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Sunday Snippet: The Red Boots and Style Edition
I’ve been working on becoming more confident and seeing myself in a new way. Clothes are part of this very slow transformation–wearing them, buying them, choosing them… knowing what best suits me. In the daybook Simple Abundance, Sarah Ban Breathnach talks about finding clothes that fit your lifestyle. That assumes I have a lifestyle, which I’m not entirely sure I really do. I’m a writer and editor. I pretty much live in comfort clothes–yoga pants, T-shirts with a sweater tugged over the top of them or a sweatshirt if it’s really cold outside. Slippers or socks and I’m good to go for the day. There are even days, I confess,…
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Author Spotlight: Welcome, Shanna Hatfield!
I’m always delighted to share new discoveries with you, and Shanna Hatfield and her books are a fab find for me! We met when I joined the Petticoats & Pistols blog and I’ve enjoyed getting to know her and the other “fillies” who are on the blog. It’s a joy to have her with me today. USA Today bestselling author Shanna Hatfield grew up on a farm where hay fever and life lessons were always in season. Today, she blends her rural roots with a love for storytelling, crafting sweet, wholesome romances filled with hope, humor, quirky characters, and realistic heroes paired with strong, inspiring heroines. When she’s not writing or baking new…
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Author Spotlight: It’s Me, Montana Cowboys, & a Giveaway!
We have a winner! Laura Delgado is the winner of the Montana Goodie Box! Thanks, everyone who stopped by! I love having all of you here! Bonjour, mes amis! Cue the confetti! Light the fireworks! The Cowboy’s Comeback, Book 2 in Juniper Falls Ranch, my very first cowboy contemporary romance series. I’m doing it–writing western romance–and I’m having the time of my life! As I work on finishing book 3 in this new series, I’m falling more in love with the little Montana town of Marietta with each book. I talk about gratitude a lot here. It’s a very real part of my life every day and today, I’m so…
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Sunday Snippet: The January 2026 Musings Edition
How it’s already January 18? Wasn’t it just Thanksgiving? Heck, wasn’t it just summer, for heaven’s sake? Time is going by too quickly. Basically, we’re hunkered down here because the weather is so bitter, flu and Covid are rampant, and I’m doing a round of a topical chemo cream on some pre-cancerous spots on my face, which makes me look kinda gross. I feel safe in my little brick house in the Nest, but the days are are dark–not just because of the season but also because of what is happening in our nation and in the world. We watch events in Minnesota with horror, praying for the folks there,…
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Sunday Snippet: The Audio Books & Memories Edition
I’ve just started listening to audiobooks recently—frankly, since my own book, Forever Cowboy, was released on audio. (Little plug there. Yeah, I’m shameless.) Anyway, I never thought I could listen to an audiobook in the car and keep my focus on driving. Surprisingly, I’m finding that I can, indeed, listen to an audiobook and drive. I started with Claire Cook’s Must Love Dogs because I’ve read the book, enjoyed the film they made from it, and I know the story. I thought maybe if I knew a story it would be less likely to distract me while I was driving. Last month, I listened as I drove up to a…
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Sunday (Whoops, Thursday) Snippet: The Happy New Year Edition
Today is the first day of 2026, and frankly, I’m skipping resolutions and a word for the year and planning all the ways I’m going to succeed and be amazing this year. My plan for 2026 is to simply survive another year of this regime. Well, okay, not simply survive, I also intend to do what I can do to resist and get educated on how I can best fight for our Constitution and the rule of law. That might mean donating to causes, marching in protests, and voting in important elections, but it won’t mean posting and reposting that resistance on Facebook. On Facebook, I’m preaching to the choir.…
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Sunday Snippet: The December Mourning to Joy Edition
Yesterday was the 11-year anniversary of my sister, Kate’s, death. On December 19, 2014, cancer stole Kate from me. It’s always a hard day, but this year felt harder … weepier than usual. Not sure why. Maybe because the state of the world has left my emotions raw and simmering close to the edge since last Christmas. I’m exhausted with worry and fear and cringing at whatever’s next. But Kate’s was a quiet, peaceful passing. She had dealt with health issues for some time, but by the time we discovered what was happening, the cancer had spread and her body had no more fight in it. Three months after the…
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Author Spotlight: Bestie Liz Flaherty Joins Me Today–Always a Pleasure!
I’m so glad to welcome my writing bestie, author Liz Flaherty to the Spotlight today. I stole her bio right off her website because it charms the socks off me. She wanted to shake the dust of central Indiana farm country and move to the city, get rich, wear designer clothes, and write books. Well, she writes books. Liz Flaherty 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,…
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Sunday Snippet: The December memos Edition
It’s time for another edition of the Memos, which is your sign that Nan is coming up short on Snippet topics this week. I do find doing the memos fun, though. Hope you do too. Onward… Dear Readers Who Stopped by My Book Signings This Month, Sure loved seeing you and I do so appreciate you coming out to buy books and visit with me! It’s always fun to share reading news with you! Thanks for buying my books as holiday gifts–what fun I had packaging them up for you! Always Happy to be Meeting Readers and Signing Books, Nan ~*~*~*~ Dear Weather, It’s about two weeks ’til Christmas, and…
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Sunday Snippet: The Writing a Book Is Hard Edition
Writing a book is hard. A few days ago, as Liz and I had our usual morning g-Chat she said, okay, she typed, those words. Simple as the words are, the idea is huge because of the truth of it. In these days of indie publishing, where anyone can put a book up on Amazon, those words need to be said. To repeat: Writing a book is hard. I’m not going to rant about the folks who put up the books that haven’t seen an editor, the books that are full of misspellings and bad punctuation and lousy story structure. The folks who read a book, think well, I can…