Texas BlueBonnets. This native flower screams spring to me, although to be honest, I've never had the pleasure of viewing them when they are in full bloom. I've heard stories, been sent pictures and videos from Texas friends but have never been to Texas for the sheer breathtaking beauty of BlueBonnet season.

Its always been a strange quirk of mine to have this connection to Texas. A New York girl born and raised, I have no idea why I'm so drawn to this state so very far away from our East Coast. But ever since I was a little girl I've had a thing for Texas. Celebrating my 40th birthday by finally visiting San Antonio and the Hill Country area was a dream come true.

When I write stories set in Texas, on the ranches, with cowboys and cowgirls or those that fall in love with them, I feel as if I'm right there. I smell the air, hear the sounds and live the life that for some reason is so deep in my soul. Other writing friends have this connection with places like England or Ireland, countries far away that they have no idea why such a place speaks to them but it does.

Do you have a strange connection to a place or time that seems to make no sense to you? Do you generally feel drawn to write about those places?

I'll be visiting Texas for the third time this May, going back to celebrate my 45th birthday on a dude ranch in Bandera, Texas and then onto San Antonio for the annual Merritt Conference with my buddies in the San Antonio Romance Authors. I hope each of you at some point in your life gets to visit the "home" of your heart. Its a feeling like no other. As John Denver once sang, "Coming home to a place I've never been before." That's the feeling I get when I'm in Texas.

Happy Spring everyone.

That picture is of my beautiful girl, Tasha. We lost her on March 12 at age 14. Anyone who has lost a family pet knows the grief that still consumes my family's heart. My older two sons, Ian and Brennan were 4 and 5 when we got this puppy, my youngest son, CJ hadn't even been born yet. She was every family's dream of the perfect dog.

Not that she was perfect. Not by a long shot. She was way too smart for her own good and got into more antics and trouble then we ever could have dreamed up.

Pets play such an enormously important role in our lives, or at least most of our lives that its only natural that in our writing we occasionallly include pets for our heroes or heroines. But just like when you put children in a book you have to be careful to make sure that the pet plays a backstage role, and not overshadows the storyline. The other tough thing is to remember you put them in there. What do I mean by that? Well, if you put a cat in the heroine's life in Chapter one and never come back to the cat again, the reader is left wondering why the pet was there in the first place.

Its for that reason, I don't often have them in my books. I never can quite figure out the right role for them to play without it feeling forced. In my book, "Beauty and the Geek" my hero, Louie has a huge striped grey cat named "Google". The whole reason that Google showed up in that book is because a very large striped beast of a cat showed up in my life that same month and took hold of my heart. My cat's name is Tom Cat or Tommy for short (yes I"m very original). He demanded to have a part in my book. What happened eventually is Google was able to show the reader the side of our heroine that was at first hard to uncover. But even then I struggled to make sure he was dropped into the story in a few more places. I tended to forget about him as time went by in my book.

On a final note, whether you put animals in your book or not, they simply make sitting at your desk pounding out scenes much more enjoyable by their very presence in our life. Tasha will be missed for years to come. Rest in peace my beautiful girl, you've left a very big hole in this author's heart.

Roni

Writing friends. Is there anything better? This picture was taken a year ago when I was in Houston visiting good friends, (from left to right) Bev Oz, Allie Standifer, Me, and Betty Hanawa. You may have read some of our books; we did two anthologies together for the holidays - "Tales from Christmas Town," and "Love from Christmas Town", for 2006 and 2007, respectively.

I know its not the holiday season, but our anthologies were such fun to write together, I keep you get a chance to pick one up someday. But this isn't about my books (well, its always about my books now isnt it - lol), but rather about the value of writing buddies or critique partners. There simply is no more unique friendship then the one shared by two writers. Who but your writing buddy understands when you say "I had no idea that character was going to do that". They don't look at you like you've lost your mind.

A good writing friend is honest without hurting your feelings. She loves you enough to not let you do something dumb like include a scene that is pointless no matter how snappy the dialogue or how amazing you described the sunset.

I tend to bounce ideas off my buddy Jo Barrett (another TWRP author check out her titles at www.thewildrosepress.com), and I know her so well that her silence usually tells me more than her words. If I share an idea for a scene and she doesn't say much, I know its probably not a good idea. When she loves something she talks a mile a minute and can brainstorm like crazy all the possibilities.

I know not everyone can meet face to face with a writing buddy. In fact, I've never lived near any of my writing friends. Heck, I went all the way to Houston to be with these ladies and Jo is in NC so that's a bit of a drive from Upstate New York. But the internet solves all that. If you aren't part of a writing group or a critique group you may want to consider one. I know at The Wild Rose Press there is a critique matchmaking group called The Rose Trellis that helps writers find each other.

This June I"m releasing another anthology with some writing friends. Stacy Dawn and Cindy Pape both TWRP authors joined forces with me to bring you "Return to Wayback", part of the popular series in the Yellow Rose line at www.thewildrosepress.com. This book features three siblings, Free, Grey and Dusty all part of the rodeo circuit - one barrel racer, one bull rider and one bronc buster. I hope you'll pick it up and enjoy the work we put into it.

If you haven't thought about a critique partner or writing buddy before I urge you to take the chance; it could be one of the most rewarding friendships of your life.

Thanks for stopping by.

Roni

I love series. I love reading them and I love writing them. There's something about creating a world; not the paranomal type of world, but a town or a city or some other geographic location that binds characters together. In the Double B series, this town is SweetMeadow, Texas, and even more important the Double B cattle operation. This ranch is reported to be the biggest ranch in the USA and in some other countries (sorry King ranch, we are bigger than even you!). This ranch is still family owned and operated by the partnership of the Sampsons and the Westons. Founded decades ago by Beau Sampson and his best friends Annie and Jeb Weston; it continues to grow and flourish under the direction of their grown children and most importantly by the head of the family - Cord Weston.

The fun part about writing about these characters is knowing that even when the book ends and the hero and heroine have their happy ever after, we will get to visit with them again in the next book and books after that. Every character in this series is interwoven with the others. Its not the easiest thing in the world to write that's for sure. There's so much you have to remember; and timelines - don't even get me started! How many times I've had to go back and make sure that a pregnancy didn't go on for three years or that characters that were 25 in the first book weren't still 25 in book 6 even though several years pass. lol.

Research into romance readers finds that the majority enjoy a well written series. If you have never tried one; Debbie Macomber is the queen of series. She has written some towns I sincerely want to move to! I hope I've captured even some of her expertise and SweetMeadow, Texas is somewhere you'd like to stop by and visit.

To Tame A Cowgirl kicked off the series and is available in both ebook and print from www.thewildrosepress.com. The second book, The Cowboy Comes Home was released in January and is also available in both forms from TWRP. Coming this summer is Trouble in Texas and already this story promises to be a much wilder read than the other two.

If you read any of them, drop me a note, I love to hear what readers think or if you have suggestions for the rest of the books, let me know.

Roni
roni@roniadams.com

Is there anything more exciting then when you get the cover to your next book? "Trouble in Texas" is due to release from www.thewildrosepress.com in the summer of 2009. This cover done by the marvelous and talented Nicke Martinez who has created all the covers for my Double B series is absolutely fantastic. She has captured the sass and fun of my heroine, Charli Boyd, in a way I never could have imagined.

For tall the fans of my steamier love scenes this book is for you. Charli is without a doubt my sexiest and most fun heroine to write. Watching her twist Dr. Grant Clark around her little finger only to find herself losing her heart was a wild ride.

Readers will remember Grant Clark from my second book, "The Cowboy Comes Home" which is on sale now from www.thewildrosepress.com . He is the steady, serious business partner who was a little bit in love with his business partner Beth Sampson. When Beth reconciles with Tyler and moves off the ranch, Grant is left to hanlde their vet practice alone. What he doesn't know is that the office help Beth has hired is none other than the wild redheaded Charli Boyd. Grant isn't interested in what Charli is more than offering; the next relationship he wants will be with a quiet serious woman. He's looking to find someone to marry and start a family with; something Charli has made it very clear she will never be interested in.

A fling with Charli would be a big mistake. But then as Charli tells him "what fun is life if you don't make a few mistakes now and then?" For an excerpt from this book visit my web site at www.roniadams.com. In the meantime, if you haven't read any of the Double B series, you still have time to pick up the first "To Tame A Cowgirl" and the second "The Cowboy Comes Home" before "Trouble in Texas" releases. If you have read them; I'd love to hear from you.

Can you tell what's on my mind this month? In addition to celebrating my latest book, "Cowboy Comes Home" which is the second in the Double B series, I'm also dealing with the deployment of our son, Brennan, shown here with me and my husband. We couldn't be more proud or more worried about our 19 year old Marine. When someone out there says how bad the "kids today are", I'd love for them to meet some of the guys we know. It will be a long 2009 for our family as Brennan heads to Iraq not to return until Thanksgiving, but I know a lot of you are praying for him and his buddies and I'll keep busy writing and reading and posting.

I hope to be a better blogger this year and I hope to ramp up the promotion of my books.

For any other military moms or wives out there, stay strong, pray, and hang in there. Its really all we can do.

Roni

Hi All, I was asked by the coordiantors to make sure I post this so everyone can find everything they need for the contest. Thanks for your patience!

Roni Adams

Each day, the link to the next blog destination will be posted. But you want to enter to win the grand prize and you're late to the game? We've experienced a few bumps since the start. So, I'll post the blog locations from day one:Nov 29 http://plparker.blogspot.com/ Nov 30 http://lynnreynolds.blogspot.com/Dec 1 WRP at http://thewildrosepress.blogspot.com Dec 2 http://michelehart.blogspot.com/ Dec 3 2 today!-- http://www.freewebs.com/teriwilson/terisblog.htm http://www.elainepcantrell.blogspot.com Dec 4 Roni Adams at http://wwwroniadams.blogspot.com/ (or try www.roniadams.blogspot.com)

Christmas Ride Blog Event


Merry Christmas and welcome to my blog. As you can probably tell I haven’t had a blog for very long so bear with me while I stumble through this initial phase.

I’m told that we are celebrating the holidays in December and that I need to give you a clue as to what my Christmas song is. I would love to tell you to read my latest release and the second in my Double B Series, “The Cowboy Comes Home” because my heroine Beth and my hero Tyler dance to this Christmas classic when they meet up again for the first time, but its not due to release until sometime in early January.

This famous Christmas song brings tears to my eye every time I hear it no matter who sings it:

“Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams”

That’s all the hints I can give you. Have you figured it out yet? Well, for any Mom of adult kids it’s a song that’s near and dear to our hearts as we hope all our little sugarplums find a way to be around that Christmas tree on the 25th.

This holiday season as you sit around with your family and friends please remember our servicemen and women who are far away from home this holiday season. As I prepare for my own son to do his first tour of duty in Iraq with the Marines I’m thankful that he doesn’t ship out until the first week in January. You can believe that next year at this time, this song will bring me to my knees as I eagerly anticipate his return.

The participants of the Christmas Ride blog event are giving one lucky person a $75 Wild Rose Press gift certificate! All you need to do to enter is attend each day's blog post, identify the carol, and make a complete carol list to submit after the final blog post of Christmas Eve. Don't forget to check the list twice! Send it to Christmasrideblog@live.com by midnight, CST Dec. 31st 2008!

My own special gift to you is that anyone who leaves a comment here will be entered into a drawing to win an e-copy of the first book in the Double B Series “To Tame A Cowgirl” which also includes the first scene from “The Cowboy Comes Home”. Make sure you include your email so I can send you the book and check back here on Friday morning to see who won.


And tomorrow on the next stop on the Christmas Ride blog event, go to http://www.stacydawn.blogspot.com/

Everyone who leaves a comment here for me will be entered into a drawing to win the first book in the Double B Series “To Tame A Cowgirl”.

I had an email from a "fan" today. That in itself is always exciting, but she wantedto know when "The Cowboy Comes Home" is going to release. I wish I had an exact date, but due to the holidays, the best I am able to give you is a solid but vague answer. I've been told this book will release either the last week of the year or the first week in January. I should have an exact date in a week or two and I will be certain to post it here.

In the meantime, have you read my free read over at www.thewildrosepress.com? Look for the story called "Not Exactly Strangers", its a real quick read that I wrote for the Yellow Rose line. It has our small town sheriff, Conrad, from Sweet Meadow, Texas falling for a sexy stranger at our favorite bar and grill - The LoneStar. Give that a read and in the meantime, I"ll get back to writing. I'm hard at work on "Trouble in Texas" which needs to come out next summer. Can anyone wait to see what happens when the red headed wild child - Charli Boyd falls for the small town vet, Grant Clark?

Thanks for dropping by.

Roni