It’s my great pleasure to make at least one or two visits to the Texas Hill Country every year, and being among those creeks, rivers, scrubby trees, and of course those untamed hills, brings on volumes of story ideas. A few weeks ago, my mother and I headed out on Highway 16 to a book signing at the Boerne Bookshop and met with a book club at the Hotel Giles in Comfort. In between, I was able to deliver more books to the 8th Street Market in Comfort, and catch up with friends and family along the way.

Currently, I’m working on a Christmas novella set in Comfort, and the first book in a new trilogy (also, set in Comfort.) Wandering Comfort’s actual streets was strange because I pictured my characters and invented places among the addresses. Readers tell me that my novels have created a community they want to live in, and I, too, can’t help transposing the imagined on the real. I then snap photos of places I’ve yet to include and realize there’s a whole landscape for the new characters and plots that are brewing. I’m having fun writing this new trilogy. It will be similar and yet different from the first four contemporary novels also set in Comfort. Can’t wait to reveal it to you.

Meantime, here are some snaps from the road trip along with my big thanks to those who supported and planned the events at Boerne Bookshop and Hotel Giles. As always, spending time at the 8th Street Market feeds my soul because I end up purchasing trinkets and treasures that inspire the next good story–or at the very least, my house.