December 14, 2003

Howdy and Happy Holidays from South California!

You can always tell when Christmas is coming in Orange county...you can't find a parking space at the mall! I've finally put my wreath on the door and I'm starting to get in the mood for the holidays. Hope you all are too.

My October trip to the Midwest and New England was fast, fun and fabulous! As always it was so delightful meeting my readers and the weather (most of the time) was gorgeous. One of the nights we were in Wichita there was a flash flood near our hotel, but other than that, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri all laid out the red carpet for me. My good buddy, Laura Wingfield, was a hoot and a pleasure to travel with. I think we sang every famous road song ever written. And ate way too much fried food (yum!)

After some fun time with my baby sister, Debra, (the real quilter in our family) in Connecticut, I spent over a week at my webmaster Tina's new home in New Hampshire where she kindly arranged to have it snow! Before it snowed, on my drive from Connecticut to New Hampshire showed me why people move to New England. The trees simply glowed with reds, yellows and oranges. Wow, is all I can say!

While I was at Tina's, being fed the best homemade Italian food in the U.S., we worked on the new website. My part was easy. I just sat there and said, "Yes, I like it. Yes, I like it. Yes, I like it!" Hope you do too. I did pick the color background, but Tom and Tina did all the hard work. If you like what you see, send her a note telling her so! Believe me, without Tina and Tom, there would be no Benni Harper website.

I'm reading the loose galleys of Broken Dishes right now. It will be coming out in May 2004 and I'll be announcing the cities where I'll be touring in my February newsletter. Maybe I'll be coming to a town near you!

Check out the new contest. It's easy and you might win a San Celina Police Department ball cap. They are navy with white writing. We'll get a picture of one on the website soon. Take good care, get your flu shot and have a peaceful Hanukkah and blessed Christmas.

Your favorite cowgirl's best friend, Earlene

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October 2, 2003

Howdy and Happy Autumn!

Just a quick note before I head out on my Benni Harper Heartland and Fall Foliage tour!  I'm looking forward to meeting many of you in the next three weeks.  I've been incredibly busy this week as I've sent the stories and photos for Benni Harper's Quilt Album to C & T Publishing.  I've done my part, now they'll be working on theirs.  It's still scheduled for October 2004.  Margrit's quilts, I must tell you, are simply exquisite.

The contest is over and the winners will be posted as soon as I get permission to print their names.  By this time, if you haven't been contacted, you didn't win.  But don't give up!  We'll be having more easy contests like that as soon as my webmasters and I revamp the website.  It's going to have a whole new look though I'm not sure what it is yet!

As you can see by the contest statistics, Gabe was the overall favorite with Hud in second place.  It was fun to see who 1005 of you would like to be stranded with overnight in a cabin. Who would I choose?  I must admit, it was a tie between Gabe and Hud.  I just couldn't make a choice.

A sad bit of news came to me this week.  Lillian, the 98-year-old fan pictured on my home page, passed away last weekend.  Diane, her great-niece, said she was reading up until the end.  My kind of lady.  What an honor it was for me to meet her.

So, have a wonderfully brisk and colorful fall.  I hope you'll get to see as many beautiful leaves as I'm promised I'll be seeing in New England.  Who knows, maybe I'll even see a moose!  I sure didn't get to see one when I went to Alaska a few years ago.

Happy Autumn Trails, Earlene Fowler 

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August 17, 2003

Greetings from hot and humid Southern California!

Trust me, we're not used to any kind of humidity here in South California so you can imagine how much we are all whining. When my youngest sister, Debra, and her clan visited me a few weeks ago from the beautiful state of Connecticut, they thought the weather was great! They couldn't believe that our minuscule (from their point of view) humidity was unusual enough to make the evening news! That's us crazy Californians for you. 

Crazy should be in our state motto, I think. You're not even going to get me to comment on what is going on up there in Sacramento. A psychotherapist and writer friend of mine, Dennis Palumbo, recently emailed me and said he and his family were on their way to a favorite vacation spot in Northern California. He jokingly wrote that before he left he was going to drop off his petition and check to get put on the ballot for governor. "Please tell me you aren't kidding," I emailed him back. "I'll vote for you, I promise." I would, too. 

At any rate, I'm getting ready for a trip myself! I'll be visiting friends in the Midwest and New England and will be doing a few signings along the way, so I hope I'll get to meet some of you. 

In the Midwest, my friend, Laura Wingfield, will be my pilot (I'm the navigator since it's her van we're traveling in) on what we're calling the "Benni Harper Heartland Tour." In New England (maybe the "Benni Harper Fall Foliage Tour"?) my friend and Webmaster, Tina Davis, whom you all know and love (there wouldn't be a website without her!) will be my guide. Check my website's booksigning schedule to see if I'll be anywhere near you. If I am, come on out and say howdy!

I wish I could go to more places than I am, but this was all I could work into my schedule and still fit my visiting in. I'll look forward to seeing you all at the local bookstores that are kindly hosting the signings. I'll be happy to sign any books you bring, but, please, out of fairness to our struggling hometown booksellers, please purchase at least one book at their store... even if it's not mine! 

There's a new contest on the website home page and it's an easy one. I have four San Celina Police Department T-shirts left so we thought we'd have a contest everyone could enjoy. It's a poll, so if you answer it you'll get put in the drawing for one of the four T-shirts. We'll post the results of the poll at the beginning of October, before I leave on my Midwest and New England adventure. 

The website contest is: In Broken Dishes (May 2004) Benni is forced to spend the night in a mountain cabin with an unnamed male person. Question: Who would you prefer being trapped in a mountain cabin with--Chief Gabe Ortiz, Cousin Emory Littleton, Detective Ford "Hud" Hudson, Isaac Lyons, Pastor MacKenzie "Mac" Reid, Sam Ortiz or Rich Trujillo (don't forget, he's a good cook). Good luck!

Happy Trails until we meet again (hopefully on the road!),

Earlene

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July 1, 2003

Howdy all!  

Sorry this newsletter is late. As Dove might say, like may of you, I've been busier than a hen drinking out of a pie pan.

Let it be said I had the best intentions when I went on book tour this year. For the first time I was going to keep a journal, take pictures with my new digital camera and post it all up here on my website. As they say about the best laid plans of mice and women...

Everything started out perfect. I began my journey in Washington D.C. at the Malice Domestic Convention. I met my youngest sister, Debra there and we had a ball sightseeing, doing the conference and getting a personal tour of the Library of Congress after I gave a talk there (did you know that there are paintings on the ceilings of naked football and baseball players? It's true, I saw them).

Then it was on to New York for a visit with my publisher and agent. I even saw Jerry Seinfeld sitting in Central Park talking to a homeless man! Talk about your New York moment.

Then I flew to Cleveland and my book tour officially began.

I'd like to say right from the beginning that all the readers I met were wonderful, generous, just all around super people. But they had two big flaws.

They couldn't control the weather. Or my health.

Most of this is from memory as I abandoned my journal writing and camera early on. Cleveland was great. I was still on a high from being in New York, a wonderful group of quilter fans came from Akron, Ohio, to show me their quilts and present me with a Sunshine and Shadow quilt (see quilt gallery) and it was the beginning of my tour, which is always exciting.

Then there was the next day. You know all the weather reports about the thunderstorms and flooding in Ohio, the tornados in Tennessee, the smoky air in San Antonio (from the farmers in Mexico burning their fields), windstorms in New Mexico? I hit every one of them (though I did miss the Gallatin tornado by twelve hours).

And I got sick--bronchitis, the flu, who-knows-what. Those of you who came to my signings in Columbus, Knoxville and Nashville probably thought I just had a husky voice. Those of you in San Antonio, Santa Fe and Albuquerque probably wonder if I always sound like that girl on the Exorcist. I promise you I don't.

I went through two bottles of Nyquil, way too much tissues and drank more tea and honey in two weeks than I've drank in a year. But I made it. And though I wasn't feeling my best it was still wonderful seeing all of you and I really appreciate you coming to my signings. Hopefully, next time I see you all I'll be in better voice.

And just to show you God has a sense of humor, when I reached Tucson and was beginning to feel like I might make it home without dying, in my beautiful, quiet, luxurious room at a resort hotel...there was a cricket. It chirped all night long. So, though I would call my tour an incredible success because I was able to meet so many of you...I must admit I was glad when it was over! I am thankful to God for his grace and protection during my journey.

Since then, I've finished up my local signings and started work on the stories for Benni Harper's Quilt Album. I've completed two stories and started the other eleven.

Keep a watch on my book signing page. In October I'll be coming to the Midwest and New England. I'll be visiting friends and family and doing a few booksignings. I'm working on finding bookstores that both want me and can fit into my schedule.

Until we meet again, I want to leave you with a quote I just read by C.S. Lewis. It was so apt for what we all experience, I wanted to share it.

"Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd. It is not neat, not obvious, not what you expect."

It is also the perfect description of some of my favorite books!

Happy Summertime Trails, Earlene

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Howdy and Happy Spring!

I'm finally on the homestretch with Broken Dishes. The first draft is done and I'm working on the rewrites, something that is very important in my writing since I don't write with an outline.

During rewriting I (hopefully) catch all the bloopers, although I don't have to tell you, all my eagle-eyed readers, that some still get through. Yes, there is one on the first page of Sunshine and Shadow. Believe it or not, at least ten people read that chapter, including me. I read it 43 times! Ben Harper should be Ben Ramsey and it will be changed in the paperback. That just goes to show you that we are all just human.

The Parkfield Quilt Quake quilt retreat was just as fun the second time. These ladies, their beautiful quilts and incredible spirits made the weekend just fly by. Yosemite from the "inside" was a real treat. Debbie, my old high school friend, and I hadn't seen each other to really talk for thirty years so that's what we did for four days. We also did a little sightseeing, seeing as it was Yosemite! I spoke at the book club there and was treated to a lovely feast made by the head chef of the Ahwahnee Lodge.

The research at my friend Bunny's ranch was a lot of fun. We spent a few days at her cabin at MudRun, rounded up some cattle, fixed some fence and practiced cheating at Dominos (you'll see why when Broken Dishes comes out next year). Bunny allowed me to ride her trained bridle horse, Gumby, something which was an honor and I really appreciated. Gumby patiently tolerated someone as "untrained" as me riding him as only a horse with class can. Then came my barrel racing lesson. Though I must admit I didn't "run" the barrels during my barrel racing lesson (see last newsletter), I did trot around them and experienced what a barrel racing horse felt like. As I've said before, one of the best parts of my job is the research! Go to the Research on the Road section of my website and see some of the photographs of me and some of my friends on the ranch.

A few weeks later, I and my quilt book partner, Margrit Hall, took a road trip to Northern California to visit the C & T Publishing offices. We were treated to a wonderful tour of C & T and met all the people who would be working on Benni Harper's Quilt Album and saw what goes into putting together all those beautiful quilt books C & T produces. There's a picture of Margrit and I at C & T's offices also on my website.

I've officially signed the contracts for three more books. Two of them will be in the Benni Harper series, the third is my mainstream book, so I'll be busy for the next couple of years.

As for the contests, now that we've gone through the books once, I'll have to come up with another idea for a contest. Tina, my webmaster, and I will be working on it and hopefully have something up this summer.

My book tour schedule promoting Sunshine and Shadow is complete now. Check out that section of the website and see if I'm coming to your area. If you have time, drop by and say hey. I'll be glad to sign your books and answer any questions you might have.

Happy trails until we meet again, Earlene

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