Cathy Lamb's Blog, page 32
December 27, 2017
Want To Join An Online Book Group?
Come and join Readers Coffeehouse if you love books and love chatting about books with other people. We have 5,400 members.
The founding authors are Catherine Ryan Hyde, Steena Holmes, Barbara Claypole White, Jo Ann Mapson, Kimberly Belle, Laura Drake and moi.
We have a monthly Author, Tuesday chats with authors, giveaways, Reader Features, etc.
Below is our list of featured authors for 2018.
You’re welcome to join.
Click here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Reade...
December 26, 2017
Such A Pretty Face Is On Sale For $7.99
Need a New Year’s Book? Such A Pretty Face is on sale for $7.99 on kindle.
Happy New Year!
Written by Stevie Barrett.
I am going to plant a garden this summer.
With the exception of two pink cherry trees, one white cherry tree, and one pink tulip tree, all huge, I have a barren, dry backyard and I’m tired of looking at it. I almost see it as a metaphor for my whole life, and I think if I can fix this, I can fix my life. Simplistic, silly, I know, but I can’t get past it.
So I’m going to garden even if my hands shake as if there are live circuits inside of them and a floppy yellow hat dances ominously through my mind.
I’m going to build upraised beds, a whole bunch of them, and fill them with tomatoes, squash, zucchini, radishes, lettuce, carrots, peas, and beans. But not corn.
I’m not emotionally able to do corn yet – too many memories – but I am going to plant marigolds around the borders, pink and purple petunias, rose bushes and clematis and grapevines.
I’m going to stick two small crosses at the back fence, but not for who you think. I’m going to build a grape arbor with a deck beneath it, and then I’m going to add a table so I can paint there, as I used to, before my memories took that away.
I’m also going to build three trellises for climbing roses over a rock pathway, one arch for me, Grandma, and Grandpa, which will lead to another garden, with cracked china plates in a mosaic pattern in the middle of a concrete circle, for Sunshine.
This may sound way too ambitious.
It is. But I see this as my last chance to get control of my mind before it blows.
I can wield any type of saw out there, and I have to do this, even if it takes me years. That I can even think in terms of a future is a miracle.
Why?
Because two and a half years ago, when I was thirty two years old, I had a heart attack.
I used to be the size of a small, depressed cow.
The heart attack led to my stomach strangling operation, and I lost 170 pounds. Now I am less than half myself, in more ways than one.
My name is Stevie Barrett.
This is a story of why I was the way I was and how I am now me.
I am going to plant a garden.
December 25, 2017
The Christmas Bake Off With Innocent Husband
Innocent Husband and I had a Christmas Bake Off.
If you want to vote on which one looks tastier, go to my facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/cathy.lamb.9/
For the record, Darling Laughing Son, Adventurous Singing Daughter, and Rebel Dancing Daughter have told me that I must tell YOU that the Snowwoman was made with a box mix and bought icing. They’re getting rather picky over here. The chocolate delights were made from scratch.
So. Ho Ho Ho. Which one looks better?
Merry, Merry Christmas!
Christmas Dessert Bake Off With Innocent Husband
Innocent Husband and I are having our annual Lamb Family Christmas Dessert Cook Off.
He’s baking while our little elves sleep upstairs. It’s gotten a little competitive over here in his quest for a Christmas win.
So far he has accused me of, and I quote, “Using guerrilla tactics to win…sabotaging my cooking…subversive behaviors…outright and unethical use of cake mix…hiding the mixer…hiding the mixer thingies…using all the vanilla…I’m supposed to have cream cheese at room temperature and you freeze it, Cathy… I don’t know what else you’re gonna do…”
Merry Christmas from the Lambs! Hopefully no cakes will be thrown by the end of this (fun) competition.
Will show dessert photos later!
December 24, 2017
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Wishing you all good cheer, love, laughter, and no difficult relatives.
(This is an illustration by Mary Engelbreit. I love her work.)
December 22, 2017
Need A Free Christmas Story?
This one is free on Barnes and Nobles nook for a little while. A very little while.
(Summary below for those of you who need a short and sweet Christmas story set in Montana.)
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-very-merry-c…/1123624014…
Amazon, $2.99 kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Very-Merry-Christmas-Ca…/…/B01DRXCGPS
Meredith Ghirlandaio has a little too much going on this Christmas season. She’s running a Bed and Breakfast in snowy Telena, Montana, and her sister’s rebellious/withdrawn children have come to live with her because their mother has run off, her “spirit crushed, her inner-soul crying for freedom.” In addition, Meredith was elected to chair the Telena Christmas Concert series and she’s having anger issues, flashback issues, and Logan Taylor, well, he’s a hunky, he-man issue.
“A Merry Christmas” in the Holiday Magic anthology, features Three Wise Women, a pregnant Mary, a bustling Martha, a drummer man from Nigeria, singing shepherds who are ex-World War II vets, a pretty cowboy hat obsession, a tragic secret from the long ago past, a three story, brick house built in 1889 with a history as wild and rollicky as the wild west has ever been, a reclusive violin star, a Grateful Journal, fly fishing, pink cake, a duck whistle, an escape from Cambodia, and a gingerbread house.
Most of all, though, it’s about Christmas. Towering Christmas trees, flickering candles, joyous carols, delicate snowflakes, shiny ornaments, candy canes and, the real reason for it all, the birth of Jesus…
December 21, 2017
Want To Join An Online Book Group?
If you would like to join an online book group next year, please think about joining Readers Coffeehouse.
I’m a founding author there and we have great chats about books. We also have a monthly book group, see below, with excellent authors, that I run.
We have author chats, book giveaways, answer funny questions together, and we share lists of books we love. It’s all positive and friendly, we do not allow any negativity.
Come and join us!
Readers Coffeehouse: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ReadersCoffeehouse/
And thanks a hundred times over to the following authors who are our Readers Coffeehouse authors of the month in 2018.
Barbara Claypole White, Lisa Wingate, Kelly Simmons, Eloisa James, Lisa See, Jane Green, Catherine Ryan Hyde, Anita Hughes, Kate Quinn, Debbie Macomber, Ellen Marie Wiseman, and Taylor Reid
December 19, 2017
If You Need A Laugh at Christmas…
I love writing these short stories.
I always try to put in a lot of humor because, well geez, we NEED a lot of humor during the holidays.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays, Happy Reading, Happy Ho Ho Ho
These books are about…
Taking off and starting over.
Chocolates
Running naked along a river to find yourself
Creating magical chairs
Losing 170 pounds
A special kid named Tate
A family whose ancestors were witches, or so they think.
A tiny bit of magic
Aunt Lydia, who owns a pink house with a black door to ward off seedy men
Breast Power Psychic Night
Condoms and peanut oil and getting revenge
Amazing Grace
Gardens and sisters
Love and life.
Laughing Through The Holidays
Need a little laughter and a little love to get you through the holidays?
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cathy-Lamb/e/B...
