Spring in the Mountains

Kawaguchi has written the story of her mother's life as fiction, though it is very much fact-based. It is the tale of a woman left with three little girls to raise alone during the depths of the great depression.

Mountain Apple Cobbler

Ingredients

1 h 5 m8 servings613 cals

• 
  

• Walgreens
• 640 Sunburst Hwy
• CAMBRIDGE, MD 21613

• Giant Food
• 11740 Rousby Hall Rd
• LUSBY, MD 20657

• 2 (8 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent rolls
  Pillsbury Crescent Rolls Butter Flake  
  
• 2 large Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored, and cut into 8 wedges each
  Apples Granny Smith 
  
• 1 cup butter, melted

• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
  
  
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  McCormick Ground Cinnamon 
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle caffeinated citrus-flavored soda (such as Mountain Dew®)
• Add all ingredients to list

Directions

Print 

• Prep
  20 m
• Cook
  45 m
• Ready In
  1 h 5 m

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Unroll the crescent roll dough, and separate the sheets into individual triangles. Roll each apple wedge into a triangle of dough, and place them into the baking dish, seam sides down.
3. Mix the melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl, and spoon evenly over the dough-wrapped apple slices. Pour the soda over the rolls.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until the top is browned, the apples are cooked through, and the cobbler is bubbling, 45 to 50 minutes.

Mystery Loves Company

By Michael E. Field

Someone in the quiet suburb of Pineview is torturing and killing average citizens in a manner that sickens and shocks the most seasoned police officers. Only when the body count starts to rise do the police identify a method to the madness - each victim’s death is associated with their occupation.

Detective Kathy Sear leads the investigation to stop the carnage and apprehend the person responsible for launching the wave of terror. While conducting the investigation she must also over-come lingering physical and mental hurdles from an earlier near fatal attack. When she is almost at her wits end she receives help from an unexpected source, Senior Detective Greg Hawkins, who is also battling his own demons. Working together again, they quickly identify the common link of the killings and start to close in on the suspect, who keeps one step ahead of them at every turn.

Question from the e-mail:  Is writing an art? Or can anyone do it?

Answer:  It is both and anyone can Learn to do it on some level.

I do believe that writing is an art. But it’s also a craft. No one can write your stories but you. No one can create exactly as you can. No one else on earth has your “voice.”

But there are tips and little techniques that you can learn to make the work easier for you. And there are grammar rules that each of us must learn and they don't always come naturally, even to folks with undeniable talent.

Just as an artist learns to mix colors, what glaze or wash will enhance a color, or help to make water look "wet," so will a writer learn how to get across to the reader the story that goes on in her head.

Like anything you do, the more practice you put in, the better you get at it.

Happy National Golf Day!

by John Piccarreto

June at Shimmering Lake Golf Club on the shore of Canandaigua Lake and the five-week beer-cart-girl certification program is in full swing. It’s a very popular program and a great way for any college girl to start her summer, but this year it could also turn out to be very dangerous.

Golf Balls

Ingredients

• Walgreens
• 640 Sunburst Hwy
• CAMBRIDGE, MD 21613

• Giant Food
• 11740 Rousby Hall Rd
• LUSBY, MD 20657

• 1 pound confectioners' sugar
• 1 1/2 cups chunky peanut butter
• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups flaked coconut

• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 1/2 pounds semisweet white chocolate chips

Directions

Print 

• Prep
  20 m
• Cook
  5 m
• Ready In
  1 h 40 m

1. Mix sugar, peanut butter, butter, coconut, walnuts, and graham cracker crumbs in a large bowl using hands until thoroughly blended. Roll 1 inch balls and place on a baking sheet. Chill for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
2. Melt the white chocolate in a microwave-safe glass or ceramic bowl in 30 second intervals, stirring after each melting, for 1 to 3 minutes (depending on your microwave). Do not overheat or chocolate will scorch. Dip peanut butter balls into the chocolate until they are completely coated. Allow chocolate to harden before serving.

Catching UP!

Books that went to press, or Back to Press this week:

MAGGIE ELIZABETH HARRINGTON: I Live in two Worlds Series, Vol. 1, by D. J. Swykert

   Maggie Elizabeth Harrington is the story of a young woman in the 1890s, whose world is a remote northern Michigan mining town, where she tries to save a pack of young wolves from a bounty hunter. A terse historical love story of a young woman’s struggle with environmental and moral issues concerning the slaughter of wolves, and the church’s condemnation of her love for a young man, are as real in today’s global world as they were for young Maggie more than a century ago.

THE SINS OF THE FATHERS, by A.A. MANN.  A Dora the D.R.E. Mystery, Vol. 1, by A.A. Mann

    As a Director of Religious Education at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in the border town of San Pequeno, Texas,  Dora meets many interesting and unusual people.     This time 

   she meets Death.

Galleys thtat went out, or Went Out again, this week:

DECRYPTING THE CACHE, by Jennifer Kirsch

   Treading through a shadowy woods didn’t rank high on my fun list. Yet I found myself surrounded by tangled tree limbs and hairy vines one Sunday evening. My new friend Dev crept along with me as we navigated angry roots, sprawling branches, and knotty trunks that resembled our knobby-nosed history teacher.

   We hoped to find a geocache. “You know,” I’d explained to Dev, “a hidden container you find using a navigation app.” But he’d wanted to see it for himself

Galleys that went out or are still out this week 

GUIDING SPIRIT: A Ghostly Love Story, by Robert Kanehl  

   Love does not end with death or at the gravesite. It lingers in this world, as powerful after death as before. Ashley Dunlap and David Paine discover this first hand, as a benevolent spirit guides their lives toward its desires. Will the two follow this spirit’s pathway or rebel against its power to follow their own free will?

IRIS Fate: Iris Series, Vol.2, by Daniel Carr

   Colin Craft, “The Newspaper Myth,” spends his days in hiding. After Aaron Brink reveals his identity to the public, Colin is sent on the run and orphaned. Keeping the Myth in hiding was his life-long friend, Justin Mears, continuing to run Genetic Alliance missions. It barely felt like two years had passed since Allen and Anderson

Work began or continued on the following:THE MURDER OF SECRETARY JUDD CANE: Adventures on Capitol Hill Series, Vol. 2 

by Celine Rose Mariotti.

     If you liked The Kidnapping of Senator Andy Thompson, you’ll be excited to read The Murder of Secretary Judd Cane. This time Murder stalks the House of Representatives as Congressman Michael Rhodes is accused of murdering Secretary Cane.

CEMETERY WALK: A Hannah Griswold Mystery, Vol. 3, by Robert Kanehl

   Walking in a cemetery can be peaceful and reflective, as long as you don’t hear voices. Hannah Griswold, however, does hear voices. Why are they calling to her? Why can’t she have a normal teenage life? 

Cover subject to change...

A SCATTERED BRAIN by Kristen Anderson Wynant

 Trying to find your place in high school can be a challenging time in a young girl’s life, even more if you have a brain disorder. Being diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, Chloe deals with the difficulties of trying to fit in with the right friends. Wanting to please them she gets into some situations leading to many disappointments. Chloe doesn’t see the destructive path she has made for herself or care about the consequences. With the end of the school year coming to a close can Chloe change things in time to graduate high school with her classmates or has she destroyed any chance of getting her diploma on time?

BLEEDING HEARTS: Killian Kendall Mystery Series, Vol. 1

   Winner of the Stonewall Society's 2002 Pride in the Arts Literary Award in the Whodunit Category! 

MINISTER'S ESCAPADES, Vol. 2 by Celine Rose Mariotti

  
   Rev. Castle is back in another cozy mystery.  

REAP THE WHIRLWIND: Killian Kendall Mystery Series, Vol. 2,  by Josh Aterovis. 
   Suicide, or murder? That's the question in the second Killian Kendall mystery. Will Smith suspects murder when an old childhood pal drowns, and asks his friend Killian for help in solving the mystery.

TRUTH OF YESTERDAY,  by Josh Aterovis

ALL LOST THINGS, by Josh Aterovis

CHANGE  OF WORLDS, by Josh Aterovis

Jack's News!

  by your Official Bookstore Cat, 
and gossip columnist!

Had a note from Barbara Grengs, author of the Toby Martin Series. She will be signing Toby 6 in Minnesota on April 16th.  More Details Later!

I freely admit I have been going NUTS week. I snuck outside and what do you think I saw? BIRDS! They are building a nest right on top of our wood stove chimney!

I can't really say what kind they are,,,those little brown ones with the bright eyes. I think they must be newbies at nesting, because they picked a doofus place to settle down.  Who builds a nest on top of a chimney? WHAT do they think would happen if we lit the stove?

Okay, they don't really burn it anymore. And, Yes, Roger put a grate inside the top, so they can't really get down into the stove, so they're safe. But it's still a stupid place.

Safe? Well, they ARE! You don't think that I--?

Listen, I may be a tomcat, but I leave all hunting activities to humans and those poor, unfortunate, unemployed cats who don't have a bookstore to guard.

Still, all that cheep, Cheep, CHEEP! coming out of the stove sure makes me restless. I just want to get In there and SEE...

Just send arline@mail.com a message with 

 "News for Jack" 

in the subject line, and

I'll make sure it shows up right here!