Dear Reader

Dear Reader Column 09-28-12

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily
column at: DearReader.com


Sample Suzanne's book at:
Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life

AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

Chocolate covered malted milk balls and chocolate covered peanuts were my father's favorite when I was a kid--mine too. But when Dad brought home chocolate covered grasshoppers (a strange fad in the 60s) this kid switched to eating red and black licorice circles. My childhood chocolate memories were triggered when I read today's guest column, "Chocolate is a Girl's Best Friend" written by author Sheila Roberts.

Sheila's new novel, Better Than Chocolate is available right now, and she's giving away two copies to book club readers. One of those books is waiting for you. Simply send an email to Sheila (you'll receive a personal reply) and your name will be entered in the giveaway. Her email address is: [email protected]

I will return from my vacation this coming Monday. Thanks for filling in for me today Sheila.

CHOCOLATE IS A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND

I've always been a chocoholic. I'm not sure when this condition started. Maybe with my first M & M? Or maybe I inherited it from my mother. I can still remember coming home from school to the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking in the kitchen. Yum! And my mother's chocolate cake recipe is the best. I still make it for special occasions.

Growing up, chocolate and I were constantly together. We had a soda fountain milkshake maker in our kitchen and I often made chocolate milkshakes for my high school friends after school. Needless to say, Sheila's house was always the place to be. When I was young, my father owned a small grocery store. He allowed me to help him take inventory...of the candy. You can imagine how many chocolate treats disappeared while I was "helping" with inventory. My family was big into having fun, and I don't think we ever sat down to a game of cards without a bowl of some kind of chocolate treat nearby to sustain us.

Once I had my own family, of course, I carried on my mother's tradition, baking chocolate chip cookies and making brownies. (I have the world's best brownie recipe, and a fancy holiday version of it actually found its way into my book On Strike for Christmas.) It has been proven that dark chocolate is actually good for us. Sadly, that was never my favorite kind. I preferred my chocolate to come loaded with extra fat and sugar. And if I could put it over ice cream that was even better! Ah, chocolate is a girl's best friend. Over the years I've collected a ton of fabulous chocolate recipes, and when I wrote Better Than Chocolate, I had a great time coming up with new recipes for the book, which, of course, I tested. Friends suggested recipes, too, and I tested those as well. And I gained ten pounds!

Sadly, these days chocolate doesn't agree with me. We're still friends, but we don't spend time together the way we once did. Now I burn chocolate scented candles and splurge on chocolate scented body butter. So things have changed between us.

But hey, we still have our memories. (And I'm now ten pounds lighter!)

Sheila
Email: [email protected]

Sheila Roberts lives in the Pacific Northwest. She's happily married and has three children. Her novels have appeared in Readers Digest Condensed books and have been published in several languages. Her holiday perennial, On Strike for Christmas was made into a movie for the Lifetime Movie Network. When she's not writing songs, hanging out with her girlfriends or hitting the dance floor with her husband, she can be found writing about those things dear to women's hearts: family, friends, and chocolate.

Readers really do win books from our Guest Authors, like these winners of Anjali Banerjee's book, ENCHANTING LILY: Joan Bendall, Heidi Shinbaum, Becky Motchenbaugh, Jody Pearch and Carolyn Gutierrez.

And Dee Stillings won a copy of PRESUMED GUILTY by last week's Guest Columnist, James Scott Bell.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.muffinsandmayhem.com

* This month's Penguin Classics book is THE TUNNEL by Ernesto Sabato. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin totebag. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/Sept12Classics

AUTHORBUZZ: KILL SWITCH by Neal Baer and Jonathan Greene

Claire Waters is a dedicated forensic psychiatrist with unnervingly personal insights into the criminal mind. Haunted by a disturbing childhood incident, Claire has always been drawn to those rare "untreatable" patients who seem to have no conscience or fear. But one shocking case could make or break her career--and it's waiting for her in the psychiatric wing of New York City's Rikers Island.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on KILL SWITCH to read more and to email authors Neal Baer and Jonathan Greene, you'll get a reply.

 

 

Dear Reader Column 09-27-12

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily
column at: DearReader.com


Sample Suzanne's book at:
Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life

AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

What triggers an author's inspiration to write about a particular subject? Today's guest author, Carolyn Hart, says it's "Bits and Pieces." And she knows what she's talking about, since next spring will mark the publication of her 50th book, Dead, White and Blue, the 24th in the popular Death on Demand series.

You'll love Carolyn's column. Please email and welcome her to the book club and you'll also be entered in a drawing for one of five copies of her book, What the Cat Saw. Email Carolyn at: [email protected]

Thanks for filling in for me today, Carolyn.

BITS AND PIECES

I was a child during WWII. The war dominated our lives. It was many years before I realized 'for the duration' meant for the duration of the war. To a child, it was yesterday, now, and forever. The impact of the war led me to read widely about the war as a teenager and adult. Ultimately I would write four novels set during or shortly after WWII.

Escape from Paris was inspired by the journal of an American woman and her British friend who became part of the Underground smuggling British airmen out of Occupied France. My protagonists are two American sisters who join in that desperate effort with the Gestapo only as a step behind. Brave Hearts, another WWII story, grew out of my admiration for the American nurses trapped on Corregidor after the Philippines fell to the Japanese. I drew on their experiences in chronicling the adventures of a diplomat's wife and an American newspaperman fleeing the Japanese. Letter from Home combined the newspaper background with a recreation of the home front in the summer of 1942 in a small Oklahoma town.

WWII sparked my fascination with newspapers. Even a child soon realized that the bigger and blacker the headlines, the more important the story. I decided there could be no more important role in life than to be a newspaper reporter. As it turned out, I was a reporter for only a short while, but that lifelong love of journalism led me to create to use newspaper reporters and background in many books. I return to that love of newspapers, especially small town dailies, in this fall's suspense novel WHAT THE CAT SAW.

Sometimes the memories are those of another. When my husband was a second grader, the teacher divided the readers into three groups, the blue birds, the red birds, and the yellow birds. He was a blue bird, the happy students with a facility for language. Red birds were average readers. As for the yellow birds... He never forgot the forlorn faces of those who had been yellow birds. More than a half century later, his memory led me to create this passage in Dare To Die when Buck recalls his murdered classmate Iris who had been his fellow yellow bird.

In a novel, the story is what matters. But there are bits and pieces of the author's life there for the reader to find.

Carolyn Hart
www.CarolynHart.com

Email Carolyn at: [email protected]

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.muffinsandmayhem.com

AUTHORBUZZ: REARVIEW MIRROR (NonFiction) by Alana Stewart

Many believe I have lived a charmed life as a former model and wife of celebrities, George Hamilton and Rod Stewart. But it's my less-publicized experiences--poverty, abandonment, drug addition, and violence--that have truly shaped me, and set me on a journey toward healing through AA, therapy, and spirituality, which especially helped me through the death of my friend, Farrah Fawcett. I share my challenges, heartache, and recovery--to help anyone trying to make sense of their struggles in their search for peace.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on REARVIEW MIRROR to find out more about the book and the author, Alana Stewart. Send her an email, she'd love to hear from you.

*Fun, free books and meet authors. Ask questions, they'll reply and read samples from their books. Visit AuthorBuzz at: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

(Fiction)
AN OUTLAW'S CHRISTMAS by Linda Lael Miller

(MYSTERY)
POSTCARDS FROM THE DEAD, A Scrapbooking Mystery by Laura Childs

(Fiction)
WITH EVERY LETTER by Sarah Sundin

(NonFiction)
REARVIEW MIRROR by Alana Stewart

(Thriller)
KILL SWITCH by Neal Baer and Jonathan Greene

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

* This month's Penguin Classics book is THE TUNNEL by Ernesto Sabato. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin totebag. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/Sept12Classics

 

 

 

Dear Reader Column 09-26-12

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily
column at: DearReader.com


Sample Suzanne's book at:
Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life

AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

Even though I live in Florida, when the weather slips into the low 60s...BURR....Floridians are shivering--shameful, but true. But thank heavens I feel cold, because it gives me a chance to wear my hand knitted pink scarf and neck warmer, personally knitted by today's guest columnist, best selling author Barbara Bretton. Yes, out of the blue, every so often (but come to think of it, it's been a while--wink, wink) a package arrives from Barbara and I've never been disappointed.

I don't know how she finds the time, but I'm so blessed that she does. Barbara's published over 45 novels--series romance, mainstream romance, women's fiction, historicals--and an ebook cookbook called A SKILLET, A SPATULA, AND A DREAM which is available now. Send an email to Barbara and welcome her to the book club. I guarante you'll receive a delightful response, and she'll enter your name in a drawing for one of five books she's giving away. You can reach Barbara at: [email protected]

Thank you so much for visiting the book club today Barbara...

When I was a kid, my mother told me that the secret to happiness was to love your everyday life. Everyone loves the special days, the big events, the vacations and celebrations. But to wake up every morning happy with who you are, where you are, whose face is on the other pillow -- well, it doesn't get much better than that.

It's been a difficult summer. We lost some dear friends, some to time, some to illness, and for a while there it seemed like we did nothing but say goodbye. Our everyday life was looking a little bleak.

August was almost gone when I remembered that we hadn't taken our annual Summer Roller Coaster Ride. To be honest, neither one of us felt much like it but family traditions can't be ignored so one sunny morning we jumped into the car and headed for Six Flags. I defy you to be unhappy in an amusement park. It can't be done! Blissfully anonymous in a sea of laughing strangers, we rode the wildest coasters they had, ate cotton candy and hot dogs, danced to a live band, and watched fireworks that lit up the sky. Basically, we acted like kids and had a ball doing it. (More than once I thought of Suzanne blowing bubbles just for the fun of it and laughed out loud. There's definitely a lesson to be learned there.) Since then we have gone out of our way to embrace everything that feels good, tastes good, sounds good, makes us laugh, makes us happy, makes the time on this planet worth living. We've made everyday happiness our number one priority. Not long before she died, my mother (who never gave advice) gave me some. "Life can change in an instant," she said. "I want you to enjoy every second while you can." At the time I didn't understand just how right she was. Life is short, no matter how few or how many years you're given. It goes by in the blink of an eye and you owe it to yourself and the ones you love to laugh long and hard and often and knit those memories together into something that will keep you warm years later.

A friend said this was either the start of a (late) mid-life crisis or the beginning of an autumn to remember.

I'm betting on the latter.

Barbara Bretton

To enter Barbara's drawing send her an email with your mailing address to: [email protected]

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.muffinsandmayhem.com

* This month's Penguin Classics book is THE TUNNEL by Ernesto Sabato. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin totebag. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/Sept12Classics

AUTHORBUZZ: WITH EVERY LETTER (Fiction) by Sarah Sundin

You've Got Mail was inspired by the Jimmy Stewart classic The Shop Around the Corner, and both movies inspired me. Who would be drawn to an anonymous correspondence? A shy World War II flight nurse in the pioneering days of air evacuation? An Army engineer shadowed by family infamy? If they met in North Africa, would they reveal their identities? In With Every Letter, join Mellie and Tom as they discover romance and adventure on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on WITH EVERY LETTER to read more and to email author Sarah Sundin, you'll get a reply.

 

Dear Reader Column 09-25-12

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily
column at: DearReader.com


Sample Suzanne's book at:
Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life

AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

Karen Friez had thought about entering the annual writing contest for the past few years, but always missed the deadline. Fear got in the way. But thankfully not this year, because Karen's entry won 1st place in the Write a Dear Reader contest. A copy editor for the past 13 years at a daily newspaper, Karen loves her job because while she's editing stories, she gets to read stories she might not otherwise take the time to read.

"Kind of like the book club," she said, "I've been a member for years and I've found some great books I might not have been aware of."

Karen has developed one of the traits of a good writer--she writes every day in her diary--which is really a Happiness Journal. "A woman from my church told me that when she was going through a difficult divorce, she started a daily happiness journal. When you keep a happiness journal, you're always looking for something to write down. It changes your day."

Reading Karen's entry certainly changed my day. What a beautiful story.

Congratulations Karen and thank you for entering this year's contest.

32 Princess Street (Watch Out For Pink Dragons)

The doctor is in her office, which is a relief. You see, my giraffe's spots have turned into stripes. As a responsible pet owner, I am deeply concerned about this turn of events. So I have loaded my giraffe onto my imaginary school bus and driven to 5 year old Dr. Emily's office at 32 Princess Street, heeding her warning to watch out for pink dragons ambling across the road. As the young doctor studiously examines my giraffe, she informs me the problem is my pet food. It is turning my giraffe's spots into stripes. She doles out the proper food and medication and then disappears back into her office at the top of the playground's jungle gym. As the sun begins to set on the park, the veterinarian's office closes for the night and we begin our trek home, stopping for an imaginary dinner of grass soup with acorn bread.

Actor John Leguizamo once said that, in parenting, "the days are long and the years are short." This is the best description of parenting I've heard. As my daughter grew, she stopped visiting 32 Princess Street, her imagination captured by other things. I have traveled through each stage with her, from tea parties to Barbies to sleepovers, feeling both proud of her budding independence and sad for the things left behind.

As we go with our children minute by minute, hour by hour, sometimes we are too close to see the growth that is taking place, a lesson that was brought home to me by two photographs of my daughter taken at the same location one year apart. The physical differences in my daughter in just one year are striking. In the first photo, she is still a child, running away from the ocean's waves. But, in the second photo, she has developed into a young woman, standing her ground and greeting the water with open arms. I wonder, as I look at these photos, why I hadn't noticed the changes in her.

And I know there will be many more changes to come. There are still many firsts on the horizon, like her first boyfriend, who may also be become her first love, her first kiss and her first broken heart. From her first car to her first child, there are many milestones still to come in her life. As her mother I want everything to go smoothly, but I know that there will always be those pesky pink dragons (otherwise known as problems) trying to block her path in life. Sometimes those dragons will just be a small nuisance, but other times they will seem immovable. I hope, through it all, she learns that the power to overcome the dragons is within herself.

And so, for now, the office at 32 Princess Street is closed, relegated to the realm of childhood memories. But there are still many more memories to make in the years ahead. And perhaps, one day, she will have a daughter of her own, and they will return to 32 Princess Street and the land of the pink dragons.

Congratulations again Karen.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.muffinsandmayhem.com

* This month's Penguin Classics book is THE TUNNEL by Ernesto Sabato. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin totebag. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/Sept12Classics

AUTHORBUZZ: POSTCARDS FROM THE DEAD, A Scrapbooking Mystery by Laura Childs

Amid the gigantic floats and colorful beads of Mardi Gras, a New Orleans anchorwoman is strangled and hung from the balcony of the Hotel Tremain. Scrapbooking maven Carmela Bertrand was supposed to be the woman's big interview, but now she's up to her eyeballs in murder. And Carmela can't seem to escape more strange goings-on, because now someone is sending her cemetery-inspired postcards!

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on POSTCARDS FROM THE DEAD to find out more about the book and the author, Laura Childs. Send her an email, she'd love to hear from you.

 

Dear Reader Column 09-24-12

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily
column at: DearReader.com


Sample Suzanne's book at:
Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life

AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

I grew up in a small town, Cuba City, Wisconsin population 2,000. So today's folksy guest column makes me feel right at home. Please welcome author Wendy Welch. Send her an email, say hello, she will personally reply and enter you in her book giveaway. Wendy has 15 copies of her upcoming book, The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book for readers. Please be sure to include your mailing address when you email her.

Email Wendy at: [email protected]

Take it away, Wendy...

My husband and I always dreamed that we'd run a used books shop "someday." So when we spotted the perfect location--a five-bedroom Edwardian house with squeaky wooden floors and huge windows--we did what any sensible, over-educated, bibliophilic couple would do: we leaped without looking, bought the place just as the real estate market tanked, and declared ourselves booksellers. Who needs a plan when you have a dream, right?

Ha! We learned--fast--how to buy books, shelve books, value books, sell books, clean books, and repair just about anything that could go wrong with books. Repairing people turned out to be harder. What we didn't know (then) was that owning a bookstore is tantamount to running an intellectual pub, where people tell you their struggles. Although we'd expected to be surrounded by the saddest, sweetest, scariest stories ever, we had thought they would be in the books, not the customers.

Six years on, our "someday" bookstore is firmly lodged in the community, and the community is ensconced in our hearts. We run special events, have a customer core, make new friends every day, put the kettle on for endless cups of tea, slice up salads, and--when we get a moment--sell books. We can't imagine life any other way.

Bookstores are magic places, but I don't have to tell you that. They are watering holes of like-minded souls, the gathering spot for the tribe. It seems to me that readers have begun noticing how much more fun it is to shop with real people than online, and that independent bookstores are being celebrated and safeguarded more and more by the book-loving community.

That's why I wrote THE LITTLE BOOKSTORE OF BIG STONE GAP: to celebrate this way of life that some proclaim dead or dying. Jack (my husband) and I are grateful to be booksellers in a small town, and to be community members of Coalfields Appalachia, a region as misunderstood as it is fascinating. We will never willingly leave our little bookstore in Big Stone Gap. It is a place to belong.

I hope you enjoy reading about all the silly, fun things we did to reach this conclusion, as much as we did doing those bizarre, unlikely, lunatic things in the first place. And I hope you'll come visit us in our used books shop someday. We'll look forward to it.

Wendy Welch

Email Wendy at: [email protected]

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.muffinsandmayhem.com

* This month's Penguin Classics book is THE TUNNEL by Ernesto Sabato. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin totebag. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/Sept12Classics

AUTHORBUZZ: AN OUTLAW'S CHRISTMAS (Fiction) by Linda Lael Miller

Restless Sawyer McKettrick saddles up in Arizona and heads for Blue River, Texas. Injured in a blinding snowstorm, he wakes up in the arms of prim and proper school teacher Piper St. James. Now he's stuck in her room behind the school house for the holidays.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on AN OUTLAW'S CHRISTMAS to read more and to email author Linda Lael Miller, you'll get a reply.

 

Dear Reader Column 09-21-12

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily
column at: DearReader.com


Sample Suzanne's book at:
Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life

AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

What's the difference between a historical and contemporary romance? Guest author James Scott Bell knows first-hand. Enjoy today's column, send an email and welcome James to the book club, and you'll be entered in a drawing for a copy of his book, Presumed Guilty. (Please be sure to include your mailing address, in case you win.) Email: [email protected]

Take it away James...

I never thought I'd write romance.

When I was starting out, I was all about thrillers. Legal thrillers mostly. Yes, they sometimes had a romantic subplot, but the idea of writing a straight-on love story played Boggle with my mind. I knew romance is by far the bestselling category in all of readingdom. But a writer (who is going to be any good, at least) has to follow where the wild mind leads, and I liked walking into legal drama and pulse-pounding thrills.

But then one day I came up with what I thought was a pretty good idea. Legal thrillers were getting to be a crowded category. What could I do that was different? How about a historical legal thriller with a woman as the protagonist?

That held great possibilities, because the further back you go the fewer women you find practicing law. I thought about setting, too, and found one that has hardly been touched: the history of my own home town, Los Angeles, at the turn of the last century.

Perfect! In 1903 women were just starting to enter the legal profession. You could count those in California on one foot. What if I had a young, idealistic woman arriving from back East, who wanted to be a trial lawyer? All sorts of delicious possibilities ensued.

That idea became the Kit Shannon series published by Bethany House. These books are now being re-published as e-books. Bethany thought to team me up with one of their popular romance writers, Tracie Peterson, so she could "show me the ropes" as it were. We did the first three books together, then I did three on my own, and it felt great. Tracie and I developed a voice together, and I was able to carry that on. I had evolved!

Now then, what's the difference between a historical and contemporary romance?

As far as the nature of love, nothing!

But as far as the nature of how that love is experienced, a lot has changed, as we all know. Rules of courtship were different a hundred, even fifty years ago.

What I liked about doing historical romance is that it is all fixed in time. It's also nice to revisit what I consider to be superior rules of the romantic dance. The deference, the restraint, the courtesy. The dance required that you learn some steps. You didn't just let it "all hang out," which was the cry of the 1960s and beyond.

After I've re-released my six Kit Shannon books, I may decide to write another. Because I like this woman. And that's the real key to any kind of romance, isn't it? A lead character people want to read about and root for, especially when it come to matters of the heart.

You can read about the Kit Shannon series at my website: http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-28/index.html

About today's author: James Scott Bell is the author of the number one bestseller for writers, Plot and Structure, and numerous thrillers, including Deceived, Try Dying, One More Lie, and Watch Your Back. His historical romance series featuring lawyer Kit Shannon hit the CBA bestseller list numerous times. Jim taught writing at Pepperdine University and at numerous writers conferences in the United States, Canada and Great Britain.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.muffinsandmayhem.com

AUTHORBUZZ: THE PARIS LAWYER (Fiction) by Sylvie Granotier, Anne Trager (translator)

Prize-winning THE PARIS LAWYER takes you from the sophisticated world of Paris to the rural outreaches of France, where beautiful countryside holds dark secrets. Catherine Monsigny is an ambitious rookie attorney. While preparing a case that could rocket-launch her career, her own past comes back with a vengeance. Who can she believe? Can you ever escape your past?

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on THE PARIS LAWYER to read more and to email Sylvie Granotier and Anne Trager, they'd love to hear from you.

KIDSBUZZ: Meet new authors--send an email, ask a question and they will reply. Plus enter to win a free (signed!) copy of WHO'S IN MY FAMILY: ALL ABOUT OUR FAMILIES by Robie H. Harris, illustrated by Nadine Westcott; ROYAL PRINCESS ACADEMY: DRAGON DREAMS by Laura Joy Rennert and Melanie Florian and CAPTAIN NO BEARD by Carole P. Roman. For a chance to win free copies, say hello to the authors, and more, see www.authorbuzz.com/kidsbuzz

* This month's Penguin Classics book is THE TUNNEL by Ernesto Sabato. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin totebag. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/Sept12Classics

 

 

 

Dear Reader Column 09-20-12

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily
column at: DearReader.com


Sample Suzanne's book at:
Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life

AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

Congratulations to Brenda Green, this year's 2nd place winner in my Write a Dear Reader Contest. Brenda's been a member of the book club for years and decided to enter the writing contest because she "is a writer," which is the perfect mindset to keep her in the habit of journaling every day...

"I started out writing in college, but ended up working as a computer analyst for the government for 30 years." Now retired, Brenda sells Avon, and she's able to take her mother with her in the car when she calls on customers.

One of the things I loved about Brenda's entry was that she started writing her column with one topic in mind, and at the end realized she'd written about something else. Getting out of the way of yourself, is a writer's best friend.

What will Brenda do with her $200.00 prize?

"I'll tithe 10 percent and spend the rest on buying my mother something really special."

Congratulations again, Brenda. Thanks for entering this year's writing contest, and please give your mother a big hug from me.

My mother will be 96 in October. She has dementia and is now in an Assisted Living facility. Her body, praise the Lord, still goes strong but her mind has slowly drifted away. When I visit her, I ask questions or bring favorite objects, sometimes old photographs, to bring her back to me. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. Often we just sit beside each other and hold hands, saying nothing.

When I was young my parents divorced. My father moved away and we had little contact with him. Mother was both father and mother. She would work all day then come home and act as referee between my sister and me, help with our homework, clean house and pay the bills. I was an extremely selfish, self-centered child and took everything she did for granted. I was not much help. When my grandmother came to live with us after my grandfather's death, Mother had help. But then "Big Mama" had a massive stroke. She never left her bed from that day on. My mother quit work, we went on welfare and she took care of her mother. Big Mama had the master bedroom. Mama, my sister and I all slept in the full size bed in the other room, sharing closet space.

Ten years later when my grandmother had another massive stroke and died, my mother was proud that her mother had never, in 10 years, had one bed sore or any other health problems.

Life went on. I was married, my sister was married and mother was left alone. My husband (who is beyond wonderful) suggested we ask her to come live with us. She did so for 32 years, until dementia became more than we could handle.

Funny, this story started out to be how you should write names of people on the back of pictures, because I have so many old pictures with no idea who they are and now when I ask mother she shakes her head and says, "I don't know." Instead this is a love letter to the most wonderful woman I have ever known, my mother, Evelyn Wade Green.

Congratulations Brenda.

The following lucky readers who will be receiving a copy of the very first issue of MODERN CAT magazine: Annette TenDolle, Teresa Liarakos, Victoria Swadley, Raydene Boulton and Mary Quackenbush.

And Guest Columnist Alison Gaylin will be sending a copy of her book, AND SHE WAS to the following winners: Carol Andrus, Irene Holloman, Pamela Russell, Dori Kramer Lynde and Billye Holder.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.muffinsandmayhem.com

AUTHORBUZZ: Fun, free books and meet authors. Ask questions, they'll reply and read samples from their books. Visit AuthorBuzz at: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

(Fiction)
THE INCENSE GAME by Laura Joh Rowland

(Fiction)
QUARANTINE by John Smolens

(Fiction) A HIDDEN TRUTH by Judith Miller

(Fiction)
THE PARIS LAWYER by Sylvie Granotier, Anne Trager (translator)

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

* This month's Penguin Classics book is THE TUNNEL by Ernesto Sabato. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin totebag. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/Sept12Classics

 

 

 

Dear Reader Column 09-19-12

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily
column at: DearReader.com


Sample Suzanne's book at:
Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life

AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

Grab a box of tissue. You just might need it when you read today's guest columnist, author Anjali Banerjee. Such a lovely column, and a delightful book. Thank you Anjali for visiting the book clubs today.

Anjali would really love to hear from you and she is giving away five copies of her book, ENCHANTING LILY. When you send her an email, please include your mailing address, in case your name is drawn (US only). Anjali answers all of her mail personally. You can reach her through her website at: http://www.anjalibanerjee.com

Welcome author Anjali Banerjee...

On that hot August afternoon, I drove to the baseball field with some trepidation. A friend had seen a "sick-looking" cat sitting near the dugout, at the edge of the woods. So there I was, the cat lover, scanning the field for the kitty. She was easy to spot. A cream colored, long haired cat with Siamese markings, she stood out in stark contrast to the green backdrop of forest. She purred so loudly, I could hear her from several yards away.

What was I doing there? I couldn't adopt another cat. My husband and I already lived with three cats. But I couldn't leave this bedraggled kitty, so I dropped her into a carrier and rushed her to a veterinarian. Her diagnosis: diaphragmatic hernia, broken hip and broken ribs. Her intestines had moved up through a hole in her diaphragm and were pushing against her lungs. Her bluish gums indicated cyanosis, or lack of oxygen in the blood. What had I gotten myself into?

The vet wanted to euthanize the kitty, but I refused. I took her to a different vet, who tried surgery. While the cat was under anesthesia, the surgeon found old scars on her spleen. Sadly, she was also pregnant and had to be spayed, as her broken hip prevented her from giving birth.

The vet repaired the hernia and kept her overnight. The next day, when I visited her in the hospital, she staggered to the front of her cage, dragging her IV lines, her purr-engine running at the highest volume.

She spent the next two weeks recovering at home. One afternoon, as I lay on the bed beside her, she began vigorously grooming my hair. I believe she was thanking me for saving her life. Three weeks later, she started tearing around the house at top speed. The vet said, "She's just catching up on being a kitten."

All of this happened 12 years ago. The kitty has been with us ever since. My husband named her Cheyenne, but we call her Tiny, as she's the smallest of our cats (we now have five). She still grooms my head, still runs and jumps like a kitten, and I feel a deep sense of joy when I see her basking in the sun.

Only after I finished writing ENCHANTING LILY did I realize that I'd written something similar to my own cat's story--a tale of rescue, resilience and survival. The cat in the book even looks a bit like Tiny. I'm not sure how that happened--the subconscious mind works in mysterious ways.

Heartfelt thank you to Suzanne for hosting me on her blog today. I'm grateful, and I would love to hear from readers!

Best wishes,
Anjali Banerjee
http://www.anjalibanerjee.com

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.muffinsandmayhem.com

KIDSBUZZ: Meet new authors--send an email, ask a question and they will reply. Plus enter to win a free (signed!) copy of WHO'S IN MY FAMILY: ALL ABOUT OUR FAMILIES by Robie H. Harris, illustrated by Nadine Westcott; ROYAL PRINCESS ACADEMY: DRAGON DREAMS by Laura Joy Rennert and Melanie Florian and CAPTAIN NO BEARD by Carole P. Roman. For a chance to win free copies, say hello to the authors, and more, see www.authorbuzz.com/kidsbuzz

AUTHORBUZZ: A HIDDEN TRUTH (Fiction) by Judith Miller

Have you ever wanted to discover more about the past, but found those who might help unwilling to aid in your search? In A HIDDEN TRUTH, that is exactly what happens to Dovie Cates when she attempts to gain answer about her mother's former life in the Amana Colonies. Will her zeal to find the truth ruin the relationship with the man she loves, and will the friendship forged with Karlina Richter be forever damaged by her actions?

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on A HIDDEN TRUTH to read more and to email author Judith Miller, you'll get a reply.

* This month's Penguin Classics book is THE TUNNEL by Ernesto Sabato. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin totebag.  Go to: http://tinyurl.com/Sept12Classics

 

 

Dear Reader Column 09-18-12

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily
column at: DearReader.com


Sample Suzanne's book at:
Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life

AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

Take a peaceful stroll today with Bruce Squiers, 3rd place winner in this year's Write a Dear Reader Contest. My husband and I take a walk every morning on the same familiar route. You'd think familiar would get a bit boring, but instead the familiar sights I see make me feel right at home.

Bruce Squiers is a recently retired, daily newspaper photographer, who now works part-time assisting elderly folks in their homes. He's a delightful, fun guy. What you'll read in his winning column, is what you get when you talk with him. We chatted like old friends for 45 minutes.

Congratulations Bruce. Thanks for entering this year's writing contest. Your $100.00 prize and a copy of my book, Muffins and Mayhem: Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life are in the mail.

Is it spiritual renewal? Mental therapy? Perhaps even self-prescribed psychotherapy? At its least, it's physical therapy.

I simply call it my morning walk.

My thoughts and body get in synch as I leave the porch, sometimes with a cane, sometimes not, and I pace along the road. Often as not, I turn at the bridge which spans the river, and there I stretch and work those battered legs.

A Great Blue Heron passes along the river, looking for its breakfast.

I stretch some more, then pass through the morning shadows and pass a parking lot where a fisherman puts on his waders, hoping to snag himself a trout. He tells me he's going to try his luck by walking up the tracks to a nearby railroad bridge.

I turn where the bridge road meets the county road where I will meet its hills. Almost immediately, a doe and her fawn stand briefly in the road and stare at me. It's a sight I often see in June and never tire of it. I'm convinced that in some mystical way, that mom is showing off her new baby. They then glide into a woodland which nearly touches the highway.

I could even see a bald eagle as it courses along the river. I will see cows from a nearby farm. I might have to stop as a neighbor drives past and has to ask how I'm doing.

This day is warm and sunlit. Some are cold and raw and cloaked with clouds. Sometimes i walk this route at night, and the stars put on their evening performance. It's always the same, and always different at once.

The time and conditions vary daily, but somehow, as I return to my little home along the river, I am renewed.

I'll repeat this process tomorrow.

Congratulations Bruce.

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

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.muffinsandmayhem.com

* This month's Penguin Classics book is THE TUNNEL by Ernesto Sabato. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin totebag.  Go to: http://tinyurl.com/Sept12Classics

AUTHORBUZZ: QUARANTINE (Fiction) by John Smolens

Set in 1796, a trading ship brings a deadly fever to Newburyport, Massachusetts. The ensuing quarantine results in lawlessness, religious fanaticism, and black market activities as the seaport struggles to survive a mysterious, invisible malady.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on QUARANTINE to find out more about the book and the author, John Smolens. Send him an email, he'd love to hear from you.

 

Dear Reader Column 09-17-12

Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily
column at: DearReader.com


Sample Suzanne's book at:
Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life

AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader

Dear Reader,

Today's my first day of a two-week vacation and the timing is perfect. Hadley Elizabeth Beecher, my new granddaughter, arrived four days ago. So instead of visiting the Smokey Mountains this year, my husband and I will be spending our vacation getting to know Hadley. I've been ready for our new arrival for a few months now--just in case. I've sewn six baby quilts (fabric for girls is so cute it's easy to get carried away), two shelves in my linen closet were stocked with diapers and newborn clothes, and three months ago I assembled a new baby swing, complete with sweet music, low lighting, a mobile and multiple speed settings to gently rock Hadley to sleep. Even though my husband and I aren't traveling anywhere for the next two weeks, no doubt about it, this will be one of our most memorable vacations.

We are blessed and I'm one happy grandmother. If you'd like to see a photo of Hadley, snug as a bug, in one of Grandma's quilts, go to: http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/hadley-birth.html

While I'm on vacation, my column will feature the winners of the Write a Dear Reader Contest, and I've invited some guest authors to stop by, too. I'll miss reading with you, and especially reading the wonderful emails I get from readers every day. Thanks so much for taking the time to write. Please welcome our guest authors while I'm gone.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good (and such an honor) to read with friends like you.

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.muffinsandmayhem.com

* This month's Penguin Classics book is THE TUNNEL by Ernesto Sabato. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin totebag. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/Sept12Classics

AUTHORBUZZ: THE INCENSE GAME (Fiction) by Laura Joh Rowland

One of history's worst natural disasters--the massive earthquake that devastated Japan in 1703, leaves the shogun's court in chaos. Chamberlain Sano Ichiro is struggling to help the survivors when he finds three women dead amid the ruins. They were murdered with poisoned incense. One is an incense teacher with dangerous secrets. Two are the daughters of a powerful lord, who threatens to topple the regime unless Sano tracks down the killer.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on THE INCENSE GAME to read more and to email author Laura Joh Rowland, you'll get a reply.