Tom explains his reasons for building the collection, “They were too good to throw away. I eventually came to call them “A thousand points of light”. Some were frivolous, some were dead serious, and most showed great wisdom. They were like lightning bolts (of truths). About three years ago, when my desk drawer was overflowing, I decided to record all these in a book form. And during the process, I found an opportunity to write a few chapters based on a particular point of light. This gave me a forum to share some family biographical history, special memories, a little philosophy, and a few prejudices. I tried to be honest and original. I call these chapters ‘Epistles’.”

You can find out more about Hoskilonians: A Thousand Points of Light and how to purchase a copy at Tom’s website: http://hoskilonians.com.

The following is one of those chapters:

Billie’s Biscuits

265. The first thing you do is make friends with the cook.

Sometimes adults feel that food doesn’t taste as good as it did when they were kids.  Maybe it’s the taste buds going bad, like hearing, eyesight and other things.  But maybe things did taste better.

My late mom’s (Billie Brandon Hoskins) biscuits are a memory that won’t go away.  Let me give you a little background first.  We ate a lot of biscuits and red beans growing up.  We had a Hoosier cabinet with a porcelain-topped base and a chute above, which would hold about fifty pounds of bleached, white flour.  The flour came in sacks made of pretty, floral-patterned cotton muslin.  Many Sunday dresses and cotton quilts were made from these flour sacks.  The chute had a sifter on the bottom with a crank.  And Mom had a yellow glass bowl that I think she got with stamps.  It sat right under the sifter.  She never cleaned it.  It made biscuits.  And boy, were they memorable!  Sometimes she made biscuits three times a day when we were working hard in the fields.  Here’s how she did it, and I’ll try not to leave anything out.

The Recipe:

Mom would take that old yellow bowl, which had a little stuff left in it from the day before, and stick it under the sifter at the bottom of the chute, and crank it about 40% full.  Then she would make a hole in the middle of the flour and pour about 2 ½ or 3 cups of buttermilk or sweet milk in this hole.  (We had a milk cow.)  Then she would add a liberal dose (a good mound on the palm), maybe 1 ½ tablespoons if you measured it, which she never did, of baking powder in the same hole in the flour.  Usually it was Clabber Girl.  Then she would add about two-thirds that much salt in the same hole.  Now the work began.

Dad said that if we had company, she would always wash her hands first.  The biscuits were never quite as good if she did.  Then she would begin working and kneading the milk, flour, baking powder and salt till she made dough of the right consistency.  Then she would spread some flour on the porcelain top of that cabinet base, turn the dough out of the yellow bowl, and pound the dough out pretty thin, maybe one-third inch.  She never used a roller, just her hands.  You’re getting the idea.

I guess some people had a fancy cookie-cutter for their biscuits, but Mom used a glass.  She would dip it in the flour and cut out round biscuits.  They were ready to put in the pan.  This process left a few scraps of dough that we called runners.

Now the pan had to be special.  Ours was big, old and ugly – barely fit in the oven.  We washed it, but it always was brown, black and beat-up.  But it was Billie’s famous biscuit pan.  So Mom would put about two big gobs of pure lard in that pan and melt it down first.  We never used vegetable oil, because Dad thought it was uppity – like ready-rolled cigarettes.  (He rolled his own: Prince Albert and Bull Durham.)  So we used lard.

Follow along carefully, because this is where some people go astray.  Mom would take the biscuit dough, slide it through the grease on the pan, turn it over, and put it in the corner.  She would follow this method for each biscuit, covering the sides and corners first, then she would fill in the middle of the pan.  When the pan was filled, she would stick it in the oven – 350 degrees.  It took about 30 minutes.  They’d get gold on top and dark-gold and crusty on the bottom.  Sometimes they would rise, and sometimes they wouldn’t.  You never knew why.  Dad always said that some things were just that way.

All of us kids liked dessert after our main course, so we had biscuits and West Tex Pure Cane syrup (or Brer Rabbit syrup).  Now this was a dessert that would really make you thirsty.  You could either punch a hole in the middle of the biscuit and pour syrup in, or you could sop it up with your biscuit.

Now let me tell you something about the finished product.  The runners were the best.  These were the scraps.  Next best were the corner biscuits.  Third were the side biscuits, and finally the least sought-after were the middle biscuits.  Billie’s biscuits were not wimpy.  They were tough, hard and crisp.  You could put four or five in your coat pocket, and they would never lose a crumb.  My brother Jack would usually finish off whatever was left over.

So if you’re ever driving through that part of the country and run into an old farmer’s wife who has a milk cow in the background and some biscuit dough under her fingernails, pull in and see if she will make you a pan of biscuits.  As my late friend, Bob Crutcher, used to say, “There’s nothing better in the world for a hungry boy in the cotton patch than Billie’s Biscuits.”  He would know.

Tom Hoskins, son of Jack and Billie Hoskins, was born in the back room of the old farm house near Post, Texas on May 27,1944.

The third of six children, he was raised on a dry land cotton farm. He spent these first years hoeing cotton, driving tractors, picking cotton, and milking cows. He escaped the drudgery of the farm at age eighteen and enrolled in the school of business at Texas Tech College in Lubbock, Texas, some 40 miles up the road.

After graduating from Texas Tech in 1966, he went to work for The Dunlap Company full time and spent his 38 year retail career there, retiring as president in 2000 at age fifty five.

Mr. Hoskins opened an investment office in 2000 where he looks after his real estate, banking, and farming interests. His hobbies include the ’54 Ford Club of America, which he founded and serves as current president. He also does a little hunting and fishing and occasionally writes. And he takes special delight in his grandchildren.

Mr Hoskins currently lives in Arlington, Texas with his wife Janice. They have two daughters, Laurie and Julie and five grandchildren.

When I started thinking about writing on the subject of beauty and women, I decided that I look for the inner beauty and the way it is projected on faces.

It has little to do with age or perfection of features and everything to do with character and the various emotions displayed.

So, today, I am sharing two special images.

I am so grateful these little ladies are a part of my life.

My blog: Creating the Cast for Your Novel was posted on Curling Up By the Fire on February 8th and Save the Cat Moment was published on February 9th on I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read.

I hope you will find the time to go to those sites and read the blogs and review the other information found there.

Please go to her blog and see some of my thoughts on writing in general and specifically in Thicker Than Water (Brands Crossing Series).

 Diane Capri is the bestselling author of six prior novels and a recovering lawyer. Diane says she writes mystery and suspense for the same reason she reads: to have fun, find out what happens, why people do what they do and to restore order to an unjust world. Diane’s readers say her books emphasize wry humor and everywoman’s inherent strength and self-reliance. Diane’s books are translated in multiple languages. She and her husband are snowbirds who divide their time between Michigan and Florida.

An active member of Mystery Writers of America, Author’s Guild, International Thriller Writers, and Sisters in Crime, she loves to hear from readers and is hard at work on her next novel. Connect with her on the web: http://DianeCapri.com

Along with her latest novel You Don’t Know Jack, Diane has four Judge Wilhelmina Carson Cases, and two Jennifer Lane Cases. They are all now available as e-books on Amazon Kindle. Buy or Download a Sample Today!

Don’t Know Jack: Behind the Book

The Hunt For Reacher

Begins now: Don’t Know Jack

Here’s the setup:

Don’t Know Jack (The Hunt for Reacher series #1)

It’s been a while since we first met Lee Child’s Jack Reacher in Killing Floor. Fifteen years and sixteen novels later, Reacher still lives off the grid, until trouble finds him, and then he does whatever it takes, much to the delight of readers and the dismay of villains. Now someone big is looking for him. Who? And why? Hunting Jack Reacher is a dangerous business, as FBI Special Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar are about to find out. Otto and Gaspar are by-the-book hunters who know when to break the rules, but they Don’t Know Jack. Reacher is a stone cold killer. Is he their friend or their enemy? Only the secrets hidden in Margrave, Georgia will tell them.

Click here to: Buy or Sample Don’t Know Jack Now!

Behind the Book (in Diane’s words):

Readers ask me where I get my ideas. I usually tease, “I order them from ideas.com.” The truth is I don’t always know. Ideas spark, kindle my interest and sometimes explode into a novel or a series of novels. But in the case of Don’t Know Jack, I do remember the moment.

A couple of years ago, I was chatting with Lee Child at a book event in New York about his iconic character.

“Where is Reacher hiding?” I asked.
“Reacher doesn’t hide,” Lee said. Maybe a little huffily?

Lee’s a lot bigger than me. And he writes violence like a man with experience. I’ve always thought him a gentle giant, but …. I backpeddaled a bit.

“Right. But where does Reacher live?”
“Wherever he wants,” the tall guy said. I thought I dectected a slight challenge in his tone.

I backed out of arms’ reach before I pressed on. “He waits until trouble finds him and then he wipes the floor with the bad guys. Perfect. But what’s he doing between books?”

Lee shrugged, said nothing.

Tenaciously, I tried again.

“Reacher’s killed a lot of people by now. Sixteen books. A lot of bodies. Surely someone wants payback, don’t you think?”

Lee leveled the patented Reacher stare. “Who in his right mind would go looking for Reacher? You?”

Right. Only an idiot with a death wish — or an FBI agent who knows nothing about Reacher’s, er, talents — would undertake such a foolhardy quest. Even then, she wouldn’t do it if she had a choice.

But matching wits with Jack Reacher, now that would be interesting, I thought, even though it could very well be deadly. Then again, the bigger they are the harder they fall. Whoever takes Reacher down will become a legend in some circles.

What if a determined, ambitious woman …..

That’s the backdrop behind Don’t Know Jack, Diane’s  new Kindle suspense novel. (That’s right. Don’t Know Jack is only available as a Kindle eBook for $5.99. Don’t have a Kindle? No problem. You can read Don’t Know Jack on any device or computer. Instructions HERE.)

Click here to: Buy or Sample Don’t Know Jack Now!

The following is the interview I had with Diane about herself, her writing life and her new novel:

SHARON:     Diane, Thanks so much for agreeing to this interview. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself.

DIANE CAPRI: I’ve always been a writer. I’ve also worked as a lawyer, law professor, teacher, consultant, green onion stripper, and for one summer, I filled cones with soft-serve ice cream for tourists who didn’t mind eating amid the aroma of horse manure.

SHARON:     What inspired you to write your novels?

DIANE CAPRI: Initially, I challenged myself to complete Carly’s Conspiracy in the style of stories I most loved to read. I’d been through Travis McGee’s adventures a dozen times, never tiring of his exploits. By the time I started the work that would become my first novel, I’d moved to Florida and adored everything about the Sunshine State. So I wrote five suspenseful Florida mysteries. Rather than a strapping, muscular boat-bum like McGee, the heroes are Wilhelmina Carson and Jennifer Lane, women lawyers who deliver true justice along with a splash of humor. The books quickly found a publisher, an audience, and acclaim as well, so I was lucky — and grateful that readers enjoyed the books. Connecting with readers is one of the best feelings on earth.

SHARON:     Tell us a little bit about your book.

DIANE CAPRI: Lawyers are joiners by nature, so when I began writing fiction, I joined Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Romance Writers of America, and other writing organizations. Those relationships led to an invitation to join International Thriller Writers at its inception and shortly thereafter, an invitation to run for election as a member of the board along with my friend, the #1 International Bestselling Author, Lee Child.

At a book event in New York in 2009, Lee and I discussed a question that had been bugging me about Lee’s iconic character: Where exactly was Jack Reacher? We see Reacher in each book where trouble finds him, but what about between those exploits? Surely someone must want to find him? That conversation inspired me to write a series of suspense novels answering the inquiry. The first of those novels is Don’t Know Jack, introducing FBI Special Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar.

SHARON:     Who are your main characters? What are their goals? What are their conflicts?

DIANE CAPRI: FBI Special Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar are partnered for the first time in Don’t Know Jack. Reacher’s being considered for a special project. Otto and Gaspar are tasked with completing Reacher’s background check, ordered to learn everything he’s done since he left the army. They start in Margrave, Georgia, the setting for Reacher’s first appearance fifteen years ago in Lee Child’s debut novel, The Killing Floor. Reacher’s dangerous and no one who knew him then is willing to talk. But why?

SHARON:     Where can we buy your book?

DIANE CAPRI: Don’t Know Jack is available exclusively as a Kindle e-book, available from Amazon.

SHARON:     What are you working on now?

DIANE CAPRI: Book #2 in the Hunt for Reacher series, tentatively titled Get Jack Back.

SHARON:     What do you consider the genre for your book?

DIANE CAPRI: Good question! I’d call it suspense, with a twist of thriller and mystery.

SHARON:     Who are your favorite writers?

DIANE CAPRI: Besides Lee Child? Oh, my God. (laughs) That list would take a lot more room than you’ve got here!

SHARON:     f you weren’t a writer, what would be your dream job?

DIANE CAPRI: Writing is my dream job. Always has been. But I guess I might enjoy wine tasting. On the beach. With chocolate. (laughs)

SHARON:     Are the locations you use as settings in your works ones where you have lived or visited?

DIANE CAPRI: I’ve at least visited the places I write about. I’ve traveled quite a bit over the years, so I don’t get stuck in too many location ruts, thankfully. If I need more information about certain settings, I usually ask a local to help me. It’s important to get the details right, especially when I add the fictional elements to an existing setting. I love it when readers try to find the places I make up!

SHARON:     Do you pay much attention to reviews, reader feedback or critique of your book? How does it affect your writing?

DIANE CAPRI: I love reader feedback. It’s invaluable to me because I write for readers. I want them to have a great experience with the book.  Reviews are important, but professional reviewers generally have a different agenda from readers. Professional reviewers aren’t reading for pure pleasure, and that makes all the difference. As for critiques, I seriously consider all of those, too. I make every possible effort to get things right and if I haven’t, I want to fix that. Every time.

SHARON:     Describe your usual work environment (home, café, library?)

DIANE CAPRI: Years and years of lawyering have led me to be most comfortable at a desk, working in total silence. Just me and the computer and the work. No distractions.

SHARON:     Do you listen to music when you write? Name your favorite type of music and performers.

DIANE CAPRI: I love music, but music serves me best when I’m not writing. I’m a fan of most genres.

SHARON:     In addition to writing, do you have another career?  What is that?

DIANE CAPRI: No, thank God! Writing takes all my energy. The biggest problem I have with my career is not enough time to write!

SHARON:     If (when) you become a best selling writer, with what groups and organizations will you share your windfall?

 DIANE CAPRI: There are too many philanthropic activities worthy of our support. But literacy is my first love and first priority. Adult literacy should be paramount. Reading can save your life. Literally, as in reading the directions on poisons or medicines. Figuratively, as in fiction that transports us to another world when we find the one we live in lacking. Economically, because no job on the planet can be done effectively without reading comprehension. Resources abound to improve childhood literacy. But adults need more immediate help.

SHARON:     When you think of your audience/readers, what effect do you hope your book has on them when they’ve finished reading it?

DIANE CAPRI: Through my stories, I hope readers are entertained. I hope they’re inspired to realize the power they already have to achieve whatever they’re inspired to do. I hope they are reminded that all problems can be solved with creativity and humor and persistence. I hope they see themselves as heroes of their own lives, because that’s how I see them!

SHARON:  Thank you so much for visiting here today. I look forward to reading all your books.

Prudence Macleod just handed me the versatile blogger award and I am so grateful.

Now’s the time to thank all my friends and family who tolerate my ramblings and follow my blog.

Thank you so much.

Of course, nothing comes completely free and there are some rules attached to the award:

1)  Thank the person who gave it to you.

2)  List seven random facts about yourself

3)  Pass along the Versatile Blogger to worthy recipients and let them know they’ve won.

4) Attach the award to the site so the recipients can grab it and display it on their site.

Old Jules at http://sofarfromheaven.com/

Diane Bohannan at http://dianebohannan.com/

Denise McDonald at http://denisemcd.wordpress.com/

Arly Pineo at http://arlypineo.blogspot.com/

Lauren Vandenburg at http://creatrixsupreme.blogspot.com/

Steve Griffitts at http://doublejackrocks.net/

Beth Lahaie at http://bethlahaie.blogspot.com/

So, now, ladies and gentlemen, congratulations on your award. Prepare your lists and pay it forward by awarding the Versatile Blogger award to your choice of recipients.

What a way to end the month.

And tomorrow the new class Simply Creating Fictional Characters begins. If interested hop on over to my website and sign up.

Wow!! I never in my wildest dreams imagined my novel would be associated with those intriguing words. Not that I’m not happy about it. I am. In fact, I’m excited and feel vindicated.

Once, many years ago, I tried to write a sexy romance novel and thought I had done  a pretty decent job.

When I submitted it to a romance writers’ club contest, however, one of the judges made some rather scathing remarks about my romantic scenes and suggested I do more research.

I can’t tell you how devastated I was at both the writing and personal levels.

Anyway, I hope you will go to Lia’s site and read the interview. Maybe, you’ll also decide to read the novel. Then you can tell me if it qualifies as a magical, seductive romance.

Thanks, Lia for a great interview.

The following are some of Sheryl’s recent poems:

Mom Danced the Charleston

said she

learned it

when they lived

in Miami

in 1926

if I begged

enough

she would

begin

to hum

and do

her

one smooth

move

as a flapper

Diagnosis: Alzheimer’s

  some ominous

thought

is lost

in the plaqued

wrinkle

of my brain

The Last Dance

Alzheimer’s

has made

her

forget

to brush

her teeth

take a bath

what words

to say

and food

to eat

too shaky to stand alone

or sit in a chair

she still

loves

to cuddle

in her husband’s arms

and waltz

Sheryl is originally from Marysville, Kansas.  She graduated from South Dakota State University with a Bachelor of Science in Family Relations and Child Development.

She has had over 4,500 poems, stories and articles published.  Some of the magazines, anthologies and textbooks that have used her work are: READER’S DIGEST, MODERN MATURITY, KALEIDOSCOPE, CAPPER’S, GRIT, COUNTRY WOMAN, POETRY NOW, CRICKET, Strings, This Delicious Day, The American Anthology, Girls To The Rescue and Men Freeing Men.

Fourteen collections of her poetry have been published.  Some of them are: Their Combs Turn Red In The Spring, The Oketo Yahoos, Strawberries and Rhubarb, Rural America, Land of the Blue Paloverde, Friday Night Desperate, Aunt Emma Collected Teeth, Stalking Spirits, Secrets of the Wind, Howling At The Gibbous Moon and Greatest Hits 1978-2003.

Her most recent collection is Bluebonnets, Boots and Buffalo Bones.

Sheryl has taught writing and poetry classes at conferences, colleges and schools in Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona and South Dakota.  She recently taught workshops at Amarillo College, The University of Texas at Dallas, Tarrant County College, Abilene Christian University, Tarleton State University and the Society of Children’s Book Writers Conference in Arlington, Texas.  She was a Bread Loaf Contributor at the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Middlebury, Vermont. In South Dakota, she was a Writer-in-the-Schools with the South Dakota Arts Council.

She was the editor of OAKWOOD, the SDSU literary magazine.  She was a contributing editor to BYLINE, a national writers’ magazine and to STREETS, a national literary magazine. She was the editor of CRAWFORD’S CHRONICLES, an insurance trade publication.  She has been a staff writer for several newspapers and magazines.  For the past ten years, she has been the essay editor of THE PEN WOMAN MAGAZINE, the membership magazine of the National League of American Pen Women.

Currently, she is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, The Society of Southwestern Authors, Abilene Writer’s Guild and Trinity Arts Writers Association.

She’s also a painter, a weaver and an old dirt biker.

Prudence has graciously agreed to answer some questions about her novel Gifted.

Prudence, thanks so much for visiting my blog and answering some interview questions. Shall we get started?

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am a spiritual seeker, dog trainer, official Reiki Master and Interior designer, and personal trainer who has turned her hand to writing. I am also an avid chess player, not a great one, but an avid one. I build, I bake, I knit, and I tell stories.

I have roamed far and wide for over sixty years in this realm, and I have seen much; some I wish I had not, and a great deal that I would love to see again. Some days I feel like Bilbo Baggins, for I have been there and come back again. No, I haven’t written a book about my wanderings, but much that I have experienced, observed, learned, surmised, or imagined, is woven into the tales I have written. I do hope you enjoy them.

What was the inspiration for your novel(s)?

Actually there are twenty-five of them with another eight or nine in the works. What inspired me? My partner, K suggested I try it since I love telling and hearing stories. She bought me a computer and taught me how to use it. That was years ago and I haven’t stopped since.

Tell us a little bit about your book.

I write in two genres, romance and Y/A fantasy, urban fantasy, supernatural, and sci-fi. Let’s start with Gifted. This is a Y/A supernatural tale. It is a story of an abused teen who is given the power to rise above her past, or to take vengeance on her oppressors.

Could you describe your characters?

The two main characters are Penny Preston, an abused teenager, and Tara Montrose, an ambitious new FBI agent.

Penny, as a side effect of an act of a bully, is suddenly imbued with super powers by an ancient goddess. Penny is accused of taking drugs to gain power and has to go on the run. Tara Montrose hunts her. With this turn of events, who will penny become, devil or angel? What will happen when these two opponents team up to take on a human trafficking ring that sells young girls into slavery?  Read Gifted to get the answers. You can find it here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/63837

Where can we buy your book?

All my books can be found on Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Witchhazel

Or they can be accessed from my blog, here:

http://www.prudencemacleod.com/

What is your current project?

I am really excited about the current project. I have a new editor who read my manuscript and loved it. She then asked for another few thousand pages to make it a better read. We are both excited about the changes and are looking forward to getting some reader feedback on this one.

What do you consider the genre for your book?

This one is a Y/A fantasy. Everybody seems to be doing vampires these days, so I thought I’d have a go at it. I wanted to come at it from a different angle, so I gave them a slightly different origin, but they are blood sucking vamps none the less. This one will be my best work yet by far. Soon I will post the first chapter on my blog just to get a bit of feedback. Watch for it folks. J

Who are your favorite writers?

Oh gods, there are so many. Where to start? As a child I read Edgar Rice Burrows, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, moved to Ron L. Hubbard, Arthur C Clarke, Anne McCaffrey, Margaret Weiss, etc. The list could go on forever. I’m now finding many new authors on line and there is some fantastic writing available by little known writers. They will be successful one day and it will be fun to say I knew their work back when.

If you weren’t a writer, what would be your dream job?

If I weren’t a writer I’d go back to personal training. I love people, hearing their stories, sharing in their journeys, helping them move toward their goals, supporting them in the hard times and celebrating the victories with them. It is very rewarding work.

Are the locations you use as settings in your works ones where you have lived or visited?

As much as possible, yes. Everywhere you go the Earth will touch you in some way, share her energy with you. I try to bring some of that to the stories.

Do you pay much attention to reviews, reader feedback or critique of your book? How does it effect your writing?

Everybody loves a good review. It tells you that the reader liked your work, shared in the adventure of your story, and came away with something worthwhile to them. Like all writers I’ve had the “this sucks, one star” reviews too. I see those as an attempt by a human in pain to lash out at someone they see as successful. It is a safe way for them to strike out and I let it go.

Reader feedback? Love it, the more the better. I love having long discussions about my characters and stories. Does it have an effect? You bet it does. If a reader can show me a way to tell a better story (and they often do) that will certainly influence my next project. I pay more attention to reader feedback than I do to reviews and critiques.  That’s why I’m so excited about my new editor, she’s also one of my readers.

Where do you write(home, café, library?)

Until recently I worked at the kitchen table on a lap top. Now I have a desk set up in the hallway of our cottage. I also write when I’m on the boats, in coffee shops, etc. I’m always writing something somewhere… Hi, I’m Prudence, and I have a problem…

Do you listen to music when y ou write? Name your favorite type of music and performers.

Yes, I do, but not always. Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Allison Krause, as well as Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, and when I need to get the blood pumping, ACDC. Of course, there’s Loreena McKennit who is a staple.

In addition to writing, do you have another career?  What is that?

My last adventure was interior design, but I am now a full time writer.

If (when) you become a best selling writer, with what groups and organizations will you share your windfall?

Wow, I can hardly wait. I have so many projects I would love to get started. Family and friends would be first, of course, then Foster Parents, SPCA, and anything that supports abuse survivors.

I also want to get involved in planned communities with tiny houses, community gardens, and a focus on self-sustainability. There’s more, so much more; how rich am I going to be? Come on, tell me so I can start planning.

When you think of your audience/readers, what effect do you hope your book has on them when they’ve finished reading it?

When a reader finishes one of my books I want them to smile with satisfaction as they return from another world. I want them to come away with the feeling that, no matter how hard it gets, you can make things work out, you can create a happy ending and you can do it over and over if need be.

Prudence, thank you again for participating in this interview.

Since it is also Sunday’s Poetry Corner, I am sharing one of my poems below. Hope you enjoy it.

The Wind

Something about how, when it blows,

I am moody, unsettled.

A child again.

Waiting in the dusty west Texas heat.

Searching the endless horizon

of barren earth and cloudless sky

for the first sight of Uncle Bill’s Buick.

My escape to the oasis called Fort Worth.