How Long is a Series?

I've created two fictional Texas towns for my Harlequin American Romances: Ranger Springs, in the Hill Country (for information on the area see http://www.texashillcountry.com/), and Brody's Crossing, northwest of Fort Worth where West Texas begins. Each of them have their own geography, but more than that, they are inhabited by a steady cast of secondary characters who (hopefully) enrich the stories of the heroes and heroines. As I've mentioned in the past, some of these characters come from snippets of stories my Texas in-laws have told about growing up in the area southwest of Fort Worth. This is my father-in-law's homestead near Dennis, Texas on the Brazos River.

One of the frequent questions I get from readers is this: How many books will be in my Brody's Crossing series? The answer is . . . I have no idea! Perhaps my editor has an opinion on how long the series will continue, based on reader interest, but I'm not sure. (Authors don't get sales figures from our books for quite a while after they are released.) As long as I enjoy writing about these characters and don't run out of interesting plots that ring true for this particular town, I see no reason to end it. As soon as I have no more ideas, I'm sure I will move on to another spot, perhaps even (gasp!) another state.

In 2011 I'm very excited about the whole writing experience. I have finished the edits on both books, Suddenly Texan (May 2011) and The Texan and the Cowgirl (July 2011) and now I'm waiting impatiently to see the cover art. At the end of June the Romance Writers of America conference will be in New York City, a place I love. I've already reserved my hotel room; my husband and my daughter will have to "duke it out" to see which one of them is going with me, because they both love NYC.

In the past few years I haven't scheduled any booksignings, but I'm looking forward to having one (at least) at the Wal-Mart near our weekend house in Mineola, TX (http://www.mineola.com/.) They carry Harlequin American Romances and since I spend so much time (and money) there when I'm in East Texas, I just know they'll want to schedule an event! Because I mention Graham, TX (http://visitgrahamtexas.com/ ) so much in my Brody's Crossing series, I may see if I can go there for a booksigning. In nearby Weatherford, there is a very supportive independent bookstore and radio program that may be interested. I see several fun events in my future!

Perhaps I'm keeping myself busy and excited because I'm having one of those "milestone" birthdays next month. "A rolling stone gathers no moss" is the old saying that seems most appropriate to me at the moment.

I hope you feel equally excited about your prospects in this new year. Our careers and personal lives are often uncertain, but having something exciting to anticipate is very important as we move forward. Best wishes for a great start to 2011.

Monthly Recipes

Today we're at our lake house in Mineola, Texas, where we're going to have a party later to celebrate Labor Day weekend, my husband's birthday, and finally getting the house repaired, fixed up, and in working order after a few months of water damage, sprinkler system issues, and general repairs. We've invited the people who helped get us "up and running" over the last 10 months, family and friends. My son-in-law is cooking out and I'm cooking inside, beginning with an overflowing refrigerator ...

... and an overburdened dining room table.

I'm going to fix the party food in my farmhouse inspired kitchen, which I love (except for the dishwasher, which doesn't work well AT ALL.)

Normally I'd post a photo of the completed dishes if I had them, but I haven't fixed them yet! So I'm going to share our menu for a Texas cookout and party. Also, I'm fixing a new recipe I got from a "Taste of Home" magazine titled "Church Supper Cookbook." Did you have covered dish suppers at your church growing up? We did, in the basement of Parkview UMC in Shively, KY. I miss those suppers! Certain church ladies were known for their signature dishes, some of which were wonderful, not-to-be-missed specialties, while others were ... well, let's just say they appealed to a select few tastes!

Tonight we're having barbecued pork ribs, which son-in-law Dale prepares with a dry rub; hamburgers and cheeseburgers; and the new dish, Hot & Cheesy Chicken Sandwiches. Here's the recipe from the magazine mentioned above:

6 cups cubed cooked chicken (I'm going to use the meat from rotisserie chickens I'm purchasing)

1 1/2 cups chopped celery

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

3/4 cup mayonnaise

3/4 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green pepper (which I'm probably not using since my daughter HATES bell peppers!)

1 t. ground mustard

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

3 cups processed cheese (like Velveeta) cubed

24 hamburger buns

In a large bowl, combine the first nine ingredients. Pour into a 2 1/2 quart casserole. Top with cheese. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand 5 minutes before spooning onto hamburger buns.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To go with our ribs, burgers and sandwiches, we're fixing cantaloupe, sliced tomatoes, baked beans, deviled eggs, and my mother's recipe for macaroni salad. I believe I've shared this before, but let me briefly describe it again: Combine elbow macaroni, cooked, rinsed and drained, with diced green pepper, cubed Velveeta cheese, salt and pepper to taste, and Miracle Whip salad dressing. I really love this simple macaroni salad, especially for summer cookouts.

Of course, we'll have potato chips, plus some of those new Ritz chips, with Ranch Dip. (I don't think you can have a party in Texas without Ranch Dip!) For dessert I bought little Red Velvet cupcakes and Carrot Cake cupcakes since my husband really doesn't like birthday cake.

So, that's what our family is planning this holiday weekend and my husband's birthday. (Happy birthday, Chuck!) I hope you have a good time with your family or friends, or spend a little time online and check out my previous recipe posts. Best wishes for a great Labor Day holiday and a wonderful September.

Two More Blast from the Past Recipes

Do recipes make you hungry? Sometimes they make me want to cook and other times, just eat. But I don't think I've ever been as hungry as these two Mockingbird babies. The nice, tall man installing our new gutters at the lake house in Mineola, TX discovered them in the arbor (in the photo I posted before, covered in coral and yellow trumpet flowers.) Aren't they the cutest little things? Kara Lennox also has a baby Mockingbird just outside her window.

Okay, but enough about baby birds. They don't need recipes and they'll eat just about anything wiggly presented to them by their parents. We tend to be a little more discriminating. Here are two more recipes I mentioned in the next Brody's Crossing book, tentatively titled Texan in Her Heart, which will be out in 2011.

Sausage Pinwheels

As told to Victoria Chancellor at a party in the 1980s

1 package crescent dinner rolls (makes 8 crescent rolls) Use regular or reduced fat, or generic.

1 package pork sausage (about 10 or 12 ounces) I use Jimmy Dean Reduced Fat Pork Sausage.

Preheat oven to temperature indicated on the crescent rolls. On a cutting board or clean flat surface, unroll the crescent roll dough trianges. Put two triangles together to form a rectangle. Push and work the seam so that it doesn't separate. You will eventually create four rectangles.

Separate pork sausage into four equal parts. Carefully pat and thin the sausage onto the dough rectangle. Leave a little room at the edges so the pinwheel can be rolled and joined together. Roll the rectangle so you have a long column that will create your pinwheels. Cover in waxed paper or plastic wrap and place in the freezer for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove from freezer. Using a sharp knife, cut the column into about 1/4 inch slices and place them on a sprayed cookie sheet. (I cover my cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray that for easy clean up.) Place in preheated oven and bake for 10 -15 minutes, or per the directions on the package. The pinwheels should be crisp and browned but not overcooked and burnt. You just want to make sure the sausage has cooked all the way through. Serve warm or at room temperature. You will not have any leftovers!

Note: You can use other things to make pinwheels, such as ham slices, bacon, etc. It just needs to roll nicely. If using bacon, make sure your knife is really sharp and you've kept the pinwheel dough in the freezer until it's firm. Cheese does NOT work well in these.

Fudge Oatmeal Refrigerator Cookies

From Southern Living Best Recipes

2 cups sugar (Note: You can use less sugar, but they need some to be fudge-like.)

1/2 cup evaporated milk (NOT condensed milk)

2 T. cocoa

1 stick butter

1/2 t. vanilla

2 1/2 cups quick cooking oats

Combine first four ingredients in a saucepan. Heat and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until heated and bubbly but not boiling. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and stir. Add oatmeal and mix thoroughly. Drop by teaspoonsful onto waxed paper on cookie sheets or other flat surfaces. Refrigerate. Ready to eat as soon as they don't burn your tongue! They will taste more like fudge if they are refrigerated until cool. Will keep in a container for days in the refrigerator.

I hope you enjoy the "Blast from the Past" recipes. I also hope they all stay in the finished version of the book! Happy reading, baking, and eating.

Blast From the Past Food in Brody's Crossing

Three weeks ago I finished the next book in my Brody's Crossing series, tentatively titled Texan in Her Heart. It's the story of a lost sister, Amanda Allen Crawford, who travels home to Texas and the Rocking C, and ends up finding more than she'd ever imagined. Not only does she fall in love (of course!) but she discovers a sense of community in the town where her mother lived for twenty years, her brothers were born and her father is buried. If you've read the other Brody's Crossing books, you'll recognize Troy Crawford from Temporarily Texan and Cal Crawford from An Honorable Texan as Amanda's big (and clueless) brothers. As always, my small town atmosphere is enhanced by my new community of Mineola, TX, where springtime is absolutely IN BLOOM! Here's the arbor leading to our front door.

And, since I missed posting the recipes for this month on the 4th due to wireless Internet issues, I'd like to also mention that she discovers Brody's Crossing is a place to eat. Big time. I didn't realize until after I'd finished the book that someone (usually the hero, Leo Casale) was always feeding her. You'd think she was a stray kitten! He takes her to Dewey's Steakhouse and Saloon and fixes her an authentic Italian dinner (thank you, Virginia Kantra, for the Bolognese sauce suggestion) at his condo. She dines with "the lunch ladies" at the cafe. They have a "blast from the past" going-away party for her at the Rocking C.

I thought I'd share some of the recipes the lunch ladies fix for the party. These might be familiar to you if you are "of a certain age."

• Velveeta Cheese/Rotel Tomato dip (in a Crock Pot, of course!)


• Macaroni Salad


• Meatballs with Chili Barbecue Sauce


• Sausage Pinwheels


• Peach Jello Salad


• Refrigerator Oatmeal Fudge Cookies
  

You probably have some of these recipes in your cookbooks, on recipe cards or bookmarked
online. If not, I'm going to share the ones I really love. Some of these are standards you
can easily look up. Some are so simple you don't really need a recipe!

Virginia Chancellor's Macaroni Salad

• 1 pkg elbow macaroni, cooked until soft (do not overcook!
• 1 large green pepper or more, to taste, cored and diced into small pieces
• 1 pkg Velveeta Cheese, cubed into 1/2 inch squares
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Miracle Whip
  
• Combine the first four ingredients in a large bowl. Add enough Miracle Whip to moisten
  everything but not so much that it becomes soggy. Refrigerate for several hours before
  serving so the flavors will blend. The Velveeta may get a little soft, but that's okay. The
  perfect macaroni salad for a hot Texas afternoon. Sometimes I even eat it for breakfast the next day!

Victoria Chancellor's Easy Meatballs

• 1 lb lean ground beef (I use 90% to 93% lean)
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 3 slices of bread, shredded or processed into crumbs, or saltine cracker crumbs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Onion and garlic, minced fine, optional
• For Swedish meatballs, add 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg and omit garlic
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and use non-stick spray.
  Mix all ingredients. Roll into small meatballs, about an inch or a little more in diameter, and
  place on cookie sheet. Bake for 20 -25 minutes until brown. For the best looking meatballs,
  turn halfway through cooking, but if you forget, that's okay. No frying! (Note: To increase
  recipe, just use the same proportions of 1 egg per 1 lb ground beef, and add enough crumbs to
  make them stick together.)

Chili-Barbecue Sauce for Meatballs

• 1 jar Heinz Chili Sauce and 1 jar sweet (not vinegary) barbecue sauce. I like K.C. Masterpiece.
  
  
• Mix together, heat, and add meatballs. Great in a Crock Pot. Will keep for days (refrigerated) if you have any left after the party!

Peach Jello Salad

My mother and then my mother-in-law loved this Jello salad straight from the 1960s or 1970s. If served as a salad, put it on a lettuce leaf for a nice presentation.

• 2 small packages Peach flavored Jello
• 1 large (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 2 small jars apricot baby food or about 4 ounces of frozen peaches, blended
• 1 large can crushed pineapple (Do not use FRESH pineapple!)
• 1 large container Cool Whip
• 
  You will need a 9 x 13 casserole dish or two 8 x 8 dishes. Drain pineapple and save juice,
  then add water to equal 2 cups. Bring water and Jello to a boil. Beat in cream cheese. Cool.
  Add fruit (baby food or peaches, pineapple) and allow to congeal slightly in refrigerator. Stir in Cool Whip. Refrigerate until firm. Serves a lot of people as either a salad or a dessert.

I'll share the Oatmeal Fudge Refrigerator Cookie and sausage pinwheel recipes later. Writing
about all this food has made me hungry! Happy reading ... and cooking.

Writing While Fuzzy Brained

Good morning from the lake house in cold, foggy, Mineola, Texas! While it is below freezing (sorry, plants I forgot to take inside) with light snow at our home in Richardson, about 90 miles away, on Saturday we had cold rain and blustery winds - until this Sunday morning.

Just about an hour ago, before dawn, it began to snow. Right now, soft flakes are drifting down on the deck, the bird feeders, the grass, and our car. We've never been here before when it snowed and it's very exciting to see. I can't wait for the sun to come up to see the lake and trees! (Sorry for the blurry image - I think my hand was shaking from the cold temperature outside.)

I've also included a photo from our absolutely gorgeous day on Friday, when we were out working in the yard and garage in our shirt sleeves. This is facing west over the lake with the rising sun reflected in the water. Mist was rising from the lake because of the warm weather. Many of the trees are budding out and blooming, although you can't see them in the photo. Much more springlike than the actual first day of spring!

One of my goals for the weekend was to get my next release almost finished. My understanding editor gave me another month after my three weeks of absolutely fuzzy-brained non-production from the middle of February to the first week in March. I had a bad sinus infection, then strep throat. I took lots of medication which left me goofy and sleepy until I finished all the doses. I then had about four days of clear, energy-filled, fired-up creativity and dedication.

Then I got a cold. The sniffles have just about departed, depending on how much time I spend outdoors in all the pollen. I'm not coughing very much. We even went out to dinner last night at Kitchens restaurant and I could taste my food!

I thought I'd share some techniques I've been using to try to keep writing while on medication that made me less than cognizant. (For example, I stared at my computer for a full two minutes the other day and couldn't remember a major character's name! ) Ever since I started writing series for Harlequin American - first Ranger Springs and now Brody's Crossing - I've maintained a separate Word file titled "People and Places." I add to this file with each book, listing the most current hero and heroine at the top of the list with their ages in the year of publication, their status, description, family situations, etc. I then list any new characters I've introduced in that book with their physical descriptions, ages, etc. Near the bottom of the list I have various places around town where my "regulars" work and congregate, such as Clarissa's House of Style, the Cafe, Dewey's Saloon and Steakhouse, etc. I include descriptions and any relevant history of the establishment in these listings. I save this file under the folder "Brody's Crossing" in my Harlequin American folder so I can find it easily when I can't remember who the police chief is or what month and year someone got pregnant. It's so much easier than trying to remember what book I mentioned that factoid in and trying to find it by doing a text search in Word. I also created a Word file with a map of fictional Brody's Crossing so I know street names, locations of places in relation to blocks of the downtown, etc. I don't think I can upload that image, but if you'd like a copy, I'll be glad to email it to you.

The second thing I've been doing in this book, tentatively titled Texan in Her Heart, is create another word document for "What Leo knows about Amanda" based on what she's told him in conversation., This is where the fuzzy-brained condition really played out; I couldn't remember if he'd assumed something, she'd mentioned it in introspection to the reader, or they actually had a conversation. So when they talk about her mysterious (from Leo's perspective) reasons for being in Brody's Crossing, I copy and paste relevant parts of their dialogue into a file. I also note the page number where the conversation took place. Although this might change later, it probably won't be too far off because I write the book front to back. (Many authors write scenes and place them later, or write out of order when they visualize a scene farther back in the book.)

I also sometimes create a document for "Go back and add" things. These are notes to myself to check on things I'd written, or add something like a motivation or description. In other books, when I used to print out the manuscript as I went, I used Post-It notes to tell myself where things happened or where I wanted to go back and add something. In the interest of saving money and not cutting down so many trees, I've stopped printing out as I go along. I've had to learn new techniques to keep up with the story.

I hope this might help aspiring authors who are having the same fuzzy-brained moments as I sometimes have. Also, it might give readers some insight into how we keep up with characters and events in our books, especially series where it has to make sense over a longer period of time. Brody's Crossing originated in 2006 and will go on through 2011 at least, so that's five years of characters, places and descriptions to keep up with in my mind. That's a lot of details!

Have a great springtime. I hope yours is less cold and rainy than mine!

"Stranded" Plotlines

I drove to the lake house on Thursday (in the rain) and saw quite a lot of water on US Hwy 80 on the way there. The lake was also the highest I've seen it. I think it has covered part of our neighbor's dock.

This high water made me think of all those books I've read where the hero and heroine are stranded together in a house, a "cabin in the woods" or some other isolated place due to flooding, a hurricane, snowstorm, etc. Also, I suppose the super snowstorm along the eastern coast made me think of natural disasters.

I've read some great stories with "stranded" plotlines or situation, and I've read some real clunkers. I'm not sure exactly what makes the situation work in some cases and bomb in others. I know that the conflict between the hero and heroine must be strong enough to carry the plot in these types of stories, but what else? Is it sexual tension or a ticking clock? What do you think?

I hope the water in Lake Holbrook doesn't get too high.

The only ones enjoying it seems to be the ducks!

I'll look forward to your comments about the plots.

Stay warm, safe and dry, wherever you are.

Oh, and GO SAINTS. (Sorry, Indy. I love you too!)

Almost Paradise

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Ever since we changed the locks on the lake house, I realized that the back doorknob and the front keypad had a tendency to lock themselves. For that reason I turn the deadbolt to an extended position before shutting the back door, just like my daughter taught me to do while going to get ice in a hotel. So far, so good, until today. During a brief visit to the lake with our project manager, Michael, and our two installers who were working in the area, Terry and Derrick, (who all loved the house and can't wait to go fishing) I followed them out the front door to see the trees and a nearby house. Click. We were all locked out.

And the dark clouds were rolling in from the south.

And my dog was locked inside the house.

With my purse and keys.

Lucky for me, Terry and Derrick had tools and Michael had an idea; remove the air conditioner/heater unit from the window of my porch and enter that way. Okay, better than breaking windows. They went to work while my dog, Chloe, looked at us through the door as if we were crazy. "Why not just open the door?" she seemed to be asking. My daughter offered to drive the hour and a half to Mineola to bring me a key. Not necessary, I bravely announced. It took the guys about fifteen minutes to shatter a board, unscrew everything, and open the window. And maybe the same amount of time to get everything back in place. I have one thing to say; thank goodness for men with tools!

Terry and Derrick left for Dallas, while I got Michael a beer and I finished off the last little sip of a bottle of wine, strictly for medicinal purposes. The afternoon got darker and the lake turned to cobalt blue. Birds frantically twittered from tree to tree. That should have been a warning. Michael and I locked up the house properly this time, and began the drive back to Dallas, knowing we'd get there right after rush hour traffic. Believe me, you do not want to get there during rush hour traffic. The rain started almost immediately after we got on Hwy. 69, and increased as we drove west. About halfway to Dallas, hail pelted us. And then bigger hail. I thought about trying to get under an overhang, but I could barely see. I kept driving. Fortunately, Chloe slept through the whole thing. We drove out of the hail after maybe ten minutes, then the rain stopped just east of Dallas. We got back just after rush hour to no rain and warm temperatures. When I turned on the television, I discovered there were tornado warnings for the county we'd just driven through.

That was my day. As for my work in progress, I wrote nine pages yesterday and none today. I was too busy locking myself out of the house and getting pelted by hail. As soon as I finish writing my blog, though, I'm going to get to work. Hopefully, my characters will have a good evening, although I may throw in a thunderstorm just for spite! As my hint for the month, always hide a key. And remember where you hid it. Have a great day!

Bumps and Thumps in the Night

So, we're at the lake house ... again. I hope you don't mind me mentioning my new "toy." I'm a bit obsessed, trying to get the house ready for Christmas company. Here's a photo from this morning, facing west, about a half hour after sunrise.

The thing is, we've lived in the same house in Richardson, TX for 32 years. Now we've owned this place only five weeks and I've been here about seven times, some visits for the day only. I haven't gotten accustomed to it yet. There are different sounds to the blowing of the heating and air conditioning, the dull, slight roar of the hot tub, the steady hum of the heater on the porch. The mattresses are different and the furniture makes one pause when navigating in the middle of the night. The upstairs ceiling slopes and if you're not careful, you'll bang your head hard enough to see stars. And not those endless stars in the night sky outside, without the city lights.

These differences seemed minor at first, but this morning, I started to realize that they are shaking up my creativity. (At least, I think they are; we'll have to see when I write the next book.) I've started whole new "what if" scenarios in my head. My imagination runs amok when I hear noises in the night. While soundly sleeping I swear I felt the bed frame get bumped. Two night ago I thought I heard my car door open and close, but of course, no one was outside and the car was locked. Last night there was a mysterious low beeping noise coming from downstairs. I couldn't locate it or see any blinking lights, like a fire alarm battery going bad or some small appliance left on too long. When I finally turned on the overhead light, the beeping stopped. I still have no idea where that sound was coming from, but I'm fairly sure I'll hear it again.

Is my lake house haunted? I don't think so, but I can see where people come up with the idea that a house could contain mischievious or evil spirits. Since I've written paranormal romances before, I can certainly imagine all types of situations where my heroine (or hero) might feel irritated or in danger. I never felt that way in my own familiar home in the city, where the concrete slab doesn't shift and there are no footsteps overhead. (Just the occasional raccoon or cat running across the roof, taking a shortcut from one food dish to another.) In the city there are no pine cones falling from the huge tree outside, landing on the deck or roof, and there are no birds that sound like strange creatures wailing.

I went into the city of Mineola a few days ago, right around sunset. Many of the businesses were closing for the day. The darkening clear blue sky still held an orange glow. Christmas music played from speakers along the main street. Twinkling lights and decorated trees glowed warm in the flower shop nearby. All this atmosphere, and yet, I saw no other people around me for several minutes. I was only one street away from Broad, which is also US 80, but no car doors slammed or tires hummed on the pavement. I felt almost as if I were in a episode of "Twilight Zone," for those of us old enough to remember that series. I experienced a vivid reminder of how my heroine might feel when she arrives in Brody's Crossing, searching for her family.

So, I'm embracing these new experiences as much as I'm loving the lake and the trees. I think they will make me a better writer. At least, I hope they will. You'll have to let me know when the book finally comes out in 2011, tentatively titled Texan in Her Heart. I'll start writing it after Christmas. Have a very happy holiday. I hope you find joy in simple things and experience all the warmth of the season. I'll post a new recipe on January 4th, and when I do my next blog, I'll be well into the book and will probably have more updates from the lake. Best wishes for a wonderful new year!

My Small Town Fix

This past weekend I attended the Hwy. 80 Garage Sale with my friend and fellow writer, Rebecca Russell. This is a garage sale/flea market along US Hwy 80 from Mesquite, TX to the Louisiana border, all through East Texas. I'd never heard of this event before looking on the Mineola, TX website, http://www.mineola.com/. It's similar to the "world's longest garage sale" held annually from Ohio to Alabama. In Wills Point we ate lunch at the Bluebird Cafe, a rustic little restaurant with great cheeseburgers and an impossibly sweet coconut meringue pie. We went to sales in people's front yards, in church parking lots, sold off flatbed trailers at the side of the road, and took advantage of some specials at antique stores along the route. I even bought a 1950s two seat glider that I'd seen when in the area back in July.

We stayed Friday night in Mineola, one of my favorite small towns, at the beautiful and gracious Munzesheimer Manor B & B, http://www.munzesheimer.com/. The Perry Room was large and the breakfast was delicious. We ate dinner on Friday night at Kitchens, a former hardware store and deli that is now a wonderful restaurant with a courtyard and aged brick walls. On Saturday we stood in line for burgers at East Texas Burger Company, a very old and popular restaurant that sells homemade fried pies and other desserts in addition to country cooking.

I've been to Mineola several times. It was one of the first small towns I'd ever spent time in because I'm a city girl. I grew up in Louisville, KY, a city of approximately half a million people when I lived there, and much larger now. After I married we moved to Denver, CO, where I was happily learning to garden, can, and make jelly when my Texan husband dragged me kicking and screaming to Dallas. After living here for 30 years, I'm no longer fighting to escape across the norther border, although I do threaten to rent a house in Maine ever summer.

But back to Mineola ... I organized a few writers' retreats there when I was program director for my local RWA chapter, Dallas Area Romance Authors, http://www.dallasromanceauthors.com/. We stayed up late on the second floor veranda of the (now private residence) Noble Manor B & B and talked about writing and our lives, complained about rejections and fleshed out characters and plots. We went during the Iron Horse Festival, an annual event that celebrates the railroad. After watching marching bands, prancing horses, and little princesses on flatbed floats, we ate from the carnival-type booths at the festival. Judy Christenberry and I even rode the twirling teacup ride! We shopped at the stores and enjoyed the atmosphere. I think perhaps I got the most out of the retreats because I was like a dry sponge, soaking in the small-town flavor. I even interviewed the police chief for the character I was developing for my first Harlequin American Romance, The Bachelor Project.

Whenever I need my small town fix, I go back to Mineola. Oh, I go to other towns also. I believe I saw a depiction of one of my photos from Graham, TX on the new cover of my December release. (Look at the picure to the left and compare it to my December cover for A Texan Returns!) Small towns just fascinate me. I listened to many stories of growing up in towns like Lipan, Lingleville, Mineral Wells, and Dennis, TX from my husband and in-laws. I learned a lot about what made a Texan from them. I learned a lot about what makes a successful small town from Mineola. So thanks, and I really enjoyed the Hwy. 80 Garage Sale. See you next year, East Texas, or before if I need another fix!