Growing up, I was a latch-key kid, a term almost extinct nowadays. Long before after school programs became the norm for most children of working parents, I would be discharged from school at 3 pm and be on my own until my parents came home at 7pm, every day from third grade until I was a teenager and got an after school job. This was my life. During the summer, though, I really couldn’t be left alone for up to 12 hours every day safely, so from the time I was in kindergarten until I turned 14, I was sent away every summer with my Grandmother.
My grandmother was a very hard, no-nonsense Irish immigrant who brokered no fools and ruled with that proverbial iron fist. I would accompany her every July and August to an upstate New York retreat owned by a good friend of hers. I learned to swim in the creek abutting the cabin we’d stay in, helped make breakfast, lunch and dinner for the guests staying at the main house, and generally spent the majority of the day on my own as my grandmother visited with her friends, played cards, and drank.
For an only child and loner who loved solitary pursuits like reading, this was nirvana.
This was the time before handheld technology ruled the world.
No cell phones, no Kindles, no iPads or iPods. We listened to music on the radio, put coins into a pay phone to call people, and read actual books with pages you had to manually turn. And this was the time I learned to love romantic fiction. I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time during my 11th summer, sitting by a cool, bubbling creek, a canopy of trees above me. Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, Rosemary Rogers, Victoria Holt, just to name a few, became my constant companions during those long lonely summers. I learned a lot about writing, about romance, and about sex. Much more than my compadres at the time, at least.
I was hooked. Romantic fiction, and all genres of romance, became my summer companions. I’d take out 20 or more books from the library at one time, put them in a separate travel bag, and work my way through them during those 2 months away from home. It made the separation from my mother less painful and, having to deal with an alcoholic grandmother, much easier. I could drift away to the times of knights and ladies, lords and wenches. I learned about strict, moral codes of times gone by, and that no matter what the chronological time period, love always won in the end. Every book had a happily ever after, something my life did not. But I could hope…and I did.
Those long, drowsy, warm summer days and nights with a book in my hands remain my favorite summer memories to this day. I grew up reading about love, hoping for it to come into my own life when I was grown.
And it did….
For other Authors Participating in the Wild Rose Blog Hop, click here:
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Sorchias Wild Rose Summer Treats Post |
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Judy Ann Davis Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop | Visit blog |
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Summer Memories of books well read @ Peggy jaeger. com | Visit blog |
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Summer on Cape Cod ~ Kathryn Knight books | Visit blog |
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Summer Fun at the Beach, with Katie OSullivan | Visit blog |
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I Believe Ill Go Canoeing – C. B. Clark | Visit blog |
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Summertime Love is Sweeter with. . . Frozen Mango? @ Kimberly Keyes blog | Visit blog |
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Wild Rose Summer Treats Blog Hop @ Brendas Blog | Visit blog |
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My Guilty Summer Treats from Lori Sizemore | Visit blog |
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Wild Rose Press Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop | Visit blog |
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Hywela Lyns post for the WRP Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop | Visit blog |
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Wild Rose Press Summer Treats & Reads | Visit blog |
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Camping is a Recipe for Summer Treats and Reads | Visit blog |
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Summer Survival Tips @ Nitty Gritty Romance | Visit blog |
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Wild Rose Press Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop | Visit blog |
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Nell Castle – Summer of the Sweat Lodge | Visit blog |
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Myth, Magic & Wonder Susan Edwards, Breathing Life into the Past | Visit blog |
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Romance with Spice, Sydney St. Claire | Visit blog |
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Anni Fife. Exciting new author of Steamy Romance with Irresistible Heroes | Visit blog |
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Summer Vacation, Victorian-Style, AND a Giveaway | Visit blog |
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Wildfires, Monsoons, and Mojitos – Author Susabelle Kelmer shares how she keeps cool in a climate that is on fire! | Visit blog |
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Casi McLeans recipe for Hot Reads and Cool Treats | Visit blog |
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Cool Summer Reads: Jeannie Halls Romantic Suspense Blog – Where Hearts Tremble From More Than Attraction | Visit blog |
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How to Rediscover the Magic of Bicycling | Visit blog |
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Charlottes Tips on How to Stay Cool in HOT New York City | Visit blog |
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My most recent book, THE VOICES OF ANGELS.
Blurb:
Love is the last thing Carly Lennox is looking for when she sets out on her new book tour. The independent, widowed author is content with a life spent writing and in raising her daughter. When newscaster Mike Woodard suggests they work on a television magazine profile based on her book, Carly’s thrilled, but guarded. His obvious desire to turn their relationship into something other than just a working one is more than she bargained for.
Mike Woodard is ambitious, and not only in his chosen profession. He wants Carly, maybe more than he’s ever wanted anything or anyone else. As he tells her, he’s a patient man. But the more they’re together, Mike realizes it isn’t simply desire beating within him. Carly Lennox is the missing piece in his life. Getting her to accept it-and him-may just be the toughest assignment he’s ever taken on.
Buy Links: Amazon /// TWRP /// Kobo /// Nook
If you need to find me, you can: Tweet Me// Read Me// Visit Me// Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me//
Peggy Jaeger, Author 