Feeling Thankful

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on the things we're thankful for. As always, I am thankful for a forgiving God, good friends and my wonderful, supportive family. I'm also thankful to be cancer free. December will be my second anniversary as a breast cancer survivor. Yay me! I'm also very thankful that after 13 years of writing, I will finally see my name in print on something other than the editorial page of my hometown newspaper.

OUT OF THE DARKNESS is still slated for a June 18, 2010 release date.

I'm also thankful for the men and women serving in our armed forces who sacrifice so much for our freedom.

My son-in-law is in the army and he recently completed a brief tour in Romania. Before his tour, I never knew much about the country other than the things I learned about it while researching vampires. But I've since learned the Romanian Parliament building in Bucharest is the second largest building in the world.

The country has also made strides toward economic and political reform since the fall of the iron curtain.
It's located North of the Balkan Peninsula on the Black Sea, so there are beaches in Romania, and I'm a big fan of beaches.

And after seeing some of my son-in-law's pictures, it's hard to remember that this is the country where the darkest of vampire legends was born. Like most European countries, modern architecture coexists beside historical structures from bygone eras.

There are bustling cities and lush green fields. But it's the pictures of these lonely pastures that inspired my imagination. I picture the pastures at night under a full moon. A woman traveling alone experiences car trouble. She can't get a cell phone signal. And a tall, dark-haired handsome stranger stops to offer his assistance. She's immediately drawn to him. His dark, hypnotic eyes. His alluring, old-world charm. He exudes sex appeal like an expensive fragrance. He's incredibly sexy and impossible to resist. Is it just a coincident that his family hails from Wallachia?