Rita loved listening to her grandparents tell stories, then learned to write her own, sharing interesting people and ideas with others.
Three important things a child learns on hot summer Texas evenings. One, seek out the shade and breeze on the screened porch. Two, don’t move—someone might get your listening spot. Three, parents and grandparents tell wonderful stories, about ancestors and life’s challenges and successes. With such a love of stories born, it is only natural, decades later, that I love books and travel, the Bible and its stories, and coffee shops—where the magic of sharing happens.
Love and romance can steer a person's life and the generations to come. I will spend the rest of my life reading love stories and writing my own own. Experience, mistakes, and years add insight.
Rita's award-winning talents have produced essays and short stories in periodicals and magazines, a one-act play, an historic book for children and a series of romance novels.
Collin, Sandy, and Joanne search for their one true love,
but envy, pride, and irritation obscure their paths.
Will they find romance?
He needed to get back to his book, to actually start the book, rather than peering out the window at and keeping track of an elderly woman. But he liked his new neighbor and found her to be pleasant company. Deep within his soul, he suspected that somehow, in this phase of their lives, they needed each other.
Widower Collin Matthews retires to Port Tiffany,
Washington, intending to write and sail to Alaska,
but people keep drawing him into their lives and he’s
running out of time, energy, and patience. He’s lived
his accomplished life powered by his own creativity,
brains, and energy but he has a growing fear he is
running out of energy.
A dying neighbor, a cheerful pastor, a mystery, a
daughter in distress, and an intriguing woman from
New Mexico all ply upon his time and heart. Will he
remain self-reliant or will he consider a new energy
source? Is God available to him? Is God smart?
Sandy liked this part of her job. She stood at the window of her office looking down at the budding elm trees, waiting for the armored truck. All the research, all the correspondence and all the sleepless nights of staring into the darkness trying to connect the dots--all of that had given birth to this day, a day of celebration, anticipation, and sheer glee. She heard a brief knock at her door and the gravelly voice of her boss, John Daily, saying "They just called. They'll be here in two minutes."
Sandy Matthews follows her heart into the business world
as an art consultant in Seattle. Success is assured because of
her education and her determination.
When a major client doesn't accept her research as valid,
Sandy’s plans crumble. Her dad is then rushed to the
hospital in New Mexico, and her life dissolves further into
chaos. Sandy regroups, and heads to New Mexico, where she faces the challenges of love.
This new neighbor and his new trees did not please Joanne, but she didn't want to start a fight. The neighbor would learn by the fastidious way she had raked up the leaves, and by stacking the bags of leaves out by the mailbox until the trash man came, that she wasn't happy with his new trees and their mess. She would also be a bit cold. She knew how to do that without being obvious. He would want her favor and he would learn to earn it. You don't let leaves blow into her yard without paying a price.
Even at fifty-"ish", Joanne never imagined her life
would change so drastically, but she finally admits
she's barely surviving her divorce. Surely a visit to her
college-age daughter will give her the emotional
boost she desperately needs.
But when her daughter refuses to spend the weekend
with her mother, Joanne knows she needs to get as
far away from Denver as possible. She goes to
Washington State with her cousin, Pastor Andy. Joanne meets new and lovely people in Crystal, but
all is not the way it appears. Joanne is faced with
changing her thinking or someone might die.
... and the Territory of New Mexico, which included present day Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado, needed teachers.
Bishop Lamy prepared the wagon train to take the four Sisters of Loretto from near Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
It was a journey full of trials, adventures and grace. But what was more extraordinary than the journey, was the amazing impact this small group had bringing education to so many, and laying the foundation for public education in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
An historical biography written by Rita Rogers and illustrated by Craig Orback for
younger readers, ages 5 to 8.
Inspired by her love of the people, places, and stories of the Southwest, Rita received the
2009 Mamie Wynne Cox Essay Award
from the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.
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