Cathy Perkins's Blog, page 170

Festival People

Here in Louisiana, the end of April means one thing: The New

Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Lucky ticket holders can be certain they

will be treated to great food, sunny weather (usually), crafts, and stellar

entertainment including, but not limited to, the music. That’s right. Festivals

mean…drumroll, please… Festival People. You know the ones, folks who march

to a different drummer, who embrace an inner need to shine. They are the ones

standing out in the crowd, that grab everyone’s atte...

Aunt Frances

It’s Tuesday and I’m supposed to be writing something about a great book or movie, but my plans for this blog were suddenly changed this weekend when Aunt Frances died.

Let me tell you a little bit about Frances. She was 96 years old when she passed away in her sleep. She was nearly blind, but her mind was still as sharp as a tack. Frances is my husband’s aunt, but she and I hit it off almost from the moment I met her back in 1977.

She got a college education at a time when very few women d...

That Strange Voice You Hear

Yes, it’s me. Carla, the absentee blogger. I didn’t fall off the face of the earth, though I have to admit, I can’t say it’s for lack of trying.

To say my life has been somewhat crazy could be considered by some to be an understatement. Five months ago my husband of eight years told me, “We need to talk.” We didn’t talk a lot before that, not about matters close to us. It was too uncomfortable, so we’d kind of gotten used to living in a state of parallel existence. I can’t say I didn’t see...

Eloisa James is visiting!

A New York Times bestseller many times over, Eloisa James writes historical romance for Harper Collins. A reviewer from USA Today wrote of Eloisa’s very first book that she “found herself devouring the book like a dieter with a Hershey bar”; later People Magazine raved that “romance writing does not get much better than this.” Eloisa wrote her first novel after graduating from Harvard, but alas, it was rejected by every possible publisher. After she got an M.Phil. from Oxford, a Ph.D. fro...

Hissy Fits are Part of the Process

In my last blogpost I wrote about process and watching Tiger Woods go through his to return to championship form. Hopes were high for Tiger at the Masters. Well, not only did he finish 40th overall, he threw what my family calls a “hissy fit.”

I wasn’t watching, but it’s been widely reported “he drop-kicked a nine iron,” or “had a meltdown.” A letter to the editor I saw in USA Today demanded ”something be done” about Tiger.

Glad I’m a writer. At least when I throw a “hissy fit” it happens i...

Romancing the Pork

Now that I have your attention …

It’s wacky Wednesday and nothing comes wackier than chocolate covered bacon. I consider myself an affectionado of a food item that along with flour, beans and brown sugar, kept people alive when they wagon-ho’d to the Wild West. You could say our country was founded on bacon. It’s a national treasure, like the bald eagle.

A truly American rendition of cured meat, it doesn’t come with a fancy European name that would suit a romance novel stud, like prosciutto...

Cougar Bait by Grace Burrowes

Earlier this month, I betook myself to my first ever Romantic Times convention, an event that focuses on readers, though authors and romance publishing industry professionals are much in evidence too.

So are romance cover models. In years past, the Cavemen from Ellora’s Cave, and other fellows vied for the title of Mr. Romance. That competition was absent this year, perhaps because the traditional sponsor, Dorchester, is no longer with us.

Another explanation for the demise of “Mr. Romance”...

If Zoo Animals Wrote Books or, My Muse is on Crack

I’m definitely blaming this one on my muse. I’d been missing her (my certifiable little muse) for a few weeks a while ago and hadn’t really done anything to locate her except whine. One day, in the middle of all this, DH and I headed for the zoo. This had nothing on the surface to do with Her, but once on the zoo grounds I kept having these envious thoughts: You lucky buggers (aka, animals), you don’t have to figure out what comes next in your story.

Bingo, Little Miss Muse-thing shows up...

Thoughtful Thursday…It’s Not Fair!!!

I think they should rename this season, The Biggest Whiners. Sheesh. Did any of you see this week’s episode? If you didn’t, here’s a quick recap:

The show opened with the five remaining contestants saying they quit. They were upset because they’d just learned that all the eliminated contestants would be returning with a chance to win a spot in the finale. The remaining contestants said it wasn’t fair; those who’d stayed on The Biggest Loser Ranch had to endure the hours of training, the gr...

People are like chocolate

Last week, a friend and I were talking about body shapes—the pear, the apple, the banana—and diets. All that diet and calorie cutting chatter naturally led me to think about chocolate. Not a practical leap—maybe a little ADD—but it did get me thinking about the different types of chocolate.

Like the multitude of people in the world, chocolate comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

Cocoa powder: An unsweetened powder that is pulverized and partially defatted chocolate liquor.

Unsweetened cho...