Love at the Pickleback: Starting a New Book Is Always Exciting

Listen to the Stones is winding down. When I finish a labor-intense book like this one, I like to follow it with one that is as different as possible from the previous one. That’s where my Cocktails for You series comes in. Written from the heroine’s point of view, these are lighter stories designed to entertain, no deep thinking involved.

The woman on the left looks polished and perfect, maybe a little too perfect, like an AI version of a real woman. Maybe she’s had a facelift. Maybe someone bobbed her nose, I don’t know for sure, but she looks unhappy. She looks as if she’s longing for something more, something different, maybe even freedom.

That’s the thinking that went on inside my head and led to my creating Love at the Pickleback. Strange title? Not really. Each book in the cocktails series is based on an alcoholic drink. A Pickleback is a shot of Jack Daniels with a pickle brine chaser. It’s becoming quite popular in the US. Not sure I’ll drink one, but I’ll bet my daughter would.

So far, I’ve written the first chapter, which I’ll keep under wraps for now, although my beta reader had a look at it and gave it a big thumbs up. No cover yet, but here’s the blurb.

An heiress masquerading as a bartender-comedian falls in love with a man with secrets. When the truth comes out, will their love be strong enough to survive?

Being the plain-Jane daughter of a Texas cattle mogul is one thing, but having to fight off unwanted advances from every man in the state hoping to cash in on her daddy’s fortune is another. Knowing there’s no real escape, Andressa Myers finds the perfect place to hide behind the bar at an LA Comedy Club as Andie Harper. That is until the bar’s new owner, Cole Rayburn, a millionaire every bit as elusive as the legendary Howard Hughes, decides to make changes—changes that will take the little bar out of obscurity and into the bright lights.

But her concerns fade away after she meets LJ, a man Andie can’t resist. When she realizes that he’s the man Rayburn has hired to renovate the club, she’s thrilled and soon finds herself getting a lot closer to the man than she expected. Everything is going along smoothly until, on the night of the club’s grand reopening, a woman recognizes her.

Will discovering her true identity change things between her and the man she loves? LJ has secrets, too, and when he proposes, will she believe he loves her and not her father’s fortune? All secrets have a way of finding the light, and when she discovers his, will love be enough?

You’ll have to visit the Pickleback to find out. It’ll be out sometime this summer.

I will let you in on a secret. One blogger in the A to Z Challenge posted the word Umami for the letter U. When I thanked her for increasing my vocabulary she suggested that i needed to use it in a book. I did.

Here’s the sentence: “Life is filled with all kinds of men … bitter ones, sour ones, sweet ones and salty ones. I like mine umami, pleasant, savory, and very satisfying. Not sure you qualify.”

Have a great day. We’re expecting some heat today. Hopelly, it comes with sun and not rain.

A to Z Challenge Blog 2024 The letter X

As a writer, I use a variety of literary devices is my work. According to its definition, in literary terms, deus ex machina is a plot device used when a seemingly unsolvable conflict or impossible problem is solved by the sudden appearance of an unexpected person, object, or event. It is also a device I like to use in novels, especially suspense ones, when the characters are struggling with issues and need answers none of the other characters can give them.

Today’s letter is X, and it stands for Xavior, one of my deus ex machina characters in Listen to the Stones.

Jerome Morrison wants Fraser Hall and its standing stones. He also wants the woman he’s dreamed of for years. The one he’s sure was his in the past, but something tore them apart. What? Who?

Xavior is an elderly man in a nursing home whose memory is failing him. When he hears that Lady Fraser has returned to the Isle of Lewis and Harris, he gets upset and claims that she’s in danger and must be warned. One of his caregivers is related to a well-known secondary character, Nathan, who agreess to go and visit the old man and see what he has to say.

We don’t see that interview, but Nathan provides vital information about something that happened twenty-seven years earlier, something responsible for Lady Fraser being removed from the island. We don’t meet Xavier as it were. We hear what he has to say through a conversation between the hero and his best friend. When the hero asks for more information, the friend reports that Xavior dozed off and when they woke him, he didn’t remeber who his vistor was or what they’d discussed. He’d served his purpose.

There are several characters in my contemporary paranormal romance suspense who walk onto the stage, say their pieces, reveal secrets, advance the plot and move on again. Sometimes what they say eases tension. At others, like with Xavior, it increases the hero’s wariness and suspicion. Why is Lady Fraser in danger? What part does he play in this? Will he rescue her or make matters worse. As they say, sometimes a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Will Xavier’s words help Jerome or will they push him farther down the road to self-destruction? You’ll have to read the book to find out! Watch for it later this spring.

Lois, here’s another tune for you.

That’s it for X. Come back Monday for Y. Have a great weekend.

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A to Z Challenge Blog 2024 The Letter W

I’m going to start my post with a song this morning, a parady song from 1959, that I remember well. Weak women, damsels in distress, always needing to be rescued.

We’ve come a long way, baby, but we’ve still got a ways to go.

Today’s letter is W, and for me, it stands for women, no longer the frail damsels in distress of the past.

While there continue to be mysoginists everywhere and women continue to be repressed in many parts of the world, treated as property in some, losing control of their bodies and reproductive rights in others, in my little section of the world, women continue to improve their lots in life. Girls are encouraged to follow their interests. They are no longer placed in career lines marked male or female. When I graduated high school in the sixties, I had four choices: salesgirl, secretary, nurse, or teacher. And then, I was expected to get married.

The last thing I would ever want to be was a old maid! That would’ve been a sure sign of failure on someone’s part, most likely mine. A woman’s purpose was to marry and have children. So while I played with girl toys and girl card games, I was far more interested in reading about the glories of Ancient Greece and Rome and the adventures of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.

I wanted to be a journalist, an archeologist, a paleontologist, a detective, but those careers were not what my parents considered acceptable for a girl until she got married.Not that there was anything wrong with that.

I did fall in love and marry a wonderful man, and we’re still together after 52 years. I enjoyed being a stay-at-home mother for eight years, and once our three children were all in school, I needed more. With the help of my family, I went back to school for a year, in a different city, to get my degree in education and started work as a teacher.

How times have changed! Today, women can do almost anything a man can, although I haven’t mastered peeing standing up, but that’s another issue. They can be doctors, scientists, mechanics, carpenters, electricians, astronauts … anything they want to be. They can be bodybuilders, welders, miners, sea captains, and pilots. They can be wives, but they don’t have to be. They can be mothers, but again the choice is theirs.

So what does that mean to me personally?

I have one daughter. She’s a terrific athlete who loves sports. Back in high school, she wanted to play football. They wouldn’t let her because she was a girl. Today, if a girl is good enough to play, she can. She worked her way through college as a bartender, serving drinks and busting up fights. Today, she’s a social worker, a widow, who raised four children. Her youngest once gave her a Father’s Day card. Come September, one will start university in Health Sciences, another college in the Skilled Trades.

I have three granddaughters. One will be a pharmacist in another couple of years as she continues her studies, another will work in construction as a carpenter, and the third will be hopes to start her courses and apprenticeship next year towards becoming an electrician.

So what does this mean to me professionally?

It means that I try not to put all of my heroines into traditional careers. In my Harvester Files series, she’s a journalist, a detective, a reserach scientist, and FBI analyst. In Fire Angel, she’s a forensic fire invetigator. In Desert Deception, she’s an attorney. In Hello Again, she’s a mechanic. In Emerald Glow, she’s a professional photographer. In Beneath the Ashes, she’s a museum curator, in Holiday Magic, she’s a jewelry designer. In Echoes of the Past, she’s a forensic pathologist. In Buck’s Fizz, she’s a singer. In Atonement, she’s a witch who saves the world. In Listen to the Stones, she’s a chef.

I also have CEOs, princessses, teachers, bartenders, nannies, artists, but all of my charaters have one trait in common. Determination. While the hero may help save them in the end, and they do have a happily ever after, none of my ladies and simpering weak damsels. If they can get out of it on their own, they will, but sometimes like women in the real world they need a little help.

I’ll close this morning with one of my favorite songs.

That’s it for today. We’re down to the last three letters, X,Y, and Z. Come back tomorrow to see what I do with X

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A to Z Challenge Blog 2024 The Letter V

How well do you see? Do you wear glasses? Contact lens? Have you had laser surgery? How often do you get your eyes checked?

At my age, vision has become a necessary concern. I’ve worn glasses most of my life because of a lazy eye. A Lazy eye (amblyopia) is reduced vision in one eye caused by abnormal visual development early in life. The weaker — or lazy — eye often wanders inward or outward. Amblyopia generally develops from birth up to age 7 years. It is the leading cause of decreased vision among children. I remember being called cockeyed, as a child, wearing a patch, and then glasses with a magnifying lens that earned me the nickname Big Eye. People can be cruel.

Unfortunately, amblyopia is a hereditary disease. My youngest grandson suffers from it, as does my grandniece. In my grandson’s case, while he has diminished vision in one eye, the eye doesn’t float around. He has glasses, which he rarely wears, and while he’s supposed to patch a few hours each day, he doesn’t–but then I was the same at his age. My grandniece on the other hand required surgery and must wear her glasses. Like everything else, there a degrees of vision issues. I baby my one good eye because I can’t imagine not being able to see. I’ve done that, patched the good eye trying to exercise and improve the bad one, and it’s no fun.

Today’s letter is V for Vision. There is more than one kind of vision and while the one involving the eyes may be the most common, I want to talk about the kind most closely associated with dreams. In my paranormal series, visions are a way for the characters to learn things about themselves and others. Sometimes those visions are in the form of dreams, both daydreams and night ones, at other times, they can take the form of hallucinations. Whichever vision sequence works is the one I’ll use, but as a rule, I prefer dream and nightmare sequences, although I have used trances, too. In Listen to the Stones, a critical part of the story occurs with Marina in a trance.

There is a third type of vision worth mentioning, and it goes along with personal character.

That’s it for V and vision. Tomorrow, we’ll look at W. Here’s your song for the day,

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A to Z Challenge Blog 2024. The Letter U

Six letters to go. I’m actually sorry that this is winding down again this year, but I know that even I can’t devote this much quality time to blogging all year long.

Whenever I set a story in a place different from my own small section of the world, I like to familiarize myself with the terms and expressions commonly used there. Since Listen to the Stones is set on the Isle of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Northern Scotland, a place where Gaelic is spoken locally as well as Scottish and English, I’ve had to look up Gaelic terms to add a touch of realism to the story.

Most recently, I was looking for the word umbrella. In Scottish Gaelic, it’s sgàile, in Scottish, it’s gamp, and in UK slang, it’s brolly. Here, in my little corner of Canada, an umbrella is always called just that.

My husband believes that short women, I’m barely 5 feet tall, are a hazard. He isn’t wrong. We can put an eye out with one of those things. LOL. Back in high school, bubble umbrellas were all the rage. I had one trimmed in yellow and loved it. I could hold it down low to keep myself dry, not have to worry about the wind turning it inside out, and I could see where I was going. It was perfect. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that you can still buy them today. Needless to say, I ordered one. As soon as it arrives, I’ll be safe under my umbrella, today’s song of the day.

That’s it for the letter U. Tomorrow we’ll talk about the letter V.

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A to Z Challenge Blog 2024 The Letter T

I want to take a minute to thank those who’ve opted to follow my blog. Inviting you to my online home is an honor and a privilege. I hope what you’ll find here will be worth your time and effort.

Today’s letter is T. I’m torn between talking about the trouble I have with marketing and the trouble I have with what I call stubborn characters.

In terms of marketing, I would say my biggest trouble comes from the fact that marketing IS NOT my field of expertise. I don’t understand how to target my ads and all that stuff, although I have taken online courses designed to help, and they have, but I’m by no means even good at it. If I had the money, I would hire someone to market for me. I have everything in place–the professional website https://mhsusannematthews.ca/ courtesy of my son who’s a web designer, professionally made covers that follow the current trends thanks to my cover artist and best friend, Melinda https://www.coveredbymelinda.com/ and my blog, which connects to my newsletter when I want it to do so. But, I suck at promoting myself, so unless that changes, I’ll always have trouble with marketing.

The second trouble involves my characters. I do my best to put each of my heroines in some kind of trouble. I also try to give them unusual occupations when I can. My favorite example of that is Trouble With Eden. Here’s the blurb:

Can two lonely strangers find love and happiness through a caring man’s bequest?

Fantasy author Jackson Rivers is fed up with the world. He wants to hide away from everyone and everything and focus on his books, preferring the worlds he creates in his mind to reality. When he discovers he’s inherited a house and a service station in a rural part of Eastern Ontario, he sees it as the answer to prayer. He may only own half of both, but surely, he and the coheir can come to some arrangement. He just wants to be left alone, and a house in the country sounds perfect. Sadly, an encounter with a moose changes everything, and when he meets the other heir, not a man as he’d envisioned but a woman, the embodiment of his newest fantasy heroine, his priorities change. If it’s time to let someone else into his life, this woman is the ideal choice.

Eden-Jane Walford, E J to friends, wants her life to stay exactly the way it is—unfettered—able to come and go as she pleases, living in her childhood home, answering to herself and the dad she adores. But fate tosses a monkey wrench into things. She’s a Class A mechanic and tow truck operator for Paradise Service Station and Towing, her adoptive father’s company, but when he dies suddenly, she’s in for a surprise. While he leaves half of his estate to her, the other half goes to a stranger, who just happens to be his biological son and knows absolutely nothing about the business. Sharing her home and the boss’s chair with this man will be more than a little challenging, especially when he’s the first man she’s been drawn to since her disastrous engagement fell through. Will the sparks between them lead to love or war?

And what kind of trouble is Eden in? Well, other than the obvious of having to live and share her business with a stranger, someone wants to buy the land to redevelop it. She’s not selling and has to convince her step-brother not to sell either. That won’t go over well with the developer willing to do whatever it takes to get it, including intimidation and murder. It’s up to Eden and Jackson to figure out who’s behind it all. You can peek into the first chapter here.

That’s it for the letter T, and today’s musical selection is for one of my followers, Lois Roelofs. Enjoy! Come back tomorrow for the letter U.

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Tuesday Tales: From the Word: MOUTH

Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales. This week, our word prompt is MOUTH. I’m continuing with Listen to the Stones.

Marina stumbled on the threshold and reached for the doorjamb to keep her footing. Her mouth opened in surprise, her gaze fixed on the sight of Jerome laughing and conversing with an attractive brunette, young enough to be his daughter. Who the hell was she? She glanced quickly at the bag in her hand.

Biting back a wave of jealousy so strong that it shook her, she cocked her head and pasted a false but hopefully welcoming smile on her face. After all, he was a guest here, and she was his hostess—nothing more. She wished she still carried Raven. The kitten grounded her, and at the moment she needed that.

“Hello. Professor Morrison, I didn’t realize you weren’t alone. I’ll let Maeve know we’re hosting a couple and make sure she brings a third cup for tea.”

He frowned, and then his eyes opened wide. “What? No! I’m quite alone I assure you. There’s been some mistake.” He swallowed and then indicated the young woman. “Lady Fraser, this is Ainsley Lennox, Maeve’s granddaughter who’s studying to be a weaver.”

Marina’s cheeks burned. Once more she’d jumped to conclusions, her favorite form of exercise these days. She nodded, looking at the bag the girl carried and recognizing it for what it was.

“Of course, your grandmother did say you would be along soon. She’s still in the kitchen.” She pointed to the flowered, soft-sided picnic bag. “That must be the mutton stew. I’ve never had any, but I’m sure it’ll be delicious.”

“All of my grandmother’s cooking is good, but the stew’s my favorite. ’Tis a grand pleasure to meet you, my lady.” She executed a half curtsy bow. “I’ll take these to the kitchen and then go back to get the other items you’ll be needing for the kitten.” She smiled at Jerome batting her eyelids.

Good Lord, the girl was flirting with him, and he was lapping it up the way Raven had lapped up the cream. Once more jealousy filled her belly, but she subdued it quickly. Despite her strong attraction to the man, she wouldn’t know if he were friend or foe until she asked him about his plan to purchase Fraser Hall and the land. Until she knew more, it was best to keep him at a distance. So why was she envious of the smile he gave the teenager?

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

A to Z Challenge Blog 2024 The Letter S

Welcome to the last full week of this year’s challenge blog. These 8 remaining letters are the hardest ones each year. While the first five aren’t too bad, I’ve always found the last three challenging, especially when trying to stick to a theme.

I’ve actually bounced around several ideas for today’s letter. I considered suspense, sex, satire, suspicion Stonehenge, and the Standing Stones of Calanais, but eventually decided on serial since my theme is about my writing hopes, aspirations, and issues.

During this blog hop, I have been following a couple of blogs where they are writing stories, with each episode related to the day’s letter of the alphabet. One, I can read and like, but can’t comment. The other I can read, like, and comment. You can read it for yourself at THE CURRY APPLE ORCHARD posts you’ll find on the main blog hop site I post at the end of my daily offering.

I am really enjoying reading these adventure stories, many of them ending in a cliffhanger, and it’s prompted me to consider doing something like it. At the moment, I kind of do with my Tuesday Tales posts.

Each week, a small group of authors including me, post a scene from their current work in progress based on a word prompt we work into the scene. The scenes are generally limited to 400 words. In many cases, they follow one another closely, but in others, a lot of action happens off-stage.

Tuesday Tales are published late Monday evenings with links to each particular post. As you’ve been following this blog challenge, you’ve already seen some of my posts.

While I enjoy the Tuesday Tales experience, it isn’t exactly a serial. I would love to write a serialized novel. Kindle Vellum seems to be the ideal place to do it, but unfortunately, that platform isn’t available to anyone but US authors. It’s a pity because many talented authors from other countries might take advantage of it if they could. I certainly would.

That’s it for my take on the letter S. Come back tomorrow for the letter T

By special request from one of my followers, I will post one of my favorite songs hopefully dealing with the letter and theme each day until the end of the challenge. Here’s today’s musical interlude. I was lucky enough to see Leonard Cohen in person in 1967.

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Sunday Morning Musings, aka, How’s Your Year Working Out For You?

If you’ve been following my blog, you may remember my January posts about my weight, writing, and life. You’ll also recall my comments on the weather, family, and planned vacation. At the time, I mentioned that 2024 wasn’t being too kind to me. That’s an understatement. Other than the amazing eclipse, things had not met my expectations.

Our cruise to the Caribbean was awesome, even if the weather didn’t cooperate and we saw more rain than ever. As predicted, I regained 4 lbs, putting me up to 168.

I got back to work following the diet and got down to 167.5, not huge, but since I developed new aches and pains, which impeded my ability to exercise, it could’ve been worse. The weather was cold, damp, and miserable, which didn’t help, and the temperature roller-coastered all over from 17 C one day to -8 and colder. It was the warmest February on record for us, but I didn’t care. It was also the hardest, least productive month ever for me. Why? Because my mother died on the 5th, and I was tossed into depression.

Suddenly, I had all this extra time on my hands and didn’t know what to do with it. I couldn’t focus on writing, reading, or anything productive. I played games on my phone, went where I needed to go with my husband or my sister, and let the world roll over me. Watching the world news depressed me even more. If we were truly civilized, there wouldn’t be all of the cruelty going on in the world today. We’re no better than the barbarians; we just have more efficient weapons.

My sister and I attended to estate matters and placed her ashes inside the niche with my father’s ashes on February 29. I thought the fact that it was a leap year and the date only comes around every four years would make it special, and Mom loved being special. It turned out to be the coldest day of 2024 here. Needless to say, the graveside service was short.

February morphed into March without any noticeable change to the crazy weather pattern. We had a couple of snowstorms, but everything would melt within 48 hours. Unfortunately, the heat was erratic, with more cold days than warm ones.

We didn’t celebrate Easter on 31. Instead, we waited a week since my son who lives in Norway was coming for a flash visit. That’s when my spirits started to rise. Having all three of my children here at the same time was wonderful.

To kickstart my writing again, I dove into the A to Z Challenge Blog again this year and continued working on Listen to the Stones, well aware that I intended to have it finished by now–the best-laid plans of mice, men, and authors.

My aches and pains are receding although they are far from gone. The needle on the scale is heading back in the right direction and I’m back down to 164. It seems I’ve done nothing on that front but spin my wheels. Hopefully, I’m heading in the right direction.

Let’s hope April showers bring May flowers and that the weather improves.

I hope your 2024 is doing better than mine.

A to Z Challenge Blog 2024The Letter R

This is the last post of the third week of this year’s challenge and incidentally, the last one with video music.

Today’s letter is R. There were a few R words I could’ve used that are all critical to my current WIP: reflection, reincarnation, reality, and recall, but the one I chose to focus on is remembering.

Memories are what give meaning to our life’s experiences and the ability to remember times, places, events, and people is what makes us who we are. The saddest part of growing old is forgetting things–not just why the hell did I come into the kitchen, but significant things like names. I have never been good at remembering names, but I do recall faces. Sadly, Mother Nature and Father Time aren’t always kind to us. Other than the color of her hair, my sister hasn’t changed. She’s always looked the same. My brother-in-law is a different matter.

In her later years, my mother remembered things that had never happened. She took a strand of truth and embroidered an entirely different life for herself. Working on my newest book, I’m wondering if those memories weren’t past life experiences. Memories of all kinds are important. Here are today’s songs about remembering and memories.

Come back Monday for my look at the letter S.

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