At last I am ready to show off the cover of KILLER HOOKS. I like the way it turned out and the shade of blue in the background. I am happy to announce it is available for pre-order.
I am getting my website updated and there will be an excerpt and photo of the project. And then it's write the blogs for the virtual tour.
But meanwhile life goes on. And just like that summer is over with August ending even though fall doesn't officially begin until much later in September. It's more of a mindset. Jakey has already started decorating for Halloween which he has declared his favorite holiday. We went to a dollar store and let him go wild with picking skeletons gravestones and more. When we went to check out, he declared it was going to cost a hundred dollars. So glad he was wrong. It was more like less than twenty dollars. He already has his costume. I am so behind that the Halloween wreath we hung on the inside of the front door is still up from last year.
Costco hasn't wasted any and already has all the wrapping paper and toys for Christmas. I expect they'll start stocking soup again and my favorite cranberry walnut bread. The days have gotten shorter, but still there is a long twilight. I love watching the sky fill with pastel colors just above the silhouette of the mountains.
As a last vestige of summer, I got some mini watermelons at Costco. Of course, there were two. I've always thought of watermelons as being happy fruit connected with summer. The color is so cheerful. But who knew they had a sinister side.
I expected to use the two melons over the weekend and had them sitting on the counter. I was surprised when I came in the kitchen and saw someone had put them in the sink. I thought it was a mistake and put them back on the counter. They were back in the sink in the morning and giving off a smell that traveled across the house. Only then did I get the story of what had happened. Late the night beore my son noticed a mysterious hissing sound in the kitchen. At first, he thought it might be an animal intruder, but when he followed the sound, saw that it was coming from the watermelons and they were surrounded by a lot of liquid. He put them in the sink. later, he was upset that someone (me) had moved them back to the counter and put them back in the sink.
Thank heavens for the Internet. I did a little searching and found out that the liquid and hissing meant the watermelon was fermenting inside and would make you sick if you ate them. There were also stories of watermelons exploding. At that, I put them in a plastic bag and took them outside. I plan to cut into them before I put them in the trash so there will be no explosion in the garbage can.
An exploding watermelon sounds like a Molly thing only there would be the arrival of the bomb squad. I'm definitely going to keep that in mind for a future book. I always say that everything is research for me. I just don't know when I'm going to use it.
10 comments:
Oh my gosh, I never heard about the possibility of exploding watermelons!
Good morning -- What a story!! I've never heard of an exploding watermelon -- can you imagine what a mess that would make!! That does sound like something that would work in a Molly story.
It was a wild night around here -- brief but big storm -- lots of lightning and rain. The house two doors down from my son was hit by lightning and burned -- he said there were seven firetrucks there for a long time. Just a few branches down for me.
Looking forward to "Killer Hooks" -- I will pre-order soon. Have you started on your new series or is it just in the thinking stage?
I'll have to look for the cranberry walnut bread -- sounds delicious. I've made a cranberry bread in the past -- a dense, delicious bread -- buying it will be easier now!!
I've never done much for Halloween -- a cousin of mine goes all out with a huge outdoor display. A bowl of corn candy is my speed nowadays!! Glad Jakey was wrong about the $100 worth of goodies!!
Enjoy your day.
Next time put them in the bag and return them to Costco. Believe it or not, they take back everything.
This reminded me of a story that happened to a friend. She spray painted a large pumpkin to decorate her Thanksgiving table. A few days later as she was relaxing one afternoon she hears a BOOM from the dining room area. It turned out the pumpkin exploded covering her dining room with pumpkin guts. I guess when you spray paint the pumpkin, it seals it and keeps the deterioration and gasses inside until BOOM. A huge mess but she was thankful it didn't happen at Thanksgiving dinner.
I'm looking forward to your new book. I'll pre-order today. Have a great weekend.
Sally, so it happens to pumpkins too. It must have been a mess. I thought about taking it back to Costco, but was afraid the watermelons might explode in the car or while I was waiting in line to return them. The way things are now, if there was a loud boom at Costco, there would probably be a panic.
I have to take something else back there today and I'm going to tell them about the melons.
Miss Merry, who would have thought... My husband put them in the trash before I could poke some holes in them. Here's hoping they just shrivel up in the garbage cans.
Patty, wow that was a scary about the house being hit by lightening and burning. Lightening and thunder scare me, left over from growing up in the Midwest. There isn't a lot of lightening here.
The Costco version of the bread is really good. They are very generous with the walnuts.
I have the first fifty pages and synopsis of the first book in the new series. I won't start writing it until I finish the next Yarn Retreat book, but I plan to go to the real Indiana town when I'm in Chicago next time. We used to h ave a cottage there, but now it's just land covered with trees.
reminds me of my stepson shaking a can of whipped cream topping too much. He pointed it up and it exploded all over the kitchen, even to the ceiling. He was supposed to come back the next day to clean it, about 6 months later his wife came. I just waited for them. My mother also blew the top off her pressure cooker once--while making some kind of tomato sauce. Of course she just got my dad to clean it up
Off to Amazon preorder !!
Linda Osborn, I heard those whipped cream cans could explode in the trash if you didn't let all the gas out. But didn't realize could send off a stream of whipped cream to the ceiling. My mother used an old fashioned pressure cooker and it never exploded, but always made me nervous the way the dial would shake around. I bought one of the new ones, but still have to use it.
Amazon is taking awhile to list the print version.
Thanks for your hard work and dedication in creating this blog
Yikes, Betty. I never heard that about watermelon before and am glad you figured it out before things got any worse. I certainly understand, being a mystery writer, why you'd try to figure out how to use that in a story!
And congrats on a delightful cover for KILLER HOOKS!
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