Two months until book release!
and a brief tour of Southern Colorado
The view from here:
So, the photo of Telluride above has nothing to do with my book except that I always start my newsletter with a photo somewhere in Colorado, and my husband took that beautiful shot earlier this month. The state of Colorado is almost perfectly square, and if you drew lines to quarter it on a map, Telluride would be near the middle of the southwest quarter, while my book takes place almost on the line between the lower quarters, but farther south.
The dark green on the map is forested, mountainous land and the pale color is high desert/prairie/plains. The series takes place in and around the fictional town of Burgess, just east of Alamosa (the middle map pin).
One of the settings in the book is at Great Sand Dunes National Park, just a short distance east of Alamosa (north of my fictional Burgess). At nearly 150,000 acres, it’s hard to get a single photograph that encapsulates it, but the website for the park has beautiful photos and lots of great information. https://www.nps.gov/grsa/index.htm
Here’s a royalty-free picture with a small part of the Sangre de Cristo range in the background and only a fraction of the sand dunes, and below it, one of my own photos that shows a bit of the first set of dunes with people on them for scale:
Another place my characters visit is the site of the Ludlow massacre along I-25, just north of Trinidad (the third map pin). I couldn’t find any photos of my own, but here’s one from a website that has the history of the plight of the striking coal miners and the 21 men, women, and children who died under attack from the Colorado National Guard and private CF&I guards. The violence over those months in 1914 marked a turning point for workers’ rights across the nation.
https://visittrinidadcolorado.com/ludlow-massacre/
And the dinner my hero and heroine have in Trinidad (with singing waiters!) was set at Rino’s restaurant, which closed down recently after many decades in operation. I’m especially sad as I’d hoped for a celebration dinner there when my book was released, but at least we did get to eat there a couple of times over the past few years.
Her Colorado Cowboy is available for pre-order at Harlequin and all online stores, and is due to come out August 26th! I got my print copies last week. So exciting! Here’s me and my furkids showing it off (hubby was the photographer)…
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Any Romance Writers Here?
I’m going to be teaching a workshop at the Contemporary Romance Writers virtual conference Sunday July 27 2pm EST
I've Completed My Final Draft! What Now? A course to take you through the next steps of crafting a compelling query and synopsis, and how to get it in front of agents and editors for consideration.
CRW puts on a wonderful 2-day conference with great programming for an amazing registration price. ($75 for non-members, but FREE with a $40 annual membership!) Two dozen authors, designers, editors, and other industry professionals will be presenting. Registration and programming information can be found HERE
To sign off, here’s my book trailer on YouTube if you want a vibe for the book (:37 sec):
Until next time, happy reading!