Pure Romance - Bass and Treble Couplers - Plus Amelia Island's Velvet Undertow Excerpt

     My sweet friend, Debbie Mahon, sent me a simple muted-toned photo of roses on a piano.  She said it reminded her of me.  I loved it.  (I don't know where she found it, but I will credit the photographer if I find out.)   Roses and music are the ideal combination for romance.  And since I write The Goodbye Lie series of romance novels, I was, of course, inspired to take my own picture, as seen above.  Pink roses and our antique (working!) pump organ say romance, at least in my book. Sorry, I had to add that cliché. Then I zoomed in on the picture to see if the round labeled white stops you pull out to change the sound while playing are readable.  They are and that's when I realized how the two stops I use most are the bass coupler and treble coupler. They were already pulled out when I took the shot and it came to me that the stops represent the male and female in my stories.  How much fun is it to discover romance in unexpected places?

The Goodbye Lie series

 available in E-books and Paperbacks

     The photo below is the original shot I snapped showing the pump organ music "Mosquite Waltz" which is featured as the backdrop on Amelia Island's Velvet Undertow front cover.

 

🎵 Listen to Mosquito Waltz here,

Amelia Island's Velvet Undertow cover sheet music as played on the the pictured pump organ above 

by Linda Plumlee Riley.

May it transport you back to 1889 where you can join the Dunnigan family and experience all

shades of their antics ...

From the cover above:

Witnessing the unthinkable, Carolena Dunnigan's secure life on Amelia Island, Florida turns to ashes.  Determined to save her siblings, she fleas to Charleston, South Carolina for work.  Unholy entanglements and revolting revelations drive her to Pennsylvania and the devastating Johnstown Flood of 1889.  It scours away secrets of the past, but will anyone survive this powerful undertow of shock and struggle?

***

     Excerpt: An earth-shaking roar in the distance drew louder.  And louder still.  The only other sound every man, woman and child in the town could hear was his or her own heart.  Instinctively, each knew the time of their passing had come.

     A living, seething, tumbling mountain of debris headed for them.  It toppled trees, houses, and buildings like so many dominoes.  Friends, animals,  the spring-sprouted blades of grass, all life itself, disappeared into the churn.  Nothing was spared.

***

Known to her fans as Gracious Jane Marie of GraciousJaneMarie.com, Jane Marie Malcolm celebrates HEART & HOME with roses, recipes and romance.  She is the creator of Martha Bear's world of silly stories for the entire family at MarthaBear.com and continues work on future novels and shorter delights to entice her diverse legion of readers.  

Another Peeperism

   

 

Grandmother Peeper says, 

"If'n ya eat too close ta the rind, 

you'll be a-catchin' a chill." 

***

Peeper is a most popular player in the historical romance Goodbye Lie series, set in the late 1800s on Amelia Island, Florida. She does not like being called Grandmother.  It's not that she is vain about her age.  No, it's that she doesn't want folks to think she's infirm and offer their assistance at her every movement. 

Peeper

Just because her feet are swole up like fat little bald men, as she will tell you, she declines most help, being the proudly independent person she is.

Ebooks and Paperbacks in The Goodbye Lie series available now:

The Goodbye Lie 

Amelia Island's Velvet Undertow

Amelia Island's Mark of a Man

Grammy Camp - Crowns Abound! - Goodbye Lie Diaries - Marie Dunnigan Writes

    Grammy Camp is an annual event at Stately       Martha Manor (named for our Martha Bear teddy bear).  Since my granddaughter is a mini-me, can anything be more fun than our shared interests in crafting, photography, music, food, humor and just about every subject there is?
     This day we created crowns.  Ava and I love crowns.  There are endless ideas and styles online, and the picture shows our happy efforts.  Here's how we made lace crowns.
     Oh, I have to tell you that most of these crowns are 40 years old, although we made them today. Why?  There used to be a fabric store called Cloth World that sold "penny-a-yard lace."  I think their limit per day was $1.00.  They had the sale quite often, so I still have hundreds of yards of lace left.  I've used the different styles of lace to edge pillows, blankets, quilts, christening gowns, bibs, curtains, dresses, vests, wedding decor, costumes, placemats, dog coats, just about anything you can make by hand. As a child, my Barbra used to say, "Not Cloth World again, Mommy."  hahaha  Little did she know, that decades later, her daughter and I would be creating treasures together with that very lace. 

Lace Crowns

You'll need:

(WE FOUND THAT THE THICKER THE LACE, THE MORE GLUE IT ABSORBS AND THE STIFFER and STURDIER THE CROWN WILL BE. This is what you want.)

Rinsed out metal can or plastic whipped cream container (Cool Whip-type)
Old newspaper to keep your surface clean
White glue and water or fabric stiffener from Walmart or a craft store
Old paintbrush of some kind
Lace- the thicker the better
Different sized cans to keep the crown round
Parchment paper
Plastic wrap
Spray paint (optional)
Jewels, fabric roses, ribbons, etc., to decorate
Bobby Pins or thin ribbon to tie under the chin or behind the hair to secure the crown if worn (optional)
A human head or a pet or doll or the corner bedpost, etc., on which to place the finished crown.
We went online for directions and this is what we ended up doing.  It worked well.

1. Cover your round cans with a layer of plastic wrap.
2. Pour 3 parts glue and 1 part water into a clean container you can throw away and mix well or use store-bought fabric stiffener.
3. Determine the size of crown you want, add a half inch to cross the ends over and later glue. Cut your length of lace, trying to match the pattern in the back where you'll adhere the ends.
4. Dip one length of lace at a time into the glue.  Holding one end at the top over the can of glue, run your thumb and first finger down to the end to get the excess glue off. Lay the glue covered lace flat on the parchment paper. 
5. Using an old paintbrush, make sure the glue is even on both sides and the holes in the lace are open. Let dry.
6. When dry, paint more glue onto both sides of the lace. The lace will soften again from the glue. Move the wet lace to the plastic covered can, overlap the lace and pin in place.  Let dry.
7. With a dull knife and the help of an adult, slip the knife under the dried round lace to remove it from the can.  If it's still not stiff enough, paint on more glue and let dry on the can again, to keep the round shape.
8. Once dry and stiff, hot glue the ends, overlapping slightly. 
9. Spray paint a color, add glitter, weave a ribbon through the holes of the lace, add a bow, add jewels, silk flowers or leave as is.  The lace, itself, is pretty. 
10. Give as gifts to your favorite princesses or queens and save one or two for yourself because you are royalty in your world. Let everyone know!

***

The Goodbye Lie Diaries

Late 1880s
Fernandina on Amelia Island

Marie Dunnigan

*Marie Dunnigan writes: How beautiful! I want to be a princess, too.  If I ask my mother, Miss Ella, perhaps she will share a piece of lace made by the sisters at Saint Michael's. I am sure Peeper has glue. Should she not, she can make some sort of stiffening potion that will work. I can use one of Daddy's blueberry wine jugs for the round to pin the crown on and trim with a sparkling broach.  I am so anxious to begin, I will find Mother, straight away, and inquire about the lace.  Thank you,  Miss Jane and Ava. The result of my efforts will be most regal, I'm certain. 

*Marie Dunnigan is the youngest adult sibling in the family.  Some may describe her as self-involved. She seems to learn from her mistakes, at least sometimes. Marie is featured in Amelia Island's Mark of a Man, set in north Florida in 1898, part of The Goodbye Lie series.