And the winner is .... check our site to find out!

Hello. Happy Weekend! The winner of the box of books and bounty we've put together to celebrate our new site is:  (drum roll .........)

PailofPearls

Please send me your contact information and mailing address through my website at www.lenoraworth.com

Congratulations!!!! (You know I love pearls!!!)

The Love Story That Almost Wasn’t. How I Met My Husband by Mary Alford

The Love Story That Almost Wasn’t. How I Met My Husband by Mary Alford  

 

For the next few Fridays, some of the Ladies are going to share about how they met their significant others. We are writing these in a fun way. Here’s my love story.

Once upon a time, a very shy young woman from a small Texas town moved to the big city of Austin and was immediately overwhelmed. She’d never seen so many people in one place before. Then slowly, over time, her life settled into a routine. She found a job. Made friends.

Life was good, she didn’t need anything else in her life, or so she thought until one evening when she and one of her friends decided to go to the gym and work out, of all things.

After a very brief work out regimen, the two girls decided to go home. Then on the way they passed a country dance and on the spur of the moment, decided to go inside. That was where the young woman’s life changed forever and she met her true Texas cowboy.

The minute she spotted him across the room, she knew there was something different about him. He wasn’t dressed like the rest of the other would-be cowboys. This guy was the real deal. Plain spoken, good mannered, and oh so handsome with his laughing green eyes.

Although he didn’t wear a white hat, she knew he was a good man, and so they danced for hours. Talked just as long, and knew from that moment on they were meant to be together.

 

That was almost thirty four years ago, and today, the young woman has grown into a mom and a grandmother, but she’s just as in love with her Texas cowboy as she was the day they “almost” didn’t meet.     

 

 

Join me on Facebook for a Live Chat

Hello, Terri Reed here. I'm so excited to share with you the Classified K-9 Unit. This continuity series  revolves around an elite group of FBI agents and their K-9's. Aren't these covers lovely? And the line up of authors is amazing.
To get a look at how the cover was made, check this out http://bit.ly/2pB5lDb
If you're on Facebook today at 2pm PST, I'll be doing a Live Chat via my Facebook Author page

Book 1, Guardian features a chocolate labrador name True. True's specialty is water search and rescue. Here's some of the many reasons why these fabulous dogs are used.

True's handler, Agent Leo Gallagher has a traumatic past that makes it difficult for him to open his heart to love.  Here's a picture of what I envision Leo looking like. Look at those eyes.

Together True and Leo make a good team as they work to protect widow Alicia Duncan and her family.

Lessons from a mean character

Hi Everyone,

Danica Favorite here, and I have a confession to make: my May book, An Unlikely Mother, wasn't supposed to be written. For those of you who've read my Leadville books, you know that Flora Montgomery wasn't a very nice person. In fact, she was kind of a troublemaker. Definitely NOT heroine material. But as I was contemplating what to write, she kept bugging me, saying that she wasn't the person I'd pegged her as.

Well, okay, she was. But she wanted the chance to prove herself, to show that she, too, was worthy of her very own HEA. So I listened. And I wrote. And Flora got her own story.

One of the interesting things about my writing process is that I never go into it with an idea of what the spiritual thread is. When I do, the book doesn't go right until I let my own idea of what it's supposed to be go, and I let God in. God always finds a way to get into my heart and teach me a lesson about who He is as I'm writing the book, and there, the spiritual thread is born.

Writing Flora's story taught me a lot. But I think the biggest personal takeaway is that we can't underestimate people (or our characters). Flora had a good heart, and while she wasn't the nicest person in earlier books, her greatest desire was to honor God.

There's a person in my life who isn't always the nicest person. Actually, he can be kind of mean. I was talking to a friend the other day, and this person came up in conversation. My friend was upset at how mean he'd been in a recent interaction, and while I sympathized with her, I told her that I had a soft spot for him because I could see underneath the meanness, and I knew that deep down, he had a sad life and that his meanness was a response to the lack of control he has over the sad things. Now, I honestly don't know all the details of the sadness in his life, and we didn't discuss any of that, but it felt good to step outside the usual judgment of "this guy is mean," and see that there's something deeper.

Is there a mean person in your life?

We all seem to have that mean person who drives us crazy that we can't get rid of. A friend of mine once told me that God puts those people in our lives to teach us something. I'll admit that I don't always figure out the lesson of some of the mean people, and I don't always have patience when dealing with them. But I'm learning that the meanness of others says a lot more about them than it says about you.

My encouragement for you is that when you're faced with a mean person, or someone who rubs you the wrong way, take a step back, and try to remember that their behavior isn't about you, but about them. Try to see that person through God's eyes, as someone broken and in need of God's transformational love and grace. I want to add that it doesn't mean that you put up with an abusive situation. Even if you have to love someone from afar, you can pray and ask God to give that person what they need.

I hope you all enjoy Flora's story. More importantly, I pray that God will give you what you need in the areas of your life that need transformation. It's how Flora became the heroine of her own story, and how we can become the heroes of our own.

Be sure to enter my giveaway below, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on learning to love difficult people.


About the book:


Bound by a Child 
Hoping to overcome her reputation as Leadville, Colorado's biggest gossip, wealthy socialite Flora Montgomery offers to help a miner care for an abandoned child. But her growing affection for the sweet boy's handsome rescuer could be a problem. Especially since her parents insist she must marry for money.
Undercover mine owner George Baxter is digging himself into a dilemma. The once-spoiled Flora has become a delightful, generous woman, and she'll be devastated by his deception. Yet if he can't discover who's sabotaging the mine, George will lose any chance of making a home for Flora and Pierre. Can the little boy who holds both their hearts help them lay claim to a new dream of family?

You can purchase it on Amazon, or anywhere else Love Inspired Historical books are sold: http://amzn.to/2oIrN8A

About Danica:

A self-professed crazy chicken lady, Danica Favorite loves the adventure of living a creative life. She and her family recently moved in to their dream home in the mountains above Denver, Colorado.  Danica loves to explore the depths of human nature and follow people on the journey to happily ever after. Though the journey is often bumpy, those bumps are what refine imperfect characters as they live the life God created them for. Oops, that just spoiled the ending of all of Danica’s stories. Then again, getting there is all the fun.

You can connect with Danica at the following places:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Danica-Favorite/e/B00KRP0IFU

Website: http://www.danicafavorite.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/danicafavorite Instagram: https://instagram.com/danicafavorite/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanicaFavoriteAuthor  

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Contemporary Comparisons

 When asked to share a post, Leigh Bale and Shannon Taylor Vannatter were honored. Once paired, they realized their books shared some similarities. The authors thought it would be fun to compare books with a Q & A.

• The hero in Leigh’s book was best friends with the heroine’s brother. The heroine in Shannon’s book was best friends with the hero’s sister. Both siblings are deceased now.

      Leigh:  Sean Nash, the hero in the story, felt guilty when he couldn’t save his best friend (and the heroine’s brother) during a burnover while they were fighting wildfire.  Sean and Tessa (the heroine) were engaged to be married at the time, but he feared she might always blame him for the death of her brother and that, over time, her anger might canker inside of her and eventually destroy their marriage.  So, he broke off their engagement.  But the deeper problem is survivor’s guilt.  Sean can’t accept that there was nothing he could do to save his friend.  He needs to learn to have faith and trust that God cares for each of us, even during a horrible tragedy like this.

      Shannon:  Landry Malone befriended Chase Donovan’s sister when they both attended culinary school in San Antonio and ended up working and living at the  Donovan family ranch in Bandera. During those years, Chase was traveling and working as a hunting guide. They never met. After his sister’s death, they learned she left Landry her half of the dude ranch. When Landry shows up to claim her inheritance, that’s when she meets Chase, who owns the other half. Because his family owns a successful dude ranch, he’s run into a few gold-diggers over the years and assumes Landry scammed his sister into her will. Needless to say, he doesn’t trust her and they don’t get along at first.

• Why do you enjoy writing romances?

      Leigh:  I just love writing romance, period.  I think the world needs more romance in it.  Healthy romance that shows two normal people with failings and foibles who learn to love someone else more than they love themselves, and to learn to love and trust God more than they trust themselves.  That’s what the world needs more of.  And being able to write stories of faith and love brings all of that together.  I feel like I’m sending a powerful message “out there” to the universe by bearing my testimony within my writing.  That God lives and loves and cares for each and every one of us.  That He knows us each as his children and wants only the best for us.  Romance rocks!

      Shannon: Romances were the first books I read as a teen, so I’ve always loved the genre. When I decided the story, that had been in my head forever, could be a book, it came out a romance. But my characters kept talking to God, so I let them. Once I started trying to find out how to get published, I learned there was a Christian romance market. I love weaving a spiritual thread into the romance and pointing readers to God. My goal is to show that in order to find lasting love, both parties should have a relationship with God first. My motto is – love doesn’t make the world go around, God does.

• The hero and heroine in Leigh’s book end up in a boss/employee situation. The hero and heroine in Shannon’s book are business partners. Describe your characters’ occupations and the research you had to put into them.

     Leigh:  As the story opens, Tessa Carpenter is returning to a fictitious town named Minoa, Nevada, to start the wildfire season.  She is a hotshot on the Minoa Interagency Hotshot Crew (also fictitious), an elite wildfire fighting team that serves as an international resource for wildfire suppression.  During the winter months, Tessa is working to complete her Master’s degree in fire science.  She has goals and plans to one day work as a Fire Management Officer for the U.S. Forest Service. 

The previous summer, her beloved brother, who was also a member of the Hotshot crew, was killed during a burnover.  Sean, Tessa’s fiancé, broke off their engagement.  She is stunned when she discovers that Sean has since been promoted to superintendent over the crew and she wonders how she can work under him while combatting the friction of their past history together. 

I developed the story off of some very real situations my own father had faced during his years of fighting wildfires.  He worked for the Forest Service and retired as an Assistant Forest Supervisor.  He served for over 25 years on a Type I wildfire crew and knew the lay of the land.

Also, I went to high school with one of the first female Hotshots, JoAnn Overacker.  She worked for my dad when he was a Forest Ranger and did, indeed, become a Fire Management Officer.  Her husband is Greg Overacker, a former superintendent of the Stanislaus Hotshot Crew.  They were kind enough to host me at their home and took me over to meet the actual Stanislaus Hotshot Crew members.  They answered questions, showed me their equipment, told me stories and how they would handle real life volatile situations.  They were so kind and generous to me.

I did a lot of reading and searching the Internet as well, but talking to all of these people was transcendent for me.  When I wrote “Wildfire Sweethearts,” I ended up making it too gritty and realistic and my editor needed me to basically rewrite the entire book.  It has made this book both my most hated and my most favorite of all time, because I had to work so hard to write it.  If readers enjoy the story, then it was worth every moment of that work.

      Shannon: My heroine is a chef. And I hate to cook. At the dude ranch, Landry serves as chef, hostess, maid, lifeguard, and booking agent. I did lots of research online for restaurant codes and lifeguard certification. I also watched a couple of Hallmark movies featuring chefs and some cooking shows on TV to get a feel for food preparation. For the hospitality part, I picked the brain of a fellow writer who’s worked in hotels for years.

There are at least a dozen real dude ranches in Bandera. I visited one and researched the rest online, then took things I liked about several different ones to create my fictional ranch. I guess it turned out pretty good since my critique partner said she wanted to stay there.

The hero is an ex-hunting guide, dude ranch owner, trail guide. He doesn’t like all the day to day inside stuff, so he’s in charge of entertaining guests on outdoor expeditions like bonfires and fishing excursions. I know lots of people who go on trail rides, so I picked their brains. My husband’s brother’s father-in-law recently retired from being an exotic hunting guide, so I’d heard lots of his stories. And my son loves to fish, so he was helpful in that area. I also watched City Slickers, an old comedy about city folk staying at a dude ranch, but ended up turning it down due to language.

The main thing I had to research for this book was oak wilt. I’ve seen it’s effects during our Texas visits. My father-in-law’s ranch used to be very secluded and wooded with live oaks everywhere to the point you couldn’t see their house from the road. Oak wilt has killed almost all of the trees. And the spot I mention in the book on the way to Bandera used to be peppered with live oaks. They were twisted from wind and lack of rain, looked like they’d been there for centuries and would survive anything. They’re almost all dead now.

I had to research different treatments for oak wilt, government programs and incentives to rid trees of it, along with the cost. Thank goodness for the internet.

• Both heroes are dealing with guilt. Give us insight into what they blame themselves for and why.

      Leigh:  As I’ve already mentioned, Sean Nash cannot accept that he couldn’t save the life of Zach, his best friend.  At the time, Sean was Zach’s squad leader and took him to work in a chimney area, which is not an ideal place to work because if the fire starts burning below them, the landscape can channel that fire right up toward them.  Unfortunately, they lost radio communication with base command and didn’t realize that a button-hook fire had worked its way over below them. 

By the time they realized the danger, Sean had just enough time to alert the rest of the crew to the danger.  He tried to take Zach into a previously burned area where they could deploy their fire shelters, but Zach panicked and refused to go with him.  Zach ran the wrong way.  Sean faced a moment of decision where he could have followed Zach and lost his life, or he could go into the previously burned out area and try to save his own life. 

Because he lived, he now blames himself for Zach’s death.  He can’t accept that there was nothing he could have done to save Zach and that he had to put his life in God’s hands.  Sometimes, we each face situations where we want to alter the outcome, but it is out of our hands.  We each have our own free agency to make choices for ourselves. 

When someone we care about makes choices that cause dramatic harm, we feel responsible for.  This is when we need to exercise faith and turn our angst over to the Lord.  There is no sin of commission or omission, no heartache or sadness that cannot be healed through the power of the atonement.  That’s the message I hope readers get from this book.

      Shannon: Chase feels guilty that he spent so many years away from the dude ranch and let the responsibility fall to his grandparents, parents, and sister. He only came back out of a sense of obligation after his grandmother died. He feels like he let his family down and should have been more responsible. But along with the guilt, he dreads getting tied down with the dude ranch and he’s itching to leave again. So the fact that he doesn’t really want to be there only adds to his guilt.

• Where is the setting for your story?

      
     Leigh:  The Minoa Hotshots have their crew base in a fictitious town called Minoa, Nevada.  I named the town after the real towns of Minden and Genoa in northern Nevada (about 50 miles south of Reno).  But during the story, they serve several tours of duty as they fight wildfire in such diverse areas as the mountains and deserts.  Hotshots are prepared to be deployed with very little notice and they carry enough food and water to maintain themselves for 72 hours.  They tackle fires in some of the most remote locations in the world.  They’re an amazing group of men and women and I count them among my heroes.

      Shannon: Bandera, Texas known as the Cowboy Capitol of the World. Bandera is in Texas hill country, close to where the Texas branch of my husband’s family lives. I’ve been to the places I mention in the book. My father-in-law pastored the church there for several years. It’s over a hundred years old and I have good memories of listening to his sermons there when we visited. Of course my characters had to attend there also.

And every visit, we eat at least one meal at the Old Spanish Trail, known as OST, so it had to go in the book. They have a huge elk head mounted on the wall behind the breakfast bar. It’s so big, the servers have to duck back and forth underneath it to serve customers. As I mentioned, there are several dude ranches there, so it was the perfect setting for my fictional one and it was fun to write the story set there.

Wildfire Sweethearts by Leigh Bale

Reunion under fire ~ Eight months after their broken engagement, Tessa Carpenter is reunited with the man she can never forget—in the same wildfire-fighting unit and now as her boss. With the mystery of why he ended their relationship still between them, Tessa’s not looking forward to working under Sean Nash. Sean promised to take care of his late friend’s sister. That meant walking away, sparing Tessa from his guilt over the accident that killed her brother. But working beside Tessa reignites the embers of his memories, fanning them into love once more. And forcing Sean to decide if he should bolt again, or stay and fight for the woman of his dreams.

The Rancher Stakes His Claim 

When she inherits half a dude ranch after losing her best friend, Landry Malone is determined to see Eden's legacy flourish. That is if her friend's broad-shouldered cowboy brother will give her the chance. Chase Donovan isn't happy that his sister left their family business to an outsider—and he's determined to test Landry's mettle, hoping she'll give up her claim. Soon Chase is impressed by Landry's ability to rise to every challenge he puts in her way—and worried that his attraction to the perky spitfire seems to know no end. Finally working together to ensure the ranch's future, will their business partnership be the foundation for something more?

Leigh Bale is a Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author.  She is the winner of the prestigious Golden Heart and a finalist for the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence and the Bookseller’s Best Award.  As the daughter of a retired U.S. forest ranger, Leigh holds a B.A. in History.  Married in 1981 to the love of her life, Leigh and her professor husband have two children and two grandkids.  You can reach her at www.LeighBale.com


Shannon Taylor Vannatter is a stay-at-home mom/pastor’s wife/award winning author. She once climbed a mountain wearing gold wedge-heeled sandals which became known as her hiking

boots. Shannon writes inspirational contemporary romance and it took her nine years to get published in the traditional market. 

Shannon hopes to entertain Christian women and plant seeds in the non-believer’s heart as her characters struggle with real-life issues. Their journeys, from ordinary lives to extraordinary romance through Christ-centered relationships, demonstrate that love doesn’t conquer all—Jesus does. In her spare time, she loves hanging out with her family, flea marketing, and doing craft projects. Learn more at www.shannontaylorvannatter.com

A Word Search Game

Here's a fun puzzle for you to solve. You can copy and paste into a word document and print.    

Ladies of Love Inspired

H C F E N I A S N C W Y B S W 
A H J R M C M E O V R Q G R I 
R U H J I V P M S A Q P W O I 
L R D I I E M J R N E X K H M 
E C E D S U N O D Z E P L T Z 
Q H M C N T P D A F A P F U O 
U Z T I F M O E S W W W S A P 
I F T A E F E R E V O L Z U N 
N Y I T F O R G I V E N E S S 
C T N G Y H H M Z C E P E T X 
H O D E R I P S N I A I O N J 
C R E A D E R S B P R L Z H W 
H A H C E B R X F O T K P N S 
F M L P O G U Z T O C Z F R V 
W R D D I M G S H N D E E A L 

AUTHORS
CHURCH
COMMUNITY
CONTEMPORARY
FAITH
FORGIVENESS
FRIENDS
HARLEQUIN
HISTORICAL
HOPE
INSPIRED
LOVE
READERS
STORIES
SUSPENSE

15 of 15 words were placed into the puzzle.

How I Met Your Father--Lenora Worth

For the next few Fridays, some of the Ladies are going to share about how they met their significant others. We are writing these in a fun way. Kind of like a love story ...... . Here's mine:


"Can Lenora come out and play?"

She stared at the blue eyed boy standing on the other side of the screen door, her heart jumping and bumping in the same way it did when she used to ride her rocky horse. Only she was older now, six years old and in first grade. She'd heard about this one though.

His grandparents lived right across the hedge from the little cottage her sister and brother-in-law rented. The grandparents actually owned this little house. And she got to spend the night with her older sister a lot--in town. It was always fun but now, things had gotten really interesting.

He was cute, snaggle-teeth and all. And he wanted to play with her.

"Ya'll want to get in the pool?" Her sister motioned to the round bright blue kiddie pool she'd bought just so Lenora could have some fun and cool off while wearing her frilly pink bikini.

"Yes," Lenora said, determination overtaking caution.

Soon, she and Don were out in the pool, frolicking and enjoying popsicles. Popscicles were easy to eat in the pool. She could wash off the sticky melted stuff and dive right back to having fun with Don.


That was the best summer ever. They played in the pool and on the porch and even at his grandparent's house. But then he had to move away and she went back to being a boring farm girl.

He came back in middle-school and tried to throw Lenora in the big public pool, but when he found out she wasn't a swimmer, he became her protector and wouldn't let anyone else throw her in. Her hero.  But he left yet again, the Army brat.

Then he showed up in high school and she looked up to see him walking across campus, the fall leaves parting as he crashed over them in worn jeans and a gold-colored corduroy jacket.

Lenora turned to her best friend. "That's the man I'm gonna marry."

This time, he stayed and they've been playing together for forty-two years and have two grown children. And he is still her protector and her hero.

testing

What Are We Writing? By Margaret Daley

What Are We Writing
By Margaret Daley

Author - Donna Gartshore

Title - The Doctor's Forever Family

Hero and Heroine- Franklin Pentland and Jane (Spaulding) Pentland 

Line - LIH 

Paragraph - For an instant Jane experienced the oddest feeling. It was like the curtain of years and regrets had dropped away and she could see her mother as a young girl, her eyes filled with dreams for her future. 

Due date - May 31 (for agent query)

Words - 1K

Research/interesting fact - The backdrop for this story is the Tuberculosis Sanitorium

(Fort San) the year it was first established in Fort Qu'Appelle, Sask, Canada. My maternal grandfather served on its board. 

Author: Terri Reed
Title: Book 1 Military K-9 Unit
Hero and Heroine: Master Sgt. Westley James and Sgt. Felicity Monroe
Line: Love Inspired Suspense
One paragraph from the page you are currently on: True to his word, she found Westley waiting for her. She wanted to tell him about her conversation with the OSI agent about the case her father was working on and the fact that maybe she wasn’t going crazy.  But Ian’s words reverberated through her head. We don’t know who to trust. 
Word count goal today: 1500
Something cool learned recently from research: Oh, my word. There is so much to learn when writing a military book. My head is stuffed with information. Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX has been training sentry dogs since 1958.  Today, more than 1,000 dogs are trained at any given time by a staff of 125 from all branches of military service. The complex training techniques are designed to utilize the dogs’ natural gifts for focus and aggression to their advantage. German Shepherds and Labradors can detect weapons, bombs, gases and drugs more accurately than any available military equipment.

Author:  Mary Alford

Title: Gavin Dalton's Story

Hero and Heroine: Gavin and Jamie

Line:  In the coal rich Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky, the truth behind a decade’s old murder is about rise to the surface.    

One paragraph from the page you are currently on:  After his grandmother’s funeral, Gavin is ready to leave town and entomb the past forever when he comes face to face with the one person he thought he’d never see again. Jamie Hendricks, the daughter of his father’s killer. Once high school sweethearts, everything fractured the day Jamie’s father supposedly killed Gavin’s. 

Due date:  Not set yet.

Word count goal today: 1,000 words.

Something cool learned recently from research: Learning about the coal mining industry in Kentucky. 

Author:  Leigh Bale

Title:  Amish Book #1

Hero and Heroine:  Jakob Fisher and Abby Miller

Line:  Love Inspired

One paragraph from the page you are currently on:  Abigail Miller sat primly on the edge of a tall-backed chair and stared at Jakob Fisher.  He paced the length of the spacious living room in his home, his blue chambray shirt stretched taut across his overly broad shoulders and muscular arms.  Having just arrived from working in the fields, his plain trousers and black boots had dust on them.  His dark hair was slightly damp and curled against the nape of his neck, confirming the April weather was unseasonably warm.  His straw hat sat on a table where he'd carelessly tossed it twenty minutes earlier.  His long fingers were clenched around the letters Abby had given him, his high forehead furrowed as he scowled at his mother.

Due date:  August 15, 2017

Word count goal today:  5 pages

Something cool learned recently from research:  The Amish love celery and use it in numerous food dishes.  Because there is so much work to be done in preparation of the Fall harvests, they tend to marry between the months of November and December, but now that farming is on the wane and they have generators for keeping food cold (they do not use electricity ever!!!), the "wedding season" is now allowing for marriages in May, June, September and October.  Because the Amish don't tend to advertise an upcoming marriage or make a big deal about it, one way to know if a couple is planning to wed is to notice how much celery their families grow that summer.  A normal family will grow around 100 stalks of celery.  For a wedding, the family may increase that to 400 stalks!  They *really* love their celery.  :)

Author: Merrillee Whren

Title: Puppy Love (Working Title)

Hero and Heroine: Scott Graham and Amelia Dunford

Line:  A novella in an indie anthology

One paragraph from the page you are currently on:  

As Amelia walked away, anxiety trudged beside her. She feared what Jenna might say to Scott. Judging from her friend’s expression, Amelia worried that Jenna was in full matchmaking mode.

Due date: May 1 to my editor; July 1 for the complete 

Word count goal today:  1,000 words

Author: Angel Moore

Title: Bartering for a Bride

Hero and Heroine: Benjamin Sellers and Amelia Owens

Line: Angel Moore Books - or if you're looking for genre, it's Christian historical romance

One paragraph from the page you are currently on: “I hope so.” He lifted her hand and turned it over in his. “In less than a week’s time you’ll have calluses from all the hard work. I hope you don’t come to regret your decision to tie your lives to mine.”

Due Date: April 30th

Word count goal today: 3k

Something cool learned recently in research: I can't pin this down to just one thing. I love to research the origin of words and phrases, so I learn something new every day. I'm often surprised by how long some words have been used.