Fall is in the air.

Well, I had to dig out a fall jacket today. (Big sigh.) And worse than that is the fact I have to find winter storage for ‘Sissy’ to be locked up in all winter. I don’t want to drive her on the salty, sandy, icy, Minnesota winter roads, but I REALLY don’t want to not drive her! Aw, such is life.

It is also campaign time at United Way, and fall also means hunting season, so besides being extremely busy at work, life on the home front will be chaotic as well. I also have to devote time to getting the yard, garden, house and sauna ready for the long winter months. This is a picture of a bottle in the woods near the hunting shack. It's been there for years and I can't believe a critter of some kind hasn't broken it.

On the bright side, I do tend to get more writing done in the winter (once the guys finally head out to hunt one type of animal or another), and I’m really looking forward to that. I have a Texas Ranger in my head who’s impatiently waiting for his story to be told. (He buys a wife from an orphanage and then kidnaps her off a train.) I’ve been doing bits of research on Texas Rangers and the sand hills of Nebraska in preparation of writing his story, which is very interesting, but not enough to quiet him down. A day or two to devote to the outline of his tale will be heaven!

On Thursday I will post on The Wild Rose Press Cactus Rose Blog about marrying Little Joe Cartwright, so please stop by!

Mustang Fans

In honor of Mustang lovers across the Universe, I must post the following poem written by a wonderful young man, Chad McCaskill:

A Tribute to My Untamed Love
She wore a shiny black coat,
I saw her through the crowd.
She hummed as I passed her way
A sweet tune. She wasn't loud.
She was very popular with the guys.
She'd take them for a drive.
Untamed like a mustang on the plains
She made me more alive.
Only one key was for the heart
Of dear Shelby so I'll wait,
Until the day that she is mine
and I can rev up her V8.

AH…I do believe I have found the man of my dreams. Too bad I married the love of my life almost thirty years ago. Oh, well, I’m quite sure Chad has all the young fillies he can handle.

Cheers!

LAURI R

The personalized license plates for my car arrived this week. LAURI was taken so I had to go with LAURI R. I still can’t believe I did it. I have never been a fan of personalized plates, but always told my sons when I finally bought my Mustang I was going to put my name on it so they wouldn’t want to borrow her. And as a parent, I had to stick to my words even though they are all grown and probably will never even WANT to borrow ‘mom’s car’ anymore. I went one step further and got plate covers from The Wild Rose Press, so above my name it says Romance Novelist and their website across the bottom. Problem is now I can’t even convince my husband to drive it to the gas station. LOL.

My story, Sheriff McBride was picked to be one of the four in the new Cactus Rose anthology, Outlaws and Lawmen from The Wild Rose Press. I am so excited about this opportunity to work with three other Cactus Rose authors, Karyna DaRosa, Loretta Rogers, and Linda Carroll-Bradd.

Karyna and Loretta will write about the outlaws and Linda and I about the lawmen. Our Senior Editor says the stories will appeal to all western readers—they range from somewhat spicy to sweet and are all unique.

New Blog

The Cactus Rose line at The Wild Rose Press had created a new blog for their authors, www.twrpcactusrose.blogspot.com. The Cactus Roses are historical westerns (American stories set in the 1800’s west of the Mississippi). Check it out when you have a chance. I’m sure you’ll enjoy hearing about the stories and authors in this line.

I finished a short story to submit to the new anthology The Wild Rose Press will be releasing next June titled Lawmen and Outlaws. My story is Sheriff McBride. The story is about a small town lawman who is convinced the woman who recently arrived in Blue Spring, KS is running from something, but he’s quite shocked when he learns she’s an outlaw. My fingers are crossed they will choose it to be one of the four stories for the anthology.

I also finished the final galley for An April to Remember and hope to hear the release date fairly soon.

Now that all of our company has left, the weddings and family reunions are over, and summer is coming to a close, I’m hoping to once again make a bit more time for writing. The hero and heroine, Howard (Hog) and Randilynn, from Boot Hill Bride have been screaming in my head to get their story written!

My Mustang is doing very well. I honestly didn’t think I could love a car so much! She is lots of fun to drive, and I enjoy her more every day. LOL