Category: ThrowbackThursday

I had a lovely weekend celebrating a big birthday with my sister and longtime friends with whom I worked for many years. My one friend — the birthday girl — was our law office’s unofficial photographer, always taking photos during office celebrations or candid shots here and there. When the office was about to close, she inherited the photo albums with all the pictures. Over the years, she’s been passing out photos to staff and friends, like this one of me in my office. And no, I didn’t drink on the job. I was lucky to represent the Jose Cuervo company and kept samples of their various bottles in case I needed them for legal actions. I loved my job and the people I worked with. The office politics not so much. Anyway, people often ask if there’s any characters that are like lawyer me, and I would say Connie from WHAT HAPPENS IN SUMMER is the character most like me in some ways while Lara from THE FAMILY SHE NEVER MET has more of me in other ways. Both are career women, but both have a passion for something else. In Connie’s case, it’s control of her life. For Lara, it’s fulfilling her dream of being a writer. Both good goals if you ask me. Goals I strived for over in the many years that I worked full-time as an attorney but also pursued my career as a writer.

I had a lovely time at this year’s Romance Writers of America Conference. It was great to get together with longtime friends and make new ones. The workshops were very helpful and it was lovely to spend time with my editors. I also took part in the book signing along with many fellow authors. Harlequin provided books for all their authors to give away to readers. It was nice to see familiar faces, like Amy, whom I had met at RAGT this year! Next year’s conference will be in Portland, Oregon. Another state off my list of states to visit, but more on that next week. Today I’m sharing some photos from the book signing! P.S. DECOY TRAINING is specially priced at 1.99 until July 31st, so don’t miss out on this deal! Download your copy today at https://amzn.to/4bOBrRk.

During the Romance Writers of America conference, we had a free night and a friend invited me to go on the Sandia Peak Tram. Now, I heard “tram” and I thought it was a bus-type ride. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was an aerial tram! Many of you know I am afraid of heights, so I worried how I would react to it. Surprisingly, the fifteen-minute cable car ride wasn’t all that bad. Maybe my Namsan Tower adventure helped me somehow. The trips up and down weren’t that bad, although I did have some vertigo up on the observation decks. It was a beautiful view, and we had a nice dinner at the top to wait for night to fall and see the lights come on. Today, I’m sharing a video of that trip’s highlights with you!

I got in late last night and was welcomed by this gigantic flamingo! Fun! Even more fun was getting up early to meet friends for breakfast and spend time with them before going to an assortment of panels. I was breaking in new sneakers, which go perfectly with the flamingo theme. During breaks between the panels, I dropped by the goody room where they had a cute assortment of ribbons to choose from. I picked up a few, and now the question is, to ribbon or not to ribbon? LOL! But seriously, it’s been a great day meeting with old friends and making new ones. We’ve been chatting about our writing and what we’re doing. We also decided to discuss the goals we had. I settled on three goals. My first was getting to 100 written books. I’m about 20 books away from that, so it’s an attainable goal. The second was to write for the next 20 years so I get to spend time with my daughter at book events. Also attainable. Last, but not least, to get a new contract with Harlequin, and also sell a bigger romantic suspense book. One is more attainable than the other, but a girl’s gotta dream. So, I’m sharing some photos from today’s Day 1.

When I heard the Tall Ships would be in town to celebrate America’s 250th Birthday, I knew I had to go see them! We took off from the marina on a blazing hot day, but luckily it cooled off once the boat was moving and we were on the ocean! We reached Sandy Hook Harbor in about an hour, and if the name Sandy Hook sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve mentioned that many of the scenes in my upcoming release, K-9 TRACKER, take place on Sandy Hook. It was awesome to travel around all the tall ships, although there were many boats doing the same thing. There were close to two dozen of the tall ships in the harbor, but the smaller boats were already in New York Harbor for a parade. Unfortunately, they closed down New York Harbor after we arrived at Sandy Hook, so we weren’t able to see those boats. I hope you enjoy these videos of the tall ships! By the way, you can pre-order K-9 TRACKER and the other books in Crooked Pass Security series athttps://amzn.to/3RGlxBp.