Alice Duncan's Newsletter

 

September 2020

Wow. It’s September already, and I swear the year has whizzed past in a blur. People are still sickening and dying all over the place, too many people are out of work, too many people are unable to pay their rent and/or bills, California’s on fire again, hurricanes are ravaging the eastern seaboard, terrible storms are ripping up the Midwest; and my hounds, semi-hounds and I just sit here, same as ever. Doesn’t seem quite right, although—believe me—I’ve paid more than my fair share of dues. However, if this series of catastrophes had happened when my daughters were young and I was their only support, we’d have been in deep, deep trouble.

So far, my daughters are fine. Robin, in the San Fernando Valley is smoke-free at present. Anni, who lives in Kern County and is at present safe but in the middle of two fires, says even her rooster is wheezing. Evidently it’s taken to crowing, “Cocka-doodle-bwaaaaaagh.” Poor bird.

Book news to report! Wolfpack came out with another collection of my early western historical romances. Texas Lonesome contains the following books: Texas Lonesome (my second published book), featuring a “Dear Abby”-type columnist in San Francisco and a transplanted Texan. This book also contains dachshunds and a couple of weird relations of the heroine; Secret Hearts, starring a grieving widower and a young postmistress-turned nanny; Cooking Up Trouble, which is really funny (well, I think it is anyway). Heather Mahaffey, who can’t cook, is hired by a gorgeous rancher to cook for him. I wrote this originally as part of Dorchester’s “fairy tale” line. Try to find a fairy tale that ends happily for the humans involved. Go ahead. I dare you! It’s almost impossible. However, Rumpelstiltskin came closest, so the story is more or less taken from that tale; Gabriel’s Fate, featuring Gabriel Caine and Sophie Madrigal (along with her pug, Tybalt and her Aunt Juniper). They make magic in the Old West. I’m quite fond of this story; Sierra Ransom. I love this book. Zenobia Gray runs a soup kitchen in Muddy Flats, a gold camp in 1850s’ California. Sam Ransom is running from the law. They both have heavy-duty back stories. This is the only book for which I wrote the epilogue first. And you can get all of these books for a mere $.99!!!!! Cheap at twice the price. Heck, cheap at thrice the price!