Dear Reader,
Welcome to 2013! I’m starting the New Year in a new location, having moved over the holiday (yes, really!) from Florida to Colorado. I think I packed 55 boxes of books–my author’s copies (for the 53 novels I’ve written and reprints thereof), research resources, and favorite books I’ve read and reread. I was in Denver for several weeks in the fall as a base from which to do research for Montana Bride and realized how much I missed the mountains. So I decided to do something about it, which resulted in this move–and me being in Denver for a picture-postcard snowy Christmas Day with my son, who flew in from Seattle.
New Window View
The view from my window has changed from this:
to this:
The snowcapped mountains in the background are the Rockies. The mountains in front are the Flatirons. The wilderness in-between is 11 miles of hiking and biking trails. Despite the barren look of the terrain outside my window, I can be in the middle of a forest in 15 minutes. The smell of pines and the forest around me feed my soul.
Season Tickets
I’m a great Denver Broncos fan, so it’s fun to be back where I can attend games in person (okay, so I managed to see 7 home games this year, even though I lived in Florida, by doing a little flying back and forth). And there’s always a lot going on at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The writing community around Denver is vibrant and invigorating. I will miss seeing my daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids for dinner every Monday night, but we will still get together for holidays. I’m very much looking forward to catching up with friends I made when I lived here a few years ago, and to making new friends in the New Year.
New Bitter Creek Book
I also have a new book in the New Year. Wyoming Bride, the sequel to Texas Bride, hits stores January 1. This book is Hannah’s story. She’s one of the twins. (Hetty’s story, Montana Bride, is my work in progress). It’s been fun to figure out different ways for the four sisters to become mail-order brides in this series. After three months in a mail-order marriage, Hannah Wentworth McMurtry is a widow–pregnant, alone, and near death in the Wyoming wilderness. Then my hero shows up needing a wife–because he’s in love with the woman his brother is planning to marry. This one was a challenge to write, because neither one really wants to be married to the other.
I’ll be heading back to Florida in March for the Sony Open (tennis matches) in Key Biscayne, Florida, and hope to make it to Wimbledon in London again this year. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to play some social tennis over the winter here in Colorado–indoors, of course! All in an effort to balance work (as soon as I finish Montana Bride I’ll go to work on Josie’s story, Blackthorne’s Bride) with play.
I hope the New Year brings you lots of love and laughter.
