The weatherman made a huge mistake and we had a beautiful weekend here in Seattle–despite his dire predictions of rain and cold. So between writing 15 pages (which is what The Plan had me writing over the weekend) I also replanted my deck pots with new annuals,

planted a new rock garden in the front yard,

ignored the rock garden still to be planted,

walked twice with my old critique partner, Darcy Carson, went for a bike ride and out to dinner with the DH for our anniversary (15 years!), swam at the local pool with the kids, helped the … Read more »

sitting in the front row of my Jane Austen talk last week. In fact, the entire night was sort of a series of unexpected moments.

But before I give the real shock away, let me tell you, I am so relieved those chats are over. While I’m usually pretty confident I know more about the era than the average bear, I always get nervous before I do a talk on Jane Austen. Because she is so beloved, so studied, so written about. So I did my talk by skirting Jane and just talking about her era. That is fun. Sharing … Read more »

At least not this morning.  Really slammed to get the book done and in overnight by today.  So check back tomorrow and hopefully I’ll have some spare words left.… Read more »

Now that used to mean getting myself down to the nearest pub and . . . well, singing a lot of Irish songs into the night. And perhaps imbibing in a pint or two. (Kit, this is the point where you don’t snort your coffee all over your keyboard, nor do you comment.) But life is so very different now. This year it has turned into discovering my Irish roots in another way: Discovering the most authenticate and perfect recipe for Irish Soda Bread.

This all started about a week ago when my son’s teacher put out a call for … Read more »

I totally forgot to post a cover of Sophia Nash’s book, The Kiss, for everyone to see. And it is such a great cover, I can’t believe I forgot to share. Mea Culpa and my apologies! And if you click on it, you can go right to Sophia’s page and read an excerpt!

And if Sophia snubs it me for it, I deserve it. 🙂… Read more »

And no, I am not talking about the election. And not even the fact that it is President’s Day. I’m talking about the Presidential Madness that has enveloped my nine year old son. He lives and breathes presidents like most boys do baseball players, hockey stars or soccer icons. It was a horrible shock when I had to tell him, “Sorry, honey, no there are not Presidential Trading Cards.”

I mean really, who wants to end up with a collection of Millard Fillmores?

No, in our house it is all about the presidents. Presidential biographies. (Who knew rough and tumble … Read more »

English Invasion. Read all about it. And this time there will be no dumping the stuff in the harbor, not at this price. But make sure you scroll through the comments to see what SFC of  Manchester had to say about our generally barbarous treatment of tea.  I had to laugh.  Hope you do too!… Read more »

Read Christina Arbini’s blog yesterday and spent a good thirty minutes afterward laughing my ashes off.  Go check it out.… Read more »

Yes, I am blogging over at the Goddess Blogs today.  So drop on by and check it out.  And leave a comment or two . . . apparently goddesses really like comments.… Read more »