Memorial Day – Linda Nelson

Left, left, left, right, left.

Any veterans out there? With May bringing both Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day, veterans are at the forefront of a lot of people’s minds.

I served in the U.S. Army for five years (in the photo, I’m the short one in the front). I graduated college during a recession and the best opportunity to get out of my parent’s house and find a real job was to join the Army.

I was stationed at Ft. Polk, LA for a year (if you’ve been in the Army, I’m sure you just groaned with me) before I was married and joined my husband at a joint military base in England. It was five long, frustrating years, but I wouldn’t take that experience back for anything.

This weekend, my family will be participating in a Memorial Day parade as “A Family of Veterans.” My husband and I represent our generation, and we’ll be honoring our dads who served in Viet Nam and our grandfathers who served in World War II and the Korean War.

Please take the time this weekend to honor veterans, especially those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defending our freedom.

In honor of Memorial Day, all royalties from my novel The Sound of Deception between May 22 and May 29 will be donated to Rebuilding Warriors as part of the Memorial Day 2015: Gone but not forgotten event. There are lots of author veterans donating, so check it out!

But that’s not the only special event I am participating in right now. My debut novel from 2011, Relay For Love, is one of the novels in Summer Lovin’ box set. This collection includes 14 novels and novellas all with a summer theme, many from USA Today and National Bestselling authors. The best part, it’s only $.99. Get it while it’s hot because it’s available only for a limited time!

In Relay For Love, widow Hannah Locke has a life plan, which does NOT include falling in love again. She lost her husband five years ago and still aches from that loss. That ache seems to dull as it is replaced with a new longing for a man she hardly knows but can’t seem to get out of her head. Aaron Hawkins was only supposed to write a story about Hannah’s Relay For Life fundraising event, but their immediate attraction has him looking for more than just a headline and has Hannah forgetting all about her perfect life plan.

Writing this story was an emotional journey for me. It’s an emotional journey for readers, too, who claim they are laughing on one page and crying on the next. Even my editor, who NEVER cries, shed a few tears (and cussed me out) while editing this story.

Let’s wipe out cancer together!! A percentage of my royalties from this book and A Flame Burns Inside is donated to the American Cancer Society to help raise awareness about prevention and treatment and help find a cure!

Pick up Summer Lovin’ today and check out my Facebook page for some great giveaways!

Summer Lovin’ buy links:

Big dreamer and certifiable overachiever Susan Ann Wall embraces life at full speed and volume. She’s a beer and tea snob, can be bribed with dark chocolate, and the #1 thing on her bucket list is to be the center of a Bon Jovi flash mob.

Susan is a multi-genre author of racy, rule-breaking romance, women’s fiction, and erotic fiction (her erotic titles are published as Ann Victor). Her bragging rights include nine books in three different series, three perfect children, adopting an amazing rescue dog, and a happily ever after that started while serving in the U.S. Army and has spanned nearly two decades (which is crazy since she’s not a day over 29).

In her next life, Susan plans to be a 5 foot 10, size 8 rock star married to a chiropractor and will not be terrified of large bridges, spiders, or quiet people (shiver).

Memorial Weekend is here. This is the weekend that most folks kick off their summer cookouts and open their pools for the season, even campgrounds kick into full swing with their campers.

This year I’m glad I’m not one of them. It is a cold Memorial Weekend here in New Hampshire. It is one of the coldest I can remember. Snow even fell last night. I saw it. It even stuck to my mom’s skylights in her bedroom. She made sure to point this out to me last night when I could believe my eyes when we saw the flakes falling from the sky in big globs. It is not like we live in Northern New Hampshire either. We are down on the Massachusetts border.

I was worried about our garden. But Mike reassured me that they would be alright even though we didn’t cover any of the plants.

We didn’t wake up to any snow on the ground, thankfully, like some people did in the western part of the state. But it was cold none the less.

The first thing I did in the morning was look outside at the garden. Everything looked like it was still alive. Thank God… My zucchini has been growing so good.

Cold weather does have its advantages though. Since I don’t like it, it made it much easier to stay inside and write.

ROW80 Update:

I have finally pushed past where the kids catch the kitchen on fire. Everyone made it out alive. I won’t tell you who saved the day. You’ll have to read the book to find out. But I am happy to say I added over 3k words to the file today. That is more than I set out to write.

When Kate posted that we should have a goal of 250 words because of the holiday I figured I could at least do that.

Well, well, well, what do you know? I got to the 250 words and kept right on going. How about that?

I think I surpassed my ninety minute writing spurt too, so now I can go back to gaming for the rest of the day while I try and plot out what will happen when the boys ask the girls to the dance.

Have a Happy Memorial Weekend and stay warm and safe everybody.