Signs of Spring - Saturday Snapshots

We've had a mild winter here in the Pacific Northwest, and signs of spring have already appeared. Here's what I discovered in a walk around my home over the past few days.

Blossom on a Star Magnolia tree after a rainy day

We cut back our camellias after they were damaged by
an ice storm a couple of years ago, so we were
delighted that one of them bloomed beautifully this year.

I caught a slug munching on my daffodils!
Luckily, this bloom was spared.

Purple crocus - One of the first flowers to emerge.

For those of you who are still waiting for spring, it will come ... eventually!

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

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A Quilt for Christmas - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

A Quilt for Christmas is the story of a woman whose husband enlists in the Union army to fight in the Civil War, leaving her to cope with running the family farm. It's also about friendship, courage, hardship, forgiveness, and family (and quilting, too). This is an engrossing 5-star book that paints a vivid picture of rural Kansas in the 1860s and shows the effects of war on the wives and children back home.
     Seems like I've been reading books lately that have Christmas in their titles. This one was a birthday gift from Sandra Allen, my friend (and I.O.U. Sex co-author). She knows I enjoy quilting and reading a good story, and she sent along some beautiful fabric (for quilting) too. 
Thank you, Sandra!

Book Beginning:
Prologue - November 20, 1864
     It was a fine fall evening. The wind carried the smell of rotting apples and wood smoke and a hint of frost that would likely come after midnight. The setting sun made the stubble in the fields shimmer like flakes of mica and sent rays of light through the clouds as if the Almighty Himself were casting down the fiery shafts. Far off were the night sounds of cattle lowing, and nearer, of chickens clucking. The wind swirled papery dead leaves across the porch.

Friday 56 (from Page 56):
Eliza put her hands over her eyes, then shook her head. Will wasn't dead, she thought. He couldn't be.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Historical Fiction
Length: 242 Pages (hardback)
Amazon Link: A Quilt for Christmas
Author Info: Sandra Dallas Website

Synopsis from the author's website:
The Civil War, 1864: Eliza Spooner’s husband, Will, has joined the Kansas Volunteers to fight for the Union. Confident that he will return home, Eliza helps pass the time by making a special quilt to keep Will warm during his winter months. When the unthinkable happens, she takes in a woman and child who have been left alone and made vulnerable by the war, and she finds solace and camaraderie among the women of her quilting group. And when she is asked to help hide an escaped slave, she must decide for herself what is right and whom she can count on to help her.

                         

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Rushing Around Auburn - Saturday Snapshots

On a recent walk through the "downtown" area of the small town where I live (population approximately 70,000) I came across this series of public art. Seems like everybody's in a hurry!

On the corner of Main and A Street ...

By the Sunbreak Cafe

Next to City Hall ...

On roller skates and unicycles ...

At the train station ...

Where are they all going and what's the rush?
Update -- I found this info online: Paul Sorey's "Catch the Train Running Figures" are eleven stainless steel figures along A St and within the Auburn Transit Station plaza that represent the multitude and diversity of people who make their way (running, so they won't miss the train or bus!) to Auburn Transit Station. 

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

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Christmas Cracker - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

     Outspoken private investigator Morgan "Morg" Mahoney and drop-dead-gorgeous heiress Heather Pierce are unlikely friends, and that's part of what makes Christmas Cracker so much fun. Morg's habit of putting her foot in her mouth adds humor to the plot, and when the two women take a trip from California to an English manor house, you know it isn't going to be dull. A series of murders and a kidnapping will keep you turning pages until the bad guy is revealed.  
     R. L. Cherry has recently released It's Bad Business, a second Morg Mahoney mystery. I'm looking forward to reading it too.

Book Beginning:
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy - 2002
Chapter 1
     Exercising is a pain in the ass. Any woman who says she likes it is crazy, lying, masochistic or some combination of the three. I do it, work out that is, but I hate it. I could claim that I exercise to keep in shape in case I ever have to kick some bad guy's butt. After all, it does take more than just putting "Private Investigator" on the door to be good at my job. And since private investigators are normally men, a woman in the field needs every edge she can get.

The Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
"If my life were threatened, I wouldn't pay one copper penny. Andrew, though, is my son. I cannot chance letting him die...."

Genre: Mystery / Women Sleuths
Length: 312 Pages
Amazon Link: Christmas Cracker
More About This Author: R. L. Cherry Website

Synopsis:
While private investigator Morgana (Morg) Mahoney leaves sunny Southern California to celebrate Christmas in a picturesque English manor house, she finds she cannot escape crime. What begins as a vacation soon becomes a murder mystery laced with threads of local history, race horses, the IRA, family secrets, and, of course, pure greed. In the land of Sherlock Holmes, Morg finds herself using some of the same methods as that first consulting detective to solve the case.
                         

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All That Glitters - First Chapter / First Paragraph and Teaser Tuesday

 

Glitzy Hollywood starlets, shady mobsters, movie studio moguls, murder, intrigue, and a little romance. All That Glitters has it all! After reading the first Jake and Laura Mystery (The Yankee Club), I knew I'd found a series that I'd want to continue reading. This second book definitely does not disappoint, and a third one (Wings in the Dark) is available for pre-order now. If you enjoyed the old Nick and Nora Charles "Thin Man" movies, you'll adore Jake and Laura. 

First Chapter / First Paragraph:
[FYI: A prologue sets the scene - 1933 Hollywood, Prohibition era - and then the story begins this way)
Chapter 1: The Naughtiest, Bawdiest Year Yet
     I struggled to carry three overstuffed suitcases through a crowded Grand Central Station, and keep up with Broadway actress Laura Wilson. I accidentally bumped her backside and apologized.
     She stopped and glanced at me. "Jake Donovan, did you just pat my bottom?"
     I couldn't help laughing as several passengers gave me a cold stare.
     Her playful smile faded. She turned her back and pretended to fluff her black curls with her white-gloved hands. She spoke in a whisper I could barely hear over the din of the travelers. "Don't look now, but two broad-shouldered lugs in dark suits are following us."

Teaser from 56% on my Kindle- Jake (a mystery writer) gets a phone call from his literary agent, and she has bad news
[agent:] "If the police arrest you for murder, Empire Press won't release Blackie Doyle's Revenge and will sever its relationship with you."
"Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?"
"That doesn't apply to business...."

Genre: Mystery / Humor
Book Length: 261 Pages
Amazon Link: All That Glitters
Link to my post about The Yankee Club, Book 1 of the Jake & Laura Series:  HERE

Synopsis:
Just arrived from New York, Broadway actress Laura Wilson is slated to star in Hollywood’s newest screwball comedy. At her side, of course, is Jake Donovan, under pressure to write his next mystery novel. But peace and quiet are not to be had when an all-too-real murder plot intrudes: After a glitzy party, the son of a studio honcho is discovered dead from a gunshot wound. And since Jake exchanged words with the hothead just hours before his death, the bestselling author becomes the LAPD’s prime suspect.

In 1930s Tinseltown, anything goes. Proving his innocence won’t be easy in a town where sex, seduction, and naked power run rampant. With gossip columnist Louella Parsons dead-set on publicizing the charges against him, Jake has no choice but to do what everyone else does in the City of Angels: act like someone else. Blackie Doyle, the tough-talking, fist-swinging, womanizing hero from Jake’s novels wouldn’t pull any punches until he exposed the real killer—nor will Jake, to keep the role of a lifetime from being his last.

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Garden Inspiration - Saturday Snapshots

If you want to be inspired to create a beautiful garden, then the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle is the place you need to be. My daughter-in-law and I attended two of the five days of this annual event, and we both came away full of renewed commitment to beautify our gardens. Here are some of the displays that fired our enthusiasm. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

I would love to have this in my backyard.

I love the orange pots with the blue doors.
This design could actually be duplicated.

Just add a good book and a glass of wine

The garden show also included designs
for balconies and other smaller urban settings

I like the wall of plants and the overhead lights.

Practical tips for raised-bed gardening too.
These pallets are lined with burlap bags.

Beauty everywhere we looked!

I hope you enjoyed today's gardening post and that I inspired you to plant something at your home (weather permitting)!

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

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Bikes! - Saturday Snapshots

When I was a kid - shortly after the invention of the wheel - one year my Christmas list had "bicycle" as the top item. So I was thrilled when Santa left a bright blue two-wheeler under the tree. I rode that bike everywhere--to Weiss Park for free swim on summer mornings, to my friends' houses, and all around Oak Cliff, Texas. Memories of my first means of transportation inspired today's Saturday Snapshots post.

My mom, proud to have a bicycle
of her own (circa 1940)

Santa brought bikes for both my brother
and me that year.

All my friends had bicycles, of course.

My son with his treasured Big Wheel.

Do you remember your first bicycle? What color was it? Where did you ride it?

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world, 

click HERE or on the box below. 

To participate in Saturday Snapshots: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) 

have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on the host blogsite. 

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for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. 

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Rose's Gift - The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings on Friday

  

     I enjoy books that feature mature women, and Rose's Gift definitely falls into that category since Rose is a sixty-year-old widow. The book's tagline says: "Some say life is a cycle, but it’s really a spiral. Seasons come and go, but when they return, it’s to a new place." I like the way the author takes us inside Rose's head, revealing her thoughts and feelings as she contemplates romance late in life. She really brings the character to life.
     Rose's Gift takes place at the turn of the last century and brings together characters from Rain Trueax's other Arizona historical books.

Book Beginning:
It was the year of our Lord, 1900, a year that Rose had begun without any feeling it would be different than the years before it, all the years since her husband had died in 1896. An old woman, Rose had thought she would end her life sooner than she had. What was with that? Can't a body even die when it's the right time? At sixty, she was feeling far less old than she'd been expecting. She shook her head. Silly old woman.

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
Rose had seen people die, too many through her lifetime. She wished she believed it would be otherwise for Alexa. In her heart, she knew the young woman had come to them to find a place for her son. She was now ready to release her hold on life.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Western Romance
Book Length: 66 Pages
Amazon Link: Rose's Gift
Other Books by Rain Trueax: Rain Trueax Blog

Rather than post a synopsis, I'm including a video where Rain Trueax talks about Rose's Gift.

                            

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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Six Strings - Teaser Tuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph

A story about a 17-year-old who travels through time doesn't sound like the kind of book I'd like, but I really enjoyed Six Strings. The reason? The characters. Jen Sanya Williamson did an excellent job of going deep into the protagonist's head--showing her insecurities, hopes, fears, and strengths. Williamson's bio says she teaches junior high school, and that comes across in her realistic dialogue. I could easily hear those high school kids talking. Her descriptions brought the settings to life too, both in present day and back in 1973. Although I'm not the genre's target audience, I was drawn into the plot. This was an enjoyable, nicely edited read.

FYI: Six Strings is the first book in a series, and although the story is complete, lots of issues were not resolved in this volume. 

First Paragraph:
I am running out of time. That thought tugs at the corner of my mind a lot these days, but right now, as I speed somewhat erratically toward downtown Tucson, I am definitely running out of time. If I don't make it back home before my mother, I'm dead.

Teaser (from 15% on my Kindle): 
My mom thinks there is something wrong with me. I can tell by the way she studies me sometimes. Like she's wondering, where did you come from?

Genre: Young Adult (Time Travel)
Length: 216 pages
Amazon Link: Six Strings

Synopsis from Goodreads:
      Riley Witt is running out of time.
      Battling Alzheimer’s disease, Riley’s grandmother Mary suffers from memory loss, mood swings, and a tendency to wander off.
      As senior year approaches, Riley has to face the reality that the one person she depends on most is slowly fading. Making matters worse, when Mary does remember the past, she tells tales of time travel and visions. As Mary’s version of the past gets more confused, Riley knows they are running out of time together.
      But when Riley discovers a guitar belonging to a famous rock star at Mary’s house, the truth behind the crazy tales finally comes out.
      SIX STRINGS tells the story of Riley’s journey back to 1973 where she enters a world of music, long-lost family, and first love. Her adventure is all about discovering her past, understanding her present, and figuring out how to step into her future. 

Share the first paragraph (or
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