Blog: Author Fran McNabb-Why did they say it would never work? #newbook #amreading #beachread

  

All the old ladies in the neighborhood said it would never work. My friends rolled their eyes and said, “Really?” My parents didn’t know what to say.

It’s amazing how a girl can ignore everyone around her when the love bug bites. That’s what I did when I decided to marry my husband after being with him for only thirteen days.

We met in a rather boring way. A blind date. Everyone had them. Some worked out. Most didn’t. I was starting my senior year of college and my blind date had just gotten out of Air Force technical training and was on his way to Bitburg, Germany, for three years. This was during the Vietnam era, and he was glad that’s where he was being sent. I guess the blind date “took” because after being with each other for about two weeks, he left for Germany, and for the next nine months we wrote and exchanged reel-to-reel tapes (cellphones and internet were not around). That’s when I started my memory box to hold his letters.

I was lonely so I started looking in magazines for words and images that reminded me of him. I used the images to collage a cardboard box. I was a broke college student. A free box was the best I could do. If you can make out the fifty-year-old words on the box, they depict what I was feeling: A Sweet New Love Story, Love Rings, Our Marriage, The Bride of the 70’s, It’s the Real thing.

We recently celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary so I guess we weren’t crazy like everyone said. Right after the anniversary, we took his letters out and read some of them. Now, we will ceremoniously burn or shred the letters, but I think I’ll keep my memory box. Too many memories to get rid of.

Math teacher Melissa Tanner is managing her dad's beachfront, ice cream stand for the summer. The tourist area is near a military base, and she knows the risk of dating servicemen. But when she meets Captain Ty Waltman, she re-evaluates her prejudice against men on temporary duty. 

Bachelor pilot Ty loves his globe-trotting career but meeting down-to-earth Melissa makes him reconsider his future. 

Yet, can he give up a life of travel and tie himself to one base and the Hurricane Hunters in order to be closer to Melissa?

More about Fran McNabb: Fran McNabb grew up along the beaches, bayous and islands of the Gulf Coast and uses this setting in many of her novels. In “Smoothing a Rocky Road” the heroine and hero meet on the same beach where Fran spent many days of her childhood. She received both her BS and an ME from the University of Southern Mississippi. After spending two years in Germany, she and her husband returned to the Coast where she taught English and journalism. She now lives on a bayou harbor with her husband and spends her time writing, reading and painting. As an award-winning author, Fran has writing credits which include four romance novels with Avalon/Montlake , two novels and a short story with The Wild Rose Press, and three Indie contemporary romances, a cookbook, and numerous articles in magazines, newsletters, and several anthologies.

Red, White or Blue? Blue

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter? Summer

Chocolate pudding, cake, pie? Do I have to choose? Love them all, but I’ll choose cake.

Coffee, Tea, Champagne? Coffee (if I can’t have wine)

Country music or Michael Buble? Country music

Pencil or Pen? pencil

Find “Smoothing a Rocky Road” at:  Book Retailer

Find Fran McNabb at: Website