College Care Packages by Ginny Baird

A new movement is sweeping our nation. If you have children in college, at least it appears to be! With my husband and I having six kids between us (currently ranging in ages from 19 to 31), we’ve had plenty of experience with having kids in college—and sending out those lovingly crafted packages that help far-away students feel at home. The funny thing is, neither my husband nor I remember receiving any care packages when we were at university. Either times have changed, or we had horribly bad parents.

One thing is clear. When I attended college, the institution didn’t subject my parents to a barrage of correspondence urging them to purchase pre-fab packages made by the university itself. These all come at a cost of course and are most especially promoted during exam season. I’ve never purchased one, but can see how they might be a boon to busy parents. For my husband’s and my part, some of the joy in sending a care package comes in creating it.

At times, we’ve sent themed packages, centering on a holiday when the kids wouldn’t be home, like Valentine’s Day or Halloween. The package might include some homemade treats along with a few nifty gifties. The sillier, the better, and the kids always enjoyed receiving the unexpected surprises: ranging from pumpkin straws to blinking light rings, which a few of them wore to parties. It really is the thought that counts, even when your child is left wondering, What were they thinking?

On one occasion our youngest boy asked me this when he discovered an unexplained stack of mini post-it notes in his box. Generally, everything in the package carries a significance. What was the meaning of this? The truth was there was a tiny corner of the box—among the Tupperware containers and little presents—that needed filling. I glanced around my office and…voila! The stack of mini post-its was the perfect fit. Besides, I reasoned, son could use them to bookmark certain pages during his…ah-hem…arduous studies.

Just this week, I sent out another care package to this particular child, who is our baby, hence the caboose in a long train of siblings who’ve gone through schools: all of them out of state! Much to our delight (and after some gentle nudging), Gordon opted to study at the University of Virginia, which thrills us on two counts. One, he is just two hours away, and two, we pay in-state tuition. This also means the United Parcel Service can get a package to him by ground service overnight. What could be more ideal for shipping a box of homemade apple cake, brownies and peanut butter cookies? I mailed it the day before yesterday, and received a happy text from Gordon that he and his roommates were already enjoying the goodies last night!

Here is an easy recipe for one of the treats I included.

Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup of peanut butter (both smooth and crunchy work great)

1 cup of sugar

1 egg

Blend everything together then form small 1 inch balls and press flat with thumb on cookie sheets. Use fork to form cross-hatch pattern in each cookie before baking at 350 degrees in a preheated oven. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

Our oven is quirky, so when I’m baking two cookie sheets together, it takes 18 minutes for both batches to be done.

Remove from oven and lightly press a Hershey’s Kiss into the center of each cookie. For serious chocolate lovers, use Hershey’s Special Dark Kisses. Let set on cookie sheet for five minutes then remove to wire rack until completely cooled. Yield 20-24 cookies.

Do you send care packages to your children, or do you remember getting them? Please share what you like to give—or once enjoyed receiving as a student yourself. Gordon has three more years of college left, so we’re looking for ideas!

* ~ * ~ *

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Ginny Baird writes contemporary romance novels and novellas. Book 3 in her Romantic Ghost Stories series The House at Homecoming Cove releases on October 15^th and is already available for Pre-Order. Find it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and iBooks. Want to keep up with news from Sweet Romance Reads authors? Sign up for the SRR newsletter today. Like chatting about Sweet Romance? Join the authors of Sweet Romance Reads in our cyber Café. Don’t miss our Café Open House October 17^th from 12 to 5pm ET. Save the date!

Who's Ready for Fall? by Anna J Stewart

Fall is, by far, my most favorite time of year. The heat of summer is (hopefully) gone and soon we'll be settling into cooler temps, that crisp pre-winter chill in the air and I can unload my cozy clothes that include Mickey Mouse fleece pajama bottoms and snugly sweatshirts. (Please note, I've written this during a week where we are expecting 7 days of 100+ temps. Ugh).

My tea selections move from the fruits of summer (raspberry and vanilla) to toastier selections like apple spice and peppermint and...of course, we'll be getting ready for all the holiday goodies about to land on us like a ton of bricks! This year, I purposely arranged deadlines so I wouldn't be bogged down with a book due just after the first year (next year will be another story).  I'm living for October 15th, first and foremost because I'll finally be able to catch up on my reading!

www.pinterest.com

What else will this time of year bring? I'll be gearing up for the release of my first full-length Harlequin Heartwarming romance. THE BAD BOY OF BUTTERFLY HARBOR will hit e-readers on December 1st (select Walmart stores in January) and launches my Butterfly Harbor series which takes place in a fictional coastal town inspired by Pacific Grove, CA.  I've often heard most authors have their own personal "themes" when it comes to the stories they write. The more books I finish, the more I realize that's true, at least for me. My books tend to revolve around two recurring ideas: family and coming home; finding that place where you (or my characters) belong. That's the journey Luke Saxon will be undertaking when this bad boy comes back to the town he left in disgrace. Only now...he's the new sheriff. Love how life brings us full circle sometimes albeit with a touch of irony.

photo courtesy of www.commonsensecanada.ca 

So...what's your favorite season and what are you plans for the fall? Any special brews of teas you'd like to share? Or how about books you're looking forward to? I'd love to hear all about them. Thanks for stopping by and of course, as always, happy reading!

~Anna J

A geek at heart, national bestselling author Anna J Stewart writes "refreshingly unique, quietly humorous, and profoundly moving romance" (RT Book Reviews) for Harlequin Heartwarming and Berkley InterMix. Visit her online and make sure to sign up for her news only newsletter. She gives away a surprise gift box to one lucky subscriber in every issue!

Want to keep up with news from Sweet romance Reads authors? Sign up for the SRR newsletter today. Like chatting about Sweet Romance? Join the authors of Sweet Romance Reads in our cyber Cafe!

Love Nests by Milou Koenings

There's a love nest on the windowsill of our bedroom.  

Photo Robyn Cox, cc-by-sa-2.0

It's a pigeon nest, with eggs waiting to hatch.  I wake in the morning to the cooing of doves.

Just yesterday, my daughter and her fiancé took me to see the one-bedroom apartment they've found.   

Their faces glowed as they described it to me - the high ceilings, the brand new kitchen counters, the pretty bathroom. The fact that it's so close to the bus and the train and both their colleges and yet still on a quiet street, in the neighborhood everyone wants to live in, and with its own garden! They couldn't believe their good fortune. 

And all those things were true. It's an adorable apartment and the rent is a good deal.  As they showed me the built-in closet, the new sink - and even a washing machine! - their eyes were filled with dreams of the life they will be sharing soon within those four walls. 

They weren't thinking about it being so small that only one of them can stand in that newly renovated "kitchen" at a time.  

That if two people sit at the table at once, they'll block the entrance to the bathroom.  

That the wonderful high ceiling is so high that they'll need a ladder to open the only window in the bedroom. 

That the garden is, let's be honest, a patch of dirt that will turn to mud in the winter. 

That they'll soon be practicing an extreme version of that new trend, "tiny living."  (And that, apparently, I'm going to be parking on the street for the next few years, my garage overtaken by wedding gifts they will have no room for!)

I left as enchanted as they are - not with the apartment, which is perfectly fine - but with them and with memories of my own first, adored, love nest, with its "balcony" (a wooden fire escape - in Chicago? Seriously?), kitchen cabinets that never closed, and bathroom ceiling that came crashing down. None of those faults ever mattered.

I remembered all our homes after that - despite all their faults, too, beloved.  We've moved around and circumstances have changed over the years. Still, each new home holds such promise of new chapters, new discoveries and lessons to learn.  It's like starting as newlyweds all over again, only better.

This is usually the point where our romance novels stop.  We close the book, having reached The End, just as the story is really beginning.  But having found a person you love and want to spend your life with, there's little more magical and exciting than putting together the home in which you begin your life, or a new chapter of your life, together.

The pigeons on my bedroom windowsill aren't on their first go-around.  They come every year. I've given up on ever opening that particular window. Why would I want to bother them? But each spring, it's like the first time. A new nest. A new set of hatchlings. A new future.

To all those June and other summer brides out there, here's to filling your new nests with lots of love and joy to last you many years!  

To those of us ensconced in our old nests, may they become ever more comfortable, and yet still fresh and new as time goes on.

Milou Koenings writes romance because, like chocolate, stories with a happy ending bring more joy into the world and so make it a better place.  

Her sweet romance, Reclaiming Home, A Green Pines Romance, is available at Amazon. 

You can find her on her website, www.miloukoenings.com, on Facebook, or Twitter.

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Painting Stories

I majored in art in college and have been very involved in art all my life. As a child and teenager, I wrote poems and stories, but my grandmother was a talented oil painter and my mom was the best paper doll maker ever, so it was natural for me to move more fully into creative art and do less writing. Over the years as the pendulum has swung, I have done more writing and spent less time painting, but the truth is they are actually very similar activities.

To begin an oil painting the artist assembles the stretcher bars, staples the canvas to the bars, and prepares the canvas with primer. She then gathers the objects to be painted. The assembly and setup for a painting are very much like researching a story idea and setting up your files and data in the software you use for writing. With the sticks of vine charcoal the artist lightly sketches the basic painting structure onto the canvas. This is much like the planning or outlining of the plot. With the right brushes and paints at hand, the artist builds the painting. She begins with translucent washes, then gradually builds in color, shape and shadow layer by layer, until finally there is a picture story. With each layer the artist’s vision becomes clearer and stronger, just as drafts and editing strengthen a story. The painting may be a still life, or a portrait, or landscape, or even abstract, but when it’s done it’s complete unto itself. Finally, it gets a layer of varnish to protect and seal the product, declaring it ready for the world. For the story, it is now a book and gets a cover. Here are some of my paintings. They each feel like a story to me.

The development of the painting by layers into a final, cohesive product, feels the same whether I’m painting a picture or writing a book. It’s about the craft from start to finish. Ultimately, the painting is hung on the wall in hopes of tempting viewers to look closer, perhaps even to be moved emotionally. A book is placed on a shelf or an ebook retailer site, for the same reasons. The nice thing about a book is that the reader can curl up with it or an ereader on a cold winter day, or bask on a beach in the warm sun, and enjoy the story. I don’t recommend doing that with an oil painting.

Are there paintings that you recall? Images that have stuck with you over the years? The same is true of books and stories. What in those stories spoke to you? The books may seem to be different, but my guess is that if boiled down to their essence, the books you particularly remember have similar themes. I tend to read and write about trust, faith and truth. And that’s where, in my opinion, paintings and books differ. We may be moved by a work of art, have questions raised, and may even divine a story within it, but it won’t touch us inside, won’t stir us emotionally to the same degree that the written word can. You can enjoy a painting and be moved by it, but you probably won’t need to keep a box of tissues handy while you observe and appreciate it.

 

Art and other creative themes show up in my books, especially in A STRANGER IN WYNNEDOWER. I hope you'll take a look.

 

BIO: Grace Greene writes novels of Love, Mystery and Suspense with a Dash of Southern Gothic. She is also the author of the Emerald Isle, NC books, BEACH RENTAL and BEACH WINDS - romance with inspiration. Please visit her website www.gracegreene.com and sign up for her newsletter.

Same Old Story ~ New and Different Each Time

The experts say there are only a set number of plots. The number varies depending upon which fiction writing expert is giving the information, but the number is tiny compared to the stories that have been told over the centuries and the countless stories being produced now. Whether it’s a Cinderella story or marriage of convenience or action-adventure, etc., experts say each story is just a retooling and retelling of the same basic plots. If that’s true, then all stories should be redundant and boring, right? Yet readers keep reading. And writers keep trying.

 
On top of my china cabinet is a dish once held by my great-great-grandmother. It isn’t fine china and it isn’t in mint condition. It was well-used and shows it. I hold the dish in my hands and think about the generations of hands that held it before me—before it became a family treasure—back when a woman’s loving hands set it on the table filled with food to feed her hard-working family. The dish would’ve been passed around the table for each family member to take a portion and pass it on. Then later, she stood at the kitchen sink to wash this same dish with the detergent bubbles tickling her arms. She probably rinsed the dish and handed it to someone—a daughter, a mother, a husband—perhaps with a smile, maybe a casual remark, to dry it before putting it back into its place in the cabinet.

So I hold the dish in my hands and wonder about those people and their lives, and the experiences of love, joy, sorrow, and anger that passed through those lives even as the dish was passed from hand to hand, from generation to generation. There is an undeniable similarity in the beats of our lives, past and present, but the same basic plots? Yes, perhaps, except that it’s new to the person who experiences it. When love strikes or heartbreak follows, it’s new and unique to that person.

Each person whose hands held the dish before me had a story. It was a story retold over and over, and the reader may consciously or subconsciously respond to the common chord, but it was HER story, HER heart, HER life. Each time it was lived, it was lived anew for the first time, every time.

As it should be with the stories we write.

 

As a reader, what kind of stories do you like best?

~*~ 

Grace Greene is a USA Today Bestselling Author of sweet romance, romantic suspense, and women's fiction. She writes two series: Emerald Isle, NC Stories, and Virginia Country Roads. Please visit her at www.gracegreene.com and sign up for her newsletter.

Inexpensive Holiday Cards by Angela Benson

Happy Holidays!  I hope you’re gearing up for a safe and happy holiday season.   

I really look forward to sending holidays cards this time of the year.  Hubby and I like sending out the personalized cards with our photo and a personal greeting.  From the response we’ve gotten, the recipients enjoy getting them.  The good news is that these cards are fairly inexpensive.

On Sunday we’re going to Flash Digital Portrait Studios in the local mall for our holiday photo session.  We usually just use a picture we’ve taken on our phones [the picture above is the one we used last year] but I found a great deal on Groupon that I couldn’t pass up.  The photo session and a package that includes three images on CD and one traditional print sheet cost only $15.99.  We’ve had our pictures taken at this place before when it was Olan Mills and I hope we are as happy with the results this time as we were then.

I’m going out all for this photo session.  I haven’t decided what we’re wearing yet, but I do know there will be some red involved.  And right before the shoot, I have an appointment to get my make-up done at the Clinique counter in Belk, also in the mall. This is a much cheaper route than going to a salon.  At the Clinique counter, they only ask that you purchase one or two items, which will probably be around $30.  A salon would charge at least $30 for the make-up session and you wouldn’t get any products.  Again, I think I’m getting a pretty good deal.

To get even more bang for my photo dollar, in addition to striking some poses for the holiday card, I’m also going to try to find a pose that will work as my author photo.  The photographer’s assistant suggested that I bring a few copies of my books to use as props in those poses.  We’ll see how it goes.

After I get the CD with the pictures, I’ll create our cards on Staples.com. With another great Groupon deal, I’m getting 50 custom cards (with envelopes) for only $10.  I don’t think I can do much better than that. 

In total, I’ll spend about $57 for 50 personalized holiday cards, a semi-professionally done author photo and two Clinique products.  That’s a pretty good gift for me to give myself.  I just may give it someone else next Christmas.

If you’re still with me, you’re probably wondering how we’re going to get our cards mailed in time for Christmas.  Well, we’re not.  Over the last few years, we’ve gone from sending Christmas cards to sending more general “holiday” cards.  That way, as long as the cards arrive between mid-December and mid-January, we’re fine. 

I’d love to hear about your holiday card plans for this year.  Do (did) you send Christmas cards, holiday cards or something else?  Have you already put yours in the mail or have you joined the high-tech revolution and started sending only e-cards?  Feel free to also tell me about any good Groupon deals you’ve found.  I’m always looking for a good buy.

Happy Holidays!

Angela Benson is the author of 14 novels and two novellas.  In the novella, Friend and Lover, Reed Lewis thinks his best friend, Paige Thomas, is engaged to the wrong man, so he devises a holiday ruse to make her see things his way. Celebrate the season with this light-hearted holiday romp about two friends on the path to becoming so much more, and the grandmother who helps them get there.