Before we get to this week’s winners, I want to say thank you for all your comments and particularly for sharing your own experiences with loss. You are all so open and so brave, so generous with your prayers and your kind words, not just for me, but for all our blog sisters and, no doubt, a brother or two.
Over the weekend, I played Word Solitaire on my phone and considered unplugging about a million times. Alas, I didn’t actually do it. 🙂 I listened to Denise Grover Swank’s TWENTY-EIGHT AND A HALF WISHES, which was cute, funny and action-packed, Libbie Hawker’s MERCER GIRLS, a terrific historical novel set in 19th century Seattle, featuring Asa Mercer and the brides he brought from Lowell, Massachusetts to the Emerald City. Having lived in Bremerton (WA) and Port Orchard for so many years, Seattle is one of my favorite places to visit, and early in my career, I wrote several books set in the area: FLETCHER’S WOMAN, my very first, was one of these, along with the Corbin series and other novels as well.
In good weather, Seattle is one of the most beautiful places in the world, in my opinion. Unfortunately, I can’t handle the gray days and sometimes weeks when the sky is overcast. I have SAD as well as ADD–just too many acronyms, I know. 🙂 The other problem is, I must be in very close proximity to my horses. I must suffer from HDD. 🙂 I comfort myself with the occasional visit and with fantasies about living in a high-rise condo or apartment with a view of the water and the snow-capped Olympic Mountains, ‘the greenest green you’ve ever seen’, as the theme of HERE COME THE BRIDES proclaimed, and certainly the Pike Place Market, with its bounty of fresh fish and organic veggies, and the most amazing and colorful bouquets imaginable, grown on the many flower farms that surround Seattle. Wendy and I loved visiting the Fifth Avenue Theatre and our favorite restaurant, The New Orleans Cafe, down in Pioneer Square. Sadly, the cafe has closed, but we enjoyed many a delicious seafood etouffe (misspelled, I’m sure) in that rustic establishment, and the cornbread was simply not to be believed. Sometimes, there was live music, always jazz of the Louisiana variety.
Now for our contest news. This week’s winners are: Angie Hinton and Barbara. (Remember, if your name happens to be Barbara, you will receive an email from Jenni, asking for your snail mail info) . As always, the prizes are autographed copies of my latest book, which happens to be ONCE A RANCHER. The new contest is underway and, as always, you simply need to comment and you are automatically entered. The winners will be chosen at random, given the same prizes, and announced right here on this blog next Monday morning–or Tuesday. 🙂
Now, back to FOREVER A HERO, the final book in the Carson trilogy.
Have a good day and remember to be kind to yourself as well as to others.
About Linda
The daughter of a town marshal, Linda Lael Miller is a #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than 100 historical and contemporary novels, most of which reflect her love of the West.
Raised in Northport, Washington, Linda pursued her wanderlust, living in London and Arizona and traveling the world before returning to the state of her birth to settle down on a horse property outside Spokane.
