Spring Is Springing...

Spring is my favourite season. Summer is my second favourite, for the heat, but I love, love, love Spring for its promise. New shoots, early flowers, the clean smell in the air... Ah, Spring!

Sadly, it comes with a passing of the previous season, doesn't it? It wasn't too long ago when my daughter came home for the holidays and, with the help of her boyfriend, rolled up this stalwart guard for our driveway. 

 

A few weeks later, he got a bit goofy, doing the limbo. Actually, that was my husband and I, getting goofy with a couple of shovels as our poor snowman started to lean. Then he grew old, as we all do. I'm calling that last shot his footprint. I'm sure he just went off to colder climes. Right?

Sad as that is, it means Spring is here! It's the ides of March already! Well, that was yesterday and tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. I'm right in the middle of the middle. Lucky me, that gives me a chance to offer you a chance to get lucky. (Not that kind of lucky ~ wink!)

I'm talking about a Facebook Party with Giveaways kind of lucky. 

Yes! I'm very excited that we're having a virtual party at Grey's Saloon in Marietta, Montana tomorrow. Loads of your favourite authors will be there! Times are in Pacific and you can join us by joining Main Street Marietta on Facebook here.

9 am Charlene Sands
10 am CJ Carmichael
11 am Debra Salonen
12 pm Katherine Garbera
1 pm Kathleen O'Brien
1 pm Roxanne Snopek
3 pm Anne McAllister
4 pm Dani Collins
5 pm Jane Porter

I hope you'll come! I'll be promoting Taken By The Raider, which takes place in Spring in Chicago--one of the top places for a St. Paddy's Day celebration, right?

I hope to see you at the party tomorrow. For now, I'll leave you with this pretty shot of my current releases on a field of tulips because, Spring.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

 I love spring!  Winters can be long here on the shores of Lake Erie.  We have this thing called, Lake Effect Snow.  Cold Canadian winds blow across the lake, picking up moisture, which hits the lakeshore in the form of...you guessed it, snow.

Here in Erie we have an average of almost 80 inches of snow a year.  That's a lot of snow.

But now it's March!  At this moment, the snow in my yard has all melted.  Although, they're calling for more snow tonight.  This time of year the weather is more precarious than ever.  This last weekend it was in the sixties.  I opened the windows and I wore just a sweatshirt as I walked the dogs.  Tuesday, when I walked, I was back in a heavy coat, but still wore sneakers.  If it snows, well I'm back in boots and bundled up.

But spring is busting out all over!  If you look closely at the picture on the left, I've got purple flowers starting to open on my crocuses.  The one on the right is a hyacinth.  The birds are loud as I walk in the mornings.  I love this season of rebirth and renewal.  I just turned in my Christmas book and I'm working on something new.  I come to my computer each day with that same springtime sense of potential...anything can happen!!  And since I'm working on one of my comedies, it probably will!

Now, this is Erie, so I know we'll have at least one more snow.  Local legend has it that St. Patrick's Day generally means a late season snow storm (although at this moment, weather.com is calling for 33 degrees and only a 10% chance of snow).   But even if it snows, St. Patrick's Day seems to herald the official start of spring here on the lake.  It's a day when everyone's a little Irish.  A day when green isn't simply a color that's coming back to life in our gardens and lawns...its the color everyone's wearing.  A day when you can get Guinness at almost any bar in town! (As a Guinness fan, that's a good thing!)

So, Sláinte, everyone!  I hope spring is arriving where you are and that even if you're still snowed in, you remember that spring is just around the corner!  I hope this season gives you that same sense of potential and glee that it gives me.  Anything's possible!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day...and spring!

Holly


A St. Patrick's Day Gift for you all:

I've tried my hand at publishing a short story trilogy this year.  I gave Nothing But Love away for Christmas, Nothing But Heart away for Valentine's and my springtime/St. Patrick's Day gift is the final book, my first St. Patrick's day romance, Nothing But Luck.  It stand alone, so even if you didn't read the other two, it's fine.  And it's free for Kindle this weekend, Saturday the 16th, Sunday the 17th and Monday the 18th.  So mark your calendars and stop in and pick it up before you go get that Guinness!  (And I know that many of you have other types of eReaders.  The entire series will be out next year for those platforms.)

Nothing But Luck