It is my honor and privilege to welcome a friend of mine, Pamela Thibodeaux, to my blog. Pamela is a fellow TWRP author and has a wonderful reputation for writing amazing stories that capture the heart and imagination of the reader.

I hope all of you will take the time to visit read all about her book; and then check out all her titles and her web site. Pamela has been a big supporter of The Wild Rose Press for quite a while and I'm thrilled to have her here with us. The following is a little blurb about Pamela and I know you'll have more questions for her. Perhaps we could even get her to post a comment and include an excerpt from her latest book - Winter Madness (doesn't the cover take your breath away?)

Thank you for coming by today and I look forward to lots of good comments from my readers/followers today.

Roni

I Have Arrived…….or Have I?

When I began writing more than twenty-five years ago, I had no clue what I was getting myself into. All I knew was I’d been disappointed one-too-many times. Based on what I read I figured it couldn’t be hard. I can do better than this!

With the niavette of the uninformed, I figured all I had to do was write a good story and BAM! I’d be published. So I did. I poured my heart out in page after page of five-subject notebooks. By the time I’d filled several and started researching how to get published, I found out the manuscript had to be typed!

I didn’t own a typewriter nor could I afford to rent one. Then came the blessed day I purchased a used word processor. Just when I thought I’d be able to really embark on the glamorous journey, submissions became electronic!

I’d put off buying a computer for lots of reasons, the main one ~ all I do is write. After getting connected, I figured the voyage to being in print was just an email away. Wrong again.
My first novel was accepted as an Ebook, my first short story in an Ezine. What’s with this E-industry? I wanted to hold a book in my hands – after all, being Epublished isn’t really published. That’s what ‘they’ say (anyone ever figure out who ‘they’ are?).

In my article on Success, I make a statement…as beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, so is success. It is, in and of itself, success.

In addition to numerous articles and essays, poems and devotions, I now have 5 published novels (4 part Tempered series & The Inheritance) available in ebook and print as well as 5 short stories available for readers. As of this year I have signed my un-contracted work with a Literary Agent. Guess this means I’ve finally arrived……or Have I?

We all have our own definition of success, our own idea of what it means to ‘arrive.’ I’ll arrive when I can make a living doing what I love most – bring glory to God through my writing.
When will you know you have ‘arrived’? Leave a comment and one lucky person will win a copy of my latest release, Winter Madness!

Bio: Award-winning author, Pamela S. Thibodeaux is the Co-Founder of Bayou Writers Group and a member of White Roses in Bloom Authors. Multi-published in romantic fiction as well as creative non-fiction, her writing has been tagged as, “Inspirational with an Edge!” and reviewed as “steamier and grittier than the typical Christian novel without decreasing the message.”

Website address: http://www.pamelathibodeaux.com/
Blog: http://pamswildroseblog.blogspot.com/
WRIB Blog: http://whiterosesinbloom.blogspot.com/

A day late but wanted to make sure we all know that Memorial Day is a day to celebrate and thank those who have served our country as well as saying some prayers for those who are currently serving.

The handsome Marine here is my son, Brennan, all of 19 years old now and serving our country in Iraq. I'm fortunate in that the infrastructure where he is is such that we have frequent, almost daily contact with him via the internet. It doesn't make the time move along any faster to get him home; but at least it helps us with missing him.

An acquaintance stopped by yesterday and said she wanted to thank me for giving our country my son to defend it and protect it. I, of course, began to cry. It was very touching and very moving for her to make this special trip to my home simply to say thank you and tell me she prays daily for his and all our military's safe return.

To all of you parents of our soliders (and yes I know Marines aren't technically soldiers Brennan tells me this all the time!), thank you for making the biggest sacrifice in the world. There is no way to explain or describe it to anyone who isn't a military parent. It is heartbreaking and hard and sometimes you don't know how you'll get through it, but then you do. People constantly tell us we should be proud; yes we should but usually we're too busy worrying and missing them.

I don't mean I'm not proud of my son and his fellow marines, but the fear and the missing them generally overshadows that pride. Again, something you can't understand if you aren't living it or have lived it.

This Memorial Day and every day stop for a minute and say thank you to our men and women who are serving but also to their families left behind because the sacrifice they make is a service to th is country as well. The next time you run into a Mom or Dad who's child is serving, stop and thank them and ask how they're holding up. It means everything to know people understand and care.



Roni

Tell me that's not the cutest face you've ever seen? Ok, so I guess you have to really be a Texas fan and a lover of long-horn steers to see the beauty in "Easy Money". This is one of the herd that resides on the Silver Spur Dude Ranch in Bandera, Texas. I had the wonderful chance to visit last week and spend an amazing three days riding horses, eating way too much and relaxing. The ranch is about an hour from San Antonio and ten miles from Bandera which is known as The Cowboy Capital of the World. There was no cell service, no cable TV and it was awesome. My husband and son and I had a blast.

It wasn't a long vacation but it was definitely a nice break out of the routine of life. Not to mention for this author who writes cowboy romances it was most inspiring. Talking with real cowboys and cowgirls, hanging out in Texas, listening to country music and breathing fresh ranch air all worked together to give me the true Texas experience which can only enhance my writing. In fact, I think for my own good I need to go back every year just to make sure I don't lose the spark in my writing.

I know not everyone can go to where your inspiration wants to take you, but I do hope just once you get the chance to go to where your heart dreams from. Texas is that to me and I can't put into words how great it feels. John Denver sang "coming home to a place I'd never been before". That's how I used to feel about Texas. Now after my fourth trip it feels like a second home. I"ll always be a NY gal, but there's a part of my heart that I leave behind every time I fly away from the Lone Star state.

As a romance writer it only seems fitting that I share with all of you my own hero. This is my husband Scott with me on our trip to the ranch. We celebrated 24 years of marriage on May 4. Most couples at this point say things like "he's my best friend" or "we're still crazy about each other", all I can say is that marriage isn't always hard and it isn't always easy. It isn't always good and it isn't always bad. Hmm sort of sounds like the vows we took doesn't it?

Scott and I have definitely endured our share of good times and bad, richer and poorer and even sickness and health. Now as we face another challenge, the decline in health of my elderly father, we find that once again we're there for each other. I think, after all, that's the biggest key to marriage - always being there for each other no matter what. I'm grateful every day of these 24 years that I have a guy who I know is by my side even when sometimes he'd rather be almost anywhere else.

Now I need to get back to the job of writing. Charli Boyd is not going to get her hero if I don't finish her story.