Connections

Welcome back to Flowers on the Fence Country! Flowers on the Fence Country is big. It expands to include anyplace wherein resides one of my special Flowers. It encompasses Malta. New Jersey. California. New Zealand. Canada. Scotland. England. Anyplace where a special flower grows. One of my very special Flowers is found in Ohio. Her name’s Roseanne. Fancy that. How fitting. Roseanne Dowell.

Roseanne’s latest release, Connections of the Mind, is a first for Flowers on the Fence. Its first review. Again, how fitting, since the entire premises of this little private country of mine is connecting, place to place, person to person. Collecting the special.

Have you ever – well – just connected with anyone? I felt an immediate affinity for the characters of Connections of the Mind because of the heroine’s name. Roseanne Dowell christened the heroine of this book Rebecca Brennan. My beautiful twenty-seven year old daughter’s name is – Rebecca Branan Smith. (We tend to use our maiden names for middle names down South.) Now, what are the odds of that happening? So of course I had a vested interest in following Rebecca Brennan’s story.

Rebecca’s definitely connected with someone. And not by Twitter or Facebook, or for any reason so innocuous as announcing where he’s having dinner. Her life is now disrupted by a knowing, without knowing how, that somewhere, there’s a man out there in danger. Her visions indicate he’s in a dangerous profession, something in law enforcement, she’s sure. But this danger’s different. It’s personal. And so is her new mission. She has to find and save this man she’s never met, but knows in the depths of her soul. Her soul-mate.

This first review is thus concluded with the award of Five Flowers on the Fence for Roseanne Dowell’s Connections of the Mind. Which incidentally didn’t just, against astronomical odds, utilize my daughter’s name as the heroine’s, but also pegged my daughter’s husband’s profession. He’s law enforcement. He and the hero don’t have the same name, but they both have names starting with J. And my daughter and son-in-law are soul mates who met at the ages of 15 and 17 and never looked at another member of the opposite sex thereafter. Now, is that series of coincidences freaky weird or what?!

In celebration of the release of Connections of the Mind as well as Flowers’ first review, I invite you to an Author’s Roast. Author being roasted – Roseanne Dowell. Banquet attendees doing the roasting – Roseanne’s own creations, the heroines of her novels. Well, you know what they say. What goes around comes around. Maybe us writers should remember that.

Jordan Blake: Hi, everyone, Gail asked me to write something about my author (creator), Roseanne Dowell. Talk about paybacks. Now I’m in control. Wonder how she’s going to like that.

Rebecca Brennan: Wait a minute, Gail asked me to write something too.

Kate Wesley: Now just hold on a darn minute. Gail promised I could say something.

Elizabeth Ashley: Oh, dear, this is going to get awful confusing I’m afraid. Christine Rollins and I are supposed to say something about her, too.

Jordan: Well, it looks like we’re all going to have a say. What the heck, she controlled all of us long enough. Let’s turn the tables, ladies. What do you think? I’ll speak my piece and you can join in whenever you want to. Roseanne really isn’t that bad, I guess…

Rebecca Brennan: Oh really? Not too bad until she wants you to do something you don’t want to do that is. Do you know what she did to me? She put someone in my mind. Seriously! It drove me nuts. How would you like to feel someone’s pain? Scared the beejebers out of me with all those dreams and visions. Then she takes me to this town and makes me look for the guy. Someone’s trying to kill him and he comes after me, too. Not too bad you say?

Elizabeth Ashley: At least she didn’t take away the man you loved. Do you have any idea what that did to me? I was like a zombie for months. If it wasn’t for my aunt, I might never have recovered. How would you like being controlled by a father who should have lived in the Victorian Age?

Christine Rollins: At least she didn’t bring your ex-husband back into your life, just when you were starting over. I wasn’t looking for anyone. I was very happy with my life. Of course my friends and relatives had other ideas - all because of our dear creator. To them, life wasn’t complete without a man. And she involved my daughter. That’s right, my daughter. Roseanne actually sent my son-in-law’s uncle to live with them. Handsomest guy I ever met. We were getting along just fine until my ex showed up and asked for a second chance. Well what was I supposed to do? We’d been married a long time, he was the father of my children.

Kate Wesley: Oh no? Ha, she brought my ex-fiancé back just when my life was on the right track. I mean seriously, there I was starting my own business and bam, he shows up. As if that wasn’t enough, she threw this hunk into my path too. Talk about complicating my life. To make matters worse, there I was visiting my aunt’s grave and what do I find – a freaking dead body. I still get goosebumps thinking about it.

Jordan Blake: She sure likes to play with our lives, doesn’t she? There I was, minding my own business, preparing for a storm and a body washes up on my shore, alive but unconscious. You should have seen me rolling this guy across the rocks and up onto my deck so I could get him into the house. How does she reward me? He has amnesia. Doesn’t know a thing about himself. So there I am, locked in my house while a blizzard rages outside and the power goes off. Like I needed that.

Roseanne Dowell: All right, ladies. No fair ganging up on me like that and I’m not allowed to defend myself. Heck, I’m a writer, that’s what I do. What kind of story would it be if you all lived these boring, monotonous lives? I mean, come on, Jordan, you have to admit the guy was a hunk. And Rebecca, didn’t you have quite an adventure? How about you Elizabeth? At least you had his memory, right? Christine, what kind of fun were you having until I came along? Kate, heck, all you were doing was working. You all have to admit I livened things up for you. Hey, where are you going? Aren’t you going to answer me?

Huh, that’s the thanks I get for creating such interesting lives. If you’d like to know more about Jordan you can find the book at:

http://bit.ly/strangerontheshore

Rebecca’s story: http://bit.ly/ConnectionoftheMinds

Christine’s is at: http://bit.ly/asecondchance

And Elizabeth’s: http://bit.ly/MayIHaveThisDance

Last, but certainly not least Kate’s: http://bit.ly/doublethetrouble

You can find out more about Roseanne at: www.roseannedowell.com
or http://roseannedowellauthor.blogspot.com