Happy holidays! The great thing about writing short stories, there are two here in “I’m Not Yours,” is that when you obsessively edit your books, like I do, it’s not quite as much work.

Which leaves more time for me to walk Leroy the Cat, talk to myself, and wait to see if birds come to my bird feeder.

The Apple Orchard and June’s Lace are happy-ending love stories, written for women who need wine, a bubble bath, chocolates, and laughter.

That could be you.

Cheers, all.

The Apple Orchard

Allie Pelletier was fired from her executive position at a fancy clothing chain after her boss, a difficult and deranged woman, threw her Manolo Blahnik shoes at her head. Allie was relieved as her seventy-hour work weeks were exhausting. She caught the shoes and headed out. She sold her condo in a flash and moved to the old farmhouse and apple orchard that her estranged late father left her, along with a menagerie of funny pets. When Spunky Joe the horse accidentally kicks her, Allie lands in the emergency room. When Dr. Jace Rios, the love of her life she pushed away years ago, walks in, she ingloriously faints at his feet. And there we begin. Two people must overcome a painful history and buried secrets to be together again. With a little apple pie, it just might work.

June’s Lace

June MacKenzie is a wedding dress designer living in a charming blue cottage on a cliff above the Oregon Coast. Her dresses are eccentric and daring – a black leather and white lace dress for a motorcycle enthusiast, a dress filled with tiny white lights for a bride who loves fireflies. June is positive she will never design her own wedding dress because she’s going through a mind-numbing divorce. Her soon to be ex-husband is a controlling vermin-man who has decided he wants part of her business. She would rather be hit by lightning. But when June is knocked over by a sneaker wave and rescued by a sincere and steamy-hot country music songwriter, she knows she’s been knocked over by more than just water. Alas, she can’t “do” love again, even though Reece likes to dance with her on the sand…

• Eons ago, almost in the time of castles, knights, and yore, June’s Lace was previously printed in Beach Season and The Apple Orchard was previously printed in You’re Still the One