Juniper Falls Ranch
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Sunday Snippet: The Little Pieces of Words that Wander Through My Mind Edition
This is a repeat of a post that I wrote for Petticoats & Pistols last week. I really loved thinking about this, so I thought I’d share it here with ya’ll and get your ideas and thoughts. I was on a writer retreat with my bestie, Liz Flaherty last month. It was fabulous. We wrote, we drank wine, we ate chocolate, we talked, we processed her book and mine. Our retreats are always as Liz puts it so eloquently, “… harbors, as in they are places of refuge and safety, places for gathering, resting, and repairing. They are narrow and small and contained and when we are finished in them,…
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Sunday Snippet: The Cover Reveal & A Real Snippet Edition
It’s been a writing week, mes amis. Liz and I went on retreat and we wrote words–lots of words! We also processed stories and okay, we had a little wine and a little chocolate and we enjoyed a hair & history day where we got our washed and blown out and visited some of the historical sites around Galena, Illinois. It’s a lovely town, full of history, shops, and beautiful trees and hills. The perfect place for a writing retreat. Today, a new week begins and since I’ve started book 3 in the Juniper Falls Ranch series, this feels like a good time to reveal the cover for book 2,…
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Authors on the Road Day 4
Liz takes over the blog today to share Day 4 of our writing retreat… After our obligatory hair appointment today, sporting curls on Nan and my usual flat-iron look on me, we went to lunch at Vinny Vanucchi’s in downtown Galena. We had excellent service and excellent food and opted not to have one of the most decadent looking desserts I’ve ever forced myself to turn down. Only minutes later, we were in a candy shop and never mind what we were doing there. What happens in Galena stays in Galena. Then we went on the history part of the day, enjoying a long and enlightening tour of the beautiful…
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Authors on the Road Day 3
Well, kids, I’m tired, I’m brain dead after a day of writing and I’ve had too much wine (I blame Liz for that, although I poured it myself, but she could’ve stopped me.) That’s me in my “writing sweater”–a very tattered sweater that once belonged to my sister Kate, who left us way too soon. I wear to write because it’s magic–words come when I have it on. I think they come in through the holes… I could be wrong about that, but I don’t think I am. It was a day of all writing all the time. We didn’t even leave the condo building. It was a miserable weather…
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Authors on The Road Day 2
Day 2 from beautiful Galena, Illinois. Liz here… We slept pretty well last night, considering we weren’t in our own beds. We do have those fireplaces in our rooms, which have a lovely mesmerizing affect. At least until the timer goes off and the fire goes out. We were up pretty early this morning, ramping up our word counts and talking about what we would do this afternoon and what we needed to do with our works-in-progress. Oh, and we ate some stuff. And drank some stuff. And talked some more. This is the exciting, dramatic stuff writing retreats are made of. We had a good late lunch at Durty…
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Sunday Snippet: The Authors on the Road, Fall Edition
Despite last week saying I never know what day of the week it is, I actually do know it’s Sunday today, mainly because I’m writing the Sunday Snippet. But also because Liz and I are headed out for our fall writing retreat this morning. We’re headed to Galena, Illinois. Do you guys know that town? We’ve never been there before, which is part of the fun of going, and we have sister PJ and BIL to thank for the accommodations. They’re letting us use their condo. It looks pretty luxurious and has an indoor pool! (That’s the magic word for me, and graciously, Liz goes along with me, even though…
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Sunday Snippet: The What Day Is It Again? Edition
Remember when Tuesday meant you had a good start on the week, it was a pool day, and you knew Husband would be at work and the kid would be at school? When the weekend was well and truly over and you were into your week? All was right in your world. I have a confession—Husband’s been retired over ten years and I rarely know what day it is. Seriously, I don’t. Most of the time I couldn’t tell you whether it was Sunday or Thursday. It’s even worse at the lake because every day at the lake feels like Saturday. Weird phenomenon, but it’s true. The only way I…
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Sunday Snippet: The Autumn at the Lake Edition
Autumn is my favorite time of the year, even though I’m often restless and sad in the fall. It’s an ending in so many ways, and yet there is that feeling of joyful beginning that comes with Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season, even when the world is suddenly a scarier and more uncertain place. Fall is sweatshirts and jeans and corduroy jackets and yoga pants and maybe even scarves now and then, but not yet heavy winter coats and gloves and hats. It’s walks in the neighborhood that leave you feeling smugly exercised, but not particularly sweaty. It’s trips to the orchard for apples and cider and…
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Author Spotlight: And … It’s Me!
We have a winner! Jonna Niles your name was randomly selected to receive my Montana goodies box! I’ll be in touch to get your mailing address. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to celebrate with me! I’ll be all over the place in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes open–there will be other goody boxes to be had! Hello, mes amis. Today I’m in the Author Spotlight with my new and very first cowboy romance, Forever Cowboy! I’m so excited to share this book with you because it was a big step outside of my comfortable River’s Edge box and into a brand new setting in Marietta, Montana.…
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Sunday Snippet: The More Questions for the Universe Edition
Summer is almost over, and I’m damned if I know what happened to it. One minute it was April and we were opening up the lake cottage, and the next, it’s September and the leaves on our little sweet gum tree are changing. My personal life has been an upheaval of joys and sorrows lately, but I’ve been working practically nonstop all summer long. Editing gigs are always a good thing, except they interfere ferociously with my writing time. If I work for eight or ten hours, I’m loathe to sit down at the computer again after supper to write some more. But this week, I’ve been working on the…