Shannon here: Contemporary romance author, Traci Tyne Hilton shares her husband’s romantic gesture plus a chance to win four free e-books, including the short story collection, Heart Bouquets which includes her short story, Cupid’s Cappucino. Comment on this post to get your name in the drawing for an e-book copy of Heart Bouquets, Good Clean Murder, Stalking Willow, and Cracks in the Ice. Details on each book are at the end of the post. Here’s Traci:
Love Languages and the Way to a Man’s Heart by Traci Tyne Hilton
Food isn’t listed as an official Love Language in that great book, but I think we all know it is the way to a man’s heart. Since men feel loved when we feed them, we can surmise that they show love by providing for us too, or at least they try!
There was a little restaurant in Portland, back in the day, that was famous for it’s desserts. Rose’s Café. The name alone made the mouths of locals water.
When Daniel, my husband for the last 12 years, and I were college sweet hearts he was new to town, but he lived pretty close to Rose’s. I talked it up, thinking some day we might pop in for some cake.
Eventually he got the hints (they were subtle ones like, “Hey! Rose’s has great cake, wanna go there sometime?”) and took me out for the best dessert in Portland.
The menu’s at Rose’s made me laugh. There are several places to eat in Portland known for their quirky décor (the lamp garden at Pied Cow) or their clever tricks (be careful where you sit at Rimsky-Korsakoffee House!) But I had never heard that the menu’s at Rose’s were one of theses local treasures.
I laughed out loud at some of the menu items (Dobosh Torte: A slueffingly frumpulent little foreign gom grompter ) but when I got to the Punkiest Punkin, I knew something was up. The Punkiest Punkin was called “Daniel’s Favorite.”
Yup. Daniel had gone to Rose’s in advance, asked for a menu, recreated it with a bunch of inside jokes and new ones that would become inside jokes. I ordered the Dobosh Torte that night, and I have to say, it was slueffingly frumpulent!
So much thought went into that evening that saying “it was the thought that counts” feels like an insult. Dessert was great, the company was great, but the thought, and all the work that went into a little night out for some dessert, was what made it great.
I included the story of Daniel’s romantic menu in the 2012 “14 Days of Romance” blog series. Here’s the video where you can see the menu itself and hear a few more of the menu items he came up with: http://youtu.be/TmnG3zmoex4
I stole a little of Daniel’s youthful shenanigans for Marty, the hero of Cupid’s Cappucino. Marty has one last chance to show the girl of his dreams how much he loves her, and he is determined to make his last chance count!
About Traci: Traci Tyne Hilton is the author of The Mitzy Neuhaus Mystery Series, The Plain Jane Mystery Series, and one of the authors in The Tangle Saga series of science fiction novellas. She was the Mystery/Suspense Category winner for the 2012 Christian Writers of the West Phoenix Rattler Contest, a finalist for Speculative Fiction in the same contest, and has a Drammy from the Portland Civic Theatre Guild. Traci serves as the Vice President of the Portland chapter of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association.
Traci earned a degree in History from PortlandStateUniversity and still lives in the rainiest part of the Pacific Northwest with her husband the mandolin playing funeral director, their two daughters, and their dog, Dr. Watson.
More of Traci’s work can be found at http://www.tracihilton.com
About the short story collection: Traci Tyne Hilton’s short romance is, “Cupid’s Cappucino.” Find it in the romance collection. Heart Bouquets at amazon.com!
What do stories about a high school principal with a mean reputation, a doctor searching for his dream car, an ad executive still in love with his ex-wife, a clueless husband, a graduating grad student trying to buy a cup of coffee for his ladylove, and a missionary on furlough have in common? Romance. Authors Marji Laine, Jennifer Fromke, Lynda Schab, Stephanie Craig, Traci Tyne Hilton, and Peggy Cunningham, each give you a unique story: their Heart Bouquets especially for you.
Click on each link to learn about the other e-books up for grabs:
Good Clean Murder
Come back June 17th for Miralee Ferrell!
What a cute story! What a romantic guy! I’d love to win.
What a creative husband! Love to read this book!
The six authors of Heart Bouquets decided to combine the commentors from their posts. Veronica Sternberg won this drawing. I appreciate Traci for being my guest and everyone else for stopping by.