Winter and writing in Montana

It has snowed almost a foot in the last couple of days and has been cold now for weeks. It's beautiful, no doubt about it. And it should help with the book I'm working on since One Hot Forty-Five is set in December 2009.

But enough is enough. My husband keeps saying, It's a normal winter, get used to it.

That's just it. We haven't had much winter in our part of Montana since we moved here and I was okay with it. I liked global warming. It would snow but then the sun would come out and it would melt. My kind of winter.

As I sit here wearing my winter snowpacks from my hike to the office, I'm dreaming of warm weather so it's hard to write about my heroes and heroines slogging through the snow. I know it sounds crazy, but I hate seeing them out in the cold because I know how they feel.

This morning the Billings Gazette didn't arrive in our small town either because 1) the road south blew in with snowdrifts or 2)the driver went off the road in the 200 miles from there to here. Residents are advised to stay home if at all possible and if you have to venture out, you're to tell someone where you're going and when you expect to get there just in case you don't make it.

I love living this far from civilization most of the time. I love setting my Whitehorse series here because it is so isolated and life here is interesting because of it. But this latest blizzard is too much like the plot of One Hot Forty-Five. The road out of here is glazed with ice. Seriously, you can see your face in it. And the gravel roads are blown in with drifts.

But as my feet start warming up, I know I have to get back to the Corbett brothers, Lantry in particular, and get him and the heroine out of that snowdrift they've ended up in during the blizzard and on with the story. After all it's a Christmas book and I can't let them miss Christmas at the Trails West Ranch where there's something good cooking and there's a warm fire waiting for them.

The Corbett brothers arrive in Whitehorse, Montana in April with Shotgun Bride, May is Hunting Down the Horseman, June Big Sky Dynasty, September Smokin' Six-Shooter and of course December with One Hot Forty-Five. See you at the ranch.

In the meantime, stay warm and close to the fire.