Today, the new contest begins. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the process, here’s how it works: everyone who comments will be automatically entered. Two winners will be chosen at random, and notified by Jen. Once we have our winners’ snail mail info, we’ll ship each of them an autographed copy of my latest book. If you won’t win this time around, no worries. Just keep entering. 🙂
I was fighting a cold all weekend, so I whipped up a batch of my homemade chicken soup–good stuff. I already had a pot of bone broth brewing in my big slow cooker/roaster, which holds 18 quarts. The bone broth is super nourishing, and it’s really quite easy to assemble the ingredients; it has to simmer for around 24 hours, however, which is why I use the cooker instead of a regular kettle on the stove. That being broth day, I also made a batch of mushroom broth, for future risotto. 🙂 My cousin called to ask if I was writing or resting, and I said neither–the cooking was no problem, but the clean-up wore me right out. 🙂
I’m still on my kids’ book kick, and listened to three books by Tara Dairman over the weekend, while cooking. Her stories about an 11-year-old foodie named Gladys Gatsby are delightful–I loved them all. The first is ALL FOUR STARS, the second is THE STARS OF SUMMER, and the third is STARS SO SWEET. If you thinking of giving books as gifts this year (always a good idea), I can certainly recommend these clever, entertaining and painlessly educational stories–I was prompted to purchase Vietnamese Cinnamon–by Gladys! She’s a restaurant critic for a major newspaper, not to mention a world-class cook in her own right, so she knows these things. Yes, a restaurant critic, at the ripe age of 11. And that’s another thing I liked about these books–they show kids doing amazing things, and if they inspired me, they’re bound to do the same and more for children. I sure hope there will be further episodes, because I’m hooked.
NORTH OF EDEN is coming along well–I’m about halfway through the book–and I’m loving it. Because I’m writing about the actual battle at the moment, I have to stop and check facts a lot, but that’s okay. I learn something new every time.
A shout-out to Karen, my good friend in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Karen jumped out of bed in the middle of the night, tripped over her sleeping dog, and broke her foot! She was quick to assure me that the dog was not hurt. 🙂 Feel better soon, Karen, and stay off that foot. And the dog. 🙂
That’s the news for today, my friends. Thank you for stopping by.
About Linda
The daughter of a town marshal, Linda Lael Miller is a #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than 100 historical and contemporary novels, most of which reflect her love of the West.
Raised in Northport, Washington, Linda pursued her wanderlust, living in London and Arizona and traveling the world before returning to the state of her birth to settle down on a horse property outside Spokane.
