Tag: Seasons

Creeping up on Halloween!

This month has flown by. Of course, it could be because I was frantically writing to get Santa’s Beard, book 9 in the Spotted Pony Casino mystery series written. It is off to my beta readers with a publish date in December, or possibly sooner. It depends on the changes I need to make after the beta readers are finished and then how extensive the edits are from my editor. For that reason, I’m not doing a pre-order. I don’t want to be stressing about getting it done by a certain date.

Monologued to Death, book 2 in the Cuddle Farm Mysteries, has been out and getting good reviews. This was my favorite review on Amazon: “You always present excellent mysteries, without all sorts of blather found in many other works. All of your other mystery series are very much the same. Anyone who has not tried them needs to find out what they are missing.” It made me chuckle. Like this reviewer, I also don’t like a lot of “blather” when I’m reading a book and that’s why I don’t write it. LOL

Back at the beginning of October we, Hubby, Nia, and I drove what is called the Elkhorn Loop one sunny day. Below are the photos.

A map of the loop we made.

We saw deer, as was expected, and wild turkeys, but the best was seeing a mother and baby black bear. They were in the middle of the road until we came around the corner, then they darted into the trees before I could get my phone up to take a picture.

The tail end of a small herd that crossed the road.

The weather was beautiful and the scenery on the Granite side of the loop was spectacular with trees turning color.

A tree turning color.

We stopped kind of at the top and walked around a bit. Nia doesn’t like her photo taken but we made her pose anyway. Yeah, we’re like parents making our dog pose for photos. LOL

We could see why the fire in the Elkhorns this summer was hard to put out with as thick as the trees were. There was a lot of downfall barely fitting in between the packed trees. They definitely need to do some thinning up in the Elkhorns. It would allow more trees to grow healthier. They are narrow spikey tree because they are so close together.

Photo into the forest taken from the road.

The mountains were pretty with their granite and slate tops.

Nia enjoyed riding with the window down.

I made a trip over to Wallowa County this past weekend and enjoyed the changing colors and the golden tamaracks on the mountains sides. I have to say Fall is one of my favorite seasons because of the colors and crisp air.

Do you have a favorite season? What do you think is so special about it?

The End of Summer

As we come to the end of summer and September, I feel like we dashed over summer and fall isn’t going to get much time to change leaves and enjoy the warm afternoons. The last few days here have felt more like winter is sneaking in fast.

Does it feel like that where you are?

Going on my morning walks this week, I’ve had to wear my head warmer headbands, a warm sweatshirt and gloves. Just the week before I was in a t-shirt and cap. Poor Nia doesn’t like the change of weather either. She doesn’t have a lot of hair to keep her warm. Though just like a kid, if she’s outside playing, she doesn’t seem to mind the cold and wet.

I feel bad I haven’t ridden my horse all summer. At the beginning of summer, his old body wasn’t looking very good. I kept him on full feed and he is looking much better now. A granddaughter used him for Horse 4-H but that’s all the riding he’s had. Every morning I tell him, “Tomorrow we’ll ride.” Then something comes up that I feel I need to take care of and I neglect my horse and my me time. Possibly Sunday, I can ride. Hubby will be home. He doesn’t like me riding when he isn’t here.

With the end of summer, I only have two more book/writing events left for the year. The first week of November I’ll be in Las Vegas at the Horeshoe Casino for an author promotion and marketing conference. I really have to get the word out about my audiobooks. On the last day of the conference is a RAVE (Reader Author Vegas Event). I’ll be selling some of my books that day along with 300 other authors. If you live in the area or are passing through on November 10th, let me know if you need a specific book and I’ll have it there. I’ll be reading from Murder of Ravens at 11:10 am at the RAVE event.

Then three days after I get home from that, I’ll be headed to Portland and the Portland Holiday Market at the Expo Center. I’ll be working in NIWA’s traveling book booth. I’ll have book bundles for sale there.

After that my year ends quietly. I can do with some slow, quiet time.

Right now I’m working on a Christmas novella. I hope to have it published the first of November. We’ll see!

I hope you are all staying warm and looking forward to the rest of 2023.