FICTION · GENERAL
Lynn Erickson
Also known as: Molly Swanton & Carla Peltonen
Molly Swanton and Carla Peltonen were born in in Aspen, Colorado, U.S.A. on January 22 and September 12. In the late 60s, both newly returned frombumming around the world, they met in Aspen in the Red Onion, an Old Westsaloon. They were both new brides, wet behind the ears. It was several yearslater that they dreamed up Lynn Erickson, the pseudonym a combination oftheir husbands' names. They had read every romance put out in the early 70sand started saying, "We can do better than this." Well, they couldn't, butwhat the heck? The wrote two fat novels before we chanced onto an agent andmade a sale. His first words to them: "The manuscript is flawed, but..." They published their first novel as Lynn Erickson in 1980. Their early bookswere historical romances, full of blood and guts and murder, then theyturned to contemporary women's suspense. "We've set almost all of our booksin Colorado, especially in Aspen, a town where the truth is usually strangerthan fiction. Aspen is a character in our books, not just a setting. We loveto drop inside jokes about the quirks and fancies of our hometown. Thescenery truly is glorious, the mountains magnificent, the skiing and hikingand fishing and horseback riding legendary. We cover the arts, too - theworld-renowned music festival, the shops full of museum-quality paintingsand sculptures. Southwestern art is big, of course: paintings and potteryand Navajo rugs."
"I DON'T SEE WHY-" "Please don't say it again, Jeremy," his mother said, then had to grab the side of the stagecoach to keep from slamming into the fat, snoring man beside her.
— from Upon A Midnight Clear
Most acclaimed
Upon A Midnight Clear
The Teacher by Jude Deveraux. A woman on the run with her son, trying to hide out from her son's father's rich family, takes a job as a teacher for a man's young hellion of a son in Legend, Colorado. HR. Christmas Magic by Margaret Allison. Kim, an artist, has been estranged from her surgeon father since her mother left him. When he becomes ill she heads home to see him, where she meets Tony, her father's heart surgeon, a man who appear to be just like her father. CR. Jolly Holly by Stef Ann Holm. Set in 1900 in California. Two impoverished people who don't trust one another must work together to win a holly berry picking contest that could change their lives. HR. If Only in My Dreams by Mariah Stewart. High school sweethearts have spent the last 7 years separated. When they are stranded together in an unexpected winter they find a way to a second chance at love. CR. White Out by Linda Howard. Hope owns a resort with some cabins in Idaho where she usually lives and runs the place with her father. He is away when a blizzard comes, and an unexpected man ends up on her doorstep nearly frozen to death. is he who he claims to be? CR.
Night whispers
1998
(Second Opportunities, #3) After 30 years, Sloan Reynolds is about to meet the father she never knew. Claiming that his ill health has led him to attempt reconciliation, Carter Reynolds invites Sloan to meet him and his other daughter, Paris, in the glamorous world of Palm Beach, Florida. With all the sense and courage that her job as a cop requires, Sloan refuses the invitation, convinced that nothing good could come from meeting her absentee father. But when FBI agent Paul Richardson intervenes and explains that Reynolds is under suspicion, she agrees to enter the world of the social elite in order to help investigate her father. Prepared to hate Palm Beach and all its inhabitants, Sloan is surprised to find herself drawn towards Paris, her cranky great-grandmother, and Paris's neighbors, the Maitland family--particularly Noah Maitland. Noah has all the characteristics of Mr. Perfect, which is exactly what scares Sloan. How could someone so sophisticated, smart, and handsome be attracted to her? But just as the two begin to explore their attraction, Sloan's hopes for her new family and friends crumble. Paul closes in on the dark truth about Carter Reynolds and his suspicions expand to include Noah. Soon, Sloan is an unwilling accomplice in the investigation against Noah, and when a horrible murder occurs, she just may be the next victim. Second Opportunities Series: Paradise (Second Opportunities, #1) Perfect (Second Opportunities, #2) Night Whispers (Second Opportunities, #3) Every Breath You Take (Second Opportunities, #4)
On thin ice
Polar bears--fierce and majestic--have captivated us for centuries. Feared by explorers, revered by the Inuit, and beloved by zoo goers everywhere, polar bears are a symbol for the harsh beauty and muscular grace of the Arctic. Today, as global warming threatens the ice caps' integrity, the polar bear has also come to symbolize the peril that faces all life on earth as a result of harmful human practices. Here, the acclaimed science writer Richard Ellis offers an impassioned and moving statement on behalf of polar bears--and all they stand for.Ellis gives a vivid and brilliantly articulated picture of earth's largest land predators--including their hunting, mating, and hibernation habits. Polar bears are exceptionally well suited for hunting--especially when it comes to ringed seals, their favorite prey, which they can smell from more than a mile away. But as the ice melts in the Arctic, the ability of polar bears to find food diminishes in spite of their incredible physical capacities. Some bears will vainly take to the water in search of ice on which to hunt, and many of them swim until they drown. In the past twenty years alone, the world population of polar bears has shrunk by half. Today they number just 22,000.Still, On Thin Ice is an ode, not an elegy: Ellis reminds us that the extinction of the polar bear--and the disappearance of our ice caps--is not inevitable. While the killing of polar bears remains a matter of ritual solemnity among the Inuit, U.S. government officials continue to balk at placing the polar bear on the endangered species list because doing so would place the bears' territory off-limits for oil drilling. As the polar bears' habitat disappears beneath them, their survival rests entirely on our willingness to take such critical steps.Urgent and stirring, On Thin Ice is both a celebration and a rallying cry on behalf of one of earth's greatest natural treasures.From the Hardcover edition.