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Book Recommendation Finally a Bride (Book 3 Texas Boardinghouse Brides) by Vickie McDonough Barbour Books, May 2011 "He made her want to be a woman for the first time in her life." Jack’s story in Finally a Bride was worth the wait. It's the tale of grown up Jacqueline (Jack) Davis who now wears dresses and looks like a lady, but still acts like the 10 yr old tomboy we met in the first book of this series. Consider the opening… Jack is after a story and climbs on the mayor’s roof to eavesdrop on his conversation with two strangers. No, I won’t tell you if she accomplishes her mission, but I will say pain is involved. Because she’ll do anything to uproot the truth. If you remember book 1, you’ll remember Butch Laird who wrote “ Jack is a liar” across every paintable surface in town. Bully that he was, he even locked Jack up in jail and left her there. Man, she detested that kid. Never mind that he had a point, he still shouldn’t have done it. And after he left town, th...

Happy Friday, folks. I was thinking of changing my header photo since the road is no longer flooded, but with all the rain we've had water started coming in the basement. And it's still coming! I wanted to draw your attention to the website of Sandra Ardoin who mentioned me in her High Five Friday!! post. Thanks, Sandy. :D Tomorrow, my post will be a book review on Vickie McDonough's 3rd book in her Texas Boardinghouse Brides series, Finally a Bride . There will be a book discussion going on, but it'll be over on the  Inkwell Inspirations blog. Now that I'm finally back in my office out in the garage, I'll be writing all weekend. The boys can play all the video games they want and I won't hear a thing. Except the rain. If you look at the header photo, today's picture would've been taken a few feet before the water's edge where the ground was soft and wet. It's the paw print of a coyote and that's my shoe, so those tracks are big! Nelson...

 I'm back from my road trip for research with mixed results. Although I discovered lots of neat places and took oodles of pics, many of the historic sights I needed to photograph wouldn't be open until Victoria Day. I missed by a week! For this post though, I want to show some of the weather related things I found on my travels. Although I saw many farmers out in their fields, some tried to get a head start and only got bogged down in the muck. Here's a tractor that didn't get too far in the task: And here's the dozer that tried to pull him out: The wind was so bad one day, the flags were flying straight and high... Two days after the super-windy day, I passed one large fire and saw another in the distance. It could've been another dangerous situation, like up at Slave Lake, if the wind took control of this small grass fire... Road conditions were horrible. Part of the reason was due to flooding. Here is an example of just one of the many roads being eaten away ...

Virtually, I'm blogging at the Inkwell today about my research trip last week to the Touchwood Hills Hudson's Bay Company remains. Not even ruins. Just remains. But an extraordinary experience nonetheless. Physically, I'm in North Battleford, Saskatchewan researching a restored western town of 30 buildings and businesses. It's a cloudy day and I hope it doesn't rain as all the buildings are outside. However, there's also a huge indoor portion in case it does. But I'll be popping in to check comments here and at the Inkwell throughout the day.

This past weekend was difficult as I realized once again that I wasn't a finalist in the Genesis contest. The wound deepened when I received my judges' scoresheets and discovered 2 out of the 3 judges just didn't 'get' the story. I won't complain about the comments, but I will say I shook my head at a couple of them. On Sat afternoon I received word that someone else had won the Duel on the Delta contest. Ugh. Very disheartening. But I'm up here at St Peter's Abbey for the Saskatchewan Romance Writer's annual retreat and my fellow writers are wonderful support. Between them and the Inkies, they pulled me out of my doldrums and rewarded me with chocolate - both in physical and virtual realities. After supper I walked the beautiful grounds taking photos and trying to shed my disappointment. Imagine my surprise, then on Sunday afternoon when I was working on my Tues history post for the Inkwell when my iPhone rang. The theme song of The Good, The Bad, a...

I'm at Inkwell Inspirations today talking about the evolution in hat styles worn by the Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge and the boost she's given to the fashion industry, especially the millinery trade. Check out the photos I've posted of Kate from July 2009 to April 2011. And I've added a video - set to music - of all the hats she's worn in the past.  The questions I'm asking at the Inkwell are: What about you? Do you like wearing hats? Do you have a favourite? Do you wear one to church?  Check out The Bag Lady for more info on these fascinators.  Photo Credits: http://www.thebaglady.tv/2011/03/royal_wedding_s.html

Writing-wise April was one of my best months ever! Like I stated in my last month-end post, I’d spent Feb/March entering contests – 5 to be exact. And as I reported here a couple weeks ago, on Apr 8 I received a phone call informing me I was a semi-finalist in the ACFW’s Genesis contest. Well, the news gets better. On Mar 25th – Easter Monday - I rec'd an email from the Duel on the Delta coordinator informing me that I was a finalist! She said once I rec’d my judge’s score sheets, I had until the end of April to edit my entry and return it for the final round. This was same deadline to revise my Genesis entry. Talk about excited! I couldn’t sit still. I happy danced back and forth from my writing desk to hubby in the kitchen. It was such good timing that he was taking the boys to Regina within the hour and they’d gone for the week. They would be part of Project Aware learning how to be homeless so they could work with empathy among the homeless. With the boys gone and Nelson back t...