Catherine’s Comments—A Festive Candy Cane Table Setting from Catherine Castle

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A Groom for Mama, Catherine Castle author, Catherine's Comments, Christmas table settings, clean romance, Holiday table settings, romantic comedy, Sweet romance

Christmas is fast approaching!

Only 21 days!

This holiday has always been a big deal at my house. When I was younger I’d change out all the knickknacks, take pictures off the wall and exchange them for more Christmassy themes, and deck the house out to the hilt.

I don’t quite go to those extremes anymore, as arthritic knees and a bad back have slowed me down. But, every year I put up a different themed Christmas tree. either special ornaments from our childhood and family and friends, Southwest themed, crocheted stars and tiny metal candle holders with little red candles, the simplicity of poinsettias in the branches, gold travel ornaments from places we’ve visited, all white, all red, and whatever else I can think up. Or, I might put up my fiber optic tree, or the vintage aluminum tree my husband inherited from his grandmother, complete with color wheel. On occasion I’ve had them all up at the same time.

My sideboard can groan under the weight of my Christmas village, my Nativity collection, My Southwest Christmas figurines, or I could just have a rustic collection of candles and Christmas décor.  I fill every available pot and vase I can with silk Poinsettias and holly.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I have lots and lots of tree and Christmas decorations. My Christmas décor obsession is as bad as or worse than my dish fetish.

My table is no different. Most of the time I use my Corelle holly plates, but recently I’ve been venturing out into different table settings. I think it has something to do with the ease of setting a holiday table. Unlike the Christmas village which takes a couple of days to set just right, my dinner table goes up in a much shorter time—once I decide what I’ll do, that is.

Some of my blog readers have requested more table settings. So, I’m going to show off my new combinations in the coming weeks. In the upcoming posts I’ll be featuring tablecloths, placemats, napkin rings and Christmas decorations I’ve pulled from my decoration stash—and of course the mix and match dishes that started this whole blog series.

First up is a Festive Candy Cane Table. This would be a cute table setting for the kids’ table, or as a more casual adult setting. You could also surprise the family on a December night with this cheerful table setting. After all, the Christmas season lasts for a month. Why wait until Christmas Day or Eve to celebrate the season?

Here’s how I made this table setting: I started with an inexpensive plastic striped tablecloth I picked up a few years ago from our local Big Lots discount store. Then I added red and white plates and white salad bowls—some of the same dishes I’ve used in previous table settings.

I kept the centerpiece festive and kid friendly with a metal spiral tree decoration. The candle at the base of the tree is a faux battery lit candle, a safer choice for the children’s table, and it won’t destroy the charming ornaments suspended from the spiral branches. To make the centerpiece pop and pick up the green in the table cloth, I centered the tree on a round woven placemat. If you don’t have a plethora of placemats, like I do—another obsession of mine—you could use a green napkin, or two napkins set at 45 degree angles to each other to form an eight-point star. For a little more festive flair I created contrasting red and white bows from pipe cleaners and scattered them on the place mat.

To continue the candy cane theme I made candy canes from red and white pipe cleaners.

To make the pipe cleaner candy canes, twist a red and white pipe cleaner together from top to bottom the form the cane. To form the loop that holds the napkin, gently bend the pipe cleaner in half. Align about 1/4^th of the bent section with the bottom of the cane, then fold the straight remaining section at a 90 degree angle to the cane. Wrap it around your finger to form a circle. Loop the end of the circle around the cane to secure the circle and form the napkin holder section. Curve the top of the cane into a loop so it looks like a candy cane. Roll up your napkin to fit in the circle and arrange the cane so the top is level with the napkin edge.

If you don’t have any pipe cleaners, you could tie a ribbon around a real candy cane and then loosely wrap and tie the napkin in the ribbon. I didn’t have any candy canes, but I did have pipe cleaners so I improvised. Have I mentioned that I’m a crafter, too? I have lots of interesting things in my basement. 🙂

Lay your candy cane napkin in the center of your plate to finish off the table setting, and invite the family and friends to dinner!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s Festive Candy Cane Table Setting, and I hope I’ve inspired you to set a fun and festive table at one of your Christmas holiday meals. Come back next week for another Christmas Table Setting.

Happy Holidays,

Catherine

If you enjoyed Catherine’s creative holiday table settings, why not check out one of her creative books. Her award-winning sweet, romantic comedy, with a touch of drama A Groom for Mama is a fun read and would make a great gift for the romance novel lover in your family. Here’s a peek at the blurb.

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 Groom for Mama is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

About the Author:

Multi-award winning author Catherine Castle loves writing, 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.

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Laughter–the Best Medicine

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A Groom for Mama, Carol Browne, Catherine Castle author, Laughter the best medicine, Sweet romantic comedy

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I’m over at Carole Browne’s blog today with another blog tour post. Here’s a tidbit to whet your appetite…

Years ago there used to be a joke column in Reader’s Digest called “Laughter is the Best Medicine.” I remember reading the jokes, some which were hilarious belly shakers. Some just gave you a giggle or two. In Prevention magazine, and other health magazines I subscribe to, I often see laughter trumpeted as a good for depression, unhappiness, and health in general. And I personally use it to ward of things I don’t want to deal with. A snarky, flippant comment goes a long way in helping keep emotions that are running high on a more even keel. In fact, sometimes the only thing that gets us through a tough time is life it a sense of humor.

Yep, we all need humor in our lives, especially my poor heroine Allison.

In my new romantic comedy, A Groom for Mama, Allison is in a race against time To read more click here

 

A Groom for Mama

Mama wants a groom for her daughter, and Mama’s not above using her terminal illness and Cupid’s arrows to get the deed done. But Mama’s groom is the last man Allison wants to wed—her ex.

A Sweet Romantic Comedy by multi-award-winning author Catherine Castle

Available from Amazon

 

A Groom for Mama Giveaway on Today’s Blog Tour Post

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A Groom for Mama, A Groom for Mama blog tour, A Groom for Mama excerpt, Catherine Castle author, free ebook offer, giveaway, June Foster, Lillian Duncan, nuptials

Today, at Lillian Duncan’s blog, Tiaras and Tennis Shoes-Celebrating Life, Love, Laughter and Books you’ll have a chance to read another excerpt from my sweet romantic comedy, A Groom for Mama, and I’m offering another free copy of the Ebook to one lucky commenter. If you want more on the book, and me, you can hop over to June Foster’s blog to see The Question Every Author Wants to Answer with, “Yes!”

To whet your appetite, here’s a snippet of the post at Tiaras and Tennis Shoes-Celebrating Life, Love, Laughter and Books.

Celebrating Life, Love, Laughter and Nuptials

There’s nothing more joyous than a wedding. The excitement of getting the engagement ring; finding the perfect wedding dress; choosing a venue; spending all that money; and of course, the bliss of two people, hopefully deep in love, starting a new life, full of happiness, expectation, and promise.

Unless, there’s a third and a fourth person in that mix—say a meddling Mama and an ex-boyfriend that you haven’t been able to forget. Then things can start to get a bit complicated. To read more and get entered for a free book, click here…

And The Winner Is…

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Catherine Castle author, ebook winner of A Groom for Mama, giveaway winner, Pick a Date and Win an EBook, romantic comedy, Sweet romance

 

It’s time to announce the winner of the Pick A Date and Win an Ebook contest!

But first I’m going to reveal the real date my heroine went on–It was the Wrestling Match. Even though you now  know one of the dates, I promise there will still be some surprises when you get to that point in the book.

Since no one picked the real date, I entered all the readers into the winners’ pool and had my hubby pick a name from the hat.

Ruby Mae ODell is the winner. I’ll be contacting her to let her know to expect the ebook.

If you didn’t win this time, don’t despair. I’ll be giving away a few more books on the blog tour. Just check the post listings by clicking on the blog tour page below to see where the next giveaway will be.

 

Thanks so much for playing the game, and I hope you’ll enjoy the book, Ruby!

 

 

When a Play Becomes a Book–Blog Tour for A Groom for Mama

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When a Play Becomes a Book

By Catherine Castle

 

It’s day 3 of my blog tour for my sweet romantic comedy, A Groom for Mama, and I’m over at Rose Allen McCauley’s Stories from Small Towns with Big Hearts blog talking about where I got the idea for A Groom for Mama.

Don’t forget to play the dating game I set up on my Pick a Date and Win an Ebook post on release day for a chance to win a free Ebook of A Groom for Mama. You can click here to get a chance to win between now and September 12. Winners will be announced on Tuesday September 12, at noon. So play soon.

And now, on to today’s blog tour post at Rose Allen McCauley’s blog site.

Readers often want to know where we writers get our ideas. They are everywhere. Sometimes you even borrow from yourself. Take my newest book A Groom for Mama—it’s not an original idea, at least to me.

In 2003 my husband and I were into writing plays. We were part of a drama group at our large church and had been participating in drama as actors and as playwrights, when my hubby heard an announcement on our local radio advertising a contest for radio plays.

You may not be old enough to remember radios plays, but we are. They were a great source of entertainment filled with sound effects. Actors had nothing but their voices and sound effects with which to tell the story. That’s quite a challenge. Additionally, our church had recently presented a musical that had some musical and theatrical clips from radio advertising and dramas. My husband got to play The Shadow in one of the clips. Radio was on our minds. So, when we heard about the contest, my husband and I decided to write a radio play and enter it. To read more click here…

 

Smart animals, inanimate objects, and humans behaving badly—Best Misplaced Modifiers

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Best Misplaced Modifiers, cartoon art on misplaced modifers, Catherine Castle author, funny sentences, humans and inanimate object behaving badly, humorus misplaced modifers, writing hints on misplaced modifers

Misplaced modifiers have been on my radar recently. Maybe it’s because as I’ve been reading through a recent manuscript I found a few of my own. Anyway, as I often do, I went to the internet to research misplaced modifiers and came up with some doozies that I thought I’d share here.

Here’s the latest in fashion for your pets.

The woman walked the dog in purple suede cowboy boots. Wonder if the dog has a matching cowboy hat.

While camping, I saw a bear in my pajamas. As Groucho Marx said, “I don’t know how he got there.” But I think I’d let him have the pajamas

Who knew fruit and veggies led such an exciting life?

artwork by Catherine Castle (c)

 

Coming out of the market, the bananas fell on the pavement.

Walking, grocery shopping bananas. Now that’s a trick.

Grocery shopping at Big Star, the lettuce was fresh.

Shopping and hitting on the other customers. Oh, my!

 

Lest we rag only on the veggies, here’s some humans behaving badly, except for Mr. Hannon mentioned below.

The family lawyer will read the will tomorrow at the residence of Mr. Hannon, who died June 19 to accommodate his relatives.

She handed out brownies to the children stored in Tupperware. I guess the Gingerbread House doesn’t work anymore.

With his tail held high, my father led his prize poodle around the arena.

I gave some food to my kitten and chopped it up. Eww!

Mrs. Jones was proud that on her first hunting trip, she was able to shoot several animals as well as her husband. Guess he won’t be taking her hunting again without wearing body armor.

He wore a straw hat on his head, which was obviously too small.

 

 

artwork by Catherine Castle (c)

 

Freshly painted, Jim left the room to dry. I wonder what color he was.

She carefully studied the Picasso hanging in the art gallery with her friend. So was the friend hanging in the gallery with the Picasso, or were they both hanging in the gallery studying Picasso? I’m so confused.

Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope. Now that’s an unusual mode of travel, especially for Lincoln’s day.

My cousin went on and on, describing the details of her wedding in the elevator. Must have been a really small wedding party.

Dressed in a diaper and drooling, grandpa read a book to his granddaughter. ‘Nuff said.

 

We sold lemonade to the thirsty customers in paper cups. Pretty big cups, huh?

artwork by Catherine Castle (c)

 

 

And here are a few misplaced modifiers that raise animals to new levels.

Flying over the African landscape, the elephant herd looked majestic. It’s Dumbo plus a hundred!

Reading a book, my cat crawled into my lap. Was he reading Puss and Boots?

The guest speaker had dedicated his new book to his dog who was an archaeologist.

Shades of Mr. Peabody and Sherman!

 

Need some help at home? Check out these workers.

I glimpsed a rat sorting the recyclable materials.

While doing the dishes, a mouse ran across the floor.

I found my missing baseball glove cleaning my room.

The smoke alarm went off while cooking my dinner.

 

 

I wouldn’t want to meet these animals on a dark night.

The hunter crouched behind a tree waiting for a bear to come along with a bow and arrow. Guess the bear isn’t registered for conceal and carry.

Driving like a maniac, the deer was hit and killed. It’s bad enough when they cross the road!

Pygmies hunted elephants armed with spears. I wonder what weapons the pygmies had.

 

Or these. Human Zombies have nothing on these guys.

Smashed flat by a passing truck, Big Dog sniffed at what was left of a half-eaten hamburger.

I saw the dead dog driving down the interstate.

 

And here’s my favorite.

After drinking too much, the toilet kept moving. I had no idea toilets could drink, much less move!

 

Now for the grammar lesson.

Modifying clauses, placed in the wrong spots in sentences, can modify the wrong word, leading to some very interesting and often hilarious sentences. To make sure you don’t make these kinds of gaffs, place your modifiers near the word they are modifying.

 

Like so:

Wrong: The model posed gracefully in front of the statue in the designer gown.

Who’s posing in the gown? The model, not the statue. So, move that gown closer to the model like so.

Better: The model, dressed in a designer gown, posed gracefully in front of the statue.

Or: Dressed in a designer gown, the model posed gracefully in front of the statue.

 

Really weird: The burglar was about 30 years old, white, 5′ 10″, with wavy hair weighing about 150 pounds.

That dude’s got some heavy hair, but I suspect that’s not what the writer intended.

Not so weird: The 30-year-old burglar has wavy hair, is 5’ 10”, white male, and weighs about 150 pounds.

Or: The 5’ 10”, 30 year-old white male burglar weighs about 150 pounds, and he has wavy hair.

 

It’s easy peasy when you know the trick.

 

Do you have a favorite misplaced modifier? I’d love to hear it.

A Synopsis Writing Tip of the Day

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I’m over at SMP author blog today with a few interview questions about the writing a synopsis.  Why? you ask. Because I’m going to be speaking at the Midwest Writers Conference next year on this very subject and I want to know what you want to know about writing the dreaded synopsis.

Feel free to hop on over and answer the questions at the SMP author blog, or just leave me  a comment on this blog and let me know what you would like to know about writing a synopsis.

To start things off, here’s a quick tip you can use right now to help you write a synopsis:

 Editors don’t like it when you say, “If you want to know how the book ends, you’ll have to read my manuscript.” They want to know how the book ends and if it is a satisfying ending. So, reveal your book’s ending when you write your synopsis.

Tenacity–Have You Got What it Takes?

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The dictionary defines tenacity as “the quality of the state of being tenacious, as in persistence.” When a person is tenacious they hold fast to things and are not easily pulled apart.

photo by Catherine Castle

We’ve taken a number of trips this year and on each one we have driven past trees growing in sheer rock. Not a speck of dirt to be seen on the sides of the cliffs that harbored these trees and shrubs. No visible sustenance to feed plants. No easy route through loose dirt for the roots to delve into. Yet these trees survive, which is no easy trick. I know because as a gardener who gardens in sand, I have trouble keeping plants alive. I couldn’t even begin to plant in solid rock. Yet these trees find a crack, a foothold for their roots, and, somehow, manage to grow.

Since I’m always on the lookout for blog material, I decided on the first trip I would try to get a decent shot of a tree growing from the side of a cliff.  I thought, “What better picture to illustrate tenacity than a tree growing out of a rocky cliff?”

I won’t tell you how many pictures I took from the inside of the car as we sped down the interstate at 65 miles per hour, running my phone battery dead in an attempt to get one decent shot of a tree shooting out of the side of a cliff. Suffice it to say, four trips later I finally got a picture that satisfied me. Had I thought about it, I could have turned the camera around and snapped my picture, because I was determined to get a photo to go with my blog. However, that wouldn’t have been as interesting as the tree.

I think tenacity is interesting. Being tenacious is more than pure stubbornness and more than just refusing to do something. Tenacity, as in “not easily pulled apart,” implies strength. This stick-to-it-attitude makes humans follow through on whatever we’ve started. Tenacity gets us up in the morning and out the door to work. Because of tenacity we hold on to someone we love and we fight for causes dear to our hearts. Tenacity is what spurs us on when we’d rather sit down and give up.

Writers are one of the most tenacious sets of people I know. We face rejection from editors and agents time and time again, yet we keep sending out our books. We often face bad reviews or bad sales, but we keep on trying. If one book doesn’t sell, we hope the next one will, and we start the writing process again. In fact, we often write the second and third and fourth books before our first book is even sold. We spend copious amounts of time marketing and doing social media because we have been told that is what sells our books, so, tenacious beings that writers are, we market, we write, we market, and we write some more.

From the day I wrote the first word of The Nun and the Narc to the day I sold the book nearly 10 years passed. Without tenacity I’d have thrown the manuscript away the first time it got rejected in 2004.

Was it worth the wait? You bet! Would I do it all again? Yes! In fact, there are a few more books waiting in the wings to be finished. So, I guess I’d better get back to them. Somewhere an editor is waiting to say, “Yes,” to those books, too.

Do you have your own tenacity story? What thing or things have you held fast to in life or in writing?

A Writing Tip and a Guest Feature Today at Whispers in Purple

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Catherine Castle author, Following Your Heart, Guest interview, Whispers in Purple, writing tip

I’m over a Peg Phifer’s Whispers in Purple today with a guest blog about listening to that still voice inside us that gives guidance. I hope you’ll join me there today.

Here is today’s writing tip.

Give your character a flaw.

No one is perfect.  Everyone has something they can’t conquer. Superman couldn’t tell the love of his life who he really was for fear of endangering her life. Kryptonite turned him into a wimp. Achilles had a vulnerable heel–the only place he could be injured–and someone found out about it. Samson loved Delilah too much, blabbed his secret, and she robbed him of his strength. If your character has no vulnerability then why read the book? If you know he’s undefeatable, untouchable, then there’s no suspense when he gets caught in a bad situation because he can get out of it too easily. Look for a flaw, secret or visible, that will get the character in trouble.

What flaws have you given your characters?

Writing tip about revision and Guest Blogging Today with Ada Brownell

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Ada Brownell, Catherine Castle author, Ink From an Earthen Vessel, writing tip about revisions

Join  me today at Ada Brownell’s blog site Ink From an Earthen Vessel where I’m talking about the writing process. Hopefully, the link above will take you to Ada’s blog without problems, since I can’t access through my computer. If you have problems with the site, please let me know and I’ll post the interview here later.

TODAY’S WRITING TIP

If you like to revise your work as you go along, write with your grammar check options turned on. You can not only catch misspellings but lots of other grammar problems, too. In Microsoft word there is an option to highlight passive sentences with a squiggly line. I find this very helpful as I can see my passive verbs and phrases right away and look for alternate phrasing. Those pesky passive sentences can be hard to spot as you reread your work. Remember, not every passive sentence can, or needs to, be eliminated. However many passive verbs can be switched to more active ones which can make your writing stronger.