The Sunday Post! Happy Halloween!!! - Old Pictures and to #Nanowrimo or not?

  

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.  See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Here are some pictures of Halloween past.  I do intermittent fasting so I'm waiting to have a chocolate candy-filled day until 11am. How about you?  Will you be having a few fun-sized candy bars today? Or maybe a spooky cocktail?  In any case, I hope you have a fun Halloween and that any ghosts you meet are friendly! 

I have been pondering Nanowrimo, should I participate this year?  Do I want to write?  I don't know. I think I might write 'just for me' and see what happens? 

This week I'll be sharing reviews of two ARCS from Net Galley and then an old Vampire book Called Carmilla (spoiler alert - it is delightful!) 

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy December! The #12daysofcozies Are Here!

 I spent November with one goal, complete Nanowrimo.  That means writing 50,000 words during the month of November. It stands for National Novel Writing Month.  I've participated in it in the past, but I've never hit the 50,000-word goal. This year I did! Do I have a book ready to share?  No, I sure don't, I still have more to write to get to THE END.  Once I get there I will have to revise, revise, revise until it is something that I would dare to share!  

Now it's time for me to enjoy the holiday season!  Instead of writing as much this month, I'm doing more reading.  It's time for The Cozy Mystery Book Club's #12daysofcozies.  If you go on Twitter or Instagram and follow @cozymysterybookclub you can enter to win books every day through December 12th.  You can also sign up to receive daily emails and when you open your email you get a chance to win. 

And if you are looking for a book to start with I recommend Cheddar Off Dead by Julia Buckley! 
Cheddar Off Dead by Julia Buckley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoy Julia Buckley's writing so it is no surprise that I enjoyed this book. It's a great cozy and a perfect December read. This cozy has just the right amount of Christmas holiday in the mix. There is mouth-watering food talk and even a cookie making scene. Good Stuff. The setting of a small town near enough to a big city is a favorite setting of mine. There are quite a few potential killers which I like in a story, and there is a good sense of menace that fuels the amateur sleuth to keep trying to figure out the mystery.

If you like romance, I think you are in for a treat as well.

I always appreciate it when our protagonist doesn't put herself into foolishly dangerous positions. This is the second book in the series, I didn't read book one first, I read this book because I wanted a Christmas read and this book delivered!

****
One thing, which happens in too many mysteries, is that at the end (this isn't a spoiler) the killer is described as being unbalanced. I don't like when the killer in the book is presented as a rational person up to the climax, and then when the killer is revealed they are described as having crazy eyes for example. In mysteries, I prefer that the bad person is not portrayed as potentially mentally ill. I like a solid terrible greedy person who has complete disregard for anyone who gets between them and what they think they deserve.

View all my reviews

November Recap!

Happy  Thanksgiving! I hope you had a lovely one.  I have been neglectful of my blog, because I have been participating in my first NaNoWriMo!  One month, 50,000 words,  1667 new words  per day.  I was keeping up for the first couple of weeks, getting up at 5:30AM to try and put as many words down as possible.  Well I managed to stress myself out so much I was having trouble sleeping by day 14.   Writing a book is something I want to do and not hate doing, so I decided to focus on writing everyday and not counting the words.  I had to take a break from obsessing over winning the month, and rebalance.  In the end, I finished November with over 30,000 words.

If you ask me, I think this was a great first year effort and I'm feeling good about my Cozy Mystery book in process:  Temporary Name: Creating Cakes, Book 1, (I'm looking for a punny title but have come up short so far)  Creaking Cakes, Book 1 is about 25 percent finished and I'm excited with where I am going,  as I recently introduced my main character "Jane" to her future love interest "Mr. Northmen"  He  looks like this...

(picture from pindaddy.com )


He is an 8th Grade teacher. Yes, picture Keanu Reeves as a middle school teacher.  Jane just ran into him while volunteering at the school this past Friday.  I could go on, but I should focus on actually writing the book not writing about writing the book.

For Thanksgiving I tried a new turkey cooking recipe and that bird turned out delicious!   The high heat locked in the juices. After it was done, I lowered the temperature and cooked the sides.  Anna made the mashed potatoes with a recipe from Williams-Sonoma.

If you are going to make a turkey for Christmas,  you have got to try this recipe!  So easy and it works! The Simplest Roast Turkey, is a recipe by famed chef Thomas Keller which I found on the Epicurious website. Give it a try and you can feel that you are in the rarified air of professional chefs when you serve this roast turkey to your family!

Happy December!  Happy Advent !  Has this been a long year or what? 

Thanks for reading today and I'll blog again much sooner. 

xoxo