Holiday Book Recommendations

 

The holiday season is here - a time to celebrate with friends and family, to enjoy good food and good times. It is also a season for giving. Below is a shortlist of books that I think you might find interesting. 

Enjoy!

Cozy Mysteries

• Claws For Alarm: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery. Rita Mae Brown, Bantam, 2021.

• Wedding Cake Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery). Joanne Fluke, Kensington, 2016.

• Broken Bone China (A Tea Shop Mystery). Laura Childs, Berkley, 202 (reprint edition).

• Mistletoe Cake Murder (All-Day Breakfast Cafe Mystery). Lena Gregory, Lyrical Press, 2021.

• Deck The Donuts (A Deputy Donut Mystery). Ginger Bolton, Kensington, 2021.

Fiction

• State of Terror. Louise Penny & Hillary Rodham Clinton, Simon & Schuster/St. Martin’s Press, 2021.

• The President’s Daughter. James Patterson & Bill Clinton, Little, Bantam and Company and Knopf, 2021. 

• The President Is Missing. James Patterson & Bill Clinton, Little, Brown & Company, 2018.

(c) December 2021 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction is prohibited without written permission from the author.

Year End Roundup

This is where I am right now - allowing myself to enjoy the holidays. As far as my writing goes, this year was very uneven. I did get one of my books spiffed up for holiday sales (Surviving the Holidays), and am starting to promote it. I co-wrote another book (Seek Joy ... Toss Confetti), that I will promote again after the New Year. I am only a couple of chapters into my book on decision making - I had hoped to have it out for holiday sales too, but I am now aiming for some time in January. My mystery book - that will be my 2015 major project!

I think we have to learn to flow with things - certainly all that I had hoped to accomplish in 2014 did not get done. One project I had to let go of, others were delayed. Life interfered, and I had to be okay with that. I have (more or less) kept up with my Tarot blog, and have started writing flash fiction and placing it on my Facebook timeline. I may go back to doing that blog in 2015. Even once a month would keep it going, and I do love writing them. A bit of a chore sometimes to get a beginning, middle, and end in under 100 words!

I never did join the writers organizations that I had intended to in 2014 - that will be taken into 2015, and accomplished. If I want to move into the world of writing as something to pay the bills, then I need to network in any and all ways possible. Plus, I can look for professional gatherings that are taking place in warm climes!

For those that are still shopping for holiday gifts, I have two other books out - Tarot, Birth Cards and You , and Tarot, Rituals & You.

Wishing you all a joyous, safe holiday season!

(c) 2014 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission of the author.

Summer Solstice

 

Sitting here listening to Rose Royce, and deeply lost in "Memba when " time. What a year this has been. My major accomplishments seem to have been in saying no (with a few exceptions). I am getting better at that no word! I never thought that it would be so hard to move from one world into another. (For me, that is leaving the public world of Tarot reading, and moving into the world of (for the most part) fiction writing.) And moving even further into the Hermit world. I seem to do better in that world.

Two projects that I am focusing on will be done by the end of the year - redoing my book on surviving the holidays, and writing a book on the decision making process. My mystery novel will have to wait until next year. Not putting it off ... this is just the reality of the situation. I am still working a "pay the rent" job, and have other responsibilities. I am also starting to put together the holiday promotions for the three books that I have written, as well as the book that I co-wrote.

I am looking closer into Google + and Linked In as marketing avenues for my books. I know more about what I do not want to do (guest blogging, or blog hops) than what I want to do. Fine tuning my blogs for SEO, and getting my act together to start doing videos for my blogs, and for You Tube.

From Google +, Linked In, and Facebook, I have gathered some incredible resource material. From Social Examiner, we have "7 Ways To Increase Your Blog's Social Media Shares". From Tim Brown, we have "The One Thing You Need To Generate Great Ideas". From Cate Baum at Self Publishing Review, we have "Eight Most Common Editing Errors In Self-Published Books". From Kristen Lamb we have "Five Mistakes Killing Self-Published Authors".

I was shocked this past week to read a post on Google + from a lady that does financial blogs focused on women and business. She will no longer be doing these blogs. Her focus is going to be on other areas of her life. However, she is graciously leaving them up on her site for reference. When I got over being socked, I realized that she was in the same space in her life that I am in mine. Both of us can and will make the transitions that we need to make to create the present and future that we are envisioning.

This is what I am taking into my Summer Solstice. What are you taking into yours?

(c) 2014 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without the written consent of the author.