Happy Halloween!

We don’t get many trick or treaters, so therefore plan on driving up to our son’s house to be with our granddaughter. She will be a ‘princess’ for Halloween. Here is a picture of our other grandchild, Bear. The cape and bat ears don’t show up in the picture, but he has them on as well.

The author event at the Library was wonderful. Mr. Koblas is a wealth of information in the outlaw genre, and his lecture about Jesse James was remarkable. Two short interesting things he shared about gang members: Cole and Jim Younger were both arrested after the failed raid on the Northfield, MN bank, and were incarcerated at the Stillwater, MN prison. When a fire broke out in the prison, a warden gave Cole a gun, told him to get his men, and rescue the women prisoners from the raging fire. The Younger ‘Boys’ saved the women and then turned in their guns and continued to serve their time. The warden played a large role in the Cole and Jim receiving parole. However, during this time when a man was on parole, he had no rights, and Jim Younger had fallen in love. After requesting permission to marry the young women, and denied the right (being on parole was the same as being dead, and a dead man couldn’t marry), Jim shot himself. (Living together in those days was not an option.)

The Northern Lights Writers retreat weekend was fabulous. The planning committee did a terrific job and provided three wonderful days dedicated to the ins, outs, and all about romance writing. And of course we had enough food and chocolate to feed a small country!