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

Monday, October 25, 2010

In the home stretch



Just thought I’d do a quick update on Breaking Point. I missed my Oct. 15 deadline, but I won’t miss it by too much.

I finished Chapter 26 this weekend while enjoying a long chat with readers on Goodreads.com. The even was organized by a reader, Dhestiny, who has her own blog at Blithely Bookish (you can find it listed lower down on the right side here). I think in the end there were more than 200 posts. Of course, a lot of those were from me answering questions. But back to Breaking Point...

I had hoped to write three chapters this weekend, but it just didn’t happen. The biggest difficulty about having another job besides novel writing is that it uses up brain power and tends to push my characters out of my mind, no matter how hard I try to hold onto the prior weekend’s inspiration. So it wasn’t till Sunday morning that the chapter began to click for me.

I have about four chapters left to write — 27 through 30 — plus the mandatory epilogue. (Oh, come on! Most of you are total suckers for a poignant epilogue.) Then begins what I love the most — the editing process.

Different authors handle writing differently. Some bang out an entire draft of a book in a short period of time — a couple of weeks or a month. But I’ve been an editor too long to bang out anything. So I edit while I write, which makes the process take muuuuch loooooooooonger.

But the upside of writing the way that I write is that when I’m done, I have a fairly polished manuscript. Then my attention shifts from themes and plots and details to really finessing the story, polishing the prose, making sure every scene is how I want it. With the pressure to produce pages behind me, I find it my most creative time. Sometimes I even add, completely rewrite or revise scenes during this time. The shackles scene in Sweet Release is an example of that.

I spent some time Sunday evening trying to figure out how this book ends, and the pieces are miraculously starting to fall into place. I hope the next chapters move quickly. I don’t want to be so late with the book that I lose my July publication date.

Other book news: I got the rights to my historicals back from the original publisher, so they belong entirely to me now. You'll see the print copies disappear from stores, including online stores, and the e-books will come down, too. Right now, the sales are still going to the book's former publisher. But hopefully they'll be back relatively soon once I work out how to handle it all. It’s new to me. I’m exploring some interesting options at the moment. Sorry that they’re going to be largely unavailable for a while.

Unlawful Contact sold in Japan, and it looks like the I-Team may be on its way to China. Keep your fingers crossed!

We’re due to get our first frost tonight. This morning was windy and rainy, then the sun came out. Now the temps are dropping. The tops of the high peaks were sparsely white. Not deep snow yet, but a sign that we’re moving toward winter.

Have a great rest of your week. I hope to pop in again before the weekend.

Thanks to all of you who joined in the Goodreads chat, and thanks to Dhestiny for setting it up.
Saturday, October 23, 2010

Argh! Someone please confiscate my TBR!

Shelter Mountain (Virgin River, #2)Shelter Mountain by Robyn Carr

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I hate myself. I read this entire book in a few big gulps rather than working on the novel that is already late to New York. Go me.

Why? Well, for starters, I've gotten really attached to the whole damned town of Virgin River. I had to see what would happen to Mel and Jack and Preacher and Paige and their buddy Mike and poor Rick and Liz.

The book weaves together all of these couples and their story lines, and it's told from a myriad of perspectives. So while the story ostensibly focused on Preacher and Paige, there was a lot to the story that didn't involve them.

Paige is the quintessential abused wife who accidentally winds up in Virgin River at Jack's bar while trying to escape her S.O.B. of a husband. She and her little boy come under Preacher's protection — and the relationship between them builds over time, first as she goes about trying to set up a life free of abuse and then later as she and Preacher fall in love.

As with the first book in this series, Virgin River, I enjoyed the midwifery aspects of the story. And it was good to see the issue of spousal abuse — I like that more than the term "domestic violence," which sounds friendlier somehow — explored with authenticity. It's a topic I've covered a lot as a journalist, and Paige seems to go through all the classic responses.

Because we get all these characters' continuing stories, there are ups and downs for everyone. I couldn't stop from getting teared up over the tragedy that befalls Rick and Liz.

But I need to NOT buy the next one until I'm done with my own book, because clearly once I start I'm just done writing until I'm done reading. If that makes any sense....

So I end the evening with the glow of having read a wonderful book and the all-consuming guilt of an author who made precisely zero progress on her own manuscript today.



View all my reviews
Friday, October 15, 2010

Review of Robyn Carr's VIRGIN RIVER

Virgin River (Virgin River, #1)Virgin River by Robyn Carr

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I flipping loved this book.

It's my first Robyn Carr book. I've read a lot of good things about her here on Goodreads and also on Amazon, and I ordered several of her books this spring, hoping to get some time to read them.

Recently widowed Melinda Monroe, a certified nurse midwife, decides that to move beyond her grief she must start her life again. She sells almost everything she owns and moves to Virgin River, a tiny town in the middle of the California forest. At first it seems the transition from the violence of working in the hospitals in LA to living in a town that doesn't even seem big enough to be a town is going to be too much for her. But she quickly finds herself drawn closer to this tiny community and its resident, particularly Jack Sheridan, a former U.S. Marine who runs the closest thing the town has to a bar/restaurant. Watching Mel and Jack fall in love was pure pleasure.

I particularly loved the medical realism of the midwifery scenes. I read in reviews that some readers didn't like all the pregnancy/childbirth/breastfeeding talk that naturally goes with Mel's career, but as someone who had two midwife births and breastfed for a long time, I really appreciate that. Though certainly motherhood isn't for every woman, I think having a baby is the most amazing thing women do, and having a midwife as a heroine was truly wonderful. The birth scenes were realistic, but not gory at all.

The quality of the author's research was apparent not only with regard to midwifery, but also the hero's military background and law enforcement aspects of the story, as well as the milieu of the small town and the surrounding countryside, where some residents are wonderful people and some are not.

I also enjoyed the fact that the heroine was strong but not "kick ass." I just don't enjoy reading about heroines who kick butt and are oh so tough. Bores me. I much prefer feminine heroines who can be strong — but in a feminine way. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer the hero to be the one who kicks ass. Heroines with knives, tattoos, and tough ninja moves who swing through the skyscrapers on ropes braided from their own chest hair just don't do it for me.

Though profanity doesn't bother me — how could it? My books are full of it — this book has only mild profanity. The sex is romantic and descriptive rather than erotic and extremely detailed. That's fine with me, because I can take either, provided it's well written. I just like a well-crafted love scene.

I found Carr's style to be captivating. Let's put it this way: I didn't plan to read a book tonight. I sat down with this kind of by accident at about 9 PM and read it in one sitting, finishing at about 2 AM. That doesn't happen for me very often — maybe once a year or once every other year.

Thanks, Ms. Carr, for the hours of enjoyment. Looking forward now to the rest of this series.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Do you feel your boobies?

Do you feel your boobies? There are people who want to know — for your sake.

My younger son, Benjamin, and his friends put together a video about breast cancer awareness and are competing with other filmmakers for a $10,000 prize. As some of you know, Benjamin is studying filmmaking at Ithaca College in New York.

How does he win this prize? It’s kind of like American Idol in that he wins through votes. People can vote once a day, and the video that gets the most public support wins.

Benjy’s video plays on the Old Spice commercials, and it’s pretty clever. So if you get a chance, I’d really appreciate it if you’d click here, watch his video, which is titled Intervention, and then vote for it. You have to register, but it’s a pretty painless and quick process.

If Benjamin wins, he plans to use his share of the money as the budget for his senior thesis film, so it could really help him. And that helps me!

Thanks in advance for your support! And do remember to feel your boobies!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Involuntary home improvement

And there it is — my new refrigerator.

It arrived on Friday, and this time the one I chose fit. It’s got the freezer on the bottom, with French doors that open to refrigerator on both sides. It dispenses filtered water and ice from the door, as you can see, and the cool part is the light — it shines a kind of purply-blue.

I didn’t want a new fridge, but if you read my last post you know I didn’t have a choice.

Now that it’s here, of course, I’m happy to have it. The best part? No more mopping up leaking water off the floor.

My dear friend Libby came over to help, unloading and loading food while I sat and was supremely lazy. Bending over still hurts a lot, so the help was very much appreciated.

Yesterday, I spent the day at Colorado Romance Writer's annual tea. I was among several published authors who gave talks about our books. I spoke about Naked Edge, talking about the emotional underpinnings of the story. I talked a bit about the fact that it seems to be a hit-or-miss book, a novel that readers either love or hate depending on their ability to relate to Kat, the Navajo heroine.

Of course, this is Colorado, so there were some people there who come from climbing families, as I do, and they were interested in the climbing aspects of the story. I got into a fun conversation with one writer whose relatives likewise climb walls, trees, trellises, everything and anything, if they have a spare moment. No family get-together is complete without someone climbing a real wall. And then there are piles of ropes and pitons and cams and... It was fun to talk about.

The coolest thing about being at the CRW tea yesterday was watching Libby win second place in the Heart of the Rockies contest for her urban fantasy novel. Go, Libby! I was so happy for her and had to be there to represent.

Needless to say, I haven’t much writing done, so that’s my focus today. I’m down to the last five chapters of Breaking Point and am hoping to finish by early November. My deadline is Oct. 15.

For those of you on Goodreads, Dangerous Hero Addict Support Group, is hosting “Getting to Know Pamela Clare” starting on October 22 and running through the weekend. If you want to participate, click here and see about getting yourself invited. I love Goodreads because it enables me to connect with readers and chat about all kinds of books in a friendly environment without the trolls and the periodic flame wars one sees elsewhere. If you’re not a member, check it out.

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Favorite Writing Quotes


"I am an artist. I am here to live out loud."
—Emile Zola

"I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day."
—James Joyce

"Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery."
—Jane Austen

"Writers are those for whom writing is more difficult that it is for others."
—Ernest Hemingway

"When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth."
—Kurt Vonnegut

"The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar is the test of their power."
—Toni Morrison

"No tears in the author, no tears in the reader."
—Robert Frost.

"I'm a writer. I give the truth scope."
—the character of Chaucer in
A Knight's Tale