One of my
few, in person, living and breathing, reach out and touch, friends (most of my
friends are online or imaginary), is also one of the most loving, sweet, and,
here’s the most important quality, honest women I know.
I’ll get to
why that last characteristic is important in just a moment…as I think you
wouldn’t be able to read through your tears because you’ll be laughing so hard.
Anyway, what
also makes her quote so funny is that people who don’t know her, might think
she’s a prude, just because she’s such a strong Christian woman.
I’m going to
back up to 2004 for a moment, the year I walked away from a six-figure job to spend more
time with my sons, who were seven and twelve at the time. One of the things I
also gained from stepping down was time to read. I’d been working sixty to
eighty hours a week for fourteen years, so reading, something I’d loved since I
was old enough to hold a book, had taken a back-burner in my life. When I was in
college, I’d read a book in one to two days, on top of my regular studies. And
although I still read when I was working the above-mentioned job, it’d dropped
to about three a month, as I could only read an hour or two a day.
Then, in
2009, I finally quit working altogether, as my youngest son was twelve, and he
needed me at home. Now…I had hours to read, and just like when I was in
college, I started gobbling up a book a day. Only…something had happened. I couldn’t
find what I wanted to read. Everything I picked up—from authors I once loved—had
become extremely graphic or erotic.
Here’s the
problem…I love romance, suspense, and mystery, and I love them even more when
the genres are finely woven together like a great blanket that wraps around
you. In my opinion, Sidney Sheldon was the inventor of romantic suspense. His
main character was usually female, and although she wasn’t a hard-nosed witch,
she learned to stand on her feet while she battled her inner demons or whoever
was stalking her. Yes, there was sex, yes, there was violence, but it wasn’t to
the point that I had to worry if one of my kids looked over my shoulder at what
I was reading.
So, what’s a
girl to do? You guessed it. I started writing what I wanted to read. Yes, I’m a
Christian, so I often share my characters’ Christian beliefs, but that doesn’t
mean I preach. That’s not my job. My job as a fiction writer is to share my
characters’ characteristics, and their beliefs—good and bad—are what make my
characters believable.
So, onto my
friend…who, as I said, is a strong Christian woman; she believes that if she holds
back her thoughts, it is a lie of omission. We’ve since discussed that a lie of omission is
only if you willfully withhold information. She’s so cute… Seriously, I hope
this translates, as I’m laughing so hard as I try to put this in writing.
While on a two-week teaching vacation (my husband teaches geology in the Grand
Canyon), my friend, along with her husband, my husband, and about eight others in our group of eighteen were preparing to do the rim-to-rim hike, so a guide had to drive them to the
north side of the canyon. The guides always offer information on the way
up. On this trip, though, above and beyond his normal commentary on the canyon, the guide pointed to a group of cowboys in the distance.
And my
friend, God love her, out of nowhere, blurts out, “I have to be honest; I like me some
cowboys...”
Her husband, of course, also a great man—after a moment of silence—says something like, “That’s
nice to know, honey.”
My husband, who
happens to have a great sense of humor, can’t stop laughing now. He is a
country boy, by the way, since I happen to like that kind of man too, only I don't usually blurt it out to a van full of people. :)
But my
comment to my friend was… “You know what I can’t help but notice, you didn’t just
say a cowboy, but you like you some
cowboys.”
I hope you found that as funny as I did...because it reminds me that as Christians and old-married women, we don't have to stop enjoying romance and noticing that a certain type of man—that God made, by the way—looks good. We are supposed to appreciate beauty in all its forms, but that doesn't mean we're going to act on it. Heck, if I see a beautiful woman, I'll often point her out to my husband. Of course, he probably already noticed her, and that doesn't bother me, as I know he's not dwelling on looking at her; he just notices a good-looking woman and then looks at me, and says something like, but you're prettier, which isn't true, but we've been married almost twenty-five years, so I think he does look at me like that.
Anyway, my friend
loves my books…not because I write about cowboys, but because I write sensual
and romantic suspense without being graphic and erotic, and yes, often, my leading men are
good ol’ country boys.
So, if you
like you some country boys, please check
out my Southern Romantic-Suspense Collection. All of the stories are
stand-alone stories, so they can be read in any order, but I recommend you
read Charlotte One before Charlotte Two, and Nantahala One before Nantahala
two.
Until next
time, happy reading and imagining about some
country boys, my friends.
Thank you for stopping by my place and reading my musings. Remember these are just my opinions and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. If you have questions, please feel free to leave them in the comment section, and I promise you I will answer. If you’re curious about what I write, please visit one of my author pages, where you can read all about my novels and short stories. And hey, I’ll even give you a free book just for stopping by.
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Sounds like you had a great time, I like me cowboys to.❤️ Welcome back��☀️
ReplyDeleteI had a feeling you might, Kim. ;)
DeleteThe question is... Do you feel the need to blurt it out as though it were an admission of guilt. LOL!!!
She knows I love her. :)