New to Paperback, OVER THE RIVER, THROUGH THE WOODS

Over the River, Through the Woods:

Now available in paperback via Amazon.com

as well as for purchase at your local bookstores. 

Ask for it at your favorite booksellers!

Life is made up not of days, but of moments. What if, in one moment, everything you knew about your life changed forever? 

Jennifer and David Brookehouse have an ecstatically happy marriage and thriving careers. She, a noted photographer, and he, an anesthesiologist with University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. She performs in musical theater and he competes in bicycle races for charity. 

Jenny could never have foreseen how her life would change when she sent her husband off to a race in Vermont. In a moment, his body and mind are shattered by a drunk driver. He nearly dies and spends weeks in a coma. When he awakes, he is a changed man. Just when things seem to be getting back to normal, David disappears without a trace. Jenny must swim a sea of red tape just to get the police involved in a search with no clues and no witnesses. When no one believes he can be found and brought home alive, Jenny has faith and refuses to give up. 

As her life begins to fly out of control, Jenny meets her childhood crush, British actor, Karsen Langford, at the musical theater where she volunteers. Their growing friendship will cause tongues to wag, and the press to link them romantically. Though innocent of any wrong-doing, Jenny will face judgment and scorn, all while desperately searching for the husband she loves.

The Iron Masters is Unput-downable

The Iron Masters by Graham     Watkins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Graham Watkins' epic saga, “The Iron Masters” grabs the reader from the start, and doesn't let loose of them until the final words are read. Reminiscent of C.S. Forester in it's scope, the story is of the clever and ambitious Nye Vaughn, and follows him from the grips of poverty to staggering wealth, in the service of war in the iron works of Merthyr Tydfil. The depth of detail shows the due diligence Watkins put into his research for this unput-downable volume. This piece has something for everyone, but most especially for those who, like myself, have a passion for well-written historical fiction. Weaving real events and people into a rich tapestry of his own characters, Watkins doesn't fail to satisfy.


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Mardi Gras 2015

The day is almost upon us, less than a week away.

This is my first Mardi Gras since my mother passed back in November. It feels different somehow, if for no other reason than that link to my Cajun heritage is now gone. I often think, I want to go back to visit, but whom would I see now? Being single, I have no one to share this longing for home with.

Living up here on Whidbey Island (Washington) is a bit like being on the moon, celebration-wise. I often imagine floats making their way down sleepy little Pioneer Way, masked revelers tossing beads, doubloons, and favors, and that cheers me up. I wonder what the locals would make of Zulu coconuts. After 14 years here, shouldn't I be considered a local? A million years here won't take the Louisiana out of my blood, though.

I am throwing a party on the day. It'll be my first party in many years. I'm making my chicken and sausage gumbo--beef instead of andouille, which I couldn't find this year--shrimp boil, and a King cake I've ordered from Gambino's bakery. Randazzo's was sold out when I tried to place my order last week. That idea makes me somehow more homesick in ways I can't exactly explain.

I flash back to eating King cake at the tiny kitchen table in my then mother-in-law's house. I got the baby nearly every time. She liked to ignore the fact that I'm half Cajun. She preferred to call me a Wop, like the salad at Rocky & Carlos' down in Chalmette. That's okay, though. It's been enough years since she first did it that the sting is long gone.

I flash back to my first parade in the French Quarter--the Krewe of Clones. Of seeing flambeaus and a giant cow that was spraying the crowd from it's udders with God only knew what. I want to believe it was only water. It's one of those sights that makes you say, "Only in New Orleans."

I flash back to getting drunk on cold meds and Hurricanes at Pat O's with the ex, as if we were tourists and new comers to the city that care forgot. He told me you could always tell the outsiders by the way they sat, as if their wallets were too fat to sit their butts flat in a chair. He pointed out examples and that would always make me laugh.

Mardi Gras always makes me homesick for the early years of my marriage as well. Though my friend, Roxanne, says that such longing is for the things we wish had been, not what really was. I think she's right. Still, I'd pay good money right this moment to be standing, shivering in an unseasonably chilly night, watching a truck parade with the my mother, the ex and his mother, if for no other reason than to feel Mardi Gras one more time.