Small Town Travel

https://books2read.com/u/b5M7jp

Driving. I’m not a fan. With one exception. I very much enjoy driving on secondary highways through picturesque small cities and towns and stumbling upon small parks.

When we lived in western Canada the number of these slow-moving adventures were almost endless. One time, we took the Crowsnest Pass from Calgary to Vancouver, and then home to Victoria. I’ll grant you, I have never seen so many curves on a highway. With a highlighter we kept track or out progress on a map. Yes, this was before smartphones. Of course making five or six stops along the way limited progress. However, at this end of each day we seemed to only move five percent of the way from Pincher Creek to Vancouver. Of course, we were there in fruit season. The roadside stops were irresistible.

On the prairies we would “wing it.” There were dozens of smaller highways to zig-zag. Heck, we sometimes wouldn’t even check a map. One favourite spot was Kindersley Saskatchewan. I adore “cool” arenas and baseball fields. This small city had an amazing ballpark called Flanagan Field. Spectacular place in perfect conditions. Over two thousand seats. I think they love their baseball.

On that same trip we stumbled upon the neat little town of Indian Head Saskatchewan. This cute town has a century-old experimental farm. Little Mosque on the Prairie was shot there.

Now we are comfortably settled in at the heart of Toronto. While we have a Car, It is difficult to enjoy the unique rural roads and parks. Not from lack of temptation. It is simply the major headache of leaving and returning. It takes a very long time in very heavy traffic to do that trek. However, once there we find tempting mom-and-pop coffee shops, terrific towns with historic main streets, and great parks.

Cheers! A Little Taste of Wine's History

http://bwlpublishing.ca/authors/carlson-s-l-ya-fantasy/

Cheers! A Little Taste of Wine's History by S. L. Carlson
(Disclaimer: Too much of any good thing is always bad. Drink responsibly.)

Customs with wine-making and wine-drinking varies with cultures and times.
Here are a few interesting historical wine facts:

* Greek grape stompers were usually slaves, who crushed the fruit to live music
* Ancient wine was used as both beverage and medicine
* Alcohol is mentioned 165 times in the Bible, usually favorably
* Wine was often mixed with water, 1:3
* Additives were common, like cinnamon, violets, larkspur, parched bread, etc.
* Parched bread = toast (Cheers!)
* Cheers came from the Latin for face, but later came to mean gladness
* Before cork was so available, pitch, oil, or clay was used to seal the wine
* The host poured off the first of the wine to taste to make sure no clay or oil lingered
* By drinking first, the host also assured his friends it was safe for them to drink
* Romans sometimes sweetened old wine with sugar of lead (lead acetate), and after simmering in a lead pot, it was served in lead goblets
* During medieval times, people were afraid the devil would enter them through drink, so they clinked their wooden or clay goblets together to scare off evil. Other earlier cultures, also made noises before drinking to scare off ghosts or demons


Working IX to V by Vicki Leon
How Did it Begin by Dr. R. & L. Brasch
https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/22/messages/526.html

Although wine does not come into my stories much, please enjoy a glass of your favorite beverage as you read one of my books from:

http://www.bookswelove.com/authors/carlson-sandy-young-adult/

A Cover Story by Victoria Chatham

My new cover!

AVAILABLE HERE

We all know the adage that you don’t judge a book by its cover. I have, especially in my early days of purchasing e-books, done exactly that and then been hugely disappointed when the quality of the content failed to match the quality of the cover. These days I look at the cover and then click on the ‘Look Inside’ button and read the excerpt before I decide whether to purchase or not.

I must admit that the last thing I thought about when I started writing my first Regency romance was the cover. It was a tough enough job to get the words flowing without having the angst of considering how those words would all be wrapped up in a neat package. I was totally ignorant of fonts, colors, and layout and had no idea how to create an attractive, appealing cover. Thank goodness for cover designers and, in particular, Books We Love’s own cover designer, Michelle Lee.

First e-book cover

I was so pleased with the first cover because it contained all the elements I thought I needed. My heroine, Emmaline Devereux, had long black hair, so the image of the girl was bang on. I needed a horse because she loved horses, and the old house in the background depicting her family home was so reminiscent of a house I had loved and lived in for more than ten years. But then my daughter made the comment that the image of Emmaline looked more like a schoolgirl than a clever spy capable of surviving the Peninsula War 1807 - 1814 when Napolean clashed with the Spanish Empire. Oh, oh. One burst bubble as I reconsidered what the image was actually portraying. 

Thanks to Books We Love, I had the opportunity for a new cover design when the book went into print. Again, Michelle Lee pulled in all the elements I requested on my Cover Art Form.

First print cover

The result, as you can see, is a more adult female image. I still had to have a horse to convey her love of horses, plus my hero. A similar female image graced the cover of His Ocean Vixen, Book 2 in the series but with the third book, His Unexpected Muse, coming in February 2019, I thought a new look all round might better pull the series together.

By now a little more savvy about cover design, I looked at the covers of the Regency romance best sellers on Amazon and noticed that invariably there was just a female image against an attractive background. Publisher Jude Pittman was again in agreement with the update and I spent most of one Sunday scrolling through images until I found a few that I thought worked. I am now totally happy with the image and feel that, finally, His Dark Enchantress has grown up.

After I revealed it on my Facebook author page, I had quite a few people contact me to tell me how much they liked it, most much more so than the previous two. I'm now looking forward to the update for His Ocean Vixen and next year for His Unexpected Muse. 

Visit Victoria Chatham here:

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