My friend drove the leg of the trip from Virginia to North
Carolina and listened to my story as I read it aloud to her. It took the entire
six hours down and six back to finish the book. I was a virtual audio book. We
caught a few mistakes together and separately, and my friend’s favorite line
from my book was also my favorite one, so it all worked well.
Once we got to our destination, I turned off the computer,
put my edits aside, and enjoyed a couple days of relaxation. The house we
stayed at backed up to a peaceful lake where Canadian geese were splashing
around, taking a break on their way north, and was in the town of Whispering
Pines—I don’t know of any other town with such a sweet name. It makes me smile
just to say it. 
All that R&R revved my imagination, which is what
vacations are supposed to do. I had a night when a scene from a new story was
doing the continuous loop thing in my head. So, I broke my own rule of vacation
and turned the computer on. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep until I got it
down. It’s going to be a good story, I think.
Oh, and our favorite line from the new book? This happens
when my hero, Basil, and the heroine, Temperance, are caught in a sudden snowstorm
and are forced to spend the night together. In an attempt to be a gentleman, he
offers her the bed and moves to the chair by the wood stove, which isn’t
throwing off too much heat, so he’s not only cold as a stone, he’s hard as a
rock.
The book will be out on May 6.
