Beach Birthdays

Karen McCullough Posted on by

We celebrated two birthdays while at the beach, my husband’s, and a grandson, who turned 11 this year. My youngest daughter does fabulous, themed birthday celebrations for her children. This year the now-eleven-year-old requested a Silmarillion theme for his birthday.

(Note: You can click on all the pictures to enlarge them.)

Their dad has been reading all of Tolkien’s works to them for the last few years and the boys love them. There have been Hobbit and Lord of the Rings themed parties in years past. These usually include decorations, cake, and a few games.

The Silmarillion presented a few challenges in this area. But my daughter, with the help of her older sister, was up to the challenge.

A surprise balloon-drop from the balcony with shiny gold and silver balloons emblazoned with mystical runes and drawings (courtesy of his older brother) kicked off the festivities. That was followed by a search for a bunch of hidden “Silmarils”. These were actually clear plastic pool toys in the shape of jewels, with embedded LEDs that made them sparkle in different colors.

Finally, the piece de resistance, the cake. Baked by younger daughter; shaped and decorated by her older sister, who does amazing cake designs. (See posts on previous birthday celebrations for more of her work.) The cake is sculpted and iced to evoke the entrance to a cave, representing a scene from the Silmarillion. A fondant gate and flames, frosting made to look like rock, candles that mimic torches, and a pair of miniature figures (painted by the birthday boy’s brother) completed the masterpiece.

It was a shame to have to cut it up, but we did, after everyone finished admiring it and taking pictures. It was delicious.

The second birthday, my husband’s, was much lower key, though the girls collaborated on a really delicious apple-spice cake.

The final birthday celebration actually took place at our home, the night we returned. Our first, and so far only, great grandchild turned two. For various reasons including work schedules, they didn’t come to the beach with us, but they live in the same town we do, so my older daughter, in her role as Mimi, arranged for a pizza dinner, followed by cake, and presents.

It was quite a week, and produced a bit of cake bloat that we’ve all had to work off!

Taking Time Out at the Beach – May 2024

Karen McCullough Posted on by

It’s been a while since my last post. There are lots of reasons for that, but most revolve around family stuff. May included a family trip to the beach and then further visits with family when we returned home.

Our beach of choice is Edisto Island, where we’ve found a house large enough to hold up to a dozen of us for a price we can afford. It’s a quiet, family-oriented beach. A couple of good restaurants and a few shops provide some outlet for finding souvenirs and food we didn’t cook ourselves, but the main entertainment is the sun, surf, and sand. That suits us perfectly.

This year’s group included myself, my husband, sister-in-law, older daughter, younger daughter, her husband, and her four sons, aged 6 to 12.

The older three boys have all had swimming lessons and eagerly tackled learning to ride with the waves. I bought them all boogie boards and they got heavy use. The youngest prefers to remain in the shallow surf, holding someone’s hand to keep from being bowled over by the waves. Of course, they all love sand construction projects as well.

It’s a great time for catching up with each other, catching up with some reading, eating seafood, and having a few drinks while listening to the surf.

My writing is on hiatus but I’ll get back to it.

What’s Blooming in March in North Carolina

Karen McCullough Posted on by

       

It still feels wintery in these early days of March. Daytime temperatures may go up into the mid-fifties or even low sixties some days, but nighttime temperatures are cold. And other days can stay much chillier, not to mention all the rain.

Still, with all that, we actually have a number of plants that are currently blooming. My garden is blessed with an abundance of daffodils, camellias, and hellebores, all putting on a show right now.

I treasure these plants for the bright displays they create at times when most of the garden is bare and bleak.

Read an Ebook Week Starts Today

Karen McCullough Posted on by

This week, March 3rd – 9th, is Read an Ebook Week at Smashwords. As part of this promotion, four of my most popular novels are half price (only at Smashwords) for this week, and one is totally free!

       

A Gift for Murder – FREE!  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/308556

Wired for Murder – $1.49 – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/649290

Hunter’s Quest – $1.99 – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/705030

The Wizard’s Shield – $1.49 – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/281723

A Question of Fire – $1.99 – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/43245

Working on Unleashed for Murder

Karen McCullough Posted on by

Last November I started work on a new book, which will be the fourth in the Market Center Mysteries series. Tentative title is Unleashed for Murder, and it’s set at a pet products show. I plan for the Market Center Mysteries series to be five books, with possibly a short story or two in that setting as well.

As usual, the holidays provided a month-long interruption in my writing schedule, which was totally okay as the family time was emotionally satisfying and gave my brain a rest and my subconscious time to stew over the plot lines.

I got to 8,000 words before I hung it up for a while, just enough writing to set up a couple of significant plot threads and introduce some important characters.

It took a while to get up to speed again after everyone departed, but I am now rolling on the book. As of right now, I’ve just passed 20,000 words toward a goal of 75,000, which means I’m between one-fourth and one-third through the story.

I tend to think of my books in terms of a five-act structure. I’ve finished the first act, past the set-up stage (both in the story and in the writing). The murder has just occurred, which moves the book into the second act, showing the aftermath and the start of the investigation.

There is also a romantic subplot involving the main protagonist that weaves through all five books. The end of the previous book left that romance in a terrible place when the love interest revealed a shattering betrayal to the heroine. This book will also show them dealing with the painful aftermath of that revelation.

More on the story as I move along with it.

Planting Seeds for 2024

Karen McCullough Posted on by

A tray of Statice seedlings.

It sounds so metaphorical, doesn’t it? But really I’m talking about literally planting seeds to be ready for this coming spring.

Right now, in late February, it’s still too cool to do much outside. On days when it’s warm enough and not raining, I try to get out and spend some time cleaning out beds and planting areas to start preparing them. The rest of the time I spend preparing for the season.

One facet of that is planning for the new plants I want to buy and where I will put them. I’m blessed with a fairly large yard around my house, though half of it is shaded by a group of large, old oak trees. That still leaves a good bit of space that gets adequate sunshine, and we’re trying to reduce the amount of land that has grass planted on it. More space for other plants, right? I’m working on my list.

Another facet of preparation is starting seeds inside. There are some plants that aren’t practical to try to grow from seed. Either I can’t duplicate the conditions they need to germinate, they take too long to grow from seedling to plant, or the plants don’t take kindly to transplanting. But there are quite a few I can birth indoors, and there’s something very satisfying about watching those tiny seedlings pop out of the dirt and following them as they grow into mature plants.

 

Playing at Murder – WWML edition releases in April

Karen McCullough Posted on by

Playing at Murder, the third book in the Market Center Mysteries series will be released in April by Harlequin’s Worldwide Mystery Library. I got the new cover a couple of days ago and I’m pretty happy with it. It keeps the design consistent with the other books in the series, but adds a playfully ominous note with the crashed toy cars.  Here’s the set:

And here’s the full cover for the WWML edition (click for a larger version):

2024 Goals

Karen McCullough Posted on by

So, obviously, this is a bit late, but then it’s goal-setting and not new year’s resolutions. I can set those up whenever I want. Right? Anyway, here we are.

My first goal for the year is to finish the fourth book in the Market Center Mysteries series, tentatively titled Unleashed for Murder. It currently stands at 15,000 words as I make my way to a probable length of around 75,000 words. More on this book in a future post.

I hope to finish it in time to get well into writing a second book, though I don’t know what that will be as yet. I always have ideas floating around in my head, so I’ll have to see what’s rising to the surface when I’m ready for it.

I’ve decided to give traditional publishing a try with Treadwell House – Sanctuary, since it’s in a genre (or actually a combination of genres) that is currently hot, with a number of current best-sellers. This will mean lots of queries and likely lots of rejections, but that’s par for the course. I’m giving it this year to see what happens.

As I did last year, I hope to add five more short stories to my inventory. And a few more submissions of those. It also means I’ll collect lots of rejections as well, but at least I’m trying.

A project I have going with my grandson involves writing several short dragon stories for pictures he’s drawing. I’m quite excited about this!

I’ve done better this year with the blog posts and plan to try to keep up regular posting. The blog doesn’t get a huge amount of traffic, but enough to make it worth the effort.

Last on the writing front is that family background and personal memoir work that is about a third done. I doubt I’ll finish it this year, but if I could get over halfway that would feel like good progress.

Finally, the constant quest to clean out and get rid of stuff. I have made progress, but there’s still so much to eliminate!