Gay Yellen: Finding Comfort and Joy

In the before-times, the term "twenty-twenty" usually indicated good news.

"Hey! Your eyesight is normal!" Or, "Wow! Your logic is clear-sighted!"

This year, a not-so-good connotation arose. At the end of December, when calendar turns, twenty-twenty will forever signify our historic year of global pandemic.

At our house, the trials we've endured have led us to count our blessings. We survived. So many things that we once took for granted have sustained us and saved us from running naked in the streets, howling like banshees. Through social isolation, family separation and, yes, fear of infection, we've learned to count our lucky stars, dim as they sometimes have seemed.

We've found a few uplifting—and often downright silly—activities to keep us sane. A friend turned us on to the old TV mystery series, Murdoch, about a 19th Century police detective who sometimes invents forensic tools to solve crimes. The show is easy on the psyche and a much-needed antidote to our relentless daily news.

 

Even better, we've dug out some of my parents' old LP's of original Broadway shows. We plunk them on the turntable, sing along with great gusto, and dance around the room until we're breathless. No worries about looking foolish. After all, no one's watching.

On nice days, we walk in the park, feed the squirrels, and summon the wintering ducks. My husband's spot-on Donald Duck impression can spark quite a lakeside conversation.

And sometimes, he cooks. Today, he's making turkey vegetable soup, a seasonal change from his delicious chopped salads. There's some to give to neighbors and plenty to freeze for later.

And there's joy to be found in books. Reading is a great way to while away hours in isolation. Because finishing Book 3 of the Samantha Newman Mystery Series has been my top priority this year, I've read less than usual. But gobs of books are in my to-be-read file, and I look forward to the day when I can start whittling the list down.

Finding comfort and joy in small pleasures helps lift our hearts. I hope you're finding ways to grab some for yourself.

What have you found to spark joy these days?

Wishing you a warm December, full of books and love.

Gay Yellen

P.S. Oh! I almost forgot: Mark your calendar for the last week in December when you can pick up The Body Business, Book #1 in the Samantha Newman Mystery Series, free.

Gay Yellen is a former magazine and book editor. She writes the award-winning Samantha Newman Mystery Series, including The Body Business and The Body Next Door. Book #3 in the series is slated for release in 2021.

Gay would love to hear from you, here, on Facebook, or at her website, GayYellen.com.

Easy Festive Holiday Dessert

 By Debra Sennefelder   

Happy Holidays! It's clear that this holiday season is going to be different from years past. But that doesn't mean it can't be merry and festive and yummy! And I have the perfect dessert to whip up that will impress. Mini-Eggnog Cranberry Pound Cakes. You can also make one large cake if you choose. Take a look at the little beauties.

I had an island full of those yummy little cakes. Ready for the recipe? Okay, let's do this.

What you'll need:

One box of pound cake mix along withe the ingredients listed on the box but you'll replace the milk with eggnog and you'll add 3/4 cup finely chopped cranberries and a dash of vanilla to the batter. In addition, you'll dust each cake with confectioner's sugar.

See. I told you it was simple!

Once the cakes cool, you'll dust them with the sugar and then wrap with cellophane and tie with ribbon if you'll be delivering them.

 

There you go! A treat that definitely will impress. 

Now, I'd love to hear your best kitchen shortcut.

Turkey pileup on aisle 10!

 by Sparkle Abbey

Like most of the world, we “canceled” our traditional Thanksgiving gathering. Instead, we celebrated with only the family members we lived with, which was 2-4 people, and Zoomed with the rest of the family.  And while the size of the turkey was reduced from the typical twenty-two pounds to a paltry ten pounds, one of us doesn’t know how to cook a Thanksgiving meal for less than 10 people. So we were left with a pileup of turkey, ham, stuffing, glazed carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, corny cornbread, and rolls. What to do with all that leftover food?

The truth is, you can only eat so many boring ham or turkey sandwiches, right? Eventually, even we have to get creative and transform those bland leftovers into something we want to eat. Plus, we need room in the fridge for Christmas cookies and fudge. After a quick Google search, we actually found a couple of recipes we liked, that was not only super easy to make but pretty quick to throw together. Sorry, we didn’t take any photos of our actual dinners, but we promise the meals were delicious!

Enjoy!

Easy Shepard Pie
Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped leftover turkey
• 1 cup gravy
• 1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetables
• 1 cup stuffing
• 1 cup mashed

Directions:

1. Preheat over 350 degrees.
2. Grease two ramekins with cooking spray.
3. Combine chopped turkey with gravy.
4. Layer equal amounts of ingredients in each ramekin in the following order:

        Turkey and gravy
        Frozen vegetables
        Stuffing
        Mashed potatoes

  5. Place ramekins on a baking sheet, place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until potatoes slightly brown.

Serve warm.

 

Turkey Tortellini Soup
Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped sweet onion
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced celery
• 1/4  cup thinly sliced carrots
  
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 3 cups turkey stock or chicken broth
• 2 cups chopped or shredded leftover turkey
• 1 (9-oz.) pkg. refrigerated tortellini of your choice
• 1 (5-oz.) pkg. fresh spinach
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• Shaved Parmesan cheese

 

Directions: 

1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high.
2. Add onion, celery, and carrots; cook, stirring often, until vegetables begin to soften, 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Add garlic. Stir for about 1 minute.
4.  Add turkey/chicken stock and cooked turkey, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer 10 minutes.
5.  Add tortellini, and simmer until tortellini are cooked per directions on the package.  Usually 6-7 minutes.
6.  Stir in spinach, salt, and pepper. Remove from heat. Top each serving with shaved Parmesan cheese.

Leftover Ham & Cheese Brunch Bake

Ingredients: 

• 10 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup milk
  
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
  
• 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, plus more for garnish
  
• 1 tsp garlic powder
  
• Salt & pepper 
  
• 4 cups of cubed bread (Crusty bread, like French bread works best.)
  
• 8 ounces of chopped ham
  
• 1 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (Can be regular cheddar or white cheddar.) 

Directions:  

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, mustard, thyme, & garlic powder.
3. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
4. Butter a large baking dish. Add bread and top with ham and cheese. 
5. Pour egg mixture over the top.
6. Bake until eggs are cooked through – approximately 45 to 55 minutes. 
7. Reserve a little of the thyme for garnish and add it before serving. 

Note: The bake is even better if you make it the night before, cover with foil, and refrigerate overnight

Here are the links to the original recipes:

https://www.today.com/food/sandra-lee-uses-thanksgiving-leftovers-make-shepherd-s-pie-t200150?cid=sm_npd_td_tw_ma

https://www.southernliving.com/recipes/turkey-tortellini-soup-greens

Sparkle Abbey is actually two people, Mary Lee Ashford and Anita Carter, who write the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mystery series. They are friends as well as neighbors so they often get together and plot ways to commit murder. (But don't tell the other neighbors.) 

They love to hear from readers and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, their favorite social media sites. Also, if you want to make sure you get updates, sign up for their newsletter via the SparkleAbbey.com website

Clicking Our Heels: Creativity

Creativity – what a magical word. The Stiletto Gang examines when and where we get our creative ideas.

Dru Ann Love – Sometimes while sitting on the train I’ll come up with a great blurb to put in one of my musings, and I try to remember it, but I never do.

 

Julie Mulhern – I get my best ideas walking or in the sower – places where I’m without a pen and paper.

 

Juliana Aragon Fatula – Full moons wake me in the night. I write until I fall asleep. Other times, I have a memory that sparks an idea. Or a song lyric, or a painting might inspire me to think, what if …

 

T.K. Thorne – They seem to flow best when I am in the car-which is why my husband won’t let me drive when we are together….

 

Robin Hillyer-Miles – My ideas come from my dreams, from random events that occur to me and around me and from talking with people. A seed of an idea will be a gateway to a story. It doesn’t take much to get my imagination going.

 

Debra Sennefelder – Everywhere. Anytime. Just the other day I was finishing up the final edits on a Resale Boutique manuscript before sending it to my publisher and an idea for a scene in my next Food Blogger book popped into my head.

 

Kathryn Lane – Growing up in Mexico, at a time when the country had an important story telling tradition, gave me a head start in creativity. Life was difficult in Mexico, and escaping into a fantasy world of storytelling gave many people an outlet for their frustrations. I benefitted from hearing the tales invented by my grandmothers and other women in the community.

 

Debra H. Goldstein – Out of thin air. I hear a phrase and the words jump me into a new place to write.

 

Shari Randall – I get a lot of ideas from those free shopper magazines that you find in a rack by the door at CVS. Calendar sections with articles about locations, history and culture are rich sources of inspiration.

 

Lynn McPherson – My creative ideas come at random moments throughout the day, often when I’m doing something completely unrelated.

 

Paula Benson – They often seem as if they come from everywhere, but truly I think they come from the spark that makes me question “what if?” I can see something that intrigues me, but until my imagination takes that next step [for instance: Look at that slope of rocks down to the creek. What if there was a body there? How did it get there and who found it?] it’s just an interesting fact.

 

Sparkle Abbey

Mary Lee Ashford - Often a spark from talking with someone, reading a news story, or the fragment of a thought. More than likely nothing comes of the initial spark but then another something will come along that when you put them together, viola! You have a story idea. 

Cathy Perkins - Walking, riding in a car, anything that lets my mind wander and allows my creativity to slip the leash. But a random comment at a party or a snippet of a song may also make me think, Hmm, what if...

Anita Carter - Ideas are everywhere. The news, books, songs, people’s personal stories, conversations. The hard part is REMEMBERING all the ideas. That’s why writers always carry notebooks and pens. If you dumped out my purse right now, you'd find at least two notebooks and 3 or 4 pens.

 

When Pigs Fly

 

"When pigs fly" is an adynaton, an absurd figure of speech to describe an action or event that will never happen. But in literature, there are several examples of pigs that take action or participate in events, and a few indeed fly.

In real life in 2020, pigs are flying…on commercial airlines!

A consequence of less people on flights is that airline companies are repurposing their planes to take pigs around the globe. That’s right – the cargo bays of jets are transporting more animals than ever before, especially hogs to China. In addition to the flight crew, animal handlers are on board to monitor the pigs’ temperaments and to fill the porcine sipper bottles. The only drawback, according to handlers, is the distasteful aroma of even the cleanest and most scrubbed-down porcine.

Returning to the idea of pigs in literature, most western kids grow up reading or at least hearing about The Three Little Pigs. In recent years, children may have read The Three Little Javelinas, where the story is recast with wild boars of the Southwestern US. They build their home using tumbleweed, saguaro ribs, and adobe. A coyote huffs and puffs to blow the house down instead of a wolf. And there’s The Three Ninja Pigs intended to take literary swine to ninja fans. And in Today I Will Fly, Piggie is determined to fly.

But the best example of pigs in literature is perhaps Animal Farm.

If George Orwell were writing Animal Farm today, would he have Napoleon and Snowball argue about taking over the future of aviation, placing pigs in the cockpit, having flight attendants take alcoholic drinks to the passengers in first class? Would it be Mr. Jones who would be in the cargo bay?

Would Orwell have the common animals in coach peering into first class and the cockpit, and realize they could no longer differentiate the swine from the humans?

Leaving Orwell aside, I can see Noah’s Ark becoming Noah’s Jet. Instead of embarking on a boat, the giraffes, elephants, chipmunks, bears, antelopes, horses, birds, and remaining critters could simply board a Boing 777 or an Airbus A330, and fly off to higher ground until the flood waters recede.

Personally, I will never get on another jet without wondering if unpleasant odors will rise from the cargo
bay. For that, I already have my mask ready!

Do you have your mask?

                                                                    ***

The Nikki Garcia Mystery Series  -  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GZNF17G

Kathryn Lane started out as a starving artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked on a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation. After two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery and suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels in over ninety countries.

https://www.kathryn-lane.com

Book Credits:

The Three Little Pigs by Joseph Jacobs, first published on June 19, 1890

The Three Little Javelinas by Susan Lowell/Illustrated by Jim Harris

The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz/Illustrated by Dan Santat

Today I Will Fly by author/illustrator Mo Willems

Photo Credits:

Flying Pigs by BugMan50 – licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Animal Farm book cover – Public Domain

Flying Pig Mask – Public Domain

Kathryn’s books – designs by Bobbye Marrs

Welcome to the Holidays!

We here at the Stiletto Gang love our readers and hope that you're all healthy and happy this holiday season. We've put together a list of our recent works to inspire you during the gift shopping free-for-all of Black Friday. Aside from some fantastic sales many of the gang are offering giveaways and free books. So do a little shopping, but don't feel guilty if you snag a few presents for yourself as well!

Many thanks from all your friends at The Stiletto Gang!

 

Mary Lee Ashford	CONNECT AT: www.maryleeashford.com
	GAME OF SCONES After losing her job as food editor at a glossy magazine, Rosetta Sugarbaker Calloway—aka “Sugar” to friends—isn’t sweet on accepting defeat and crawling back to her gossipy southern hometown. So when she has an opportunity to launch a community cookbook business with blue-ribbon baker Dixie Spicer in peaceful St. Ignatius, Iowa, she jumps at the chance to start over from scratch. But as Sugar assembles recipes for the local centennial celebration, it’s not long before she’s up to her oven mitts in explosive threats, too-hot-to-handle scandals, and a dead body belonging to the moody matriarch of the town’s first family. With suspicions running wild, Sugar and Spice must solve the murder before someone innocent takes the heat—and the real culprit gathers enough ingredients to strike again. BUY NOW: https://books2read.com/u/ml2rkY GIVEAWAY: Win a signed copy of Game of Scones! To enter simply comment on The Stiletto Gang post on my Facebook Author Page at: https://www.facebook.com/maryleeashfordbooks
Debra Goldstein	CONNECT AT: https://www.DebraHGoldstein.com
	THREE TREATS TOO MANY When a romantic rival opens a competing restaurant in small-town Wheaton, Alabama, Sarah Blair discovers murder is the specialty of the house . . .  For someone whose greatest culinary skill is ordering takeout, Sarah never expected to be co-owner of a restaurant. Even her Siamese cat, RahRah, seems to be looking at her differently. But while Sarah and her twin sister, Chef Emily, are tangled up in red tape waiting for the building inspector to get around to them, an attention-stealing new establishment—run by none other than Sarah's late ex-husband's mistress, Jane—is having its grand opening across the street.  When Jane's new sous chef, the talk of Wheaton with her delicious vegan specialties, is found dead outside the restaurant with Sarah's friend, Jacob, kneeling over her, Sarah must turn up the heat on the real culprit, who has no reservations about committing cold-blooded murder . . . Includes quick and easy recipes! BUY NOW: https://books2read.com/u/boD76L GIVEAWAY: Sign up for my newsletter for a chance to win a free print copy of Three Treats Too Many (U.S. only) https://www.DebraHGoldstein.com
Kathryn Lane	CONNECT AT: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15096935.Kathryn_Lane
	WAKING UP IN MEDELLIN Nikki Garcia, the sexy protagonist in this woman sleuth series, is an unlikely Sam Spade. Nikki’s multinational corporation sends her to Medellin on assignment. Grappling with her own ghosts, she embarks upon an unexpected adventure investigating a high stakes, mega-money corruption scheme at the local affiliate. She also meets a seductive and charming doctor in this foreign country. As her relationship with him deepens, so does the danger she finds herself in. Nikki realizes she’ll have one shot at surviving.  BUY NOW: https://www.amazon.com/dp/173328270X/
Bethany Maines	CONNECT AT: https://bethanymaines.com/
	AN UNSEEN CURRENT You never know what’s beneath the surface. When Seattle native Tish Yearly finds herself fired and evicted all in one afternoon, she knows she’s in deep water. Unemployed and desperate, the 26 year old ex-actress heads for the one place she knows she’ll be welcome – the house of her cantankerous ex-CIA agent grandfather, Tobias Yearly, in the San Juan Islands. And when she discovers the strangled corpse of Tobias’s best friend, she knows she’s in over her head. Tish is thrown head-long into a mystery that pits her against a handsome but straight-laced Sheriff’s Deputy, a group of eccentric and clannish local residents, and a killer who knows the island far better than she does. Now Tish must swim against the current, depending on her nearly forgotten acting skills and her grandfather’s spy craft, to con a killer and keep them alive. BUY NOW - ¢.99: https://books2read.com/AnUnseenCurrent
Lynn McPherson	CONNECT AT: https://lynnmcpherson.net/
	THE GIRLS DRESSED FOR MURDER It’s 1958 in the cozy coastal town of Twin Oaks and amateur sleuth Isabelle Walsh is armed with a fresh perspective, two years after tragedy strikes. The first stop on her journey back to joy is the best little dress shop in town—introduced to her by best friend and fashion fiend, Ava Russell. Izzy falls in love with the store and its style. So, when the boutique is marred by murder, Izzy wants to help. But with more suspects to choose from than a spring collection, she isn’t sure where to start. Can Izzy unravel the twisted truth or will she become the victim of a deadly trend? Find out in the third book in the Izzy Walsh Mystery Series…   BUY NOW: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1626949875
Julie Mulhern	CONNECT AT: https://www.juliemulhernauthor.com/
	THE DEEP END Swimming into the lifeless body of her husband’s mistress tends to ruin a woman’s day, but becoming a murder suspect can ruin her whole life. It’s 1974 and Ellison Russell’s life revolves around her daughter and her art. She’s long since stopped caring about her cheating husband, Henry, and the women with whom he entertains himself. That is, until she becomes a suspect in Madeline Harper’s death. The murder forces Ellison to confront her husband’s proclivities and his crimes—kinky sex, petty cruelties and blackmail. As the body count approaches par on the seventh hole, Ellison knows she has to catch a killer. But with an interfering mother, an adoring father, a teenage daughter, and a cadre of well-meaning friends demanding her attention, can Ellison find the killer before he finds her? BUY NOW: https://books2read.com/u/m2Zpak
Cathy Perkins	CONNECT AT: https://cperkinswrites.com/
	DOUBLE DOWN Busted takes on a new meaning for blackjack dealer Maddie Larsson when her favorite customer, a Poker World Tour champion, is murdered. His family claims—loudly and often—she's the gold-digging murderer. She better prove she’s on the level before the real killer cashes in her chips. BUY NOW: ebook - http://bit.ly/DoubleDown_Amazon                       paperback - https://bit.ly/DoubleDownPaper Double Down will be free on Nov 27 & 28!
Shari Randall	Connect for fun and upcoming giveaways: https://www.facebook.com/sharirandallauthor
	THE QUEEN OF CHRISTMAS Dagmar Smith's Festival of Trees is the highlight of Mystic Bay's holiday season. This year Dagmar has added a spectacularly decorated Nutcracker tree to her display and she's asked dancer Allie Larkin to help unveil it. But when Dagmar's priceless diamond necklace is stolen in the middle of the festivities, Allie turns detective to unmask the thief.  Grab a warm drink and curl up with this festive short story starring the characters from the beloved Lazy Mermaid Lobster Shack mystery series. Recipe for hot toddy included! BUY NOW:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081J7WDT8/
Saralyn Richard	CONNECT AT: http://saralynrichard.com
	PALETTE FOR LOVE AND MURDER Back from his honeymoon, Detective Parrott investigates the theft of two valuable paintings from the artist’s studio in Brandywine Valley. Through a series of twists that become more and more personal, theft turns into murder, and murder leads to a treasure hunt for a lost masterpiece. Everyone, it seems, is hiding dark secrets, and Parrott learns there is more on an artist’s palette than globs of paint. BUY NOW: https://books2read.com/u/4XnzxL GIVEAWAY: Sign up for Saralyn Richard newsletter and receive a free pdf of Epicurean Feasts, including the menu and recipes from the elegant nine-course meal in MURDER IN THE ONE PERCENT. Subscribe at: http://saralynrichard.com
Linda Rodriguez	CONNECT AT: http://lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com
	PLOTTING THE CHARACTER-DRIVEN NOVEL Great plot springs from character and the motivations each character has for taking or not taking action. In Plotting the Character-Driven Novel, Linda Rodriguez turns her sought-after writing course on using depth of character as a springboard to a strong plot into a book designed to help the aspiring writer who wants to tell a story made compelling by the truth and complexity of its characters. She provides examples of actual documents she has used in creating her own award- winning books to demonstrate the methods she teaches. BUY NOW: https://books2read.com/u/bprKal
Debra Sennefelder	CONNECT AT: http://debrasennefelder.com/
	THE CORPSE WHO KNEW TOO MUCH Food blogger Hope Early takes on a cold case that’s heating up fast . . . Building on her recipe for success with her food blog, Hope at Home, Hope is teaching her first blogging class at the local library in Jefferson, Connecticut. She’s also learning about podcasts, including a true-crime one called Search for the Missing, hosted by Hope’s childhood friend, Devon Markham. Twenty years ago on Valentine’s Day, right here in Jefferson, Devon’s mom disappeared and was never found. Finally Devon has returned to solve the mystery of what happened to her mother—and she asks Hope to help. The next day Hope discovers Devon’s apartment has been ransacked. Her laptop with the research on her mother’s cold case is missing, and Devon is nowhere to be found. When her friend’s body is later discovered in a car wreck, Hope is convinced it’s no accident. Clearly, Devon was too close to the truth, and the cold-blooded killer is still at large in Jefferson. Now it’s up to Hope to find the guilty party—before the food blogger herself becomes the next subject of another true-crime podcast . . . Includes Recipes from Hope’s Kitchen! BUY NOW: http://debrasennefelder.com/work
T.K. Thorne	CONNECT AT: TKThorne.com
	HOUSE OF ROSE When rookie patrol officer Rose Brighton chases a suspect down an alley, she finds herself in the middle of every cop’s nightmare—staring down at a dead body with two bullet holes from her gun . . . in his back. He’s dead and now she has to explain it, which is going to be a problem because what happened was so strange, she doesn’t understand it herself. Rose must unravel the mystery of what happened and who she really is—a witch of the House of Rose. If she doesn’t figure it out fast, there will be more bodies, including her own. "Thorne delivers a spellbinding thriller, an enthralling blend of real-world policing and other-world magic. It's a wild ride of high stakes that pits the warm humanity of Rose and her friends against chilling powers of darkness in a battle that is both ages old and totally of today." BUY NOW: All ebook locations -  https://books2read.com/HouseofRose Print - Amazon
Lois Winston	CONNECT AT: http://www.loiswinston.com
	A SEW DEADLY CRUISE An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 9 Life is looking up for magazine crafts editor Anastasia Pollack. Newly engaged, she and photojournalist fiancé Zack Barnes are on a winter cruise with her family, compliments of a Christmas gift from her half-brother-in-law. Son Alex’s girlfriend and her father have also joined them. Shortly after boarding the ship, Anastasia is approached by a man with an unusual interest in her engagement ring. When she tells Zack of her encounter, he suggests the man might be a jewel thief scouting for his next mark. But before Anastasia can point the man out to Zack, the would-be thief approaches him, revealing his true motivation. Long-buried secrets now threaten the well-being of everyone Anastasia holds dear. And that’s before the first dead body turns up. Craft projects included. BUY NOW: https://books2read.com/u/4DWLkd
Gay Yellen	CONNECT AT:  https://GayYellen.com/
	THE BODY BUSINESS A missing friend. . . A jealous rival. . . An investigator with motives of his own. Samantha Newman has a great job. But when her best friend at work vanishes, doubt creeps in. When she turns to the FBI for help, they send Carter Chapman, a man with secrets of his own. His mission wasn’t supposed to include the problems of a beautiful corporate executive. When the two of them wrangle over how to proceed, Samantha risks everything to solve the case alone. Fast-paced and full of surprises, the story bounces from big-city bustle to the serene rolling hills of a Texas ranch and back again. Book 1 in the Samantha Newman Mystery Series. FREE GIVEAWAY: Free with Kindle Unlimited  https://www.amazon.com/Body-Business-Samantha-Newman-Mystery-ebook/dp/B08C8WDYRW Or download with BookFunnel - Get your free copy of The Body Business, Book1 of The Samantha Newman Mysteries. Subscribe today! https://bookhip.com/QFFXTT

12 Tiny Things: Simple Ways to Live a More Intentional LIfe written by Heidi Barr and Ellie Roscher reviewed by Juliana Aragon Fatula

12tinythings

swag

Dear Reader,

 

Nadie sabe el bien que tiene hasta que los ve perdido. 
No one knows the fortune he has until he loses it. 
We never miss the sunshine until the shadows come. 

From the book Refranes Southwest Indio-Hispanic Proverbs translated by Rubén Cobos

This month I have a wonderful new book by Heidi Barr and Ellie Roscher to tell you about: 12 Tiny Things published by Broadleaf Books and released January 2021.  I met Heidi through a writer friend on Facebook. We hit it off immediately and I knew she was a like-minded woman. A strong, wise, independent woman with lots of knowledge about lots of things. I've been enjoying Heidi's books during this global pandemic; her words lifted me up. I knew her new book would be inspirational. I had no idea how 12 Tiny Things would impact my life.

I suffer from severe depression that medication alleviates but does not cure. 12 Tiny Things became one of my favorite books of 2020. I read it twice in two days. I couldn't put it down. I studied the chapters and chose my favorite. Many of the chapters spoke to me. It fed my hungry soul. It made me contemplate on life, sorrows, joy and made me realize that I can change my world, the world, 12 Tiny Things at a time. 

When I focused on the tiny things, life ceased to feel so daunting. This book arrived in the nick of time, during the 2020 Presidential election. I'd been under a cloud of sorrow for four years, since the 2016 election when my hopes were dashed, and anger found a place in my heart. I know from experience that anger held in turns to depression. I feared going that direction, so I became angry filled with hate for my community that elected a man who promised—but lied. I let that anger brew in my heart, until reading 12 Tiny Things led me to a better way of seeing the pandemic and the turmoil of the last four years. I never gave up hope, but I was fearful of four more years of chaos. Heidi and Ellie asked me to do one tiny thing at a time instead of seeing the global pandemic and deteriorating country I lived in, but no longer recognized. 

I'm not a reviewer who tells the writer what they want to hear. Ask any of my writer friends, they'll tell you that I'm brutally honest, out of love, not meanness. Either I love your book, or I don't. 12 Tiny Things resonated with me in a way that no other book had in an exceedingly long time. I woke up. I'm woke.

At the end of each chapter there are questions for the reader. They guided me to improve my attitude about everything, the pandemic, the election, the racism, the misogynism, the xenophobia that have risen in my country the last four years.

12 Tiny Things brought me balance. I concentrated on me and making myself better, more loving, more forgiving of my community that had disappointed me. This book saved me from 2020. It brought joy and peace to my heart. I pre-ordered a copy for my comadre and told her she would love it as much as I do. I regained my courage to fight for justice 12 Tiny Things at a time. I didn't take on the world. I started with myself. And I'm glad I did. 

12 Tiny Things is an incredible book that has helped me adjust in this time of global pandemic and national hysteria. I recommend 12 Tiny Things to anyone looking to find a deeper meaning in their world. 

Let me explain why I give this book five stars. It's not just great writing and knowledge about living with joy during a global pandemic, it's about community. It came to me just when the second wave of the Covid virus was beginning and the pandemic fatigue was pulling me down toward a wave of gloom.

I handled the first wave.  I'm a writer so isolating in place was great for me. But it seemed like the world I knew had changed and or was gone and would not return. I also saw the world/usa divided and angry people everywhere. I wrote a will and prayed for better days. I began reading 12 Tiny Things and my eyebrows arched and a smile crept on my face. I felt a tingle in my yayas. I sat up in my chair and began writing. I felt inspired. That's what great writing does to me. It makes me want to write. So here I am writing and telling you, my reader, to read this book and let me and the authors know how it changed your outlook on life. It impacted me in a subtle way. 

My husband drove to Wyoming and went hunting for bear, elk, deer, moose, whatever they have in the wilderness. He was gone for 30 days and this was my vacation from him and his vacation from me. It works. I missed him and he missed me, and we appreciated each other just in time for our twenty-eight-year wedding anniversary. 

I'm a master gardener, or so I tell myself. I nurture my garden and it nurtures me back. It's therapeutic. So is writing but in the summer and harvest season my body craves fresh air and sunshine. It saved me from losing my mind during the first wave of the pandemic. But harvest season ended, and I returned to indoors and the onslaught of the pandemic.

12 Tiny Things spoke to me and then it sang. The song was beautiful, melodic, soothing, invigorating, and soulful. I realized how easy happiness can be. It's a state of mind and instead of letting my mind go cray cray, I set a goal to do one tiny thing for myself each day and increase it daily until I did 12 Tiny Things for myself every day. Time for me. Even if it was only 12 minutes of my day or 12 seconds of totally me time. For whatever, I need. 

Heidi Barr, thank you for your inspiration, your wisdom, your kind heart, and powerful woman love. Thank you, Ellie for allowing me to journey with you on this adventure into peaceful living and intentional life. 

If you want to know more about these authors or their book, then visit their webpage and let them know, Juliana, the Crazy Chicana in Catholic City, sent you. 

Peace 2020

Ellie Roscher is the author of Play Like a Girl and How Coffee Saved My Life. Her writing also appears in The Baltimore Review, Inscape Magazine, Bookology Magazine and elsewhere. Ellie hosts the Unlikely Conversations podcast and is a certified yoga instructor. She teaches writing at The Loft Literary Center, and theology at Bethlehem Lutheran Church Twin Cities. Through curious inquiry, commitment to the sacred ordinary and artistic collaboration, her work accompanies people to a more centered, whole, and embodied self. Ellie holds an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and an MA in Theology from Luther Seminary. She lives in Minneapolis with her spouse and sons. Find out more on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or at ellieroscher.com.

Heidi Barr is the author of Woodland Manitou, Cold Spring Hallelujah, What Comes Next, and Prairie Grown, as well as the editor of The Mindful Kitchen. She works as a wellness coach at Noom, Inc and occasionally coordinates with yoga teachers and organic farms to offer retreat experiences. A commitment to cultivating ways of being that are life-giving and sustainable for people, communities and the planet provides the foundation for her work. Heidi studied Health and Wellness at Luther College and has a Master of Arts degree from Luther Seminary in Faith and Health Ministries.  She lives in Minnesota with her family where they tend a large vegetable garden, explore nature and do their best to live simply.  Despite working for an app-based tech start up, she plans to put off getting a smartphone as long as possible. Learn more at heidibarr.com.

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A Thanksgiving Like No Other

By Lois Winston

In Little Women Louisa May Alcott opens with Jo March grumbling, “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents.” This year, for many of us, Thanksgiving won’t be Thanksgiving without family gathering around the dinner table. Such is life in the time of Covid. 

 

In past years, the day before a normal Thanksgiving would find me in the kitchen, either my own or one of my son’s kitchens, baking apple and pumpkin pies and prepping for the next day’s marathon of cooking. However, this Thanksgiving will be unlike any previous Thanksgiving. We won’t be hosting a houseful of relatives or traveling out of state to spend the holiday with either of our sons and their families. 

 

Turkey dinner for two? Hardly seems worth the effort or the expense. Besides, turkey leftovers are great the next day, but even with the smallest bird, we’d wind up with way too much leftover turkey. In the past I’ve tried freezing leftover turkey, but I’ve found it doesn’t freeze well. It always becomes too dry, no matter how much gravy I soak it in. So I’ve placed an order for two turkey dinners to be delivered from one of our local restaurants.

 

As for those pies, If I bake them, we’ll eat them, and neither my husband nor I need all those extra calories. I’ve discovered Covid Weight is worse than the Freshman Fifteen! Or maybe it’s that I’m older, and my metabolism has slowed down. Either way, with only one person with whom to split the calories, I’m nixing the pies.

 

As much as I’ll miss spending time with my family this Thanksgiving, Anastasia Pollack, the reluctant amateur sleuth of my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, is thrilled to be ditching some of hers. She’s sailing off on a cruise in A Sew Deadly Cruise, the ninth and newest book in the series. She certainly deserves a relaxing vacation after all the murder and mayhem I’ve dumped on her in the eight previous books and three novellas.

 

There’s just one problem: I write a mystery series. You can’t have a mystery series without mysteries, and in Anastasia’s life, that usually means at least one dead body—often more. Being the devious author that I am, since I gave her a respite from her most annoying relatives, I dumped more than one mystery and several dead bodies onto the cruise ship. 

 

Of course, Anastasia is not happy with me, but what else is new? We’ve always had a tension-filled relationship. After all, before I dragged her into a starring role in my series, she was a happily married, middle-class wife, mother, and crafts editor at a women’s magazine. With a few strokes of my keyboard, I killed off her duplicitous husband, plummeted her into debt greater than many Third World nations, and permanently stuck her with the communist mother-in-law from Hades. I have to admit, her anger is justified.

 

A Sew Deadly Cruise

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 9

 

Life is looking up for magazine crafts editor Anastasia Pollack. Newly engaged, she and photojournalist fiancé Zack Barnes are on a winter cruise with her family, compliments of a Christmas gift from her half-brother-in-law. Son Alex’s girlfriend and her father have also joined them. Shortly after boarding the ship, Anastasia is approached by a man with an unusual interest in her engagement ring. When she tells Zack of her encounter, he suggests the man might be a jewel thief scouting for his next mark. But before Anastasia can point the man out to Zack, the would-be thief approaches him, revealing his true motivation. Long-buried secrets now threaten the well-being of everyone Anastasia holds dear. And that’s before the first dead body turns up.

 

Craft projects included.

 

Buy Links

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Amazon 

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Nook

Apple

 

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry.

Find more about Lois and her books at her website where you can sign up for her newsletter. You can also find her at her Killer Crafts and Crafty Killers blog, Bookbub, Pinterest, Twitter, and Goodreads.