Throw the confetti! Blow the bugle! Do a happy dance! I love starting the New Year this way–with the official launch day of my latest novella, At Home with Daffodils, included in the collection A Bouquet of Brides.

I gotta tell you, being included in a collection with these particular authors is very special to me. You see, some of my dearest friends and co-laborers are in this dynamite line-up.

This week I’ll tell you a bit about the gals who have stories in this special book. Today we start with Mary Davis, author of Holly and Ivy, the first novella in the collection.

I call her Merry Mary. I can’t help it. Her delightful personality simply lights up the room when we hang out. She was the master-mind of this collection, coming up with the idea to have stories where the heroines are all named after flowers and learning to blossom where they are planted. Mary and I also served together for several years in leadership with the American Christian Fiction Writers. Mary was the president of the Colorado Spring chapter, and I headed up the north Denver chapter for a while. Mary was also a part of the state leadership team when I served as the ACFW Colorado Coordinator.

Mary and I had a lot of fun rooming at writer’s conferences and traveling together to various author events. The picture above was taken in 2013 when Mary and I traveled together to Montrose, Colorado to teach about writing at the library! We had fun shopping and messing around afterward. See why I call her Merry Mary?

The next picture was taken a few years earlier in Colorado Springs in 2011. Mary and I served on a romance writers panel for Valentine’s Day along with several other others. We’re pictured here with Lisa Tawn Bergren and Olivia Newport. Notice Mary’s shirt. When I saw it, I knew it had to be featured on the cover of Titanic: Legacy of Betrayal, so when I asked her for it, she simply took it off and handed it to me. (She did have another shirt on underneath!)

Mary and I (usually with another author from this collection, Kathy Kovach) shared so many experiences together I found it hard to choose pictures! I have to laugh at the many sizes I’ve been and hairstyles I’ve had that span my Mary years. Mary moved out of state, and Kathy and I sure miss that face-to-face contact with her. Here are a few more shots just for fun. The one below pictures Mary next to Kathy (in front) and me standing next to our friend Linda on that Montrose trip I mentioned earlier.

Below we enjoy a “write out” at the Broadmoor. We had such fun that day. Mary is standing between two more author friends, Megan DiMaria and Bonnie Doran. This was likely taken in 2011 or 2012.

This picture is special because we’re off to enjoy a riverboat ride as guests of our publisher, Barbour. I didn’t know I would get to take this particular ride because I was surprised at the 2011 ACFW writer’s conference with my first book contract and then invited to go to the party! This was taken in St. Louis and our dear friend, editor and author Margie Vawter is pictured with us.

I hope you’ll join us tomorrow when I introduce the author of the second novella in the series, Periwinkle in the Park.

Until then,

Tagged: A Bouquet of Brides, mary davis, writing joruney