Hallmark Book Club Pick!
A Dog Called Valentine a Hallmark Book Club Featured Title!
A Hallmark Book Club Featured Title
Larissa Wohl, host of numerous Hallmark Channel Specials and resident “Pet Rescue Expert,” also runs the Hallmark Book Club. This month, she’s chosen my book!
Larissa has been hosting the club for more than a year, and always picks stories focused on the human-animal bond.
Past Hallmark Book Club titles include:
Who Rescued Who by Victoria Schade
The Wonder of Lost Causes: A Novel by Nick Trout,
Atticus: A Woman’s Journey with the World’s Worst Behaved Dog by Sawyer Bennett
Join me and Larissa at the February meeting!
On Thursday, February 24/2022 at 5 pm PT I’ll be chatting with Larissa about A Dog Called Valentine via Zoom. Will you join us? I’d LOVE to see some familiar faces there.
If you’d like to pop in (you don’t need to join the club) email Larissa at [email protected] for the Zoom link and she’ll save you a spot. You can also email me at [email protected] and I’ll get you set up.
I can’t wait to see you! It’s going to be such fun!
Love Notes from the Lake
If you wonder what I’ve been up to lately, this photo might explain it. Walking around the lake with Ray and Luna is a never-ending joy
The people in our new community are wonderful, too. My new next-door neighbor Ruth, in fact, is the inspiration for this newsletter. I love Ruth. She appreciates people and isn’t afraid to shout that from the rooftops.
Ruth is also a phenomenal cook and frequently asks us to “help her” by tasting her mushroom risotto, or double-crunch chicken, or blueberry coffee cake. We do her this favor because that’s what friends are for.
On her Facebook page, Ruth posts beautiful Loves Notes highlighting the important people in her life. Even though I don’t know most of these people, reading them always brings a smile to my face.
So, with a nod to Ruth, that’s what my revamped newsletter is about. Love Notes. Reminding people – YOU – what you mean to me and why.
I’ll also update you a bit on my life and my books, but honestly, that bores me so there won’t be much of it. (Also, if you want to know about that, ask to join my private Facebook reader group. I don’t post much on “regular” Facebook anymore, being more of a small group kind of gal.)
Love Note #1
My very first Love Note goes out to Kim of ReadYourWrites book reviews. Kim – Kimmie to me – has been with me from my very first book. For a writer just starting out, when no one has ever read your books before, to have someone you don’t know post that they LOVE it, well. That does something for a fragile writer’s heart. (Kim, one day when we meet in person, I’ve got a big hug for you.) Kim is more than enthusiastic and kind, however; she’s also unflinchingly honest, which is vital in a reviewer – and a friend. When she starts off hating a character of mine – and she’s hated a few – she says it. Then she says something to the effect of “… but I read the book anyway because I knew Roxanne would make it worth my while – and she did.”
Ah, Kimmie. Thank you. Thank you!
Audio Books
In other news, a year ago, Tule Publishing negotiated a fantastic deal with Blackstone Publishing for the audio editions of my books. Over the past several months, they’ve been produced, and are now all available.
Narrator Felicity Munroe does an amazing job with my Montana Home and Love at the Chocolate Shop books, as well as A Dog Called Valentine and was kind enough to tell me that recording my books helped keep her spirits up during those early dark days of Covid-19.
Three River Ranch – relaunched as Wild Sky Romance!
Finally, I’m excited to announce that my very first series is being relaunched! The series, originally titled Three River Ranch, has been languishing on the bottom shelf, so to speak, so we’ve updated and re-edited the books, given them fresh covers and new titles and they are now being released as the Wild Sky series. If you’ve been with me for a while, you might recall these stories.
If you’re a newer reader and have missed these, I urge you to give them a try; set in Montana with wild mustangs, service dogs, babies, wounded heroes, these books are dear to my heart. They launched my career, put me on bestseller lists and connected me to many, many wonderful and kind readers – like YOU! I’m glad to see them alive again and hope you’ll give them a warm welcome.
Until the next Love Note from the Lake… stay well and happy reading!
Love, Roxanne
A Sheriff, an Elf, and a Reindeer…
A sheriff, an elf, and a reindeer…
No, it’s not the start of a joke. 🙂 It’s the very first Christmas story I wrote, a novella titled SAVING THE SHERIFF. The hero, a sheriff, is looking after his friends’ ranch during the holidays, when he discovers a woman dressed as an elf and a trailer of “reindeer” stuck in the snow. He’s a bit uptight, she’s a free spirit but when they get stormed in, they discover they have more in common than they thought.
Here’s a snippet for you:
“Help you?”
Frankie jumped and dropped her flashlight. Bone-deep instinct kicked in, a primal watch out, honey! Not necessarily danger…but maybe.
Two words, and oh, baby. No gruff old-timer, his voice sounded young, strong…and smoky, full of…campfire stories…and marshmallows roasted on fresh-cut branches…
She gave her head a shake. Don’t be an idiot, Frankie.
He was a man with a truck.
“I’m stuck.” She put on her most innocent grin and faced the headlights. She couldn’t see a thing through the snow. “Can you help me out?”
Three River was supposed to be empty over Christmas. At least, the ranch’s Facebook page had indicated the family was in Maui. The mustang sanctuary was well-known among animal lovers and Frankie felt certain they’d have helped her cause, if she could have asked them. So she’d taken a chance that they wouldn’t mind. That in fact, they’d never know.
Yet here was a man, from what she could hear over the snarl of engines and wind. A man unexpected, in every way.
But what if he was private security? Or worse, a game warden.
Stop it! Think positively, Frankie!
Maybe, despite the little mishap with the ditch, the universe was on her side after all. Maybe this was just a kindhearted local who’d be delighted to help out a damsel in distress.
The man stepped out, leaving the engine running and the driver’s door standing open. This time she caught a glimpse of a cowboy hat and beneath it, a stubbled jawline. Broad shoulders. And tall. He held up a much better flashlight than the one she had, shining it high, scanning the truck, the listing trailer. Then scanning her. The beam of light traveled over her body, up and down, leaving no inch untouched. Warmth rose to her cheeks, prickly in the winter air.
“Wanna tell me who you are and what you’re doing here?” He cleared his throat and she thought she heard the glimmer of a smile. “Lost on your way to work?”
“Ha-ha.” She sighed and stamped her feet, aching with cold now that she was standing still. “Yes, I’m wearing an elf costume. Can you pull me out or what?”
He walked up to the trailer and shone the beam inside. He moved smoothly, deliberately—like a hunter she thought, her breath quickening.
“That option disappeared about six inches ago, I’d say.” The man knocked his fist against the side of the truck, the metal echoing hollowly, and then he moved the light off her and aimed it out into the empty field. “Red LeClair, Lutherton sheriff and currently in charge of this icy little slice of heaven. Wanna tell me what’s going on out here? Ma’am?”
Sheriff! Universe: home run, Frankie: out.
Frankie followed his light where it dissolved in the darkness, watched it catch on low shrubs and rocks sticking up through the snow. She swept a gloved hand over her cheek and bit her lip. She’d expected the animals to bound off into the sunset the second she opened the trailer, but it hadn’t happened like that. They’d wandered off to the nearest wooded area, but that’s as far as they’d gone. At least the snow was coming down so hard and fast their hoofprints were nearly covered already. But would they find the food set out for the mustangs? They wouldn’t last long in this weather.
Go! Run! She urged them silently. Had she been too late? Were they already too habituated to humans? This was the perfect location for them. Perfect!
As his light moved, she could see the gleam of eyes, still watching from the woods. Darn!
“What this looks like,” he said, clicking off his light and crossing his arms, “is trespassing. For starters.”“Look,” she said, eager to draw his attention back. “I’m sure this looks a little…odd—”
She swallowed. “Technically, you might have a point. But I can explain.”
“How about we start with your license and registration, please. Ma’am.”
And that’s when Frankie began to suspect the universe wasn’t just having a little fun at her expense, but was in fact a PMSing
hag. She rummaged through the glove box until she found the crumpled insurance papers belonging to Conrad Toole, the man who owned the truck and the dilapidated roadside Christmas display she’d been part of. Until tonight, when she’d liberated the five young elk he’d been parading as reindeer.
She could see how this might appear sketchy.