Hi everyone!!! I’m going to try to keep this upbeat and smexy, but I have a purpose…so you’ve been warned. I’m the author of Smoking Stilettos. The first short story in our fun and sexy Smokin’ Hot Firemen Antho. 🙂 I’m super excited to be working on this with Delilah and all of the other authors. It’s great to see so many talented writers compiled like this! Woot!

Back to business. I wrote Smoking Stilettos in one evening. Honest. It just flowed out of me. I never really thought that this story would be more than just a blip in a book. But…it’s become so much more to me. I’m really proud that I wrote this story the way I did.

Some of you that follow my social media will already know, but my family lives about 10 miles outside of the small community of West, TX. My children go to school in West. And a little over two weeks ago, they both lost their schools in the Fertilizer Plant Explosion that put West on the map.

We weren’t affected directly, other than being inconvenienced with the media traffic and the kids having to be relocated 20 miles away to share a campus with another neighboring district. They only go for about six hours, and only get their core classes. It’s been an unsettling nightmare that has changed this peaceful community.

We knew some of the firemen that lost their lives. My kids were good friends with three children that lost their dads. It’s been a very sad last few weeks, but that’s not the point of this post.  I promise.

There’s a scene at the end of Smoking Stilettos that reminds me so much of what has happened over the last few weeks. It’s a moment of truth and a change of perception. When we think of volunteer fireman, do you really think of them as “real” fireman? Most would shrug and probably haven’t considered it, but I say yes! 70% of the US Fire Dept is made up of volunteers. That’s a staggering number of very good men and women that serve our communities for the single purpose of making sure that “we” are safe.

A few weeks before the explosion, I joked on FB about the hotties passing the boot and I had planned on giving you all a delicious post about that, but everything got a little chaotic. My daughter and I were sitting about 10 cars back at a red light. She asks me what the firetrucks are doing at the intersection. When I see their neon vests, I know.

“Passing the boot.”

She’s fifteen and still hasn’t figured everything out yet. “Why?”

“To take care of things that need to be done.”

At the time, I had her dig through my purse for the few loose ones I had scattered inside. She turns to me and says, “Mom, that’s your last few dollars.”

I smile and pass it to the hottie that is at my window. Now, I know that sometimes the fireman aren’t always in their early thirties, with jet black hair, and have a lean body, but this one did. *winks* I toss him my money, he grins and passes me a sticker for my window before waving at my daughter.

I wasn’t worried about a few loose dollars. I had my debit card, lol. But, for people like that…the ones that take care of us when we’re suffering our worst…I’ll dig to the bottom of the couch cushions to find my spare pennies. Now, more than ever.

Like my heroine, Red, I think I taught my daughter a valuable lesson about giving and taking care of those that take care of us. When it came time to volunteer for donation duties in West, I had no idea that my daughter could work as hard as she did. All three of my kids–my oldest came home from college for the week–pitched in to help out where they could. Even if that meant being a shoulder to cry on for one of their friends that lost their fathers. Something like this is a huge lesson in humility, charity, and love.

I can’t wait for you to have a chance to read Smoking Stilettos. You can let me know if I succeeded in passing on these lessons to Red–my fiesty fireman’s wife. I told you I had a purpose. 🙂 If you know a fireman, volunteer or payrolled, be sure to give them a hug and a thank you. I don’t think we can say that enough. And if you see a sexy hottie passing the boot at the next red light, scrounge for any spare pennies you can offer. You never know what you’ll be helping to provide to these men and women that sometimes sacrifice everything for us.