Lake Atitlan, Panajachel, Guatemala

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Honey Oat Bread



A sweet moist bread that makes wonderful toast, Honey Oat Bread is the very first bread I learned how to make. A very long time ago. . . .

Do you ever make homemade bread? The recipe is on my website, if you want to give it a try!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

To Read 100 Books

After Lighting Candles in the Snow came out, it was impossible to draft another novel. I had two in mind, neither of which came to anything. I loved the people in Candles too much-- Karoline and Jeremy and Mrs. London especially-- to easily transfer my affection to new characters.

So I began work on a cookbook, a really enjoyable process. Writing is fun-- cooking and eating! Revising is even more fun-- cooking and eating some more! I'm also working on a selection of essays, another welcome departure from fiction. As they say "A change is as good as a rest."

And I challenged myself to immerse myself in reading. REALLY immerse myself, meaning to read 100 books before beginning to write another novel. This challenge has led me to read books outside my normal choices, like science fiction, novellas, books that have been on my to-read list for ages, YA and MG books (they're short LOL).

I review each one on Goodreads because it makes counting down easy. To see where I am, I click My Books on my Goodreads profile-- right now it shows that I've read 265 books. My goal is to get to 350, since I was at 250 books read when I began the challenge, which makes 85 books yet to go!

Have you set yourselves a reading and/or writing challenge for 2013?

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Which writing books to buy?

My husband and I got a generous gift card for Christmas-- $50 to Amazon-- and after some small discussion, he now agrees that buying writing books for me would benefit both of us a great deal, and would indeed be the best use of this gift card.

Only I'm in a quandary. I can't decide!

And so, dear blogging writer friends, I turn to you for advice and suggestions. What books on writing have you found to be the most helpful and inspirational, and why?

Please share! Because this $50 Amazon gift card is just waiting to get spent . . . .

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

What a Year! 2012 in Review

I don't have the words to explain this past year. Pictures will have to do. It went from this: 


                                                                                        to this:                                           
  














And this:

Go here to find out what the heck I'm referring to.


And it went from this:




To this:



For the full story go here.

And I decided to do more blogging here and here and here than here.

As far as social media goes, I am now doing a whole lot more with 

and with    but nothing at all with

nor do I intend to, unless it changes enough to attract me.

2012 was my year to figure it all out and 2013 is my year to JUST DO IT.

Which means doing more of this:


And that's my year in review, past, present and future. What about you, my blogging friends? Any insights from 2012 and plans for 2013?