Visit me at Tote Bags Today...

I'm blogging on the subject of continuities--meaning what are they and how do they work?--over at Tote Bags 'n' Blogs today. Come say hi--and get the scoop on my latest, In Bed with the Boss.

Hope everyone is having a terrific summer. It's gorgeous here in the heartland. Gotta take a picture of my formerly fabulous front-yard oak that was hit so hard by the ice storm last winter. it's so weird looking now. Like a eucalyptus, I swear. I'll try to do that tomorrow....

I'm Thinking That Guy from Supernatural...

For the hero of my latest, I mean. He's Jensen Ackles. I'm picturing him as Luke Bravo. Oh, yes!

Here's another. The one on the right--as if you couldn't guess. Great mouth. And he's even got the Bravo cleft in his so-manly chin.





Okay, enough with the hunkiness. Back to work!

Have I told you about...

...my latest project?

Or should I say, projects? I think I should. Because this particular project will be ten books long. I've already written the first one, The Stranger and Tessa Jones, which will be out in January of '09. Nine to go.

I'm just going to be starting on the second, The Bravo Bachelor, after I finish the proposal for the one after that, the third in the series, tentatively titled Having Mercy. Yep. You guessed it. The heroine's name is Mercy--short for Mercedes. Mercy Cabrera, proud adopted daughter of Luz and Javier Cabrera. She is fiercely loyal to her adoptive family, who took her and her dying single mom into their lives and then adopted her after her mom was gone.

Yes, these are Bravo stories. You probably guessed that, too, I'll bet. There will be ten siblings in this subseries of the Bravo series. Seven brothers, three daughters--and another daughter, illegitimate. They don't know about her. Yet.

These are the children of James Bravo--actually, his grandchildren. Check out the Bravo family tree at my website to see where James fits in. James left the first Bravo homestead in Wyoming decades ago and settled in the San Antonio area. This branch is wealthy (okay, it's my fantasy and in my fantasy they get to be rich), has made most of their money in land and real estate development. But there is a family ranch, Bravo's Pride, their own Texas homestead.

Can you tell I'm excited to be delving into this branch of the Bravo clan? I am! And yes, the gorgeous Latina you see above is my image of Mercy, exactly. In real life, her name is Natalie Martinez. So beautiful! As to the hero of this one, the rancher Luke Bravo, I don't have a picture in mind for him yet. I've considered using pictures of Gerard Butler and James Purefoy...but no. Both are great. Just not quite right... I'll find the image I'm looking for eventually.

In the meantime, back to the proposal...

It's beautiful here in the heartland today, sunny. Getting hot. Everything green and glorious.

How's the weather where you are?

Tastes Like Summer to Me...

Blackberries. Oh, yeah! They do taste like summer to me.

When I was kid, I lived for weeks or months of the summer in the Sierras. Wild blackberries grew everywhere up there, in green, tangled patches down by the river. And lining the dirt roads, each dark, lovely berry muted with its own film of dust. I couldn't be bothered to wash them. I'd wipe them on my swimsuit or my t-shirt, leaving purple streaks my mom could never quite get out in the wash. And then I'd pop them in my mouth.

Oh, my. They were the taste of summer, those ripe dark dusty berries.

Sometimes, in those hot, lazy days, we'd all go out together--my granny, my mom, my Aunt Emma, my sister BJ, my cousins Jimmy and Johnny, and my baby brother, Paul, who loved to fish and always wore the same fishy-smelling orange shirt no matter how often my sister and I shrieked and moaned at his stinkyness. Each of us carried a pail or a pan stolen from the kitchen cupboard. We'd pick those ripe, purple berries for hours, heedless of the thorns, and come home with scratches all over our tanned, bare arms, smiling, pails full of berries.

Granny, Mom and Aunt Emma would make blackberry pie or maybe a cobbler. And jam to give us a sweet taste of summer all through the next winter.

Yesterday, I bought blackberries at the supermarket. No, they're not as sweet and heavy and amazing as the ones in my childhood. But they'll do. Each one brings a faint taste of memory, and a smile.

I'm curious. What tastes most like summer to you?