September 7, 2013 was a memorable day, one that I will never forget. I was in the car with my daughter and her family, sitting in the passenger seat when rain came down in sheets. My daughter drove to the side of the road to wait out the storm. Pretty soon, however, it started hailing, and the tennis ball-size hail pounded the car, dented the hood, smashed the side mirror, cracked the windshield and busted the driver side window with shards of glass collecting in Pirijo's lap. One hail ball bruised her arm, and another bruised her thigh. The car was totaled.

When we finally arrived home, the damage there was horrific. Windows were smashed, the roofs and rain gutters damaged, our stuccoed walls looked as if someone had taken a hammer and pounded holes into them. It was total chaos to the tune of $88,000 of damage.

My daughter's house that had been built and completed not three weeks earlier, sustained damages of $55,000.

There was a silver lining in all of this mess, however. We got new roofs on our home, the barn, the chicken coop and the garage/workshop. Also new windows, rain gutters, and walls.

Now when I listen to the weather forecast and hear the word "hail" I cringe. I don't ever want to experience a day like that again and hope that nobody else does either.

As usual, one of our Guineas had been staying out at night instead of in the chicken coop.  Not a safe thing to do in the country, but a common occurrence for this time of year.  This meant that she was sitting on some eggs somewhere.  My daughter usually tries to find the nest (which they make on the ground), liberate the eggs, and hatch them in the safety of the chicken coop or incubator.  

By some miracle Pirijo (my daughter) found the Guinea in her nest. The mommy had chosen a spot on the farm, and in a relatively safe place - our large middle pasture.  Since the nest was on the farm, she decided to let the mother keep her eggs as long as she did not neglect them, and checked on the Guinea every day, making sure not to get too close to disturb her.

Last weekend, Pirijo heard some peeping from under the mother hen and was sure that the eggs had hatched, but didn't dare to look.  A few days later, all the adult Guineas flocked around the nest.  So far, they had left the mother alone, but the commotion indicated now that the babies would be moved that day.  

And so it was.  That afternoon, all four grown-ups slowly herded the little keets (baby Guineas) to the safety of the coop.  Pirijo followed behind to make sure that no stragglers were lost. After a dozen or more counts and re-counts, she finally came to the conclusion that we had eleven precious keets, one of them totally white.

The Guineas are good parents and babysitters.  They lead those babies all around the farm, keeping them within their circle to ensure their safety.  

It’s amazing to watch how the older birds protect these babies, corralling them in the middle and standing as sentinels around them.

I have been researching airships (aka blimps, Zeppelins) recently, and especially their use in World War One.  The Germans, British, French and Italians all used them to various degrees, but they weren't very effective mostly due to their cumbersome maneuverability and their inaccuracy in hitting their targets and were later replaced with aeroplanes.

Warfare, however, wasn't their only use. In the late 1800s and early 1900s they were mainly used for passenger transport and were quite elegantly equipped.

At the recent ANWA Writers Conference in Mesa, Arizona, I attended a gala event where the attendees were asked to dress like one of the characters in their books. Because "Hohenstein" is set in 1910, I found a skirt that fit that era, and I love it. I can't figure out, however, how the women in those days were able to move. I can only walk with small steps, have a hard time bending down, and definitely no crossing my legs. Check it out!

I attended the annual writers conference in Mesa Arizona February 19-21, 2015. ANWA stands for American Night Writers Association, an organization for LDS Women writers.
The program offered many workshops, critique sessions, meeting with editors and agents and the opportunity to meet fellow writers, mingle with old friends and rub shoulders with published writers.
Below is a picture with Brandon Mull, one of the keynote speakers at the conference, and the author of the famous Fabelhaven series.

What a feeling to finally hold my very own book in my hands! It has been a long journey, but worth it. 
It started out as a modern fairy tale, but when my editor, Penny Freeman, suggested that I make it a historical romance and set it one hundred years back, I took a deep breath -- and went to work. Some changes had to be made: no telephones, hardly any cars, no electric lights, no computers. It took me two weeks to make the changes, and I like the outcome.
Here is the blurb my editor created:

Anything but a typical aristocrat, young Baroness Marie-Louise is not afraid to roll up her sleeves and get to work, especially when it comes to saving her ancestral estate. Determined to shake loose the shackled of propriety and gain the warm family life her upbringing denied her, she has vowed to marry a man of lower rank. Blue-bloods need not apply.
But when she is forced to turn to a childhood friend for assistance, the handsome, debonair count may prove a temptation impossible to resist. Marie-Louise soon finds herself caught between the comfort of a middle-class doctor and the passion of a nobleman, with the future of her childhood home at stake.