Cats Candles and Crazy

Not sure if she likes candles but otherwise...

Fun blog name huh?  Originally it was the title of my first blog site.  I wanted to focus not only on the things that I love but the things that I think make me stand out.  Those who know me know that I love candles too much, without my husband I would be the classic crazy cat lady, and the crazy was an easy way to encompass all of the rest.

In the coming months this blog will begin to resemble some of what I had intended for the Cats Candles and Crazy blog.  I will be including updates on my various crafts, including the opening of my first ever Etsy shop!  You'll get to see some of the history that I have moved into here in Maine.

The romance writer hasn't vanished, she just really needed a break.  I still love old classic movies and will be putting out book reviews.  Also I'll be putting out those books that I keep talking about.

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful summer!  Check back soon to see the opening of my Etsy shop!

Welcome Back!

When I started this blog I should have put in a little bit more description about myself.  Maybe then these long stretches where I seem to vanish would make more sense.  One thing that you should know is that I'm a bit lost in many ways.  I've been trying to find out where I want to live, what I want to do, what I want to write, and most importantly what mixture of all of this will make me and my family the most content.

The last few months I've been experimenting with all of these elements.  We moved, rather suddenly, to a new area, so far it looks like it might be a semi-comfortable fit.  I've tried to do a bit of non-romance writing but it is hard to switch to and from different genres, or at least it is for me.  I'm also looking for a new job, not only because we moved but because the last job certainly wasn't making me happy.  Now add to all of this that I've had lots of company at my house, still do in fact.

Sure those are all just excuses but I still think that they are pretty good ones.  I'll get back into posting more often, I promise.  And this time you'll get to see more of me than you have in the past.  This blog will hopefully be a bit more about who I am instead of who I was trying to be.  More on that soon!

Me, Mom, and Harry Potter Part 1

Wasn't she a cute little girl?

Although my mom and I are close we've never been able to find the kind of similar interests that pull most mothers and daughters together.  Often it has felt like our interests just barely slip past one another.  We are both crafty but wire jewelry and cross stitch seem like a foreign language to my mom who loves sewing clothes and making wreaths.  She was able to share a love of cooking and baking with her mother while growing up and I still remember seeing her cry when she realized that even mac and cheese is beyond my ability.  I've always been a huge book worm and movie enthusiast but in the past my mom has had a really hard time sitting down for more than a few minutes before jumping up to get something else done.  I'll admit that her attention span always seemed a bit lacking when it came to those things.  And I should probably add how much I hate to shop for clothes which is something that has always mystified my mom and sister.

No matter how much we tried to find some mother-daughter activity it always ended with one of us trying to humor the other person and neither of us really having fun.  I think that our first real turning point was when my mom watched the tv show My So Called Life about five years ago.  Oddly enough when I was first a fan of this show I hid it from my mom.  I was quite young at the time, maybe 8 or 9 and I knew that she wouldn't like some of the subject matter.  If you aren't familiar with it, it is about a teenager who is struggling to find out who she is and where she is in her life.  Since watching her three children leave the house my mom has really started to mellow out and what once would have stressed her out she was now ready for.  As soon as she saw me order in the box set of the series she asked to borrow it and instantly fell in love with it.  I think that it might have helped her understand some things about us.  Most of the TV moms that she knew and loved were all very close to their kids and fully in synch with them but the pair in this TV show didn't understand each other.  The mom wanted her daughter to remain the sweet child who wore matching outfits with her and the daughter believed that her mother was blind and inexperienced.  Both were wrong of course.

So what does this have to do with Harry Potter?  At the urging of my husband I've decided to blog a bit about the most recent interest that my mom and I have bonded over.  This first blog is to help you understand the context of what has really been achieved and also to help you understand the strange but special relationship that I have with my mom.

It is a bit late but Happy Mother's Day anyway.

It Is Out!

My husband's first e-pub release is now available on Smashwords and Barnes and Noble!  I am so proud of all of the hard work that he has done to get so far.  If you are in the mood for a fun children's ghost story, buy The Whispering Ferns now!

Checking In

This wonderful cover is by Deepy Dapper who created both of my covers

I thought that I should at least pop my head in to say hi, even if I don't have that much fun and exciting news.  Well actually I do have great news.  It is about a new book coming out.  But nope, it isn't about my books coming out.


My husband is about to release his first e-pub book on the 26th!  It is a wonderful children's story that takes place in the misty woods of western Washington beside a mysterious and quaint coastal village.  One adventurous boy is about to find himself amidst the Whispering Ferns.  I think that he might turn it into an online series, which I would love since it is such a fun book.  I'll let you more of the purchasing details when it is released on Tuesday.

Until then Happy Easter!

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

I used to really hate that song when I was little.  Maybe it's because on days that I wanted to feel glum and depressed my dad and Grandma Graves always thought that it was time to break into song.  Oddly enough, it never worked to cheer me up.  But somewhere in my recent years it has actually changed.  I'm not really sure that a pessimist can turn into an optimist but maybe they can at least feel like one sometimes.  Let's just say that life moves on or some other little catch phrase of your choosing.

My new disappointment is a temporary set back with my book.  Before it can be formatted properly there are a few little changes that need to take place and right now I am not able to complete them.  Getting my wisdom teeth pulled ended up being more of a worst case scenario than I had expected and it has greatly set me back.  The swelling and bruising still hasn't finished and I've now learned that I have severe reactions to codine.  Pushing my book back even a week, maybe more, is very difficult for me but it looks like it is also unavoidable.  I've been looking forward to this for so long.  But the truth (grumble grumble grumble) is that the sun will come out tomorrow and some time very soon my book will be released and my jaw will stop hurting.

Unless the world gets destroyed before then.  Did I mention that I'm a pessimist?

An Introduction to Mrs. Brentley

Not every young Victorian girl had the means of going to London or Bath for a season to look for husbands. Luckily there were wealthy friends and family members who offered to sponsor marriageable girls in town while they served as a sort of champion to various events.

This unique form of generosity is what spawned the wonderful character of Mrs. Brentley. I took the custom a bit further than I have found evidence of by making her an official husband hunter. Every year she sponsors one young lady in London while trying to catch the year's most eligible bachelor for her new charge. I loved the idea of someone who had gained so much through her own marriage that she was then trying to help others do the same. Of course Mrs. Brentley didn't expect the kind of problems that the Wellings twins are about to give her.

You can read more about Mrs. Brentley and her charges in my first novel, A Taste of Honey, coming out March 29th.