Sommer Marsden's Blog, page 83

I know you covet...

My hillbilly wine glass. Courtesy of my sis. Too funny!

Hope you had a great Christmas. Mine was good until I spent the remainder of it doubled over. I am having some gallbladder issues (our best guess until I can see a doc), so my continuing festivities include no food (though we have a ton), lots of water (though I'd rather have wine) and if I'm wild, some ginger ale. Woohoo!

I'm saving my wineglass for wine, though. I would never mock that beauty by drinking ginger ale out of it. *gasp*

Might be more quiet than normal for the next few days, but hoping you're having a great holiday. Tell me your favorite gift received in comments, if you're so inclined. I'd love to know what some of you got for your Ho-Ho-Holiday whether it was Christmas, Hanukkah, Festivus, Kwanza or just um...Sunday.

XOXO
Sommer

Merry Christmas to you...

Gaze upon our Astro-Weenie Trees and rejoice. :)

See you in a few days.

XOXO
Sommer
p.s. to see about your own Astro-Weenie tree or other fun test kitchen stuff visit CharlesPhoenix.com

Finding my spirit day five...possibly FOUND!

Things that have helped me find my spirit: making gluten free sausage balls at 8 a.m. Managing not to eat them all before putting them away. Making a sinful pecan pie at 9 a.m. and smelling it through the house. Pulling out Christmas dishes and my red table cloth. Yelling "Do we even have any evergreen trees?" to the man. Later hearing him ask me if the jingle bells were 'purely decorative'...um...? Yelling, "Don't throw it!" to the UPS man who galloped up with the man's final gift.


Twenty minutes of trying to get a decent picture of the dog and getting this:


More minutes of being shunned by a pissed off Santa Wiener:





Another thing that fills me with Ho-Ho-Ho spirit is giving stuff away. Like copies of my Christmas (among other holidays) tale of a fetish of shorts. FIXATION will be FREE on Smashwords until Decmber 26th. Use coupon code LK58J to purchase yours!

Denise has found a teeny weenie fixation that she didn't know about. It seems spotting random and stray erections at various parties turns her on—makes her crazy, makes her randy. Causes her, in fact, to either accost her poor husband or take matters into her own hands. ADULTS ONLY originally appeared on Ruthie's Club

Happy Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

XOXO
Sommer

Finding my Christmas spirit day four...

Today was another step in the right direction. Girl child is on the upswing and I attacked some sweets for the Christmas groaning board.

This is Sucre a la Creme with Maldon Salt and Pecans in transition from ingredients to fabulous, decadent candy...

























My grandmother's peanut butter fudge. Which I nailed. Spot on. For the first time ever. I promised girl child I'd try and voila! Success. It usually comes out a wee bit grainy, just slightly off from hers (which was never grainy) but this time, I got it and now that I've got it...I've got it! This will not last long. I have a feeling I'll be making another batch before Sunday.


And the finale. The Sucre a la Creme, the peanut butter fudge, and a Gluten Free pound cake which turned out pretty tasty.

Ta and da. Oh and Fa-la-la-la-la La-la-la-la... Boy child is home with my dad's Christmas gift. Bonus.

XOXO
Sommer

Finding my Christmas spirit day three: part 2

Some of our favorite Christmas books come from an unexpected source: horror writer Dean Koontz.

When I found the Santa's Twin Book, I literally gasped. I'd read bits of the book within the book of Mr. Murder when MM was released. When the kids were small, I stumbled over the book from the book. And bought it. To this day, at some point, someone reads from it.

And as for Trixie's book, one word: sausage.

I found these today and thought to bring them up for visitors to look at. I figured I'd share with you in case you'd never seen them.





As for the rest of the day, four felt mice sewn, pot pie made, wrapping done, some editing, some writing and hanging back to be with girl child who is recovering nicely but not 100%. We watched Christmas Vacation together and ya know...that movie never gets old.

Plus, I got my copies of BWE '12 so...yay me! Good stuff. I'm easing into the holiday this year, but I am getting there.




XOXO
Sommer

Finding my Christmas spirit day three...

This one was a no brainer for me. My father died in 1976 about 5 weeks shy of my fifth birthday. In 1978 this song was released. For whatever reason, possibly the melancholy opening bits (I've always been a lyric person) I began to associate this song and this sentiment to how I felt about being the kid missing a dad on the holidays.

Sounds super sad, but I must say that when I would hear the opening of this song, my heart always perked up and I took it as a nod from my dad. That even though he wasn't *here*, he was here.

This year I was going crazy because despite keeping the Christmas music station on in the car whenever I went out, I never heard it. They kept playing the Aaron Neville version. And though Aaron has some mad singing skillz...not the same (Sorry, Aaron)

Finally, Monday, when the man was off and we had to shop and I felt my most unChristmasy yet with one pneumonia kid, one health issue kid, an abundance of stress and a shortage of time...it came on. And I hushed the man, sang along and something in me felt a little bit lighter.

It would all be okay.

Maybe way too much importance to hang on a little song, but to me it's my signal that I'm not alone. Even when I feel it. So, there you go. Finding my spirit day, three.

(I have since heard the song about six times. It seems to be every time I'm ready to cry or break something with a hammer). Let's call it the Universe's tranquilizer ;)

XOXO
Sommer

Finding my Christmas spirit day two...

Getting there. But still not quite. So I bring you John Denver and the Muppets. I grew up on the Muppets (and John Denver). I dare you not to fucking love the muppets!

Five...gold...ringggggggggggggggggs.

Five days left. Have you found your spirit? Help me out. Make me feel the holiday love. Share your secret.

XOXO
Sommer

I'm trying to find my Christmas spirit...

Step One: the commercial that always signified it was officially Christmas. I found the one from the 70s. Boo and yah! :)

Another busy-busy

Whew. I might have posted this awesome 5 heart review for Lunatic Fringe before. If I did, forgive me. I can't find it (much like I can't find my own ass with both hands and a flashlight this week) and it came to my notice via some online ping the other day. So tada! A possibly repeat link to an awesome review over at Sizzling Hot Book Reviews!









Now this is brand new. A five star review for Automagically at Two-Lips Reviews. Orsum! HERE'S the full review. And a snippet:

The twists and turns in this story made it a memorable read for me and this is a book I'll be putting on my keeper shelf for a long time to come.

Thank you, Tina! :)









And finally, I'm over at Elise Hepner's blog with THE BEST OF SOMMER MARSDEN'S MIND AND READING LIST discussing my favorite books of the last three months. And hey! There are probably some names you recognize on there and some you may not. Go check IT OUT.

Happy Saturday. I started the weekend off really right last night--with a bang. Hoping you have similar.

XOXO
Sommer

Busy, busy day today!

First on the books...*drum roll please in your best Clark Griswold fashion*:

My sister's thirty-ninth birthday! Muwah! Enjoy it, girly. Next thing you know, you'll be just like me. The big four-oh.

To celebrate, my super long 88K plus novel WANDERLUST is FREE for download no Amazon Kindle for EVERYONE. (After five days it will return to being free for Amazon Prime Readers only). Go grab your copy, pronto!

Second on the books, I am on my final stop of the Fantastical THE BEST OF SOMMER MARSDEN book tour. Stop by the Forbidden Bookshelf (ooooooooh...yum) and see what I have to say about my spanking story Spank Pants. Is it true? Is it false? Is it...mebbe?

And third on the books, I was interviewed by Lucas Steele (International Man of Mystery (sorry, that's what I hear in my head when I say his name ;} )). We discussed not just my M/M book HARD LESSONS but TBOSM and the upcoming Restless Spirit and well, lots of stuff!

I'll be back later it with more stuff. But for now, let's just have some coffee and start with this, shall we?

Morning!

XOXO
Sommer