NEW RELEASE!

Annalee Wells is innately programmed to keep a constant rhythm. She’d been a competitive drummer in college and it was the best time of her life. She high-stepped through her university years and planned a bright future in veterinary medicine. Her future veered off course when her father was stricken ill. She went home to help him die and her rhythm has been off ever since.

When a fun-loving golden retriever enters her pet-grooming salon with a handsome man on the other end of the leash, her heart plays a forgotten cadence. She’s immediately smitten with the dog, and a little star struck when she learns that her new client, Tango, is the drum major for the best drum and bugle corps in the Midwest. When he asks her to join the notably all-male group, she’s blown away.

Is this the very thing that will bring the heartbeat back to her life? She’d let go of all her dreams when her dad died. Maybe Tango and the Blue Devil’s drums could bring them back.

New Cover!

Coming from Whiskey Creek Press in February 20100

NEWS!!!

Good news is dripping from the ceiling! I've got a new contract with Whiskey Creek Press Torrid for a novelette titled DRAGONFLY DANCE. Cover images are swimming in my head. No wait...those are moths! More later...

Guest blogging!

Hi all! Wonderful author Paige Tyler has graciously given me space at her blog. Come say hi!

http://nicennaughtyauthors.blogspot.com/2010/10/guest-author-gemini-judson.html

I am at fiddle camp today but I will pop on over from T to T.

Later!

A Bit Drafty

In HOME TO HAWK RIDGE, Steve Rider is a teamster. He's a logger and uses a team of horses to harvest trees. This is big business in some parts of the country. It's a low impact alternative to clear cutting. We used a team when we just wanted a few big trees removed from our property, but didn't want someone to come in and chew up the forest with a big machine.

In my story, Steve's favorite mare is a Percheron. Beautiful Beth, a shining black beauty. Percherons are a draft breed, like the familiar Clydesdales and Belgians. They are also called plow horses, but that phrase conjures up an unfair clumsy image. Does the horse in the photo look clumsy to you? But they certainly are work horses. I'm amazed by their strength and willingness to cooperate with insignificant fleas like us.

Steve handles his team with the ease of an eight-year-old girl handling her bicycle. He's done it all his life. He knows horses and he knows trees. In my story, he's about to get to know a bit of magic.

MEET KAT

An Interview with Katerina Bauer, the heroin in my latest release, Home to Hawk Ridge
I caught up with Kat out at Steve's farm. She pulled her nose out of his bookkeeping long enough to talk a moment.

KAT: (giggles) Seems funny to be called a heroin.

GEM: In my story, you call yourself “a bit of a witch”. What do you mean by that?

KAT: I was raised in a household – not a home – of self-proclaimed gypsy witches. There was always talk of spells for this or that. My heritage, on my mom’s side of the family, has a long history of herbal magic. From as early as I could remember, I heard about how I would need to create my personal enchantment potion. Every gypsy witch has one. And it was made very clear to me that mine had better be a whopper, because I had very little charisma of my own.

GEM: You’d been sort of programmed into a life of self-doubt. Why do you think your family did that?

KAT: Of course I didn’t realize it growing up, but now I think the aunts resented my mother’s strength and independence. And of course—I look different than anybody else in the family! I’m a fair blonde in a household of dark beauties. It was pretty simple to single me out and make me feel like a freak. Steve thinks that it was because I was the most beautiful—Layla was jealous. He has an especially strong resentment of her. Can we move on? I’m not a Bauer anymore.

GEM: Sure. So do you still call yourself a witch?

KAT: Hmm. No, but I still do simple charms every now and then. Especially on Steve’s horses. They respond so nicely to natural magic and Steve appreciates their improved moods. I don’t fascinate people.

GEM: Really….?

KAT: Okay so maybe a little bit—to get a good table in a restaurant or extra whipped cream in my latte.

GEM: I work hard to give my characters a recognizable character arc. I want them to grow as the story progresses. Did you grow in Home to Hawk Ridge?

KAT: I did! Very much, thank you. I am much more confident in myself and happy with who I am. I came to Hawk Ridge with no compass—no direction. I knew my aunts were deceitful and what they did was wrong. I wanted to make a fresh start but didn’t trust myself. The first thing I did was a right out of the gypsy handbook! I cast a spell on Steve. That was wrong. Magic is still a part of who I am, but it’s not the answer to life’s problems. Not for me. Honesty and courage are more powerful.

GEM: Does Steve let you drive his team?

KAT: Heck no! He's so powerful with those big horses. I take Beth out for long rides though. I have a wonderful connection with her.

GEM: Good luck Katerina. You’re a beautiful person, inside and out. Say hey to Steve and Dorothy and the McBeth’s!

KAT: Will do. Thanks Gem.
__________________