Kate Collins's Blog, page 334

Escape to the Mountains

I got to escape into the High Country last week. Finally! It was only for a day, but it was worth it. Somehow, My July and half of August wound up scheduled with long-delayed appointments, meetings, etc that I hadn't been able to escape until now. That's unusual. Usually I race up to the mountains in mid-July if I can.

Since I could only escape for a day and had to return that evening, I drove to the closest spot that had gorgeous views of the mountains---Rocky Mountain National Park. It's...

Raw Milk War: Who Do You Think Will Win?

by Kate

Take a look at this picture of my mom milking the family cow. It's one of my favorite photos of her. Can you see what she's doing? She's giving the cat a drink before taking the rest into the house. The milk didn't have any added hormones, antibiotics, or pesticides in it. It wasn't pasteurized or homogenized, either. It was as God, or nature, made it, what all farmers and their families drank, and was extremely healthy.

Raw (unpasteurized) milk contains enzymes and bacteria that have b...

Dru's Cozy Report: August Reading List

Welcome to Dru's Cozy Report. I will be sharing, on a monthly basis, my views on current cozy mysteries. In this inaugural post, you will find three books that I recently read and my thoughts about them.

[image error]Death in Show by Judi McCoy is the third book in the "Dog Walker" mystery series. Publisher: Obsidian, June 2010

Glitz and glamour are de rigueur at this year's dog show, and Ellie's soaking it all in as the guest of a client. But before the dogs and handlers can take their bows—and wows—one...

Is Gluten-Free for Me?

By Lorna

Ever since Kate's post about bread on Monday, I've seriously been thinking of going gluten free.  Do I think I have a wheat problem?  No, but everybody keeps saying they lost weight, and since I hate to diet, I thought I might try this.  (I do think my mother is wheat intolerant and I'm encouraging her to go wheat free for a couple of weeks to see if she'd feel better.  It would be easier if she had a buddy to do it with.)

Here's my problem.  First of all I love bread.  I love rolls. ...

Schedules

By Heather

When I first started writing, I had three kids, ages 6, 4, and 2. Somehow I managed to write a 450 page book in two months while being a full-time mom.

How?

Because they had a strict schedule. And because they had a strict schedule, I had a strict schedule. My writing time was limited, and I made the most of it.

When they napped, I wrote. When they watched a Disney movie, I wrote (yes, sometimes they watched more than one day—I was a desperate-to-be-published writer!), and when they w...

The Kindness of Strangers

As many of you know, my sweet kitty of three years, Leo, was accidentally killed on Tuesday. I was home with my kids and I held it together long enough to take them to camp and then came home and buried my precious boy in the garden, sobbing loud enough to scare the neighbors indoors.

The writer's life is often solitary and on that day, I felt deeply and incredibly alone. I came back into the house—dirty, sweaty, and in the first stage of raw agony and shock that accompanies grief and I...

Hawaiian Shirts

Aloha shirts.

I can't help noticing the wide selection of Hawaiian shirts in the men's departments these days. Wild, wacky, vivid colors that almost made me motion sick just looking at them.

My husband is in love with Hawaiian shirts. In fact, we went to a party last week and all the men were wearing them. They are hot ticket items. At least with the older generation of males.

Of course, not everybody can pull them off. Some guys are cool in them. Some guys aren't.

And there are rules to proper w...

Kelly Flynn is on Youtube!!

Yay!!! I've finally joined the Youtube ranks with my video book trailer for SKEIN OF THE CRIME. Thanks to our Cozy Chicks resident genius, Jenn Stanley, and to hours of my looking at online photos and listening to music online. Hey! How do you think I was so engrossed that those nasty skeeters ate on me that Sunday night? I was trying to find just the right stuff for my very first video book trailer. Plus writing the text, of course. But the text was a piece of cake compared to all the time p...

But I Thought Bread Was the Staff of Life!

by Kate

Bread has been a staple of the human diet for centuries, but for the past few years it's been getting a bad rap, first for the excess calories of a simple carbohydrate, then for the gluten. Since I didn't consume all that much bread anyway, it was of no consequence. But as more information about gluten sensitivities came out, my internal radar started blipping.

My husband is lactose intolerant. For years he ate yogurt, cheese, and the occasional bowl of ice cream -- and suffered. Then ...

Back to the Real World

by Leann

I finished the third cat book on Friday. Usually, when that manuscript goes off to the editor, I am ready to party. Partying for me includes things like eating ice cream or fast food. I know. I am such a wild child. But this time, I just felt drained. Perhaps that's because I have vet appointments that have been put off, a closet where I cannot find anything and a pile of unfiled receipts and bill statements that date back six months.

I hate filing and I do not want to clean a closet e...