She’s here! Cassie’s cover is done and she’s ready to be pre-ordered. Okay, that sounded weird, but Cassie’s book is up for pre-order.
Cassie is book eight in the series and takes place in the 1990s.
If you’re curious what her story will be about, here is a quick description:
Cassie Drake starred in a popular sitcom over a decade ago, but she hasn’t been able to find a job since the show ended five years ago.
Now it’s 1995 and fired by her talent agency, Cassie decides to accept her sister’s offer for an extended visit in their hometown. Back in Coopers Grove, she’s just Cassie Mason, sister to Bridget Martin, the local volunteer extraordinaire with the handsome husband and three wonderful children.
When an accident at the site for the Martin family’s new café and farm store leaves Bridget frantic for help with the community center open house she’s planning, Cassie feels forced to step up—even though it involves something she’s clueless about.
Cooking.
Even with Mrs. Canfield’s Cookery Book, Cassie fails at every attempt. Fortunately, her sister’s handsome neighbor, Alec Alderson, steps in.
As a former chef, he’s more than capable of giving her some tips. Will his charming smile during cooking lessons be too distracting though?
Watching others use their talents leaves Cassie wondering if God, whom she’s barely spoken to in the last few years, is telling her she was made for more than the career that became her identity.
I am an independent author without a traditional publishing contract so reviews are important for me to sell books, which may be why I think about reviews more now than I used to.
I don’t leave reviews so people will leave reviews for my books, just to clarify.
But the fact that I need reviews makes me think of how reviews can benefit the reader and the author.
A review can help a reader decide if a book is for them, based on the good, bad, and all-in-between reviews.
The book may have a ton of great reviews but by reading them a reader may realize, “This book still isn’t a book I’d like.”
Or the bad reviews might tell a reader the book is for them.
For example, someone may give a negative review saying the book has too much romance, which makes a reader who likes romance say, “Oh! This book is for me!” Or maybe the reviewer said they didn’t like the fantasy element and the reader says, “Oooh. I love fantasy. I’m going to read it because this person didn’t like it.”
While I’m leaving a review for a reader, I am also leaving a review for the author. Some of us may think that an author doesn’t need a review or to read their reviews. In fact, I’ve heard many authors tell each other to not read their reviews because the reviews aren’t for them.
I don’t agree with that advice.
A review is for an author as much as a reader.
Yes, it can be hard to read bad reviews, but sometimes those bad reviews improve our writing or they make us realize that our books aren’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
Even if an author doesn’t read a review, though, it can make them feel good to see the number of reviews and know that people are reading their books which makes all that work feel worth it. It feels good as an author to know that people are reading your books. We work a long time on those stories and just writing them can be satisfying enough in many ways, but it can still be nice and fulfilling to see that others have read it and enjoyed it.
So I write reviews for the readers and the authors. I don’t always want to stop and write a review, to be honest. Writing one only takes about five minutes, though, because I know reviews are not book reports. Reviews are a simple few sentences to say I liked a book and why. It doesn’t have to be extensive. In fact, most people who look at reviews don’t want to read a super long review anyhow. They just want the gist – did you like it or didn’t you?
I won’t always do well at leaving reviews but I hope to keep doing them for the benefit of both the reader and the author.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
Yesterday Little Miss and I visited my parents to have some dinner and make chocolate chip cookies with them.
We did that on a very windy, rainy day after traveling to drop The Boy off at a friend’s house 40 minutes away. On the way back from dropping him off, we stopped at a local library that was having a used book sale. It wasn’t a very exciting sale for us, sadly, but we did get a few books. There were no cozy mysteries. So sad. Yet, not really because I have so many to read right now.
The cooking making was interesting. We whipped up a batch but my mom said it didn’t look like there would be enough for her grandson, who loves chocolate chip cookies, so Little Miss and I added some more flour. But then we realized we would need more butter and another egg and then we tried to remember what we’d put in and what we hadn’t so the conversation started going like this:
Me: “We should put some more flour in.”
Her: “I don’t know about that.”
Mom/Grandma: “Did you even put the baking powder in?”
Her and me: “oops.”
Me: “I’d better put another half a cup of butter.”
Her: “This isn’t looking right.”
Me: “It looks super sticky and sort of runny.”
Mom/Grandma: “Add more flour.”
Dad/Grandpa, taking photos of it all and snickering: “I don’t know how these cookies are going to turn out.”
Me: “Well, we will eat them somehow.”
The cookies:
The cookies tasted great, by the way. Somehow I forgot to add this when I originally shared this post so if you see comments about that below — that is why. *snort* I am such an airhead sometimes.
While cooking the cookies we also had an incident where Zooma The Wonder Dog ran into a mud puddle twice trying to corner a cat at my parents’ neighbor’s house. I had to lock her in the bathroom, pull out the cookies, and then hose her down so she wouldn’t get the house all muddy.
She didn’t want to get in my parent’s walk-in shower but I finally managed to coax her in and pull the shower head off and wash the mud off.
We left not long after that and came home to enjoy some quiet time at home.
What I/we’ve been Reading/will be reading:
Currently:
I plan to finish The Divine Proverb of Streusel by Sara Brunsvold this week.
I am also reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and started Priscilla by Jenny Knipfer.
Just Finished:
A Troubling Case of Murder on the Menu by Donna Doyle. This was a cute little, simple cozy mystery.
Soon to be read:
The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene
Murder Always Barks Twice by Jennifer Hawkins
Death At A Scottish Christmas by Lucy Connelly
Little Miss and I finished The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes this week.
The Boy and I are looking for a new book to read for English for school and he is finishing a Warhammer book.
The Husband is reading Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman.
What We watched/are Watching
This week I watched an episode of Lark Rise to Candleford, Bluey (because of course), and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.
I also watched a show called The Repair Shop on Britbox or Acorn or Masterpiece or some British channel on Amazon. I really enjoyed it. They are repair experts who repair special heirlooms for people and there are usually sweet stories behind the items.
This vlog by The Cottage Fairy about how she needed to take a break from social media to help quiet her mind. I could really relate to this because I felt the same way.
What I’m Writing
This past week I started book three in the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries. I’m excited to see where it goes and how it turns out.
I’m going to try my best to finish A Tale of Two Cities but I will also be starting Watership Down on Audio, read by Peter Capaldi.
Photos from Last Week
Here are some photos from the play of War of the Worlds that my husband was in last week. I wrote about that yesterday in my Saturday Afternoon Chat post.
Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
My husband has been running every day this week for either work or a play he was rehearsing for but he still wanted to go to lunch and a used book sale 45 minutes away from us. We spent the morning and part of the afternoon doing that and I came home with a large stack of books, some children’s books, and some cozy mysteries. Today they had a $ 5-a-bag sale so we filled up two bags.
Little Miss picked out four for me but I rejected the one because I am not a huge fan of the author.
I told her I liked the cover very much though and thanked her.
Little Miss picked out several books with animals on them.
The Husband picked out a number of books, including two he had been looking for other places.
Today we will go see The Husband in his play. They are performing The War of The Worlds radio drama.
What I/we’ve been Reading
Currently:
Right now I am reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodges Burnett, The Proverb of the Divine Streusel by Sara Brunsvold, and at night I’m reading a cute, short cozy mystery called A Troubling Case of Murder on the Menu by Donna Doyle.
Just Finished:
This past week I finished Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor and Nightfall on Predicament Avenue by Jaime Jo Wright.
I hated Wright’s book by the end and will not be endorsing it in the future.
I liked Murder in an Irish Village and purchased a couple of other books in the series on the Kindle.
Soon/eventually to be read:
The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene
Death At A Scottish Christmas by Lucy Connelly
Murder Always Barks Twice by Jennifer Hawkins
What everyone else is reading:
Little Miss and I are reading The Middle Moffat at bedtime.
The Boy is reading Horus Rising and The Pearl by John Steinbeck.
The Husband is reading … well, I have no idea. He’s been so busy this week I don’t think he’s even had time to read.
What We watched/are Watching
This past week I watched Dr. Quinn Medicine Women, To The Manor Born, and yesterday I watched a marathon of As Time Goes By and then a couple episodes of Mary Berry.
What I’m Writing
I finished Cassie and this week I hope to write some blog posts and then start Gladwynn Grant’s third book.
Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
Last week was a crazy week in some ways and I detailed that more in my Saturday Morning Chat. The long and short of it is that there were some health issues within our family, everyone is okay, and my brain is trying to recover from it all.
Yesterday I didn’t have tons of time for my brain to recover since our daughter had a friend over and they tend to be a little crazy when they get together. They had a lot of fun, though, and it was a good day. And they weren’t really that crazy. We went to the playground and then they had fun splashing in the bathtub in their bathing suits. Earlier in the day they went to two Easter egg hunts as well.
And I did have some downtime for reading and watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, at least.
Today we are going to my parents for Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt.
What I/we’ve been Reading
Currently:
I’m reading Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor and Night Falls on Predicament Avenue by Jamie Jo Wright still thanks to the aforementioned crazy week. Both are very good. I’ll probably be finished with Murder in an Irish Village today and Night Falls… later in the week.
The Secret Garden is also being read but slowly.
Soon to be read:
The Divine Proverb of Streusel by Sara Brunsvold
The Mystery at the Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew)
What We watched/are Watching
This week I watched Little House on the Prairie and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.
I also enjoyed relaxing to my favorite YouTube farmer, Farmer Pete:
There is something comforting about watching Pete and his wife work on the farm – feeding the cows and the chickens, fixing tractors, cooking beef brisket and just doing what they do every day.
I also watched this interview with two of the authors I am in a multi-author project with.
You can learn more about our project by watching this video or visiting our Facebook group.
Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
Murder Plainly Read by Isabella Alan, the fourth book in the Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries, was hard for me to put down not only because I wanted to find out who committed the crime in this super cozy mystery, but because I became attached to the main character Angela “Angie” Braddock and those around her.
Angie owns a fabric and quilting shop in the small town of Millersburg, which has a very large Amish population. She owns two pets – a loveable French Bulldog named Oliver and an aloof cat named Dodger. She’s dating the town’s sheriff, James Mitchell, which creates some interesting situations when she’s trying to investigate things she shouldn’t really be investigating.
Angie’s friends work in the shop or are connected to the shop in some way and are Amish. There are two different types of Amish sects in this community – more strict and more liberal. Angie’s employees – Anna and Mattie – are a mix of both.
Anna cracked me up because she is Amish but also wants to get to the bottom of things and in this case those “things” are surrounding the murder of a very cranky bishop of the Old Order Amish named Bartholomew Belier. He’s found dead in the library bookmobile by Angie and Angie’s “prim and proper” mother. Standing over him is brash librarian Austina Shaker, who is quickly blamed for the murder.
Angie isn’t sure if Austina is guilty or not but when Austina begs her to help clear her name, Angie can’t seem to help trying to find out. Anna also pushes Angie to get involved, certain she can help get to the bottom of what really happened to Bartholomew.
Angie does have a history of trying to solve murders, after all since she’s investigated and solved three murders previously. I should add that I didn’t realize this was the fourth book in this series when I started it and I had no issues understanding what was happening despite not reading the previous three yet.
The loveable cast of characters in the book include Anna and Mattie, Angie’s friends Rachel and Jonah, who are also Amish, Mitchell and his son Zander, a mischievous goat named Petunia, and Angie’s parents.
Her father is extra loveable and fun as he tries to navigate life after retirement. Her mother is more on the irritating side of things as she tries to run the show a lot and seems a bit stuck up but she keeps the storyline even more interesting as the reader braces themselves for what she’s going to say or do next.
There is much more than a mystery going on in this book and I like that. I like the little side stories with the different characters. I also loved the undercurrent of romance between Mitchell and Angie and how Alan didn’t need to add anything explicit or detailed to get across the feelings between the two.
There were even a few swoon-worthy scenes that made me giggle with delight over the gentle affection shown between the couple – affection that didn’t involve anything blush-worthy.
It’s amazing to me how just Mitchell brushing his fingertips against the back of Angie’s arm was enough to hint at sexual tension. No spicey scenes or language were needed.
I am looking forward to reading more books in this series.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
If you want to know what has been going on in our world lately, you can hop on over to my post from yesterday.
What I/we’ve been Reading
Currently:
We had a nice week weather-wise so I didn’t read as much as I wanted to but I read more than I used to. I’m almost halfway through Murder Plainly Read by Isabella Alan and The Middle Moffat and I am enjoying them both.
I am also continuing All The Light We Can’t See and hope to finish it . . . eventually. That’s all I can say.
I am reading through Do The New You by Steven Furtick with my church e-group as well. I have three chapters to read before our online session this week.
Soon to be read:
Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor. I’ve started this one and am enjoying it.
Death At A Scottish Christmas by Lucy Connelly. This is a Netgalley read.
The Secret Garden for Middle Grade March
Night Falls on Predicament Avenue by Jamie Jo Wright
What We watched/are Watching
Wednesday night I had two hours to myself which is a very rare thing. I decided that I was going to watch a movie that has been sitting in our DVD collection for years — The King’s Speech. I had planned to finish the last couple of chapters of the book I’m writing in between watching but I ended up being so enthralled with the movie, I ended up abandoning that plan.
Later that night I watched a Lark Rise to Candleford episode. On Friday and Saturday, I started a mini-binge of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.
Little Miss and I had a Dr. Quinn binge yesterday afternoon as well and then I added an episode of Little House on the Prairie. I wanted to finish out the night with an episode of The Waltons to relive my childhood and teenage years but The Boy took over the TV to play a video game with a friend so that Waltons episode will have to wait for tonight.
Friday The Husband and I watched an episode of McDonald and Dodds. I hope to watch more of that show this week.
What I’m Writing
I am on the last chapter of Cassie, then I will work on the rewrites. I also am brainstorming ideas for the third book in the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries and will announce a title for it soon.
Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing is on a two-week book tour and you can enter to win a paperbook copy of it and a $50 Amazon gift card HERE.
What I’m Listening to
Little Miss and I am listening to Caddie Woodlawn on Audible and The Boy and I are listening to A Tale of Two Cities.
Photos from Last Week
And one I found from my dad in January right after his 80th birthday, riding an old sled down the snow-covered dirt road in front of his house.
I’m a little biased on this post since it is my brother’s weekly post where he shares three good things that have happened to him during that particular week.
I didn’t participate in this one because I didn’t think I could write about ten green things since I don’t like green but Marsha did a great job talking about the green things she liked.
Now it’s your turn
Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
Winter can last a long time in Northern Pennsylvania, which is why choosing what I want to read for the rest of winter here means I am choosing books for the rest of January, all of February, and a good portion of March. It has even been known to snow in April and the first week of May here, but I still consider the end of March and all of April to be spring, so that will require a new list.
I always list a lot of books I plan to read, or want to read, knowing full well I will not get them all read and will probably become distracted in the middle by another read.
For example, this week I am reading Little Women and finished another book I’d been reading for a bit but I got distracted by a lighter read called Sisterchicks Do the Hula by Robin Jones Gunn. After finishing the one book, I needed something lighter. Little Women is lighter but I like to read that book before bed as my nightly routine. I’m a bit of a creature of habit sometimes. I would, however, like to finish Little Women since I’ve been reading it leisurely since the end of November, so I will probably start reading it at other times as well. Anytime I need a bit of downtime and breather from life, I think.
Anyhow, enough rambling. Here are the books on my winter to be read list (subject to change):
The Bungalow Mystery and The Mystery At Lilac Inn (Nancy Drew Mysteries)by Carolyn Keene.
These two came together in one volume from Thriftbooks. I enjoy disappearing into these light, sometimes silly mysteries as a way to escape my worries.
Can I tell you how stupid I felt this week when I read that these books were written by several authors, just like the Hardy Boys? Talk about a facepalm moment. I had heard that years ago and then completely forgot that Carolyn Keene was simply a pen name.
Well, it doesn’t really matter. These classics are still a nice escape.
The Cat Who Went Into The Closet by Lillian Jackson Braun.
Braun’s books are a comfort read for me. I’ve already started this one and will probably continue it this week or next since I did get distracted by the fun Sisterchicks book. It will be a perfect read for the darkness of February – the month that seems like it will never end even though it is shorter than other months of the year.
Blessed Is the Busybodyby Emilie Richards
This is a cozy mystery I picked up. It looked like it might have some faith elements but after reading part of Chapter 1 I see that the main character is a member of a Unitarian Universalist church and . . . well, I won’t comment here but that’s probably not the type of faith book I’m looking for. I don’t think? Still, most cozy mysteries I pick up have been clean and fun so I’m sure this one will be too.
I doubt it will be preachy because most cozy mysteries I’ve read aren’t, even if they are in the Christian fiction category. I only picked up one that went off about breast cancer and the importance of getting checked for a few pages, which totally threw me off since I read books to escape and this book read like a non-fiction book. I put that one aside and haven’t read anything by that author since, just as a way to protect myself from finding non-fiction subjects shoved at me in my fiction.
A Tale of Two Citiesby Charles Dickens
My son and I started this classic in the fall, became very bored and disenchanted and set it aside but now I am listening to it on Audible and it is making more sense. I am going to try to finish it and then he and I will “read it” (probably listen to it) again in March or April as part of his English course. This way I’ll have more of an idea of what is happening and can explain it to him instead of us both wandering around in the dark looking for a clue.
A Taste of Fameby Linda Evans Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson
This is a Christian fiction/cozy mystery and is part of a series of books. I’ve never read any books from these authors so I’m looking forward to seeing if the book is good or not.
Midwinter Murder by Agatha Christie
I have been saying I would read this book for the last two years and I am determined to do it this year. This is a collection of stories from Agatha, I believe.
Hell Is Empty by Craig Johnson
I didn’t read one Longmire Mystery book last year so I hope to remedy that this year. Johnson’s books are pretty dark but also have some humor in them. Still, the darkness is what often keeps me away from them in winter (when I deal with some seasonal depression but better than in the past) so I will probably read this one toward the end of the winter.
Do The New You by Steven Furtick
I’ve already started this book and hope to continue reading it and I know I’ll be reading it with my online Bible study group through February.
Under the Magnolias by T.I. Lowe
I heard about this book when it first came out a couple of years ago and I’m finally deciding to tackle it now. This may end up getting pushed into the spring, though.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them if you did?
The fire is still burning away today in our woodstove, orange and yellow merging together in a cacophony of raging warmth to chase away the insanely bitter cold outside. All week the family has been stuck inside because of the fall in the thermometer and the additional lower temperature brought by the windchill.
The fun of playing in fallen snow by the youngest was stolen by the cold. She lasted about ten minutes outside before she announced she couldn’t feel her face, her fingers, or her toes, even with all her thick winter gear on.
Zooma the Wonder Dog was quite depressed that the ground was white with snow but she and her favorite playmate weren’t out, rolling in it, tossing it in the air, and catching snowballs.
Instead, we had to find inside activities to do. I tried to read and work on my book. Little Miss was able to talk to her friends on the phone and play online games with them. The cats slept almost all day every day, especially when the fire was roaring. The Boy played some video games, did some homework and helped bring in wood to keep the fire going.
He also walked to the neighbor’s house one day and helped clean the snow off her steps and car. He only had one day of school again this week. He attends the morning session of a vocational school and if the local school district calls for a two-hour delay then the morning session is canceled.
He has been enjoying his time off and is a bit disappointed that the weather looks better next week and he’ll have to go back. We encouraged him to take a building and construction course at the local trade school as part of his education but so far it is not his favorite thing to do. He might change his course next year or try something else, but at least he has some experience and knows more what he doesn’t want to do when he gets out of school.
I’ve been missing going to my parents but either our driveway was slippery or it was super cold outside. I mentioned in the Sunday Bookends last week that I had tried to go to my parents on Sunday afternoon but there were tree branches in the road and ice forming as the temperatures dropped as we tried to drive there so I turned around. It will still be cold this Saturday but it shouldn’t be slippery or windy so we will be heading there for lunch and maybe a movie and a game of cards.
A couple of days this week I forced myself to sit down in front of our woodstove with a book to feel the warmth and enjoy some quiet time. I don’t sit down and just read like I want to very often so I have to say to myself, “No. You’re not going to pick up the room. You’re not going to wash dishes. You’re not going to work on your book or scroll through Instagram. You’re going to sit on this floor and read this book and lose yourself in it.”
It’s like I feel like it is wrong to just be sitting and reading but really, there are times we need to do that. We need to sit and take even 15 minutes to ourselves to settle our brains and calm our souls. We can either read a book we like, read the Bible, read a verse, listen to an encouraging sermon, worship music, or journal but we need to take that time for ourselves more than most of us do.
I don’t know why we don’t take the time we should for ourselves but I say this year work to feel less guilt when you sit in some quiet for yourself. I know that’s a goal for me.
I had to laugh the one night because both of my kids kept talking to me as I tried to read, as if I wasn’t sitting there, on the floor, with a physical book opened, clearly reading.
“Oh. You’re trying to read, aren’t you?” asked my son.
“No. No. I’m just holding this book to make myself look smarter,” is what I could have said, but what I really said was, “Yes, but it is okay. I like to talk to you.”
And I do like to talk to him because soon he will be grown up and out of the house and I won’t have as many opportunities to talk to him. He and I are both night owls who open up at night. I am not as much of a night owl as I used to be because I am old and start to fade by 11. If I get a second wind, though, I’m often up until 1 a.m. reading. After 11 is the only quiet time I get to read unless I wake up early to do so instead.
The Boy might not talk to me all day but when midnight hits that’s when he wants to talk so that’s when we talk. I’m fine with it unless I’m fading and feel guilty because I am not really listening.
How was the weather where you were this week? I know most of the United States was thrown into an arctic freeze and I think most of us will be out of it next week.
Have you been trying any new teas?
This week I drank my regular tea and some hot cocoa. I have tried a new probiotic tea and that was okay. What I hope to get some more of soon is some elderberry tea.
Let me know how you’ve been in the comments and I’ll see you again tomorrow for Sunday Bookends.
