Books, books, books!

FUN FACT:  Books make GREAT gifts. 

Maybe I'm not cut out for the simple life

How big is your To Be Read pile? I buy a lot of books and sometimes it's years before I get to read them. I bought a book at Barnes & Noble a while back ... it must have been QUITE a while back, because I though, "Wow -- I've never seen this book before IN MY LIFE." But I must have, because I always put the price sticker on the back of the dust jacket flap. Because my job is writing fiction,  read a lot of non-fiction.

The book?  Simplify Your Life by Elaine St. James.

There are a lot of good ideas in this little book. Things like pay off your mortgage. (Yeah, that's an easy one.) Get out of debt. (Another easy one.) Buy in bulk. Works great for families, not so good for two people--especially if you follow her suggestion to move to a smaller house. I don't have enough closet space now? Where would I put my stuff if I moved to a smaller house? She's got the answer for that, too ... get rid of all your stuff.

Get rid of my stuff? Are you crazy?

Mind you, my Mum was a bit of a pack rat, and I don't have nearly as much stuff as she accumulated. Still, I've got a lot of stuff. I like my stuff and I have tried parting with it. But then I get more stuff.

I have this problem "rescuing" stuff at yard sales. Lots of times I find homes for the stuff. (Like teacups, teapots, etc.) Other stuff...not so easy.  Earlier this summer, I posted on my Facebook Group (Lorraine's Perpetual Tea Party) some little vintage cookbooklets I got at a yard sale; did readers think it was a good giveaway. YES!  So, every time I saw one at a yard sale, I bought it. We're in week three of the giveaway and it hasn't been as successful as I would have liked. (The contest is over for this week, but join the page and enter next week's drawing!)

Back to the book.

Another helpful hint: turn off the TV.  Too late. I did that back in 2003. Don't ask me if I've seen Game of Thrones, Outlander, or the Walking Dead. The last TV show I regularly watched was Fraiser. I do watch TV shows on Youtube. (well, I have it on; I'm usually doing other stuff). I think I saw about 40 gastric bypass surgeries over the summer watching Fat Doctor. (Fascinating stories.) I've seen just about every Gordon Ramsey show he's ever made (I like the Brit versions better), and watch a lot of tutorials. But network (and cable) TV. Nope.

Ms. St. James also suggests you get rid of your houseplants. WHAT? Just when my thumb has started to turn green? Listen, honey, if the plant still has life in it, I'm keeping it. Three of my late mother's violets are blooming right this minute and I can't tell you how much pleasure they give me. Nope. Not tossing them.

So, I guess the thing is that ... right now, I'm not ready to simplify my life.

How about you?

My heart is broken ... again

One of my favorite books is The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.  I read it every year.  It's a wonderful story (except for the ending, where suddenly the heroine of the story gets lost and the focus completely turns on one of the secondary characters.  Ahem!).

In the book, a little girl, her friend (Dicken) with apparently magical relationships with animals, and the girl's cousin transform a badly neglected garden.  Dicken's animal friends are sweet, cute, and THEY DON'T EAT ALL THE PLANTS.

Unfortunately, the animals around my neighborhood, do.

This past winter was mild.  I had tried growing Brussels sprouts in containers to keep the groundhogs from eating them.  It worked, but they plants did not thrive.  In early September, I put the strongest plant in the garden to see if it would grow.  It didn't.  But it did survive the winter.  And then it took off like crazy!

Oh, what a thing of beauty.  We had a spate of warm temps last week and it shot up at least 12 inches.
And then Mr. Groundhog found it and ate EVERY SINGLE LEAF in about an hour.  We had planted out peas about 4 p.m.  An hour later Mr. G snuck into the garden and decimated the poor plant.  We set the haveahart trap out to try and catch him, but why should he return?  He's already eaten what he wanted, and apparently cabbage isn't as satisfying a dish as sprouts leaves.

Every year I'm heartbroken when all my veggies (and flowers) are attacked and eaten by critters.  Every year I hope it's going to be different.  It never is.

When you've got the gardening gene (and my parents were marvelous gardeners), it's something you do, but man is it heartbreaking at times.

Do you find gardening heartbreaking, too?

More Cats In Trouble!

It's release day for the long-awaited fourth book in the Cats In Trouble Mysteries, by my good friend Leann Sweeney.

When quilter Jillian Hart returns to her lake house in Mercy, South Carolina, she discovered her friend, Tom, is missing-and his estranged half-brother has moved into Tom's house. Jillian doesn't trust the guy, especially since he allowed Tom's diabetic cat to escape. When police officers find Tom's wrecked car with a dead stranger inside, Jillian is determined to find out what happened to Tom-before someone else turns up dead.

You can by it from:

Amazon  ~  Barnes & Noble ~ Books A Million ~ Indie Bookstores

For:
Kindle ~ Nook ~ Sony E Reader ~ Kobo

If you've read the others, I know you'll enjoy it.  If you haven't they are:

The Cat, The Quilt and The Corpse
The Cat, The Professor and the Poison
The Cat, the Lady and the Liar
Enjoy!

Oh, Boy -- Chapter & Hearse Day!

Happy Bookday to me!
Happy Bookday to me!
Happy Bookday, Happy Bookday,
Happy Bookday to me!

FINALLY -- today is the OFFICIAL release day for Chapter & Hearse.
Okay, SOME stores have already been selling it for -- what? -- two weeks?

That's great! (For the bottom line.)

That's bad. Because if there have already been a glut of sales, that means I won't hit the New York Times Bestsellers list.

Okay, the list is icing on the cake. The cake (consistent sales that build) is more important in the long run.

But as a lifelong geek who was always looked down on because she didn't fit the normal role (in school, at work, by some members of my family) because she was starry-eyed and goofy and spent far too much time in la-la land instead of doing stuff like, oh, I don't know--BE NORMAL (and just what IS normal?) the list is like getting on the honor roll at school.  (Which I did ... and it made my Dad proud.  Dad isn't here anymore, but still--I'd like to make him proud of me.)

Okay, enough. If you like Tricia, Angelica, Miss Marple, Ginny, and Mr. Everett and think you MIGHT want to read the book, I hope you'll consider buying it in the next week or so--even if you can't fit it into your reading schedule until later in the year. And if you DON'T like them or the Booktown mysteries . . .

NEVER MIND!

Today is also supposed to be the release of all four Booktown Mysteries as audio books.  I haven't yet been able to track down where or for how much.  (They aren't supposed to show up until the 3rd and I'm writing this on the 2nd.)  I'll update this post if I find out.  (And boy,as a lover of audiobooks, I can't WAIT to hear these books performed.)


And while you're at the store or ordering online, my friend Heather Webber's latest Lucy Valentine novel, DEEPLY, DESPERATELY comes out today, too.  I loved the first in the series (there's a psychic thread throughout the story -- except for Lucy, that is -- that Jeff Resnick's creator just couldn't resist), and can't wait to read this one, too!

The other kind of brain candy

I don't know about you, but my to-be-read pile seems to grow by the minute.  (Or maybe it's breeding.  Well, we're approaching Easter, famous for rabbits ... and you know what they say ....)

I have a load of wonderful cozy reads sitting there gathering dust.  I'm eager to dive into Julie Hyzy's latest (Eggsecutive Orders) and Jenn McKinlay's first Cupcake Bakery mystery (Sprinkle with Murder), but I don't like to read fiction while I'm furiously at work on my own writing.  (Can you say "beach reads" -- or in my case, "cottage reads?")

That's why I either read old favorites, or non-fiction. 

I was quite taken with the movie Julie and Julia.  I saw it at the theater and asked for and got it on DVD for Christmas.  I think I've now seen it about seven times. (When I like something, I like it a LOT!)  So it was a no-brainer when I hit the bookstore the other day to grab a copy of Julia Child's "My Life In France," which half of the movie was based on.

I'm about a quarter of the way through the book and I love it.  Maybe it's because I love food (which isn't hard to tell if you've seen me in person). But her intimate portrait of the Paris she knew in the late 1940s sounds wonderful (if not a little chilly in winter).  And her husband, Paul, who definitely stood in her shadow during the last half of their lives together, was a gifted photographer.  It's wonderful to see his photographs that chronicled where they went and what they did--and with whom.

I'm looking forward to getting lost in some of my friends' cozy mysteries, but right now, I'm enjoying this real slice of Julia Child's Life.

What was the last piece of non-fiction you read?

Found: 1 Potato Cookbook

The other day I was passing by my bookshelves in the living room.  This is where I keep most of my non-fiction:  cookbooks, decorating book, etc.  (And boy, are there a lot of books there.)  Something didn't look quite right so I bent down to a lower shelf and found a fat squat book:  SuperCookery:  Potatoes and Vegetables.

I have a LOT of vegetarian cookbooks.  Not that I'm a vegetarian, but I just happen to LOVE vegetables. (A lot more than my husband. In fact, I could probably BECOME a vegetarian and not miss meat (well, except for pork).)

When I say I found this little book, I mean it:  I found it.  I'd never seen it before, or at least I don't remember ever seeing it.  I took it into my husband's office and asked him, "Did you buy this book?"  He said, "Never saw it before in my life."

Hmm.  Do you think the book fairy dropped it off one night while we were sleeping in heavenly peace?

I opened the book and there was a yellow Post-It note inside that said:

Mom,
I knew you were looking for a book about cooking with vegetables.  I thought this one was pretty nice.

(Check is inside the book.)

~Allar

At least I THINK it was signed Allar.  While the note was printed, the signature was not and it was pretty incoherent.  More important, I flipped through the pages to find the check.  Darn.  Mom must have taken it out and cashed it!  And since there was a post-it note inside the book, there's a good chance I bought the book at a garage sale.  But if so, why don't I remember it? I usually devour cookbooks (not literally, thank goodness), and this one is just the kind of thing I enjoy.

And I did enjoy reading through it, and marked a number of recipes I'd like to try.

Do you ever forget you've bought a book?

From The Heart Of The Home

Okay, Thanksgiving is still more than a week away, and maybe I do rush the Christmas season--but, hey, the happiest times of most children's lives is Christmas. The anticipation is monumental. Was it just greed or was it the absolute joy of everything about Christmas that made a kid's heart soar?
For me, as an adult, getting into the Christmas season means two things: music and -- surprise! --books.

I have a lot of Christmas (coffee-table) books, but my all-time-favorite is the very first I ever got. It was a gift from my Mum, which makes it even more special. It's Susan Branch's "Christmas From The Heart Of The Home." Unfortunately, it's out of print (Yes, YOU MISSED IT) -- but Susan's "keepsake" version "Christmas Joy" is still available. (Hey, and just to name drop, Susan is now my friend on Twitter. She has ACTUALLY tweeted TO me, how amazingly COOL is that???)

Usually my Mum signs the books she gives to me (for birthdays and Christmas), but for some reason she forgot to do that with this one (and with my very favorite decorating book, The Romance of County Inns by Gail Grecco). I can't tell you how many times I've read Christmas From The Heart Of The Home--not just glanced at the pretty pages (Susan illustrates all her books with charming watercolors), but READ THE ENTIRE BOOK--ALL THE RECIPES and everything!!! At least three or four times every Christmas season for at least ten, if not fifteen, years. (I've made quite a few of the recipes, too!) I love the art. I love the recipes--but most of all, I love the suggestions on celebrating.

But one of the things I love most is that Susan wrote about Christmas on Martha's Vineyard. I love new England, and one of the things on my "bucket list" is the Nantucket Stroll." Since I first read Susan's books, I've longed to visit both Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket--off season. (Have I mentioned how much I hate crowds?)

It will probably never happen, so maybe one holiday I'll spend the holiday at my family's summer cottage. To do that, the place would have to be winterized. Our neighbor, who winterized a summer cottage to make a year-round home said it was THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF HIS LIFE, and in retrospect wished he'd razed the place and started from scratch. There's so much of my Dad in that place (he gutted it and did a total remodel and addition), that I don't think I could do that.

So, as in years before, I will (okay, already have) delve into my copy of Christmas From The Heart Of The Home and dream about spending the holiday on the shore. (And maybe down a couple of "Peach Cream" drinks--recipe on page 31...just in case you'd like to join me.)

What's In A Cover?

It only occurred to me on Wednesday to think--oh, Bookmarked for Death is coming out in large print next month. I wonder what the cover looks like. So I went in search of it.

Mind you, when I saw the cover for the large print edition Murder Is Binding, I thought it was okay. Not as wonderful as the cover Berkley Prime Crime did for the mass market paperback edition, but not bad. After all, it was done by the parent company that did the cover for Murder On The Mind (horrible) and Dead in Red (which was fantastic). Of course, I have to remind myself that cover art--like everything else in publishing--is a crapshoot. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

So, when I saw the large-print cover on Wednesday I must say I wasn't exactly impressed. The mass market paperback's cover represented the first chapter of the book, with the cake that looked like the guest author's book cover, the books themselves, and the open door to the washroom where the victim was found. The artist even included the tin ceiling! The artist must have at least read the synopsis and maybe even the first chapter. Could an author be more pleased?

I found the large print cover on Amazon. To say it was a disappointment was putting it mildly. The cover artist decided to just do generic books on a bookshelf. Not very inspiring. Okay, large print editions don't sell all that much anyway, but surely the large print audience is just as interested in a beautiful cover as the mass market paperback audience. Then again, consumers BUY the mass market version (@ $6.99). Usually only libraries buy the large print edition (@ $25.99), and I don't think (at least I hope they aren't) as swayed by the cover art.

Authors don't make a lot of money on large-print editions. But what if the cover art was just as stellar--maybe more copies would be sold, which would benefit not only the author, but the publisher as well. At least, that's a theory I'm willing to embrace.

But the absolute worst thing about the cover: THEY SPELLED MY NAME WRONG!!! Note, there's only one "T" on Barrett.

UPDATE: Just after I wrote this, I heard from my Five Star editor. (Five Star is a division of Thorndike--the parent company, famous for their large-print editions.) I'd written to her to report the cover goof. She was AMAZING! Less than two hours later, the cover had been fixed, and she'd sent me a copy of the new cover. Also, they'd caught it in time because the books hadn't yet been printed. Whew! I feel a LOT better now!

WHERE'S MY BOOK?

I don't know about you, but I take a book with me wherever I go. You never know if you're going to get stuck in traffic, or have to wait in the car while hubby runs in the store to get a bag of ice -- or something like that. Rather than being bored, carrying a book with you means you have your entertainment at your fingertips 24/7.

Until you leave your book someplace you can't get back to for a few days.
I visited a friend over the weekend, and of course I took my current read with me. (All Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming.) Wow--I'm really enjoying this book (which is the 5th in the series). But things were rushed at the last minute. Not only did I forget the book, but I forgot my hat. I have three of them, so I can live without it for a week. But I WANT MY BOOK! I want to know what happens with Clare and Russ. I want to know who murdered Russ's wife. I was halfway through the book, and intended to finish the book in one BIG read so I can jump into Julia's next book, already sitting at the top of my TO BE READ pile. (I shall Not Want.)

But nooooooo! I had to leave it behind on the countertop. Why didn't I put the book with my purse? I had to have my purse to leave. That's where I keep my car keys. But nooooooooo! It was on the countertop and my purse was on the couch.

The book will still be there when I return this weekend. But I want to read it NOW.
(Does that ever happen to you?)

THE BREEZE INN . . .

Like many of author Mary Kay Andrews's readers, I've been following the creation of her very own Breeze Inn on her blog.

For those of you who don't know, Mary Kay Andrews (pen name of author Kathy Hogan Trocheck) writes women's fiction. She's written three that feature the same characters, Savannah Blues, Savannah Breeze, and Blue Christmas. In Savannah Breeze, BeBe Loudermilk has lost all her worldly possessions thanks to a bad investment counselor--except for a dumpy motel called the Breeze Inn. For a good chunk of the book, Bebe and her friend Weezie renovate the inn, with a nod to HGTV's Design on a Dime, and stuff from Weezie's second hand shop.
I loved the books, and I was intrigued when Mary Kay bought her "beach house" on Tybee Island. For the past few months she's been chronicling the change from ugly cement block house to her own personal breeze inn, with pink and turquoise paint, wicker furniture, and lots of neat odds and ends.

She put a lot of effort into that renovation, telling readers about the rooms she'd prepared for her son (also known as "Boomerang Boy) and daughter and her husband. About choosing the paint colors, junking all along the East Coast (from Brimfield, MA to Florida) finding just the right items to furnish her home-away-from-home.

And finally, a few weeks ago, she declared her own personal Breeze Inn finished. I imagined her family using the place on weekends, the house being filled with friends, great food, great drinks, great memories.

WRONG! The Breeze Inn is now open for BUSINESS! And you can rent it for chump change -- that is if you happen to be Donald Trump. A week's stay at the Breeze Inn will put you back a mere $2,133!!! (Add $100 a week if you want to bring your pooch. $200 if you bring two pooches.) Of course, part of that cost includes a $30 admin fee (for the people who handle the rentals), $125 housekeeping fee, and a 13% motel/hotel tax.

Odd as it sounds, I felt betrayed. Mary Kay never told her blog readers that the Breeze Inn would be a money-making venture. We came along for the ride thinking that this would be her great escape, where she go to get away from life and work on her novels. (Her latest, The Fixer Upper, comes out on June 23rd.)

I started thinking about Mary Kay and her books and made a stunning realization. Usually authors live vicariously through their characters. Mine own their own bookstores in a quaint New England village and wouldn't I like to do the same? Mary Kay has taken this vicarious living to another level. She not only has a character who owns a motel on Tybee Island, now...so does she, sort of.

So instead of feeling betrayed, I think now I'm just jealous!