Paws & Pastries

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step …Clara Conway has finally had enough of her cheating husband. After uncovering his latest infidelity, she takes action. With the money she’s inherited from her mother—and a car packed with her clothes and the few things she’ll want in her new life—she sets out.Clara plans to drive until she reaches a city large enough to support the patisserie she’s wanted to open since she learned to bake at her mother’s knee. Her intuition will tell her when she’s found the right spot.What she hadn’t counted on was car trouble stranding her in the charming—but too small—town of Pinewood. Has bad luck followed her on her journey, or has fate placed her where she needs to be?Follow Clara as a kindly elderly couple, an almost-handsome landlord, and one special canine open her heart.Interview with the AuthorQ: Have you always wanted to be a writer?A: I'm an attorney and have done a lot of technical writing, but knew I wanted to write novels. I thought I'd find time when I retired. Fate stepped in, as it often does, and put me on this path sooner. I broke my neck in an auto accident and suffered from double vision for months. I couldn't read or watch TV, so I conceived the plot for my Rosemont series.Q: Why did you decide to write a series?A: I prefer television series to movies. The longer format of television allows for deeper character development. The same holds true for series fiction. I like to fall in love with a character or hate a character (but root for them to change their ways). I feel like Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi from Alexander McCall Smith's Ladies' Detective Agency series are old friends. I wanted to recreate that sort of connection in the Rosemont series.Q: What other authors do you read or admire?A: I'm a fan of women's fiction, women's sagas, romantic suspense, domestic suspense, crime fiction, and romance. I love Rosamunde Pilcher's later trilogy-The Shell Seekers, Coming Home,andSeptember. Jan Karon's Mitford series creates an enchanting world, as does