Kate Collins's Blog, page 223

Changes

By Heather
Big things are happening in Casa Webber these days. In two weeks Mr. W and I will officially be empty nesters. So what did we do?
We bought a new house.
We realized it was a good time to downsize and took the leap. The kind of leap you make with your eyes closed and your fingers crossed.
Officially, we move in after the kids go off to school, but we've been back and forth over to the new place a couple of times a day. Cleaning, letting in contractors, stripping endless amounts of wallpaper—that kind of thing.
And here at our old house we've been packing and purging. Going to a smaller place means we have to get rid of a lot of stuff. We've lived here for nineteen years and apparently we’re packrats. All of us.
The hardest thing so far to pare down has been our books. It’s just so hard to let titles go, but we have to be ruthless about it. There just isn't space for them all, unfortunately. And even though we've cut back, we still have overflowing bookcases (how does that happen???). Plus, I have all my backlist books, too, in bins. I’m not even sure what to do with those. But we’ll figure it out. We'll have lots of time with the nest being empty and all (SIGH).
So, if anyone has any moving or packing or purging tips, I'm all ears. Oh, I'll also take wallpaper removal tips, too. (Curse that wallpaper!)

A Parade of Postcards!

by Lorraine Bartlett / Lorna Barrett / L.L. Bartlett

Earlier this year, the Cozy Chicks sent out postcards to our readers. They were very cute, with the covers of the first books in one of our cozy mystery series.  (And wouldn't you know, I can't find the picture on my hard drive!)

Since we weren't specifically "selling" anything, except to make our readers aware of some of our books, we considered it a nice little informational piece which told readers a bit about us and our blog.  (Did you get one?  Did you like it?)

This was my latest postcard.Postcards are a great way to get word out about a new book, and several of the Chicks send them out regularly.  (If you aren't already on our list, you can fill out the form on the left side of the blog.  Just give your email address and you go on our newsletter list. When you give your snail address, also go on the postcard list.)

I ran a little survey on Facebook this week asking people if they would like to get my next postcard.  If you'd like to partake, you can fill out this 3-question survey by clicking this link.

Do you enjoy getting author postcards?  Do you collect them?  We'd love to know!

Summer Cheesecake

by Lucy Arlington

We had invited company over for dinner on the weekend, so I leafed through my recipes searching for a dessert that would nicely finish off our grilled salmon dinner. I had a yearning to make a cheesecake, but in these hot and humid summer months, I didn't relish having the oven on for an hour. Just as I was considering this I came upon a recipe given to me many years ago by my dear friend, Paulette, and my search ended.


This no bake cheesecake is light, creamy, and oh so delicious. Layered on a chocolate crumb crust, the velvety vanilla flavour of the cream cheese filling contrasts delightfully with the tart cherries on top. I still recall the first time I tasted it, when Paulette had made it in the days we were young mothers. I was surprised that something so simple could taste so divine. And you only need the oven on for about 10 minutes to bake the crust.
I did end up making it for our company and now I’m sharing the recipe with you, courtesy of Paulette. Don’t you love the way recipes get passed along?
Paulette’s Deluxe Cherry Cheesecake
1½ cups chocolate wafer crumbs¼ cup melted butter250 g cream cheese, softened1 cup icing sugar1½ tsp vanilla1 cup whipping cream1 can (19 oz) cherry pie filling

1. Mix crumbs and butter. Press into 9-inch pie dish. Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes. Cool.2. Beat Cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla until smooth.3. Whip cream; fold into cheese mixture.4. Pour into cooled crust and chill.5. Spoon cherry filling over cheese filling and refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Better Late Than Never - Catching up on award winning television shows

by Deb Baker/Hannah Reed

The Emmy nominations have been announced, and as usual, I'm way behind in my efforts to keep up. I have a history of that. Some of my favorite shows I came into way late - Sopranos and Downton Abbey to name two of the many.

Why am I always the last to know when something is really worth watching?

Here's where I am regarding the nominations for one of my favorite categories - Best Comedy:

30 Rock - started watching the first season last week. How pathetic is that? Why has this not shown up on my radar until it was gone?Aren't there something like seven years worth and a whole boatload of awards?

Girls - haven't seen a single episode.

Louie - watched a few, but found his life depressing. Did I give it enough of a chance? Is this really comedy?

Modern Family - okay, I'm caught up - watched the first few seasons on DVD and worth every second of my time.

The Big Bang Theory - discovered this last year and have watched many of the oldies still going strong on various channels. Go Sheldon!

Veep - don't have HBO, but just watched the first season and it's a keeper.

So what should I watch next? And which do you hope wins?

Music in the Mountains

by Maggie Sefton


Sorry I don't have any photos for you folks today.  But it's Monday night, and I'm
here in Estes Park, CO, in Colorado's High Country without my laptop.  Im using
my trusty iPad.  Estes Park is the precious little mountain town that's the gateway
to the magnificent  Rocky Mountain National Park.  I've posted various photos in past posts, so just 
  picture snow-capped Rockies, and you have the idea.  :).  

I came up here ( hour from Fort Collins) with a friend for a two day getaway into the mountains with music.  We got a reservation to stay overnight at the famous Stanley Hotel (immortalized in Stephen King's novel and movie "The Shining.". I don't watch horror movies, so I told my friend that I would not accompany her tonight when she stays up late downstairs reading, then decides to wander the halls hoping to meet some of King's hotel "spirits.".   I told her I'd be upstairs asleep by then, I hope, and advised her NOT to bring any phantoms back into the room.  I have enough different characters inhabiting my head as it is.  I definitely don't need wandering hotel spirits.  :).  She made no promises.  Frankly, I don't think she's going to see anything.  The huge historic hotel is booked solid.  Every room is full with  visiting summer guests.  You hear teenagers muttering that they're not afraid of ghosts, so if the hotel spirits want to have some fun, they'll pick on the teenagers.  (eg).

My friend and I arrive at lunch time in the rain.  This is our wonderful Monsoon season.  And Estes Park and the mountains are beautiful even in the rain.  We had a leisurely lunch then drove thru the park for an hour with few of the visiting tourists around.  The animals senses that the rain would scare tourists away, and a young bull elk, very young, little antlers still covered with "velvet" paraded his youthful self across a road while we few cars stopped and admired him.  :)

But tonight, we went to the Estes Park Music Festival.  We'd reserved tix online.  We had a quicker dinner then off to the concert.  Bach' s Brandenburg Concertos #2, 4, and 5.  Oh, my, did I need that.  I didn't even know how much I'd missed just going to the concert halls lately.  I'd been SO busy with the writing business.  But Music was the main Art in in Life for. . .well, most of my life.  I had characters spinning stories in my head since childhood, but I never wrote them down.  I simply amused myself with them.  But my chief artistic outlet was my music.  Ever since I was a child of eight.  I was blessed with a clear true lyric soprano voice, and my church choir director recruited me into the children's choir.  I started singing the sacred repertoire of Bach and I was hooked.  I was in  choirs and select audition choral groups the rest of school, jr high, sr high and.Univesity. And into adulthood.  Washington DC choral society, voice teachers, music lessons.  Choral societies in Indiana when we were at Purdue, and again in Fort Collins, CO at Colo State Univ.

Stories and characters were always in my head, but I always had my artistic outlet---music. Maybe that's why I didn't start writing until my early 30s.  Who knows?  But our lives can become SO very busy, even with things and work we love, like writing novels, that we forget to nurture ourselves.  That's what this short trip is about.  Nurturing myself and my friend with two things we love:  the Colorado mountains and classical Music.    What nurtures you?

What Type Are You? A Short Nail Survey (no pun intended)

by Kate Collins


As I sat in a state of pure bliss in a massaging chair at a local nail salon, I looked down the long line of happy, chattering women extending either a hand or foot to a nail technician and began to ponder: can you tell what type of person you are by the condition of your fingernails or toenails?

So I came up with a brilliantly clever questionnaire designed to nail down the situation: (cough)

1. Do you keep your fingernails short or long?

2. Do you get manicures but not pedicures?

3. Do you get pedicures but not manicures?

4. Do you hate anyone handling your toes?

5. Do you get both manicures and pedicures?

6. Are you a DIYer?


Based on my unofficial survey (of myself) here are the results:

1. A. If you keep your fingernails short, you're probably a smart, no-nonsense type and work with your hands.

1. B. If you keep your fingernails long but bare, you're probably a busy woman who has a limited amount of time and/or patience to make yourself beauteous -- and you have pretty nails.  (But no sharp points, right? That's so 1960s.)

2. If you get manicures but not pedicures, you (a) pay attention to detail, (b) have nails with no splitting or deep ridges that make nail polish a challenge to keep on, or get acrylic nails, and (c) you probably hate your toes so much you refuse to give them the time of day. Bad toes. Bad!

3. If you get pedicures but not manicures, me, too, and thus I really like you. Don't you adore those relaxing foot and calf massages? Want to grab a quick cup of coffee afterward?

4. If you hate anyone touching your toes, you're missing out on one of life's greatest mini-vacations. Get over it. Toes are ugly. Don't shun them. They can't help it.

5. If you get dual mani/pedi treatments, you have more patience/time than I do, but good for you. Pat yourself on the back when those nails are dry.

6. If you're a DIYer, you clearly have artistic ability and/or are possibly ambidextrous.

Well? Did I nail it?

Riveting Reality

by Leann

There was a time when "reality TV" came on the scene and I was hooked. One of my degrees is in behavioral science and my classes in social psychology were among my favorites. Reality TV, in the beginning, was basically a social psychology experiment--social psychology being the study of humans as they behave within their society. But apparently if you experiment in front of millions of people in a capitalistic society, it's not really an experiment. It's just scantily clad people on an island in the Pacific eating grubs and berries.

Back in the 60's and 70's, researchers in the field got in big trouble for
their human testing. One experiment that drew great controversy was where "subjects" were shocked by other "subjects" to see how far the person doing the shocking would go. Another one that caused serious debate and led to new rules in how we experiment with human subjects was the Stanford Prison Experiment. College students were recruited to be either prisoners or prison guards. The results were disturbing in that the "guards"--supposedly normal, everyday young people--became more and more brutal as time wore on, proving that "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." I don't even
remember what the hypothesis was in either case, but I know they had to shut the Stanford study down after just 6 days. Both "prisoners" and "guards" were profoundly affected.

I no longer watch much reality TV aside from singing or dance competitions. "Real" housewives pulling each other's hair or a child who might near serious therapy in the future or a man who has a bunch of women living with him and lots and lots and lots of children just doesn't appeal to me. I'm not sure this is the reality I know. Or care to know. The older I get, the more fiction draws me in.

But two news stories--and hasn't twenty-four news created it's own alternate reality?--did hold my interest this summer. The Zimmerman trial (which I watched WITHOUT commentary, just listened to the case as it presented in court) and the royal baby. I won't comment on Zimmerman. But these fantastic, relate-able royals? First, Kate with her post-partum body for all the world to see and her saying without having to speak that "this is what a woman looks like after she has given birth and it's beautiful!" And Wills doing so many things wrong with that baby car seat like we've ALL done because let's face it--you need a manufacturer's rep with you when you try to get that thing done right the first few times. These are normal, young, happy, lovely people. And that's the kind of reality I'll take every time.

No surprise I write fiction and I love happy endings! What's your reality this summer?

Reader Poll - What Would You Put in a Time Capsule?

Ellery Adams

I read an article in our local paper about a time capsule discovered near the foundation stone of a church here in Richmond. No one knew the capsule was there and it was only found because the church was undergoing renovations.

Needless to say, I was fascinated by the contents of the capsule and as I read the article, I started thinking of a plotline for a future Books By the Bay mystery. In any case, I could use your help because I was wondering what things people would be passionate about including in a time capsule.

There's limited space in a capsule, so what would you put inside to show the people of the future what our lives were like? I thought of a few obvious things like a piece of technology (like a smartphone), examples of our money, a photo of what people look like (and what we wore), and a newspaper.

Any other ideas of things people might have put in a capsule 100 years ago?

Conflicting Stories ...

by Lorraine Bartlett / Lorna Barrett / L.L. Bartlett

Early in my writing career (when it was primarily a hobby ... because I was unpublished), I had very few story ideas.  It used to worry me because as I'd near the end of one project, I'd think, "Whatever will I do now???"

Well, those days are gone. Now I have far, far too many stories I want to write. 

I'm in the middle of a story I've wanted to write for close to fifteen years.  Not only is it going really well, but it's going fast, too.  (Of course.  I've had 15 years to think about it.) I've got a new writing routine that's working out splendidly (but is weather dependent, so will vanish with the summer--I'll have to figure something else out--and soon!), and my head is about to explode because of all the story ideas in it.

More than once, I've worked on more than one story at a time.  Back in January, while on vacation, I juggled four of them and wrote more in three weeks than I had in six months. But I also missed out on most of my vacation, too.  I want to finish this book quickly, so for now I'm going to concentrate on only writing it.

But while I do that, I'm still juggling story ideas (novel, novelette and short)  for The Jeff Resnick Mysteries, The Booktown, Mysteries, Victoria Square, Tales of Telenia, along with a couple of short story ideas, and a whole new cozy series. 

Knowing I have so many ideas is a comfort, but also a pain in the butt because I can't write them fast enough. But it's a problem I'm willing to shoulder.

My next worry?  Finding readers for so many diverse subjects/series/stories.

What's productive?

by Julie

I took our youngest daughter to New York City in celebration of her turning 21. Nope, we didn't hang out at bars or down martinis. She's not interested in drinking and I'm completely okay with that! Instead, we saw four shows (of varying quality), visited with my editors, and took in the sights. Wonderful four days. The weather was a bit too warm, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Because I had that trip to Door County in June, this trip to New York, Grace Takes Off's release, the extended 4th of July holiday weekend, my book launch party about ten days ago, and a few other family commitments, I haven't been able to devote as much time to actual writing as I'd like.

Last week I buckled down. This week I'm continuing to make progress. We have a super busy weekend coming up. Even though I'll be home, I won't be at the computer starting Friday, through Monday, for sure. So it was even more imperative that I get some words behind me.

At one point in my life I wrote two pages a day, every day. Did that for five years straight with no misses. That's about 500 words per day. These days, I try to write a minimum of 2,000 words per day. I have to admit, I don't always achieve that goal, but when I do I feel great.

Monday of this week, I did about eight loads of laundry, made dinner (vegetarian for my daughter, chicken with lots of fresh veggies for us), and still hit my 2,000 word goal. That was a productive day. Tuesday I hit 2,500 and as I write this, it's Wednesday morning. I'm hoping to clear 3,000 words today. I'll comment below and let you know.

We all have different responsibilities, different interests, different demands on our time. What does a productive day look like for you?