Bridesmaids and the One Year Anniversary of Something New

Today I’m kicking off a bridesmaids blog hop with some very cool writers whom I’d be happy to have in my wedding party. We’re doing the hop in celebration of the one year anniversary of Dani Stone’s NEXT LEFT and my SOMETHING NEW, which both feature a bridesmaid theme. Before Thanksgiving, we’re giving away a bridesmaids DVD collection to one lucky reader so pop over to the Rafflecopter tab on Facebook to find out how to enter. The more “hopping'” you do, the better your chances. What’s better than love? Nothing. But if you had asked me that as a child, I would’ve pushed up my glasses on my nose and told you to keep it.

As a child of divorce —combined a healthy dose of abandonment issues and anxiety— I feared romantic love , or more like I distrusted the permanence of it. I thought it was a bunch of hooey. Magnum PI kissing girls. A Love Boat cruise. A Fantasy Island getaway. A Days of Our Lives soap opera? Absolutely. But foreeeever? Ha!

While my grandparents who raised me stayed together, their three sons all divorced, again and again. Not only did I declare to my family that I never wanted to get married, but that I would likely have children without the help of a spouse. (I did know the parts required.)

Dating was a journey of, “wonder when this will end?” (Positive, huh?)

But what I never feared, never distrusted, was the love of my girlfriends. Thing is, I would stand up for love for them any day. I would never tell a friend to be leery of love. I want the happy ending for them, too. Most of my friends are still married after more than a dozen years together. (And my 20th anniversary to Rod Lott is next June. I’m glad I didn’t just use him for his parts.)

I’m certain the enigma of love and relationships helped form the writer I became. I have a need to tell happy endings. I feel compelled to share the grief and the journey to a better place. It’s not only salve for my soul, but rose petals of words longing to be tossed along the way. Something New is a love story told from the points of view of two sisters (one a bride to be and the other her maid of honor), the divorcing mother and the widowed grandmother, who has dementia and keeps talking about her long lost love. While searching for her love, the women find their own love along the way. They each must give up something – pride, money, resistance – to really let love in. Love is tricky that way.

Here’s to love, commitment and the long haul.

Get Something New here and Next Left here.

Next up on the hop is Next Left author Dani Stone on Monday, Nov. 4th so visit her blog then and we’ll keep refilling your champagne glass with tales of bridesmaids past. And the song Tina and I sang at her rehearsal party was You’re the One That I Want.

Throwback bridesmaid gallery! Since one of the movies we are giving away is My Best Friend’s Wedding, I thought I’d show you a couple pics of Tina Moore McGarry and I back in ’95 and us a year earlier at my ’94 wedding. Ah, those shoulder pads in my jacket!