Nightshade

You may be already familiar with the long-running China Bayles mystery series, created by the very clever Susan Wittig Albert. Susan will be guest-blogging here on April 1. No fooling! Her topic will be the herbs in books 7 - 9 (Chile Death, Mistletoe Man, Lavender Lies). I can't wait!

If you don't know Susan, where have you been? And why haven't you been clicking on my blog links? Susan blogs at Lifescapes, where you'll often peek at the beautiful Texas Hill country, gain a bit of insight into her writing process, and turn green with envy over the awesome knitting. (And the reading notes at the end of her posts are one of my favorite parts.)

Other Susan-related sites you might want to check out:
PecanSpringsJournal
Story Circle Book Reviews
Mystery Partners
Susan's Garden album
Sign up for All About Thyme newsletter, "a weekly celebration of herbs, spices, and the changing seasons".

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P.S. I'm lucky enough to be previewing Nightshade, the 16th (!) book in the series, which will be published on April 1. I haven't gotten very far yet, but had to share this sentence:

I intended to destroy the letters, thinking what a pleasure it would be to toss them, one by one, into the fire, to watch his passion turn into dirty smoke and fly up the chimney.

Wow. I love that sentence! (I replaced the identity with "his" so I wouldn't be spoiling anything if you haven't read the series yet.)

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The series -- one of three Susan writes, I might add -- is well described in her Wikipedia page:
"All ... of the China Bayles novels include the names of herbs, and the subsequent mysteries invariably include detailed, meticulously reported herbal themes that invoke the title. ... Albert has described her books as "cozy mysteries," because they do not describe much violence or gratuitous behavior."

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I have to admit, I never thought I'd have a guest blogger who has her own Wikipedia page!

Here's the entire Blog Tour calendar. It starts March 24. There are a lot of other blogs there I'm planning to check out. And here is her schedule of appearances and signings.

Just be sure to come back here on April 1, and enter to win a copy of Nightshade!

OPBP 2006, Part 7

Some of my favorite pictures from other People's blogs, continued. (See Part 1 for explanations & disclaimers.)

Category: Misc Narrow escapes


JKirlin narrowly escaped being run over by a train.


Stephen narrowly escaped being eaten alive by these aliens.


Gnumoon narrowly escaped being trapped there after dark.

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That's it for OPBP 2006. Hope you liked them and visited the blogs!

I'm sure I missed a lot of great photos. Periodically throughout the year I'd remember the OPBP idea and make notes. But often I had no time for blog reading, and sometimes I just plain forgot about keeping notes.

OPBP 2006, Part 6

Some of my favorite pictures from other People's blogs, continued. (See Part 1 for explanations & disclaimers.)

Category: Art


Allison knows art and chickens.


Tom's art really knocks me out.


Thomas explained Valentine's Day in prehistoric times.


Hick won a major award with this picture.

OPBP 2006, Part 5

Some of my favorite pictures from other People's blogs, continued. (See Part 1 for explanations & disclaimers.)

Category: People


The Indian Photographer captured some travellers.


Jean's subjects seemed a bit more relaxed.


And Kelli's daughter suggests that photographic talent may be genetic.

OPBP 2006, Part 4

Some of my favorite pictures from other People's blogs, continued. (See Part 1 for explanations & disclaimers.)

Category: Nature


Fred got the vapors


Dave got dumped on. (I'd have guessed mimosa on car hood, but it's not.)


Anne got all misty...


...and so did Dean.

OPBP 2006, Part 3

Some of my favorite pictures from other People's blogs, continued. (See Part 1 for explanations & disclaimers.)

Then there were the farm animals...


Kelli had a very sleepy chick.


Marie caught the interest of some piglets.


Jim taught Beanie to play the piano.
(Technically not from 2006, but I can't put the videos here so I'm cheating. A little birdie told me that Beanie's blog will return soon.)


Kristin had a little lamb... or two or twenty-four...


Walter has a way with pigs.

OPBP 2006, Part 2

Some of my favorite pictures from other people's blogs, continued. See Part 1 for disclaimers.

The abundant wildlife in this area, while interesting, has so far proven to be neither humorous nor wacky. These bloggers were more lucky.


Susan met a funny little stinker.


Florida Cracker made some turtle soup.


Jerry spied a bird who wondered about halitosis.


I'm not sure if Robin and Roger were watching the bobcat, or it was watching them.


Vicki made her own animal wackiness. (I think I laughed harder at this picture than at anything all year.)

2006 OPBP, Part 1

It's all Deb's fault. Over at Sand Creek Almanac last February she posted this.



That's when the idea hit me. For 2005 I'd done a list of favorite OPBP (other people's blog posts). For 2006 OPBP would stand for other people's blog pictures.

I've made the previews here rather small, but if you click them you'll be taken to the original blog post. Since it's a review, I didn't for permission -- but if your photo appears here you'd rather it didn't, just let me know and I'll remove it.

Some of these people are my blog buddies, and some of them don't know me from Adam. In either case, I hope you'll enjoy their photos as much as I did.

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I have a fascination with words in pictures. Here are a few that made me smile during the year.


Doctor HP Flowers is asked a ponderous question.


Lorianne has been sean.


Liz D has been seen and known. Or rather, her Mom has.


I wonder which one MountainMelody ate.


Knowing Pablo, he didn't.

A year of blathering

I can't believe that I've been blathering on for a year now.

If you're tuning in late, here are a few golden oldies - one per month.

Eggs



Steadfast Plastic Articulated Man



Chick Lit



The Visitor



Postdiluvian (Baby)



You Again!



Butterfly Wrangling



Mystery Solved



Catalpa Worms



County Fair



Highly Collectible Art



Cute cats



Strange Yellow Fungi



It was difficult picking one post per month... sometimes there was too much good stuff going on and sometimes too little... Anyway I'm going to have to cheat and throw in this one too:


Proof that Chickens are Crazy



April was the best month, picture-wise. Lots of flowers!

The blog year in review, Part I

Some bloggy facts:

1. The first blog I ever read was My Blue House. It's gone now.

2. I know the secret identities of seven bloggers.

3. Some are more secret than others.

4. I've only met one other blogger in person.

5. It's one of the seven from #2.

6. One of my resolutions for the new year of 2005 was to start a blog.

7. I'd feel so much better about that accomplishment if it hadn't already been on my resolutions list for several years.

8. This year I was banned from commenting on one blog, for making a real smarty-pants comment.

9. I don't read that blog anymore.

10. Because to me a blog should be a two-way street, or else it's just another web page.

11. But I try to keep my more sarcastic thoughts to myself nowdays.

12. Technorati doesn't work all that well really, but I've found some of my favorite blogs by searching there to see who was writing about things that I was interested in.

13. Blogging has a lot of similarities to one of my former hobbies: writing to a jillion penpals.

14. Except that everyone can read your letters.

15. And you get a lot fewer postcards from the Faroe Islands.

Part II, coming right up.