Living the Dream

Welcome to May. Let’s hope Mother Nature is generous with her May flowers. A little consistent heat would be nice, too. It’s a bright sunny 64F today. I’ll take it.

Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales. My word prompt today is BOIL. I’m continuing with Listen to the Stones. Enjoy!

He set his duffel bag on the Fraser tartan-covered bench at the foot of the bed. After placing his laptop bag on the desk, he opened his backpack, removed his toiletries, and carried them into the bathroom.

A modern bathtub and shower had replaced the clawfoot tub of old, with the rest of the fixtures having been changed as well. The room mirrored the décor of the bedsitting area and fluffy brown, ivory, and green towels hung from the bar. He would be very comfortable here until he could move into a croft or but and ben, especially when James was around. Being near the man strained his patience and good manners, furthering his sense of urgency, and making his blood boil—not in a good way. And while he wanted to move things along quickly, he felt that would be a mistake. If Marina was going to recall their connection, she needed to get to know him. Having James around was sure to interfere with his plans.

“One thing at a time, old boy. One thing at a time.”

After attending to his needs and washing his face and hands, he removed the shirt he’d worn all day and replaced it with a blue and white checked flannel one. He quickly unpacked the rest of the clothes he’d brought with him, and plugged in his cell phone charger and his computer.

Pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, Jerome pressed the speed dial number for Nathan’s home.

The man answered on the second ring.

“Hello, Jerome. Are you still in Inverness? The weather was too deplorable today to even consider crossing The Minch.”

“Halo, Nathan. You know me. I hate changing my plans. The captain was determined to make the crossing, and while it wasn’t an easy one, we made it across in one piece, but we were considerably later than I’d hoped. I’m at Fraser Hall. Lady Fraser arrived on the island today, just as you said she would. I wanted to get to work befriending her as soon as I could, so I took a chance and came out to the Hall. She’s agreed to let me stay the extra two days.” Nathan grunted. “Of course you did.” His words were filled with sarcasm. “Ye wouldn’t let something as minor as a major, life-threatening storm stop you.”

That’s it. Come back next week for more. Don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.

I had plans for today, plans that didn’t include rain. My first thought was ugh! So much for doing that. But then I decided to change my attitude.

It’s spring. it’s not freezing outside, it’s 55F or 13C where I live. It could be snowing. After all it is May, and May is an unpredictable month. I recall stating my summer job May 1, 1971, and having a snowfall. It does happen. If not snow, I could be living along the infamous American Tornado alley where this came up in my weather feed this morning:

It’s the heart of spring tornado season south of the border and Monday’s weather could prove dangerous for millions in the centre of the country.

The U.S. Storm Prediction Center (SPC) calls for widespread severe thunderstorms across the Plains and Midwestern states through the afternoon and nighttime hours on Monday.

For the sake of everyone living there, I hope this is one time that the meteorolagist is wrong!

So, attitude changed from ugh! to oh, well. I can do a yard and plant study tomorrow. The rain will help the tiny perrenials get stronger, provide the moisture the grass needs, and make it easier to do the weeding when the ground is softer. It’s too early to plant my annuals, so I’ll spend the day writing today. Tomorrow, I’ll be attending a track meet where three of my four grandchildren who live in my city will be competing. The fifth one is back at university in Norway after two weeks Vacation in Thailand.

While looking for a Monday saong I didn’t use last month, I found this. Enjoy your day.

When you get to be my age, I view the task of spring cleaning the same way I view climbing Mount Everest–unachievable, a disaster waiting to happen, but not this year. No, I haven’t miraculously gotten taller and grown muscles. What I have done is hire my sixteen-year-old granddaughter to do the job for me.

She’s saving for a car. So why pay someone else when I can contribute to her bank account? I admire kids with a goal, kids who don’t expect the expensive toys of life to drop into their laps.

To be fair, some people feel grandkids and kids should help without being paid, and she does with lots of things, but I believe children should learn that their labor has value. Teaching them life skills like cleaning and home maintenance is important and when they can do it as well as I can, why not let them do it and save my poor old body from pain?

So, what have we done so far? On Saturday, she dusted and mopped every section of the bedrooms, cleaned the screens and the windows, and rotated the mattresses–something I would never have been able to do. Kingsdown mattresses are supper comfortable, but they weigh a ton! She also cleaned out the bathroom cupboard and drawers, tossing items that I’ve had forever and will never use. I’m having my bathroom redone, so that had to be done as soon as it could be. Imagine how much fun she had looking at expiry dates on bath products– 2002 was the oldest. She also dusted behind the living room furniture and did the screens and the windows in that room and the dining room.

She also changed a few light bulbs and looked at a lamp that wasn’t working …. did I mention she wants to be an electrician?

Today, we’ll focus on the kitchen, emptying all the cupboards, getting rid of expired products. Then, we’ll moved to the family room and laundry room and finally the downstairs bathroom. Should be fun, but once it’s done, we’ll be good for another six months!

And, best of all, I’m still standing!

.

Let’s face it. You do one little internet search and for the next few months you’re inundated with ads for that one thing you searched. My bathroom will be renovaated long before I stop seeing ads for Step-in tubs for seniors.

Just sit with your phone on and talk about a vacation to some place and Bam! you have ads about it to your heart’s content. Mind you, we truly enjoyed celebrating out fiftieth anniversary about the Rockey Mountaineer. That the beauty of Big Brother listening. Sometimes, he pushes you in the right direction.

But then again, there are times when my feed is overwhelmed with ads for things I don’t want and videos of recipes I’ll never make in this lifetime–how many of us cook outdoors in mega steel pans? And giving me directions in Chinese, Spanish, or another language I don’t understand isn’t helpful either.

But I do get to keep up with friends, see their dogs, cats, children, grandchildren and vacation posts as well as read their good news and the sad news. Don’t get me started on the jerks who insinutate themselves into my posts or those of my friends, begging me to send them aa invitation because they’ve tried and it doesn’t workk from their end. Buddy, don’t hold your breath. It’s never happening.

But every now and then, I get a bonus.

If you followed my A to Z blog challenge this year, you know I posted a lot of YouTube videos of songs, most of them from my youth. So, this morning, what came across my feed? This video. I remember the Ed Sullivan show well, and it was always a treat to see my bands as guests. Look at the audience. When was the last time you got all dressed up like that? I do when I go on cruises. That could be one of the reasons I enjoy them. I miss dressing up. These days, when I go out, most of the time it’s in clean jeans and a good top. And the bands? They always looked sharp. Today? That color is probably the one I’ll use in my renovated bathroom. Well, I suppose today’s artists are just following the recent trend that clothes do not make the person. Too bad. I miss the good old days.

Well, that’s it for today. Let’s see what comes up tomorrow.

When I decided to try my hand at romantic comedy, sometimes called chick-lit, I struggled with what to write. I knew that I would be working in the first person, something I’d never done, and that I would have a narrow point of view for the plot. I also knew that I would be dealing with a strong, self-sufficient heroine, one who was still soft and insecure at times but did her best to hide it. And of course in keeping with the times, I might need more sex than I was used to adding to my books.

I was determined to try my hand at it when I returned from visiting family in Los Cabos, Mexico in January, 2020. We all know what happened three months later. The pandemic shut everything down, plunging us into terror at the deadliest virus of our age.

Stuck inside by the order to shelter in place and avoid crowds, even our own families and friends, I had lots of time to think about this new writing style. My best friend and fellow author suggested I needed to consider writing more than one book and linking them with some kind of common theme. That’s where the Cocktails for You series was born.

I decided to name each book in the series after a specific cocktail and include the recipe for that cocktail in the story. I did my April A to Z in 2021 on cocktails. By then, there were four books in the series.

But, let’s get back to numero uno. While I was looking through the pictures of that vacation that seemed years rather than a mere three months earlier, I saw the shots of the sunrise I’d taken one morning as I’d watched the sky turn form a vibrant purple to bright pink, peach, and yellow before the bright blue of the clear day chased all the clouds away. The pictures reminded me of a song. Can you guess which one?

The colors also reminded me of the drink I’d ordered the previous night. I’m not a fan of Margaritas since I find them either too salty, or like the ones my brother-in-law made, authentic ones not frozen like I was used to, too strong. This was mild, sweet, and pretty, with the grenadine settling at the base, and the orange juice and orange liqueur hit the spot.

Those three ideas gave me the title for my first Cocktails for You book, Tequila Sunrise. I decided to throw in a few of the things that had happened to me during the vacation, like the long flight delay and the deicing, described some of the places we’d visited down there, the condo where we’d stayed on the beach, and a humerous thing that had happened to my nephew a few years back. Just because something looks harmless doesn’t mean that it is, especailly when it comes to taco toppings.

Then, of course I needed a romance. Since it was my first attempt, I chose something simple, a combined second chance at love-office romance with the boss trope. Satisfied with the story, it was edited, reedited, and edited again. The story was short, a novella rather than the novel I usually wrote, but not bad for my first attempt at the genre. Then the start for the perfect cover. The first one in the pictures is the last and current one.

The first cover we chose was the one with the silhouette and the photograph I’d taken. It sold well when it was part of the box set but not so well on its own. My cover artist suggested something more in line with the genre. That was when we moved to the blonde in the hammock. Sadly, it still didn’t capture the attention we’d hoped. Was it because the model looked too sweet and innocent? After a few months, she suggested we try something sassier, thus cover number three with the model looking straight at the camera took its place. The book did a little better, but not well enough. Last year, my cover artist insisted the cover wasn’t right and that was hampering sales. She claimed that vector covers were all the rage for this genre of book and came up with the fourth and current cover. To be honest, I’m not sold on cartoon-style covers, but the book is selling a bit better. Increasing sales might come if I got a better handle on promotion, too. I really suck at that!

Here’s the blurb:

Tequila Sunrise: a romantic comedy about a career woman with a second chance at love (Cocktails For You)

She left him in stitches before pulling a Cinderella and disappearing. Ten years later, she wants a second chance.

You can check out the opening pages here:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08PCCXH1W

And because Imentioned the song … Love the Eagles! Enjoy.

We did it! We blogged our hearts out and touched the hearts of others –at least that’s how I feel about this year’s blog challenge. Going into my mail and finding the links to all the blogs I followed this year became as vital to my day as that cup of coffee, and responding to the comments a way of connecting more deeply with my new friends.

More than anything else, I had fun. It was uplifting to read the comments and share a bit of myself with others. I learned that people love music to start their day or midday or whenever they read the posts. It actually helped me set the tone for the day, so I may just keep posting my song of the day and why I chose it. Maybe not everyday, but I could handle once a week. Most of the songs I posted were old ones because those were the songs I loved from the best days of my life, even if I didn’t recognized that back then.

To everyone who read the blog, thank you. To those who followed me, thank you even more, and to anyone who chooses to purchase one of my books, you have my eternal gratitude, especially, if you leave a review on Amazon! You can find me here, or there. https://www.amazon.com/stores/Susanne-Matthews/author/B00DJCKRP4

Until next year, here’s another farewell song.

Check out blog posts from other participants here: https://tinyurl.com/w54yupwe

Welcome to May and this month’s IWSG question:

May 1 question – How do you deal with distractions when you are writing? Do they derail you?

Yes and no. It all depends on what I’m writing and when. If I am in the creative stage and am running along on a great plot or character development scene and the phone rings or my husband comes in to ask a question, then yes. The interruptions derail me and I have to take a few minutes to go back and reread what I have done to nudge the idea into existence once more. Sometimes it works; at others, the idea is gone. That usually tells me I wasn’t going down the right path anyway.

If I’m editing, it isn’t quite as bad since the creative thinking is over, and it’s just a matter of tying up loose ends and making sure that I haven’t left any plot points hanging. Then, I just pick up at the start of the paragraph and move on.

Want to know how others feel? Check out the other group members’ postings.

https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

And just like that, it’s over. This post is the last one in this year’s challenge. There were times when getting the post written and posted on time was a bit of a struggle, but I managed and I have no regrets–well, maybe a couple since I couldn’t post comments on a few of the blogs, but where I could, I did. I learned a lot about the problems of getting old, a few I already knew, from https://loisroelofs.com/. I discovered a new word and learned a lot about DNA from https://everyonehasafamilystorytotell.wordpress.com/ I was blown away by facts about Australia from https://brizzymaysbooksandbruschettasite.wordpress.com/

As well, I followed two novellas written for the challenge and plan to do one myself next year. I read poems, got advice on a number of different topics, picked up a few different recipes, and some quotes to get me through the day.

The last letter is Z , and what struck me most was the zest and zeal my fellow bloggers demonstrated throughout the challenge.

It takes a lot of commitment to blog every day. It takes a lot of guts to bare your soul and talk about the things that make you you. It takes a great deal of commitment to write a short story in thirty days and I really hope to see the Adventures of Step, Tear, and Sad added to and published one day.

I hope that in some small way, my entries have entertained you and maybe even added to your own careers as readers or authors. I have zero regrets. This has been one of the best years ever.

I hope that you’ll follow my blog and see how things work out for me. Until next year’s challenge, stay safe. Here’s your last song.

Check out blog posts from other participants here: https://tinyurl.com/w54yupwe

Wow! It’s the last day of April, and we are 1/3 through 2024. Spring has arrived, although it took its own sweet time getting here. This week, our Tuesday Tales authors worked with the word prompt FLOWER. I’m continuing my contemporary paranormal romance suspense, Listen to the Stones.

Instead of reaching for another book, she picked up a silver frame with a black and white snapshot of two dark haired men and a woman who looked startlingly familiar. She could easily be her double. While there was no color to the photograph, she was certain the woman’s hair would be a red similar to her own. Was this her grandmother?

A tear dribbled down her cheek. Marina shoved a hand into her pocket searching for a tissue but pulled out the note James had found on the doorstep and handed her. As he’d said, it was addressed to Lady Fraser. The item was roughly the same size as the card accompanying the flowers. Perhaps this would tell her who’d sent them. She tore open the envelope and pulled out the small, white business card, shoving the envelope back into her pocket.

She read the note.

Fraser blood has no place here. Leave here now, or you never will. Life is a matter of choice. Choose wisely.

Marina dropped the card as if it had burned her. The sound of a throat clearing made her turn, still holding the picture frame.

Maeve stepped into the room. “I dinna want to disturb you but was wondering how long you wanted me to wait before serving tea?” She glanced at the frame in her hand. “That’s your grandmother with your grandfather and your great-uncle. I found the picture when we were cleaning out the croft.”

Deciding not to mention the note, Marina fixed her mind on Maeve’s last words.

“Which croft? The professor is interested in renting something on the estate where he can study the stones and still live close to them without having to stay in Fraser Hall. I was going to ask Brian if there was a building that could be renovated into a but and ben like Ainsley’s, but a croft might be more to his liking.”

“He certainly would be close. It’s the one your parents occupied before your father was killed. Ye lived there until the laird had his stroke, and your mother moved in to look after him. The house is the one closest to the stone circle. We moved out most of the furniture for your room. Brian and Donald refinished it, and we purchased a new mattress. We thought ye might like your parents’ things, but if you’d prefer something else—”

That’s it. Come back next week for more. Don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.

Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed your weekend. I had a lazy day. After posting my blog and watching video church, I enjoed a quiet day. We all need one every now and then. There are only two letters left in this year’s challenge.

Today’s letter is Y. Quite simply, I’m going to blog about the year. Are you a planner? I was definitely one when I started teaching, planning out every detail of my day, right down to the minute. As the days and weeks passed, I learned that plan all you want, something always happened to derail you. So, my plans became more fluid, allowing for interuptions and life.

That’s pretty much the way I do things now that I’ve retired from teaching. I still put in a full workday, but I set my own schedule based on what works for me.

There are several fixed dates on my calendar–birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries. There are others that may get plugged in weeks and months ahead of time, like vacations, and there are still more that pop-up unannounced, like luncheon and dinner dates and sadly celebrations of life.

It’s much the same with my writing calendar. In January, I set out the number of books I want to write in the given year, allocate the number of weeks to write a book and just when I think I’m on target, life sabotages my good intentions. Things happened that couldn’t be prevented and they derailed my ability to write for an extended period of time which screwed up my timeline. And what could I do? I tried to look at the big picture. What had I intended to write this year? Is it still feasible? Probably not, so how much can I accomplish. I started with 366 days this year. I have 240 left. I need to make the most of them. Am I going to stress about it? Probably, but like the song says, I’ll try not to worry, be happy.

Thay’s it for Y. Wasn’t Robin Williams a comedic genius? So sad that he passed so soon. Come back tomorrow for my last post of this year’s challenge, the letter Z

Check out blog posts from other participants here: https://tinyurl.com/w54yupwe