Honestly when the scale got over 200 lbs. I stopped paying attention to my weight. It was too depressing. So after a month of exercise and minor diet changes, I can only estimate what my weight loss is–somewhere between 10 and 13 lbs. And I reached my first goal–being able to fit into my size 18 jeans. Yeah!!! Victory!!! At my age and after 3 kids finding jeans that fit is a challenge. I wasn’t going to toss those jeans for anything.

How did all of this start. Having a hubby with stage 4 cancer isn’t easy. One day I decided to take a walk to work through some of the sorrow and anxiety I was feeling. I walked and walked and walked. I felt better when I got home. That lead to getting an I-pod. Walking was my chance to escape into the music. From there I got a gym membership and started seeing a personal trainer two days a week.

When I got a nice royalty check almost a year ago, I told my husband, I was going to spend $1000 on losing weight. He was very supportive of the idea. It took me this long to get the ball rolling.

The exercise helps with the depression and I have more energy. My mom died of cancer in her early fifties when I was in my twenties. I remember  being grateful that I was in grad school at the time because college gave me something to focus on that I had control over.

I have a stronger motivation than I have ever had before. I am going to be the only parent my kids have. I want to be there to see them graduate, get married, find job have grandchildren.

I can do this.

Just found out that my November release from Love Inspired, Montana Standoff was a Romantic Times Top Pick. Yeah! This is a victory in more ways than one. I wrote that book while my husband was undergoing chemo. Part of it was written in cancer center waiting rooms. There was even one night when we had to go to the ER, not for an emergency but for a routine (if anything with cancer is routine) evening treatment. I propped my laptop up on the counter and just kept writing. With hubby not working it was important for me to make my deadlines. I couldn’t not write.

The last year was hard. The chemo almost killed my hubby and we decided to discontinue it. But Michael is still with me and the kids a year after being told the cancer had spread from his bladder to his lungs and kidney. All of that is such precious victory.

Here’s what the new book looks like–

My new book Guard Duty is part of a larger Love Inspired Suspense series called the Texas K-9 Unit. Each book features a separate police officer and their canine partner and of course has a romance element to it. My book had the only female officer in the series. Valerie’s K-9 partner is a Rottweiler named Lexi.

Though you can read any book separately and get a complete suspense and romance story, all the books are linked together by a big storyline which concerns a missing police dog and a crime syndicate that has taken over Sagebrush, Texas, the fictional town where the books take place.

This was my first time working on a series like this with five other authors. I had a ton of fun. Writing is by its nature a solitary activity so it was a nice change to be a part of a team.

Here are the books in the order of their release (one each month) starting in January 2013

#1, TRACKING JUSTICE by Shirlee McCoy

#2, DETECTION MISSION, by Margaret Daley

#3, GUARD DUTY by Sharon Dunn (that’s me)

#4, EXPLOSIVE SECRETS, by Valerie Hansen

#5, SCENT OF DANGER, by Terri Reed

#6, LONE STAR PROTECTOR, by Lenora Worth