Thanks Michelle!

This has been so great. Michelle, you and the Bellas treat me and my ladies so well, and we do appreciate it. I'm going to close down shop for the evening. I know that there are Blanders on the west coast that may weigh in later so I'll stop in sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, I hope everyone will pick up my teen books Belle and Josephine, and my latest "big girls" release Bring on the Blessings. Again thanks for having me. Be blessed. B

Beverly, I'm so glad you've mentioned about your Young Adult reissues from Kimani, "Belle," and "Josephine." You have such a knack for teaching us the history we didn't learn in school, which is awesome for we romance history buffs, who love the realism in romance historicals. But your novels go a step further by teaching us the history of African Americans that even schools with diverse history programs don't have the capacity to cover.

So, I love that young people, especially girls, have the opportunity to read these two YA novels of yours. I think back to my favorite YA, one of my fave books of all time, "The Witch of Blackbird Pond," and how it changed my life as the protagonist's eyes were opened to so many things. Imagine all the young girls' lives that will be changed when they read your books.

Grazie, Beverly, for giving us the deets!

Hey Bev! It's Robyn from CA and Beveryland. I can't wait for the new book to drop!
Ahhh..my first love. I thought my ex-husband was my first love, but high school sweethearts can sometimes be quite overrated. I think my first love happened by accident. I met him at a car dealership while I was married. I was there as a customer getting an oil change early in the morning. I had on sweats and no make-up. He was a salesman at the time and I was checking out the cars on the showroom floor because this chick digs cars! He approached and asked sales-type questions. I answered like the married woman I was and we left it at that. I didn't show interest and neither did he. Fast forward 1 year and I'm at the dealership again buying a new car and dealing with his cousin. At the time, I didn't know he was still at the dealership and I didn't know I was talking to his cousin. I had recently separated from my husband and it was the end of 1999. His cousin invited me to a party his cousin was having and took me to the body shop to meet him. Guess who comes walking out? My salesman who was now the body shop manager. I couldn't believe it was him and I was now going to his house for a party.
We hung out for about 3 years and remained friends until he passed away in 2006 from lymphoma. I miss him and our talks. We lived 3,000 miles away but still maintained a connection. He was my first love.

I love the title to this book and its premise sounds wonderful! My first love was a submarine sailor.. we went to a Christmas debutant ball when I was 16 going on 17 and wrote each other over the next year... Then he sent me a "dear Jane" letter. Worked out for the best as I went on to law school and we would surely have grown apart. Made me unhappy though at the time! My sister actually married her sub sailor and they are still together after 30+ years.
(I found the right "love" later in my life and I've been happily married over 23 years!)

Welcome back, Beverly!!

Ahh, amore.... My first crush was in the second grade that went on until he moved in the 5th. I was devistated but got over that when a cutie moved in next door. Little girls can be so fickle. ;p
My first real sweetheart was in high school. Started dating as freshmen and broke up senior year. He was a true sweety and got me through the roughest spots of teenage-dom.

Wow all of theses stories are so moving! I’m with Stacy with the fact that I’ve never been in love. I know I’ve been in Love with the idea of being in Love though. But it really is just amazing how those boys can shatter your heart (or at least feel like it at the time) though. The closest I’ve come to being in Love ended very badly and now that I look back it wasn’t the healthiest of relationships and is probably best that it ended when it did and didn’t drag on any longer before something happened that I wouldn’t have been able to fix :o) Ahh to be 16 and innocent again.

Hey all. Going to bow out for a few hours. I'll be back early evening. Thanks for all the comments and the love. B

I want to thank the ladies of Beverlyland for stopping in. Your support is always awesome. B

I am so glad to have my YAs back in print. They are teen historicals published originally by Avon but reissued by Harlequin Kimani Tru which is their teen line. The books are titled Belle and Josephine. Both are set in the days leading up to and during the Civil War. Belle's story comes first. She's a runaway slave. She and her father have made their way to Michigan only to become separated. She is eventually taken in by a free Black family who are also agents on the Underground Railroad. These are the first free Black folks she has ever known and she and the family come to love each other very much. We watch Belle blossom and grow, handle conflicts, learn to read and fall in love with the son of the family. His name is Daniel. Josephine is his little sister. We meet her again, all grown up in the second book, Josephine. The books were ****ed up by my adult fans the first time around and by the teens. There is really nothing for young readers to enjoy that is historically based which is why Avon originally started the line. But for African American teen readers this is especially so. History classes rarely mention the thriving free Black population in the North during Abolition, they tend to focus on slavery, but as in my adult books I try to show the spectrum of Black lives in 19th century American history because there was more to our experiences than slavery. For instance, Belle was the slave of a seamstress. Not many teen readers know that not all of the slaves worked on plantations in the south. Some slaves were owned by tradesmen, others lawyers - some slaves worked in the south's mines - some were owned by architects. So by giving the teens info they may not know and letting them read about the lives of every day folks will hopefully offer them a different way of viewing American history and the true place of the race in that history. Uh, oh, going into history class lecture mode here, let me pull back. LOL Anyway. Josephine is book two. The teens loved the books the first time around but had questions, so I've added a little bit of new material and included discussions questions for classrooms and bookclubs. Sorry I was so windy. B

Hi All,

I am waiting with bated breath on the two books I have on order by Ms. Bev, Belle and Bring on the Blessings.

I loved the previous stories that mentioned Henry Adams and I am very excited about this one. I am still understanding the term, genre, etc.... Women's Fiction.

As for my first love:

He was my first and has been my only thus far....praying for that to change

I married him at the age of 18 after being together since I was 14 and me being in love with him since I was 12....saw him playing baseball, I was a goner immediately. He approached my two years later and once together, we stayed that way through extremely trying times for 18 years

we had four children and existed in a marriage that was not happy nor supportive

I have since gotten over my hatred, if he hates me, he does not express it

No, I am no longer in love but I am SO BLESSED that I am no longer hanging on either.