Sweethearts Candy

My fondest memories of Valentine's Day are from elementary school. Of course, I'm old enough to remember Valentine's Day parties and the little valentines you gave to your classmates. I have fond memories of going through my valentines to see what everyone wrote on the cards, looking for that special person in your class.  Every year someone would give you a little box of Sweethearts, the heart-shaped candies with sayings on them.  I remember putting a Kiss Me heart on the desk of a little boy that I liked in the third grade. He was my first boyfriend until Susan, that naughty nine-year old temptress, lured him away.

For fun, I thought I would see if I could find some history on how these candies were created. Wikipedia had a full page devoted to these cute little candies. They began in 1847 when Oliver Chase invented a machine that cut lozenges from wafer candy. He built a candy factory and his brother, Daniel made a stamp that you could press into the candy with different sayings. At that time, the candies were made for weddings and had some unique sayings.  The heart-shaped candies that we know didn't get their start until 1901. Every year, Necco produces over 100,000 pounds of hearts each day from February through mid January.  In 1990, the company that owns the candies updated the sayings.

Curious to see what the updated sayings were, I bought a bag of Sweethearts. Now, I have an extremely busy life, but I decided I would write down all the sayings in that bag of candy. There were 56 different sayings, which I'm not going to bore you with here, but I'll give you the ones that I don't remember and thought were unique. So here they are: Game on, Reach 4 It, Race Me, Friend Me, Let's Ride, Hey Babe, Time 2 Dance, Shake It, UR Hot, UR It, Wink Wink, Soul Mate and Text Me! Glad to see the candy makers are keeping up with the times, though Race Me is kind of strange? Race me to the bedroom?

Receiving a Valentine is always fun and every year my husband gives me a sweet card, candy and or flowers. This day we all celebrate love with our significant others, our children and family. As Romance Readers and Writers, this day is made just for us and this year I decided to participate in a Valentine's Day anthology.

 

What if you grew up in a town called Cupid, Texas and you ran away when you were eighteen to keep the boy you love, from making the colossal mistake of marrying you? Now ten years later you're returning for your best-friend's wedding and will see him for the first time. Game on, in Cupid, Texas, where Wink Wink, UR Hot meets Soul Mate.

So what is your most memorable Valentine's Day? Was it flowers, candy or just a sweet card from the man who makes you smile and warms your heart?

Anyone who leaves a comment today, will have a chance to receive a free book.  If you sign up for the blog, you have not one but entries.  I love hearing from you, so please leave a comment.

  

Reunion Stories

Contemporary Romance - Reunion Stories

Do you love a good reunion story? Recently a lady at my day job, whose husband had passed away, was contacted by a man she dated in high school. They went out to dinner, caught up on what had happened to them in the last forty years. During dinner, he told her after high school graduation, he went into the military. On his first leave, he intended to ask her to marry him and become an army wife. Eager to reunite with her, he went to her home, only to learn she'd married and moved to California.  Now forty years later, they are dating and are engaged to be married.

A good reunion story always has built in conflict. Maybe they were attracted, but one wasn't ready for a commitment. Maybe something is keeping them from being together, like a parent or a job or location. Maybe there's a secret that can't be revealed at the moment, but years later they're ready to deal with the problem.

In any sub-genre of romance, you can use reunion stories. In contemporary romance, they are often used for the secret baby plot, mistaken identity or something brings them back to the small town where they grew up where the hero/heroine still resides. These are some of the standard plot lines used in contemporary romance. If you take this plot line, add an unusual twist, along with strong writing skills, you're a candidate for Harlequin/Silhouette.

Small contemporary romance is usually a quick read. The story is fast-paced, and in the 250 pages, you have to take your characters from dislike with interest to madly in love and ready for their happily ever-after. Your conflict should be strong, yet resolvable in those short pages.

How many of us have thought about old boyfriends and wondered if we saw them today, would we consider them? My first love in high school was a boy who broke my heart. Today, he's been married five times, and I thank my lucky stars we parted ways. 

With reunion books, there is built in sexual attraction. Most of the time, they've been intimate with one another and remember what it was like to be with that person.  And usually, some significant conflict tore them apart.

In My Sister's Boyfriend, she traded places with her twin sister and went out on a date with her sister's boyfriend. Things went further than she intended that night and she gave him her virginity in the back seat of his Mustang. Now fifteen years later, she comes face-to-face with him once again. Will he 

realize it was her all those years ago and not her sister?

So do you enjoy reunion stories as much as I do? Tell me some of your favorites.