Rox Burkey

I received word over the weekend that Rox Burkey, intelligent, beautiful, wry, compassionate Rox Burkey, passed.

My first reaction was to check who sent the notice. “That’s one hell of a bad joke!”

No, it came from her Enigma series co-author, Charles Breakfield.

Okay, not a hoax.

I met Rox and Charles almost ten years ago when I interviewed authors about their work. Rox and I stayed in touch and passed marketing and related info back and forth. She helped me with some delicate issues relating to female characters in my stories, was a frequent first reader, took part in a critique group I formed, …

She also told me when I was being a dick.

I loved her for that.

One of many things I cherished about her.

We kept each other apprised of our comings and goings, publications, weather. Once in a while we zoomed. We were both dog people and completely understood when we had to put a call on hold so we could take our dogs out.

I hadn’t heard from her for a couple of months. She posted to her blog regularly so I figured everything was okay.

Then this.

It’s taken me a while to know where to place it.

Deep in my heart, of course.

Love you, Rox. Keep writing. I can’t imagine what amazing stories you’ll have when next we meet.

Pleasant journeys, safe harbors.