There's No Place Like Home

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged because I’ve been busy...

First, the West Texas Writing Academy in June was great. I couldn’t believe the talented people who signed up for my class. Within a few hours I realized I was looking at authors I would be reading in print.

Everyone loved the week. I started by saying that the one week of writing would change their life and by Friday not one person disagreed. We learned and grew together, then best of all became friends. The writers who attended were pioneers willing to step into something new and unknown. This course had been in my mind for years and thanks to the instructors: Tim Lewis who taught beginning writing, Dusty Richards who taught writing the west, and Dian Curtis Regan who taught children’s writing, it worked.

We’re already planning next year’s and as soon as the date in June of 2010 is set, I’ll post it on my website.

Three days after the writing academy, I left for Europe and have been exploring for a month. I had a great time seeing wonders I’d only read about in books, but I have to say that the best days of all were the three I spent at RNA (Romantic Novelists Asso.of Great Britain) What a wonderful group of talented ladies and gentlemen. I was a duck out of water most of the time dealing with food I didn’t know and train schedules I didn’t understand, but when I get to the writers’ group, I felt like I was home.



I don’t know when I’ll get back ‘over the pond’ but when I do, I’ve many friends I’d love to see again.

While I was in flight returning, my editor was in D.C. picking up awards for two of my books.



I won the National Readers Choice Award in Mainstream fiction with romantic element for Twisted Creek and the National Readers Choice Award in Historical Romance for Tall, Dark, and Texan. Because my phone was dead, I didn’t find out until Saturday morning. I’d already had my sad party thinking I didn’t place. I was so excited when I heard the message. If I’d been there I know I’d have been too choked up to say more than, “Thank you. You’ve paid me a great honor by reading and loving my work.” This means a great deal to me because it is the readers who’ve kept me writing so many times by their encouragement and notes.