Glenmirril, Books and Brews, and Other News

 May you live in interesting times, says the Chinese curse. Or, as Hunter S. Thompson wrote in The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman: 

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, "Wow! What a ride!"

Glenmirril Farms

Between the political landscape and our own lives, I feel I'm getting a healthy dose of both right now! And one affects the other. The last year has been a great deal of upheaval with surprise health issues, lengthy recuperations, a cross-country move, and the continued learning curve as we build up and manage our homestead, Glenmirril Farms. My readers will know where the name comes from: Glenmirril Castle which was named for the miracle that happened there: The Glen of Miracles. In fact, both our Glenmirril, up in northern Minnesota and here in the Appalachians, have been atop mountains. But that's okay.

Three of Ellie's Eight Surviving Babies Eating Together

We now have sheep. Our original three New Zealand White rabbits have become 18. We have raised and learned to process Cornish Crosses, chickens that grow to full size in only 6 to 8 weeks. We've had a number of projects around the farm. You can visit our website or our facebook page to learn more about our projects, plans, and products.

I'm getting back into writing and Gabriel's Horn projects, especially now that we have help on the farm from a homesteading friend's son, who's doing a great job in the garden and with the animals.

Gabriel's Horn is now accepting submissions to both the 2023 and 2024 anthologies. 

Yes, we're running behind! We accept new poetry in traditional forms: sonnets, haiku, villanelle, etc. We are also looking for our featured poet for each volume. 

Details can be found at: www.gabrielshornpress.com/poetry-anthology

Covers for Our Upcoming Anthologies

Night Writers

Thanks to technology, I'm back to attending my weekly writers' critique group, Night Writers, in Minnesota. You can see more about our work and my fellow authors and their writing at:

Facebook

Our new site

Our old blog

I have several projects going:

A trio of memoirs of our change of life from suburban to homesteading:

• High on Spirit Mountain about our two years in Duluth
• The Book of Ruth about the remarkable woman who shared my room when I was taken to the hospital for emergency surgery just before our move.
• Up Above the Hollers about our first year in Appalachia

My Ivy Leake tongue-in-cheek noir series.

Ivy Leake, a young widow, travels the country with her 16-year-old son, River. As a mystery writer, she finds herself stumbling into mysteries. The series was born the night I was driving home from the Amelia Island Book Festival with my then-16-year-old son, Connor. It was late. I was sick. I needed chicken noodle soup. We stopped at IHOP at 10:30 at night and Connor quickly got his steak. It took them 20 or 25 minutes to tell me they were out of chicken noodle soup! 

As I say, though, All things are gold to a writer! In wondering why it could possibly take so long to tell me they were out, I came up with the answers and Ivy Leake, River, and The IHOP Affair were born! The fun of these books is that many of the characters' names come from road signs, usually pointing to towns. For instance, somewhere in Alabama, there is a pair of signs like this:

Chris and I instantly knew who Jemison Thorsby was! We found similar signs driving in many parts of the country. If you have some good ones, send them to me at gabrielshornpress@gmail.com! 

Another book was born when we arrived in our new home. Being barely out of the hospital when we made the move, I got a call here from home health care and a nurse who seemed strangely determined to get into our house--which had been owned by her cousin for almost 30 years. My writers' brain soon discovered why she was so determined to get in!

There are now five books in the series, two of them (The IHOP Affair and The Kitchi-Gammi Capers) are largely done and mainly in need of editing. Also in the works are Sleeping with a Soprano, Died in the Wool, and the tentatively named Night, Nurse or The Determined RN.

Hare Today...

I'm also close to completing a book on recipes using rabbit and hare meat. We started with chickens and rabbits because I figure rabbits can't trample me. Ours are for sale for meat, pets, or 4H students. In the process of researching, I found that rabbit meat is some of the healthiest, leanest, and highest protein meat there is. In modern America, we rarely eat it and after learning how healthy it is, I wondered why. I decided to collect recipes in the hopes of inspiring people to try it. I thought I'd have a hard time finding enough recipes. The real problem has been limiting the book so it doesn't become 500 pages! It's amazing how many rabbit and hare recipes are available.

The book is largely done. I'm in the process of formatting it, making sure all the recipes are uniform, and translating some metric measurements into Imperial. 

Books and Brews

Books and Brews is going strong. Since June 2023, Michael has been on break. My husband has taken over for the time being, doing cocktails instead of beers. We've had a great line-up that includes historical fiction, memoir of life in the military, the children's author Margaret J. Anderson who partially inspired my own writing, Dan Coonan with his story of a mysterious pub in the White House where all the presidents past and present gather; the poet JS Absher, Karen Essex with Kleopatra, the British historian Sharon Bennett Connolly, the child prodigy writer MB Zucker who published his first novels at 14 and 16, and more. We had a great historical drink, prepared in historical fashion, for MB Zucker's novelized historical account of John Quincy Adams. We've talked about aliens, rumors of buried gold, and met the Canadian award-winning film-maker, musician, producer, and host of Historic Niagara, Peter Andrew Sacco.

Coming up, we have still more great guests: Devrie Donalson, the LA comedian; Kathy Murray, owner of Fit Bodies whose book details her time as a champion cheerleader and coaching a cheerleading team in Germany; Stephen Downes, and Jeff Pollak. 

We invite you to subscribe at our YouTube channel (it helps us grow and we'd really appreciate it), like our facebook page (it helps us grow), or visit our site where you can download or listen to each podcast.

In the future I'll be posting here about some of our guests on Books and Brews. We are starting to plan for growth and looking for sponsors for the show so we can keep doing this fun program for both authors and readers.

And finally--while I may joke about our ever-growing audience, climbing into the millions on Books and Brews, thank you to all who have been reading here. We are approaching nearly half a million views! I would be really happy if you'd share posts you like and help us grow!

Thank you!