Writer Wonderland

Readers Cooking Up a Storm

6/22/2019

Donna likes to cook and so do some of her readers, too.

Joyful Chicken

1 can whole cranberry sauce
1 pkg onion soup mix
8 oz western French (Catalina) dressing
Chicken (breasts, tenders, drumsticks)

Mix 1st 3 ingredients together. Place chicken in 8x12” pan, pour sauce over chicken, cover with foil and bake at 350 for 1hr. Serve over rice. Yum!!

Alice Hazelbaker

Lemon Whippersnappers

1 box lemon cake mix
2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed (Cool Whip)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon lemon extract
Powdered sugar for rolling the cookies in. ( 2 or 3 cups)

Empty the cake mix into a medium bowl. Add the whipped topping and mix together. Add the egg and extract and mix thoroughly; the dough will be rather sticky probably.

Put the powdered sugar in a small bowl. Drop the cookie batter by rounded teaspoons full, a couple at a time, directly into the sugar - this keeps your fingers from getting TOO sticky. Roll the balls in the powdered sugar and place on a greased cookie sheet. A dozen per sheet is good. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 minutes. The bottoms of the cookies will be nicely browned. Cool on cooling racks then store tightly covered; the cookies do remain soft and chewy. These cookies freeze well also. Makes about 3 dozen.

*I have made many variations of these including Snickerdoodles using a white cake mix and vanilla extract, putting some cinnamon in the batter for extra flavor and rolling them in cinnamon sugar.

Mary Lynn in Pennsylvania

Easy Cream Cheese Fruit Dip

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow creme
1 Tablespoon milk
1/2 t vanilla
In medium bowl, beat all ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy.

Carol Knudtson

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Doting Dog Mama

2/18/2019

18 Comments

A few dog pics, a shout out to Hamilton Humane Society, and a final chance to enter the Dog Park Romeo contest

Here is Colton wondering why he is always getting his photo took. For those who don't know, I picked out Colton my second day volunteering at the Hamilton Humane Society shelter. I chose him not because he was adorable, but because he was the least likely to be adopted due to age, medical issues, and having no hair on his tail and a cone on his head didn't help much.

The Hamilton Humane Society is a no-kill shelter that places 98% of its animals. They stay busy all year with fund raisers, events, and with their consignment shop. The stylish coat Colton is sporting could have came from the shop, but actually my sister gave it to him.

This is what happens when the senior dog you rescued grows a lot in three months. He used to fit into the center of the bed. No worries, there is a new bed in his future. He usually curls up in the bed. He is much bigger than when we first got him. I hope you enjoyed getting to know Colton a little better. I am sure he and Max (the canine sleuth in Dog Park Romeo) would be great friends.

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Random Acts of Love

2/11/2019

9 Comments

Read on to discover three random acts of love & enter the Dog Park Romeo Contest.

What is Love?
Men have pondered this question throughout the centuries.
Women have only considered the implications publicly the last thousand years or so,
Due to the belief that, while excellent mothers, they were unable to love deeply.
The Greeks coined the term brotherly love, but never sisterly love.
Was this the start of female backstabbing?

What do women really want?
Hallmark tells us cards, as they inform us on every significant holiday.
Commercials would have you believe a life-size teddy bear is every woman’s dream.
Lingerie composed of lace strings resembling more a puzzle than clothing is the way to go.
Florists make up bouquets of both roses and junk food to cater to various appetites.
These things fade, are eaten, and are often hidden away.

Valentine’s Day causes widespread panic among males anxious to prove their love.
Tired men, picking through cards and clutching stuffed animals and roses, crowd discount and grocery stores.
Some assume whatever gift they choose will be wrong, and decide to forgo the search.
More breakups happen in January than any other month.
Not surprisingly, many couples get back together after February 14th.
This should tell us love is hard to find in a heart-shaped box.

I saw love walking along the sidewalk one frigid Valentine’s Day.
It was sleeting, making driving hazardous.
On my way home from work, at a stoplight, I watched men slide into the Walgreens frozen parking lot.
They emerged later with balloons and red candy boxes.
An old man and woman walked in the freezing rain.
She with her walker with bright yellow tennis balls and he with the umbrella held over her head.

Icicles hung off the old man’s bearded face.
The expression on his face wasn’t one of disgruntlement due to the weather.
Instead, he beamed lovingly at his petite wife.
His other hand rested at her elbow,
Ready to catch her if she should slip on the slick pavement.
I saw love that day.

I’ve seen it demonstrated on other days in a myriad of ways.
People often think animals can’t love.
I did once, too,
Until I caught my younger dog
Performing an act of selfless love
And calculated deceit.

Silently, I rounded the corner to see him open the cabinet door,
Pulling out a pig ear, not for himself as I thought,
But carrying it to our blind spaniel.
He pushed it up to her mouth when she couldn’t find it.
Finally, he chewed on it when it proved too tough for her aging teeth.
When he offered it to her again, she accepted it with delight.

Genuine acts of unselfish love bring tears to our eyes.
Grand gestures that expect nothing in return,
Their sole purpose is to bring happiness, joy, even comfort to their beloved.
Would you retype a book for someone who lost it?
Who needed it to submit a full request? Better yet,
Would you do it in a night?

My husband did.
For me, this is my perfect example of love.

What’s yours?

DIVE INTO THE DOG PARK ROMEO CONTEST

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Remember to dance a little bit each day.

9 Comments

Countdown to Valentine's Day

1/13/2019

10 Comments

Dog Park Romeo releases on February 14th, but a few other things happened on that day, too.

Dracula with Bela Lugosi was released on Valentine's day 1931

Famous People born on February 14th

Hugh Downs
Woody Hayes
Florence Henderson
Jimmy Hoffa
Vic Morrow

Not So Popular Gifts
1. broom, mop, vaccumn
2. cleaning supplies
3. shapewear
4. Tickets to sporting events or
concert that the woman/wife
never wanted to go to.
5. Diet book
6. Gym membership ( when you didn't want one.)
7. Anything similar to what your mate gave his ex.
8. Itemized list of how to please your husband
9. Soap, shampoo, inflatable foot bath ( Anything that looks like you ran to the drugstore at the last minute.)

What is the weirdest gift you ever received?

Popular Valentine Gifts
1. Jewelry
2. Perfume/Cologne
3. Chocolate
4. Flowers
5. Lingerie
6. Gift cards
7. Dinner out
* One of my favorite presents from my husband was he wrote me a love poem. He did a nice job of it, too.

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Christmas Fun

12/14/2018

25 Comments

A Scimitar for Christmas

Here is a little fun from past Christmases. I was learning how to balance a sword on my head for a dance number.

Do you remember this scene from A Christmas Story? The Leg Lamp, not us.

We got to meet Santa while promoting Christmas Calamity.

Here is a snapshot of my daughter and our recently departed dog, Chance.

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25 Comments

New Dog in Town

11/20/2018

13 Comments

People predicted that I couldn't work at the Humane Society without taking my work home with me. I lasted one entire day without adopting a pet.

Look at that face. Could you pass him by? Plenty of people did because they didn't want a senior dog with health problems that go with an aging dog.

We are still getting to know one another, but he is certainly making us into more active folks with his daily walks. He has a great deal of energy for a senior dog.

,My friend who runs a Poodle Rescue organization pointed out that one more dog wouldn't hurt, especially if it was small, as in poodle. Here's Colton with a rainbow on his body.

Expect to hear more about our newest family member in upcoming newsletters.

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13 Comments

Roadside Oddities

10/26/2018

2 Comments

We continue the across the country drive with more roadside attractions.

The Shell Factory Ft. Meyers, FL

In the television show, The Middle, whenever the Heck family took to the road they’d mention possible roadside oddities they could visit. The attractions were in the Midwest from the giant ball of twine to the world’s largest ball of paint that you could add one more coat, too. These roadside attractions would break up the monotony of a long road trip. As a kid, I don’t remember stopping and seeing any of these, which was a shame because they slowly fade away without paying customers.

Since my daughter and I decided to take old Route 66, The Mother Road, we expected to see a few of these. Obviously, not all, and not on the weekends. It turns out many of these interesting places such as The Dinosaur Museum and The Blue Hole in New Mexico are closed on the weekends. We even found a campground we were planning to camp at was closed on the weekends, too. If you’re planning to take advantage of these historic attractions make sure they’re open when you’re driving by.

Our first stop was at the Guinness world record winning town of Casey, Illinois that had a plethora of over sized everyday objects such as a rocking chair and knitting needles. Our second stop was Uranus, Missouri.

Uranus, MO

We drove by Uranus with its colorful stores, star lights, and huge dinosaurs in a hurry anxious to get to our hotel. It had been a long, rainy day and we wanted to eat and mindlessly veg out in front of a television. As the passenger, I noticed the place with its antique farm equipment, double decker bus and promises of an exotic animal zoo plus a magic shop, too. It stuck out big time on the flat, empty expanses that surrounded the road. It blinked out of sight as my daughter drove onward in search of our hotel.

We found our hotel without incident and discovered it did have the much-wanted fridge and microwave in the room. Hallelujah. We went next door to Wal-Mart and grabbed some food for dinner. On our way, we witnessed three little kids dressed in swimming suits and clutching pool noodles. Their grandmothers were questioning the front desk person about the location of the pool that was on the website.

Coin-operated Fortune Teller

Red faced, the employee explained that this was a new hotel that would have a pool next year, but they hadn’t even started on it, yet. Before the irate grannies could ask, he also added there was no fire pit lounge as featured on the website, either. The children not quite understanding the situation insisted there had to be a pool. One of the grandmothers herded up the antsy children while the other one informed the hapless employee they shouldn’t advertised what they didn’t have. It was just wrong! That stuck with me because we would encounter many things on our trip that weren’t even close to what they were advertised to be, but not Uranus, Missouri.

The next day, we pushed our departure time up an hour earlier so we could return to Uranus. In short, the place is a great photo stop including everything from a booster rocket to an old timey police car. There’s life sized wooden bears and a coin operator fortune teller who had the audacity to tell my daughter she would have an easy life while I would have to work hard for everything. So far, that had been the case.

Inside the main shop and fudge factory was a giant explosion of totally kitschy souvenirs and guilty childhood pleasures including endless flavors of salt water taffy, candy cigarettes, and those little wax soda bottle filled with a syrupy drink. There were souvenirs emblazoned with Route 66 logo, but they’d tapped into all the other high purchase groups including anything with Jesus on it, to Alien bobbleheads, Doctor Who, and Star Trek paraphernalia. It was the perfect place to find a personalized license plate for your bike or a name necklace for your daughter or granddaughter.

There was a fudge shop smack in the middle of it, too. Yes, we bought some fudge, which was sinfully delicious. Uranus was composed of several buildings. The main one was the store and oddly enough on the back of this childhood fantasy of candy and trinkets was a gun shop. I usually think about buying a high-powered rifle while stopping in for a cold drink and a photo—not. There was a picnic ground located next to the dinosaurs and an ice cream shop, too.

Uranus, MO

Since we often show up at odd times on our across the country odyssey, we encountered closed signs. This probably won’t happen at Uranus, Missouri which opens, at least most of it, at 8:30 in the morning and stays open late into the night luring travelers with its lights that appeared like glowing stars hovering over the place.

If you stop, remember to take plenty of pictures.

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Author on the Road

10/15/2018

7 Comments

Make sure to enter the contest at the end!

Giant Mailbox

What happens when an author and her daughter drive across the United States? Come along and find out.

Day One

What type of person gets in a tiny car with a roof bag that acts as a sail to make a 3,000+ mile across the Southwest in August? A mother. When my daughter told me, she was going to move across the country to Los Angeles, I was surprised to say the least. When she told me, she was going to attach a trailer to tiny car—I became a nay-sayer. I killed the trailer idea and in came the roof sack. Think of it as a duffle bag for the car. It’s made of what I would describe as pool liner vinyl. In other words, a person with nefarious motives could cut into it, which meant every night we unpacked it, pulled it and its contents inside wherever we were staying. The next day we repacked it. This is my version of the trip.
Day one as the passenger in a very packed car, I had items tucked under my feet, beside me, and in my lap. I was supposed to help with directions and distribute snacks. My snack passing abilities came in handy when traffic came to a dead stop near the Illinois border. A tractor trailer had rolled—possibly due to the rain. The string we had tied the bag to the roof also served as a conduit bringing rain into the car. Oh joy. We decided to stop in Casey, Illinois to visit the gigantic items that got the small town into the Guinness World Book of Records. Even though, it was drizzling, we enjoyed posing for photos by the World’s Biggest Wind Chime or perched inside an oversized birdcage. After our brief break, we headed for Missouri.

Stay tuned for our next adventure.

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Death of a Honeymoon Giveaway

8/19/2018

11 Comments

Win a Kindle Fire or a signed copy of Death of a Honeymoon, and many other prizes.

Death of a Honeymoon Blurb

Detective Mark Taber and his new bride Donna, an amateur sleuth, are ready to take a much-needed break from crime-solving and finally enjoy their long-awaited honeymoon in the quartz-rich mountains of Arkansas, but unfortunately for them, crime never takes a break.

When their car breaks down at the site of the first murder the county has seen in a century, they find themselves in a bind – no transportation and at the center of an overwhelming firestorm for an overworked sheriff. He needs their help.

Will they temporarily forgo their plans to find a murderer or will the possibility of netting quartz clusters and county fair winning recipes pull them in another direction?

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Meet Max & Win $50 Gift Card

5/28/2018

4 Comments

Max is the crime-solving sidekick of Nala Bonne, who is a preschool teacher turned investigator. She agreed to take the shelter dog her friend, Karly, urged on her, only because no one else would. Her friend failed to mention the dog could talk and could be a bit of a diva, too.

Max, like his cartoon counterpart, Scooby-doo, loves to eat. Instead of a Scooby snack, he prefers a cheeseburger. When he isn’t helping on a case or trying to match Nala with an appropriate guy, he’s contemplating his next treat.
Some people might wonder why I chose a talking dog. Most dog lovers talk to their pets. It was only logical that the pets have something to say in return. Max helps explains some of the mysteries of dog behavior while giving unsolicited advice.

The fact that Max can talk adds a twist to crime solving. People seldom watch what they say in front of the dog along, which causes additional tension since Nala is constantly covering for Max when he makes impulsive comments. She’s convinced someone will kidnap him if they know he can talk and sell him to the highest bidder.
Max is a fun character to write for because he has all the bravado of a teen-age boy and just about the same amount of knowledge of the world. In other words, he’s a bit of a know it all. His rash actions often propel the two of them into tricky situations.

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Readers Cooking Up a Storm

Donna likes to cook and so do some of her readers, too.

Doting Dog Mama

A few dog pics, a shout out to Hamilton Humane Society, and a final chance to enter the Dog Park Romeo contest

The Hamilton Humane Society is a no-kill shelter that places 98% of its animals. They stay busy all year with fund raisers, events, and with their consignment shop. The stylish coat Colton is sporting could have came from the shop, but actually my sister gave it to him.

Random Acts of Love

Read on to discover three random acts of love & enter the Dog Park Romeo Contest.

DIVE INTO THE DOG PARK ROMEO CONTEST

Remember to dance a little bit each day.

Countdown to Valentine's Day

Dog Park Romeo releases on February 14th, but a few other things happened on that day, too.

Christmas Fun

Here is a little fun from past Christmases. I was learning how to balance a sword on my head for a dance number.

Do you remember this scene from A Christmas Story? The Leg Lamp, not us.

We got to meet Santa while promoting Christmas Calamity.

Here is a snapshot of my daughter and our recently departed dog, Chance.

New Dog in Town

People predicted that I couldn't work at the Humane Society without taking my work home with me. I lasted one entire day without adopting a pet.

Look at that face. Could you pass him by? Plenty of people did because they didn't want a senior dog with health problems that go with an aging dog.

We are still getting to know one another, but he is certainly making us into more active folks with his daily walks. He has a great deal of energy for a senior dog.

,My friend who runs a Poodle Rescue organization pointed out that one more dog wouldn't hurt, especially if it was small, as in poodle. Here's Colton with a rainbow on his body.

Expect to hear more about our newest family member in upcoming newsletters.

Roadside Oddities

We continue the across the country drive with more roadside attractions.

Author on the Road

Make sure to enter the contest at the end!

Death of a Honeymoon Giveaway

Win a Kindle Fire or a signed copy of Death of a Honeymoon, and many other prizes.

Meet Max & Win $50 Gift Card

Archives

Categories

Donna likes to cook and so do some of her readers, too.

A few dog pics, a shout out to Hamilton Humane Society, and a final chance to enter the Dog Park Romeo contest

The Hamilton Humane Society is a no-kill shelter that places 98% of its animals. They stay busy all year with fund raisers, events, and with their consignment shop. The stylish coat Colton is sporting could have came from the shop, but actually my sister gave it to him.

Read on to discover three random acts of love & enter the Dog Park Romeo Contest.

DIVE INTO THE DOG PARK ROMEO CONTEST

Remember to dance a little bit each day.

Dog Park Romeo releases on February 14th, but a few other things happened on that day, too.

Here is a little fun from past Christmases. I was learning how to balance a sword on my head for a dance number.

Do you remember this scene from A Christmas Story? The Leg Lamp, not us.

We got to meet Santa while promoting Christmas Calamity.

Here is a snapshot of my daughter and our recently departed dog, Chance. ​

People predicted that I couldn't work at the Humane Society without taking my work home with me. I lasted one entire day without adopting a pet.

Look at that face. Could you pass him by? Plenty of people did because they didn't want a senior dog with health problems that go with an aging dog.

We are still getting to know one another, but he is certainly making us into more active folks with his daily walks. He has a great deal of energy for a senior dog.

,My friend who runs a Poodle Rescue organization pointed out that one more dog wouldn't hurt, especially if it was small, as in poodle. Here's Colton with a rainbow on his body. ​Expect to hear more about our newest family member in upcoming newsletters.

We continue the across the country drive with more roadside attractions.

Make sure to enter the contest at the end!

Win a Kindle Fire or a signed copy of Death of a Honeymoon, and many other prizes.

Archives

Categories

Here is a snapshot of my daughter and our recently departed dog, Chance.

,My friend who runs a Poodle Rescue organization pointed out that one more dog wouldn't hurt, especially if it was small, as in poodle. Here's Colton with a rainbow on his body.

Expect to hear more about our newest family member in upcoming newsletters.