Synopsis of "Greener Pastures" - Tracy lives in what people call a mansion, but the cold marble symbolizes her life—frigid and lonely.  Her husband is always away on business trips and ‘working late.’ She is left with her two girls—a preschooler and a teenager.

On her daughter’s thirteenth birthday, they make plans to stay at the Lazy ‘R’ ranch.  Riding horses and cooking campfire éclairs is on the menu.  Her husband never shows up like he promised and this leaves her and her children in the care of a six-foot four rancher who has eyes the color of the clouds before a tornado.  His calloused hard working hands are gentle and caring.  His baggy overalls have charm.  The old farm gravel road their black Mercedes turned down is symbolic of where her life begins to take her.  The ups and downs are difficult, but if you ride them out---you might come out dirty but find the most beautiful place in the world.  Tracy discovers that her husband isn’t always where he says he is and that love sometimes is found in Greener Pastures.

August Romantic tip (use at your own risk) - I love to cook. One thing I found is especially sweet and cute is making breakfast in bed for your loved one.  Start by making pancakes from scratch and dye the pancake their favorite color (red is cute because it is the color of love).  Then you have several choices.  You can make round pancakes and then put them on a plate using two for eyes and one for a nose. Put whip cream on the eyes and stick a grape in each pile of whip cream representing the eyeball and you can use strawberries for the mouth (cut up) or you can use whip cream for the mouth and put a strawberry for the tongue. This is a smiley face breakfast that is sure to bring a smile to your loved one.  Remember, romance doesn't always have to lead to the bedroom it can just lead to a smile....

Have the rest of the breakfast tray filled with coffee or freshly squeezed orange juice (yes the extra mile is appreciated) and if you really want to go all out you can use bacon for the hair on your happy face.  Some might think this is pretty odd meal for an adult, but be honest...isn't there a kid in all of us that could use a smile :)

Note: a variation to this is cut the circles for the eyes into hearts (use a heart cookie cutter or just do your best with a knife to cut the heart) and this gives it a little bit of an extra lovely feel.

Enjoy a day feeling closer because you started the day off on a good and happy note.

May your days and nights be filled with romance,

P.S. For those of you who are keeping track of my personal success in weight loss...I am down 36 pounds and sometimes 38 pounds. The picture on my website is the before picture (at 245) and I hope to have the current picture up soon to show my progress towards my goal of losing 70 pounds.  I am doing this for my two girls who depend on a healthy and not tired mother.  Here's to the goal and to my kids!  Keep logging on to my website and checking out the progress.

Stacey Lynn Schlegl
www.SLSromance.com
"Wishing" - soft back Roseheart Publishing
"Preconceived Notions" - soft back Publish America
"Greener Pastures" - Soft back Roseheart Publishing available to preorder now
"The Defense" e-book by Aspen Mountain Press
"Dreaming in Raindrops" Due out Dec. 2007 hard back
"Little Frog" soft back children's book by Cypress imprint Oct 2007