Powdered Doughnuts and Apple Cider

Fabulous fall treats: powdered doughnuts and apple cider. Candy or caramel apples. Candy corn and those little mellowcreme pumpkins. I'm getting the shivers - not thinking about scary cosutmes - just thinking about all that sugar.

Trick or Treats has changed. My parents put time and effort into the treats they gave away. A paper napkin was unfolded. In this you put a couple of MaryJanes, a couple of circus peanuts (the orange marshmallow kind) and some candy corn and other small candies. A lollypop was put in the center and the four corners of the napkin were pulled up and twisted around the stick. Considering we had in the neighborhood of 100-150 kids come to the door, it was a fair amount of work. And the littlest kids started coming just as it got dark - which in the old days before daylight savings time extended into November was about 4:30.

We'll carve a pumpkin this afternoon and tonight we'll toast the seeds in the oven, sprinkled with salt. I love the crunch of the shell and the salty-sweet taste of the kernel.

The garden is winding down. One of the basil plants has turned completely brown; the other may give us one more batch of pesto. The raspberries are nearly done; there were only about a dozen ripe ones today; I ate them as I picked them.

Now the writing should be picking up. It's time to immerse myself in the new story, play the "what if" game and see where it leads. Rather than my usual "seat of the pants" method, I think this story will require some actual advanced planning. We'll see how far I can go - hopefully all the way to Happily Ever After. I've also got two sets of names for the hero and heroine. I'm not really sure how that happened.

Romance Genre Survey

Bronwyn Clarke, winner of the RWA 2007 Golden Heart for Best Romantic Suspense Manuscript, "Falling into Darkness" is conducting a survey on the "Online communities of romance readers and writers and their perspectives on the genre." The survey is part of her research for her PhD.
Please take a few moments of your time to complete the survey, which closes at midnight, Oct 31st.
http://bronwynclarke.com/survey.html

First Frost

It's hard to believe that it's already the 27th of October, and we still have not had a frost. Fall is about 2 weeks late, here in the plains. We're not taking any chances; we'll pick all the tomatoes and peppers today.

As for the writing, I've picked up a story that I began just before I first saw the photo of the pendant. It's been percolating for a while; there are about three chapters or so in very rough draft. We'll see what the characters have been doing while I was busy telling Luke and Callie's story.

Enter A Contest!

It's easy, it's fun, and you can win a great prize!

Here's how to enter:

Answer the two questions taken from exerpts of *The Pendant: Callie*, available from Moonlit Romance. www.moonlitromance.com

The answer to the first question can be found in the exerpt that was posted here on my blog on Release Day. For the answer to the second question, visit The Pendant ~ Journeys Through Time website and read the exerpt there.
Email your answers to: susan atwood writes @ g mail dot com
Close up all the spaces and change dot to a period. Because spam should clog your arteries, not your inbox.

Make sure to put "Contest Entry" in the subject line!

Everyone with the correct answers will be entered in a drawing for a download of
*The Pendant: Callie* and a Try-Me kit from Devita Natural Skin Care.
http://www.devita.net/

The contest ends on Wednesday 10/31/07. Winners will be announced on Friday, 11/2/07.

From my blog:
Question #1: Luke calls Callie by the name of a character in a childrens' book and recent movie. What name does he call her?

From The Pendant ~ Journeys Through Time website:
http://www.freewebs.com/thependant/
Question #2: Dacien looks at Callie with eyes that burn with the same fire as this stone. What is it?

Good Luck All!

More Garden

The plan was to post some pictures of the Book Garden yesterday. As usual, things didn't work out quite as planned. My daughter took the camera to the state Student Council convention. So, here is what I'm calling my Book Garden- minus furniture as the weather had been rainy and we didn't put it back outside. The area has several names, mostly depending on my husband's beverage of the moment. :) We like to sit here to read or to relax after working in the yard. The empty space under the window used to have a beautiful calla lily, but it was getting too much water, so we moved it.

The Garden

According to my husband, yesterday was the last nice day that we will have this year. I'm not sure what he means by *nice* - but yesterday's high temperature was near 80 degrees. I'm still looking for those sunny, crisp fall days when the sky is dark blue, the clouds are impossibly white, and the trees and shrubs are a whirl of gold, red, orange, and brown. I hope we'll have lots of those before winter sets in.

Those are my favorite days of the whole year. Working in the garden is invigorating, and there is something wonderfully cinnamony-apple baking in the kitchen.

For now, we're letting the tomatoes and peppers stay. We've had so much rain this month that all of the tomatoes are split before they ripen. But with colder weather just around the corner, it is time to rescue some of the more tender plants. Today, we're bringing in a calla lily, rosemary, and some Australian violets that won't survive the harsh Midwestern winter. And with some TLC and a lot of luck, we'll be returning them to the garden next May.

Release Day!

*The Pendant: Callie* will be available today from Moonlit Romance! And here, just to whet your appetite, is a bit for your enjoyment:

Callie knelt before him and watched his face as she pried the shoe off, but he showed no evidence of pain. Anger? Oh, yeah, there was still plenty of that. His eyes were blue lasers that bored a hole right through her. A small muscle worked in a jaw clamped so tight Callie was afraid he’d break his teeth.
She removed his sock, took his foot in her hand and bent her head to examine it. The base of his big toe was red and swollen, and the nail was chipped.
“We need to get some ice on that. Stay put.”
Callie rummaged through a drawer and came up with a plastic bag with a zip closure. She grabbed the ice tray from the fridge and dumped half-frozen cubes and cold water into the bag.
“Of all the hare-brained stunts, this one takes the cake,” Luke growled.
“Hare-brained?” Callie wheeled on him, hands on her hips. “You call that hare-brained? I’ve studied hares, and I’ll have you know that they are not stupid, if that is what you’re implying. In fact, they’re quite intelligent. And if you’d let go of the hammer in first place—”
“Okay, Doctor Dolittle, whatever. It was still dangerous to be hanging out the window like that.”
Doctor Dolittle?
“Here’s your ice.”
She knew she shouldn’t push him any more. After all, the man was holding on to his temper by a thread. But still…
The bag of ice cubes fell from Callie’s hand.
“Ouch!”
“Oops.” Callie spun on her heel. Before she could stalk away, Luke’s hand shot out; his fingers closed around her wrist like a vise and yanked her back. The room darkened to pinpoints of light, just like the end of an old cartoon. That low hum grew louder, resonating in her head.
She needed to sit down. Quick.

(c) 2007 by Susan Atwood