Emergence, my newest creation

In between the remodeling, landscaping, and making cool stuff out of next-to-nothing, I like to create books. I have two books coming out this month. One of them was just released this past Saturday. Emergence is the second book in my Quantum Faith Effect series. (Next week's post will feature my other book)
In the previous book in the QFE series, Josh has had his mind and heart stimulated as to the existence of God--something he had never really thought about before. In Emergence, as he searches for answers, his belief and desire to know more about God emerges. In the process he butts heads with his atheistic
biology teacher, creating a science fair project that challenges Darwinism. He is also pulled into a dilemma within his school basketball team. Someone is pushing steroids and he needs to find out who and stop them before they destroy the team. And of coarse, there's a touch of teen romance as Josh's feelings for Ester grow and he has to compete with his best friend for her heart.

The best place to get a copy of my new book is on Amazon

Easy Throw Pillow From Old Jeans

With two new books of mine launching this month, I'm kind of busy so I'm going to share an easy creation of mine: a throw pillow made from the pant leg of a pair of jeans. I've got no instructions because I made this several years ago. Hopefully, the picture alone will give you what you need to create your own. Basically, I just cut the pants down the middle to one side of the zipper and just above the worn out knee. Placing wrong sides together, I sewed the two cut sides closed, turned right side out, stuffed it, then top stitched the waistband at the top to close up the pillow. Easy-peasy.

Creating a Book That's Good For Teens--in Many Ways

I first started writing Existence eight years ago. It didn't bear that title then, or resembled even closely what it is now, but the idea was the same. I wanted to create a story that could bring the lives of inspiring men and women of history to life for teen readers. I was first inspired by the book, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by Mark Twain. Twain's book move me so much that I wanted my kids to experience it, but it was an eight hundred page book not conducive to teen readers. I have since developed the idea into a series that I hope is not only intriguing to my readers, but uplifting and edifying. Interestingly enough, the subject of God somehow always wove itself into the themes of each book. Maybe because I feel He nudged me into continuing with these books when I felt like giving up. The other day I received my first "fan" mail from a reader and it made my eight years of effort worthwhile.

I'd like to share it:

Hey, I just wanted to let you know my 17 year old, Nikolas, is reading your book and loves it. I told him I needed to read it read it, but he took it first and I can't get it back until he's done. He keeps coming and telling me how much he loves it. He said its like an LDS "God's Not Dead." That's awesome! And believe me, it takes a lot to impress a kid who spends most of his time reading books like The Joseph Smith Papers and Brigham Young Discourses and studies Hugh Nibley😊


FYI, the second book, entitled Emergence comes out next month. The third and final book in the series comes out at Christmas time.

My Easy Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

This is a recipe I came up with over a decade ago and it is still my favorite vinaigrette salad dressing. It is very versatile. I use it on green salads. I add it with Parmesan cheese to penne pasta, cherry tomatoes, shredded yellow summer squash, and red bell peppers to make a tasty pasta salad. I use it as a marinade to prepare meat and veges before I grill them.

Mom's Vinaigrette Dressing

*2 TBS dried sweat red pepper flakes (pulverized in the blender first)
add:
2 TBS lemon juice
2 TBS Balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 to 3 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons honey or sugar
blend.
slowly add:
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water


Grind the pepper flakes in a blender almost into a powder first, before you add any wet ingredients.

Add the next 8 ingredients, blend.

Add the water/oil slowly, mixing well.

Pour mixture onto a salad or into a bottle to put in the fridge and use later. Dressing stores well in the refrigerator and will keep for several weeks.


*I slice up ripe, red bell peppers from my garden every fall and dry them in a food dryer to be used in recipes through out the year.

Use old political sign stakes to trellis your peas

After my husband's campaign for city councilman last November, we were left with a bunch of political lawn signs. I dumped the plastic signs in the recycle bin, but kept the metal stakes knowing I could put them to good use in my garden. I have used them in the past and found they work well hold up peas so they don't have to grow along the ground. I am not only recycling those stakes, but ensuring a better pea crop this year from my garden. :)

Here's how you do it. Before the peas get too big, simply push them into the soil in a zig-zag pattern along the length of your row of peas.

You'll have to squint hard to see the stakes in the picture below. That's another good thing about these stakes, they are barely noticeable in your garden.

Create a Toy Box/Coffee Table

This week I want to share my creation of a toy box/coffee table I created out of an old cedar chest with a broken leg.

After I reattached the leg with glue and new screws in new holes, I stripped the finish, sanded the old piece of furniture, and gave it a new coat of polyurethane. I didn't add stain, just let the natural color of the wood show through. It makes not only rustic-looking coffee table, but hides my grand kid's toys when they aren't there. I also made a table decoration that is kid-proof and they can actually play with. That's an entry for another day. :)

I Love Picture Books--I just wish I had time to create them

I loved reading picture books to my children as they grew up, and now I love reading them to my grandchildren. I also love creating them. I found this old blog post and thought I'd share it with my new followers. Unfortunately, my writing career took me away from working on my illustrating skills, so I never completed my picture book Crook and Nanny, as I had hoped. Sadly, I can't even find it on my computer. Somehow the manuscript got lost as I transferred my files to a new computer. Luckily, Hunter is on Amazon so I'll always have a copy of it regardless of how scatter-brained my becomes.

The following is taken from my blog in December of 2012

I just finished uploading my first picture book onto the web for sale and ordered me a few copies to give as presents. It feels great. Now I can begin my Christmas shopping and housecleaning.

I have written several manuscripts for picture books, but they have remained untouched on my computer collecting cyber dust for a number of years. It seems the publishing world doesn't have a big demand for picture book authors, especially ones who don't illustrate their own work. Because I really wanted to get my picture book stories out there, a few months ago I began learning how to use Adobe Illustrator to help my marginal sketches come to life.

After I created the first few pages of one of my favorite stories, Crook and Nanny, I decided it might be best to test the POD waters by creating a personalized picture book for my grandson for Christmas first. This way I could work out the kinks before I got serious about picture book publishing. I really had fun making it and I learned a lot. I plan on having Crook and Nanny out by next Christmas.

I hope my grandson, Hunter will enjoy it.












If by chance you'd like to buy a copy, it is available on Lulu  (I found Amazon/Createspace was not as conducive to printing picture books as Lulu).