Just a reminder that the two giveaways I have going (audiobooks and ebooks/paperbacks) will be ending tonight at midnight Eastern Daylight Time. I hope you enter to win! Besides, I need help selecting which picture of my kitty muse, Tora, to put up on the site (that’s one of the ways you can enter to…

   
So today is pretty special (and not just because it’s Friday). It’s PRETZEL DAY!  To me, pretzels really mean…soft pretzels. Yum… A few years ago, I took a one-day German cooking class with a girlfriend of mine. We learned to make all sorts of German foods, most of which I forget now. The one thing…

   
Sometimes the best way to understand a historical period is to take a close look at its challenges and how they were addressed.  Fighting crime may be the biggest challenge of all. As those of you who regularly follow my site already know, my favorite historical period is the 19th century. And because I’m a…

   
Happy February, everyone! The groundhog saw his shadow, so it’s six more weeks of staring at shriveled-up, brown vegetation and sighing over seed catalogs. Maybe I could grow corn on my back deck this summer?…maybe not. *wink* Speaking of gardening, the picture above was the top choice of folks who participated in the “Choose your…