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.
I’m Still Alive
Yesterday was…interesting. It hasn’t been all that long since I’ve flown last, but things have definitely changed. Maybe it’s due to the Olympics a couple months back, but man, the security at Vancouver Int’l Airport is something else. We now have automated check-in where you have to scan your passport and enter all your info into a computer. I didn’t know my step-sister’s address, and you now can’t enter the US without giving the address of your final destination, so they weren’t going to allow me to check in. Trust me, after only an hour’s sleep the night before, my stress levels were already pretty high.
With that crisis averted, I went through security. Three times. They scanned me, all my clothes and belongings in my carry-on, then put me in a body scan booth where they check for hidden images and explosive residue. Then they swabbed my hands and socks, shoes, laptop and bag to check for more residue. I even got patted down after all that.
Jeez, talk about overkill. On the plus side, I felt like they’d made a good effort at keeping any crazies off the plane, so that helped a fraction.
After filling out a declaration form (even though I hadn’t gone anywhere yet), I finally cleared customs and an hour later got on my flight, took my little Ativan tablet and willed it to kick in. No sooner had the pill melted under my tongue than the pilot came on the intercom to say that we had a broken plane. Some sort of fuel gauge malfunction they were double-checking with maintenance.
What???
Turned out it wasn’t a malfunction; the maintenance crew had shorted us a thousand gallons of jet fuel. Awesome. I’m feeling ever so secure strapped into my seat in this damn little tube.
Not only that, but our flight was delayed forty-five minutes, exactly the amount of time I had in Dallas/Fort Worth to get on my connecting flight. When we landed four hours later without incident, they let off eight of us trying to connect to Austin, and we all sprinted through the airport up to the trains to get to the terminal on the opposite side of the airport, then ran the whole way to the last gate. But no dice. They’d left without us. Bummer.
So they put us all on a later flight and we walked back to the other side of the terminal to wait, where I called my step-sis to tell her I’d be arriving late.
Only that plane was broken, too, and I was only too happy not to get on the thing.
They brought in another aircraft about an hour later, and once all those passengers disembarked and the plane was cleaned and fuelled (with the right amount), we finally got on. That flight was unpleasantly bumpy, but in my time sitting around DFW airport, I’d met some nice people that I wound up sitting with, and one of them is a huge Civil War buff 🙂 So despite the turbulence I enjoyed her company, and Tina was waiting for me with baby Areia when I arrived in Austin.
We had a lovely Greek dinner (Tina’s short for Athena, and she’s half Greek) before driving to their beautiful new Spanish-style house. I met their two Great Danes and had the grand tour (OMG, if you could see the master walk-in closet, all you women out there would be pea-green with envy. I’ll try to take pictures and post them later, but it’s something else.). Today we’re going to go into the city and do a little shopping and sight-seeing, and tomorrow I’m off to the ranch with Rhonda.
No flights for me for another four days! I’m so okay with that 🙂