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Happy Birthday, Mac and Cheese, Please, Please, Please! 🥳 ✨

August 15, 2023 by in category Writing tagged as , , ,

I can’t believe that my book, Mac and Cheese, Please, Please, Please, turned three last month!!!

It brings me so much joy to think of my little book as a three-year-old going around begging everyone for macaroni and cheese. 😂

If you haven’t come across my book before, it’s a story inspired by my own daughters and their relentless pursuit of macaroni and cheese for every meal.

Every day, they’d ask their mommy, 
“Please, please, please, Mommy. 
Please, please, please. 
Can we have mac and cheese?”

Publishing this book was such an incredible experience for me during a really tough year. I look forward to putting out the sequel, which I’m hoping to make happen in 2024.

Until then,
Peace, love, and mac & cheese! 💛

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Featured Author Renae Wrich

August 14, 2023 by in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Featured Author of the Month tagged as , ,

A born and raised Minnesotan, Renae Wrich is a lover of hot dishes, lakes, and snuggling up with a good book on a cold winter day. Renae holds a B.A. in English from the University of Minnesota Duluth. She lives in a suburb of Minneapolis with her husband and two children (who love macaroni and cheese). Mac and Cheese, Please, Please, Please is her first book.

Visit her website at www.renaewrich.com to learn more.

MAC AND CHEESE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE
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My Father’s Eyes

August 13, 2023 by in category From a Cabin in the Woods by Members of Bethlehem Writers Group
The following poem commemorates my emotions at the death of my beloved father and the fact that at the time of his death, he thought of others as he did all throughout his life. My father was an organ donor and fittingly donated his corneas so someone could see through my father’s eyes.

I love and miss you Dad, enjoy a little light reading.
Jeff Baird

My Father’s Eyes

From long ago, memories fill my mind:
I would watch and learn.
Sometimes it was hard to follow in his footsteps:
He demanded a lot from himself and from me.
Sometimes I would not understand:
At the time I didn’t know My Father’s Eyes.

Slowly I grew and became a man:
Many times, I would become hesitant and frightened.
Something always kept me going:
He was so good at providing for me.
I didn’t realize my safety net was always there:
Slowly but surely, My Father’s Eyes opened.

I cheered, I failed:
I laughed, I cried.
But always in the background I could hear:
That’s ok # 1 son of mine.
My Father’s Eyes opened wide.

My eyes cry often these days:
As I look back and remember.
With fondness and love:
With sadness and sorrow.
But it’s become clear:
These are my Father’s Eyes. 

Through the grief that weighs me down:
And the sorrow that clouds my mind.
A light appears: My job is clear.
My son,
My Daughter,
My life, 
My Father’s Eyes,
Are one and the same.

Some of Jeff’s Stories

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Writing Time Literally Going to the Dog

August 12, 2023 by in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as ,

We have a new puppy, so my free writing time is literally going to the dog right now.

So instead of writing some great blog post, I thought I’d share some cute pics of our puppy.

But first, being the historical writer that I am, I looked up the phrase, go to the dogs, just to make sure I had its meaning correct. And sure enough, the summary meaning is becoming ruined.

Although it was originally tied to bad food that wasn’t good for human consumption. For this post, I thought I would write a fun, cute article that basically says my writing time has been ruined. That I’m distracted by the dog. Hence, all my writing time is going to the dog.

Meet the new dog

So, without any further ado, let’s meet our new puppy, Ace.

Denise Colby new puppy named Ace which is where all her writing time is going

This is the first day we brought him home from a lab rescue group. About five months old, he’s super sweet and pretty easy going.

Writer Denise M. Colby with her new puppy Ace
Writer Denise M. Colby with the family’s new puppy

Of course the call came in the week of my son’s high school graduation, so things were pretty chaotic. But we had to go with the flow if we wanted to adopt him. My word this year is change, and although I knew there would be a lot of change this year, getting a puppy wasn’t on my radar! But he’s stolen our hearts and we love him.

Naming the Dog

Now, it took us about a week to name him. This is mostly our son’s dog, so he had some cool names he was coming up with. A huge 80’s music fan, Huey was at the top of the list, as well as Elo, and a few others. But what tipped the scales was when my other son threw out the name Ace. As in Batman’s dog Ace (from the Justice League cartoons). Being a batman fan, that one became the winner and thus our dog is named Ace.

photo of Ace the Bat-hound from the DC universe website justice league to illustrate why we chose the name Ace for our dog
This is Ace, the Bat-Hound from Justice League. Photo taken from the DC website

So of course, we had to have a photo shoot with my son wearing his Batman costume so we could introduce Ace to everyone on social media. We even found a dog toy with the logo on it. Such cute photos.

Why My Writing Time is Going to the Dog

We have had middle of the night wake-ups, and other puppy antics too. Like chewing. We can’t really leave him alone too much right now. Which makes it difficult to dive into my manuscript.

We are now in puppy training class, which also teaches us humans on how to behave with the dog. As you can see, we have our hands full. It won’t last forever, but this is what we’ve been doing this summer. I hope to show him periodically in my Author social media. So follow along on my instagram at denisem.colby I’ll leave you with this last pic so you can say awww.

Ace, Denise M. Colby's new dog, loves playing with balls. Denise M. Colby loves throwing the balls for him which takes away from her writing time
Ace loves playing with balls. And I love throwing balls for him, which takes away from writing, but gets me outside.

Denise Colby loves to write about her word of the year. Each word builds a new layer in her writing journey (and her life). In 2022, her word was Work. This year, her word is change.

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Revealed: what novels inspired me to write French historicals that led to me writing ‘Sisters at War’

August 11, 2023 by in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as , ,

When I was making this video, I found an old photo of me ‘studying’ back in the day at university. I was sitting outside what we called the ‘student center’ near the science building on campus. A friend captured the moment and I kept the photo in my college yearbook. [college photo in video]

Yes, we wore dresses and I remember those black suede shoes. Low heels. I started out wearing 3-inch heels — red, of course — but that didn’t last. The campus was vast and hilly and I had to trek across the campus from the humanities building to the library and then to the science building.

A different time.

I lived in Laguna Beach steps from the ocean, got my first surfboard, and had a wonderful mentor from the golden days of Hollywood. A charming, older lady who helped me with my singing.

I’ve come a long way… but I’ll always remember those days sitting on the beach and reading my ‘Angelique‘ books.

And studying French and German.

I made it through college, then went to live in Europe, and embarked on the adventures that eventually made it into my novels. Especially ‘SISTERS AT WAR‘. The story of the Beaufort Sisters in Paris 1940 when the unthinkable happens to one of them… a violent sexual assault… and how it affects them both.

More later… and how I added my own life experiences to the story.

Jina

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