Dear Reader

Dear Reader Column 01-15-2021

Dear Reader,

Get ready to dunk and munch! Enter this month's Chocolate Chip Cookie Giveaway. To enter the drawing and to see photos of past winners (and the latest funny dessert I made for my grandchildren) click here.

A few months ago my neighbor stopped me when I was out for a walk. His son, Mack, was supposed to be writing an essay to submit along with his college application, but 'Dad' was getting concerned, because he hadn't seen anything written yet. So he suggested maybe Mack should come over to my house Saturday evening to talk about his essay.

I was happy to help, but later that evening I got to thinking that a senior in high school probably wasn't going to be too excited about talking to the neighbor lady about writing--especially on a Saturday night. Mack's topic was how reading Science Fiction had influenced his life, so I decided to see if I could influence Mack to telephone me.

Early the next morning, I walked over to his house and left a stack of Science Fiction books outside the door, with a note tucked inside:

"Mack, I heard about the essay you're working on. Great topic, I'm curious. The books are yours to keep. Hope you enjoy them, Suzanne."

It was kind of exciting, doing a little "undercover" work, waiting to see if Mack would take the bait, and I was just about ready to give up hope when finally at 1:30 in the afternoon my phone rang. The books did their job. Mack thanked me over and over again, so I quickly suggested dinner, and to my surprise, Mack said yes. It was a date. Dinner and a discussion about writing in my backyard at six. (I live in Florida, so we wore masks as we chatted and dined 6 feet apart.)

Mack was pretty quiet at first and I could tell he still wasn't sure what he wanted to write about. So I asked him how he liked to spend his time, and after we talked about computers, Science Fiction and his friends, he mentioned his dog.

He has a chocolate lab, but he still misses his first dog, who was 15 years old when she had to be put to sleep. And when I asked Mack who took the dog to the vet when she had to be put down, Mack looked down at the table and his voice got very soft, "My mom took my dog to the vet while I was at school."

I knew he was holding back the tears and by this time, so was I, but I told Mack that crying can be very inspiring. Sometimes when I'm writing a column, I'm crying while I'm writing and I feel exhausted when I'm finished.

I'd brought along a column about putting your heart into your writing and I showed Mack a page of random notes I'd written before I got the idea for the column. I wanted him to see what the beginning of a column looks like before it's written--what a mess it is--hoping it would make him feel a little less pressured. And in the scattered notes, I pointed out the one line that ended up giving me the idea for the "Putting Your Heart Into It" column.

Before we said good-bye, I told Mack no doubt about it, I was sure there was a great essay inside of him and I had the feeling it was about his dog.

'Dad' called the next morning, while his son was still sleeping, "You certainly gave Mack a lot to think about, he was up most of the night."

Apparently Mack was up thinking about his dog, because yesterday I read Mack's story: "My first dog was my best friend for much of my childhood. He was a sweet yellow Labrador with hardly any yellow..."

It was a wonderful story about a boy and his dog and a lesson learned about life: "Sometimes the most painful thing we do, helps the ones we love."

It was a story that left me in tears.

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

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

This month's Penguin Classics book is Romance in Marseille, by Claude McKay. Start reading and enter for a chance to win a copy.

Dear Reader Column 01-14-2021

Dear Reader,

Looking for some good news? Today is my January Chocolate Chip Cookie Giveaway. I love to bake, it's relaxing--actually a kind of therapy for me, so please lend a hand and enter today. Are you a coffee, milk or maybe like one past cookie winner--a Dr. Pepper cookie dunker? Whatever your pleasure, get ready to dunk and munch, if you're one of this month's four lucky cookie winners.

You'll love my cookies, but you have to enter the giveaway for a chance to win. To enter the drawing and to see photos of past winners (and the latest funny dessert I made for my grandchildren) click here.

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

Get ready to dunk and munch!

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

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

(Fiction) ALL THAT WE CARRIED by Erin Bartels

(Fiction) THE WRONG KIND OF WOMAN by Sarah McCraw Crow

(Fiction) UNFETTERED JOURNEY by Gary F. Bengier

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

This month's Penguin Classics book is Romance in Marseille, by Claude McKay. Start reading and enter for a chance to win a copy.

Dear Reader Column 01-13-2021

Dear Reader,

Today's guest author, Melanie Benjamin, says, "I live in Williamsburg, VA with my husband and children, I mean, cats. My previous books included the New York Times Best Sellers The Aviator's Wife and The Swans Of Fifth Avenue. My new book, The Children's Blizzard is my seventh historical novel."

Melanie would love to hear from you. It's always such a pleasure to hear from readers. You can reach her at: melanie@melaniebenjamin.com

My Life in Cats
by Melanie Benjamin

First cat I loved: Angel. A black stray who adored me. She also adored eating birds and may have been the victim of poisoning by a neighbor who loved birds more than cats.

First cat who should have had a movie made about him: Sammy. Sammy was a long-haired dishrag of a cat who let me dress him up in doll's clothes. My brother and I loved Sammy passionately. Then one day Sammy didn't come home, and for a couple of months we mourned him. Until the miraculous day when he showed up at our front door, skinny but happy. Had my brother and I not been smothering him with hugs, we might have noticed a startled look on my mother's face. Decades later, we found out the story: My mother hated Sammy because he ate rabbits, and one weekend she made my father drive him out to the country and abandon him, miles and miles away. But he found his way back, and my parents were so stunned they didn't have the heart to do anything but accept him as the miracle cat that he was.

First cat I owned as an adult: Mickey. I got Mickey after an excruciatingly bad break-up, pouring all the love I couldn't give anyone else into him, and he accepted it with the good graces of a cat who knows he's landed in clover. Mickey lived a long life, even getting to know my sons until he passed on, still the bemused recipient of a household of love.

First cat my children loved: Beauty. Beauty was a rescue we got when my sons were toddlers, and she didn't like me or my husband or really anyone but my oldest son, who she would follow around like a puppy.

First cat who is an Instagram star: Loki. Another cat who knows he has landed in clover, the obsession of two Empty Nesters who are not yet grandparents. He has a companion named Luna, and the two of them have the record of the most photographs ever taken of a pair of cats. Loki is more the aloof, regal type who tolerates our affection, but Luna likes to curl up and purr against my chest so loudly all the troubles of the world vanish.

They don't take the place of our children, but shhhh--please don't tell them!

-- Melanie Benjamin

Welcome Melanie to the book club, melanie@melaniebenjamin.com

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

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

UNFETTERED JOURNEY (Fiction) by Gary F. Bengier

Email me at gary@garyfbengier.com to win one of ten signed copies of my new title... Dare you stretch your heart and your mind with something truly different, a cross-genre novel combining thrilling action, adventure, and a love story? "Unfettered Journey" is the near-future story of an AI scientist who seeks to create true robot consciousness. He leaves everything behind to find answers. But a mysterious woman on a personal mission interrupts his search. Fighting unjust forces, he is swept into an evil plot that neither can elude.

Go to: AUTHORBUZZ click on UNFETTERED JOURNEY to read more and to email author Gary F. Bengier, you'll get a reply.

This month's Penguin Classics book is Romance in Marseille, by Claude McKay. Start reading and enter for a chance to win a copy

Dear Reader Column 01-12-2021

Dear Reader,

Every other month I feature a Penguin Classic and this month's book is Romance in Marseille, by Claude McKay. Click to start reading, and you'll also be able to enter the drawing for a chance at winning your own copy of Romance in Marseille.

Television has ruined me a little not because I watch too much of it--I don't. The problem is sometimes I forget that what I'm viewing on the screen is make believe.

I was watching a rerun of The Waltons last Saturday. They were having a picnic on the mountain. Everyone in the family was lazing around with their shoes off, eating fried chicken and macaroni salad, while leisurely twirling daisies with their toes. Ah, a picturesque picnic. So I decided that's what I should do that very afternoon. (Remember, I live in Florida. Not to brag, but it was 81 degrees the other day).

First stop, I did a curbside pickup at the market: fried chicken, two deli salads, sliced baby Swiss, a baguette and then I headed for the park. I spread out my blanket under a gorgeous old oak, kicked off my shoes, filled my paper plate and settled in for a nice little lunch. But my picnic didn't quite turn out like the one on Waltons' Mountain. I don't recall John Boy waving his hands around madly in the air trying to chase away pesky, flying varmints. And as for relaxing in the grass with my shoes off, twirling daisies with my toes while soaking up the sun, 'What the heck was I thinking? Of course, the scene in the show was staged.' And reality really set in when red ants invaded and besieged my picnic, and I became their main course.

So, next time I want to picnic, I don't think so. I'll try the beach instead. What's a little sand in my sandwich? I can deal with sand. Flying varmints and red ants, I cannot.

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

Suzanne Beecher

Suzanne@DearReader.com

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

THE WRONG KIND OF WOMAN (Fiction) by Sarah McCraw Crow

Email me at smccrawcrow@gmail.com with the subject line "Giveaway" to win one of five signed copies of my new book... It's late 1970, and three people--Virginia Desmarais, her 13-year-old daughter Rebecca, and college student Sam Waxman--are struggling to come to terms with the death of Oliver Desmarais, a professor at the all-male Clarendon College. At the heart of the story is Virginia, who finds friendship with Clarendon's four women faculty, helping them bring the women's movement to their traditional campus.

Go to: AUTHORBUZZ click on THE WRONG KIND OF WOMAN to read more and to email author Sarah McCraw Crow, you'll get a reply.

Dear Reader Column 01-11-2021

Dear Reader,

When I feel overwhelmed with life, baking is one of the things that relaxes me. So this past weekend instead of making my usual chocolate chip cookie recipe for my grandchildren, I tried something new. I was willing to toss it all in the garbage if the new recipe didn't turn out, but to my surprise the Chocolate Chip/Potato Chip cookies I made were really good. I mean really good!

My husband was my taste-tester and after one bite the review was, "It's very rich." And he left the rest of the cookie on the kitchen counter. But I noticed as I was finishing baking the cookies, that he kept making trips over to the counter to take another bite and another bite, until the cookie was gone. That's how really good the cookies are!

And my grandchildren gave a huge thumbs-up too, after they devoured their cookies.

(I'm not sure about the origin of the recipe, a friend of a friend gave it to me a long time ago, but I'd never been brave enough to try it.)

CHOCOLATE CHIP/POTATO CHIP COOKIES

1 cup (2 sticks) salted, cold butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups potato chips (I used crinkle cut chips.)
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks or chips
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 325°F. Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the cold butter and mix on medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until butter is smooth. Scrape down the bowl, then add the brown sugar and eggs. Mix until combined.

Add the flour and baking soda and mix on low/medium-low just until incorporated about 30 seconds. Add the chocolate chunks (or chips) and the potato chips. Turn mixer on low. Mix until there are no large chunks of potato chips.

Using a cookie scoop (2-tablespoons) scoop out the dough and place dough at least 2 inches apart. Slightly press down on each ball so that it's flatter.

Sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of kosher or sea salt. If you don't have kosher or sea salt skip this step. Table salt is too fine and salty.

Break up one potato chip and get 3-5 more pieces of chocolate. Press the chocolate and potato chip pieces into the cookie until the cookie is flatter, 1/2 inch to 1 inch thick. The cookies spread, so you are simply getting rid of the dome and creating an even layer of cookie, not truly flattening them.

Bake 9-11 minutes or until the cookies just start to turn golden around the edges. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack.

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

Suzanne Beecher

P. S. If you were one of the book winners over the holiday, please send a photo when you receive your book. It's a lot of fun to see pictures of book club readers.

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

ALL THAT WE CARRIED (Fiction) by Erin Bartels

I'm giving away five copies of my next novel! It's is a story of two sisters trying to find their way through a hiking trip gone wrong--and they find their way back to each other after years of estrangement. Perfect for armchair travelers, nature lovers, and anyone with a sister! Email me at revellcontest@gmail.com to be entered to win one of five giveaway copies!

Go to: AUTHORBUZZ click on ALL THAT WE CARRIED to read more and to email author Erin Bartels, you'll get a reply.

Dear Reader Column 01-08-2021

Dear Reader,

The quality of writing in the 2020 Write a DearReader Contest was outstanding. Today's Honorable Mention piece was written by Mrs. Dorothy Mitchell. Thanks Dorothy for sharing your story with us.

Never Too Old!

Last year at the age of 73, my 92-year-old, sharp Aunt gave me a call. She was inquiring about me finding new friends or a new love interest. She felt that I was too "young" to be alone!

My sister, who had lived nearby, would be moving out of state. My husband had died and my sons have their own families in other states. Though, I have been active with craft projects, book clubs, hiking and genealogy pursuits; I had made no real friends here in Florida. Just enjoy calling and writing to old friends and family.

My Aunt felt that was not enough!

My persistent Aunt suggested getting involved with the senior center. I have a hard time accepting that I am a senior! However, I decided to go and ask for a tour of the place. A wonderful, caring woman was available to show me around. She had me join a group called 'Friends Connection.' People that are in similar circumstances. I reluctantly agreed!

To my surprise, I found that there were more men in the group than women. All were very welcoming.

However, being rather shy, I would leave immediately after the meetings. Others were making plans to go out for coffee and further socialize. One day, I lingered a little longer. One of the men came up to me and asked about my life. It seemed that he was very popular with everyone. At least two of the women had invited him for lunch, and had asked that he drive them to an appointment. Therefore, I thought his friendship would be fleeting!

However, I was attracted to him. I was impressed that he held doors and pulled my chair out for me. Once I told him that I was planning on visiting a local museum. Just wanted to go by myself to explore. Bill then asked if he could meet me there and then go for coffee? It all took off from there! This year, we decided to rent a house together and get married!

You never know what life has in store for you. I learned that sometimes you need to get out of your comfort zone and take a chance on a new adventure! Maybe fall in love again!

Mrs. Dorothy Mitchell
Honorable Mention, 2020 Write a DearReader Contest

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

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

Dear Reader Column 01-07-2021

Dear Reader,

The quality of writing in the 2020 Write a DearReader Contest was outstanding. Today's Honorable Mention piece was written by Eileen Trupia. Thanks Eileen for sharing your story with us.

Simple Gifts

If forced to describe the spring of 2020 with one word, I might choose fear. Fear in the eyes of my fellow early-morning shoppers. Fear in the texts pinging off my phone, urging me to stay home. Fear that robbed me of a basic human need--to enjoy the company of other people--because they might make me sick. But buried deep beneath the fear was a seed of hope struggling to reach the sunlight and grow. Hope for a vaccine. Hope for human contact. Hope for normal in all its annoying wonder.

In a previous fall, my husband and I had wandered the backroads of Connecticut, enjoying the beauty found in old cemeteries, small towns with two-hundred-year-old homes and churches, and state parks glowing with fall color and trails that led to lakes or waterfalls. Eventually we found ourselves at a popular garden supplier. Disappointed that a late fall visit did not show the grounds to greatest advantage, we nevertheless found a few things to buy--including a bag of 100 daffodil bulbs with names like Pink Champagne, Tahiti, Barrett Browning and Bridal Crown. Back home, the large bag sat in our foyer for weeks, the "100 bulbs" part overwhelming us. Of course, it only took about an hour when we finally did place them in the ground.

We had planted a gift to our future selves, not knowing how deeply we would need it someday.

As the spring of 2020 began--colder than normal and my wanderings now limited to my yard on Long Island--those bulbs sent green shoots up in the circular patches we had planted. They didn't know to fear a virus; they just kept growing as the intense spring sun, mixed with occasional rain, enticed them upward. The shoots formed fat buds that slowly revealed their secrets--daffodils of deep yellow, ivory, a peachy cream blend (some with double ruffles!)--each one uniquely beautiful and a delight to savor. I had the time to gaze intently at First Blush and Cheerfulness as I walked around my yard, unhurried by the pull of work and household tasks that normally preoccupied me. I plopped a green Adirondack chair in front of my all-natural antidepressants and gazed at them, allowing their beauty to seep into the places hollowed out by fear. I filled vases and posted pictures, my viral friends letting me know the daffodils' beauty was cheering them up as well.

The huge variety of daffodils also meant the bloom time was staggered. As I said goodbye to the yellow ones, it was the creamy cups' time to shine. Daffodil delight nourished me for over a month, my heart made glad by each new cheery face. As spring progressed, the shower of flowers ended even as the number of Covid 19 cases grew. I had to look to new blooms--blue hydrangeas, purple phlox and pink roses--to sustain myself while also finding new ways--like long walks while listening to audiobooks--to stay calm in the midst of a hurricane of bad news. The daffodils had set me on the path to peace.

Renewal, resurrection, hope--all words connected with spring, but this year they took on new meaning. Wrinkled brown sacs, sunk into the earth, had sprung to life as exquisite reminders that beauty is all around us, this season of fear would eventually end, and that a simple task--planting a bulb--can be a gift beyond price.

Eileen Trupia
Honorable Mention, 2020 Write a DearReader Contest

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) MORE THAN PROTECT YOU by Shayla Black

(Thriller) THE WIFE UPSTAIRS by Rachel Hawkins

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

Dear Reader Column 01-05-2021

Dear Reader,

Today's guest author, Harald Gilbers, studied American literature and history in Augsburg and Munich. His literary debut Germania: A Novel of Nazi Berlin is now being published in the United States for the first time. It's the first installment of his internationally acclaimed series with Commissioner Oppenheimer.

Harald Gilbers is the recipient of the German Glauser Prize for the best crime debut for Germania and the French Prix Historia for the sequel Odins Sohne (Sons of Odin). Please welcome Harald to the book club: gilbersfan@gmx.de

St. Martin's Press is giving away 5 copies of Germania to 5 lucky readers. Enter the sweepstakes here.

The Hidden Virtues of Watching Weird Movies

Readers ask me sometimes where I get my ideas from. If I knew that, I would have them more often. But I think that absolutely everything I read and watch affects me in some way. Besides literature, movies have always been an important factor in my life. The colorful posters in front of the local cinema were my window to the imagination. My father carried me to a screening of "The Jungle Book" when I was a baby. I cannot recall what I thought of the gigantic shadows in front of my eyes, but it clearly made a lasting impression.

The local TV stations were my entrance gate to the wonderful world of moving pictures. In the late evening, they showed lots of film noir and old science fiction movies. This was not the normal prime time programming, no, these films were tremendous and special. Something you watched in a dark room lit only by the TV screen, while being wrapped up in a warm blanket.

It was probably during this time that my personal taste was shaped. I sometimes call it my "wholesome bad taste", because it is eclectic, to say the least. Call me a nerd, but I can't help being drawn to films with titles like The Great Gabbo, Robotrix, Diplomaniacs or Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine. And like every movie buff I'm also an avid collector. I started quite early in the age of Super 8, currently I own 5,248 movies.

Best of all, I have a perfectly good excuse for my movie madness. It actually helps me invent new and unique stories. I write crime novels set in a historical past. According to literary theory a genre is defined by the adherence to certain rules. This includes recurring action patterns, characters and other conventions. The reader simply knows what to expect. At the same time, novelty is the only way to keep a genre alive. This basically means that as an author you keep most of these rules, while you strategically break others. While mainstream movies demonstrate what storytelling techniques are regarded as standard, weird movies show me the extremes that lurk beyond. I find this food for thought invaluable.

The secret of writing is also about the unique creative connections that a storyteller makes. And in order to do that you need to know the good stories, the bad stories, and the totally weird ones.

-- Harald Gilbers
gilbersfan@gmx.de

To enter the St. Martin's Press sweepstakes drawing, click here.

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

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

THE WIFE UPSTAIRS (Thriller) by Rachel Hawkins

Writing this book meant I got to turn one of the most famous 19th century Gothic novels into a uniquely 21st century Southern Gothic, putting these iconic female characters into the most affluent parts of my home state of Alabama. Twisting Jane Eyre's famous love triangle into a domestic thriller is easily the most fun I've ever had as a writer.

Go to: AUTHORBUZZ click on THE WIFE UPSTAIRS to read more and to email author Rachel Hawkins, you'll get a reply.

Dear Reader Column 01-04-2021

Dear Reader,

My gift to you this holiday season has been the Book-A-Day Giveaway.

Today is the last day, so be sure to enter. Click here.

Instead of making a list of New Year's resolutions, things I wanted to do better and bad habits I wanted to change, a few years back, I decided to commit to a New Year's adventure instead. I wanted to become a seamstress, and learn how to sew--really sew. Not just sewing quilts on my machine (which I've been doing for years). I'm not discounting my quilts, they're wonderful; beautiful artistic designs. But I thought it would be a fun hobby to design and sew some of my own clothes. Start with a pattern, change-it-up a bit to fit my style, and eventually even create my own patterns. But learning something new means making mistakes, as I reminded myself when I was driving back to the fabric store, because my first attempt at sewing a skirt from scratch didn't work out.

Even though I'd borrowed a tape measure from a clerk at the fabric store and measured myself in the thread aisle, before I bought the pattern ("Excuse me, could you hold my shirt up a little bit, so I could slide this tape measure around my waist, please?"), after I cut-out the skirt and started basting it together, it was huge, gigantic,--tent-sized. Which, might have been easy to adjust, if it weren't for all the pleats in the front and back of the skirt. Trying to figure out where the pleats would fall on the skirt after I got rid of the extra material, the project was starting to feel like a job, not a fun hobby.

And that's when my 'encouraging' son stopped by to say hello, "You know Mom, you can buy a skirt for a lot less money than it costs to sew it yourself."

Don't ya' just love kids?

They 'can' say the darndest things--but they don't sound quite as cute when they're all grown up.

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com

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

MORE THAN PROTECT YOU (Fiction) by Shayla Black

I'm thrilled to bring you this standalone novella from my More Than Words series--a story I've been dying to unfold since revealing Amanda Lund's affair with her father's best friend and the tragic aftermath of his betrayal. Strong, stoic Tanner Kirk is more than willing to protect her from those bent on revenge--but after getting her in his arms, he wants more than her safety. He's determined to win her heart.

Go to: AUTHORBUZZ click on MORE THAN PROTECT YOU to read more and to email author Shayla Black, you'll get a reply.

Dear Reader Column 12-31-2020

Dear Reader,

This New Year's Eve column has become a tradition at the book clubs. Happy New Year!

My most memorable New Year's Eve was the year my dress fell apart. Well, actually it was shedding. We'd just moved to Florida and some new friends invited us to their New Year's Eve party. We didn't know anyone else at the party, but I made, without a doubt, a big first impression. I was wearing a brand new, black velvet dress--purchased just for the occasion (and it wasn't cheap)--but it started shedding. Everywhere I walked, I left a trail of huge, black fuzz clumps behind. The dress was literally falling apart from the inside out.

I wasn't aware of what was happening until I visited the bathroom. The floor had two huge, white rugs, so it instantly became apparent that I was leaving a trail. I was horrified. I picked up my "droppings" and headed back to the party.

When I walked back into the kitchen, I looked down at the floor and sure enough, there was my dress, all over it. No one else seemed to notice the trail that I'd left around the house. But like a run in your stocking, I was sure they were aware and not saying anything just to be kind.

My first thought was to walk around the kitchen--shuffling my shoe along the floor--so I could sweep up my black fuzz balls. But then I realized that as fast as I was rounding up those little buggers in front of me, I was leaving a new crop behind. My backup plan was to find a dimly lit spot and stay put. And I did, until we left.

I can only imagine what that couple must have thought the next day when they cleaned up from the party! Maybe they thought I'd brought a pet.

* Enter the Book-A-Day Giveaway, win random books from my bookshelf

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com