Winner of the Give-Away

 

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

If chocolates and flowers are not your thing, I hope you're enjoying a day of taking care of yourself in your own special way.  Be that spending the day in your jammies with a good book, or a stack of magazines, a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.  

Being a slug is one of my favorite things and I do it well.  No excuses needed!  

Today I'm spending my slugishness with some ARCs I scored through NetGalley.com.

First up is Harlan Coben's "Win."  I'm a fan of Harlan Coben, have been since the days of DorothyL (an online discussion list for lovers of the mystery genre) before his first book was published; he was, even in casual posts, quite the wordsmith, funny and engaging.

We have chosen the winner of our "Carousels of Paris" give-away, and the winner is Barbara Slacum.  Her book will be flying her way soon.

Thanks very much to all of you who showed an interest - I wish I could send a copy of the book to each of you.  

This is the perfect time to tell each of you, in case you don't already know, that there is a later version of "Carousels of Paris" available.  It is a bit better quality than the first version with higher qualiity and heavier pages, so if you're planning on buying a copy for yourself or a friend, be sure and look for the edition published by House of Annabelle.  And right now that version is having a cover update to include a sweet blurb from Dorie Greenspan.   

Stay tuned - you never know when the next give-away might happen!  It will be announced here, in my newsletter and at my soon to be updated webpage.  

Waiting for Spring, and Where I'll Be . . .

Hey!

Busy week at work here in Boone, but at least the weather has warmed up some - Hooray! I know it's only a temporary thing - it is, after all, only February. big sigh. But this is the time of the year I start pouring through gardening catalogs that have started arriving in the mail, and search on-line gardening sites. Some of them are impossible to resist. I always picture having a gorgeous flower-filled yard; color as far as I can see. Sadly, that is just not gonna happen. What we do have, thanks to Donald, who is the person who does most of the gardening at our house, is beautiful. Our peonies never fail to make me smile. The hostas get so huge here they're kinda scary. I'll do some gardening and weeding - but I'm not as fond of playing in the dirt as Donald is. Nor am I as good, or as patient, with it all. For one thing, living in the mountains presents a certain problem with digging - every small hole you attempt to dig brings forth huge rocks and boulders. Pretty daunting, and I'm pleased with what little bit of color we have been able to bring forth against the odds. The winters here are long, so when those first hardy little spring flowers start showing their stuff, I am a happy woman.

I dream of a steep bank full of day lilies, and wishing our bank where Donald planted an awful lot of day lilies a few years back got a bit more sun so they would spread a little more quickly than they have so far. Like Molly Weston's! I'm thinking a drive down the mountain to her family's place, Weston Farms, in Garner might just be on our list of places to go this spring. We'll see.

In the meantime - Valentine's Day is coming up. I'm thinking a pretty pot of tulips sitting on my kitchen table might be just the thing. And another pot in the sunroom, and maybe even one in the bedroom. Can a girl have too many flowers sitting around the house? Methinks maybe not.

Friday I'll be stopping by to visit with my friends at the Stiletto Gang Blogspot. I don't know if you'll remember this, but those gracious women are partially responsible for Meanderings and Muses. My first ever blog experience was with them last July. Little did I know where that little piece about my efforts in quitting smoking would lead. I must say, I am happy and having an awful lot of fun on this little journey thus far.

I hope you'll drop by Friday to say hey to me and to the rest of The Stiletto Gang - they are a very cool group of women who also happen to be pretty terrific writers. Their mission is to bring mystery, humor and high heels to the world. Now how much better can it get than that??! See you Friday!

And . . . . don't forget! Next week's Meanderings and Muses guest is Mary Jane Maffini. I'll have her piece posted Sunday (2/15) afternoon or evening. Mary Jane and I are going to be roomies in Indianapolis for Bouchercon this year. Roomies are fun, but she and I won't be borrowing one another's clothes - the woman is perfectly adorably teeny! Teeny!