Heidi Hostetter's Blog, page 2

A well-behaved flower

Red geraniums are the perfect summer flower.

 

 

Despite daily watering, my zucchini plants lie in my garden, prostrate in the heat.

 

My tomato plants are in a snit — refusing to produce anything larger, or softer, than a marble.

 

 

But my geraniums are gracious. They’re all like “It’s hot. We got this. Water us when you’re ready.”

 

 

 

 

I love that in a flower.

 

 

 

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That’s messed up…..

I’m having an odd week. 

 

I’m finishing up the second draft of the Christmas at Inlet Beach novella. It needs to be completely finished in the next few weeks to allow time for beta reading and editing so I’m pushing pretty hard.  That wouldn’t be an problem, except that it’s turning out to be one of the hottest summers in forever up here in the Pacific Northwest.

 

In my office, I’m writing about peppermint hot chocolate and wind storms and Christmas carols. During my breaks, I’m outside watering droopy zucchini plants and tying up tomato vines.  I’ve got ice water at the ready and the AC is cranked.

It’s hilarious.  Just hilarious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To those of you who have a normal life, Happy 4th of July. 

 

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Beach Party and Book Signing

University Book Store in Bellevue is throwing a party.

Next Saturday, June 20, from 1:00pm to 3:00pm, I will join ten other amazing authors at a celebration of Sizzling Summer Reads.

We will be signing copies of our books and kicking off the summer with raffles, giveaways, music, laughter, and great reads.

 Please join us. You are welcome to stay for the entire afternoon, or to stop by when you have a moment.

Because how are you going to get through the summer without a good book?

Or two?

Or three?

 

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So very honored….

I’m so very pleased to announce that my novel, The Inheritance, is a finalist for Women’s Fiction in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest.

The Inheritance will be available in the bookstore during the PNWA Summer Conference and I will be signing copies during the Autograph Party on Friday July 17 from 8:30pm to 10:00pm

If you’d like to read the book now, The Inheritance is available on Amazon for Kindle and in paperback. And, as always, I’d love to know what you think.  Thank you for reading.

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Victorian Beach Day…..

If you’re going swimming this weekend — at the beach, lake, river, or pool — take just a minute to consider your bathing suit.

It’s probably not made of wool.

The hem probably isn’t weighted with lead so it doesn’t float up in the water.

And you won’t have to worry about the “Beach Censor”

 

 

Despite all that, women still managed to have fun at the beach.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you will, too.

 

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Sandcastles and Competitions…..

When I was a kid, we used the Fill-and-Dump method of building sandcastles and we were pretty happy with the results, probably because we didn’t know any better.

We took turns racing toward the ocean, stopping in ankle-deep water just long enough to fill a cheap plastic bucket with foamy salt water before running back to the “construction site”. If we were lucky, the bucket handle would hold and we could return to dump whatever water didn’t slosh over the side of the bucket into hole near the site. The other kids used both hands to scoop wet sand from that hole and dump it on top of a mound that would eventually become the castle. At some point the oldest kid would declare “that’s tall enough” and everyone would grab shovels and sticks to carve windows and doors into the castle. When the base was decorated with scavenged shells and the spire was built from weathered driftwood, the castle was finished. Then we waited for the tide to come in and the ocean to reclaim it.

Those were great days.

But what we built was lumpy and unstable, absolutely not in same league as the teams who compete in contests along both the East Coast and West Coast.

What they construct is magnificent and if you happen to be in the area during one of these competitions — go look. Better yet, get a team together and enter yourselves in the contest. The Fill-and-Dump method would be useless, but you can still decorate with shells and driftwood.

 

 

Here are three contests that look really, really fun:

SandSations Sand-sculpting Competition, July 15-18, 2015 Long Beach, Washington

Cannon Beach Sandcastle Contest, June 20, 2015, Cannon Beach, Oregon

NJ Sandcastle Contest, July 15, 2015 Belmar, New Jersey

Here’s a link to a website that lists competitions by month and by state.

And finally, in cast you need some beginner tips, Coastal Living has you covered with Sandcastles 101.

Have fun. Good luck. And don’t forget your bucket.

 

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Another thank you…..

If you are looking forward to a long holiday weekend, I hope it is filled with an abundance of family, food and good stories. I hope there will be beach chairs to set up, grills to clean, burgers to cook, and ice cream to churn.

And to those who have made this weekend possible: Thank you.

Respect.

 

 

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A Thank You Giveaway

I am so grateful for all of the positive reviews that The Inheritance has gotten since its publication in March.

To thank those who have posted a review already, and to encourage those who would like to leave one, I am offering a Beach Essentials Giveaway. The winner will get a beach towel, flip-flops, bubbles, a bag of salt-water taffy, a sand bucket and shovel, and an autographed copy of The Inheritance that you can keep or give to a friend.

To enter, please send me a link to your review — either from Goodreads or from Amazon.

That’s it.

You can paste the link directly into the comment section below, or if you’d prefer, you can use the Contact Page and send me your link that way. The drawing will take place on the first day of summer, June 21. I’ll gather all the entries into a list and use a random number generator to determine the winner.

And to everyone: thank you so very much for taking time to leave a review.

I’m glad you liked the story.

 

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Well, that’s weird

The timing of publishing is strange.

The book you’re reading now, if it’s a quality book, probably went through a line edit, a beta reading, a final grammar edit and multiple peer reviews, which means that the author finished writing the story months and months ago.

With that in mind, I guess it makes sense what I’m doing, but it still seems strange. My next book is a novella, Christmas in Inlet Beach, due out at the beginning of November. The characters are in place, the plot is finished and now I’m researching details that will make the story richer, more interesting.

 

Specifically, I am imagining different types of Christmas ornaments made only from things naturally found on a West Coast beach. No glitter, no plastic, nothing bought or added, and absolutely nothing living removed from tide pools.

 

What does that leave? Beach grass, drift wood, black rocks, sand dollars, and a vivid imagination. All the elements of a very good story.

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Mother’s Day Giveaway

 In honor of Mother’s Day, I will be giving away two  autographed copies of The Inheritance.

The  contest ends on May 10 and I will send an autographed copy of my book, along with a personalized note to the winner, via Priority Mail.

I wish you luck, and I wish you a wonderful Mother’s Day.

You can enter here.

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