A tiny bit of a stretch...

And the piece de resistance

What are your favorite Earl books? Movies? Songs?

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!

In fact–Memorial Day feels like it happened a year ago, doesn’t it?

Does it go so fast just because we have so much fun?

Let’s take a minute and share our best moments of summer:

For me, the highlight had to be playing hooky from the RWA conference to steal off to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter with Meg Cabot and my work friends Seale, Tavia, Christine and Wendy. (Meg already blogged all about it, so I won’t go overboard–you can read about it here).

And, taking a page from the ever-adventurous Susan Elizabeth Phillips (who we dragged to breakfast with Goofy during RWA!), I brought my family on a wee caving adventure in New Hampshire. Lesson learned: crawling through tiny holes in rocky outcrops is total fun, but it’s much easier for the four and seven year olds to wiggle their hips through than it is for us grown-up Amazon types.

And going to Lake Compounce, and riding Boulder Dash, over and over. Best coaster on the East Coast.  (Trust me. The New York Times agrees! And I bet author Kathryn Smith does, too!)

Oh. And I got to see gorgeous men (think Vin diesel, in his prime) in kilts. Throwing monster logs (Did I mention ‘in kilts’???) at the Maine Highland Games. Mmmmm.

So, will you tell us what you had the most fun doing this summer? (Or at least, what you had the most fun reading? I spent a few amang weeks devouring Loretta Chase’s backlist, which is passion-forming…)

Everyone who posts will have the opportunity to win a size L “Slytherin” tee shirt that I brought back from Universal Studios (it’s huge–wll make a great sleepshirt!) and a copy of Meg Cabot’s INSATIABLE. I only have one tee shirt (sorry!), and the drawing will be completely random.

After you take a moment to bask in the glow of those golden summer memories, get out there and enjoy those last glorious days of summer!

The contest: Tell us your favorite wedding night story in the comments on Smart Bitches Love Trashy Books (it can be something that happened to you, or someone you know) and 1 winner will be chosen.

The prize: A BED! The winner will receive a $2,000 US gift certificate towards purchasing their own  Tempurpedic.

Hurry over to enter–the comments will close at 11 pm tonight!

There’s one more week of freedom, and summer’s not officially over for several more, so there’s still much fun reading to do before then.  And as I mentioned earlier in the week, after that, we simply move into fun autumn reading.  That’s the best thing about being a bookworm.  You can do it all year!

LEAVING BEFORE IT’S OVER by Jean Reynolds Page is a great book to pick up for the seasonal transition.  It’s all about shifting from one phase of life to another, and it’s about the way families thrust certain situations on us from which we simply cannot walk away.  Page creates the richest, most genuine characters you will come across, and while they are flawed, they are incredibly sympathetic.  LEAVING BEFORE IT’S OVER is a compelling family drama of twin brothers and family estrangement, secrets and lies, love and trust, and the wisdom of children in difficult times.  It’s the teenage children in this story who really see what’s going on, and who are able to pull their struggling family together.  There’s pretty much no way you won’t be moved by Page’s insights in this novel. Whether you’re a mother, a sister, a stepmother, a wife, a grandmother, she will touch us all.

Do you ever think about when you were a kid – and some things in life seemed so clear?

Wicked Delights Of A Bridal Bed

So what do you think? Is it better to find love based on a long-term friendship, one that evolves slowly and deepens with time? Or is love something that needs spontaneity? Is it best only when one feels that sudden crazy love-at-first-sight rush that can sweep two strangers off their feet and into each others arms? How did you find that special person in your life? Did your eyes meet across a crowded room? Or were you friends first, who realized that you were absolutely perfect for each other? Leave a post and let me know what you think.