You know what’s dangerous? Setting your bibliophile spouse loose inside a book outlet warehouse for three hours on a Saturday afternoon… with or without a budget, it’s a dangerous thing!

There’s a fantastic discount book warehouse about an hour away from where I live, and I kid you not—they have large shopping carts for customers to wheel up and down the aisles. And fill. Fill!!!

Needless to say, the three hours passed very quickly and although I did end up with a cart full of books, I did have to put most of them back. But I ended up with a few titles in the end, and it was a great, relaxing way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Tell me about a time when you spent hours in a bookstore and walked away with… well, fewer books than you wanted to!

If you read FATAL FREEZE earlier this year, you know that the ferry on which Lexie and Shaun were trapped was headed to Argentia, Newfoundland. But have you ever seen what the shoreline of Argentia would look like once the ferry returned to its course?

Marine Atlantic retweeted a passenger’s photo of a ferry’s approach to Argentia, and I thought I’d share it with you here:

Just pulling into Argentia now on the @MAferries #AtlanticVision! Little swell on the water overnight! #NLwx pic.twitter.com/GpwHhCI7XO

— Eddie Sheerr (@EddieSheerr) September 14, 2015

Rather pretty, isn’t it? J

Do you like crafting? This past year, I discovered a new (for me) type of crafting called "felting.” The basic idea is that you take pieces of wool roving, then poke them repeatedly with a needle until the fibres intertwine enough to firm up… and then add more wool as needed while you continue poking to give shape to the object.

Recently, I finished my second felting project. Right now I’m using felting kits, but it’s more typical to use patterns out of books and buy the colors of wool that you need separately.

The needles used are very sharp, so there are also little plastic caps to wear on your fingertips—like silicone thimbles!—to avoid stabbing yourself by accident. Or before you know better… not that I have any experience with that… o_O

Have you tried any new crafts this year? Or do you have a specific type of craft you like to relax with?

Exciting news! There will be another Michelle Karl book hitting store shelves in May 2016, and the title is… UNKNOWN ENEMY. *dun dun duuuun*

I’m really excited to share this story with you all, because it features a number of aspects that are really close to my heart. But I’m not going to give it all away right now – rather, in the months ahead I’m hoping to post some teaser information about the characters and plot.

Stay tuned, but for now… yay! New book!

Things have been a little tense lately online for evangelical publishers, Christian writers, and romance readers. If you’re not aware of the controversy, I’m not going to summarize it here—but if you are familiar with it, you could probably use a smile or two right now.

So, without further ado, here’s a little monkey getting his fur brushed:

And a silly baby goat jumping over (and on!) other baby goats:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWvefaN8USk

And just for good measure, a picture of my cat:

Because you can never have too many cat pictures!

Please don’t take this the wrong way—I’m not trying to make light of the situation happening online right now in regards to a certain book. However, it’s important to keep things in perspective and give ourselves a moment or two to laugh and smile, even during serious times.

Feel free to share your own link to your favorite "little bit of light” below!

 

 

• Ellie Macdonald, whose table was next to Dana R. Lynn's, and who hand-sold her book to me in such a convincing way that I couldn't say no! I wish I could recall how she described it (something meets... something else), but it was a great pitch and Ellie was delightful.
• Sandra Orchard, who is a fellow LIS writer and Ontario resident! I hadn't met her yet and thought it was about time, since we live close to each other and share a mutual friend in Maggie K. Black.
• Emily McKay, whose YA series I was utterly shocked & delighted to find there as I'd been intending to buy the third (and most recent) book later this month. I was glad to be able to tell her how much I and my sister have enjoyed her series.
• Sonali Dev, whose "A Bollywood Affair" I have heard nothing but fantastic things about... and admittedly, while I already have a copy of the book on my Kindle app, I wanted a hard copy to enjoy. We got to swap stories about our earrings, which was fun!