Will I Ever Really Want to Read it Again?

Karen McCullough Posted on by

In a previous blog post, I talked about trying to get rid of as much of the “stuff” I have cluttering my home as I can. Some of it’s relatively easy to sort through and dispose of.

When my grandchildren were babies, I bought a fair amount of equipment for them for when they visited. Now that they’re older, I’ve already eliminated a lot of it, donating things to women’s shelters and groups helping resettle refugees.

I’ve gone through several boxes of old photos in the process of scanning them, and those will get tossed once I’m done with the project. A couple of boxes of financial records dating from well before the three-year period we supposedly need to keep have been shredded. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with the boxes of stamp albums and loose stamps I inherited from several older family members.

I always have the most trouble parting with books. I love books and I tend to hang on to all of the ones I’ve enjoyed, found useful, or learned from over the years. Once the kids grew up and flew the coop, I turned the two upstairs rooms into my own makeshift library. Now, as I get older, I realize a time is coming when we’ll be moving out of this house we’ve lived in for 30+ years and I won’t be able to take it all with me.

Many—most—of the books have to go. It’s painful letting go of them. So I’ve developed a technique for deciding what to keep and what not to keep. I gather up a batch of books and bring them to my office, where they get sorted into three stacks. The criteria is asking each book: Will I ever read you again?

Books where the answer is a clear no go in one stack. A few I’ll want to dip into it again before I decide. And even fewer I can glance at and know that this book is a keeper.

As I’m getting older and my life reading time gets more and more constrained, though, I’m finding it easier to say that I’m never going to read this book again. I read it once, and that was good, but enough.

I don’t actually re-read all that many books because there are always so many new ones teasing me. At this point, I’ve eliminated almost half of the library and I still have work to do. I don’t have an actual goal except to get rid of all the books I know I’ll never read again.

Someday I may have to deal with all those books sitting on my Kindle that I’ve read or are waiting to be read. But that’s a problem for another time.

Falling for the Deputy – Now Available for Pre-Order

Karen McCullough Posted on by

Falling for the Deputy is Book 4 in the Hopeless Romantics of Willow Ridge series of sweet, contemporary romances set in Willow Ridge, Georgia, a small town outside of Savannah.

Can a group of hopeless romantics finally find love? Or are they destined always to be a bridesmaid and never the bride?

After losing at love twice, Barbara Wilton needs a change, some place far from her home in Boston, so she takes a position as manager of a small branch bank in Willow Ridge, Georgia. She’s done with relationships and ready to concentrate on her career. The experience in Willow Ridge will help her move forward in the banking industry, but she doesn’t plan to stay there permanently. Nevertheless, an invitation to join the Hopeless Romantics book club, a position on a planning committee, helping a little league team that needs coaching, and being adopted by a stray dog begin to wind her into the community.

Chris Harper was a police officer in Charlotte until his marriage fell apart. With his mother and elderly aunt in deteriorating health, Chris returns home to Willow Ridge to help them and takes a job as chief deputy to the local sheriff. The wound left by his failed marriage is still raw and, despite his mother’s nagging, he’s not interested in pursuing any relationship, even with the attractive new bank manager.

Fate, helped by a few local residents, conspires to push Barbara and Chris together. They meet during a false alarm at the bank and then he assists her with a car problem. But when his aunt receives a foreclosure notice on her house, Chris is angry with Barbara for not warning him that his aunt was behind on her payments.

She agrees to help him work out the problem with the bank, but the deeper issues between them keep flaring. Can two wary, wounded people learn to trust again and find happiness together? Find out in this sweet, second chance, enemies to lovers romance.

The Hopeless Romantics of Willow Ridge series are sweet, small-town contemporary romances. Each book is a standalone and can be read individually or as part of the series.

Hopeless Romantics of Willow Ridge series
Book 1: Falling for the Boss
Book 2: Falling for the Fireman
Book 3: Falling for the Doctor
Book 4: Falling for the Deputy
Book 5: Falling for the Hockey Player
Book 6: Falling for the Single Dad
Book 7: Falling for the Farmer
Book 8: Falling for the Scotsman

Pre-order Falling for the Deputy

Series Page for The Hopeless Romantics of Willow Ridge

Goals for 2022

Karen McCullough Posted on by

As I said earlier, I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. Instead I set goals for the year, looking at the things I hope to accomplish over the year.

So, here’s what I’m planning to do in 2022. On the writing front, my first goal is to finish a book that will be released in the spring, Falling for the Deputy. It’s pretty well along, but not done yet. Then I will finish Playing at Murder. I really hope to have it ready to publish by late spring. After that, I’d like to at least get a good start on the first book of a new mystery series, using an idea that’s been hanging around my brain for several years now.

This worked so well last year, I’ve got to do it again. I’m going to try to do at least five more short stories and submit them, as well as submitting at least three of my older stories as well.

Another writing goal is to investigate the possibility of doing audiobooks. I’d like to start with some of my shorter pieces and then move toward getting audio versions of my novels.

On the personal level, I plan to continue the photo-scanning project, with the object of having it finished next Christmas. I should be able to complete it since I’m about three quarters of the way to completion. I’m also going to continue moving things out of my house, trying to get rid of as much ‘stuff’ as I can. I’ve cut down the number of books I own by about half, but could probably eliminate a lot more. In a future post I’ll explore how I decide which books can go.

Other things will occur to me, no doubt, but this is what I’m starting the year with.

Assessing 2021 Goals

Karen McCullough Posted on by

I’ve probably mentioned that I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. It’s pointless. Most resolutions go by the wayside before the first month is out. I used to vow to eat better, to exercise more, be kinder – all the standard things that were forgotten in weeks.

Now I make goals for myself for the year. Goals help motivate me, and I post them in various places to try to hold myself accountable for meeting them.

So, before I post this year’s goals, I need to look back at what I said I wanted to accomplish last year and how I did on those.

The first goal was to finish two novels in progress: Playing at Murder and No Time for Mistakes. The second of the two, No Time for Mistakes was finished and was published in October by Sweet Promise Press. Playing at Murder did not get finished, though I made a lot of progress on it, taking it from 25,000 words to 55,000.  I need about 15,000 more words to complete it.

My other writing goal was to finish five short stories and submit each. The good news is that I actually exceeded that goal, writing six new short stories for the year. I submitted all six and five of them have been accepted by various anthologies. Four are already published; one will be come out sometime in 2022. You can see where most of them are on my Stories Page. One of them is still out on submission.

The personal goals were somewhat mixed, too.  The project of scanning photos from albums made a tremendous amount of progress but didn’t get finished. Still, I don’t have too much left.

That’s part of the ongoing effort to clear out much of the ‘stuff’ I’ve accumulated over the years, and on that front I did make considerable progress.

I didn’t make it a goal, but I did say I wanted to find something I could do to give back to the community and help those less fortunate than myself. Unfortunately, the ongoing pandemic sank most of my efforts in that direction other than providing some financial support. I’m not giving up on it yet.

So, that’s it. Some goals completed, some not. But I made progress on all of them, in most cases, considerable progress.

My next post will be the goals for 2022!

Crunchy with Chocolate Now Available

Karen McCullough Posted on by

Crunchy with Chocolate
An Anthology of Dragon Stories
October, 2021
Amazon: ebook and trade paperback

It has been said that one should never meddle in the affairs of dragons—for you are crunchy and taste good with chocolate.

Come enter the dragon’s lair and roll the dice. Within these pages you will still meet some of the biggest, baddest predators ever—but if you are lucky, you will also discover some that have a sweeter side.

Meet a dragon with a soft spot for hard luck cases and another who is a hopeless romantic.

Enjoy a musical battle between a dragon and the specter of one of the greatest guitarists to ever play.

Meet a dragon in trouble with other magical creatures because he enjoys hanging out with human children.

Join a mother and daughter and their teams of dragons on a dangerous cross-country race.

Reconnect with an imaginary friend – who is not so imaginary and escape the isolation of the pandemic.

And more…

So enter in BUT tread carefully—remember you are crunchy and taste good with chocolate.

My story is titled “The Princess and the Dragon”

If you think this story is a standard handsome knight rescues damsel from fierce dragon tale, think again. Here is a sneak peek to give you the flavor:

Suppose that, like Cyndrith, you happen to be the child of an ambitious mother joined to an insolvent father, a young lady of high birth, better than average looks, and broad but unorthodox education. As fate twists—only slightly assisted by your own and Aunt Vellie’s peculiar talents—you catch the eye of a neighboring prince at a time when he’s under pressure from the relatives to consider his duties. Your problems are solved. Right?

But further suppose that you do the obvious and necessary, you snag your man, and then you wake up the next day or week or month to find the honeymoon is over and you discover that your handsome, charming husband is a terrific dancer but an incompetent prince? And worse yet, your father-in-law, overjoyed that junior is finally settling down to business, and having just enough mens sanus left to realize that he’s losing it, decides to retire to Bath to take the waters, leaving the kingdom in the hands of your sweet but unqualified husband.

Cyndrith found the literature dealing with her particular problem scarce; the old legends insisted that everyone tended to live happily ever after, but her story looked likely to be a short, brutal tale — a leader who is hazy on the difference between cavalry and chivalry can generally expect an early and traumatic retirement.

Clearly, Cyndrith will have to take care of her own rescues, including confronting a rather unusual dragon!

Long Haul Covid – Update – Pulmonary Rehab Done

Karen McCullough Posted on by

It’s now been almost two months since I finished my eight-week course of pulmonary rehab and was handed a certificate to prove it. At this point I’ve seen considerable improvement in my general physical condition and ability to breathe as a result.

On the whole my Covid Long-Haul recovery continues to be a story of two steps forward and one step back. I’m in far better condition that I was last year this time. I still have relapses with unpredictable timing and length, but I don’t seem to be getting as sick with each now. The coughing doesn’t tear me apart and the headaches and body aches are manageable with OTC medicines. Fatigue during the relapses is still an issue, but even that has improved.

Between relapses I feel mostly normal now, with one exception.

I’ve been walking with my husband almost every morning for many years, except for that interval six to ten weeks in March and April of 2020 when I had Covid and the initial part of the recovery. For quite a while post-Covid I could barely make it around a couple of blocks. But that gradually got better, until a relapse would drop me back almost to square one again. But after each relapse I’ve recovered a little faster and stretched my distance again.

I recently had a personal post-Covid best distance of 1.78 miles! I’ve managed to pick up the rate, but I still don’t walk at the same speed I did pre-C. I use a pedometer app on my phone to track time and distance when I walk. I used to shoot for a goal of .25 mile each five minutes and usually had no trouble making that. Today, my speed is generally more like .18 mile/five minutes. Decent, but not as zippy as I used to be.

At this point I’m not sure I’ll ever get back to my former speed. In addition to Covid damage, there’s the age factor. And there seems to be a ceiling on my speed that isn’t there for distance. As long as I keep to the standard pace, I seem to be able to push the distance a bit.

But if I try to push beyond the .18 mile/5 minute pace, I’m likely to experience breathing problems and a total loss of energy either before I finish or shortly after – the sort of collapse that will keep me in the recliner for the rest of the day and possibly a day or two after.

I’m not entirely back to what was normal, but I’m adjusting to a newer version that I can live with.

2021 Goals Update – 3rd Quarter

Karen McCullough Posted on by

We just finished the third quarter of the year, so it’s time to revisit my 2021 goals to see how I’m doing.

My writing goals were to finish two novels in progress.  No Time for Mistakes, my third book in the No Brides Club Series is done, turned in, edited, and set to be published next week.  I’m now back to working on the other novel I hope to finish this year, Playing at Murder, the third book in the Market Center Mysteries Series. It currently stands at 33,000 words of a projected 70,000 – 75,000.  It will be a stretch to finish it by the end of the year, but I’m giving it my best shot.

On the short story front, my goal was to write five new ones.  I’ve met that goal now with five new stories this year, though I hope to write at least one more. Of the five, four have been accepted into various anthologies, including one in the Bould Awards anthology (I have two in that one, but one is an older story), one in the forthcoming Home for the Holidays Christmas Romance Anthology, one in the forthcoming Triangle Sisters in Crime anthology, Carolina Crimes: 20 Tales of Rock, Roll, and Ruin. Of the other two, one was accepted for an anthology that was cancelled, and the other remains unsold. I’ll continue to look for good homes for those two.

My personal project of scanning my photo albums slid somewhat during the summer, but I’m back at it now and making very good progress. I probably won’t finish it before the end of the year, but I expect to do so early next year.

On the personal hope list, my search for a way to give back in a meaningful way, to find a volunteer way to help, has been hampered by the reality of the continued prevalence of the Covid pandemic. I’m at a vulnerable age and already slowly recovering from Long Covid, so I’m not ready to get out and mingle with people except in very safe ways.

Saint Patrick’s Park

Karen McCullough Posted on by

I still have a couple more posts about the family visit last month that I’m now posting after a break to take care of other things. They’ll make a good way to wrap up summer now that we’re moving into fall

The final outing of our visit to South Bend in August was to St. Patrick’s Park, a fairly new park set up on the grounds of a former farm, on the outskirts of South Bend. It includes a number of walking trails and some interesting play spots for the children.

We started our visit with one of the walking trails that winds its way through a wooded loop of the park for about a mile and a half. An early beginning meant the temperature was pleasant, especially in the shade of the trees. The only unpleasant feature was the hordes of mosquitoes, but, fortunately, Sarah brought bug spray, which fended them off.

That part of our visit done, we piled back into the van and headed to the next stop, a play area for the children. Actually two play areas. One was a large, traditional playset with steps, slides and climbing poles, but the boys found the other, less traditional area more intriguing.

The big hit there was a water pump and system of movable wooden sluices that spilled water in a sand pit, where the kids could dig lakes, rivers, streams etc. to guide the liquid in whatever direction and into whatever form they wanted. The older two boys went into this trip with a plan that involved digging an elaborate stream leading under the old wooden rowboat shell, through a series of sand bridges they created and finally ending near the edge of the sand pit. One of them (mostly C.) pumped while the other excavated.

Meanwhile, the six-year-old followed his own program to make use of some of the other intriguing play possibilities. He spent quite a bit of time jumping along a series of tree stumps, negotiating an elastic web about ten feet in diameter, and climbing a hollow log some six feet high.

The four-year-old did his own thing as well, but that involved mostly digging in the sand.

A covered picnic area in the center of this section made the adults happy. The shade and place to rest was most welcome!

For the last half hour or so of our visit, the boys played on the more traditional climbing stairs, swinging from bars, and sliding down the slides (plus trying to run back up them).

A fun time was had by all of us!

No Time for Mistakes Cover and Blurb

Karen McCullough Posted on by

I now have a cover and official blurb for No Time for Mistakes. Pre-order link coming soon.

No Time for Mistakes (No Brides Club Series)
October 8, 2021
Sweet Promise Press.

As an ad designer, she puts all of her focus on her career. Now if only she wasn’t so irresistibly attracted to her new client’s marketing director…

When Lisa Harper is offered the career-defining job of creating an ad series for her largest client to date, she vows to get the work done without any distractions. That was before she met a member of their team who brings up painful memories that threaten to sidetrack her from her goals.

Eric has no idea that he bears a striking resemblance to the fiancé who dumped Lisa a few weeks before her wedding. Despite their tight deadline for finishing the project, the more he works with this attractive advertising exec, the more time he wants to spend with her.

As glitches and obstacles abound, Lisa and Eric are unable to deny their instant mutual attraction, but she has no time for mistakes. Can Lisa resist taking a chance with a personal relationship when her career is on the line?

Also this anthology is now available for pre-order in ebook and paperback!

Crunchy with Chocolate
An Anthology of Dragon Stories
October, 2021

My story is titled “The Princess and the Dragon”

If you think this story is a standard handsome knight rescues damsel from fierce dragon tale, think again. Here are the first three paragraphs to give you the flavor:

Suppose that, like Cyndrith, you happen to be the child of an ambitious mother joined to an insolvent father, a young lady of high birth, better than average looks, and broad but unorthodox education. As fate twists—only slightly assisted by your own and Aunt Vellie’s peculiar talents—you catch the eye of a neighboring prince at a time when he’s under pressure from the relatives to consider his duties. Your problems are solved. Right?

But further suppose that you do the obvious and necessary, you snag your man, and then you wake up the next day or week or month to find the honeymoon is over and you discover that your handsome, charming husband is a terrific dancer but an incompetent prince? And worse yet, your father-in-law, overjoyed that junior is finally settling down to business, and having just enough mens sanus left to realize that he’s losing it, decides to retire to Bath to take the waters, leaving the kingdom in the hands of your sweet but unqualified husband.

Cyndrith found the literature dealing with her particular problem scarce; the old legends insisted that everyone tended to live happily ever after, but her story looked likely to be a short, brutal tale — a leader who is hazy on the difference between cavalry and chivalry can generally expect an early and traumatic retirement.

Clearly, Cyndrith will have to take care of her own rescues, including confronting a rather unusual dragon!

From Vine to Jelly Jar

Karen McCullough Posted on by

My daughter’s new house came equipped with a tree on which a Concord grape vine was growing. During our visit many of those grapes had ripened. There were a lot of them, and it seemed a shame to let them go to waste. On a lark, we decided to try our hand at making grape jelly.

The boys were more than happy to help. From pulling down the vines so we could reach to grab clusters off them, to stripping grapes from the clusters and then mashing them in the bowl, they were delighted to participate.

Being newbies to the whole process, Sarah and I relied on online sites and directions. We followed along carefully, and on the whole it worked out well.

After boiling the fruit and straining, (a process we didn’t let the boys help with) we ended up with four cups of juice. We let that sit overnight (per the directions), which gave us time to go out and buy canning jars, pectin, and another bag of sugar.

The next day we started by boiling the jars and lids to sterilize them before we went ahead to the next step.

We brought the juice to a boil again and added in seven cups of sugar. We were stunned at how much sugar it called for, but several recipes warned us to follow them exactly, so we did as they said. Once the mixture was boiling, we added the pectin.

After boiling for a bit, we were directed to skim off the foam. The directions did not warn us that of the seven inches of goo in the pot, five of them would turn out to be foam. We scooped and skimmed, scooped and skimmed, and began to wonder if there really was anything else beneath it.

Finally, though, we got down to the clear goopy liquid that was molten jelly. We had enough to fill five pint jars, which then went into the water bath for another 5 to 10 minutes to seal them. On first taking them out of the water, the top of only one jar felt like it had squashed down a bit, indicating it had sealed, but after sitting a few minutes the rest developed that indentation as well.

After skimming, we were also left with some of the actual liquid jelly that had a bit of foam still mixed in. We decided to see what would happen if we poured that into jars, too. Instead of putting them in the hot water bath, those jars went into the fridge after they’d cooled.

Did it jell? Oh, yes. Our first indication it had worked came when the boys scooped up a few blobs that had spilled on the counter. Those had congealed into glumps that matched the texture of jelly from a commercial jar. The smiles indicated they passed the taste test.

The bit of foam mixed in meant those last jars of jelly didn’t look so beautifully rich and crystal clear, but it nonetheless congealed into something that looked and tasted very much like Concord grape jelly. Spread on slices of bread, it got the boys’ seal of approval.

The five jars of pure jelly looked spectacular, beautifully clear and richly grape-colored. The oldest provided us with hand-crafted labels for the jars.

Once, many years ago, I acquired an unexpected bounty of plums and I made jam from them. I recall that it was fun, and the jam tasty, but it involved a lot of work, even though I didn’t attempt to seal the jars, but kept them in the refrigerator instead. I think we only got about two jars’ worth, but we enjoyed the taste. That’s the only previous time I’ve made the effort.

With a crew of helpers working on it, though, it made for a fun project, with an end product that everyone could relish!