8/25/17: Celebrate the Small Things

It's Friday and time to post my Celebrate the Small Things on this blog.

If you'd like to join in the fun or check out some other participating blogs, click the image to the right or the link at the bottom of the page.

My small things for this past week, some not so small, but all great!

First was the eclipse...we attended a private event at a local country club. The event was sponsored by our favorite microbrewery, Calf Killer Brewing. We had lunch, two glasses of a made-for-the-event stout beer, and each got a commemorative pint glass to take home. A good time was had by all. The beer was THE BEST, the food (offered by Good Ol' Sloppy Top) was delicious.









Here was Stu at the moment of totality...


This was the best my little iPhone SE could do...


And there there was none...


Second was getting our Adirondack chairs and turkey-tail table waterproofed and out on our deck. We bought them last summer when we were traveling NY state. We sat in a set at the Boatyard Beer Garden and fell in love. Curved back means no backache, curved seat - well, you get the picture. If Stu can sit in a wooden chair for 2-3 hours without complaining and it doesn't hurt my back - I'm all for it. You can read more here.

Tthird was Cooper's second vet check-up. Another worming and his final shots for this year. He's grown from 19.6# to 26.5# in three weeks! No wonder he's getting heavy. LOL! Downside, he still has his ear infection, especially in the right ear. He had been cocking his head over the weekend, yet responding more to sounds, so we were suspicious. He's on a heavier antibiotic and goes back in ten days. Keeping our fingers crossed. Oh, this is what you look like after you've been poked, prodded, had ears clipped, etc. Yeah, he was pooped!

He keeps getting cuter and fluffier though...we are both really enjoying him and his personality.

Final thing to celebrete was a good launch for my book, Paradise Dead. While I didn't sell near as many copies as I did the first book in the series, the event went well and I did sell some copies of my other books. The market is truly getting saturated with indie authors and books. It gets tougher and tougher. So....I do appreciate the shares and especially the reviews of my books!

Ciao for now!

8/18/2017: Celebrate the Small Things

It's Friday and time to post my Celebrate the Small Things on this blog.

If you'd like to join in the fun or check out some other participating blogs, click the image to the right or the link at the bottom of the page.

My small things for this past week, some not so small, but all great!

First was the release of my second Lei Crime Kindle World novella, Paradise Dead. We had a great launch party on Facebook and I made some new friends and hopefully new readers.

Second was my first post in the Write...Edit...Publish (WEP) blog hop challenge. I wrote about my 25th high school reunion. You can read that post here.

Third was Cooper's second vet visit. It was generally very good with his weight being up from just under 20# to 26.5#. Yup, he's getting big! His ear infection isn't completely gone so he's on antibiotics now for that. He is doing good with his puppy training, too. He was pooped afterwards...this was his ride home. LOL!

Fourth was finding this perfect on-the-door rack for my pantry. I found it at Target. It came with over-the-door hangers but Stu mounted it directly to the door (as often happens, the over-the-door hangers stopped the door from closing). Now I can find things more easily and it opened up more cabinet space for other things. Doing the happy dance!

Fifth and final was having a wonderful weekend with friends. Hubby made hoecakes (sort of a cornbread pancake) and they were a huge success, accompanying my chili. For dessert, we enjoyed some blueberry banana bread, freshly made that morning. We sent them home with the recipe for both the hoecakes and the blueberry banana bread.

We love having our butterfly bush beside our deck - here are a few photos I snapped this past week.

We also had a small praying mantis visit us. Unfortunately, my phone focused on the wind chimes and not the insect. LOL!

Ciao for now!

8/11/2017: Celebrate the Small Things

It's Friday and time to post my Celebrate the Small Things on this blog.

If you'd like to join in the fun or check out some other participating blogs, click the image to the right or the link at the bottom of the page.

My small things for this past week, some not so small, but all great!

First was finishing my second Lei Crime Kindle World novella, Paradise Down. It took an all-nighter and some long hours but I got it out to the editors and it's will be ready for upload in time for the big August 17th launch party! [watch for updates]

Second was Cooper getting his first grooming. They said he did real well except for holding his head still to get his neck done. LOL! We loved the trimming they did, and we can actually see both eyes. I've taken several photos but none of them are truly clear. Hard to photograph black pups! He is also loving his doggy day care.

Plus, he went to his first puppy training class this week and did very well. We learned a lot and will be practicing several times a day. We've already got SIT, we're working on LOOK, DOWN and STAY. We are using hand movements as well as voice commands.

Third is a HUGE thank you to my hardworking husband for getting the rest of the back yard fenced in for Cooper. He did an amazing job and Cooper loves it (and so do we).

Fhourth was getting my new glasses! I love them...no more readers (well, except maybe first thing in the morning when I want to get on the iPad while still in bed....snicker).

Ciao for now!

8/4/2017: Celebrate the Small Things

It's Friday and time to post my Celebrate the Small Things on this blog.

If you'd like to join in the fun or check out some other participating blogs, click the image to the right or the link at the bottom of the page.

My small things for this past week, some not so small, but all great!

First was taking Cooper to his first doggy day camp visit. He loved it and we got some time to run errands and see a movie. What movie? "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets", which we both enjoyed.

He was POOPED!

Second was spending time with old friends. One was a former co-worker of mine who drove all the way up from Atlanta to have lunch with me. Due to bad weather, she spent the night. We had so much fun chatting and we promised each other to do a real weekend visit this fall.

The other was an old neighbor of mine. She was about 16 the last time I saw her. Since then she graduated high school, enlisted in the Army, got a college degree, got married, had a baby, returned to civilian life and got divorced. She currently lives in NC but is thinking about moving back to TN. I sure hope so - she has the most adorable little boy. We had breakfast and chatted for over two hours and would have stayed longer but had crated Cooper.

Third was the progress I made on Paradise Dead. The last time I wrote anything in it was back in mid-April. So I opted to edit the first ten chapters, getting my head back into the story. I got that done AND I got another six chapters written. Hoping to close it out this weekend and rush it through edits and proofreading before the August 12th deadline for publication. Phew!

Fourth was the birth of our newest great-grandson to my late husband's grandson and his girlfriend. This is the second boy and they are thrilled (so am I)!

Ciao for now!

7/28/2017: Celebrate the Small Things

It's Friday and time to post my Celebrate the Small Things on this blog.

If you'd like to join in the fun or check out some other participating blogs, click the image to the right or the link at the bottom of the page.

My small things for this past week, some not so small, but all great!

First is a successful baking of blueberry banana nut bread. I took two recipes and adapted...a little moist but oh my, DELICIOUS!

Second is the addition of a puppy to our household...yes, I am seriously nuts. But what a joy he has been. What work he has been! Housebreaking is going okay - as long as we are paying attention. He has his own Instagram account and his own Facebook page, Mighty Mini-Cooper!

He had his first vet visit on Wednesday and all was generally good. He could stand to gain weight so we increased his food. A little irritation in his ears, very common on the Doodles (Poodles, Golden Retrievers, Labs, etc) so we have some natural stuff to hopefully clear that up. He got shots updated and goes back in three weeks for the rest and to recheck his ears.

He has made himself right at home...ya think? LOL!

Third is finally getting back to working on Paradise Dead, the second in my trilogy of novellas in the Lei Crime Kindle World. I hope to make my August 1st deadline to get it out to my beta readers and typo hunters. Phew!

I hope you've had a spectacular week and have some small things to celebrate!

Click to see the other blogs participating in the Celebrate the Small Things blog hop.

Ciao for now!

Ten days on the water - coming right up!

We won't be blogging for a while, okay, so I won't be blogging for a while (I don't remember the last time Stu wrote a blog post). LOL! We are heading off on a ten day Royal Caribbean cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale.

Even though this is a new cruise line (to me, Stu has been on them years ago), we've been to all the ports before. So I will be writing while Stu does some scuba diving. There will be photos taken on and from the ship but not much more.

My goal is to finish the first draft of Almost a Touch (book three in the Klondike Mystery series). When we get home, we have ten days before our next cruise on Carnival's Magic where we will meet up with several members of the band, #sixappeal, that we friended last year while on the Conquest. That means ten days to get the first draft of Paradise Dead (second novella in my Lei Crime Kindle World trilogy) so the guys can read it. Eeep!!

Once we return from that cruise, we head to Tennessee for the month of April. So that month will be spent editing, editing and editing in hopes of getting both books live as soon as possible.

Okay, enough rambling.....

Ciao for now!

A musical cruise makes for a magical cruise!

Unless you have never read our blog, you know we just spent 13 days cruising on the Carnival Conquest. It was our first time on that ship and our umpty-dump time in the ports. That meant scuba diving for Stu and writing for me.

The diving went well, but the writing? Not so much. Mostly due to two issues. First, I had made some domain changes to author website (A New Look) and had a couple of issues pop up - like no one could see my book page and no one could email me. Thank goodness for my laptop and Carnival's internet package. The other major issue was promoting and marketing the novella I had just released, Paradise Down. But the good news is I did fix a couple of plot holes in Almost a Touch that had been bothering me, so not all was lost.

The surprise on the cruise was the music. No, not just the music but the musicians. On our first night of the first cruise (we did 13 days, back to back), I was waiting for Stu to meet me for dinner and I was listening to the band in the lobby. They were doing a variety of tunes from 50's to more recent and doing a great job. After dinner we came back to listen to more.

They called for requests and I asked for both a drum and a sax solo. That was all it took. Over the next thirteen days we became good friends with this motley crew. Most were young enough to be our grandkids, or at least kids. But they were all talented, interesting and fun to be around. We tried to follow them as often as possible.

Here is the line-up for the main group, #sixappeal:

• David - band leader, singer and guitarist
• Jessica - singer
• Federico - guitarist extraordinaire
• Alberto - bass quitar
• Jacob - keyboardist
• Chaz - drums 

Carnival was also testing out a horn section, both on their own as well as doing sets with #sixappeal. They were nicknamed the Hornets.

• Chris - trumpet
• Gordon - trombone
• Steven - saxophone and flute

Separate or together, they were great. You can hear a little in the clip below.

On week two, we also met Norm and Annette from Baltimore. Also a late in life marriage, these two lit up the dance floor. They out-danced us every night! We hope to meet up with them again when we are in Maryland. Wonderful folks. Here is a little sample.



Stu enjoyed his diving, as always, but a few things of note. In Roatan he dived with Chaz from the band and they had a blast. In Grand Cayman, he dived the wreck of the USS Kittiwake, something he would definitely do again. He also met a young couple from Deland, FL on the dives and we hope to connect with them next winter, maybe do some local dives with them. Oh, if anyone is interested in dive videos, contact Stu and he will send you some footage. ;)

One last bonus from the cruise(s) - I now have the plot and characters for the third novella in the Lei Crime Kindle World. Readers are loving Paradise Down, I already had the outline for Paradise Drift and now I have Paradise Dead set. I hope to have them by the end of the year. Oh, by the way, Paradise Down is NUMBER ONE on the Amazon Hot New Release list for Kindle World mysteries! If you haven't read it, maybe you should! ;)

As always, see all our photos in our SmugMug album.

Ciao for now!

BOOK UPDATE: "Paradise Down" is now available!

WOOT! It's finally here - my new novella, Paradise Down, for the Lei Crime Kindle Worlds is available on Amazon. I hope everyone will give this little mystery a read and leave a review. Hey, it's only $1.99.

Aloha Nicholás!  But will this be a hello or a goodbye?

When Lucia Santerez returns home to Hawaii to help her brother Nicholás with his new dive shop, she learns Nicholás has disappeared--and someone doesn't want him found. 

Enlisting the aid of hunky vacationing firefighter, Jared Stevens, gets them the wrong kind of attention. They discover what lies under the water off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Kaua`i could make you rich or get you killed.

For readers of the Lei Crime series, this story occurs shortly after Fire Beach.

Now I get back to work on Almost a Touch, book three in my Klondike mysteries!

Ciao for now!