There are several themes in
MARCH WIND, things that
have begun to come clearer to me as Iβve watched loved ones deal with serious
health concerns, and as Iβve tried to face some of my own fears about death.
Love doesnβt stop when someone discovers theyβre dying. If
anything, love seems to be the one thing that grows stronger, rings out more
truly, because people become less afraid to say how they feel. Why is it so hard
to look at those we care about on an ordinary,
nothingβs happening
Wednesday and say, βI love youβ or βYou matter to meβ or βYou make my life
betterβ? Those words shouldnβt be reserved for times when we fear weβre losing
the ones we love. They should be spoken every dayβ¦without reservation.
Life is too short to hide who you truly are. There is a freedom
in feeling comfortable enough to say, βThis is me. Warts and all.β Life is hard
enough. Wearing a mask and pretending to be someone we arenβt only adds to the
struggle.
You want to know who I am? Iβm an overweight, middle-aged wife and mother
who drinks way too much wine, curses her ever-growing curves and spends too many
nights wide awake suffering from panic attacks she canβt explain. But I also
have a good sense of humor, and I think Iβm a pretty solid friend. No one cries
(or drinks) alone in my presence! I suspect we all have things we love and hate
about ourselves. You know what? Own themβthe good and the bad. Theyβre there and
theyβre yours.
Live every day like youβre dying. Donβt assume thereβs going to
be a tomorrow or a next week or a next year. I have a motto I like to live by.
If Iβm going to die tomorrow, Iβm going to be full and hungover (hence those
ever-growing curves).
Happily ever after doesnβt have to mean forever. Dying young is
sadβdying alone is tragic. Reach for your happinessβ¦alwaysβ¦without fear of what
the future might bring.
Wilder Irish
#3
Even if Iβd known I would lose Sunday McCormick Collins so early, I would
have married that beautiful woman. What we shared is all Iβve ever wanted for my
children and my grandchildren. Love isnβt about the happy ending. Itβs about the
happiness found each and every day youβre together. β Patrick βPopβ Collins
Padraig Collins loves his bartending job at Patβs Pub, the Baltimore hangout
owned by his equally beloved family. Heβs young, carefree, filled with
starry-eyed hopes and dreams for his futureβ¦which are irrevocably thrown off
course when patron Mia Curtis comes into the bar, visibly upset. When she leaves
in tears, Padraig follows. He hopes to give the young woman comfort and
assurance. What he gets in return is a massive dose of reality.
Mia has a ticking time bomb in her head, an inoperable tumor, with a
diagnosis of only six months to live. As Padraig lets her cry on his shoulder,
listens to her heartbreakingly detail the things sheβll never get to experience,
heβs forced to face some hard facts about the way heβs lived his own life up to
this point. Meandering through each day as if youth means immortality, and he
has all the time in the world.
An evening of soul-searching leads to a life-changing decisionβPadraig will
help Mia accomplish everything on her bucket list. He wonβt let her die with a
single regret. But that goal transforms into something far deeper when Padraig
falls in love with the courageous woman. His once endless future shrinks to
months instead of years, accompanied by a crushing sense of desperation.
Until they realize life isnβt measured in time. Itβs measured in momentsβ¦
This story will hopefully widen your definition of a traditional
happy-ever-after. Not all of us get the luxury of a lifetimeβ¦but that doesnβt
mean we canβt have a lifetimeβs worth of love in the time weβre given.
Romance Contemporary
[Author Self-Published, On Sale: September 12,
2017, e-Book, ISBN: 2940158586149 / eISBN: 1230001757859]
Writing a book was number one on Mari Carrβs bucket list and on her
thirty-fourth birthday, she set out to see that goal achieved. Too many years
later, her computer is jammed full of stories β novels, novellas, short stories
and dead-ends and she has nearly eighty published works.
Virginia native,
Mari Carr is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller of contemporary erotic
romance novels. With over one million copies of her books sold, Mari was the
winner of the Romance Writers of Americaβs Passionate Plume award for her
novella, Erotic Research.
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