Yup. I spaced another email deadline. Oops. But not by a whole week this time!

First, I'd like to report in on my progress on The Cowboy's Temporary Solution: It's not done yet.

But it's making progress. I realized yesterday that I'm almost done, because I was struck with a sudden impulse to delete the whole thing and start over. This is usually the sign that things are progressing well. #itsawriterthing

So that's good news! For everyone waiting on the new book, and for the poor characters who are eager to get to their HEA.

I thought I'd share the story that inspired Ranger and Serenity's story:

Over the summer, I got to visit a friend in Colorado. Her and her hubby moved to a very small town in eastern CO several years ago and since then, she's managed to worm her way into the local culture through her interest in genealogy and the area's local history.

While I was visiting over the summer, she'd been contacted by a man who'd reached out to her when she'd featured one of his relatives on her events in local history webpage.

This actually happens to her often, and has led to her learning even more local history and meeting an absurd number of her "neighbors." ("Neighbors" being people living within a radius up to 100 miles.)

She and this gentleman struck up a friendship even though he now lived out of the area.

Then, one day, someone in his family passed away who had still been in my friend's neighborhood, and her gentleman friend (totes platonic though) was expected to return to the area for the funeral-- despite his reluctance to come back to his hometown at all.

He invited my friend to accompany him.

Now, by the time this happened, I'd hitched up and moved out of her driveway, so she was texting me the story.

She was excited to attend the funeral because it meant she would get to meet many many people from the families that she'd only read about in archived newspapers.

The gentleman in question was excited to not have to go face a bunch of people he wasn't keen on reuniting with alone.

Win. Win.

Romance writer me, however, could not help but launch into a cautionary tale for my friend about how this is exactly how she would end up in a fake relationship scenario, pretending to be dating her gentleman friend in order to help him avoid uncomfortable questions or unwelcome advances from an ex.

Remember I mentioned my friend has a husband...so she laughed off my attempts to turn her personal life into an awkward romcom.

But I was all like "LIGHTBULB!"

At that point, I didn't know Ranger's story. I didn't have those essential bones of his meetcute for a starting point yet (I was still writing the Hart family up in Moonshine Ridge,) and the more I teased my friend about her fake funeral date...the more I loved it!

I told her I was going to use her story in my book and she's been laughing ever since.

She went to the funeral with her friend. She met lots of interesting people and learned more about the local history of the place she now calls home-- and she may have enjoyed playing the part of "mystery woman" as her friend's date.

While they did not pretend to be a couple-- they enjoyed letting people speculate.

So when you're reading Ranger's impromptu plea to the woman he'd only just met to accompany him to a funeral as his girlfriend, and you think to yourself "that's so unrealistic--" That part really-- sorta-- happened.

Coming Soon!

What's up in Roxie's personal life? OMG....(sigh)

So many things. I won't even overwhelm you with all the things...

This is the first time I've changed my state of residence, and the process of proving that I live in Nevada now so I can get a new driver's license here is-- tedious. Comically tedious, in fact.

There are hoops to jump through, and they must be jumped through in a particular order.

Meanwhile, I'm also tasked with being the one on site to let workers into the new house to do a variety of construction and renovation projects. And, since the house is 103 years old and was converted to office space many years ago-- there's a lot of construction and renovations to be done.

The BFF keeps questioning why I keep retreating back to my little hobo house camper parked serenely in the back lot-- asking me things such as "Are you sure you don't want to sleep inside and just get up early?"

The woman has known me for decades! NO! I do not want to get up at 7 in the morning to be out of a contractor's way while he literally cuts the floor out of the living room.

I will be in my trailer. Peacefully sleeping until noon. Thank you. #itsnotweirdimawriter

And the house has no kitchen. None. The business that used it as office space didn't even leave a sink and counter for a break room!

Yeah...this townie life isn't the luxury living that bestie thinks it is!

Also-- it's still hot on this side of Nevada! There's a reason I was cozied up out there in White Pines county.

But I'm back to work on Ranger's book, and it feels good to be back in the groove.

~Rocklyn

Yes. I made ranch graphics for the newsletter and I just think they're cute AF.

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