Absolution
Swing over to Writers Gone Wild today, where I’m talking about the last book of my romantic suspense series, Absolution.
For My Mom
Dear Mom:
I wouldn’t have made it without you.
When they pulled me out during the emergency C-section I was already gone, and you were hanging on by a thread. Only a miracle could bring me back. Thankfully, one did.
You.
You held on for me, and I held on for you.
Somehow they got me breathing again, and my tiny little chest rose and fell with each desperate gasp. But I wasn’t ready to go. I wanted to live.
They placed my three pound body into an incubator and hooked me up to the oxygen and feeding tubes that kept me alive for the next two months. I was isolated and alone except for the doctors and nurses that constantly tended to my needs and changed the preemie diapers that came all the way up to my frail shoulders. I wasn’t a pretty baby. I looked more like a skinned rat than an infant, but you loved me anyway. Despite all the medical staff that came and went from my incubator, it was your presence I felt the most. It was your touch that I responded to when you reached through the portal in the side of my plastic cocoon and stroked a latex-covered finger over my fragile limbs. 
Even though you never got to hold me during those early weeks, I sensed your unwavering love and the frantic prayers tumbling through your mind. When I was finally strong enough to open my eyes, yours was the first face I saw. I saw your tear-filled brown eyes and wobbly smile. If I could have spoken to you then, I would have told you not to worry, that it wasn’t your fault. I would have told you I was a fighter, and that I would make it. That I loved you too.
Instead, I tried to tell you those things each time I turned my head at the sound of your voice, or stretched out my little hands to reach for your fingers. I felt your unwavering love for me even then.
And I still do.
I love you mom.
Look at Luke!!!
Isn’t he gorgeous? Of course, he was always good looking in my head, but I’m more than relieved that the world will think so too after seeing this beautiful cover. No release date yet, but I’m hoping it will be out by Christmas.
In other news, the retreat at the Silver Spur Ranch was a roaring success. Rhonda Penders (editor-in-chief for The Wild Rose Press) and her family drove me from Austin to the ranch, so I got to know them a bit. She greeted me in the lobby with a big hug, and I fell in love with her right then. Turns out her youngest son is a Civil War buff too, so we had lots to talk about during the drive.
My own editor was there too, and meeting her really made the trip worthwhile. She gave me a few lovely compliments, including that she was surprised I wasn’t already agented considering how good the last few books I’ve written have been (picture me blushing). I think initially we might have had a bit of a rocky start back when I was first assigned to her. We had a difference of opinion on a certain manuscript that needed to be resolved, and I’d always wondered what she thought of me after that 🙂 Everything was handled professionally and things moved smoothly from there, but meeting her face-to-face was an awesome experience. I’m pretty certain she liked me.
I’ll try to post some photos when I get home, but right now my hubby is having a fit that I’m on the computer when Disneyland opens in under an hour. Even though we’re only a ten minute shuttle ride away. And even though we’ve already spent three days there. Really.