Thanksgiving joy and Waldenbooks #8, Bookscan #66!

My daughter took this Thanksgiving picture of me. On next Sunday's post, I will try to put up pictures of her on her horse. Having been sick with a cold all week, I missed the fun of hanging out in the barn Saturday morning and the chance to take pics of her jumping for the first time on this horse!

The Christmas, Texas Style anthology is having great results, and I am so excited. It seems like a dream! Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me and my work.

I am busily working on the third synopsis of the new Tulips series, and getting ready to work in more depth on the first book. It's so much fun!

We ate too much, we had so much fun this weekend. . . we needed the relaxation after the kids were sick for two solid weeks. Now we head into final exams and deadline season . . . book due on the 23rd, but I'm halfway done with my Christmas shopping!!

Oh, I know, in order to appreciate why this Thanksgiving was such a lovely one, I should relate a Thanksgiving past story:

Every year (except this year), I have been the Thanksgiving cook. I like doing T-day. This is my day to get out the crystal and china and have absolutely everybody over, and my kids regard this as tradition in our house.

Well, a couple of years ago, the bird cooked, and it cooked, and it cooked, but it wouldn't get done. The thermometer wouldn't register that it was ready, though the skin was starting to turn a deep mahogany (read fairly black on top)!! I couldn't figure out the problem. I mean, I was so mad, I finally took another thermometer--figuring it was the thermometer's fault--and plunged it into the bird. It was one of those fork-style thermometers, and to my irritation, though I'd plunged it deeply, it didn't register a thing! Greatly annoyed, I pulled it out, preparing to plunge it deeply into a different part of the bird, and my husband said, "Tina, you left the rubber caps on." I looked at him like he was insane and jabbed the bird again! He took the fork from me, pulled it out, and showed me that the reason the thermometer fork wasn't registering was that, in fact, there were rubber tips on the end of the fork. By now, the rubber tips were, of course, embedded and lost inside the turkey, not to be found by anything less than surgical removal by an expert, which I wasn't. Now I'm getting embarrassed, because I realize someone was going to get rubber tips with their dinner. Finally, my father-in-law took over. I saw him working on the turkey, doing this and that, as he sliced it. One tip was found, to my relief, and one was later found by a guest and celebrated as a prize. However, it wasn't until I went to the sink that I saw what my father-in-law had been hiding--the bag of giblets lying in the sink. I'd cooked the turkey with the frozen giblets inside it, which was keeping the turkey from registering that it was thoroughly cooked. There were two bags of giblets inside that lucky turkey that year, and I'd only found one when I cleaned him!

Love, Tina

Excitement!

The bonus Malfunction Junction story in the Christmas, Texas Style anthology was so much fun to write! Linda, Leah, and I are celebrating--the anthology sold out at eharlequin, hit Bookscan bestseller list at #56, Waldenbooks list at #8, and bn.com Har Am series at #1 for several days running. This is the meaning of joy! There is nothing better than sharing holidays with family, friends, and readers!

TULIPS SALOON series new in Sept 06!

You are invited to the Tulips Saloon

September 2006 with MY BABY, MY BRIDE, the first of a new three-book series by Tina Leonard!

We met our determined friends Pansy Trifle and Helen Granger in Crockett's Seduction. Since then they've been scheming to model the town of Tulips, Texas after Union Junction. They've got a family every bit as stubborn as the Jefferson brothers to tame, and they're declaring Ladies Only Day.Sheriff Duke Forrester's gonna have a fit when he finds out what the ladies have been hiding from him.

The Tulips Saloon series~~September 2006 November 2006 February 2007

MY BABY, MY BRIDE

By Tina Leonard


It was Ladies' Only Day in the Tulips Saloon in Tulips, Texas, but Sheriff Duke Forrester pitched the heavy glass-and-wood doors open anyway, drawing a gasp from the crowd of women clustered around something in the center of the Saloon.

The ladies were, as usual, hiding something from him. It was a conspiracy, and in this town named by women, and mostly run by women--it was true that behind every good woman there was a woman who'd taught her everything she knew--he had learned to outmaneuver both the young and the older population of ladies bent on intrigues of the social, sexual, and secretive varieties.

"I heard," he said, his voice a no-nonsense drawl, "that Liberty Wentworth was back in town. You ladies wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

To a woman, they shook their heads and tightened their circle. It was, he decided, almost an engraved invitation for him to storm their protective clutch and find out what they were up to. By now, they should know he was on to them. Oh, he'd let them have their way when they wanted to name the town cafeteria a saloon--they said a saloon sounded so much more dramatic to tourists who wanted that "old west experience."

Liberty Wentworth, his ex-fiancee, had spearheaded that effort, he was sure, with a backing of blue-haired friends. Some silver-haired friends, too, depending on what Holt, the resident hair dresser was mixing up for his clients. Duke was pretty certain the shades were a mixture of Holt's moods, but the ladies loved him, calling him "sympathetic" to their cause.
Mostly, their cause was outwitting the sheriff, and this was only plot number ninety-nine, give or take a few. Duke grinned, edging a foot closer to the ladies. Their faces became darling with round-eyed concern.

"Now, this is Ladies' Only Day," Helen Granger said sternly. "Sheriff, you know that means no gentlemen in here."

"Considering there are, what, maybe ten men in this town of fifty residents, I have to take exception to the rule. I think you ladies just like one day when you know I won't be allowed in."

"Is one day of sisterhood too much to ask?" Helen demanded. "One day of female bonding in our saloon? Hentalk can't interest you that much, Sheriff."

The hentalk comment gave them away, Duke decided, nearly drooling to see what they were hiding. Women never called their chatter hentalk, and if a man called it that, he'd probably lose his hat from the gale wind force of them yelling it off his head. "I notice Holt is excluded from The Rule," he said silkily.

"Well, Holt's different," Pansy Trifle explained, her voice a nervous treble. "You know he is. Not like yourself at all. Not so manly," she said, sucking up and trying bravely to flatter his ego.

Ha. He had no ego. Liberty Wentworth had taken care of his ego three months ago when she'd left him at the altar, her little feet in high white shoes running as fast as they could away from him, her veil flying behind her like a banner ribbon of surrender to freedom.

"All right, ladies," he said, gently moving Pansy to one side. "Let's see what you're up to this time."

Of course, after he'd parted the women, he would always look back and remember that he'd wished he hadn't felt such an urge to play his usual role of plot-buster. Because there in the center of the sheltering circle of her friends was Liberty Wentworth, the blonde bombshell that had detonated his heart, still possessing the face of an angel and wearing the white wedding gown of his never-ending fantasies. Nightmares, really. His heart began an uncomfortable pounding as she stared up into his eyes. If life was fair, he'd whip out his handcuffs right now and snap them on her fragile wrists, so that she'd be completely at his mercy.

Unfortunately, as much as Liberty in sexual bondage was a highly desirable option, the ladies would beat him to death with parasols, tea trays, and opinions. He had only one course of action left to him, one source of honor for his masculine pride.

He turned on his boot heel and walked out the door. Honorable retreat. Surrendering to the sanctity of ladies' day in the Tulips Saloon. Hiding the pain in his chest that Liberty was clearly planning on marrying another man, in the dress she'd worn to their non-wedding. The woman was a serial marital tornado, he decided, putting himself in a better mood by pitying the next poor sap who was going to get his heart squashed by her now.

He despised ladies' day with a passion.

I hope you enjoy the preview of MY BABY, MY BRIDE!
Love to you all,
Tina Leonard
www.tinaleonard.com