A Great Name for a Rogue!
Paint the Wind
and My Mother
My mother loved nothing in this world as much as books. They were her joy and her release in a very long illness that eventually caused her death while I was still writing Paint the Wind. She considered this to be her story as much as mine, for she had named one of my two heroes.
“Why don’t you write a story about a man named Chance McAllister,” she said one day, years ago, “it would be such a splendid name for a rogue.” I dedicated Paint the Wind to my mother in high hopes that when the Almighty isn’t after her for advice, she’d have time to read it in Heaven.
Book Review
But here’s my favorite mother story:
When my first novel, So Many Partings, reached the bestseller list, I ran to her hoping for unmitigated praise (something I had never received from her, by the way) she was a tough taskmaster! But instead she gave me a Book Review she’d written about it and a list of her ten all-time favorite books. So Many Partings was number 5.
I was crushed, as only a daughter can be, for I’d wanted her to lie and say it was #1. But my wise father looked at the list where War and Peace was #8, and said, “Don’t feel so bad, sweetheart, you’re still 3 ahead of Tolstoy!”
