Authors After Dark Spotlight: Jade Lee

Author Jade Lee is here today with a beautiful guest post as part of my Authors After Dark author spotlight series. Read all about AAD and all the featured author guest posts/interviews here.

Since February is the month of love, I asked Jade to write about romance and she surprised me with this post about love & real life. The kind of love that endures even though it's not always pretty and perfect.

Jade Lee:

FEELING ROMANTIC? HAHAHAHAHA!

Well, it’s FEBRUARY! Now to most people in my world, it means that we are still a month away from anything resembling spring. Another month of bitter winds, icy roads, and white crap that quickly turns to dirty crap all over my lawn and driveway.

However, because of Valentine’s Day, February has become a month of what I call: I want to feel FEEL romantic. I want that first rush of anxiety, terror, and absolute thrill that came with my first kiss. I want to experience again realizing that this guy–this goofy, funny, great guy–is THE ONE for me. Forget how it eventually turned out, I remember the awe of thinking, OMG, is he it? Is he the one I’m going to build a life with? Then there are other romantic moments throughout our last 25 years. My husband was so thrilled when I told him I was pregnant with our first child that he picked me up and swung me around in the air. He’s not a demonstrative guy, so this was huge. Then there was a moment a few years ago when I realized, even despite the kids, the drama, the sometimes horror of living together, I still loved him! I wanted to empty nest with him. I wanted to sit next to him watching tv, movies, our grandchildren, whatever, for the rest of my life. Wow, was that a romantic moment!

So here I am, trying to talk about February romance, and I’m thinking: Did he empty the dishwasher? He’s about to go grocery shopping, did I give him the list? And wow, do his farts smell BAD! Where is the room for romance in that?

Well, its in the little moments, of course. In the fact that he IS going grocery shopping because I can’t face it at the moment. Because he WILL empty the dishwasher. And because we will share some movie tonight and it’ll be terrible or fabulous or something in the middle, but we’ll share it together. And sometimes, the watching the bad together is more fun than watching the good. (We saw The Hulk last night and had a great deal of discussion about it!)

So what’s my point? I don’t really have a great one. Just that I love my husband. I don’t need a month to remember that. I just need to stop and think what my life would be without him. LONELY, that’s what. Plus, I’d have to do my own taxes, and that sucks!

But what about all that FEELING of romance? Well, honestly, if I want to relive the joys of that first kiss, of the first moment we made love, and that first time I thought, is this it? I’ll turn to a romance novel. Maybe you’ll turn to the first book in my new series: Wedded in Scandal. It’s about four women in the regency period who run a bridal salon. You can get the prequel novella for FREE just by clicking here.

But forget that. Tell me what makes you feel romantic? And are you still in love with your SO even if he doesn’t risk life and limb to save you from an evil villain? Maybe he just takes out the garbage and does the taxes.

Karen: Thank you for stopping by today Jade. I love this post as a woman married for 25 years this March. It really is the small gestures throughout the year rather than the slaying of dragons that makes me feel romantic.

A USA Today Bestseller, JADE LEE has been scripting love stories since she first picked up a set of paper dolls. Ball gowns and rakish lords caught her attention early (thank you Georgette Heyer), and her fascination with the Regency began. And as a Taurus, she lives to pit a headstrong woman against a tortured hero just to watch them butt heads on the way to true love. Flesh wounds are rare, but the healing and laughter are real.
Now an author of more than 30 romance novels, she finally gets to set these couples in the best girl-heaven of all: a Bridal Salon! This way she gets to live out all her wedding fantasies, one by one. (Let’s be honest, what girl has only one idea for her dream wedding?) For more on the Bridal Favors series, visit Jade on the web, Facebook, Twitter
And don’t forget Jade’s other name, KATHY LYONS. That’s Jade’s lighter, contemporary side. She writes for Harlequin Blaze merging hawt sex and funny relationships into really great reads. Visit her on the web at Kathy Lyons.