Dear Reader

Dear Reader Column 10-31-17

Dear Reader,

That leftover Halloween candy won't last forever, so be sure to enter the November Chocolate Chip Cookie giveaway. I love to bake, and even more, I love to give away cookies. The Chocolate Chip giveaway has been a book club tradition since 2000. If you've never won, now's the time to enter.

You'll find smiling faces of satisfied cookie muchers and the entry form here.

I'm ready to bake, are you ready to "dunk" and munch?

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

Cookie baker,
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

Dear Reader Column 10-30-17

Dear Reader,

Periodically I experience traffic congestion in my brain. I'll be talking to someone and in the middle of a sentence--a perfectly good sentence--that sentence runs off the road. It happened just yesterday. The clever thing I was going to say, came to a screeching halt because I couldn't remember the name of something...(I was going to tell you the name of the thing I forgot yesterday, but I still can't remember what it was.) I hate it when that happens.

In order to solve a problem, I have to understand the "why" behind it. So I've been spending time thinking about what must be going on in my brain, when I forget the name of something. (I know I could blame it on age. But let's not do that today. Roll with me here.)

My irksome forgetfulness; I think it's because of those darn traffic roundabouts. For some reason my brain has decided to install one. Maybe because experts say roundabouts calm traffic and there are fewer accidents. Or in my case, fewer occasions when I'd forget the name of something when I'm in the middle of a conversation. But from my roundabout observations, that's simply not true.

Everybody does slow down when approaching a roundabout, that's true, because nobody is sure where anyone is going. Are cars entering the roundabout going to yield like they're supposed to, or just jump right in? Hesitation is one of the best descriptions of what happens at a roundabout. Everybody stops and starts--it's a state of confusion--and the same thing happens in my conversations.

My friend and I are chatting, I'm in the middle of a sentence, and two other people show up, obviously wanting to add something to the conversation. So now, being the courteous person I am, I slow way...down, mid-sentence, asking the person to my right, "Would you like to proceed with your comment?" I can wait and finish my sentence later, but then the person on my left decides they want to jump in on the conversation too, so now nobody is sure about whose turn it is, words are flying all over the place, round and roundabout we go.

But suddenly the conversation stops short, because everyone is struggling to remember the name of the thing we are talking about. So see, I'm not the only one. It's not my age, it's those darn roundabouts.

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

Dear Reader Column 10-27-17

AUTHORBUZZ: Click here to discover new books,
"meet" the authors and enter to win.

KIDSBUZZ: Click here to discover new books,
"meet" the authors and enter to win.

Dear Reader,

When my daughter called the other day and asked if I could send her the stroganoff recipe I use to make when she was growing up, I couldn't remember ever making stroganoff. But when I started digging through my recipe box, there it was: Beef Stroganoff with a note I'd written "Very Good!"

So I sent my daughter the recipe and made some stroganoff myself. My daughter was right. It was delicious and it's an easy recipe. Not many ingredients, but it tastes wonderful.

BEEF STROGANOFF

1 pound boneless beef round steak cut 3/4 inch thick
1 can mushrooms
2 Tablespoons butter, divided
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can mushroom soup
1 Tablespoon paprika
1/2 cup sour cream

Slice beef into very thin strips. In skillet over high heat, in 1 tablespoon of the butter, cook 1/2 of the beef and onion until tender, set aside. Repeat with the remaining beef, onion and mushrooms.

Return meat mixture to skillet. Stir in soup and paprika. Heat through. Stir in sour cream. Serve over cooked spinach noodles. (Six servings.) Enjoy! Let me know if you try it.

Readers have been asking if the winners for this year's Write a DearReader Contest have been chosen yet. Yes, indeed. First, Second and Third Place winning entries and eleven Honorable Mentions will be featured in place of my column beginning the week of November 6th. Thank you to everyone who entered. It was so much fun reading the entries--and they were good!

Someone always wins, and here are some recent winners of fun giveaways at the book club.

Cheryl V., winner of the bird note cards.

Three winners of the PBS Masterpiece Poldark, by Winston Graham book sets: Kristina K., Betty F. and Chris G.

Ten winners of The Delusion by Laura Gallier: Heather J., Kay M., Sheryl H., Josie L., Linda C., Jan J., Muriel B., Elsie W., Elaine R., and Gordon A.

And five winners of Shalom Sistas: Living Wholeheartedly in a Brokenhearted World by Guest Author Osheta Moore: Joya M., Millie L., Sally A., Shari B. and Martha H.

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

KIDS BUZZ: A story inspired by an actual classroom experience, steeped in history, 7TH GRADE REVOLUTION by Liana Gardner pits the 7th Grade against the FBI in a race including secret tunnels and a hidden cavern to find a Revolutionary War artifact of national importance which has been hidden in their school. For a chance to win a free copy and learn more, see
http://www.authorbuzz.com/kidsbuzz.

Dear Reader Column 10-26-17

AUTHORBUZZ: Click here to discover new books,
"meet" the authors and enter to win.

KIDSBUZZ: Click here to discover new books,
"meet" the authors and enter to win.

Dear Reader,

When I was checking out at the grocery store yesterday, before the clerk totaled up my bill, she asked if I'd like to make a donation to All Children's Hospital. Every year when it's fundraising time, and the grocery clerk asks if I'd like to donate, yes indeed I do.

The question always takes me back to a column I wrote when my grandson Paul was very young, and my husband and I spent the night by his bedside when he was a patient in All Children's Hospital. Paul is happy and healthy today, but I'll never forget the words I wrote in the middle of that long, worrisome night...

My mother told me the day before she died that what was really important in life, was love. It was a strange sentiment to hear her convey, because my mother had a hard time showing her love. But somehow at the end, she must have gotten a glimpse of what I saw and felt the other night.

It's four in the morning. Paul, my grandson, is in All Children's Hospital and I'm spending the night with him. There are four cribs in the room, each one has a baby in it and there's a mom, dad, or grandparent like me, sitting in the chair beside it. I've never been comfortable sharing a room with anyone, but this evening, even though we're all strangers, instantly there's a bond. Each one of us is hoping to hear good news when the doctors make their rounds in the morning. Each one of us is hoping nothing bad happens during the night.

There's a curtain in-between each baby's crib, but there's really no privacy. You can't help but overhear. Across the room, a husky man is leaning over a crib whispering to his four month old daughter, "Don't worry honey, Daddy will always take care of you." And then he rings for the nurse, because Daddy's trying to figure out how to safely give his baby girl a hug. She just had a tumor removed from her brain and he doesn't want to hurt her.

It's hard 'not' to hear, and it's even harder to hold back the tears. A doctor is trying to help the mother next to me understand why her newborn baby's brain didn't develop like it should, and so her daughter will need a lot of special assistance when she's growing up. Then a nurse wheels the baby's crib out of the room, they need to do more tests. And the mother is left alone. I hear her crying.

Across the room from my grandson a mother is trying to sleep in the reclining chair next to her baby's crib. She brought her baby here from Michigan, because the doctors at the hospital where she lives kept telling her nothing was wrong. But she knew something wasn't right. And now she's been told that her new baby boy can't hear or see, and won't be able to do much of anything except "be." But simply "being" is plenty for this mother to love. She's hoping to be able to take her son home in a few days, so his brothers and sisters can get to know him.

My grandson is finally asleep and I lay him back in his crib. I'm tired. The days and nights are long in the hospital. But tonight I'm at ease. The doctor says in a couple more days we'll be taking home a healthy boy. I felt a little guilty hearing such good news.

I've always thought my job, my purpose here on earth, certainly must be something more dramatic than simply loving and taking care of the people around me. So I've strived to be clever, artistic, and talented in business. But as I sit here at four in the morning, looking around the room and looking at my grandson, I realize I've been looking at life all wrong. It's not complicated, there's nothing to prove. My mother was right. It's really very simple.

What's really important is love.

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

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

(Nonfiction)
ILLEGAL by John Dennehy

(Fiction)
KARMA AND THE ART OF BUTTER CHICKEN by Monica Bhide

(Thriller)
SNOW by Mike Bond

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

Dear Reader Column 10-25-17

AUTHORBUZZ: Click here to discover new books,
"meet" the authors and enter to win.

KIDSBUZZ: Click here to discover new books,
"meet" the authors and enter to win.

Dear Reader,

It's not until I'm finished writing a column that sometimes after a read through I realize, 'I've been here before.' Some things in my life I've worked out and made changes, others, apparently I'm still working on...

The questions I'm afraid to ask, are the ones I need to ask. But what if they say "no"? What if they're upset? I'm afraid to ask because I'm afraid of the answer. Don't want to have to deal with the negativity. Don't know if I can survive the problems, asking the question might stir up. "Stir the pot and the soup might not be tasty," as my grandmother used to warn. But is it really easier for me to pretend that everything is okay, when I know in my heart, and the other person knows too, that things are not?

Some folks prefer to ignore that "feeling in the air" figuring that in time, things will work themselves out. And it's true, sometimes that approach works. But for me, when I let things stew in their own juices, in the midst of the stewing process I lose part of myself. When I'm afraid to speak up because I'm worried I might not be able to deal with the outcome, then I'm living in fear. And that's no good. It changes who I am. It steals the joy; sucks it right out of my heart and my life.

The questions I'm afraid to ask are the ones I need to ask. Because as Joe Purdy reminds me in his song, "Good Days"...

"It ain't the dark I'm afraid of, it's the light."

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: Snow (Thriller) by Mike Bond

Three hunters find a crashed cocaine plane in the mountains. Two steal it and soon find themselves hunted by the Mexican cocaine cartel, the DEA, Las Vegas killers, and the police of several states. From the frozen peaks of Montana to the heights of Wall Street, the slums of Denver and the million-dollar tables at Vegas, Snow is an electric portrait of today's American culture, the invisible line between good and evil, and what people will do in their frantic search for love and freedom.

Go to AUTHORBUZZ click on SNOW to read more and to email author Mike Bond, you'll get a reply.

KIDS BUZZ: A story inspired by an actual classroom experience, steeped in history, 7th Grade Revolution by Liana Gardner pits the 7th Grade against the FBI in a race including secret tunnels and a hidden cavern to find a Revolutionary War artifact of national importance which has been hidden in their school. For a chance to win a free copy and learn more, see
KIDSBUZZ.

Dear Reader Column 10-24-17

AUTHORBUZZ: Click here to discover new books,
"meet" the authors and enter to win.

KIDSBUZZ: Click here to discover new books,
"meet" the authors and enter to win.

Dear Reader,

What an honor. Today author Clea Simon is visiting the book club. After three nonfiction books and 22 cozy/amateur sleuth mysteries all featuring cats, Clea returns to her rock-and-roll past this fall with World Enough, an edgy urban noir set in the Boston punk scene of the 1980s. Her most recent feline books are the black cat-narrated As Dark As My Fur and the "pet noir," When Bunnies Go Bad. Clea describes herself as a recovering journalist, and she lives in Massachusetts.

Clea would love to hear from you. Email and say hello

Welcome to the book club author Clea Simon...

Writers talk about finding their "voice"--their personal style--as if it's a positive thing. But, sometimes, that means discovering that you are completely tone deaf. I've always loved music, maybe as much as I love writing. And long before I became an author, I was a musician.

Drawn to the string bass in grade school--it was so big! The sound so rich and deep!--I was playing in community orchestras by my teens. Of course, by then, I was consumed by rock and roll, too. And since my friends all wanted to be guitarists or singers, up front and center, I was recruited. For the grand sum of $35, I purchased an electric bass, used, at the mall. Someone got a drum kit--a birthday? Christmas?--and we formed a band. It was heaven of the loudest sort, and I was sure I was besting John Entwhistle, playing and singing harmony too, nights and weekends in basements and garages all over town.

I still recall our first professional gig--playing a friend's Sweet Sixteen. We ran out of tunes about 45 minutes in, and jammed on Neil Young's Like a Hurricane for a good hour longer. Yeah, I learned how to solo early on--I did it all! I didn't intend to keep playing in college, but once again I was recruited. A bass player--one with actual musical training--will always be in demand, especially if she sings. Before long, we were gigging at campus parties and frat houses around New England, known for getting people dancing with our mix of originals and New Wave covers and a professional sound system that could fill a room. (We were less popular at our weekly Tuesday slot at the local pub. I can still hear the thwack of darts hitting the board, in the silence between numbers.)

With that sound system, we saw the opportunity to improve. We could tape ourselves, and we did, sitting down to listen track by track: Lead guitar, singer, rhythm guitar. Backing vocals... Good lord! How had I never known? I don't recall if any of my bandmates said anything as we listened to my out-of-tune caterwauling. They didn't have to. I stuck to bass from then on.

I continued to play in bands for a while after college, even as I began writing about music instead. Over the years, I turned from music journalism to the fiction that now occupies my time. I still sing in private, too. But I've found better uses for my voice.

--Clea Simon
Please do say hello. Email Clea.

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

AUTHORBUZZ: KARMA AND THE ART OF BUTTER CHICKEN (Fiction) by Monica Bhide

Here is an uplifting story about love and sacrifice. "A beautiful tale where the past and present mingle in this charming story about the healing power of food," says the Washington Independent Review of Books. The story offers an insightful lesson in self empowerment: in order to nourish others, we need to first learn to nourish ourselves.

Go to: AUTHORBUZZ click on KARMA AND THE ART OF BUTTER CHICKEN to read more and to email author Monica Bhide, you'll get a reply.

Dear Reader Column 10-23-17

AUTHORBUZZ: Click here to discover new books,
"meet" the authors and enter to win.

KIDSBUZZ: Click here to discover new books,
"meet" the authors and enter to win.

Dear Reader,

It's a ritual. Every night before I go to bed, I open the come-hither looking, maroon glass container of micro-sculpting cream, take off my glasses, dip my fingers into the silky lotion-potion, and smooth it on my face in upward strokes. Wrinkle experts insist that massaging the magic cream in upward strokes is important, especially when you reach a certain age, because gravity pulls everything down. (I must be at that age.) So dutifully, I do my part to smooth the wrinkles away (I love an assignment, a mission, if you will), but just between you and me, all I've seemed to accomplish is to soften up the wrinkles, so they don't stay in place as much as they used to.

My husband says he doesn't see any wrinkles. Isn't he a sweetheart? But if one or two noticeable wrinkles do happen to show up sometime in the future--way in the future--like a run in a stocking, he reminds me, "If you don't point it out to people, Suzanne, no one will notice."

So why do these saggy-baggy wrinkles bother me? After all, they're really well earned badges of life experience. But the wrinkle experts (most likely the makers of the magic lotion-potion), insist that if I stop my nightly ritual, those well earned badges will multiply quickly. So just in case the experts are right, every evening, I warn my husband, "I'm lotioned-and-potioned, and just a little bit slippery, Dear."

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

** AUTHORBUZZ **

ILLEGAL (Nonfiction) by John Dennehy

When George Bush was reelected John Dennehy left the country and started a new life in Ecuador. "Illegal: a true story of love, revolution and crossing borders" has drug smugglers, burning road blockades and violent heartbreak but it's also about identity, nationalism and the limits of idealism. It's a raw account of a young American abroad grasping for meaning when his native country heads away from his own ideals, with eerie echoes to the United States in 2017.

Go to AUTHORBUZZ click on ILLEGAL to read more and to email author John Dennehy, you'll get a reply.

Dear Reader Column 10-20-17

AUTHORBUZZ: Click here to discover new books,
"meet" the authors and enter to win.

Dear Reader,

Oh my gosh! Readers who entered this year's Write a DearReader Contest did an amazing job. I've been reading entries and it's obvious the amount of time and thought you put into your writing--which is causing me a little stress, because it's going to be very difficult to choose winners.

I want to give my full attention to reading your entries, so I'm keeping things simple today, but definitely fun. I have three giveaways for readers. Be sure to enter all three, because someone's going to win and Jeanne J., who won the cookie scoop (just like the one Paul and I use), will assure you that someone always wins. But you need to enter to win.

Here are the goodies: A package of ten assorted blank cards featuring naturalist illustrations of colorful birds, w/white envelopes. These cards are beautiful and the paper weight is thick. I use them myself. Enter the drawing right now, click here. 

PBS Masterpiece is celebrating season three of their Poldark series and they've sent three sets of books to give away to readers. Winston Graham's books, Jeremy Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall, 1790-1791 and The Black Moon: A Novel of Cornwall, 1794-1795. To enter to win these two books, click here.

Finally, to celebrate the release of The Delusion by Laura Gallier, Tyndale House is giving away 10 copies to readers. To read more about this supernatural thriller click here.  To enter the book giveaway, click here.

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

Enjoy your weekend, I sure will--I'll be reading your entries,

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

KIDS BUZZ: A story inspired by an actual classroom experience, steeped in history, 7TH GRADE REVOLUTION by Liana Gardner pits the 7th Grade against the FBI in a race including secret tunnels and a hidden cavern to find a Revolutionary War artifact of national importance which has been hidden in their school. For a chance to win a free copy and learn more, go to  KIDSBUZZ.

Dear Reader Column 10-19-17

AUTHORBUZZ: Click here to discover new books,
"meet" the authors and enter to win.

Dear Reader,

When I bring something new into my house, something has to go out the door. Two adults (my husband and me), five cats, appliances, furniture, electronics, quilts and chachkas, we're full up at the inn. I live in a 1925 historical home in Florida and there isn't any storage space. So there's no room for anything new--unless something old heads on down the road.

No exaggeration. I'm talkin', absolutely no (I challenge you to find some), storage space. When I lived in Wisconsin and I wanted to buy a chocolate fountain, but I didn't want it sitting on top of the kitchen counter until my next chocolate, extravaganza party six years down the road, no problem. I took it down to the basement and put it on the shelf with the other "I might need that someday" stuff. Eventually I accumulated enough "gotta have stuff" and I had a fantastic garage sale.

That's another thing that didn't come with my 1925 home--a garage. There's a 1925 carriage house, but even if I found a carriage, then I'd need horses and I'd have to feed them and they'd need a place to get out of the elements--and as I've said, "We're full-up at the Beecher Inn." Houses don't have basements in Florida either. There is a dirt crawl space underneath my house that I can access from a trap door in the floor of my hallway. But the only person who suits up "...to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before..." is the yearly termite inspector. (He does tell me I have the cleanest crawl space he's ever been in. When I'm hard up for a compliment and need cheering up, I reflect on those words.)

There are four closets in my house, but they are teeny-tiny, and one of them has the piping for an air conditioner in it, another houses my water heater, and one is a linen closet. Which leaves one closet for me, and to this day, I'm not sure where my husband stores his clothes.

Most things I think I need, I really don't, so I'm pretty careful about what I decide to buy. But sometimes the flesh is weak and "it" convinces me, I really need "it" and that I will use it all the time, and if I look real hard, I will find a little empty place to store it. But I realize the truth. What's really going to happen is I'll use "it" once, and then I'll put it somewhere and I'll forget where "it" is. Then some day, years from now, I'll discover "it" when I decide to clean out my sock drawer, or look underneath the bed. There the forgotten "it" will be and I'll fondly recall the one and only time I used "it"(it has an emotional hold on me), and I'll keep it, because you never know when "it" could come in handy again. After all, a neighbor might knock on the door, asking if she can borrow a cup of sugar and an "it."

I love it when I can help someone out.

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

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

(Fiction)
EYES ON YOU by Laura Kaye

(Mystery)
NAKED WE CAME by Robert Lane

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

Dear Reader Column 10-18-17

AUTHORBUZZ: Click here to discover new books,
"meet" the authors and enter to win.

Dear Reader,

It's a unique opportunity.

One of the book clubs I offer is for teens. My daily column isn't included with that club, instead a teen writes the Dear Reader for the day. I have some openings this school year for young writers who would like to try their hand at writing. It's an amazing opportunity for young people to gain experience and to feel the excitement of seeing their work "published" in the daily book club.

To my surprise, when I was talking with an old friend the other day, she reminded me that I used to rewrite my friends' papers before they turned them in at school. "And you were really good at it," my friend added. So you never know when, or how a writing career will get started.

Students who write for the Teen Book Club, receive a letter of participation they could use to ask for extra credit in one of their current English/Communication classes, or to show versatility on a college application. And for additional fun for the teens, I offer drawings for gift cards and books as a thank you.

Writing for the Teen Book Club is the perfect hands-on assignment for students. One of our more memorable experiences was working with an English teacher in Japan. Every student in her class was assigned to write a teen column.

If you're a teacher, librarian, parent/grandparent, or part of a homeschooling group and you'd like your budding writers to gain experience, have them contact Susan on my staff at: teen@dearreader.com

I'm so glad to be able to encourage kids to get involved in writing--and they'll have a lot of fun doing it.

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

** Enter to win a free book. To celebrate the release of The Delusion by Laura Gallier, Tyndale House is giving away 10 copies to readers. To read more about this supernatural thriller click here. 

To enter the giveaway, click here. 

AUTHORBUZZ: Naked We Came (Mystery) by Robert Lane

Buckle-up readers! My new title is a tour de force of mystery, humor and intrigue. Jake Travis is on the hunt for the man who abducted his older sister, and only sibling, over thirty years ago. His vengeful quest is blocked by powerful figures. As he seeks personal closure, Jake must decide whether he is truly free of his past.

Go to AUTHORBUZZ click on Naked We Came to read more and to email author Robert Lane, you'll get a reply.