Me on the left and friend J.A. Marlow on the right at Montezuma’s Castle National Monument

Have you had a close friend visit you? One that hasn’t been to your area before? I love it! I get to show off the best stuff in my town and surrounding countryside. All the best tourist stuff. All the best restaurants. Saturday we went to the Montezuma Castle and then the Montezuma Well. Okay, look them up, central Arizona, Verde Valley! Anyway, we felt a nosh coming on and supper with brother-in-law many hours away. So we stopped in the tiny town outside of Montezuma’s Well called Rimrock, AZ, and stopped in this restaurant we’ve never been to before. It’s called Vintage Café on the left side of the road as you drive to Montezuma’s Well. It’s also in a depression, only the sign sticking up. Do not let that deter you. This is a fabulous place. It’s in a new building with a fantastic patio. The interior is hallmarked with black and white checks which the wait staff uniforms reflect. They are knowledgeable and friendly. Even before I tasted the food I could tell from the menu that I wanted that place transported to my town of Payson. The chef is knowledgeable with food allergies, I’m celiac after all. As I expected after just seeing the restaurant and the menu, the food was To. Die. For. Hubby had an appetizer (we were having his brother over in just 4 hours for dinner) of chicken wings. He pronounced them the best he had ever had. My friend and fellow author, J.A. Marlow, http://jamarlow.com/,  had a BBQ sandwich which she absolutely loved. I ordered an appetizer of 3 mini-tacos, filled with barbeque pork topped with a jalepeno slaw and it came with a small side salad of red and green cabbage, sweet dried cranberries, chopped walnuts and a finely chopped green which may have been kale but I’m just guessing. It was delicious! The best little side salad I think I’ve ever had. Best of all it was not drowning in dressing. I love that light touch. The mini taco’s were not too spicy, despite the jalapeno warning. Anyway, I’m totally recommending this place. Drive a long way, it’s worth it.

You all, I was on coolerbs.com site last week and I loved it. He has such a great blog. Did you miss it? Not to worry. Check out http://coolerbs.com/2016/02/17/connie-cockrell-what-it-means-to-be-a-writer/ and read my guest blog. Check out the rest of his site while you’re there. He’s a great guy and a wonderful author. Stay tuned for his guest blog to my site!

Since I’ve had company I haven’t gotten into my final edit and the formatting for Kindred Spirits. I know! I seem like such a powerhouse! Still, I’m only one person and there are only 24 hours in a day. I’ll get it done, I promise. Time is about out for people interested in receiving an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) for a review. If you’d like to be an ARC reader and do a review for me, let me know. You do not have to have read the first two books of the series to enjoy the third book. So if you’d like an advance copy, let me know today! You’ll want to get this in advance of your friends.

Just to let you know, the next Author Interview is Wednesday, the 24th, with the fabulous D’Elen McClain (http://wickedstorytelling.com/). I was so pleased when she agreed to be one of my author interviews. Watch for it on Wednesday!

I’ve not mentioned the Payson Book Festival in awhile. The second year is definitely on and planning is going full throttle. New this year is a pre-event, a poetry slam for the youth of the area to be held sometime in June. Organized by the Arizona Humanities Council, it’s being supported by not only the Payson Book Festival but by the Payson Ministerial Christian Fellowship. They’re publicizing and fully supporting this opportunity for the youth of this area to become involved in the expression of the written and spoken word. Not only that! We’re having a special event for authors arriving early with a workshop on publishing. We’ll have a panel of publishers here to talk about the current state of publishing and answering our author’s questions. These are two wonderful additions to the festival and we couldn’t be more happy to add them to our calendar of events.

It’s still February and even in central Arizona that means a slow growth time. However, those sprouts in the deep garden bed are certainly green onions. I have begun watering since there hasn’t been any precipitation here for at least three weeks. I’ll have to water out in the front yard too as the lavender is growing and the one flower pot out front has hyacinth. But they’ve migrated to the bottom of the pot. What that means is that they expend all of their energy getting shoots to the surface. I get no flowers. A disappointment. Why don’t I dig them up and get them nearer the surface? Because I have marigold seed scattered across the top of the soil. If I disturb the soil, I lose the marigold. If I leave the pot as is, I lose the hyacinth. It’s a difficult decision.

Used my new patio door for Saturday’s dinner with brother-in-law and my friend. I LOVE being able to get in and out of the door with trays without turning sideways. So happy with my decision to have the work done.

Our new giveaway is called Luck O’ The Authors. This is going to end at midnight St. Patrick’s Day. That means a lot fewer contestants. Go to www.conniesrandomthoughts.com/giveaways to enter the Rafflecopter. Even if you’ve sighed up for all of the authors, there are daily ways to win. Check it out!

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Mystery at the Fair released July 15th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, Gumroads  or Chatebooks today! You can also see all of my books on www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com. If you’ve read any of my books, please drop a review on the site where you bought it or on Goodreads. It’s a big help to me in the book rankings each vendor uses to promote the books on their sites. Thanks in advance.