Kate Collins's Blog, page 253

You Are Now Free to ... Get Sick

by Leann

It happens EVERY TIME. Friday, I turned in my manuscript for the next Cats in Trouble installment, The Cat, The Mill and The Murder--coming May 2013 to bookstores everywhere (commercial over). First comes the burst of energy, the exhilaration from knowing I can still write a book. (This will be my 10th published book!) I am now free to do such wonderful tasks as sweeping the floor, doing the dishes, mopping, cleaning bathrooms, organizing drawers for the next season, and even going out to dinner with friends. I did all those things Friday.

But in between that rush of activity, I had a little cry. Letting go of a book I have worked so hard on does bring on a bit of grief. This one was written in between packing, moving and relocating to a place I've never lived. I still only know where three stores are in my new town. (And haven't found someone to cut and color my hair. That's a serious problem!) This book, like every book, provided unique challenges. It's also my most researched book in a while and made me learn much more about South Carolina. I am happy about that.

Then came the dreaded next post-manuscript event. I woke up Saturday with the sore throat, the runny nose, the BLAHS! Happens every time I finish a book. It's as if my brain will not allow the rest of me to break down until I am done. And boy, do I feel exhausted. Since I have chronic fatigue syndrome, this could just be what is called "post-exertion fatigue. My throat is usually always red, so let's hope by the time you are reading this, I am feeling better. After all--I NEED A HAIR CUT!!

What about you? When you've worked hard for weeks or months on something what happens to your body? And do you get as cranky as I do? :-)[image error]

Who Doesn’t Love Free Stuff?

By Heather
I’m currently at Bouchercon, one of the largest mystery conventions/conferences around, and having lots of fun catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. One of the perks of the conference is that you get a great big tote bag stuffed with all kinds of goodies, including lots and lots of books.
Who doesn't love free stuff? Free good stuff at least. :)
And because it doesn't seem fair that all of us conference-goers are reveling in all this goodness, I thought I’d share the wealth.
So, just leave a comment telling me what you’re currently reading, and I’ll pick a random winner (using random.org) to send a book from the conference, and also this fabulous puzzle designed by the artist who does the covers for my Wishcraft series.
Cute, isn't it?


I’ll pick a winner Monday morning, so make sure you check back to see if you won, because I’ll need a mailing address to ship your prizes!
Good luck!

Living in Quiet Desperation

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

Last fall, we lost our beloved Bonnie cat.  Someone told me that we might see a shift in the cat hierarchy at our house.  We have two male cats who have lived with each other for 8 years with no problem.  But in May, something happened.  We took both of them with us to our summer cottage for a weekend.  We used to take the girls (Bonnie's sister, Betsy, is still with us), or one girl and one boy.  But we didn't want to leave one cat home alone.  So we took all three.

It's a small cottage, and as Mr. L predicted--there was tension.  That tension erupted into the boys starting to mark their territory.  And guess what?  When we got home, they started marking their territory at our home, too.  Each of them wants to be Top Cat.

We've spent the summer (and now the fall) with Comfort-Zone Feliway (pheromones) that's supposed to calm the cat(s) and stop inappropriate marking.  They're also wearing calming collars. (Which are purple and smell like grape -- but artificial grape.  Ick.)

We disinfect the places where they mark, and we spray stuff that's supposed to mask the smell and stop them from marking their territory.

Needless to say, I wouldn't be writing this post if we didn't still have a problem. 

I've had cats for nearly my entire life.  Why is this happening now?

Does anybody have any tips for me?  Or do I have to keep scrubbing and spraying chemicals and ultimately replacing my wall-to-wall carpet?

I'm desperate.  Can you help?

Bouchercon Bound!

by Julie

Bouchercon begins today! What is Bouchercon, you ask? It's the world mystery conference and this year it's being held in Cleveland, Ohio with the theme "Crime Fiction Rocks!"
Neil Plakcy, Rosemary Harris, me, Hank Phillippi Ryan
I forgot to take my camera last year, but here's a photo, with some of my wonderful writer friends, from Bouchercon 2009 (Indianapolis, IN) which was a fabulous, amazing, and awesome weekend. Can you tell I enjoyed myself? LOL At that conference, my STATE OF THE ONION won both the Barry and Anthony Awards for Best Paperback Original. What an honor. I couldn't believe it. I'm still flying high!





Today begins Bouchercon 2012 and I'll be on the panel "Cooking up a Mystery" alongside Connie Archer and Kathleen George with my friend Molly MacRae as moderator. If you'll be there, we're on at 2:45PM. Judging from the emails flying back and forth, this promises to be a fun group!

I love Bouchercon because it gives me a chance to catch up with friends I haven't seen in a while--author friends, reader friends--and it gives me a chance to meet new friends as well. There are lots of great events going on through Sunday, but the one where I'll be holding my breath will be at the Anthony Awards on Saturday night.

Buffalo West Wing, the fourth in my White House Chef series, has been nominated in the Best Paperback Original category. Woo-hoo!!! I am so excited, so nervous. Thrilled beyond description!

I'm always happy to be at Bouchercon, but this nomination makes it even more exciting!

Let me know if you'll be there (I'll be checking in online, for sure) so I can keep a look out for you!

And...wish me luck on Saturday evening!

Hugs,
Julie

Sleuths & Wheels

by Hannah Reed/Deb Baker


Transportation is important in small town settings; it's the only way to get around. No taxis, buses, trains. So my characters really appreciate their vehicles.

Here are a few favorites from the Queen Bee series:

Grams drives a Cadillac Fleetwood, which is a lot of car for such a tiny woman, but she needs the extra armor now that her driving ability isn’t what it used to be.  She's clipped the police chief's vehicle more than once. Thankfully, she hasn't been caught yet.

Hunter Wallace, Story’s high school sweetheart and grownup main man, tools around on a Harley, apropos since Harley and Hunter are both from Wisconsin. Don't you just love a man in leather?

Amateur sleuth, Story Fischer, drives a vintage blue pickup truck, which comes in handy when she needs to transport beehives or load up the back with local apples for her grocery store, The Wild Clover.

Yes, wheels are important in mysteries, whether they hold dead bodies in the trunks or provide the means for some serious bad guy chasing.

What other protagonists value their rides? And no one better say  Stephanie Plum, cuz she trashes every single one she drives:)



 

Traveling, Traveling

by Maggie Sefton



These past six weeks have flown by.   Visiting family and friends in Northern Virginia and Washington, DC, talking about mysteries, meeting new people----it's been unbelievably hectic---and I've loved every minute of it.

Right now, I've just arrived home late Monday night from the airport in Denver and am ready to catch up on some sleep.  I'll have two days here in Colorado before I head back to the airport and travel yet again.  On Thursday, I head to Cleveland, Ohio, to meet bunches of mystery readers and fans and other authors at the Bouchercon conference.  I'll be on a panel with other mystery authors and will get to hang out with some of the other Cozy Chicks who'll be attending the conference.

This past weekend I finished off my six week Washington, DC trip by attending my alma mater, George Washington University's Alumni Weekend.  I hadn't attending one of GWU's events in years.  What fun!  I'll be sure to come again next year.

When was the last time you attended a college or high school reunion?  

Healthy Hummus

by Lucy Arlington
(This is a continuation of Lucy’s Cozy Kitchen posts that sample recipes from The CozyChicks Kitchen Cookbook.)
One of my favorite things is to cook for company. I’ll spend hours leafing through magazines and searching the Internet for new and interesting recipes to try. But sometimes, in my enthusiasm for planning the meal, I forget about an appetizer until just before. That’s when I turn to my favorite standby—hummus.
I love chickpeas and always have a can or two on hand. It’s easy to throw them into the food processor with a few other ingredients and voila! Hummus. I serve it with pitas, or tortilla chips, or raw veggies. And it’s so easy to add other ingredients to it to make it different, like chopped tomatoes or olives.
But I don’t only serve hummus as a company appetizer. It tastes great in wraps and sandwiches too, or stuffed into a romaine lettuce leaf. The other day I made vegetarian quinoa burgers for dinner (I’ll share that recipe another time) and served them with a dollop of hummus. Delicious!
Kate Collins included a great recipe for hummus in The Cozy Chicks Kitchen Cookbook . Give it a try. I know you’ll like it.
Hummusby Kate Collins
Ingredients1 14-ounce can chickpeas, drained4 tablespoons Tahini sauce¼ cup lemon juice1 clove garlic, peeled1-2 teaspoon sea salt to taste (optional)⅓ cup waterpaprika
Blend the first 4 ingredients in food processor, adding water gradually to keep machine running. The consistency should be smooth and creamy. Empty the contents into a bowl. Sprinkle with paprika. This will keep for weeks but should be refrigerated.
Yield:  2 cups


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P.S.  Did you buy the print edition of the cookbook and wish you could have it signed?  Guess what?  We've got  free bookplates   signed by all the contributing Chicks! To get yours, just write to us, give us your snail mail address, and we'll send you one (plus a few Cozy  Chicks bookmarks).  Our email address is: cozychicks(at)gmail(dot)com -- Please put BOOKPLATE in the subject header.  Thanks!

Tomboys? How About Well Rounded Humans?

by Leann

I have two granddaughters and come December I will have three. That's exciting enough. I did worry a little about how my son felt about a third girl since he loves soccer, fishing, golf and watching almost anything sports' related. But he said he adores his girls so much, one more is just that much more love in his life. His girls are young, but already they are obsessed with princesses. Isn't every little girl these days? I must say, the youngest one is fearless and loves to climb up and over and on top of anything. Could she have athletic tendencies? Perhaps.

Saturday must have been "Daddy's Day With the Kids" because I received great pictures from my son. He's not about to let it all be about princesses and ballet. I was a little surprised, though. We didn't start our son in soccer until he was about five, but it seems that to my son, the earlier the better. And the soccer lesson in the picture above for the oldest (she'll be five in a few weeks) is far more organized than anything I remember. A herd of little boys chasing a ball in a muddy field is what I remember.

But even the two-year-old is involved. She was at "Soccer Saturday" too. That one needs to use up extra energy and I'm sure her parents are hoping she LOVES soccer. :-) Hmm ...I wonder who stacked those cones so perfectly?

There was more to Daddy Saturday, though. The last picture that came to me wasn't an image of princesses who'd gotten into Mommy's make-up. Nope. If they were gonna play with Daddy, they needed to love what he loves--and has since the invention of "underoos." Remember them? Little boy underpants with their favorite superheroes on them? That's how my son played dress-up--with his underoos and a cape. But I like what my sweet little granddaughters got caught up in today. Aren't these well-rounded girls precious?
Do you have any little well rounded humans in your life? And are they as cute as these two?

Oh The Excitement

by Heather
It’s the little things in life that make me giddy. Truly.
Like my new salad spinner.
Oh, I know you’re thinking I really need to get a life, but that silly salad spinner makes me happy.
It came into my life about a month or so ago after years of waging war against soggy salads. It was after a batch of freshly washed lettuce turned all brown on me that went researching how to wash and store lettuce properly.
I came across an amazing blog post (which of course now I cannot find) where the blogger guaranteed fresh crisp lettuce that could be stored in the fridge over a week.
How? I wanted to know. I needed to know!
And that’s when she pointed her readers to the holy grail of salad spinners, the OXO Salad Spinner.
I had to have it. Had. To. Have. It.
I went, I bought, I waited while it shipped. And then I tried it out.
My salads haven’t been the same since.
That’s a good thing! I’m thrilled with this purchase, and as an added bonus, it’s just plain fun pushing that plunger that sets the bowls a’spinnin'.
Do you have a favorite kitchen gadget?

Soup season is on!

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

Last week I talked about sweater time.  Well, what follows next is soup time.

I love soup, but never a cold one.  Not gazpacho, not borscht, nor any fruit-flavored "soup."  My mom once had cold peach soup on a cruise that she said was wonderful.  In fact, her tablemate ate it as a first course and dessert, bit I don't think I'd care for it just because it's cold.  Soup is supposed to be hot!

[image error] We eat a lot of roast chicken (one of my favorite meals) and when we're done, I save and freeze the carcasses. Over the summer we've accumulated a LOT of chicken carcasses, which freaks out Mr. L when he opens our chest freezer.  We had a rainy cold day and since both of us had been under the weather, I felt it was time to make homemade chicken soup.

I have a HUGE pot that I filled with water and chicken skeletons and boiled them for five hours.  Next, I put in a load of carrots, leeks, celery, lima beans, and any other vegetable I could lay my hands on.  The result?  A whole lotta soup, and boy is it good.  It's not full of sodium or other preservative chemicals--just a good dose of ground black peppercorns and some poultry seasoning.  And best of all, I have ten lunches frozen so that on any given (10) day(s) I have a wonderful lunch just ready to that/heat and eat.  Come winter, I'll be making a lot of 16-Bean soup, which is hearty enough  to be a dinner in itself.

So what's your favorite soup and do you make it yourself?[image error]