Hello !

It's been a hot minute since I've cleared an hour to spend with you. Every Saturday for the last many—too many—I've woken up and thought, "Today I'll call Mom. And send a message to my fabulous readers."

And every Saturday for the last many—too many—I've dropped into bed after dinner and some Netflix having done neither. (Sorry, Mom ... hopefully you're reading this email ... and, the phone works in both directions, you know. Call me!)

Today is different. Today is a fresh new start. Labour Day (we celebrate in Canada, too) has, for as long as I can remember, felt like my own new year. I clear my white board, buy new pens, crack open a new journal and think, "This year ... this year, I will be more organized."

And, sometimes I am. Sometimes I make a habit change for a few weeks or months (keto diet with zero cheats from Sept 1, 2018 to Dec 24, 2018, thank you very much!) and sometimes the habit change lasts longer.

The long-term habit that I'm celebrating today? Since September 2019, I've stayed out of the kitchen between about 4pm and 5pm, six nights a week, to allow Mr. Bloom to make our dinner. Tough habit, right?!

It all started with an impulse purchase of an InstantPot. Apparently, that appliance is like an indoor version of a BBQ—it's somehow more manly than making meals with an oven.

When Mr. Bloom and I first met, I wasn't sure we'd be compatible in the meal-making area of a relationship since I was a 20-year vegetarian and he was a guy who thought the only vegetables that were worthy of taking space from his slab of meat were potatoes, carrots or peas.

Since I lived in the city and he lived an hour away, in the same village as his parents Henry and Marg, I'd go to the country every weekend with my son and we'd have Friday night dinner together.

Henry always cooked. He was a German man who lived by routines. There was a rotation of meals for Friday night dinner:

• Spaghetti and a beef and tomato sauce (he'd make a small pot for me sans boeuf)
• Pork schnitzels and spaetzle (I got a veggie burger)
• Ham and scalloped potatoes (veggie burger for me)
• Pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes and peas (again, veggie burger to the rescue ... until ...)

One weekend, I can only assume Henry had grown tired of cooking a special something for me because he handed me a plate that looked like all the rest. It was pork tenderloin week.

All he said was, "It's vegetarian. Eat it."

And I did.

Not that I'd been raised to eat everything on my plate (thanks, Mom! Love you for not forcing me to eat the gross fatty bits on the pork chops), but I'd started to crave the food Henry was making. I'd never been a big meat eater, even as a kid, but I had loved bacon (overcooked so the fat was all gone) and most things previously pig.

It was a slow decline into becoming a mostly normal eater—I say mostly since I still despise even the smell of any kind of beef and, having a garlic allergy means I have lots of limitations on what I can put on my plate.

As I started to eat meat with more regularity—though never cooking it—Mr. Bloom started to explore the wild world of leafy green lettuce and red peppers and eggplant and zucchini.

He still, after sixteen years together, complains when, on my night to make dinner I make a huge salad with a hard-boiled egg, pumpkin seeds, cheddar cheese cubes, kalamata olives, canned tuna and whatever other fun food I can toss in. He doesn't complain about the taste, he complains about how all those damn vegetables give him gas. 😂

So, in the last few years, he's happy to control what he eats for dinner even if that means he has to make it. I'm happy to have someone cook for me and have no problem doing all the washing up.

It's kind of universal fantasy for many women to have someone else make their meals for them, right?

And it was this recognition of how easy it was to fall in love (and stay in love) with a man who cooks (and also makes the best chocolate cheesecake!) that inspired me to write a romance about a former chef who takes on the challenge of accommodating the dietary quirks and cravings of a single, later-in-life heroine who opted for an IVF pregnancy and found herself carrying twins and forced into bedrest.

It's called, Her Seasoned Delivery, and next week I expect to have a pre-order link of this novella for you. I think you'll love Stirling and Magdalena.

It was originally published in a charity anthology called Eat Your Heart Out, so you may already have it on your e-reader... have a look. And if you don't, you can get it next week!

In the meantime, here's another buffet of romantic deliciousness.

A new charity romance anthology with never before published stories from over 150 authors of various romance subgenres. This is a better deal than the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet I used to love, BGA (that's before garlic allergy).

DISSENT will be released on September 6, National Read a Book day, in eBook and three paperback volumes!

All proceeds from the eBook and paperbacks will be donated to organizations benefiting reproductive rights in the United States, particularly in areas where people need them more than ever.

Dissent will only be available for a very limited time, so grab your copy today!

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🦋 Pre-order the eBook today → romancedissents.com​

Back to my fresh new start

Not sure how I started this message talking about habits and actually thinking about the list of projects I've outlined on my shiny new white board and then wrote about food ... I blame/credit the lovely man in the kitchen who is, at this very moment, making homemade waffles, sausages, and egg bites (made in the InstantPot, of course!). Yup, on Saturdays he makes breakfast, too!

My September fresh start this year is to resume my old habit of writing one new scene a day for my new series about four brothers who run a billion dollar business together with their mom. Book One is so close to finished. It's been edited—I just need to accept the changes and add the sex scenes!

Focus from now until December is to write Book Two. Because, like writing you and calling my Mom, it's been a hot minute since I started a brand new story!

Big eggie hugs—my man is warning me the waffles are getting cold!

Love & maple syrup,

xo

Danika