It sounds like the kind of story that makes the rounds of email messages and Facebook postings every now and then, but in fact, this is a real phenomenon. If you use a kitchen towel to clean up a grease spill, you need to take care how you launder and store that towel afterward:
http://www.news-record.com/news/local_news/article_d5abc5dc-f902-11e3-9bf9-0017a43b2370.html
In 2005 I made a memorable trip to England, my first visit to that country. But the reason for the trip was what made it most memorable. In September of that year, my only son married an English woman named Steph, whom he’d met while they were both students at the University of Bangor in Wales.
We made the family trip an adventure. A week before the wedding my husband and I and two daughters left the US, flying to Edinburgh, Scotland. We were only there a few days, but we managed to pack a lot into it, visiting Edinburgh Castle, the Scottish National Arm Museum, the Royal Mile and Calton Hill.
Edinburgh Castle
From there we caught a train to London and spent a few days there, taking in the Tower of London (of course!), the Thames tour, Greenwich, Westminster and the Parliament building, the British Museum and some lovely shopping.
Another journey by train deposited us in the town of Hastings, where we stayed at The White Rock Hotel a lovely venue right on the waterfront (run by my son’s bride’s uncle). The wedding itself was in the town of Saltwood in Kent at a picturesque 12th century Norman church.
Saltwood Church
Finally after the wedding, our daughters had to return home, but we stayed on for a few more days and returned to London with friends. We walked over much of the city, saw Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the British Museum of Art, and even got to tour Buckingham Palace. We lucked out there since the only time it’s open to the public is when the Queen is taking her annual vacation in Scotland.
We’ve been a couple more times since, but the circumstances of that trip made it one of the most memorable vacations of my life.
Sponsor’s message: This blog post is brought to you by the ebook version of my Romantic Suspense novel, A QUESTION OF FIRE, which is still on sale at Amazon for $1.99. (A Huge Bargain for a book that’s almost 90,000 words long!)
Blurb: When Cathy Bennett agrees to attend an important party as a favor for her boss, she knows she won’t enjoy it. But she doesn’t expect to end up holding a dying man in her arms and becoming the recipient of his last message. Bobby Stark has evidence that will prove his younger brother has been framed for arson and murder. He wants that evidence to get to his brother’s lawyer, and he tries to tell Cathy where he’s hidden it. But he dies before he can give her more than a cryptic piece of the location.
The man who killed Bobby saw him talking to her and assumes she knows where the evidence is hidden. He wants it back and he’ll do whatever it takes to get it, including following her and trying to kidnap her.
Cathy enlists the aid of attorney Peter Lowell and Danny Stark, Bobby’s prickly, difficult younger brother, as well as a handsome private detective to help her find the evidence before the killers do.
Read Excerpt
Order Kindle edition from Amazon
Order Nook edition
Order from Smashwords
Order trade paperback from author
Contest: To win an ebook copy of your choice of my books, please leave a comment below and I’ll choose a lucky winner at random.
At Buried Under Books, I talk about the influence of the late, great Mary Stewart on my own writing and try to figure out what makes her writing so magical: http://cncbooksblog.wordpress.com/2014/06/17/rip-mary-stewart/comment-page-1/#comment-9980
Want to know which rule of being a good writer I regularly break? Sandy Cody did a terrific interview with me on her blog at: http://birthofanovel.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/meet-karen-mccullough-2/#comment-3529
I’m thrilled to report that this past week I became a grandmother for the fifth time. This is the first child for my only son and his wife, and my first grandchild born in the United Kingdom.
Freya Belle McCullough was born on June 9th in Oxford, UK.
After church this morning, the hub and I took a long walk through a nearby park. It was very quiet with few people out so early on a Sunday morning, despite the beautiful weather. We saw this guy fishing:
The blue heron looks about three – four feet tall when he stretches his neck upward.
I don’t have a cover or pub date yet, but I do have an official blurb for my next book, a romantic suspense titled, The Detective’s Dilemma:
Her fingerprints are on the gun, but Sarah swears she’s innocent.
Although Sarah Anne Martin admits to pulling the trigger, she swears someone forced her to kill her lover. Homicide detective Jay Christianson is skeptical, but enough ambiguous evidence exists to make her story plausible. If he gives her enough freedom, she’ll either incriminate herself or draw out the real killers. But, having been burned before, Jay doesn’t trust his own protective instincts…and his growing attraction to Sarah only complicates matters.
With desire burning between them, their relationship could ultimately be doomed since Sarah will be arrested for murder if Jay can’t find the real killer.
(Coming soon from Kensington/Lyrical Press)
Late as always. – Sigh. But here are my winners for the two April blog hops. If you don’t hear from me in the next day or two, please drop me an email so I can arrange to get your prize to you.
The Authors in Bloom Blog Hop winner on my blog is: Karen H
The Spring Fever Blog Hop winner is Rolynn Anderson.
This is the Authors In Bloom Blog Post. Scroll down to the end to find out how you can enter to win several prizes.
I love working in my garden. This time of year I wait eagerly for the weather to warm up enough to thaw and dry out the ground so that I can start digging and planning what will go into the garden this year.
We have a comfortable division of gardening duties in our household. My husband does the vegetable garden. I do the flowers. It’s fine by me. He likes to eat the tomatoes and peppers more than I do anyway, and I’d much rather spend my time cultivating zinnias and strawflowers, lilies and daisies, anyway.
The one gardening tip I give everyone is to be sure you know what you’re planting in your garden. I know from hard experience that it can be a mistake to plant certain things without knowing their habits. A few years ago, my daughter gave me a bunch of spectacular daylilies that had been dug from a friend’s garden. Possibly I should have asked why she’d needed to dig up so many since they pulled up to my house with – literally – a pickup truck full of plants. I know why now, of course. Those things spread like nobody’s business. In just a couple of years they were trying to take over the entire garden area.
And don’t get me started on the morning glories. My next-door neighbor loves them. I agree that they’re very pretty twining across the fence that separates our yards. They’re not as pretty when the vines reach out and attempt to strangle every other plant in the garden. And I’m forever pulling up morning glory seedlings!
Other plants I’ve regretted either planting myself or living close to include periwinkle, yarrow, and a very thorny rambling rose that insists on rambling over everything within twenty feet of the plant. No I’m not kidding. Even with a trellis that sucker wants to spread out!
And here is one of my very favorite plants in the garden:
It’s called a black iris, but as you can see, it’s really a deep purple
Now about the prizes:
GRAND PRIZE: We are giving away a Kindle Fire or Nook (winner’s choice) along with a $25 gift card for the same. We are also giving away a 2nd prize of $25 gift card. You must visit all the author sites and leave a comment to be eligible.
My PRIZE: I’ll choose from one commenter here to receive a choice of either two ebooks of the winner’s choice from my books available as ebooks or a paperback copy of either A Gift for Murder or A Question of Fire.
Blurb for A Question of Fire: When Catherine Bennett becomes the recipient of a dying man’s last words, she also becomes the target of ruthless killers who think she has something they need.
More info for A Question of Fire here.
Be sure to include your email addie in the post so we can contact the winners!
You can find the list of authors participating here:
First of all, this is the MRFW Spring Blog Hop Post. Read to the end for prize instructions.
Because the events of the book happen in late spring, I decided to feature my romantic suspense novel, A QUESTION OF FIRE for this hop.
The heroine of A QUESTION OF FIRE is a newspaper reporter with an off-beat sense of humor, a passionate thirst for justice, and a rather large problem.
Most of it springs from incident number 1:
1. At a party where she’s filling in for the social pages editor, Cathy takes a break in the garden and is accosted by a young man trying to get a message to another party-goer. Before she can make up her mind whether to run, scream, or do as he asks, the young man is shot and dies in her arms. He leaves her with a part of a message that makes no sense to her.
Which leads to number 2:
2. The shooter knows that the victim told her something, and he VERY much wants to know what. So his henchman kidnap her to try to get it from her. Fortunately she’s rescued before they can do anything too nasty to her.
And then:
3. In the course of the investigation into where a certain piece of evidence is hidden, she gets to help search a junkyard full of old appliances in the middle of a hot day… And those appliances are, in some cases, already occupied by critters most people prefer not to meet unless they’re armed with a large can of bug spray.
And:
4. As a result of number three, she actually shares a lovely kiss and some quality time with a man she’s falling in love with… But then there are more adventures, frustrations, fights, and rescues.
Before:
5. They and the victim’s younger brother get stranded in a lonely section of mountains, are chased by the killers, and almost driven off perilous mountain roads when they hitch a ride with a nice elderly couple.
Then: they defeat the villains and find the missing evidence. (Can’t get too specific about how all that happens, though.)
Blurb for A QUESTION OF FIRE:
When Cathy Bennett agrees to attend an important party as a favor for her boss, she knows she won’t enjoy it. But she doesn’t expect to end up holding a dying man in her arms and becoming the recipient of his last message. Bobby Stark has evidence that will prove his younger brother has been framed for arson and murder. He wants that evidence to get to his brother’s lawyer, and he tries to tell Cathy where he’s hidden it. But he dies before he can give her more than a cryptic piece of the location.
The man who killed Bobby saw him talking to her and assumes she knows where the evidence is hidden. He wants it back and he’ll do whatever it takes to get it, including following her and trying to kidnap her.
Cathy enlists the aid of attorney Peter Lowell and Danny Stark, Bobby’s prickly, difficult younger brother, as well as a handsome private detective to help her find the evidence before the killers do.
Read Excerpt
Order Kindle edition from Amazon
Order Nook edition
Order from Smashwords
Order trade paperback from author
My PRIZE: I’ll choose from one commenter here to receive ebooks of A Gift for Murder and Programmed for Danger, or a paperback copy of A Gift for Murder. Be sure to include your email address in your comment..
I’m wrapping up my observations on The Lego Movie and why I thought it worked so well. I’ve already talked about the biggest components of good stories: plot, characters, and writing. There are a few other things that the movie does quite well that add to its appeal.
One of those is all the lovely references to other popular movies. The Star Wars, Star Trek, Matrix, Harry Potter, and Fast and Furious references are so blatant they’re pretty hard to miss. There are lots of Super-heroes showing up here, including WyldStyle’s boyfriend, Batman. I’m sure there are other references that I didn’t get at all. They add spice to an already fun story.
Then there are the lovely little twists and surprises along the way. It’s hard to talk about these without spoiling them, so I’ll just say that some unexpected things happen at various points. I was particularly happy with an interesting little adventure when our heroes have an encounter with the Millennium Falcon. The “Uni-Kitty” is a hilarious mash-up of “Hello Kitty,” unicorns, and “My Little Pony.” But they’re not content to leave the character as a mere running site gag. What they do with her is wonderful. The Good Cop/Bad Cop character, expertly voiced by Liam Neeson, has some particularly interesting developments.
And finally, the world has an amazing internal consistency. Everything is created with legos. Not just the figures and vehicles but buildings, backgrounds and other elements of the story, with just a few exceptions. And the exceptions are important. Again I can’t really talk about what they are because I don’t want to spoil it, but there is a definite element of fun in figuring them out. One of the most astonishing scenes in the movie occurs when they’re on a ship, sailing over bounding, white-capped waves — all built out of Lego blocks.
