Holly's 2000 miles…First Stop Ohio!

You can start here to read about my 2,000 Mile Walk.

First Stop Cleveland!!

If I'd walked my 2,000 miles this year in a rather straightish line from my hometown in Erie, Pennsylvania, the first big city on my route would be Cleveland, Ohio!

This is a city I've visited frequently, since I can drive there in an hour and a half.

So what might I do on this fictional walk-through visit of Cleveland??

Well, there's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!  Maybe if I was lucky, I'd have heard some singer I love…Bruce Springsteen would have been awesome!

And there's the Cleveland Zoo! We've been there a number of times through the years.  It's beautiful there!  And since I've been a member of the Erie Zoo for decades, I've always got in with that.  If you've got a zoo membership, check and see what other zoos are reciprocal…it's fun to visit other ones!

But, really I should mention that if I were walking through Cleveland, I'd have stopped at the North East Ohio RWA—NEORWA—group.  I don't visit them as often as I'd like, but whenever I do make it to a meeting or visit to give a workshop, it's like coming home.  There are so many friends there, and I always love meeting the newer writers!

By now most of you know that I've set most of my books in and around Erie—this year's two releases, June's Just One Thing and Christmas in Cupid Falls —are set just outside town.  But I've had a few set in Ohio.  Both Same Time Next Summer, which was set in a fictional town near the very real Port Clinton, Ohio and The 100 Year Itch which was set in the very fictional, Hiho, Ohio.  Since this is a fictional walk I don't see any issues with stopping to say hi to the characters in both of them!

But I want to meet with more than just fictional characters on this walk.  So between Cleveland and Toledo there are two small towns I'm going to visit.  First is Fairview Park.  My friend, Denise invited me to stop in.  "Hi, Denise!!"

Denise hands me a water bottle…you know it's important to stay hydrated on a cross country walk.
She says she'll walk with me through her town's portion of my trek.

I can't help but notice how picturesque the town is and I ask her what she loves about Fairview Park.  She says, "We are a small suburb right outside Cleveland on the west.  We are bordered by the Cleveland Metroparks on one side.  We are more suburb than small town but keep our small town feel.  Every year we have a Winterfest to light our town tree (this Friday) with Santa's chalet and live reindeer.  We have a community cabin that actually burnt down in 1936 right before it was supposed to be dedicated and the town got together and rebuilt it a few years later.  We have malls on our borders but most of our town are local businesses.  We keep it small but still have amazing projects like our library which is a glass front building and a community rec center we came together to build that rivals the bigger suburbs.  We are less than 20,000 people who balance small town with Cleveland over the bridge and the main airport to the south."

She sent me this picture… "This is a picture from last year's Winterfest.  It's a free event and they shut down the roads on both sides of the clock tower.  There's food trucks and live reindeer and ice carving and local vendors.  Then there's Santa's chalet where you can put your letter to Santa in the mailbox and see Santa.  Winterfest is the first time you see Santa for the season and the last is Christmas Eve when Santa patrols the city on a fire truck all day by police escort. I love my town!"

Denise, I have to agree, Fairview Park is absolutely stunning!  I wish I could stay to see those Christmas lights on Friday!  Maybe some of my other friends will be there.  But for now, I've got to keep walking.

Here's my second small town—Huron, Ohio!  Huron shares my lake (okay, so legally I have to confess, I don't OWN Lake Erie, but we all know it's mine in spirit, I mean I've put it in almost all my books by it).  My friend Lesa is meeting me here in Huron, her hometown.  I will confess, I sometimes complain that the only downside of writing is that it takes away from my reading time.  I live vicariously through Lesa's reading list!  She's an amazing champion of books and her blog's here!

So, here everyone, meet Lesa!  "Lesa, It's so good to see you!  Any suggestions on where to go for me as I walk through your town…I mean after we've had this lovely cup of coffee."


Lesa Holstine: Huron's a small town right on Lake Erie with a pier and lighthouse where people walk and enjoy the view. But, if nothing else, you should walk around the Old Plat, the historic downtown neighborhood, and check out the houses. There's one house on the walk that was brought from Cleveland by barge, coming from the Home and Flower Show. There are all kinds of interesting, historic homes, and the Huron Public Library, 333 Williams St., has a copy of the walking tour. Stop in at the library, pick up the map, and walk the few downtown blocks to get a flavor of Huron. (And, I was once Director of the library, there.)



"Lesa, Hey, I loved walking through Old Plat, and when I stopped at the library to pick up my map, I checked out the shelves…it's so cool to see some of my books there!  Thank you to everyone at Huron Public Library!  When I wrote librarian heroine Maeve last year in A Valley Ridge Christmas, it was because some of my favorite people ever are librarians!  Just in case no one's said it lately, thanks to all the librarians who have shared one of the biggest gifts ever with so many people…reading!"

And finally, after all that I'm at my last stop in Ohio...I am in Toledo, Ohio!

Of course I'm going to mention the Toledo Zoo and the Toledo Art Museum.

But I wanted to find something a bit off the beaten path and I found Irwin Prairie State Nature Preserve.  I know I'm writing this blog as if I'd really walked all my 2014 steps and gone from Erie, PA to Twin Fall, ID, but as I'm putting these together, I suspect I might find a lot of little places I want to visit when we take a real cross country trip. This is one of them!  I know, it's more walking but hey, that's what I do…walk! 

Next, I'm walking through Indiana on my way to Chicago.  If you have somewhere I should 'visit' I'd love to hear from you!  And if you're on the route, maybe we could meet up for virtual coffee and a bit of glee?

Holly

Holly's 2,000 mile walk!

So as November winds down, I was taking a look at my FitBit numbers.  I have walked at least 10,000 steps every day…only a few more weeks to go to meet my goal of a whole year of 10,000 steps a day.

Here's my stats as of 11-20-14:
4,314,177 steps 1,887.89 miles

I should be able to hit 2,000 miles no problem.

Which means, I could walk from Erie, PA to just about Twin Falls, Idaho!  According to MapQuest it's 2009.92 miles.  So I'm going to shoot for at least that much from now until the end of the year.

I just look for a destination that was a fairly straight shot from Erie.  But this ended up being a great route.  I'd have walked by Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago, South Bend, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Omaha, Lincoln, Kearney, Cheyenne, Salt Lake City and finally Twin Falls!  And I'm sure a lot of small towns along the way!  So for the next few weeks, I'm going to give some shout outs to the towns along the way as I walk the last bit of my year's steps!

If you're from any of the cities or towns on my route, give me a shout at HollyJacobs! (at) gmail (dot) com and let me know what landmarks I should have stopped to see!  I'll add your posts and any pictures you send to the 2,000 mile countdown!

Holly

PS I'm posting some responses from friends along my route here:

From Debra Maher on Facebook:
<<When I was a child two men came to our house and asked for water refills. They were actually walking across the country with their burro. This reminds me of that, in a virtual way. This is a pic I recently took in Stow, Ohio, outside of Cleveland.>>

With a Name Like Holly, I Do Christmas…a lot!

I've been saying for years that with a name like Holly I do Christmas…lately I've had to add the words, 'a lot' to that statement.  I don't think I realized just how many holiday romances I'd written until recently.  But I'll confess, I can't think of anything sweeter than a feel-good Christmas story to amp up my holiday spirit.  I think this year's  release, Christmas in Cupid Falls, brings home that holiday spirit…or should I say, HOLLYday spirit??  It introduces my new series and my new town, Cupid Falls, PA.


And although it's not a Christmas book, June's release, Just One Thing, has one of my favorite Christmas scenes ever!   

And if that's not enough of the HOLLYday spirit for you, some of my older Christmas books are available again as eBooks:

A Valley Ridge Christmas 

Spruced Up: A Maid in LA Holiday Novella 

Everything But a Christmas Eve 

Nothing But Love short story 

Homecoming Days 

Unexpected Gifts  

Once Upon a Christmas 

Wishing you all a holiday filled with family, glee…and a lot of wonderful holiday stories!

~Holly

Teaser Tuesday, Christmas in Cupid Falls

#TeaserTuesday

Christmas in Cupid Falls

by Holly Jacobs

This week, a sneak peak at Nana Vancy's cameo in Christmas in Cupid Falls:

<<They reached the coatrack and all three of them pulled out their coats.

Nana Vancy smiled at him as she slipped hers on. She looked as pleased as if he’d aced a spelling bee. “Yes, my friends. I adopted Clara Barton and Madame Curie to help match Annabelle’s second cousin’s daughter by her third marriage once removed. Bela was so mad when I came home with the dogs, but they stole his heart. There have never been two dogs so loved. And when I decided that matchmaking people might not be my calling . . .”

Kennedy’s laughter couldn’t be contained at that. “From what you told me, there were a few glitches.”

Nana Vancy grinned as she nodded and admitted, “Just a few, kedvenc, but I did help bring together some very happy couples. But when I matchmaked Annabelle’s second cousin’s daughter by her third marriage once removed, who was a veterinarian—”

Kennedy laughed as she interrupted, “—with a man who was allergic to dogs.”

Nana Vancy said, “It all worked out, didn’t it? And I discovered my true calling was matching dogs to their forever homes. And with help from family and friends, I started Everything But a Dog Foundation.”

That was a long story made longer, Mal thought but didn’t say out loud as they walked out onto the sidewalk. He glanced to make sure that Kennedy had zipped up her parka against the cold.

She caught him at it and glared at him. He didn’t need the words to know she was telling him she could look after herself.

He sighed. This time it wasn’t only Kennedy who looked at him, but Nana Vancy, too. She pointed down the street at a big man with two dogs. A large black one and a much smaller white one that had a very sausage-like build.

Mal looked at the big man smile as the tiny woman approached him. He wasn’t a romantic by any stretch of the imagination, but when Nana Vancy’s Bela joined them with the dogs, Mal could see how much love there was between them. It reminded him of Clarence and Joan. Or his grandfather and grandmother.

Nana Vancy walked up to the big man and their bodies brushed, as if drawn together like magnets.

“Kennedy, Malcolm, this is my Bela.” There was pride in her voice . . . and love.

“Bela Salo,” he said, shaking their hands.

“And this is Madame Curie.” At the sound of her name, the black dog sat down and offered them her paw.

Kennedy knelt down awkwardly and took the paw. “Aren’t you a beautiful girl?”

The little white dog, not to be outdone, jumped up at Kennedy, anxious for some affection, too. But Kennedy’s center of gravity was extremely off because of the baby. The small dog hurtling in her direction was enough to topple her, but Malcolm sprang forward and grabbed her under her arms, steadying her.

She looked up. “Thank you,” she said, then turned her attention to the demanding sausage-like white dog.

Nana Vancy shot him a look that made him feel like a bug under a microscope, then she said, “And that rude dog is Clara . . . Clara Barton. She has no manners and very little brains.”

Bela looked slightly insulted on the dog’s behalf. “But she is all heart, that one.”

As if to prove his point, Clara was busy kissing Kennedy, who hadn’t asked Mal to remove his hands, so he continued to steady her as she continued to kneel by the small dog.>>

The Gift of Time

Today, I'm clearing the yard of leaves.  Why?  I love how they look covering the yard, but my husband does not.  So today, I'm cleaning them for him…it's a small gift of my time.  But as I worked on them, I started reflecting on those small gifts of time.  And I snapped this picture of the glider he gave me a couple years ago.  It's not a gift of time in the same way as clearing leaves…it's better.

You see, my grandfather had a glider like this at his farm.  I remember curling up on the seat and reading, or swinging on it with my brothers.  When I asked my husband for a glider like that, I was thinking about the reading more than my brothers.  But since its become a fixture in my side yard, I realize that what I love most about it is the time with my family.  I may start out sitting alone and reading, but soon someone's in the other seat.  I can't tell you how often one of the kids sees me there and comes to visit.  They share bits of their days as we swing to and fro.  My husband and friends occasionally join me on it as well and visit.

It turns out that when my husband gave me the glider as a gift, it was a better present than he imagined…because through that glider, he gave me the gift of time.  Time with him, time with friends, time with the kids.

This is a theme I've spent years writing about.  I was pretty blatant as I talked about it in my new release, Christmas in Cupid Falls.
"…as you get older you never find yourself wishing you had more time to work.  You find yourself wishing you had more time for the people in your life."

That's what my husband gave me with the glider…time for the people in my life.  So today, I'll go clear some leaves for him.  It's just a small way to tell him that he matters to me.  And maybe a small way to say thank you for the gift of time he inadvertently gave me!

Holly

Teaser Tuesday…Books from Christmas in Cupid Falls

‪

Christmas in Cupid Falls

#‎TeaserTuesday‬ Christmas in Cupid Falls

Here's another ‪#‎EasterEgg‬ from the new book. I'll confess, the GLH books I mention I remember from grandmother's. They sat on her shelf in the hall. Later, they sat on Mom's shelf. These days, they're on my shelf. They're fragile and brittle with age, but I think of Mom and Nana every time I look at them. 

~Holly

Grace Livingston Hill

Teaser:<<She dusted and couldn’t help but run her fingers along old favorites. They were all old hardbacks. Grace Livingston Hill was Aunt Betty’s favorite. The copies were old and the slipcovers were yellow, but she remembered reading The Spicebox and Miranda. L. M. Montgomery’s Green Gables books. Louisa May Alcott. Gene Stratton-Porter. She pulled out A Girl of the Limberlost. Oh, how she’d loved that book.

Gene Stratton-Porter & LM Montgomery

Yes, the books would stay. She’d found comfort in them when she’d first come to live here. And they felt like old friends on the shelf.>>

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