07.30.2024

A Strong and Courageous Woman

I once knew a strong and courageous woman.
Her name was Mary Kathleen Bennett. She was my maternal Nana.
I was a teenager when she died. I wished I had more time with her.
I could not know then that later I would write a book titled Ten Kids, Two Lovebirds, and a Singing Mermaid and I would put her steely strength, her kindness, and her sense of style and spirit into one of my main characters.
I started writing this story last August during an incredibly sad time in my life. You could say I channeled my Nana.
As a child, I saw my Nana’s warm smile and felt the gentle hugs, and I loved the way she made her sweet potatoes with extra brown sugar at Christmas. I smelled the cigarettes she smoked, the scent mixing with her perfume and Jergen’s lotion.
Mary Kathleen Bennett was born in 1908 in Texas. Her mother was pregnant with her brother when she was two years old. A week after her brother was born, Mary Kathleen’s mother died of “blood poisoning.”
Mary Estelle was in her twenties. Mary Estelle’s husband, Carl, decided it would be best if he ran off into the great blue yonder and abandoned his children, and so he did, and Mary Kathleen never saw her father again.
Let’s pause on this. Sweet Mary Kathleen was two years old.
Her mother died.
Then her father left. I don’t know why he made the decision he did.
Mary Kathleen and her new baby brother were passed off to this relative and that relative around and about Texas and they never felt wanted or loved, which was probably why Mary Kathleen’s brother became an alcoholic and died too young. Loneliness and aloneness can bring you down until you can hardly get up, as some of us know.
But Mary Kathleen had the courage of a Texas steel magnolia and classic Southern manners and she kept a smile on her face. She didn’t like to talk about what had happened to her. Stiff upper lip, don’t complain about your problems, no whining, count your blessings, that sort of thing…
To read more, click on the link for my substack newsletter. Yes, it’s free, of course.
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07.29.2024

Writing a Christmas Book in Summer

Well, I did it. Darling Laughing Son told me to put up a Christmas tree so I would be in the spirit to write my Christmas book.
I grabbed a few trees, a Santa who looks like he needs a nap, and a 50 year old wreath. I can almost hear the reindeer flying overhead.
Don’t mind the snail! My kids gave that to me and I didn’t want to leave him out. He’s slow but steady. Kind of how I’m writing my book.
The main character’s name is Bellini. Yes, like the drink.

She writes books for kids. She calls herself a “lonely house hermit,” and has four cats.
Bellini has been called home to work at her mother’s bar in Montana, as her mother has had her uterus “stolen” by the doctor and needs help. Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, she needs a happy ending.
Wishing you a happy holiday!
(If Mrs. Claus helps me this book will be out late November.)
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07.24.2024

Merry Christmas to a Baffled Writer

If it would only snow here in Oregon, I would be more in the mood to write/edit my Christmas book.
Darling Laughing Son told me to put up the Christmas tree. That might be a good idea. Maybe I should make a snowman, too.
The story is set in Montana. There’s a family bar. It gets a little wild and raucous.
There’s a mother who is larger than life and a daughter who wants to hide from life.
There are odd family Christmas traditions and a live show with feather boas, knee-high boots and glitter.
Oh, and there’s the love of the daughter’s life…he’s quite handsome, and the love of the mother’s life, who might or might not appear.
That’s about what I’ve got.
Merry Christmas!
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07.22.2024

A Little Magic, a lot of Love, and a Kid Named Tate

“Old” book, “new” cover.
“A Different Kind of Normal” has a little magic in it, a lot of love, and a kid named Tate who jumped into my mind, clear as could be, as soon as I started writing.
Here’s the scoop…
“My mother told me all about the witches in our family. She heard the stories from her mother, who heard them from her mother, and so on, all the way back to the mid-1800’s, in London, where the twins, Henrietta and Elizabeth, started The Curse.
Henrietta and Elizabeth were inseparable from the time they reached across their mother’s bosom for the other’s hand. Their mother was considered to be the best witch of them all, whatever that silly statement means, and she taught the twins. They practiced their spells in the forest behind the fountains and statues on the manicured estate their mother’s wealthy, titled family owned.
Together Henrietta and Elizabeth had eight children who would later prove to be both saints and raucous sinners, especially the girls, as is often the case in witch families, or so I’m told…”
Jaden Bruxelle is a nurse. She does not believe in ancestral witches or curses or magical spells. She does believe in her nephew, Tate, who lives with her. Tate was born with an oversized head. Academically gifted, he endures taunts and teasing, but rises above it with kindness, jokes, and a brilliant intellect.
Jaden also believes in her mother, Rowan, a blunt speaking internationally famous soap opera star, and her brother, Caden, a single father with four children, three of them triplets, who will only wear Halloween outfits.
But as magic spins in and out of the herbs in her greenhouse, Jaden finally acknowledges The Curse as she smells the scent of death.
A Different Kind of Normal is available to buy in e-book or paperback, only on Amazon, and is also in Kindle Unlimited.
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07.18.2024

She Has Ulterior Motives – New Book Coming Soon!

The link to my latest newsletter on Substack – free for all to read – is below.
It’s about…my new book!
(and Montana, Big Foot, and daydreaming.)

 

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07.16.2024

a new book will be out and about soon

i will say this in a whisper voice with no grammar at all just for fun but i have a new book coming out soon and this is a photo of the rockies in montana where i was gallivanting about last week and where my new book might be set it is about how love can be surprising especially when you have given up on it

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07.01.2024

A Bird Miracle

Today was an ordinary day and then a bird miracle occurred. This Blue Heron flew over my head while I was in my garden thinking about how truly terrible my Christmas story is that I’m trying to write.
I thought to myself kind and generous thoughts like: You should quit writing. You should become a hermit in the backwoods. And, remember, Cathy, it’s a Christmas story. Don’t kill anyone off. No one wants death with their stockings and ornaments.
Then the Blue Heron appeared out of nowhere.
I love blue herons. You could say that they are the Lamb Family Bird. When Innocent Husband, Rebel Dancing Daughter, Adventurous Singing Daughter, or Darling Laughing Son or I see a Great Blue Heron, we always yell out, “GBH!” It’s a family moment.
Anyhow, I watched the Great Blue Heron as he watched me, marveling at how elegant and cool he was. A few minutes later another Great Blue Heron soared over my head, like a mini blue plane, flapped his enormous wings at Great Blue Heron #1, and they both flew over my pink magnolia trees and golden lilies, on to their next adventure.
A pair. A couple. Friends. It was just an incredible moment.
Sometimes ya have to look for that little bit of beauty and sometimes the beauty comes to you and you are very lucky indeed.
Have a good day. Wishing you a bird miracle.
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06.25.2024

A Great Blue Heron or Two

Today was an ordinary day and then a bird miracle occurred. This Blue Heron flew over my head while I was in my garden thinking about how truly terrible my Christmas story is that I’m trying to write.
I thought to myself kind and generous thoughts like: You should quit writing. You should become a hermit in the backwoods. And, remember, Cathy, it’s a Christmas story. Don’t kill anyone off. No one wants death with their stockings and ornaments.
Then the Blue Heron appeared out of nowhere. I love blue herons. You could say that they are the Lamb Family Bird. When Innocent Husband, Rebel Dancing Daughter, Adventurous Singing Daughter, or Darling Laughing Son or I see a Great Blue Heron, we always yell out, “GBH!” It’s a family moment.
Anyhow, I watched the Great Blue Heron as he watched me, marveling at how elegant and cool he was. A few minutes later another Great Blue Heron soared over my head, like a mini blue plane, flapped his enormous wings at Great Blue Heron #1, and they both flew over my pink magnolia trees and golden lilies, on to their next adventure.
A pair. A couple. Friends. It was just an incredible moment.
Sometimes ya have to look for that little bit of beauty and sometimes the beauty comes to you and you are very lucky indeed.
Have a good day. Wishing you a bird miracle.
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06.18.2024

A Writer Chills Out in Montana

On Saturday I left Oregon at the torturous, bone-jangling hour of six in the morning to head to Helena, Montana.

I don’t “do” six in the morning. I feel like I’ve been hit in the face by a flying goat. It’s unhealthy for me to get up that early. Definitely a fright to my nervous system. I don’t like any frightful things happening to my nervous system as I am nervous enough already.

But, alas, I’ll do just about anything to de-fry my brain and calm down in Montana. It’s like heaven was drawn in a painting and the painting landed across the entire state. I feel like I can breathe when I’m there. Plus, there’s something about the rivers and the mountains that make writing and delving into my boiling and toiling imagination easier.

CLICK ON THE SUBSTACK LINK FOR MORE (Free, of course)

https://cathylamb.substack.com/p/finding-peace-in-montana

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06.13.2024

Sun, Flowers, Books

Need a summer book?

Available only on Amazon.

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