Sandra Nachlinger's Blog, page 33

Fog - Saturday Snapshots

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we've had some foggy days recently. Seems to me this usually happens during the transition between seasons - easing out of winter into springtime. NOT fun to drive in, but this last batch wasn't too bad.

10:00 a.m., driving through a black-and-white world The sun is trying to break through. But there's still plenty of fog down closer to the Green River

What We Keep - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

     What We Keep is the touching story of two sisters, beginning at ages twelve and thirteen, told in flashbacks. As an adult, Ginny (the younger sister) travels across the country for a reunion with her mother whom she has not seen for thirty-five years. The story of the two sisters' childhood is revealed in Ginny's memories during her journey. 
     The author shows amazing insight into the way children think and react to changes in their lives. I enjoyed her sense of humor, characters, and description. This is a book I will read again.


Book Beginning:
Outside the airplane window the clouds are thick and rippled, unbroken as acres of land. They are suffused with peach-colored, early morning sun, gilded at the edges. Across the aisle, a man is taking a picture of them. Even the pilot couldn't keep still--"Folks," he just said, "we've got quite a sunrise out there. Might want to have a look." I like it when pilots make such comments. It lets me know they're awake.

The Friday 56 - From page 56 in my paperback. Here's what Ginny thinks about her ballet lessons.
     Though I enjoyed looking at ballerinas, I hated studying ballet. It was the crowns the ballerinas wore that I lusted after, the ride in the elaborately decorated sleigh I saw when we watched The Nutcracker on television. I had no desire to train my body to do difficult things requiring grace and precision.

Genre: Contemporary Fiction / Family Saga
Length: 274 Pages (Originally released in 1998)
Amazon Link:  What We Keep
Author Website/Blog: Elizabeth Berg Website

Synopsis from Goodreads:
     Do you ever really know your mother, your daughter, the people in your family? In this rich and rewarding new novel by the beloved bestselling author of Talk Before Sleep and The Pull of the Moon, a reunion between two sisters and their mother reveals how the secrets and complexities of the past have shaped the lives of the women in a family. 
     Ginny Young is on a plane, en route to see her mother, whom she hasn't seen or spoken to for thirty-five years. She thinks back to the summer of 1958, when she and her sister, Sharla, were young girls. At that time, a series of dramatic events--beginning with the arrival of a mysterious and sensual next-door neighbor--divided the family, separating the sisters from their mother. Moving back and forth in time between the girl she once was and the woman she's become, Ginny at last confronts painful choices that occur in almost any woman's life, and learns surprising truths about the people she thought she knew best. 
      Emotional honesty and a true understanding of people and relationships are combined in this moving and deeply satisfying new book by the novelist who "writes with humor and a big heart about resilience, love and hope. And the transcendence that redeems" (Andre Dubus). "From the Hardcover edition."

                         

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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Three Pounds - Saturday Snapshots

Shown below are several reasons why I haven't been able to lose the three pounds I have gained since my husband retired and started cooking every day. I believe the photos are self-explanatory. (Click to enlarge.)


Pear tart, anyone? That's apricot glaze on top.

Onion pizza with black olives and anchovies.

The results of a truffle making class.
Left to right: cayenne, Grand Marnier, espresso, mint, cherry, raspberry
Currently he's working his way through the "Breads, Sandwiches, and Pizzas" chapter of Jacques Pépin's Essential Pépin. 
Small, Light Country Loaves Baguettes
Are elastic-waist jeans in my future?

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, click HERE or on the box below. 
To participate in Saturday Snapshots: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on the host blogsite. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

Willow Vale - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

     In Willow Vale, Alethea Williams tells a fascinating story of two people whose lives have been torn apart by The Great War. Francesca Sittoni's first husband dies, and she is forced into marriage to an abusive man who takes her and her daughter away from their small Tyrolean town to the United States. After her second husband's death in a mining accident, Francesca answers a newspaper ad to work as a housekeeper for Wyoming rancher Kent Reed.
     The war has damaged Kent Reed, both physically and emotionally. Through beautiful description and with believable character development, this book tells the story of how both Francesca and Kent overcome their hardships. It is obvious that the author has done her homework in her portrayal of life in rural Wyoming during this era. She has created a book that I enjoyed from beginning to end.
     By the way, I have previously featured another excellent book by this author: Walls for the Wind

Beginning:
Faces wet with tears, Francesca Sittoni and her mother clung to each other one final time. Her mother's bones felt as thin and fragile as those of a bird. With little enough to eat for any of them, Francesca knew her mother had been giving much of her own meager portion to her daughter and to her granddaughter, Elena, to build them up for the trip.

Friday 56:
The more Francesca thought about it, the more she pitied Kent Reed--and herself. She could see no happy ending for the two of them, and it made her sad to chop down the seedling of hope Agnes had planted before it had a chance to take root. But it was better so, that she destroy false hope, for her own sake and Elena's too.

Genre: Historical Fiction / Romance
Length: 162 Pages
Amazon Link:  Willow Vale
Author Website/Blog: Actually Alethea

Synopsis:
In this inspiring novel of hope, from opposite sides of an ocean two people wounded by the Great War are fated to meet and try to rebuild their lives. Francesca Sittoni was brought against her will to America by the husband she never loved. Now she finds herself alone-widowed, pregnant, and with a small daughter to support. Terrified of being deported back to the Tyrol valley of her birth in the Dolomite Alps of Italy, Francesca answers an ad placed by Wyoming rancher and former dough boy Kent Reed. As their contracted year together passes, Francesca begins to ask if she is cook and housekeeper to Kent...or a secretly sought mail-order bride as the meddling neighbors insist? Only Kent Reed, burned by mustard gas and his spoiled former wife's desertion, knows his heart's true desire when it comes to the beautiful Tyrolean woman now living in the uncomfortably close quarters of his small ranch house.
Sharon Wildwind of Story Circle Book reviews says, "This book is not only a fine read in itself, but it also could be a springboard to read with older teen-agers as an introduction to discussing what real love and real maturity mean. A lovely, hopeful story."

                         

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
Click HERE to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (sponsored by Rose City Reader)
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Writing Rituals?

Bluebonnets for Elly is available in paperback and ebook formats:

Sweet Cravings Publishing 
Amazon  
Amazon UK
Barnes and Noble
CreateSpace (paperback only)

Signs of Spring - Saturday Snapshots

We've had a mild winter here in the Pacific Northwest, and signs of spring have already appeared. Here's what I discovered in a walk around my home over the past few days.
Blossom on a Star Magnolia tree after a rainy day
We cut back our camellias after they were damaged by
an ice storm a couple of years ago, so we were
delighted that one of them bloomed beautifully this year.
I caught a slug munching on my daffodils!
Luckily, this bloom was spared.
Purple crocus - One of the first flowers to emerge.For those of you who are still waiting for spring, it will come ... eventually!


Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, click HERE or on the box below. 
To participate in Saturday Snapshots: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on the host blogsite. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

A Quilt for Christmas - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

A Quilt for Christmas is the story of a woman whose husband enlists in the Union army to fight in the Civil War, leaving her to cope with running the family farm. It's also about friendship, courage, hardship, forgiveness, and family (and quilting, too). This is an engrossing 5-star book that paints a vivid picture of rural Kansas in the 1860s and shows the effects of war on the wives and children back home.
     Seems like I've been reading books lately that have Christmas in their titles. This one was a birthday gift from Sandra Allen, my friend (and I.O.U. Sex co-author). She knows I enjoy quilting and reading a good story, and she sent along some beautiful fabric (for quilting) too. 
Thank you, Sandra!

Book Beginning:
Prologue - November 20, 1864
     It was a fine fall evening. The wind carried the smell of rotting apples and wood smoke and a hint of frost that would likely come after midnight. The setting sun made the stubble in the fields shimmer like flakes of mica and sent rays of light through the clouds as if the Almighty Himself were casting down the fiery shafts. Far off were the night sounds of cattle lowing, and nearer, of chickens clucking. The wind swirled papery dead leaves across the porch.

Friday 56 (from Page 56):
Eliza put her hands over her eyes, then shook her head. Will wasn't dead, she thought. He couldn't be.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Historical Fiction
Length: 242 Pages (hardback)
Amazon Link: A Quilt for Christmas
Author Info: Sandra Dallas Website

Synopsis from the author's website:
The Civil War, 1864: Eliza Spooner’s husband, Will, has joined the Kansas Volunteers to fight for the Union. Confident that he will return home, Eliza helps pass the time by making a special quilt to keep Will warm during his winter months. When the unthinkable happens, she takes in a woman and child who have been left alone and made vulnerable by the war, and she finds solace and camaraderie among the women of her quilting group. And when she is asked to help hide an escaped slave, she must decide for herself what is right and whom she can count on to help her.

                         

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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Rushing Around Auburn - Saturday Snapshots

On a recent walk through the "downtown" area of the small town where I live (population approximately 70,000) I came across this series of public art. Seems like everybody's in a hurry!
On the corner of Main and A Street ...
By the Sunbreak Cafe
Next to City Hall ... On roller skates and unicycles ... At the train station ...Where are they all going and what's the rush?
Update -- I found this info online: Paul Sorey's "Catch the Train Running Figures" are eleven stainless steel figures along A St and within the Auburn Transit Station plaza that represent the multitude and diversity of people who make their way (running, so they won't miss the train or bus!) to Auburn Transit Station. 


Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, click HERE or on the box below. 
To participate in Saturday Snapshots: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on the host blogsite. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

Christmas Cracker - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

     Outspoken private investigator Morgan "Morg" Mahoney and drop-dead-gorgeous heiress Heather Pierce are unlikely friends, and that's part of what makes Christmas Cracker so much fun. Morg's habit of putting her foot in her mouth adds humor to the plot, and when the two women take a trip from California to an English manor house, you know it isn't going to be dull. A series of murders and a kidnapping will keep you turning pages until the bad guy is revealed.  
     R. L. Cherry has recently released It's Bad Business, a second Morg Mahoney mystery. I'm looking forward to reading it too.

Book Beginning:
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy - 2002
Chapter 1
     Exercising is a pain in the ass. Any woman who says she likes it is crazy, lying, masochistic or some combination of the three. I do it, work out that is, but I hate it. I could claim that I exercise to keep in shape in case I ever have to kick some bad guy's butt. After all, it does take more than just putting "Private Investigator" on the door to be good at my job. And since private investigators are normally men, a woman in the field needs every edge she can get.

The Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
"If my life were threatened, I wouldn't pay one copper penny. Andrew, though, is my son. I cannot chance letting him die...."

Genre: Mystery / Women Sleuths
Length: 312 Pages
Amazon Link: Christmas Cracker
More About This Author: R. L. Cherry Website

Synopsis:
While private investigator Morgana (Morg) Mahoney leaves sunny Southern California to celebrate Christmas in a picturesque English manor house, she finds she cannot escape crime. What begins as a vacation soon becomes a murder mystery laced with threads of local history, race horses, the IRA, family secrets, and, of course, pure greed. In the land of Sherlock Holmes, Morg finds herself using some of the same methods as that first consulting detective to solve the case.
                         

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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All That Glitters - First Chapter / First Paragraph and Teaser Tuesday

 Glitzy Hollywood starlets, shady mobsters, movie studio moguls, murder, intrigue, and a little romance. All That Glitters has it all! After reading the first Jake and Laura Mystery (The Yankee Club), I knew I'd found a series that I'd want to continue reading. This second book definitely does not disappoint, and a third one (Wings in the Dark) is available for pre-order now. If you enjoyed the old Nick and Nora Charles "Thin Man" movies, you'll adore Jake and Laura. 

First Chapter / First Paragraph:
[FYI: A prologue sets the scene - 1933 Hollywood, Prohibition era - and then the story begins this way)
Chapter 1: The Naughtiest, Bawdiest Year Yet
     I struggled to carry three overstuffed suitcases through a crowded Grand Central Station, and keep up with Broadway actress Laura Wilson. I accidentally bumped her backside and apologized.
     She stopped and glanced at me. "Jake Donovan, did you just pat my bottom?"
     I couldn't help laughing as several passengers gave me a cold stare.
     Her playful smile faded. She turned her back and pretended to fluff her black curls with her white-gloved hands. She spoke in a whisper I could barely hear over the din of the travelers. "Don't look now, but two broad-shouldered lugs in dark suits are following us."

Teaser from 56% on my Kindle- Jake (a mystery writer) gets a phone call from his literary agent, and she has bad news
[agent:] "If the police arrest you for murder, Empire Press won't release Blackie Doyle's Revenge and will sever its relationship with you."
"Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?"
"That doesn't apply to business...."

Genre: Mystery / Humor
Book Length: 261 Pages
Amazon Link: All That Glitters
Link to my post about The Yankee Club, Book 1 of the Jake & Laura Series:  HERE

Synopsis:
Just arrived from New York, Broadway actress Laura Wilson is slated to star in Hollywood’s newest screwball comedy. At her side, of course, is Jake Donovan, under pressure to write his next mystery novel. But peace and quiet are not to be had when an all-too-real murder plot intrudes: After a glitzy party, the son of a studio honcho is discovered dead from a gunshot wound. And since Jake exchanged words with the hothead just hours before his death, the bestselling author becomes the LAPD’s prime suspect.

In 1930s Tinseltown, anything goes. Proving his innocence won’t be easy in a town where sex, seduction, and naked power run rampant. With gossip columnist Louella Parsons dead-set on publicizing the charges against him, Jake has no choice but to do what everyone else does in the City of Angels: act like someone else. Blackie Doyle, the tough-talking, fist-swinging, womanizing hero from Jake’s novels wouldn’t pull any punches until he exposed the real killer—nor will Jake, to keep the role of a lifetime from being his last.


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