* ANOTHER GREAT FIND AT THE LIBRARY *

I found another great book at the library and this is the first book I've read by this author: Kristin Hannah

Winter Garden

Oh my gosh...I LOVED this book! It kept me engaged, I'd read at night until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, and wished I could fit in some reading time at my job. 😍

I'm really not very good at writing book reviews, so I won't even try! But I will say that this book and its characters stayed with me for days after I finished it, and that doesn't happen very often. I really cared about these people and couldn't get them out of my mind.

Here's a couple of sentences from page 158:

"Is something wrong?" Nina asked.

Meredith blinked slowly. "You mean besides the fact that my father died at Christmas, my mom is going crazy, my sister is pretending to help me, and my husband...is gone tonight?"

Nina knew it wasn't funny, but she couldn't help laughing. 



"Sometimes when you open the door to your mother's past, you find your own future..."

Inside Winter Garden book flap

* AN INTERESTING FIND AT THE LIBRARY *

What made me pick up this book at the library? 

There were a couple of reasons, but mostly because on this cute book cover is the exact same recipe box that my mother had! Just seeing it brings back so many happy memories of my early childhood...yummy aromas from the kitchen, my mother letting me "help" with cookies and cakes. 

I also saw a photo of this box in a recent woman's magazine. I don't remember the name of it, but I wrote to them about it and was just sure they would print my Letter to the Editor....Hmmffp! LOL

I hadn't heard of this author before, but I like her writing (it's another light and easy read, similar to what I just finished "Good Riddance") and I will definitely want to read her other books. 

What about you? Do you pick up a book because of the cover? And how many times have you just skimmed a couple and pages and thought either

a) Wow, I think I'll like this! 

       ~~~ or ~~~

b) Ick, what an awful book!

I can usually tell by just the first few pages whether I would like a book or not. And I definitely don't read books I don't like! 

~~~

Our heat-wave has finally taken a break for at least a little while. High temps in the 80's this week and lows in the 60's! Turn off that a/c and save some $$$. 

That's it for now, folks! See you soon.

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time." -- John Lubbock

* KEEPING MY FINGERS CROSSED *

Yesterday afternoon, after a long day at work (thank the Lord for air conditioning!), I received an email from Chicken Soup for the Soul that a story I submitted had made it to the first phase of their selection round! (It's a book about forgiveness.) Wow! I had a story accepted for one of their doggie books in 2017, but this soon for another one is surprising. (It was back in 2007 and 2008 that I had four stories accepted. As I've mentioned many times, I just can't get back into it very much.)

So, anyway, don't know when I'll hear for sure, but for now I'm honestly putting it out of my mind, which isn't difficult because I'm so forgetful anyway. Ha!

Oh, this isn't what I was eluding to in my July 9th post, either! 😃

~~~~

Speaking of books...I finally made it to the library today...BUT I forgot to take my list of books and authors I wanted to find. Duh. (I've been blaming my forgetfulness and other silliness on the effects of anesthesia, but that might be getting too old, so now I'm going with the excessive heat we're having and it's not supposed to end anytime soon.)

I did get three books. One from a familiar author that I like, Elizabeth Berg, and 2 others I haven't heard of: Tara Conklin and Dana Bate. (Oh and I dropped off a copy of my memoir for them to send to their "marketing department" or something like that.)

I finished Good Riddance a couple of days ago. It was typical Elinor Lipman, a fun, not profound, easy read.

~~~~

This photo makes me really happy, for various reasons...

I want to visit Switzerland and/or Austria so much some day, to see sites like this, 

AND it makes me feel I'm in a much cooler temperature! 

Stay cool or warm, depending on your part of the world!!

* FUN NIGHT AT THE LIBRARY! *

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned on Facebook that I had an upcoming event at one of our local libraries, but I don't think I wrote about it on my blog. 

 

The name of my presentation was:

 

"My Long and Zig-Zaggy Road to Publication

 -Or-

So, You Think You're Too Old to Write?"

 

It was last night and lots of fun. About 30 in attendance, great questions, laughter at the appropriate times, and sold some books! The Kisker Road Library (branch of the St. Charles City - County Library District) did a great job hosting the event. Thanks to everyone who came!



 

For once I actually remembered to bring my "real" camera, not just my cell phone, and then forgot to have anyone take any pictures during the talk! Grrr.... I really wanted to have pictures of the table of cookies and coffee, (provided by the library) the table with my books, business cards, and newsletter sign-up sheet, AND most of all...the people!

 

So, when The Ronald and I were packing up and the last ones to leave, he took these two pictures!

One fairly normal pose, and

one the usual goofy Becky pose!

~~~

 

 



A week from today, on July 31st, I'll be in Iowa for a book signing! * If you've read my memoir, you'll know the name of the town and why I've loved it for so many years.*


OH, and speaking of Iowa, The Ronald and I will be joining one of our sons tomorrow night to watch one of my favorite movies >>>>>> Field of Dreams.

 

"Is this Heaven? No...it's Iowa."

 

 

* I just found out this morning that I'm featured on The Writers' Lens today. Please hop on over and see how I compare writers' block to solving math word problems! *



* I'M BACK AND HAVE SO MUCH TO SHARE *

Well, I finally got my blog straightened out. The right column that was seen correctly by my readers, had totally disappeared (to me) from the right side of my blog, and was on the left side, at the bottom, after all the posts. Weird, huh? After searching online for some answers, I deleted a couple of links that were inside posts, and changed the images from Medium to Small on Melissa's guest post. Don't know which one did the trick, but something happened and, voila, it's fixed! Thank goodness. Things like that drive me....well....Bonkers!

~~~

 

My speaking event at the Cahokia Library on Monday, the 21st was a great success. The Friends of the Library invited me to talk about my writing. I also spoke about my ties to Cahokia and how I love it and still drive around and reminisce. There was a Q&A session, and book sales, and signings. All in all a wonderful evening! A few friends drove quite a distance to attend, one in particular. Thank you all very much! I hope to do many more of these types of presentations in libraries near and far!

 

~~~

 

Spring has really sprung here in the St. Louis area, and I am VERY thankful for that! Today was a perfectly glorious day. High temp around 70 - 75, and very low humidity. Aww... if only we could have about six months of that! This morning I took a couple of pictures from my office/bedroom window of the beautiful tree in bloom in the yard across from us. This one is the best, and of course Vern is enjoying the scenery, too! (You can click on the photo to see it much bigger.)

 

 

 

I have all kinds of notes here and there about things I wanted to remember to blog about....Well, they have once again gotten buried in the mountains of papers on top of my desk/kitchen table. (No, I still haven't begun painting my fabulous desk yet. That's another project on my To Do List!)

 

 ~~~

 

 

One other thing I wanted to share is about Call Outs for Submissions and/or Contests. I've come across a ton of them lately, due to various newsletters I've subscribed to. Here are just a few:

 

1) Publishing Syndicate -- Not Your Mother's Book ...On Working for a Living. They need your true stories NOW. Go to their website to learn more, right now!!

 

2) Have you ever checked out Writing-world.com? This site has a plethora of writerly information that covers just about anything you want to know. Copyrights, contests, how-to, grammar, etc. etc.....and it includes most genres.

 

3) Also Winning Writers shares contests and other resources for writers.

 

~~~

 

 

That's it for today. Wishing everyone a fabulous rest of the weekend!!

 

 

"On Saturday afternoons when all the things are done in the house and there's no real work to be done, I play Bach and Chopin and turn it up real loudly and get a good bottle of chardonnay and sit out on my deck and look out at the garden." -- Maya Angelou