HerStory

 

I love my little house in the big woods. (Yep, that was a shout out to one of my favorite books growing up!) I married a city boy, but I grew up in the county and missed it so much he bought me some acreage years ago. It's only a bit more than a half hour from home, which makes it easy to head out whenever I need a country fix. Since I put my pottery studio in our barn out there, I've been going out even more often.

I feel connected to that land. I have since we found it. We've spent years building/renovating our cottage out there. Thirty years after we built it, it finally got indoor plumbing. I know. I'm so fancy! We added the barn and my studio a couple years ago. Small project after small project. Then these last few big projects.

 Most of my decor is house-sale-yard-sale finds. One of my recent treasures for the cottage was a map of our township. I am not good with maps, but himself pointed our our place.  A few miles to the north was part of my family's homestead...I knew about that one. But imagine my delight as I studied the map and found another branch of my tree... a third great-grandfather. His name's on the map just a couple miles from our place. I've walked by where his house was. It's so cool finding my feeling of connection might have been my very deep roots in the area.

I've been working on my family tree for a few years. For someone who didn't have any clue on more than half of her tree for most of her life, my discoveries give me such glee. My maternal family comes from pre-revolution New England. My paternal family comes from the pre-revolution south...the Appalachian Mountains.  After years of not quite knowing where I was from, I've traced my family back to the 1700s. A few of the more famous branches, even further.

Where I come from...how I ended up here. It's a never-ending source of fascination for me. That looking for family—for where we belong—is a theme that occurs often in my books.

My whole Hometown Heart series asked that question over and over again in each book.  The first book in my Harry's Pottery series, A View to a Kiln, asks the question. Should Harry (the heroine) follow a well plotted path, or follow her passion?

I'll confess, I love Erie. I write about Erie a lot. Erie has big city amenities and a small town feel.  If you haven't checked out the first book in my Around the Square series, Signs of the Times, you'll find yourself in the heart of Erie...and hopefully the Christmasy story will touch your heart. 

I love both our town house and little house in the big woods, but truly where I belong is with my family. I was so excited that everyone was home for Thanksgiving. There are a lot of us now, so the house was packed, but the chaos was part of the fun!  Chaos and family...that does describe most of my books. LOL

And yes, all of them ask Where do I belong? in one way or another...and every person should ask that question as well. I've asked and answered it over and over...I belong wherever my family is. In the woods, in the city...where they are is my true home. My history (HerStory?!) brought me to right where I am...and where I am is pretty darn perfect.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!

Holly

If you have a moment, pick out a Holly Jacobs book for your Christmas reading!

The HOLLYdays are Here!

 

For years I volunteered at my kids' schools. My longest stint was as the Kindergarten Story Lady. (I wrote about it in Carry Her Heart/Hold Her Heart...everything is fodder for my books! LOL) My second longest stint was as a PTA Mom. For years, I was in charge of the annual Feather Party's kids' games.  It was utter chaos...and utter fun. When I started writing my PTA Mom Holiday books, I knew there'd be a similar Thanksgiving event (there aren't many Thanksgiving books!). The heroine is a single mom with way too much on her plate, but she still finds time to volunteer...and maybe fall in love? 

My premise for the series was three PTA Moms miss the first meeting of the year and get assigned to the worst PTA Committee. They'll be in charge of the PTA holiday events. I'll confess, I'm very proud of the Thanksgiving play in Once Upon a Thanksgiving...I wrote it. Well, I didn't write a whole play, which is a shame because I've had school teachers reach out about it. One of these days, I may finish it.

The second book has a Christmas poem that was inspired by one of my favorite high school teachers. (Remember I said, everything is fodder!) She gave me a pipe cleaner spider for my tree and every year it's the first ornament I put up!  The heroine of Once Upon a Christmas is a single woman, raising her sister's child...a child who's father shows up on her doorstep.

Writing the third book, Once Upon a Valentine's, was...well a treat. In the first two books, I talk about the heroine being an accidental arsonist.  Her husband cheated on her...on a couch she bought. She asked for the couch in the divorce...but didn't want to sit on it. I mean, who would? She wanted to burn it...and took out a neighbor's shed along with it, by accident. In the third book, she is serving her community service and planning the most romantic event of the school year...the Valentine's Dance. She's not in a very romantic mood! LOL But sometimes love happens in its own time

The book bundle includes a short story featuring the PTA president as well!

The PTA Moms Collection is on sale for Thanksgiving. Just $.99 for the whole series!  If you've read them before, I hope you'll share the sale with friends! (And thank you!) If you haven't read them, I hope you'll give them a try!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Holly

PS Check out this year's releases while you're shopping!

Signs of the Times
Available for Kindle and Kindle Unlimited

Chances
Amazon 
Barnes and Noble
Kobo  
Apple Books 

A View to a Kiln: A Harry's Pottery Mystery
Kindle
iBooks
Kobo
Nook

Thanksgiving...a holiday of glee!!

I've been talking about my new book, Between the Words, but this week, I'm talking about my PTA Mom Collection. I loved writing about three single moms finding love at holidays and I'm thrilled they're all in one collection (with a bonus story). I'll confess, In Once Upon a Thanksgiving, I loved that Samantha actively worked at being optimistic and happy.

With kids, a job and an unexpected PTA Committee job (the Thanksgiving pageant), she's got a lot on her plate. But she realizes she's a work in progress and just gets down to work on all of it...and in learning to be happy.

That message resonates with me. Glee is a state of mind...one we all can work on cultivating.

I will admit that I love Thanksgiving because it's a holiday that centers on family and on counting our blessings. We have a tradition here of going around the table and saying what we're thankful for. Some of the thankful-items are silly on purpose, but no matter how silly they are, it's a great reminder that we're lucky. Yes, I talk about glee a lot and I think that awareness of how lucky I am makes it easier to find glee tucked up in most of my life.

I think that's why I love this holiday so much. I might have to do a lot of cooking (making the brine today then tomorrow cooking in earnest), but there's something to be said about a day that's spent counting our blessings and reminding ourselves why we're lucky! A day of glee!

So as you all start to bustle around the kitchen prepping for the big day, I hope you take a minute to find your glee!!

Holly

PS Here are the most recent Trippin' Videos...

PPS Check out this year's releases: Polished Off PTA Moms: the Collection Between the Words Briar Hill Road Find my books at: Amazon Kobo Radish Fiction iBooks B&N Google Play BAM In Erie, you can find my books on the shelf at Werner Books!

Pushing my Limits...My Novel Freshman Experience, Part 20

   Wow, twenty posts on going back to school.  I'll do one more wrap up blog on it this term.  (I'm taking Ceramics 2 next term, so there will be more!  The Hobbit Hole is still in the kiln so I'll showcase that one on the last post.)             


We're glazing now.  And my pieces are coming out of the kiln. 

I'll confess, it's like Christmas.  I know how I wanted them to look, but I've never done it before so it's a surprise!  The uncertainty of glazing is pushing my comfort zone.  You see, I like to know what's coming up.  I like having a plan.  I can plan all I want with glazing, but it's still a crap shoot.  I can look at chips of how a glaze reacts to our clay body, but there are variables and even experienced potters can be surprised by a glazing result.   

I'm doing my report on Rob Barnard, I've talked about him before.  (You can read the post here.)  His career is built around controlled chaos.  He can plan and bring to a project his years of experience, but things still just happen.   “A key dimension of Barnard's aesthetic has been a tolerance for the slight irregularities and imperfections engendered by the wood-firing, and this new work goes a step further. The shows inclusion of a number of cracked and dented works indicates a Zen-like acceptance of all of nature's workings, not merely those that suit the preset needs of man. The results are highly poetic." (Rob Barnard by Alice Thorson, City Paper, Washington, April 26, 1991)   


So, I glazed my cups trying to be free and not worry.  I experimented.  And even though my Kiln Goddess's arms fell off, I'm confident I can glue them back in place.  And maybe I love her just a little more because she's damaged.   
           

        I tried for a bit more control with my teapot and Hobbit Hole, realizing that glazing effects can surprise even the most experienced potter, like Barnard and Professor H.  I'm hoping for the best. The  professor was very patient answering my repeated questions.    

And my teapot (the quote on the back is from Carry Her Heart...the heroine's garden was the inspiration) I really wanted the matte, rough tree look for the body, but the glossy, color for the flowers, butterfly and leaf on the lid.  I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  


So here's what I'm walking out of class with...a renewed effort to push my own limitations; to push my personal status quo; to experiment.  To find glee in even my failures.  So this class not only gave me an entry into earth art, but it also pushed me to try to relax my expectations.  I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! And thanks for being so sweet and following me on this new journey! I'm already so excited about next term!  

Holly   

PS If you missed any of my Novel Freshman Experience posts, here are links:
Part 19, Part 18,  Part 17, Part 16,  Part 15, Part 14, Part 13, Part 12, Part 11, Part 10, Part 9, Part 8, Part 7 Part Six, Part 5, Part 4, Part 3, Part 2, Part 1

Holly Jacobs' HOLLYday Books

Can you believe Thanksgiving is next week?

Me either.

It's HOLLYday time!

Visit my website for more information!

Heartwarming Holiday Wishes

I've been talking about my PTA Mom Holiday Series the last week or so, but I'm not the only one with the holidays on my mind!  Some friends have a new holiday bundle coming out and Liz is stopping in for a visit to tell you about it.  I know I for one can't wait!! 

Thanks for having us here, Holly!

I so love that magic is part of this year’s Christmas Town theme. This seems weird to me because I do not embrace things paranormal. I am so pragmatic that I look askance at the color turquoise (one of my favorites) because, you know, it’s not a primary color and it takes several other colors to make it and sometimes it’s not how you imagine it, but then…oh, gosh, it’s beautiful.

          As is the magic that is Christmas.

          When I was a kid, I was sooo envious of the Christmases enjoyed by my more moneyed friends. They got dolls every year and it was always the ones that were most in demand. Their forays through the pages of Sears’ Wish Book weren’t necessarily trips in futility—they might actually get some of the things whose descriptions they circled carefully.

         I wanted to have money when I grew up—surely that’s where the magic was.

          When my husband Duane and I had our kids, we tried to make sure their Christmases were enviable. Not so they would be envied, but because we were such big kids ourselves. I’m almost positive we bought some of their presents because we wanted to spend Christmas Eve night after they went to bed playing with the toys before we wrapped them and put them under the tree. We found the magic again and again.

          It was there when my husband sat up with me while I finished sewing our daughter’s Holly Hobby dress.

          It was there when I drove past a grocery store where a Salvation Army officer stood out front in the freezing cold and played “Silent Night” on a trumpet.

          It’s there when we ring bells and watch people put money in the red bucket and say “Merry Christmas” over and over again.

          It’s there when we pay for bags of groceries for people less fortunate than ourselves and take angels off trees to fulfill the wishes of children we don’t know and send checks to organizations who make things possible in impossible situations.

          It was there the year my son-in-law and daughter bought ping pong ball pop guns for every person in our family and we spent the most hilarious half hour ever shooting each other and traumatizing the cat (who forgave us all—probably because we never shot her.) We still tell the story of my granddaughter, probably all of seven, saying, “I’ve got balls and I’m not afraid to use them.”

          The magic was on our country road the Christmas Eve we drove home through softly falling snow and had to come to an abrupt stop to allow a handful of deer—I’m convinced there were eight plus one with a red nose—to cross the road in front of us. Our kids sat spellbound in the back seat. We were pretty spellbound up front, too.

          The magic is in Christmas Eve church services, in story-time at the library, and in Hallmark movies. It’s there on the bridge with Jimmy Stewart in It’s A Wonderful Life. In the eyes of every child and adult who believes in it.

          But it’s never, not even once, been in the money.

          We hope you find the magic in Heartwarming Holiday Wishes. We loved writing our stories and planting our magic stockings.

***

This holiday season, warm your heart with 10 connected sweet, clean & wholesome holiday romances set in Christmas Town from 10 Harlequin Heartwarming authors who are USA Today bestselling authors.

This collection of PG-rated holiday romances are all set in Christmas Town, Maine, a location introduced in the 2014 Harlequin Heartwarming release Christmas, Actually. A Heartwarming Holiday will bring you laughter, tears, and happily-ever-afters (no cliffhangers), for more than 1000 pages.

Santa's Secret Heart by Anna Adams
Merry Christmas Carol by Melinda Curtis
Miracle on Joyful Street by Liz Flaherty
Finding His Fiancée by Christmas by Cheryl Harper
The Christmas Window by Tara Randel
Mistletoe and Holly by Leigh Riker
Gingerbread Girl by Carol Ross

The Christmas List by Anna J Stewart

A Case for Christmas Magic by Amy Vastine

Jingle Bell Love by Cari Lynn Webb

Amazon

B&N

Google

iBooks: Coming soon!

Harlequin Heartwarming author Liz Flaherty believes in all that Christmas magic she writes about—and really, in magic even when there aren’t any holidays involved! Her next Heartwarming, The Happiness Pact, will be out in December. You can find her at https://www.facebook.com/lizkflaherty (and she hopes you do!) or reach her at lizkflaherty@gmail.com .