Three Guys and a House

I'm amazed at the speed three guys can build in this horrid heat. This morning there were no walls.

Cement Trucks Came!

The ground was finally dry enough for the cement trucks to come.

The slab will be scored today for stained floors.

Okay, Enough Already

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

And Then It Rained

It looked like everything was going to be done quickly, and then it started raining. We've had two delays on having the concrete poured, and we had another heavy rain today so that will delay it again. This black clay turns to gumbo when it rains, so it will be a while before it will be dry enough for cement trucks to drive on. That pile of brush out front was once a thirty foot tree, a twenty foot tree, a twenty foot Crepe Myrtle, and about fifteen feet of pine tree. We only lost half of that pine tree, maybe. Anyone know a good, fast growing, shade tree that grows well in black clay?

House Update

As you can see, the rebuilding has finally started. The cement for the foundation is supposed to be poured today.

FRANKLY MY DEAR, I'M DEAD

Coming out in hardback November 01, 2008.

No one is surprised when feisty Delilah Dickinson opens her own literary travel agency in Atlanta after her divorce. But during her first group's tour of an old plantation modeled after Tara from Gone With the Wind, she finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery-and everyone knows death is not so good for business. So, with God as her witness, Delilah vows to find the killer.

Things start quietly enough: a visit to the quaint apartment where Margaret Mitchell wrote her great opus, then a stop at the Gone with the Wind Movie Museum, and a hearty Southern luncheon at Mary Mac's Tea Room that will surely guarantee her new clients will never be hungry again. What could possibly go wrong?

Quite a lot, it turns out. During an overnight stay at a lovely recreation of Tara-complete with a full cast of actors-things start to really go south. The actor playing Clark Gable playing Rhett Butler is found dead, apparently the victim of a fatal dose of Southern in-hospitality. Before anyone can even think "Where shall I go? What shall I do?" the police have the place under lockdown, insisting everyone remain at the mansion while they investigate.

Delilah finds herself taking over the investigation when their #1 suspect is her son-in-law Luke-the not-so-bright husband of her daughter, Melissa. But life starts imitating art when the actors begin taking their roles a little too seriously-believing they actually are Ashley Wilkes, Scarlett O'Hara, and Melanie. Next stop: Sunset Boulevard.

With all the drama of Margaret Mitchell's epic story suddenly coming to alarming life, Delilah's only chance to head off a not-so-Civil War is to track down and confront the deranged murderer. But shemust move quickly and very quietly, or risk becoming the next victim of a killer-who frankly doesn't give a damn.

Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
ISBN-13: 9780758225665

THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE KILLER

Christmas comes to Weatherford, Texas, in this delicious new entry in the national bestselling series.

Yuletide is here—and retired teacher cum amateur sleuth Phyllis Newsom looks forward to finishing up this unlucky year. But she won’t be hanging up her apron just yet—because this year’s Christmas bake-off is going to be cutthroat.Phyllis would like to think she’s entering the Christmas cookie contest for the fun of it—but that’s not exactly true. She can’t imagine anyone beating her snowflake-shaped lime sugar cookies. Then, during her annual Christmas cookie exchange, Phyllis heads over to the elderly Mrs. Simmons’s home and finds her dead, in a pile of lime sugar cookies. But with a number of names on Santa’s naughty list, this case may be a hard cookie to crumble.

Publisher: NAL Trade (September 30, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0451225341
ISBN-13: 978-0451225344