A Saturday Drive

Today felt like the first sunny day in months.  It was so beautiful I had to stop on my way home to snap these photos from the overlook on Afton Mountain (on I-64 East).

Organizing the books

I went up in my attic a few weeks ago and discovered I’m overrun with back issues of old books.  It’s amazing what’s accumulated over the last decade: eight Harlequin Historicals, four Intimate Moments, three Zebra single title romantic suspenses and four anthologies.  They take up quite a bit of space when you consider I have between twenty and fifty copies of each book plus a good many foreign editions.

The avid record keeper in me wanted some kind of system that chronicled all the work.  I considered framing the covers but that promised to really clutter up the walls.  And then a friend, who represents Creative Memories, suggested I scrapbook the covers.  Its something I’ve never done before but I’ve got to say one Book containing all the covers really appealed.

So in the last few weeks I’ve pulled all the boxes out of the attic, sorted through all the domestic and foreign editions, donated the excess copies, and arranged all into chronological order.  I never realized scrapbooking could be so physical!

I make no claims that my efforts will be any great work of art, but hopefully, I’ll have THE BOOK done by the time I go to the Romantic Times conference at the end of April.   So, if you’re at RT, I’ll have THE BOOK at the Saturday signing for all to see.

Romance B(u)y the Book features DYING SCREAM

If you have a minute or two stop by Romance B(u)y the Book today! (www. romancebytheblog.blogspot.com) DYING SCREAM is the featured book. I’m stopping by throughout the day to catch up on comments and make a few of my own.

A Sunday Walk in Richmond

Many old buildings have historic markers. The earliest I saw was 1905.

One of my favorite old homes in the historic district.

The Confederate Chapel

St. Gertrude's High School

I think this is an old coal chute.

More Snow!

Virginia had just thawed out from a record breaking December storm when we got hit with another one. My area had 14 inches of snow and we’re expecting more this weekend!

Another record breaking snow...14 inches!

Bella and Buddy love the snow. (He's already run ahead.)

Warmer Temps in Virginia

It finally warmed up this past weekend so Buddy, Bella and I spent as much time as we could outside.

Back to the Kitchen

After the holiday season I have all kinds of “leftovers” from different baking projects.  Bits of this and that which aren’t enough to repeat the original recipe but too much just to toss. So I mixed up what I had, hoping my cookies would turn out okay. What happened was a surprisingly good cookie.

Leftover Cookies

1 c butter (2 sticks)

½ cup sugar

1-1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon rum extract

2-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

½ cup of Craisens

1 cup coconut

½ cup butterscotch chips

Cream together butter and sugars. Add egg, egg yolk and rum extract. Shift into batter flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in chips, Craisens and coconut.

If you’ve got a different set of leftovers, say nuts, dark chocolate bits or raisins, mix up your own version of Leftover Cookies.

Icing

¼ cup butter

1 to 1-1/2 cups of confectionary sugar

1-2 tablespoons milk

Mix these ingredients and then drizzle over warm cookies.

A great cookie!

MB Visits Local Middle School

I had the chance yesterday to speak to several middle school classes about writing mysteries.  Great fun!  I plotted a mystery with each class and we ended up with three very different and wonderful stories. Some of our characters included Will Catchem, James Blade and Farrah Jones.  Our mysteries featured a haunted camp, an amusement park that suddenly loses electricity and a sabotaged basketball team.

Let it Snow!

Fourteen inches of snow fell in my corner of Virginia this past weekend. Local news reported that some areas received eighteen inches of snow and that this was the biggest snow storm to hit this area since 1917.

No sooner did I hang this on my tree that the flurries started.

Snow falls on my "Snowman."

The snow brought the trees tumbling down.

Buddy and Bella blazed trails all through the yard.

Blogging Today at Lori’s Reading Corner

Stop by Lori’s Reading Corner (http://lorisreadingcorner.blogspot.com) today and check out my blog entry!  This is a great site and well worth exploring.