Curtiss Ann Matlock's Blog, page 3

Many thanks to those of you who replied by comment and email with suggestions to remedy the door stuck on one of my bookshelves.

The suggestions were all along the lines to remove the books on the shelf above, which was drooping just a bit, and to use some sort of soap or oil on the door where it hit the shelf. I used an abundance of spray wax, until the wood was coated with the white, slippy product. I then tried opening the door, but to no avail. The door would not open.

Disappointed, ...

I’m following up on Brenda’s excellent suggestion that I ask for help with the stuck glass door on one of my bookshelves. The oak shelf above has bowed downward just enough to prevent the door from being opened on the shelf containing my collection of Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books.

Also trapped are Jan Karon’s Mitford series and the Tarquin Hall mysteries set in India. All favored books that I might want to re-read. (I think I hear the characters c...

I’ll start with the miracle. The forty-seven-year-old Christmas cactus has popped out two more blooms here in spring!

Yes, you read that right. 47 years. Actually the plant is a bit older than that, because it was fair-sized when given to me forty-seven years ago this May by my husband’s Granny. We had journeyed to Granny’s to introduce her to her new great-grandson. A tiny woman in her eighty’s, she got a shovel and dug it from her yard as a gift for me. (When have you ever seen a Christma...

I discovered streaming old classic movies from YouTube. Halleluyah!

Back in the day, I mean far back in the 1960s, I got hooked on old black and white movies from the 1930s and ’40s shown on television. Each day I hurried home from school to watch ‘The Afternoon Movie’ on our old Motorola television, with my mother. She sat on one end of the sofa with her cigarette, ashtray, and Coca-Cola (Mama always said Coca-Cola, never Coke.) and I sat in a big chair with my Coke and maybe a bowl of popc...

Mary in Color now in KindleUnlimited!

“This book provoked plenty of laughs, and even a few tears.”

There are times, and they come often, that I make myself crazy with research. This is one of those times. I have decided to purchase one of those countertop stainless gravity-fed water filter systems. I saw one a friend had and decided it would suit me better than the plastic filtering pitcher I now use and fill several times a day. I started using that pitcher five years ago when I mov...

I just read an encouraging essay by writer Julia Fenstermacher entitled I Love That About You. I find Ms. Fenstermacher’s words so profound, so uplifting and encouraging that I want to share them with all you writers and creatives (which means all of you!). You can read the post here.

“Let us look for what is beautiful and bring it out, then protect it and cause it to grow with words of encouragement, words of love.” ~ Julia Fenstermacher.

I am not a believer in what is known as construct...

I have just returned from six days away in Mississippi. I enjoyed driving through rural countryside, my eyes and soul drinking in the pines and rolling pasture land dotted with cattle, old fences, and occasionally an old barn. There are fewer and fewer of those old barns. But seeing them and old houses brings back memories of childhood.

I went to camp with girl camper friends who came with their various camping rigs to gather and enjoy chatting and crafting and, of course, eating. We were ble...

First–I completely forgot that Love in a Small Town went on sale this week. The perfect time to be in celebration of my seventeen years of blogging on WordPress!

E-book at $1.99 Today on Amazon Kindle

Also available on KindleUnlimited

“The story of how they find their way back to each and recapture the magic they once felt in each other’s arms is filled with wit, humor, tears and lots of emotional sigh-worthy moments. If you haven’t read a book by Curtiss Ann Matlock, you’l...

I’m so excited! Sweet Dreams at the Goodnight Motel is now available in audiobook on Apple Books! Click here to go to Apple Books to have a listen.

I have more to say about the audiobook further down in the post, but first I’m happy to announce that in celebration, we’ve put the e-book edition on half-price sale. Click one of the store links below to buy at the discounted price:

$2.50

Amazon Kindle  Barnes&Noble   Kobo   Apple Books

“I got to realizing that I wanted to record, ...

Hours of rain and rise in temperature in the past week brought on an evening chorus from little spring peeper frogs that live in the deep creek behind my house. The sound always makes me pause to listen, and to smile. It’s a reminder that life goes on, that no matter it is still winter, spring is on it’s way.

It is also a reminder of a funny childhood memory. When I was little girl, three or four years of age, my family lived in Florida. Stretched alongside our small cinder-block home was a...