Please join me in welcoming Beth Albright to Always With a Book. Beth’s newest book, Daydreams in Dixie, part of her In Dixie series, is now out and she’s been busy promoting it. I’ll be reviewing this soon.
Today, Beth is talking about an old-fashioned summer and she’s also provided a special giveaway for one lucky winner!
Title: Daydreams in Dixie
Author: Beth Albright
Series: In Dixie, #3
Published: May 2015, Magnolia Press
Southern talk show host
and former pageant queen Annabelle Harper certainly knows a thing or
two about romance. She is, in fact the local authority on love in
Tuscaloosa Alabama as the host of her own radio talk show for the
lovelorn: Saved By The Belle. With nearly 50 happy couples to her
credit, no one could argue with her success. Annie has never been wrong
about the heart of a person. Strange thing is, she can’t seem to get
past five dates before the dreaded break-up in her own lovelife.That
is until a new guy pops into town—and a Yankee at that! Sparks fly
between Annie and Matt Brubaker – the mysterious stranger who has more
than love on his mind. His interests are focused on developing a new
company in Tuscaloosa. But his new business will put Annie’s best friend
out of business, and place Annie smack dab in the middle of a hot
southern mess!Now Annie must choose — the passion she feels for
Matt and the love she has for her long-time friend. The conflict
reaches a boiling point and puts her in the middle of a major city-wide
protest, with Annie at the microphone. Will she betray her BFF and fall
in love with the wrong man? Or like the true southern belle that she is,
will she keep guarding her best friends back till the bitter end—even
if it means losing what could finally be the love of her life.
Purchase the
book at:
An Old-Fashioned
Southern Summer
Deep
down South, in the Heart of Dixie, summers start in April, and last till
October. The wrap around porches full of blue Hydrangeas and Honeysuckle, are
set with white wicker tables holding sweet tea and freshly cut mint. Sipping
slowly and feeling the breeze as it floats the sweet perfume of magnolia across
the porch swing. I used to love summertime when I was growing up down South.
No school, some visits from crazy relatives and a ride on the garden
mule! Yep, I said ride a mule. ME!
Keep
in mind I was young and had not discovered the joys of Tiaras and make-up quite
yet. We walked to the local grocery store and got a moon pie and an RC
cola…what a treat! We helped pick, and can, and make preserves, ate
watermelon with a salt shaker in one hand…(just did that this morning. Old
southerners never die.)
Then
I’d go visit my city Grandmother for a priss-pot makeover, and a trip to
Gayfer’s department store for a new summer shorts outfit. With the fragrance of
Charles Of the Ritz floating throughout her home, and her red nail polish
sitting on the side of the sink in her bathroom, I could pretend all day to be
the Princess of Glendale Gardens when I was at her house. That’s where I
learned Southern women are to be adored. And most importantly, why we love
tiaras. Ahem.
I loved the hot, lazy summer days, daydreaming
in my grandmother’s side yard, lying on a cool fragrant bed of clover. In my
new novel, DAYDREAMS IN DIXIE,
Annabelle does this too, as a young teen, dreaming of her own loves and hopes.
And always searching for that rare four-leafed clover as a sign that her wishes
will all come true.
Catching
minnows in the backyard creek in a Dixie cup under the shade of the hundreds of
weeping willows. Watching old TV shows in the afternoons under the dripping
window unit air conditioner and drinking Kool-Aid all day till my lips and
tongue were stained ruby red for a week. And making Kool-Aid Pops ourselves in
the freezer. These were the best of times—no internet or cell phones or
texting—just good ol’ face to face with the neighborhood kids! Flushed pink
cheeks from the heat of a summer’s day and cold soda sipped down at the local
gas station made the recipe of a perfect day.
We
had a park and trails near my house when I was little and we would imagine
being detectives and looking for a murderer, turning over huge rocks for clues,
only to find an unsuspecting, but surprised Water Moccasin snake! I ran like
the dickens outta there! Sometimes I would grab a swing and go so high, singing
as loud as I could, like a rock star. I had lemonade stands with my friends in
Glendale Gardens where my grandmother lived and played princess games in makeup
and went on detective adventures in the park, rode a mule through a backyard
garden, and was a rock star on a swing-set—all because I had TIME to do it.
I learned from my relatives, the in-laws, the out-laws, the elders and
the crazies, all because I had TIME to spend with them and really get to know
them. I wouldn’t trade this for a million summer enrichment camps. This
is the most priceless of all enrichments; TIME.
My
teen years began, and the summers were hot in a different way. Boys became the
center of my universe and a hot summer and a cool swimming pool was the place
to be. We had a house with a pool and many a make-out session heated up the
already sticky Southern summer night swims. One summer I spent the entire
season with a bottle of Hawaiian Tropic, SPF 0, and browning myself to a
gorgeous bronze while listening to Boys of Summer on the radio. I was in my mid
teens and still was unscheduled in the long hot Southern Summer days. My
friends and I would lay out all day with baby oil slathered all over us at my
pool, then go out with our boyfriends reddened to a crisp at night.
Nights
were the best as we’d all hang out in the driveway under the humid damp night
sky till the wee hours talking and kissing on the hood of our cars. It was
poetic—a right of passage. Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp wrote songs
about us. We fell in love, and lived and laughed and connected in a way that
really doesn’t happen anymore: Talking face to face. Having TIME.
Time—with each other and TIME to dream and
plan and imagine will always be the center of my summertime memories growing up
down South. We seemed to always have time to sit on the porch and chat with our
neighbors. Summer evenings outside on the front porch, playing cards or Yahtzee
with the neighborhood kids was a perfect way to spend a lazy humid Southern
night. Time to catch light’ning bugs in a jar on the first warm summer
evenings. And Playing hide-and-go-seek in the dark with flashlights, using
literally cans and cans of bug spay to keep the mosquitoes away just a little
longer. We would wait till late at night for the mosquito truck to come
with their toxic spray so we could chase it down the street and get lost in the
fog. What the heck were we thinking? We sure didn’t know any better!
Time—that’s what we shared and the feeling that it would all last
forever.
I remember reading once that the best thing we can give our children is
unstructured time. Ahhh—if we only had time, right?
I always feel so lucky to have had my growing up years down South. It’s slower
there anyway. And that’s a good thing. Summers in the South were my
own living amusement park, filled with the rivers, and the mule, and the Kool-Aid
stands and detective games, snakes and make-up, and the tingles from those
first kisses. It was the South…and you just can’t get better than that!
About the author: Beth Albright is a Tuscaloosa native, former Days of Our Lives actress, and former radio and TV talk show host. She is a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Journalism. She is also a screenwriter, voice-over artist, wife of her college sweetheart, Ted, and mother of her favorite person on earth, her brilliant and handsome son Brooks. A perpetually homesick Southern Belle and a major Alabama Crimson Tide fan, she splits her time between Los Angeles and, of course, Tuscaloosa.
Beth loves to connect with her readers.
Authors Links:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
GIVEAWAY DETAILS – (US only)
Thanks to Beth, one reader can win a signed copy of Daydreams in Dixie by Beth Albright, along with some sassy gifts from Beth herself. To enter the giveaway, please fill out the form by May 22nd.
Form closed
This giveaway is open to US residents only and ends May 22nd.
Good Luck!!!
