• Authors on the Road Day 5.5

    Well, we’re packing, finishing up last-minute little details as we prepare for our trip back to real life. Right now, we’re both sipping coffee and we have the fireplace going for a last few moments of the bliss of writing together by the fire. One sorta goofy thing that’s happened here is that the air is very dry and the static electricity is through the roof. Yesterday morning I woke up with my hair looking like I’d stuck my finger in a light socket. It took dampening my brush and running it through my hair to calm it down. This morning Liz had the same issue. We really wished we…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Author Spotlight: E. Elizabeth Watson is here with Highlanders!

    I love it when the Spotlight shines on an author I’ve met in person! E. Elizabeth Watson and I met at the Tule Author Retreat a couple of years and she was a delight! We even shared an early-morning writing session while we were there! I’m excited to welcome her to the Author Spotlight today! Elizabeth is convinced life is better with good coffee, chocolate, and a pair of hiking boots. Ever since her elementary school librarian “published” her epic childhood tales—complete with laminated handmade covers—she’s enjoyed exploring the world through literature. She fell in love with the harsh Texas desert where she found inspiration for charismatic cowboys and the…

  • Author Spotlight: Liz Flaherty Is Here with Holiday Romance!

    Liz Flaherty wanted to shake off the dust of central Indiana farm country and move to the city, get rich, wear designer clothes, and write books. Well, she writes books. She lives five miles from where she grew up, only now she relishes the sights and sounds and scents of the fields around her, doesn’t care much about clothes, and thinks being rich would probably have been overrated anyway.  She’s spent the past several years enjoying not working a day job, making terrible crafts, and writing stories in which the people aren’t young, brilliant, or even beautiful. She’s decided (and has to re-decide nearly every day) that the definition of…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Imprinting Edition (A Peek into the Writerly Mind)

    So many authors I know often talk about how much they love to write and how it seems as though every situation–good or bad–gets filtered through their inner writer. That’s so true. I’m wondering right now if it is a bad thing that even when I am in the midst of chaos and crisis, sickness and grief the writer is still creating–inventing scenes, conversations, and scenarios. I’ve thought it about it a lot as we’ve been in such crisis in our country, and I’ve been trying to decide if it’s something to feel guilty about or not. I think it’s not. It’s never a bad thing when our gift kicks…

  • Author Spotlight: Sinclair Jayne Brings the Next Montana’s Rodeo Cowboy!

    We have a winner! Joannie Sico–you are Sinclair’s winner! She will be in touch. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. We love talking to our readers!  One of the best gifts I ever got was when I was assigned to Sinclair (Sawhney) Jayne as my editor for my series. She’s brilliant and knows me and my stories almost as well as I know them myself. I can’t imagine taking this new journey into cowboy romance without her! It’s a honor to welcome her to the Spotlight today with her new novel, Rogue Cowboy, the third installment of Tule’s new series, Montana’s Rodeo Cowboys, which releases today! YAY! Sinclair is a…

  • Author Spotlight: Nicole Flockton Is Here with Book 2 In Our Montana’s Rodeo Cowboys Series

    We have a winner! Debra Pruss’s name was randomly drawn for Nicole’s giveaway. Debra, Nicole will be in touch! Thanks to everyone who stopped by–watch for Sinclair James next week with Rogue Cowboy, Book 3 in the Montana’s Rodeo Cowboy series! Hey, mes amis! We are celebrating all things Marietta, Montana, this month with the release of four brand-new Cowboy Romances that happen around the 87th Copper Mountain Rodeo. This week’s release is Book #2 in Tule’s new Montana’s Rodeo Cowboys series–Headstrong Cowboy by the amazing Nicole Flockton! USA Today Bestselling author Nicole Flockton writes contemporary romances that sparkle and seduce you one kiss at a time. Nicole likes nothing…

  • Sunday Snippet: The What Makes Me Interesting? Edition

    Several years ago, I did an interview on another author’s blog—in the hot seat myself after all the interviews I’ve asked my guest authors to do. I had a good time answering the questions, and they were great questions, ones that really made you stop to think. One that particularly intrigued me was this: If someone wrote a book about your life, what would it be called? Hmmmm… that was a tough question because I had to start with the whole concept that someone would be interested enough to want to write a book about me. I can probably count on the fingers on one hand—maybe just using only three…

  • Author Spotlight: Elsa Winckler Brings Cowboy Joy!

    Congratulations to Glenda! You are Elsa’s giveaway winner! She will be in touch! Thanks to everyone who stopped by! We love, love talking to our readers! One of my very favorite Western romance writers is fellow Tule author Elsa Winckler. Her cowboy romances always make my heart flutter! Elsa has been reading love stories for as long as she can remember and when she ‘met’ the classic authors like Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, Henry James, the Brontë sisters, etc. during her Honors studies, she was hooked for life. Although her three gown-up children rarely acknowledge the fact they have a romance-writing mom, her husband fortunately, is very proud of her, reads…