Wedding romances are wacky for me

Our wedding guests hummed on kazoos as we walked down the aisle, so...

I’ve been quiet for the last few weeks because Clark and I went away for 8 glorious days, alone, to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. I want to talk about that, but also about weddings in general.

I’ve had two weddings.

Yep! Clark isn’t my first husband. He’s my last one, though <3.

My first wedding was an ornate affair, the kind young people often get into when they think it’s what you’re “supposed” to do. I was 23, the groom was 28, and we were from families that were decidedly emotionally closed off, and extremely conformist.

If you haven’t noticed, I’m really, really not good at conforming.

(My husband, Clark, confirms…)

I used to be a massive people pleaser, though, which explains a lot about my screwed -up past. But hey - I have to be grateful to my past self for all her foolish errors, because without them, I’d have no material for my books, ya know? ;)

While I am not my heroines (or my heroes), a piece of me is in every single one of them. It is impossible to separate myself from my work, and that infusion sparks so much of my creativity.

Weddings are inherently creative. Sure, there’s a formula - just like in the romance genre.

We have two people who love each other. We have their extended families. We have their friends. The government gets involved in terms of licensing, and thereby grants the new couple specific legal rights. An officiant - whether a religious figure, a government official, or a friend who is granted the right to officiate by a particular jurisdiction - presides over the union.

And then there are vows. A kiss. Happy partying and celebration.

The honeymoon…

Bridezillas, Momzillas, drunk best men, hungover grooms, and salty aunts are optional (though never in a romance novel - they’re mandatory!).

Every wedding takes on its own personality. The blending of two hearts and two families never, ever goes as planned. Conflict can play an extraordinarily painful role in wedding planning and execution, until someone wants to actually execute someone else.

You know those “runaway bride” moments in some romance novels (here’s an example from my author friend Jami Albright)? I had one of those moments during my first wedding.

Confession time: as I joined my dad at the back of the church, his eyes met mine and I froze. My father was one of the least, uh… inquiring people when it came to emotion, so when he said, “You okay, kiddo?” I realized I must look bad.

I remember almost blurting out:

“I’m making a huge mistake!”

Chalking it up to nerves, I didn’t say that - instead, I smiled and said I was fine.

Just fine.

Credit: KC Green

Suppress the real emotion. Play society’s expected role. Don’t leave 200 confused people and a slew of not-quite-inlaws ready to murder me.

Obviously, I went ahead with the wedding. My cold feet were right, in the end (though that’s for a different story, and yes, there’s a long story behind my first marriage…).

Years later, when Julia Robert’s Runaway Bride movie came out, I burst out in braying guffaws… and went straight to the theater:

My second wedding was wildly different from my first, and of course it was - my groom was about as different as could be! I was a completely different person as well, shaped by life experience.

My first husband’s cancer, dropping out of my PhD program, processing a variety of tough situations in my extended family, disillusionment in the workforce… and a lot of positive growth, a turning toward self-acceptance, reveling in my “weird” interests (that turned out to be embraced by my second husband) - that kind of growth and struggle made me a new version of myself.

Wedding #2 was about 60 people, 100% casual, and I believe we’re the only people we know who ever made a profit off their own wedding! This was not planned. People jumped in to pay for various items as their presents to us (the cake, the band, the booze). We married in the fellowship hall of a Unitarian Universalist church (technically, outside it, but whatev…). Family members made deli trays and brought lasagnas.

I was 5 months pregnant. I couldn’t even drink at my own wedding (which was fine).

The stickers on our waists were from our little nieces running around putting them on everyone.

A previous newsletter talked about my 25th anniversary, but this is about weddings. And wedding romances evoke so much for the reader (and the author, while writing!). So many themes emerge as I write wedding romances, whether it’s Shopping for a Billionaire’s Wife, It’s Always Complicated, Shopping for a CEO’s Wife, Random Acts of Love, or Hasty (so far, my only wedding books, though that’s about to change!).

You can currently find them all in one big bundle called The Wedding Laughbox.

And now - more weddings! So many more weddings!

I have an all-new wedding romance series coming soon. I’ve been keeping it quiet, but now is as good a time as any to talk a little about it, with a “title and description reveal.” Book 1 is called:

Never Plan a Billionaire’s Wedding

Description:

Rule #1: Don’t fall in love with the groom

(Whatever It Takes, Book #1)

Stalker exes. Momzillas. Drunk uncles. Hurricanes. Jealous siblings. Paparazzi.

You name it, Kari Westvelt has seen it all.

And that’s why brides and grooms hire her.

Because she makes it all go away.

Wedding Protectors, Inc., is here to make sure that special day stays special.

Whatever it takes.

No matter what.

But when her newest client turns out to be her own long-lost high school sweetheart, rising tech star billionaire Caleb Mikelmas, suddenly Kari’s not sure whether she’s protecting the wedding couple —

Or her own heart.

Tech billionaire Caleb never thought he had a chance, much less a second chance with his old high school sweetheart, Kari. When a case of mistaken identity turns their reunion into a big misunderstanding, unraveling his feelings about the one who got away while supporting his brother’s nuptials means facing old demons.

And kissing Kari.

He likes kissing Kari far more than that whole demon thing.

But if kisses were enough, Kari would already be his wife.

Maybe it’s time to revisit the past and right some wrongs.

One vow at a time.

Every bride needs something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue -

But you know what brides don't need?

Complications.

Welcome to Wedding Protectors, Inc. Have a spritzer or a latte or some lovely Zen tea and sink into a comfortable chair in our sunlit offices as we listen to your wedding problem – and form the perfect solution to every possible contingency.

We plan for everything.

Except our own love lives.

But that's not your problem. ;)

Stay tuned for pre-order links. Coming very soon :) .

When you think of a wedding romance, what comes to mind for you?

As a nice segue, I’m going to show you the new cover for Shopping for a CEO’s Fiancee next!

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More New Shopping Series Covers

In my Shopping for a Billionaire series, I have two couples who are intertwined — Shannon and Declan, and Amanda and Andrew. The first two books in the series are about Shannon and Declan, and starting in book three you get Shannon’s best friend and Declan’s younger brother on a love journey of their own.

If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t have woven these couples together like this, but hindsight is 20/20 and all that. For a brief time, I considered splitting the series, but I would have had to spend a HUGE amount of time rewriting, and decided that writing new books was a better use of my warped mind. :P

Speaking of warped let’s talk about Shopping for a CEO’s Fiancee.

At the end of Shopping for a Billionaire’s Wife, Shannon and Declan walk into Andrew and Amanda’s hotel room to find FOUR people in there, in various states of dress (or lack thereof). All four are wearing wedding rings.

Who married whom?

When I wrote this book, I was on a “Vegas-setting” book streak. Shopping for a Billionaire’s Wedding was set in Vegas, and I went to Vegas for eight days to write much of it! The Bellagio was wonderful.

But I learned that I hate Vegas.

::ducks behind a couch::

There is a scene in Shopping for a Billionaire’s Wife where Shannon walks past a beggar with a sign that says “WILL EAT PU$$Y FOR CHIPS” and that is based entirely on a real event that happened to me.

No. I didn’t take him up on the offer.

Vegas is likely best experienced with a group of friends, and I was there alone, in introverted writer mode, all about observing and not so much about being part of the action (and certainly not the kind on that beggar’s sign…).

So when I finished Shopping for a Billionaire’s Wife and went straight into Shopping for a CEO’s Fiancee, I had to do the classic “Wake up married in Vegas!” romance trope.

Except I added Andrew’s chauffeur and Amanda’s friend Josh into the mix. Four people, four rings, three men, one woman, and… two couples.

Eek.

Only in Vegas, right?

The cover redesign needed to scream chaos, confusion, comedic disarray - and the illustrator delivered! After giving extensive descriptions, here’s the first sketch we got:

which led to this:

and the final result, after debating color ideas and doing some tweaks, is:

If you haven’t read the book yet, I highly recommend it, and if you are an audiobook fan, you NEED to know that Sebastian York is the narrator. His comedic turn as Andrew is hilarious, with a dry wit and an amusing, playful tone we don’t often get from him. And yes, the sexy parts are still incredible, as always… :)

Next Shopping series cover reveal is Shopping for an Heir! We’re closing in on the whole, long series, but Gerald and Suzanne’s book is a very different trip. <3

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Love You Fiancee Price Increase

If you haven’t grabbed Kell and Rachel’s proposal book that released earlier this month, go get it now. The eBook is just 2.99 (or currency equivalent), and the price is going up to 3.99 this week.

It’s also available on AUDIO now! Listen to Erin Mallon and Tedy Hamilton as they take my book and make it better!

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Fun Stuff You Need To Know About

I’ve been helping some friends find work-at-home jobs and stumbled across a few cool things. This is the theme for this section today LOL.

Data Annotation: Like making money from home? Like doing small tasks whenever you want? Enjoy really obscure, weird tech questions, sometimes involving artificial intelligence? Check out Data Annotation. I love finding super weird things like this, and while I just pop in and do small tasks here and there, I have made about $100 in a week in August. Not bad! Some folks make $1000+ per month there. Spreading the word for people who might find this useful.

Amazon Turk: Also known as Mturk, this system has been around for ages. YEARS ago (2007? 2008?) I was part of it, making $5 here and there, long before my writing career took off (THANK YOU, READERS!). I’ve used it, but not recently.

Reddit r/beermoney: Instead of giving you a specific list of every place where you can make money working little “gigs” online, here’s a great source of info, though you have to wade through some scammy stuff to get to the good parts. I focus on the monthly earnings thread, where people describe places they actually earned money from. Be warned: it’s Reddit. People are salty and everyone’s a genius.