Thursday, March 14, 2013

Lucky in Love: My Own Real-Life Romance Story

My husband and I met online, longer ago than I'm willing to admit. We'd both just gotten out of what we thought were long-term, "forever" relationships, and really didn't believe that the line about "soul mates" was real. 

And then AOL's personal online dating service went and intervened. 600+ miles apart, both reeling from soured break-ups, we defied the odds. Stumbling across my personals ad after reading about 1,000 of them, he took a chance and emailed me. After receiving loads of "Hey, baby, we live in the same city -- wanna fuck?" messages (recognize that line from Her First Billionaire? LOL) I was close to ignoring them all.

And then his came. Earnest and funny, it made my heart swell and my hopes rise. Could there really be a real person behind this?

Yes. Call it luck, chance, serendipity. Call it crazy.

But he called me.

We spoke on the phone within a week, sent pictures shortly after, and met in person within a handful of weeks. The rest is history -- messy, chaotic, complicated history (it's always complicated...).

Fate gave me my best friend, my passionate lover, my intellectual equal, my goofy comedian, the best father to my children I could ever dream up, and my unfailingly loyal buddy all in one person.I got lucky the day we "met" through bits and bytes online.

We can't know, or plan, or predict when our lives crack open and everything changes. The best laid plans of characters reflect real life, from Michael Bournham's ambitions backfiring spectacularly and threatening the love of his life (ooo, mini-spoiler!) to Lydia's year-long plan to get a promotion coming to a shocking halt when a series of behind-the-scenes plans rocks her world.

Unintended consequences show us we can't organize and manipulate and connive and contrive -- even out of deep love -- and always get exactly what we think we want.

Instead, sometimes the universe (or God, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or your mom) knows better, and being open to possibility -- what some call luck -- is what we need the very most to get what completes us.

May you be luck in love this St. Patrick's Day and all year long!

Also -- one lucky reader/commenter will win a $10 Amazon gift certificate. Answer the following question in the comments: Which statistic in Lydia's talk with Matt/Mike in Maliciously Obedient was NOT TRUE? a) 40% of all books sold in the U.S. are romance novels b) sales of vibrators shot up 414% when people buy Fifty Shades of Grey c) 9% of romance novel readers are men.

I'll draw a random winner from the correct answers! Deadline: March 19, 2013, 1 a.m. EST. 


25 comments:

  1. No, I have not been lucky in love.
    magic5905 at embarqmail dot com

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  2. I think all of the stats are correct.
    Barbara
    bkg0605@aol.com

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. I'm going to go with b

    MinDaf @ Aol.com

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  5. i would said b
    happy St Patrick's day

    isabelle(dot)frisch(at)gmail(dot)com

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  6. I'm going to go with b
    wendy_pogrant@yahoo.com

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  7. I'm going with b as well, mostly because the other stats actually sound familiar.

    anasmith1919 at gmail dot com

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  8. I'd say b. Mostly because I don't like 50 shades :)

    anasmithblue AT gmail DOT come

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  9. I agree with most of the others and I say B.

    kesummer69(at)gmail(dot)com

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  10. I would have to say B as well

    Visionsbysugarplum@gmail.com

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  11. I'm gonna say B as well. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
    verusbognar (at) gmail (dot) com

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  12. I'm going to say B.
    Thanks for the chance to win!
    natasha_donohoo_8 at hotmail dot com

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  13. I'll go with B.

    vitajex(at)aol(dot)com

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  14. I'll go with A since I googled and found that approx 9% of men are romance readers and googled b as well and found a few entries on it as well and in your excerpt below. ;)

    http://jkentauthor.blogspot.com/2013/03/iwant-to-explain-why-i-was-reading.html its the only one of the 3 that is referenced at all. :)

    Happy St Patty’s Day!

    Froggy
    froggarita@gmail.com

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  15. Gotta go wit B..
    damafia1113(at)gmail(dot)com

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  16. Last I heard it was 55% of purchased books was romance novels so I'll go with A :D

    lilypondreads at gmail dot com

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  17. I'd say A. Thank you for the chance!

    spamscape [at] gmail [dot] com

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  18. I don't know that luck has any bearing on having a successful relationship. It's a whole lot of work. I married my high school sweetheart right out of high school. We have been married for 17 years.
    planterofhope at aol dot com

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  19. I have to go with B that just sounds unbelievable,,,Thanks so much for the great giveaway and joining in on the hop!!!
    Ashley A
    ash_app(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  20. I'm going to say B...because really? 414%? that sounds just crazy LOL! I know its a big hit but I can imagine most of those women were grabbing their hubbys/boyfriends and riding them like a rodeo LOL! :P Although I'm surprised if 9% of romance is men... I'd think it was more but maybe I'm just too optimistic? ;)

    Hope you had a great St. Patricks Day! Thanks for participating in the hop! swtlilangel4jc at yahoo dot com

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  21. I go with B!
    I got lucky with love when i met my husband while in high school and we've been together for 15 wonderful years! Thanks for the chance to win!
    kacidesigns AT yahoo DOT com

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  22. I'm going to say B since my research found that romance novels are about 40-50% of book sales, and between 9-22%of romance readers are men. Thanks!
    BookcaseLaura*at*gmail.com

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  23. B.
    Thanks for the chance to win. Happy Saint Patty’s Day!

    Morganlafey86(at)aol(dot)com

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  24. What a great giveaway hop! I have yet to be lucky in love but I'm working on it. My favorite love book is "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon. Jamie Fraser is amazing and beautiful. I enjoy St. Patty's Day and this year I'm spending it with my best friend. We're going to two Irish Pubs and also some dance clubs. I am also wearing green and am not a fan of getting pinched. I'm not Irish either, but many people think I am because my hair is red, my eyes green and my name is Meghan, but I'm not at all. I won't be telling anybody that, however… let them believe I'm Irish.
    Thanks for the giveaway!

    mestith at gmail dot com

    ReplyDelete

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