Dear Reader

Dear Reader Column 09-29-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

I'm running a cat house. I hope that first line made it through your email filter. (It should have. After all cat and house aren't indecorous words. Such a disappointment that software programs decide which words I should be reading and which ones I shouldn't. But that's a column for another day.)

You hear it all the time on the news, "Old woman living with 24 cats." I always used to shake my head and wonder how someone could let something like that happen to them. But it's no longer a mystery to me. Cats just kind of move in, and before you know it, you find yourself attending a Cat Anonymous Support Group Meeting. "Hello my name is Suzanne and I'm a cat woman."

Here's my story: Four weeks ago I owned two indoor cats. Then my neighbors packed up everything except their three cats and moved out. One of the abandoned cats knew just how to play me. "Meow, meow," she jumped up onto my lap and looked at me with those 'will you be my mother' eyes. So, I adopted her and suddenly I was the woman in Sarasota who owned three cats.

The other two cats were hungry, so every day I'd walk over to the neighbor's house and feed them. But you know the old saying, "If you feed a cat, it's yours." And I think the neighbor's other two cats believed that bit of kitty adage, too. Because this morning, right outside my sunroom window, the two homeless cats had set up housekeeping on my porch and they brought the family along too. Yep, Mom and Dad and four cute-as-can-be kittens were looking at me through the window. "What's for breakfast?"

Now people could say that I'm the woman in Sarasota, Florida who owns nine cats. See how easily it happens?

But I am following the 12-Step Cat Woman Program and I've already started looking for good homes. The four kittens, I think a veterinarian is going to put them in his office until someone adopts them. The mom and dad, I got them fixed--even though kittens are cute there are plenty to go around--and now I need to find homes for them, too.

So putting up posters is my plan this weekend: "Loving Literary Cats Need a Good Home" (I've been reading to the cats every morning after breakfast. They seem to prefer the Classics.) I'm even offering to deliver the cats personally and each cat comes with a big bag of their favorite food and two books so you can read to them at bedtime.

To see the Loving Literary Cats who need a good home, go to:

http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/cats.html

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected] 
http://www.DearReader.com

P.S. Don't miss our book giveaway this week. David Morrell sent me 25 hardcover copies of his book Creepers. He also included 25 copies of his book, Lessons From a Lifetime of Writing: A Novelist Looks at His Craft. To start reading Creepers and get information on how to enter the book giveaway go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=805&site=12

P.S.S. I'd love to bake for you. The deadline for this month's Chocolate Chip Cookie contest is September 30th at midnight. To enter the drawing go to: http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/cookie4.html

READ THE CLASSICS: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=22

Dear Reader Column 09-28-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

My husband always likes to drive the car when we're going somewhere together and I've decided I might as well let him. There's a long list of wonderful things I could tell you about my husband, (we've been married almost 30 years and it just keeps getting better and better), but he's a backseat driver.

When I'm driving and he's riding along, why you'd think I was new to the city and had no idea where the market, the dry cleaner and our favorite Mexican restaurant was, because my husband thinks he has to tell me how to get there.

"Turn here. No, don't go that way. This way is faster. Turn left. Look out, that car looks like it's coming over into our lane. I think you should drive a little slower, Suzanne."

"I think you should be quiet, Dear."

There have been times I've simply pulled the car over and surrendered the wheel.

Pulling out of a driveway--it takes two. Did you know that? Funny, I remember doing it solo in my Driver's Ed test, and I passed on the first try. When I'm pulling out of a driveway my husband leans over so far to look out the side window, that all I can see is his head when I'm trying to look for cars.

"All clear," he'll assure me.

But somehow I think I'd be the one getting the ticket. "Officer, the accident is really my husband's fault. He told me it was all clear to go."

I'm beginning to think there's a backseat driver gene that runs in our family and our son has inherited it, because whenever we go anywhere together, even if we take my car, my son wants to drive. And if I don't relinquish the wheel, it turns into a bad rerun. I might as well be driving with my husband.

"Mom, you shouldn't go this way. Turn here. It's faster."

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected] 
http://www.DearReader.com

P.S. I'd love to bake for you. The deadline for this month's Chocolate Chip Cookie contest is September 30th at midnight. To enter the drawing go to: http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/cookie4.html

AUTHORBUZZ: Delicious & amazing contests this week! WIN a Chicken Paprikash recipe and of course signed free books from these wonderful authors: Christine Fletcher, Tallulah Falls; Rebecca McEldowney, Soul of Flesh; Douglas Clegg, The Lady of Serpents; Tara Taylor Quinn; In Plain Sight; and Lauren Baratz-Logsted, Vertigo. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

READ THE CLASSICS: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to:
http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=22

Dear Reader Column 09-27-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

I'm adding a new project to my daily schedule. It's a bit of a challenge, but it's something I've wanted to do for a long time. I thrive on new challenges, but this one--it's been slow going.

When friends ask how the new project is coming along, my standard reply is, "I've been so busy, that I really haven't had time to dig in yet." And to make sure that I've convinced them and 'me' that 'not enough time' is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, I always add, "But I've worked on it, and I know I can do it. In fact, I'm excited about it. But well, you know, there's never enough time."

Not enough time could be the real reason on a few occasions, but right now, it's just an excuse--plain and simple. Because when I'm determined to do something even though I'm busy, if it's important, I find the time. So what's going on?

The real truth is for some reason, I think I'm afraid. Even though I feel confident that eventually I'll succeed, right now I'm shaking in my high heels. None of this makes any sense because whenever I do make the time to work on my new project, I feel great. But most of the time I sideswipe my desire with a different "to-do" list. One that's familiar and comfortable and I'm back to my usual routine--no time to try anything new.

It's scary to try new things, but you can do it, Suzanne. So let's try this again, "I've added a new project to my daily schedule. It's a bit of a challenge, but I know it's going to turn out mighty fine."

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected] 
http://www.DearReader.com

P.S. Don't miss our book giveaway this week. David Morrell sent me 25 hardcover copies of his book Creepers. He also included 25 copies of his book, Lessons From a Lifetime of Writing: A Novelist Looks at His Craft. To start reading Creepers and get information on how to enter the book giveaway go to:
http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=805&site=12

READ THE CLASSICS: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to:
http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=22

Dear Reader Column 09-26-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

It's time for the Chocolate Chip Cookie Giveaway again!

If you've never entered the Chocolate Chip giveaway, you should. Someone always wins. Last month, I baked two dozen chocolate chip cookies for book club reader Pat Revzin and she shared them with her friends.

Pat sent a wonderful photo. Everyone was dunking cookies.

I'd love to bake for you. Be sure to enter the drawing. Send me an email, tell me who you'd like to share the book club and chocolate chip cookies with, and you're entered in the giveaway. The deadline is September 30th at midnight.

To see Pat's photo and to enter this month's Chocolate Chip Cookie Giveaway, go to:

http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/cookie4.html

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
http://www.DearReader.com

P.S. Don't miss our other giveaway this week. David Morrell sent me 25 hardcover copies of his book Creepers. He also included 25 copies of his book, Lessons From a Lifetime of Writing: A Novelist Looks at His Craft. To start reading Creepers and get information on how to enter the book giveaway go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=805&site=12

READ THE CLASSICS: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=22

Dear Reader Column 09-25-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

I met this week's special author at an "Invitation-Only" dinner in New York City. It was one of those occasions that allowed me to get dressed up like Cinderella. A long flowing skirt, a maroon shoulder wrap with shoes to match, and a string of pearls to compliment the sleek, graceful look. Before I left the hotel, I phoned my husband and told him, "Oh, how I wish you were here because I look absolutely enchanting."

There was a winding staircase in the restaurant, and the dinner party I was attending was being held in a private room on the second floor. Up the staircase I floated and I was introduced to a literary "prince charming." The "New York Times" best selling author, David Morrell. Even though David's been writing books for years, I'd never read one of them until three weeks before the dinner. He'd sent me a copy of his latest book Creepers, and when I read the "Author's Note" I was hooked. Pulled up a lawn chair, flipped back to Chapter One, and only stopped reading periodically to take a necessary breathing break--the story line was so intense, I forgot to breath.

Creepers was just released in paperback, but David sent me 25 hardcover copies to give away to readers. He also included 25 copies of his book, Lessons From a Lifetime of Writing: A Novelist Looks at His Craft.

To start reading Creepers go to:

http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=805&site=12

Then click on "Enter Our Book Giveaway," (where you'll also see a photo of the author and me at the dinner). Send an email telling me what you think about the book so far and when you email me your comments, you're automatically entered in the book giveaway. I'll forward your comments on to author David Morrell.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected] 
http://www.DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: Delicious & amazing contests this week! WIN a Chicken Paprikash recipe and of course signed free books from these wonderful authors: Christine Fletcher, Tallulah Falls; Rebecca McEldowney, Soul of Flesh; Douglas Clegg, The Lady of Serpents; Tara Taylor Quinn; In Plain Sight; and Lauren Baratz-Logsted, Vertigo. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

READ THE CLASSICS: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=22

Dear Reader Column 09-22-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

Call me strange. I don't mind. Being labeled just a little bit crazy has never bothered me. In fact, I think the nutty side of my personality has helped my career. When you're a little bit nuts and funny to boot, people like to see your name on their schedule for the day. They don't mind spending 30 minutes with you and they'll give you an appointment because they know they're in for a good time.

Everyone has a spontaneous side to their personality and I'm convinced they should let it loose more often. I'm not talking about "throwing caution to the wind," that's too tame of an aphorism to describe it--sounds like taking off your shoes and going barefoot would suffice, but it wouldn't. No, to me spontaneity means periodically I need to do something without weighing the pros and cons ahead of time, even if I might end up looking foolish. Running with the zany side of me always makes other people smile and laugh. And that's okay, because I'm laughing right along with them.

Early in my career, I was all business. The line was drawn in my mind and the fun and spontaneous side of me was kept under wraps. I assumed other people wouldn't take to it. Business is business after all, play on your off hours.

But that all changed one day when I sang the theme song to "Rawhide" with a Fortune 500 executive. He was showing me an in-house promotion and the background music in it reminded me of the theme song from "Rawhide." Remember years ago when Gil Favor was a trail boss on a cattle drive and Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwood) was his second in command?

Without thinking, I told the executive how every Friday night my parents and I would go to the IGA Store, we'd each pick out our favorite TV dinner, and then we'd go home, heat it up and sit on the floor in front of the black and white and watch "Rawhide." The next thing I knew, I started singing the "Rawhide" theme song, and you know what? The Fortune 500 guy sang along, too. After a couple of verses we both regained our meeting composure and we got back to business.

Yes, every now and then spontaneity kicks in and I lose my mind, but most people don't seem to care. In fact they seem to enjoy me more when I'm not so sure about things.

The other day I was exchanging emails with an author, who's also a friend of mine. I told him that my mind seemed to have left me and I was having a hard time concentrating on serious work. "Perhaps we should talk tomorrow."

The next day when I emailed him, I told him not to worry, my mind had returned. But he immediately replied, "Sorry to hear your mind has returned. You are even MORE fun when you have to go looking for it."

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected] 
http://www.DearReader.com

READ THE CLASSICS: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=22

Dear Reader Column 09-21-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

I always enjoy hearing from readers. Thanks so much for taking the time to write. Reading your emails is the best part of my day.

From my Email Bag:

"Dear Suzanne, I was one of the winners for the teen books that you were giving away. In the email I sent, I simply said that 'My 13-year-old son needs to learn to love reading again.' Being 13, he doesn't really want to do much of anything other than play football and hang out with his friends. However, he needed a fiction book for Language Arts this month and couldn't seem to find anything to his liking. Well, the book from you arrived yesterday, I simply took it out of the package and placed it on the table in the dining room. Within the hour he had come by, picked it up, read the cover, and asked me if he could take it and read it. Thank you."--Kris S.

"Hi Suzanne, I'm so delighted I found you again. I had your email on my address book at my old job. I've been ill for the past two years, and while temporarily living in a nursing home receiving rehab, I quite accidentally discovered your column again. Honestly, books are what have kept my sanity during this trying time. I've just begun going back to the library via handicapped vans and re-discovered your on-line column and books. I've started walking again with a walker and am beginning plans to move out on my own. I had to sell my home and car so it's like starting over. I'm looking forward to your columns and book suggestions. GO SUZANNE and thanks."--Linda B.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends...and Linda, it's nice to have you back.

Warmest regards,
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected] 
http://www.DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: More great contests this week! WIN free DVDs and of course signed free books from these wonderful authors: Sunny, Mona Lisa Awakening; Dan Burstein and Arne J. de Keijzer, Secrets of Mary Magdalene; Jerome Teel, The Election; Detective Kathy Burke, Detective; and Thomas J. Craughwell, Saints Behaving Badly. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

READ THE CLASSICS: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=22

Dear Reader Column 09-20-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

Yesterday when my husband and I were out for our morning walk, we stopped to read a poster that was tacked up on a telephone pole.

Lost Cat!
Brown Tabby
Morris
20 years old and hard of hearing

My husband commented that it was "that time of year," and Morris was probably just taking a stroll around the neighborhood. But the poster made me think about what happened to my dog, Moochie.

When I was five years old, Santa left Moochie under the Christmas tree. Moochie was part terrier and part something else that must have had a very long tail, because when he was just a pup, the veterinarian said we needed to shorten his tail or "the tail will grow longer than the dog." And so we had his tail nipped.

I was an only child, no brothers or sisters to play with except Moochie. Even when I'd dress him up in a pink dress and tie a ruffled bonnet around his neck, he was a real trooper. He'd sit in the side basket of my bicycle, barking nonstop, "Look at us" and we'd ride up and down Main Street. I loved that dog, but honestly I don't know how my parents put up with the pooch. Moochie loved to chew blankets. He never touched a shoe, sock, or a chair leg, but every single blanket in our house looked like a piece of Swiss cheese. Perfect little round holes--they were a real work of dog art, and every blanket, on every bed, was a Moochie masterpiece.

I never tied him up when he was outside, there wasn't any need to, because Moochie never left the yard. So it was strange one day when he just seemed to disappear. Everybody knew everybody, and their pets, in the small town I grew up in. But when I asked the neighbors, nobody had seen Moochie. Months went by, I was miserable and I'd given up hope on ever finding him. The worst part was not knowing what had happened to him.

You know how things just seem to come together sometimes? There's no reason why a topic of conversation should come up, but it does when the time is right. And that's what happened one day when I was waiting for my mother to get off work at the Dime Store.

It was almost five o'clock, closing time at the Dime Store, and my mother was behind the register ringing up the last customer when out of the blue, the woman she was waiting on started telling a story about a dog who had wandered on to their farm a couple of months ago. She said it was a small brown dog, with a stump of a tail, and he just showed up one afternoon in their barn. He didn't look well, and was obviously a very old dog, so she made a bed for him and tried to get him to eat, but he wasn't hungry. She was so worried about the dog that she got up in the middle of the night to check on him. The woman was in tears by then, telling us the story, and my mother and I were crying too, because we knew who the dog was. Moochie died in her arms about three in the morning.

Why did Moochie run away? I've always thought about it this way: best friends never want to hurt each other and I imagine Moochie decided it would be just too much for me--he wanted to spare me the pain, so he ran away from home to die.

Lost Dog!
Brown, part Terrier with a short tail
Moochie
15 years old and the best friend I ever had

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected] 
http://www.DearReader.com

READ THE CLASSICS: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=22

Dear Reader Column 09-19-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

I'm an ironer from way back. Every Saturday morning my mother would leave me a list of chores to have done by the time she got home from work, and ironing was always at the top of the list. Everything needed to be ironed, including socks, sheets, pillow cases and even underwear. I did it, but I never understood the logic of it all. Wash the clothes, roll them up while they're still wet, freeze them, and instead of playing softball on Saturday, it was my job to unroll those frozen stiffs and iron the wrinkles out of them.

Why didn't we just dry the clothes? Because my mother said it cost too much to run the dryer. But then, when the small freezer on the top part of our refrigerator wouldn't hold the frozen peas and my dad's underwear too, we bought a new upright freezer, put it in the basement, and all we kept in it were our frozen clothes.

Wash the clothes, roll them up, freeze in the wrinkles, and buy a freezer whose only purpose was to freeze the sheets? But hey, I was just a kid--what did I know?

Old habits die hard and I confess I continue to iron some of my clothes today, including pillow cases and yes, if the sheets come out of the dryer with too many wrinkles I give them the once over, too. But ever since I moved out of my parents' home, I'm proud to say, I've never ironed anyone's frozen underwear.

But what if Mother really did know best? Thinking about my mother's laundry ritual piqued my curiosity, so over the weekend I decided to do a "freeze-or-not-to-freeze" laundry experiment. I washed eight pillow cases, dried four of them and froze four of them while they were still wet. Which ones were easier to iron? And did I save money by not using the dryer? It was a true test, because I still have some of the pillow cases that my grandmother made, the same ones I used to iron when I was a kid.

For freezer to ironing results go to:

http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/iron.html

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Warmest regards,
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected] 
http://www.DearReader.com

P.S. Congratulations to the winners of last week's special book, Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World's Premier School for Exotic Animal Trainers, by Amy Sutherland: Deane Happ, Jesse Douglas, Julie Pearl, Mike Williams, Karen Christiansen, Mandy Smith, Angela Calicchio, Susan Milby, Christy Maslak, Jane Baker, Florinda Pendley, Lorraine Taylor, Bonnie Hamilton, Brenda Veinotte, Don Clanton, Ilina Chaudhuri, Suzanne Medici, Kerry Kuhn, Valerie O'Connell and Andrea Mercado.

READ THE CLASSICS: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=22

Dear Reader Column 09-18-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

It's a Classic Monday. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is this month's Penguin Classic.

Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=22

Read the sample, then send me an email and let me know if you've been enjoying the Classics and if you've finished any of the books. When you send me an email, you're automatically entered in a drawing for free Penguin Classic books and pins. I have 20 books and pins to give away to readers. I'll forward some of your comments on to the folks at Penguin, who've just announced that they're pleased to continue sponsoring the Penguin Classics in 2007.

The Penguin Classic link is always right after my column, so you can read it any time during the month.

And today is AuthorBuzz day, too. Win free DVDs, signed books, correspond one-on-one with your favorite authors and meet some new ones, too. Or, invite an author to visit your book club. Meet this week's authors and check out the AuthorBuzz archive at: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected] 
http://www.DearReader.com