I learned to read by following the adventures of Dick and Jane and graduated to Little Woman and Nancy Drew mysteries. But it was Miss Mayfield, my 6th grade teacher, who nurtured my love of books. Each day she read to us and by 7th grade I was reading thick books like The Scarlet Letter and Jubilee Trail. I taught public school for 30 years, but always found time to read, and both my children grew up to be avid readers. From the 1970's on I read romances, Phyllis Whitney's romantic suspenses, Barbara Michaels, Mary Stewart, and others. Ten years ago, I decided writing didn't look that hard, so I'd give it a try. Wow, what a rude awakening! It was a major challenge. But I perservered, took classes, went to workshops, participated in critique groups, and wrote, wrote, wrote. At present, I'd have to say there are very few generes that I don't read. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd like fantasy, but it has opened new doors in my mind. One of the greatest books I've read in the last year is Madison Cooper's Sironia, Texas. Published in the 1950's, its an epic novel in two volumes about life in a small town -- its people, politics, love, hate, and prejudice.

A Law of Her Own, a short time travel set in the Panhandle of Texas in 1888 came out August 27th with the Wild Rose Press. Forever Faithful, a contemporary western romance set in the Hill Country of Texas, will be released November 1, 2008 with Champagne Books. Another contemporary western romance will be out with them in May of 2009. I have two novels, My Heart Will Find Yours and Flames on the Sky, coming soon from The Wild Rose Press and a short story, Desires of the Heart due out with them March 4, 2009.

Linda LaRoque - Author
Remember when I said I wanted to be born in the old West? I just finished a time travel, My Heart Will Find Yours, where the heroine is zapped back to 1880. It's the first book in the Turquoise Legacy. The second is Flames on the Sky. Both are contracted with The Wild Rose Press.