My brother and I, as well as each of our two sisters, received a small legacy from my wonderful, hardworking father. We've all been deliberating on how to spend it in a way he would approve of--family vacation? Fancy sewing machines? (My sisters sew. I'll have to be...

Well, I intended to write a blog yesterday, but I was goofing off over at the casino and never got around to it. :)I want to thank all of you for the wonderful notes of condolence that have been coming in since the last newsletter went out. You continually touch my...

Late start. I slept like a dead woman last night. Wrote in the morning, and of course Sadie and Bear spent the day at the vet's. Both are well, and happy to be home. Sadie has a cone, since she had a wart removed on one leg, and can't be allowed to chew off her...

Sadie and Bernice are spending the day at the veterinarian's office, so it's pretty darned quiet around here. Sadie is having a wart removed, and Bernice, the orginal bad-breath Yorkie, is having her teeth cleaned. They'll be ready to be picked up around four, and the...

You're probably way ahead of me on this, but just in case you aren't, I've discovered a WONDERFUL research source on the internet: http://www.wikipedia.org/It's great! All sorts of focused information on the Civil War, which as many of you know, I'm studying in...

I'm taking what Jayne Ann Krentz calls a plotting day. I have outlines for the new books, and I've even got half a chapter of one of them done. But the Qwest man is here about my internet connection and the phone service in the apartment over the barn, which does not...

The nip of fall is definitely in the air, though we could, of course, have some more hot weather before the season actually turns. All my life, I've loved autumn best--starting school, new clothes and piles of paper and boxes of pencils, the changing leaves, and that...

If you want to see some first-class old-fashioned Western jewelry, go to:www.montanasilversmiths.comThe Lynn Brown collection is gorgeous, and I'm planning to offer some of her pieces on this website as reader prizes, so watch that monthly contest!

I often get lovely insights during my morning journalling sessions, and today was a humdinger.A little groundwork, first. We Laels, you see, are a stubborn bunch. (And that's putting it kindly.) It's our first instinct--and this goes back for generations--to dig in...

I'm at the lake again, but soon off to the book store and a few other places. Sadie and Bernice are happy at the other house, by all reports, but I still miss them and will be glad to see their pesky little fur-faces again tomorrow.I'm almost convalescent, recovering...

Here I am at the main house--Sadie and Bernice wanted to come back, so I brought them. I'll be going back out to the lake, dogless. Sometimes they just don't settle in out there, and this is one of those times. They miss their big yard, the other dogs, the kitties,...

Well, except for some revisions in the read-through stage, "The Rustler" is finished. That last chapter is action-packed, I'm here to tell you, and WHAT a last chapter! Writing it was like being one of those guys in the old western movies, hanging on to a runaway...