Kate Collins's Blog, page 333

By Wendy Lyn Watson

I live in an adorable little town. For those who've read the Mysteries a la Mode, the fictional town of Dalliance, Texas bears a suspicious (albeit not particularly mysterious) resemblance to the real-life Denton, Texas. Our adorable Arts & Crafts bungalow is right in the heart of that cute little town, too. I can walk (and have walked) to my office on campus, the town square, all the best restaurants, the best coffee shops, the grocery store, the library, the park, my d...

It's that time again.

Diet time.

Blah!

It's my own fault. I've been slacking off on the exercise front all summer and it's caught up to me (a whole ten pounds worth!)

Why is it that women can put on ten pounds in a few weeks but it will take us six months to lose it? So unfair, right?

It didn't help that every place I went with the kids seemed to end up with their eating meals that came with mountains of crisp, salty French fries. Naturally, they couldn't finish them all and I...

Two weeks from now!
September 7th is the release date for Buzz Off !
Under my pen name, Hannah Reed.

And the local bookstore is planning a big party to celebrate. Door prizes, a fabulous dinner based on the book, mead (honey wine) tasting. The invites are going out. Everyone is welcome (with advanced registration). Eve and Norm from Martha Merrell's Books & Cafe in downtown Waukesha, WI created the menu.
Chilled pear soup with wild clover honey and fresh basilMixed greens with raspberry...

Oh, no! I LOVE Summer. And. . .it's about to end. Darn. No matter how hard we try, we can't stop Time. August is coming to a close. Next week, September will arrive with Autumn's colors and schedules. Ahhhhh. . .but it's been a great Summer. Pretty hot temps, sometimes, but gorgeous days where I could be outside in the shade, reading and enjoying. Pretty hectic, I'll admit. Message to Maggie: Do NOT schedule way overdue doc appts for the summer. Or, other miscellaneous appts.


I did get to see...

by Kate

Ah, let me count the ways. And the days. And the red haze -- of anger over my eyes. All because I've had a dream for years to have a travertine floor in my bathroom. Talk about a dream turned nightmare!

Our first mistake was going to a "big box" home improvement store. You know those lovely commercials on TV? Don't fall for them. We had a local flooring guy do another room a few years back, so we had a basis for comparison, and trust me, there was none.

So Big Box contracts the job out ...

by Leann

Sometimes I don't mind commercials. Some of them can be darn entertaining--especially come Super Bowl time. Right now I'm liking the one with the "invisible monkey" staging a celebration in a new car lot. One of my faves is the dog having nightmares about his bone being lost or being stolen by the cat. There's a long and short version with the song "Trouble" by Ray Whose Last Name I Can't Spell. I never get tired of that one.

But the E.D. commercials with the old fashioned bathtubs ou...

By Lorna

Before Chapter & Hearse , the 4th Booktown Mystery, was published, I held a number of contests.  The prize(s)?  An ARC (Advance Review Copy) of Chapter & Hearse.  My publisher was very generous and gave me 20 copies of the book, 19 of which I gave away. 

Let's review what that ARC is all about:  ADVANCE REVIEW COPY .  What do you think that means?

It means the person who reads it receives the book knowing something is expected.

Oh, wait, you didn't get that part about REVIEWING the...

By Heather

I'm easily amused. And distracted. Case in point: I've been working on a new proposal where my main character has a bit of a shady background. In one scene I have her describing where some people hide their money.

In some catalogue, somewhere, I knew I'd seen little safes that looked like another object completely. I just didn't know what to call them. So, I did what any good researcher does.

I Googled.

And lo and behold—a whole new world opened up to me. The world of the "diversion" ...

After my kitty passed away last week, a very wise woman on Facebook told me that I'd heal quicker if I rescued another cat. I took her advice. In fact, I took it an extra length and adopted a pair of brothers from our local shelter.
For ages, I've been talking to friends and family about buying a Siamese or an Abyssinian or a Bengal to commemorate my 40th b-day this Saturday. In the end, however, I couldn't do it. I knew there were cats waiting for me in the shelter and so I packed the kids i...

I'm a Yooper and proud of it. It's an exclusive club. You are either born a Yooper, or you get a Yooper green card until you live in the Michigan Upper Peninsula long enough for the locals to forget you aren't native. When I was a kid, we said we were from the U.P. Somehow that morphed into Yooper.

As you read this, I'm on a road trip from home (between Milwaukee and Madison) to Rock, MI, where my family still has a 'camp'. Eighty glorious acres - wildflower fields combined with pine ridges. ...