JENN McKINLAY'S NEWS

Welcome to my sporadic newsletter. I’m so glad you’re here!

Marriage. After the “I dos” are said in front of witnesses, nothing is quite what you expected when you went skipping down the aisle in your big white meringue of a dress, gazing into the eyes of your Prince Charming as if he was the greatest thing since the invention of voice texting, is it? Within days, weeks, months (if you’re lucky) cap-on-seat-down-stop-hogging-the-bedcovers issues begin to wiggle in between you and your spouse like the puppy or kitten you thought would be a great idea to adopt three months into your marriage. After cleaning up after said fur baby for the millionth time, you start looking at your partner as if you never really knew him at all. What? Just me?

Hub and I were married after sixteen months of dating. When it’s right, it’s right. Right? Needless to say, we each brought a lengthy back story to the marriage, but that was okay because our mantra from day one was “Love Conquers All.” And it did conquer all, taking on a mortgage, puppy adoption, birthing two hooligans (mostly me), several years of coaching little league (mostly him), a recession that came with unexpected career changes, parent teacher meetings that were, oh, let’s go with “enlightening”, a handful of midnight emergency trips to the children’s hospital, vacations where we looked like pack mules as we ran through the airport together with enough stuff strapped to our bodies, including hooligans, to survive a zombie apocalypse, and one particularly scary flight where we were sure we were going to die. The hooligans were the only people on that plane whooping it up like they were riding a bucking bronco, the rest of us were just trying not to throw up.

Those are just a few blips on the highlight reel, there is more, so much more, but that’s not the point, if I even have a point, which is always debatable. In a nutshell, marriage is hard, wicked hard. It has ups and downs and spin you arounds and then one day, you look at your Hub and realize you have been with this person for a third of your life, and it’s been the best third of your life—yes, even with the downs—and you want to celebrate. So, what do you do? Well, if you’re me, you ask your Hub to elope to Las Vegas with you and renew your fifteen-year wedding vows in a pink Cadillac with your hooligans as witnesses and Elvis officiating, because…Elvis. So, that’s what we did.

A photo or it didn’t happen:

And so it was fifteen years to the day at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, that Hub and I renewed our vows, promising again to love each other for as long as we both shall live. The Hooligans witnessed it, Elvis sang, we all danced, and later there was a chocolate fountain and cake! No, I did not do all this just for cake, even though some people might suspect as much. And, yes, I did plan on writing an elopement into my cupcake bakery mystery series and, sure, a lot of research was done on the trip, but still, I got to marry my Prince Charming for the second time, which reminded us both that all of the cap-on-seat-down-stop-hogging-the-bedcovers stuff is totally worth it.

Was it ridiculous? Oh, yes. Was it hilarious? Yep, that, too. Was it joyous? Very much so. Was it one of the best days ever? Totally. The thing about renewing our vows with our children beside us was that we got to relive one of the best days of our life with the people who matter most. Plus, weddings are stressful but elopements are easy-peasy. I highly recommend it!

So, now Hub and I are cruising up on almost thirty years married, we’ve passed the twenty-five year anniversary, and I’m thinking we’re do for another big to-do. The question is what should we do? Renew our vows before jumping out of a plane? Anyone who knows the Hub knows this is NOT happening unless I sedate him, heavily. Hike out onto an icy glacier like Matanuska in Alaska and exchange vows with chattering teeth and frost on our eyelashes? Hmm, we’re Arizona desert people. I’m not sure our blood is thick enough for that. Get scuba certified and renew our vows under water with the sharks? Anyone who knows me knows that is NOT happening—not even with heavy sedation. Maybe we should coordinate a flash mob at Disneyland? Hmm…Jenn is thinking…always a scary situation.

So, tell me, Readers, what would you do for a vow renewal or was once more than enough?

We are five days from the adaptation of my novel PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA airing on the HallmarkPlus channel on July 30th. Right now, you can get a subscription for 50% off use the code STREAM4SUMMER. And if you want to read the book first, the e-book is only $5.99 Click HERE.

And, of course, I’m still enjoying the release of this summer’s beach read THE SUMMER SHARE, set in the Outer Banks, featuring a Great Dane named Dude, with a heroine and hero who unknowingly inherit the same beach house. Go get it HERE!

And for those of you who can’t wait for it to be October (I hear you, it’s 115 today is AZ), I have my second fantasy novel WITCHES OF QUESTIONABLE INTENT coming on Nov 10th!

Last newsletter I offered up a Paris bookmark to a randomly chosen commenter and the winner is…

Congrats, Ricki! Message me and I’ll mail your bookmark!

Since I have a few left, let’s do it again! Another lucky reader will win an exclusive Paris bookmark. Simply, leave a comment on this post and you’re entered! Good Luck!