This Life...

  • Sunday Snippet: The I Need a Break from Technology Edition

    Congratulations to Deb Pruss! You are my winner of an e-book ARC of The Fireman’s Christmas Wish. Thank you to everyone who stopped by and you who took the time to comment. What a great conversation! Do you ever wonder how we survived before computers and cell phones and Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and websites and blogs? I can’t remember when I last dialed (literally dialed) a telephone or used the tuner on the television to change the station. When I last typed something a typewriter or used a paper roadmap to figure out where I was going, or opened a recipe book to find a new way to…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Back Home Again Edition

    We’re back in the city after just over a week at the lake. It was very nice there–swimming, a couple of boat rides, time with lake pals… all in all, the lake was lovely. Our city neighbors came up for a day while we were there and we really enjoyed visiting in a different venue. The lake was turning over, so we didn’t get to swim, but we took a long boat ride and enjoyed the sun and the lovely early September breezes. Lunch was hot dogs on the grill, chips, veggies, and some delish brownies that neighbor Mary brought. Yum! We sat on the deck under the trees and…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Gone Fishin’ Edition

    Yup… I really had nothing for today. My brain is exhausted and empty from finishing up the second book in the Weaver Sisters trilogy for Tule Publishing. I’ll be sending it off to my editor tomorrow and I’ll be on pins and needles until I hear from her. I’m never sure if I’ve hit the mark or not–sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, but with the help of my editor, the awesome and brilliant Sinclair Sawney, it will turn into what it should be. So, this morning, when I was lying awake in bed, wondering what I was going to write about in the Sunday Snippet, Son texted, “Anybody awake?”…

  • Sunday Snippet: The BookBub Edition

    It’s been a crazy week–not bad crazy, just busy crazy. I’m late getting this up because I slept in just a bit this morning after spend the last three days doing a rush project for a new client. I gotta say, rushing the work is always rough, but I really like this new client. She’s fun and friendly and kind and her book was delightful. I hope it’s the start of great relationship. I’ve written a lot this week as well, but the next couple of weeks will be devoted to finishing my current WIP–book 2 in the Weaver Sisters trilogy–and getting it into my editor’s hands, which means I’ll…

  • Sunday Snippet: The, Yup, It’s a Real Snippet Edition

    It’s true. Sometimes the Sunday Snippet is exactly that–a snippet from one of my stories. Today, promotion begins on my next release–The Fireman’s Christmas Wish, book 3 in the Lange Brothers trilogy. Another story from River’s Edge, but this one is a holiday romance. It is currently available for preorder and will release in just about two and half months. That doesn’t even seem possible… It feels as if Falling for the Doctor just came out. But here we are, so onward, yes? I hope y’all are enjoying the Lange Brothers novels–I confess to you, there are pieces of me and my life in these brothers’ stories, particularly the thread…

  • Sunday Snippet: A Day of Lake Life Revisited

    Some days are just perfect lake days, you know? Days where you’re having so much fun, you forget to take pictures, you forget you even have a phone, so what this post lacks in pictures, I hope I can make up for in words. I got up early  to write, but before I started, I made coffee and checked the outside temperature. When I opened the front door to slip out onto the deck, a doe and her two fawns were nibbling our neighbor’s hostas. The fawns still had spots, so they were pretty young. They bolted when they heard me, but they sorta hung around because we kept spotting…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Power Outage Edition

    So, I’m writing this on Saturday and it’s storming like crazy up here at the lake. Wind, rain, thunder, lightning–all the good stuff that make a Midwest summer storm. We’ve had branches down–cleanup is coming as soon as the rain ends and a power outage that happened right at breakfast time and lasted about three hours. We ended up having warm cantaloupe, which I cut up by flashlight, and graham crackers for breakfast because we didn’t want to open the fridge during the outage. I wasn’t able to work because my laptop battery had just started to charge when the power went out… too bad for editor Nan, who does…

  • Sunday Snippet: The “Whew” and a PSA Edition

    Today, I’m going to tell you about something that has been happening here in my life, something that I haven’t really shared here because 1) it’s rather personal and 2) I worried that sharing it would affect the outcome, which is stupid, I know, but I’m old and that’s how we aged folks think. We worry about jinxing things and other silliness. But we are through this time now, so I’m going to use today’s blog as an opportunity for a PSA. It is this, Get a colonoscopy! If you are over 50 and you’ve never had one, go book it now. If you are 40 or older and you…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Rainy Edition

    It’s been soooo dry here in the Midwest for the last four weeks. We’ve been watering gardens every day, and the potted plants sometimes twice a day, but we held back watering the lawn because all the experts said not to. It’s hard to watch your lovely green lawn go slowly to brown straw, but lawn people say that you can let the yard go without water for up to four weeks before you risk losing it. After four weeks, water only every two weeks to keep the roots hydrated. So we waited… and day before yesterday, Husband finally set out the sprinklers and gave the grass a good drink,…

  • Sunday Snippet: The I’m Promoting Edition

    It’s Sunday again–how did that happen? Apparently, the passage of time is happening while I’m busy doing other stuff. I’m actually getting some writing done right now, which is a miracle that I’m not questioning, just going with it. That said, I don’t have much to say here today, so here’s what’s going on in the promotion world instead. I spent a delightful hour with Aaron and Bree over at the Categorically Romance podcast. They are such good fun to chat with–they actually read my books before the podcast, seem to enjoy the stories, and have great questions. You can check it all out here. Also, Fresh Fiction and I…