My Brain Hurts Thanks To Website Woes

Over the years, I've learned just enough HTML code to be dangerous. I can update certain things on my website, and I recently learned how to embed a PDF. (If you go to my Lorraine site, on the From Katie's Kitchen page, you can download a couple of Katie's recipe cards.)

About six weeks ago, I was informed that the company that has hosted my website(s) since day one (and we're talking more than a decade), was going out of business. I've leaved in dread ever since then because I knew it was going to be a GIGANTIC pain in the patootie. And guess what. It is.

First, I contacted my website designer. We've been going back and forth about new hosting faculties while we talked about refreshing the look of at least two of my sites. Today was the day she said she was ready for the sites to be moved. (She's backed up everything and is ready to move forward.)

Gulp. That means it's my turn to figure things out.  So on Thursday, I spent over three hours talking with a prospective new host, the old host, and the people that take care of my domain names. And. I'm. Not. Done. Yet.

By the time I got through all that, it was Happy Hour and brother did I need a couple of strong belts.  Friday, I called the new hosting guy (a fellow name of Gene) and once I give him my authorization codes, he said he will "take care of the rest."  Whew, thoguth I was rescued because thinking about all that rigmarole made my brain hurt!

So, bright and early Friday morning I emailed Gene all my information to get the website shift in motion, including my phone number because that was going to be a LOT faster than doing on their website on my own.

Then I waited.

I only had one errand planned for the day, but it was to be a fun one.

Three hours later, I figured I wait until after lunch.  Sure -- I had HOURS left when I could run my errand.

And I waited.

By 4 pm, I'd gotten a little tire of waiting. I emailed Gene.  "Hey, are we going to do this today?"

No answer.

My goal is to call the company at the crack of dawn and see if somebody else will help me with this shift. I was told this company had good customer service.  So far, I'm not seeing it. But I'll give them another chance. ONE more chance.

But the good news is, my site will be moved. I'm getting a great 3-year rate (less than I paid for one year with the old host), and my website(s) will be refreshed.  I'm starting with my Lorraine site.  Here's a sneak peak.

So what do you think?

From Biker Chick to Short Order Cook

Who is Noreen Darby?

If you've read With Baited Breath, the first Lotus Bay Mystery novel, you know that Noreen is part-owner of The Bay Bay, which is right next door to the wreck of a house Kathy Grant wants to turn into a B&B.

Noreen was an office worker who rode a motorcycle. (Although, she's not into tatts, so don't ask if she has any.)  She met Paul Darby, owner of the bar, on a Poker Run, and it was love at first sight. She traded in her job and now she'd the short-order cook at the bar.

Wow, what a change. She went from filing papers to flipping burgers. From eight hours a day to whatever it took to keep the customers happy, and since the bar also takes in fishermen (they've got two rooms to let), she's also in charge of keeping those rooms clean and ready for the next guest.

She liked her life, but it got better when she met Tori Cannon, her BFF Kathy, and Tori's childhood friend, Anissa. What do they all have in common? Being business owners .... or at least they have that goal in mind.

It was Noreen who held out the hand of friendship.

“It’s a tough life. Not only do I cook, but I keep the rooms clean, too. And let me tell you, some of our guests are real pigs—and they’re not all men.”

“I hear you,” Kathy said, taking a sip of her neglected drink. The ice had melted, leaving it watery. “We’re starting with the bait shop. We’ll scrub the outside walls and start painting it tomorrow.”

“We’ve got a power washer. We’d be glad to loan it to you guys.”

“That’s very generous of you. I’ll take you up on it. Thanks.”

“Anything to help out Herb,” Noreen said. “I’ll be back in the kitchen about eight in the morning. Knock on the door and you can pick it up then.”

That was the beginning.

So you can see that Noreen is a real sweetheart.

I'm currently figuring out the next adventure for these entrepreneurial ladies, including fleshing out Noreen's character.  What do you think? Should she have a funny hobby? Collect something strange? Knit sweaters for birds with no feathers?  Come on--share your ideas.

And if you haven't read the book, you can:

Trade Paperback:  Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Books A Million

Book Depository ~ Chapters/Indigo  ~ Indiebound

Ebooks:  Kindle US ~ Kindle Worldwide ~ Nook ~ Kobo ~ iBooks

On the Breakfast Menu

Mmm-- delicious poppy seed bread (cake?) from the local Polish store. Of course, that's Mr. L's breakfast. Me? I'm having my usually green (vegetable) goop. 

Who do you think had the better breakfast?

Inspired by a child

Poppyseed cake with lime glaze that I made.

I admit it, I came to cooking and baking LATE.. Baking, not too late, but cooking LATE.

I always liked to bake because I like sweets. Cookies and pies were about the extent of it, but now I like to bake cakes, too. I don't do it that often because ... well, once you bake something, it must be eaten, and my eating audience has dwindled to about my husband and brother, and my brother is usually on a diet (one of those crazy ones where you only have 500 calories a day, so you eat a lot of canned veggies and apples.  Hmmm...he always loses weight. Maybe I should try that).

I used to brag about how much I DIDN'T like to cook. But then I started writing cozy mysteries, and it's almost a given that you need to include a few recipes. So I started making stuff to test recipes and I found out that I like to tinker with recipes, too.

I had a little time on my hands of late (call it a rest between writing assignments) and I started watching Kitchen Nightmares (with Gordon Ramsey) on Youtube. In just over a week, I'd watched every one available. (Talk about binge watching.) Then I moved on to Hotel Hell. I really liked that one because I got to learn how NOT to run a B&B. And Gordon's cussing? Doesn't bother me a bit. (Hey, I worked in a machine shop for 18 months drilling holes in metal parts for the space shuttle. I've heard it all.)

Yesterday, I watched nearly a whole season of Masterchef Junior (going to watch the finale to see if Addison or Avery wins--go girl power!). What amazed me about that show was the level of skill these kids have. We're talking 8-year-olds who can whip up a serving of duck a l'Orange, bake perfect cream puffs, and cook a perfect medium rare steak, none of which I feel capable of doing.  (For one think, I like my steak well done, which would cause the Chef to puke ... and I've heard him do it many times after being served nasty food. Oy, some of those walk-in fridges make you never want to visit a restaurant again).

But, I felt inspired by those kids and decided to make the recipe I've been collecting ingredients for all week.

Pasta With White Beans And Kalamata Olives
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 to ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
5 ounces uncooked rotini pasta
1 can (about 15 ounces) navy beans
1 can (about 14 ounces) diced tomatoes
½ cup pitted Kalamata olives
½ cup spinach leaves, packed
¼ cup (1 ounce) pine nuts, toasted
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
½ cup grated feta cheese
pepper, to taste

In a small bowl, combine the oil, garlic, salt and pepper flakes; set aside.  Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Meanwhile, drain the beans and tomatoes in a colander. Pour the pasta and cooking water over the beans and tomatoes. Drain well. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the garlic mixture, olives, spinach, nuts, and basil. Gently toss; blend well.  Top with the cheese.

Yield:  4 to 6 servings

Now, I don't like feta cheese, so I substituted Parmesan; I couldn't find pine nuts, but it tasted great without them. And fresh basil?  This is winter in Western NY. Dried worked out just fine. (See what I mean about tinkering with recipes.)

I may not be a Masterchef, but I'm happy when I make a recipe that works and then goes into the dinner rotation.  This one's a keeper.  And, it's going into my next cookbook (with my changes, of course), "written" by my character, Brenda Stanley.

Care to share a recipe for something you've made recently?

Do I really need something else to collect?

 A couple of years ago, I found a Bossons head at an estate sale.  What's a Bosson's head?  A picture tells a thousand words, they say. Basically, it's a head made of plaster of Paris (or chalkware).  You can read all about them here.

My mother and aunt collect(ed) them, neither of them had/have a huge collection, but they're very interesting and kind of delicate--they chip very easily.  Mr. L gave me two for Christmas and wasn't as careful as he might have been. One of them broke after he wrapped it. Luckily, he has a friend who can mend things so that you can't tell they've been broken.  (One of our cats chewed the ears off a cat statue Mr. L had given me and his friend was able to repair it so that there was no trace it had been gnawed.)

I've now got five. Women Bossons heads are very rare indeed, and Mr. L bought me a female for Christmas. I wish I could say she was pretty, but she's a fisherman's wife, and she looks it. In fact, not many could be considered "pretty," but they are true-to-life.

Most of my Bossons heads are fishermen (and woman), but I do have a policeman (who was my second head). I've looked at a lot of images online and I think I'd like a Beefeater next. But that can wait. I've still got a birthday and Christmas to go in 2017.

The other day, I was at a thrift shop. Sad to say, I did NOT find a Bossons head, but I did find a small plaster of Paris plaque of a fisherman at the helm. Mr. L said it reminded him of the Glouesster Fisherman statue in Massachusetts.

As you can see, it's rather humble, but sweet. I thought it would make a nice addition to my wee Bossons collection.

Do I really need to find anything else to collect?

Nope.

Is that going to stop me?

Nope.

What useless things do you collect?

New Release: An Unexpected Visitor

Just in time for the holidays, I've written a new Blythe Cove manor story you may want to read.

AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR

All is quiet at Blythe Cove Manor as its proprietress, Blythe Calvert, anticipates a peaceful holiday along with her cat, Martha. But then a taxi pulls up and drops off a troubled, runaway teen looking for a safe haven. Can the magic of Blythe Cove Manor heal this young girl’s aching heart?

Kindle US
Kindle Worldwide
iBooks
Nook
Kobo
Smashwords

Happy Holidays!

A little something for myself

Squeeeee! I be bad. A couple of weeks ago, I saw a Facebook ad (and I usually totally ignore them unless they are from/by an author friends of mine) for a Spode broken china holiday pendant (they also offered matching earrings). Well, I got suckered in, but isn't it PRETTY!!!!!!!!!

I now have three of pieces of broken china jewelry. (I wanted to get a pendant made from a piece of my mother's broken china, but couldn't find a place that would make it.) Mr. L gave me the first two pieces. One is a heart-shaped pendant made from Royal Albert Country Roses pattern, and I don't know the pattern of the other -- it's a round pendant with a single yellow flower in the middle.

Mr. L wasn't happy when I showed him the new pendant, because he always wants me to TELL him what I what for Christmas -- but that's no fun because I these days I can just go out and buy stuff for myself. It's a lot more fun when somebody puts real thought into a gift--or even better, makes it themselves.

I so miss that about Christmas. My parents always made us at least one thing every Christmas (I missed the "crafty" gene.) My mother usually sewed (she quilted) or knitted something.

My Dad would make jewelry or carve a Santa or something else.

Christmas will never be the same.

Do you buy yourself stuff for the holidays?

Victoria Square Returns!

After almost four years, the Victoria Square Mysteries has finally continued. Today is publication day for Dead, Bath and Beyond.



Nothing can spoil Katie Bonner’s perfect day of sailing with her friend, lawyer Seth Landers. That is, until she runs into her ex-boss Josh at the marina. As an employer, Josh liked to rock the boat and can still push all Katie’s buttons. After a loud discussion, she’s happy to say good-bye for what she hopes is the last time. And it was. For the next day, Josh is found drowned in a bathtub at Sassy Sally’s B&B on Victoria Square. Who pulled the plug on Josh? When an autopsy proves it was lake and not bath water that killed him, Katie finds herself in over her head, and races to find the killer before her life and business go down the drain.
 
Amazon |   Barnes & Noble | Books A Million  | Chapters | Book Depository (free shipping worldwide!)

Kindle US | Kindle UK | Kindle AU  | iBooks US & CA | iBooks AU, UK, NZ
 
Kobo | Nook | Kindle Worldwide 

Hope you'll give Katie's 4th adventure a try!

Thanks!

A blast from the past

For as long as I’ve had access to the Internet, I’ve been trying to find my favorite childhood read—and a mystery to boot! My third-grade teacher read us this book at least twice, and I remembering taking it out of the library several times between third and sixth grade. No matter how I searched, I could never find the book. It didn’t help that I didn’t know the author of the book, either.

Last week, I was working on a Blythe Cove Manor story (which still isn’t finished, although I wanted it to be available by December 1st), and I was looking for another word for “cove.” Mr. L suggested inlet. That got me thinking about the book I loved so much. I thought the title of the book was The Secret Cove. I remembered a few things about the book. A little girl was going to California to visit her great Aunt Alicia. The aunt didn’t realize how much a growing girl could eat, and the poor kid was starved through most of the book, and ended up spending her vacation money to eat at a diner—and making new friends along the way.

This time, I thought I’d put in the words “Aunt Alicia” + “Secret” + “Cove” and BINGO! I immediately got a hit.  My memory was sort of correct. The words Secret and Cove were in the title, but not enough of the title.  The book is actually The Secret of Smuggler’s Cove by Margaret Leighton.

Woo-hoo!  Amazon, here I come.

Only not so fast.  I immediately ordered a used copy of the book (which has been out of print for decades). And I waited and waited and waited for them to give me an email about shipment.  Then I got a note from the 3rd party seller; “Sorry, but we can’t find the title you’re interested in.”

So back I went to Amazon and ordered from the next available vendor. (Only this time the book was double the price.)  And while I was there, I decided to order a copy of another book I read and reread as a child: Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison (a real person who lived in upstate NY not far from Rochester), by Lois Lenski. Woo-hoo! I ordered a cheapie copy of that, too.  They both arrived on Wednesday.

I haven’t had a chance to read either of them yet, so I’m rather on pins and needles.  Will they be as good as I remember?

Do you have a favorite childhood read?  Did it stand the test of time?

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

Now it's okay to play them

I love holiday music. I start sneaking it into the daily repertoire a week or two before Thanksgiving, usually playing it on my computer in my office. Of course, my office is connected to Mr. L's office. He doesn't love holiday music as much as I do, although I will admit that our favorite local soft rock station starts playing it the Friday before Thanksgiving 24/7. That gets REALLY tiresome because you're liable to hear the same song 3 times during the day.  (We have it on in the kitchen just for background noise.)

Last year, one of my readers (and I really wish I could remember who it was), introduced me to Straight No Chaser, an a capella group. They're known for singing some pretty whacky tunes. I first heard their rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas thanks to this Facebook friend. I liked it so much, I went straight to Amazon and bought one of their Christmas albums. (Christmas Cheer.) My favorites? That's a toughie. I think Rudolf The Red-Nosed Reindeer. Why? Because not only have they a changed a few of the words, but it's a unique arrangement. I like different arrangements of familiar tunes. My Dad used to take me to The Arrangers Workshop at the Eastman Theatre From the time I was about 10 until I was in  my mid-20s. Great music from great guest artists.

Another of my favorites is Popular Christmas for a New Age. I got it at Wegmans (grocery store) for about $5 about 10 years ago. It was re-released last year with a new (icky) cover, but it's the same wonderful instrumental CD that I've been enjoying for the past 10 or more years. It's jazz/new age kind of music and, again, it's the arrangement of familiar tunes in a different way that makes it unique and enjoyable for me.

Another artist I like, whose done quite a few holiday CDs, is David Arkenstone. I like his Visions of Christmas (my favorite on this one is Tchaikovsky's Arabian Dance from the Nutcracker. I could listen to that all day and tire of it), Christmas Lounge, and Celtic Christmas, but the one I like most of all is Enchantment: A Magical Christmas. They're all instrumentals and, again, all great arrangements of familiar holiday tunes.

I also have a few piano only DCs that I play over and over again (ad nauseam, Mr. L would say). My favorite is one I picked up at Target a few years back called Relaxing Christmas Piano. For some reason, it's the first one I play every year.  My favorite cut is God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman, which is done in a rather somber key--but it's so different from any other version of that tune, that I find myself looking forward to it every time I put on the CD. (Yes, I still use CDs, but I also have everything on my computer or in the cloud, too, just so it's always available.)

In all I must have at least 50 holiday CDs and not all of them get played every year.

Why not share the title of YOUR favorite CD so that many of us can give it a try. It might just become one of my/our favorites, too!

Happy National Cake Day

Wouldn't you just LOVE to plunge a fork into that piece of cake???

Happy Thanksgiving!

Still Alive and Kicking

Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do. Over the summer, I learned to stab my cat.

Actually, he's not at ALL my cat. Chester belongs to Mr. L and he suffers from kidney failure. He was going back and forth to the vet for a while and finally the vet (not OUR vet) said, in no uncertain terms, that if we didn't hospitalize Chester that he would die within a couple of days.

Why were we hesitant to board him?

Nine months before, we boarded Chester for 8 days when we took a trip. He needed to be medicated (for something entirely different) and my brother, who was taking care of the cats, wasn't up to that.  But every time Mr. L called to see how Chester was, he was inching closer to death. He wouldn't eat, he wouldn't drink. They were having to hydrate him every day. Finally, we called my brother and said, "Bring him him." He did, and Chester did a turnaround pretty darn quick. By the time we returned two days later, he was in the pink.

Fast forward nine months and Chester was going downhill. Mind you, he's 18.5 years old. We've never had a boy cat live that long. But he needed fluids every three days. For a while, we were taking him to the vet, but it got to be more and more inconvenient because they had to squeeze him in between appointments. And another thing, Chester does not travel well in the car. It was very upsetting for him to have to travel every three days to a place he despised.

So it was decided that Mr. L would learn to give Chester his fluids. We went to the vet, got our lesson in subcutaneous fluids, were handed a bag of lactated ringers and a bag of 18 gauge needles and sent home to do the deed. I was surprised that many of my readers/Facebook friends had also given their cats (and a couple of dogs) a new lease on life with fluids, and was grateful for their encouragement of "you can do this!"

For the first couple of times, Mr. L did the deed. But then no matter what we did, we were spraying ringers all around the kitchen, and Chester wasn't getting his fluids. That's when I took over. Some days it works well, and he doesn't flinch when I stab him, and some days it doesn't go well. The vet techs (and OUR vet) both assured us that they screw up on a regular basis, but not that we've ever seen.

We've been doing this for almost four months now and Chester is back to being his old self. He kills his Beanie Babies on a regular basis (distributing them around the house), he eats and drinks well, and he's usually on one of our laps at any given time of the day. (But mostly Mr. L's because ... you know, Chester owns Mr. L.)

To what lengths are you willing to go to keep a pet alive?

It's just WAYYYYY too early!

Every year it annoys me more. There I am on a bright, balmy afternoon, bringing in the mail (which, for some reason, still brings me joy even though the days of receiving letters and greeting cards is long past), and there it sits on the bottom of the pile. The first Christmas magazine.

Okay, the usual holiday barrage of catalogs had begun back in September, but I find it really jarring to read about Christmas before the first snow. (Unfortunately, that happened last week. But it rained later and everything melted away before we could get too depressed.)

This, of all years, I'm not nearly ready--or in the mood--for Christmas yet. Wayyyyy too busy.  And you know in early December when I am in the holiday mood, they'll be sending me magazines featuring Valentine's Day and St. Paddy's Day recipes.

Now the catalogs I like. I love the t-shirts and signage. They give me ideas for graphics.  Like this one I made earlier this week. Isn't Sarge just adorable? Couldn't you just pick him up and smother him with love? I'll be using it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

But getting back to those Christmas issues, I'm going to read them all (and so far four have arrived), but not until at LEAST Thanksgiving. Luckily, I have lots of other reading material (just found a cache of magazines from June and July I'd put aside and forgotten). I see it as delayed gratification.

So how do you feel about the early holiday barrage?

Join Kathy and Tori for Christmas on Lotus Bay!

Happy Book Day to me!  Christmas At Swans Nest, a Lotus Bay Mini Mystery is available today!


The holidays are fast approaching, and Kathy Grant is hard at work on the renovations of her soon-to-be bed and breakfast. An unexpected winter storm disrupts her friends’ plans, and it looks like her B&B will have to open a little early. And then there are the cryptic notes that hint of a treasure to be found somewhere in the house. Will Kathy and her friends find a cache of cash?

Kindle US: http://amzn.to/2cGphth
Kindle Worldwide: http://authl.it/B01M19K1B5
iBooks:  http://apple.co/2diJUi9
Kobo:  http://bit.ly/2dc8RMr
Nook: http://bit.ly/2dc8Qbw
Smashwords:  http://bit.ly/2dAGB8N

Happy Halloween!

Follow me on Instagram

And so ... I got yet another new phone. I was thinking a BIGGER phone would have a bigger keyboard, right?

Wrong. Bigger screen, same tiny keyboard.  : (

But, I was determined to learn how to use this phone.  The first step: getting my number transferred from my old phone to my new phone. Usually my brother does this kind of stuff for me because I'm intimidated by some kinds of technology, but he was busy and I didn't want to wait a week, so I called the company and ... twenty minutes later, success!  Okay, now to learn how to use a smart phone.

Read the directions? That doesn't work for me. I have to SEE how its done. Thank goodness there are smart people out there willing to share what they know and make YouTube videos. And they come from all countries in the world.  Somebody with an Indian accent taught me the ins and outs of my android phone, while some guy in South Africa and a woman in Australia taught me how to use Instagram.

Yep! I've had an Instagram account for some time now, but my phone camera was so crappy, I was ashamed of the photos. The new phone takes NICE photos ... although still having a bit of trouble uploading. But this new phone anticipates what I'm trying to type and suggests words, so it's a lot easier to write a message than it was with the other phone.

Not only do I have an Instagram account,so do two of my other names. So come on over and follow us. Just click the links below:

Lorraine | LL Bartlett | Lorna Barrett

So, are you intimidated by some technology, too?

A Just Clause is available for pre-order!

Well, hey--look what I found on Amazon this morning!

Here's the blurb: Tricia Miles, mystery bookstore owner and amateur sleuth, is in for a surprise when her ne’er-do-well father, John, comes to town—and promptly becomes a prime suspect in the murder of a woman with her own scandalous past. Even Tricia’s faith in the old man is shaken when the Stoneham police break the news that her father is a known con man who has done jail time.

But what about bestselling thriller author Steven Richardson? Is it a coincidence that he arrived for a book signing just before the crime or that the victim was found with a signed copy of his latest bestseller?
From merlot to murder, Tricia is determined to clear the family name before another body shows up and ruins Stoneham’s first—and highly anticipated—wine and jazz festival.

Amazon HC: http://amzn.to/2fcdbxO
Kindle US: http://amzn.to/2er3ZqN
Kindle UK: http://amzn.to/2dFsHSJ
Kindle CA: http://amzn.to/2fca354
Kindle AU: http://amzn.to/2eOgjwW
Kindle Worldwide: http://authl.it/B01MA58VW8
B&N HC: http://bit.ly/2e7acTi
Nook: http://bit.ly/2eBhlyM
iBooks: http://apple.co/2f4K4NH
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2eraffy

They're in the oven now!

Why is it my characters can bake and eat anything they please and never gain an ounce? I sniff a cookie and gain three pounds.

Cakes, Cookies, Pies? It's your choice today!

Can you imagine a world without calories? Nah, neither can I.

BUT ... can you also imagine how sad it would be to live in a world without dessert?

Just think, no cakes, no pies, no cookies, no pastries, no ice cream, no cheesecake, no fruit. It's enough to make you cry! Luckily, that's not the world we live in.

You can go to the grocery store or bakery and indulge yourself and/or your family, or you can take the satisfaction of making dessert yourself.

Recipes To Die For: A Victoria Square Cookbook can help.  Katie Bonner, of the Victoria Square Mysteries, has put together a collection of recipes for breakfast, lunch, happy hour (in the form of signature drinks), and dinner -- but most enjoyably, for teatime and dessert.

Pies, cookies, cakes -- you name it, she's made them and collected recipes from friends and fellow merchants on Victoria Square to share with readers and friends.

So maybe just for this one day -- indulge yourself. Make something wonderful for your family. Katie is glad to lend a hand!

Trade Paperback

Kindle

Kindle Worldwide

iBooks

Kobo

Nook

Smashwords

So, what's YOUR favorite dessert?

I love this holiday!

Now here's a holiday I can get behind. I could eat Yorkshire Pudding every day of the week and NEVER get tired of it. (Had some last week as a matter of fact.) Love it, love it, love it!!!

Click this link for an English #recipe -- so you know it's good. (I use drippings when I can -- otherwise olive oil.)

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9020/best-yorkshire-puddings

Meet me at the craft show!

CRAFT SHOW SEASON!!! What does that mean to you?

Since my very first book came out in paperback, I've been a vendor at craft shows. Until last year, no one questioned that writing books was a "craft." After nine years of showing at one church craft show, I was told writing was NOT a craft and that I could no longer be a part.

AFTER NINE YEARS.

Of course, I disagreed. As an indie author, not only do I write my books, I format them (with a LOT of help from Mr. L). I art direct. I write the back cover copy, I format them for ebooks, and I do most of the promotion. Nobody can tell me that putting all that work into my end product (I do everything but print the books in my basement) isn't a handmade craft.

They allowed me back into the show.

My first "show" of the season is next week and I'm nervous. I'm going in through the back door. My friend, Eleanor (whom I met when I was a vendor at the local antiques arcade), "bought" one of the school rooms (she has a LOT of crafts (doll dresses, tree ornaments, table decorations) and it was cheaper for her to do that then just buy a lot of spaces.  She's "subletting" the rest of the room to other vendors. Will the committee come and tell me I have to leave?  We'll see.

Here's my schedule for this "craft show season."  If you're in the Rochester, NY area, I'd love to meet you.

OCTOBER 15, 9 am - 3 pm
St. Rita School Craft Sale, 1008 Maple Dr., Webster, NY 14580

NOVEMBER 19, 9 am - 3:30 pm
The Churchmouse Bazaar, Gates Presbyterian Church, 1049 Wegman Road, Rochester, NY 14624

DECEMBER 10, 10am - 4 pm
Greece Olympia School, 1139 Maiden Lane, Greece, NY 14615

I've already started packing up my books. Next up, making goody bags for everyone who makes a purchase (filled with my own and the Cozy Chicks bookmarks, postcards, and buttons).  Then next Saturday, I'll pack up the boxes, tables, folding bookshelf, and be on my way.  Wish me luck!

What do you like best about craft shows?

My veggie garden gives up its peppers

As a follow-up to Saturday's post, I thought I'd talk about my veggie garden.

Every year I plant a veggie garden. Some years we have good luck, some years ... not so much.  This year Mr. L dislocated his shoulder, and so the veggie garden went in late (in mid-June). I bought plants at the garden center, stuck them in the dirt, and hoped for the best.

The tomatoes have gone absolutely bananas ... but they're only just starting to ripen. If we have a frost, they'll be toast.  I bought two spindly pepper plants that did nothing until about a month ago--then they went bananas. Yesterday I picked 5 of them and there are still 5 or 6 small ones that may or may not get much bigger. I'll keep watching the weather and if it looks like a frost, I'll pick everything.

Meanwhile, it was time for Mr. L's recipe for ...


SAUSAGE-STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS
 Ingredients
4 medium peppers, with tops cut off and seeded
1 pound seasoned sausage, like Bob Evans hot, bulk, 1 pound roll
1 medium onion, chopped
½ tsp. oregano
1 cup mozzarella
2 cups (1 small jar) Traditional Italian Sauce

Directions
Blanch the pepper bottoms in boiling water for 4 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC, Gas Mark 6).   Heat some olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat, and then add the sausage and cook until well browned, stirring often to separate meat.

Stir the onion and oregano into the skillet and cook until the onion is tender. Now, stir in the cheese.

Arrange the pepper halves, cut-side up, in your baking tray. Spoon the sausage mixture into the pepper halves. Pour the sauce over the filled pepper halves. Halfway through baking, poke the peppers so any extra juice can leak out (makes for less soggy peppers).

Bake 40-45 minutes until the peppers are tender.

While this recipe is NOT in The Cozy Chicks Kitchen (after all, Mr. L isn't a Chick), there are lots of great recipes you can try.  If you haven't given it a shot, maybe now is the time to do so!

Trade Paperback

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So, what are you cooking from your garden?

I like to write cookbooks

And so it's National Homemade Cookie Day!  Naturally, I WANT to participate, but then I looked in the mirror and saw the size of my butt and decided I would enjoy the day "virtually" instead of actually eating any cookies. That doesn't mean I can't enjoy it vicariously.

Like working on my Lotus Bay Cookbook. (No title for it yet.)

The real question is -- why work on a project that isn't likely to bring me any money and certainly not many people will buy or read it.

BECAUSE I WANT TO!

There, I said it.

I love cookbooks, and if it was feasible, I'd do a real one -- like Susan Branch's Heart of the Home, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary. I can't draw/paint like she can, and adding color photos to an ebook is prohibitively expensive. (Did you know authors get charged per download of our books?)  Anyway, it's a fun project and so I putter at it.

I puttered at Recipes To Die For: A Victoria Square Cookbook several years ago and, quite frankly, the sales suck. I'm lucky to sell 5 or 6 a month. But I'm really proud of that little cookbook. The trade paperback edition has little black-and-white clip-art illustrations, some of which were drawn by Mr. L, like the cow to the right. (In the book, the dialog balloon over Bossy's head says "Moo!")

In Recipes To Die For, I included an anecdote to go along with each of the recipes. Surprisingly enough, it was hard. I know the characters pretty well, but I wasn't as familiar with the lesser characters, and having to come up with ideas about their personalities was more difficult than I thought it would be.

My friend Ellery Adams suggested that I start the book with Signature Drinks.  Now that was fun. I had to read the entire Mr. Boston Official Bartending Guide (Mr. L collects them and we have at least 4 different editions, some of them pretty old) to find the exact drinks that would go well with the characters' personalities.  Conrad Stratton's favorite drink is the Corpse Reviver. (Yes, there really is such a drink!) And Mr. Collier, from Collier's Funeral Home, drinks Zombies (maybe in hopes of keeping those not-quite-dead away from his funeral parlor). See, there's lots of fun stuff stuffed into that little book, which is why it was fun to write.

Check it out on my website.

Anyway, over the summer, I've been puttering on two cookbooks; one for Lotus Bay (and features food that you'd find in a B&B, because that's what Kathy intends to open), and the other for the Jeff Resnick series. That would be mostly Brenda's recipes. It wasn't something I planned, but I noticed that in my books, she make a LOT of soup, so it will feature more soup and dinner recipes.

Okay, so if you've read either of those series, what other recipes to do think Kathy and Brenda should include in their cookbooks?

P.S. I've made all the Booktown Recipes available to readers on my website.  Go to the site, look under the Angelica's Recipes drop-down menu, and you can find them from every book in the series.  Just click this link.

Just another way to goof off!

I've written before about how I like to make graphics. I think they're fun, and usually I do them to either celebrate a National Day of ... or to plug my own or somebody else's books. For instance: Today is National "Talk LIke A Pirate" Day, and I made a graphic for it for the Cozy Chicks.

I've made them for my friends, too.

And, of course, I've made them for myself.

My question to you is ... does seeing these kinds of graphics influence you? Would you be interested in any of the books because of the graphics. I sure hope the answer is yes, but even if it's no, I'll probably still make them because it's fun.

I can't draw. Mr. L laughs hysterically at my attempts, but that's because he CAN draw, and paint, and make funny cartoons, and makes exquisite maps. My creative gifts just don't fit into that category. But, I can put together a graphic using different elements. How many elements do you think there are in the Telenia graphic above? Would it surprise you to know there are 8 different things going on?

the title
Meet Wren.
Never Underestimate the power of a woman with a loom.
the book cover
the photo of the witch.
the Tales of Telenia logo
my website URL
the black background

I find it fun to put all these elements together. And so I'll ask the question again: do these types of graphics influence you?

And here's a bonus graphic just because it amuses me. (Coming October 15th.)