Happy Thanksgiving!

 

        Hello, gentle readers! Hope you are all well and staying safe!

        Happy Thanksgiving! I have to admit, this is my favorite holiday, by far! The smell of turkey roasting, the warmth of family and good friends, the knowledge that Thanksgiving is the official start of the holiday season. Yeah, it’s my thing.

        In years past, I had a full house and cooked for days, breaking out the old recipes passed down from generation to generation. There’s my mother-in-law’s stuffing recipe (as my son used to say “It’s the bomb”), my grandmother’s cheesecake recipe (it’s a killer…oh so good), my mother’s apple pie (sweet, cinnamony goodness bordering on sinful). So many memories are associated with food and preparing it. The laughter, the teaching moments, the many, many ‘oops’…yeah, sometimes the hand mixer could get away from you and there would be cake batter all over.

        I distinctly remember my grandfather chopping celery and onions for the stuffing while my grandmother supervised. My mother, who believed that as the first-born daughter, I needed to know everything about hosting a big dinner, had me by her side the entire day, basting the turkey, peeling the potatoes and learning her secret for creating the perfect mashed potato, washing the dishes as we went so the kitchen stayed clean (which is something I still do).

        This year, it’s going to be quiet, just the DH and I. And I took the week off from the day job. Yes, I will pay for it when I go back into the office, but that’s all right…I plan to use my time off to my advantage. Cooking, of course, but there’s a few movies I’ve been wanting to see…and I plan to write. A lot. Starting right now.

        And even though it’s going to be quiet this year, I still have so many things to be thankful for. And I don’t just save that gratitude for one day. I am grateful all year long—for family, for friends who have become family, for a job that I love (although the countdown to retirement has begun), for a warm home, but mostly, I am thankful for you, gentle readers, for reading my stories, for liking my characters as much as I do, for giving me the chance to show you some of the worlds I like to create.

Happy Thanksgiving! Stay well! Stay safe! And remember to spread kindness wherever you go!

Marie

The Little Russian by Susan Sherman

 The Great War in the early 20th century was devastating and filled with heartache and brutality.  Regardless, there are things to be thankful for.

Berta Lorkis is a young, Ukrainian Jewish woman who's many attributes are exposed in the changes she encounters in life.  Initially, her self-centered and greedy heart overtakes her life goals as she is brought up with luxury of every kind all around.

She expects to marry a man that can keep up with her demands, even after she returns home to help with the family grocery store.  She figures the hard labor is temporary.

Her attention to a handsome merchant, Hershel Alshonsky, is rewarded with marriage and children.  Hershel is absent for months at a time, presumably selling and buying wheat.  Berta accepts this as long as she can buy anything and socialize to her standards.

It's when her life in Little Russia turns to wondering what she can sell to keep up appearances and food on the table that a new attribute of her is realized.  Hershel comes home less and less.  Berta doesn't believe he's only conducting business.  She becomes frustrated with her life being peeled away one piece of furniture or art and one bite of food at a time.  

WWI is at her doorstep, but Hershel isn't.  With the realization that it's up to her to survive on less and less, she endures the horrors of war, loss and deprivation.  She doesn't know if Hershel is alive or dead, thinking of her and the children, or if he left for a better life.

Years of hardship and rumors that Hershel is alive and searching for her have a small space in her heart.  A space she does not give up on until she fulfills her search, replenishing love.

Happy reading,

Dawn

Time Flies

 

        Hello, gentle readers! Hope you are all well and staying safe!

        By the time you read this, it will Wednesday, November 12…so I’d like to ask…where has time gone? The days seem to be flying by so quickly, I can’t keep up.

        The day job is kicking my butt. Not enough hours in the day to get everything done. Same with stuff at home…not enough hours to get it all done, plus Thanksgiving is coming up, which means I need to find time to prepare. It is my favorite holiday and I do love all the things that go along with it—the cooking, the baking (I have a killer cheesecake recipe that everyone loves), and all the rest. I will admit I enjoy all that stuff.

        All that being said, I don’t let lack of time stop me from writing. I get up early and write before the day job and household chores have time to kick my butt.

        Speaking of writing, my current work in progress is kicking my butt, too. Why? Well, we’d have to ask my characters that. It seems that they have decided to go off and do things the way they want. Like they have their own agenda and really don’t care about my plot points…or what I want them to do.

        Case in point. I had a plan (and the lead up) to Wyatt and Sheridan’s first kiss. Well, my hero, Wyatt, decided that he didn’t like the timing at all…so he just went and did it on his own before I was ready. I guess he was and it didn’t matter that I wasn’t.

        Of course, him stepping up and stepping out of sequence, just threw a whole monkey wrench into my plan. The worst part? He was right! That first kiss should have happened when he wanted it to, not when I thought it should!

        This is not the first time this has happened. I’ve had many other characters, at one point or another, just completely disregard my plans and just do what they wanted to do. And yes, they were right as well.

        I like to think you can teach an old dog (me) new tricks and maybe, just maybe, I should start listening to my characters instead of being so stubborn (yes, I am stubborn and I’m not afraid to own it) and let them do what they want when they want. It seems these characters I have created in my head know better than me, which is really strange when you think about it. They are my characters! My creations! How can they know better than the person who created them?

        I can’t answer that question. Obviously, I don’t know, but I think it’s time I let them take the lead. That being said, I’m going to open up my work in progress and see what surprises Wyatt and Sheridan have for me. Could be interesting. Could be fun.

        And that’s all for me. Stay well! Stay safe! And remember to spread kindness wherever you go!

Marie

The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith

 I could not wait to flip the pages of Galbraith's (J.K. Rowling) eighth story in the Strike and Ellacott mystery/romance encounter.

It did not disappoint.

Taking on a controversial case attached to a dismembered body found in the vault of a silver shop, Cormoran Strike and his partner Robin Ellacott are investigating if the body belongs to the boyfriend of a rich client.  They don't necessarily need to know who it is, just whether it's the boyfriend or not.  

This narrow inquiry keeps them from overstepping the police's investigation.  That's the intention, anyway.

Strike's and Robin's probe leads off in many tangents, which includes their suppressed feelings.  Every time Strike or Robin considers revealing how they feel about one another, a roadblock appears.  Whether it's because they can't get together, their cases pull them in different directions, or more subtly they misread each other, their thoughts and feelings don't get expressed.  

More obviously, Robin's boyfriend appears to be a keeper and Strike's reputation doesn't help.

Strike tries to work closer with Robin to give him an advantage, which typically backfires.  He plans to lay his heart at her feet when he gets the chance, and he's incredibly frustrated that the chance hasn't happened yet.

Robin insists to herself that her boyfriend, Ryan, should be the one for her because he's a good guy.  She tries not to admit that might not be enough when thoughts of Strike bombard her.

The last chapter left me stunned.  A grand ending and a grand beginning for the next saga of Strike and Robin's story.  I can't wait.

Happy reading,

Dawn