weather people are predicting snow for us tomorrow. Saturday, which figures. No snow day from work.

Dad goes Monday to have the port inserted for his chemo. It'll be an all day thing, and I'm sure it will wear him out. He's now almost bald from the radiation treatments he received and still very tired.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Jessie

Happy Valentine's Day & More

First, some catch up. Congratulations to the World Champion Indianapolis Colts!!! And to Tony Dungy and MVP, Peyton Manning, along with Joseph Addai, Dominic Rhodes, Adam Vinatieri, and all the rest. Gentlemen, thanks for the great, exciting season.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. I had a great night with my hubby. He took me to my favorite Mexican restaurant.

Work has gotten a little crazy. I'm now the only support staff in the office, and it looks like the 9-10 hour days aren't going to end any time soon.

Dad completed his radiation treatments and starts the chemo in a little over a week. Me and my family appreciate all your kind words, thoughts, and prayers, and ask that you continue to keep us in them.

MySpace Glitter Graphics



I hope everyone has a fantastic Valentine's Day! Remember, the day is to celebrate love, so be sure to let the ones you love know it.



I'm going to spend the evening with the ones I love and who are important to me - my family. I'll stop by the bakery and pick up something sweet, a cake probably, and then grab my parents some dinner.



The evening will be wonderful. Bittersweet in a way, due to my Dad's cancer, but I know every moment spent with him, with my family, is precious.



My son and his family were going to try to come by Sunday, but didn't make it. So, in true Valentine fashion, I went ahead and opened the candy I'd bought for them and ate most of it. Of course, I'm going to replace it, probably with something better than what I first bought. It wasn't that great. Really, they should thank me. Maybe I'll give him a call and see if I can't guilt him into coming over tonight.



Jessie

Hoping for Snow

Predictions went from 1" - 3", then the predictions changed to 2" - 5". I was sooo looking forward to snow day from work. I set my alarm, despite the dire predictions.

Now I know, most of you reading this are thinking, "Is she nuts?! That's not enough snow to get out of work." However, here in East Tennessee that's enough snow to shut everything down and have almost everyone running to their local grocery store to stock up on the essentials: bread, milk, peanut butter, beer, and toilet paper.

When the alarmed beeped at me this morning, I got up and shuffled to the front door to check on the amount of snow and ice on the road.

Where's my snow?????

To the south.

And joy of all joys, the weatherman is predicting more winter weather around lunch time. Of course, it's supposed to move on through and then warm up so that our afternoon commute home will be okay. (Which means my dad can get to his radiation treatment. I really can't complain about that.)

YUCK!

There's hope for tonight, though. Another front moving through, and it might just bring enough ice and snow to keep me out of work on Friday, which altogether isn't a bad trade.

Jessie

Exhausted

Dad's doing much better. After some extensive testing, the doctors have determined that it is a tumor in his brain, but without brain surgery, there's no way to determine what type of tumor it is. He's taking radiation treatment, steroids, and anti-convulsants. He's taking a few steps on his own, but he's still wobbly. It's going to be a long, hard road ahead for him. He knows it, and still has a great attitude toward the whole thing.

After the past week and a half, spending equal amounts of time at work and my parents, I took Friday off and slept. And slept. And slept. I knew I was tired, but didn't realize exactly how exhausted I'd been. Speaking of work, it looks like things will ramp up there as I'm going to be the only support staff for a while. Thank goodness my DH is laid off, otherwise nothing would get done in my house.

On the writing front, I've been doing very little. I have two stories open now, and will work on them today. Check my projects page for further progress (or non-progress as the case has been lately).

Go Colts!!!!!
Jessie

A Fool's Errand...

...or the world's biggest optimist?

That's the question I kept asking myself yesterday morning. The doctors sprung Dad from the hospital Friday night. So I was at their house bright and early Saturday morning. Made coffee, fought my way through the maze of medications, prepared his insulin injection (the steroids are making his sugar high), and I was ready to sit for a few minutes. But no. Dad was out of cigarettes.

Did I mention he has lung cancer?

He also had a winning lottery ticket. Just a few dollars. (We play for fun when it gets over $200m.)

So, he hands me the lottery ticket and tells me to roll it over, which means buy as many picks as dollars he won, and money to buy him a carton of cigs.

I shouldn't have, but I did. He's flat out told me, my family, and his doctors that he's not going to quit smoking.

Well, what do you expect from Roger the Logger, quite possibly the toughest man in the entire world?

Jessie

"I'm a Logger."

Well, I've had a bit too much excitement this week. Dad went for his 1st chemo treatment Tuesday, but they had done a CT scan on his brain Monday, and the results showed a tumor in the right side of his brain. So, they sent him home with another appointment with a radiologist for Friday. On the way home, he started having seizures. He went back to the hospital by ambulance, and the family was called in.

When we arrived he was still seizing. The ER physician saw indications that the cancer had spread to his liver and possibly his stomach. After a few rounds of really good drugs, they stopped the seizing and ordered a CT scan of the stomach & liver. We were told to expect comfort measures only.

They did the scan late Tuesday night, and we didn't learn the results until early Wednesday morning--there's an abscess on the outside of his liver, probably from an emergency gall bladder surgery he had 4 years ago. We also learned that a brain tumor and a brain abscess look almost identical on a CT scan of the brain, and that the tumor could actually be an abscess. They scheduled an MRI for today, which hopefully will give us a definitive answer.

I was praying for a miracle, I'm not going to argue with the results. I'll take a brain abscess over a tumor any day of the week.

Now, for the title of this post: There's an old Ray Stevens' song entitled, The Haircut Song. Here are some of the lyrics:

Well, Butte, Montana just a'passin' through, one thing I just had to do,
Had to get a haircut and I was worried for my hair.
I had a feeling of impending doom the minute I stepped into that room and laid my eyes upon that barber chair.
It was a macho barber shop. Hair dryers were mounted on a rifle rack. Wasn't no mirrors. The barber chair was a Peterbilt... Barber walked in; he was huge, seven feet tall, three hundred pounds of spring steel and rawhide. Wearin' a hard hat, chewin' a cigar, had a t-shirt on -- said, "I hate musicians."
Threw me in the chair, sneered and said, "What'll it be pal?"
Now a lot of people would be intimidated in a situation like this...I was not. I am what I am, play my little piano, and sing my little songs. I looked him right in the eye and I said, "I'm a logger - just up from Coos Bay, Oregon. Been toppin' trees - quite possibly the toughest man in the entire world."

Dad & I quote the part about playing the piano and singing songs every time we're together. It always pops up in one of our conversations, usually along the line of,

"Well, what can you do?"
"I don't know. I just play my little piano, sing my little songs."

Well, Tuesday night when they finally got him to a room around 11:30 p.m. or so, the nurse came in and asked Dad his name. At this point, he was riding high on the ativan, and he sounded like he'd been on a three day drunk because his tongue was swollen from his biting it during the seizures. He looked her straight in the eye and answered, "My name's Roger. I'm a logger from Coos Bay, Oregon. Quite possibly the toughest man in the world. Just playin' my little piano and singin' my little songs."

The look on her face was priceless, and we were all laughing so hard none of us could explain why he'd answered that way. His name's not even Roger. We have no idea where that came from. And he's still telling the new nurses who come in at shift change that he's a logger from Oregon, even though he's completely cognizant. He had a long conversation with one of the nurses about Oregon and Seattle (where she is from) this morning. (He has been there.)

He kicked us out shortly thereafter, and I haven't heard anything from anyone regarding the MRI. I think I may go home after work and collapse now that the immediate danger is over. The chair I slept in last night at the hospital didn't provide a good night's rest.

Jessie

No Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Snow...

...can keep an author from a booksigning and reading.

Wow! Donna Wright & I had a fantastic time at the Madagascar Coffee Company in Kingsport, Tennessee last night! We had some nasty weather in East Tennessee yesterday--snow, sleet, a mixture of snow and sleet--in short, it was cold & yucky.

We arrived at 6:00 p.m., and were treated to some really great food and coffee. The shop is absolutely gorgeous, and the back room was perfect for us to mingle with the people who braved the weather to attend the event.

Donna and I both read, though we had to close the door for some of the passages from my works. ;) It was a great crowd, and they all got into the books and participated.

I'm sure we'll be going back soon.

Jessie

Great Weekend

Well, I felt sorta *Blah* all day Saturday, even during the games. But, I'm still riding high on the Colts' win. I enjoyed the Seahawks' win, too.

Sunday, I had just settled down at my computer, the game was on, I had my Fury open and ready, and the doorbell rang. My son and his family stopped by for a visit, and we had an absolutely fantastic Sunday afternoon, and we finished the day with a trip to my favorite Mexican restaurant. Even the little ones enjoyed the food.

All in all, I think I got about 30 words written, but that's okay, because no words can outweigh those memories.

Happy Monday!
Jessie

Stage IV

Bi-lateral tumors. Metastasized. Chemotherapy. Radiation. I could have lived quite happily without ever hearing those words. The doctor didn’t complete the procedure to check Dad’s lymph nodes. There was no point after the scope found another tumor in his right lobe. Didn’t want to put his body through the stress of the procedure when the cancer has already metastasized. Treatment can stop or slow the growth, but at this point there is no cure.

But there's always hope. He’s a fighter, his spirit is good, and his faith is solid. I know those things go a long way in treatment. And I do believe in miracles.

Thoughts and prayers still appreciated.

Thanks,
Jessie

My Big Plans for New Year's Eve

Stay Home & watch football. Probably fold laundry while I'm watching. Heck, I may go a little crazy and do some other house cleaning. Nah, it is a holiday, after all. But, I love three-day weekends, and the whole "I have a legitimate excuse to be lazy" thoughts they generate.

I hope everyone has a safe, happy, & prosperous New Year. Here's a cyber toast to a wonderful 2007!



Jessie

Why I Believe in Love and the Happily Ever After

Today is my parents' 53rd wedding anniversary. Yep, 53 years of love, laughter, Christmas mornings, New Year's celebrations, weddings, babies, and summer trips. 53 years of finding strength in each other when the tears fell, when children were sick or hurt, when money was tight, and when bad news came. The premature birth of my sister, the car accident when I was 12, my sister's cancer, my son's tumor, my nephew's 7 year custody battle, my dad's first bout with cancer. The joy of grandchildren and the special joy of great-grandchildren.

In short -- a lifetime.

Their story is why I believe in love and the happily ever after. Their story is why I write romance. Their love and encouragement are the reasons I write at all.

The power of true love is real, and it grows stronger as time passes. It may not seem like it when you're caught in the day-to-day routine of a hectic life, but it's there, pulsing, waiting to be called upon to see us through the next difficult situation.

Take a moment and let someone know you love them.

Jessie

Another Huge Sale at Phaze

Phaze is having a Huge Christmas sale! All e-books are 50% off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!! Wow! Heatsheets for $1.00 (that’s a lot of bang for your buck). And from December 26, 2006 until December 31, 2006, Phaze e-book titles will be discounted 25%. For the Christmas Day sale, use code SANTA50, and the week sale, use the code SANTA25. Be sure to check out Spellbound & Sensual Energy and these other great authors!

Spellbound

Sensual Energy

Waking Annabel, by Jayelle Drewry

Kitten, by Mychael Black & Shayne Carmichael

Apocalypse Dance, by Michael Barnette

Cain & Abel, by Bridget Midway

Jessie

Huge Sale at My Bookstore And More

My Bookstore and More is having a Huge Christmas sale! All e-books are 15% off until December 24!! Lord Night is only $2.98 -- a bargain for a hot book to keep you warm during a cold night.

Check out Lord Night, and these other great authors!

Lord Night

Taste This, by Leigh Ellwood

Blame the Rain, by Ann Cory

Lords of the Were, by Bianca D'Arc

The Gift, by Beth Williamson

Loving Lies, by Lora Leigh

Just Like a Dame, by Daisy Dexter Hobbs

Now, off to do some Christmas shopping.

Jessie

I Was Wrong

(Read it lots, honey, 'cause you this is the only time I'm likely to admit it.)

So, Hiro wasn't lost in time.

Questions: How did Sylar get his telekinesis powers to work in that room? What do Peter's dreams mean? Why does the Haitian want Claire to remember?

I think HRG's job is, and has been, to erase the memories of the heroes since their birth. And, I still think the partial eclipse has something to do with the heroes' all discovering their powers now. One thing I noticed was a change in Nicky/Jessica. In all the other shows, they could only see or speak with each other in reflective surfaces. However, in Fallout, once they saw each other at the pond, Jessica became corporeal, which fits with her having the sign and Nicky not. Has her power developed to a more advanced level?

I'm revamping my website, and it's taking a lot longer, and more irritating, than I anticipated. Even if I don't have all the pages finished by tomorrow, I'm putting up the ones I have.

I need to start my Christmas shopping - haven't bought the first present yet. Will probably have a marathon shopping session one night this week and another on Saturday. The hardest people to buy for: my parents and my husband. I have no idea what to get them. Easiest people to buy for: the kids ( and the toys are more fun, too.)

Have a Great Weekend!
Jessie

When Heroes Fall

When I think the word heroes, several images cross my mind: super heroes like Batman (my fav); sports figures (though not so much now as when I was a kid); firefighters, policemen, doctors, etc.; and of course, soldiers. Over the past few years, we've seen many of our heroes fall, and as I write this, a member of SMRW is getting ready to deploy to Iraq. Our thoughts and prayers go with him.

A little closer to home, though, we rarely acknowledge those who are close to us who are "everyday heroes." Perhaps, we've grown accustomed to the wonder we first experienced when we realized they were our hero. I have several in my life, most of them family members, but my dad has always been my first, and best, hero, as well as my biggest fan. Last week, I learned my dad has cancer. This is the second time he's been diagnosed with the disease. The good news is the doctors caught it early and the prognosis is good.

But it's scary, and it leaves me a little lost knowing my biggest hero could fall.

Jessie

More on Heroes

I have now seen episodes 1-6, and the one which aired on Monday night, and I have a few theories. The use of the phrasing "patient zero" leads me to believe that there was some form of genetic manipulation, whether totally generated or simply sped up. Dr. Saresh thought Syler was patient zero, but we know other people were coming into their powers before Sylar met Dr. Saresh. The painter being one. Sylar, Nicky/Jessica, and the girl who can control people seem to be the "villains", and I think there will be more as a balance of power sort of thing. Of course, we don't know about Claire's father yet, and whether he has any powers, or if he is the instigator. His actions, particularly grounding Claire, tend to put him on the side of good, but whoever is running the gene show could have given Claire powers to keep her father in line. Nathan could go either way.

I think the partial solar eclipse has something to do with the powers strengthening.

In the upcoming episode, I think Hiro will be lost - as in time.

That's all I have time for now. Oh, and I found this site (after I wrote the above) http://heroeswiki.com/Main_Page

Jessie