A checkered board with rounded game pieces—here in the United States, we know it as checkers, a timeless table game. While waiting to be seated at a restaurant in Phoenix, I watched a family of five gathered around a table. A father and daughter were engaged in a playful, but intense game of checkers. The opponent’s game pieces were being …
Remaining true to our annual tradition, the summer of 1996, my friend Shirley and I loaded the back of my Jeep and headed to a cabin in Northern Arizona. I would write and she would work on her music. That year, however, we encountered a big problem. No, it wasn’t a bear on the trail, the squirrels in the attic, …
The porch rockers at the El Tovar–our favorite place to be after standing at the rim to gawk. “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it, for He founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.” Psalm 24:1 “Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to …
Any Gunsmoke fans out there? James Arness played Matt Dillon in the longstanding TV series Gunsmoke. Marshal Matt Dillon’s larger-than-life persona kept me on the edge of the couch rooting for him. Apparently, I was one viewer among a throng who favored the Dodge City drama because Gunsmoke ran for twenty years with a whopping 635 episodes. The appeal of …
My Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek populate Colorado, but I make my home in Arizona. Central Arizona boasts a lot of family-friendly attractions and historic destinations. I thought it’d be fun to give you a peek at a few of them. If you’re heat-sensitive, I’d recommend you plan your Arizona family vacation or getaway for the more temperate months—mid-October to …
I had great fun living the life of a mail-order bride. Vicariously, that is, through the harrowing, humorous, and heart-warming experiences of Kat Sinclair and her sister Nell. Two sisters, two missing misters, and a shocking welcome to the Wild West. What pulls you and I toward such an outrageous scenario as a woman leaving what she knows to step …
Denver and Colorado Springs were popular towns in Colorado Territory, and have remained so since Colorado received statehood in 1876. Although Cripple Creek is often overlooked, the gold mining camp’s footprint is deep and widespread in Colorado’s historical soil. Cripple Creek, nestled in a saddle valley on the southwestern slopes of Pikes Peak, became a booming gold mining camp in …
Twenty-two years ago, Bob and I went with my folks to Colorado. One of the highlights of the trip was our time at The Flying W Ranch in Colorado Springs. The Old West town setting, the cowboy grub, and the western show was a feast for the eyes, the stomach, and the heart. My dad’s joy was infectious as his …
“Have you lived in Colorado?” “No.” “Then how did you end up writing stories set in Colorado?” Many readers of The Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek series assume I live in Cripple Creek or at least in Colorado. When they learn I live in Arizona, they invariably have questions. In Arizona, I live at the base of Mingus Mountain, home …
You may know you can find me on the worldwide web, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, GoodReads, the Book Club Network, and here on my Hindsight blog. You may even know you can connect with me through my quarterly e-newsletter update, but you may not have thought to look for me at a chuckwagon supper or at a carriage house. Last month, …
