About Raising Rudy Holt 

My newest novel just published. Raising Rudy Holt is Women's Fiction about a grandfather left to raise his grandson alone after young Rudy's father, mother and grandmother all meet untimely deaths. Sam Holt's task runs smoothly during Rudy's formative years, but as the boy matures he grows morose, is prone to long silences and becomes argumentative and even disrespectful to the grandfather who loves him more than words can express.

Determined to lead his own life and not wanting to be forced to enroll in college, the day after his high school graduation and not wanting to enroll in college as his grandfather insists, Rudy leaves Sam a brief note, climbs into his VW bug and heads off for parts unknown in hopes of discovering what he really wants to do with his life.
Heartbroken, Sam heeds his grandson's wishes and does not send the law after the eighteen-year-old or hire a detective to find the boy -- now almost a man -- and drag him back.

Rudy is drawn to Alaska, the state where the father he never knew died in the crash of his military helicopter a few months before Rudy was born. In Alaska he develops an insatiable thirst for more knowledge about the much-maligned indigenous Tlingit Clan of Alaska Natives and enrolls in online classes through the University of Alaska, Juneau t learn more.  

After spending a solitary winter snowbound in an abandoned cabin where he began completing college courses on line -- surprise, surprise -- Rudy decided he does want to earn a college degree. He gets hired as athletic director for the summer program at a boarding school for adolescent sons of Natives and moves into Haines, Alaska. The State pays his room and board. The summers he spent at a Boy Scout Camp in the mountains east San Diego, California -- first as a camper and then as a camp counselor -- help him land the job. Before Rudy realizes, it he's coaching a soccer team and giving his boys the same pep talks his grandfather gave Rudy's soccer team.

At Christmas that year Rudy calls his grandfather for the first time, and the two of them begin to build a different kind of relationship, man-to-man, but he still falls short of admitting it only took a few months of living in the Alaska wilderness to convince Rudy he didn't know everything, after all.



 

After years of doing my reading on readers I recently renewed the pleasure of holding a hardback book in my hands.

My vision is not so good anymore, and I no longer have to turn the page as frequently as I did on a reader. Besides, I like the feel of a good book.

My hearing is not good, either, so Audio books did not work for me, but published, paper-and-glue books do.

The best part is: all my favorite authors are shelved at my local library and it will take me years to read all those good mysteries I love the most.

Let's see: if I average reading three novels a week, I shouldn't run out of titles to read until 2043.

What then?

The other good news is: I'm finally writing again. Because of my husband's many assorted medical issues the last eighteen months I had no longer felt creative, but I'm writing again, now and have three new manuscripts in the works.

​Raising Rudy should be available soon.

​ 
 
Description:
 
This comforting soup makes your house smell wonderful when simmered for a cold night.
 
Ingredients
 
8 cups low-salt chicken broth; divide in half
1 ½ ounce package dried porcini mushrooms
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups sliced celery
1 cup sliced shallots
¾ cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups sliced stemmed fresh shitake mushrooms (about 6 ounces)
3 cups sliced crimini mushrooms (about 6 ounces)
3 cups sliced oyster mushrooms (about 4 ½ ounces)
8 ounces morel mushrooms, sliced
4 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme or 1 ½ teaspoons dried
½ cup white wine
½ cup dry Sherry
¼ cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons softened butter
2 cups low-fat (1%) milk
½ cup heavy cream
 
Preparation
 
Step One:
Bring 4 cups broth to boil in medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add porcini mushrooms to saucepan, let soak until mushrooms soften, about 20 minutes. Drain, reserving broth but discarding any sediment in broth. Coarsely chop porcini mushrooms.
 
Step-Two:
Heat olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add chopped celery, shallots, and onions;  sauté until tender, about 7 minutes. Add mushrooms; sauté until brown and tender, about 8 minutes. Add minced garlic and thyme; sauté 2 minutes. Add white wine and Sherry. Boil until liquid is reduced to glaze, about 6 minutes.
 
Step-Three:
In a small bowl mix butter and flour into a smooth paste.  Add flour paste to mushroom mixture in pot; stir to melt butter and coat the vegetables. Gradually mix in all the stock. Bring to boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to medium-low, add milk and simmer until mushrooms are tender, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Transfer 1 ½ cups soup to blender and puree until smooth. Return to pot. Bring soup to simmer. Stir in cream. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
 
Presentation Suggestions:
Ladle soup into bowls; top with croutons. Serve with salad and crusty French bread. Makes 6 servings.

I've just finished reading The Pelican by Lee Silber for the second time.

And yes, it's that good a book.

Between drinking sprees and thoughts of his pending suicide Livingston Taylor wonders Isn't investing in yourself the best investment you can make?
 
A successful Middle School teacher, Livingston misses his students, still loves the wife he's left and the two fast-maturing sons he adores, but the minimal public acceptance of his published books has dashed his hopes for literal acclaim, and tanked his self-esteem. 
 
The only thing keeping him from squeezing the trigger and ending his life is the determined pelican who shows up on the back deck of Livingston's rented beach house every time he pulls out his gun to end his misery.
 
All I need to do is increase my confidence, but I don't think I can. And yes, I see the irony in that, Livingston thinks, but slowly regains a desire to live as he makes new friends and find work.
 
Then…
 
This powerful story about finding your way in the world will warm the reader's heart.

​It warmed mine.

Blog – Interview With the Hero of Restored Dreams
 
Author: We're welcoming Bradley Harrington Coleman III to this blog today, a former rodeo rider best known for his championship bull-riding. Bradley, tell us a little more about yourself.
 
Buck: First, ma'am, let's get something straight. Nobody calls me Bradley.
 
Author: What should we call you then?
 
Buck: Buck is the handle I prefer.
 
Author: Don't tell me you're the Buck folks in Lakeview are calling the White Knight?
 
Buck: Can't rightly say, ma'am. I've been Buck for over ten years, and that's how I think of myself, just plain ole Buck.
 
Author: Some folks in Lakeview are calling you "Bill Gates on a horse." What do you have to say about that?
 
Buck: I suspect I've been called worse.
 
Author: It's true, then, that you've been giving away your family's wealth?
 
Buck: Only to folks who need it, but why is that so upsetting? I have more than I need, more than I'll ever be able to spend in this lifetime, so why shouldn't I share with those less fortunate? Who can find fault with that?
 
Author: No one's faulting the new roof you put on the community hall and on one of the Lakeview churches, but what's this I hear about you putting a new roof on that old Victorian house north of town, the house that pretty middle school teacher owns?
 
Buck: She's pretty all right, and has a heart as big as Montana. Did you know she even devotes her Saturdays to kid? Holds a story hour for leukemia patients at Children's Hospital and teaches equine therapy classes for abused children. Her new roof was just my way of showing her my appreciation for all she does for local kids.
 
Author: What brought you to Lakeview, Buck? How did you hear about our town?
 
Buck: Off the record, ma'am? My grandfather was a lying SOB who long ago cheated some of the good people of Lakeview out of their life savings.
 
Author:  He did! How?
 
Buck: By promising the railroad he represented was coming right through Lakeview, then absconding with all the money the townspeople invested in it. Broke at least one of the lady's hearts, too, I'm told.
 
Author: Folks compare you to Bill Gates. Any truth to that?
 
Buck: No, my philanthropy is more personal. I have met and talked with everyone I've helped, and that includes church congregations, too. I've learned it helps to involve members in the work. Ups a man's self-respect when he can point to a wall or roof and say, "I helped put that up," don't you think?
 
Author: Looks like it's working. What's this I hear about a home for forgotten and abused boys?
 
Buck: (His grin widens.) That's Treasure's fondest dream, and I hope to make it a reality.
 
Author: Like restoring her house to its original splendor?
 
Buck: Can't blame a man for trying.
 
Author: Sounds to me like you've fallen in love with Treasure Montgomery.
 
Buck: Hasn't everyone?
 
Author: Maybe so. Thanks for the interview, Buck. Guess I better let you get back to Restoring those Dreams.
 
RESORED DREAMS BLURB:
Her roof leaks, the plumbing, too. But on a teacher's salary, Treasure Montgomery cannot afford to pay the taxes on the grand Victorian house she inherited from the great-aunt who raised her, let alone pay for the needed repairs. Seeking fulfillment in an otherwise empty life, Treasure surrounds herself with other people's children.
Until she meets Buck.
The retired rodeo rider turned philanthropic-contractor donates his labor to anyone who needs a helping hand, spending his father's fortune to make amends for the man's ill-gotten gains. He wants to help, but prideful Treasure refuses to accept Buck's charity.
He persists. She resists, so Buck circumvents Treasure's objections through subterfuge. Then she learns the truth -- her new roof cost far more than planned. Fearing Buck will demand her house in payment, she empties her bank account, pays him and sends him packing.
If she would only open her heart to him, Buck might be the answer to restoring more than just her home.

Restored Dreams is available for download and in print from your favorite book source.

 Blog - Looking For Inspiration In All The Wrong Places
 
I've told you about the home of an artist that inspired my romantic suspense Law Breakers and Love Makers, and the boarded up house in Mission Hills that inspired my dark romance Decisive Moments.  But I haven't told you about the weekend trip we made to photograph the restored ghost town of Cerro Gordo, California, the inspiration for my time travel romance, Rising Above. The American Hotel, the bunkhouse, a store and one of the homes built in 1800's are among the fully restored structures.
 
On our first visit we shared the bunk house with friends and renewed our acquaintance with the owner, the late Jody Stuart. Over dinner she willingly shared her love of the mountaintop silver mine she'd inherited and poured her heart into. She invited us to exploring the abandoned mineshafts and an the abundant assortment of vintage mining equipment and ask questions the next night at dinner.
 
While I went intending to photograph, the fantastic scenery soon hooked me and as I strolled around the old hotel I began wondering what it had been like for the wives of the men, stranded nine miles up a barren mountainside. How many other women had shared their plight I wondered, and that thought planted the seed for my next novel.
 
The idea for a hot-air balloon race came later.  I decided to write about a misfit Caltrans flagperson who longed for a different life and my heroine Wilda soon filled the pages. Her modern ways set the hotel owner aghast and her unexpected refusal to force her rescuer, the local lawman, to enter into a marriage of convenience with her drove him to distraction.
 
Rising Above is available online in eBook and Print Book format for your reading enjoyment.

Author's Note: The town of Cerro Gordo is now under new ownership who plan to again make this mountaintop experience available to the public. 

This is the script for a radio interview with the author when Lawbreakers and Love Makers was first released in 2010.
 
Toni, when did you first consider yourself a writer?
 February 8, 1996. That's the day the plot for my first novel began forming in my mind. I always thought that once I was no longer living a regimented life ideas for novels would come. They didn't, so soon after I retired I enrolled in a college-level creative writing class hoping to coax my muse out of hibernation. Work in my chosen field -- accounting -- had squelched my creativity, but in that class I learned to write essays, short stories, and poetry. I don't recommend the writing poetry part. For months, I thought in rhyme. Then, while reading a romance on a rainy afternoon, A dam burst and the entire plot for a novel flooded my mind. I hurried upstairs to my computer planning to make notes, but the ideas just kept coming, and I wrote two chapters before logging off. Except for aggravating periods of writer's block, I haven't stopped writing since.
 
How long have you been writing? What's the most rewarding aspect of it?
 My teachers always insisted I had a way with words and as early as ten I knew I wanted to be a writer, but was undecided what I wanted to write. At fourteen, I started writing my autobiography, but my life was so boring I felt sorry for any possible readers and had the main character come down with a fatal disease to give my readers a break.
 
Writing romance is entirely different, especially romantic suspense. The mystery and the love story have to merge seamlessly, but give the couple time to fall in love. Plotting satisfying resolutions that lead to happy endings is my ultimate  goal, and when I successfully solve the mystery and maneuver two headstrong people into each others arms I give myself a hi-five.
 
What was the inspiration behind your book? 
I attended a retirement party in a lovely home I thought so unusual that before leaving that evening I asked the hostess if she'd mind if I put her residence in one of my books. She readily agreed and I started plotting Lawbreakers and Love Makers.
 
You asked your hostess to use her house for the scene of a murder? Were you ever invited back? 
Yes to both, more or less. The entire time I devoured her delicious treats I was picturing bad guys climbing over the fence surrounding their isolated property and the plot for a romantic suspense began to take shape in my mind. Before you ask, no, I'd never had that happen before. All evening I plotted ways to prolong tension for a quirky heroine easily frightened by strange noises, and on the drive home gave her a conscientious deputy to calm her fears.
 
When I sat down to write a tension-filled romantic suspense, however, uninvited characters and unusual pets crept onto the pages and stole the scene. This novel practically wrote itself. Instead of the seat-of-your-pants thriller I'd plotted, Lawbreakers and Love Makers turned into a sometimes humorous, often scary rollercoaster ride that brings Zoe and her father closer together, and Zoe and Jon into each other's arms to stay.
 
I see Lawbreakers and Love Makers is your first published novel. Tell us a little more about it. 
In Law Breakers and Love Makers Zoe Westmoreland returns to San Diego to housesit for her parents and sets off their silent alarm. The deputy sheriff who responds to the alarm is the same high school sweetheart who broke her heart in eleventh grade. She later learns her father, a Juvenile Court Judge, was responsible for forcing Jon out of her life.
 
Once Jon renews their relationship, the couple discovers some interesting ways to get reacquainted. Then really bad things start happening to Zoe and the deputy has his hands full trying to unravel the mystery at the Westmoreland residence while keeping Zoe safe.

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0045IT5M2inks
 

Love losing yourself in a good book?
 
So do I. Starting soon after I learned to read, I became immersed in books, and only swam to the surface to eat and sleep.

Later, when I slept over at my cousin's house, we would curl up on her bed and compare notes about the book we were reading. She liked to read mysteries. One night I noticed her close her book and get a far-away look in her eyes.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Deciding what is going to happen on the next page."

"Are you always right?"

She shrugged. "Some of the time, but it gives me a really good feeling when I outsmart the author and come up with a better solution than the one in the book."

Hmm.

I'm plotting a new romantic suspense, using my cousin's technique. Weighing the what-if's, so to speak and wondering if my solution to the crime is too cut-and-dried?

Nothing new there?

What if the Game Warden really did do it? He found the body, and the Vic's daughter has suspected him all along.

No. If he's the murderer, he can't be her romantic interest.

Then who?

What about the pesky newspaper reporter? Is he really just after a story? Does he have something to hide?

Then there's the Vic's cleaning woman. Her unemployed husband is a jealous type.
Had enough plotting?

I have, and think I'm finally ready to write Hook, Line and Killer so you can lose yourself in another romantic suspense.
 
 You can find Toni's completed novels here:    https://amzn.to/2wOeLMO

I like to surround myself with music when I'm writing. Ravel's "Bolero" when I'm writing a hot scene, Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson when I'm not. Their recordings are great background music for writing scenes with lots of dialogue.

In my teens I studied piano, because all my friends did, but I was never very good. The kindest words my teacher ever had for me? "You are very musical," whatever that means. My metronome failed to keep me on track rhythmically, and my fingers tangled anytime I was asked to perform.

Recitals at Birmingham Southern College on an otherwise peaceful Sunday afternoon were for me a horror show, with me the perp, all sweaty palms and shaky hands, but to this day I still surround myself with music. I can't stand being home in an empty house, so I go to the stereo and turn on some Strauss, or Vivaldi. I keep a CD of waltzes in my car.

My granddaughter inherited my husband's music skill and already plays three instruments well. He firmly believes learning to play an instrument helps children do well in math, and gave her a quarter-size violin when she was just three. She recently inherited his full-size violin with great sound because his arthritic fingers will no longer hold the bow without pain.

Sadly there aren't many instruments left for him to play that his achy rotator cup allows, so we've turned to good classical recordings our musical entertainment. Have you noticed how short LP's seem, now that we have CDs?

I plan to observe with month by digging out the Liberace albums, and one by one listen to him play his piano solos, remembering our younger years. His, too.

The boarded up house in Mission Hill first caught my attention and set off a flood of questions in my mind.

Why was the three story brick estate boarded up?

Who had lived there in the past?

Who owned it now and what did he/she plan to do with this lovely, family home?

The hero soon emerged in my mind, a successful but troubled man who has forgotten how to smile.

Then he meets a winsome almost-five little girl and can't keep from smiling.

Her mother is a different story. He says "No!" every way he knows how to her insistent requests to photograph his boarded up house, but gutsy young woman and her precocious daughter never give up on him.

Why was this reclusive man so sad? I wondered and started digging into his past. That's when I discovered the terrible tragedy that changed the life of the four-year-old little boy who once lived in his now- unoccupied estate.

Mystery is my favorite genre to read, and writing this dark romance came easy for me until the ghost of the homeowner's mother strolled through my manuscript.

Want to read more? You'll find the back of the book blurb here:
https://amzn.to/2LeHVtK ​