Coming of digital age

It used to be that readers wanting to purchase a Harlequin after a few months might have trouble finding a new copy. A year or so later? Only if the publisher decided to reissue the book.

Now, our books will stay in print virtually forever thanks to the digital age. It came a lot faster than many of us expected.

I’ve heard statistics that, a mere three years ago, less than one percent of book purchases were for ebook readers. Today, that hovers around 12 percent, and in 3-4 years, it may go as high as 50 percent.

You don’t even have to own an ebook reader to enjoy digital copies. My son announced that he was reading Kindle books on his smart phone, downloading them while traveling in Japan. Although he’s since bought a Kindle, you can download a free app – a small program – from Amazon.com so you can read these digital books on your computer or smart phone.

My son, who’s 24, says he’s reading more books than ever. Isn’t that great? Another friend is buying more books now, too, and reading them on his phone. I can’t imagine wanting to read on such a small screen, but he loves it.

If you’ve checked my Web site recently (www.jacquelinediamond.com), you’ll see that I’ve uploaded two of my non-Harlequin books onto Amazon for $2.99 each (I’ve posted the first chapters on my site, so you can read them for free). One is a paranormal romantic suspense that nearly got published in print and technically got published digitally, but both times the publishers went bankrupt. Not my fault, honest! The second book is a darkly funny mystery that was published in a beautiful hardcover edition – but with a very small print run aimed at libraries.

Now, they’re both available for anyone who wants to read them. I’m getting some of my other older books scanned into Word, including my Regency romances. I plan to re-edit them as needed, attach new ISBNs (tracking numbers) and design new covers. No more languishing on remote, dusty shelves for them!

So if you missed a Harlequin American from a few months ago or even last year, you can find it there. If your favorite bookstore runs out, you have options. Isn’t the digital age great?

Holdin' Out For A Hero

Without a doubt, one of my favorite parts of writing is characters. Sure, I love crafting a plot, but characters? They're the best.

In my mystery series (written under the pen name, Elizabeth Lynn Casey), I've created a whole cast of characters that return in each book. Characters with quirks and personalities that are as unique as, well, real people. When it's time to write the next book in the series, it's like spending time with old friends. When I'm done writing, and it's time to send the book in, I miss them.

Because they're real. To me. And, I hope, to my readers, as well.

Come November, I'll have my first holiday romance--MIRACLE BABY--with Harlequin American. It's a story about loss and healing and, of course, love. But it was the characters that I most enjoyed writing. They made the loss and the healing real. And the love? Well, it got me choked up.

The hero in this book, Rory O'Brien, is just that...a true romantic hero. The kind of guy you root for from page one. Not just because he's good looking, but because he's special. The kind of guy who sees beyond the exterior to what's inside.

And then fights for it.

As a writer, you hope that what you set out to portray is, in fact, what the reader gets. So when I read Romantic Times' review of the book this past weekend, I was thrilled.

Because they got it.

They got him.

"Both Maggie Monroe and Rory O'Brien have known the devastating pain of losing people they loved, but Maggie hasn't moved on yet. Slowly, Rory insinuates himself into her life, bringing her joy and hope. A truly romantic hero swoops in to save a woman from her fear of living her life. Rory and Maggie are soul mates and Bradford's story is touching, romantic and perfect for the holidays."

Okay, pinch me.

Rory is, in every sense of the word, a giver. The kind of person that doesn't keep a tally sheet. The kind of man that makes you believe in love and its power. To heal. To nurture. To grow.

So tell me, what makes a true romantic hero for you?

~Laura

Music and Writing

Music and Writing

One of the most beautiful gifts we have in the world is music. It has the ability to break down language and show the exquisite splendor of other cultures. I am an avid music lover who will listen to just about anything. I love classical, oldies, big band, disco, eighties, just about anything on the radio and music from around the world.
When I was eighteen, I had the chance to travel to Europe on a bus tour. As we drove through the Spanish Pyrenees, they played, “The Gipsy Kings,” a famous flamenco group that strummed haunting rhythms on their guitars. It filled my soul with a love for something beautiful and different than anything I had ever thought or dreamt of before. Their music caught the essence of the land, a country that seemed to be alive and pulsating.
Soon the bus drove through Austria and I put on my Walkman. Yes, I am that old. I had brought my tapes of Mozart and Schumann along and soon realized why they composed such timeless music. To live in such beauty where you look out the window and see a green that is beyond emeralds. It’s a fairy tale, a dreamland, a place where glorious mountains rise to over eleven thousand feet high.
I believe that art begets art. For some artists, they can look out a window and find beauty inspiring their inner muse. For others it’s a piece of art or other great works of fiction. For me, music is my muse. There are times I can hear a piece of music and suddenly I have a scene already written. I have to run to my computer or grab a piece of paper to jot down notes. Other times I’ll hear something on the radio that conveys an emotion that I have wanted to write. Music is an amazing tool at breaking through writer’s block and I pray that it will continue to inspire and help me.
I’m curious to know what types of music you love.

Ciao,
Dominique Burton

Feel the Romance

On Saturday, the Maryland Romance Writers had a booth at the Baltimore Book Festival. A lot of the writers from the group—including me—read excerpts from their latest books. We also answered questions about everything from writing to character arc to works in progress.

When I was finished with my reading, one of the visitors mentioned that she was a writer of women’s fiction. She hastily added that she wasn’t sure what the difference between women’s fiction and romance was. Then she said that she had only been reading romantic fiction for two years and that was the source of her confusion. After we all reassured her that none of us knew the difference either, we started to talk about when we had first discovered romance novels.

I grew up in a book-loving family, but I don’t remember my mother reading romance when I was young. My first encounter with the genre was in my early teens, when I visited my grandmother in upstate New York. She was an avid reader of Barbara Cartland. I must admit, I still have a soft spot for those naïve, breathless heroines and their masterful, older heroes. After that, perhaps the same year, a neighbor passed on a pile of Harlequin romances. Through them, I saw a world outside small-town Idaho. Those slim volumes broadened my horizons and made me wonder about the lives of other people in other lands. They were also the genesis of my urge to travel. I still remember the name of the heroine—Lavinia, Vinnie for sort—who took me to the Alhambra for the first time. When I saw it for myself, years later, I couldn’t help but think of her.

But there was more to romance than those sweetly formulaic offerings. When I was a bored babysitter looking for something to read, I found The Flame and The Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss on a bedside table and picked it up. I was thrilled to find out there was more to romantic fiction than masterful men who sat a horse well or who ran corporations with the help of spunky heroines who tamed them. There was sex. Before marriage! On ships and in carriages and outside under the wide blue sky. The heroines were still spunky and heroes masterful, but the stories were deeper, richer and far more complicated emotionally. In short, there were good romances and then there were good books.

From there, I was hooked. All these years later, I still am.

Who got you started reading romance? Any author whose name can still make you sigh and say: “remember when?”

Oops - Where'd It Go?

Well, for some reason, the blog I prepared over earlier this week didn't actually post today. Let me check into it. I probably hit a wrong key or something, so I'll save that post for next month.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures taken at the Black Point Preserve just north of where I live. Black Point is very similar to the fictional Phelps Cove featured in The Daddy Catch (June 2011).

A Visit to the National Eagle Center

Earlier this month, while visiting family in Minnesota, I had an opportunity to visit the National Eagle Center in a little town called Wabasha. The center currently has five injured and non-releasable resident eagles—one golden and four bald eagles.

A 29-year-old bald eagle named Harriet was taking part in an interpretive program when I arrived. She was incredibly alert and it was clear that those bright, sharp eyes didn’t miss a thing.

At one point she even gave us a look at her amazing wingspan.

A splendid example of the national bird and national symbol of the United States, don’t you think?

In the 1950s, there were only about 400 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the 48 contiguous states and these magnificent birds were on the endangered list. In 1995 bald eagles were transferred to the threatened list, and in 2007 they were delisted. Their recovery can be attributed to various government agencies and other organizations, including the National Eagle Center.

I enjoyed meeting Harriet and was especially pleased when she agreed to pose for a picture with me.

If you’d like to find out more about Harriet, you can read her bio here.

And here’s a short video taken by another visitor to the National Eagle Center.



This fall we’ve had lots of happy bald eagles here in the Pacific Northwest because there’s been a record run of sockeye salmon. In honor of the eagles and the salmon, I’ve posted my favorite recipe for Grilled Sockeye Salmon on my personal blog today, and I’m giving away an autographed copy of Firefighter Daddy today. I hope you’ll drop by and leave a comment.

Until next time,
Lee

Our Life in Our Books

Readers and aspiring writers often ask two questions. (1) Where do you get your ideas? and (2) Do you base your characters on real people? I usually tell people that I don't know where the ideas come from; they could be based on anything from a TV news segment to a story in a magazine to a dollhouse sitting in a hallway. (Yes, I actually did write a book based on a dollhouse - A Cry at Midnight.)

But I can honestly say that I don't base my characters on any one real person. I also don't base a whole story on what happened to me or someone I know. However, with the book I'm writing right now, which will be a July 2011 release, several events from my own life have crept in. The most significant one is that both the heroine and I planned and executed a wedding in less than a week.

In my July 2011 book (We don't have a title for it yet!) the heroine's conservative aunt and uncle, who raised her, are coming to town AND the heroine is secretly three months pregnant. Because they will find out at Christmas that she was pregnant and didn't tell them, her friends talk her into having a surprise church wedding when they arrive. Of course, all the Brody's Crossing folks pitch in to not only plan the wedding, but also renovate a house for the couple.

In my case, thirty nine years ago this month, I got married in Louisville, Kentucky. My husband actually announced that we were getting married on Monday when we were at our newly married friends' apartment. This was news to me since we'd broken up for some reason that I never understood and can't remember! I wouldn't say "yes" until that Friday at about eleven o'clock in the morning. If we were going to get married before he moved away on Wednesday, we had to get our blood tests and our marriage license on Friday. We went to the doctor and the courthouse, then went to my house to tell my parents. After that went pretty well, we celebrated by spending the rest of the afternoon at the movies.

Above, Sara and Eric with my husband Chuck and me right after the ceremony.

On Saturday morning, my mother and I started planning. We arranged for a minister, church, and wedding cake. My sister and someone she knew who did flowers volunteered to help. The newly married couple, Sara and Eric Schulenburg, volunteered to have a reception in their apartment. (Here they are in a photo from last year, still married and beautiful after all these years.) I also had to pack up my belongings and move to Denver, Colorado. And to top it all off, the retail store where we worked was doing inventory on Sunday, and we both had to work!

Chuck and I cut our wedding cake. He was 28 and I was 20. We looked so young!

Somehow, everything got done. It was tough to load up a small U-Haul trailer with everything except my dresser, desk and rocking chair, which wouldn't fit. My husband sold his six month old MGB to a good friend, and we hooked the trailer to my 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T. We pulled out of town Wednesday afternoon for St. Louis, Missouri, exhausted but excited about the future.

I hope I can give my characters the same feeling of hope for whatever will come. They are going to start a life together when they don't know each other very well. They are going to have a baby when neither was planning on starting a family. They are going to have to learn how to compromise and talk through their problems. That's what will make their journey interesting, and hopefully, seem real to readers. At least I can say without a doubt that a wedding can be planned in less than a week, and sometimes, you can look back on that wild, crazy time even after thirty nine years of marriage.

P.S. If you have ideas for a good title, please let me know. The word "Texan" must be in the title. The other elements are surprise, wedding/marrying, expecting/pregnancy, and baby. The hero is a retired rodeo cowboy and the heroine is a project manager for a renovation company. Thanks!

I Think We're in Kansas, Toto

When storms come rumbling, we pay attention in Kansas, meaning it's time to turn on the weather radio for watches and warnings, switch on the TV to see the radar, and tune the radio to one of the local stations to hear the weather spotters.  That's what we were doing Wednesday when storms crossed through the area.  When all was said and done, nine tornadoes had flirted with the area, and possibly the largest hailstone on record (7.75") had fallen.

My oldest granddaughter was here after school with my youngest daughter and myself, waiting for her mom (my oldest) to finish her visit to the YMCA after work.  We were all keeping an eye on the sky as reports came in that baseball-sized hail was being reported to the northwest of us and was headed our way.  We had hail, mostly pea-sized, for a while, then it stopped and rained.  And rained.  Then the hail picked up again, a little bigger this time.  Suddenly, we heard the announcement on the radios that we were under a tornado warning and should take cover.  At the same time, my oldest daughter called and said to get to her house.  She was on her way there and would meet us.

The tornado sirens blared around us as I drove the three of us the three blocks to my daughter's house, while nickel-sized hail pounded the car.  I prayed the very cracked windshield (compliments of my oldest grandson, a metal toy car, and a rock) would hold up against the onslaught.  If it wasn't for the fact that I don't have a basement, but my daughter does, we'd have stayed home.  For the next twenty minutes, we watched the hail from inside her house, as it went from marble and nickel size to golf ball size, and finally to billiard ball size.  The first photo above was taken after being rained on for ten minutes, while we debated who would go out to retrieve some to keep.  The photo above and to the right is what had earlier hit the airport, where my daughter's husband works.  It was a bit bigger!

We're all thankful that damage from the storms wasn't severe, but the insurance companies will be busy assessing dimpled cars and broken car windows, along with battered roofs.  Ah, yes, it's Kansas in spring autumn!

All About Baby

Wait a minute! Those of you who know me will realize I don’t have a baby. And, trust me, this blog post is not to let you in on any surprises along those lines. ;-)

For a writer, waiting for a book to come out is similar to going through a pregnancy. Once the manuscript is done, the production process takes about nine months. Then, when the baby makes its appearance, the proud parents want everyone to admire their beautiful offspring. And of course, they want to see their child do its best.

In my case, the “baby” in the title refers to my next Harlequin American Romance, FAMILY MATTERS, which will be making its way into the world—also known as appearing on your bookstore shelves—exactly three weeks from today!

Yee-hah!!!!!!

Okay. I’ll calm down now. (Might as well, since I’ve used up my allotment of exclamation points for this month. )

In case you can’t tell, I’m very excited about welcoming Number Three. And since that seems to be my lucky number with this book, I’m again celebrating in three ways:

~ sharing a sneak preview on my web site

~ embarking on a virtual book tour—details on my blog

~ answering questions for a brief interview and giving away a copy of one of my backlist books to one lucky reader who leaves a comment at the interview site. Click here to visit “Quick Six.”

Hope you’ll check out everything above and stop back here next month, when I’ll be looking for some advice on babies—and not the manuscript kind. ;-)

All my best to you,

Barbara

~~~~~~

Barbara White Daille
http://www.barbarawhitedaille.com

Hairstylists

It seems like I go from good to bad to worse with hairdressers. I yearn for the days when I was young and wore my hair all one length and halfway down my back. The "usual" cut was two inches off the ends and I was good to go.

Now that I'm older and can't get away with wearing my hair like a sixteen-year-old and finding a hairdresser who "gets" my hair is next to impossible. I've got a ton of hair—yeah, it's great that I'll never have to worry about being a bald granny some day, but my hair is slightly wavy and coarse. (I compare it to a horse's mane) This means if I want to wear the sleek look I have to spend way too much time with a round brush and a blower dryer to tame it. If I put curl gel in my hair and let it air dry it's not quite the "cute" curly look I'm trying to achieve so I'm forced to use a curling iron. I really envy women who have hairstyles that wash and wear without a lot of fuss. And the older I get the less time I want to spend fussing over hair and makeup in front of the mirror.

A few months ago I bit the bullet and tried a new stylist recommended by a friend. Afraid of being butchered, I said "nothing drastic, just a trim please." She looked at my hair, ran her fingers through it and said "whoever cut your layers last time did it all wrong. It will take two haircuts to get your hair where it should be." Oh, boy did that make me nervous. But she reassured me she wouldn’t cut too much hair off and she didn't.

Two days ago I went back for the second cut and the stylist announced that my hair was now "fixed". And she was right. The curl held better and it was it looked better. Then she announced her husband was getting a new job and they'd be moving out of the area. Just great.

She recommended one of the other women in the salon to me and brought her over to the chair to explain to the lady how she cut my hair. I appreciated that but I kept thinking—I'm back to square one. Oh, well, in eight weeks I'll return to the salon, give the new stylist a try and see what happens.

Anyone else struggle to find a hairdresser who understands their hair?

Marin

Dexter: Honorable Cowboy (July 2010)

RT Top Pick

http://www.marinthomas.com/

Courthouses and Gargoyles

Get your attention? Writing for Harlequin American is all about small town USA. Having recently moved to Waxahachie Texas, I thought this month I’d give you a tour of my town. It’s all about Gingerbread architecture. Streets of beautiful old homes.

A town square lined with antique stores and quaint little restaurants.

But being the county seat of Ellis County, it also has one of the coolest courthouses around. This isn’t your everyday stone and brick courthouse. It’s beautiful. But when you walk around it you see these interesting carved faces. I couldn’t get a picture to come out, so I’m inserting a link.
http://www.texasescapes.com/TOWNS/Waxahachie/WaxahachieTxEllisCountyCourthouseGargoyles.htm

There seem to be various stories about the architect who designed it and the story behind the gargoyles. Being a romance author, I tend to like the theory that the architect fell in love with a local girl. His land lady’s daughter to be precise. Evidently the girl did not return his affection and as the relationship deteriorated, the female faces went from happy to angry and evil. Now isn’t that a cool story!

Any similar romantic fables about your town?

New Month, New Me!!

Winnie Griggs, Margaret Daley and an exhausted, barefooted me

after dancing all night at this year's fabulous Harlequin Party!!

What a difference a month makes!!



Hard to believe last month I was grousing on and on about how miserable and sad I would be with my kiddos off to college. Considering they are only across town at the University of Tulsa, I'm not exactly going through the same level of stress as some of my friends who've shipped their babies across state lines, but still, it took a couple of days to adjust. And now? Don't tell my kids, but the peace is wonderful!!!



I never realized how much daily angst teens generate until not being caught up in the middle of it!! He said/she said/I love this boy/I hate this boy--ARGH!!! Now, I wake to calm. No chasing to help find lost bows or books or homework, but sipping hot tea and leisurely checking on my Facebook friends. Seriously, life without teens is quite civilized!!



That said, I'm still caught in my usual deadline mayhem and haven't quite managed to get my ample behind back to the gym, but at least now when I buy the family-sized pack of Drumsticks (the ice cream cone kind), I don't have to share!! I'm pretty sure that last sentence didn't even make sense, but that's okay, too.



Mellow is the new me, and I'm liking her a whole bunch!!

East, West, Home's Best

I’m an inveterate traveller. I’ll put it down to growing up in the middle of the Australian desert. From the age of six weeks I was carted from coast to coast to visit and be shown off to distant relatives. As a child, I felt confined by the wide open spaces around me, so those twice yearly flights to civilization, must’ve given me a thirst to explore new horizons. Since there was no television service, I buried myself in National Geographic magazines, dreaming of travelling to places with exotic names like Mystic and Nantucket, Middlesex (where I seriously thought hermaphrodites lived) and Moosejaw, Kathmandu and Kabul.
I’m so desperate to see new places that if there’s an alternative route to return from that destination, I’ll take it!
However, an insidious realization has been nagging at me lately, and that is, that in spite of the beauty or benefits of travelling, I really miss my own bed, my own loo, my own shower.
Recently, I travelled around the south of England researching Jane Austen, where we stayed in the filthiest B&B you could imagine. The beauty of Winchester, where Jane died and was honored by being buried in Winchester Cathedral was tainted considerably by this experience and I’m annoyed with myself for letting this be so. It’s happened in other places too. Perhaps I need to consult a travel psychologist who’ll prepare me for the worst, so that I’ll be pleasantly surprised when it turns out to be better.
Now I’m on Corfu, an idyllic Greek Island, but again the accommodation is lacking. If we were paying half what we are, I’d put up with the less than clean bathroom, the un-mopped floors, the miniscule shower (18x24 inches!) the rock-hard bed and the dodgy electrical connections.
But what’s really upset me are the stray cats and dogs roaming the island. We’re presently feeding three kittens who’ve adopted us, bleating plaintively for food morning and evening. But what will happen to them when winter sets in and the tourists dry up? There’s no government run animal shelter on the island and the council controls dogs in some areas by baiting them! How inhumane is this? How sad that a civilized country’s answer to animal control is to allow them to roam free begging for food, or poisoning them? No doubt the female kittens will be pregnant as soon as they’re in season – provided they survive the winter. Although two of “our” kittens are quite wild, the smallest is friendly and sweet natured and would make a lovely pet, but there’s no such thing as animal adoption here.
However, I’ve discovered there’s a wonderful group of people who do their best trying to raise money to de-sex as many of the females as possible and set up feeding stations in various areas to try and tide the animals over the winter months. It’s a pity every visitor to Corfu and the other Greek Islands isn’t asked to donate five euros towards a non-profit fund for animals. I’m donating to have a female cat neutered and placing the Agni Animal fund website as my homepage, for which they’ll receive two British pounds per month (at no cost to me) for each of our family’s pc’s that has their site as our homepage.
So although this started as a whinge about how great travel is, but how much greater it is to get home to my own creature comforts, it’s ended as a plea to help those four-legged creatures who sleep on the streets and beg for food because there’s nowhere else for them to go. No warm lap to sleep on, no leg to rub up against, no human to call their own.
If you’d like to help, here’s the link to their website where you can read about the good work they do – http://www.agni-animal-welfare-fund.com/Index.asp
And here to make them your homepage - http://google.agni-animal-welfare-fund.com/
Meantime, I’m dreaming of getting home to my own comfy bed and a loo and a shower that I know are clean. But most of all I’m looking forward to getting home to my own four-legged friends and giving them an extra big hug.
Til next time…
CC

September!

I love September for so many reasons. The kids are back in school. :) The weather starts getting cooler. Autumn, my favorite season, is getting closer. And this month, SINGLE DAD SHERIFF hits the shelves! As I blogged last month (still can’t believe that I actually remembered) this book is very special to me because one of my secondary characters totally stole my heart.

I can’t neglect my hero, though. And Sheriff Chance Drayton is quite the hero. I love a man in uniform and lawmen in particular. The first book I sold was about a small town deputy. That book, RETURN OF THE LAWMAN, was reissued last month in the Men in Uniform special series.

So let’s talk lawman heroes. I grew up watching westerns with my dad and probably saw every Gunsmoke episode ever aired, including the black and white ones. So Marshall Dillon is definitely a favorite of mine. Any movie with John Wayne as a lawman – especially Rio Bravo. Actually I think I loved that one so much because of Dean Martin. I love me some flawed heroes! My more recent lawmen heroes are everyone on Third Watch (still can’t believe they cancelled that series) and Mac and Danny on CSI:NY. I could actually go on and on because I have several more favorites, but I want to hear about yours now! I’ll grab a couple of winners from the comment section for autographed copies of my Citizens Police Academy series.

Happy September & Happy Reading!
Lisa

Changes

Okay, I think I used this title for last September's post where the theme was Autumn. But face it: this is the month of change. Children going to school, older kids going to college, houses getting that big fall cleaning before the holidays, the weather cooling off, rains coming, leaves turning. Birthdays happening.

Not mine this month, not yet, but many of my family's. Do we love birthdays for the happy occasions they are? Or dread them for the changes they signal? Is it really "just a number" when it's you? LOL I'm job hunting--another change--as the indie bookstore I've been at for five years is closing. It's been a town institution for almost 19 years and there's much sadness and nostalgia. As an author, I look at this from an industry standpoint as well as from the booklover and employee view.

But on the job front I have to think, who wants a woman of XX years' experience? Am I defined by my age? Yes, to some extent. But not confined. When asked in a recent job interview why the person should hire me in particular, I could say, I'm mature and reliable--a nicer way to say "old." And laugh about it. I'm in a pretty good place and feeling pretty valuable as an employee. (Check with me in three months when I'm still job hunting to see if this view changes, too.)

I'm also starting a new book, which is a major happy change. The research part is ongoing, but the bulk of it is behind me.

So, what changes are you all dealing with? I hope you're taking them in stride and with a smile inside.
Megan Kelly
The Marriage Solution, May 2011
www.megankellybooks.com

Putting It On the Line

For any of our readers who want to write contemporary series, the MORWA Gateway to the Best contest is low on entries in that category. Our our Laura Barth, assistant editor for HAR and Blaze, is the final judge.
Romantic suspense is low on entries also. There are only FIVE days left to enter.
I entered and finaled in many contests in my pre-published days. I'm a huge believer in feedback helping one to write better.
FMI on the contest, visit www.morwa.org.

Megan Kelly
The Marriage Solution, May 2011
www.megankellybooks.com

Monthly Recipes

Today we're at our lake house in Mineola, Texas, where we're going to have a party later to celebrate Labor Day weekend, my husband's birthday, and finally getting the house repaired, fixed up, and in working order after a few months of water damage, sprinkler system issues, and general repairs. We've invited the people who helped get us "up and running" over the last 10 months, family and friends. My son-in-law is cooking out and I'm cooking inside, beginning with an overflowing refrigerator ...

... and an overburdened dining room table.

I'm going to fix the party food in my farmhouse inspired kitchen, which I love (except for the dishwasher, which doesn't work well AT ALL.)

Normally I'd post a photo of the completed dishes if I had them, but I haven't fixed them yet! So I'm going to share our menu for a Texas cookout and party. Also, I'm fixing a new recipe I got from a "Taste of Home" magazine titled "Church Supper Cookbook." Did you have covered dish suppers at your church growing up? We did, in the basement of Parkview UMC in Shively, KY. I miss those suppers! Certain church ladies were known for their signature dishes, some of which were wonderful, not-to-be-missed specialties, while others were ... well, let's just say they appealed to a select few tastes!

Tonight we're having barbecued pork ribs, which son-in-law Dale prepares with a dry rub; hamburgers and cheeseburgers; and the new dish, Hot & Cheesy Chicken Sandwiches. Here's the recipe from the magazine mentioned above:

6 cups cubed cooked chicken (I'm going to use the meat from rotisserie chickens I'm purchasing)

1 1/2 cups chopped celery

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

3/4 cup mayonnaise

3/4 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green pepper (which I'm probably not using since my daughter HATES bell peppers!)

1 t. ground mustard

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

3 cups processed cheese (like Velveeta) cubed

24 hamburger buns

In a large bowl, combine the first nine ingredients. Pour into a 2 1/2 quart casserole. Top with cheese. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand 5 minutes before spooning onto hamburger buns.

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To go with our ribs, burgers and sandwiches, we're fixing cantaloupe, sliced tomatoes, baked beans, deviled eggs, and my mother's recipe for macaroni salad. I believe I've shared this before, but let me briefly describe it again: Combine elbow macaroni, cooked, rinsed and drained, with diced green pepper, cubed Velveeta cheese, salt and pepper to taste, and Miracle Whip salad dressing. I really love this simple macaroni salad, especially for summer cookouts.

Of course, we'll have potato chips, plus some of those new Ritz chips, with Ranch Dip. (I don't think you can have a party in Texas without Ranch Dip!) For dessert I bought little Red Velvet cupcakes and Carrot Cake cupcakes since my husband really doesn't like birthday cake.

So, that's what our family is planning this holiday weekend and my husband's birthday. (Happy birthday, Chuck!) I hope you have a good time with your family or friends, or spend a little time online and check out my previous recipe posts. Best wishes for a great Labor Day holiday and a wonderful September.

Old Dog, New Tricks

Over the years I’ve complained a lot about our beagle. She’s ruined dinner parties, rummaged in houseguests’ suitcases, and stolen chocolate bars. Then, of course, was the time she regurgitated a whole cake just as the clock struck midnight on Christmas day.

Then there was her ACL surgery last fall. I spent a good six weeks carrying this dog around because 1) She couldn’t walk and 2) She has separation anxiety problems. Let me just say for the record: a thirty pound beagle gets pretty darn heavy after being carried up and down stairs a dozen times a day.

Lately, though, Phoebe has slowed down. She’s really slowed down. Phoebe is fourteen and doesn’t do too much more besides sleep, eat, and have accidents all over our house. She’s also has cataracts and has completely lost her hearing.

Just this morning I followed her upstairs, calling her name, trying to coax her back to my office in the basement. Of course, she didn’t hear me, and jumped in surprise when I finally appeared in her line of vision.

So what’s a family to do when their beagle is, well, in her sunset years?

You guessed it. We are all learning new tricks to keep up with our old dog.

My husband was the first one to start this. Slowly, we’ve all learned the appropriate signals for ‘Come here Phoebe’, or ‘Go outside.’. Instead of now calling out ‘Dinner!’, my daughter picks up Phoebe’s food bowl and shows it to her.

Even the wiener dog has gotten into the act. She’s become kind of a mini-shepherd, corralling the beagle when she’s outside. She’s also developed a series of three rapid, high pitched barks~which is the signal for ‘Alert! The beagle is on the loose!’

So far, our old dog has adjusted to this new way of communicating just fine. She’s able to do her favorite things with ease. And as for the rest of us? We’re doing fine, too. Together, we’re discovering new ways to keep Phoebe included as much as she ever was.

I’m glad things are working out so well. It just goes to show you that it’s never too late for one old dog to teach her family new tricks.

I can’t imagine we’re the only ones to change routines for one old dog. Anyone else have a story about new tricks for an old pet?

Shelley Galloway

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