Tag: caridad

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#ThrowbackThursday Levittown & Mr. Softee

I grew up in Levittown, Long Island, the first planned suburb in America. Some will bad mouth it by saying it was bland, homogenous and sanitized, but to me it was heaven and the American Dream.

My family was able to buy a home and we had good public schools that prepared us for the future. We had friendly neighbors after some initial issues with being Cuban and all in all, things were wonderful.

The community had little village greens with community pools and we were just minutes away from Jones Beach. Summers were spent playing outdoors and going to the pool or beach. Summers were also spent waiting for the visit of Mr. Softee, today’s Throwback Thursday memory. Of course, that just made me remember that the Good Humor man would also visit on another day, but that’s for a future post. LOL!

My family wasn’t well off, after all, we were political refugees who’d been in America for less than nine years when my parents moved us to Levittown. How’d they do that? The old fashioned way: hard work.

But money was tight and it wasn’t unusual that dinner was fried eggs and rice and we ate cream cheese and jelly sandwiches for lunch. If we even ate lunch. I don’t really remember eating breakfast or lunch in the summer. We were too busy playing outside.

Anyway, having enough money for Mr. Softee was a big deal. A BIG DEAL. Back then, you could get an ice cream cone for about 15 cents, but I loved their sundaes, so I’d save up the 15 cents my grandfather would give us and wait until I had the 35 cents for a sundae!

My sister would always get the Brown Cow, an ice cream cone dipped into some kind of magic liquid that produced a hard shell on the cold ice cream. I sometimes opted for the Cherry Cow if I was really impatient.

After we bought our ice creams, we’d sit on the curb and talk as we ate our treats before heading off to play with our friends again.

Those were the good times and it’s nice to remember them on this Throwback Thursday.

Mister Softee Truck 1.JPG
“Mister Softee Truck 1” by Rjsswf8 – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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#WriteWed Shanna by Kathleen Woodiwiss

shannaI think I’ve mentioned that I wanted to be a writer since writing my first book in the fifth grade. After that taste of story-telling, I keep on writing and of course, reading. I read anything I could, even the cereal box at the breakfast table. I was an avid reader and a lot of what I read was passed down to me by my mom.

Back then we didn’t have young adult books. We just kind of jumped into adult reading. So at an early age, I was reading the Brontes and then Taylor Caldwell and whatever else I could put my hands on.

But even then I gravitated toward stories with a strong romantic element, not knowing that I was meant to be a romance writer. In fact, it wasn’t until one summer that I realized that’s what I wanted to be.

Back then, department stores had book sections and since everyone at the store (B. Altman’s, now long gone sadly) knew that I liked to read, I was the natural summer fill-in for someone who was on medical leave.

My job was to recommend books, ring up the sales, and fill in stock when it emptied. There was this one dump, a bright orangey one, that was empty when I got there and people kept on coming in and asking for Shanna. I had no idea what it was and after some research, discovered that it was a novel that had been sitting on the NY Times bestseller list for a while.

When we finally got a shipment, I was kind of surprised by the cover. Orangey pink and with a couple in a passionate embrace, it wasn’t like what I’d seen before at home. I was kind of put off by it for a moment, but I had a job to do, so I filled the dump and within a couple of days, it was empty again.

This continued for the next week or so. Got a shipment and it sold out.

Well, I finally had to find out what the big to do was about and bought myself a copy with my store discount.

Wow. I could not put it down. Action. Adventure. Romance. More action. More adventure. Betrayal. More romance. Hot steamy romance.

Not only was I hooked on the story, but it occurred to me at that moment that this was the kind of story I wanted to write. This was just like the stories I’d had rattling around in my brain for so many years.

This was the book that made me realize I wanted to be a romance writer.

Thank you, Ms. Woodiwiss. I am eternally grateful for that and for one of my all time favorite books – The Wolf and the Dove.

If you’re a fan of historical romance and haven’t checked out these books, take a moment and do so. You’ll be glad you did.

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#WriteWed What Inspires a Series?

Since I’m busing working on ONE SPECIAL NIGHT, the follow-up to JUST ONE NIGHT, you may wonder what inspires a series like the Take a Chance series.

For me, it’s the secondary characters. Oftentimes when I start, I don’t really know which of the secondary characters will call to me the most, but then BAM! 🙂 I fall in love with one of them and know that I have to explore their story.

That’s what happened with Tommy, Nickie’s brother and Jase’s best friend, from JUST ONE NIGHT.

I saw a really good guy who definitely needed to find the right woman. I knew from JUST ONE NIGHT that Tommy was honorable and lots of fun. I knew he would have what it would take to help someone heal their wounds and find happiness.

I’m almost done with ONE SPECIAL NIGHT and I hope you’ll fall in love with Tommy the way I did and the way the heroine, Navy Corpsman Jasmine Reyes, does by the end of the story! ONE SPECIAL NIGHT will be available in late July.

OneSpecialNight300

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#TeaserTuesday Just One Night #Erotic Romance

Just One Night Erotic RomanceHappy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends. Happy July 1 to everyone else! It’s hard to believe it’s a new month already. It seems to me the summer is flying by and yet it only just got started.

Today I’ve got for you a teaser from Just One Night, my new release. I’m almost done with the next book in the series, One Special Night. That’s Tommy’s story and I’m really having a lot of fun writing it. One Special Night will be available in late July.

If you can’t see the excerpt of Just One Night just click here to read it!

Warning, this is for mature audiences only!

JUST ONE NIGHT, #NALit #Erotic #Romance novella by Caridad Pineiro

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#FunFriday My New Kitten

We’ve had an odyssey of sorts with some feral cats in our yard. Well over a year ago, we had a small cat come up and we felt so bad for it, we started feeding it. That kept up for several months and then it left, but came back with a little kitten. It was so so cute. These cats were all black and one of them had extra toes on its front paws.

Well, we started feeding the kitten and the larger cat stopped coming by. Then there was a gap and then the former kitten brought two more little black kittens with it. You could tell they were all related by the coloring and again, one of them had more toes.

We vowed to take them in for spaying and didn’t realize how quickly cats could breed. About two months ago, an air conditioner repairman warned that there were some feral kittens by the air conditioner and that they didn’t look too good. Sadly, there were 5, including one solid grey cat. By the time we got there, two were gone and sadly the other two passed that night even as we tried to take care of them.

It was a very sad and sobering moment. As for the grey one, it was larger than the four that passed and the mommy cat came and took it away.

Little did we know there were two other kittens as well. Over the weeks we’ve continued to feed the mommy cat and her sibling. About two weeks ago, the sibling brought up the grey kitten and left it at our door, much like cats do as a gift. We were baffled by that behavior and did our best to protect the little one by placing it in a cat bed where it curled up to sleep.

Luckily, mommy cat came about half an hour later and took the kitten back home.

We knew that if we had any chance of domesticating these kittens, we could not wait long to capture them and get them to the right people/shelter. Also, we do want to get the older cats spayed so as to avoid more feral animals.

Last night, the entire family was playing and hanging out on the deck, but as I passed by later that night, I noticed the grey one all alone and curled up in a pot.

I went over and it was sleeping, so I thought, time to see if it’s okay and if so, bring it in.

Well, it is okay and adapting to being held, etc. It could be that the kittens see us petting and taking care of the older ones. They started coming to the door to feed yesterday and have been spending a lot of time on the deck.

We’ll have to figure out what to do with them later. For right now, we’ve got a new kitten that we’re getting adapted to indoor life and we’ll have to take him to the vet. It is a him which will be new for me. I’ve always had female cats.

So far he has no name. We’ll have to decide on one later! Any suggestions? He’s all grey and the runt of the litter for sure. In the second picture, you can see that he fell asleep trying to climb back into the bed.

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kitten1

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#ManCandyMonday Some #WorldCup Action with Gerard Pique

Since the world is in the throes of soccer mania, I thought it would make sense to share a footballer with you today.

Gerard Pique was born in Barcelona and currently plays for FC Barcelona. He is a member of the Spanish team playing for the world cup and he is also Shakira’s partner.

He was a member of the 2010 Spanish team that won the World Cup in South Africa.

If you want to find out more about this delicious soccer #ManCandy, you can follow Gerard at these places:

Official Website
Facebook page
Twitter

I hope you enjoyed today’s #ManCandyMonday.

“Gerard Piqué Euro 2012 vs France 01” by Дмитрий Неймырок – Football.ua. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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#FreebieFriday Just One Night #Giveaway

I’m so excited about the release of Just One Night and am already working on the next novella in the Take a Chance series!

To celebrate the release, I’m having a giveaway over on Facebook. Yes, I know many of you don’t do Facebook and that’s okay. Just leave a comment on this blog post for a chance to win a box filled with swag from the RT Convention & BEA as well as an autographed copy of SINS OF THE FLESH #Paranormal #RomanticSuspense, #Vampire Reborn (http://bit.ly/vampirereborn) T-shirt & necklace, and a convention tote bag!
swagJON

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