a high country vacation

For the last week, we've been on the road, with our truck and trailer, which means using a hotspot (they work quite well if you have cell coverage) for Internet. We've been enjoying the beauty of the high desert-- even with less than perfect weather, which went from hot to cold. 

In a campground, at Lava Beds NM, we met friends. This is in Northern California where there is history, mysticism, and natural beauty. For me, it's always been great to meet someone I've known only online. In this case, even online, I only knew one of the women, who has a future as a writer, I think. I didn't know her friend or husband. The men got along very well, and we three women enjoyed each other. We had some great conversations and shared bits of our lives. My friend and her husband have had catastrophic health problems, which are not resolved at this point, but their attitude toward what they face is courageous. They are living their lives as fully as they can, which is inspiring. I hope she writes some of her stories as they should be out there.

I think I will set a future contemporary paranormal in the Tule Lake and Lava Beds area-- lots of inspiration with its history and current conflicts over land use.  I will post more photos next week.

Being somewhere like that is how ideas for books come about. I don't use people I know or their stories. My characters come from my imagination, but the settings, which very much become characters in my books, they are real even if I have to change a name to avoid someone thinking I am using real people. Sometimes a setting calls out for a book as happened with me in December at Barrio Viejo or again in Northern California.


I like writing historical and contemporary books. Some writers feel they should use different names when they move into a different sub-genre, but I feel the heart of my books stays the same-- and people aren't as different as some might think even if cultural norms do change-- and have even in my lifetime.

With my new series, The Hemstreet Witches, it's been fun to work out a supernatural set of parameters and set the story in a place I love spending time-- Arizona. The stories won't all be in Tucson area although the first one will. The Enchantress' Secret is due out the end of May or first of June-- depending on when we get back to the farm as not easy to publish from the road.

 Images were all purchased from CanStock Photos. This will be in the eBook trailer