I hope you had a good week. Unfortunately, I spent mine sick with a head cold, sinus infection and fun upper respiratory infection. But I was happy to catch a cold if it meant spending a few days up in Hershey, PA with my awesome gal-pal and fantastic fellow author (if you haven’t read her, you MUST check her out), Kathryn Cushman. Why did I share that? Because, I don’t about you, but when I’m sick (which, unfortunately, is a lot of the time of late), I feel very vulnerable. I’m not able to do all the things I want to do and I feel like it’s a great lesson in humility. I realize the truth that I don’t, in fact, run my own little world. I don’t control the universe. I can’t do it all. In fact, I can’t do anything (that’s right, anything) without God’s enabling. When I’m sick I realize how fully dependent I am on God for the breath in my lungs (particularly when I’m stuffy and struggle to breathe), and the gift of waking up every morning (even if it’s with coughing). I am fully dependent on God. Why am I such a slooowww learner…

There are some Thanksgivings my husband Tom and I travel to Phoenix, Arizona to visit our grandchildren in the west. This year our Marietta, GA family joined us here in Phoenix. There are eleven of us, five are the kids. We love it, the cousins love getting together, we have fun, lots of laughing and telling stories and, of course, eating out, eating in, and eating on the big day.Thanksgiving is always a special time for us, a time to reflect on what we’re thankful for. I’m thankful for family and for the time we get to spend with them. Our New Jersey (in the east) seven grandchildren will party with us at Christmas time.   Grandchildren are the rewards for motherhood. Motherhood, a job no one is really prepared for. Parenting isn’t taught, and why not? All we have are the role models that parented us. Right? They didn’t go to school for parenting, neither did their parents. This is sometimes good, and sometimes bad We learn how to do so many other life jobs, but no schooling for parenting. How about a required course in college? Can’t graduate unless you’ve taken the parenting course. Oh my goodness, who…

I’ve dreamed of one of my books becoming a movie, but I never really thought it would happen. Now RUNAWAY ROMANCE is available (in ebook and print) and coming to UP TV on January 7. Looking back, my journey still amazes me. Rewind to early 2011. I had a finished manuscript, an old west romance titled Outlaw Angel, that my agent was shopping. I’d written and published three books with Summerside Press, all part of their Love Finds You series. My agent had presented that book as another Love Finds You, but it was turned down as the location of Sundance, Wyoming, had already been assigned to another well-known author. My editor with Summerside contacted me in January or February of that year, saying they were in desperate need of a book set in Sundance for their Love Finds You line, and asked if I had sold mine yet. I said no—my agent was shopping it as a three-book series. Long story short, their author was unable to fulfill the contract. They offered me the contract, but at a lower rate than we wanted to accept. Finally, I reluctantly decided to move forward and give up my dream of it…