A Dirty Four-Letter Word!

by Wendy Burke

 For some, it’s a dirty four-letter word beginning with ‘s.’ For others, it’s a welcome sight, the reminder of days past, the winter-rouged attitude of childhood.

     I’m talking snow.

     Some hate it. Others, like myself, love it, especially in great quantities, like this past winter in my adopted hometown of Toledo, Ohio. The winter took me straight back to a sledding hill in my ‘true’ hometown of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. You see, Toledo tallied nearly 85 inches of the white stuff!  I was in heaven!

    Which is exactly how I, and my main character, Emmy, in Wise Men Say remember those innocent days. So, naturally, I blended the two and came up with a scene I hold near and dear to my heart in this 1 Night Stand.

“I’m comin’, Parker.” Emmy huffed a bit, reaching the top of the hill. “Okay, last time. It’s starting to get dark.”

Who am I kidding, it’s already dark! With heavy snow clouds and just two weeks before the winter solstice, five p.m. in Sheboygan, Wisconsin appeared black as midnight—except for the eerie yellowish glow of the city’s sodium lights reflecting against snow.

That’s how she remembered her childhood—snowy and cold from Thanksgiving until the middle of March. No global warming this year, it’d been in the twenties and Christmas-card white since Black Friday, much to the incessant pissing and moaning of those who considered s-n-o-w a dirty, four-letter word.

 Then go to Florida. You’ll complain about the bugs!

   I had to give the Kiwanis Park sledding hill in my hometown a decent cameo in the story! I’m proud and glad to do it.

   I miss that little burg along Lake Michigan and don’t get back to her nearly enough any more. I just hope 'she' can handle the heat of being in an erotic short story!

    But, what does a sledding hill in Wisconsin have to do with a 1 Night Stand?  You’ll just have to read ‘Wise Men Say’ to find out!

A TV producer by day and a romance writer at night, sometimes the two employments inadvertently cross –whoops! When not at her fulltime TV job or part-time job in radio, Wendy is either writing or fighting off a furry attack by one of her three cats. She leads a wonderfully silly life with her way-too-cute chef husband in a suburb of ‘beautiful’ (and last year really snowy!) Toledo, Ohio.

She’d love to hear from you – wendyburke1994@bex.net.

www.whateverwendy.blogspot.com