Taking a Break by Merri Maywether

This October, Randy and I took a weekend hiatus from teaching and writing to visit our sons, Chris and Charlie, in Arizona. Chris is thirty-one, and Charlie is twenty-eight years old.  

When they were little, our weekends were wrapped up in attending their school events. So the weekend was a visit to routines of the past. 

In the weeks leading up to our trip, we planned. 

Chris and Charlie wanted comfort food. Meatloaf, roast beef, and barbecue chicken. And, nary a vegetable was requested, so I planned on having a lot of raw fruits and vegetables. 

Because it was a whirlwind weekend, I made all the meals in the crockpot. We’d go out for the day and return to the house to have a hearty meal and play games. The raw fruit and veggies turned into great nibbling food.

On Friday, we visited the interactive Van Gogh exhibit in Scottsdale, AZ. I studied art history in college but didn’t do anything as clever as study Van Gogh’s self-portraits side by side. 

I was awed.

Vincent Van Gogh captured the aging process in every picture.

The way he used color to capture sound and motion was a testament to his genius.

The exhibit was touching, inspiring and prompted me to question; What stories will inspire people one and two hundred years from now? 

The adventure continued the next day with a viewing of Hamilton.

A year ago, we were in our own homes, talking every weekend, for hours, on zoom. 

I told the boys about watching Hamilton on Disney Plus. Seeing their reactions to the live show made it that much better.

They talked about both shows for the remainder of the weekend. Yes, a mom win!

I boarded the plane back to Montana with a healed heart and mind full of ideas for stories. 

I also was awakened with a keen awareness. Sometimes the cure for a tired heart can be found in the easiest place —with family.

Now that I've shared my story. I have a question for you. What are some things you do to fill your well when you feel yourself getting tired?

p.s. Here is an easy recipe for roast beef in the crockpot. We had no leftovers.

Merri Maywether lives with her husband in rural Montana. You can find her in the town's only coffee house listening to three generations of Montanans share their stories. Otherwise, she's in the classroom or the school library, inspiring the next generation's writers.

🎃  🎃  🎃  🎃  🎃

A Sweet October Read by Merri Maywether

🥣 Start with a mixed-up meet-cute set in small-town Montana

 🥄Add some community fundraisers and holiday activities.

👪 Combine them with a close-knit family

🎃 and we have a sweet holiday romance.  

For a limited time, Paradise Hills Trick or Treat is available for 99¢ at your favorite online retailer. 

 

           Amazon | Apple  | B & N | Kobo 

 

ONE MORE KISS....and a gift card drawing!

 August at last, and am I ever looking forward to autumn!  Not just for cooler weather, but for the September 10th release of my third book in the Northern Pines series, ONE MORE KISS.

Humor, romance...and a mystery!  It's up for pre-order now.  CLICK HERE to order or find more information. 

Here's a quick preview:

In One More Kiss, a disillusioned lawyer searching for a quiet life in a small town inadvertently ends up sharing his elderly aunt’s vacant house with a woman who has secrets to hide from her troubled past, a young daughter, and a menagerie of epic proportions. But there's also danger lurking in this small town...

I loved writing this book. It was just so much fun, because--as many who follow my blog might know--I've been an animal lover all my life and there aren't many types of pets I haven't had at one time or another. 

And when the kids were growing up, oh my! Cockatiels, bunnies, gerbils, hamsters, guinea pigs, tarantulas, fish, and all manner of lizards and pet snakes were added to the mix. 

Now we have just the more standard variety (two golden retrievers, eight very friendly, lazy barn cats that follow me everywhere, three horses, and a peacock who occasionally stops in for extended stays. 😀

Do you have any pets at your house? Or when you were growing up?  Leave a comment and be entered in a drawing for a $10.00 Amazon gift card  or an e-copy of ONE MORE WISH  (two winners)

Best wishes to you all for a wonderful end to your summer! 

Roxanne

New Year Resolutions

Good morning! Today I'd like to talk about creating New Year resolutions. As a writer, I'm always setting goals, it's a good way to keep myself on track. But I tend to shy away from the idea of making New Year resolutions.

Most of these resolutions are related to being more healthy such as: I'm going to start going to the gym  three times a week. Or I'm going to lose ten pounds by March. 

Some are all about being productive.  I'm going to write three more books next year. 

Some are about eating better. I'm going to eat veggies at dinner every night.

Am I the only one who thinks this sets us up for failure? I mean if you don't meet your goals relatively quickly I feel like it's far too easy to give up. Say for example I only get to the gym twice in one week, I'm already a failure even though I may not have been to the gym in months. Going twice is better than never going at all, right?

The same thing could be said for any of the other New Year resolutions.

What if instead we focused on trying to find ways to do things that are more important. Here in our household we are hoping to rejuvenate family game night. It won't be easy because everyone works different schedules, so coordinating will be a challenge. But if we even have one family game night, I'm going to view it as a success.

What about other ways to stay connected with family? I love going to the theater to see musicals. My hope is that I can attend one musical next year with my daughter and my mother-in-law. Should be able to make that happen, right? In Milwaukee we have Miss Saigon and The Lion King playing. Decisions decisions.

Starting off a new year often brings a sense of anticipation. Of hope. Of yes, maybe making some changes in our lives. But maybe these don't really have to be detailed resolutions, but more overall goals. If my one overall goal is to spend more time with my family, then there are a variety of ways I can do that. And if for some reason, I don't get to the theater, but we are able to have a family game night, and maybe host a party along the way, I'll still be spending time with my family.

So this is NOT a New Year resolution but an overall goal. I'd like to spend quality time with my family next year.

Anyone else? I'd love to hear your thoughts. And if you do make New Year resolutions that you've been successful with in the past, let me know. I'm always happy to be proven wrong.

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed 2020!

Laura Scott

Creating Holiday Memories by Laura Ashwood

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the memories that are created each year. When I think about Christmas, I am flooded with memories. When I was little, my grandparents on my mom's side lived in a tiny duplex and when the whole family would come for the holidays (they had 9 kids, so do that math!) we were stacked in like cord wood. No one even thought of getting a hotel. My bed was a little palette on the floor under the sink in the laundry/storage room with my cousin next to me in the narrow aisle between the shelves and the sink with another cousin at her feet in front of the washing machine. Those were great times. We'd giggle all night long, never caring where we were, just that we were there. It's coming back to my grandparent's on my dad's side after midnight mass on Christmas Eve and everyone else would be in the living room or getting ready for bed but my grandma and I would cut into a loaf of fresh baked bread and slather it with butter and a slice of cheese and have our own special treat. To this day (they also had 9 kids, so the house was FULL), I still can't believe we were able to have that special time alone.


Now that my grandparents are gone and I am a grandparent myself, it's important to me to create memories for my kids and grandkids that they can look back on. Part of the way I do that is in creating the atmosphere.

A beautifully decorated tree that fills the room with it's glowing lights and subtle pine smell brings me back to Christmases past without even trying. The ornaments I've inherited and will pass along are displayed front and center. The Mr. and Mrs. Claus to the left of the tree belonged to my husband's parents and bring a piece of them into the house.

The other thing I do is bake. I remember baking and frosting cookies with my mom as a child and being excited as an adult to go back "home" so I could eat those same frosted cookies.  Now that we have grown kids and grandkids, they can come "home" and have that same experience.

This year I made "baby Yoda" cookies for my daughter, who may have a tiny obsession with that character. I also made our family favorite, caramel puffcorn and yes, that IS a chihuahua cookie hiding with the baby Yodas.



The recipe for caramel puffcorn is:

1 bag (9 oz) Old Dutch Puffcorn
1 1/4 c brown sugar
1 cup butter
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 250°F. Over med heat, heat butter, sugar and syrup until sugar is melted. Once mixture has melted, remove from heat and whisk in the baking soda (this will cause the mixture to foam). Dump the puffcorn into a large roasting pan and pour caramel mixture over the puffcorn. I use a large heat-proof spatula (scraper) to gently stir until mixed. Place uncovered in oven for 45 minutes, stirring at least every 15 minutes. Remove from oven, pour on wax paper and spread out as much as you can. Cool, break apart and Enjoy.

What do you do to create holiday memories at your house?

May the good times and treasures of the present become the golden memories of tomorrow. Wish you lots of love, joy, and happiness. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

xo, Laura

This is my Gus "helping" us decorate our tree...

Just in time for your new year planning, I'm giving away to my readers not one, but FOUR of them on my blog! Good luck! https://www.lauraashwood.com/christmas-giveaway/

For the Love of Audio Books!

Today, I'm here to talk about another way to read, using your auditory senses. That's right, I'm here to talk about audiobooks.

Hands-Free Reading

This is where audiobooks are golden. Want to escape the traffic on the highway, long waits for an appointment, or to pass the time while waiting for your kids game practice to get over? Maybe conditions aren't prime to crack open a book, or your e-reader device is on low battery.

Maybe you're not too sure about audio. If that's the case, I've made up a few reasons to give books on audio a try.

 

There you go. Loads of reasons to give audiobooks a try. And I have one more. I'll be picking one visitor today who leaves a comment below to win a free audio code for my small-town romance, Snow Belle.
Winner announced tomorrow night right here.

Their big dreams might cause them to lose everything-- including each other.
Haley Madison packed her big dreams and drove to the Arctic. Well, all right, so it’s Madison Creek, Michigan. But for a Texas gal, this frozen land ought to come with a sled and huskies. If it wasn’t for her family’s rundown property, she’d have stayed where the sun shone bright and warm. However, she has grand ideas for her inheritance even if the town has thrown up their objections to her plans.

Ethan Winters hated going home and admitting failure. Sure, he has a special talent with the violin, but he has bigger ambitions than playing at the local bowling alley. And then there was the idea of facing his father. No, he wasn’t ready to go home just yet. He veered off the interstate and drove to a little town named Madison Creek. Maybe his luck would change.

When the southern Snow-Belle literally blows him off the road with her rogue snowblower... more than just his luck will change.
Welcome to Madison Creek Where Northern Hospitality Meets Southern Comfort

A Contemporary Inspirational Romantic Fiction Series

Have Stories Will Travel by Merrillee Whren

The photo above was taken in Marienplatz, a square in Munich, Germany. In the past ten years, I've been fortunate enough to visit most of the countries in western Europe. Travel opens up a person's  imagination as well as revealing history and current events.

After seeing all these new places, I wanted to incorporate some of my experiences into one of my books. I wondered how I could possibly do that when all of my books are set in the United States. The book I'm working on now is the sixth book in my Front Porch Promises series, and it is set in Tennessee. How could I possibly get my characters to some place in Europe? I came up with a plan.

 My hero and heroine, Jeremy and Whitney, work for a company that is mostly internet based. Think Amazon on a small scale, run from a little town in Tennessee. The head of the company wants to expand to Europe, and he is sending the two of them to Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands to negotiate some deals. Most of the book takes place in the US, but it is fun letting my characters experience something new.

Jeremy and Whitney do well on their adventure to those three European countries and come back home with some great deals for their company, but a surprise twist takes them back to one of those countries. I can hardly wait to write that part. I'm what we writers call a pantser, because, for the most part, I have no idea what is going to happen next as I write. But in this unusual case, I'm writing toward this big twist that popped into my mind as I was writing an earlier part of the book.

Here are some of the sites my characters will see.

A Maypole in Viktualienmarkt, a market area in Munich.

 

A golden carriage in the museum at the Nymphenburg Palace near Munich.

 

The Grand Place, a central square in Brussels, Belgium

 

Working windmills in a small town near Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

 

Do you like to learn about faraway places when you read fiction? Do you have a place you've read about that you would like to visit?

Merrillee Whren is the winner of the 2003 Golden Heart Award presented by Romance Writers of American. She is married to her own personal hero, her husband of forty-plus years, and has two grown daughters. Connect with her on her Facebook page and sign up for her newsletter.

I’ll Take Funny Sayings for $100 by Pat Simmons

No, I’m not about to play a game of Jeopardy. Have you ever heard someone say something so priceless, it should be on a T-shirt or mug? If you’re anything like my hubby, you might buy one because it’s the right color without paying much attention to what’s on it. We can learn a lot about a person’s personality from what they boast on a T-shirt.

Recently, I received a catalog in the mail that was advertising funny sayings and I stumbled upon this one. I laughed because it is sooo true.

Unfortunately, these T-shirts are many years too late for my siblings and me, but it is so on point.

Growing up, my only sister, who is older, set boundaries on what I could get away with as far as annoying her. As the little sister, I always broke the rules. Then five years later, our baby brother came along. Yep, as far as he was concerned, the rules didn’t apply to him.

Do you have a funny or favorite saying on a T-shirt?

Share it in your comments and let’s have a laugh. 

---------------------------------

Pat Simmons has penned more than thirty-five titles. She is a self-proclaimed genealogy sleuth who is passionate about researching her ancestors, then casting them in starring roles in her novels. She is a three-time recipient of the Romance Slam Jam Emma Rodgers Award for Best Inspirational Romance. Pat describes the evidence of the gift of the Holy Ghost as a life-altering experience. She has been a featured speaker and workshop presenter at various venues across the country.Pat has converted her sofa-strapped sports fanatical husband into an amateur travel agent, untrained bodyguard, GPS-guided chauffeur, and administrative assistant who is constantly on probation. They have a son and a daughter. Pat holds a B.S. in mass communications from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. Visit her at www.patsimmons.net.

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