My new book coming SOON

"Love with a Welcome Stranger" will be out in ebook on September 19 (as expected), but date of the print edition has been moved up to January 2, 2009.
This contemporary western romance is a twist on a true feature article I did for Reader's Digest a few years ago. The real story was of a young woman who'd lost about a year of her memory (totally and always lost) in a horrible car crash. She had no memory of meeting, falling in love with, and marrying the man everyone said was her husband. She endured long months of painful rehabilitation, learning to walk, feed herself, and all the other things we take for granted. No matter how many times she saw the video of herself at her large wedding, she felt no connection to the man.
Finally, he realized he had to win her all over again, so they dated and slowly she fell in love -- for the first time, and yet -- again.
Their story was in a dozen magazines and was featured on Oprah, Dateline NBC, Inside Edition, and more TV shows. It was made into a book and a TV movie.
So, in real life, the young woman was surrounded by people who knew the truth, that she loved this man enough to marry him. She was the only one who didn't understand it.
In my fictional story, only two people know that Mandy (daughter of a wealthy businessman) and Cam (a poor cowboy who worked on the ranch) had a love affair when she was 18 and he was 24. Those two people are Mandy and Cam. At the end of that summer, Mandy left Montana and Cam behind--in anger--and moved to California to live the life of a Hollywood starlet. TWELVE YEARS LATER --- Mandy is shot by a deranged fan and has to relearn simple things. Some of her memory returns; some events are lost.
Her memory of Cam West--and their love affair--is part of what's lost.
When she returns to Montana and meets a handsome, successful horse breeder, she thinks she's falling for a stranger. Cam tries to avoid her, and tries to hold on to his righteous anger, but he's in big trouble. He has to tell her the truth, but how and when can he give her such a shock? And while he's walking that tightrope, he's lost in memories of the Mandy he knew so intimately.
Visit www.thewildrosepress.com to order the ebook. When it comes out in print, you can order from Amazon.com or bn.com.

Montana (and Wyoming) on my mind

Bill and I just returned from Yellowstone National Park where we had a splendid time with two daughters and five grandkids. (Photo is of Lower Falls.) I really enjoyed our route through southwest Montana. My upcoming release "Love with a Welcome Stranger" is set in the far-western part of Montana.
On August 19th we're driving to Banff/Lake Louise and Jasper to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.
In the meantime, I'm waiting to hear from my editor at The Wild Rose Press on the manuscript I sent her. And-- I'm working on a new book.
Lynnette

Ebook Readers -- take a look

I bought an ebook reader, and I'm getting used to it. In fact, I like it. The one I bought, for $140, is the eBookwise-1150 with a 64 MB memory card.
Here is some information I found in Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine (August 2008). Author is Jeff Bertolucci.
The top two sellers in this technology of "wireless reading devices" are the Kindle and the Sony Reader.
Both feature a 6" screen with high contrast. Both are easy to read, even in sunlight. Neither is backlighted.
Through Kindle, owned by Amazon, readers have access to 125,000 digital books. Price is $359. The exterior is white plastic which Bertolucci said slipped out of its leather case. It has a mini keyboard that makes it easy to search while browsing online. (That would be a great feature, in my opinion.)
Sony has a metal case and stays securely in its attractive leather holder. Price for the Sony PRS-505 is $300. You can charge it through your PC with a USB cable, but if you want a separate AC charger you'll have to pay another $30. "Chintzy, considering the Reader's high price," says Bertolucci.
Sony's ebook store has 20,000 titles.
Sony does have one huge advantage, though. There's a headphone jack for listening to MP3s.
Sony requires you to download to a computer from the web and then transfer to the reader. Kindle uses a wireless Sprint connection to download books from Amazon.com, thus eliminating the PC in the middle.
Kiplinger's opinion is that 1) these two devices cost too much for the limited advantages you receive, and 2) buying digital books through Amazon and Sony is expensive. (Featured titles on Sony are $5 to $19 and most digital bestsellers on Amazon are $10.)
Bertolucci says, "A portable reader in the $100 to $150 ballpark would persuade us to overlook a lot of drawbacks."
I hope he finds the eBookwise Reader. I think it offers the best option in portable reader devices.
The AC charger came with my eBookwise, and downloading books through my PC is fairly easy.
I'd love to hear about others' experiences with these devices.
Lynnette

Farewell, faithful friend

Laddie died on June 16, '08, at age 13. He was part collie, part retriever, part who-knows-what. Sweet-natured, loving. He lived a darn good life, walks nearly every day. Camping trips in our motorhome. He was finding it harder to jump into the car, and generally harder to get up from lying down, hard to get his back feet under him. At the end, and very suddenly, that's what did him in. He was walking on a beach with the whole family, and his hindquarters collapsed. He couldn't move at all. We kept him as comfortable as possible, but we had to make the heart-rending decision. A very tender, loving veterinarian put him down.
I took this picture of him by our rhododendrons in late May, about three weeks before he collapsed.
We cried so much I couldn't write about it until now, nearly a month later.

What a gorgeous day!

Here's a picture of my favorite mountain. Mt. Baker, which we can see looking east-northeast from our deck. It's about 140 miles north of Mt. Rainier. In the foreground is Whidbey Island.

My favorite holiday - the Fourth of July

We had a splendid Fourth of July. My husband and I sang in a big church program at one o'clock and at three we went to a community band concert. After an easy supper, we watched the Annual Fourth of July Celebration at the U. S. Capitol. It was a terrific show. Jerry Lee Lewis still has it! And a Broadway singer, I think it was Bryan Stokes Mitchell, wow! They did a salute to the upcoming Summer Olympics by playing John Willliams "Olympic Fanfare." In addition to the National Symphony Orchestra, they had the U.S. Army's Herald Trumpets.
It's my favorite holiday. No presents to buy, no expectations to live up to (or fail to live up to!). It's a BE THERE day.
Today -- we picked fresh strawberries at a nearby farm. What a blessing.
Strawberries are sweet kisses from God.
Lynnette Baughman
www.RainshadowRomance.com
coming Sept. 19 from The Wild Rose Press: "Love with a Welcome Stranger"

Houseful of love

Chaos Theory is proven correct at my house this month. My four granddaughters, age 9, 9, 7 and 4, are visiting for 10 days (from Utah). Their mom is here, too, and their dad will join all of us for the last 4 days. Today we'll spend the day in Port Angeles doing the Marine Science Center and more. Tomorrow, big day in Seattle to the Seattle Children's Museum and later to the Arboretum & Botanical Garden.

The weather just turned gorgeous after being chilly and rainy. You probably saw on national news how it was SNOWING two days ago up on Snoqualmie Pass (where I-90 goes across the Cascades). It's the first time Washington Dept. of Transportation has had to use snowplows in JUNE. Near us, Hurricane Ridge (in the Olympic Mountain Range) had snow, too.

We're not complaining, though!!! It's SO sad about the flooding in the Midwest and the tornadoes all over. My heart goes out to the thousands of people who've lost everything they worked their whole lives to build. Even worse, those who've lost loved ones, like the boy scouts in Iowa. I pray that God will comfort them.
Lynnette