Sherry Harris's Blog, page 6

What We’ve Learned From Our Readers

This is the eleventh month of the eleventh year of our blog. That led me to reflecting a little and  looking up things about the number eleven. First a fun fact about the number eleven according to https://www.thefactsite.com/number-11-facts/ — In the United Kingdom they have something called Elevenses. It’s a time for a small snack or drink between breakfast and lunch. I love it!

Wickeds, what have you learned from our readers?

Edith/Maddie: First, I’m all for snacks. Getting up as early as I do, elevenses often double as lunch! But back to the question at hand: one of the loveliest things I’ve learned is that my readers find solace and escape in my stories during really hard times in their lives. When they or a family member are hospitalized, they’re sitting vigil at a dying parent’s bedside, or they’re having troubles at home, readers have reported that my book took them out of those hard things and into a different world.

But maybe you meant our blog readers? I’ve learned that people love to hear about our personal lives, our travels, our travails and triumphs as writers, and our plans for the future. It’s been such a delight to hear from our backblog community about their preferences and opinions.

Jessie: I love this question! I have been tickled pink over the years to hear from readers of the blog and of my novels about the things they love. I am always so pleased to know what they enjoyed and how often what they like echoes my own preferences! It creates such a connection and one I have found so gratifying!

Sherry: I agree, Edith–hearing from our readers is so wonderful. As for our blog readers, wow, they have shared stories that have made me laugh and made me weep. They have given as much to me as I ever gave to them.

Barb: I’ve learned that our readers, and fans of mysteries writ large, are kind, thoughtful, and supportive human beings. You hear such awful things about human behavior in places like Goodreads and Amazon reviews, on social media, and in comments on blogs. I am present on some level on all of these platforms and 99.7% of what I have experienced has been civil and constructive. Here, we can disagree about candy corn, or costumes, or even things more core to our interests, like ebooks versus print books, or mysteries versus thrillers, and we can have those conversations in a positive way. Even the .03% of negative reviews or comments I’ve ever received have been from people who have clearly read the book or the blog post and just disagree or didn’t enjoy it, as is their right. Most people are good. On the very bad days, it is wonderful to come here and be reminded of that.

Liz: Edith, I feel the same – I’ve also had some lovely messages from readers who have read my books and found comfort and/or happiness in them and it means so much. As for the blog, I love that we have readers who come back day after day and have conversations with us. It really feels like we’re part of a family.

Julie: Readers are the soul of what we all do. And we’re all readers first and foremost. What I’ve learned from the Wicked readers is the value of community. We’re so blessed to have each other.

Readers: Have you heard of Elevenses? What would you have?

Election Day

We are so lucky to live in a country where there are fair and free elections. I thought you might enjoy this article about the history of voting rights in the US. If you haven’t already, please go vote!

Edith/Maddie: I voted early at my town hall a week ago!

True story: my Hugh’s father Roy, age 91, was failing in the fall of 2008, but he was determined to cast his vote for the president of his choice. The minute he received his requested New Jersey absentee ballot in September, he filled it out and returned it. He died before Election Day, but his vote counted. Voting is the bedrock of democracy.

The Business of Writing

by Barb, in Key West at last!

Welcome to the sixth and last of my posts about what I’ve learned in my fourteen years as a published author. This post is about the Business of Writing.

I’ve spent most of those years as a traditionally published author and I’m writing from that experience, so view what I have to say from that perspective.

And by the way, I’m astonished that after twenty years we’re somehow seeing instances of traditional versus indie bomb-throwing. It reminds me of the working mom versus stay-at-home mom tempests my younger self was subjected to. These conversations always seem to come from a defensive crouch. Do what’s right for you. Make the most of the choices you have. Let others make the best choice for themselves. Live and let live.

For years, when I’ve talked about the publishing business, I’ve used air quotes. The publishing “business,’ because if you come to it with experience in other industries, publishing will be unrecognizable to you as a business.

[After this, I wrote several paragraphs about the ways the publishing business is insane and the reasons why I think that is so, but I’ve scrapped them. That’s not the point.]

Here’s the point. Author, you are on your own. Whether you are traditionally or independently published, it is down to you. You are running your business and nobody cares about it as much as you do.

Will agents and editors give you professional advice and help you grow as a writer? Yes, they will. But they are inherently conflicted.

Your agent works for you. But unless he or she is a very bad agent, he is doing a lot more business with your publisher than he is doing with you. I’m not suggesting agents are unethical. I am merely saying their bread is buttered on both sides of these transactions and you had best bear that in mind.

Your editor and publisher work in a shrinking industry under ever worse price and margin pressure. This makes them reflexively conservative. If you are even modestly successful, they will want you to do more of what you have been doing. Because doing something else is risky and businesses that are surviving under threat don’t take risks.

If you are lucky, your agent and your publisher are your partners in the development of your business. Your junior partners.

You come into this business as a supplicant. “Please, please like my work.” “Please please publish my work.” So it’s easy to see how, having come to the business as supplicants, writers have trouble immediately shifting into the role of partner. Senior partner. But remember way back in the first post in this series when I said Voice is confidence. Having a fulfilling career, the one you want, is all about confidence, too.

It’s hard to have confidence when you’re dealing with an agents and editors who have way more experience than you, and who have the power to say no. But if you are going to spend your time writing fiction, for goodness sake, write what you want. Have the career that you want. Will you fail? Probably and often. But trying and failing will leave you happier and more satisfied than toiling away at something that is difficult, that you don’t enjoy, with compensation that is far from guaranteed. If you going to indulge yourself by writing, indulge yourself by doing what you want.

Readers: Do you have questions about the publishing business? Barb has nothing to lose at this point, so she’s likely to give you a candid answer.

GET READY FOR NATIONAL DONUT DAY! Welcome Back Ginger Bolton with a Giveaway!

Carol K is the winner of BLAME THE BEIGNETS! Watch for an email from Ginger!

Sherry — how is it already November?

I’m delighted to welcome back Ginger Bolton to celebrate the release of Blame the Beignets which comes out on November 26th — cue the impatient waiting!

Ginger: So, Halloween’s over, and the witches and hobgoblins have hobbled away to gobble their goodies.

            And we could have shelled out all of our Halloween treats . . .

            Or maybe not.

            Some of us carefully curate our Halloween purchases, buying candies and snacks that we like, just in case there might be leftovers. And some of us buy so much that it’s nearly impossible to run out, like, we could buy twice as much as we did last year because you never know—twice as many kids might show up at the door this year.

            Well, in our case, the kids help themselves at the front porch. Our rescue dog Sam led a mysterious (to us) life and is terrified of witches and hobgoblins.

            Okay, now that you’ve admired our extremely cute doggie, let’s get back to treats.

            What if, despite having bought twice as many goodies this year as we did last year, we still don’t have enough to last the week? What if we finish them on November fourth?

            We’re in luck! November fifth is National Donut Day!

            It’s not too early to start planning for National Donut Day. Search the Internet for “Best Donut Shops in” and add the name of your town. Read the reviews, study the maps, and plan your donut-buying route so that early on the fifth you can race to the most appealing donut shops and stock up on donuts.

            I know, I know—donuts don’t keep well. So, enjoy them while they’re fresh. It is, after all, National Donut Day, and there are only two (!) of them each year.

            Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to find beignets. It’s the French word for donuts, but in the U.S., beignets refers to a special, pillowy deep-fried pastry nearly drowning in powdered sugar. New Orleans is famous for them, especially the Café du Monde. I have never been to New Orleans or to the Café du Monde. I want to go there! I want to taste those beignets and drink that chicory coffee!

            Yes, well, want to . . .

            However, one of the many fun things about being a writer is being able to create one’s own worlds, and in my latest Deputy Donut Mystery, BLAME THE BEIGNETS, I brought beignets to Fallingbrook, Wisconsin. My characters get to eat them while solving a murder. Even the dead guy has some before he succumbs. And the murderer?

            I’m not saying.

            Also, I had to try making beignets, and you’ll find a recipe for them in the back of the book. I couldn’t quite bring myself to dump powdered sugar all over them as they do in Café du Monde and Deputy Donut, but I didn’t exactly skimp, either.

GIVEAWAY

I’ll send a print copy of BLAME THE BEIGNETS to a reader who answers one of these questions:  What was the most original Halloween costume that appeared at your door last night? OR What’s your favorite Halloween treat? OR Tell us about taking someone trick or treating. OR Do you remember the first time you tasted a donut, and what did you think about it? OR Have you been to Café du Monde and New Orleans? OR Just say hello! The winner will be chosen at random on November 3. U.S. and Canada only, please.

ABOUT BLAME THE BEIGNETS

As the weather cools down, business heats up at Deputy Donut Café for owner Emily Westhill. But is a stubborn tabby cat, a mysterious new employee, and a murder case with a baker’s dozen worth of suspects too much to manage?

            With mouthwatering treats selling fast in October, Emily is delighted to welcome her assistant’s younger sister, Hannah, to help at the donut shop while taking a semester off from college. But Hannah’s talent for dishing powdered pastries without dropping a crumb attracts some unusual customers, as two admirers with opposite personalities begin to show up during her shifts—much to her older sister’s disappointment . . .

            Real trouble comes after hours in the dark forest surrounding Emily’s lakeside house. Emily follows a trail of her freshly-made beignets—just like those purchased by the two admirers—to a dead body. And while the victim may have burned a few bridges, there’s no way to sugarcoat the discovery of Hannah’s hairclip at the crime scene. Now, as suspicions fall on her own employee and unsavory rumors swirl around town, it will take far more than a sprinkle of good luck for Emily to learn the truth and expose a killer with a very deadly craving . . .

ABOUT GINGER BOLTON

Ginger Bolton writes the Deputy Donut mystery series—coffee, donuts, cops, danger, and one curious cat. The ninth Deputy Donut Mystery, BLAME THE BEIGNETS, will arrive on store shelves on November 26. The tenth Deputy Donut Mystery will be released near the end of August, 2025. Watch for it on bookselling websites!

https://gingerbolton.com

https://www.instagram.com/ginger.bolton

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorGingerBolton

BUY LINK

https://gingerbolton.com/where-to-buy

Halloween Candy

by Barb, somewhere on Route 95, the Florida Turnpike, or US Route 1, between Fort Lauderdale and Key West!

Tell me true, Wickeds. What is your favorite Halloween candy? The one you snuck out of your kids bags or hoped would be left over in your bowl at the end of the night. (Or the one, that if it was left over, you thought “Uh-oh” when you saw it.)

Bonus question: What’s a Halloween candy you absolutely loathe?

Edith: That’s easy. I always be sure to have some Baby Ruth mini candy bars in the collection to give out, but they never make it to the door. That combination of chocolate, caramel, and nuts is perfection. Reese’s peanut butter cups and peanut M&Ms often also go missing – straight to my office drawer for a mid-writing snack. Loathe? Candy bars with coconut.

Sherry: Really, Edith? No coconut? I didn’t know that about you! We’d make a great team because I’d love to have the Mounds and Almonds Joys! I like almost anything with chocolate, but you all can have my share of the candy corn. It’s just too sweet.

Julie: Edith, my father’s favorite candy are Baby Ruths. I’m always so grateful for Halloween mini sizes so that I can stock him up! Sherry, I loved candy corn back in the day, but it is sweet. When I was a kid, I loved Hershey bars, but these days love Mounds. When I was a kid I loathed Good n Plentys, but now I love them. In real life I love Twizzlers, but the mini packs are too chewy. The art of good Halloween candy is tricky.

Barb: This was sort of a trick question because I actually like candy corn. Unpopular opinion, I know. I like the little pumpkins made out of the same candy, too. Favorite Halloween candy? Baby Ruths or Clark bars. And cheers to that person in the neighborhood who passes out full-size bars.

Readers: Tell us your favorite. Candy you love, candy you loathe.

Wicked Wednesday: Spooky Costumes

by Barb, somewhere on Route 95 between Brunswick, Georgia and Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Wickeds–what was your favorite costume, ever? Doesn’t have to be spooky or even Halloween necessarily, but the one you liked the best.

Liz: I was highly obsessed with Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street as a kid (ok, still am) and I dressed up like him for Halloween multiple times in high school. Even funnier was the fact that I went to a Catholic high school so freaking out the nuns was an added bonus. I can’t find any pics, alas, but it was still my favorite costume. I’m actually contemplating getting a Freddy costume for one of my dogs…Penny, of course.

Julie: Liz, I can sort of imagine the high school Liz scaring nuns. Not getting the Freddy love, but that’s just me. I’ve never been a huge fan of dressing up as an adult. I do remember some fun costumes when I was a kid. Wearing that plastic mask that had condensation as you breathed, so your face got chapped. And my mother would make us wear a coat, so the effect was ruined. I did make my twin nieces costumes a few times. When they were three I made costumes so they looked like candy corn, complete with voluminous princess flounces on the bottom. I loved how much they loved them, and that I’d designed them so that they could be layered and worn as is outside.

Edith/Maddie: I have loved costumes for a long time. I’ve been described as a “crunchy-granola” type, but some of my favorite Halloweens have been dressing in an entirely different style: black bouffant wig, red lipstick, eye makeup, tight white top, short tight black skirt, fishnet stockings, red heels, and a cigarette (unlit) in my hand. I wore that getup to a party with work colleagues and nobody knew who I was! So fun.

Jessie: I am imagining Liz and Edith showing up at a Halloween party together in their favorite costumes! The village I live in goes all out when it comes to trick-or-treating and for all of their childhoods, my kids enthusiastically participated. We made homemade costumes every year. Once my husband made the kids matching robot outfits from cardboard boxes spray painted silver and hoses and widgets from the garage. Another year I made matching spider and Miss Moffit costumes. My very favorite was when my second son was three. When I asked what he wanted to be for Halloween he confidently replied a potato. Not French fries, not mashed, but a whole raw potato. So, I created a costume from brown felt that covered everything but his face and I glued wiggle eyes all over it. The eyes began to pop off from the cold as my husband took my son round the village. For the next year, we would find eyes in the cracks of the pavement or on the grassy verge on our trips to the post office or the general store. It was enormous fun!

Barb: I HATE costumes, hate, hate, which may go some way to explaining why I hate Halloween. But life has weirdly conspired to put costumes in my path far too often. After I survived the Halloween gauntlet as a child and then as a parent, the company I worked for put on an extended skit every year at our user conference that required–you guessed it, costumes–and acting and solo singing. I survived that just in time to come in Key West–a place that is costume crazy. We’ve just finished Fantasy Fest, the Halloween-themed holiday, but around here every holiday, fun run, concert by a tribute band, whatever, calls for costumes. I’m amazed some of my friends have room in their closets for regular clothes. I haven’t succumbed yet, but now that we’re here for six months…

Sherry: Ha, Barb room for their regular clothes! I love dressing up. I don’t think I was ever anything very scary. A long time ago I found a couple of great fifties dresses at a thrift store. A sorority sister and I went as Laverne and Shirley in them to a party. The picture below shows that I wore it more than once. Also I dug out this old photo of some of us at Crime Bake proving Edith’s claim about the black wig and Julie’s that she doesn’t like to dress up as an adult!

Readers: Tell us about a costume you loved or you hated.

Christmas Memories & Traditions: The Inspiration Behind Death of a Gingerbread Man and a #Giveaway

Posted by Barb, somewhere on Route 95 between Fayetteville, North Carolina and Brunswick, Georgia

The brother-sister writing team known as Lee Hollis are here today to celebrate the release of Death of a Gingerbread Man, the seventeenth book in their Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery series. My novellas been included in two Christmas collections with stories by Lee Hollis, and based on their contributions to those efforts, my mouth is already watering for this one.

There’s a bonus recipe and even more special, a bonus giveaway for three lucky commenters below.

Take it away, Lee!

As the brother-sister writing team behind the Hayley Powell Food & Cocktails Mysteries, we are thrilled to share the release of our latest book, Death of a Gingerbread Man, just in time for the holidays! While we love creating these cozy mysteries, they’re more than just stories for us—they’re full of memories from our childhood growing up in Bar Harbor, Maine, where our series is set. Hayley Powell, in many ways, is inspired by Holly’s life, and many of the supporting characters are based on real people (though we’ll deny it if asked!).

 Writing Death of a Gingerbread Man stirred up a lot of nostalgia, especially as the book is set during the Christmas season. In the story, Hayley’s estranged father unexpectedly reappears, throwing the festive family gatherings into chaos. But the holiday drama takes a darker turn when he becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his rival at the gingerbread house contest

This book gave us the perfect excuse to revisit the holiday traditions we cherished growing up, and we’d like to share a few of those memories with you.

One of the biggest events of the season was the Christmas tree lighting at the village green, which felt like the official start of the holidays in Bar Harbor. We’d also head to the annual gingerbread house competition, where the whole town came out to see who could create the most elaborate and delicious-looking houses—just like in the book!

The Christmas season wouldn’t have been complete without visits to the church and hospital Christmas bazaars, and our family was a regular at the craft fair at the town office. Holly and I always looked forward to shopping for gifts at Britts or Ames—though we couldn’t resist using them before wrapping them up! We would act surprised on Christmas Eve, but the secret was out long before.

Another favorite memory is making Christmas wreaths at Butterfield’s. Our dad worked for over thirty years as a lab assistant at the well-renowned cancer research facility Jackson Lab, but every holiday season he would always make a little extra money at Butterfield’s making wreathes. Those wreaths, often shipped out across the country, gave our home a constant smell of pine, which still brings back memories of Christmases past.

Christmas tree hunting was also a tradition—no store-bought tree for us! We would trek into the woods behind Mamie and Grampa’s house in Trenton to find the perfect one. Then, we’d gather at their home for Christmas dinner and our gift exchange, where everyone’s stockings, filled with treats from Carey’s store, were a highlight.

 Now, as a little treat for you, we’re sharing one of Hayley’s favorite gingerbread recipes—perfect for the holidays!

Mom’s Gingerbread with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup molasses

1 1/2 teaspoon ginger

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 cup oil

2 cups flour

T teaspoons baking powder

1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degree. Grease your 13×9 baking dish with baking spray.

In a stand mixture, mix your eggs, sugar, molasses, spices, oil, and boiling water until well combined. Mix your baking powder into the flour and add a  little at a time to the batter mixture until its all combined.

Pour batter into your greased baking dish and place in preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

8 ounces room temperature cream cheese

1/2 cup salted butter room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a stand mixer ( or use a hand mixer) beat the softened cream cheese and butter until smooth.

Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat again until creamy.

Spread onto your cooled cake using a little or a lot for your preferred thickness.

Readers: Tell us about a holiday traditional or recipe from your childhood. Three lucky commenter below will receive a copy of Death of a Gingerbread Man. Open to North American readers only. We’ll randomly choose three winners two days after the posting. Good luck and happy holidays!

Foraging: The Renaissance of Ancient Food Gatherings

Posted by Barb from Somewhere on Route 95 between Herndon, Virginia and Fayetteville, North Carolina

Please welcome Friend of the Wickeds, Devon Delaney, who is here to celebrate the release of A Holiday for Homicide, book nine in her Cook-Off Mystery series.

Take it away, Devon!

What’s Old is New Again

There’s no denying the fact I’m not young anymore. Let’s make sixty the new forty. No, lets’ not. My forties were chock full of health issues, no me time, and offspring with daily teenage angst. When I say “what’s old is new again” I’m not referring to myself, that ship has sailed. I’m referring to ways of doing things by embracing techniques from yesteryear. I can’t help but include these “old” ways in my books because I am a Renaissance woman deep down.

I am a student of all things food. My cooking competitions have taught me the importance of trends, tastes, culinary cultures, and of course, the importance of the way things were done long ago. My latest book, A Holiday For Homicide, includes a nod to foraging, the ancient task of food gathering. We all have had ancestors that foraged. It’s in everyone’s DNA. If you haven’t tried it, do. The old art of successful foraging is back in a new way. Foraging is experiencing a renaissance.

In A Holiday For Homicide, I have featured a cook-off twist that shines a light on the subject as the participants are asked to forage for one of their recipe ingredients. My amateur sleuth main character gathers her ingredient and gathers clues at the same time.

The commonalities between foraging for food stuffs and gathering clues in a murder mystery may sound farfetched but you’ll find out that’s not so. I’m not saying hunting in the woods for berries, scapes or wild garlic will solve a murder investigation, but you must put clues together to be successful at both.

Another example of “new again” in my latest book, and nearly all the previous books in my cooking competition series, is how I spotlight the importance of an ingredient to a culture and how that ingredient has transcended the ages. The book I’m currently writing delves into the cultural importance of the underrated potato. The comeback of the spud is an amazing example of what’s old is still old but incredibly important to keep new. Another reason to celebrate old becoming new.

I can’t be “new” again, but I strive to bring fresh ideas and features to my books to keep my audience informed, hungry for more, and young at heart. To me, food culture, especially in terms of recipes handed down through the ages, is the lifeline to remembering who got us to where we are today, for better or worse, and why we are obligated to go back and study the old ways of doing things.

I don’t want to get preachy but if foraging can help my main character solve a murder mystery, then imagine what incorporating Great Grandma’s pickled string bean technique into our daily lives can accomplish. In my books, when you, as the reader, find a reference to something old, consider a new clue may be staring you right in the face.

Readers: What blast from the past have you revived and incorporated into your life?

About Devon Delaney

Devon Delaney is lifelong resident of the Northeast and currently resides in coastal Connecticut. She is a wife, mother of three, grandmother of two, accomplished cooking contestant and a recent empty nester. She taught computer education and Lego Robotics for over ten years prior to pursuing writing.

About A Holiday for Homicide

Despite being a seasoned competitor, nothing could have prepared Sherry Oliveri for the thrill of being chosen for a three-day cooking challenge on national television. She’s dying to tell her friends, but she and everyone else involved in the contest has been sworn to secrecy until it airs. Still, that’s not stopping someone from penning cryptic notes about the show for the whole town to read, which has the production crew on edge—right up until one of them is found dead.

Determined to root out the killer, Sherry suspects the truth lies with whoever’s behind the mysterious notes—which have now turned dark with menacing comments on the murder and suggestions of buried secrets. Trying to unravel it all while focusing on her recipes, Sherry’s stopped dead in her tracks when the cook-off host drops a bombshell. With no time to spare, she’ll have to unearth the one missing ingredient that will ensure the killer’s cooked . . . 

Website:

www.devonpdelaney.com

Books available on:  Amazon, Barnes and Noble

The Go-To-Bed

You never know where you’re going to find a story. And this is a particularly true in Ireland.

The fourth book in my County Cork mysteries, A Turn for the Bad, will be released tomorrow. Since I like to get the details right, I travel to Ireland as often as I can, and I end up talking to a lot of interesting people. I’m not necessarily looking for story ideas, but I do enjoy hearing tales and learning how cultures differ from one another, even if you’re speaking the same language.

So this is a story from the Skibbereen Farmers’ Market, which was founded in 1657 when the town was granted a charter. It’s open every Saturday, year round. And for the past several visits I’ve timed my travel so I am sure to be there at least one Saturday.

As a result I’ve made some friends, which is odd because I see them only once a year at best. But we recognize each other. Apart from the amazing food products, there is a guy who makes magic wands, and someone who sells apple trees, and farmers in the warmer months who will sell you a live chicken or a duck. And there is an antique dealer I’ve been chatting with for several years now. He’s English but he lives in Ireland, and it turns out he’s also a mystery writer and an editor for hire. And, yes, I buy odds and ends from him when I’m there—a book, a silver-plated christening mug, a salt shaker from a defunct steamship line—and a go-to-bed.

All right, that stopped me. I picked up a small object at his booth (I’m always on the hunt for items that fit nicely in a suitcase!) and said, “what is this?” And he said, “it’s a go-to-bed.” I’d never heard the term. So he kindly explained it to me. In detail.

The simplest definition is that it’s a matchbox. The elaborate description is that it was invented (or popularized) by Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, who, being a Scot, was cheap (hey, I’m just reporting what I was told). Rather than taking a candle to hie himself up to the royal chambers to go to bed, he chose a small matchbox, with a rough bottom for striking the match, and a tiny holder on the top in which to insert the lit match. And then he would proceed to bed (which must have been a challenge, since if he moved too fast the match would go out, but if he went too slowly, the match would consume itself before he got to the bedroom).

Wikipedia kindly informs me: “One specific variety of go-to-bed worthy of mention is ‘Prince Albert’s Safety Vesta Box,’ … a decorated brass tub with an embossed top…ribbed under base for striking matches…a small finial to take a single match on to.”  Well, mine’s not brass, but it is covered in tartan and has that tiny finial on top. Maybe there’s a bit of accuracy in the story.

So in the course of a few minutes I went from never having heard of this obscure but charming item to being the proud owner of one. Not to mention a piece of history, false or not. Even if it’s not true, it’s a charming story that just fell into my lap.

And there are so many more! Of course I’ll keep going back to Ireland to collect them. The stories may not always be quite true, but the Irish love to tell them.

Today is Saint Brigid’s Day in Ireland. Brigid is the female patron saint of Ireland, and she is also the patron saint of babies, blacksmiths, boatmen, cattle farmers, children of unmarried parents [I am not making this up!], children whose mothers are mistreated by the children’s fathers [go, Brigid!], dairymaids, dairyworkers, fugitives, mariners, midwives, milkmaids, nuns, poets, the poor, poultry farmers, printing presses, sailors, scholars, travelers and watermen.

If that’s not enough, she is said to have the power to multiply such things as butter, bacon and milk, to bestow sheep and cattle and to control the weather. 

How can you go wrong with a saint who can multiply butter and bacon and control the weather?

Where do you find your stories? You don’t need to be a writer–just listen and enjoy!

 

Filed under: Book Release, County Cork Mysteries, Ireland, Sheila's Posts

Hen Scratchings

Jessie: In New Hampshire, surprised to see patches of dormant grass in the yard. 

You know those things about yourself that you wish were different? Some of them are easy enough to address, like hair color. Others, like a nail biting habit or or adding six inches in height are harder to change.

I don’t bite my nails and although I wouldn’t mind a few extra inches in height,  I have a nice collection of heels, so being short isn’t much of a problem either. Which leaves my handwriting.

In the third grade, like so many American children, I began to learn cursive. I had a teacher with achingly beautiful handwriting and I thought learning to write like her would be as easy as learning to read or to add and subtract. But as I began forming the letters on pulpy sheets of newsprint complete with dashed lines it soon became obvious that this was going to be a completely different experience.

Only a few weeks into the school year my family moved. My new school was in a different place with cursive lessons than the old one. Also, my teacher formed the letters a bit differently. I came to realise that handwritng was a far more subjective sort of thing than sounding out new words or memorizing multiplication tables. My own attempts to master the art were turing out poorly and as soon as students were encouraged to type work rather than to write by hand I did so.

Which brings me to the present. Despite the fact that I actually write on my computer, I always start my novels in a notebook. My ideas just seem to flow better at the early stages of a project that way. Over the years, I’ve come up with a sort of limping print that stutters and stumbles along the page, my thoughts running far ahead of my hand, leaving a trail of disaster in their wake. When I go back to consult my notes later I often have enormous difficulty reading them.

So, this year I’ve decided to change all that. I headed for YouTube and watched video after video of people sharing tips and techniques. I downloaded some practice sheets with lines that are set up with a right-leaning slant guides in addition to all the horizontal dashed lines. I bought a few decent pens with different sorts of inks and line widths. I assembled a variety of papers. Most importantly, I just started practicing. Every single day.

It’s only been a month but I’m starting to see results. I’m almost happy with my lowercase g and m. My b forms aren’t half bad and I am making peace with the letter f. I confess, I still wish c was not part of our alphabet. I haven’t even given thought to the uppercase. But, Ifind I am actually having fun with the proces. It feels creative. It feels redemptive. It feels a bit like being a bright-eyed eight-year-old once again. It may be harder than changing my hair color but I think, in the end, it will be worth it.

Readers, do you like your handwriting? If so, do you have any tips for me? Is there something about yourself you’ve worked to change? Did you enjoy the process? 

 

Filed under: Jessie's posts, Uncategorized Tagged: handwriting, Jessie Crockett, new year's goals, practice, resolutions