Books We Love Insider Blog

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Mexican Celebrations

The Day of the Dead displays were still on the Malecon when my husband Will and I arrived in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on November 15th. Plaster and papier mâché skulls, altars, and Catrinas lined the ocean boardwalk, remnants of Nov 2nd's Dia de los Muertos - the day many Mexicans honour their deceased relatives and friends with celebrations, parades, and visits to gravesites. The Malecon's most impressive display was the elegantly dressed skeleton lady standing 74 feet 4.9 inches tall. Last year the Guiness Book of Records declared her the tallest Catrina in the World. In 2023 she returned in a new outfit that shimmered in the breezes. At night a loudspeaker piped her voice to the Malecon crowd, "I am the most beautiful woman in Puerto Vallarta."

(above) On the Malecon: Giant Catrina & Altar and skull for Canada (below) Giant Catrina viewed from The Cross lookout

Monday November 20th was Revolution Day, a national holiday in Mexico. Will and I got curbside seats for the parade, which features school groups dressed in traditional costumes, often in the colours of the Mexican flag - green, white, and red. The parade moves in a stop and start style as the groups stop to perform dances and acrobatics for the crowd. We really enjoyed the first few acts, but then ten, fifteen, twenty minutes passed. The children gathered in shady spots to wait. By then Will and I were getting hot and retreated to our hotel pool.

Mexico doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, but restaurants offer US Thanksgiving dinners for tourists. Will and I treated ourselves to a buffet Thanksgiving meal at a beachfront hotel.

Before dinner, we worked up an appetite with a Malecon walk and discovered that our Giant Lady had been dismantled. Her head and bones awaited pickup the following day.

Before we left downtown Puerto Vallarta for our relaxing beach week, stores and hotels were setting up displays for Christmas, another festive time of year in Mexico.

Susan Calder

I am the author of two mystery novels, Deadly Fall and Ten Days in Summer, both set in Calgary, AB, and featuring insurance adjuster sleuth Paula Savard. My short stories have won contests and appeared in magazines and anthologies, most recently in Writing Menopause, Long Lunch/Quick Reads and AB Negative. I belong to the Alexandra Writers Centre Society, Crime Writers of Canada and the Writers Guild of Alberta and serve on the board of When Words Collide Festival for Readers and Writers. A native of Montreal, I live in Calgary, where I love hiking in our nearby Rocky Mountains.

Sunday, December 10, 2023

Where Did the Year Go? - Barbara Baker

The ski season started. The Christmas tree is up. Outside decorations are hung. I'd like to say the shopping, baking and meal planning are under control or complete, but I'd be lying. It's never under control, let alone close to completion.

I can't believe there's only 21 days left before we start 2024. We went from a winter which got almost too cold to ski, wearing jackets in March to hike in Arizona, the smokiest Alberta summer in history followed by a stunning fall, to now - winter. The season we adapt to because it can last six months and, this year, winter is full of surprises.

Three golf courses were open in Calgary on December 5th. Tee times were all booked. We saw a rainbow in the Crowsnest Pass on December 6th when southern Alberta received rain. The ski hills struggle to make and/or keep their precious snow. What a year.

Throughout 2023, I hammered away at Book 3 of Jillian's last story. Until September, hammered away might be an exaggeration. Peck is probably a better word to describe my progress. When my manuscript didn't even show up in Word's most recent files, I realized I needed motivation and fewer distractions to finish it.

So, I made a commitment. I made myself accountable to 'sit my butt in the chair' and finish writing the novel. I set a goal to have the first draft completed by the end of the year. And so far, it's working. My solution - I set the alarm clock for 5 AM. When it goes off, I head to my office to write. Trust me, my husband loves the alarm clock idea especially if I wake up before it rings and sneak out of the bedroom without turning it off.

For two solid hours, without interruptions, I write. I don't open Facebook, Gmail, LinkedIn or Instagram. I start by reading the last few paragraphs of the previous days writing. Then I check the Notes option on my iPhone and the slips of paper in my tray which have scribbled 'must add comments', 'snappy dialogue' or 'scenes the story can't live without.' I add them if they're appropriate for where I'm at in the story or put them back in the tray.

And, it's working!

But now with all the baking and shopping staring me in the face, the clock ticking and the year's end creeping closer, I feel myself faltering. Sharing my goal with people makes me accountable. I hate to fail. I'm competitive. But I also procrastinate and hit snooze.

If just one person asks me on January 1st, 'Is your draft done?', I can't imagine letting them down. Or me. So wish me luck as I attempt to schuss through the finish line and get to The End.

All the very best of wishes for 2024. May the holidays and Mother Nature be kind to us all.

You can contact me at: bbaker.write@gmail.com

Summer of Lies: Baker, Barbara: 9780228615774: Books - Amazon.ca

What About Me?: Sequel to Summer of Lies by Baker, Barbara (amazon.ca)

Friday, December 8, 2023

Seeing Woody's in Halifax by Vanessa C. Hawkins

Vanessa Hawkins Author Page

I'm in Halifax! This weekend I have a book fair, and so since the situation is outside my home province, me and two gal friends have decided a ladies night was in order.

Now... We are all mom's in our 30s, so the first stop was Ikea. After hours there, it was the mall to see this!

It's woody the talking xmas tree! It's as scary as it seems and I love it!

Next was eating, hot tub and nails.

It was perfect. But because my nails look like this now:

I can't type well. So this will be a short post. Sorry... I'm already dreading putting on pants tomorrow... So this is hard for me too.

Here's a poem for you in apology.

I bought a new lamp

It's great and it's damp

With lava and green

Like beetlejuice.

Im not a poet, so here's a picture instead.

Cheers!

Vanessa C. Hawkins

I hate writing introductions because my first thought it how can I make this as extra as possible. Honestly, I'm not that interesting. I write books sometimes and hang out with my family and eat nacho's on Friday nights when my daughter goes to her Grandparent's house. Sometimes I dress spooky, but lately because of Covid (yeah... Covid. Right...) I've become too fluffy to fit into my goth clothes. I'm married. I like comics, and I like sleeping in, though I rarely get to do it these days.

Languages by J. S. Marlo

The Red Quilt

Sweet Christmas Story

Click here to buy

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

My European ancestors arrived to Canada in the early 1600s, and some found romance with Native women. Since then, thirteen generations have passed, and I don't have more than a few diluted drops of Native blood left in my veins. Still, I grew up in Quebec speaking the same language as my European ancestors. French.

They say 'Necessity is the mother of invention'. Well, in my twenties after my husband was posted to Nova Scotia, necessity became the driving force behind me learning English, mostly thanks to my very patient friends & neighbours.

Today, I fluently speak English with a French accent, and according to my relative back in Quebec, I speak French with a slight English accent.

I wish I knew more than French & English, but unless you speak a language regularly, you tend to forget it. Interestingly, there are over 7,000 different languages spoken in the world.

Which language is the most spoken on earth? Mandarin Chinese. Spoken by 1.1 billion people, it's the official language of mainland China.

What is the second most spoken language? Spanish. Spoken by 400 millions people, it is an official language in 20 countries.

The third most spoken is the one I learned as a second language. English. Spoken by nearly 360 millions people, it's an official language in more than 80 countries and is also the international business language.

Are there any dead languages? Yes, many. A dead language is defined as a language no longer spoken as first or second language, such as Latin or Old Norse. Interestingly enough, I had two years of compulsory Latin in high school.

What are the hardest and easiest languages to learn for English speakers?

According to Berlitz, Hungarian is the hardest, but according to Babbel, it's Mandarin Chinese. Berlitz lists Frisia (second official language in the Netherlands) then Dutch as the easiest to learn, but according to Babbel, it's... Norwegian (I didn't see that one coming).

Happy Holiday Season! Joyeux Temps des Fêtes!

J. S.

J. S. Marlo's Website

J.S. Marlo

I grew up in Shawinigan, a small French Canadian town, attended military college, married a young officer, and raised three spirited children. Over the years, I enjoyed many wonderful postings in many different regions of Canada. After my children left the nest, I began writing. Three years later, I captured my dream of becoming a published author with my underwater novel “Salvaged”. Many of my romantic suspense novels are set in Canada or feature Canadian characters. One of my latest series also involves time travel. I'm not sure where time flew, but decades later, I ended up writing under the Northern Lights in Alberta while spoiling a gorgeous little granddaughter.

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

If Wishes Were Magic -- Holiday Romance Especially for You

My Christmas books are 50% off at Amazon.com!

Recently I purchased a creative writing book titled “642 Things to Write About”. Some were full pages to write on, some pages were divided into quarters for small comments, or even pictures. The prompts were everything from a single word to a sentence suggestion and most were very thought provoking. Since it wasn’t set up to write from page 1, I flipped through it and jotted things throughout the book as a particular suggestion triggered a thought. Until I came to this one:

“You are a fifty-three year old woman living in Chicago. Write a letter to Santa.”

You might think “well, isn’t that a fun twist on an old theme – grownups writing to Santa.”

My thoughts were along very different lines. You see, I had actually written that story; the one sentence writing prompt could be the tag line for my book. So my question is—did someone make that up or did they submit the suggestion after reading my book, “If Wishes were Magic”?

People have said there are only so many plots, but what are the odds that this writing prompt and my story are EXACTLY THE SAME? I mean, it could have been a different town, or a different age groupnor a different plot line. I don’t consider it plagiarism as it’s only a sentence descriptor. If it was, in fact, based on my book, I consider it a compliment that whoever wrote this (and the book was a compilation of many writers’ submissions) considered my story to be one worth using.

“If Wishes were Magic” was a fun book to write, with lots of ‘feel good’ scenarios such as rescue dogs and cats, volunteerism, connecting with parents in the Service and best of all—making kids’ Christmas wishes come true. Add all that to a developing romantic relationship between my two main characters and you have my kind of story – happily ever after! Here is a little more about this story:

In Chicago, Chantilly Morrison is set to launch Chantilly Frost, a new cosmetics line, by holding a “Dear Santa” contest to make women’s fantasies come true. But because of an error in the ad copy, she’s inundated with letters from children, whose scribbled wishes tug at her heart. She hires an investigator to find the letter writers so she can throw a huge Christmas party and make the children’s fantasies come true.

AJ Anderson can find the unfindable, whether it’s lost artifacts or people, and he’s very good at his job. But when Chanti dumps hundreds of letters in his lap with the directive to find the children-- before Christmas Eve-- he knows the request is impossible, but the woman is irresistible. Should he use his skills to make her Christmas wish come true, or can he use the countdown to Christmas to find the key that unlocks the lady’s heart?

You can purchase this fun Christmas book at your favorite online bookstore by clicking this link: https://books2read.com/If-Wishes-Were-Magic.

If you’re looking for more Christmas magic, I have also written “Always Believe”