Sunday, February 14, 2010

Guest Author -- P.J. Mellor

We are happy to have P.J. Mellor with us on this Valentine's Day. When she's not writing her latest steamy novel, P.J. can be found enjoying the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to her love of writing and beaches, P.J. also enjoys sewing and swimming. A couple of her personal goals are to keep her checkbook balanced, make the NYT best sellers list, and return to her original weight -- five pounds, thirteen ounces. She is also known for her one liners, which means P.J. will fit in really well here at The Romance Dish. Join me in welcoming P.J. Mellor as she dishes on Valentine's Day.


Valentines. . .the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

As a kid, I always dreaded Valentine’s Day. It was just so much pressure. Know what I mean? You spend hours, if not days, decorating your little Valentine mailbox, only to sit in stressful angst while it seemed everyone in the room had their boxes full to over-flowing with little paper valentines. How many did you get? Dare you check? What if there were none? The stress—it was enough to give a child ulcers. Thankfully, my mailbox was never empty, but that didn’t stop me from worrying. Who needs that kind of stress? And am I the only one who thought the little hearts with sappy sayings on them tasted like Pepto-Bismol? Even at that tender age, I knew I preferred chocolate.

Then, adding to the stress, puberty arrived. It added a whole new mix of stress to my life. I knew I’d just die if I didn’t have a boyfriend, then it was what if I didn’t have a date? Wasn’t that something like one of the seven mortal sins for a teenager, to be dateless on Valentine’s Day?

In college, I realized there was yet more stress to pile onto St. Valentine. One year my roommate received seven—count ‘em, seven!—freaking flower arrangements. I had a steady boyfriend. What did I get? A phone call to tell me he’d decided he wanted to date someone else. Sigh. Many years later, I can admit what I did (although I am not proud of it): I poured salt into every one of those stupid flower arrangements while my roommate was out with beau #8. Not that it did any good. Apparently, cut flowers like salt water. Who knew? I also hate to admit it, but the next time I went home for the weekend, I tried to kick in the side of my now-ex-boyfriend’s car. BTW, car side panels are a lot stronger than they look. I broke my ankle. I guess it was justifiable punishment, even though I failed to even scratch the shiny finish.

My friend’s husband always took her to a nice restaurant for an elaborate Valentine’s Day romantic dinner. I was secretly jealous until he took her to the last one. That would be the one where he told her he was a woman trapped in a man’s body and was leaving her to get a sex change operation. She wins for the ugliest Valentine’s “present”. Now that I think about it, it was also pretty bad.

But not all Valentine’s are bad. When I was pregnant with twins, my husband not only brought me my favorite chocolates and perfume we really couldn’t afford, he capped it off by polishing my toenails! Of course, I couldn’t see them very well, but I appreciated it.

This year, I’m spending Valentine’s Day doing one of the things I love most—writing. My February 2011 release, ISLAND NIGHTS, is due this month. I’m having so much fun writing it, I don’t even mind working on Valentine’s Day! To add to my pleasure, my February 2010 book, BETWEEN THE SHEETS (a trio of very fractured fairy tales) came out a week or so ago. Yes, despite some seriously sucky Valentine’s Days, I’ve finally come to enjoy them. Now, if I could only find a way to keep the chocolate from going directly to my thighs!


So, how about you? How do you view Valentine’s Day? Any stories you’d like to share? Leave a comment for a chance to win one of my books.


Thanks for stopping by!

23 comments:

  1. Good morning (well, it IS here)! Thanks for an uplifting blog on this fine day.

    Valentine's Day is just another day in our household. We try to celebrate our love whenever we can during ALL the days of the year instead.... It might be a certain look, a pat in a certain area, a wink, a stance, and the list goes on and on. When your kids are bouncing in and out of the house at all hours, you learn to take advantage of every available moment, LOL!

    That being said, my husband and I used to exchange cards before the advent of children. I saved one that was especially dear to my heart: it said, "To my dear Sweath heart!" Nothing says love like being a SWEATH heart! (Obviously spelling is not my husband's forte!)

    I hope you and YOUR sweath heart have a lovely Valentine's Day. I baked some brownies last night, so we'll be taking them to a friend's place to share, as they are car-less this weekend and will appreciate the company (and free pizza to boot, probably)!

    Enjoy!

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  2. Thanks for joining us today, P.J.

    Valentine's Day at our house is pretty low key. The kids received Valentines this morning with their favorite candy. In addition to that, I make heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast. My littlest one said it was great eating love for breakfast - ha!

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  3. Laney4 -- sure sounds like your household celebrates love the way everyone should . . . every single day. We try to do that too. You had me laughing at your sweath heart!! LOL! Too funny!

    Have a great day with your friends!

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  4. Welcome, P.J.! Nice to have you with us to celebrate Valentine's Day. Had to laugh at your college Valentine's experience. Sounded way too much like mine...minus the car kicking. *g*

    I don't have a sweetheart these days so VDay is just another day in my house but I enjoy reading how others celebrate.

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  5. Laney4, I love that you celebrate your love every day of the year. That's how it should be!

    ROFL @ Sweath heart! Guess that's one of those times when it's the thought - not the spelling - that counts. :)

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  6. Happy Valentine's Day, Buffie!

    My littlest one said it was great eating love for breakfast - ha!

    That's so sweet!

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  7. Happy Valentine's Day to you PJ!!!

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  8. My best V-Day memories are from my HS days. It was ALWAYS such a big deal, my then HS sweetheart would plan a special day, show up flowers (it was a status thing), exchange gifts, everything...and then we grew up and now it's just like any old day.

    So I now get my romantic kicks from romance novels, I'm not complaining =)

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  9. Hello,
    Happy Valentines Day. For me Valentines Day is known as "Singles Awareness Day". No other day of the year are singles made aware of their singleness than on this day. I find that ads for online dating services also seem to be on every other commercial around this time of year. Therefore, i do my best to avoid couples and curl up with a good book on this day.

    Melissa

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  10. Great post loved it

    We don't do much for Valentines Day I gotta say I prefer to spend to time with Hubby. Here in Australia Valentines Day was yesterday and I went out to lunch with a group of romance readers and we had a fantastic time we even went to The Lindt Cafe for dessert you gotta love their desserts.

    Happy Valentines Day

    Have Fun
    Helen

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  11. Karyn, I understand how Valentine's Day becomes low key the longer you are married. The dh and I have been married for almost 20 years. But like you, I have fond memories of our early Valentine's Days.

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  12. Hey Scorpio M! I remember all the fun little things we did in high school for Valentine's Day. Did you have candy grams? You could fill out a little sheet and send a candy gram to someone in the school. I always wished for a secret admirer on those days!

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  13. Melissa -- I hope you are enjoying a fabulous book today!

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  14. Hey Helen! Lunch with a bunch of romance readers sounds fabulous to me! And I didn't know that Lindts had cafes!!! Bet those desserts were really yummy :-)

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  15. Welcome to the Romance Dish, P.J.!

    In our house, Valentine's Day is strictly for the kids, especially since my son was born the day before. My husband and I celebrated it when we were dating, but now we celebrate our love everyday. :)

    Schools were closed here on Friday (the 12th) and my daughter was so upset because that meant the Valentine's parties were cancelled. On the other hand, my son was upset because he couldn't take a test!! LOL

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  16. HI P.J.
    Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays because it just so happens that it is also my birthday! That means as a kid I never sweated getting cards (although I remember being upset that my brother and sister got something from my parents on MY birthday and I NEVER got anything on their birthdays!).
    As an adult it really isn't that big of a deal in our house. We, too, celebrate our love everyday--although I swear some days I have to really remind myself why I love my dh *vbg*- but we always try to do something for the children. They kind of get gipped because it is Mommy's birthday.
    Laughed at some of your stories. Thank you.

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  17. Hi, P.J., and Happy Valentine's Day! We usually do the cards and candy deal at our house. Today we met my sister and nieces for lunch, which was nice.

    I remember decorating the box for Valentine's Day when I was in school. Oh the things we used to stress about!

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  18. I liked to get Valentines as well in school, but like you was scared I won't get any. Was known to some as the little fat girl.. I can say that is over for me and at the age of 70 have gotten some nice cards from my husband and family.... It is a good day to hug and I am a hugger...Ha Your new book sounds like there is hugging going on there as well....

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  19. Hi Buffie,

    Yes, we did have candy grams! I just had a flashback and yes, it definitely made one feel feel special when those candy grams were delivered.

    Such a sweet memory =)

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  20. I remember decorating pouches, then passing out cards! We were coached to bring a card for everyone... had to be PC! (might skip someone you loathed...)

    For Valentine's I try to get my husband a special gift. This year it was a massage at a doctor's clinic. He treats me well too.... We ate in this year.

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  21. WINNER SELECTED!

    PJ Mellor has had some major problems with this web link, so she's asked me to notify you that she chose me as the winner of her backlist choice of book. She enjoyed reading the entries before the problems occurred and wanted to thank all those who responded. She apologized for the delay in getting back to you, but I assured her that her readers/commenters understand that these things happen (far too often for our liking, right?).

    Thanks again, PJ, and good luck with straightening this all out!

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  22. WINNER SELECTED!

    PJ Mellor has had some major problems with this web link, so she's asked me to notify you that she chose me as the winner of her backlist choice of book. She enjoyed reading the entries before the problems occurred and wanted to thank all those who responded. She apologized for the delay in getting back to you, but I assured her that her readers/commenters understand that these things happen (far too often for our liking, right?).

    Thanks again, PJ, and good luck with straightening this all out!

    PS, I apologize if this is a duplicate entry. Apparently PJ might not be the only person to be experiencing difficulties....

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  23. Thanks, Laney! Please assure PJ that we understand and congratulations on being her winner!

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