RV Romance

It would be just my luck to have a book about pirates released…just about the time when the news of real-life poor bandits like Somalian pirates seemingly take the “romance” right out of the word. And admittedly, piracy has never been a good thing…even in the Caribbean. Thieves and/or murderers…but on the high seas! And I hate stealing. We just had our bikes stolen the other day. Argh… Any idea of glorifying piracy is nuts and untrue to my values! And yet, I wrote a romance novel with pirates. What can I say? It’s fiction! HOWEVER…I’ll clue the reader in… Okay, I’ll give the story away. No, not the book, just the plot. My “pirate” isn’t all he seems to be. There! I’ve said it. Try to picture him in something other than a raft. Here’s a bit about Caribbean Dreams of Love, one of my favorite books. It’s the story of a lonely woman and her precocious teenage daughter, a Caribbean cruise, a ghost, a pirate, a legend, a mysterious musician and a curse. Please see the video trailer below, plus the blurb and excerpt. I hope you enjoy!

Blurb: Daisy and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Lily, are embarking on a Caribbean cruise. She isn’t looking for anything special on the cruise other than a pleasant break from her humdrum existence as long-time divorced single mother to a busy teenage girl. She certainly isn’t prepared for an enigmatic man named Peter whose idiosyncrasies in dress and speech mark him as an eccentric person to avoid. But Daisy can’t avoid him. In fact, she begins to obsess about him from the first moment she catches him staring at her in the cruise ship terminal. Peter remains elusive and mysterious throughout the cruise. She catches sight of him occasionally, never often enough to please her, and they connect one wonderful night as he sweeps her into his arms for a waltz. A waltz? On a Caribbean cruise ship? While Daisy’s dinner companions share nightly tales of the legends of cursed pirates, Daisy dreams of the mysterious man who has captured her heart.

Excerpt:

Bjorn glanced at his enrapt audience and took a deep breath. Daisy cringed. Something was coming.

“And with his last ounce of strength, Captain Smith grabbed his sword and plunged it in Gentleman Jones’ heart.”

A stab of pain seemed to knife through Daisy’s own heart, and she involuntarily put a hand to the painful spot just below her left collarbone.

Even Becky was speechless, her jaw hung open. Lily took a breath and asked the question uppermost in Daisy’s mind.

“Did he…does he…?”

“They say he still wanders the Caribbean, alone and lonely, a ghost with no hope of dying or returning to the living.”

Bjorn’s voice drifted away. He scanned the faces of his audience solemnly.

He shrugged. “But it’s just a silly story, one of many. Who knows if any of them are true?”

And in a surprise move, he picked up his fork and resumed eating. Johana smiled demurely and took a sip of water before she too resumed eating.

Bjorn’s stunned dinner companions stared at him. Lily, Daisy and Becky exchanged saddened glances.

Jim broke the silence when he started laughing and clapped Bjorn on the back. Bjorn choked slightly and put his napkin to his lips.

“Well, you sure had us going. I’ll give you that. So…no truth to the story?”

Bjorn leaned slightly away from Jim and shrugged once again. “I find the Caribbean folklore fascinating, but many of the stories are just that. Stories. I heard this tale from a man in a museum in Nassau once. I liked it.” He gave the group a sheepish smile.

“So, it’s just a fairy tale?” Becky asked.

“Not a fairy tale,” Bjorn smiled slightly. “Just an old legend. If the story were true, we would have to believe in ghosts…and I for one do not care to think about such things.” He picked up his knife and fork again and began to cut his food, seemingly no longer interested.

“Just a legend,” murmured Johana. She shook her head in amusement. “A story. Bjorn has many.”

“Mom, what are you doing? Are you okay?”

Daisy turned to meet her daughter’s eyes. Lily nodded toward Daisy’s hand still dramatically clutched to her chest.

She colored and dropped her hand. The pain had eased.

Such a sad story!

Video Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEfgJ8Ng7lo

Buy Link: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1083&zenid=158e2bb07c492a5af9aa0e192c694c7f

Bess McBride
www.bessmcbride.com

Hello, Fellow Travelers!

I cannot tell a lie. This author is no longer even thinking about traveling for romance (at least for the present). I’m much more interested in traveling for a job. And with that in mind, I have applied for every job I’m eligible for in a 3000 mile radius. I recently took some continuing educations classes to renew my mental health counselor’s license, and lo and behold…sitting around with all those other (well-paid) social workers, psychologists and mental health therapists gave me the bug to return to counseling. And wouldn’t you know, I happened to find a dream job being advertised in an organization I used to work for. I may not get that job for reasons beyond my control but I’m determined now to return to work full time. I know what you’re thinking…the economy…lots of people out of work…the nerve! And that would be why it has taken me four months so far to get something, but I will get something…I just don’t know where. I’ve applied for jobs in many different states because, as you all know, I am always willing to travel… And just think! If I get a job, I’ll have more money to travel! Though less time.

I’ll keep you all posted. I see me now, working full time, fussing about how much time I don’t have to work on my manuscripts. I can’t wait!!

Talk soon.

Bess McBride

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to All!  Spring is sprung on the Gulf Coast and the spring breakers are here along with the half of the snowbird contingent who have not returned north yet.  In other words, it’s packed!  Les and I went to the movie yesterday after, 2 p.m. on Monday (I know…decadent, yes?) and the line had to be 50 people long (the manager the only one taking tickets), the kiosk for credit cards just as long, and the popcorn line longer still.  Since there is NO point in going to a movie without popcorn, and we only had 9 minutes before the movie started (well, come on, 2 p.m. on Monday afternoon???), we left.  Wasn’t going to work out.  That’s okay, though.  We went to a nearby restaurant to eat some baked spaghetti!  Yummy!

I’m of Irish descent, as you can tell from my last name.  But I’m afraid I’m completely clueless about St. Patrick’s Day.  I am not Catholic, and the only celebration I recall is that my mother drank green beer and mumbled something about “Erin Go Bragh” once a year.  I’m sure I’ve misspelled that.  Ah…I looked it up.  Ireland Forever!  Well, yes, of course!  My ancestors from my mom’s side came into the country via Canada from Ireland in 1899 and my dad’s great-great grandfather came in from Ireland in the mid 1800’s…purty early on that side.  Makes me double Irish, doesn’t it…

Happy Spring Break and St. Patrick’s Day All!  Perhaps we’ll see you next year, fellow snowbirding RVers!  (I’m watching RVs from the Northern states pull out right and left while RVs from the Southern states are coming in for spring break!)  Meanwhile, I should get back to my current work in progress, a new manuscript!  Irish or no, spring break or no, I still gotta write.

Talk soon!

Bess McBride

The problem with blogging…though some might say the “fun” of blogging…is keeping up with it.  Before I started blogging last year, I took a peek at the Dummies or Idiot’s Guide to Blogging.  Apparently, once you (I, we) start blogging, we have to keep it up…every day or every other day, once a week at the very minimum.  It’s sort of expected.  Now, that doesn’t mean that a body should post 1000 word blogs every day, but something should be noted…something of interest to the readers.  Sort of a howdy-do…

And that’s where I fell off the blogging wagon.  I simply ran out of interesting things to say.  The truth is…I lost the romance in RVing.  True story.  Don’t get me wrong!  I still dream of the RVing life…just not the way we (I) are/am doing it.

You see…we’re not moving.  We’re not traveling.  We sort of stuck in one place while my significant other works full time.  I made the decision last fall.  Based on the economy and the difficulty picking up jobs that pay decent wages for a bill-paying man, I decided I would forgo moving in the summer of 2009 to take up work in a National Park so that my significant other could hang on to the job he has.  I hated to see him struggle last summer to find work in Montana in a stagnant economy.  It hurt him…and us…financially, set him back for months.

So, now he works…  And my retirement income doesn’t allow any extra money for side trips.  It takes care of the space rent, insurances and storage.  There’s no extra money for plane rides, no runs into Florida to say hi to the alligators, no cruises to the Caribbean though the nearest cruise ship is only a 35 mile drive away.  We are as stagnant as the economy, and now….I’m pretty sure I have nothing interesting to say.  I kid you not! Basically, I’m trailer parking it at this point.  I mean…after all, what is a fifth wheel that hasn’t moved in months and isn’t planning on going anyhere soon?  It’s not a “recreational vehicle” any more, is it? 

Oh, don’t get me wrong.  “I’m” going somewhere.  My feet are just too itchy to stay still for long.  Having said that, I think returning to work full time is the best way to “get back on the road again.”  Make sense?  Some of you know it does.  It’s true.  I am applying to return to work full time, and it will require a move if I’m hired.  Wish me luck!  Luckily, there are openings in my field, so I hope to be able to find something, though bureacracy does seem to be taking its sweet time.

My neighbors in the RV next door are gone again…for the weekend, I guess.  For all that their RV is fixed in place from November to April (they’re extended snowbirders, don’t ya know), they travel a lot.  They just take the truck and go.  I think they have more money than I do…  :-)  Plus, neither one of them is working.  Sigh…  Maybe I’ll get it right in ten years when I’m eligible for Social Security.  Yeah, yeah…if it’s still there.  I know.

Talk soon, folks!

Bess McBride

Spectacular sunsets on the Gulf Coast of Alabama

Hello, fellow romantics and travelers!

As many of you know, I had a midlife crisis somewhere near my mid life (now a seemingly perpetual event), quit a well-paying career, wrote a few books and saw them contracted, sold the house, bought an RV and hit the road to live and travel full time in my RV.

“But Bess, I want to make a living writing.  I want to quit my job, buy an RV and hit the road, writing to pay my way.  How can I do that, Bess?  Don’t you make a living writing?”

No, my dears, I don’t.  I don’t make a living at writing romance novels.  In fact, I’m lucky if I can afford to buy groceries…once…on the money I’ve made from writing romance novels.  But I can’t find anything I like to do as well.  I am able to live and travel on the road because I have a military retirement.

I think there are some people who actually do travel, maybe in RVs, and make a living writing while doing so.  I don’t know them personally, and I don’t really know their names.  I don’t know what they write, and I don’t know who they write for.  I say I think there are actually some writers like that…just in case there really are. 

If I had to guess who makes a living writing and traveling, the most obvious answer would be published travel writers who have regular publishers or columns in magazines/newspapers.  Then, I might hazard a guess that freelance travel writing might give one some coin…though I doubt one could depend on regular substantial income from that.  Feast or famine is my experience with freelance writing.  Let’s see…what else?  If you have a VERY popular blog, you might make some money from Google AdSense.  Your blog would have to be SUPER well-visited though.  :-)  I’m thinking, I’m thinking…  Okay, got it.  There are those people who write and travel in RVs who actually write about traveling in RVs.  Are you with me?  You know, those people who make money about writing about RVing.  (And you wonder why I don’t make the big bucks writing?)  Articulate is just another big word… 

Naw, really, I’m only partially teasing.  I am serious, though, about not pinning one’s full time RVing dreams on making a living by writing…unless you are already making a living by writing.  I just want to encourage you to take a reality check.  Many people have the dream.  Few can really achieve it.  But, some do.  Rumor has it romance author Janet Dailey traveled in an RV while she was writing the bestsellers.  And lots of people certainly do make some money by writing, so if you want to write while you travel, by all means, follow your heart.  If you’re retired and have sufficient income for your needs, do it!  What have you got to lose?

Join the Penwheels Birds of a Feather group in Escapees, a lovely group of people who share the common interests of writing and Rving.

Or you could take up computer programming…oh yeah, you can make a living while traveling if you’re a computer programmer.  You can write about it…or you can just do it…either way, money, money.  Not me though.  No logic at all.  Not a big of it.  I’m just a romance writer looking for my next story! 

P.S.  Find your next pet at the local animal shelter.  I hear animal intakes are up 30% over the last year due to animals left behind as folks struggling with the economy can’t take care of them any longer.

May the road rise to meet you and the wind be always at your back.

Bess McBride

“Romances for the Shy Girl in All of Us”

www.bessmcbride.com www.rvromance.com

Love of My Heart 4 Stars My Book Cravings

A Sigh of Love 5 Hearts The Romance Studio

A Trail of Love Outstanding Read Simply Romance Reviews

A Train Through Time 5 Hearts Night Owl Romance

Caribbean Dreams of Love coming December 12, 2008

www.thewildrosepress.com www.amazon.com

Romance authors L-R Anna Kathryn Lanier, Bess McBride, Betty Hanawa and Linda Mooney at Boomerang Books, League City, Texas

Hello, fellow romantics and travelers!

We just got back to our winter stomping grounds here on the sunny (albeit chilly) Gulf Coast after a 1000 mile trip to Texas for a book signing…over the space of 27 hours.  You’d think I was a long haul truck driver!  The book signing was great fun, and I got to meet some of my fellow authors and chat, so I thought it was well worth it.  Would I drive that far again for a book signing?  Probably not…  I don’t know.  Ask me tomorrow when I’ve caught up on my sleep.

But my point, and as Ellen DeGeneres says “I do have one,” is that we didn’t take the RV.  Now, there are a lot of you RVers out there who know why we didn’t, but there are going to be some folks who say, “What?  You have an RV, and you spent the night (okay…6 hours) in a motel?  Why?”

Why, my friends, is because my 37 foot fifth wheel, like so many other full-timers, is too big to haul around on short, fast trips, and there is no way I’d drive it at 75 miles an hour.  No way!  It’s just not something I thought about when I bought an RV.  I envisioned myself buzzing here and there, weekend trips, long warm winters at the beach, fast boondoggles to see the sights, camping on the edge of a lake or the ocean…just like the picture above.

Oh, no…  Not so much with a 37 foot fifth wheel.  It’s way too big and unwieldy and costs too much to haul around for a weekend run 500 miles away.  The adventurous jaunts which we all dream of are best left to a small Class C or one of the newer Class B’s…operative word is small.  Still, one (I) can’t live full time in a small RV.  I know some people do, but it just wouldn’t have enough room for me, my significant other/driver/cook, two cats and a computer.

Who knew?

My advice?  If you want to take those quick weekend trips, and you don’t want to pay for a motel or load/unload the car for 15 minutes, get something in the 30 foot range…  Don’t plan on having a large closet, and do plan on probably spending in gas what you might pay in a motel (unless you’re boondocking).  And above all, get along with your significant other and pets…really well!

That’s it for me today folks.  As always, don’t forget to adopt your next pet from a shelter!

May the road rise to meet you and the wind be always at your back!

Bess McBride, www.bessmcbride.com