April has always been one of my favorite months. With the exception of the usual spring storms, April is a beautiful time in Arkansas. The leaves are new and green, flowers are blooming, the nice temperatures invite us to play outside in “the natural state” without the stifling heat we know will arrive later in the summer. Yes, pollen covers everything in a fine yellow film, and sneezes are as common as smiles, but it really is a wonderful time of year.

My mother’s birthday was in April. She’d have marked her 80th on the 18th of this month (75 was the last she was able to celebrate with us). Her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren remembered our beloved “Nana” on her birthday this year, sending our love to her in her new home. She and my father were married on April 28, 1953 — so happy 59th anniversary to my dad, who is still with us! Easter is usually in April, and I have many happy family memories centered around that holiday — egg hunts and big meals, family portraits and frilly dresses.

John and I welcomed both of our daughters into our family in April. Courtney’s birthday is the 1st (our April Fool child) and Kerry’s is today, the 23rd. Happy birthday to both of these amazing young women who have brought us so much joy.

This year, April marked the publication of my 100th Harlequin book – HUSBAND FOR A WEEKEND – another happy celebration for me! The book is still available in stores and on-line (story details on the home page). I hope you’ll check it out, if you haven’t already. And this month I’ve also released a somewhat different-for-me paranormal story for Kindle only (and free Kindle reading app for PC and smartphones, if you don’t have a Kindle). So it has been a busy and memorable month.

Today is absolutely gorgeous here in Arkansas, a little cool but sunny and clear. While I’m working on my next book, I’ll take breaks occasionally to wander outside and admire the blooming roses and smell the honeysuckle (and maybe sneeze a few times, but I’m used to that). Whatever your weather today (even snow in some parts of the country!), I hope you find a few moments to appreciate the small pleasures.

I have lived my entire life in semi-rural Arkansas — unincorporated areas within a twenty-minute drive from Little Rock. So, country — but not too far from the city. I rode a yellow bus to the town of Bryant, Arkansas, where I attended all twelve years of school (there wasn’t a kindergarten program for me). I spent more than an hour a day on the bus, and I rather envied the “town kids,” who could walk to school or meet up at the local diner or even go home for lunch. We drove to the grocery story, to church, to work — there were no businesses within walking distance of our house. It was always my plan to live in a city someday — and then I married a deeply-Arkansas-rooted guy who wanted to live in the country. More than twenty years ago, we built a house on ten acres, seven miles from the nearest grocery store, church or other business, and our children rode yellow buses to their schools. I’m still within a twenty minute drive of Little Rock, though now I’m north of the capital city, some forty minutes from my childhood home. With plenty of room for the kids to play outside, almost no crime to worry about, lots of privacy, it’s been a good place to live and raise our now-grown family … but I have to admit, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to live in a different setting.

I’ve had a chance to travel quite a bit within the U.S., visiting 33 states so far, and part of the fun of travel for me is to imagine what it would be like to live in each place I visit. What would life be like in Arizona — flat land, few trees, gorges and canyons and deserts rather than the wooded, grassy hills of central Arkansas? Or in New York, with its high-rise buildings and ever-flowing rivers of yellow cabs, its noise and bustle and urgency? Arkansas sees little snow in winter; how would I like shoveling walkways in Minnesota, bundling up against frostbite, skating on lakes frozen solid until spring? I’ve always wondered if my pleasant, but less-than-adventurous childhood helped fuel my writer’s imagination by making me envision those life differences rather than experience them.

In pursuit of their career training, our daughters have moved to urban areas far from home — one in central Massachusetts, the other in Seattle. They both plan to move closer to home eventually, but for now they are where they need to be. As much as I miss them, I’m pleased that they have the chance to explore different parts of the country, different ways of life.

Since our oldest daughter’s stroke in October, 2010, I’ve spent approximately six months staying with her in Seattle, helping in her recuperation so she could continue her post-doctoral training. I’ve just returned from another two-month stay. As much as I regret the reason for my visits — I would give anything if I could have prevented the difficulties she has faced for the past seventeen months — I’ve still found much to enjoy about my stays with her. It’s such a change of pace there. Living in a third (and top) floor apartment with an elevator and a tiny balcony from which one can catch occasional glimpses of Mt. Rainier. Hearing footsteps in the hallway outside the door. The constant rumble of traffic from nearby I-5. Spending 40 minutes on an articulated metro bus for a 4-mile commute. Walking rather than driving to a nearby grocery store, mall, doctor’s office, restaurants. Being surrounded by glacier-topped mountains and so much water — Puget Sound, Lake Washington, Lake Union. Boats, bicycles and buses as commonly used for transportation as cars and pick-up trucks back home. Not better, but different. I enjoy those differences. I love meeting the people who have grown up there, and finding out that other than geography, we aren’t really all that different, after all.

So, I’m back at home on a pretty day in central Arkansas, looking through a glass door at a coral bell azalea in full, glorious bloom, hearing birds outside rather than traffic, the muted drone of C-130s from the nearby air base rather than the noisy clatter of city buses. I’m sitting in my recliner, working on a book set in southeast Texas, imagining what it must be like to live on the banks of a big lake there. And it’s a nice place to be.

Wherever you are, whatever the view from your window, I hope you’re having a lovely day.

♥♥♥

HUSBAND FOR A WEEKEND, available in stores now from Harlequin Special Edition and Gina Wilkins!

WAKE ME,  a Kindle exclusive paranormal romantic suspense, also available now — click on the Home Page for details.

And don’t forget to “like” my facebook page for more frequent updates and to join the conversation there!

I’ll be in Seattle with my daughter for another few days, and while summer seems to have already settled in back home in Arkansas with highs in the 80s, spring is just coming to the Pacific Northwest. The highs here have been in the 40s and 50s, still a little cool, but warming. I’ve seen a lot of rain during the past few weeks, of course, but also some absolutely beautiful blue skies above the surrounding snow-capped Cascade and Olympic mountains. The cherry trees are starting to bloom, along with daffodils, early rhododendrons, other flowers, bushes and flowering trees I don’t even know names for. And everywhere I look, towering evergreens remind me why Seattle is called the Emerald City. Just beautiful.

While I’ve been with her, my daughter has helped me update my site here a bit. I have a new front page with covers from current books, links for FAQ and a sign-up for email updates of upcoming releases, and links to all my past books that are now available for Kindle and/or Nook. Within the next few days, my first fifteen published books will be re-released as Kindle exclusives (some are already available there — links are provided on the Books page). And my paranormal suspense novel, WAKE ME, will be released very soon. HUSBAND FOR A WEEKEND, my newest Harlequin Special Edition, is available in stores and for ereaders now. It’s a very exciting time for me, and it was definitely time for an update here! Thanks, Courtney.

Join me on my Facebook page (link provided at right) for more frequent updates and conversations. I love hearing from fellow book lovers!

I haven’t disappeared, though it might seem as though I have from my lack of posts lately. I’ve spent the past month in Seattle with my older daughter – the one who had a stroke in October, 2010. I came here because after her return from visiting home at Christmas, she began to have serious health struggles again – to the point that we were all getting very worried about her ability to continue working and living on her own. While my husband stayed home to take care of things there, I joined our daughter for a series of doctor visits to try to find out why she was struggling so hard against overwhelming fatigue and accompanying depression. Post-stroke fatigue is a serious issue, but hers had gotten suddenly debilitating.

Her amazing primary care physician, rehab physician and therapists worked together to adjust medications and daily activity plans. Not only is Courtney’s energy level now under much better control, she has made such amazing leaps in recovery during the past month that she has brought her therapists, friends – and even landlady! – to tears of joy. For the past 16 months, Courtney has been primarily confined to a wheelchair, her walking unsteady even with a walker or arm crutches (she has suffered from ataxia, or uncoordinated movements following her brainstem stroke). She was frustrated that she couldn’t seem to go beyond 150 feet, no matter how hard she worked – and she works Very hard. One evening soon after I arrived here, I was having trouble with a computer issue (quite common for me) and Courtney got up and walked across the room to help me, without even thinking about what she was doing. I nearly fell over in surprise. She had walked beautifully, without crutches, with little evidence of ataxia! Two days later, her stunned physical therapist — and all the other therapists who have been monitoring her for all this time — watched as Courtney walked for 15 minutes on a treadmill without even holding onto anything, the first time she’d been able to walk on the treadmill. She has been walking more every day since, including a several-block walk from her apartment to a fast food restaurant, a huge accomplishment! That was an exhausting exercise and by the time we got back to her apartment, she was worn out, struggling to pull one leg in front of the other, but determined to make it the entire way without resorting to her wheelchair. I’ve seen this determination in her from the beginning – through a previous life-threatening injury 10 years ago, through earning her doctorate degree and accepting a job 2400 miles from her home, and now after this major stroke. We are so proud of her!

I’ll stay here for a couple more weeks to help her with some more walking (her therapists still aren’t ready to clear her for walking outside on her own). After 16 months in a wheelchair, she continued to keep up her core exercises and strength training, but now she needs to rebuild endurance in walking. She still has little use of her right hand, no pain or temperature sensation on her left side, and bouts of vertigo, but there is little doubt that she’ll soon be able to park that wheelchair most of the time, which is more than many people expected at this point! We thank everyone for the many prayers that have been and continue to be offered on her behalf.

While my daughter works at her career in medical research, I’ve been writing, of course. My next Harlequin Special Edition, HUSBAND FOR A WEEKEND, will be available in April — this is my 100th project for Harlequin, and I couldn’t be more delighted to have been with them for so long! See the Books Available Now page for more details.

For more frequent updates from me, “like” my Facebook page (linked at the right of this post).

I love my job. For more than twenty years, I’ve had the privilege of writing and publishing the stories that are always simmering at the back of my mind. My 100th Harlequin book, HUSBAND FOR A WEEKEND, will be in stores in April, 2012. It was such a thrill for me to mark that number, but there are still so many stories I want to tell …

Writing for Harlequin has been an honor and a constant challenge for me. Within the romance genre,  I’ve been able to write family dramas, romantic comedies, adventure, suspense … even stories about ghosts and psychics … along with the archetypal cowboys, private investigators, cops and docs. And all have had a happy ending, which makes me happy, too. I still have many projects in the works for Harlequin, including an August, 2012, release, HIS BEST FRIEND’S WIFE.

More than a year ago, another type of story began to “haunt” me. Sometimes when I looked in a mirror, I wondered what it would like to see a strange face looking back at me from there, or hear a stranger’s voice whispering from a corner of the room, or find myself with memories that aren’t my own.

That’s what happens to Amanda Holloway in my upcoming Kindle-only release, WAKE ME. Stripped of her own memories, and tormented by flashes of someone else’s life — and death — Amanda wonders if she’s going crazy or being driven by an outside force. Her cynical cop ex-boyfriend wants to know how she knows so many details of his on-going murder investigation, and a handsome musician with possible ties to that investigation wants to get to know her better. All Amanda wants is to reclaim her life and her own memories before someone silences both her and the voices in her head – forever.

WAKE ME was a different kind of story for me to tell, but I loved the challenge as the mystery unfolded in my mind and on my screen. Though it doesn’t quite fit into the romance genre I still love, I stayed true to my storytelling style and voice. I think my regular readers will recognize themes that have always been important to me — the importance of family, the immeasurable value of love, and the universal search for a safe place to call home.

I’ll let you know as soon as the book is available for purchase from the Kindle store (release price will be $3.99). It should be out within the next few weeks. If you don’t have a Kindle device, you can download the Kindle reader for free on your computer, iPad, iPod or smartphone!

I received a Kindle Fire from my husband for my birthday/Christmas gift this year (those of us born in late December use that slash a lot). I don’t do product reviews often, but since this is both directly related to my writing career and a technological advance for me, it seemed relevant to discuss it here.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve never owned an e-reader and that I had my doubts about reading “on screen,” considering my deep love of books. Then I tried reading a few times on an iPod touch — and discovered that I loved the freedom of having a book with me at all times, especially in the various waiting rooms where we all seem to spend so much time. The iPod screen is tiny, certainly, but it was still surprisingly easy for me to read on it. Our oldest daughter carries her Kindle reader with her on her bus commute to work — almost an hour each way — and has commented often about how it makes the travel time pass so much more quickly. John decided it was time for me to have a Kindle of my own, and he choose to order the Kindle Fire from Amazon.

The first accessory I bought was a cover. I choose a black leather cover with a bright blue lining from Belkin (approximately $35 from WalMart)  that also folds into a stand. I like this cover because it’s very slim, adding little bulk to the Fire, and had a good feel in my hand. I have to confess, I like the fact that when it’s open and I’m reading inside the cover, it feels like I’m actually holding a book. The photo above is a little dark, but you get the idea. Cover and all, the Kindle Fire is about the size of a paperback, fits easily into my purse (average size, I don’t like to carry the extra-large ones that make my shoulders ache), and weighs about a pound. Not bad at all.

It was ridiculously easy to download a book from the Amazon Kindle store (maybe a little too easy! It’s like living in a bookstore – dangerous for us book lovers). I had no trouble going to facebook or accessing my email. The settings were easy to find for brightening and dimming the screen, turning wi-fi off to save battery life and so on. On the whole, easy enough for even this techno-challenged mom to figure out. I’ve already read two books and two novellas on it, and honestly, I lost myself in the stories just as easily as I ever have. I’ve also read a hardcover book since Christmas (I’ve been on quite a reading binge), and I still love reading from a “real” book — but I wouldn’t carry it with me out of the house the way I can my Fire.

One of my favorite uses may very well be in the kitchen. Using the stand, I can display a recipe from allrecipes.com or one of the other sites I visit very often, set the little Fire out of the way on the counter, and refer to the displayed recipe as needed. I’ve done that several times already.

The Fire came with a free month’s subscription to Amazon Prime. One of the books I read was “borrowed” from the Amazon Prime library (you are entitled to borrow one book a month from the eligible titles), and I streamed a movie from the free choices offered. The film looked fine on the seven-inch screen and the sound was very acceptable from the speakers. Will I renew the Prime membership? Probably not, at least for now. I don’t order enough to make the free two-day shipping worth the (admittedly reasonable) cost, and I wasn’t excited enough by the range of book or video offerings to make it worthwhile for me, though that could change in the future. But I tried it all while I have it.

The battery life has been sufficient for me so far, though of course I haven’t really put it to the test. I had plenty of power to watch the two-hour film and then read a while before I noticed it was getting low. I think it said it would get seven or eight hours of use on one charge. Fine for my uses.

The only quibble I have so far?

That shiny screen and the resulting fingerprints make my somewhat OCD soul cringe! I spend a lot of time polishing with a microfiber cloth. Colors really pop on screen, but it does take some effort to keep it shiny.

If you don’t have a Kindle device, the Kindle app is a free download from your phone, iPod or iPad or PC from Amazon. Books are reasonably priced, and there are many, many free titles available! All in all, I can give this product two thumbs-up (and then scrub the resulting thumb-prints away with my handy polishing cloth). Thank you for my gift, John. I know I’ll get many hours of enjoyment from it (and thanks to the “kids” for Amazon gift cards — which will be put to good use in the Kindle bookstore!).

♥♥♥

Look for my Harlequin Special Edition, DOCTORS IN THE WEDDING, in stores, at Harlequin.com and for e-readers now! (Click the Books Available Now! tab above for details).

And be sure and “like” my facebook page (link at right) for occasional updates and comments.

Available now in stores, for e-readers, and at Harlequin.com.

Click Books Available Now! tab above for details.

Another busy holiday season has ended — all the decorations put away, too many sweets made and consumed. Although I very much missed having our daughter, Kerry, and her husband, Justin, with us this year (she was on call in Mass.), John and I still enjoyed having Courtney home from Seattle and David here for the holiday weekend on his medical school break. This was the first Christmas in her whole lifetime Kerry hasn’t spent with us, and her traditional place on the carpet in front of the tree seemed awfully empty. We understand the demands of her medical residency, and are so proud of her accomplishments — but we still might have pouted a bit to have one of our brood missing on Christmas. Still, we were able to connect by phone, so she was here in spirit. We did find out who’s been responsible for the before-dawn Christmas awakenings — without Kerry here, the rest of us slept in a couple extra hours that morning! And she always tried to blame her sister and brother …

David starts his second semester of medical school tomorrow. Later this week, Courtney will return to her busy scientific research career. It’s always hard to drive her to the airport and say goodbye until the next visit, but we’re proud of her for forging on in her work despite the challenges she has faced since her stroke on October 30, 2010. Still primarily confined to a wheelchair and with very limited use of her right hand, she still manages to live on her own and to make advances in her research. With post-stroke fatigue a constant challenge for her, some days are so hard for her that she wonders if she can get through them — and yet she continues to display courage and determination when it must be tempting to just give up. There are no words to describe how proud we are of her, and how grateful we are to the excellent doctors and therapists who work with her and encourage her. We know she will continue to make advances both in her recovery and her research during the coming months.

I have lots of plans for the coming year. My new Harlequin Special Edition release, DOCTORS IN THE WEDDING, is available this month, to be followed by HUSBAND FOR A WEEKEND  in April and BEYOND THE MORNING (title subject to change) in August. The latter two books, as well as the as yet untitled one I’m just starting this week, were inspired by the therapists we’ve met during the past year who’ve worked with Courtney. The previous medical-themed books were inspired by our other daughter’s adventures in medical school. My husband teases me about using our kids’ lives as material for my always-active imagination; I remind him that everything in life we see, read or hear is fodder for a writer’s busy fantasy life!

I’ll also be re-releasing quite a few of my early titles soon for Kindle (I’ll let you know when they’re available). And stay tuned for information about the release of my first paranormal suspense novel, WAKE ME. Can’t wait to share the details about that one with you!

May 2012 be a special and fulfilling year for all of you. I hope you’ll come back to visit me here and that you’ll find a few hours of escape and entertainment in the stories I so love telling for you.

I’ll be participating in a live chat with other Harlequin Special Edition authors from 7 to 9 December 14 at Harlequin.com. Those of you who know me through this blog are aware that I can be technologically challenged, so cross your fingers that I hit the right computer buttons during that hour — and feel free to join us to monitor my success! I’m sure it will be fun. I always look forward to chatting with readers and other writers.

Click the Books Available Now tab above for information about my next Harlequin release, DOCTORS IN THE WEDDING, which will be available January, 2012. And don’t forget to enter the drawing to take place on my birthday — December 20. Click the Enter to Win tab for instructions.

A week ago today, my husband and I delivered our daughter and son-in-law to the airport for their return to Massachusetts after a lovely week-long Thanksgiving visit with us. On our way back home, we stopped in to a local store to do a little Christmas shopping. While we stood in line to pay, we were greeted by a long-time friend, Elaine Payne, a recently-retired schoolteacher who was on her way for a luncheon with other retired teacher friends. It was obvious that she was looking forward to that gathering. Telling her to have a good time, we added that we would see her again soon. Two days later, her husband called to tell us that Elaine had suffered a massive heart attack. Yesterday, we stood by her bed in the cardiac critical care unit to share in a prayer with her pastor and several dear friends as we bade her a final goodbye. She was 59.

Elaine and her husband, Ken, have been our friends for more than twenty-five years, and we’ve spent many pleasant hours with them, even taking a few nice vacations together. John and Ken are especially good friends, sharing several hobbies and community activities. When our daughter was ill, when John’s dad and my mother passed away, when our house was hit by a tornado — all the difficult times in our lives — Ken and Elaine were the first ones there to offer help and support. A little less than two years ago, they lost their only child, their son, Thomas, and we grieved with them, having watched Thomas grow up along with our own children.

For twenty-eight years, Elaine taught special education in local public schools. She dealt with sometimes very difficult students, but she loved her job and I know she made a difference in very many young lives. If you’ve read my earlier posts, you know how much respect and admiration I have for dedicated teachers, and Elaine was certainly among that elite group. Even after her retirement, Elaine continued to work in the school, spending countless unpaid hours volunteering in the library. She was also very active in her church and other community organizations. She will be missed by many.

During this busy, bustling holiday season, I hope you’ll all take the time to appreciate each fleeting moment with your own family and friends. Thank you for letting me share a few memories of my friend with you here.

Our Thanksgiving leftovers are all gone now, and my daughter, Kerry, and I survived our yearly Black Friday shopping outing. We’ve headed out before dawn every year since she was twelve, with the exception of last year when our other daughter was just out of the hospital after her stroke. “Black Friday” is the day Kerry and I spend together shopping and having lunch out. She wanted to eat at Dixie Cafe this time; having spent the past two and a half years in New England, she was craving Southern food. Once again, the crowds we encountered were friendly and well-behaved, unlike the few ugly episodes shown on the news, and we had a wonderful day together. In a few days, she and her husband will be heading back north, where they’ll be spending Christmas for the first time because Kerry will be on call during the holidays. They’ll be greatly missed by their Arkansas families, but it’s been so nice having them here for Thanksgiving. Our other daughter will be home in two weeks to spend Christmas and New Year’s with us before going back to her job in the Pacific Northwest.

And now it’s time to prepare for the next holiday.  I spent the past couple of days decorating the house while Kerry and her husband visited with his family in another part of the state.  I hung ornaments on two artificial trees. One is in the living room, covered with the many ornaments I’ve collected during the years (I pick up an ornament as a souvenir every time I visit a new place). The tree in the den (pictured above) displays wooden ornaments my husband has made on his lathe and scroll saw for more than a decade. My philosophy is that one can never have too many ornaments on a tree — if there’s a tip, something might as well hang from it! Every ornament has sentimental value for me, bringing back memories of Christmases past as I place it just so.

When I was a child growing up in rural Arkansas, we often cut down our own Christmas trees. I remember tramping through woods with my dad and my brothers, searching for the perfect pine or cedar. Of course, we would point to trees that had to be at least twelve feet tall, not quite comprehending that we had only eight-foot ceilings. Sometimes Daddy would overestimate, as well. I remember him having to cut the tops out of a few trees to make them fit in the room after he put them on a stand. We would watch Daddy struggle with the lights, then the four of us kids, supervised by our mother, would hang the ornaments and drape silver tinsel “icicles.” We quickly grew tired of the process and threw on clumps of tinsel that more resembled shiny hairballs than icicles. Still, no matter how crooked or clumpy our trees, they were always magical to our young eyes, as was the smell of sap and needles and the sounds of carols from the annual television Christmas variety shows.

Mother is no longer with us, and my own three kids are independent adults now, but I still cherish the Christmas memories of my childhood and theirs. It’s my favorite time of the year — which is, perhaps, why it shows up so often in my books. The story I just completed features a single mom who falls in love during the busy holiday season, and finds it hard to juggle family obligations, work demands and a new relationship with an man from her past. I’ll let you know the title and publication date soon. I’ll have two other Harlequin Special Editions available before that one — DOCTORS IN THE WEDDING in January, 2012 and HUSBAND FOR A WEEKEND in April, 2012.

For now, I’ll enjoy these last few days of Kerry and Justin’s visit, then it’s back to work on another book before the next set of festivities. I’ll try to remember to savor the moments this year that will become happy memories during future holidays.

♥♥♥

Don’t forget to enter for the special drawing to be held on December 20 (my birthday). In honor of the holiday season and my 100th book (my 99th Harlequin release), I’m giving away a book and a wooden pen turned by my very talented husband. Click the Enter to Win! tab above for details on how to enter.