Book Releases

Holding On (Colorado High Country #6) —
The Colorado High Country series returns with Conrad and Kenzie's story.

A hero barely holding on…

Harrison Conrad returned to Scarlet Springs from Nepal, the sole survivor of a freak accident on Mt. Everest. Shattered and grieving for his friends, he vows never to climb again and retreats into a bottle of whiskey—until Kenzie Morgan shows up at his door with a tiny puppy asking for his help. He’s the last person in the world she should ask to foster this little furball. He’s barely capable of managing his own life right now, let alone caring for a helpless, adorable, fluffy puppy. But Conrad has always had a thing for Kenzie with her bright smile and sweet curves. One look into her pleading blue eyes, and he can’t say no.

The woman who won’t let him fall…

Kenzie Morgan’s life went to the dogs years ago. A successful search dog trainer and kennel owner, she gets her fill of adventure volunteering for the Rocky Mountain Search & Rescue Team. The only thing missing from her busy life is love. It’s not easy finding Mr. Right in a small mountain town, especially when she’s unwilling to date climbers. She long ago swore never again to fall for a guy who might one day leave her for a rock. When Conrad returns from a climbing trip haunted by the catastrophe that killed his best friend, Kenzie can see he’s hurting and wants to help. She just might have the perfect way to bring him back to the world of the living. But friendship quickly turns into something more—and now she’s risking her heart to heal his.

In ebook and soon in print!


About Me

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I grew up in Colorado at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, then lived in Denmark and traveled throughout Europe before coming back to Colorado. I have two adult sons, whom I cherish. I started my writing career as a columnist and investigative reporter and eventually became the first woman editor of two different papers. Along the way, my team and I won numerous state and several national awards, including the National Journalism Award for Public Service. In 2011, I was awarded the Keeper of the Flame Lifetime Achievement Award for Journalism. Now I write historical romance and contemporary romantic suspense.

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Seductive Musings

Friday, July 18, 2008

And the fun continues...



Remember the tornado that tore through Windsor, Colo.? That's about ten minutes by highway north of me. It produced a huge hail storm here and a big thunderstorm in Boulder, where I was working at the time.

I noticed a bunch of people with workmen on their roofs along my street and asked my neighbor what was up. He said that our end of town had been declared part of the disaster zone from the tornado and that people were getting their roofs replaced from hail damage. I figured, well, I didn't have any hail damage. Or did I?

It's not like I go up on the roof, you know.

So I called my insurance agent and asked if they could check for me. And yesterday mid-day I got a call that my roof and chimney both need to be replaced because they're now structurally unsound due to hail damage.

Who knew?

I'm glad I found out before I got flooded out of the house by our first big snowstorm. It's been so dry here that there's no way I would have known. Freaky!


This is the final cover for Untamed.

I have in my possession the trimmed version of Untamed, which I must quickly read and get back to New York. I had one cut scene restored, and I asked to have a different scene cut in its place, changing the story on one key point. I think it was a good compromise. Ideally, the whole thing would be there, but having lost only 28 pages and not 100 is a relief. The epilogue will not be included at all, but will be available for immediate download, probably from my website.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I'm off to deal with insurance companies.

19 comments:

Just FYI, for some reason Blogger posted a strange version of the UNTAMED cover. The words are actually gold foil, not blue. Not sure how that happened.

Pamela

Ronlyn said...

Oh my! I'm so glad you found out before something serious...like your chimney fell off or something.
The fun just never ends in PC-land. *G*

It must be soooo exciting to hold the "finished" copy of Untamed. YAY!

And, if anyone would like to see how the cover really looks, head on over to PC's myspace page. *G*

Ronlyn said...

Duh, I went off on a tangent and forgot part of what I was going to say.

In January we had these crazy wind storms that took out half our fence. Yeah, it was a REALLY old fence, but still. Scott took the check from the ins. co and did the repairs himself. They look AWESOME and we had a few $$ left over too. First time I've ever known that to happen. I'm sure once your roof is replaced the whole how will look brand new again.

Hi, Ronlyn. Cool about the fence. That's great that Scott could repair it. Mine blew over a long time ago, and I never did anything about it. It's tied up with ropes. Classy! And, yes, I'm glad to know about the damage. I wouldn't have known if my neighbor hadn't told me. I'm kind of oblivious that way.

Also, I just added the widget you made to my blog template, so everyone can see the cover of the book there, too, and count down the days with us.

Thanks, Ronlyn!

Ronlyn said...

LOL...yeah, Scott's a handy guy to have around. *G* I helped a little bit, but mainly it was just holding a post while he made it stand up straight, stuff like that. I was banished from helping after I kicked a board and broke it. whopps. :-)

You just have a fancy rope fence, that's all.

Hope you have a great Friday!

Debbie H said...

That hidden damage could have been a major disaster come winter. I'm glad it's going to be fixed.

I have been spreading the word about you and your books to everyone and now have my porch sisters working on it,too! LOL We are going to get you on the best sellers list yet.

Cheryle said...

Glad you found out about the roof that would have been awful to find out about it in the middle of winter!

On another note I was just over at Amazon and they had Untamed on my start up page, I was very excited to see it! Looking more forward to reading it though LOL!

Bo said...

Glad to hear the roof will be fixed,definitely.I had no idea there was a twister so close to you,scary! I think of Kansas & Nebraska & such with twisters,aren't the Rockies supposed to keep our region from getting them?!?

28 pages is not too bad,in the grand scheme of things I suppose.But they cut the epilogue,grrrr.....

I love the cover,it looks GREAT!!!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you found out about the damages to your roof and chimney before it was too late! I can't imagine how I would feel living in an area where you can be hit by a tornado any time... I'd probably freak out with every alert. That and the heat...Colorado is so not for me! ;-P

I guess 28 pages doesn't sound too bad when they originally wanted to cut 100 but it's still too much. And it's a shame about the epilogue too.

Good luck with the insurance company and the paperwork...I hate paperwork....

stef

Hi, Ronyn — I like that. "A fancy rope fence." You don't see too many of those around, do you? You have a great Friday, too!

Hi, Debbie — Yes, one big snow storm and things might have been very bad in Casa de Clare. A bunch more people on the block apparently found out that their houses were damaged by seeing the roof-repair crews come in. The contractor who came to my door this morning is replacing five roofs on this block alone. And THANKS so much for sharing your enthusiasm for my books with others. You can't know how much that means to me! Word of mouth is everything to relatively new writers.

Hi, Cheryl — SO COOL that Untamed came up on your Amazon page. I'm excited to start proofing it today. I was supposed to email it to NY tonight, but the whole roof thing set me back. And, yes, better to find out now when it's 100 outside (that's 37.7 C, Stef) than this winter when its 10 below and there's a foot of snow -- in my living room.

Hi, Bo —I'm so glad you're back online! Have I told you that enough times yet? We rarely get tornados this close to the mountains, but the eastern plains of Colorado are as bad as Kansas. During my lifetime, there have been three. Two caused no damage and were tiny; this last one was deadly. I'm glad I wasn't home, I guess. LOL!

Hi, Stef — The chimney is especially dangerous. The lining that contains the heat was cracked by the hail, which meant it might have caught my house on fire. What fun that would have been! NOT! Yes, it sucks to not have the epilogue in it. And some of the scenes are painful to have missing, particularly one at the very beginning where Joseph and Morgan are insulting each other. But it could have been worse.

Christi said...

I think I may have mentioned (but i can't remember) that I am super glad they are ONLY cutting 28 pages or so from Untamed. Not happy about it but it's better than the proposed 100. But it will still be great I am sure!

We had a bad hail storm here in Dallas about 5 or 6 years ago and had the insurance dude out and all that, but being that we were BROKE at the time we kept the $$$ instead and figured that when the shingles actually fell apart we would not be living in this house... I still cross my fingers every spring (when we actually get rain) that it will not leak. My luck is that we will still be here and have to end up paying for it anyway.... But it is a good thing to get is repaired b/c I remember what a Colorado winter can be like, got stuck in one or two as a kid.

Have a great Friday! Christi

Thanks, Christi. :-)

I'm through almost 200 pages now, and it reads pretty well. There's only one cut that's jarring to me, and that's just how it goes, I guess. I have three pages to play with of stuff I can stick in, but I might do an author's note. So far so good. I'm actually enjoying it and thinking, "I wrote this???"

I wish I could keep the money! I'd rather get my house painted than replace the roof. BUT Colorado is so dry and then so wet that it would spell sure disaster. Broken shingles dehydrate and then it's major leak time. Besides, if I didn't get it done now, I'd be paying for it when I try to sell the place.

BTW, that is a photo of the tornado that is to blame for everyone's misery here. It was a big sucker — a mile wide, they say.

Tena said...

Hi! I'm sure glad you found out b4 something bad happen,my parents had that happen too make sure they double check stuff bc they found more that wasnt noted that had to be fixed. Hey maybe you can make a part two to the book and include what was taking out, I cant wait to get to read it Im hoping by then to be finished with the first one in time to read the new one I cant wait You and everyone else Have a great weekend :)

I'm glad you're getting a new roof due to hail and NOT because I almost burned the place down LOL

We've had some bad weather here too, mostly high winds and fires, not a very good combination.

I'm SO relieved they didn't hack up Untamed beyond recognition, even if loosing the epilogue is cause for sadness. Will you put in your books acknowledgment that it will be at your website?

I hope all is well with you honey, summer is here with a vengeance finally, and the garden shop is closed. I'm actually getting some REST!!! Call me some time for some ketchup! Miss you, (((HUGZ)))

Anonymous said...

OMS hon I'm so sorry to hear about this and so sorry I'm this late responding I have been without internet for several days. Just FYI everyone AT&T sucks!!!!!! lol. Can't wait for Untamed girl and hopefully I'm back to stay now. Hope everything goes well with the insurance. They are another pain they and phone companies should be horsewhipped aye.

Thank goodness you had the insurance peeps check on your roof! Disaster averted!

I can't wait to get my paws on UNTAMED! I'm digging the cover too! Glad we'll still get to read the epiloge!

mslizalou said...

Good luck with the new roof. My dad just has his roof replaced for damage from several months ago. He knew he needed a new roof, just didn't realize that there had been hail damage. When his roofer was on the roof he told my dad to call his insurance company and they would pay to replace his roof.

Anonymous said...

Oh WOW I finished your book I was laughing haveing my heart beat fast and was crying toward the end and when I read they found her dad I was happy I can't wait to read Ride The fire and to see who it is about I hope you write one about Ruaidhri finding Alice or him finding love. And I saw that Ride the Fire was about Nicholas Kenleigh is that Alec and Cassie's son?? Cant wait to read it

I'm way behind in responding here. Sorry!

Hi, Tena — I'm so glad you enjoyed Carnal Gift. That's the historical that had 100 pages cut out of it, most of them having to do with the hero and setting up the next book (which I still haven't mailed — forgive me!). And, yes, it's a good thing I found out about the roof!

Hi, Aimee! I'm so glad the garden shop is closed and that you'll get some time to rest and enjoy the summer now. Whew! And I'm getting a new chimney, too -- also due to hail and not because you tried to burn my house down. LOLOL! Fire and high winds? That's not good at all. I hope it's not too smokey where you are. And YES we must find some time to get caught up. I'm writing hard now trying to meet my deadline for Naked Edge, but there has to be some time in there somewhere! XO.

Jenn, welcome back to cyberspace! So sorry your 'Net was out. That stinks. And I'm right there with you on the horse-whipping bit. ARGH!

Hi, Su-Hura and welcome! I love your name! I'm excited for Untamed to finally be out. It feels like it's taken forever! And please come back and visit some more!

Hi, Liza — Wow, what a stroke of luck for your dad! That saved him a bundle, I'll bet. I'm still waiting for things to get moving to get my roof up, but they're re-roofing half the block so it's probably going to be a while.

Take care, everyone!

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