Kiss Kiss Kiss

Ahhh Valentine's Day.  What is it that makes you love (or hate) the day so much?  I am like so many others, I've had my fragile love affair with V-Day.

Whether single or in a relationship (depending on where I am in a love affair,) I've attended the all black affairs, had the ladies' night out, curled up on my sofa with my lover, or just watched a movie with a bottle of wine.

But, why does Valentine's Day hold such an elite place in all our hearts?

Historically, the significance and origin of Valentine's Day is a bit scrambled to say the least.  Depending on which tale you choose to believe, maybe the day birthed from the tales of Chaucer, or they mark the history of one of the several historical figures (that can be found) who carried the name Valentine at a point in history that fits with the timeline of the holiday.  Who knows, the day has been added and removed from calendars throughout history.

What makes us treasure: hearts, birds, red, white as it relates to Valentine's Day?

Does this look familiar:

The rose is red, the violet's blue,

The honey's sweet, and so are you.

Thou are my love and I am thine;

I drew thee to my Valentine...

(I thought I thought of this as a kid..BRILLIANT! No, Gammer Gurton Garland, or any one of a number of poets before or after him who loved this particular form of poetry.)

Share some of your beautiful Valentine's Day poems with me.  I'd love to read them.

Conquering your fears...

What does it mean?

Does it mean to completely eradicate any and all apprehension you may have at the simple of thought of something?  Or does it mean to peacefully exist with that slightly irrational piece of yourself?  Is it even irrational?

Lots of people fear:
-heights
-water
-public speaking
-the dark

Me...what is my fear you ask?  Bridges.  There was a time when I thought they were beautiful...truly architectural wonders.  Then, there was a time when I preferred to look vs. drive over them.  Then, it turned into only driving over them at night.

Now, it's freaking maddening.  The idea of driving over one a year from now would have me researching ways to avoid driving over it ;-)  I simply don't understand where it came from.

Fast forward, for work, I had to drive from Tennessee to Arkansas.  In order to do that, I had to drive across this...

...and not at night!

So, as I researched flights, trains, buses, etc. I really took a look at myself, and wondered just how far I was willing to go to avoid driving over that freaking bridge.

Finally, I decided that was a far as I would go.  Why spend hundreds of dollars on anything, when I could simply hop in my car and go.  Did I mention that the train would take 10 hours, and that it cost $300 one way!  By car, two hours and a tank of gas.

I threw my suitcase in the car, grabbed my phone, and headed for that $#@! bridge!

Have you ever in life felt like something literally crawled up your leg, slinked up your back, and some way wormed it's way into your heart, and slowly squeezed?

Well, I have, and it's not fun...not at all.

But, happy dance time, I FREAKING DID IT!  YES YES YES.  And not only did I do it once...I did it TWICE!

I haven't conquered it, but...it hasn't conquered me!

Have you ever had to fight against a crippling fear? (I hope you won.)

Congratulations Michelle!

Thank you to everyone who hopped along with us on Friday, January 13th!

I hopped along with you because there were so many great authors, and I wanted to reacquaint myself with a lot of them.  Some were new to me and, of course, that made my "to be read" list grew!

I don't know why, but that freaking list never seems to go down.  Every time one drops off, there are so many more added.

At the moment, I'm going through a non-fiction phase, so it might take me a while to get through the backlog on my Kindle!

But, anyway, that brings me to my announcement...

The winner of the Kindle from the Friday, January 13th blog hop is...Michelle Bledsoe!


Congratulations Michelle!  Thank you for hopping along with us, and joining in on the fun.

Blog Hopping Friday

Blog Hoppers...

If you're staring at the big eyeball in the other post, I guess you're asking yourself..."What is Angela doing?" Yeah, yeah, I know.  I don't write horror, but this blog hop is made up of authors from all genres, so I guess you'll just have to hop along to meet us all, and get to know a little more about us all.

If you dropped by my site before you began the hop, start here:

I hope that you will drop by my contest page to enter my January contest!

If you've clicked through the other sites, click the button below for your next stop.

Friday, January 13th Blog Hop

Blogging at Coffee Time Romance

I'm blogging all day over at Coffee Time Romance's Coffee Thoughts.

I've chatted several times at CTR, and loved it!  This time, I'm doing something a little different, and I hope that you guys will pop by and join me for a few hours.

Blogging with Jessica Chambers

Thursday, November 18th I will be visiting with Jessica Chambers. Please drop by, and leave a comment.


Check out this review of her debut novel available from Red Rose Publishing.

•"This book has romance, suspense, along with a little thrill. There is no way you can be disappointed in this book." ~ The World of Books Reviews

Blogging with Lisa Leibow

All day, I will be the guest of fellow Red Rose Publishing author, Lisa Leibow. I will be discusing writing influences in my life.

Also, I've added a little contest. Visit www.AngelaKayAustin.com, and look for the Blogging with Lisa Leibow tab for more details.

Blogging with Kim Smith at Bookmadness

Please join me at Kim Smith's www.Bookmadness.wordpress.com as I discuss writing through emotion. During this economic season, so many of us have so much on our plates that sometimes we just can't focus.

Join me as I discuss some of the ways I've found helpful to battle this nagging problem.