July 4th, 2009

Happy Independence Day!  

 With the holiday falling on a Saturday, many people got an extra day off on Friday and began celebrating early.  We, along with our children, were invited to a barbeque at the home of some friends, Annie and Billy.  

It was so nice to kick back on the porch, sit in a rocking chair with a cold drink at hand, and just chat with friends.  Of course, the morning wasn't quite so leisurely.  I told Annie I'd bring a dessert and decided that a blueberry pie would be the ideal addition to our meal.  With such a big crowd, I thought it would be best to make two.  They turned out really well and were worth the work, thanks to my secret ingredient - using vodka in the pie dough makes for an unbeatably flaky crust.  It has no taste and, as the pie cooks, the alcohol burns off leaving behind all kinds of wonderful little air pockets.  Delicious! 

June 29, 2009

Two weeks ago, I finished writing my sixth novel, the third book in my Cobbled Court series, and sent it off to my editor.  After that, I went back to bed, literally.

Yes, I did get up and out to do some book signings and readings promoting A THREAD OF TRUTH.  As always, it was great fun for me to get out and meet with readers, but between times I slept for hours and hours and hours.  They say that sleep is like a bank account and if you make too many withdrawals, you'll eventually be forced to make a whole bunch of deposits so things will go back into balance.  Guess that's what I was doing, making up for those many withdrawals I made from my "sleep bank" while finishing SO THIN A THREAD.

But now, after two weeks of much needed rest, I am refreshed and renewed and raring to write!

And so, today I begin to working on the fourth Cobbled Court novel and I can honestly say that I can't wait to get to it.  I've got two wonderful characters bobbing around in my head and a plot that's taking shape and promises to be more complex and interesting than anything I've done to date.  The only thing I don't have, so far, is a title.  And so, for the moment, this book will have to go by the moniker "Untitled Novel #7".  Catchy, huh?

Oh, don't worry.  By the time you see it in stores, Untitled #7 will have a proper title - that will come in good time, it always does.  Titles are easy, but great characters and great plots are a gift.  And that's the way I'm feeling this morning - like I've been given a great big gorgeous gift.  Now I've just got to open it and figure out how to put the pieces together.  Novels, like many gifts, come with "some assembly required".  But I don't mind.  I'm up for the task.  Stay tuned, Dear Reader.

June 6, 2007

I am having a really good week.

On Wedesday, my mother flew in from Washington State.  It's been months since I last saw Mom so we have a lot of catching up to do.

On Thursday, Mom and I finished planting the rest of my vegetable garden (yes, I know, it was a late start but I've had this book to write...) and then went to Written Words Bookstore in Shelton, CT for a signing.  I had a great time meeting my old friends from the Shelton New Neighbors club (theirs was one of the very first book clubs I met with, back when FIELDS OF GOLD first came out) and met some new friends as well. 

On Saturday, my middle son, who has been working in with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Belize for the last two years finally came home!  And he brought his beautiful bride to be, also a Jesuit Volunteer, with him!  Needless to say, that was a wonderful way to begin the day but it didn't end there.  Later, my youngest graduated from his junior school (his school goes through ninth grade) and we were all there to cheer him on.  (If you were there, you may have recognized me. I was that obnoxious mother who was knocking everyone else down so I could get a good photo of her son.  Oh wait, there were a bunch of us.)  Later in the day, I went to the Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington, CT, which I consider my "home turf" bookstore, for a signing.  Had a good time there, as I always do - sold a few books, bought a few books for myself. (I do love my job.)  By the way, for those of you looking for some of my older titles, I believe The Hickory Stick is just about the only you can still get new copies of FIELDS OF GOLD.  I think they have a couple of copies of RIVER'S EDGE left too, but not many. 

Today, Sunday, promises to be good as well.  For the first time in two years, I'll be going to church with my middle son and that will be a real joy.  Then, from 2 to 3:30pm, I'll be signing A THREAD OF TRUTH and A SINGLE THREAD at the Fabric Bug in Thomaston, CT.  So, on top of everything else that's been going on this week, I get to end it surrounded by fabric! (And with my checkbook at the ready).  

Oh yes, it's been a good week. 

May 31, 2009

Do you remember the panel I did with authors Ann Leary and Lauren Lipton at UConn Torrington a couple of weeks ago?  We'd never met before but hit it off instantly and decided we should get together again.  And, unlike those things where you always say, "Oh yes!  We've got to get together!" but never do, thanks to Lauren, who I suspect is far more organized than I (she's a journalist, so maybe that goes with the territory), we actually did make a date to see each other again.

We met at Marty's yesterday and had such a great time that we actually closed the place down! Okay, okay, Marty's is a coffee bar, not a cocktail bar, closing time was only six o'clock, and all we had to drink were iced skim lattes, but still!  Its been a zillion years since I closed anything down, so I was fairly proud of myself.  The fact that by the time I returned, my darling husband was pacing around the kitchen, worrying about what sort of calamity might have befallen me, was sort of the icing on the cake. I felt like such a wild woman!  Yeah, I don't get out much.

We did have a great time.  If the staff at Marty's hadn't start turning out the lights and putting the chairs up on top of the tables, I suspect we could have stayed a lot longer.  We were there three hours and I felt like I was only just beginning to get to know these fabulous, fascinating women.  Driving home, I kept thinking of things I wish I'd asked them like what made them want to write their first book, how they met their husbands, and what kind of stuff are they using on their faces (they both have great skin.)

We all have blogs ( Check them out at www.annleary.com and www.laurenlipton.com) so when we were leaving we decided we'd all blog about our gab fest at Marty's and write about two things we'd learned about each woman that day.

It was hard to pick just two, but here goes.

First, I learned that Ann really enjoys blogging.  In fact, she uses her blog as a way to sort of stretch her writing muscles in the morning before getting down to the rest of her work.  Along with some very good essays, Ann's blog has great pictures.  She's clearly very tech savvy. (One of these days I've got figure out how to do that without the aide of my webdude.) I also learned that, in spite of her model-gorgeous good looks, Ann has a wide streak of tomboy in her. Turns out she is so good at driving a pick up truck and horse trailer that when she goes to horse shows, the guys tend to ask her to back up their trailers for them. Very impressive on all counts.

In addition to writing novels, Lauren, writes for a very august list of publications including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes Woman, the New York Times.  She is a busy lady, so busy that she's had to turn down work this year.  At the moment, I don't know any writers who have more work than they want.  That's quite a testament to Lauren's skill as a writer.  But, I did learn that Lauren has a dark side.  It turns out she's a big liar.  She told me that she doesn't take a good picture, but if you go to her biography on www.laurenlipton.com, you'll see an absolutely beautiful picture of Lauren that recently appeared in a feature the New York Times wrote about her.  Well, I guess nobody's perfect.

All in all, it was a great afternoon.  I hope the three of us get to close Marty's down again real soon! 

May 30, 2009

Just in - a very nice review from the Coffee Time Romance site.

 http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/athreadoftruth.html