Guest Author: Molly O'Keefe

I met today's guest for the first time down at this year's RWA conference in Orlando. She's a sweetheart and a fellow Superromance author with a new series out in August, September and October, the Notorius O'Neills. (Love the titles!) She won a RITA in Orlando for Best Romance Novella for The Christmas Eve Promise. YAY!

Please welcome Molly O'Keefe.


Feeling My Age

Truth be known, most days, I feel like I'm nineteen. I have no idea where these extra pounds came from, or why my boyfriend keeps calling me 'wife'. And who the heck are these kids? Am I babysitting? Why won't they go home? I don't know if it's because I get to go to the playground most days, or if when I'm not with my kids I'm making stuff up in my head - but there you have it - I still kind of feel like a teenager.

Adulthood seems like something that happened to my parents - and maybe it's because I'm lucky enough to still have both my parents alive and in tremendous health, that I still feel like a kid. I don't have to solve all my problems myself as long as my mom is only a phone call away. And maybe I'm not really sure what adulthood means - I pay a mortgage - is that adulthood?

My best friend in the world I met thirty years ago in Kindergarten. We both have two kids, full lives, totally adult type stuff going on, but maybe because she's still in my life those memories of growing up, smoking cigarettes at Kids Ground, waking up early for speech meets, long summer days lifeguarding at the pool - they are within touching distance. Smelling distance even, give me a whiff of chlorine and Banana Boat sunscreen and I'm fifteen.

However, this month is conspiring against me. Two HUGELY adult things are happening. My baby. My little boy, sweet Mick is going to Kindergarten. Part of me has a party hat on and an icy cold margarita in hand ready to celebrate a few hours of my life back. But the other part of me...? Oh. Oh no. How did he get so old? Wasn't I rocking him, bathing him, counting his eyelashes while he slept, just a minute ago? Wait a second...how did I get so old? I'm a lifeguard, damn it!

And second, I'm getting a mammogram. My first. Part of me thinks I'm rushing things, it's too soon, right? To worry so much about this? But then I look at that boy getting ready for Kindergarten and I know, this is the right time. There is no too early when it comes to detecting breast cancer.

So, I'm older this month. Not just in minutes and days, but I feel like my soul is getting a little grey around the temples.

How about you? How old do you feel? What makes you feel like an adult, or better yet, a kid?

Molly

Here's a little bit about Molly's new Superromance series:

Inspired by Paul Newman and pralines, The Notorious O'Neill series takes place in Bonne Terre, a fictional town in Louisana. Savannah, Tyler and Carter are siblings who were left on thier grandmother's doorstep twenty years ago by their con artist mother. Each of the children has spent the last twenty years battling, or in Tyler's case embracing, the notorious reputation attached to the O'Neill name.

The siblings are in danger of falling out of touch with each other - pulled in separate directions by their fears and lifestyles - when the fall out of a seven year old jewel theft shatters all of their lives.

For Savannah, the baby of the family, it's a matter of learning to trust again, only the man she chooses to trust ends up breaking her heart. Tyler has to go home to Bonne Terre to face down his father, his demons, and Juliette Tremblant - the girl he loved and left years ago. Carter, as a Baton Rouge politician has been trying to keep his own skeletons in the closet - but when a beautiful stranger publically claims Carter got her pregnant his life and lies begin to unravel.

Throw in a devious grandma with a tarnished past, a couple of stolen gems and a family home with plenty of secrets - and you have the Notorious O'Neill series.