Great sale on great new inspirational novellas!

I'm excited to promote an anthology that I did with five of my fellow Love Inspired authors -- Linda Goodnight, Margaret Daley, Debra Clopton, Camy Tang, Lacy Williams and (of course) me!  We had great fun writing a variety of stories all of which feature a first kiss.  The collection (well over 400 pages) of brand-new stories (no reprints) is available for a limited time for only 99 cents!!  It is the greatest deal around!

So far it's gotten 16 5-star reviews on Amazon -- readers say things like

'Wonderful collection of stories'

'What a fun collection!'

'An Enchanting Anthology!'


Don't miss this one -- check it out on Amazon now.

I just noticed that my White Christmas in Dry Creek hit #25 on the Publisher's Weekly Best Seller list for week 10/7.  You can visit the list here http://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=622

It's so exciting! 

Find the Buck, Earn A Buck

Janet Tronstad here with a confession.  There is a mistake/typo (call it what you will)  in my latest book, Second Chance in Dry Creek.(Oct 12 release).  It involves an extra Buck and you will know it when you see it.

Since I can't fix it at this stage, I've decided we should have some fun with it.


So if you let me know you have seen it, either though my website or in my Goodreads group, and cite the exact line where it is in the book, you will earn a buck back from me. 


So it's 'Find A Buck to Earn A Buck' (for those of you reading my Return to Dry Creek series, Buck is Gracie's deceased husband -- the one she was wrongly convicted of murdering.


For those of you not yet reading the series, you'll want to read it when you can - the first three titles are to the right). 







Here's a link to my Goodreads group to enter the contest: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/983578?utm_content=A&utm_medium=email&utm_source=comment_instant#comment_55812065



Once you've won (and everyone who cites the correct passage wins), send me your full name and address and I'll mail you a dollar.

Happy Hunting!!!!

Putting my books into a song

I've been giving some thought about how to capture the themes that run through my long-time Dry Creek series. As many of you know, Dry Creek is a fictious small town in the southeastern corner of Montana. I was born in that corner of the state, but my parents moved from there when it was time for me and my sister to go to school. It was so isolated there was virtually no way for us to attend school once they closed the one room school that had served the few rural families for decades. I doubt there were more than fifteen in all eight grades of that school (I would know as my mother was the teacher and she brought me to school with her in a basket of some sort. I spent the first few years of my life in that school before I actually officially attended).

In any event, even though my family moved to a more prosperous part of the state, the feelings of that remote area are woven through of family's life and find their way into the stories I tell in my Dry Creek series. When it came time to do what I call 'a bigger promotion' of my books, I decided to write a song to talk about the values of that area. Fortunately, I have a good friend who was a professional musician 'in the day' and was eager to help me bring my lyrics to life. I now have a You Tube of that song. I located Depression era photos to go with the song (one of those photos is shown here). These are actual pictures taken by a US government program during the years of the depression. You can listen to part of the song here. You will need to scroll down a little until you see my name and Montana Quilting Song.Come listen to a song I wrote. Lyrics by me, music by my good friend, David White. Dpression era photos.

It's a tribute to my Dry Creek books. http://youtu.be/CUHryjL-pug

The full song is available as an MP3 on Amazon under the name Denim Sky. Search for my name in the MP3 section and you will find it. I was very pleased with the way the song spoke to the values I learned in Montana as a child. Oh, and if you are so inclined, leave a comment on the song, either after the You Tube or on Amazon where you can also hear a bit of it in the MP3 section.

Sleigh Bells for Dry Creek

The reviews have started coming in for 'Sleigh Bells for Dry Creek' and I'm delighted that people are enjoying the story. But then what's not to like -- it's got a murder to be solved, a highschool sweetheart to be won, a mother to be forgiven, and a handsome cowboy walking the streets! 'Sleigh Bells' is the first in my Return to Dry Creek series and it only goes to show that we can go home again.

Summer of pickles with my sister

My Montana sister and I have started an annual tradition. A week at the family farm in Montana canning up jars and jars of pickles. We make mostly dill pickles with garlic, but we add various amounts of salt (we've discovered we can use very little in the jars that will sit for six months before we eat them). We start by going to the Hutterite colony that is five miles or so from my parent's farm. There we can buy huge bags of cucumbers for canning (around ten pounds for two dollars). Then we go to my mother's farm kitchen and get to work. We can up close to thirty quarts in a day -- which is a good thing because our family loves pickles (as my little niece said last year, we need lots because she can eat a whole jar by herself).

How about you? Do you have any things you can each year?

Enter an April Fool's contest. Tell a tall tale and be entered to win a copy of my latest book, 'Small Town Moms' -- AND a $10 Barnes and Noble gift card. The more outrageous the better.

Go to eharlequin to enter. You can look at the twitter bar on the right hand of this page and find the link to enter.

Going to the RT Convention

I'm going to be on a panel at the Romantic Times convention in Los Angeles on April 8 at the Westin Bonaventure hotel. It's going to the convention, come see us on Friday afternoon as six of us Love Inspired authors reveal some of the questions our readers ask (and our answers) as well as telling a bit about our journey to publication.

A Different Sort of Fawn

I have been spending the winter with my parents on their Montana farm and recently we have seen an albino fawn in their pine trees. Its absolutely beautiful. After seeing it a few times though I have been concerned that it is often alone (my mother assures me he has a herd and she's seen him with other deer regularly). Still, it makes me wonder if the fawn's color makes the others uneasy. Sometimes it takes an outsider to see the true beauty in an animal or person who is different from the others. I like to think that part of a writer's job is to be that outsider and point out the beauty in the unusual. I posted on the Love Inspired authors website about this fawn and said I was thinking of using this fawn in one of my upcoming Dry Creek books and running it's situation alongside a hero or heroine is different in some of the same ways. What do you think? Vote here -- yes for the albino fawn!

World Book Day

I just heard that it is World Book Day today -- how fitting that I should be sitting here at my desk writing on my next book (I have a great series within a series coming up in Dry Creek). I can't tell you much about it except it involves a family crisis (mother returning from prison who asks her grown sons to come back to work on the family ranch). Lots of cowboy heroes and fiery heroines. The first book will come out around Christmas.

In the meantime, take a look at my April release -- 'Small-Town Moms.' Debra Clopton and I have a very entertaining story in two parts with this book.

A New Year Awaits in Dry Creek

One of the recurring themes of my Dry Creek series is 'new beginnings.' That fits perfectly with the heroine of 'At Home in Dry Creek', Barbara Strong. She is a single mother who brings her children to the small town in hopes of making a better life for them. This title is available anew in the LI Classic pictured on the right.

I know we all hope for a better life and the first of the year is traditionally a time to decide what we need to do to make that happen. I don't usually make resolutions, but this year I am. I plan to lose weight and exercise more (mostly, I plan to walk more in the nearby Huntington Gardens and smell the roses there). It's not just physical exercise, it's relaxing as well. How about you? What do you plan to do this next year to make your life more the way you want it to be?

Loving Chistmas Trees

It's that season and, those of you who read my books, know I love everything about Christmas. The meaning of the season as well as the light-hearted fun. I particularly like Christmas trees and wanted to share an upside down one with you. Isn't this amazing? I've never done an upside down tree, but this picture tempts me to try.

I won a Carol Award!

I'm so excited. Every year the American Christian Fiction Writers hold a contest for Book-of-the-Year in various categories. My 'Christmas Bells for Dry Creek' (in Mistletoe Courtship) just won in the historical novella group. Over 600 people (writers, editors, agents) were at a dinner Sunday night in their evening wear when the awards were announced. I've gotten congratulatory emails all day so I'm celebrating in fine fashion!

Hallelujah and Pass the e-books!

I'm excited because I just noticed Harlequin has issued my back-list as ebooks! Now, for those of you looking for those old titles, there is one place you can get the books (I know we don't all have e-book readers yet, at least I don't, but someday--).

Latest Dry Creek

My latest book from the heartland of Montana is 'Wife Wanted in Dry Creek.' Uncle Charley has put an announcement in the church bulletion, asking for prayer for a wife for his nephew. Of course, everyone knows it is Conrad even though no names are printed there.

Conrad is fit to be tied -- if he wanted a wife, he would get one himself. And then the woman of his dreams drives a car into his newly-opened garage and, just when he wonders if God has answered his uncle's prayer, he discovers the car has been reported stolen!

I'm thinking most of us have had moments like this on our lives -- just when it looks like everything is going to fall into place, things start to fall apart. Can you think of something like this in your life?

New Release Coming Soon

Have you ever been poor and too proud to accept the charity others want to give you? I've never been in that position, but it's obviously on my mind. I realized both of my Christmas stories this year begin on that note. In my "Silent Night in Dry Creek," my hero is being offered a job he thinks is a pity job from a small town he left years ago. He wants to refuse, but the sheriff talks him into staying anyway. What can it hurt, he figures, to guard Jasmine Hunter?

In my novella, "Christmas Bells for Dry Creek," ( in the book "Mistletoe Courtship"), Virginia Parker fears Colter will be firing her now that hs doesn't need her to play Christmas music for the customers in his saloon. She knew the job was charity, but she doesn't know what to do without out.

Unlike my characters, I hope you are warm and well-fed this holiday season.

Going Home Again

"A Match Made for Dry Creek." is one of my favorites in the Dry Creek series because the heroine comes home after living away for many years. Whether or not one can really go home again is the question of many great books. Have you ever tried it?

I've 'gone home again' myself these days (at least partially)-- planning to spend half of my months on my family's farm in Montana so I can be close to my parents (84 years old soon, both of them) and the other half of my time in my home in Pasadena, CA. I must say I am enjoying the wide open spaces of Montana. And the sky at sunset is beautiful.

Because I grew up in this Montana community, I know many of the people around here still (and it's great). In fact, "A Match Made for Dry Creek" talks about a tradition we had in the church where I went as a child (and the church I still attend when I'm here). Just seeing the church brings back so many memories.

How about you? Do you have a childhood home that you sometimes visit? Are the same places there? And the people?

Next Dry Creek coming fast!

For those of you following the Dry Creek series, you will know that it is Jasmine's story that comes up next. Well, some of you might think it is Jasmine's and Conrad's story, but I decided the two of them weren't meant to be so Jasmine goes first in "A Silent Night in Dry Creek." I must say this is one of my favorite Dry Creek books yet. I love the hero -- I can't wait for you to meet him (he works undercover for various sheriff departments and thinks he's coming to Dry Creek to do suveillance on Jasmine, who (you will remember) is an ex-con). I don't want to tell you too much about the story, but I will say that there's lots of excitement and tenderness, too, as Jasmine makes her peace about the identify of her father and learns to give love a chance. And, of course, it's a Christmas story -- I love a good Christmas story.

Chokecherry Days

Choke- cherries play a special role in the life of Dry Creek, Montana. Mrs. Hargrove-Nelson (or Edith as she's often called) used to think she resembled the tart, resilient berry. All Montana farm women did, in her opinion. They had to be tough to survive the hard work and the harsh weather. In several of the Dry Creek books, Mrs. Hargrove makes chockecherry jelly and her special soda biscuits. I remember as a child picking chokecherries (they're small and it takes a lot to make jelly). My mother had planted some bushes that grew in the trees by our house, but we also picked berries on the wild bushes by the coulee that led down to the river. There's nothing like picking berries as a child (although these berries were too tart to eat from the bucket). Did you pick berries as a child? What kind?

The next Dry Creek

My next Dry Creek story is half of a book called Small Town Brides which comes out in June. Debra Clopton, the author of the Mule Hollow books set in Texas, and I were talking at a Romance Writer's convention a year or so ago because we had noticed that we share a lot of the same readers. So, thinking those readers would enjoy it, we proposed to the Love Inspired editors that we do a 2-in-1 book with two novellas, one set in Dry Creek and one set in Mule Hollow. The editors loved it and I think you will too.

We took two cousins and one family wedding veil, mixed everything up with a couple of likely and not-so-likely heroes and we had a romance that'll make you smile.