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Poor kitty. He seems like a real sweetie. Glad he found a place to call home.

Thanks, all. :kisss:

Sorry, didn't mean to offend just wanted to get the right word. Part of what readers have liked about the series is the research climbers here have helped with. It's introduced them to mountain rescue and climbing something few have experienced themselves. If anyone would like to help answer questions, send me a pm and I'll do this off-list. Thanks.

A question about the use of the word "epic" which I've read many times on this forum. Would you still call it an "epic" if someone dies or does it then become a "tragedy"? Now that I've started the actual writing, I may need to kill someone off in this one.

Thanks Pup! Tyson's got it for me. Check out the preview. I have the full-size proof. It's a very nice calendar. Perfect to hang on the cubicle wall if you work in an office. I know right where this is going to go, where I write! I have to show hubby to see if he wants them for his brothers, too, then I'll be placing my order!

Pup or anyone, Do you know how to get a jpg out of a pdf? I just want to post the cover, but don't know how to do that. Thanks, Mel

Sobo, Yes, please email the cover. :kisss: I'm pretty sure you have my email, if not let me know. Good luck with the root canal. It hurts just typing the words. At least I hope you enjoy the pain meds Did you all know there was a Christmas movie last year about a mountain rescue group that puts out a calendar to raise money to buy gear. Of course that one featured mountain rescuers for each month along with gorgeous scenery backdrops Mel

Tyson, Can you take a jpg of the calender's cover for me? I can put this on my blog, facebook and tweet it. Not sure if you'll get any sales, but given my mountain rescuer series is popular among my readers you never know. Melissa

Just when I dive into the research, revisions on the book I turned in Sunday night arrive. As soon as I get those figured out, I'll have more questions here for this new story. Thanks so much for all the posts, pics, links, videos and helps. The story gears have really been cranking with all this stuff! And it'll all be simmering while I go back to the other story.

Thanks, all! I have them digging a snowpit in the first book, but I don't think I went into how they did it, Hugh. I appreciate the pics of your saw, ilookeddown. That would fit a little better into a pack then the one used in the video. So is there any place on Hood where you couldn't/wouldn't build a snowcave? Would rather avoid that place from the beginning.

Thanks, Feck! :kisss: Okay, so this may be a really stupid question, but is a saw something you normally take alpine climbing?

I'll see what version of FOTH I have. I bought it in 2007 as a gift for hubby. So how many people could you get into one? I read a little on the OES tragedy and they didn't have room for everyone. Is there some sort of formula to how big vs. size of party that an experienced alpine climber/mtn. rescuer would know vs. your climbs-but-not-as-much type climber. Or sometimes does it just depend on how much room you have to build based on slope/etc and you're kinda stuck?

Cool. I have Freedom of the Hills, too, so I'll look at that tonight. Thanks!

Thanks all! I'm starting to research this week so have lots of things to look at. Another question. I had an idea and it involves a snowcave. Is building a snowcave something you'd make a specific trip up the hill to learn how to do and maybe ask someone to show you how to build one or is it something you just pick up how to do when you're out and one is needed? Thx!

I never get bday gifts like that

Hit ya on FB, but thought I'd do the same here. Happy Birthday Sobo! Hope it's been a good one and you're having some and getting some :kisss: Love you, my friend!!!! xoxoxo from all of us here including Chaos!

DanO - I learned to rock climb researching the first book thanks to John Frieh. Would love to try alpine one of these days. If I had the climbing skill or the time to be an associate member, I would sign up. Not for an insider's perspective, but because I think what PMR and other groups do is pretty amazing or I would have never written that first book! Melissa

Sorry G-spotter, I killed off Iain in the first book. markw - will be in touch with you next week. pcg - thanks so much! I will have a couple more specific questions, especially about the teen snowboarders for you next week if you don't mind. Coldfinger - that's close to the book I'm finishing up right now. DPS - Vampires did make Stephanie Meyers a boatload of money, but who would you rather bivy with in the freezing cold? An equally freezing cold piece of sparkling marble with a stalking complex or a 100+ degree shifter who goes from having killer six pack abs to warm, soft fur? Team Jacob all the way. Plus he could carry all the heavy stuff in his pack.

Thanks Feck and Coldfinger. All ideas and links welcome. You never know where they'll lead! I'm in a bit of a panic mode trying to finish the other manuscript this week so just letting things percolate right now on this book. Once that's off I'll be able to start digging deeper into suggestions. But please keep 'em coming. Thanks!

Thanks for the links, Rad. Especially the TR!!!! :kisss: The book is set at Christmas time. It'll start sometime around or after Thanksgiving and run to perhaps New Years. Still figuring that all out. Are crevasses open all year round? Also is there a place up there where you really can't afford to fall because it would mean a long fall/slide down? Okay after reading the TR, I'm thinking something like this. A group of teen boarders from the snowboard high school (think smaller more intimate Hood version of SMS in Vermont but bigger than what Wendells offers.) These are top riders for their ages. They go somewhere up above Palmer where they really shouldn't be in December. But they think it's okay because it's a bluebird day, and they're young, talented and invincible. They also don't have the right gear for that time of year. It's a great time until one is seriously injured somehow. Weather moves in/changes. They're now all stuck. Would something like that be possible?

Putting a call out to see if anyone is interested in helping me with research for another romance novel. Hanging out here at cc.com has ended up giving me a book series! Yes, Jake Porter lives even though his avatar is no longer in use. I've been asked me to write a third Mount Hood set Christmas book featuring mountain rescuers. The second book is out now, and this new one will be out next Nov or Dec of 2011. I start writing it next Monday (currently on deadline with another book that's due the 15th) so am a bit behind with my research. The story's focus is on the budding romance, so the climbing stuff is background, but I like to try to make the mountain rescue and climbing stuff as plausible as I can. This book is about a female mountain rescuer so I'd love to connect with any who are out there as well as female alpine climbers to ask a few questions. She's also a paramedic. I've got a couple of contacts there as well as a doc here who helped with the last book that I'll be pming again, but if any paramedic climbers are out there I'd love to talk to you, too. The hero is a climber and firefighter. Any of you fit that description? Not sure if he's a mountain rescuer or thinking about being one or in the training program already. Still figuring that part out. I have a couple PMR contacts I'll be in touch with, but if anyone has recently joined and gone through MR training, I'd love to hear about your experience. I also need to come up with a couple of climbing accidents that my mountain rescuers would respond to. Although I had to have two climbers die to set up the backstory in the first book, I'd rather not kill off anybody else since it's a romance novel and readers want a happy ending. Injuries, even serious ones, are fine though. So far in the first two books I've had an accident on the Reid Headwall, a snowshoer lost who ends up in zigzag canyon, two injured and stuck overnight, a father and two teen-aged sons injured, lost with bad weather hampering the search. I have a snowboarding camp/school in the series and would love to have those teens end up needing rescue somehow. So if anyone knows of any spots on Hood that would be good to place any accidents or scenarios I might want to play around with, please let me know. There will be more questions once I start writing, but this will get me going. PM or post here. Whatever is easiest for you! Thanks, Melissa

Teresa, Thanks. I have not had surgery even though two different neurosurgeons recommended it. One a fusion, the other an artificial disc replacement. The second said if it was a choice between a fusion or doing nothing to do nothing which is the direction I was leaning prior to seeing him for a second opinion. But a disc replacement is extremely expensive, way more than my uninsured motorist coverage. Still the thought of someone operating on my spine makes my stomach churn. I'm looking into alternative, conservative treatments at the moment. Take care, Melissa

Great job on finding Buddy a forever home, Bri!

Thanks for all your help guys! :kisss: The story is live here at eharlequin if you want to see how this thread helped. Though I'll warn you, it's a romance and there are only snowboarding scenes in a couple chapters. However chapter one is one of them. A few things (lingo, etc) had to get changed in the copyediting stage. Also I had know idea Olympics was a brand you can't use or they'll sue you! Anyway I hope I didn't get snowboarding too wrong! Melissa

Anyone know something that's the equivalent to getting burned, but in snowboarder terms. My story's needs to be emailed at midnight so this will hopefully be the last question. Thx.