Over the weekend, my husband had invited a new friend of his and his wife over for dinner. I’d never met this person, so it would be a first introduction kind of thing.

Now, I pride myself on being a pretty decent cook. Nothing fancy, like Martha Stewart, 900 ingredients cooking, but decent, homemade stuff that is rather tasty and delicious.

I wanted to make spaghetti and meatballs. I know, it sounds rather goofy and simple. But this is homemade from start to finish. And absolutely delicious.  The meatballs in the sauce are just divine. And it was not supposed some fancy thing, just a comfortable friend thing.

I made a vat of it. I mean, this huge huge pot of it. Chopped all the onions, added the garlic and all the other spices, sugar, a little salt, etc. Then, I had to bring this big huge pot o’ stuff to a boil. I turned up the heat on the stove to about medium….

And then my husband walked in.

“Come here,” he said, “I want to show you something.”

Stupid me, I followed him into the living room where we started to have a discussion about a bay window that needs replacing.

Suddenly, it was 30 minutes later, and there was smoke in my kitchen! I had burned the sauce.

Something I’d never done…ever.

I tasted it, hoping it was just a momentary blip. But, no, it was too late. It tasted like tomato sauce mixed with charcoal. 2 pounds of ground chuck down the tubes. All that delightful tomato-y goodness, ruined.
And our guests were going to be there in about 15 minutes. Too late to start over. Plus, I didn’t have the heart to try again.

Our solution? Pizza.

Yes, we ordered 3 pizzas. Some dinner.

Next time, I will not leave the sauce unattended. Not even for the spouse.

Today, I have a few more high school crush stories from my contest. Should be good reading, if you are reluctant to start work this Monday morning.

Here’s a couple that should give you a good chuckle:

“His name was Richard but everyone called him Skip - Not sure why but he was hot.  We had a class together called FEAST (Food Education And Service Training) and we ran a restaurant on the school campus.  He was changing his shirt in the office one day and caught me staring at his naked chest.  Boy was I red!  I was really shy back then but have outgrown that since then (Thank heavens!).  I wonder what ever happened to Skip?  I’d love to see if he’s still as hot today as he was back then…..”

- Laura

“My parents used to go to the local Rexall drug store in town (small town north central PA) Sundays after church to buy the two Buffalo NY newspapers.  Roger worked there, and he had his own register for newspapers Sundays, as many of the customers wanted just papers and they didn’t want to slow the line for pharmacy customers.  Of course, I had to be the one to grab and pay for the papers.  For some reason, I wasn’t embarrassed to also buy my 16, Fave, and Tiger Beat mags when we first moved to town, though that ended after 8th grade.  Roger was tall, had shiny brown hair and glasses, a grade ahead of me, and I was far from the only girl in town who had a major crush on him..  However, I was the only one to be mentioned in the school paper’s “page 6″ gossip column as the “southern belle who had eyes for RB.”  We had moved from VA and I still had a bit of the accent I had picked up while we lived there.
~shrug~  Wonder whatever happened to him?”

- Amy

Hope you enjoyed the stories!

I’m about to start the editing work on MOONLIGHTING, so I’ll try to post about that this week. I also have a dreadful dinner party nightmare story to tell. I think I will save that for tomorrow!

I just posted an excerpt for my next book, VARGAS GIRL. The whole first chapter is available under the Excerpts page. VARGAS GIRL will be released from Cobblestone Press on February 29th.

Hope you enjoy it!

Kris

I just got the final cover for MOONLIGHTING, which will be released with The Wild Rose Press soon.

Tomorrow I will post more on this book in the My Books section of my website. For now, you can just check out the hot pic.

Welcome back for some more of my contest entry stories.  Today, I’m going to post those with a little bit of humor to them. Enjoy!

“My high school crush was on Guy Cambell. He was my brothers best friend. Back in grade school he sat behind me always pulling my braids then one day he chose to cut them off. I was in tears. Later that week his mom made him tell me he was real sorry, and at the end of his apology he called me a shrimp, and I was lost in puppy love. When He returns home to visit everyone, he always tells my Hubby we are running of to the ends of the world together..lol.”

- Deb

“Yes I had a crush in High School I had liked him several years , then finally he asked me out I was so excited we dated quite a while & he always told me when I finished High School he would marry me & then one day he got me a Valentines gift & I thought omg, maybe hes going to propose to me I opened it up & it was a ring pop! I was sooo mad…”

- Amber

Ah, young love. 

Kris

Since I had such a great number of entertaining high school crush stories, I thought I would continue to post a few every day. I think it brings back a lot of memories of my idealistic, teenage self who believed in fairy tale romances. You know, the one perfect guy for you kinda thing.

Today, I’m going to post the ones that had great, romantic endings.

“Oh yes, I was smitten in a bad way in high school. He was tall, with rich, black hair and starling blue eyes. I met him in the Fine Arts Club. He was an actor and I was working on scenery. First, we became friends but, over the next 5 years are friendship grew into something much more. He flew out to rescue me when I moved to Omaha but I wasn’t ready to be rescued yet. LOL A year later, he was drafted into the Army (Viet Nam) and he asked me for the third time to marry him. Of course, I said yes. LOL Even though my marriage to him only lasted a few years, I still remember him with great fondness.”

- Sarah

“I went to a different high school my junior and some of my senior year, so my first month there I had a crush on the new guy at the school. He was a transfer student and everyone was talking about him because he was supposed to be a good football player. We ended up becoming good kick it friends, partying and chatting because we took the same bus to school. It sucked because he had a girlfriend and he was the faithful type. We lost touch when I went back to my old school, but a few years later my sister ended up at that school and I saw a guy who looked just like my old crush. Come to find out he was my crushes little brother, so I had him give me his number. I called him up, found out he was single and started dating him . We got married about a year later and are still together now, 6 years. It’s funny seeing things go in full circle.”

- Danette

I thought these were such lovely stories. Tomorrow I’ll post a few of the not-so-happy endings!

We have ourselves a winner! Pam K….you have won a free copy of SNOWDRIFT & a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble. I’ve already contacted you through your email address. Congratulations!

Now, for the best crush story…this was a difficult decision. There were so many fun stories. And I think I might slowly post them over the next week, so that everyone can enjoy.

Here is my favorite answer to the question: Did you ever have a high school crush?

“Yes, I did. Oddly enough, the boy had the same name and looked quite to similar to a man I met years later and married. It’s embarrassing to look back on now, but I was totally tongue-tied around him and I even kept a little notebook listing when I saw him, what he was wearing and what he said. I was on cloud nine for days when he asked me to loan him enough money for a candy bar (he did pay me back.) Of course that brand immediately became MY favorite candy. Hmmm, come to think of it, it still is my favorite after 30 years! :)”

- Cynthya

To me, this story epitomized the secret high school crush - angsy & cute. Plus, the tie in with the real husband. Thanks for sharing, Cynthya!

Now, onto my high school crush, which I drew on for this book.

His name was Corey, and he was 2 years older than I was. His sister was a friend of mine. Not a close friend, but because I had such a crush on this guy, I made it my business to be invited over to her house whenever possible. We would bake cookies and play board games…every now and then Corey would actually join in! Over the years, I spent the night at her house several times (gush!) and once even caught him sunbathing in the backyard (sigh!). The best part was, he was on the water polo team (I grew up in a very warm climate). Talk about a body!

When I was a sophomore and he was a senior, he started to flirt shamelessly with me…massaging my shoulders when we were playing Clue, etc. I was too dumb to get this meant something and that I should maybe get him in a dark corner and jump him. So, I just pined away…making sure we crossed paths in school as much as possible between classes.

The crush came to a crashing halt when he started dating a girl in my class! It was heart-breaking. For the last two years of high school, after he was graduated and gone, I was convinced he would see the err of his ways and track me down.

The end!

Hope you enjoyed it!

Join me tonight in the Cobblestone Press chat room for a chance to win another free copy of SNOWDRIFT and to just have a good time talking about all things romance.

***There still is time to enter my SNOWDRIFT contest. Read the post below this one for details. You have until noon today!***

My book is on the sales page this morning. How exciting! And tonight I’ll be joining the Cobblestone Chat…be sure to stop by. I’ll be giving away another copy of SNOWDRIFT. So if you don’t win my contest, you have another chance to win.

This book was a ton of fun to write. I had this idea, but no characters. And when I started writing, I uncovered Piper and Jacob little by little. Drawing a bit on my own crush experience. If you come back later today when I announce the winner of the contest, I’ll share my crush story and my favorite from the entries I’ve received.

I’ll give you a few hints about my crush: I was shy, he was a friend’s older brother, and he was on the water polo team. Sigh.

Hello, everyone. Today is the day I kick off my SNOWDRIFT contest. Since my story is about a fifteen-year-old high school crush, I thought I would include that theme into the contest. Have fun!

The rules are as follows:

Send an email to kriseton@gmail.com with your name and the answer to the following question:

Did you ever have a crush in high school?

Feel free to give me the details of your crush. I’ll be choosing the winner randomly using Random.org, but I will post the best high school crush story on Friday along with the name of the winner. (the story does not determine who wins)

I will contact the winner by email on Friday some time after noon EST. You will need to give me your mailing address, so that I can mail the gift card. Your copy of SNOWDRIFT will be emailed directly in your preferred format.

You can enter only once. The contest will run until Friday at noon.

Good luck!

***UPDATE***

1/15/08 - I’m getting some GREAT stories, everyone. Thanks so much for sharing them with me. This has probably been the most fun I’ve ever had with a contest. I can’t wait to post the results on Friday. Keep those entries coming!

Last night before I went to bed, I did one last check of my email (I’m pretty fanatical about my email). And there was an announcement to the writers at Cobblestone about the February release dates.

I clicked on it and then did a double-take.

My name was at the bottom of the list! VARGAS GIRL, the book I thought was coming out in March, is now going to be released on February 29th!

Could I have a cooler release date than that?

Since I was born in February, it’s always been my favorite month. It’s so unique. 28 days. And the occasional 29th day. Valentine’s Day.

When I was a kid I wished I could have been born on the 29th (although I wasn’t born in a Leap Year, so that would have been kinda impossible). To have a birthday only once every 4 years. I imagined celebrating those other birthdays at midnight between February 28th and March 1st.

But now my book gets a special release date. That’s almost as good!

Anyone out there do anything special on February 29th?