I like to put a funny meme at the bottom of my weekly/bi-weekly newsletters. What can I say? I like to leave readers with a smile!
Valentine’s Day is coming up, so of course I was searching with that in mind. I found too many! I saved one for my newsletter, but I’m putting other favorites here. Hope they make you laugh!
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So after writing a whole series of sweet, small town, contemporary romances, why am I starting a new series of Christian cowboys? Here’s the scoop: The McCormick’s Creek romances were planned from the beginning to be clean and secular. A friend asked if I’d considered writing Christian romance, but I hadn’t felt my stories leading that direction. Not at all. McCormick’s Creek was great to write, discovering new characters and conniving to help them fall in love. But the most fun I had was in Safe in His Heart (#3) where Robin goes out to get a stray dog from a ranch where it was causing problems. I didn’t know who her love interest was going to be, so imagine my delight when she was greeted by a young cowboy unloading hay! Their love story includes ranch stuff, her learning to ride horses, an injured horse, and more. Having raised horses most of my life, it was total fun! |
With the next book, Stealing His Heart, where Robin’s BFF-turned-mean-girl nemesis returns to town. Raine has made a TON of mistakes, some quite serious, and the last one was a huge wake-up call for her. So it’s a redemption story: her path back to being a good person and proving herself trustworthy again.
Unsurprisingly, my faith kept wanting to come out as I wrote. But this isn’t an inspirational series, I had to keep reminding myself.I had a little more freedom with The Christmas Key to Her Heart, because Nora’s faith is so much a part of her. But I still kept it to a minimum.
While I still have more characters to meet in McCormick’s Creek, I was feeling the urge to start a new series. And this time, I wanted to include horses and faith. Not heavy evangelical stories or crisis-of-faith journeys. Just regular people for whom Christianity is a normal part of their lives. And horses that nicker and twitch their ears and are characters in their own right.
So…Black Rock Ranch is home to one aging father, four handsome brothers, a younger sister, and a bunch of ranch hands. Plus cattle and horses and problems and… you get the idea. Adam and Maddy’s story, Cherished by the Rancher, will be out TOMORROW (June 4th).
I hope you’ll come with me on this new ride!
You know how we head for chicken soup when we don’t feel great? Not everyone does that!
Maddy, the heroine in the first of my Brothers of Black Rock Ranch series (I’ll have an actual title someday), comes from an Italian family with a grandmother who cooks traditional food. Maddy makes minestrina when her daughter doesn’t feel good. It’s a smooth-and-cheesy pasta soup, sometimes called the Italian feel-better soup. I made it for the hubby the other night, and oh, wow! Yes, comfort food!
Here’s what I did:
Cook the pasta in the chicken broth. Drain, but reserve the liquid.
Put half the mozzarella in the bottom of the soup bowls. Add pasta. Sprinkle with half the parmesan cheese.
Repeat layers with the rest of the cheese and pasta.
Ladle drained broth over the pasta and drizzle with a little olive oil. Curl up with a blanket and a good book and enjoy!
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