Love Stories, Even When Love Hurts

Hey Hey everyone, long time no see. Its been one hell of a ride over here. Tennessee got hit with the snow, and well you know how that goes… everything got grinded to a halt. Gremlin also got a two week vacation due to road conditions. So needless to say, my work schedule got thrown out the window, my house looks like a tornado hit it (because in all reality it did), and my sanity packed it bags and took the first thing smoking to warmer weather. 

So with that being said…. I thank all of you for sticking around. I will try to do better with posting, but life is fixing to get crazy and its gonna be one hell of a ride. What do I mean you ask? 

Well…. In about a month, I’ll be heading to Sinful Signings in Roanoke, Va. No, I’m not lucky enough just yet to be a signing author there, but my bestie P.A. Power is. I will be going to be his PA. So, LOTS to do there and lots of things to handle along the way. And its not slowing down from there. I have Indy in Indy in Aug. So, I have tons of work to do before that one comes up…. Plus, I’m starting to book my events for 2027.

Which is what got me to thinking, I have published two books since 2022. Destined For More and Crossroads. Two different series, two completely different concepts, but two massively important things in common…. One they both have badass women that in the end take-ith no shit. Second, they are romances. And it took years (AND I DO MEAN YEARS) to admit: Yes, I write romance. 

I write love stories even when love is the thing that broke me, and continues to break me everyday. Let me elaborate on that little before I move on. I love Spring and I love Fall, but it breaks my heart when they don’t get to stick around very long. I love my Gremlin, but there are days I wonder if I will ever get to hear him say those words back to me. I love/ tolerate the man I married. Because there are days I have to remind myself Orange doesn’t look good on me. Mainly because he’s promised to do something or take the Gremlin off my hands for a few hours so I can have just an afternoon of un-interruptions. What I get is complaints, him sound asleep, or completely ignoring his environment in favor of his phone. 

But it's then I remember my characters, especially then.

Because love isn’t just softness, safety, and happy endings tied up with a bow. Love is complicated. It’s messy. It leaves marks and scares. It teaches lessons you didn’t ask for and hands you grief right alongside joy.

And still—we keep reaching for it.

I don’t write love as a fantasy of perfection. I write it as survival. As choice. As something people carry even when it weighs them down. Love that hurts isn’t fake love. It’s unfinished love. Misaligned love. Love that collided with timing, trauma, fear, or growth and didn’t come out unscathed.

Some of the most honest love stories don’t end cleanly. They end truthfully. They show what it costs to care deeply. They show the aftermath—what people become after loving hard and losing anyway. They ask harder questions than will they end up together? They ask what did this change in them? and what do they carry forward?

I write love because it matters, even when it wounds. Because heartbreak doesn’t erase meaning. Because tenderness can exist alongside damage. Because choosing to feel, to hope, to try again—that’s its own kind of courage.

If love never hurt, it wouldn’t shape us the way it does.

So yes, I write love stories that ache. Love stories that burn slow. Love stories that don’t always offer comfort—but offer recognition instead.

And sometimes, that’s the kind of love we need most.

What kind of love stories speak to you right now—the soft ones, the painful ones, or the honest-in-between? What are you carrying forward, even if it still hurts? Tell me in the comments.

Be Brave, Be Bold, But Always Stay Humble