Boy is this a busy few days - there is so much going on in my life. 
I have a cousin visiting who is transcribing all the short stories my grandmother wrote. When looking for something else, I found a stash of all she'd written but I couldn't read her handwriting so a cousin is visiting and typing all of it into a modern computer file.  

Then, I am helping a friend deal with the aftermath of a flood, so today was carpet shopping. 

There's also another friend who is selling their house and I'm charge of 'let's make this house likeable' before we let strangers in.  If anyone has a great idea for how to get rid of the stench of forty years of cigarette smoking fast - I'm all ears! 

Of course we having the ongoing saga of my mother and her brother - so far all is well. We found someone to help mom bathe. The downside of her age is they become afraid of the shower even if you're not climbing into a tub. 

And did I mention we're redoing my husband's office? Well, now that he's retired, we're sprucing up his office. When we bought the house, it was just a big T-shaped closet. The roof line was angled and a dormer window jetted out from the middle. Since I didn't want my kids mess in my living room and I wanted their bedroom to be a place for unwinding and sleeping, I knocked out two walls to expand the closet into the roofline, and voila, a playroom was born. Well, clearly, thirty years later, they don't need a playroom so it became my hubbies office. He didn't use it much, mostly for reading and studying his bible, but now that he's retired, he wants to do more studying. 

Since the thing still had the yellow striped wallpaper and blue wood trim from when it was a playroom, I thought it was time to make some changes - so - the wallpaper is gone, the walls are freshly painted, the trim is freshly painted, and you know what that means... the age worn vinyl floors looked awful. Which means, time for a new floor. Well, I really didn't want to spend a lot of money before our summer vacation to Ireland, so, I started shopping for bargain flooring, and then I remembered... we have leftover wooden flooring from when I did my son's room seventeen years ago. In order to get the great price, I had to buy the entire remaining lot. I'd meant to sell the leftover flooring in a garage sale or something, but just never got around to it - well - there is now a blonde wood floor in my hubbies office. It looks pretty cool! 

In these photos you'll notice the floors in my son's old room are the same as the office -you'll also see all the stuff in the bedroom that used to be in the office - needless to say, purging is going to happen when the furniture is replaced.  The second photo is the room - same floor- looks great. The desk was my father-in-law's. The third photo is the narrow side space, that used to be on both sides till I opened the walls up.  I'm getting super excited. 

It's amazing how one decision to freshen up the paint, leads to more and more and more LOL. 

As for the book works. I have finished book four of the sweets - that's Sweet Deal. I'm finishing up edits on book 3 - that's Sweet Temptation. And I'm working on getting more German and starting French translations. It's crazy hectic around here! 

Of course y'all already know books one and two are available early from my storefront, but this means book three should be available on my webstore within a couple of weeks also! How cool is that! 

​All right - Time to get back to work. 

Have to admit - for the mother's day weekend the whole family took off for the beach so not a single word on any of the new books has been written, but I did get the edits back for Sweet Surprise, will be starting on those tomorrow!  Today is the last day on the beach with my Mom and Hubby. Son is working on the deck but he and his girlfriend go home this afternoon, my daughter and her family left last night because kids have school today - personally, I think Mother's day should be a national holiday and everyone gets Monday off just like Columbus and the presidents! 

I am going to share a few photos and if you go to my you tube page - tomorrow my assistant Lisa will be posting a little walk through the Aquarium tunnel. 

We didn't actually do anything fancy, just being at the beach was good enough. My granddaughter adores the sand and the water, my grandson not so much, but I'm sure as he gets older that will change - 

I see a lot of castle building days in our future - I also may start playing the lottery - lol - they say beach property prices are coming down - probably because so many of the homes along here are losing their foundations and have had to be rebuilt. The house we're at has all new dirt and grass, though the parking pad is pretty sloppy repair - you can tell all they lost. The house next door looks ready to fall onto the beach, and I suspect this will be their second repair but it's so peaceful and a great place to relax. 

All right - mom is going to be 90 this year and because of her dementia she needs a bit more guidance than she might have a few years ago - sigh - so I'm off to deal with out last day on the beach - everyone enjoy your week! 

we are getting ready for our annual beach vacation beginning this thursday. I hate to confess how many hours I spent opening every closet door in the house looking for our folding camp chairs. Not once, not twice, way more often. Finally I asked my husband. The man who often misses the item directly in front of him - and he knew exactly where it was in the carport - and yes - I'd already looked there! 

So, finally, that's taken care of - except they're filthy - because they 'should' have been in the closet, but I digress.  Then I went down a rabbit hole thinking, with my son's girlfriend and my uncle possibly joining us, we don't have enough chairs for the beach - so - I went hunting for big chairs - with cup holders (two of ours don't have them, but I only paid $5 at a garage sale- for both of them, so I can't complain) and finally settled on ones I can get now - they're black, I prefer color, but they're chairs! lol. 

My mother also had an appointment today with her memory neurologist. The good news is that after four years her test score only went down one point. The sad news is we still don't have a cure for Alzheimer's. We're doing all we can, cognitive and physical therapists, taking sugar out of her diet, hubby taking her out to dinner, but a cure would be nicer. And of course - taking my mother anywhere is always more mentally exhausting than physically tiring - so I was a bit fried when I got home - which is probably why it took about four hours to get 1000 words on the page - but I got them! 

Then, I'm trying to resolve struggles with my leaking pool - that is still not resolved, though we may have a plan to drain it for the summer and replaster in the fall - we'll see - I'm still waiting to hear back. 

we're going to skip over my diet - because this week was not cooperating. Lots of dinners out, and irresistible cookies on Sunday. 

Anyhow, this is why today's blog is so late, in some time zones it's tomorrow! 

I will tell you that I am getting much closer to the end of book four - Sweet Deal.  I sure hope y'all like this new series - I'm certainly trying my best to keep things interesting and different - and let me tell you, after about fifty books, that is NOT easy! 

And now - after telling everyone they can buy it early - I've learned there's a snafu - so one more rabbit hole for the day!  

Let me tell you - I am truly looking forward to this little break - just hope the world doesn't fall apart on me when I get home! 

Okay - it's late and I'm calling it a day - or night LOL - see  y'all next week! 

For those of you who are Farraday fans - you probably know that the Farraday sagas will continue after Ryan - there was a small - and I mean SMALL hint in Quinn as to where more Farradays will come from, but it will be obvious in Ryan - Which - I wrote the first chapter of this week - and just for the fun of it - for you guys - here it is - You can preorder on any vendor you like- Apple was finally fixed - though anyone who preordered before last week will need to go back and do it again. 

How about that? It's been ages since I've had a start of a book so far before release! 

I'm also almost a third of the way through Sweet Deal - the new series - do y'all remember you can start that series early directly from my webstore? Well you can! Otherwise the first three are up for preorder - this one will be up as soon as I'm done with it! 

and now - off to take uncle for cataract surgery!  Everyone have a great week! 

I'll tell you - writing Sweet Temptation is proving to be a bit of a challenge as I near the end - I decided to go for one of my more humorous big moments and it is giving me fits. Y'all might have to settle for snickers instead of guffaws! 

I am however thrilled to have gotten to spend a lovely working dinner with a friend and her niece - the reason the niece is a big deal is that she's a social worker and I needed help with Rachel Sweet in Sweet Deal - the next book I'm starting as soon as Temptation is done - which I'm hoping is sooner than later - sigh. 

I didn't bother taking a photo of my chocolate martini because you've all seen so many pictures of pretty glasses with chocolate swirls LOL - but I did photograph the escargot. I'm a huge seafood fan. I love escargot when it's well prepared. This one was a tad too garlicy for me - but the interesting thing was the biscuit puffs on top - aren't they cute? I actually didn't eat them because I just love the escargot and butter sauce, though this time there was one missing. I popped the puff while the waiter was still there and told him one had escaped.  I also said it was no big deal, but a few moments later they brought me out a whole other serving of six - and ha - we found the missing little sucker - there were two in one of the spots! 

As you can see I took plenty of notes - that was page one of several pages! the poor waiter had to keep waiting for us because we were so busy yaking and taking notes we'd forget to look at the menu - especially because I have learned to say - Hang on a minute - while I write down what people are saying, otherwise if I try to keep up with the talking, I can't read my notes the next day! 

A nice perk - is we even came up with the 'emotional' big moment near the end of Sweet Deal - and this time it will not be a comedy - I may have lost my funny bone! 

Did I mention I'm in Houston for this dinner? The nice part is I get free accommodations at my daughter's house! Unfortunately, I still need to work. While I was out on the back porch having a business conversation without the kids running about being kids, I happened to look up at the ceiling fan and thought - is that a bird's tail? And a real nest? - I walked around and saw a bird's head -- no idea what kind-- but she sat SO still, I wasn't even sure if it was real or if it was a fake deterrent to other birds. 

My daughter said that the bird comes every year. Sadly the first year they moved in they didn't realize there was a bird's nest and while they were playing with the switches to figure out what was what - the fan obviously kicked on and the next day they found the nest and eggs on the ground. What they don't know is if the eggs ever hatch. 

The first photo is that bird's tail that I was unsure of - the second photo is mama bird's head. she was SO still. But I have no idea what kind of bird she is. 

That's all the news I have for this week!  Hopefully next week I'll have finished Sweet Temptation - Oh - and do y'all remember that tomorrow is the release of Quinn?  I hope everyone loves Quinn as much as my review team has! 

Okay, signing off - talk to y'all later - and feel free to leave comments to let me know y'all are liking what I write! Ta ta! 

​

Home sweet home! 

We had a lovely time visiting friends and family after the week at Disney.  While visiting my cousin we had the most interesting and delicious pizza. The corner crusts of the star were stuffed with ricotta cheese! I have never heard of ice tea in blue - but that's what the Greek restaurant served! and of course, a casual ocean front lunch of fresh shrimp and lobster bisque - Yum! 

We did have to replace a broken suitcase - with the small blue one - but there was so much STUFF that got bought or that my daughter didn't have room for, that we had to buy a second little blue suitcase! Of course, part of the problem is my hubbies big shoes! Mine flatten pretty good, but hubby doesn't like sandals so his size thirteen shoes can take up a suitcase all by themselves!  If you're wondering - the small black one is my laptop bag. Though I've figured out I can fit a long weekends worth of clothes in there no problem too - it's pretty big! So - for a two week trip I'm not sure if all that luggage is good or bad LOL 

of course hubby had to try on the hat for his new life status. Thankfully, he seems to be enjoying not having to go to work first thing in the morning. He mentioned that he was concerned it would be a shock to his system - nope - he seems to be enjoying it quite a bit! and might as well post a photo of us - this was the last lunch in Florida! 

You're probably wondering about work - well I did indeed get more writing done on the airplane home - I love flying because I get so much work done - now this week I'm catching up on all the things that went wrong while I was gone - son's car broke down, pool pump broke down, son's plumbing is backing up, and - well - you get the picture! LOL.  Regardless of all the demands - I'm still working on finishing Sweet Temptation. So no worries there. 

Also - if anyone is interested in purchasing Quinn early - he's available right now from my web store in ebook format.  If you prefer to wait for your favorite vendor, you can start counting down - 8 more days! 

Okay,  uncle is having cataract surgery today and I'm his wheels so I'm off!  Oh - and if you're wondering- Sweet Beginnings and Sweet Surprise will be available about a month early on my webstore so I'll keep you posted when that happens! 

​Take care everyone! 

More importantly - my feet survived Disney LOL. 

We walked 15-18k steps a day - well I did - and that's because Oma got to sit a lot and watch the stroller while folks walked to and rode some rides.  I do the easy ones - you know - It's a small world or little mermaid - the ones you ride along like a leisurely Sunday stroll LOL. The roller coasters it turns out is my grandson's favorite!  I'm pretty sure he rode the Seven Dwarfs runaway train ride at least a dozen times - he loved it so much and the photos Disney takes capture the smiles every time! 

I did indulge in soft serve ice cream, and big breakfasts and more than one fried food and thankfully only gained one pound - it would have been nice to lose with all those steps and the sweltering ninety degree heat all week, but I consider only gaining a pound a win!

Here are a few photos - not very clear and a bit far but hey, Oma isn't a professional photographer and her cell phone isn't noted for it's camera quality!  We have - the Dumbo Ride, and the Magic Carpet ride, and the carousel. Though this was the first try - my granddaughter didn't want to stay on the carousel so we took her off - which is why my hubby's back is to the camera. Second try she rode but I could not get a decent photo of them on my camera with the thing moving round and round. sigh. You might see hubby's head peeking out from the carpet ride and I keep finding my daughter by her white baseball cap LOL.

Of course there were lots more rides that I simply didn't get photos of. There was also lots of shopping. My granddaughter made out like a bandit. Her mom was fully into providing the Disney experience so she got an Ana  and an Elsa doll from frozen, she of course got Mickey Mouse ears (grandson didn't want much) though hers were colorful with a veil, and both kids got bubble makers, my granddaughter got little mermaid and the grandson got buzz light year - those got the most mileage and a friend took me to the store to buy a new suitcase (one of mine the handle snapped off) and so I bought bubble refills for a fraction of what disney charges.  And I'll be nice and not rant about what Disney charges for everything - those people have to be rolling in money because IMHO it is the greatest rip off on the planet - but millions of people don't agree with me. Though I will mention that we took our kids to the park and stayed at the same hotel and our experience was much more, shall we say attentive, than now.  There's no real customer service and I honestly felt like a cow in a cattle drive - but the kids loved it and my daughter enjoyed it - so there you have it. 

So - here we have a moving shot of the mickey ears with the colored veil lol, as well as the night time castle and fireworks - I will give Disney this, they do a great fireworks display! 

Now - as y'all know, any author gets ideas from real life. This trip was no exception.  I bumped into a bachelorette party wearing sashes. I snapped photos - here are just a couple - and you KNOW this has to go into a book somewhere. Don't know which one or where - but it will happen!  

I also hope to have a new collaboration with a fabulous musician who writes lovely songs - he's going to go through his collection and we're going to find some wonderfully romantic original music to use in my books - I hate that I can't use lyrics to some of the songs I reference, but this way I will be able to use lyrics and if anyone wants, they can listen to the songs online or even buy them maybe - we'll see how it works out, but I'm quite excited about the possibilities.  The last photo is the two of us and my hubby after out lunch meeting! 

okay - I think this about covers my work week at Disney! This week is off to visit friends and family and hopefully find more material for more books!

This has been a very busy and tiring week for me.  As you know, I spent a week in New York at a friend's side in the hospital. I was delighted to help her feel more comfortable and more agreeable to eating, taking her meds, and having some diagnostic tests done. We are still waiting for results, and her future is unknown at this time, but I felt better leaving her in a rehab facility to get her strength that in that hospital she dreaded.  

It does remind me though that everyone needs to have advocates in their corner. Her sons are lovely wonderful men who I am delighted to consider family, but neither was equipped for this degree of medical challenges. Even my daughter, who has my gumption and doesn't let herself get pushed around, even she wouldn't have enough experience to know what to ask or when to ask when it comes to healthcare.  I am the medical power of attorney for a friend of mine here in North Texas with no children of her own. My medical power of attorney (called proxy in some states) is a dear friend who also has had a great deal of hospital experience due to her now passed parents.  It's really important to pray and believe for a peaceful end after a very long life, but it's equally important to have a plan if you become hospitalized in a less than stellar mental state. I am thankful to whoever it was in my life that mentioned setting out chocolates at the rehab facility to encourage nurses and aids to pop in and check on the patient more often!  

I am however very proud of myself for spending a week in New York eating hot italian bread, and pasta, and pizza, and ohhh so good Irish Soda Bread - I talk about it in my Hart Land Series but have never found decent soda bread in Texas. I had to enjoy a piece just about every night I was there, and am thrilled to be home and not have gained any weight. Didn't lose it - but didn't gain is just as satisfying under the circumstances! 

now. book talk!  I am finishing edits on Quinn today so I should have more news on him by the next blog post!  I also have Sweet Surprise, book two of the new series waiting for me to start on those edits!  I am hopeful that I can do all that AND finish book three before the family leaves for Disney World.  I can't believe that our Disney trip is less than a week away! Though I won't have much to report next Monday as that will just be the start! 

Now - below are a few photos- I know it seems weird, but with no 'real' diners in my part of the country, I took a photo of a favorite diner where my friends and I meet up while I'm in NY - my one disappointment, they had no boston cream pie this visit...sniff. The other photo is the tubs of chocolates and candies. I sure hope they do the trick. And lastly - my Irish Soda Bread. I took one last slice and had in my purse to eat on the plane ride home. I am so going to miss that. Will have to have my friend ship me some next St. Patrick's day season! 

Though, I do admit, hubby and I are curious to discover if we're going to find soda bread in Ireland!  Will let you know the answer to that puzzler this summer!  We have our first seven nights of hotels booked and after that, it will be a 'see where we go' trip and hopefully, we won't be sleeping in the car! lol. 

All right - I need to get back to work.  Everyone have a good week! 

I am blessed to have several cherished friends since high school who are still a part of my life - even though I live half a country away from where I grew up. 

On Tuesday I received a message from the son of one of those friends telling me she'd been in the hospital and was asking for me - he was completely overwhelmed with how things had escalated in a negative way.  I arrived in NYC Thursday - and it's been insanity - 

Like a bull in a china shop - I pretty much steamrolled over the hospital staff (how's that for a mixed metaphor! LOL) - ticked off a lot of people along the way but bottom line, she'll take her meds and cooperate if I'm around - she wont' if I'm not - so this is short and sweet because I have to drive 30 minutes to get to her - 

Happy St. Patricks Day - and please keep us all in your prayers.