a Happy New Year from the north east
Dec 29, 2022 6:41 pm
Hello fellow reader,
I write to you from the Boston area where we decided to spend our New Year's Eve with the kids. There's a bit of snow but not much and it's going to hit 50 degrees today. Very strange weather we're all having here in the States.
On these cold, dark days, my middle daughter has become the hot chocolate queen with both of her sisters daring to call her hot chocolate "the best ever in the universe." The recipe was unknown until one day when I was doing dishes and she thought I wasn't watching. And now I can see why it's the best hot chocolate ever.
The recipe calls for milk heated in a saucepan, as many packets as Swiss Miss as people are indulging and then a heaping half cup of chocolate chips once the milk heats up. Mix it all together until melted/dissolved and serve HOT.
I tend to stick to coffee. But you know, coffee tastes better with some gingerbread cookies so I've eaten my weight in those just in the last week.
We are staying in a tiny town called Townsend. After being in the car for over seven hours on Tuesday, yesterday we decided to only go to Concord. Such a cute, historical town outside of Boston. All my elementary history is coming back here in New England!
You know me, I'm in my element here in a new place. I love traveling and seeing parts of the world I have never seen before. The history around here has me wishing I could rent a cottage for an entire summer and just traipse around, finding gems. Alas, I have children who need feeding and getting to school. But perhaps when they all leave the house???
I'm really looking forward to 2023 starting. I have so many exciting things planned for it, who could blame me? I plan to get out at least two (if not three) books this year with Kickstarter, I plan to host an in-person writing retreat and I plan to host four online writing workshops, and I will hopefully go to Uganda to visit the girls home we support through WE International.
And that doesn't include the manuscripts I plan to help with and the clients I plan to coach. It's going to be a great year!
It sounds like a lot but one book is Cornered, which I just need to go through and make sure the two characters I deleted are fully out. The other is Crossing Zamora, which is over halfway done and the third is the sequel to Cornered, which I started writing last year before realizing I wanted to break up the book into two. See? All planned. No problem.... I just need the time to finish them.
So maybe I should get a cottage. Or a tiny house. Or an RV. Or maybe I'll live in my car in the woods of New Hampshire.....
Anyway, I wish everyone a Happy New Year and that you eat all your grapes! (A Spanish tradition. You eat one grape at every clang of the clock at midnight. Eat them all and you'll have good luck in the New Year.)
-Kat
Don't forget to join my writer's newsletter if you're a writer.
_____________________________________________
Who is starting their 2023 reading early this year?
Joanna boards a flight to visit the Greek island of Sifnos again after twenty years.
All this time, despite the distance and her life's circumstances, she's been holding on to precious memories from an old summer love.
Now, she's determined to meet again the man she once left behind, hoping for a chance to prove she never forgot their old promise...
___________________________________
After her soul-crushing breakup, Haley Kineman is stepping out of her comfort zone, moving to sunny Tucson, Arizona, and shooting for the stars—literally. When she’s not working as a phlebotomist, Haley’s striving to meet her celebrity crush who’s filming locally.
Haley has even enlisted her grumpy next-door neighbor—affectionately nicknamed Yeti—to help her get onto the movie set. With his long enviable locks, masculine beard, and alpine mountain physique, he’s an obvious choice for an ally.
All Yeti wants is to quietly develop software in his home office, but Haley throws his protective nature into overdrive after being injured in an incident. Then Yeti has no choice but to accompany Haley on her sight-seeing, thrift-shopping, iguana-saving adventures.
But Haley’s bright demeanor keeps messing with his head, making him consider things that aren’t possible. Because with Yeti’s damaging past, no woman would want him.
As their friendship deepens, Haley’s not sure if she should stick to her star-studded plan, or if a real love story is closer to home.
____________________________
Young Adam Chisholm is destined to lead the powerful Chisholm Clan of Scotland, his future carefully crafted by his formidable father. But Adam's well-laid plans change when he meets the beautiful Kathy McDonough, a Scottish lassie toiling in the fields of his father's estate.
Given a choice between losing his redhaired beauty or fighting in a new Jacobite uprising, Adam reluctantly heads off to war. Will fate allow the two star-crossed lovers to survive both war and powerful family traditions?
Read the free Chisholm Clan novella today.
_____________________________________
She’s found the love of her life… but history says he’s supposed to die.
When passionate Scottish historian Lizzie Ferguson finds herself pulled back in time to the Scottish Highlands in the 15th century, the medieval world that she dedicated her life to studying suddenly becomes all-too-real.
As the heir to his clan, John McEwan is strong, dark, and determined to make his people proud. From the moment Lizzie stumbles upon him, she finds a source of comfort that she never knew she needed. There’s only one problem – a war is brewing with a rival clan, and John is supposed to lose.
Lizzie knows that she shouldn’t mess with history… but she can’t afford to lose John. But even as she meddles with fate, she’s faced with an impossible choice: to try and fit into her strange new life in the Highlands, or to return to the old life empty-handed.
Will the unlikely spark she feels for John blossom into something much deeper? Or will she be forced to leave everything behind?