Yesterday was a crazy, roller-coaster kind of day, full of ups and downs.

First, I got word that my sister’s home in Central Texas was side-swiped by a tornado as they were all getting up and ready for school and work. Everyone is okay, thank goodness. The house, not so much. But insurance is a good thing. And my nieces will have a great story to tell for the rest of their lives about the January morning the sky turned green-black and they spent some scary moments praying while crouched in a hallway closet.

Personally, I’ve always wanted to be a storm chaser (seriously) because tornadoes intrigue me like no other weather event. I’m addicted to Texas Storm Chasers on Facebook and I love The Weather Channel and Storm Stories. In fact, I have very few regrets in my life at this point, but if I had to name one, it would be that I did not pursue storm-chasing back when I didn’t have a kiddo relying on me for, oh I don’t know, daily needs and such. Now, we live so high in the mountains and so close to the Continental Divide that a tornado up here would be a hugely rare event. As in I think there’s only been one reported in a million years (don’t quote me on that). We do have our own bizarre weather events, but let’s face it, chasing blizzards isn’t nearly as exciting as chasing a massive, cat 4 funnel cloud.

Back to reality: I spent the remainder of the day out shopping. Lots of ups and downs here, too.

Up: Upgraded to a Kindle Fire and am in love. Tip: Target has a better warranty, but Best Buy has better Kindle cases.

Down: Again saw that indie authors are so not well-represented on the shelves of Barnes and Noble. (I had a gift card to use.) Very disappointing. I had a list of about five indie books that I wanted to get my hands on, but they had none of them in stock.

Up: Treated myself to Starbucks coffee with … wait for it … real whipped cream in large amounts.

Down: Tried on swimsuits for an upcoming trip to Mexico. Sometime I would really like to sit down and have a discussion with a swimsuit designer or two just to figure out what in the hell they were thinking. Potential question: Did you really think that a very large polka dot design would look good on anyone, especially grown women with, errr, curves? (I refuse, however, to regret the whipped cream noted above.)

Then, a Big, Huge Up: Got home and found that the galley proof of Blue Straggler had arrived in the mail from my publisher! It looks fantastic, as you can clearly see from this photo of a cute mystery kid displaying it for the camera.

I then proceeded to stay up til 2 am proofing the book because I couldn’t wait.

Exciting times. The official release date is now March 1, and I have so much to do to prepare. It’s a good thing that I have so many wonderful friends and family to keep me sane.

Stay tuned for more information on a book release party or two in Texas and book signings/readings in Colorado.

Random Texas music note: If you’ve never listened to the San Antonio-based band, the Texas Tornados, give them a try. Good stuff.

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