Hello all, I am back. It didn't take me as long this time to write my next blog!
The Super Bowl was yesterday. How humiliating. From the kickoff to the last moment, it was terrible. Oh well, grats to the Seahawks.
I am working on getting a book ready for this years Amazon writing contest. I have to get my pitch worked out. I have the next two days off so if I can stay off Minecraft and Facebook for a while I should be able to get it done.
I got a new microwave convection oven the other day and my hubby got it all set up for me. Now I have to learn the right temps and times for all my baked goods. I also have to get some new bakeware. I can use glass or silicon bakeware in it. So now I have to do some shopping.
I am still working on a  paranormal book about a werewolf set here in ND. I haven't gotten far in it because of trying to get my romance ready for a relaunch and preparing the other for the contest, but I will get it done as soon as I can. I will post more on here about it as soon as I can get a set date for it to release.
Not much to say today. Just wanted to keep this blog up to date. Have a great day guys! 

Hello all. I know, I am the worst at keeping this thing up to date. I want to keep it current, but then I let life get away from me.
I felt the need to write tonight. I heard from my family yesterday that my Aunt, Molene Marshall passed away. After the first moments of sadness and loss, I began thinking about the times I spent as a child at her house. She lived in Tennessee where I grew up. She was married to my Uncle Eb. We would go over to Uncle Ted's house first which was just down the road from from Aunt Molene. Uncle Ted never married and lived alone. Uncle Eb and Aunt Molene had people at their house always, so it seemed if we would always end up at their house. The adult would play cards in the kitchen while we kids played out in the yard. When my grandparents came down from Michigan, some of my cousins would come with them. We ran around outside, playing tag, ball, going fishing, all the things kids used to do in the open country where you didn't have to worry about the sickos and perverts.
At night, we would go back to Uncle Ted's and play Ghost in the Graveyard. It is a variation of tag. You could only play at night. One person was  the ghost and would hide behind the house. Everyone else would start on the front porch and count as loud as possible "one oclock, two oclock, three oclock, four oclock, five oclock six oclock, seven oclock, eight oclock, nine oclock, ten oclock, eleven oclock, twelve oclock. Starlight, starbright, I hope I don't see a ghost tonight." Then we would leave the safety of the porch and frond yard to travel around the house to try to outrun the ghost. If you got caught, you had to hide with the ghost to try to grab the rest of the family.
Of course, this being an old farm house out in the country, there were clotheslines hung in the back yard. At least one person was clotheslined for real everytime we played.
I can still hear my family laughing and screaming as we tried to outrun the ghost.
I guess tonight I gave myself too much time to think about those times. I lost touch with much of my family over the years, but I am reconnecting with them now through facebook. It is weird to see my cousins  I remember as little kids posting pics of their little ones.
I read their updates and rejoice when they have good news, and my heart breaks when they have hard times. I don't always reply to them, but I hope they all know how much I  love them and wish I could be there to celebrate when they have something good, or to hug them and fight for them when they have hardships. It is silly, I can write a book, but to express how much I love them I find hard.
I have great family. I have been blessed with a wonderful little sister, a great big brother, and a bunch of silly, funny, crazy cousins. So to all of you who read this, I will make it clear right now, even though I don't say it very often, I love you guys and miss our times together. Although we are spread out all over the place, grown up with families of our own, in my heart we always are and always will be that bunch of kids running around the house screaming and chasing each other. Love you all!
I think Aunt Molene would be glad that her passing made me reflect on family. Family was her life. I love you Aunt Mo and will miss you. You were a great influence on us all.
I need to sign off for now, my eyes are getting wet, must be getting a cold. I will try to write more soon, until then be good and hug a family member.

Wow, time really has really gotten away from me. I have been busy working, taking some online classes, working on my new book, and playing my favorite online game. My kids are out of school for the summer, and my oldest now has her learner's permit. Watch out world, she is lose behind the wheel. Totally scary. I am just getting over a fun case of bronchitis, I swear I have coughed so much my ribs hurt, but I am getting over it now.
I bought this house last July. It was built in 1926 and I love it, even though it has it's own... let's just say it has personality. It has been a work in progress since we moved in and now we are working on the living room floor. It had a horrible cheap carpet on it which we ripped up to reveal the original oak hardwood floor. OMG!!! We are now sanding the floor and getting it ready for staining. We chose a light finish for it so it will lighten up the room. It is a lot of work, but it will be worth it.
My husband has started making youtube videos under his game name of Thethoraal. I did some voice work for him with my oldest daughter in a couple of videos. It was fun.
Like I said busy times. I have to go. Need to study. Have fu

Hello all! Yes, I am still alive. I know it has been a while since my last post. Life got hectic for a little while. My son went to Mandan with his science fair project, but he didn't win. He tried his best though, so that is all that matters.
Work has been crazy, as always, but I love it. I get to meet so many interesting people. I waited on a table of a deaf couple the other morning, so I got to try out my little bit of sign language. They were patient with me thankfully.
I have been writing on my latest book. It is coming along, slowly but surely. It tells the story of Courtney's from Building Love younger brother, Michael and his trials of trying to raise his young son alone and juggle his career. Throw in a paranormal investigator he can't seem to get out of his mind and things get interesting. I hope to have the rough draft complete soon.
I am still loving the small town I live in now. It is so quiet. The only thing is we are still getting snow. It is the middle of April and we are having to shove the snow. Yuck!!! I am hoping this Mother Nature's way of getting the last of her cold out before it warms up. This weather has been hard on everyone. They either are getting a stomach flu or sinus infection. I got lucky and got both. Oh joy and happiness! LOL. I guess I will cut out for now. Take care of youselves.

I didn't make the cut in the competion. Oh well, that  is life. Just going to keep writing and try again.

I have entered Tuscan Dreams in the Amazon  Breakthrough Novel Award contest. I find out tomorrow, well, today now if I move on to the next round. As  you can imagine, I am a nervous wreck. That old part of me is rearing it's ugly head. So many of these people enter every year, romance novels don't really win, even if they did win, mine isn't good enough. But I am not  going to let myself buy into that mess. My stuff is good, I enjoy writing and even if I don't win, oh well. I will still be writing books and  loving it!
It also helps that my husband has told I am the best romance novelist he has read, although I am the  only romance writer who he has ever read. My 16 year old daughter says if they don't pick me they don't know a good book.
So even if I don't move on to the next round  the world will not stop spinning and I still have great fans, even if they all live in my house. lol

Hello all! I have been working on my next book today. It will be the second in the Patrick Series that started with Building Love. This one is about Michael, a NSA agent living in Washington, DC. I hope to have it done in the next six weeks, I have been fleshing this book out in notes and in my head for about a year now.
My only problem is I am going to have to buy a new keyboard soon. Darn. The * button is broken on this one. No, I don't mean it doesn't work when I hit it, I mean it just goes off for no reason. I have to go back through and delete all those annoying little symbols.
Example: H*e* *****loo*ed at *********the clock.*********
That is what I am getting, crazy, huh? Plus the k works when it wants. lol
I guess I dropped this poor thing to many times. Now I have to go shopping, yuck. I admit it, I hate shopping.
There is a woman who live here in town and her daughter is in school with my youngest, M. Her daughter hit a growth spurt and outgrew her clothes. Some of these clothes still have the tags on them and she brought them to me to see if M. would like the outfits. Of course she would! She is a mini fashionista. I am happy if my clothes halfway match. The woman who brought the clothes over said she is a shopaholic and loves going shopping. M is thrilled, there are some really nice clothes. S, my oldest is jealous. She doesn't think it it's fair that a 6 year old has more clothes than a 16 year old. I think it is funny.
I guess that is one thing I can about my kids. They don't care about getting hand me downs. Don't get me wrong, I don't take just anything, but in cases like that when the clothes are nice, it is better than just throwing the things away. When M. outgrows these things, I give them to the local thrift store where the proceeds go to the community programs.
I better go for now, I am going to go find a new keyboard

Hello all. I just linked my blog to goodreads.com If you are not a member of goodreads, I would highly recommend it.They have reviews for many books and you can review book you have read on there and they will give suggestions for other books you might enjoy. It is all free. You can't beat that.
So, January is nearly over now, how the days are flying by, and with February on the way, Valentines Day is right around the corner. I have heard it is going to be a busy time for the restaurant, which would be good. I swear there was a teenage couple there the other night who didn't say a word to each other, they texted each other all through the meal.
Really? I remember when we used to go on dates and did crazy things like talk and hold hands. I wonder if in a few years kids will just get on a webcam and sit in their own house for the date? lol I have to go for now. Time to go to work. Have a great day!!!

Hello again. I have just had the best bit of luck. I hired an editor for my last book, paid an ungodly amount of money to have my book edited. I got my first proof back and it was a mess because of formatting errors, so I had to reload it to the printer. So I have this proof sitting here not worth letting anyone read. I thought it would be funny to sign it and give it to my oldest daughter, S, who is 16 to let her read through. I autographed it for her, and she was thrilled. She began reading through it, it is the first time I have let her read one of my romances.
Now the cool part. She reads through and finds things the editor missed. She asks me for a copy on her computer because she likes to edit, and she is good at it!!! Oh wow! This is heaven. I am going to let her edit all my books now. She says she likes English and it gives her the chance to be the first to read new books before they even get released. I told her if she is serious, we can get her some training on how to edit books even better and she can use this as a way to make extra money. Of course I am going to make sure she gets paid for editing my books, but now I have someone I can trust to edit the books and I don't have to pay near as much. Now if I can just get B. and M. to do marketing, I will be set. lol.