December is for Decorating, Shopping, Baking, Cooking, Wrapping, etc.

Karen McCullough Posted on by

This is my absolute favorite time of year. I love pretty much everything about Christmas celebrations: the lights, decorations, music, baking, and wrapping presents. Most of all, I enjoy getting together with friends and family, some of whom I may not have seen for a while.

I don’t love the cold weather, but I can live with it, especially since it doesn’t get that frigid here in North Carolina. I don’t love fighting crowds in stores and parking lots, so the advent of online shopping was a godsend for me.

But I thoroughly enjoy decorating – the house, the tree, the outside lights, etc. I’m not much of a cook, but I do like baking cookies, something I only do at the holidays.  (If I baked cookies all year long, I’d end up eating far too many of them! I have no will power when it comes to cookies.)

I like the challenge of the Christmas dinner, though these days I’m more of an executive, directing the various kids and grandkids in what to prepare and how to serve, than an actual chef.

Wrapping presents is a fun thing to do while keeping my eye on any of the many football games going on at this time of year.

The only Christmas prep I don’t really care for is cleaning the house to be ready for the invasion of family and friends. But it’s worth the work to have the company of all those beloved people.

The Ghosts of Christmas Present is Available

Karen McCullough Posted on by

I originally wrote this short story for an anthology that released a couple of years ago.

I can’t honestly say where the idea for it came from. As I recall it started with the image of a young woman pulling into the driveway of the house where she grew up and noticing how gloomy and uninviting it looked. The place is rather ramshackle and neglected. And though it’s just a few days before Christmas, no decorations light or soften it. Lindsay doesn’t want to be there.

Since at that point I had no idea why she was there, and why she didn’t want to be but had come anyway, I had to start asking myself those questions.

This is the way I generally work. A story starts with an idea or a couple of images converging in my head and I look for what’s behind them.

It wasn’t hard to combine the gloomy house with why she didn’t want to be there. Her upbringing there had been less than happy. I began to fill out the details of that… Cold, unfeeling foster parents who were in it mostly for the money and didn’t approve of unnecessary expenses or celebrations.

So why had she come? Probably because someone had asked her. Who might that have been? It had to be someone she cared about and who cared for her while they were growing up. Someone she felt she couldn’t deny. A foster sibling, most likely.

Why was Josh, her foster brother, there, though, and why did he want Lindsay to join him? You’ll see. And why was Lindsay even more horrified when she learned Josh had brought along his best friend? Is there any way to salvage a merry Christmas from this mess?

You’ll have to read the story to find out!

Read An Excerpt 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMDDXLNJ
All Other Markets: https://books2read.com/u/mdP5Gd

What I’m Working On

Karen McCullough Posted on by

Because the holidays are upon us and I’ll be hanging up the writing soon, I wanted to share where I am with various writing projects.

I’ve spent most of the current year working on one book with the working title of Treadwell House – Sanctuary. The first draft is finished, and I’ve already done some significant revamping on it, but I’m not quite satisfied with it yet. I’m giving it the holidays to marinate in my head before I do a final rework.

I’ve also written a couple of short stories in the last month. One is a Christmas story that I’m especially happy with. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it yet.

And I’m currently writing the first draft of the next book in the Market Center Mysteries series. This will be book 4 of a 5-book series. I left my heroine in a somewhat unhappy state at the end of the book 3, Playing at Murder. She’s begging me to help her move on and resolve some issues. This book will be set at a pet products trade show, with the possible title of Leashed for Murder. Or maybe Unleashed for Murder. Or maybe even Collared for Murder.  Stay tuned.

Happy Thanksgiving

Karen McCullough Posted on by

To those of you who celebrate it today: Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s almost de rigeur to talk about the things you are thankful for today, and I’m not knocking that. It’s a good thing. A very good thing.

For the past few years, I’ve tried to cultivate gratitude in an active, conscious ways. It’s helped me cope with the ups and downs of life in general and the life of a writer, specifically.

I frequently remind myself of all the huge blessings I have: a wonderful husband, a great family, some very good friends, a warm, water-proof house, and food on the table. They’re the biggies and I never want to forget just how rich all of that makes me.

For a special day of gratitude, I thought I’d consider some of the less obvious things for which I’m grateful. In no particular order:

My Kindle: I love that I can carry literally hundreds of books with me when I travel or just go to the dentist’s office. I still love paper books, too, but I find it increasingly hard to read them as my vision deteriorates. For me, the biggest virtue of the Kindle is that it turns every book into instant large print.

My Garden: I’m not a fabulous gardener by any measure, but I love watching things grow and I enjoy my flowers. There’s something so satisfying about digging in the dirt and producing beautiful results.

Chocolate Chip Cookies: Do I really need to explain?

Reto’s Kitchen – They’re a catering company right down the street from us. During the pandemic they began offering a twice-weekly meal you could order ahead and pick up from them. Sometimes the meals aren’t to my taste, but mostly they are – and they’re always delicious. I’m so happy they’ve continued to offer this service. We don’t get out as much as we used to, so it’s nice to have access to restaurant-quality food occasionally without having to get dressed up, etc.

The Greensboro Grasshoppers: They’re our local minor league baseball team, a class High-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. My husband and I both love baseball, and we can see professional (though not Major League caliber) games live at a fraction of the cost of going to an MLB game (and that’s not including transportation and hotel stays for the nearest one in Atlanta). It takes us five minutes to get home after the game is over.

November is for Baking

Karen McCullough Posted on by

I like to have lots of baked goods on hand for the holidays, including a good supply of home-made cookies. With a houseful of visitors for Christmas, they go fast. And I give batches away as gifts, so I need plenty.

I generally figure 4 batches of chocolate chip cookies, 2 large batches each of sugar cookies, orange cookies, molasses cookies and cinnamon crisps. At my age, I generally only have enough energy for a couple of batches at one time. All totaled, I probably make 40-50 dozen cookies. To manage that many I have to get a head start, so once I’ve converted the Halloween pumpkin into delicious things, I get right to work building my cookie inventory. Fortunately they freeze well.

In fact, some of my children prefer the chocolates chip cookies frozen, harking back to the days when they were young, and I thought I could thwart the cookie thieves by hiding the loot in the freezer. As if! Turns out they learned to like them frozen.

The cookie baking goes back even farther in my life. My mother used to bake loads of cookies around the Christmas season (and we were all just as given to scarfing them behind her back). We often ‘helped’ her decorate the sugar cookies with colored sugar sprinkles. While I’m mixing and rolling and sprinkling, I often think back to warm memories of those days.

Which is why I always try to make it a point to let my grandchildren ‘help’ me bake some when they come to visit.

Gardening in Autumn

Karen McCullough Posted on by

Things got out of hand in the garden quickly when I was unable to get out and work on it for a couple of months. Some of the garden beds became overrun with weeds and dead flower heads.

Kudos go to my husband, who took the time to water my many outdoor potted flowers during some dry days in late August. As a result of his efforts, I didn’t lose any of those plants.

Now, however, all of the growing things are in retreat, from lack of care and cooling weather. We had the first frost of fall a few days ago, which brings most of the flowering plants to a sharp end. Before that happened, I went out and cut the last zinnias, marigolds, and roses to bring in and enjoy a few days longer.

There’s lots of clean-up to do, though I generally let the garden beds and dried flowers sit for most of the winter. The birds love the seeds. Goldfinches flock to the dead zinnia flowers. I’m told other critters appreciate the leaf and stalk litter for overwintering.

We do rake leaves off the lawn to keep the grass healthy, though we’ve been gradually reducing the amount of grass we have, extending natural areas and cultivated beds into what was formerly lawn. And it’s a heck of a challenge to discourage the grass and weeds from restaking their claim to that territory.

But…the camellias now have buds, showing they’re getting ready to put on their  late winter show. A few perennials have new growth near the ground, which will form the base for next years’ efforts. Amid the dying of most of the garden plants, there are signs of hope for things to come.

Malice, Matrimony & Murder Now Available

Karen McCullough Posted on by

It’s here!

Twenty-five cozy mystery and cozy crime fiction authors have teamed up to create Malice, Matrimony, and Murder, a collection of brand-new, wedding-themed short stories that will keep you wondering whodunit and what’s next from the first page to the last. Between bad bridesmaids, conniving caterers, greedy guests, ill-mannered in-laws, savvy sleuths, and vengeful villains, this anthology has it all! My story is titled “The Other Wedding Crasher.”

Amazon (paperback only) https://www.amazon.com/Malice-Matrimony-Murder-Limited-Collection/dp/B0CGT6T9BL
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/2940167329775
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/book/id6456454509
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/Search/Query?query=9798223878360
Books2Read universal link: https://books2read.com/malicebook

Assessing Goals for 2023 – 3rd Quarter Report

Karen McCullough Posted on by

I’m a month or so overdue with my report on where I am with the 2023 goals. Blame goes mostly to having broken my ankle back in August. I was incapacitated for the next six weeks or so, which should have been good writing time but wasn’t. I’ve found that the brain doesn’t really want to work when the body is busy healing itself.

So I’m not going to achieve my 2023 goals completely, but I have made good progress.

On the novel front, I’ve finished the first draft of Treadwell House, and I’m now in the editing process. I’ve also begun the next book in the Market Center Mysteries series. Just 2500 words written or 1/30 of the way to the goal of 75,000. More on that in a future post.

I have met my goal of 5 short stories written, though only one of them will see publication this year. My story, “The Other Wedding Crasher” is part of the Malice, Matrimony & Murder anthology, due out in November. It’s available for pre-order here. https://books2read.com/malicebook

Due to changes in the audiobooks market, I haven’t been able to do an audio version of A Vampire’s Christmas Carol ready for release as I’d hoped. But I will have a Christmas short story releasing at the end of November. The Ghosts of Christmas Present was part of an anthology of Christmas romances a couple of years ago. I’m giving it a new launch as a stand-alone. Pre-order will be available shortly.

Otherwise, I’ve done better with the blogging, though again I had a couple of long breaks this summer. My personal autobiography and family history project is in progress, but it won’t be finished this year.

And I’m still trying to get rid of stuff!

The Ghosts of Christmas Present

Karen McCullough Posted on by

Now Available for Pre-Order

This long-ish short story was part of the 2021 Home for the Holidays anthology. I’m now releasing it as a stand-alone.

Lyndsay Williams reluctantly returns home for Christmas only to find her brother has brought a friend to spend the holidays with them. He’s the last man she wanted to meet again.

Because her brother Josh asks her to come for Christmas, Lyndsay Williams returns to the house where she grew up. She has no happy memories of the place other than her relationship with Josh, but she’d do anything for him. Her goals for the holiday are to survive the visit, avoid most contact with her cold, mean foster mother, and return as quickly as possible to her budding career as an architect.

She’s not surprised Josh has brought his wife and father-in-law. She’s dismayed to find he also invited his best friend, Aaron. Lyndsey had a crush on Aaron growing up, but after a mortifying incident with him at Josh’s wedding, she’s avoided contact with him since. Having to deal with Aaron and her foster mother could turn this Christmas celebration into a nightmare.

Not everything is what it seems, though. Josh has reasons for bringing together this group of people he cares about. Change is in the holiday air, and it offers the possibility of healing and forgiveness.

If Lynsday can let love— the love of family, friends, and one special man—heal the wounds on her heart, there’s a happier future waiting for her.

Pre-order (ebook only):
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMDDXLNJ
Other Retailers: https://books2read.com/u/mdP5Gd

The members of my email list helped choose the cover and they will be getting a special Christmas gift from me in thanks. There’s still time to sign up and join the fun using the form to the right.