Got shot yesterday, as part of an article for the local paper, and thought you’d like to see a fun photo of Ramona, my office manager–and oh, yeah, me! Enjoyed having our friend Julie from the News-Trib do the shoot, as she has FIVE dogs, so Ramona approved of her immediately! Note the smile on her face! You can’t help but love this dog!

I was pleased to be interviewed for this upcoming article, which tells the pleasures and pitfalls of being published, whether in traditional press form or by the self-publishing route. It was a chance to speak out and warn wannabe pubbed writers about NOT paying a vanity press to print your books, charge you a bundle, and then dump them on your doorstep!

If you, too, would like to see info on that, Novelist’s Inc. has a great position paper on our site: www.ninc.com, and click on the link “NINC Speaks Out on Recent Developments in the Publishing Industry”.

And if you only want to gaze at Ramona’s sweet smile to brighten your day, that’s fine, too! That collage in the background features the faces in my upcoming Amish series, Seasons of the Heart! These are the characters who will keep staring–er, watching over me as I write the first book of that series, SUMMER OF SECRETS. Due out January of 2011–and THAT’S something to smile about, too!

Have a good one!

As I begin a new Amish series of squeaky-clean romances, the kind Beverly Lewis and Cindy Woodsmall have so successfully published, I delve into the secrets and temptations and human inclinations that my characters try to hide from God…the sides of our souls that scurry from the light. Envy, greed, unforgiving hearts, succumbing to temptation…we’re all in there! Our dark sides are never out of reach, really, and my characters in Willow Ridge will strive to admit and reconcile these tendencies.

But sometimes…we feed our temptations, don’t we?! Like this morning, when I rifled through my recipe box looking for something healthy and saw a cookie recipe instead!
And rather than moralize or delve any further into the human condition, I’ll simply say: DARK CHOCOLATE. It’s all you really need to know about heavenly decadence.

Here’s a recipe I revamped, that would delight my Amish baking ladies. Devour a couple of these sinfully delicious dark-on-dark cookies and I’m guessing you’ll see the light (or you’ll just keep snarfing them and think “Hey–temptation! Is that a BAD thing?!”

DARK-ON-DARK COOKIES

1 ¼ C. butter or margarine, softened
2 C. sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 C. flour
¾ C. Hershey Special Dark cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1 bag Hershey Special Dark chocolate chips.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter/margarine and sugar, then blend in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients and mix into the dough, adding the chocolate chips last. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased/parchment papered baking sheets and bake 8-9 minutes. Cookies will be soft and puffy. Allow to cool on the sheets about a minute, until they settle around the chips, and then cool on a rack. About 5 dozen.