One week to go before DESERT DREAMS!
 I am sitting here on my laptop in the midst of fine tuning a few parts of my manuscript for A Price Above Vengeance. ( I'm beginning to wonder,  are we ever really done? Probably not until I hand it over to the publisher!) I am also working on my "pitch". With my brain still spinning from finishing our taxes at the eleventh hour, I am now struggling to condense 100k words into about 40! Pretty tall order. But when I'm not sure I can  do something, I turn to my friends of like mind --  my writer friends and test readers.
My husband would joke and say I'll use any excuse to meet them for coffee or wine but truly it is the people in my inner circle that get me through the days when I doubt myself. Not sure if that is a writer thing or a woman thing, but I think we all have them. Friends are who we turn to when we need a leg up in life, a fresh perspective, and even a shoulder to cry on -- as well as being able and willing to do the same for them in their time of need -- and we all need it now and then!
I have been called a hopeless romantic, and not just because I write in the romance genre. I've even been accused of being jaded because I've been fortunate enough to be in love with the same man for the last 30 years ( married for almost 27!). Perhaps they are right, but it's important to remember that a good romantic story isn't just about the magic of falling in love and the HEA -- writer lingo for happily ever after. Its all of the in-between -- the cake under the icing  if you will-- even if it's not always as sweet as we would like. Those challenges define our strengths and reveal our weaknesses so that we can become stronger the next time the storm blows our way... and they always do.
In the process of today's edits, I am reminded that, as Adrian and Gwinn are in the midst of a serious confrontation, it is those difficult times that help to build the trust that is the foundation of any relationship -- whether romantic or platonic.
Ultimately it is the people we love that show us by their actions, commitment and of course... LOVE how valuable we are. They help us find and keep our objectivity so that we can (re) focus on the big picture, look back at how far we've come, and envision the brightest future possible.
Hopeless romantic or not, I think it is within each of us to create our own happily ever after by pursuing our Desert Dreams, no matter what they might be.