An ordinary day with a few light spots

Nothing on my calendar today, just a day at my desk—which I like. But there were a few lighthearted moments—and of course a big reveal!

This morning my computer was agonizingly slow. I needed every ounce of that patience Jordan talks to me about. And the TV wouldn’t come on at all, Finally I turned off the TV and rebooted the computer. Computer had speeded up. Then I turned the TV on—nothing. Jordan tells me to wait patiently, so I went about my business, spent a frustrating hour trying to get into the Origin’s (skin care) website (I am sorry, but I truly cannot understand people in India or the Philippines whose English is heavily accented and I resent companies that farm out their telephone help lines). In all that time I forgot about the TV. But when I got up to get supper out of the freezer, all of the sudden the cottage was filled with loud voices. For a nanosecond I wondered who had come in—and then I realized the TV had finally come on, though I’d missed the news segments I like to watch! I’m sure some mystery writers would make a scene out of that—I just turned off the TV. But it did startle me—and Sophie.

If any of you have grown children, you know how old you feel when they begin to go back to the college reunions. Now, my dog has been invited to a reunion! Sophie will be twelve on May 18, but I don’t think they’re celebrating her birthday or the day she came home with us—in July. Apparently, Safari Doodles has a new kennel in Aubrey, a small town (suburb if you will) north of Dallas. I think it would be fun to go, but there’s no way—the Burtons will just have gotten home from San Miguel, Colin will have left the day before for Tomball, and Jordan leaves that day for an extended work trip. It’s probably a good thing—I might have lost all my resolve and come home with another dog, though with regret I know that I am not capable of ever again training a pup. I think Sophie would have enjoyed all the other dogs, but then again, you never know.

Jordan and I planned a light supper of subway-style sandwiches tonight, and Christian requested a three-bean salad, which I made. A meal they all like. Only Christian and Jacob both came home and fell asleep. Finally at seven-thirty, Jordan and I ate lonely sandwiches. I ended up with two helpings of salad, because I snuck one when I began to get hungry.

Nice surprise that made my day—a reader I don’t know at all wrote that she really enjoys my newsletters and recently used my shepherd’s pie recipe to serve lunch to two friends, each of whom went home clutching a copy of the recipe. Of course, it would have been nice if they’d been clutching copies of my books, but I’ll take whatever attention I can get. The writer asked if an old book, Libbie, was mine, and I assured her it was. She was getting ready to order the new Irene, and said she really likes the Irene books. So all that boosted my spirits.

And speaking of faux French chef Irene, the latest adventure will publish this coming Saturday. Today I have an advance sales link. If you want to order Kindle or paperback, you can go here: Irene Deep in Texas Trouble: An Irene in Chicago Culinary Mystery - Kindle edition by Alter, Judy. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. My longtime friend/mentor/critique expert, Fred Erisman, says it’s the best of the Irene series so far. I hope you’ll check it out and see what you think.

Happy trails, everyone. I’m going to spend the evening with a Scottish culinary mystery. What joy!

Monday's child

 

Tonight's light supper
copying my mom's salmon supper

Monday’s child may be fair of face, as the nursery rhyme tells us, but she also is hard at work, at least this one was. At least that’s the way it was around my cottage today. The wonderful Zenaida came to clean, do my laundry, and change the sheets; the yard guys came, and Sophie worked hard barking to warn them that she had their number and was on guard dog duty; and I spent most of the day working.

My main task today was marketing chores for Irene in Danger—getting the ISBN (international standard book number) for print and digital editions, writing a blurb, and writing a news release. I had fun with the blurb and came up with two versions—I’d love to know which one you like best for the back of the print edition and for the page listing on Amazon and other sites. Here are the two:

Want a French recipe? Irene will teach you to make salad niçoise. Want murder and mayhem? Irene seems to attract both. With one week until her wedding, Henny James is convinced Irene’s arrival from France will ruin the biggest day of her life. One week to save Irene from the trouble she brings with her and save the wedding. Recipes included.

And,

Irene Foxglove is back in Chicago, Henny and Patrick are getting married in a week, there’s cocaine floating around, and someone wants to kill the diva chef. Once again, Irene brings murder and mayhem to those around her, and Henny must save her. Good thing she has Patrick for help.

I’m thinking the first will go on the back of the book and the second on a news release, but I’d love some reader input here.

Writing the news release, I got caught up in reading review of the first book, Saving Irene, and found a coupe of people for whom that was the first book of mine they’d read but they said it would not be the last. Music to my ears. And I found one reviewer who made me laugh:

Saving Irene was my first introduction to the work of Judy Alter and the fact that I found myself talking back to the characters (Sorry, Henny, but no legit Italian cook adds oil to pasta unless they're making aglia e olio) says a lot for how real they felt to me.

Since I am into book news this evening, here’s the big event of the week: after what seems like years, my book on the Waggoner ranch, The Most Land, the Best Cattle: The Waggoners of Texas, will launch this Friday. I was thrilled to get an endorsement from cowboy singer and entertainer par excellence Red Steagall. Here’s what he said,

The majesty and intrigue of a ranch is of course invested in the land and livestock. But the true soul of a ranching property rests with the humans involved, both staff and owners. Judy Alter has done a magnificent job of explaining and describing the amazing family of the world-famous Waggoner Ranch, all under one fence

Tomorrow, Tuesday, Priscilla Leder will do an hour-long interview with me at 4:00 o'clock about the book on Radio Station KZSM out of San Marcos TX. To tune in, click on https://kzsm.org/ and then click play. I hope I won’t stumble over my words.

Thanks for letting me quote and brag and get carried away with myself and my books. I promise to be more circumspect in future posts. Meantime, this evening, a nice surprise. My longtime friend, Subie, called and was at loose ends for supper. I thought, with a slight sinking, she wanted to go out whereas after a day at work in my pjs, I had decided against getting dressed and intended to fix myself a light supper. I offered her three choices—creamed tuna on toast (no groans, please), salmon croquettes, or a cold salmon platter. She said any of those sounded great—my kind of dinner guest! —and I fixed two small salmon platters with pickled cucumber, hearts of palm, avocado, tomato, and hard-boiled egg. After I talked to Subie, I quickly put the salmon in the fridge to chill, put two eggs on to boil, and, yes, I put on cargo pants and a T-shirt. Not much of an improvement but better than pjs.

We had a lovely evening, lots of girl talk that ranged from family and food to politics. I’m ready for an early bedtime. Tomorrow is shaping up to be twice as busy as today.