Nominated for Best Book of 2010: Marrying Mattie YEE HAW

Wow. I'm over the moon about this one. Getting nominated by Love Western Romances for the best book of 2010 has got to be a highlight of an already amazing year.

I hope you'll do me the honor of riding on over yonder to http://www.lovewesternromances.com/ and casting your ballot for my little novel. I'm facing stiff competition and need all the votes I can get. Voting commences today through January 11...but don't y'all take too much time.

Thank you so very much!

Marrying Mattie: treat yourself!

Marrying Mattie, avail. print, digi and Kindle...

Mattie and Call's love story steams up the pages. Yeah, I know. I'm concentrating on Christian romance now (Please visit Hearts Crossing Ranch...)  but the folks in Paradise, Nebraska circa 1880 need love too.

I hope you enjoy your trip back in time!

(Marrying Molly and Marrying Marguerite are in the works...)

Spicy and Sweet...at The Romance Studio

Hop on over to The Romance Studio for a peek at my latest releases, and see if "spicy" and "sweet" conflict with each other..or make it work like Sweet and Sour Chicken.

Hope you enjoy Marrying Mattie, available now at The Wild Rose Press and Amazon...Kindle version, too. Sign my guestbook at my website to enter a name draw for a signed copy.

Marrying Mattie is here, here, HERE

Jumping the gun a bit, my second book in the Paradise Brides series, Marrying Mattie,  is already available at http://www.thewildrosepress.com/ and http://www.amazon.com/   Yee-haw!

All along, I've thought the Big Day was August 27...but while I was up in the Tetons on a wagon-train trip (more details to follow...or you can check out http://heartscrossingranch.blogspot.com/ ) my dream came true. Sincere thanks to my editor Helen Andrew for making it all happen.

The hero, schoolmaster Call Hackett, makes an important appearance in my current release, Marrying Minda, when he woos mail-order bride Minda during her troubled marriage. But her reluctant hubby, hottie cowboy Brix  Haynes mans up and falls hard for his woman. So I reckoned Call deserved a love story all his own.

My free short story His Christmas Angel introduces him --now a self-described horse "doctor"--to Minda's sister, Mattie, and this new longer book shows their road to a marriage interrupted by her rich, evil ex-husband.

I hope you enjoy getting to know the folks of Paradise, Nebraska, their toils and tribulations, their triumphs and loves.

Don't be a stranger at http://www.petticoatsandpistols.com/

Redeeming Daisy and Faithful Danger

I'm excited that the first round edits for Redeeming Daisy are in the can. Editors simply make one's writing better...noticing a word order or sentence structure that a second set of eyes knows can be slightly improved. Redeeming Daisy is the second story set at Hearts Crossing Ranch and features Pike Martin, large animal vet and brother to Kenn.

I'm grateful for such a talented editor, Nicola Martinez, who has a nose for the details...or is it eyes LOL? As well as one who calls Redeeming Daisy a "lovely story." Sigh.

I'll keep you informed as to the progress. I've also submitted to her TV Guide-like blurbies about what happens to the entire Martin clan!
Right now, though, I'm finishing up what I call March 9 Prompt, aka Faithful Danger. White Rose Publishing selected random details and posted them on March 9 to see what kind of story a writer can come up with in 10,000-20,000 words.

The SITUATION:
Two puppies, a woman in hiding, a mysterious man, and a pair of pink polka dot pumps.

The PHRASE:

“Dead guys don’t usually show up for breakfast,” she said, staring at the very-much-alive man who stood in front of the pastry counter.

I'm in the closing stretch of Faithful Danger...I'll let you know how it turns out. Yeah, my mysterious man is a cowboy turned private investigator. And our heroine falls for him spur, lariat and Stetson even though she's in hiding in a small Central California ranch town from very bad Soprano-esque people...

Saddle up and Write: Bandera, Texas

Howdy! I sure hope you'll scoot on over to Petticoats and Pistols today, the all-Western romance site, where I'm blogging about my experiences as a cowgirl at the Silver Spur Ranch in Bandera, Texas. Hey, I found out I'm not too fat and old to learn to ride a horse...or too dumb shoot a gun! The "Saddle up and Write" retreat sponsored by my publisher The Wild Rose Press totally rocked from beginning to end...

...and those days as a Texan will live forever in my heart and memory.

Sigh.

Glen Ivy Mudbath...what a way to spend a Saturday with my posse

Yowza. Who'd ever thunk it, a playdate in the mud at our age. Well, it happened, it was weird and cool at the same time. Mostly it was some good old-fashioned girl bonding.

Daughters, sister, friends, cousins.

Oh, and I can't forget the massage! Good time, good people.

Good memory!

My First Inspirational Sale: Hearts Crossing Ranch

I've been busy editing--
my first contemporary Western inspirational, Hearts Crossing Ranch! Every new contract is a gift, a blessing, an affirmation, but to sell my very first attempt at not just a contemporary Western but an inspirational one has me over the moon!

And the cover, designed by the amazing Nicola Martinez, is to die for. Hearts Crossing Ranch will be released by White Rose Publishing at a soon-to-be-announced date.

White Rose Publishing held a contest last summer, and I decided to keep my mind busy in a romantic way while we got ready for our daughter's wedding. The editor had a template with a few elements each submission had to have, including the title. Well, I reckoned Hearts Crossing was the perfect name for a ranch! My heroine Christy Forrest has come to the ranch for a city-slicker wagon train adventure and sparks fly when she meets Kennedy Martin, the hottie cowboy wagon master. Of course each is experiencing personal issues that lead to crises of faith, so their journey involves both their developing love for each other and their renewed trust in God.

(With us going on a similar wagon train adventure about the Tetons next summer, the setting and timing were irresistible.

Well, to make a long story short (too late?), I was runner up in the contest and my story found a home!

Hearts Crossing Ranch: "the perfect Wild West adventure...a beautiful city slicker. A handsome cowboy. ...covered wagons and campfires. And a would-be wedding grotto healing two hurting hearts."

Follow the (yellow) brick road...in San Juan Capistrano

Okay, so it's not exactly yellow. This beautiful brick walkway is kind of a journey of the heart...at the Forster Mansion in SJC, California, where our daughter married a wonderful young man. Dang, how can it be six months ago already? I love journey metaphors...when you start out some place and end up just where you want to be. Of course there are hills and valleys along the way, some times steep and wide and divisive, but somehow, it all works out. I like to think it's because God Himself is in charge.

I am a believer, but it is hard to trust sometimes. We're waiting on routine but nervewracking medical tests this week, people are suffering now in Chile, a lovely honor student down south has gone missing...and I still miss my twin brother and my doggies. But the sun is shining, both my kids are happily married. My little grandson is the latest love of my my life and I'm sure my hubby is fine. Statistics are on our side. We just had a wonderful beach-house weekend with friends that I'll tell you about some other time.

And I just got my cover for the Christmas anthology, Lawmen and Outlaws! I'll tell more about it later on, but there's a sneak peek to the right. I sure hope you'll hunker down with a copy of Christmas for Ransom next autumn!

Nonetheless, the JURY SUMMONS breathing down my neck is making me both twirly and angry. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Marrying Mattie...and mammatus clouds

Current read: Daniel's Bride, by Linda Lael Miller

My pal Nancy is a Nebraska native who often fills my head with family lore or local color. When she described "boob clouds" during a summer visit to her homeland, I knew I had to include such a weather phenomena somewhere in a romance.

And so I did. In the upcoming Marrying Mattie, undulating clouds make an appearance in a tornado scene...when Mattie and Call take shelter in an abandoned shack. Aw, ya'll know what happens next. Sigh.

(No. They don't end up in Kansas.)

Thought you might like to see some. I think they are most aptly named...

News and Notes...

I have been busy, and I love it. A major excitement happened in November when I was selected to contribute to the 2010 Christmas Anthology, Lawmen and Outlaws. It was terrific fun writing a Christmas romance during the holidays.

We've just done the first-round edits and I admit, I enjoy re-reading it. "Canyon Jack" Ransom is such a bad boy. And Eliza Willows, no rule-followin' female herself, tames him just fine in Christmas for Ransom. I'll be posting an excerpt soon.

Even with all that excitement going on, I had heartbreaking news that my incredible editor is leaving the profession to concentrate on her own writing career. I wish her well but will miss her terribly. We're still together while we finish Marrying Mattie, but that's almost in the can. Sigh.

For a pre-quel to Marrying Mattie, why not download my 2008 Christmas story, His Christmas Angel, " This short story introduced Mattie and shows how she met the love of her life. It's free! You see now how they get together. Later, the longer novel will show you just what calamities keep them apart. Come on! It's free!

A Wild West Christmas...twelve days long

Currently reading: The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith
Just finished: When Christmas Comes by Debbie Macomber A++++

Merry Christmas!

What? That's like, five days ago.

But did you know Christmas has long been celebrated for twelve days afterward, until the Feast of the Magi, or Epiphany, on January 6? I'm so happy the Hallmark Channel is still showing Christmas flicks this week and our cable system's "Sounds of the Season" is still belting out carols full force. So much better than the Los Angeles station that started playing Christmas music mid-November, non-stop, 24/7...only to cease cold turkey at 12:01 a.m. December 26. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. And all the marathons of White Christmas, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone and A Christmas Story stopped then too.

In fact, if you want the true meaning of the Twelve Days (it is NOT those twelve gimmicky shopping days beforehand), get on over to my recent blog at Petticoats and Pistols to learn the secret, sacred symbolism behind all the French hens and those maids a'milking.

That blogging day, I asked readers to help me re-write the classic Christmas carol, and here's what we composed: (No symbolism; we just had fun.)

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...a roadrunner in a pinon pine tree.

...Two blue jays squawking,
...Three crows cawing,
...Four calves a-bawling,
...Five jangling spurs,
...Six cowgirls roping,
...Seven tumbleweeds a'tumbling,
...Eight pioneers a camping,
...Nine broncos bucking,
...Ten cowboys singing,
...Eleven roosters crowing,

And I just couldn't decide on the last one. Take your pick. They're all great.

Twelve stallions leaping
Twelve Texans twanging
Twelve riders riding
Twelve fillies rhyming
Twelve coyotes howling.

Point is. It's still Christmas!

My New Book Cover! hip-hip HOORAY

Just finished: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown; Grade C-
Here it is...isn't it gorgeous? I got the designer I requested (yes, she did Marrying Minda also), the marvelous artist and editor Nicola Martinez, and got the horses and lone cowboy as well. Sigh.

Now I need to speed-read and finish my edits. I've got a book signing on Sunday for Marrying Minda (can you tell Minda and Mattie are sisters?)...so wish me luck! I'll be posting the blurb next. My wonderful editor helped me with it. I am definitely not a woman of few words.

Thanks for stopping by.