Tag Archives: Long and Short reviews blog challenge

April 17, 2019 · 4:27 am

#Long&ShortReviewsWednesdayBloggerChallenge 4.17.19


Today’s prompt was a thinker for me. We had to come up with 10 unusual things about ourselves. I actually think I’m the most boring person on the planet, so this was kinda tough to write. I had to dig really deep and even go back to high school days to come up with anything. So, here goes: 10 unusual things about me ( the most person alive!)

10. I love scary movies

9. my left eye is significantly smaller than my right ( 2 cataract surgeries, and 2 retinal detachments, plus facial fractures as a baby from an accident)

8. I have vocal cord polyps, which is why I sound like a big smoker when I’ve never had a cigarette in my life.

7. I can name every movie made in 1939 ( being a lonely kid made me a big TV movie watcher)

6. I can recite the entire Wizard of Oz movie along with it

5. I have a heightened senses of taste and smell because of an accident I had as a baby

4. I got a perfect English score on the SAT

3. I can sit in full Lotus

2. I can’t whistle, try though I might

1.  I’m a great mimic

Let’s see what some of the other authors in this blog challenge have that’s unusual about them: L&SR

And when I’m going about living my normal, boring days, you can find me here:

Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me// Triber// BookMe // Monkey me //Watch me

Here’s the link to my TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DAMN BOOK podcast interview, just in case you missed it: TMAYDB

and the link to my recent interview on NewHampshirePublicRadio

And I can’t forget the OKRWA 2018 Award video

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April 10, 2019 · 4:20 am

#L&SR #WednesdayBloggingChallenge 4.10.19

Today’s blog prompt, Characters I never want to meet, was a hard one for me to wrap my head around. I wondered if it meant characters who are already out in the book reading world that are so heinous and unlikable I wouldn’t want to waste a breath on meeting them. Or… if it’s people who haven’t been written yet, just little nuggets of character profiles.

A conundrum to be sure.

I’m gonna go with my first thought that it’s people who are already alive and walking around in the pages of books who I simply want to avoid at all costs.

Hannibal Lecter for example. I mean, would YOU want to meet a cannibal? I’m kinda chubby and I know he’d be thinking LUNCH whenever he looked at me.  Pass.

Jack Torrance is another one who’d I’d rather not shake hands with. He could have an axe behind his back, at the ready to whip it out and go-a-chopping-crazy. No thanks. Pass.

I’m thinking Amy Dunne is a gal I’d rather not meet up for a chat and a cuppa at the local Starbucks for so many reasons, but the biggest one is anyone who has that expressive a resting bitch face is the kind of person you know is planning 50 ways to make your life miserable while she’s chomping at a biscotti. Yeah…BIG PASS!

And does anyone REALLY want to meet Voldemort? I know I don’t. Creep factor aside, there’s that whole moving to dark side thing that’s so unappealing. Pass. Big Pass. Never-gonna-happen-pass.

Maybe the reason I stick to writing romance is because none of my villains are terrifying. Just nasty and petty. I can deal with nasty and petty. Terrifying? Not so much.

Let’s see who some of the other author/bloggers participating in this challenge want to avoid. L&SR

And please don’t avoid me or my characters! We’re nice people. Really. You can find us here:

Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me// Triber// BookMe // Monkey me //Watch me

Here’s the link to my TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DAMN BOOK podcast interview, just in case you missed it: TMAYDB

and the link to my recent interview on NewHampshirePublicRadio

And I can’t forget the OKRWA 2018 Award video

 

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April 3, 2019 · 4:06 am

#L&SRWednesdayBloggingChallenge 4.3.19

I almost skipped writing this blog entry this week. My comfort food recipes are like  children to me: how can I choose my favorite?? Especially since each one serves to comfort in a different way, for different emotional needs??

There was really only one way to do it and that was to throw a mental dart at the ones that people request I make the most. I narrowed it down to three, then threw that dart. This is the absolute fav: CHOCOLATE TRIFLE. 

I find it very TELLING that my favorite comfort food is a dessert. But that’s a topic for another blog, so…..

Looks good, doesn’t it? It is, trust me.

So here’s the easy recipe:

You’ll need: chocolate cake, 2 tubs of  Cool Whip, instant chocolate pudding and a Cadbury Chocolate/Orange ball ( Or a Hershey’s chocolate bar – your choice)

For the cake you will need:

  • 2 cups granulated sugar, sifted
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted 
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, sifted
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, sifted
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 cup cold regular milk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup boiling water

To make the cake:

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Then grease and flour 2 9 inch round baking tins

  1. After sifting the dry ingredients mix the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder and the salt into a mixer.
  2. Add in the eggs one at a time, then the milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes.
  3. This is a weird step, but once the ingredients are mixed, slowly mix in the boiling water. The batter will become very thin. This is okay.
  4. Halve the mixture and pour each half into the 2 baking rounds. Then, bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean and flakey.
  5. Let the cake cook completely for about 3-4 hours. Then, slice the cake in half, length-wise to form 2 identical round discs.
To make the pudding: This one is easy. Just buy 2 large boxes of any commercial chocolate instant pudding mix and prepare them according to the box. Let them cool completely, even though they are instant. You want the pudding to be firmly formed, not watery or jiggly.
Once the cake is cooled and sliced, crumble one round and place it in the bottom of a trifle bowl. Press it down so the cake pieces cover the entire bottom of the bowl. Then, spoon in half the chocolate pudding, spreading it around the cake to form a layer ( refer to the picture above. ) Then spread a layer of cool whip -use about 1/2-2/3 of the tub. Again, refer to the above picture to see what it looks like.
So you now have 3 layers: cake crumbles, pudding, cool whip.
Do it again until you reach almost to the top of the bowl. If you have any pudding or cool whip left over, top the top off with it.
Take your Cadbury Chocolate orange and shave it using a small peeler to form chocolate shavings on the top.
Or, score a  Hershey’s chocolate bar into pieces for a bigger candy rush. On the above trifle I shaved the orange first then added Hershey’s pieces for a powerful chocolate punch.
Let the whole thing sit, covered with cellophane on the top, in the fridge, overnight.
Serve cold. Disclaimer: When I feel the emotional need to make this, NO ONE ELSE is allowed to have any.
Just saying.
WARNING: This is NOT for anyone on a  diet!!! hee hee.  You can reduce some of the calories by using SUGAR FREE INSTANT CHOCOLATE PUDDING and COOL WHIP FREE ( or FAT FREE COOL WHIP. )
Let’s see what some of the other authors in the blog challenge consider their fav recipes. L&SRWednesdayBlogChallenge
Bon Appetite ~Peg

Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me// Triber// BookMe // Monkey me //Watch me

Here’s the link to my TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DAMN BOOK podcast interview, just in case you missed it: TMAYDB

and the link to my recent interview on NewHampshirePublicRadio

And I can’t forget the OKRWA 2018 Award video

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March 13, 2019 · 5:02 am

#L&SR #WednesdayBloggingChallenge 3.13.10 A DAY IN THE LIFE

Well, a day in MY life, is the actual prompt for today.

Okay peeps, ready to be bored senseless? Hee Hee

I’d love to tell you I rise from a bed with sheets as soft as clouds, a skylight of sunshine raining down on me, waking me with its soft, warm kiss to start my day.

In reality I’m up hours before the sun ever thinks to wink open its eyes or that proverbial cock has a notion and a tickle in his throat to crow. Somewhere between 2:30 and 3am is the time my body says “Hey! Get the hell up and start working.”

So I do.

Hours 3-5:30 are spent in my attic office scheduling all the social media promos I need to for the day, after first getting a bottle of Diet Mountain Dew and a cup of tea to fortify me. And yes, it takes me that long everyday on promotion. I write for several blogs and they need to be promoted. I’m usually involved in one or two giveaways each month so those need to be promoted, and right now I’m having  a sale on my debut book and I need to get the word out there about it, so THAT needs to be promoted. This is the time I answer, or send,  emails, too, plus it’s the time of day I typically write and post my Netgalley book reviews and/or write my blogs.

After all of that is done I get washed and dressed for the day and head to the gym. Since I spend upwards of 8-10 hours per day sitting on my butt – and I’m not as young as I used to be, so all that stuff about ass-spread when you reach a certain age is real, peeps – I need to do something physical and strength train-y to make sure I’m strong and healthy for the next hundred years.

After the gym, back home to the lap top where I write for about 3-4 hours on my current WIP. I’ll answer emails at this time, private messages that come through, and retweet anything my writing sistahs send me to. At 11 am every day I take my lunch break to watch The View. Love those ladies, every one of them!

Since all my friends still work at outside-the-home day jobs, and I work from my home, there aren’t any people I can hang out with during the day who will call and try to distract me from what I need to do: write.

After the View and lunch it’s back to writing for another 4-5 hours depending on what time I need to get dinner started. If it’s a late night for my hubby at work I start dinner about 6 ( most days are late nights for hubby!)

By 7:30 pm my eyes have had it with looking at a screen most of the day so I veg with some mindless Real Housewives television.

 

Now, in between all that writing during the day, I do a bunch of adulting things. Laundry doesn’t wash, fold, iron, or put itself away, so if Hubby and I don’t want to walk around with smelly clothes, or – GOD FORBID – naked, I need to wash our dirty clothing. Groceries don’t magically appear in the cabinets delivered by quiet elves after midnight, nor do I have a life-in chef who prepares all our meals for us. And the dust bunnies who silently reside in every nook and cranny of my home need regular round ups. Floors get washed, rugs get vacuumed, and things get put away where they belong.

I’m also the primary caregiver/driver for my elderly parents now who live 25 miles away, so once a week I shop for them, cook for them,  and clean their house, in addition to chauffeuring them to doctor appointments and anywhere else they need to go.

Before slipping into bed I typically check my email again, address what needs to be answered, then make a list of all the promo that needs to be done in the morning.

In bed, I’ll call up my latest Netgalley download for read and review on my kindle and read until my eyes start to bleed with fatigue. Lights out and the day starts all over again 2 -3 hours later.

See? Boring.

Let’s see if any of the other authors in the blog challenge have a more exciting life ( because you  know they do!!!) Long and short Reviews Wednesday Blog Challenge

Looking for me? I’m usually here:

Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// BookMe // Monkey me //Watch me

Here’s the link to my TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DAMN BOOK podcast interview, just in case you missed it: TMAYDB

and the link to my recent interview on NewHampshirePublicRadio

 

 

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March 6, 2019 · 4:41 am

#L&SR #wednesdaybloggingchallenge I don’t JUST write, you know!

This week’s topic is Your Favorite Hobby and why.

Folks, this one wrote itself.

I was a kid in the 1960’s ( I know: I’m ollllllllllld!) and one of the fun-est things to do on craft day at school was decoupage.

Decoupage  (noun) the art or craft of decorating objects with paper cut-outs.

As a kid it was sososososo much fun acquiring and stocking up newspapers, magazines, comic books, even old catalogs, and cutting out pictures, items, images that I loved just so I could them glue them to things like shoe boxes, jewelry boxes, pictures frames, and give them as gifts. I was between the ages of 5 and 10, so in those days, these were the extent of my gift-giving persona.

Nowadays, I do better.

Nowadays, I decoupage old steamer trunks that I find at rummage sales, and in second hand stores.

I’ve decoupaged 5 trunks over the past 3 years and have 2  more waiting for me to find some free time. When they are complete, I give them away as gifts to people around me who ask. My daughter has 2, my BFF has one, and I’ve got the other 2. This one is sitting in my office behind the couch I use to take naps in when the words aren’t flowing as fast as I want them to.

You can see a cut out of my first book SKATER’S WALTZ on the top of this one! The book just celebrated it’s 4th book birthday on Monday and is on sale until 3.15 for just 99cents an ecopy. ( hee hee, shameless plug, sorry. Had to!)

This is the entire top of the picture above it and if you have really good eyes, you can see a cut out of my second book THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME. I’ll give you a hint – it’s to the right ( your right as you’re looking at this) of Judy Garland.

Anyway, self promo over.

A trunk usually takes me anywhere from 1-2 months to complete, depending on the amount of damage the trunk has when I acquire it. The longest I’ve ever taken is 4 months because I had a trunk with an internal removable shelf. Both the inside of the trunk and the shelf had to be repaired, then papered, then decoupaged. I did the internals first, then proceeded to the outside.

That trunk is my favorite to date and holds sososososo much stuff I can’t stand it!

So. That’s my hobby. What about you?
Let’s see what the other authors in this blog hop do when they’re not writing away: L&SRBlogChallenge

And as always, look for me here when I’m not decoupaging, writing, or doing the other 7689 things I need to do daily:

Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// BookMe // Monkey me //Watch me

Here’s the link to my TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DAMN BOOK podcast interview, just in case you missed it: TMAYDB

and the link to my recent interview on NewHampshirePublicRadio

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