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  Chance Meeting by Christine Columbus May 9, 2025 By Long and Short Reviews Leave a Comment Chance Meeting by Christine Columbus Publisher: The Wild Rose Press Genre: Historical, Romance Rating: 4 stars Reviewed by Mistflower Melody is fostering her niece while her sister, Captain Opal Erickson, is deployed to Kuwait. A chance meeting at work with Clayton, a construction manager, awakens feelings of the love and romance. Everything is perfect until Opal reveals a family truth and swears Melody to secrecy. To honor her sisterly pledge, Mel attempts to reject any advances from Clayton, until he guesses the truth. Torn between loyalty to Opal and love for Clayton, she pours herself into work, making a mess of everything. When the dust settles, Mel is left wondering if she’ll be able to put the pieces of her life back together. Chance Meeting was such a fun and heartwarming read. I completely agree with the praise comments shared at the beginning of the book. M...

   I signed a contract with The Wild Rose Press for my new novel and I am working with the editor to get the story ready for publication.   Sally has sworn off relationships. At forty-seven, she finds herself stuck in a rut and feels as if she’s going nowhere. Until her mother needs help to fix up her house, now Sally spends her weekends driving three hours to plaster and paint walls. Ty is also lending a hand with the repairs, and their attraction simmers just beneath the surface. As the house takes on a new life, so does Sally’s heart. By day, they work on the house, but in the evenings, they escape to a local campground, overlooking river sunsets and diving into a summer romance. What does Sally do when summer fades to fall, and Ty prepares to leave? Tagline River sunsets, romantic campfires, and summer love. Will autumn leave Sally with bittersweet memories or a broken heart?

  So This is Love         Virtual Book Fair. Time to find your next happily ever after!  Please stop by: https://www.oklahomaromancewritersguild.com/bookfair      

  Chance Meeting   Chance Meeting by Christine Columbus May 9, 2025 By Long and Short Reviews Leave a Comment Chance Meeting by Christine Columbus Publisher: The Wild Rose Press Genre: Historical, Romance Rating: 4 stars Reviewed by Mistflower Melody is fostering her niece while her sister, Captain Opal Erickson, is deployed to Kuwait. A chance meeting at work with Clayton, a construction manager, awakens feelings of the love and romance. Everything is perfect until Opal reveals a family truth and swears Melody to secrecy. To honor her sisterly pledge, Mel attempts to reject any advances from Clayton, until he guesses the truth. Torn between loyalty to Opal and love for Clayton, she pours herself into work, making a mess of everything. When the dust settles, Mel is left wondering if she’ll be able to put the pieces of her life back together. Chance Meeting was such a fun and heartwarming read. I completely agree with the praise comments shared at the beg...

Melody is fostering her niece while her sister, Captain Opal Erickson, is deployed to Kuwait. A chance meeting at work with Clayton, a construction manager, awakens feelings of the love and romance. Everything is perfect until Opal reveals a family truth and swears Melody to secrecy.To honor her sisterly pledge, Mel attempts to reject any advances from Clayton, until he guesses the truth. Torn between loyalty to Opal and love for Clayton, she pours herself into work, making a mess of everything. When the dust settles, Mel is left wondering if she’ll be able to put the pieces of her life back together.  

Normally, my goal would be a daily word count, to be published or hit a best seller list. But for 2023 my goal is to write, submit and repeat. I had a teacher tell me writing is 10% talent and 90% perseverance. For the first time in over six years I won’t be sleeping with wheels under my bed. We have rented an apartment in Wilmington for the next 13 months and the view is inspiring.

Today I am starting my class assignment over, partially because I stopped halfway through the week and because I have decided instead of creatively blogging I am going to use my super power ‘creativity’ to improve my life. I want to lose fifteen pounds, increase my strength and flexibility. I am in my 60’s, so I know exactly what to do…but knowing and doing are two different things. And I am lazy. So, I am going to use (notice I didn’t use the word attempt this shows I am fully committed to this idea) I am going to use my creativity to get what I want.  A slightly smaller and stronger version of myself. Because today is Valentine’s Day and I wanted something sweet, (like dark chocolate hearts) - but instead of buying a bag of candy. I bought a box of Larabars, they are made with dates and nuts and of course the one I choose has chocolate chips and are 250 calories or 8 WW points…not a great creative choice because Dove dark chocolate hearts have 150 calories for 4 hearts or 8 WW po...

 Labels aren’t for lazy people.  I am lazy so I like to generalize.  Below are pictures of birds I have taken at the NWR where I volunteer.  Some people study the birds shape, size and habits in order to label them with their correct or even scientific name.   Whereas, I too see color, shaper, size and habits, but instead of placing them in a category, wading bird, shore bird-I take the lazy approach.  They are all birds.

 I am a volunteer and today I answered the phone and a woman said, “There is a manatee dead on the beach.” I said, “call CROW.” She said, “The manatee is dead, not injured.” CROW is a clinic for rehabilitation of wildlife, but she did dial a National Wildlife  Refuge. Not a National Dead Life Refuge…so, this is a classic example of calling the kettle black.

There is no creative way to do 7 loads of laundry.  My husband has a severe reaction to poison ivy.  In less than a year he has had to go on steroids, three times.   So, just in case we have  an  oil  called urushiol on any of the bedding, clothes, dog beds, blanket, or dog.  I washed everything in our trailer.   To use my super power to solve the problem of living on an island with an abundance of poison ivy, I created a vision board and I checked to see where we were on the waitlist for housing.   We applied to three places,,,number 30, 27 and still waiting to hear back.    

 I am taking a happiness course from  (coursera.org) Presented by  Laurie Santos, ‘ The Science of Well-Being’ The homework suggest you try and use one of your top 5 strengths everyday.  And they gave the following suggestion for creativity. ‘For example, you might write a blog post that is unique because it is entirely gibberish. That’s not going to be useful, so it would not be considered creative” So, I am going to use my “ Judgment.” And apply the VIA Institute on Characters definition.   “ Thinking things through and examining them from all sides; not jumping to conclusions, being able to change one’s mind in light of evidence, weighing all evidence fairly.” A blog written all gibberish might be useful to someone who wants to blog, but is not confident.  The run across said, ‘gibberish blog’ and think, if someone can publish a blog all in gibberish, maybe I can blog. Everyone is entitled to an opinion.  The author believes creativity has to benefi...

 When I tell people, “ I’m lazy .” They always respond, “No, you’re not.” Yes. I am lazy and it’s okay.  I am not a slob, unhealthy, or a burden to society.  I am lazy .  I am taking a happiness course and went to the VIA strength questionnaire and they didn’t list ‘ Lazy ’ as one of my strengths - but they should have…if you read through my top 5 strengths you will see they support my statement.   I am lazy. 1. Creativity .    I have no problem thinking of novel ways to avoid doing housework and a 40 hour a work week. 2. Love of Learning .  Which is one of my novel ways to avoid doing housework, exercising or any of those things ‘non-lazy’ people do.  So, this is the real reason behind taking a happiness course. 3. Judgment .  I don’t spend energy judging. I am a firm believer in - you do you- as long as your actions don’t leave anyone dead at the end of the day.   4. Forgiveness .  I am a forgiving person, because I am la...

On Sunday, October 11, 2009 seriouslyreviewed.blogspot.com rated Trust Your Heart by Christine Columbus – Lifetime Keeper to be read and reread. Review: WOW!!!! I am not sure if I have ever wanted to slap so many secondary characters in my life! Ms Columbus, you have done such a fabulous job creating the emotions for this story that I wanted to jump into the pages and wring the necks of a couple of the nasty people who were total jerks to Michelle. Both main characters were so wonderful. Emotion ran rampant and more than once I experienced the emotion right along with them. When I read a story that can do that, I am at a loss for words. The beginning, middle and end left me a very satisfied reader. *Snaps* for a job well done and a toast for more to come from this talented author :) Publisher: The Wild Rose Press Blurb: Michelle, a divorced mother of two preschool children living in a Minneapolis suburb, maintains her subscription to her hometown newspaper. So when she bumps into child...