This month was particuarly bittersweet in our household - we moved our firstborn - Ian to his first apartment. He and his girlfriend, Jessica, have moved about 4 hours away so Ian can attend law school. What mother couldn't be proud of that? But at the same time comes the heartache and pain as the first of the proverbial strings are cut. He's on his own now - in his own place, his own city and his own life. No more glares at me for waking up him too early with my vacuuming (noon I swear!), no more leaving extra coffee on when I'm done so he can have a cup, no more "Mom why are there no cookies left?", none of the stuff I've grown so used to over the past 22 years.

We have 2 more sons left at home and while it feels like I still have a while before the nest is empty, I know from experience the time will simply pass in a heartbeat.

To all us Moms out there going through this phase of life - there's no way to say it except it truly stinks. To the Moms of sons and daughters shipping overseas and deploying - our prayers are with you. Our Marine is home this year safe and sound under our roof - but we have 3 dear friends who shipped over to Afghanistan with the Marines this week and our thoughts are with them and their Moms as they begin the horrible journey we took last year.

Someone wise once said - little kids, little problems; big kids, big problems. Oh how I long for the time to go back to when we could protect them from everything and tuck them in at night knowing they were safe.

We've done what we were supposed to do. We've raised our son to be a strong, independent, successful man. So why does it hurt so much to watch him leave?

"Daddy's little girl", "Daddy's Princess". The lucky women of the world share those titles with my sister and me. I know there are some who had difficult or nonexistent relationships with their own father but one of my biggest blessings in life was my Dad. He married later in life and was 42 by the time he had two baby daughters. To say he loved us is the understatement of the world. He adored us in a way no man, our husband's most certainly, never will. He was the Dad who could tear a car engine apart and rebuild it then go in and bake a cake for dessert that night. He could sew, repair delicate antique clocks and he baked and decorated our wedding cakes. He was the real Jack of all Trades in a way few men today, in my experience, could ever hope to be.

My father is still with us, thank God. Although sometimes more in body then in mind. He has been attacked and robbed of his life by that horrible disease called Alzheimers. It struck him or began to really strike him about four summers ago and last summer he became a permanent resident of a nursing home. I know that term gives your gut a wrenching but it is a wonderful facility with fantastic caring people. The only blessing of this disease is he really doesn't know where he is. He thinks he works there or he's visiting someone or any other mind games his brain plays on him. The one thing he does know though is who we are. His family. His wife who he still worships, his two daughters that he adores, the two son-in-laws who he still teases, and his five grandsons. He might not always remember the grandsons names but he always lights up when they come to visit.

We buried my childhood friend's Dad two days ago. This will be her first of a lifetime of Father's Days with no father. My heart breaks for her and her siblings and as I sat in church this week crying with them I knew that we too are on borrowed time. Every father's day with my father could be our last. I try hard to think of the positives - he's 85 now, he's had a good strong life and is in a very happy place. His quality of life is as good as it can be considering the circumstances but still the little girl in me longs for the old days. The days when he made lemonade out of lemons and rainbows out of rain for us. I try hard to honor him by living my life the way he did - to always find the positive, to always treat strangers as friends I've not yet met and to remember that no matter how bad things are others have it worse.

Thanks to my father, Bill Mosher, I am a better person today then I ever thought I could be. He showed by example the way life should be lived. I hate dementia, alzheimers, whatever term you want to hang on it, but I try to find the positive in this. He's still here with us. He still says "I love you very much" whenever we say goodnight and his old blue eyes twinkle and shine when he talks. I'm grateful that we have this time together still.

Happy father's day - if your Dad is still alive, call him, go see him. Hug him. Know that the time is going by and we never know if there will be another June to share with him.

Writers block. Or maybe a real term is excuses. That's what I've had for several months now. I have one excuse after another for not writing. Yes I'm busy, but aren't we all? No matter what your life and the demands others make on you, only you are the true determination of whether you find time to write. For years when folks would ask me how I got so much writing done with 3 sons, a full time job, volunteer commitments, and other responsibilities I would smugly say - "I prioritize", or "I make time for writing". That was all well and good until I couldn't anymore.

Suddenly life changed and more responsibilities were piled on and suddenly even I couldn't squeak out any time to write. Or so it seemed.

Because even that is a lie. I find time to never miss an episode of Glee, or American Idol, or any other number of TV shows I enjoy. Granted while I watch TV I generally multitask whether its folding laundry, making a grocery list, reading a magazine or whatever but now that summer is here and all those shows are on hiatus - there's a few blocks of time each week that I won't be using. I fully intend to use at least some of it to work on edits.

Sleeping or rather not sleeping. If even only 2 mornings a week I set the alarm for a half hour earlier - I could get in another hour of writing a week. My lunch time. I used to write on my lunch hour but my day job is so busy that sometimes I don't take a lunch hour. That needs to change. Again even if only 2 days a week I shut down the day job and write during my lunch hour that would be another 2 hours of writing.

There's always time for writing. Sometimes we simply have to want it bad enough to find it. I hope you find yours.

Finally, a review on Trouble in Texas. I'm always nervous when I get a link to a review and wonder what folks really think when they read my books. I was once again very pleasantly surprised. Here's the link if you want to read it but the highlight of the review was as follows:

Review: Oh Boy!!! A walk on the wild side fits this story to a "T"!!!

Once I got started I couldn't stop. Ms Adams has penned a funny, sexy, engaging tale with characters I found very hard to resist.

http://seriouslyreviewed.blogspot.com/2010/04/trouble-in-texas-by-roni-adams.html

I opened this review on my birthday - couldn't have gotten a better gift.

The first TWRP Writers' retreat is only about a month away. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am. Not only is it a great opportunity to spend time with other writers and brainstorm and talk "shop" and learn all kinds of new things but I will be spending another birthday in my beloved Texas. I figured out the other day that I've managed to get to Texas every year for the past 4 years running. Not bad. This visit will take us to Austin which is one city I've yet to cross of my list of Texas trips. I'm looking forward to it. But even more, I'm looking forward to some writing time on the ranch surrounded by cowboys, longhorn steer and horses. Nothing a Yellow Rose writer enjoys more.

That says it all but even better - The Wild Rose Press took the same award for 2008. Only Taylor Swift is flying higher than we are today. What an awesome publisher to have my name attached to. If you have never been to The Wild Rose Press site I strongly suggest you check it out. As a writer if you've never submitted to TWRP - I would encourage you to do so. Its a warm and welcoming place to be. Thank you TWRP for giving my books a home and for caring so much about your authors. This is a well deserved award.

In the craziness of the holidays, I never had a chance to post about our latest addition to the family. Meet Nico. He's a one year old Siberian Husky who we adopted from a rescue center for huskies back in early November. My husband's dream has always been to have a siberian husky. He has loved the breed most of his life and we now are the proud parents of one very lovable and very energetic boy. Between my son Brennan's return from Iraq and Nico arriving our house has been transformed from pretty quiet into high energy, fun chaos and we couldn't be happier. The only two complaining still are the cats!

Nico came to us via California and had never experienced cold and snow. Now in January when its 4 degrees here in Upstate New York he thinks he is in paradise. It is very difficult to get him to come inside.

When we lost our beautiful Tasha last winter, our hearts were broken and while you can never replace a loved one - Nico has certainly filled our hearts and home with some fun joy again. All of you who have lost pets this year, trust me when I say time will make it better and one day another four legged friend will find his or her way into your home and hearts.

Happy end of January.

Finally! Trouble in Texas is finally coming out. My publisher tells me that the official release date is February 5 but readers can purchase pre-sale copies probably as early as next week! Yay! I am so excited for all of you to enjoy my third installment on the Double B. Friends who've read it already tell me its the hottest one yet, but then with a heroine like Charli there was simply no other way to write it.

I'd love your feedback if you get the chance to read Trouble. I"m hard at work on the fourth in the series - "The Cowboy's Duet". Readers of this series probably have figured out its the tale of our singing cowboy Teddy and his heroine. If all goes as planned it should be out sometime this fall.

So far its a long cold winter - plenty of time for snuggling in at home and writing and reading. Hope you are able to do the same.

Happy Veterans day! Those two handsome men are both Marines and both Veterans. The younger man is my son Lance Corporal Penders, and the older man is our very dear friend Retired First Sgt Lew Dusett. Lew served in Iraq in '03 at the beginning of the War; Brennan was in Iraq most of this year and as you know returned only a few weeks ago.

If you know a veteran or a veteran's family - go up to them, call them, email them, whatever you need to do but thank them for serving our country. Don't forget too its the families behind these veterans who deserve our thanks as well.

To all Veterans our there; thank you for your sacrifice for us. To your families, thank you for supporting these brave men and women so they can keep all of us free.

Not much to say except Thank God this year is almost behind us. While it hasn't been the worst year of our lives - it certainly has been the most challenging. We are so very very grateful to have our son back home with us. As my husband said, "its like a huge hole has finally been filled". Brennan's return from Iraq almost two weeks ago already has been truly the highlight of this year. We are enjoying having him back in our home and back in our day to day life.

To all military families out there, thank you for the sacrifice you make every single day by sharing your loved one with the rest of the country. No one can possibly understand the heartache and the pain and the sheer terror a family goes through when their loved one is deployed overseas. I have two dear friends about to go through what I've been through and only someone who has been there can possibly understand how hard this is.

Next week we will celebrate Veteran's Day. This year is has even more meaning to us as we now have a true Veteran in the family.

Hug a military family member today - make their day by asking if they are doing ok. Yep at some point I will get back to writing now. lol.

He's home! As of this morning, my son has returned to US Soil after a deployment to Iraq. I will blog more later but right now I just wanted to share my good news. He should be home to our house within a week. Its been a long year and we are much relieved that this journey has come to an end.

Thank you to all the military men and women who serve our country on both domestic and foreign land. Thank you to the families and friends they leave behind who love them and pray for them and miss them.

No one. NO ONE understands what these families go through and the pain they endure unless you have experienced it. If you know of a family with a loved one serving overseas call them up, ask how THEY are doing, ask what THEY need. Sometimes they just need someone to care that they are hurting and missing their someone. They need somebody to say its ok to cry, let me help you. Its a HUGE burden these families carry whether its a son, daughter, mother, father, husband, wife, cousin, doesn't matter - they aren't home and they are missed and worried over in a way few can understand.

This is an open invitation for all of you to set the date for next Friday - October 9! I'm throwing a down home Texas Barbecue (virtual of course which after all is the only way not to gain weight with all this good food!). I hope you will all come and join me. Here's the link so that we all remember to stop by. I'll be there all day and I"m giving away a PRINT version of any of my books including the one not yet released called "Trouble in Texas" which should be out by Thanksgiving.

http://authorroastandtoast.blogspot.com

Hope to see you all there we'll be having a foot stomping good time!

Roni

There he is the Captain of our family. LOL. That's my husband, Scott, in his new boat that we picked up this summer. Its nothing fancy, just a little 22' 1984 Baja but its perfect for waterskiing and tubing. We knew when we saw it that it would mean a lot of fun summers on the lake for our sons and us. Scott and I met over 25 years ago this summer, when we were both pretty young - not quite 20! We met on vacation at a lake in Ontario, Canada. He loved how I looked riding on the bow of the boat in a green bathing suit. What can I say? I liked how he could water ski with one ski. What else did a couple need for happy ever after? All these years have gone by and we've never owned a boat - now we do and I have to tell you when we're on the water it really is like time goes backward and we're those 19 year old kids again falling in love.

Although real life is not a romance novel, for the most part, no matter how annoyed I might get with him, or he with me, its comforting and secure to know we love each other. Toby Keith who is one of my favorite singers has a song on his latest album and one of the lines is ..."its too late, you already love me." I laugh whenever I hear it because it sums our relationship. No matter what he does to make me crazy (and not in a good way!) its too late - I already love him. Nothing to do but accept him.

I think that's the good part about being together this long, I've long ago given up any notion of "fixing" him or tweaking him. I just accept him and he me.

That's a real romance novel right there.

Tell me that photo doesn't just make you swoon. When I tell you that its my 19 year old "baby" who just happens to be a Lance Corporal with the Marines and he's standing in the dessert of Iraq, it adds another layer of emotion. You single gals out there are drooling, you Mom's are tearing up because you can't imagine what I'm feeling. But yep that's my boy. The romance author in me sees the perfect cover! Wonder if I can convince him to let me use it?? lol.

Two months to go. Two months until he's home in our house, less than that and he'll arrive back in the states. Saturday was his Dad's birthday and he was able to call home. Best gift in the world for both of us.

I look back and shake my head at all that's gone on since he left home in January, the changes - good and bad. A year is a long time in a family's life, but for this family certain parts of life have been on hold and we're finally coming to the end of a journey that while we were honored and proud to take, its not one we wish to go through again. When someone in your family serves his country, the entire family and their friends all sacrifice for that service. We worry and we miss him, but we are proud that these young men and women are determined to do the right thing and protect our freedom.

58 days to go.

A four leaf clover tattoo, three old friends; 1 guy, his sister, her best friend, a business, a heartfelt promise, a late night phone call, a quick plane ride, a plush office and ...nothing.

Does any of that mean anything? Nope. Its just gibberish, or at least to anyone who isn't a writer it is. To me and to probably those of you who write a story is already starting to take shape. I've had these phrases, these snippets of scenes floating in my head now for weeks and they are driving me crazy. If I wasn't a writer; I'd be worried.

As writers, we're used to ideas hitting us from literally out of nowhere. We're used to hearing "voices" in our heads and seeing movies play out in our minds before we ever put the first keystroke down. For me, the frustrating part isn't where to get ideas but rather how to find the time for all the ideas I've got. I've learned, through trial and error that when an idea hits, no matter what else you're working on, you have to at least take some notes, put down the scene on paper and get it out of your head or you'll never get any rest. Certainly, you'll never get back to the manuscript you're supposed to be working on.

I'm supposed to be hard at work on the fourth book in the Double B series. I'm supposed to have it all wrapped up before the holidays so it can get into edits and release in early 2010. I'm trying. Honest. But the reality is this "four leaf clover tattoo story" as I refer to it is driving me half insane. I wake up in the middle of the night and think about it, driving in the car, I think about it. There doesn't seem to be a time when I'm not thinking about some part of this story.

Its becoming an obession. Somebody has a story; it needs to be told and apparently I'm the lucky writer. Sigh. I just wish I knew....the rest of the story.

Hope your writing is going better than mine today.

As authors we're constantly thinking of new ways to tell the same story. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. That's the basic premise of almost any love story when you break it down. You need a hero to fall in love with, a heroine to identify with and a conflict to keep their love from ever happening. A good writer, one that we all aspire to be, is one who makes the reader keep turning pages trying to figure out how on earth this author will get this couple together.

I think about that as I write. Am I working hard enough to make this couple's story "page turning"?

As authors, our job is to give the buyer a product that not only will bring her back to us again and again, but also to make her not regret spending her hard earned cash. I've read a lot of books in my day, but maybe only half have given me that kind of reward.

I'm happy to report that the anthology "Finding Their WayBack" has received rave reviews. Another one came in today. I'm so proud to have been part of this project with Stacy Dawn and Cindy Pape. Wonderful cowboy writers for sure.

If you get a chance check out our anthology, available in ebook and print from http://www.thewildrosepress.com/ and if you'd like to read a fabulous review you can click on the following links.

http://mistressbellareviews.blogspot.com/2009/07/finding-their-way-back-wayback-texas.html?zx=6cdc4b737c64f599

or
http://theromancestudio.com/reviews/reviews/findingwaybackantho.htm

I wish all of you happy reviews!

Roni

I'm very excited today to have as my special guest, Emma Lai, published author with The Wild Rose Press. Here's some of what Emma sent me when I asked about her and her books. Her latest work - "His Ship, Her Fantasy" is due out this August 12. Watch for it from the Faery Rose Line. Thanks so much for joning me Emma! I hope everyone will check out Emma's blog as well.

****

Emma says:

I’ve sampled many professions and industries in the last decade or so…administrative assistant, electrical engineer, software designer, and project manager. They’ve all been satisfying in their own way, but nothing has inspired me like writing.

One thought can spawn an entire story. What happens if a woman falls in love with a ship? This one question leads to many others. What is missing in her life that makes it possible for her to fall in love with an inanimate object? What if the object loves her back? How can an object love? If the object holds the spirit of a person, then how does that spirit manifest? Is the manifested spirit real or a hallucination? These are many of the thoughts that flew threw my head as I wrote and explored the characters of His Ship, Her Fantasy.

Blurb for His Ship, Her Fantasy coming 12 August from The Wild Rose Press!Ellie Woods is in love…with a ship. When an argument with the ship results in a bump on the head, she finds herself in the strong arms of Alastair. But, who is he, and where did he come from?Alastair has loved Ellie from afar for years, but duty has kept him from revealing himself to her. When a grave threat reveals his true identity, he hopes that Ellie will choose reality over fantasyVisit my website to read an excerpt and find details on my Release Party Contest!

I want to encourage aspiring authors to write down their ideas because you never know where they’ll take you. Mine led me down the path of the Mates of the Guardians. The second story, His Hope, Her Salvation, will be coming soon from The Wild Rose Press, and the third story, His Heart, Her Desire, has been submitted for consideration. I hope to finish His Light, Her Shadow and His Dream, Her Nightmare in the coming months.

Emma - that sounds fabulous! Best of everything to you and can't wait to read your latest work.

Thanks for being my special guest.

Roni

Fresh back from the RWA conference in DC and believe it or not I didn't take too many pictures. But this one actually was at the request of my mother. That's Debbie Macomber next to me in case you don't recognize her. My mother claims to be her biggest fan and I had to get an autograph and a picture. I like Debbie as well. I've read several of her books and we both love to write series - small towns, with a cast of characters that returns again and again. Its one of the things I really enjoy about her books.

The conference is always a huge motivator as a writer. Listening to wonderful keynote speeches by authors such as Linda Howard, Eloisa James and others makes every author and writer in the conference want to curl up with her laptop and just write. Talking with other authors, living the writing world for a few days is just plain good for your soul. There you are among 2000+ other romance writers - finally people who understand why you are the way you are. Its refreshing that's for sure.

Being in DC, what can I say? One of my favorite cities in the world. I love sightseeing, love the hustle and bustle and love the sheer beauty of the memorials and the buildings of our nation's capital. Doesn't matter to me who is in the White House; the important thing is the White House itself. That magnificent building stands for all we as Americans believe in and it still steals my breath every time I see it.

Next year RWA heads to Nashville. Be still my heart! As a country music fan from the cradle I can't think of anywhere I'd rather spend a few days. Whether its in the cards remains to be seen but after coming back from this national conference, I have to say that it refuels me, energizes me and helps me believe in my writing again. That's simply priceless.

If you can't get to a national conference this year, I sincerely hope you can get to a smaller local conference. Any time you can come together with other writers is good for your own writing. If you were at this year's conference or one another year - I'd love to hear your favorite parts of the conference or your fondest memory.

Roni

Simple pleasures. That's really what life is about and whether the thought of spending a weekend in a camper with your family makes you smile or cringe, its all a matter of taste. The way we camp today doesn't compare to the years in the tents truly roughing it, but today's camping trips are more about stealing away for a weekend then trying to live outdoors. As a writer, its my own private writing time where I don't feel guilty for hours pounding away on the laptop instead of doing housework or cooking or errands. For the family its a time to be together in one place and actually spend time with one another.

This year hasn't been an easy one for our family. Our middle son was deployed January 5 and won't be back until Thanksgiving. The Fourth of July, without him was rough. Thinking of him all those miles away in that incredible heat (118 on Saturday) was horrible. For the first time ever in my life I am wishing summer away and I hate that.

I often think ahead, what will next Fourth of July bring? What changes will have happened to all of us by then? Its those changes that make me cling to life's little moments. That's what really matters after all.

Available now from www.thewildrosepress.com
Yellow Rose line