Published on August 1st, 2025

Hello there!

Greetings from Central California – where it usually is over-the-top HOT this time of year, but right now is pretty darn comfortable at 77 degrees but heading toward a high of 99 today. I suppose that’s better than 105+, which it typically is during this time of year! Okay, enough about the weather -- can you tell that I’m a weather nerd? I’m one of the few who didn’t want to cancel my cable because none of the streaming services had the Weather Channel available (!).

So, this is my first newsletter/blog/?? – I’m not sure what to call it just yet . . .

As you can tell from my bio – I am a newly published author, and this is my new website. I just self-published my debut romantic suspense novel, Long Term Surrender, on Amazon. Currently, it is exclusive to Amazon, but in September, I will branch out to other platforms.

Long Term Surrender started out as a tiny seedling in my brain many, many years ago that took root over a dozen years ago while I was still working at my “day job.” Then came the opportunity to retire, and I sat down and seriously got to work on the manuscript. Once finished, I sent it out to several traditional publishers, thinking I didn’t have it in me to self-publish and self-market (especially that!). I did get a few responses, one with actual constructive criticism saying it had the potential to be a great book with a few suggested changes. I was so excited!!

However, [sigh] my former employer came calling and asked if I would consider coming back to work as a contractor to help out temporarily – for a year, maybe two – so I did and put my book on the back burner. Well, it turned out to be more than a year or two, but all the while my mind was churning out the plots and twists so when I finally and truly retired “again,” this past December, I finished the manuscript, self-published this time, and here I am . . . trying to market a debut novel while also hard at work on the second book in the Long Term Series, Long Term Desire. It will feature Grant, Noah’s best friend from the first book.

If you will sign up to be on my mailing list, I promise not to inundate you with tons of email or spam . . . at most, I will post or send out something once a month or probably even less until I can get my second book out. I know romance readers like to see at least two books in a series before committing to an author (because I am one of them!) . . .

I’d love to hear from you on your thoughts on this book, or future books, whether in this series or others. Do you like snippets from the books, or ideas I’m contemplating for scenarios or plots? (I have a friend who is waiting for me to write a book with the PBR/rodeo in it because he knows I am a fan and have attended many events across the country.) If you’ve checked out Long Term Surrender, you can probably guess I love to cruise as it is a major feature in this story . . . in fact, I’m heading to Alaska next month – can’t wait to get out of this heat . . . and see bears, whales, and moose, oh my!