A Lot Can Happen in 17 Years

By Maureen Bonatch 

The 17-year cicadas have emerged in my area of Pennsylvania with a vengeance. I’d never really thought much about these winged insects that are sometimes referred to as a locust, and look a bit like a red-eyed grasshopper until they came out whining their shrill mating call that we hear from our home all day long.

The cicada’s lifespan is relatively short once they emerge from the ground, about 4-6 weeks, and the next big batch of them won’t return for another 17 years.

17 years.

That’s a long time when you think about taking that long to develop just to release into the world. A little over seventeen years ago my twins were born. They graduate high school this week—ready to shed the shell of their teenage years and emerge into the world as young adults.

Trying out their caps and gowns

 

That, and the occasional hum of chatter between the twins that’s difficult for anyone to differentiate outside of teenage ears, are the only obvious characteristics between them and the cicadas. 

My twins are ready to start the next chapter of their story, while the mass quantities and volume of cicadas has many wondering about theirs.

As a native Pennsylvanian…

…I assumed most were familiar with cicadas, but when I asked others if they’d heard them and seen them, many—some not far from my house, but not in as wooded of an area—had not. Most found it interesting since it’s kind of a once-in-17-years kind of thing. 

So as some of my family gathered for a picnic last week, surrounded by the whine of cicadas that had my author’s brain whirring with stories of alien invasions, or other potential sci-fi stories featuring red-eyed creatures, we pondered just what the winged insect’s story. 

Here’s some information if you want to learn more about cicadas. Plus check out the video below of the sound of the cicadas from our deck (and the chatter of some of my family in the background).

As a romance writer …

…it seemed bittersweet that the cicada would emerge from the ground after 17-years to sing their mating song, lay their eggs, only to die a few weeks later. Hopefully they find that special someone who made it worth emerging from their underground home.

What’s Going on in Your Neck of the Woods?

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook & Twitter

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Everlasting Love and Romance Supernatural Style

In ninth grade one of my assignments in English class was to read Romeo and Juliet—loved it!Then we watched the movie during class—also fabulous!I might have been one of the few students in the

class to be thrilled with the assignment and love every minute of the movie. 

Despite a true love of paranormal and the supernatural, there’s just something about a story of never-ending love. 

Therefore, when I find an awesome paranormal /supernatural everlasting love story, I’m buying the VHS tape…and then I’m buying the DVD/Blue-Ray once VHS players bit the dust just like my copy of… 

Bram Stocker’s Dracula.

A Horrific Romance

Sure, this film based on the novel by Bram Stocker is listed as a 1992 American Gothic Horror Story, but to me it’s truly the supernatural version of Romeo and Juliet, a story about true love. And even though I’m all for a love story between Johnathan (can you say Keanu?) and Mina, by the end, I totally felt for Vlad, I.e.: Count Dracula. This is saying a lot when most of the movie depicts Vlad appearing about four centuries old, and the centuries hadn’t been kind. 

This Dracula wouldn’t fit in with the sexy, vampires of Twilight. Perhaps in his time boasting a hairstyle uncannily resembling one’s pale, white buttocks was in style, and it appeared as if his nails hadn’t seen a manicure, well—ever. 

But the way the film subtly allowed the love story to grow… a few words, a look, a gentle touch. Granted there was the whole Dracula turning into a hairy werewolf-like monster, and some blood—he is a vampire after all, and it is considered horror, but I thought the love story was so spectacular that I watch it again and again.

Then how once Mina realized she discovered he was her true love from centuries past she certainly displayed how true love can be blind, and everlasting (again, keep in mind she was giving up her fiancé—Keanu).

Runner-Up Ghostly Love

My runner-up paranormal love story would be the 1990 Romantic Fantasy Thriller, Ghost. 

There’s some fun comedy thrown in, but the scenes of the ache of love lost and how their love didn’t die with death—well, put it this way, I can’t listen to songs from the soundtrack without tearing up, and the scene where they must ‘push a penny’…sniff…

if you’ve watched the movie you probably remember. I’ve watched this movie more times than I can count, but if it’s on, I’m watching. 

Do You Have a Favorite Supernatural/Paranormal Love Story?

P.S. Today is my day at the The Romance Reviews Sizzling Summer Reads Party. 

It's going on the whole month of June with tons of fun and prizes, but you can check out my game today!

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook& Twitter

When the Story Is There...and When It's Not...

I am one of those people that when you tell me to do something, I'm all on it. Right there, I'll get it done. Why? Because I hate having things linger. Well, some things. Kisses should linger. Good stories should linger. To do lists? Those shouldn't linger.

I have a reminder set up every month to let me know that it's my turn to blog here at Paranormal Romantics. It's quite nice. Plus, then I can't say I forgot.

But stories are a little different. I like to write more than one at a time. That's great because when one story stops flowing, I let it simmer and move on to another one. That works well, until both stop. Then it's like the train coming off the tracks. Anyone have that happen? You're chugging along nicely and then...WHAM! Nothing.

I'm kinda there. Kinda because I have one story that needs to be done. Its due for a January release (I think), but there's one scene I keep seeing, but when I sit down to write it...it's not happening. That wouldn't be a deal if the deadline wasn't there.

Oh and there's another story brewing. Yep. But where the one is MF, the other is MM and I don't know about you, but that takes a bit of switching gears for me. The characters are totally different, the settings aren't the same and well, two men together don't romance like a guy and a girl. A girl, or at least in the case of these two stories, the girl isn't like the two guys in the MM story. Nope. Total game change. So...

One story is all there. While the other is sort of there. One scene from being done, there. I know, I know. What a problem to have...two stories at the same time. Quit complaining, right? I'm not complaining, just asking if anyone else has these issues? As much as they can be a pain, they're rather nice problems to have. I'd rather have the stories in my head, instead of none at all. That would totally suck. So let me know. Am I alone in this? No? Yes? Hush? Let me know.

~

Want to know more about Wendi Zwaduk? Here you go:

I always dreamt of writing the stories in my head. Tall, dark, and handsome heroes are my favorites, as long as he has an independent woman keeping him in line. I earned a BA in education at Kent State University and currently hold a Masters in Education with Nova Southeastern University.

I love NASCAR, romance, books in general, Ohio farmland, dirt racing, and my menagerie of animals. I also write under the pen name of Megan Slayer. I’m published with Total-E-Bound, Changeling Press, Liquid Silver Books, Turquoise Morning Press, Decadent Publishing and The Wild Rose Press. Come join me for this fantastic journey!

If you like my work, tell your friends and email me. I love hearing from readers!

Site: http://wendizwaduk.com/

Blog: http://wendizwaduk.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WendiZwaduk

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wendi.zwaduk

Fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wendi-Zwaduk/195277927167481?ref=tn_tnmn

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/wendizwaduk

In Praise of Real Life Love

Real love versus the stuff we make up…

For a while now, I thought I would do a blog post on real love, you know the kind we find out there as we go along in our lives, versus the stuff we writers make up in the stories that float around in our heads.

I can’t help it. I’m a romantic. One of the first things I always ask someone when I’m first meeting them is how they met their significant other. I really love those stories. For the sake of disclosure, I’ll tell you how I met mine: at Tulane Law School. Not very romantic when I put it like that right? But how about if I elaborate a little bit? I had moved from my northern existence to the great state of Louisiana, specifically to the Big Easy, to go to Law School. This was a big move for me. I was (gasp) twenty-two years old, straight out of my undergraduate existence (which was at a wonderful, but small college) of about 2000 people.

So the move to New Orleans was deliberately on my part a really big deal. I knew if I didn’t go, I would live within two hours of where I was born for my entire life and the last thing I wanted to do while I was in law school was to live (gasp again) with my parents.

My husband is New Orleans born and bred, with a brief jaunt over to Texas to go to college. He loves (as do I) New Orleans and would have been happy (as would I) to have lived his whole life on the shores of the Mississippi River. Anyhow, my second or third weekend in town, I went with a group of law students over the Biloxi, Mississippi to go gambling. It was three women and three men and we had two hotel rooms. By the end of the evening everyone had coupled off except me because I was not interested in coupling with the man who was interested in coupling with me. We drove home in my little Subaru with New Jersey license plates in the middle of the night. For the record, one of those couples that formed that weekend are now married and living in Florida so I, as a lover of romance, am not upset by the turn of events that weekend.

Especially, because as I decided I better find new friends, I would later that week hone in on my future husband’s (if he had been in Biloxi, Mississippi with us I would have felt differently about the whole trip. Needless to say, I had a crush on him from the moment I saw him in Contracts class) plans to visit an art gallery with his group of friends who did not go to law school with us. To make a long story short, I was late to meet them, he was leaving when I got there, and anyone who knows me knows I am almost never late. There is a lot more to this story. How could there not be? I dropped out of law school nearly a year later but didn’t leave New Orleans because I wanted to be him. We were married two years later and we have three children now and we’re back living less than two hours from where I grew up.

So knowing how all of my friends met their significant others, I decided to question all the writers I know on how they met theirs. See, this is fascinating to me, because we as Romance writers, spend a ton of time obsessing over the ‘meet.’ How the couple that will be our hero and heroine is hugely important. Not surprising, everyone has a great story. (My CP wrote letters with her husband, isn’t that romantic? Sigh. Husband are you reading this? Love letters…LOL. I joke. We have a twelve-week-old baby at home. No one is sleeping, let alone writing letters.)

Anyhow, what I found was that everyone has these great romantic stories that are so fantastic that if I put them in books the editors would tell me they weren’t believable AND I write paranormal so that’s saying something.

So I called this Blog today In Praise of Real Live Love because, even as I had assumed that real life love stories I would hear would be less interesting than the ones I read and write about, I found it to be just the opposite case. Fiction has nothing on Real Life in the Love Department.

How did you meet you significant other? Want to tell me? Is your love timeless?

Comment today. One lucky commentator will win a copy of Love Beyond Time, available now from Eirelander Publishing.

RR