FALL CELEBRATIONS: A CONTEST, AND GIVEAWAYS OF FREE BOOKS!

I’m writing this from DC, and across the street, leaves are beginning to turn. Gosh, do I ever love this time of year. The colors outside are jewel-toned. The days are less humid, and the nights are a cool temperature.

WIN A GOURMET AUTUMN CANDY BAR

Americans call this season “Fall” which is short for the “fall of leaves,” but Brits call it “Autumn.” Pumpkin-flavored everything is on the shelves, but only for a short while, as we enjoy the bounty of our harvest. A couple of weeks ago, in the Seattle airport, I sampled fabulous chocolate bars made by the Seattle Chocolate Company. My favorite was the Choc-o-Lantern, which had a subtle cinnamon and spice flavor. Yum! In fact, I’m going to send one of these to a lucky commenter, so don’t forget to leave a comment below. (I’ll pick someone on Tuesday, Sept. 26 at ten p.m. EST, and announce the winners in the comments under this blog post on Wednesday, Sept. 27.)

SHARING PLANT 'STARTS' 

Yesterday, I made vegetable soup in the slow cooker. Getting out the slow cooker is always a sign of cool weather. Another sign is the changing of floral displays. Mums are in season, and I really miss the mums I grew back at our house in St. Louis. If you pinch mums back all summer, they spread out into huge pillows of riotous color, pink, yellow, orange, magenta, and gold. I remember how my mother and her friends used to share plant stems, roots, and seeds with each other. Everybody's garden was a gift from a friend or a neighbor. Does anybody still do that today?

HEALTH BENEFITS OF THIS SEASON

Fall is terrific for cuddling up with a loved one. The journal Perception reported that men find women more attractive during the cooler months. Personally, I think it’s the pumpkin I dab behind my ears. LOL Babies born during the fall months are more likely to live to be 100, according to the Journal of Aging. That means that my husband will live to be a centenarian.

THE JOY OF FARMERS' MARKETS

Did you know that apples in the grocery store can be as old as 12 months? HGTV Magazine says so. If you get the chance to buy apples from a farmer’s market, you’re in for a treat. The flavor is entirely different with all sorts of subtle hints. My husband and I love to go to the Vienna, Virginia, farmer’s market on Saturdays. Each visit I buy a bouquet of flowers: zinnia, cockscomb, marigolds, and asters. They last for at least a week, looking perky in their Mason jar. The apples I get there are fabulous.

HOW DO YOU CELEBRATE FALL?

How do you celebrate Fall? Remember, I’ll choose one lucky person on Monday, Sept. 25, and send that person a Seattle Chocolate Company candy bar!

GRAB THESE KIKI BOOKS AT A DISCOUNT

I’m feeling particularly thankful this fall. I just re-released Make, Take, Murder: Book #5 , the 6^th book in my Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series, and Amazon responded by creating a series page. That means it’s now easier than ever for people to read my books in order. Hurrah! I’m reaping the harvest for my efforts. This Wednesday and Thursday only, Ready, Snap, Shoot: Book #6 will be available for only 99 cents. So, mark your calendars and check Amazon.com on Wed. and Thurs. (27 and 28 of September).

GET MAKE, TAKE, MURDER FOR LESS THAN A BUCK

Make, Take, Murder  is 99 cents today (Sunday) because I'm running behind putting in the price change and it usually takes 24 hours for Amazon to make an adjustment. So if you don't have it, grab your copy now!

LOAD YOUR E-READER WITH THESE GREAT FREE READS

I'm one of 33 authors who are giving away books in a special Mystery Giveaway Promotion that started yesterday and runs through September 30. All you have to do is go to the link and load up on the books you want to read. How cool is that?

  https://books.bookfunnel.com/free_mystery_thriller/qp3np827nk

COMMENTS?

Will you take advantage of this offer to find a new favorite author? Are you celebrating the season? Have you ever traded "starts" of plants with friends? Have you read Make, Take, Murder? Are leaves changing where you live? Let's get this party started!

Falling for Fall

October is my favorite month in Chicago. And it’s not disappointing. I left a surprisingly soggy L.A. Wednesday for crisp blue skies, golden leaves and temperatures in the 70's. True, the rain in L.A. was an oddity. It usually only rains in the winter, but a storm snuck in early. And by the weekend, the rain will probably be forgotten as the forecast calls for sunny skies and warm temperatures. But even so, that L.A. weather won’t have the same fall magic I always find here.

The ground was littered with fallen leaves as I walked to the market and I noticed that the drying leaves give a distinct scent to the air. In the old days, people used to rake the leaves into piles in the gutter and burn them. I can still remember the pungent smell. At the store, the summer fruit was just about gone. Instead of peaches from California, there were bins of honey crisp apples from Michigan.

I was a little apprehensive about this trip. When I was here in July, it was in the 90's and my air conditioning didn’t work, there was plumbing work going on that required ripped out walls and teams of men here all day. The final touch was the arrival of the fire department at midnight the Sunday of my visit. From my front porch I watched them go in the building. I was in my nightgown, though thankfully one that looked kind of like a dress, and grabbed my flash drives and my purse. Then I waited. No one came through the building telling me to leave. I didn’t hear any neighbors in the hall. But I also didn’t hear the fire trucks leaving. Adrenalin was pumping as I wondered what to do. Finally when I went back on the porch, the firemen were coming out of the building and I could see they were packing up.

It wasn’t a false alarm. The neighbor on the first floor had a fire in his dryer.

But as soon as I got here this time and felt the pleasant air and realized that no plumbers were going to pound on the door whenever they decided to arrive, I relaxed and began to enjoy my favorite season. I also don’t think the fire department is going to show up. At least, I hope not.

So, hopefully I can focus on finishing the first draft of crochet mystery # 7 and painting the porch door. Well, painting after I get the old paint off, which I understand is the hard part. Then there is the wrap I’m crocheting to wear for my son’s wedding at the end of October. If only I could crochet and type and the same time.

I’m using this beautiful pumpkin with flecks of gold colored yarn for the wrap. It is both a souvenir from the Summer Knit and Crochet Show where I bought it and a reminder of fall. I should probably put some great final line here that ties everything together, but I can’t think of one. I keep thinking about the typing, the crocheting and the painting I need to do. And that’s not even mentioning that my sixth book, Behind the Seams, comes out in a couple of weeks. Didn’t Bette Lamb, our guest blogger, say something about wishing for more hours in the day. I’m with her.

Do you have a favorite season?

The Colors of Fall--and Another Contest

Last week at the top of the oak tree next to our house, I spotted a cluster of bright red leaves. Ah! My heart did a little happy dance. Fall is here! The days are cooler, the nights are positively crisp, and the entire palette of the world shifts to deeper, more moody colors.

David and I walk to the Farmers Market every Saturday morning. I load up on heirloom tomatoes and honey crisp apples. Of course, I always buy a bouquet! I'm drying the flower heads so I'll have my own cutting garden next year. Zinnias are my favorites.

I find this season to be very stimulating to my creativity. The change of temperature alone is freeing. The July of 2010 was the hottest on record for the Washington, D.C., area. When we made our yearly pilgrimage to Kiawah Island, the temperatures soared to the three digit mark when you added in the humidity. I spent most of this summer indoors.

To salute fall, I carved a new cork stamp this morning in the shape of an apple. I used a champagne cork, because it's bigger than a wine cork. After I stamp the image, I use watercolor paint to add dimension. The result is pictured below. I have a bit of work to do to get it to be perfect, but so far, I like what I have done.



To read more about how to make a cork stamp, go to my blog.

CONTEST

I'm curious. What's your favorite part of fall? Tell me and I'll send you a bookmark that features my cork apple images.

Win A Customized Composition Notebook

School supplies. Were there ever any two sweeter words in the entire English language? Not for me!

I love new notebooks, Crayola Crayons, fresh pens, unsharpened #2 Ticonderoga pencils, Pink Pearl erasers, and most of all...composition notebooks.

I didn't always feel this way. At first, I hated the composition notebooks because you can't easily tear sheets out. But now, I love them, especially to take to conferences. You see, at conferences and conventions, you don't get a desk with a surface for writing. So...a composition notebook with its sturdy cover is both a notebook and a desk top all in one handy, dandy item.

Recently, I took a bit of flak for showing up at a fancy writer's meeting and whipping out my composition notebook. One of the celebrated writers at the table said, "I haven't seen one of those since I was a kid." I think he meant it as a diss, but I don't care. I have composition notebooks with all sorts of nifty info in them. They are sturdy, they are tough, and they fit neatly on my bookshelves. Take that legal pads! Boo-ya spiral bound notebooks!

To make the most of a composition notebook, I have a trick. I leave the first three pages blank. Then I number the pages inside the notebook. When I'm finished with the notebook, I go back and create a table of contents on those first three pages. This leaves me free to change subject, to put anything I want inside, and I quickly find what I want by refering to the table of contents.

I love dedicating an entire notebook to a conference or an organization! I have a notebook for my Sisters in Crime meetings and for my Mystery Writers of America meetings as well. I just use different colored covers to tell them apart.

Here's another cool use for composition notebooks: Decorate the covers and give them as gifts. See my samples above. To learn more about how I made each of them, visit my blog.

CONTEST

Want me to make you a customized little composition notebook? (Actual size is about 3" x 5.") Comment on this blog post! I'll choose one lucky comment author to win a notebook in his/her favorite colors. Why not share this offer with a friend?