Why yes... that is a glass of Moscato sitting there by my books...
Today was my first MAJOR book signing event and did I sure learn a lot!  Like you really should have bought that stand for your banner when it was on sale at VistaPrints.  Or to make sure and order your books in time to reach you before you have to go to the signing.  And that your table looks really bare if you don't have enough swag and decorations to fill it.
Guess what I'm going to be doing over the next few weeks before the Kentuckiana Authors Event on September 19th in Louisville, KY???  I'm going to do some shopping and designing and crafting...so for any of you who stopped by my pitifully empty table today...you should be in for a fantastic surprise by the Kentuckiana event!
Learning is good...right?  Even if it is the hard way?  
On the up side, it was a fantastic day with a couple of really great partners in crime...and I met a lot of really fantastic other authors and readers.  I always like talking to people and hearing not only about the books that they read or talking to other authors to see what they write...I like to hear about their travels, their pets, their lives, etc.  It's amazing how much we all are different but still have a lot in common.
This is just a short post tonight but I wanted to thank everyone who stopped by to visit with me today!  I'm going to go to the writing cave because I have this fantastic idea for a new book...and I want to finish up a couple of books that I promised to review on my website and Facebook page...
Have a great evening everyone and watch right here for more news...

This is a 3 day weekend for me!  But that's not why my suitcase is packed...this picture is actually from a business trip last winter and my little pal Whiskey was bound and determined to either empty my suitcase or get packed inside herself.
Whiskey is the oldest member of my household (besides me)...she also is a hand me down...starting off her life as a birthday present for my young grandson.  Who loved her WAY too much...so much that when she saw him coming she would run off and hide in places that he couldn't find her.  So, she came to live with me at my apartment in the city until I had the blessing in disguise of getting downsized from my job...which put me in a position to move back to my hometown.  I was never intended to be a city dweller...
It was just me and Whiskey for quite awhile...until Oscar came along...and then Whiskey became like the only child who suddenly had a baby brother dropped into her perfect world...and this is what she thought of Oscar those first few weeks...

Oh my God. What a nightmare came into my life yesterday. My human is a nice lady but sometimes I wonder about her sanity. She's brought that stupid canine in my house again. I don't know if it's because she feels sorry for that ugly, ratty mutt who insists on taking my throne on the back of the sofa or because she's just downright crazy. I guess the advantage is that sometimes the canine's big, tall master comes over for dinner and sneaks me food off his plate. And it's usually something really good like chicken, or salmon, or steak. He's an interesting character; I like to sit on the back of the sofa which is my official throne and touch his hair when he's watching television with my human. I've heard that he doesn't like spiders and I'm hoping that he will think a spider is in his hair one of these days when I'm touching his hair. I've heard that he acts all crazy when he comes in close proximity to a spider. I want to find out for myself.

The canine came in here yesterday, chasing after me like I was some kind of toy. For crying out loud, does he not really know that I am the queen of this house? Not even my human calls the shots around here. I'm even the one who decides when she gets up in the morning by parking my elegant, beautiful, grey behind on her chest and demanding my breakfast as loudly as I can without sounding like a common alley cat. You know the type; they are like the women that my human refers to as white trash bimbos. Well, she uses a more colorful term than bimbos, but I am not about to use that kind of language. I try to understand where she is coming from; but quite frankly, instead of the name calling I prefer to use my sharp claws on my foe. She should take a lesson from me.

At least she took the canine with her yesterday when she went to go swimming in some pool. Why humans feel that they need to float around the water like fish or ducks, I have no idea. At least she took that little pathetic creature with her so that I could have my house to myself. You just cannot imagine how peaceful my house is when I'm the only one in it. If I could feed and water myself and clean out my own litter box, I wouldn't really need a human.

Today, my human lay outside on the patio reading a book. I took this as an opportunity to slip out through the patio door that she left open for that insipid little canine and chase those annoying, little, yellow birds. Much to my surprise, my human sprayed me with water and had the audacity to raise her voice at me for doing what my feline instincts tell me to do. I came back inside the nice, cool house and claimed my throne since the little canine was outside sitting in the sun like a fool. Let them sit out there in the heat and bake like a couple of lobsters.

At least when she came in the house, she gave that smelly canine a bath with some of her lavender body wash. I guess dogs can't clean themselves like I do. Or maybe they are just too lazy to keep themselves clean. I guess I can tolerate him sleeping on the back of the sofa now that he doesn't smell like dirty laundry and cheap, men's cologne. That's fine, as long as he is here, I will just claim my human's bed for my own. She usually locks me out of the bedroom but that doesn't last long because I sit by the door and make as much noise as I can without reducing myself to the level of an alley cat. My tactic usually works, because she eventually gives in and lets me in. Who does my human think she is, restricting me from any area of my castle? I'm clearly the queen around here.

Ok...I have to apologize...it appears that my last two blog postings have not saved for some reason...
I'm sure that you've figured out that I love my animals, but Oscar holds a special place in my heart...
He's just a mutt but what better kind of dog is there?  Despite being passed around the first couple of years of his life, he has finally settled in his forever home with me.  
I remember the first time that I saw him, he barely filled my oldest daughter's hand that Christmas...but he has small man's syndrome and doesn't play well with bigger dogs...which didn't bode well for him where my daughter's pit bull was concerned.  So, he went to live with my best friend's son since he had just lost his dog earlier that year from a hit and run accident on the road in front of their house.  
That arrangement worked perfectly well...until the young boy became a teenager and school and social activities filled his time.  I was a good doggy sitter...so good that we looked at Oscar laying comfortably on the back of the sofa and realized...he was at home.
One winter day, my author's mind took a journey down Curiosity Road and I wondered...what do animals think about?  And all of a sudden, I was writing from Oscar's point of view....

The lady that is letting me stay with her while my master is away is really nice. She lets me sleep in her bed even though her cat doesn't like me very much. I don't understand why, I try to be friends with her and get her to play with me. But she only puffs up her grey fur and makes this hissing sound like a snake then slaps me with her sharp claws. I think she is only playing hard to get because sometimes she chases me around the house. 

I had this thing with eggs and cheese and vegetables leftover from her breakfast and she didn't even get mad when I drank some Diet Mountain Dew out of her glass. Maybe because she didn't catch me. That's ok; I know my mouth is cleaner than people's mouths, even though I have to clean my own butt once in awhile. I was really surprised that she brought me her leftovers because she was sure mad when I decorated her bedroom and living room with that paper stuff on the roll in the room with the big tub in it. I guess she don't stay mad very long. Must be a girl thing. 

She let me run around outside while she worked in the garden today. The grey cat even came outside, I think it's because she really likes me after all. I mean, why else would she stalk me around the yard? The lady did get upset with me when I tried to help her dig in her garden and made me go inside for awhile. Some people just think that they can do things better for themselves but I can dig a hole a lot faster than she could. Women always have to try to be all independent but that's really a front. My big master says that all the time. And we know he is always right, he even has a button that says so. 

It was funny this afternoon, the lady got mad at the cat. Something about missing the litter box and making the laundry room stink. She even used bad words; I thought my big master was the only one who used words like that. Somehow, they don't sound as serious coming from a girl's mouth. I wonder why? At least I got a laugh out of the whole thing, even though the cat gave me a dirty look and went and hid in the bedroom. Or so she thought. I just let her think I didn't know where she was until I was ready to pay attention to her.

After the lady gave me a bath in some girly smelling shampoo, I made her think that I was traumatized and she fell for it. Girls are such suckers for a trembling dog. She held me on her lap and sweet talked to me for a long time. Then she put me down and I went over and shook the rest of the water out of my fur all over the cat. It was kind of exhilarating to see the look on her snobby, arrogant little face and the way she stalked off with her tail swaying that way. See, I knew she liked me; she was trying to get me to pay attention to her by flipping her tail in my face. 

My master and big master came over this evening to help the lady with her yard. I was glad to see them both and I know my big master was especially glad to see me because he came to see me twice while I was staying with the lady. I ran outside and rolled around in the yard to get that girly shampoo smell out of my fur. Then the lady fixed this real good dinner and my big master shared his with me. Steak and homemade ice cream with nuts and everything! 

When it was time to go, my big master asked the lady if it was ok if I stayed another night with her. Then my master came in and asked the same thing. The lady let me stay another night and now I'm waiting for her to get tired so that I can climb under the covers with her and go to sleep and start a new day tomorrow. My big master don't let me sleep with him, I don't know why, his bed sure is plenty big enough for a little guy like me. Oh well, I'm tired, come on lady and get done watching television so we can go to bed.

Well, the holiday weekend is past but I'm feeling pretty accomplished.  Thankfully, the sun came out both Saturday and Sunday so I got to do some much needed landscaping. I also got to read the new E.L. James book Grey...Fifty Shades from Christian Grey's perspective.   When we moved the house on this pretty piece of property three years ago, the land was grown up and rutted, but we have spent so much time redoing the house that there has been no time to do the lawn.  This year, I decided I was going to make the yard pretty.  But it's a work in progress because there are so many other things that I want to do.  So far, I've hauled wheelbarrow load after wheelbarrow load of gravel to the front of the house where I planted some nice little shrubs and put my big concrete angel under the living room window, added a couple of pots of purple wave petunias to either side of the porch steps, hung a sweet potato vine from my heart shaped shepherd's hook by the drive, put some butterfly attracting perennials by the deck and some ground cover in the shady corner between the deck and the house.  There's also my garden with a pair of adirondack chairs in the shady area to the side of it, my perennial garden filled with black eyed susans, purple coneflowers, shasta daisies, and hopefully my bulb plants will come up this year.  This weekend I hope to find some time to make a HOPE, FAITH, and LOVE sign to add to the fence post in the middle of the perennials and a birdhouse to top it off.  But my favorite little spot is the herb and sunflower garden by the fence.  Sunflowers of all varieties to feed the birds, lavender, sage, parsley, basil, and dill alongside a little hummingbird feeder for those pretty little helicopter birds.
It was a lot of hard work, but well worth every minute, because even though I ached all over I felt a great sense of accomplishment.  This weekend I am going to go buy some alfalfa and clover seed so that I can plant some deer forage for my tan visitors.  I am hoping that every year I can add something new...you know...like fruit trees, pine trees, split rail fence, lilac bushes, berry bushes, grape vines, trumpet plants, and maybe even try my hand at a rose garden with a little bench in the middle.
As far as animals, maybe my miniature horse would like a buddy?  And it would be nice to have chickens for eggs...I know that I've mentioned that I've gone pretty much totally organic over the last year and what better addition to all the other fresh things than fresh eggs?  
I bought the Mother Earth News special edition magazine a couple of weeks ago about self-sustaining farms and they had a really good article on how to take an acre of ground and turn it into a self-sustaining farm.  I have a little over three acres so I definitely should be able to do something similar.  I can't wait until it's time to harvest my garden and can or freeze all the fresh food for winter.  I already have a good start on the fruit harvest with 10 quart bags of red raspberries freshly frozen in the freezer.  Tomorrow, I plan on going to my daughters and take a swipe at her wild raspberries to add to my collection.  And as I drove home, I noticed that the wild elderberries are starting to come on so I will have to take a basket along in the car and load up on enough of them to make a batch of jelly to go along with the fresh bread I usually bake every weekend in the fall and winter.  As soon as the orchard has some fresh peaches, I'm going to go get a bushel of them to make jam and freezer peaches for pies and cobblers this winter.
With the mention of cobbler and bread, I wanted to share my recipes for both with my readers:

Fruit Cobbler
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Using a 9x11 rectangular baking dish, empty enough fresh fruit in the bottom to cover it well.  For a thicker cobbler, just use a smaller dish!
In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk and 1 tablespoon baking powder together until blended.  For a rich treat, I like to substitute 1/4 cup of the milk for 1/4 cup of Amaretto.  Pour the mixture over the top of the fruit and bake until the top is golden brown.

Basic Bread
This is the easiest bread that I have ever made but there are some tricks to baking bread that I didn't know until my best friend bought me a book on bread baking.  (Truth is, he gets me these awesome cooking books and gadgets because I'm sure it's because he benefits too!)  Trick #1-NEVER use the packages of yeast.  I buy the jar of yeast now instead.  Trick #2-NEVER mix in a plastic or metal bowl.  I use a wooden spoon and a crockery bowl.  Trick #3-ALWAYS put a cake pan of water in the bottom rack of your oven when baking to help keep the top moist enough for the bread to rise as it bakes.
Now...here's the ingredients:
3 cups of cold water in the crockery bowl-heat in the microwave or the oven until it's just lukewarm
Add 1 1/2 Tablespoons of yeast and 1 1/2 Tablespoons of Kosher salt
Allow both to dissolve by stirring with wooden spoon
Now, add 6 - 6 1/2 cups of flour and blend until it forms a nice, gooey ball.
Cover bowl with a clean damp cloth and put somewhere warm.  Because my house is chilly in the winter time, I've found that putting the bowl in the laundry room on top of the dryer while I'm doing laundry works really well.  Next winter I get to use the newest addition to my house...the rocket stove...which I'll tell you about another time.
Let the bread rise until it more than doubles.
Now, it's time to divide it up as this recipe makes two full sized loaves.  I usually add a few extras...my favorite is to add about a half a handful of rosemary for some really nice flavor but I've also added sharp cheddar shreds and even walnuts or cranberries.  Or you can just make it plain.
Put the dough into a well greased loaf pan (I prefer virgin olive oil) and then cover it again with a clean damp cloth and let it raise for about another 1-2 hours.
Now it's ready to bake!  Bake at 350 degrees until it's golden brown on top and don't forget to put a pan of water on the bottom rack of your oven while the bread bakes.

I hope that you try and enjoy these recipes and I hope you all have a productive weekend!

Independence Day is upon us and I am really looking forward to a three day weekend!  With all the negativity that seems to be flying around the internet and the media lately on all kinds of topics, I wanted to take a few minutes and talk about freedom and what that word means to me.
I love living in the United States.  We live in a country that was built upon the foundation of individual liberties and freedom from the oppressive government of the English monarchy.  Our forefathers came here and our new country was built on the backs of the men and women who gave their sweat and blood and survived many hardships.  And when The Constitution was drafted and signed, those first leaders ensured that there was verbiage to ensure that we would never have to endure a lack of basic freedoms.  And throughout the years that our country has been the great country that it is, there have been brave men and women who have fought to ensure that those freedoms have been preserved.  We haven't done everything right but we haven't done everything wrong either.  And our country is filled with a diversity of people...different religions...different ancestries...different social views...different political views.  And what better way to live than to have all the best minds and visions coming together to make a bigger, better vision?
I understand that not everyone will agree with what I am about to say, but that's the awesome thing about living in a free country, we can say what we want without fear of persecution.  You can have your opinion and express it and I can have mine.  And guess what...I will still love you as a fellow American and a fellow human being even though I may not agree with or believe the same things that you do.
Over my lifetime, I have seen freedoms gradually begin to erode and we have sat complacently and watched them fade away in front of our eyes.  We can no longer say what we want to say unless it is filled with political correctness and doesn't offend our neighbors' beliefs.  We can only practice our religious beliefs when those beliefs don't upset the beliefs of others.  When a great tragedy such as a shooting in a school happens, we don't place the blame where it belongs and hold the person that commits the crime accountable...we blame their childhood, their social status, poverty, their parents, guns, symbols, or television or movies or video games.  
The truth is, each and every one of us have a choice when we get up in the morning.  We can either do the right things and work hard and live the American dream or we can choose to do the wrong things.  A real simple concept.  And if someone chooses to do the wrong thing with their freedom, then they should lose that freedom.  Those of us who choose to do the right things should not be penalized by losing our freedoms just because someone else used their freedoms frivolously or caused harm to others.  And when I speak of harm, I don't mean hurt feelings or disagreement with the person's choices.  I mean actual HARM.  Bodily, physical harm or monetary loss.  So you don't agree with someone's choices?  Suck it up buttercup because what another individual does in a free country is entirely up to them and it's not up to you to judge them just because you believe differently.  That's freedom...Happy Independence Day to my fellow citizens of the United States of America!