...that old girl scout song.

...you know, the one about friends?

It's weird, sometimes you forget that the people you meet on-line aren't really there. Maybe it's just a sideways variation on real-life friends who sort of live on phone and IM you. I never see Cowboy anymore, but I know if I want to see him, I can simply stop by on Friday morning or the nights he works, or call and say, "hey, look--can we get together for a few minutes? There's a Chocolatier across from Bravo's."

He's real. He's been a friend for years, and I'm...er, pretty fond of him. He's also my CP, and a damned good one, even if I haven't given him pages in awhile.

Then you meet people on-line, some of them you meet in person--like when I met the Divas at the '06 conference (and will probably see them again at the '08) and Debbie...who I still consider a friend. But then you get people like Sienna and CC, Grace and Gina. Never met them, probably never will. But...I still consider them friends because we're so much alike. Then...there's Jen, the chocolately-vanilla diva, who changed her name while I was having post-conference let-down last year.

Sometimes...

...you get friends because they won't let you be anything else and wear you down. Over the course of many moons, you get used to them and one day you wake up and say, "I have a friend...oh. That's actually...pretty cool."

It's important to help your friends, so--buy Jen's book, "Heart of the Storm", and help a writer trying to make a living off her writing, I'd been planning to anyway. Short on reading time. Time is my currency, like Seneca says. Once my daughter goes back to school, I'll have some to spend.

Back when we had one of those perennial diva contests I remember how Nonny said, "Crab-fishing? WTF??!!!" and I said, "Yeah, I'd been thinking the same thing." And we all got into a discussion about the Deadliest Catch (which BTW, my oldest son really enjoys). I mean...crab-fishing? Never heard of it, guess I'd never thought about where the crab legs came from, just that I like them.

so...let's see if this works.

Eight years ago, Charlene Henderson had tragically lost her brother, a crab fisherman, to the depths of the Bering Sea. She’d left her home, her family, and the only man she’d ever truly loved and run to California to forget. Forget the pain, forget her love, and leave Alaska and fishermen completely behind her.

Unfortunately Alaska isn’t as ready to leave Charlene alone. Some new information on her brother’s death has surfaced, and Charlene must return to Dutch Harbor and discover the truth about what had really happened to her brother.

Ethan Shannon has never forgotten Charlie Henderson, but eight years changes a person, and she’s not Charlie anymore – she’s Charlene, a stuck-up city girl with no love for the sea. Despite his distaste for her new lifestyle, he can’t help the feelings he still has for her, and his desire to find out what happened to her brother – his best friend.

Peace for Charlene can only come by discovering the truth. But will she be able to face the evidence she finds, both about her brother and her relationship with Ethan? Or will the answers lead her back into the heart of the storm?

BUY IT HERE