Either Stacy Livingston Vanbecelaere or Reed Livingston Bates—both are my daughters but I can’t remember which one—gave me a gorgeous...

January 23, 2019 Our male Cockalier (Cocker/Cavalier) Lord Byron has a favorite spot upstairs, a covered porch off our TV-watching room....

January 12, 2019 Our two dogs are named Meryl Streep and Lord Byron. They are 26 and 30 pounds, respectively, long-haired, black and tan,...

January 8, 2019 I’ve just finished writing a novel called Backstory. It’s a fictional account that pretends to be the truth behind an...

November 24, 2018 I run late. About 15 minutes. My daughters do too. My son, well, he’s either early or late. But not being on time is...

October 8, 2018 Dear Readers and Followers: I'm supposed to keep my blog fresh, but sometimes writing a new post takes a good part of the...

July 24, 2018 I have scheduled a book promo for my mystery-thriller Out and In with Lone Star Literary Life, an e-news letter for Texas...

June 24, 2018 Authors write to tell a story, to express a thought or emotion, to entertain. Mostly, we hope what we do impacts readers in...

December 12, 2017 Besides holiday eggnog, I've developed an "over do it" problem with Dresden porcelain angels. Long ago, my niece's mom...

October 15, 2017 My pen name is Pat Dunlap Evans, but my official middle name is Kennedy, which was my mother's birth name. She's gone...

October 8, 2017 Our TV-watching dog Meryl Streep, named after the famed actress, was thrilled that the action-detective show "Hawaii...

October 7, 2017 My degrees are in English, but my academic focus was “creative writing and journalism.” After grad school, I got a job in...

August 28, 2017 My husband and I drove to Kansas City for the Great American Solar Eclipse, thinking we would view it in St. Joseph, MO,...

August 14, 2017 My brother in law is mad at me because I didn't have time to make his favorite cake for a family birthday party Sunday...

May 25, 2017 Three times now, I've had my fingerprints taken to submit to the FBI. This is related to a Texas concealed handgun license...