Aloha Everyone,
It’s Friday and I’ve really been looking forward to the weekend. I have no idea why because everyday is like a weekend for me. Working for and by myself, I can get up when I want, wear whatever I want to work, knock off for lunch whenever I’m hungry (or if I can’t think of anything to write) and quit when I want to (like when I can’t think of anything to write).

There’s just something exciting about Fridays. Maybe it comes from all the years I attended school, then college, then the years I also taught school. Friday is still a great day to celebrate the end of the week.

Last weekend we went to a pot luck supper on the beach and I picked up a great idea from a friend, Donna Rice. She has a beach picnic bin in the garage. It’s a plastic container (the kind you use to store things). It’s what I’d call medium size. Not too big to get heavy if you fill it up. It came with a lid but she doesn’t use it.

Donna has wisely filled the bin with a small bag of barbeque charcoal, a can of lighter fluid, some quick light packets (I didn’t know they existed), a gas trigger lighter thing (whatever it’s called), a small set of tongs, a few trash sacks, hibachi grill racks, and whatever else she needs for a mini barbeque at the beach, lake, creekside or park.

She keeps it ready in the garage and when she’s got the cooler packed and the small hibachi in the car, she just grabs the bin and away they go. When she gets home, she replaces what might have been used up so the bin is always ready. Then there’s no running around at the last minute when there are other things to get ready. Like her hubby, Tom.

So that’s my weekend tip.
Now I’m going to kick back and relax.
Hope you find time to do the same.
Alooooha,
Jill Marie

Hello All,
The moon was getting so full last night that it may have been possible to read by moonlight.
Our garden was bathed in silvery white light. I can look down on the tops of the avocado tree and the shiny leaves were gilded with silver. It was quite amazing.

This month I’ve been busy piling up pages on my latest project. It’s like nothing I’ve ever written and I’m enjoying myself to no end. Hopefully it will be well received by some editor out there when I get it all polished and ready to go.

I’ve also continued to do some guest blogging. This month I’ll be “appearing” on the Petticoat and Pistols Blog. This is a great group of western romance writers. I’ve known some of them for years.

I’ll also have an interview blog up on seekerville.blogspot.com This blog is of interest to aspiring writers and it’s all about writing, contests, and becoming published.

For those of you who would like an autographed bookplate sticker to place in the front of your books, please make a note at the bottom of my guestbook page. Be sure your address is correct, let me know the personalization you need on the bookplate and I’ll send along as many as you need until I’ve run out. You can peel off the backing and stick it in your latest Jill Marie book.

For now, back to work.
Have a wonderful day,
Jill Marie

Aloha All,
Here’s a great big mahalo to all of you who have received emails from my webmistress and have been sending in notes via the guest book. I’m glad the notices about HOMECOMING and DESTINATION: MARRIAGE have reached you. Many thanks for ordering books!

Not much to say tonight. It’s late and we had a really nice day. I wrote for quite some hours and then Steve carried my humungus paddle board down to the beach with me. I showed my friend Ann Williams and her sister, Barbara Angellar, how to paddle. Barbara wasn’t ready to overcome her fear of the water but Ann jumped right on and away she went.

What a lovely day on Hanalei Bay!
Night to all,
Jill

Aloha Everyone,
Hope you are having a grand June. I LOVE summer. That’s why I love it here in Hawaii so much. Summer lasts all year long.

I’ve been burning the candle at both ends lately. This is the time of year old friends hit the island on vacation. Though they are on vacation, I’m not, so it’s kind of frustrating when I can’t go play all the time. We try though. On Friday night Steve and I went out to the Tahiti Nui with Rich and Ann Williams and Nancy and George Barfield.

Steve played guitar at the Nui with the Happy Hawaiians, a group of Hawaiian musicians and friends who have been entertaining for years. It was great fun.

Tomorrow night, his ukulele class meets here. Some Tuesdays they are over ten strong. All those ukes and guitars send great music out around the neighborhood. Everyone says they love to listen…and the good news is the class ends at 8 p.m. so we aren’t keeping anyone up. Sometimes they let me hula along in the carport. Sometimes I dance along to the music in the house.

I have been “guest blogging” to let more readers know about my books coming out this month. Check out the Running With Quills website. My friend Stella Cameron invited me to blog on the site. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

I’m also teaching another on-line class this month. It’s on Yahoo and given by the Wine Country Romance Writers, the WCRW. It’s a class entitled “And then what happened…”

This past weekend I went out to the movie with two friends, Mary Cunning and Melsena Montgomery. We saw Sex and the City and though I never watched many episodes of the television show, I really liked the movie. It was fun to have an afternoon in “town” with the girls.

Until next time,
Take care…
Jill

Aloha all,
As the song says, “Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future.” Can’t believe I haven’t blogged in nearly a month. Wish I could tell you all that I was up to some fabulous things but nope, just writing, sunning, swimming and enjoying life here on Kauai.

My niece, Mellisa Hovard and her hubby, Brandon, were here with us for a week. They are expecting their first baby around August 22nd so we are all looking forward to a new baby in the Davis (my maiden name) clan. We had a wonderful time sharing our island home with them and were sorry to see them go.

I’ve been working non-stop on a project that’s so much fun I can’t believe it. For now I’m too superstitious to say what it’s about, but I think its a million dollar idea. “Think Big” is my new motto.

On May 17th I appeared on a panel at the Honolulu Book and Music Festival along with fellow Romance and Womens’ Fiction authors Mia King, Jane Porter, Sally Sorrenson and Michael Little. The event on the lovely grounds of Honolulu Hale was well attended and we had a good time talking books and writing with readers and among ourselves. I sat in on a session with Richard Chamberlain. He is still as handsome as he was back in his Dr. Kildare days.

Mia King’s next book is due out in September. It’s entitled SWEET LIFE and it’s set on the Big Island of Hawaii. Her latest child is due right about now!

Jane Porter is about to have the paperback of FLIRTING WITH FORTY come out.

Another author I met was Patricia Wood. Her book, LOTTERY, has been met with much acclaim and after reading it I can certainly see why. I couldn’t put it down. To sum it up in a sentence, it’s what would happen if a character like Forrest Gump won the lottery.

I guess I actually have been doing some fabulous things.
But right now, time is slippin’ away again, so I’ll close for today.
Take care,
Jill Marie

Aloha all,
I’m back on island after a wonderful respite in Long Beach and in North Carolina. Before Mom and I headed East, we spent a night out in Wonder Valley, California (see the previous blogs), where we made pizzas and cooked them in the new outdoor ‘horno’ oven my sister-in-law, Jill, and my brother, John, made themselves.

Then Mom and I took two flights to Asheville, N.C. where we visited with my aunt and cousins. We had a very nice week that included lunching in Biltmore Village, visiting small towns around Asheville, shopping, talking, laughing and generally catching up on life, family stories, and fun. It seems like we planned our next meal while we were finishing one up. We made a stop for Southern Style BarBQue with collard greens and all the trimmings. Our last breakfast there included grits.

I stopped by the University of North Carolina at Asheville where my cousin is a professor of economics (I told her that side of my brain doesn’t work at all). It is a lovely campus and while she worked in the office checking email, I got to look through her collection of Women’s Economic History books. I could have spent days there.

While I was traveling, I finished a couple of great mysteries by Diane Mott Davidson. She writes culinary mysteries (who knew there was such a subgenre?). I also read Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I’ve read at least three of their thrillers. I couldn’t put this one down.

Mom and I made it back safe and sound to Long Beach where I stayed with her and she spoiled me mercilessly. I slept in my old bed in my old room and pretended I was a princess without any chores or responsibilities. But one can only hide out for so long and after two weeks, it was time to head back.

Although I should get back to work, today I spent some time with author friends, Christina Dodd and Kristin Hannah, teaching them to stand-up paddle. It’s a relatively new sport that involves standing up on a long surfboard and paddling yourself along with a paddle. It’s lots of fun. Today was a bit of a challenge as there was a small swell in the bay and the trade winds are howling so we were blown a bit off course. Lots of laughs later over Chinese food after a bike ride to “town” which is about two blocks long.

I’m going to try to get something written before making some dinner. Be sure to check out the new banner and website updates! There will be a few minor changes but the new pages are up.

In May I’ll be adding a list of new winners to the contest page.
Take care and keep reading,
Jill Marie

Aloha All,
Tomorrow I’m leaving the island, venturing out into the real world, or maybe this is the real world and I’m off on a fantasy trip again. I’ll be stopping in Southern California where I’ll be visiting with my family and then my mom and I are heading off to North Carolina to visit my aunt and cousins for almost a week. Six airline flights, lots of food, fun and laughs later, I’ll be back.

Between now and then I plan to relax, regroup, recharge and maybe do a little writing. Since turning in my second book for Steeple Hill, I’ve been doing what I (and probably a lot of other writers) do after coming up for air. The desk is clean, all the things that needed to be filed for weeks and months are either filed or tossed, and I’m occupying my hands with simple tasks like Spring cleaning, gardening, mending, while my mind is sorting through new plots, characters and stories. It’s the way I gear up for my next novel project.

I also plan to take along a baby quilt I started for a friend’s grandson. His name is Hudson Parks and he was born last October. I’m hoping to get the quilt finished before he heads off to college. His cousin, Cade Parks, is four and he has been enjoying the quilt I made him for quite a few years now.

I’m also taking along the two books I’m reading. One is by a hilarious, off the wall author named Christopher Moore. I love his books because every single word, page and line is unexpected and crazy. The title I’m reading right now is ISLAND OF THE SEQUINED LOVE NUN. I’m also reading a culinary mystery (until a couple days ago I didn’t even know there was a sub-genre of culinary mysteries) entitled DOUBLE SHOT, by Diane Mott Davidson.

Oh! By the way, my latest historical romance, HOMECOMING, is available for pre-order on Amazon.com and so is DESTINATION: MARRIAGE, a Wedding anthology, that features my novella entitled, “Trouble in Paradise.” It’s a light and humorous story of a jinxed bride on Kauai.

Last but not least, by the end of the month my website will have a bright new look, so keep checking in.
Until I return, a hui hou,
Jill Marie

Aloha All,
I’m trying to post a photo.
This is Steve and I on a visit to my brother and his family’s great desert escape in Wonder Valley, California. We visited them over Christmas vacation in California.
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Click on this link to see the photo!
It was cold that day and the mountains around us were snowcapped.
Night,
Jill Marie

Dear All,
I did it! I’m finished with my book and I have emailed it in to my editor, Melissa Endlich, at Steeple Hill Books. Yes, today around noon my time, the book was finished or all “pau” (pronounced pow) as they say in the islands.

So how did I celebrate meeting my deadline today? Well, I kind of jumped the gun and went out to lunch yesterday. You see, my mom surprised me and sent my girlfriend some money and told her we should take ourselves out to lunch. So, my neighbor, Mel Montgomery, and I got dressed up (Hawaiian style) and went up to the fabulous Cafe Hanalei at the Princeville Hotel and had a wonderful lunch on Mom. (Thank you, Maggi!) The cobb salads were great and the view was spectacular.

So today after I emailed off the book (all 420 some pages) I put on some old clothes and got out into the garden, into the sunshine, and trimmed two small trees that really needed pruning. It was the most enjoyable afternoon ever. I ended up with two full bags of cuttings, my hair full of spider webs, and mud between my toes. It was great.

Tomorrow I’m going to start writing copy for my much needed website update. Don’t know when it will be ready, but my goal is to have the material to my webhostess by the weekend. Can I do it?
Wait and see.
Aloha,
Jill Marie

Hello? Hello? Is anyone out there?

It’s been so long since I’ve blogged that I have to say I’m kind of embarrassed. Kind of. But I have a really good excuse (as usual). I’m putting the finishing touches on my latest manuscript in progress. It’s the second book for Steeple Hill, Harlequin’s Inspirational imprint. This, like the first book, is a Western Historical Romance so I think those of you who have been emailing and asking me to get back in the saddle and write more western romances will be thrilled. As yet this book is untitled and I have no idea what the publication date will be.

Hang in there though, because June is just around the corner and on June 24th, my first Steeple Hill Western Inspirational Historical (now that’s a mouthful) will be on sale. The title is HOMECOMING and everyone who has previewed it has really enjoyed it so far. I’ll be anxious to hear what you think. It’s a bit of a departure, but after hearing from editors that they were looking for more vampires, erotica, or inspirational proposals, there was only one choice for me. I’ve been known for page-turning, character driven stories. For the life of me, I couldn’t come up with a redeeming character who is dark and immortal, nor could I go the erotica route.

And guess what? I have absolutely loved writing these two inspirational books for Steeple Hill. More on this later.

June is a stellar month for me as far as publications. After a year without a book on the shelves, in June I’ll have two titles out there and I’m counting on all of you to order them, buy them for friends and family, and generally hound the bookstores until you find more copies.

The second title is Destination: Marriage and it’s a collection of three stories about destination weddings. It’s billed as Three Brides, Three Grooms, Three Weddings. My story is set in Hawaii and I really had a great time writing it. It’s humorous and fun and sweet. The cover is absolutely gorgeous, complete with sand and purple vanda orchids worthy of an umbrella drink. As yet I haven’t read the other two stories, but I’m sure they are great.

Well, my book isn’t going to edit itself, so I’d better get back to business.

By the way, just a reminder that my friend, Kristin Hannah’s latest book hit the stores last week. The title is FIREFLY LANE and it’s a story that’s impossible to put down. It covers the lives of two best friends from middle school through adulthood.

Meanwhile, back to work,
Jill Marie