Talya Tate Boerner's Blog, page 12

Sunday Letter: 12.12.21

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

It’s beginning to look like Christmas at our house. We decorated our Christmas tree last Sunday, and I love how it brightens our world and spreads that wonderful tree fragrance into every nook and cranny downstairs. Ours isn’t a very big tree—it’s in the 5-6 foot category—and she’s on the slim side, but goodness, this tree was so much easier to decorate than the larger trees of our past.

Easy is good, y’all.

Our tree makes me ridiculously happy.

I put out my collect...

Tis the Season for Finding Frost Flowers!

Oh happy day!

I Finally Saw a Frost Flower.

Do you have a garden bucket list? I have one loosely formed in my mind, and a few days ago I checked off ‘see frost flowers‘ from my list.

Sometimes the best things happen when you aren’t expecting much from the day. (That’s a quote from The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee, y’all.) It was early and I was driving the pups for their much needed beauty shop appointments at Bark Avenue Pet Lodge (which is located a few miles outside of Fayetteville). J...

Book Reviews: November 2021

This post contains affiliate links. I may earn commissions from sales.Book Reviews

Hello reader friends! I’m a few days late posting my reviews of the books I read in November, but here they are. Better late than never, right?

The books I read in November took me on quite the adventures. From faraway galaxies to deep inside the manic mind. From the English seashore in the 1800s to Cape Cod of present day. Into the woods and through the pages of library books. I hope you find at least one to ad...

Sunday Letter: 12.05.21

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

Since last week’s letter, I’ve been to Little Rock and back for the annual Farm Bureau convention. It was a real honor for me to speak at the Women’s Leadership Luncheon. If anyone from Farm Bureau happens to be reading this—thank you again for the invite!

Arkansas River

Y’all, I took a ridiculous amount of photos of the Arkansas River from the Little Rock Marriott where I stayed. You’d think I’d never been anywhere before! But really, after living on Zoom during th...

Sunday Letter: 11.07.21

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

Did you remember to fall back this morning? I’m not sure why we still observe Daylight Saving Time, but here we are, falling back. (And later, we’ll be falling asleep…) Gracie and Annabelle aren’t observing it, so for the next few days, we will be more out of sync than normal here in schnauzer world. For several days will we all be wondering, “Now, what time would it have been if we hadn’t set our clocks back?”

The math isn’t difficult but the brain confusion is real...

Book Reviews: October 2021

This post contains affiliate links. I may earn commissions from sales.

Today I’m sharing my reviews of the books I read in October. My reading was stymied a bit because I am deep into editing my next book. And also, I binge-watched Ted Lasso and The Morning Show. So there’s that.

Still, I managed to read six great books in October. Maybe you will add one or two of these to your stack.

Girl In Pieces
by Kathleen Glasgow
(Teen & Young Adult Fiction)

Charlotte (Charlie), the young protagonist in...

Sunday Letter: 10.31.21

Dear Sunday Letter readers,

Happy Halloween! I’m glad we have nice weather on tap for Halloween tonight because we have lots of candy we need to give away to trick-or-treaters. I sure don’t need bags of chocolate hanging around our house—it wouldn’t last very long.

I can’t tell you how many ‘fun size’ peanut M&Ms I’ve eaten in the past week.

Do you typically have trick-or-treaters come to your house? Do you hand out candy or risk a trick?

Spooky Eve

Yesterday morning, a thick fog blanketed our...

Sunday Letter: 10.17.21!

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

Good morning and happy Sunday. As we head into the middle of October, the temperatures in northwest Arkansas have finally dropped—it was 39 this morning! The asters are in full bloom. And, the Ozark hills and hollows are slowly coming alive with fall color.

I LOVE this time of year, this time before the holidays, before winter sets in and I begin to crave sunshine and watermelon again.

Butterfly Project

I released my last monarch butterfly of the year last week. So ...

Sunday Letter: 10.10.21

Hey, Sunday Letter friends!

It’s been a minute or two.

I’ve been having a heck of a time balancing my writing lately. I’m approaching the editing deadline for my next book (yay!), and so I’ve been spending most of my time working on that. Also, a couple of other article deadlines have jumped up and tagged me on the shoulder. I say this to excuse the state of my recent blog posting. Or lack of blog posting, I should say.

And then there’s college football—I can’t get anything done on game day! Me...

Book Reviews: September 2021

This post contains affiliate links. I may earn commissions from sales.

Hey friends! Today I’m sharing my reviews of the books I read in September. I enjoyed these books for different reasons. From the 1500s to present day, I met the magical and mental, I cried with and cheered for amazing protagonists that will not soon be forgotten. I hope you find a story in my September Reads to add to your list.

Hamnet
by: Maggie O’Farrell
(Historical Fiction)

My high school English teacher, Barbara Key, ...