Lilian Darcy: Painting the house

So it’s summer here and I’m painting the house.

Note that I say “I am painting the house” not “I am having the house painted.” It is a little crazy to be doing it myself, but as you may know I’ve retired from writing and it appears I’m addicted to having a big project of some kind. If it’s not writing a 50,000 or 60,000 or 70,000 word novel, one word at a time, it’s painting a 5,000 or 6,000 or 7,000 brick house – I’m just guessing, I haven’t actually counted them – one brick at a time.

I’m actually enjoying the parts where I get to stand on the ground on my own two feet, with the radio playing, just painting away and not getting in too much of a mess. The parts where I’m perched up on a ladder carefully shifting my weight to reach the next brick - and somehow always ending up with paint running down my arm - are not so fun. It’s the kind of thing that happens to romance heroines about five seconds before the hero appears and discovers her with two big smeary paint handprints on her cute denim-clad butt.

This is not going to happen to me. Firstly, I have a perfectly good husband already, only he happens not to like a) painting or b) being up on ladders.

Secondly… I don’t think there is a secondly. Painting the house was my choice and I’m happy.

All the same, though, there’s a tiny little part of me that thinks that Tule Publishing’s upcoming Bachelor Auction series is all about the ultimate female fantasy – buying a man to do your bidding. Maybe he’ll fly you somewhere glamorous in his private helicopter. Or make you a three-course gourmet dinner. Or paint your house. And maybe there’ll be an unworded rider in the contract that leads things in a whole other direction.

Yes, of course it’s in a good cause, ladies. Local Marietta single mom Molly Dekker and her son Josh really need the fund-raiser after Josh’s shocking accident, and it’s only the cause of an injured kid that could have roped in amazing guys like these.

I can’t wait for this series to launch in early February, and with amazing authors like Dani Collins, Sarah Mayberry, Kate Hardy and Kelly Hunter in the line-up, you won’t want to miss it, either.