by Robyn Rychards

Let’s talk camping! My father loved camping and our summer vacations were spent doing it the whole time I was growing up. We went to a lot of great places and I’m really grateful for the opportunity to see and do so many things. My latest release, Her Knight in Shining Armour, starts off with the Hero and Heroine camping in a national park. Not only do I have a lot of experience with camping, I know the park it’s set in quite well. But here’s the thing… While camping has elements that make it romantic in a story, the reality for me is, I don’t like it. Pretty much loathe it. Since I left home, my trips have been spent sleeping in a hotel. I’m sharing a list of five things I hate about camping. I could come up with a lot more than five, but we don’t have that kind of time!

1. Scary Animals

This is a picture of a bear in a tent, but there are more scary animals in the woods than just bears! Mountain lions, coyotes, moose, elk, etc. I have a bear and a buck do some damage in my story.

2. Creepy crawlies

Or in other words, BUGS. On one of our camping trips as a child, the mayflies in Minnesota had just hatched and they were EVERYWHERE. I had nightmares about them that night and for years afterwards. Never mind scary stuff like spiders and ticks! Along with annoying ones like ants and mosquitoes. And of course, there’s the scene in Arachnophobia where the guy is sleeping in a tent and the spider… Well, enough said. Don’t want to think about that anymore.

3. No bathrooms

Some people don’t really care about this, but I’m not one of them. I hate outhouses, I hate going to the bathroom in the woods (see reasons 1 and 2). One year, we were camping in a tent trailer and my mom had a portable toilet set up in the middle of the room for us kids to use during the night. Not only was I a little freaked out by the lack of privacy, when I was desperate enough to use it, it fell apart and you-know-what went all over the place. EW!

4. It can get fricking cold!

I don’t tolerate cold very well, so this is a bit of an issue for me. Freezing my butt of while trying to sleep is not my idea of a good time. Sorry!

5. Cooking outside

I really should have been a princess. I don’t like cooking, I don’t like cleaning, I don’t like being uncomfortable. All these things go hand in hand with camping. So, having to cook outside on a campfire or camp stove. No thanks. I’m supposed to be on vacation, I don’t want to cook. And now I have to do it under more difficult circumstances? Outside? Where’s the closest restaurant?

Let me know what you think. How do you feel about camping? Yea or Nay and why?

She may not need a knight in shining armour to save her, but that doesn’t mean she’s going to look a gift knight in the visor…

Paisley doesn’t need a knight in shining armour to rescue her from her high-powered, abusive ex-husband. She’s got it covered on her own: she’s changed her name, liquidated her assets, and has a plan to disappear in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Psychiatrist Sterling James has absolutely no intention of being anyone’s saviour. The only woman he has any time for is his sister. But circumstances change when Sterling finds Paisley in an unexpected and life-threatening situation. Brought in to the drama of her escape, Sterling finds himself invested, and he can’t move on until he knows Paisley is going to be safe.

It should be a simple enough exercise to get Paisley out of the park and into her new life. But nothing is ever as simple as it should be, and Sterling soon discovers that even if her ex-husband buys the set-up, he might not be able to watch Paisley go…