I am Back!

After a long absence, I am returning to Blackwater Tales. I am re-organizing much of my life, especially my online presence. However, I am keeping this blog to talk about my family and our home. You'll find nature stories - Hurricane Matthew, a gangly heron, ducklings, our dogs -, tales of family history - weddings, job changes, fortunes and misfortunes -, and a little social and political commentary. In other words, stories about life.

So, please, stop by and visit for more Blackwater Tales.

We've had beaver activity this year.  A  LOT!

You Never Know What You're Going to Find

Rumor has it that we each get 15 minutes of fame in our lives. Well, more or less. The Internet has given that concept new life in several ways, not the least of which was impressed upon me one evening a couple years ago.

I was doing that double-edged sword activity called ego-surfing. In reality, I was searching to see what articles of mine remain out there in E-space, so that I could retrieve them for a profile. I did not expect to find my name and my work mentioned in someone else's blog, especially not someone I don't know.

However, that is what happened.

In 1987, as young mom in Nashville, Tennessee, I entered a contest that was "the search for the ultimate chocolate chip cookie". It was sponsored by Chocolatier Magazine and The Orchards Inn in New England. I heard about it on a local TV show, and since our chocolate chip cookies already had a good reputation, decided to enter. I was one of the lucky finalists. I even still have the terrycloth robe the Inn sent me as a prize. And my recipe was published in a cookbook of the top 50 recipes from the contest.
Cook from the Book is a blog site about the "tests and trials of baking and cooking moments".  It features recipes endorsed by the blogger, along with comments on the usefulness of the recipes. Apparently, a couple years before, Cook from the Book featured my recipe for Joyous Chocolate Chips along with a short intro about how it came to be.

I was flabbergasted. Dumbfounded. Gobsmacked even. 


I loved creating the recipe and was thrilled to place among the top finalists. I loved my robe. When I won, I even contacted the TV show I'd heard about the contest from, and they invited me on the show to demo my recipe. Then there was the cookbook. I figured I'd milked that 15 minutes for all it was worth. But the recipe, with my name associated with it, lives on. And that's pretty cool. 

I love the Internet.

Cover for Sweet Corn, Fields, Forever

About the book:

“Sometimes a new beginning is someone else's end,
a circular relationship where time begins to blend,
You have to ask the question: where have we come, and how?
'Cause the end's in the beginning,
And the beginning's in us now”

-- from “The End’s in the Beginning” by Tyler McCloud

Jason Fields is opening his new research and design facility with a grand Open House. Before the event begins, he gives Dr. Mackenzie Wilder a personal tour -- which puts an early end to the festivities. They discover the body of country musician Tyler McCloud, strangled in a first floor conference room.

They're sure they didn't have anything to do with his death, but Jason's past involvement with country music and this particular family lead authorities to think otherwise. It takes Mackenzie Wilder's faith in her friend and the staunch support of Tyler's sister Tory to uncover "what Tyler did to get hisself killed." From upstate New York to Charlotte, North Carolina, from Las Vegas to Nashville, the deaths and confusion mount.

Could Tory be at the center of it all? This may be one song she can't sing or write her way out of. It will take their combined resources to stop the killing, at a cost far higher than the diamonds on a country singer's costume.

This is going to be quick. And it's obvious I haven't had much time to blog this year. Since I was last on, I've become the wife of a jazz drummer and freelance photographer (without getting remarried or anything; hubby simply got busy), taken on new freelance work, graduated 2 young women from college (well, they graduated themselves, but you  know what I mean), been to some celebrations and evenings out I hadn't been before, and gotten some stuff done around the house. ALSO: my new book, second in the Mackenzie Wilder/Classic Boat mysteries, is now available at www.smashwords. com .    It will soon also be available at Kobo and the Apple Bookstore, with other sites to follow. If you decide to buy it and enjoy it, please feel free to pass the word along, or even write a review!

You'll  hear more about life at Blackwater soon,