Busy busy busy

man, I have so many idea and never enough time! *grins* MJ. Sonny. Roughstock. Vampires. Voices. Voices. Voices... O.o

Working for July! *grins*

July is my easy work month. I schedule every year to play more than work in July. I visit family, play with my dogs, goof off, travel. Every summer Julia Talbot and I head to the mountains for a week of recovery and to recharge the creative batteries. It's a great way to get new ideas, get tanned, and have great stories to tell for the rest of the year. (For instance, I can tell a story about a rodeo clown in a hotel in Wyoming, whistling In the Mood while wearing a pair of boxer-briefs...)

*grins*

This year we're going to celebrate one of our niece's first birthday, we're going to see a brother get married, and we're visiting a granny that we won't have much longer. We're going on a quick little cruise out of Galveston to hang out with our favorite song writer, and we're taking my daddy (the cowboy of joy) to Colorado and then to Frontier Days.

Come *on*, July!!!

Questions from Y'all

Hey guys!

I'm opening up and having an ask the author session. :D

Ask me about the books, the dogs, whatever and, if I can, I'll answer it.*grins*

*bounces around happily*

So!

I have signed contracts! I can squeal!

Resplendence is going to be the home for two new Roughstock books! These titles are m/f, one is novel length, the other is a longish novella.

Picking Roses is a sweet romance about Rose and Les -- Beau Lafitte is Rose's best friend and has been since she lost her husband, Timmy. Les is a bronc rider that sees Rose in Wyoming and falls hard. These two wrote themselves and are just dear to me.

Now, City/Country? Less sweet, more whoa with the hotness. Cotton (who my readers have met peripherally in the series) meets a gothy rockabilly girl during a photo shoot in Austin and discovers that girls with corsets and body piercings and tattoos are fun in bed. Em's going to be a big part in the series, so I'm tickled as all get out that their book's going to be available. :D

As soon as I get release dates and covers, y'all will be the first to know!

Beau and Sam story in a new Taste Test anthology!

I had a bunch of y'all write and ask, so I wrote a post-accident short for the new Barbed Wire and Bootheels anthology. *grins*

You can check it out here.

Happy birthday!

It's Julia Talbot's birthday!!!

*throws confetti*

Julia is my muse, my joy, my best friend, and one hot momma.

Best of all?

She's older than meeeeeeeeeeee!!!

*winks*

Planning my rodeo life

Man, we're in the depths of rodeo season and I'm trying to plan.

There's a rodeo in Oklahoma in September I want to go to, then I have my tickets for Cheyenne Frontier Days. There's an event in Wimberley that I'll miss this year because I'll be at my daddy's with Julia. But we can go to the Taylor rodeo and there's a roping event in Tyler and...

Wow.

I really want to go to Vegas for the NFR in December, too.

*grins*

What? I love rodeo -- I love the whole package, and I'm not ashamed to say so.

So, surely there's a rodeo to go to this weekend close enough for me and Julia to day trip...

New book out today!

I wrote Down by the River with Rob Knight for the Turn of the Screw serial service and, after extensive rewrites, it's out today!

It's a little different than most of my books -- a little darker (thanks, Rob), a little less cowboy, but it was a joy to work on and I'm very proud of it.

You can find it at: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2668

:D

Dogs dogs dogs

Man, y'all.

I had a scare this weekend. Our baby basset hound (he's 15 months old) got terribly sick Thursday night, got worse Friday night.

I love my dogs with a fiery passion -- I do. We (Julia Talbot, me and our resident redhead, the Ninja) have a 3 year old basset girl, a basset boy, and a 13 year old granny pit bull. And when one gets sick, the whole household stresses.

In the last year, we've lost 2 pups -- a shepherd poodle mix and a basset, so we're all sensitive to it, too. I went to Linda (the lovely lady at the vet's) and told her, "Please, I can't lose another one. Not right now."

She patted my head and hugged me (which is basically what I needed).

Right now, Mr. Sonny (yes, named after *that* Sonny) is sitting at Julia's feet and begging a pepperoni (which he's *not* getting, thank you very much), feeling like a brand new puppy.

*spends a moment giving thanks*

Chasing Flame is being featured over at The Romance Studio's inaugural release party!

Come see! There'll be giveaways, excerpts, all sorts of fun stuff!

Chasing Flame!

Available in ebook
ISBN: 208-200-101-465-1
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary/Western

Practical, no-frills Lacey knows most people would think that being in love with your childhood best friend is the perfect situation. Too bad her best friend isn't in love with her, and he just happens to be a rodeo bronc rider who left home to make a name for himself and never came back to stay. Nate is a good man, but small-town life has never suited him, and Lacey has learned to keep her feelings to herself.

Lacey knows all about taking care of things: Nate's momma, her family ranch, her brothers' kids. But when Nate's momma's house catches fire, Lacey does something she's never done before; she calls Nate and asks him to come home. Nate turns his boots back toward the east Texas dirt and the only true constant in his life, his own personal Annie Oakley. There he finds that most things in his sleepy hometown haven't changed, some have, and some are threatening to change him all the way to his heart.

***

Author's Note: One night I heard a song called "That Girl is a Cowboy" and burst into tears. When I stopped writing that night, Lacey and Nate had been born. This is one of the most honest stories I've written and it's based in and around my hometown.