Return of the King, er, Queen, er, Me

My time in Arizona has come to an end. But it was well spent. I had a terrific time with friends I hadn't seen in a long time, met with my wonderful editor who's a lot of fun, and had a story pitch that I think went well. So hurray for me.

The dry landscape outside of Phoenix is beautiful. I'd hoped to escape the allergy season in Georgia, yet I hit it in Arizona. But the wildflowers made it worthwhile.

I stayed for a few days in Superior, Arizona and got to see Jerome, a cliff-side mining town, and eventually stayed in Scottsdale. The hotel was beautiful, but not as nice as the place I stayed in while in Superior, an old mining town. So big thanks to Cat and Todd for letting me roost at their place. They have a great house that's big, comfortable, has terrific views and the best outside room (pool and patio) for viewing the stars at night. Their dogs didn't eat me, yet another plus, though the little Terrier didn't roll out the welcome mat. (I'm talking about YOU, Trouble.) Cat hooked me on TruBlood, just another distraction I don't need, and I had my first taste of Prickly Pear jelly, which tastes like strawberry rhubarb (yummy).

This is the prickly pear cactus , by the way. The small balls on the cactus are the prickly pear fruit, the bloom of which is a bright yellow flower. While checking these out, we happened upon a roaming group of cattle that had burrs all over their coats. It was neat seeing them just walking freely through the desert, grazing on whatever the heck they eat.

I was pleasantly surprised that the weather wasn't too hot nor were the nights cold. I picked the perfect time to visit, apparently. Yet I still had to drink a lot of water to keep hydrated.

I'll post more on my visit and my time at the Desert Dreams RWA Conference throughout the week. But I'm behind on edits, so I have to nail that. And I have a new release tomorrow, so I of course need to blog about that.

Happy Monday, and it's good to be back.