Category: Slice of Life

Slice of Life Sundae!

Today is National Ice Cream Day.

I will admit, I am an ice cream addict. I stopped bothering with scoops and bowls years ago. I simply sit with the carton and my spoon.

Over the years, I’ve had a lot of favorite flavors.

  • Heavenly Hash was probably the first “grown-up” ice cream I loved.
  • Lady Borden used to make Tin Roof Swirl (fudge ripple with peanuts), and when I had a bad day at then-current-day-job, a quart of that would be lunch.
  • Fell in love with Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia.
  • My daughter was gestated on Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie (which probably explains why she loathes chocolate).
  • Panda Paws and Moose Tracks have become recent favorites.
  • My local supermarket chain, Wegmans (one of the America’s top 10 employers, according to Forbes), has an amazing Peanut Butter Sundae: a lightly flavored peanut butter ice cream with peanut better cups, fudge swirl, and peanut butter swirls.
  • Byrne, a local dairy, makes Midnight Madness, which I discovered quite by accident. Creamy Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Fudge Swirl & White Chocolate Chunks. How can you go wrong?
  • Ben & Jerry’s Vanilla Caramel Fudge is a new favorite.

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?

Summer Reading List

People always seem to have a summer reading list. Then I realized I do, too, although it’s not as formalized as some I’ve seen. So here’s what I plan to read this summer, in no particular order:

The Last Time I Saw Her by Karen Robards

If you haven’t read Robards’ Dr. Charlotte Stone series, and you’re a fan of romantic suspense with a touch of paranormal, you don’t know what you’re missing. The fourth installment of the series is due out  August 25.  Okay, maybe there’s more of a touch of paranormal here. The hero? Well, he’s a ghost.

After the Storm: A Kate Burkholder Novel by Linda Castillo

July 14th is the release date on the latest in Castillo’s Amish mystery series. Lifetime made a movie of the first book in the series. If you like a good mystery and an exploration of a different culture, I highly recommend this series.

Devoted in Death by JD Robb (okay, this isn’t out until September, but it’s still on my list)

The continuing saga of Eve Dallas and Rourke. Futuristic police procedural. I’ve been reading the “In Death” series for years.

A Family Come True by Kris Fletcher

I love Kris Fletcher’s stories. They are crafted with such care. The characters are people you know. Always a great read.

A Year in Provence and Toujours Provence by Peter Mayle

Annual summer re-reads for me. Wine, food, hot summer days & nights. What more can I say?

Superstition by Karen Robards

Another annual summer re-read. Summer on Pawley’s Island. An old murder, ghosts, and a TV reporter with more ambition than common sense. Great twist at the end. One of Robards’ best.

Omega Moon Rising by MJ Compton (hey! that’s me!)

I plan to have the final draft of the book in the Toke Lobo & the Pack werewolf series done and revised this summer. This is Luke’s story. Have to read it to revise it.

What are your reading plans for the summer?

 

 

Reading By the Season: July

JULY-A Year In Provence by Peter Mayle

We had talked about it during the long gray winters and the damp green summers, looked with an addict’s longing at photographs of village markets and vineyards, dreamed of being woken up by the sun slanting through the bedroom window.

This collection of twelve months worth of stories from the British author’s life the first year he and his wife moved to the south of France fills a need in me, best expressed in the above quote. The descriptions of the wonderful local foods and wines combined with the hot, dry weather are bliss to this misplaced-in-a winter-world reader.. I looked for a book with these elements for years before I discovered this one. The follow up book, Toujours Provence, is also good, in a different way.

Dessert & Discussion

 

ocpl flyerThe public library system in the city in which I live recently reached out to me to kick off their adult summer reading program, Dessert & Discussion. I was thrilled to accept. The first program is on the topic of romance. Not only am I a romance author, but I am current president of Central New York Romance Writers, a chapter of Romance Writers of America.

So, if you’re in the Central New York area on Tuesday, June 30, I’ll be hosting a discussion on the romance genre at the Paine Branch Library on Nichols Ave in Eastwood. We’ll be starting at 6pm. Stop by to share your favorite romance titles and hear what other readers enjoy!

 

Happy First Day of Summer!

Last week, I posted about lack of progress on my back yard retrieval project. My above-ground pool has been gone since September. A few plants were put in around the perimeter of the pool’s footprint. We also wanted our patio extended a bit. And work slowly progressed throughout the autumn.

For some silly reason, I thought spring would see the end of the project. That I would have a larger patio and a writing garden for this summer. I finally texted the Vanishing Landscaper earlier this week: “Let’s talk about basil, parsley, cilantro and the patio.”

The next day, I came home to this:

basil

Several kinds of basil

Patio in Progress

Stones for the extended patio

Herbs

Parsley, basil, and (I hope) cilantro

And he was at the house the day after that when I came home for lunch. He did a lot then, too.

Patio in Progress

Prepping to set the patio stones

I may have my patio by my July vacation.

I sat outside  with Alph yesterday, and envisioned it all in between writing many sentences. I decided to call it my writing garden. I hope it comes to pass this year.