Autumn Reflections

A young woman I know remarked that she felt like a failure at life and motherhood. I promptly disagreed. Everyone has regrets in hindsight. No life is perfect. But this lady is a loving mother and intelligent woman who had no need to feel this way.

By the time this posts launches, we'll know the outcome of the election. Regardless, I think we can all agree our country is not the same as it was a few decades ago. It's easy to get dragged down by the challenging economy and all the negativity. 

Don't.

Don't let the media tell you what your neighbor thinks. Get to know them. Love your neighbor. And stand up for your country. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

Seek truth. Don't believe everything you're told. Verify.

Our society has lost the art of mature debate and civil discourse. Take some time to listen to what the other side is saying. You might be surprised at what you discover.

Love one another. Be kind. Say things that lift others up, not tear them down.

Be thankful for every single thing you have. Pick at least one blessing every day and voice your thanks. You'd be surprised how quickly that can turn your attitude around.

Have you hit rock bottom? Are you starting over in life or your job? 

Don't give up.

I hope you all have a happy, safe Thanksgiving with the people you love.

I'll leave you with a quote that often gets passed around among writers, but it's a good reminder for anyone.

WHAT DO SOURDOUGH AND WRITING HAVE IN COMMON? By Kathleen Lawless @kathleenlawless

A few months ago, it seemed like the entire world was baking their own bread and I couldn’t find a package of yeast in the stores for love or money.  My creative son learned to make his own sourdough starter and has been baking wonderful bread with it ever since.  Recently, he gave me my own container of the magic stuff so I, too, could bake bread.  Not a bad first effort, I thought.

Confession!  I think I killed the sourdough.  I put it in the fridge and forgot to feed it.

Which is when I realized the care of feeding of sourdough is very much like the process of writing a book.  The author has the starter, or the kernel of an idea.  We feed it.  We coddle it.  We play with it, knead it, and form it into a loaf.  We feed it some more.  And much like that beautiful, golden, delicious-smelling loaf of bread we eventually lift from the oven, one day we have an entire book.  Or at least enough pages we can painstakingly revise and eventually shape into a book. 

We all know it’s been a tough year.  Some writers talk about burn out and Covid fatigue, while others credit the writing for keeping them going and giving them positive to focus on every day.   

Personally, I find inspiration in my characters.  Those pioneer women living on the frontier, where months might go by before they see a visitor.  They can’t afford to let their sourdough die.  They can’t loll around watching Hallmark movies and eating chocolate.  They have work to do in order to survive.  And so do I.  I have readers waiting for my next book in my new series.  I have brides waiting to get married and babies waiting to be born.  Towns to create and outbacks to settle.  And so I get busy.  I feed the sourdough.  I keep it going as I write the next book. 

The cover for HOPE, Book 1 in my new series is currently in round 3 of a cover contest, if anyone has a second to pop over and vote I would really appreciate it.

https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month/9870/

 As I work on my new series, I found time to put my Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Series into a two-part boxed set.  Each volume contains a not-for-sale bonus novella.  These sets free to read in KU.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZW9SVZK       https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M9L1V2F

 As a reader, do you prefer purchasing and reading the individual books or do you like them packaged into a boxed set to save you money?

 

And since we’re talking about baking, here’s a link to download a FREE cookie recipe book at your favorite on-line bookstore.  https://books2read.com/dickens-cookie  

Happy baking.  Happy Reading.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Till next month,

Kathleen

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RECIPE FOR DISASTER by Kathleen Lawless @kathleenlawless

 I am the least organized person I know. Please don’t flinch, but this colorful disaster is my much-loved and well-used box of recipes. I’ve tried dividers, color coded index cards, even a binder with plastic sleeves.  Eventually they all turn into this kind of jumble, so somewhere along the line, I gave up.

 As I poke through looking for a specific recipe, I know if it’s scribbled on a post-it, handwritten on an index card, torn from a newspaper or glossy magazine, or most recently, printed on 8 ½ x 11 paper from the internet.  I can visualize what I’m looking for and usually (not always) find it quite easily. I have handwritten recipes from my no-longer-with-us mother-in-law, and friends I have not seen in years. Every recipe has a story—where it came from and why it made it to the “keeper” box.

 I enjoy thumbing through and finding recipes I had forgotten about, although I do get frustrated when a recipe hides and I have to look through twice to find it.   

 Which made me wonder about women in the old West.  Did they write down recipes or keep them in their heads?  Not everyone was literate.  Were recipes verbally passed from mother to daughter, containing a pinch of this and a handful of that? I’ve seen some old-time recipes, and it’s obvious the cook had to be flexible depending on what was readily available.

As a child, I remember eating my grandmother’s turkey stuffing and asking her how she made it.

          “I just got it out of my head, dear.”

          To which my father replied, “If you keep taking the stuffing out of your head every year, Mother, pretty soon there will be nothing left.”

 I don’t talk a lot about food and cooking in my books, so was pleasantly surprised to learn that Percy, my hero in HOPE is quite a cook, with an array of spices collected during his travels. I love it when the characters surprise me this way.

 Percival Bloom is a much-loved secondary character from the Seven Brides for Seven Brothers series, and readers insisted he deserved his own HEA.

HOPE, Book 1 of Widows of the Wild West, launches a new series that grew from the previous one, and contains cross-over characters.  

           Percy turned to Hope impulsively.  “Would you like to come for supper tonight?”

          “Where?  Out to your treasure-hunting site?”

          “Silly, Hope,” Percy said indulgently.  “I recently purchased a house here in town.”

          “You own a home?  And you cook?”

          He gave a modest smile.  “I have always believed no matter what I undertake, I am honor bound to do it well.”

          “Of course you do,” Hope said.  “Might I guess you found time in your travels to train with some of the more famous chefs around the world?”

          “A lesson or two, here and there,” Percy said.  “I’ll see if Laura and Brody Mason are free to join us.  Brody is the surrogate big brother of the Mason clan, and was recently elected town mayor.  You’ll like Laura, his wife.” 

          “That sounds very nice,” Hope said.  “I don’t cook much, but is there something I could contribute?”

          “Not a thing.  I’ll call for you at the hotel around half-six.”

          Percy left her in the hotel lobby after their tour, along with the distinct impression he didn’t want to be alone at his house with her.  Hence the impromptu dinner party.

          Despite that, she was curious to see the place Percy called home and meet at least some of the people here who had drawn Percy back into their midst.  She was quite certain the quest for the missing ship of black pearls was only part of the attraction.

 HOPE releases on September 22^nd and is available for preorder.   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DSL7Y8H    

Sign up for Kathleen’s VIP Reader Group to receive a free book, updates, special giveaways and fan-priced offers.    http://eepurl.com/bV0sb1

 

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