Life has been so busy lately! I will summarize some of my projects in a few pictures.

I’ve written a nonfiction magazine article about the amazing purple martin roost in the middle of Lake Ouachita in western Arkansas. It is the largest such roost in the area; you must go to Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana to find anything bigger. During July and August, purple martins gather here to fatten up before they fly south for the winter. A local school counted the birds and found that the flock reached about 50,000 individual birds–enough for it to be designated as an Important Bird Area. An amazing project for school kids.

And an amazing project to research. One of the best things about writing nonfiction is the amazing life experiences you have as you try to get on the ground with the information. Or, in this case, on the water. It was a beautiful sunset over the lake, too!

We were in Fayetteville, Arkansas this weekend for a book signing (see pictures below) and just happened to be around for the Bikes, Blues and BBQ festival, which saw about 100,000 motorcyclists come to town.
Motorcycles are loud! It reminded me of how important it is to add sounds to your stories. A friend who was also in town this weekend, said he couldn’t sleep because of the constant motorcycle sounds–and the constant sound of sirens. We saw three wrecks ourselves. Wonder how many there were this weekend, especially given the amount of beer we saw.


We were mostly in town for a booksigning at the library for my new book, Prairie Storms. Since the book was released in August, it’s been quite busy with promotional things like this. It was great fun to connect with people we knew from the area and to meet others.


Here’s a picture of Tammi Bronson, author and publisher from the NW AR area. It’s always great to see writing friends!


Tomorrow–back to the regularly scheduled Fiction Notes!