Celebrating the New Year with a Fabulous Book

Celebrate the Small Things

The perfect book for my research.

Happy New Year! The year is starting off great for me in the form of a book! (What else can make a writer so happy?)

But first, this post is part of a really positive blog hop called Celebrate the Small Things, co-hosted by Lexa Cain @ Lexa Cain , L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog  You can go to any of these sites to get all the links and add your name to the links. 

As some of you know, my middle grade mystery, Imogene and the Case of the Missing Pearls (book one of a planned series) is set in Victorian London. The family cook is an important character, along with Sherlock Holmes, ten-year-old sleuth Imogene, and her co-sleuth, mudlark Rusty.

The book I'm celebrating? The Victorian Kitchen, by Jennifer Davies. I ordered this book through Amazon, feeling I needed to know a little more of Victorian era kitchen life and meal preparation, and this book has it all. It's a treasure trove of information, with great pictures, floor plans, menus, etc. I had already gleaned a lot from Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management and various sites on the Internet, but this book gives me an even deeper look at life below stairs. So today finds me starting the new year feeling well equipped for book two of my series.

How about you? Have you ever stumbled on the perfect book for your research? Do you enjoy research? Do you enjoy finding out about historical times? Do you enjoy mysteries?

Has it been two weeks????

                                                     

Wow, time flies. This is kinda double celebrating, 2 weeks worth;  But first, hats off to the two co-hosts for this blog hop,  Lexa Cain @ Lexa Cain , L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog  You can go to any of these sites to get all the links and add your name to the links. 

So, what am I celebrating:

1. I'm writing a new Imogene story for an anthology, and it's going well. Tons of research, as usual, but that's going well, too. And, as a matter of fact, I love research, especially historical research.

2. Art Club at the community center started 2 weeks ago -- well, three -- and I have such a wonderful class. The class is mainly for 8-to-12-year-olds, but I have two 7-year-olds and three 6-year-olds. Normally I don't take students that young, because the class is an hour and a half long. But these little sweeties are so focused, they are in like Flynn, as the saying goes.

Two weeks ago I attended Stories on Stage in Davis, (there's one in Sacramento, too). A writer friend of mine was there, and I took copies of his mystery to sign. And Catriona McPherson, one of my favorite authors, was there, and I won a copy of her latest book! I couldn't believe it, but there you are!

Have you ever won something that you didn't expect to win? Do you enjoy doing research?