It's official. I am NOT a green thumb failure.  After many stops and starts with getting my new garden area tilled and prepped for planting, all my plants are finally in and thriving. Shocked? So am I. Between Indiana wavering between spring and winter for several weeks to sweltering heat the last few days, it's been a weather whirlwind for my precious plant babies.  Every day, I pop out to our garden to check on our plants.  Since they aren't any sports to watch on TV and most of my normal television shows this time of the summer are delayed due to COVID19, my garden is my new source of entertainment.  Though, I do wish the weeds would get with the program and GTFO of there.  I spent two weekends in a row tackling them, and they just keep coming back.  Jokes on them because my new small cultivator will arrive this week and the battle with the weeds will come to an end...I hope.

The only plant causalities that I have had are two of my twelve Brussels sprout plants, which were totally my fault thanks to a wayward sprinkler during a water session.  My tomatoes are blossoming and the wax beans are really taking off.  I am so excited for the next few weeks as my Early Girl tomatoes should start producing in Mid-July. ​

Happy January, Everyone!

It doesn't seem possible that another decade is upon us. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun, and if how fast 2019 went by is any indication, 2020 is about to get crazy.  
And, what better way to kick off 2020 than with a new book announcement.  Not only a new book, but a new series, and an amazing co-write with one of my favorite people on the planet. Geri Glenn.  We've kept this secret under wraps for a few months now, but we are so excited to finally make the announcement now that we have a GORGEOUS cover ready to go. The debut title in our new series is hot, hot, hot, and we can't wait until release day.  Stay tuned for more information about this series. 
I am also working on both Demons & Desires and Devil's Queen. No definitive release date just yet, but I will be announcing them as soon as I send them off for editing.   
On top of that, I do have a few other books up my sleeves that might just be coming this year as well.  New series. New genre! All kinds of good things coming.  
2020 is my year, and I can't wait to see where it takes me. 

See you next month!

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Happy November, Everyone!

If you follow me on Facebook or just about any other of my social media platforms, you may have seen a post that I began circulating around mid-week last week.  Tragedy has struck members of our chosen family, but before I talk about, I want to go back to the beginning. 

In late 2009,  Mr. Paige, then my fiance, headed off to California with full-ride scholarship for his Master's degree, and a dream that I would be joining him in the summer after our wedding.  Living apart was one of the hardest times of my life.  We coped the best we could, but it wasn't easy planning a wedding when one half of your partnership was on the opposite end of the country.  A month into his move, I received a call that I never expected. 

Glen had hurt himself on a youth group trip to Six Flags.  He assured me he was okay, but turns out, he wasn't. He struggled for weeks to get medical care and an answer for his shoulder when a guardian angel came into our life in the form of our friend, Pat.  A woman in her 70s who was a board member at my husband's church.  She showed up to Glen's apartment with a few of the church men in tow, and moved him into her house while he sought medical treatment. She drove him to class, helped him do his laundry, typed papers for him. etc. You get the idea.  Throughout the months he lived there, they became close. You see, Pat, had lost her to youngest son to drug addiction. Her husband followed soon.  After losing two important people in her life, Pat began giving back. Her home became a shelter to those who needed help. Friends in need became her family. 
 
Even after Glen was forced to move back home for medical treatment, she never let him give back her house key.  This wonderful woman even flew in for our wedding that next summer, and even came home for the weddings of friends who had come with us on our annual trip out to see her.  Her home became our home. A refuge for us all.  

In July 2018, our annual trip was something much different. The minute we arrived, Pat's beautiful smile was a little dimmer.  You see, Pat's breast cancer that she had bravely fought off the year before was back. This time in her lungs and very aggressively growing. Something that she knew weeks before we arrived, but hadn't told us.  We made it a mission to spend as much time with her as we could that week because I knew how bad it really was. 

Two weeks after we got home, she passed away.  Her death hurt us both so much. Hurt the friends who she had welcomed into her home and life as family.  But, her legacy wasn't over yet.  Her son, Darren, continued her life's work by offering her now vacant home to our friends and their family, filling it with love once more.

That is until last week when a plane tragically crashed into the master's bedroom, and destroying the house. With a friend's husband and 18 month old son inside the home. Thankfully, they escaped, but their home. Our home was gone. Watching the national news coverage brought so many memories back for me this week. The love we shared in that house now gone. Our memories there the only thing left.   You can read more about the crash here. 

Until I realized tonight that it was just a house. Not the definition of her life.  Her spirit and her love is still with us, and a part of me truly believes that she kept our friend's safe. That she protected them from harm. The house may be gone, but her love will always live on.

Now, I know that this isn't the kind of story you expected to read this month, but it's the story that was on my heart when I sat down to start writing this month's newsletter.  I hope that you found hope in it because even if you lose every physical possession you own, life and love is all that matters.  And with Thanksgiving this month, I can't help, but feel thankful for Pat being in our lives and how she impacted those around her. 
​
Hug your love ones a little tighter today.