Goals for 2022 – How I Did

Karen McCullough Posted on by

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I used to, then found I never kept them after a month or so. In place of those, I set goals for myself for the year. I try to keep them reasonable and specific. Things I know I can do with possibly a bit more effort.

Before I make my list for this coming year, I like to look back at least year’s goals to assess how I did with them.

I’m pleased to say that while I didn’t reach all of the goals I set, I did accomplish several of them and made reasonable progress toward most of the others.

My primary goal last year was to finish Falling for the Deputy and Playing at Murder since each was due for release. Then I wanted to get a good start on a new book that might be that start of a new series.

I’m happy to say “mission accomplished” for this one. Falling for the Deputy  released in March of 2022, and Playing at Murder was published in October!  Before I had to hang up the writing for the holidays, I was 25,000 words into a new novel, tentatively titled Treadwell House – Sanctuary.

I didn’t do as well on the plan to write five short stories.  I actually wrote three and a half. So far none of the three completed ones have found a home. One of them remains unfinished and may stay that way. The idea didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped.

I mentioned investigating doing audiobooks. I’m still working on that. I’m trying to start with one novella, A Vampire’s Christmas Carol, in hopes of having it ready for next Christmas season. So far I’ve listened to a number of auditions, but haven’t yet found a narrator I’m happy with.

On the personal side I set a goal to finish my project of scanning the family photo albums, and that one I also accomplished. Each of my children and adult grandchildren received a flash drive with the entire set of pictures from the family albums. The quest to reduce the number of books and other stuff I have is ongoing, but progress has been made

In a day or two I’ll share my goals for the coming year!

Ticked off at UPS

Karen McCullough Posted on by
Actually feeling kind of p***ed off. Last week I paid #UPS a substantial amount to ship a package overnight. The package did not arrive the next day. It took two days. After running a gauntlet of calling the store and being told to call the 800 number, calling the 800 number and being told to call the store, and finally doing an online chat, I got an apology, but not even a partial refund. It wasn’t their fault because weather in Kentucky delayed the package. (Despite the fact that I sent it from one part of North Carolina to another.) Apparently “Guaranteed next-day delivery” doesn’t really mean what I thought it did. Inconceivable! Thank you, #UPS, for that lesson in semantics.

A Few of my Christmas Favorites

Karen McCullough Posted on by

Book: A Christmas Carol, Dickens

Music: Anything by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but especially Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24

Food: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dinner Food: Mushroom Casserole

Indoor Decoration: The Christmas Tree

Outdoor Decoration: Tree Balls

Movie: The Muppet’s Christmas Carol

TV Show: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (The original half hour show narrated by Boris Karloff!); A Charlie Brown Christmas

An Interview with Heather McNeil

Karen McCullough Posted on by

I did an interview with Heather for Lois Winston’s Anastasia Pollack Blog, and got what I think are some pretty interesting answers.

For those of you who haven’t met her, Heather is the heroine of my Market Center Mysteries series. Officially she’s the Assistant to the Director of the D.C. Market and Commerce Center. Unofficially, she handles most of the complaints and quarrels that break out during Exhibitions. Even more unofficially, she becomes the chief detective when murder happens during a trade show.

https://anastasiapollack.blogspot.com/2022/12/book-club-friday-interview-with-heather.html

The Christmas Stories – 2022

Karen McCullough Posted on by

I love Christmas and I love writing, so naturally, I love writing Christmas stories! But being the eclectic writer I am, even my Christmas stories fall into several different genres. I like to think that means there’s something for everyone in my writing. They’re all available at very low cost and two of them are free here on my site!

Novel
Free in Kindle Unlimited		 Novella
Just $.99 on Amazon		 Short Story
Free! Read Here		 Short Story
Free! Read Here


Side note: I have two other Christmas stories that were in anthologies from previous years. They’re currently not available, but I’ll have rights back by next Christmas and will re-publish them myself.

The Balls are Going Up

Karen McCullough Posted on by

Our first four balls up in the tree.

I live in the Sunset Hills neighborhood of Greensboro, North Carolina. This is relevant because our neighborhood has gained fame for a unique Christmas decorating theme. They’re starting to catch on in a lot of different places, but Lighted Tree Balls started here.

The tree balls are basically rough spheres shaped from chicken wire then wound about with strings of lights and hung from the branches of trees. This works well in our neighborhood, which has an abundance of large old trees. The higher the balls are in the trees, the better.

Walking down the streets in the area at night is a magical experience. Unfortunately, getting a photograph that captures that wonder is nearly impossible. (Everybody I know has tried!) It has to be experienced in person to grasp the amazing beauty of hundreds of balls of light hung high in the trees.

There are some pretty good pictures of the balls here: https://christmascountdowntgf.blogspot.com/2019/11/sunset-hills-greensboro-nc-christmas.html

Putting up those balls can be challenging, but we participate. There are various ways to get the cords high in the trees to hang the balls. We use a slingshot to propel a weight attached to fishing line up to the higher branches. Others use a potato gun, fishing rod, or just a tennis ball on rope. It requires plenty of decently heavy twine and outdoor-rated extension electrical cords. The effort and expense are so worth it.

There is a downside to the glorious display. Word has gotten out, with the result that evening tourist traffic in the neighborhood can be so heavy it sometimes causes gridlock.

But this great neighborhood has found a way to turn even that into a positive. There are collection boxes for food donation in various places and last year they were able to deliver thousands of pounds of non-perishable supplies to a local organization that distributes food to those who need it. We also have an event called the “Running of the Balls” that also raises funds for a local food bank. More info here: https://therunningoftheballs.com/

What I’m Writing Now

Karen McCullough Posted on by

Now that the Carolina Crimes anthology is out and I’ve launched Playing at Murder, it’s time to tackle the next project. To give my brain a break between novels, I wrote a couple of short stories that will soon be in submission.

Because my brain likes variety, I’m not ready to launch into the next book in the Market Center Mysteries series.

Instead, I’ve started on a new book based on a couple of ideas that have been bouncing around in my brain for a while. At heart it’s a cozy mystery, but not exactly a standard cozy. This one is kind of a paranormal cozy mystery.

It’s set in a house that might be haunted or might be something else entirely. The place is home to an unusual group of people. People with paranormal abilities, kind of like super-heroes. Only their unusual talents don’t help these people. In fact, they almost cripple them. But the house seems to ease their pain and help them cope.

My heroine’s mother owns the house and manages the place and people in it…until she falls down the main staircase in the house and dies. Diane Jackson doesn’t believe her mother’s death was an accident. She sets out to prove it and find out who was responsible.

But that’s not the only responsibility she’ll be called on to accept. The house needs someone to manage it and Diane is her mother’s daughter.

The book doesn’t have a title as yet, though the house itself is named Treadwell House, and that might be what I use.

I’m also working on a couple of Christmas short stories on the side.  More on those later if anything pans out.

Starting Holiday Preparations

Karen McCullough Posted on by

For me, November is all about preparation for Thanksgiving and the Christmas season. Mostly it’s about food.

Pumpkin on Halloween Day

The baking orgy usually starts the day after Halloween, but this year it was delayed for a day when I didn’t feel well on Tuesday.

However, yesterday I was better, so I got to work. I cut up the Halloween pumpkin and cooked it in the microwave to soften in, then used an immersion blender to reduce it to pumpkin pulp. I roasted the seeds for a healthy snack, too.

I’ll use the puree to make pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins. Most of those get frozen for serving later at Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts.

Pumpkin cut into chunks

The cookies follow that. I bake lots of cookies. I’m a grandmother, so it’s kind of required, but I also like cookies. A lot. Too much, in truth, but I also put those right in the freezer to preserve them for gifting and serving at Christmas. Cinnamon crisps, molasses cookies, shaped and decorated sugar cookies, chocolate chips, and orange pressed cookies are the family favorites.

Pumpkin puree

Each year I like to try something new. It’s rare that the new effort gets added to the regular rotation, but it can happen. Last year I tried a rolled cookie with dried fruit that proved to be way too much work for the results. They were good, but not good enough to justify the effort that went into them.

The other thing I do in November is work on the gift list. I have a big family that includes eight grandchildren, so I need time to gather suggestions and ideas. I hate leaving things to the last minute. So much so that I sometimes go overboard when it comes to getting ready in advance.

But with rare opportunities to spend time with family around the holidays, I don’t want to waste a minute of it running down gifts or wrapping them.