April Fool

Did you hear the latest news? A major New York publisher is distributing Kindles to all epubbed authors and asking them to promote a New York Bestselling author on their websites. Yep, I will take care of Roxanne St. Claire. I don't mind. She's been my favorite author for years. The world is turning upside down. Isn't that wonderful? So who would you take under your wing now?

Okay, so I am babbling. APRIL FOOL!!

Do you know how April Fool's Day originated? In sixteenth-century France, the start of the new year was observed on April first. It was celebrated in much the same way as it is today with parties and dancing into the late hours of the night. The First April Fool's Day Then in 1562, Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar for the Christian world, and the new year fell on January first.

There were some people, however, who hadn't heard or didn't believe the change in the date, so they continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April first. Others played tricks on them and called them "April fools." They sent them on a "fool's errand" or tried to make them believe that something false was true.

Poisson d'Avril In France today, April first is called "Poisson d'Avril." French children fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends' backs. When the "young fool" discovers this trick, the prankster yells "Poisson d’Avril!" (April Fish!)

April Fool's Day in the USA Americans play little tricks on friends and strangers alike on the first of April. One common prank on April Fool's Day, or All Fool's Day, is pointing down to a friend's shoe and saying, "Your shoelace is untied." Teachers in the nineteenth century used to say to pupils, "Look! A flock of geese!" and point up. School children might tell a classmate that school has been canceled. Whatever the trick, if the innocent victim falls for the joke the prankster yells, "April Fool! "

April Fool's Day Jokes: The "fools' errands" we play on people are practical jokes. Putting salt in the sugar bowl for the next person is not a nice trick to play on a stranger. College students set their clocks an hour behind, so their roommates show up to the wrong class - or not at all. Some practical jokes are kept up the whole day before the victim realizes what day it is.

Most April Fool jokes are in good fun and not meant to harm anyone. The most clever April Fool joke is the one where everyone laughs, especially the person upon whom the joke is played.

When I was in college, my best friend and I told about fifty students that the dean summoned them to his office. They gasped, opened scared eyes and went pronto to meet him. The dean frowned at first, then laughed and finally told the last one to bring Mona and Vicky to his office. We stopped laughing for a few minutes when he asked: "Exactly what are you trying to do? You are expelled." When he saw our terified expressions, he burst out laughing and said: "April Fool!!"

What was the last April Fool you played on a friend? Can you share?

My new contemporary romance is up for pre-order and that's NO April fool.

PRESCRIPTION IN RUSSIAN at the Wild Rose Press. Dr. Fyodor Vassilov is a thirty-eight year old widower and devoted family man with four little boys who need a caring mother. Still emotionally crippled by the loss of his wife, Fyodor can’t allow himself to get close to a woman again. Having a fling is okay but love? Forget about it! He has to protect his kids, and his heart, from any further harm.

Jillian Burton is an American pediatrician on an official mission to improve health care conditions in Belarus. A few years ago, she lost her son and her illusions about men, marriage and family, and she won’t risk being hurt again. Feeling guilty about her son’s death, she travels to third-world countries to cure and save children but she never allows herself to get emotionally attached to a child.

Fyodor’s mother presses him to marry a healthy woman who wants a big family and loves children. The last woman who fits the bill is Jillian, a woman who considers herself incapable of mothering a child, a doctor who can’t stop roaming the world.

When Fyodor and Jillian work together in Belarus, their cultures clash and their painful memories still hurt, but their attraction defies all odds. Can love overcome duty and guilt?

If you like to travel and love to read, come and enjoy my international romances. I will take you around the world through stories that simmer with emotion and sizzle with passion.