Heather Huffman's Blog, page 18

Checking in – one day left!

It’s been a crazy week. (And yes, I do get tired of saying that!) The crisis of the day is torrential rains which have flooded my feed room, taking out a good portion of the winter feed we’ve laid up even though it was elevated. Grrr.

I’ve also run into some complications with my leg’s healing process, which are totally my fault for not staying off it enough initially, so I’m trying to be much better about it for the next few days. Since it’s a bit of a walk to my outbuilding (where we have the internet connection), that means I won’t be online much this week.

It’s crummy timing with the contest going on, so I wanted to take a quick moment to remind you: There is still time to enter the contest, though not much! Check it out here and pretty please tell all of your friends.

Have a fantastic week, everyone!

Visiting A Date with a Book

Many thanks to Dalene over at A Date with a Book for having me as a guest today! Stop by to check out the interview and enter to win a free ecopy of Fool’s Game.

 

Craziness

There was a time when I had a vain hope that I’d finish the items on my summer project board in time to enjoy a quiet day or two with my boys before school started.

Silly me.

Saturday, Dylan (the teenager) and I made a trip to St. Louis and back to help get another load for my mom and dad’s move. Unfortunately, in an act of grace only I could accomplish, I managed to knock over several heavy pieces of wrought iron that were leaned against a fence. They landed on my shin. It instantly swelled to twice its normal size and turned black. Even my toes turned into one giant puffy mess. I was pretty sure it was broken.

I didn’t want to slow down the move expedition, so I found a spot to lie down with my foot propped up. Being inactive while there was work to do made me crazy, but at that point, there was nothing I could do about it. My sweet sisters came and prayed with me, and I assured them I’d be fine waiting to go to urgent care until we got home.

I’m happy to say the foot isn’t broken, and it’s on the mend, but it hurts like the dickens. I still have a nasty bruise, though I’m happy to report I once again have five distinct toes. And while the foot is on the mend and I’m better able to get around each day, it’s still slowed me down considerably. Accomplishing the items on my summer project board slips a little further away each day.

Today was supposed to be a work day before my attention turns to the Youth Mission Trip at our church, which will take up the rest of my week. Then I noticed yesterday that one of our does (goats) looks closer to delivering her kids than I first realized. Super exciting, but it also means building the kidding pen just got bumped to the top of my to-do list. On one leg, in the rain. I know it can be done because my boys will step up and help. They always do; they’re pretty fantastic like that.

Still, with all the craziness, I had to put the brakes on long enough to remind everyone that there is still time to enter the giveaway for your chance to win one of several great prizes, including a $50 Amazon gift card! If you missed the details, here’s the post with entry information.

Good luck and have a fantastic week!

Just a Sliver

It arrived, the fat envelope of back-to-school registration information. I sit staring at the mountain of paperwork to be filled out and it hits me, summer is almost over. Somehow, it went from being this magical thing stretching out lazily before us to being a memory – and I’m not quite sure how that happened so fast.

As my boys frantically squeeze in all of the adventures they’d planned to have during their vacation, I budget for back-to-school shopping and eye my calendar warily, knowing it will soon be dictated by something entirely different than the joys of summer. Every year, whether my kids are home-schooling or in public school, I approach the back-to-school season with a mixture of apprehension and excitement. It’s funny how something things don’t change.

As much as I know my mornings and evenings will now be nearly frantic, I also know that there will be a window of silence in between the two. And while those hours always manage to fill themselves with work, housecleaning and errands, the fact remains that they – for the most part – are mine to fill. I get to choose if I spend them writing, building fences or buying groceries. In theory, anyway.

I realized the other day that I’m always telling myself I’ll have more time when the next season hits. As in, “when school starts, the house will be quiet, so I’ll make more progress on that next book.” Or, “when summer starts, the school schedule will let up, and I’ll get that fence finished.” Somehow it never happens that way.

I’ve decided that, this year, rather than making myself completely crazy with the frantic pace of back-to-school, I’m going to block out at least of sliver of my day for me. I’m going to read that book that’s been on my TBR list for two years, I’m going to take a long bath with my favorite soap, and I might even go crazy and finish remodeling my bathroom, even though it’s a room guests never see.

Life has a crazy way of slipping by whether I make time for that kind of stuff or not, but I’m going to try really hard to stake my claim on even just that one little sliver of my time.

I’m probably not the only one struggling for that sliver of time, so I’m running a giveaway to encourage you to treat yourself once the kids are back in school, whether it’s by kicking up your feet with a novel, crafting, or prettying up your space. Entering is easy and prizes include: Mason jar soap dispensers, an artisan yarn bowl, a complete ebook set of my books, an assortment of handmade goat milk soap from my local farmer’s market, and one $50 Amazon gift card!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Jeep Hugger

If you’ve followed the blog for very long, you know I’ve spent the past year hauling impossibly weird stuff in an ugly little Corolla I couldn’t stand. I told myself I was grateful to have any car at all, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself from occasionally coveting other people’s trucks.

I can fit an impressive amount of stuff in a small car, and that little Corolla made a lot of cross-country treks for us, but living on a farm was definitely tougher without the ability to haul things like fencing, lumber, hay, etc.

Still, our family is trying desperately to pay off any outstanding debt because it turns out the Bible wasn’t joking when it warned you’d become a slave to debt. So we stubbornly refused to borrow money for a new car even when it seemed something was forever getting in the way of our ability to replace the Corolla.

When it was no longer an option, and the Corolla had to be replaced, I began the process of car shopping with a meager budget and the vain hope that I could somehow find something that would be useful around the farm and fit a carload of growing boys. I set out one morning with my oldest son and my father, and by the end of the day, I was mentally preparing myself for yet another in a long line of cars I hated. I’d already begun to remind myself that I should be grateful for anything that could get us from point A to point B when my dad suggested we look at one more car before throwing in the towel for the day.

That’s when I met him.

A white, 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee that I never saw coming but fell in love with at first sight. He fit the bill on all counts and, thanks to a faulty A/C, was in my cash budget.

I named him Reginald, but we call him Reggie for short. Two weeks later, I’m still in love. Sure, an A/C would be nice, but I forgive him because he has a sunroof. For the first time in almost 20 years, I have a vehicle I truly like. His engine rumbles like an old truck but I’m not afraid to park next to someone in a parking lot. (I struggle parking my dad’s full-size truck, but don’t tell him that…) I can fold Reggie’s seats down and haul wood pallets, and my 6-foot tall teenager can sit in the back seat without curling into the fetal position.

We’re living the dream.

I told a friend of mine that I hug Reggie every day. She said she wanted a picture of that. Katherine, this is for you:

Reginald had one minor temper tantrum. While in St. Louis, we’d taken a break from helping my mom move to go swimming at my sister’s. My brother-in-law went to help me tinker with the radio and Reggie wouldn’t start. All the kids in my family instantly stopped playing and started praying while Cesar (the brother-in-law) started working on the car. Prayers were answered because, after some problem solving, it turned out to be a simple and cheap fix and, while he was at it, Cesar replaced my fuel filter for me.

I guess it’s good we got our first fight out of the way. And while it might be true that I didn’t need a fun car, I can’t help being really happy I wound up with one.

 

Visiting Bookish Temptations and a bit of randomness

First, I have to say a big thank you to Elena over at Bookish Temptations for having me as a guest this week. In case you missed it, here’s the post and here’s the giveaway. Be sure to stop by this week and enter to win an autographed copy of Fool’s Game.

I meant to post it earlier in the week, but I’m in St. Louis this week helping my mother pack for a move. They’ve been in this house for 20 years now, so it’s been a busy week. Still, I’m finding lots of cool stuff as I pack so I’m telling myself it’s not work so much as a treasure hunt. My mom is also known for buying presents and then forgetting where she put them, so my teenager is sincerely hoping he’ll find forgotten Christmas presents in the process.

 

One of the treasures uncovered is a framed picture that was given to me by my boyfriend when I was 18 – it was a print of a little boy holding a bouquet of roses. This was the same boyfriend who told me I should be a writer when I wondered out loud what career to pursue. Finding the picture made me stop to remember Erik, and I have to say I felt ashamed. He was a good boyfriend and I kind of  freaked out on him when things got too serious. I know I hurt him, and I wish there was a way to tell him I’m sorry for that.

Ironically, my post over at Bookish Temptations this week talks about my own broken heart and how it inspired some of the past between the main characters in Fool’s Game. Finding that picture this week reminded me there was probably a bit of Erik in those pages as well, and it makes me wonder what on earth I’d do to work through my feelings if I didn’t have all of these stories swirling through my head.

 

Many Thanks

Some people are just naturally kind, I think. I first met Sylvain Reynard after reading Gabriel’s Inferno. He’d left a review on one of my books, I’d been intrigued by his avatar, clicked on it, found his book… and then became so engrossed in it that I was late for my own birthday dinner.

Since that time, we’ve become friends online and I’ve come to learn that SR is as good of a friend as he is a writer. In fact, I told him just today that I think “thank you” is becoming kind of a permanent subject line in our emails because he’s always going out of his way to be kind.

So I’m really pleased to be a guest over at Sylvain’s blog today. Please stop by to check it out when you have a second. And if you haven’t read his books yet, do!

 

A Fourth of July Moment

I’ve always loved holiday celebrations in small town America. Fairs, festivals, parades and rodeos have been the highlights of my year for as long as I can remember. Lately, though, they make me sad because whenever I go to them, I get this overwhelming sense that the America I’ve loved my entire life is no more. The old way of things has passed, and I don’t know if we can get them back again.

My family’s Independence Day celebration consists of a parade in the morning and a rodeo in the evening. I was a bit melancholy at the rodeo when the lights went down for the fireworks. Towards the end of the display, they played a song they always play: God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood. I’ve always loved that song and began singing along softly.

A little ways into the song, I realized that a lot of people in the bleachers were singing along, so I sang a little more boldly. The sound swelled around me as others joined in. It was a beautiful and comforting moment that reminded me what it is I love about this country and its people.

As the song says, God bless the USA.

Gateway Book

I sometimes jokingly call Throwaway a gateway book. Though it wasn’t the first book I wrote, it was the first published, it is the first many people read, and it has become the epicenter of the fictional world created by my novels.

Most of you have heard me say by now that my books aren’t a series in the truest sense of the word, but they share a universe and characters from one often show up in another. Sometimes I plan to go back and revisit a particular character but more often than not, they surprise me by showing up.

I’ve attempted to put together character maps before to illustrate the relationship between the books. Since they aren’t necessarily linear, it’s hard to create a visual that isn’t confusing, so my attempts thus far have been met with limited success. Then a friend at Booktrope had the idea to create an actual map with Throwaway at the center of the world. We had to turn the world on its side to make it work, but the final image is pretty cool, and it’s the best representation of how the characters intertwine I’ve seen yet. (And maybe there’s something symbolic to me looking at the world my own little way, right?)

Another reason Throwaway is a good gateway into my books is because it captures the feel that runs through all of my novels. The heroines in each are from vastly different walks of life, but all share a tenacity of heart and hope that drives them to make their world a better place. Whether they’re facing down human trafficking rings, on the run from the law, or simply trying to revive a failing horse farm, their stories all somehow intertwine – just like our own stories do.

Some of my books tackle dark subjects, some don’t. Some are written for a purpose, some just wouldn’t be silent until I got them on paper. All are a piece of me. All are a glimpse of my own journey to figure out who I am and what I’m supposed to be doing with this life God gave me. All are about love and laughter and the undeniable spark that happens when you meet that one person you were put on the planet for. I love that spark and I never get tired of writing about it.

Since Throwaway is the gateway through which most people enter the world of Heather Huffman books, we – meaning me and Booktrope – have decided to offer the ebook up for free for the foreseeable future. I can’t promise it’ll always be free, but I don’t plan to change it any time soon. So please, if you enjoy my books, tell everyone you know to download it and then tell everyone they know. I appreciate your help spreading the word more than you’ll ever know!

Click here to download Throwaway for free on Amazon or iTunes.

 

Back to Work

As much as I’ve enjoyed my self-indulgent Dean Cain marathon this week, with a farm full of animals and a house full of boys and their friends, it was time to get back to life today. The first order of business was putting the finishing touches on the goat pen since no matter how many times I explain it to them, they just don’t seem to understand why it’s a bad idea for them to lay on the front steps.

Although they did seem to at least consider my argument…

 

So my oldest son and I spent our morning shoring up the holes the goats have found in the lovely fence we’d put up for them. The infamous Snickers seemed a little offended that we’d lock her up like a common barn animal.

 

And I can’t be sure, but I think Porsche – our largest and oldest goat – might have been laughing at my naïve belief that I could construct a fence that would actually contain my little imps.

 

Last night’s storms broke the oppressive heat and humidity that’s been clinging to the days of late, so it was actually a fairly pleasant morning.

It’s crazy how much difference a day can make. After a morning in the sunshine, amidst my animals, getting my hands dirty with a little hard work, I’m better able to remember the circumstances of today are only temporary. Life is only as limited as my attitude towards it, and tomorrow is full of possibilities.