Happy Memorial Weekend! This is the unofficial start of summer. Enjoy the pool, ocean or lake near you. Have a grilled burger or hot dog and watch the kids frolic in the backyard.

What’s more American than a backyard BBQ? Don’t forget to decorate with miniature American flags and lots of red, white and blue. Take time to remember why we celebrate this holiday — to acknowledge the men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice to allow us the freedom we enjoy.

Thank you to all the men and women in uniform — those who wear it now and those who’ve worn it in years past. Salute!

I live in Murrells Inlet, SC. Being a tourist town we have a lot of conferences and conventions during the year. This time of year we have Biker Week (actually it lasts about ten days) where people with Harley Davidson motorcycles congregate to celebrate their love of their bikes.

I don’t mind the bikers — most are courteous and respectful. However, the noise they generate with their constant cruising can be a bit daunting. Did I mention the traffic? Yes, they love to cruise… as slow as possible. Okay, guess I need to take a minute and heed their advice – slow down and enjoy the ride!

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mama’s out there!

In my series The Sons of Magnolia Meyers we discover in book one that Magnolia (known as Maggie) died of cancer shortly after her youngest son, Jason, graduated from high school.  The dynamics between Jason and his older brother, Trent, is defined by the events prior to their mother’s death. It takes many years and  encouragement of the women in their lives before they can forgive and understand the other brother’s point of view.

Family relationships are often times stressed to the breaking point. Families are important and we all need to try a little harder to love each other in spite of our differences. You know you’d make your Mama proud if you did.

Have you ever thought you were being followed? Maybe someone from a romance gone wrong? Or your guilty conscience conjured up the one person who would out you?  Maybe you were searching for someone or something that found you first?

Lucinda Edwards and Jason Meyers are being followed. In book two of my series Sons of Magnolia Meyers their investigation of terrorists has someone nervous. So now what do they do? Confront the people following them? Ignore them, but be cautious? Try to outwit them? What do you think they will do?

Find out more in After the Raid this summer when it becomes available on Amazon.

Have you made your summer vacation plans yet? It won’t be long before summer is here and many people head for the mountains, beaches, or theme parks.  Some vacations center around reunions. A family reunion, school reunion or best friend reunion.

My first book in the Sons Of Magnolia Meyers series After the Reunion takes us to a high school reunion. The main character, Trent Meyers, hasn’t been back to his hometown since graduation. He spent ten years in the army and recently settled in Charleston, South Carolina. Now he’s back in town for the reunion as an undercover agent for the DEA. He is charged with infiltrating the drug ring in his hometown of Georgetown, South Carolina. The Drug Enforcement Agency is certain one of the alum’s in Trent’s class is the leader of the drug ring.

Trent wants to abolish the drug ring that is tearing his hometown apart. Along the way he  reconnects with his high school crush, Shelby Cornwell. He realizes his involvement with the dangerous drug dealers could endanger Shelby. Although he does his best to keep her off the radar of the criminals he finally admits he needs to distance himself from her to keep her safe.

Find out what happens between Shelby and Trent as well as the drug ring in Georgetown by reading After the Reunion.

Have you read my Novella, Blue Ridge Mountain Escape? The two main characters are Madison Hendricks, an Army Brat and Trevor Montgomery, a ranger. Madison has sworn never to date anyone in the military.

Once Trevor rescues Madison and they work together to bring the criminals to justice who terrorized Madison he decides to pursue a relationship. So how’s that going to work? Can he devise a plan to break down her resistance? Will it backfire? And why does Madison feel so strongly about not becoming involved with someone in the military?

All these answers await in this short, sweet romance.

Happy belated St. Patrick’s Day!  I’m part Irish so I LOVE this holiday. I’m always torn on whether I should wear green or orange on this day. Normally I go for green.

You ask — Why Orange? The flag of Ireland gives you a bit of a hint. The colors of their flag are Orange and Green separated by White. The Green represents the Catholics and Orange the Protestants with White between indicating a truce.

Most of the Irish portion of my family I’ve known about for decades are all Catholics. Recently I discovered some of my other Irish ancestors fled Ireland because of the persecution of the Protestants. What a surprise!

However, with all that said. We’re ALL Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.

Erin Go Bragh! (Translates to: Ireland Forever!)

We’ve had such a mild winter that several of my shrubs are blooming! I can’t imagine what this will do for the local crops. Will it freeze and ruin everything? I hope not but it is certainly possible. I’ve enjoyed the weather but worry about what it means for the future.

I’ve been inspired by the weather and spring like appearance of my local fauna. I added some of our local plants in my work in progress — second in the series of the Sons of Magnolia Meyers. Yes, it is about cyber crime but you can’t stay closed up in a stuffy office ALL day. Jason Meyers and Information Assurance Manager, Lucinda Edwards take a short road trip to Georgetown, SC, where Jason has words with his brother. It’s about time.  

Let’s hope Jason and Lucinda are not followed. If they are will Trent Meyers be in danger too?

On February 12, 2017, I had the privilege of being one of 75 vendors at the Lowcountry Food Bank Craft Fair. The purpose of the event was to collect donations for our local food bank. I’m happy to report the donations more than doubled last year’s collections. Over 4,100 pounds of food was donated in addition to $2,000 monetary donations.

Let’s hear it for the Myrtle Beach Community!

Thank you for putting up with my moment of gratitude.

After The Raid involves cyber security and terrorism. During my thirty plus years as a civil servant I once held the position of Information Assurance Manager for three years. That’s the name they give people whose job involves ensuring the security of the data and software on government computer systems. Since the time I held the position the difficulty of that job has increased ten-fold or more due to the continuing sophistication of computer systems and the people who try to hack them.

This story is fiction and I never had a similar experience. However, it is too easy to imagine this type of event could happen. Let’s hope it never does.

My current book in progress is the second in the series The Sons of Magnolia Meyers. Lucinda Edwards is an Information Assurance Manager which is a fancy name for the computer security person at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina which is near Columbia. She’s become embroiled with Jason Meyers’ search to uncover a cyber terrorist threat.

Jason and Lucinda quickly become aware that their lives could be in danger. They’ll need help. Can they trust the local FBI agent in charge? Or is he part of the plot? Where can they turn? Can Jason put aside his resentment of his brother, Trent, long enough to ask for help?

Sorry I haven’t created a new blog since fall. I’m sure everyone else has been as busy with the holidays as I was. Now they’re over and I’m back to writing.

I’m working on the second book of the Sons of Magnolia Meyers series. This book is titled After the Raid. The book is about Trent’s brother, Jason’s, story.  Find out more why Trent and Jason have been estranged since their mother’s death.

Jason’s seemingly mundane job as a Cost Accountant for the Department of the Army  becomes anything but staid. With help from the sexy Information Assurance Manage (computer security guru) they’ll uncover a cyber terrorist plot.

I’ll give you a few more hints about the book in next week’s blog.

The hero, Trevor Montgomery, in my latest novella, Blue Ridge Mountain Escape, is an active duty soldier. This type of character is near and dear to my heart. I spent eight years in the U.S. Army Reserves as a Warrant Officer. My husband is a retired army officer.

I was discharged and my husband retired before the conflicts in the Middle East. However, I do know some soldiers who served during that time and have seen the mental struggles they’ve dealt with upon their return.

I wanted to create a hero who battles his way back to his initial motive for becoming a soldier. It isn’t an easy lifestyle, but there is nothing more rewarding.

As I mentioned in my post last week I want to share the inspiration of the location for writing my latest novella, Blue Ridge Mountain Escape.

A few years ago my grown children were deciding where to have Christmas for our combined families. My son and his family live in Houston, my daughter and family live in Atlanta, my husband and I live in Myrtle Beach, SC.  My daughter wanted to host the group. Her two bedroom condo presented a few challenges for six adults and two rambunctious children.

Only a few miles north of Atlanta the Georgia portion of the Blue Ridge Mountain lie.  My daughter had previous experience renting a cabin in the area and decided it would be a perfect backdrop for a snowy Christmas. The town of Blue Ridge even boasted a “Polar Express” train ride complete with Santa and Frosty.

It was a magical time especially for our one and six year old grandsons.

When thinking about a new plot I wanted an out of the way location where cell phones and TVs didn’t have reception. Of course, I thought of that fabulous Christmas a few years ago where we all “unplugged” for a week.

So now you know how I picked the location for my latest novella. However,  we did NOT run into any bank robbers. Thank goodness!

Next week I’ll tell you how I chose the characteristics for my hero, Trevor Montgomery.

My new Romantic Suspense novella, Blue Ridge Mountain Escape, will be available on Amazon, Kindle and Nook, September 22, 2016.

As promised, here is an excerpt from the book:

The view from this angle had her wanting to see more. He had one fine backside. She stumbled. He turned and grabbed her arm before she did a face plant.

“Are you all right?” he whispered. His concern appeared genuine. “Is the pace too fast for you?”

“I’m fine.” Her reply matched his low voice. Heat flooded her cheeks. She’d been too preoccupied thinking about his ass to watch her step. “Caught my foot on a root. The pace is fine.”

Next week I’ll explain the inspiration for the location of this book.