Back from ND

We made it safely back from North Dakota in one piece. Got back Monday at 12:30 am after driving 20 hours straight and I actually went into work. I must be crazy. (yeah, I heard that)

The town centennial celebration was lots of fun, sort of. The parade down main street was great except for the huge thunder storm that blew in right in the middle of the it. Thunder, lightning, torrential rain and there I was standing under a tree. And so was everyone else and no one was concerned that lightning was striking all around us. The town water tower and grain elevator have lightning rods at the top so they all figured we were safe but I was a bit nervous about it. The storm only lasted about 20 minutes, then the sun came out and evaporated the rain. Up went the temperature and the humidity and the mosquitoes found us.

I brought lots of books along and decided to include a couple Westerns and that turned out to be a brilliant idea. Montana is a beautiful (but too freaking big) state with its mountains, rugged rock formations, plains, and rolling prairie grass bringing my imagination alive with thoughts of covered wagons, cowboys, buffalo, Indians, and women in prairie bonnets. And there I was reading High Plains Bride by Jenna Kernan (B+). Wonderful, but not for sissies. Emotional book which deals with a difficult subject. Heroine's twelve year old daughter is kidnapped by the Sioux and Kernan doesn't gloss over the brutality of her treatment, but it stops short of being too graphic. I also read The Preacher's Daughter by Cheryl St. John (B) which turned out to be a very gentle book in comparison to HPB. It was good but not one of my favorites by CSJ. I also just finished a Contemporary Western - Salvation, Texas by Anna Jeffrey (B+) and really enjoyed that one as well.

The rest of the books I finished were:

Robber Bride by Deborah Simmons (B)
Wife for Hire by Janet Evanovich (B)
The Kissing Blades by Jessica Hall (B+)

I'm trying to get caught up with all my favorite blogs but the neighborhood 4th of July picnic in my front yard distracted me. I think I may have missed the latest train wreck / author war or something because I saw some people mention something but I can't figure it out. Which drives me nuts cuz you know how I love to rubberneck.

Need to find out about the book haul from all the Canadian Romance Blogger Convention attendees :). Turns out Devonna and I came very close to having a North Dakota Romance Blogger Convention. She visited a town (Tioga) near Noonan but we missed each other by a day or so. Good thing, I guess, because there isn't a bookstore within about 100 miles of these towns.