Talya Tate Boerner's Blog, page 35

Sunday Letter: 09.30.18

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

I’m giving this past week double checkmarks because I cooked TWO HOT SUPPERS complete with side vegetables, I finished and submitted a freelance article, and I found a cool rock I’m pretty sure is filled with magic.

Stick with me people. We’re going places.

Mostly in circles.

Oh sure, there’s plenty I didn’t accomplish during the week, but I choose to not think about those things in this Sunday Letter.

Seven Hours Later

John and I devoted Friday in its entirety t...

Ladies of the Club!

Last week, I was invited to join the Ladies of the Club book club to talk about The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee. Having a book club select my book AND being invited to attend is one of the best things about being an author!

Oh my word, what a fantastic event.

If we were living in 1918 rather than 2018, this event would be reported in the society pages of the Daily Arkansas Gazette. You know what I mean? There was a time when everything social was printed in the newspaper.

Humor me for...

Sunday Letter: 09.23.18

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

This has been a busy week, and I’ve felt a bit like a vagabond. On Tuesday, I drove to Little Rock for a book club talk. (You’ll be hearing all about it soon!) This morning I send greetings from Plano, Texas where I’m helping Momma sort through her storage unit and pack up her apartment. My trip coincided with the going away party her Plano friends threw for her. Good timing on my part.

So this trip isn’t all work and no play.

Today we’re headed to Austin to see...

Tiny Cottage REVEAL!

The time has come for our tiny cottage reveal! For those of you who may not know, several years ago while we still lived in Dallas, we bought a cottage in the Washington-Willow Historic District of Fayetteville. At first we used it on weekends. Later, our son lived there. Still later, we rented it out for a couple of years. Now, with my mother planning to move to the cottage, we knew the time had come to renovate the single, seriously outdated bathroom.

At 896 sf, it may not be “tiny” accord...

Sunday Letter: 09.16.18

Dear Sunday Letter readers,

Are you kidding me? September is half over and I’ve done nothing. Well, I finished painting our little cottage. I worked on my next article for Front Porch Magazine. (Thank you Arkansas Farm Bureau for allowing me to write my regular Delta Child column.) I pulled weeds and planted some lettuce and vacuumed the downstairs.

Yesterday, I watched football. Looks like I’m gonna need a new fall sport. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Optimistic Fig

Several times...

goodbye to another summer

As the shadows grow longer, we prepare to say goodbye to another summer. I’m already mourning the things I’ll miss. Okay, maybe mourn is too solemn a word since fall really is my favorite. But summer brings moments and flavors and aromas that only come during the hottest time of year. And those, I will miss with the ache of a lost object.

Like WATERMELON.

A wedge satiates me like no other fruit, takes me back to birthdays spent at the lake, summers in the back yard at the home place. Each th...

Sunday Letter: 09.09.18

Hey Sunday Letter friends! After five days of horribly humid weather, we got a little rain. Saturday felt downright fall-like. By far the best thing about my week? I got my hair cut shorter than it’s been in some time. Seriously, I don’t know why I waited so long.

The worst part? That Razorback football game last night. We knew it would be a long, rebuilding season. My very own garden hog foreshadowed it only days ago like Punxsutawney Phil predicting six more weeks of winter.

One thing I k...

Barnett’s Dairyette ~ a blast from the past!

One step inside Barnett’s Dairyette in Siloam Springs and your blood pressure will lower. One bite of a cheeseburger and you’ll be transported home to the diner that will forever occupy a space in your heart. For me, that would be the Yellow Jacket Cafe and the Shake Shack, both in Keiser, Arkansas.

Both long gone.

John and I visited Barnett’s a few month’s ago. We were on official assignment. Actually, John was on a photography assignment, and I acted as his handy-dandy assistant. You see,...

Sunday Letter: 09.02.18

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

Is it just me but weren’t we celebrating Memorial Day last weekend!? Time.Slow.Down. Soon I’ll be dead! LOL. But seriously, Happy September and Happy Labor Day Weekend, too. If you are enjoying a three-day weekend, I hope you use it in a way that makes you silly-happy. We have friends with us this weekend—football watching and lots of laughter for sure!

I even cleaned out my refrigerator to make room for extra food and drinks.

The Whole Enchilada

I took this pict...

Book Reviews: August 2018

Book Reviews August 2018:

Today marks the last day of August which means book reviews for you. In this group of August reads, I found two new-to-me authors that I’m adding to my list of all-time favorites.

I read tales of historical war-time fiction, a classic barnyard fable, shenanigans set in a Louisiana swamp, a weighty tragedy in a Swedish hockey town. Such a rich collection here!

In no particular order…

The Alice Network
by Kate Quinn

The Alice Network alternates between two perspecti...