Spring has Sprung!!!

 by Diana McCollum

Pictures were taken by me at the Mendocino Botanical Gardens! Such a beautiful place.

Love this gate. Very original design. The gardens have gates and fences here and there to keep the deer, bears and other wild life out.

Cactus garden with gigantic 10 ft tall cacti!

Window was at the cafe. Love the trailing plant.

This was on our hike on the Coastal trail. It was creared by locat Indians and the community of Fort Bragg.

This cherry blossom is from our tree!!! Yes Spring has Sprung.

What are the signs of Spring where you live?

Spring has Sprung

by Diana McCollum

Spring has Sprung as of March 21, 2023, but has it? 

March came in like a lion with snow and cold weather here in California. But is it going out like a lamb? NO! cold weather and rain predicted all week long.

The start of spring is signaled by the vernal equinox. This occurs on March 20 or March 21st and signals the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

New beginings for a new season.

I hope you've enjoyed these memes! Wishing you all a wonderful spring!

May is my Favorite Month

 May is one of my favorite months. It means spring is in full swing and summer is almost here. It is the month I married my always entertaining husband, I had my first book published, and this blog started. 

I am currently in the process of recovering the first book I had published and the 4 other books in that series. I like what my cover designer has come up with so far. I'll be doing a series cover reveal for those in July along with a sale. 

If things continue moving along, I'll have my next Gabriel Hawke book releasing early June. Owl's Silent Strike has my main character battling a winter storm in the Eagle Cap Wilderness, trying to get a woman with a broken leg and a man he believes is a killer out of the mountains. 

Unexpected snowstorm…

Unfortunate accident…

And a body…

What started out as a favor and a leisurely trip into the mountains, soon turns State Trooper Gabriel Hawke’s life upside down. The snowstorm they were trying to beat comes early, a horse accident breaks Dani’s leg, and Hawke finds a body in the barn at Charlie’s Lodge.

Hawke sets Dani’s leg, then follows the bloody trail of a suspect trying to flee the snow drifted mountains. Hawke is torn between getting the woman he loves medical care and knowing he can’t leave a possible killer on the mountain.

Before the killer is brought to justice, Dani and Hawke will put their relationship to the test and his job on the line.

While I wait in between critiques and edits on that book, I am working on the next Spotted Pony Casino mystery. Last weekend I spent part of a day, first looking around the tribal police station at the Umatilla Reservation where my series is set, and following security guards around at the casino to see what they did while on the casino floor. My oldest daughter said it was a wonder she didn't have to come bail me out! 

There wasn't anyone at the police station, so I wandered around the building looking in the windows to see the layout of the building. And at the casino, I would sit in a chair near security guards, studying their clothing and equipment and following them if they were walking around. Nothing creepy about that. LOL 

I really like where this book, Double Down, is going with the storyline. It's putting a strain on the main characters in the series. Poor Dela is accused of murder. She didn't do it but there are some who believe she did. 

May should be the month I finish this book and send it out to my beta readers and critique partners. Then I need to finish a short story I'm writing for a mystery anthology, titled, A Body on the 13th Floor. It is a Spotted Pony Casino short story.

Another thing I like about May- Flowers start blooming. Some are wild and some of the domestic ones I have planted. Color outside my window when I write makes me happy!

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 53 novels, 8 novellas, and short stories of murder mystery, western romance, and action-adventure. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters.

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It Might as Well be Spring by Eleri Grace

As we round the corner on another spring, having cycled now fully through all the seasons under pandemic conditions, I'm reminded of the hopeful 1945 song "It Might as Well be Spring." The hit song from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical film "State Fair" really didn't have much to do with the impending end of WWII -- in fact the war was over by the time it was recorded and released as a single in the fall of 1945. Yet to my mind it is symbolic of the fresh new springtime start that the end of the war would bring for so many and could be equally meaningful in current times as we begin to climb out of the pandemic slowly but surely. 

I'm as busy as a spider spinning daydreams

I'm as giddy as a baby on a swing

I haven't seen a crocus or a rosebud or a robin on the wing

But I feel so gay in a melancholy way

That it might as well be Spring

One of the things I always keep in the forefront of my mind when writing my WWII era novels is that no one had a crystal ball. My Red Cross Girl heroines faced the prospect of "for the duration" along with the servicemen. When they were packing up at home and in Washington after completing their training, they had no idea how many seasons would come and go before they experienced the familiarity of a hometown seasonal change once again. Many served in a climate quite unlike what they had experienced in their lifetime up to that point.

The holidays that mark the passage of the seasons were something our forces overseas observed however possible. The Red Cross Girls quashed their own homesickness in order to put on a happy face for holiday parties and dances. They knew it was important that these seasonal rituals carry on -- it was a spot of normalcy in what were extraordinary times. 

And so it goes with us. I know we're not there yet. That was true for the men and women serving overseas in 1945 -- feeling happy and hopeful "in a melancholy way," for by then everyone knew it was a matter of time. It's a matter of time on this pandemic too. Spring is in the air -- let's remain vigilant but hopeful!

Learn more about me and my writing on my website or follow me on my social media accounts at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. 

You can find my Clubmobile Girls novels on Amazon.