A Writer’s Garden–Pandemic Gardening by Rachel Sharpe

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A Writer's Garden, Rachel Sharpe, raised bed gardens, Simple Misconception, vegetables

Welcome to A Writer’s Garden where writers who are gardeners or just love gardens will be sharing their garden and flower stories, as well as a bit about their writing.

Today’s writer/gardener guest is Rachel Sharpe, talking about the upside of Coronavirus on her garden. Welcome, Rachel!

 

A global pandemic. The very phrase elicits anxiety, panic, stress. People are furloughed. Schools are closed. A once fast-paced world has been stopped in its tracks.

I don’t think anyone was prepared for what would happen or what may come next when the dreaded Coronavirus made its way to the United States. I am doing my best to keep a positive attitude, stay safe, and make lemonade out of lemons. If not for myself, for my children.

One of my father’s favorite sayings is “Look for the good.” In everything in life, there is some good, no matter how hard it may be to find. Over the past few weeks, I have spent more uninterrupted time with my family than ever before. And it’s good. We are outside for most of the day. And it’s good. We have had video chats and game nights with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. And it’s good. Today, we began making preparations to finally start the vegetable garden we’ve always wanted. And it’s good.

As I type this, I see my son in his dad’s cowboy hat holding the tape measure as his dad lays the foundation for the garden and beside me, my daughter busily chatters about the vegetables she wants to plant.

“Maybe we can even plant some fruit trees?” she asks, a hopeful smile upon her sweet little face.

“Yes,” I agree. “That all sounds really good.”

 

About the Gardener/Writer

Rachel Sharpe is the author of Cold Ambition, Lost Distinction, Bitter Retribution, and Simple Misconception, all part of the Jordan James, PI series, a mystery series with sweet romance. Although born and raised in the South, “Yankee” relatives first led Rachel to historic New England, which she has come to consider her second home and is the setting for the series.

Rachel currently resides with her husband and children in the Greater New Orleans area where she and her children work together to maintain a simple garden.

Check Out Rachel’s Sites to Keep Up with Jordan James!!!

Twitter: twitter.com/RachelCSharpe

Simple Misconception

by Rachel Sharpe

When private investigator Jordan James returns home to New Orleans for Christmas, she never imagined her holiday could end with kidnapping and death. As she begins to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a childhood friend, she unwittingly stumbles upon a dangerous, international syndicate. With lives at risk and time running short, Jordan must find a connection between these seemingly unrelated events if she ever hopes to find her friend.

SIMPLE MISCONCEPTION, Available Now on Amazon

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Writer’s Garden—Finding #Peace in Mother Nature during #COVID-19 by Carole Ann Moleti

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A Writer's Garden, Carole Ann Moleti, COVID-19 Garden, Fantasy, flowers, Garden blog, Nature, paranormal, Unfinished Business Series

Welcome to A Writer’s Garden where writers who are gardeners or just love gardens will be sharing their garden and flower stories, as well as a bit about their writing. Today’s writer/gardener guest is Carole Ann Moleti, who is talking about how her garden helped get her through her COVID-19 experiences this year.

Welcome, Carole, and thank you for your front-line service during this global pandemic.

This past winter was more like an endless spring of damp, dreary days with flooding rains. The camellia bloomed, blood red, during the final days of March.

Camelia

That was right about the time those of us in health care raced in blindfolded, with one hand tied behind our backs battle to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In those early days, adrenaline pumping, I’d return home from what was supposed to be an 8-hour shift that lasted 10-12 hours. I’d pull into my driveway, and Mother Nature would welcome me home to my garden.

The world was silent to human ears, with New York City on PAUSE and battling a killer virus. But, like before we dominated the Earth, the flora and fauna breathed deeply of the fresh air and thrived.

By March 27, the chirping robins had returned, and were building their nests in the trees. The camellia was fading but I cut a bumper crop of daffodils and made nosegays with the grape hyacinths, which brightened my mood.

Daffodils and forsythia (upper right)

 

 

grape hyacinths and heuecera

 

 

 

 

My tulips did not fare well, with only four pale purple blooms, but the forsythia was a wall of bright yellow. Squirrels darted about. And there was not a single human sound, other than my waterproof clogs tapping the slate before I left them at the back door.

The streets were deserted, but nature didn’t care. There was no traffic, less smog, more parking and the sunrises and sunsets over the South Brooklyn waterfront conveyed peace and serenity moments before I entered the chaos that loomed beyond the door I was about to scan myself through.

May was soon gone, lost amongst 60-hour workweeks, and I never realized that Memorial Day weekend had passed. By June, the azaleas and irises were spent, and the mountain laurel, rhododendrons, and peonies were finally blooming.

peonies

The hydrangeas are in leaf. Who knows when their blossoms will emerge in this crazy year? I finally planted my vegetable garden.

hydrangea

The most amazing gift was the frog. We have lived in this house for thirty years. My young son had once hoped for a frog or toad, just like the ones in the legendary books by Arnold Lobel. We even had a toad house in hopes of attracting one, or both, but had no success.

Frog

As if it was waiting for curfew and COVID 19 restrictions to be lifted on June 8, as I walked past the pond, a frog leaped across my path. I thought it might be my imagination, but later I spied it on a rock. The next day, its eyes peeped out of the murky water, then disappeared. Hopefully it is here to stay. We all need health and peace and happiness.

Mother Nature has issued a stern rebuke. Human habits are driving many species to extinction, and we might be next unless we pay attention to the environment and take meaningful action to avert climate change.

We learned a lot about COVID 19 this spring, and about the best and the worst of human spirit. We’ll be better prepared for the next round, but hopefully the Earth can recover and we can avert another viral pandemic and violence epidemic.

Mother Nature spoke to me loud and clear this year, without saying a word. I just had to PAUSE to open my eyes and my heart to hear the message through the silence.

 

About the Writer/Gardener

Carole Ann Moleti lives and works as a nurse-midwife in New York City, thus explaining her fascination with all things paranormal, urban fantasy, and space opera. Her nonfiction focuses on health care, politics, and women’s issues. But her first love is writing science fiction and fantasy because walking through walls is less painful than running into them.

Excerpts of Carole’s memoir, Someday I’m Going to Write a Book: Diary of an Urban Missionary range from the sweet and inspirational in A Quilt of Holidays to the edgy and irreverent in Not Your Mother’s Book: On Being a Woman. She has a essay in the acclaimed Shifts anthology, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CB4XEIM/

and one in the forthcoming Impact: Personal Portraits of Activism due out September 2020.

Carole’s work has appeared in a variety of literary and speculative fiction venues. Short stories set in the world of her novels are featured in several of the Ten Tales anthologies. The Unfinished Business Series, a three volume paranormal romance, was published by Soulmate.

 

 

Social Media Links

Amazon:  Twitter @petitemeetstree  Website: Facebook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#Nature #flowers  Unfinished Business Series #fantasy# paranormal

Catherine’s Comments–COVID-19 Humor—Who is that Masked Man? by Catherine Castle

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A Groom for Mama, Catherine Castle, Catherine's Comments, COVID-19 humor, essay, face masks, The Lone Ranger

As more and more people start to wear protective masks, I wonder if we’ll go around asking ourselves. “Who is that masked man or woman?”

 picture from pixabay

Before you ask, no, I’m not the female version of the Lone Ranger. For starters, my mask is worn on the wrong part of my face– it covers my mouth and nose. Secondly, I’m no hero. And thirdly, there’s no way in heaven or earth I could possible get on a horse, much less ride one.

You remember the Lone Ranger, don’t you? He had an all-white outfit, except for a black mask that covered his forehead and nose—at lot like zorro’s mask. The lone ranger rode a white stallion named Silver that he sometimes leapt onto from various vantage points. And he had a Native American companion named Tonto

picture from pixabay

At the end of the show someone always asked, “Who was that masked man?” The answer was, “That’s the Lone Ranger.”

Here’s the thing about face masks—they obscure the ability to identify the wearer, especially the kind of masks we are wearing today. For example, we were watching the news the other night and they had a screen shot of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s Twitter account. He’d changed his profile picture and he was wearing a black face mask and dark sunglasses. If they hadn’t put his name under the picture I wouldn’t have known who he was. With his face outfitted as it was he just looked like some gray-headed man, and heaven knows there are hundreds of those around.

And herein lies the dilemma:

As mask wear becomes more prevalent I foresee a big problem … figuring out the identity of people who greet you in the store, especially if they aren’t close friends. I’m terrible with names and often resort to “Hi, it’s so nice to see you” greetings when I haven’t a clue who I’m talking to—which is more often than I care to admit. If they’re wearing a mask, I fear I’ll be even more lost in the identity game. Add a pair of sunglasses and a hat and I’m in big trouble.

It’s also hard to hear muffled voices through masks. I rely on voices to help jog my memory and facial features to connect the identity dots. The other day I had to keep asking my husband to repeat what he said when we were both masked and shopping. Unlike me, he’d tied his mask on in such a fashion that he couldn’t drop it down to speak. If I can’t hear my husband, whose voice I know very well, will I be able to identify the muffled voices of people I haven’t seen in over a month, much less recognize them by only seeing their eyes and foreheads? Most probably not.

Fortunately, I didn’t meet any people in the grocery that day whom I knew, but when I do, I’ve got a great excuse for those I-can’t-remember-your-name moments. I’ll just blame it on their masks. Then when they’ve left, I’ll turn to my husband and say, “Who was that masked person?”

Chances are, he won’t know either.

 

About the Author:

Multi-award winning author Catherine Castle loves writing. Before beginning her career as a romance writer she worked part-time as a freelance writer. She has over 600 articles and photographs to her credit, under her real name, in the Christian and secular market. She also lays claim to over 300 internet articles written on a variety of subjects and several hundred poems. In addition to writing she loves reading, traveling, singing, theatre, quilting and gardening. She’s a passionate gardener whose garden won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club. She writes sweet and inspirational romances. You can find her award-winning Soul Mate books The Nun and the Narc and A Groom for Mama, on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Follow her on Twitter @AuthorCCastle, FB or her blog.

You won’t find any masked people in Catherine’s books, but you will find plenty of humor. Check out her award-winning romantic comedy with a touch of drama, A Groom for Mama available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

 

A Groom for Mama

By Catherine Castle

Beverly Walters is dying, and before she goes she has one wish—to find a groom for her daughter. To get the deed done, Mama enlists the dating service of Jack Somerset, Allison’s former boyfriend.

The last thing corporate-climbing Allison wants is a husband. Furious with Mama’s meddling, and a bit more interested in Jack than she wants to admit, Allison agrees to the scheme as long as Mama promises to search for a cure for her terminal illness.

A cross-country trip from Nevada to Ohio ensues, with a string of disastrous dates along the way, as the trio hunts for treatment and A Groom For Mama.

 

 

 

 

 

A COVID-19 Parody: Do, Re, Me — from Catherine Castle

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Catherine'sComments, COVID-19 humor, Do Re Me, essay, homor, Sound of Music parody, video

If you’ve been following my COVID-19 blog series recently, you know I like to poke fun at myself and the situations COVID-19 has created in my life. Laughter is the way I deal with life when things get serious. If I don’t want to deal with something, I make a joke about it. It’s my major stress reliever. Just ask my family about the times when I’ve laughed so hard that it turned into a laugh-weeping jag that left me breathless and sore ribbed. But I digress.

Scientists have said that laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies. Heaven knows we can all use a boatload of those to fight the pandemic’s stresses and fears. But more important to me, is that laughing is fun. I love to share a laugh with family and friends.

Music is also something I use to relieve stress. The very act of singing raises my spirits. My daughter knows this and she knows how much I love musicals, especially The Sound of Music. So, when she sent me this parody clip someone made, using the song Do, Re, Me, I thought it would be perfect to share on my COVID-19 blog series.

Click on the link below. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

 

Stay safe in this COVID-19 crazy world and don’t forget to laugh!

 

There’s lots of laughter in Catherine’s award-winning romantic comedy with a touch of drama A Groom for Mama. Check it out today at Amazon and Barnes and Noble

 

A Groom for Mama

By Catherine Castle

Beverly Walters is dying, and before she goes she has one wish—to find a groom for her daughter. To get the deed done, Mama enlists the dating service of Jack Somerset, Allison’s former boyfriend.

The last thing corporate-climbing Allison wants is a husband. Furious with Mama’s meddling, and a bit more interested in Jack than she wants to admit, Allison agrees to the scheme as long as Mama promises to search for a cure for her terminal illness.

A cross-country trip from Nevada to Ohio ensues, with a string of disastrous dates along the way, as the trio hunts for treatment and A Groom For Mama.

 

About the Author:

Multi-award winning author Catherine Castle loves writing. Before beginning her career as a romance writer she worked part-time as a freelance writer. She has over 600 articles and photographs to her credit, under her real name, in the Christian and secular market. She also lays claim to over 300 internet articles written on a variety of subjects and several hundred poems. In addition to writing she loves reading, traveling, singing, theatre, quilting and gardening. She’s a passionate gardener whose garden won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club. She writes sweet and inspirational romances. You can find her award-winning Soul Mate books The Nun and the Narc and A Groom for Mama, on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Follow her on Twitter @AuthorCCastle, FB or her blog.