Hope Toler Dougherty's Blog, page 4

Writing Conference

June began at a writing conference, the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writing Conference, in Black Mountain, North Carolina. I’ve been several times (four times since they began giving mugs as attendee gifts. This year I went because Forever Home was a finalist for the Directors’ Choice in General Fiction award!

Wow! Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

I hadn’t planned on going this year because the Saturday before the conference began, we had a wedding to attend in Pittsburgh. My husband,...

Forever Home…a Finalist!

Forever Home is my latest novel, the third in the Forever Home series. It’s Sam Daniels’ story, the one I tried to write during the pandemic but got stuck, then wrote his brother Ben’s story instead.

Last Saturday, I found out the happy news by accident. I had taken a break in the afternoon and scrolled Facebook for a few minutes. My publisher posted a congratulations to me. My first thought was that I had won a book from a blog, but, no. I was wrong.

My book had been selected as one of ten fina...

April Showers

Here we are at the end of April, and I haven’t done a good job of writing for the blog. I’ve been working hard on Heath’s story which is due to my publisher on June 30th.

We had what some people might call gully washers overnight and all morning. The sun is out now and warming up the earth, a gorgeous day in eastern North Carolina.

The rainy days make for beautiful blooms, like the one from our front walkway. The bulb for this fantastic purple iris came from the garden of my former Girl Scout le...

March

March is almost gone, and I haven’t shared these pictures yet. Oops!

We enjoyed the traditional corned beef and cabbage. I cook it in our crock pot, so the vegetables become almost the same color. They’re still delicious, however! Try this recipe.

Of course, I baked some brown bread. Here’s the recipe if you want to try it yourself.

I baked soda bread twice, but I forgot to take a picture before we ate all of it.

This year, I decided to make carrot ginger soup instead of the traditional green...

February–the Month for Love?

Before February slips away, I want to share a few of my loves…story loves, that is.

Rescued Hearts is the book that surprised me because I didn’t plan to write a romantic suspense.  Go here if you want to see the video. The idea came to me during a bike ride near my house. I ignored it until the characters started talking, and I decided I should write their story. Some behind-the-scenes information:

I love tuxedo cats, like the one on the cover.

The house on the cover is on my road. I took a pi...

Signs of Spring?

It’s the end of January, and I’m sharing sights from my recent walk. I’m excited to see these brave flowers show their colors soon!

Daffodils peeking their heads above ground in January aren’t too surprising in North Carolina. We usually get them early in the year.

But the next blooms shocked me into writing this post.

 

Dianthus blooming in January? What?

Yes, we’ve had some spring-like days, but we’ve had temperatures in the teens also. Extended low temperatures, in fact, in December.

This ...

Want Creamy Mushroom Soup Recipe?

The color of this cream mushroom soup isn’t all that attractive, but my, oh, my, the flavor! I love it. You can find the recipe here. In fact, you’ll find twenty-one recipes at that site. I changed a few ingredients…evaporated milk for light cream, cranberry juice for the wine, and just one onion instead of a whole cup. I also pureed the soup with my emersion blender (one of my favorite kitchen tools), so that my husband could enjoy the mushrooms. He likes the flavor but not an overwhelming amo...

Happy New Year!

It’s almost the middle of January, and my Christmas amaryllis is blooming. I’m behind already, too. No worries. I’ve got a to-do list, and I’m working on it. I’ll cross everything off eventually.

Actually, I kind of like having something special happening in January after all the Christmas festivities. This amaryllis has two more blooms that will open soon, and I have a second bulb with three blooms just about bursting.

So, I’ll work on my WIP (Heath’s story) and my to-do list and gaze at my be...

Merry Christmas!

I’m stepping away from the oven to share a few of my favorite Christmas pictures.

Here’s one from way back in the day. I love it because it gives a peek inside what our house was like back then. Fun! Fun! Fun!

This next one is our take on the 1930 painting, American Gothic, by Grant Wood. We’d just moved from Gibsonia, Pennsylvania (a northern suburb of Pittsburgh) to rural Johnston County, North Carolina. The smiles don’t exactly tell the full story.

And here’s the one from this year. We were...

Happy December?

Is December a happy time for you? Or are you like me this year–feeling a bit melancholy, maybe overwhelmed during these last weeks in 2022?

Do you remember the story of Jonah? A big fish swallowed him, and Jonah prayed from INSIDE THAT FISH.  He said, “In my distress, I called to the Lord, and He answered me.” Jonah 2:1. Don’t you just love that truth? God hears our prayers from wherever we are. Hallelujah!

Where are you right now?

Are you in the middle of family disputes or disappointments or r...