On Friday, Pam and her intrepid clan descended upon the ever-jovial Cathy Maxwell, somewhere in the (blessedly not raining) area of Richmond, VA. After driving approximately 40 miles in the wrong direction (we were so close to Colonial Williamsburg that we could smell the wood-burning ovens and heat-singed sheep), we righted ourselves (love GPS) and eventually found Goochland county, where we spent a wonderful afternoon with Cathy and her daughter, Sam...and their 30 year old dappled steed, Roman.

Cathy and Sam suited up Kate and Will (Avon publicists-in-training) and led them around the barn. Will charmed Liam, the Irish bachelor who manages the stable where Cathy boards Roman--little guy got up close and personal with a thoroughbred!



There's a book in the stable culture--the warm and wonderful hands who tend and care for the fine equines, trained for fox-hunting, steeplechasing, jumping and dressage; interspersed with vignettes of the Virginians who own them.

Cathy is getting ready to send her daughter to India for six months, where she
will attend a semester of college in an all-girl school in the Southern part of
the country. Evidently, Cathy's co-ed has been advised to not even look at men,
due to the mores of the local culture. (And let's not even talk about the
reputed dangers of kidnappings and the local sex trade...). And somehow, this
all worries our intrepid author less than letting the 20 year old go out in
D.C....

Really a lovely, perfect day that left us all starry-eyed and more than a little
in love with Roman. Many thanks to the warm and wonderful Cathy Maxwell and her daughter for sharing this special experience with us!

Look for Cathy at the helm of the forthcoming anthology, "FOUR DUKES AND A DEVIL" (also featuring novellas by Tracy Anne Warren, Sophia Nash, Jeaniene Frost and Elaine Fox). Also see her sparkling smiles at romance fans at the RWA national conference this July in Washington D.C.