Musings from a Writer’s Brain–Determining Mr. or Mrs. Right-for-Your-Life by Catherine Castle

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. Love at first sight, A Groom for Mama, Catherine Castle, essay about love, Finding Mr Right, Musings from a Writer's Brain, romance, Sweet romance

from Catherine Castle

How do you know it you’ve met Mr. or Mrs. Right—the one true love of your life?

Now that’s the question of the century. Sometimes you know right away with a “zing” goes the heart strings. Sometimes you don’t know until certain dramatic things happen in your lives. And sometimes true love is revealed only after the loved one is gone. I saw all three of these in the lives of my parents.

Let me tell you a story about my parents, who apparently got it right.

My parents met after WWII, right before Dad was going to enlist in the Foreign Legion. He came to visit Mom’s uncle. Mom peeked at Dad from behind a newspaper during that visit and her interest in him was obvious enough that he asked her on a date. Their courtship was a short one. They met in October and by Thanksgiving the following month they were married. All Dad’s family said, “Don’t marry him. You don’t know what you’re getting into. He drinks. He gambles. He carouses around with his brother.” But ‘Love is blind.’ And Mom didn’t listen to the naysayers. That’s the “zing” goes the heart strings moment.

The dramatic happening for my folks occurred early on in their marriage. True to the warning of his family, Dad did drink and gamble and run around with his brother, leaving Mom at home with two small children. After about two years of this kind of behavior, Mom gave Dad an ultimatum. “It’s me and your daughters or carousing with your brother. You can’t have both. Choose what you love most,” she told him. Dad chose us. He walked away from his old life and built a life around his family.

It took the remainder of their lives together to discover the last expression of love.

Dad was a meat and potatoes kind of guy. Dinner fare for us was always a meat, which ran the gamut from pickled pigs’ feet and cow brains to fried chicken and smoked pork. Some form of potatoes (usually fried) sat next to the meat platter. Then green beans and another vegetable filled out the menu. We’d often have bread, too, from sliced store-bought bread to homemade cornbread or biscuits. Dessert was rare and saved for company. Without fail, meat, potatoes, green beans and a second vegetable appeared on every dinner table.

No matter what combination of those four dishes Mom put on the dinner table, Dad ate it. He wasn’t choosy about what meat Mom served, or how the potatoes were fixed, or what alternate veggie she served beside the green beans. He ate it all, and as I remember it, with gusto. In all the years I sat at the table with them, eating Mom’s down-home meals I never once heard Dad complain about or critique Mom’s cooking. I thought he loved everything she made, even though I always didn’t.

Then, in 1987, Mom died of complications from pneumonia. After the funeral Dad was wandering around the house saying, “You girls should take this, or this. It belonged to your mom and I can’t look at it now that she’s gone.” We obliged him and took the offered items, because, as I’ve since learned, guys can’t deal with looking at stuff that belonged to their deceased wives.

When Dad walked into the pantry where Mom kept all her home-canned goods, he said, “Take all these green beans home with you.”

“I can’t take food off your table, Dad,” I protested.

“I hate green beans,” he replied.

I’m sure my mouth dropped open, because it still does when I think of this story. “But you ate them almost every night,” I said. “If you hate them why did you eat them?”

“Because your mother served them.”

For thirty-seven years and four months, my father ate a hated vegetable every day just because Mom served it. And he ate it without letting anyone at the table know he hated green beans. Now, if that isn’t true love, I don’t know what is.

Ain’t love grand?

Catherine loves to laugh at herself and loves to write comedy. Check out her award-winning romantic comedy, with a touch of drama, A Groom for Mama.

Take your mind off the sound discrepancies between men and women with a copy of Catherine’s award-winning romantic comedy that has a touch of drama. You’ll laugh as Mama searches for a husband for her daughter.

One date for every medical test—that’s the deal. Allison, however, gets more than she bargains for. She gets a Groom for Mama.

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.

Amazon Buy Link

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Multi-award-winning author Catherine Castle has been writing all her life. A former freelance writer, she has over 600 articles and photographs to her credit (under her real name) in the Christian and secular market. Now she writes sweet and inspirational romance. Her debut inspirational romantic suspense, The Nun and the Narc, from Soul Mate Publishing, has garnered multiple contests finals and wins.

Catherine loves writing, reading, traveling, singing, watching movies, and the theatre. In the winter she loves to quilt and has a lot of UFOs (unfinished objects) in her sewing case. In the summer her favorite place to be is in her garden. She’s passionate about gardening and even won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club.

Learn more about Catherine Castle on her website and blog. Stay connected on Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to check out Catherine’s Amazon author page and her Goodreads page.

Tasty Tuesdays–Quick Oven Quesadillas

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books, Catherine Castle, entrees, food blog, Mexican food, Oven Quesadillas, Recipes, Tasty Tuesdays, The Nun and the Narc

The other day I wanted a quick easy meal, so I peeked into the pantry to see what I had on hand. I found cans of chicken, green chiles, corn, black beans and cream of chicken soup, and some tortillas, so I set out to create something. Here’s what I came up with. We liked it, and I hope you will too.

Quick Oven Quesadilla

Ingredients: 

• 2 12.5-oz canned chicken, drained and broken up
• 1 4-oz can diced green chilies
• 1 2.5-oz can sliced black olives, drained
• 1 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1-11-oz can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1/2 can cream of chicken soup
• 1/4 or less cup water (start with a smaller amount. You only need enough water to allow the condensed soup to mix with the other ingredients )
• 1 cup finely shredded Mexican style cheese.
• 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon taco seasoning, or to taste if you like it spicier.
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 high-fiber large tortillas (or corn tortillas) or  enough to fit a straight sided cake pan, or 2 high-fiber street tacos to make individual servings in a smaller pan

Directions:

• In a skillet over medium high heat brown the tortillas on both sides.
• While tortillas are browning, mix chicken, corn, beans, chilies, olives, soup, cheddar cheese and water. Heat the mix in a large saucepan stirring until well mixed and beginning to bubble.
• Lightly spray the bottom of a cake pan or baking sheet. Lay one tortilla in the pan, top with about 3/4 cup mix (for a large tortilla, less for smaller tortillas) onto top of browned tortilla, spreading mix almost to the edge. Top with 1/4 cup of finely shredded Mexican cheese.  Repeat with other tortilla and 3/4 cup mix. (You will have mix left over for another day’s use, or you can double the tortillas and make a bigger meal the first time)
• Bake in 350 degree oven about 10-15 minutes or until cheese on top has melted and you can see filling bubbling. (I’ve also baked this for a shorter time at a higher temp when was in a hurry.) Turn off oven and switch to the high broil setting on the oven and broil until cheese on top begins to brown.
• Remove from oven. Cut and serve with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, onions, guacamole, salsa or other Mexican side toppings.

If you want to make several stacks at a time lay the base tortillas on a baking sheet and assemble as many as your ingredients allow. Number will depend on the size of your tortillas.

If you only make one stack, or 2 smaller individual servings, the first time you can use the remainder of the filling for a second quesadilla meal or as filling for enchiladas. It will make about 4-6 enchiladas depending on the size of your tortilla. Warm your ingredients before assembling the stacks or enchiladas to cut down on heating time in oven. Make a cheese sauce, or other Mexican sauce to cover the enchiladas and top with shredded cheese. Heat in a 350 degree oven until cheese has melted and is beginning to brown. 

While your dinner is cooking, check out Catherine’s multi-award-winning Inspirational Romantic Suspense The Nun and the Narc. Partially set in Mexico, the heroine, Sister Margaret Mary, an adventurous novice, dines on some unusual marketplace snacks.

The Nun and the Narc

by Catherine Castle

Where novice Sister Margaret Mary goes, trouble follows. When she barges into a drug deal the local Mexican drug lord captures her. To escape she must depend on undercover DEA agent Jed Bond. Jed’s attitude toward her is exasperating, but when she finds herself inexplicable attracted to him he becomes more dangerous than the men who have captured them, because he is making her doubt her decision to take her final vows. Escape back to the nunnery is imperative, but life at the convent, if she can still take her final vows, will never be the same.

Nuns shouldn’t look, talk, act, or kiss like Sister Margaret Mary O’Connor—at least that’s what Jed Bond thinks. She hampers his escape plans with her compulsiveness and compassion and in the process makes Jed question his own beliefs. After years of walling up his emotions in an attempt to become the best agent possible, Sister Margaret is crumbling Jed’s defenses and opening his heart. To lure her away from the church would be unforgivable—to lose her unbearable.

Buy Links Amazon and Barnes and Noble

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.

 

Tasty Tuesdays–Zucchini Spaghetti Carbonara ala Catherine from Catherine Castle

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A Groom for Mama, Catherine Castle, Catherine Castle's Food blog Tasty Tuesdays, food recipe, Italian food, main entree, spaghetti carbonara, Sweet romantic comedy, Tasty Tuesdays

Traditional Carbonara has an egg and cheese sauce added to the spaghetti just before serving. I don’t care for eggs added to things at the last minute, so I eliminated the eggs and sauce and came up with my own version of Carbonara. I hope you’ll like it as much as we do.

Zucchini Spaghetti Carbonara ala Catherine

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces whole wheat spaghetti (or you can use edamame spaghetti for a dish with more fiber in it)
• 2.5 ounce can of sliced black olives, drained
• 1 cup diced or chunked  ham
• 1 medium zucchini, cut lengthwise and then thinly sliced
• ½ grated Parmesan cheese
• 6 slices thick bacon

Directions:

1. Divide bacon into 4 and 2 slices. Prepare 4 slices for microwaving by placing between 2 paper towels on a microwave safe plate. Microwave for 3 minutes until crisp. Remove from paper while still warm and crumble.
2. Dice remaining 2 slices and place in a large skillet, cooking until crisp.
3. While bacon is cooking, boil water for spaghetti and cook as directed on package until pasta is firm. Drain fully when cooked.
4. While pasta is cooking, sauté zucchini with diced bacon until zucchini is tender.
5. Drain any excess liquid from the pan.
6. Add olives and cooked drained spaghetti to zucchini and bacon, tossing to mix.
7. Remove from heat and add parmesan cheese, tossing quickly to keep cheese from clumping.
8. Top with crumbled bacon and serve.

Makes 2 generous main dish servings or 4 side dishes.

Note: additional cheese may be sprinkled on top of pasta after serving, if desired.

This dish makes up quick, so you won’t have time to read a book while it’s cooking, but after the dishes are done, check out Catherine’s sweet romantic comedy with a touch of drama, A Groom for Mama, on 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.

Musings from a Writer’s Brain–National Sing Out Day by Catherine Castle

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A Groom for Mama, Catherine Castle, essay about singing, Musings from a Writer's Brain, National Sing Out Day, singing, Sweet romance

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

May 25, (tomorrow) is National Sing Out Day—an unofficial fun holiday when people are encouraged to break out in song, belt out a tune, sing like a bird welcoming the morning sunrise.

You don’t have to ask me twice to sing. I’ve been singing ever since I was a toddler when my farmer grandpa and my dad taught me to sing “In The Garden”.  The old hymn was Dad’s favorite song. I still remembering them going over and over the same phrase I kept missing. Don’t remember that phrase, just the endless repetition of a measure of music when I just wanted to go on singing the rest of the tune. That first performance in a little country church hooked me on singing for the rest of my life.

Singing has always been second nature to me. When I was a teenager all I wanted to do was sing on stage professionally. That never happened, but I spent plenty of time singing anyway.

I passed the time singing while washing dishes as a teenager, and no, we didn’t have a dishwasher—my sister and I were it.  I sang in every choir I could get into: high school chorus, the elite high school singing group Studio choir, and the college women’s chorus. In the high school variety show, I sang “What’s it all about Alfie” as a soloist. I sang in the high school musicals in the chorus. While attending Cincinnati Conservatory of Music I sang in the city’s May Festival chorus, which was not my favorite thing since I had to travel downtown, alone, in a not-too-great-area of town after dark. I’ve sung in church choirs, and as a soloist, at all the churches I’ve attended. I’ve even sung in shopping malls at Christmas and as lunch-time Christmas entertainment at my daughter’s office. One of the most fun summer jobs I had as a teen was singing and playing my guitar for children in a summer school program. Although I never reached my dream of being professional singer, I even recorded a song that was played on the local radio show.

If it involved singing, I was there ready, willing and able. And, yes, I’ve even been known to sing in the shower. So, having found this fun holiday, you can bet I’ll be belting out a tune or two to celebrate.

If you’ve ever turned the radio on full blast to your favorite rock and roll songs, so you could hear it over the vacuum cleaner, and burst into song at the top of your lung capacity while sweeping the carpet, you probably know the uplifting and invigorating stimulus of singing. But singing has more benefits than just being fun. Studies have shown that singing can:

1. relieve stress
2. stimulate the immune response system
3. increase your pain threshold
4. help keep you from snoring
5. increase your lung function
6. enhance your memory (especially in people with dementia)
7. improve mental health and mood
8. help with grief
9. help improve speech among people with speech problems
10. and develop a sense of belonging and connection when you sing in a group  

Data from Benefits of Singing: 10 Ways Singing Boosts Your Health (healthline.com)

I can personally attest to benefits 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 10. Singing praises in church always relieves my stress. I’ve been singing all my life, and I’ve got a high pain threshold that’s strong enough to drop a 16-pound bowling ball on my foot and then bowl three games afterward on a broken big toe.  I don’t snore—or so the hubby says. I’ll have to take his word since I can’t hear myself when I’m asleep. ☺ I’ve had to expel my breath for more than eight counts while singing a note and increasing the volume of the sound, and I haven’t passed out in the process—yet. I can still remember words to songs I learned in my youth, and I’m still memorizing new things rather quickly. Belting out a rock and roll tune from my teen years always puts me in a good mood, and I’ve experienced the camaraderie of singing with others who love to sing as much as I do.  

So, tomorrow, May 25, join me in celebrating National Sing Out day. Jump on the singing bandwagon and belt out your favorite songs. Don’t worry if you can’t carry a tune. Just have a good time. Make a joyful noise and get ready to revel in the benefits and fun of singing. ♫

After you’ve exhausted your song repertoire, check out Catherine’s romantic comedy, with a touch of drama, A Groom for Mama. Available on 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.

Catherine’s Comment–Letters from Home by Catherine Castle

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A Groom for Mama, Catherine Castle, Catherine's Comments, Contemporary Romantic comedy, essay on letter writing, Letters from Home, Natiional Letter Writing Month, Sweet romance

National Letter Writing Month

Letters From Home

I ran across an old letter from my mother the other day. There was  no envelope to tell me who’d written the letter, but the moment I saw the wiggly script and rough grammar, I knew instantly who’d penned the words—or rather who’d penciled them. Mom’s words of congratulations on the birth of my daughter and the regret she felt at her inability to traverse the distance between us to be there to help me at the birth sent me hurtling back 42 years to a time when our main mode of communication was letters. I didn’t realize at the time I’d be writing a post about letters or I’d have kept the missive from Mom. Instead, I slipped it between the pages of my daughter’s baby book and gave it to her to keep. After all, the letter was about her.

Back in the 70s, when the letter was written, cell phones didn’t exist, at least not for common folk.  Long distance land-line phone calls cost by the minute and could get pricey real quick when you wanted to chat up the family and tell them what was happening in your life across the continent. So, we wrote letters. Lots of letters.

I lived for those weekly letters from home, because even though I’d made friends in a faraway state, I still missed my family. Seeing the familiar scrawl of my mother’s handwriting and the precise, loopy script of my mother-in-law’s hand took me back every week to my hometown, to a place that was comforting.

My mother-in-law, who was a talker in person, was no less gabby in her letters to me. Her letters tended to run at least two pages and sometimes four. Every week I knew what she’d had for their Sunday eat-out dinner after church service, and whether it was better or worse that last week’s meal. I knew what her daily activities had been for the week (sometimes she even included the chores she’d finished), whom she’d seen at church (even if it was someone I didn’t personally know), the songs the vocal groups she directed had practiced or sung at a performance. I knew what new or interesting things my sister-in-law, who was still in high school, had done and where she and her boyfriend had gone on their dates. If something was a part of my mother-in-law’s daily life, she wrote about it. When she began to run out of space, being the frugal person she was, she’d write in the margins going around the page so I had to rotate the letter to read the rest of the note.

My mother, who was less of a talker in person, tended to write about her garden, what was going on with the people I knew at church, and my two sisters’ activities.  Mom’s letters were shorter, but enjoyed just as much as my gabby mother-in-law’s dissertations.

These two women kept me connected to home for the four years my husband and I were away and unable to come home regularly.

Recently I ran across an old family letter that I hadn’t read before. In it my husband’s Grandma talks about her daily routine. Here are a couple of clips from the letter, which I believe was one of the last she wrote before her death.

In other parts of the letter she talks about how many tomatoes her garden yielded compared to my father-in-law’s garden, the weather that morning (it snowed and froze the last of the garden), who was sick in the town, and upcoming Christmas visit to her home.

Although technology like telephones, cell phones, texting, and zoom calls and emails are a nice way to connect with our loved ones in the here and now, they disappear when the call is over or we get a new cell phone, or our email server crashes or says we have no more storage room on the server. All those words and conversations can never be reread or shared in their entirety. We can’t see the hand of the person in the email, only typed letters, or, in the case of text messages, a I  ♥ U in the signature line. Handwriting is unique to each person and often displays some of a personality, something a typed page will never reveal to the reader.

I feel sorry for those who have no written letters from home. Discovering the letter my mother sent me at the birth of my daughter brought back a flood of memories about that time frame as well as a mental picture of my mother. Rereading Grandma’s words took me back to the time when she was alive and reconnected me to her. And rereading the letters from my husband while we were dating and when he was on business in another city floods my heart with emotions.

April is National Letter Writing Month. Let’s all take some time this month and create new memories with the old-fashioned activity of letter writing. Choose a family member or friend who doesn’t live near you and surprise them with a letter from home, filled with newsy bits of information they might like to tuck away for a future re-read.

Tell them you love them. Tell them you miss them. Tell them about the work-a-day stuff of your life and anything you think might entertain them. You might be surprised at the pleasure putting words to paper gives you. And, you might inspire them to answer with their own letter of reply.

Happy Writing!

Catherine

About the Author:

Multi-award winning author Catherine Castle loves writing and was writing letters long before she began writing fiction. 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.

Check out her award winning book A Groom for Mama, on 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.

Musings from a Writer’s Brain—I’m Looking Over My Four-leaf Clovers by Catherine Castle

Tags

award-winning books, Catherine Castle, five-leaf clover, four-leaf clover lore, four-leaf clovers, lucky clovers, Musings from a Writer's Brain, St. Patrick's Day, The Nun and the Narc

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up in 2 days, March 17. Do you have your lucky four-leaf clover yet?

I’ve got mine.

In fact, I have thirty-five four-leaf clovers, several which were found in one day. I’ve probably found more than thirty-five since I only began pressing my finds between mailing tape in 1987.

I’ve been looking for these lucky charms all my life. Hunting four-leaf clovers was a pastime of my mother, who searched most of her live and rarely found one. As a teenager, I often gave my finds to her or gave them away to other people who couldn’t find them as easily as I could.

I also have three five-leaf clovers, which appeared after we fertilized our yard one year. I also found several of them on the same day. They were gigantic compared to the run-of-the-mill clovers that inhabited our weedy yard. I thought the fertilizer put the regular clovers on steroids. I later learned that five-leaf clovers are believed to be even luckier than their four-leaved counterparts. If I’d have known that I’d have purchased a lottery ticket or three the day I found those babies!

I remember one time, after showing my daughter and her friend a few of my mounted clovers, the two of them decided to search in our yard for their own lucky clover. After a while they came in, disappointed because they hadn’t found anything. I took them outside, looked down at a couple of dense clover patches and then pointed to one of them.

“Search here,” I said. Within a few minutes each of them had discovered a four-leaf clover.

“How did you know where to look?” my daughter asked.

“I didn’t,” I replied. “I just looked down and I saw them.” They left clutching their clovers in awe of me.

Irish tradition says three-leaf clovers are associated with St Patrick’s use of the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish; three leaves for the three persons of the Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Celts thought four-leaf clovers would ward off bad luck. In the Middle Ages, children who carried a four-leaf clover in their pockets believed they could see fairies.

Other traditions tell us that those who find a four-leaf clover are destined for good luck. Three of the leaves in the clover represent good omens for faith, hope, and love. The fourth leaf means luck for the finder, a fifth leaf even more luck.  If you should find a six-leaf clover you can add fame to the mix, and a seventh leaf adds longevity, according to Wikipedia. Considering there are 10,000 of the three leafed varieties for each lucky four-leafed clover (or 5,000 to one, depending on whose research you believe), I feel blessed to have found as many four-leafed clovers as I have.

My husband just thinks I’ve found so many because I’m good at recognizing patterns in the clover, but I’m not so sure. I’ve searched on occasions and not found a single lucky clover.

I do think I’ve had a blessed life, but I don’t believe I can attribute it to those thirty-five clovers. I would say, however, that the three main leaves of the four-leaf clover that represent faith, hope and love are the drivers for my blessings. If you have those three things in your life, you’ll feel lucky no matter what life throws at you.

May you have the Blessings of Life that faith, hope and love bring you,

and the luck of the Irish today and always.

Catherine’s published books have also been lucky. Her debut novel, The Nun and the Narc is an ACFW Genesis Finalist, a 2014 EPIC finalist, and the winner of the 2014 Beverly Hills Book Award and the 2014 RONE award, as well as placing in several other contests.  Her sweet romantic comedy/drama A Groom for Mama, is the recipient of the 2018 Raven Award.

Check out this blurb from The Nun and the Narc.

The Nun and the Narc

by Catherine Castle

Where novice Sister Margaret Mary goes, trouble follows. When she barges into a drug deal the local Mexican drug lord captures her. To escape she must depend on undercover DEA agent Jed Bond. Jed’s attitude toward her is exasperating, but when she finds herself inexplicable attracted to him he becomes more dangerous than the men who have captured them, because he is making her doubt her decision to take her final vows. Escape back to the nunnery is imperative, but life at the convent, if she can still take her final vows, will never be the same.

Nuns shouldn’t look, talk, act, or kiss like Sister Margaret Mary O’Connor—at least that’s what Jed Bond thinks. She hampers his escape plans with her compulsiveness and compassion and in the process makes Jed question his own beliefs. After years of walling up his emotions in an attempt to become the best agent possible, Sister Margaret is crumbling Jed’s defenses and opening his heart. To lure her away from the church would be unforgivable—to lose her unbearable.

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.

Musings from a Writer’s Brain–Celebrate Your Name –Even If You Change It by Catherine Castle

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C;elebrate Your Name Week, Catherine Castle, essay about names, humor, Musings from a Writer's Brain, name changes, Names, nicknames

March 7-13 is Celebrate Your Name week. Established in 1997 by American onomatology hobbyist Jerry Hill, Celebrate Your Name Week (CYNW) is a week for embracing and celebrating your name.

Before you say, “Why would I want to celebrate my name?” think about this–your name identifies you. It is the one thing that will be in your life now and forever. It can define your ethnicity, your heritage, how you look at yourself, and sometimes how others look at you. If you hate your name you can change it, but the original moniker will still be on your birth certificate. Your name will be used throughout your life to identify you in a myriad of ways: on your driver’s license, bank accounts, health accounts, mortgage deeds, insurance policies, social media accounts, professionally, and friends and family will say your name hundreds of thousands, or even millions of times, over the course of your life.

Think about your name or names if you have a middle one. Do you know what they mean? Do you know how you got them? Do you know how long it took your parents to decide on what to name you? How important was your name to those who named you? Have you ever wanted to change your name, and if so why? How did that change work out for you?

I know the answers to a few of those questions. My birth names mean pure and peace. I was named after both of my grandmothers, whose names at the time of my birth were very old-fashioned. My aunt Ella, on my father’s side, always addressed me by my first and my middle names. I suppose she didn’t want me to forget my paternal grandmother, whom I never met. I can still recall my aunt’s voice addressing me. She was the only one who ever called me by both names and somehow it became extra special to me.

I don’t know how long it took my parents to decide on my name or whether they had chosen it before I was born or after. Back then you had to have male and female options, since the gender was a surprise until the baby arrived.

I do know that it was very important to my mother that people called me Catherine, not Cathy. While in high school I shortened my name to Cathy and introduced myself that way at school. Catherine was too long to write on homework papers and very old-fashioned at the time. I wanted to be hipper back then. At church, and in front of my mother, I was always Catherine.

That dichotomy caused me a lot of problems. Although I cautioned any boy to whom I gave my home phone number to ask for Catherine—not Cathy, they invariably forgot. When Mom got to the phone before I did, which was often since she had a phone beside her easy chair, I’d hear, “Sorry, there’s no one here by that name.” Then she’d hang up the phone and glare at me. I lost a lot of potential boyfriends and dates that way. One icy answer from my mother and they never called back. I think they thought I’d given them the run-around with a wrong number. As the years went by, I grew out of my Cathy phase and now I have to correct people when they shorten my name. I still answer to Cathy at my high school reunions. Mom’s not around anymore to glare at me in disapproval and it’s just easier for those few hours to answer to the nickname.

My grandmother was called Cat by her brothers. I used to think that was a horrible nickname and cringed whenever I heard her addressed that way. When my nieces and nephews came along, Cat was easier to say than Catherine, so I adopted Grandma’s nickname. It shocked the heck out of my family when I gave those babies the okay to call me Cat.  Now I’m Aunt Cat to all of them. I now eschew the high school nickname I gave myself and love the birth name I once hated. Ain’t life funny?

When I began my fiction-writing career, I changed my name again. I kept my first name, because I like it a lot now. I’ve grown into it. I also thought keeping my first name would be less confusing at writing conferences. If someone called me Nancy I might think they were talking to another person and unintentionally ignore them. That would be bad.  I did, however, choose a different last name—one that would fit easier on a book cover and had a nice alliteration to my first name. My pen name is Catherine Castle. With that name change I became an author of sweet and inspiration romance.

 I still remember the first time a stranger in a bookstore asked, “Are you Catherine Castle?”

Startled, I looked at her and said, “Yes, I am.” No one had ever recognized my author persona before and I wondered how she knew me.

She must have seen the question in my gaze because she said, “I recognize you from your picture on your website.”

I left the bookstore with a big grin on my face that lasted for several hours. A complete stranger knew who Catherine Castle, the author, was! 

Shakespeare wrote, in Romeo and Juliet, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…” This popular quote is often used to imply that it didn’t matter that Romeo’s name was associated with the house of Juliet’s family’s sworn enemy.

I suggest that your name does matter and that your name affects who you are. A boy named Sue will have a very different life than one named Chauncy. So if you love your name, or are just indifferent to it, embrace it. Take a few minutes this week to celebrate your name. Find out everything you can about your name. Dig into its history. You might be surprised as to why you are named what you are and how your name has made you who you are.

If you need to change your name for some reason, choose wisely. In the Bible, when a name change happened it often reflected some new aspect of one’s life, a thing that changed them and defined their new life paths. Your name can define you, too. So make your new name a good one.

Celebrate name week—Celebrate!

Catherine Castle is very picky about how she chooses the character names for her books. She once wrote an entire book inserting the name Mother 2 into the pages because she couldn’t think of the right name for that antagonist character. Her critique partners thought it was a real hoot, but when she finally came up with Mother 2’s name—Tiberia—they all agreed it fit her perfectly.

In her book A Groom for Mama, she named one of the characters in honor of a dear friend who battled cancer. You can read a sample of the book on Amazon. 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.

Available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble

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.

Tasty Tuesdays–Quick White Chicken Chili from Catherine Castle

Tags

Catherine Castle, entree, food, Quick White Chicken Chili, recipe, Tasty Tuesdays, The Nun and the Narc

The other day I made some chicken breasts in the crockpot in anticipation of making a batch of chicken pot pies. I threw in a couple extra boneless breasts, and hubby and I went out to run some errands. When we got back later that afternoon we were hungry and the scent of chicken filled the house.

“What’s for dinner?” hubby asked.

I decided to use some of the crockpot chicken breasts and throw together a quick White Chicken Chili with what I had in the pantry. I didn’t have enough cannellini beans so I substituted and came up with a pretty good chili, if I do say so myself. I hope you’ll think so, too.

Here’s what I had in the pantry to make this chili.

Ingredients:

2 boneless chicken breasts, boiled and shredded

1 15-ounce can of cannellini beans (also called white kidney beans), drained

1 15-ounce can of butter beans

1 4-ounce can green chilies

8-16 ounces of chicken broth

Salt and pepper to taste

Cumin to taste if you like a hot chili

Directions:

Place cannellini beans, diced green peppers, and 8 ounces of chicken broth into a pot.

Place butter beans in a food processor and pulse until beans are mashed up.

Add to ingredients in pot and stir well. 

If chili is too thick add more chicken broth until it reaches the consistency you want.

Heat and serve with homemade cornbread and coleslaw. 

Makes 4 1-cup servings

While you’re waiting for the chili to heat check out Catherine’s Award-winning Inspirational Romantic Suspense The Nun and the Narc.

Available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble

The Nun and the Narc

By Catherine Castle

Where novice Sister Margaret Mary goes, trouble follows. When she barges into a drug deal the local Mexican drug lord captures her. To escape she must depend on undercover DEA agent Jed Bond. Jed’s attitude toward her is exasperating, but when she finds herself inexplicable attracted to him he becomes more dangerous than the men who have captured them, because he is making her doubt her decision to take her final vows. Escape back to the nunnery is imperative, but life at the convent, if she can still take her final vows, will never be the same.

Nuns shouldn’t look, talk, act, or kiss like Sister Margaret Mary O’Connor—at least that’s what Jed Bond thinks. She hampers his escape plans with her compulsiveness and compassion and in the process makes Jed question his own beliefs. After years of walling up his emotions in an attempt to become the best agent possible, Sister Margaret is crumbling Jed’s defenses and opening his heart. To lure her away from the church would be unforgivable—to lose her unbearable.

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.

Tasty Tuesdays- No-Tomato Crockpot Chili from Catherine Castle

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arthritis menu, Catherine Castle, entrée, food, nightshade-free recipe, No-Tomato Crockpot Chili, Tasty Tuesdays

Recently tomatoes have been cut from our diet. I love tomatoes and many of the recipes I cook are tomato based. Here’s the issue: tomatoes are part of the nightshade family, along with a few more of my favorite foods such as peppers and eggplants. In some people the nightshade plants make arthritis worse and eliminating nightshade foods can help keep arthritis at bay.  The problem comes when one family member loves tomatoes and the other one now has to avoid them.

There are very few, if any substitutes for tomatoes, so I’ve been on the hunt for ways to make my favorite dishes without tomatoes for the non-tomato eating half of our family, yet please the tomato-loving member. It’s been tough, especially with chili season upon us.

So, I set out to conquer the problem. Here’s one of the recipe I came up with: No-Tomato Crockpot Chili. I hope you’ll enjoy it. 

photo from the kitchen of Catherine Castle

No-Tomato Crockpot Chili

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 can beefy mushroom soup (I used Campbell’s soup)
• ½ large onion, diced
• 2 cans of beans with the canned liquid. The bean liquids help make up for the loss of the volume of the tomatoes. You can use seasoned or unseasoned chili beans, black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, or lentils. Your choice and you can mix and match beans types.
• 1 small can diced chilies, if the non-tomato eater can eat them without issues
• One garlic clove, diced (optional)
• Chili powder to taste
• ¼ cup water, or less if you want a thicker chili
• Salsa, your heat preference for the tomato-eating family members
• Cheese for topping (optional)
• Spaghetti (optional)

Directions:

1. Break up ground beef in a large skillet and brown along with the diced onion and garlic.
2. Add beans and bean liquid, diced green chilies, soup and water to crock pot. Stir to mix well.
3. Drain beef mixture of fat and place in a crock pot. Stir to mix
4. Cook on high for 2 hours or until hot, or on low 4-6 hours or until hot.

At serving time, place spaghetti in bottom of bowl and add beef chili.  For those who can eat green chilies and tomatoes, top their bowls with ¼ to ½ cup of salsa and 1 teaspoon of green chilies to each cup of the beef-soup-based chili.  Stir lightly to combine.

While your chili is cooking settle into a comfy chair and check out Catherine’s multi-award-winning, inspirational romantic suspense book, The Nun and the Narc. It’s not your usual inspirational romantic suspense. Here’s what one reviewer said:

“You know that you aren’t supposed to laugh during a romantic suspense book, right?  And it’s a different kind of Inspirational Romance, too.  There were times in this book that I was rolling with laughter.  We needed the laughter considering that Maggie and Jed were dealing the Mexican drug cartel, trying not to get killed in the process and coming to terms with their faith and each other.  Oh and falling in love…

… Ms. Castle wrote some the most dramatic scenes that I’ve read in a while.  She could write an action/thriller movie with no problem.  I really felt like I was the fly on the wall and actually cringed, ducked and held my breath.  I will also say the James Bond references were spot on.  Jed Bond!  LOL!  Priceless and needed when you are dealing with the cartel.  Also, the humor that she writes helps with the tension and action sequences, too.

Don’t worry about the book being “preachy” or heavy handed.  Ms. Castle wrote a book that everyone can relate to in one way or another…” From Harlies Books.

The Nun and the Narc

By Catherine Castle

Where novice Sister Margaret Mary goes, trouble follows. When she barges into a drug deal the local Mexican drug lord captures her. To escape she must depend on undercover DEA agent Jed Bond. Jed’s attitude toward her is exasperating, but when she finds herself inexplicable attracted to him he becomes more dangerous than the men who have captured them, because he is making her doubt her decision to take her final vows. Escape back to the nunnery is imperative, but life at the convent, if she can still take her final vows, will never be the same.

Nuns shouldn’t look, talk, act, or kiss like Sister Margaret Mary O’Connor—at least that’s what Jed Bond thinks. She hampers his escape plans with her compulsiveness and compassion and in the process makes Jed question his own beliefs. After years of walling up his emotions in an attempt to become the best agent possible, Sister Margaret is crumbling Jed’s defenses and opening his heart. To lure her away from the church would be unforgivable—to lose her unbearable.

The Nun and the Narc is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble

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.

Tasty Tuesdays-Easy Popcorn Balls from Catherine Castle

Tags

Catherine Castle, food blog, National Popcorn Day, popcorn, popcorn balls, recipe, romantic comedy, Sweet romance, sweets. A Groom for Mama, Tasty Tuesdays

Today, January 19, is National Popcorn Day and I thought it would be fun to share my recipe for popcorn balls. Most popcorn balls are made using corn syrup, but in our family we adjusted the recipe since we weren’t keen on how the corn syrup stuck to our dental fillings, especially after a corn-syrup-based popcorn ball pulled out a loose filling.

Additionally, this popcorn recipe brings back memories. The day our daughter was born I had made popcorn balls to take to a Christmas party. Instead of making the party, we ended up in the delivery room. Hubby missed most of the party, but he had the popcorn balls in the car. So, when after her birth, instead of passing out cigars (which he wouldn’t have done since he doesn’t smoke), he passed out popcorn balls to the hospital staff.

This is a simple and fast recipe and was a staple at our house for a long time at Christmas. It’s good other times, too, and will make a sweet treat for National Popcorn Day. 

Ingredients:

¼ cup margarine

4 cups mini marshmallows

5 cups popped popcorn. Don’t use pre-bagged, pre-seasoned popcorn for this. Pop the whole kernel corn instead.

Directions:

1. Pop the corn as directed on the bag. Set aside each popped batch until you have 5 cups of popped corn and let it cool.
2. In a large saucepan, melt butter over low heat.
3. Add marshmallows. Stir until melted.
4. Pour over the popcorn and stir well to mix.
5. Working quickly, with lightly greased hands and helpers if you can get them, form the popcorn and marshmallow mix into balls. Let balls cool completely.
6. Serve right away or store by wrapping each ball in a square of plastic wrap.

Serves: Who knows? It often depends on how much you, or your helpers, can resist eating as you roll them into balls.

While you’re waiting for the popcorn balls to cool, check out Catherine’s romantic comedy with a touch of drama, A Groom for Mama. There’s no popcorn in the book, but there are plenty of laughs.

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.

Available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble

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.