When I was about 15 years old, I read a book called Touch The Wind.  It was by Janet Dailey, a romance writer, who died yesterday in Branson, Missouri.

Touch The Wind was a smokin’ hot love story, set in Mexico, and it about popped my young eyes out.

Perhaps I should write what is on the front cover page to show you what Touch The Wind was all about…

“HE WAS RAFAGA….Whose gun fed a hungry people…whose passion fed a woman’s hungering heart…A man as proud and fierce as the lions that roamed his mountain retreat.

SHE WAS SHEILA…As cool, beautiful, and unyielding as the modern towers that stood as bastions of the fortune that would one day be hers.  Now she was Rafaga’s captive prize, held for a ransom in gold, struggling against the fire he set in her blood. She called her captor every name, and lived to take back all but one: Lover.”

I know, QUIT LAUGHING. It was bodice – ripping dramatic, but the drama hit me in my young, throbbing, hopeful heart. Rafaga was a sexy, strong stud. I was a tall, skinny, gangly, awkward girl and the thought of romance in my life, well, that dang near took my breath away. I lived through Sheila, Rafaga’s “woman.”

I remember every inch of this plot.  Reading it today, I would see Rafaga as abusive, domineering, too controlling, and with a serious lack of humor.  He would have to be in counseling for a long, long time. But I put reality aside a lot at fifteen, and I did it when I read Touch The Wind.

I am sure that this book had a huge impact on my wanting to be a writer. Other books, as a child and as a teenager, had a huge impact, too: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Pippi Longstocking, the Beezus and Ramona books, and writing for my high school newspaper.

Being a daydreamer, playing outside all the time, and having a mother who encouraged a wild imagination were hugely helpful, too.

But this book set the ground work for romance in my books.

In March of 2013, I had a short story published called, “The Apple Orchard,” in an anthology titled, “You’re Still The One,” with Janet Dailey.

It was about an apple orchard, an abusive father, a trailer park, apple pies, a long lost love and two painful secrets.

I was thrilled to be in the same book as Janet. I wrote to her, never heard back, and was not offended. I am sure she received thousands of emails a week.

But if someone had told me when I was a rebellious, insecure fifteen year old that one day I would grow up and have a story in a book with Janet’s name on it, I would have laughed till I wet my pants. That was out of the realm of my daydreaming.

And yet, it happened.  I can’t tell you how surreal it was.

I was sorry to hear of her death yesterday and hope that she had a beautiful life. She certainly brought beauty, and romance, and a lot of fun, to mine.