Can you believe that the holiday season is in full swing? Halloween 2024 is in the history books, and now Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up fast. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. We all have a different “thankful bucket list” for what we are thankful for, and mine is basically the same every year, but this year I’ve added a few things—especially since I recently had a birthday and realized that there are more years behind me than in front of me.

So, with that in mind, here goes:

I’m thankful for all the years I had with Mr. B. It’s hard to believe that he’s been gone nearly a year. We had such a good life together, and so many memories that keep his spirit with me through the days.

I’m thankful for my family who have kept me sane this past year. Without them I’m not sure I would have survived each day—no, each hour.

I’m thankful for my health and prize each moment that I can say that.

I’m thankful for our family gatherings for the holidays. I have three children, fifteen grandchildren and twenty-seven great grands. Some of the grands we got with a marriage license instead of a birth certificate. The way I figure is that marriage licenses and birth certificates are all just paper. In my heart every one of them—even the ornery ones—is mine. Like a mama bear or a Nene bear in my case, I would fight for any of them because they belong to me.

I’m thankful for my readers and for the support and love they shower upon me. They are truly the wind beneath my writing wings and keep me in my office chair many hours of every day.
I’m thankful for each member of my publication teams that help with edits, covers and all that goes into a turning an idea into a book.

Most of all, I’m thankful for my faith in God. Without that, I wouldn’t have the strength to get through each day.

So, looking back over the year, what have you got to be thankful for? We are having a Month of Thankfulness on my social media pages starting November 4. Check out any of the following to join us for the month, have fun and win prizes.

Author’s Page: bit.ly/3m2TQxz
My Sassy Babe’s Group: bit.ly/3RphOnr
Or Instagram: bit.ly/3x1Cjy7

Until next time,

In Oklahoma there are two seasons—winter and summer. That does not mean that winter lasts six months and then there’s half a year of summer. It could be that you’d wake up to winter in the morning, shiver all the way to the kitchen to make your morning coffee and put on jeans and a sweater to go to work. At noon the weatherman gets to tinkering with the thermostat and suddenly, you wish you’d packed a sundress and sandals in your backpack instead of an e-reader and a cup of hot chicken noodle soup.

It all evens out—only in hour increments, not monthly ones. But the Okie natives learned a long time ago to give up steaks to pay the electric bill for air conditioning and that it’s not unusual to switch back and forth between A/C and heat twice or even three times a day.

And we don’t often have seasons here. We go from hot to cold and then back to hot pretty quick. One day we’re at the lake in our bikinis, the next we are bundled up in jackets and folks are talking about a white Christmas.

But this year, it’s beginning to look like we might have fall. I’m not holding my breath—I do not look good in that shade of blue. However, the weatherman says that by the middle of this week we might get a few days of fall-like weather. He’s been wrong before on many occasions, thus the reason for not sucking in a double lung full of air.

Thinking about fall—hot chocolate, pumpkin bread slathered with butter, caramel corn just puts me in the mood for a good book and a quiet Sunday afternoon to curl up with it in my favorite recliner.

Finding a quiet afternoon at my house is about as predictable as judging what to wear to on any given day when the weather is trying to decide whether it’s going to be one of the two seasons. But finding a good book to read—now that’s not too difficult with all the wonderful new releases coming out this month.

Among those releases you can find three of my books that hit the market this month. A Cowboy Christmas Miracle, the last in the four book Burnt Boot Series, came out on Sept. 6. Then The Lullaby Sky, a romantic women’s fiction, hit the shelves on Sept. 13 and Merry Cowboy Christmas, the third book in The Lucky Penny Ranch Series, will be here on Sept. 27.

So get out the hot chocolate and enjoy some fall weather. And if you can find a quiet afternoon…sneak off for a few quiet hours with a good book!!