A perfect moment: those times when we’re trudging through the mud and the muck of life, or perhaps just treading across the uneven ground, and we stumble upon a fragment of time when all our troubles fade into the distance and all seems right in our world.  You can’t plan a perfect moment, they just sort of creep up on you amid the daily hubbub, sometimes amid a crisis, settling over you like a warm cloud, and in that moment the stars align, clouds part, and you’re able to see life’s blessings with stunning clarity.  In my own life, it’s the simplest moments that stand out the most, like being stopped at a traffic light and laughing with my boys as they reenact their school-yard antics, and realizing in that moment how grateful I am to have them; stuck on the tarmac in the blazing Arizona heat with my hubby, crammed in those tight airplane seats, and laughing about laughing at our rotten luck–and what could have been a horrible experience suddenly becomes a perfect moment.   Recently I’ve been dealing with some healing issues that have set me back far more than I could have anticipated and while the process has been disappointing and frustrating, it’s also given me some of those perfect moments. As a parent I spoil and praise and dote on my boys every chance I get. My boys are your average long-haired, music-blaring, video gaming, do-I-have-to-take-the-trash-out-NOW? teens, and I see it as my job to keep their days running smoothly, the positive energy flowing, and to do what I can to make their lives generally happy. There’s been days when I’ve wondered if I was teaching them respect and consideration by example, or simply spoiling them. Well, in mid December the whole Mom’s-got-it-covered routine in our lives came to a grinding halt. Not only could I not tend to their needs…I needed them to tend to mine. And my boys amazed me. They were far more helpful and gracious than I could have expected and when days turned into weeks, their patience and positive attitudes didn’t waver. A couple weeks ago when I was about to do more than I should, and one of my boys dropped his game controller and jumped up, saying, “No, mom. I’ll take care of that.” (as they’ve done repeatedly in the past month) My hubby and I looked at each other and captured a perfect moment, when all the work and worry we put into parenting turned to pride, and all was well in my world. Now, my boys aren’t old enough to drive yet, so I’m sure I’ll need moments like these to reflect on during those less-than-perfect moments when I’m shouting something more along the lines of “What were you thinking?!” *g* but such is the balance of life.

As a writer, these are my favorite moments in a book, when the characters are caught up in the action and calamity happening all around, and something happens to take them deeper into that moment, a touch, a look, and without warning, there it is, a perfect moment–and suddenly their burdens are lifted, even if just for those few seconds, they appreciate the beauty of just being there with each other in that moment in time.  They often catch me by surprise right along with my characters…just as they do in life.  I find some of my favorite books by other authors are defined by those “awww” moments that capture my heart.  In Laveryl Spencer’s HUMMINGBIRD, Jessie DuFrayne has come back to town on the eve of Miss Abigail’s wedding day…he’s budged his way into her house, giving Abby no choice but to hear him out. As they sit with their feet propped near the stove and she begins to talk about her wedding plans, their toes touch, their eyes meet, and for a brief moment the rest of the world falls away and there’s nothing left but the rightness of being there in that moment with each other ….*sigh*   The moment is quickly snuffed, but it’s those glimmars of hope that keep me turning the pages, and rooting for that happily-ever-after.  We know there’s still muck and mud to be treaded…but with plenty of those perfect moments captured in between, the rough patches seem a little lighter.

So, how about y’all?  Care to share any perfect moments?  How about your favorite character “perfect moment” from a book?

“One day I was speeding along at the typewriter, and my daughter – who was a child at the time – asked me, ‘Daddy, why are you writing so fast?’ And I replied, ‘Because I want to see how the story turns out!’”                 ~ Louis L’Amour 

The life of one of the most beloved writers of all time was as full of adventure and as many exciting people as the characters he created.  Louis grew up in North Dakota.  His grandfather came to live in a cabin on the family’s property and Louis loved listening to his stories of the old west.  Ironically, the Indians his grandfather once fought came to visit regularly, adding to the wealth of stories, until his grandfather’s death.  After the economy of the upper Midwest collapsed, Dr. LaMoore, his wife Emily, and their sons Louis and John traveled across the country for seven years.  Louis skinned cattle in west Texas, baled hay in the Pecos Valley of New Mexico, and worked in the mines of Arizona, California and Nevada.  He labored in the sawmills and lumberyards of Oregon and Washington.  

Louis’s biography states that it was during his travels that he met the wide variety of characters that would later become the inspiration for his writing. “In Oklahoma they were men like Bill Tilghman, once the marshal of Dodge City; Chris Madsen who had been a Deputy U.S. Marshall and a Sergeant with the 5th cavalry; and Emmett Dalton of the notorious Dalton Gang. In New Mexico he met George Coe and Deluvina Maxwell who had both known Billy the Kid; Tom Pickett who’d had a thumb shot off in the Lincoln County War; Tom Threepersons who had been both a Northwest Mounted Policeman and a Texas Ranger; and Elfagio Baca, a famous New Mexico lawyer who had once engaged over eighty of Tom Slaughter’s cowboys for 33 hours in one of the west’s most famous gunfights.  

During his years in Arizona, Louis met Jeff Milton, a Texas Ranger and Border Patrolman and Jim Roberts, the last survivor of the Tonto Basin War. But perhaps most importantly, during the years he was traveling around the country, young Louis met hundreds of men and women who, though unknown historically, were equally important as examples of what the people of the nineteenth century were like.” 

After the family left Jamestown, Louis became a professional boxer, winning nearly every match and later making money in prizefights.  He became a trainer, where he saw the world of fighters, managers, gangsters and gamblers firsthand. He coached several successful Golden Gloves teams and eventually drew from his experiences for many of the boxing stories in his collections.  

Later, Louis hoboed across the country, hopping freight trains with men who had been riding the rails for half a century.  Recently, while researching my current book. I ran across the term ‘hobo’, a name the men who worked their way across the country gave themselves.  These traveling workers were the backbone of our country’s expansion.  As they drove spikes, felled trees and harvested crops, the working conditions were often terrible.  Louis wrapped newspaper under his clothes to keep warm while sleeping in hobo jungles, grain bins and the gaps in piles of lumber.  

His biography says he spent three months on the beach in San Pedro, California and circled the globe as a merchant seaman, visiting England, Japan, China, Borneo, the Dutch East Indies, Arabia, Egypt, and Panama, along with the rough and ready crews of various steamships on which he served. In later years, he wrote stories about these times, his own experiences and those of people he had known. Many of these stories were published in collections.  

Traveling around the country and working in various remote locations gave Louis an intimate first-hand knowledge of the territory and landscape where the majority of his stories would be set. He hiked through the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, the South Pass area of Wyoming, the boot heel of New Mexico, and the Utah Canyon Lands, to name only a few of the places which would later become the settings for his books.  It’s no wonder his stories are rich in character and setting, for he must have been a keen observer of life and locales.  In an interview I watched, he claimed to love the mountains and the deserts equally, appreciating our country’s vastness and beauty. 

Louis first sold “pulp fiction” to pay the bills. He once complained that he was about to wear his typewriter out from having to hit the keys hard enough to make his depleted ribbon ink the letters. 

WWII interrupted his writing.  Afterward, with many short stories and a few adventure novels published, he attended a party where an editor told him they needed westerns and suggested Louis write one.  Louis created Chick Beaudry and wrote Guns of the Timberlands.  Louis studied diaries, journals and newspapers of the times, often taking stories right from diaries and always making history and people authentic.

In 1959 Louis L’Amour wrote The Daybreakers, his first novel about his fictional Sackett family. It chronicled the story of two brothers moving west to escape the feuding and poverty of the Tennessee Mountains. They join one of the first cattle drives to Kansas, seek their fortunes on the southern plains, and finally settle in Mora, New Mexico. As they explore the landscape of the west, they learn the cost of friendship, love, and the value of education.

The Daybreakers stands out as one of Louis’ finest novels and was one of his personal favorites.  It spans a great deal of western history, from the early cattle drives to the legal battles and racial tension over land distribution in early New Mexico Territory.  The Daybreakers also includes some of L’Amour’s greatest characters; the hard bitten Tyrell Sackett and his all too affable older brother Orrin; Tom Sunday, the powerful man who starts as their mentor only to become consumed with hatred and jealousy; the scheming Jonathan Pritts and his lovely daughter Laura, soon to become Laura Sackett; Don Luis, the embattled owner of the Alvarado Land Grant and his feuding lieutenants Juan Torres and Chico Cruz. Amazingly, there are nineteen Sackett stories.

At the time he sold his first westerns, they were not considered literature, and paperbacks were not regarded with any respect, but he defied the norm, writing about something he loved to become a national phenomenon.  In 1982 he became the first novelist in American history to receive a Congressional Gold Medal, and less than two years later he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  In 1981 he jumped to being a #1 New York Times Hardback Bestseller.  After reading all his books in paperback, I later acquired a collection in leather-bound hardcover – they hold a proud place on my bookshelves. 

Louis was one of the first authors to ever have his own section in the stores.  He wrote a total of 120 books.  All are still in print, and all are still selling.  One hundred of his books have sold at least one million copies.  There are twenty-eight movies credited to his talented imagination, including The Shadow Riders, The Sacketts, Crossfire Trail and The Quick and the Dead.  For television, he’s credited with an episode of Maverick, one of Sugarfoot, ten episodes of Hondo and several Disney programs. Was Mr. L’Amour an amazing man, or what?

“What is attractive to people reading this kind of book is the idea of the freedom of the Western man, getting on a horse and moving on somewhere else. We all have dreams of wanting to be this kind of a free agent. To me there was no period in the world’s history that is so fascinating as the era in which the American West was opening up. And these old characters were tough. If you didn’t shoot them they lived forever.”   ~ Louis L’Amour

The Louis L’Amour website is a font of information about this fascinating and gifted man.  I recommend checking it out to learn more about his life and his books.  You can watch videos, hear interviews, see photos, learn character family trees, read behind the scenes stories, plus more.  http://www.louislamour.com/

One of the videos shows him typing with two index fingers!  I got a kick out of that, but the thing that really stands out to me when I read about him is the love he had for writing.  He took true pleasure in his craft.  Perhaps that’s why his stories have brought reading pleasure to generations of western fans.  Have you read any of his books?  If not, have I enticed you to give them a try? 

I’ll bet you can’t read just one.

It’s that time of the week again, darlings. Ah know you’re wondering who’s coming so without further ado, I’ll get right to it. This Saturday we’ll host Miss Phyliss Miranda. She hails from the great state of Texas and is itching to talk about how she fell into this writing business. Plus she’ll discuss her story in the anthology, Give Me a Texan.

Old Joe, the telegrapher here in Wildflower Junction, said Miss Miranda’s hitched her team of mules to the wagon and finally got the ornery critters on the trail. ‘Course them mules take their own sweet time, but Miss Miranda will reach us by Saturday. Get out your Sunday-go-to-meetin’ clothes and join us in welcoming her. Take care now.

Elizabeth Lane’s post last week on sidekicks got me to thinking about the women who made their cowboys look good on television and film.   Like Elizabeth said, ‘A good sidekick is a real gem.’  

Well, I figure a good woman’s gotta be just about priceless.

How about Amanda Blake?  We knew her as Kitty Russell on Gunsmoke.   She was only 27 years old when she took on the role, and for 20 years she enjoyed her reign as a household name.  Gunsmoke was the longest running Western ever.   As far as I knew, she and Matt Dillon never kissed, but boy, I sure hoped they would.

Perhaps it’s not surprising with a reign that long, that she tired of the role, saying, “God, if I have to put on that damn bustle and those curls one more time, I’m gonna snap.  Nineteen years is a hell of a long time for someone to be stuck behind a bar.”

Seems those words came back to haunt her.  Her career faltered after that (as did the show, which was cancelled the next year). 

She married five times, was a longtime heavy smoker who underwent oral cancer surgery, then had to have therapy to regain her ability to talk.  Her fourth husband was openly bisexual and died of AIDS; she in turn died of AIDS complications in 1989 at the age of 60.

And then there was Linda Cristal.  Remember her?  She played Victoria Montoya Cannon on High Chaparral (loved that show!).  Beautiful and flamboyant, she had a turbulent childhood.  Though born in Argentina, her family was exiled to Uruguay due to her father’s involvement in a political dispute.  Tragically, her parents were killed in a car crash in 1947.  The crash was billed as a suicide pact as a result of her mother becoming comatose from lack of insulin and her father’s distress from his inability to support his family while in exile.

Like Amanda Blake, Linda married five times, and despite her beauty, her luck ran bad with men.  Her first marriage lasted 5 days, her second 11 months, her third 6 years, her fourth ( ? Well, I’m not sure but she married him in 1968 and had husband #5 in 1972.)  She enjoyed her tenure on High Chaparral, claiming she ‘got along with all of the cast members because I was the only woman, and that made it easier.’

Today, she is retired and spends her time between several homes.

Here’s one to jog your memories.  Gail Davis.  She played Annie Oakley on television and became well-known for her signature pigtails and pistols.  Weighing all of 95 lbs. and reaching only 5 ft. 2 ins., she got her start in a supporting role with Roy Rogers, then went on to appear in well over 30 films, all but three which were westerns.  She appeared with Gene Autry in 14 films.  She was a great trick rider and shot and once commented, “I’ll be Annie Oakley for the rest of my born days.”  I think she was right.

After she left the entertainment business, she toured western film shows and memorabilia festivals.  She died from cancer in 1997.  In 2004, she was inducted posthumously into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.

Inger Stevens.  Ah, doesn’t that face bring you back?  She had a rough life, though, being born in Sweden and starting out as an often-ill and insecure child.  She left home at age 16, headed to NYC and began a life in show business. 

She was best known for her leading role in the television series, The Farmer’s Daughter, but she landed roles on Bonanza and in Hang ‘Em High with Clint Eastwood.  She had numerous affairs with Hollywood’s leading men, including Bing Crosby and Burt Reynolds, then committed suicide in 1970 by flinging herself through a glass screen while gripped in the throes of an overdose of drugs.

How sad is that?

Now, I’m wondering – Why do we have this fascination with movie stars?  Even more, why were/are their lives often turbulent?  Why do they have commitment issues? 

How do you think you’d like a life in the limelight?  Maybe the money and glamour would be worth it.   Or not.  Is it possible a normal childhood would shield a person from a high-profile life?  Help them commit to one man as a forever mate?

Any ideas?  I’d love to hear them!

Long before I could read, back when I was knee high to a grasshopper, I loved listening to fairy tales that someone read to me. It was more than entertainment. I learned to savor good overcoming evil and basked in the knowledge that deep personal trials reap huge reward. I was fascinated by Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzul, Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretel, and the Ugly Duckling. I never got tired of hearing them and to this day I’m still a sucker for those kind of stories. The prince or princess always endured some horrible tragedy to get the person of their dreams in the end. Like Cinderella, they were often the underdogs. And sometimes they might’ve been ugly. Remember the princess who kissed the frogs until one magically turned into a handsome prince?

Do some of these sound like a romance?

Actually, a lot of romance stories are based on fairy tales. The basic reason for that is the premise that love has to be tested to know if it’s real. Our characters have to prove what’s in their hearts by going through a series of hardships (normally the magic of threes) to reach the prize or their goal. And in some cases, they have to learn to trust what they feel by sometimes losing the thing they value most only to find it again. It’s strange that we don’t often recognize a precious treasure until we lose it.

Cinderella had to bear the brunt of taunts and meanness to overcome and get the prince. The Beast had to show the Beauty that he had a pure heart capable of great love. And she had to learn that what’s on the inside is more important than the physical. The Ugly Duckling had to believe he was worth something to someone and looked until he found the place where he belonged.

In fiction as in real life we all search for a place to fit in and feel at home. The hardened gunslinger with an aching heart searches for that one place where he’ll find acceptance and love with a special woman. 

One author springs to mind who really portrays the Cinderella story. That’s Jodi Thomas. She writes great heroines with older sisters who pass her around, each one desperately trying to get her married off so they can be rid of the responsibility. The older sisters are always impatient and usually scorn the heroine. She’s often mistreated and sometimes a little plain but possesses a gentle loving spirit. That’s what Jodi’s story in Give Me a Texan is about and it’s a humdinger. One thing for sure, Cinderella heroines always end up with the handsome prince and live happily every after.

My work in progress is a beauty and beast tale. She’s very pretty. He’s been disfigured in an accident and thinks no one will ever want him. His life is over. It has its own built in conflict and maybe by the time I’m finished, it’ll even tug at your heartstrings.

The best stories I think are ones where perfection is seemingly as far from possible as jumping up to kiss the moon. Those are the page-turners. Even though we know the guy will get the girl (or vice versa) in the end, we want to know what he has to go through in order for it to happen. And we want to root for him every step of the way. 

What are your thoughts about fairy tales? Can you see them in our romance stories? And if you have a favorite fairy tale romance, share it with us.

P.S. Don’t forget to enter our big Spring Round-Up Contest. Lots of great prizes and you can’t win if you don’t enter. You can find it by scrolling down the left side of the screen and clicking on contest. Good Luck!

I’m often asked where – and how – I get names for my characters. I must admit that after fifty books, it’s getting a wee bit more difficult, but then some names come along with the first buds of a story idea. I’m always amazed when I hear some of my fellows writers say they don’t know the name of their characters until the middle of the book. They might call them x and z or just “he” and “she” until the right name pops into their head. I can’t do that. The name, to me, is an intricate part of who they are and how they are going to act and react.It was easy in the beginning. We all have names that immediately bring images to mind. In my western heroes, it was always strength. That usually mean short, stark names like Matt (Although my preference for that name probably comes from my long, devoted association with Matt Dillon).So my western heroes included Rafe, Rhys (an Englishman who tried to steal an earlier book and got his own western), Wade, Ben, Clint, Sean, Kane and Ben.Sometimes the name hits at the same time as a story line. One was MacKenzie. I knew from the very first inkling of the story line what his name would be. It came with the idea.. MacKenzie was the half-breed son of a hermit Scotsman who loved Robert Burns.

Thanks to everyone who visited Wildflower Junction over the weekend!  Roxanne was a terrific guest, wasn’t she?  We are plumb lucky to get authors like her visiting us each and every week! 

As promised, Roxanne drew three names!  And here are the winners: 

Taryn Raye

Kathleen

Forst Rose

Lucky readers, email Roxanne and right away with your addresses and she will answer you promptly about your gift!    RRustand@mchsi.com

Just thought I’d jog you girls’ memories about our spring contest. Don’t lollygag around. Throw your name into the pot and quit wastin’ time. We have all these prizes just sittin’ here waiting for some good winner. Might be you, you never can tell. If you’re having a problem finding out where to go to enter, just look over on the left side of the screen until you find the contest.

Good luck and God bless!

Research…sounds sorta dry, doesn’t it?  Maybe for some.  But give me a cute cowboy, the vast ranch lands of Texas or Montana, or the incredible Rockies, and I’m totally lost in the world of the West! And the research is as much fun as the writing of the actual book. 

Do you ever wonder how an author does  research  for a book?  I think I started my general research when I was six years old.  My dad bought me an elderly mare and bridle for $75.00 (no saddle for a couple years–the old horse trader down the road said that was the only way to learn!)  and turned me loose–and from then on, I was on horseback from dawn to dusk, unless I had to be in school.  It was like giving a six-year-old the car keys!   

I grew up riding bareback throughout half the county, with all of my horse-owning  friends.  We played Civil War and  were cowboys and Indians.  We  were little girls in pigtails, racing across meadows and followed every gravel road we could find.  It was a magical childhood, before the times when parents became afraid to let their kids out of sight.  I rode in rain and heavy snow, and loved  loping across snow drifted fields–and now look back and can only be thankful that my guardian angel was working overtime!  Eventually, I began to do a lot of showing, and starting raising and training my own horses…and then worked as a demonstration rider for a while, for a horseman who traveled the USA giving horse training clinics.   Later, my husband and I  raised quarter horses, then thoroughbreds. It all proved to be great research for writing books set in the West! 

Many of my horses (and other pets, like my son’s pet corn snake, Igor…or my husband’s beloved Schipperke, the Grandma Bitin’ Dog)  have become major elements in my books.   Cherry who appeared in A MONTANA FAMILY.  

Cherry was a seventeen-hand Thoroughbred-Clydesdale cross, bred to be a heavy hunter, I suppose, back in the day before the large influx of imported warm bloods.  He had the color pattern of Budweiser horse, with a broad white blaze and white socks, the lankiness of a Thoroughbred, and personality to burn.  Tall as he was, he would lay down and shimmy under  fences to escape, and he did that on a regular basis.  He loved to go sight-seeing at night, and was particularly fascinated by houses and the people inside.  His own brand of Horse TV, I guess.  Scared a few people out of a few years, I’m sure.  One night, a couple looked outside and saw an eerie white form with glowing eyes “floating” outside their window–spying on them.  Terrified that they were seeing an alien, they called the sheriff and several patrol cars arrived with lights and sirens…only to find Cherry standing on the couple’s bushes, watching them through the window. 

Another horse loved to play hide-and-go-seek out in the pasture.  He would hide his head (all that matters, right?!) behind a bush, and when I would run out to “find” him, he would take off bucking at the last minute.  Then I would hide, and he’d come looking for me!  He would play for an hour.  I went Trick or Treating on him, which he loved, because he got to share the treats.  And when I rode him to the post office, he liked that too–because I often got him a maple nut ice cream cone from the drugstore  next door.  It was the only flavor he liked! 

A lifetime with horses has been such a blessing…and even now, there’s nothing more satisfying than looking outside at the horses out in the pasture, and ahhh….the memories!  Can you imagine what it would be like to feel as if you are dancing on air?  Get on a good cutting horse, point him in the right direction and give him his head–and that magical experience will live on in your heart forever!  Riding in the surf south of San Diego….or through maple forests aflame with color in Northern Minnesota–incredible. 

Something out of my usual realm was the research for RODEO!  Through a chain of fortunate events, I  met a rodeo contractor who let me ride with him and his wife to observe their work first-hand, and also met the wife of a man who was heavily involved in producing PBR rodeos. The notes from those interviews  were a book in themselves, and the chance to spend a lot of time in the back lot, interviewing clowns and bull riders (so cute and shy, and so young!)  were perfect research for picking up on the nuances of speech, and gesture and attitude that I needed.    

And that brings up a good point.  People are almost always so gracious and, well, delighted to talk about their lives and careers!  And there’s nothing like interviews to really get into the personality of a character.  To those of you who are writers–don’t hesitate to ask people.  It isn’t hard to find people who are willing, either.  Try your local sheriff….firemen…doctors….private investigators.  Others can be tracked down through the Internet, by googling websites. 

I’ve met the loveliest people that way!  Ranch women.  Finger print analysts.  DEA agents (ending up doing a four book series on them!)   Veterinarians, lawyers and funeral home directors (I set one book in that world– OPERATION: SECOND CHANCE–which was fun!)  But of course, my true love is the West…ranching and horses and those  strong, independent  men and women who live there.  What could be more perfect than a cowboy? I’ve written nineteen books, now. Ten of them have been set in Wyoming, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Montana, and each time I start a book involving livestock, heroes wearing a Stetson, and the West, I feel like I’ve come home again. 

My last four books were LONE STAR LEGACY, a Superromance set in  Texas ranch country, that came out last September, followed by The Snow Canyon Ranch  trilogy.  In the trilogy, each story involves a daughter of an indomitable, tough widow who fought to hold her ranch together, and raised her family against all odds.  Old wounds drove the family apart years ago, but Claire’s failing health has now brought her daughters together.    

In HARD EVIDENCE (December, 2007),  Janna plans to refurbish an abandoned guest lodge on a distant part of the family’s Snow Canyon Ranch,  with hopes of starting a new life for herself and her young daughter. It’s a great plan, until skeletal remains are discovered at the lodge, and the murderer resurfaces

In VENDETTA (February, 2008), Leigh returns to establish a veterinary clinic. She loves the challenge of dealing with everyone from grizzled old cowhands to the super-elite settling in the area with their pampered horses and pets–but someone wants her to fail, and won’t stop at murder to see it happen.  The hero–you guessed it–is a rancher!

In WILDFIRE (March, 2008), Tessa is living out her dreams, running the family’s horse and cattle ranch, and operating a high country outfitting business on the side. It’s going well, until a vagabond photographer shows up and dangers mount…

Those of you who post questions or comments will be entered in a drawing for three prizes–  autographed copies of LONE STAR LEGACY or HARD EVIDENCE–or books of your choosing from all of the ones listed at my websites at www.roxannerustand.com  or www.shoutlife.com/roxannerustand

I have copies of most of my past releases but not all, so the winners can email several choices and  I’ll do my best.Happy trails to all of you!Roxanne Rustand    

My girlfriend is here and she picked a name out of a hat!

STEF D – You can thank Pam for picking your name.  Send me your

email addy at Charlenesands@hotmail.com and I’ll send you

the Heart of a Cowboy!!