June 2010

We all have our favorite places in the world.  Home is number one.  Whenever Rick and I travel, we love seeing new places and meeting new people.  But within two to three weeks, we’re hankering for home, missing our own bed, living room, kitchen – and, of course, family.  Then, within a few weeks, we’re dreaming about the next place we’d like to explore. 

One place draws me back time after time:  Fort Bragg, California.  The Mendocino coastline of California is spectacular and draws people from all over the world.  Most tourists are familiar with Mendocino, a quaint Victorian lumbering town with its tall New England style steeple and rugged coast.  Ten miles north is my favorite northern California seacoast town, Fort Bragg.  (My character, Dynah from The Atonement Child, spends significant time there.) Rick and I have stayed numerous times at the Harbor Lite on the Noyo River.  Every room has a...

I’ve been thinking about all the pets I’ve had over the years – dogs and cats.  They become a part of the family.  We’ll have quite a menagerie when we get to Heaven.  The first family dog I remember is Dusty, a female German Shepherd who rode herd on me when I was preschool age.  (There will be a picture of the two of us in Her Daughter’s Dream in September.)  After Dusty came Bullet, named after Roy Rogers’ loyal canine companion.  Bullet saved me from a neighbor dog.  I have never seen such a fight like that, nor do I ever want to see another.  The other dog was larger, but Bullet was faster and smarter.  When he got the other dog by the throat, my dad had to make him let go.

Bullet lived to the ripe old age of sixteen.  Mom and Dad had him cremated.  They couldn’t seem to part with him.  They kept his ashes in a box with a bronze plaque on top.  He spent the next two decades on the bookshelf. ...