Welcome, Sprinter, The Confused Season

It it Spring? It was 75° F. yesterday afternoon. Or is it Winter—it's 40° F. with a fierce north wind this morning.

My roses, azaleas, and plumbago are definitely confused. If they talked amongst themselves, they'd probably be saying, "My flowers are freezing their buns off." 

Spring? Winter? Welcome to Sprinter. Yes, here in Texas, we have 2 seasons colliding. 

In the morning, it's Winter, and after noon, it's spring, thus, Sprinter, the Confused Season. 

I'm supposed to be writing on the new book, but I've been engrossed in helping Darling Hubby design the workshop/art studio he wants to build as an addition to our garage.

Since I'm not an architectural drafter or a graphic artist, it's taken me a while to get the plans drawn up. That's my part of the project. Today we send off the plans and application to our HOA for approval.

Now, I can get back to the romantic comedy I'm writing. I should finalize the cover this week. That's taken some thought. While I was thinking about that, I did create a new cover for April Fool Bride. That's live now, and that book is on sale. I hope you'll take a look at it and tell me what you think about the new cover.

Reviews from B&N

Even though it's not sold on B&N' now because it's in Kindle Unlimited, here are a couple of reviews from readers there.

“I read a lot of books, but I only write a review on the ones I love. I thoroughly enjoyed April Fool Bride. 5 Stars!!” —Reader Review

 “The best thing about a Joan Reeves romance is that the characters come alive, making you feel what they feel.” —Nook Review

Oh, I also put up A+ Content on the Amazon book page for April Fool Bride, and I'd love to know what you think of it.

ENJOY SPRINTER

Now, I'm goint to bundle up, brave the pseudo winter weather, and go outside to work on the new "bulb" bed I'm installing on the west side of the yard next to the fence. 

I'm thinning the overcrowded purple iris bed to populate the new bulb bed. I'll probably bookend the new bed with red amaryllis, but I haven't decided yet what to plant as the background. Any suggestions?

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Marching to the Garden and #Eclipse2024 by @JacquieRogers

 Can You Believe It's March??? 

(Because February Was One Big Blank!)

by Jacquie Rogers

Disclaimer:  I can't preview this post so please excuse the inevitable typos.  

In my last blog post, I mentioned that we'd been without internet for four days.  Well, now we've been without service for a month and four days.  After many trials and tribulations (if I got into it, this post would be 10,000 words long) we finally got a T-Mobile 5G hotspot that we can use either in the house or when we're traveling, so cool.  But our high speed provider is still down.  Well, they did get the tower back up but the antennae didn't make it.  And then the property owner wouldn't let the internet company back on the site.  

So while the lawyers were haggling, we had no internet service--and no patience, either.  That's why we finally got the hotspot.  I do hope the company gets us back online soon, but at least I can order more seeds now.  Don't tell Mr. R.  You'll see why in a minute.

Okay, well you won't see because apparently this computer doesn't have good enough wifi signal to upload photos (that I just spent three hours editing).  Anyway, let's carry on.

Greenhouse lessons

• When you plant a little tray with 40 cells, a seed or two in each cell, it fits nicely on the shelf on the heating mat and under the grow light.  
• But then the seeds sprout and grow.  Super good germination rate, so two or three plants per cell.
• You're supposed to sacrifice the weak ones to the gods but oh no, I have to save them all.  
• I have a tiny little 6'x8' greenhouse.
• The little baby plants outgrow their cells.
• You guessed it--must pot them up.  Now, instead of 40 one-inch cells, you have 80 four-inch pots. (Remember, it's a 6'x8' greenhouse that only a munchkin can stand up in...)

Um, yeah.  So I have 48 basil plants, 36 beefsteak tomato plants (I need eight), at least 30 geraniums, close to 100 snapdragons, three shelves of petunias... and many, many more trays of seedlings.  Of course, there are many more things to plant--all the flowers for the pollinator garden and such.  Not sure where I'm going to put all these plants, but it's the first year I've ever used a greenhouse so I guess I went a little hog-wild.   

I blame the internet because since I was down, I couldn't do much else besides cook and plant seeds.  Oh, and read.  Lots of the SGRR authors have new books for us to read.  Caroline Clemmons has a new one out so check her author page on Amazon.  I can't get the exact title or link because I only have one bar of wi-fi right now.  Not sure why.  

Anyway, so it goes on Windy Hill Farm.

Tada!

For reading, I've been into biographies lately.  How about your New Year book choices?

Stay safe, and until next month, Happy Reading. 📚😍

Jacquie's Website | Amazon author page | BookBub

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest

If you're on TikTok, friend me!  My handle is @jacquierogersbooks.  

You can get videos of Honey Beaulieu and Sassy's latest updates there.  And goofy videos of her scribe.  Heck, we even do a few cooking videos.

Keep up with Jacquie Rogers' latest news at the

Pickle Barrel Gazette!
Honey Beaulieu - Man Hunter series
Hearts of Owyhee series

Gardening, Pizza, and #MakeNFVisible by @JacquieRogers

Gardening, 

by Jacquie Rogers

This is going to be a short one because I've been busy as the proverbial one-armed wallpaper hanger since the weather warmed up.  I should say "we" because I'm not doing even 25% of the work this year but I've been doing a lot of cooking (more on that later) and supervising.  I'm banned from shoveling these days, which is not a good thing because shoveling is one of the best therapies there is.

I have 16 4'x4' raised beds, so 8 Big Boy and 8 Early Girl tomatoes (I bought starts late so didn't have a lot of choice), some sweet red peppers, poblano peppers, potatoes (this is Idaho, after all), asparagus, Walla Walla Sweet onions, another kind of onions that I'm too tired to remember right now, and more...

Spaghetti squash, with a basil plant lurking in the back.

Pole beans.  Someone needs to weed these.

What's left of an 18" pizza after my crew (two 16-year-old boys) got done with it.

May was Neurofibromatosis Awareness Month so my daughter Mercedes Christesen, Mr R, and I went to the watch party for the national fundraiser.  Mercedes was featured at the beginning of the show--she's considered an "influencer" because she has over 75,000 followers on TikTok, which makes me nearly faint every time I think about it.  

But that's not all, she was also featured on a Snapchat show called Unwritten Beauty.  Be sure to watch it!  ☺ It was a fantastic interview and Mercedes gave a beautiful and heartfelt presentation.  I'm a very proud mama.

Also, it was her birthday.

Tresa Hiatt, me, & birthday girl Mercedes Christesen
Not a flattering photo--wine may have been involved.

What's happening the rest of the month?  More planting, lots of weeding, and then we get our grandson for the first two weeks of July.  We're so excited!  He's 17 and quite a cook, and he told me that I could sit back and relax while he cooks.  I'm not sure the relaxing will last through washing the dishes, though. Hahaha!

Stay safe, and until next month, Happy Reading. 📚😍

Jacquie's Website | Amazon author page | BookBub

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest

If you're on TikTok, friend me!  My handle is @jacquierogersbooks.  

You can get videos of Honey Beaulieu and Sassy's latest updates there.  And goofy videos of her scribe.  Heck, we even do a few cooking videos.

Keep up with Jacquie Rogers' latest news at the

Pickle Barrel Gazette!
Honey Beaulieu - Man Hunter series
Hearts of Owyhee series

SPRING FLOWERS

 By Caroline Clemmons

Mary Poppins insisted one should never explain, but I’m going to anyway. I’m late because I’ve been having some eyesight issues. Better this afternoon, so here I am. Mother Nature is playing ping pong with our weather: spring, winter, spring, winter…. Our poor plants are so confused. The television weather forecaster keeps cautioning people that there will be an “Easter cold snap.”

Sunny, warm weather creates an urge to rush to the landscape nursery and buy flats of bedding plants. Listening to the weather forecaster restrains us. We’re eager for our yard to be as near glorious as we can make it. Hero has already made himself stiff and sore digging and planting rose bushes. No bedding plants, though, as cautioned.

Pink roses are my favorite, 

but we also have red and yellow.

Beth Trissel is my example of a wonderful gardener. She has such beautiful flowers, and shares them with us occasionally. I took her herb class and have her book she and her daughter published. I love it. In addition, she uses heirloom seeds. I am praying that Beth recovers her ability to garden and write this spring!

After "the Easter cold snap" Hero plans to plant butterfly bushes to attract bees and butterflies. We are looking forward to seeing flocks of butterflies and hearing the buzzing of bees this summer. 

Ahh!

At our house, we love old fashioned, drought resistant plants. Our plants contain several types of cacti. We intend to plan more red yucca in the cactus garden. We’re making lists of the other plants we love. To have them all, we’ll need a much bigger yard. J

Do you like to garden?

Books, Harvest, & the Fair by @JacquieRogers

  August--So Busy!

I Really Do Love Summer

by Jacquie Rogers

Have no doubt about it, I love summer.  Sure, I could do without the 100°+ heat for days and days, but thank goodness for air conditioning.  ♥ 

August is the time of year for rodeos and of course, since I write westerns, it's obvious that I love this sport and can't wait for our local rodeo.  Here's the yearly cycle, we go to our hometown rodeo, then we wait 364 days to go to the next rodeo. LOL.  Actually, we used to go all four nights including slack time (when, for a variety of reasons, the entrants can't compete during the actual rodeo).  These days it's a trial just to get there for one show.

And of course the Owyhee County Fair is going on a the same time.  This year, the power went out so most of the animals were back home by Saturday, the day we went, so that was a disappointment for us.  We did get to see the rabbits and goats, though.

This well-loved goat belongs to a 4-H kid (pardon the pun).

The tomatoes are about to run us out of house and home.  There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to process them all.  I've already given a bunch of them away, but we still have a ton of tomatoes on the vines in various stages of ripening.

So far, my daughter (Hurricane Mercedes) and I have made chili mix, pizza sauce, Indian butter chicken mix, and dehydrated some, too.  I'll be dehydrating more (and other veggies) because dried veggies are ideal for taking with us in the RV--lightweight, compact, and easy to stow.  Home-dried veggies taste great in stews and soups.  Thanks to Hero for giving us an awesome dehydrator!

Tomato powder

My grapes aren't doing so well this year and I really hope they aren't dead, but it doesn't look promising.  The extension agent told us we have a severe infestation of Virginia creeper leafhoppers.  We sprayed yesterday (we prefer not to spray but had to concede to chemicals in this case) and most of the bugs are dead, but Mr R is going to spray again tonight just to make sure.  Then we have a whole bunch of hefty work to do to remove the larvae incubation area and I don't even want to think about it right now.

Grapes of Wrath

What have I been reading lately?  Well, nothing for fun but Pioneer Theater in the Boise Basin: 1863-1899 is the latest research book for me.  The author, Charles E. Lauterbach, Ph.D., writes a scholarly book jampacked with information, and in an entertaining style that keeps me engaged.  Highly recommended!  And now Honey Beaulieu is bound to take advantage of this information. ☺

And finally, we did spend several days at Mr R's high school class reunion.  He graduated from Nampa High School, class of 1967.  Yes, he's MUCH older than I am. Hahaha.

NHS Class of '67 in front of the Idaho Hotel
in Silver City, Idaho

Speaking of Silver City, my next readers' event will be on July 15, 2023--not sure if it will be in Homedale again, or in Silver City.  I'll keep you posted.

Until next month, Happy Reading!

Jacquie's Website | Amazon author page | BookBub

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest

If you're on TikTok, friend me!  My handle is @jacquierogersbooks.  

You can get videos of Honey Beaulieu and Sassy's latest updates there.  And goofy videos of her scribe.  Heck, we even do a few cooking videos.

Keep up with Jacquie Rogers' latest news at the

Pickle Barrel Gazette!
Honey Beaulieu - Man Hunter series
Hearts of Owyhee series

HERE COMES AUGUST...AND THERE GOES SUMMER!

 by Judy Ann Davis

“August rain: the best of the summer gone, 

and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time. 

                                                                                                     ~Sylvia Plath 

 

Here she come comes…August and her last days of summer. I don’t know how those days flew by so fast. My husband saw some sumac changing to red on one of his many jaunts around the area. For many, myself included, it’s one of the harbingers of fall.

 

And who doesn’t think summer is sliding to an end when our local Clearfield County Fair gets underway? If you are anywhere in the vicinity of the fairgrounds during fair week, you can smell its presence. The sweet smell of cotton candy and waffles dunked in sugar wafts in the air with the flavored smoke of hamburgers, hotdogs, beef, and hot sausage cooking on burners under the concession stands. Anyone who owns land near the fairgrounds have lawns and driveways that look like parking lots. Children gather in groups to lose their money on games of chance or to ride any fast moving mechanical apparatus that swings its riders high into the air and twirls them around and around.                                                                                                             

Speaking of lawns in Central Pennsylvania, they are morphing into shades of light brown—which means less mowing, less gasoline consumed, and less work. Scott is not heartbroken over this occurrence, even though he agrees a thunder storm once in a while is a welcome relief from the heat we’ve been having. 

 

August is the month of reaping what we sow. Tomato plants, scattered around in my flowerbeds, are dressed in bunches of still green tomatoes. But if you’re lucky, you can find a handful of small red cherry ones to whet your appetite or to use for a treat on your salad. Why do the flavor of fresh juicy tomatoes from the garden taste better than any you can buy at a store?

 

This year, we tried a bucket garden again, concentrating on spices. We now have parsley, lemon thyme, rosemary, sage, mint, along with two buckets of marigolds and a bucket of lettuce. I also have chives in a bed and a container of basil on our patio. What get used the most? Ironically, it’s the chives that come up each year without fuss or coaxing. 

 

For some odd reason, instead of writing, my wandering mind and body heads off to do other chores that need my attention. I think it’s called procrastination. It’s one of my many talents. Do you have an activity or special summer chore you put off despite the nagging of a little voice inside your head? 

 

I’m always curious to hear how others enjoy the end of the summer season. Drop me a line in the comment section below. And, let’s enjoy August as summertime in all her sunny glory abdicates and autumn splendor ascends the throne next. 

 

                              VISIT MY AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE FOR ALL MY BOOKS 

 

 

Travel, Garden, Books: June is a fun month! #CAC22

 We're Headed to Bellingham, WA!

Yep, to Chanticleer Authors Conference CAC22

by Jacquie Rogers

One of my favorite conferences is hosted by Chanticleer Book Reviews and is an excellent multi-genre conference for new and experienced authors.  I've been going since the very first one, partly because Kiffer Brown (owner of Chanticleer) is such a hoot, and partly because of the wonderful author friends I've made there.

We ladies must hide our jowls.
This is what happens when book people are unsupervised at a bar.

COVID kind of knocked the socks off #CAC20 and #CAC21, but they prevailed and managed to hold virtual conferences on Zoom.  But what a pain...plus, it's really hard to hug your friends on Zoom.  Anyway, this year they're having an IRL (In Real Life) conference, and they're back at Hotel Bellwether at Squalicum Harbor, Bellingham, Washington.  I'm presenting three workshops with my buddy Diane Garland, owner of Your WorldKeeper.  So Mr R and I will hop into the car and pull our little Casita to Puget Sound, where we'll be celebrating family birthdays, visiting friends, and doing a few errands before and after going on up to Bham.

But first, we're selling books at the Owyhee Outpost Days in Murphy, Idaho.  I noticed that Murphy has grown from 47 people to nearly triple digits--so you might not have heard of it, but hey, it's the county seat of Owyhee County.  And there's even a parking meter in front of the courthouse.

**NOTE: This is the only parking meter in the county and there are no stoplights, thank heavens.

Owyhee Outpost Days is a ton of fun.  You can see Lost Arts from days gone by, take in the museum (which is truly excellent), grab some corndogs or gourmet chocolate--or even homemade pie!  The kids have pony rides and wagon rides, and the adults can ride on a John Deere B.  We don't usually have a lot of authors there but I hope a few show up.

The forecast is for rain both days.  Bah Humbug!

Next week, we're visiting the Owyhee Dam in Malheur County, Oregon.  Why is it so interesting?  Because if you go to Hoover Dam, you'll be told over and over and over that Hoover Dam was the first dam where they used refrigeration to cure concrete.  Not so.  Owyhee Dam was the prototype.

We'll be camping in Tillie the Tank, our Casita, from Tuesday to Thursday and our friends will be coming up for a cookout on Wednesday, so should be a lot of fun.

In the middle of all that, we'll be gardening.  So far we have all the herbs and veggies planted, although one of my cantaloupe looks pretty pathetic, so might have to replace it.  Mr R has the irrigation all set up.  We have 16 4'x4' raised beds, 5 1'x4' raised beds, and 3 stock tanks, all full of herbs and vegetables.  Then there are probably two dozen flower pots/planters, all with watering systems, so you can see the poor guy has been working his hiney off.  My daughter, best known on TikTok as Hurricane Mercedes, will be house/garden/Walter sitting.   Sorry, no current photos.

Speaking of Hurricane Mercedes, she has close to 50,000 followers on TikTok, and they're avid fans.  I mean avid.  Her goal is to spread awareness of neurofibromatosis and she's doing a mighty fine job.  As a matter of fact, the Children's Tumor Foundation asked her, as an influencer, to help publicize the Make NF Visible Telethon on May 17th, which she did.  The local NF group had a watch party, and Mercedes got a standing O when her videos were featured four different times!  What a star.  Well, she wanted to be a movie star when she was little, so I guess this is close to it.

From left to right:
Me, Mercedes, and my sis-in-law Mary

 That's about enough yammering from me for one month.  I have to get busy on the presentations, and continue working on my book.  Lots to do!  I hope you're happy, healthy, and have a room jammed full of unread books to keep you traveling, at least in your mind. 

Much Love!

Until next month, Happy Reading!

Jacquie's Website | Amazon author page | BookBub

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest

If you're on TikTok, friend me!  My handle is @jacquierogersbooks.  

You can get videos of Honey Beaulieu and Sassy's latest updates there.  And goofy videos of her scribe.  Heck, we even do a few cooking videos.

Keep up with Jacquie Rogers' latest news at the

Pickle Barrel Gazette!
Honey Beaulieu - Man Hunter series
Hearts of Owyhee series

Planting Seeds: Books, Veggies, & NF Awareness #EndNF by Jacquie Rogers

 

 Planting Season and NF Awareness

by Jacquie Rogers

This is a busy time of year for those of us in the northern hemisphere with gardens.  Add in the fact that life goes on, planting season or not, there's just not much free time these days.  First, the pretty things.

I do love spring flowers.  The daffodils are already gone and the tulips got pretty beat up by the rainstorm a few days ago, but here are a few flowers:

I just love lilacs.  We have a huge bush (even after giving it a butch haircut last year) right by the patio door.  It has multiple blooms and the scent is absolutely wonderful.

We're having a short water season here just like in all the western states.  Our irrigation water is nearly a month late and according to the projections the district will have to shut it off two months early.  Luckily, we've had more rain than usual so the lawn is relatively green.

 Yep, needs water, but does look a lot better after the first mowing.

May is NF Awareness Month, so we have a lot going on there.  My daughter Mercedes is doing a bang-up job of educating and supporting others on TikTok.  As of this writing she has 36,000+ followers and her videos are very popular with her fans.  

This shows the progression of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 in Mercedes.
She wasn't diagnosed until she was 19 years old.

This month the national organization, Children's Tumor Foundation, is hosting some really cool events including popular entertainers and personalities.  Be sure to sign up!  It's all online and free.  Can't beat that.  Here's a link to Mercedes's blog, HurricaneReads, and where Liam Hamer of Early Midlife Crisis in England interviewed her on Spotify.

As for my latest manuscript in progress, well, I had a cute video to embed here but apparently you can only embed from YouTube and this one's in TikTok, but you can see it here.

Also, I'm planning my summer readers' event, Much Ado About the Hearts of Owyhee.  Whew!  Long title for sure, but most of the people think my Hearts of Owyhee series is called the Much Ado series.  So I threw in the towel and combined them. LOL.  A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.  This year, we aren't going to Silver City.  I'm hoping to have it right here in the valley (SW Idaho), hopefully in Marsing.  I should hear in the next few days from my contacts so I'll be able to tell you where and when.  But we're gearing up for a fabulous time!!!

Until next month, Happy Reading!

Jacquie's Website | Amazon author page | BookBub

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest

If you're on TikTok, friend me!  My handle is @jacquierogersbooks.  

You can get videos of Honey Beaulieu and Sassy's latest updates there.  And goofy videos of her scribe.  Heck, we even do a few cooking videos.

Keep up with Jacquie Rogers' latest news at the

Pickle Barrel Gazette!
Honey Beaulieu - Man Hunter series
Hearts of Owyhee series

JUNE - Making Me Scurry Along!

by Judy Ann Davis

Do you ever feel overwhelmed? For some reason, this month, I have the feeling that the end of the day comes too quickly, and the tasks I’d hoped to accomplish are too many. Everywhere I turn, there is something that needs my attention.

Bucket Garden

Spring arrived too quickly in Central Pennsylvania. The weather was balmy and sunny. The patio furniture cried out to be cleaned and set up. There were weeds in the flowerbeds. My bucket garden had to be planted, and my blueberry bushes needed extra care. I'm also nursing a crop of milkweed to try to entice monarch butterflies. Recently, my husband and I decided to remove all the overgrown shrubs in the front of our house and replace them with new ones. I’m now on a first name basis with the owners of all our area's garden and landscape centers.

June is almost at an end, and I have to admit I’ve barely touched my keyboard to write. Why? Because our town’s Bloom and Berry Bash Summer Festival is scheduled to be held on June 26^th.  I’m scurrying around and collecting my paperback books, wood products I create, and my tent (with all its paraphernalia) to get ready for the celebration. On the sunny side, it should be a joy to see all the town folk after a year of cancelled events.

Milkweed

Am I writing? I’m chugging along with writing-related tasks. I took the 5-day Amazon Ad Challenge, and I’m learning to create Zon advertisements. I procured my copyrights to a western and am working to re-edit, obtain a new cover, and republish it both in digital and paperback. I’m also working on edits for a short novella targeted for the Christmas season. What do I really want to do? Write the third novel in the Ashmore Brothers (western) Series and hide from all the chores calling to me, like incessant sirens, to get them done.

How’s your summer progressing? Is it a relaxing one or are you in a frenzy? Drop me a comment and let me know I’m not alone during these lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.  :)

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