Dear Reader

Dear Reader Column 07-17-14

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


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

Dear Reader,

It's a little trick of mine: if I'm talking on the phone sharing something funny that happened to me, and I realize the story would make a wonderful column for the book club, I tell my friend I want to save this story, hit "record" on my phone (or turn on the recorder on my desk). After I hang up, I listen to the recording, type up my conversation, do a little editing and I have a wonderful column to share with readers.

So you see, you don't need to be a writer to enter this year's Write a Dear Reader Contest. If the blank page or computer screen makes you feel anxious, relax, and pretend you're having a conversation with a friend.

Have fun and enter this year's Write a Dear Reader Contest. I'd love to read your story. Here's one of mine...

My husband and I love the feeling of sliding underneath a hotel's crisp, clean bed sheets. So one of our extravagances in life is changing the sheets every three days. It's an inexpensive luxury, besides it's almost a necessity--there's a lot of action in our bed. (Don't blame the writer for where your mind just went. I'm talking about the four cats that usually end up sleeping in our bed every night.)

Actually it's amazing that my husband considers sheets such a luxury. Thirty-six years ago when we first met, my husband had full-time custody of his two children from a previous marriage. The first week we were married I remember his son coming down the stairs, wildly yelling, "Dad, Dad, there are two sheets on my bed!" The poor child was horrified until I explained that I'd put a second sheet on his bed. He asked me if I'd put a second sheet on the bed to make it easier the next time I changed the sheets. His theory: simply pull off the top sheet and the bed's ready to go for another week.

When I asked my husband why the bed hadn't always had a top and bottom sheet, he explained that being a one-sheet family saved time doing the laundry. It made sense (from a man's point of view), but never-the-less I introduced my new family to a new top sheet concept, and ever since we've been a two-sheeted family.

For more information and how to enter this year's Write a Dear Reader Contest, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/contest2014/index.html

* Congratulations to the winners of Empire Girls by Suzanne Hayes & Loretta Nyhan: Jo Anne K., Nancy R., Pat H., Betty R. and Laura B.

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

Start writing,
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: With so many new books out every week, we promise these titles deserve your attention:

(Fiction)
SILENT BITE by Tina Folsom

(Fiction)
KNIGHT AVENGED (Circle of Seven Series, book 2) by Coreene Callahan

(Fiction)
COLLECTOR OF DYING BREATHS by MJ Rose

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

* This month's Penguin Classics book THE BIRD'S NEST by Shirley Jackson. Start reading now and don't forget to enter the drawing for your chance to win a Penguin Totebag: http://www.supportlibrary.com/bc/v.cfm?L=drclassqqxqB1AFE3FA7A33&c=CLASSICS

 

 

 

Dear Reader Column 07-16-14

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


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

Dear Reader,

If you haven't entered this year's Write a Dear Reader Contest, get out pen and paper, or sit down in front of your computer, think about something memorable in your life and start writing. Don't edit yourself, just start typing--telling the story as if you were talking to a friend. It's as easy as that to get started. Here's one of my childhood memories...

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

To find out more information about the 10th Annual Write a Dear Reader Contest (including the cash prizes), go to: http://www.dearreader.com/contest2014/index.html

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

* This month's Penguin Classics book THE BIRD'S NEST by Shirley Jackson. Start reading now and don't forget to enter the drawing for your chance to win a Penguin Totebag: http://www.supportlibrary.com/bc/v.cfm?L=drclassqqxqB1AFE3FA7A33&c=CLASSICS

AUTHORBUZZ: COLLECTOR OF DYING BREATHS by MJ Rose

From the Journal of Rene le Florentin, perfumer to Catherine de Medici. "It is with irony now, forty years later, to think that if I had not been called a murderer on the most frightening night of my life, there might not be any perfume in Paris today. And that scent--to which I gave my all and which gave me all the power and riches I could have hoped for--is at the heart of why now it is I who call myself a murderer."

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on COLLECTOR OF DYING BREATHS to read more and to email author MJ Rose, you'll get a reply.

 

Dear Reader Column 07-15-14

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


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

Dear Reader,

Today's guest author, Chris Bohjalian, is the critically acclaimed author of 17 books, including nine New York Times bestsellers. His work has been translated into over 25 languages and made into movies three times. Chris lives in Vermont with his wife, the photographer Victoria Blewer, and their daughter Grace Experience.

His new novel, Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands, was just released July 8th. Welcome Chris Bohjalian...

Some years ago--back in the Mesozoic era, if I'm not going to be coy-- a review of my novel Midwives ended with the critic complimenting me on the candor and honesty with which I described what it must have been like for me to give birth.

My name is androgynous and I was flattered. To this day, it's one of my favorite reviews of my work.

Midwives, however, was only the first of a great many times that I have chosen to write across gender. Three of the four narrators in Secrets of Eden were female, as were two of the four in Trans-Sister Radio (and three of the four would be by that novel's conclusion). I chose to make the Armenian-American novelist who knows far too little of her own ancestry in The Sandcastle Girls a woman--and elements of that novel are profoundly autobiographic. There are a variety of reasons why I decide to write across gender, but the main one is that it sometimes seems to me that a woman is better suited to tell the particulars of that specific story. Other reasons? My male narrators, who often have a lot of me in them, are not especially likeable. (I wish I could say that was always by design. Alas, not.)

Still, I was unprepared for something my daughter, nineteen years old at the time, said to me last year after she read the first draft of Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands: "Dad," she began, "take this as a compliment--because I mean it that way. But I think your sweet spot as a novelist is seriously messed up young women."

I had never thought of my work in that context, but when I contemplated my daughter's observation, I knew she was right. Some of my most interesting fiction is not merely narrated by a woman: It's narrated by a woman who is deeply scarred. It's from the perspective of a woman who has experienced a horrific trauma. Women such as the young partisan in The Light in the Ruins, Serafina Bettini, who has been physically and emotionally brutalized by the Second World War. Or Laurel Estabrook, who survives a violent sexual assault in The Double Bind. Or poor, mute little Hatoun from The Sandcastle Girls.

And now there is Emily Shepard in Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands: A sixteen-year-old homeless orphan, trying desperately to keep it together after a meltdown of a nuclear power plant in New England. She's a cutter, she pops Oxycontin tablets like M&M's, and she's an aspiring young poet obsessed with Emily Dickinson.

I have grown very protective of my Emily Shepard. (As a matter of fact, I have grown very protective of the novel's Emily Dickinson, too.)

I think the reason for this is clear: I am a dad of a daughter. There is no role in the world that matters to me more than being a father.

And so while some people presume that writers' view their books as their children, we don't. We view our children as our children. Our books? When they are at their best, they offer a glimpse of our deepest fears and our greatest joys. They are about those subjects that will hold our interests for the year (or more) we are writing them. And in a book such as Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands--which I hope is among my best--there may be as well a small hint of those things that we will always care about most.

--Chris Bohjalian

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

* This month's Penguin Classics book THE BIRD'S NEST by Shirley Jackson. Start reading now and don't forget to enter the drawing for your chance to win a Penguin Totebag: http://www.supportlibrary.com/bc/v.cfm?L=drclassqqxqB1AFE3FA7A33&c=CLASSICS

AUTHORBUZZ: KNIGHT AVENGED (Circle of Seven Series, book 2) by Coreene Callahan

It's here! KNIGHT AVENGED is finally here! And I couldn't be more excited to share this book with you. Action-packed and adventure bound, the story is full of deadly assassins, powerful sorcerers and mystical beasts that not only kept me guessing, but will keep you turning the pages as well.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on KNIGHT AVENGED to find out more about the book and the author, Coreene Callahan. Send her an email, she'd love to hear from you.

 

Dear Reader Column 07-14-14

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


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

Dear Reader,

Have you started writing yet? I sure hope so. You don't have to be a writer to enter this year's 10th Annual Write a Dear Reader Contest, because it's all about writing for fun.

Write about the day you wore your T-shirt inside out until some kind soul pointed it out to you. Tell us about the stray cat or dog you found curled up on your front porch, and how it was love at first sight. Write about your favorite aunt, a bizarre and whimsical woman who vacuums her living room in the buff. Describe the overwhelming love in your heart when you held your first grandchild, or write about your fear of writing--but start writing about something--because it's time to enter our tenth annual "Write a DearReader Contest."

See past winners, cash prizes (totaling $600), rules and deadlines, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/contest2014/index.html

Have fun! Come on, go ahead and enter.

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

Start writing,
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

* This month's Penguin Classics book THE BIRD'S NEST by Shirley Jackson. Start reading now and don't forget to enter the drawing for your chance to win a Penguin Totebag: http://www.supportlibrary.com/bc/v.cfm?L=drclassqqxqB1AFE3FA7A33&c=CLASSICS

AUTHORBUZZ: SILENT BITE by Tina Folsom

After publishing the love story Oliver and Ursula, I received lots of mail from readers who were disappointed that I didn't have Oliver and Ursula blood-bond at the end of the book. I personally found that they were too young and had to get to know each other better first. Now, in Silent Bite, they are finally ready to make this commitment. I hope you'll enjoy the final step in their journey.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on SILENT BITE to read more and to email author Tina Folsom, you'll get a reply.

 

Dear Reader Column 07-11-14

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


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

Dear Reader,

Congratulations to Bobbee W., the winner of my bird house giveaway. Today my column is going to the birds...

Reader Emails:

"Dear Suzanne, I work at the county library, and every year we have a nesting bird that attacks the workers as they cross the parking lot. This year they've nested in a tree beside the employee entrance and try to follow us into the building. When I told my 7-year old granddaughter the story she grinned and said, 'Maybe they were looking for some bookworms!'"--Patricia C., Reference Librarian

"We love watching the birds around our house. There are lots of robins, blue jays and cardinals, but probably our most impressive visitor was the red tailed hawk that landed in our front yard to feed. He sat right by our garage for a few hours before taking his/her prey back to the nest. We didn't see any rabbits or squirrels in our yard for while after that! Thanks for your column. It always makes me smile."--Kathleen M.

Hi, Suzanne! Your column makes me smile every morning, and it is such a great way to start my day! Living out in the country, we have a wide array of critter visitors who stop by to say hello and to nibble at the trees--and sometimes the garden, because they tend to ignore the 'Keep Out' signs! We also have birds aplenty, including swallows that like to dive-bomb our heads when we get near their nests. You know, I think that a new birdhouse is just what we need to keep the peace with our feathered friends, and I'm sure that they would agree! Thanks for all you do!"--Sarah S.

* Be sure to enter this year's Write a Dear Reader Contest. $600 in cash prizes and you'll have a lot of fun. Get the info: http://www.dearreader.com/contest2014/index.html

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: THE PRACTICE: Simple Tools for Managing Stress, Finding Inner Peace and Uncovering Happiness by Barb Schmidt

When we stay positive, strong from within, and calm, we can achieve anything. We are meant to be magnificent beings and live the best life possible in this very moment. Welcome to The Practice, my three-part daily routine for everyone, even the busiest person!

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on THE PRACTICE to read more and to email author Barb Schmidt, you'll get a reply.

KIDSBUZZ: Meet new authors -- send an email, ask a question and they will reply. Plus this week, enter to win a free copy of books for pre-teens and teens: CITIZEN SIM: CRADLE OF THE STARS by Michael Solana and THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN AS RETOLD BY SHERLOCK HOLMES by Holy Ghost Writer. For a chance to win, say hello to the author, and more, see http://www.authorbuzz.com/kidsbuzz.

* This month's Penguin Classics book THE BIRD'S NEST by Shirley Jackson. Start reading now and don't forget to enter the drawing for your chance to win a Penguin Totebag: http://www.supportlibrary.com/bc/v.cfm?L=drclassqqxqB1AFE3FA7A33&c=CLASSICS

 

 

 

Dear Reader Column 07-10-14

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


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

Dear Reader,

Ta-da! Announcing the 10th Annual "Write a DearReader Contest!"

You don't have to be a writer to enter, because it's all about writing for fun.

Write about the day you wore your T-shirt inside out until some kind soul pointed it out to you. Tell us about the stray cat or dog you found curled up on your front porch, and how it was love at first sight. Write about your favorite aunt, a bizarre and whimsical woman who vacuums her living room in the buff. Describe the overwhelming love in your heart when you held your first grandchild, or write about your fear of writing--but start writing about something--because it's time to enter our tenth annual "Write a DearReader Contest."

See past winners, cash prizes (totaling $600), rules and deadlines, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/contest2014/index.html

Have fun! And thanks for entering this year's contest.

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

Start writing,
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: With so many new books out every week, we promise these titles deserve your attention:

(Fiction)
CONVERSION by Katherine Howe

(Fiction)
SEASON OF THE WITCH by Natasha Mostert

(Fiction)
THE CARTOGRAPHER OF NO MAN'S LAND by P.S. Duffy

(NonFiction)
THE PRACTICE: Simple Tools for Managing Stress, Finding Inner Peace and Uncovering Happiness by Barb Schmidt

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

* This month's Penguin Classics book THE BIRD'S NEST by Shirley Jackson. Start reading now and don't forget to enter the drawing for your chance to win a Penguin Totebag: http://www.supportlibrary.com/bc/v.cfm?L=drclassqqxqB1AFE3FA7A33&c=CLASSICS

 

 

 

Dear Reader Column 07-09-14

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


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

Dear Reader,

Today's guest author, Ellen Sussman, has published four national bestselling novels: A Wedding in Provence, The Paradise Guest House, French Lessons and On a Night Like This. All four books have been translated into numerous languages and "French Lessons" has been optioned by Unique Features to be made into a movie. Ellen now teaches through Stanford Continuing Studies and in private classes out of her home. She has two daughters and lives with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ellen has worked a variety of jobs including tennis instructor, restaurant manager, and college teacher, but through all the transmutations of her life she has been writing since the age of six, stubbornly, persistently, with great cockiness and wild insecurity, through praise and piles of rejection letters. She has given up her writing career many times, but only for a day or two, and her family has now learned to ignore her new career choices. She is a writer, an almost daily writer, a writer who actually loves to write.

Welcome Ellen Sussman to the book club...

The Joys of Travel By Ellen Sussman

When I travel, I lose myself a little. I'm no longer tied to my routines (New York Times crossword puzzle, dog walk, write for three hours), the comforts of home (my bed!), the people who know me. I'm listening to a new language (Greek last month!), eating strange foods (taramasalata!), absorbing an unfamiliar culture. My eyes seem to open wider as I take in stunning vistas--ancient cities, hillside villages, deserted islands. After a few days in a foreign land I begin to surprise myself. I'm bolder, I'm more adventurous. I set out on a hike and then summit a mountain. I try on a snorkeling mask and become an underworld explorer. I speak to strangers and discover there's so much out there for me to learn.

And when I come home I'm transformed by my journey. Some of the small discoveries fail to stick--no, I really don't like ouzo after all. But this experience of traveling outside of the familiar and deeply inside the unfamiliar profoundly affects me. Sometimes it's just that I understand the world better. But often times, I understand me better. I learn by pushing my own boundaries and trying on a foreign skin.

Reading literature works the same way for me. When I read a novel I dive deeply into a foreign land. I lose myself and begin to feel what it's like to be someone else in the world. When I finish the novel and put it aside, I return to my own skin, but something has shifted inside me. I've been changed by the journey. I've learned something new or found a part of me that was tucked away. By sharing the emotional experience of the characters in the novel, I've opened my heart, expanded my soul.

Maybe it's no surprise that reading and travel are two of my favorite pastimes. They seem so different--one thrusts you into the great big world and the other keeps you comfortably on the couch in your living room. But in the end, both are voyages, transformative voyages. And I'm a traveler in search of brave new worlds.

--Ellen Sussman

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: THE CARTOGRAPHER OF NO MAN'S LAND by P.S. Duffy

When his best friend goes missing at the front in 1916, Angus defies his pacifist upbringing to join the war and find him, an act with profound consequences for those he loves and those he comes to love. At home in Nova Scotia, his young son, Simon Peter, must navigate divided loyalties in a fishing village caught by war fever.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on THE CARTOGRAPHER OF NO MAN'S LAND to read more and to email author P.S. Duffy, you'll get a reply.

KIDSBUZZ: Meet new authors -- send an email, ask a question and they will reply. Plus this week, enter to win a free copy of books for pre-teens and teens: CITIZEN SIM: CRADLE OF THE STARS by Michael Solana and THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN AS RETOLD BY SHERLOCK HOLMES by Holy Ghost Writer. For a chance to win, say hello to the author, and more, see http://www.authorbuzz.com/kidsbuzz.

* This month's Penguin Classics book THE BIRD'S NEST by Shirley Jackson. Start reading now and don't forget to enter the drawing for your chance to win a Penguin Totebag: http://www.supportlibrary.com/bc/v.cfm?L=drclassqqxqB1AFE3FA7A33&c=CLASSICS

 

 

 

Dear Reader Column 07-08-14

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


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

Dear Reader,

Start writing! It's here! The 10th Annual Write a DearReader Contest. Cash prizes and the three winning columns run at the book clubs. If you need some inspiration, or are wondering how to get the words flowing, today's column is for you.

Book club reader Debbie J. writes...

"Suzanne, let me start off by saying that I've been subscribing to your newsletter and various genres of books, for I forget how many years. I'm envious of what you do and think it's great you're promoting libraries and new authors. The advice I'm seeking is this: I used to write endlessly, instinctively, and worry-free back when I was in school. But now at age 43, I find that though I still have that instinct and desire and soooo many ideas in my head and soooo many people still telling me how great a writer I am (even my boss raves about my emails though he seems to think I'm lagging a bit elsewhere), I find that now whenever I actually attempt to put anything creative down onto paper, or into a computer (other than emails to boss), I hit a massive, insurmountable, proverbial wall. I have become so intensely frustrated with myself for this. I SO want to write as easily as I used to....Want SO much to make a go of writing professionally as so many people have told me I should. Any advice you could offer to this end would be incredibly appreciated."

Sincere thanks and admiration--Debbie J.

Dear Debbie,

I'm smiling at this very moment because you sound like me. I too have a love/hate relationship with writing. I have to write, I want to write, deep down in my soul I need to write, but most days it doesn't come easy until I find a way to get out of the way of my writing. I've read interviews with some writers who say they've never experienced the brick writing wall. Good for them, but secretly I hate them. Notice the line I just wrote? Of course I don't really hate writers who've never faced the brick wall, but if I'm afraid to write that thought down, if I edit myself as I'm writing a first draft, concerned about, "What will people think?" then I'm getting in the way of my writing. Instead of letting the words flow through me, I'm trying to take control. When I finally do let go and get out of the way, the words come easy and they blossom. They make me laugh, they make me cry and the writing feels oh...so very good.

One of the reasons the words flow easier when you're writing to your boss is because you're envisioning yourself talking to one person. Just having a friendly conversation, only instead, you're writing it down. Use that trick when you're working on your personal writing. When you find yourself stuck, ask yourself, "Okay, Debbie, what is it that you're really trying to say?" and then start typing as if you are talking to one single person.

When fear gets in the way of my writing, I remind myself that my strength in life comes from my insecurities. Eventually I do find my way. It might take me longer than the average Joe, but I've never regretted the journey. Take it easy, Debbie, slow down, don't be afraid, and simply say what's on your mind. I'll be thinking about you.

Read more about the Write a DearReader Contest at: http://www.dearreader.com/contest2014/index.html

* Don't miss this month's Penguin Classics book THE BIRD'S NEST by Shirley Jackson. Click the link to start reading now and enter the drawing for your chance to win your own Penguin Totebag: http://www.supportlibrary.com/bc/v.cfm?L=drclassqqxqB1AFE3FA7A33&c=CLASSICS

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: SEASON OF THE WITCH by Natasha Mostert

I live in London, as does my hero: an information thief who falls in love with two beautiful solar witches--one of whom is a murderer. But which one?

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on SEASON OF THE WITCH to find out more about the book and the author, by Natasha Mostert. Send her an email, she'd love to hear from you.

Dear Reader Column 07-07-14

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


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

Dear Reader,

Ta-da! Announcing the 10th Annual "Write a DearReader Contest!"

You don't have to be a writer to enter, because it's all about writing for fun.

Write about the day you wore your T-shirt inside out until some kind soul pointed it out to you. Tell us about the stray cat or dog you found curled up on your front porch, and how it was love at first sight. Write about your favorite aunt, a bizarre and whimsical woman who vacuums her living room in the buff. Describe the overwhelming love in your heart when you held your first grandchild, or write about your fear of writing--but start writing about something--because it's time to enter our tenth annual "Write a DearReader Contest."

See past winners, cash prizes (totaling $600), rules and deadlines, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/contest2014/index.html

Have fun! And thanks for entering this year's contest.

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

Start writing,
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: CONVERSION by Katherine Howe

In spring 2012, a group of teenage girls fell victim to bizarre, uncontrollable tics. Their experience made me reflect on how much has changed for young women in our culture, and how much hasn't. The teenage girls in Salem lived in a time of rigid social hierarchy. We all assume that it's much easier to be a teenage girl today. But what if the challenges have just changed shape? It's time for the afflicted girls to have their say.

Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on CONVERSION to read more and to email author Katherine Howe, you'll get a reply.

Dear Reader Column 07-04-14

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


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

Dear Reader,

My Skunk Bean recipe is one of my all-time favorites, but I never knew the story behind the beans until I was looking through some old recipes I'd found in my mother's kitchen cupboard after she passed away. I discovered a folded piece of paper with the heading, "Beans for Skunk Party." Instantly I was smiling, because I realized how the Skunk Beans got their name.

Almost every other Sunday evening the Tindell clan (including my dad, his four sisters, and Grandma and Grandpa Tindell) got together to play some serious Euchre. The kitchen in Grandma Tindell's house was so small that when the table was pulled open to seat everyone, you could barely walk around it. But that didn't matter. Get out the blue and red chips, which represented pennies--it wasn't about the money--it was all about winning the game and could you "skunk" your opponents in the process.

Euchre isn't a complicated game, but until you've played awhile, the table talk can sound like a foreign language. "Fishing out, dead-set legend, the ribbit, farm hand or no ace/no face, follow suit, trump, and skunked--which means that you and your partner lost the game without scoring one single point. Rumor has it that in some Euchre circles a team that gets skunked, also gets a "bum run." (If you and your partner get skunked you must run about a predetermined route--naked!)

I was just a kid, who sat by herself in the living room watching The Wonderful World of Disney alone, because none of my dad's sisters brought their children along, and there was a wall between the kitchen and me, so as far as I know no one ever did a bum run. But I do remember my mother frequently taking Skunk Beans to the Sunday evening Euchre party.

SKUNK BEANS

8 bacon strips - very crisp
1 onion, chopped & sauteed
1/2 cup vinegar
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard Dash garlic salt
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 can kidney beans (drained)
1 can lima beans (drained)
1 #2 can pork and beans (drained) (#2 can = 20 oz can or 2 1/2 cups)

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Uncover and bake for another 1/2 hour.

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

Have a wonderful holiday weekend,
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

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