Break on Through to the Other Side

Hooray! This week is the last major deadline at the day job. Can't wait to break through to the other side of work/life balance. Another week of administrative loose ends, and then I can get back to MY life.

It feels like the last day of school and the doors are flung open to a bright, beautiful day. When I was a kid, that meant more time on the tennis courts. Evenings on the softball field. Cubs games in the Big City (I can say that this year, they're GOOD this year!). Hot days spent at the swimming pool. And for the rainy days, nerdy girls like me spent extra time at the typewriter/computer making up stories, giving vent to an overactive imagination.

As a grown up, it means more date nights with friends. Holiday time with the DH. Long walks on warm summer nights. Concerts in the park. And I'm still a nerdy girl. More time to make up stories.

What kinds of things did you do when school let out for the summer? Anything that carries through to your grown-up self?

Dates Gone Bad

The first thing that came to mind when I typed the title for my post today was Indiana Jones. "Bad dates." (That's the way my mind rolls.)



What I actually intended was to describe the other kind of dates. Between men and women. But I figured the title amused me, so I left it. (Easily amused some days, even if I'm the only one who's entertained.)

In my current work in progress, I'm writing the first date for a girl who has a long line of first dates--and no second dates. It got me to thinking about first dates with bad impressions. Those dates are the fodder for numerous movie plots, and in real life, do we actually know when we've made a bad impression? Sometimes, for sure, other times?

I have a wealth of "not good" first date experience to draw from. There was the guy who wanted to meet at a fast food place, made me buy my own food, and then left as soon as we'd finished eating. There was the guy who talked about his two-times ex wife, and about how they couldn't seem to move on. If he wasn't so frustrated with her, he'd still be married to her. .

I'm glad those days are behind me!

Do you have any first date stories to share? Who knows! Maybe one of them will be backstory for my beleaguered heroine! You know, that one guy (or gal) who ....

Ghost Stories

I grew up watching Creature Features and reading Dracula and Stephen King books. As a young girl, I liked those macabre stories, the ones that relied on your imagination to frighten you. Then along came the slasher flicks and it wasn't only imagination anymore. Somehow, that ruined the "scare" factor for me. I liked to be frightened, as long as it was imagined. Once those scares became real, I didn't like them quite so much.

Some of those "movie of the week" stories were developed from books like "Ammie Come Home," which became "The House that Would Not Die" (Barbara Stanwyck and Richard Egan). It was made for TV, but that movie  prompted me to read books authored by Barbara Michaels.

My next release will most likely be in October, or late September (optimistically). Assuming I continue on the path I've started, it's going to be a "Halloween treat," a haunted house story inspired by Ms. Michaels and by that outdated made for TV movie. It will be the first in a new series - "The McCormicks." There's a part of me that wonders if I start the series with a supernatural twist, will you expect that in the subsequent books? Or is it okay to write the one as a Halloween treat, and the others as more standard romantic mystery fare? I can ask the pros when I attend the Chicago writer's conference next month, but what do you, my readers, think?

Release day! Cookie Therapy (Northwest Suburbs)

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Today is release day for my newest book in the Northwest Suburbs series!


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To escape notoriety from her role in the school shooting she barely survived, Elizabeth Lambert moves from Houston to Hoffman Grove, Illinois. Plagued by panic attacks and nightmares, she’s determined to embrace her second chance at life, knowing that death could take her in an instant. A one-night stand with a local handsome firefighter should remind her that she’s alive, but like a good cookie, once is not enough to satisfy her craving. Will he reject her when he learns about the blood on her hands?

Firefighter and paramedic Matt Billings fights his attraction to the alluring new bookshop manager. She dangles a one-night stand under his nose, but the last time he gave in to such an offer he ended up with a child. He is determined to be a better man than his philandering father. Can he convince Elizabeth that her past is not as terrifying as suddenly being a parent, and a relationship is worth more than just a checkbox on her bucket list?

Can anyone name the other books in the series?

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