If They Ban It—Read It

    I think I was very lucky. I grew up a voracious reader. My parents never checked on what I was reading. They never really noticed what I was reading—probably because I read all the time. Me with a book in my hand just sort of blended in to the fabric of their lives.

And so I read, uncensored and unfettered.

I read everything I could get my hands on. I read my grandmother's collection of Grace Livingston Hill books. I read my mom's Reader's Digest books. I read Scholastic books from the book fair. I read books from the school library. I read books from the bookmobile. I read The Hobbit for the first time in 3rd grade. I'm sure I didn't absorb all the nuances, but that's okay. I read it again the next year. And the year after that. I read LOTR before I left grade school. Teachers noticed my reading and passed me books. One teacher in high school noticed and after I finished the class assigned books, she'd assign me extras. At the time I thought it was unfair (I was working full time by my junior year and was sleep deprived a lot) but in hindsight she did me a favor. She introduced me to books I might not have read without her.

When I was in high school I did a research paper on WWII. I read bits of Mein Kampf. If ever a book should be banned, this would be one. A book written by one of the most reprehensible people ever born.  But it wasn't banned and reading it only showed me what evil looked like. That research paper helped me avoid falling under the spell of charismatic leaders who spend a lot of town preaching hate of "Others." My paper (which got an A+ btw) would have been less without the insights the book provided. I would have a more limited world view without knowing what evil lurks in the hearts of some men. I think it helped me find my firm belief that while I'm only one person, I can send positive energy out in the world. I can choose love. I can choose empathy. I can choose putting myself in someone else's shoes and try to see the world from their perspective. I think me free-range reading led me to my writing career.

So when I hear that school districts around the country have begun banning books, I feel a crushing sorrow.  Sorrow that people are so small minded that our country's history (messy as it is) threatens them. Sorrow that people are so small and scared that "Other" scares them.

Book bans make me sorry...and angry. Again, knowing I'm just one person and I fight back in what amounts to a pebble being tossed into an ocean. I buy banned books and I read them. I talk about them. I introduce them to my Minions. I bought I am Martin Luther King, Jr. by Brad Meltzer after I read a York PA school district banned it last year. I was sad that it was my state...and furious as well. One of the Minions just reread it the other day and we had a huge discussion on people being unkind because someone's a different race, or religion or has some other kind of otherness. The 8yo was furious. "I mean, he couldn't even get a drink of water from a white water fountain." With all seriousness, he assured me he'd have share his water. Out of the mouths of babes.

That. That is what the banners fear. That our kids will discover empathy. That they'll realize the US has a very checkered history, but—as I tell the Minions—we can make it better. It's our job to make it better. We can make it fairer. We can simply love others and realize their differences make us a stronger country. The banners don't want us to realize that our color, our religion, or sexual identity, our country of origin, our... They're all just facets of who we are. They're what makes us who we are. And who we are is absolutely perfect.

So, buy banned books. Read banned books. And even more importantly, read banned books with your kids. Make sure they have a diverse collection of books to read. Teach them to see all the diversity in the world...and realize how beautiful it is. Teach them about the troubled moments in our country's past...and present. But teach them they can make it better. They can help America live up to our ideals. 

Holly

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

Have you missed any of my Hometown Hearts series? Here's the list:

Crib Notes: Hometown Hearts #1

Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBook

A Special Kind of Different: Hometown Hearts #2

Kindle, iBook, Kobo, Nook

Homecoming: Hometown Hearts #3

Kindle, Kobo, IBooks, Nook

 Suddenly a Father: Hometown Hearts #4

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks

Something Borrowed: Hometown Hearts #5

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks

Something Blue: Hometown Hearts #6 

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Apple Books

Something Perfect: Hometown Hearts #7 

Apple Books, Nook, Kobo, Kindle

Something Unexpected: A Hometown Hearts short story 
Amazon

A Hometown Christmas: Hometown Hearts #8
Kindle 
Nook
AppleBooks
Kobo

Connections

Thankful.

That was my 2021 Word of the Year. It was a good word because there's so much in my life I'm thankful for. Himself and my family always starts my list. I have the most amazing kids who've brought new family members into our lives...people who didn't grow up in my house but who are every bit as much a part of my family and my thankful list as the kids I gave birth to. I'm pretty sure they were always part of our family...we just didn't know it. 

My connections start with my family but grow from them to friends and neighbors. I'm thankful for all of them as well. 

I'm thankful for home...both for the house we live, the house my in-laws built and lived in, as well as the cottage and barn out in the woods. I'm connected to that as well...we discovered that my family homesteaded the land at the end of the road. I love that connection.

I just watched Tick, Tick, Boom. I love Rent and it was a lovely way to look at Larson's life. He left a mark. He impacted my life with his music and story. And I realized how thankful I am for my writing and even my super imperfect attempts at pottery. In my writing I'm able to talk about things that are important to me. Family. Friends. I got another note not long ago from someone who read Just One Thing at just the right time. They said it helped them deal with their grief. For me, as a writer, that's it. That's why I do what I do. At their heart, all romance stories are about connections. I really believe that's what everyone craves...connections. Not just craves...it sounds like something you could pass on. Like chocolate cake. You might want it, but you don't need it. But people need connections. 

So here it is, a few days after Thanksgiving and I'm still thinking about being thankful. I'm thankful for all the connections in my life. Family. Friends. Readers who I've never met but found something to connect to in my writing.  My home.

In A Hometown Christmas the heroine has a saying that, to be honest, I sort of loaned to her. "I can't change the world, but I can try." She feels all alone, but when she looks around she realizes she's not just connected to her town, she's totally entangled in it. 

So on this Thanksgiving week, I hope you find a lot to be thankful for. And I hope when you look at your connections you find that you are entangled in them...in love.

Holly

Here's the list of the entire Hometown Hearts series!

Crib Notes: Hometown Hearts #1

Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBook

A Special Kind of Different: Hometown Hearts #2

Kindle, iBook, Kobo, Nook

Homecoming: Hometown Hearts #3

Kindle, Kobo, IBooks, Nook

 Suddenly a Father: Hometown Hearts #4

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks

Something Borrowed: Hometown Hearts #5

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks

Something Blue: Hometown Hearts #6 

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Apple Books

Something Perfect: Hometown Hearts #7 

Apple Books, Nook, Kobo, Kindle

Something Unexpected: A Hometown Hearts short story 
Amazon

A Hometown Christmas: Hometown Hearts #8
Kindle 
Nook
AppleBooks
Kobo

PPS. Here's my latest kiln opening!!

Tallulah Here...

Tallulah here. 

What? You don't think a puppy can write a blog? Well, I can. My role model, Peggy, wrote a book. So I figure I can write a blog. 

I've lived with Holly since March. She got me right before Pennsylvania locked down. But my story starts before that. It starts with Peggy. 

Everything But a Dog

You see, Holly went to Philadelphia to spend a week with her two Philly minions. She'd been so sad because she'd lost her best friend, Ella. She'd lost Ethel Merman before that, and she and Ella did everything together. She even wrote a book about Ethel and Ella. (She changed their names because she didn't want the...wait for it...PUParazzi to Hound them.) When Ella passed, she told herself she wasn't going to get a new dog. She thought of reasons why NOT having a dog was a good thing. She could travel and not worry about a dog. She didn't have to clean up after the dog in the yard. And Ella never really enjoyed camp and Holly loved it, so she could go out to camp and not feel bad that Ella wasn't enjoying it.

Peggy and Me

So there she was, heading to Philly. She brought Peggy and Me on tape...well, DVDs (yes, I know the difference). Yep, that's my role model Peggy and her human, Miranda Hart. They wrote the book together. And as Holly listened to the book, she realized how much she missed Ethel and Ella. She'd spent her winter on crutches and now that she could walk again, it was lonely walking by herself. 

So when she got home, she told Himself she might be ready for a new dog. And by the end of the month, they went to pick me up. The people brought out my two brothers and two sisters, but I knew Holly was mine and I didn't want her to pick one of them by mistake. So I sat on her foot. If she took a step to see the others, I followed her and sat on her foot. I wanted to be clear about who she belonged to. (People sometimes miss the obvious.) Yes, it was puppy love at first sight.

Quarantine

And in the end, she was smart enough to get my message. They took me home. And I have been an amazing dog, if I do say so myself. Here it is, just three months later and I've gone from 12 lbs to 40+ lbs. I am house-trained (mainly) and walk very nice (except when a car or robin goes by...I mean even the best puppy has her limits).  I have slept through the night since my first night at home. Frankly, Holly gets up WAY too early for me. I usually follow her, but after she makes me go outside (see the mainly house-trained part, which is technically outside-trained), I take my pre-breakfast nap.  I love the minions...the youngest one here in town is very tasty. Hey, I don't really taste too much. And he lets me—encourages me even. Holly doesn't. She's pretty strict about not eating minions. SIGH. I've tried and tried to train her to ignore my tiny little tasting of minions but she doesn't seem to understand so I might have to give it up that fight.

Oh, and I love camp!

Yes, I've found my home and while Holly still misses Ethel and Ella, she's happy I'm here. I can still smell traces of them in the house, and even though I never met them, I sort of miss them, too. 

Holly writes romances for a living. She wrote a short story starring me...and two humans who might be falling in love. She's said over and over again that hearts are amazing things. Every time you think they're as full as they can be, you find there's still room. She thought she wasn't going to get a new dog because her heart seemed full after Ethel and Ella and she wasn't sure she could find more room in it for a new dog.  Yet she found space in her heart for me.  Her new book, Homecoming, is a book about hearts that break and then discover they can heal and find room to love again. I like that.

So, that's my story. I've found my forever home and Holly's found...me. I keep Holly and Himself busy. I make them laugh. And I have entertained the minions during the pandemic...that's a big job. So thanks to Miranda and Peggy for making Holly realize I was out there waiting for her.

Love,

Tallulah

PS Check out my story and Holly's Hometown Hearts series.

Crib Notes: Hometown Hearts #1

Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBook

A Special Kind of Different: Hometown Hearts #2

Kindle, iBook, Kobo, Nook

Homecoming: Hometown Hearts #3

Kindle, Kobo, IBooks, Nook

PREORDER  Suddenly a Father: Hometown Hearts #4

Available in September

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks: 

Procrastination

 I spoke to a local group last night. Their theme for the meeting was procrastination.

It's not something I have a lot of experience with. I work for myself.  My only boss is me. I am probably my most exacting taskmaster. 

How do I get everything done?  I think the fact that I don’t have a lot of time helps.  I squeeze writing in between family and extended family and now school. It’s a tight space. There’s no time for writer’s block. There's no time to procrastinate. So when it’s time to write, I write. Even if it’s utter crap. (In writing that’s called a crap draft.) Here’s the thing, you can fix crap, you can’t fix a blank page. That same sense of get it done applies to more than just my writing. It's pretty much how I get through life in general. I wanted to put my thoughts on avoiding procrastination in concise terms for the talk. Here's what I came up with.

Love What You're Doing: I started a discussion about procrastination with my pottery professor. He said something very profound. Paraphrasing here…Artists don’t procrastinate because we love what we do. So maybe that’s something to think about. If there’s something in your life you’re always putting off, maybe it’s time to ask why? Some things just need done. Cleaning. Cooking. Chores. But life should also be filled with things we love. Things we feel passionate about. Maybe if your life is a series of putting it off as long as possible it's time to find something you love and can't wait to do. You'll get through the things you have to do faster in order to get to the things you love doing.

Nike…Just Do It: This isn’t just for the writers out there. It’s for life in general. Most of you follow my new love of pottery and have read about my promise to make 50 bowls—which grew into 100 bowls—for an Empty Bowl fundraiser.  My first bowls are inelegant, but the later ones were so much better. I set a deadline for myself and just did it. But even in the midst of it, there was a sense of accomplishment. I learned so much. So if you’ve said you’ll do it, or you have to do it, do it.

BUT Know your limits and set priorities.  When I started writing, I prioritized my life and my time. Family first, writing second, everything else after that.  There was this mom at school that constantly bugged me to come to salad bar days. Now, I volunteered often at school. When the kids wanted me there, that was my priority. They didn't care if I was at salad bar. So I went, but not often.  When this mom made a crack about me just sitting at home all day, I didn't justify my writing career. I just smiled and said, I don't chop lettuce and left it at that.  It might not always seem like it, but I know my limits and I try to avoid biting off more . . . uh lettuce than I can chew. I also know where my priorities are. That helps. For me it was always family first, then writing. Now it’s family, writing, pottery.

Set realistic goals. If you say you want to write a novel/build a rustic log cabin/run a marathon by the end of the year, you’re setting a lofty goal. I think goals of that size seem insurmountable and make it easy to procrastinate. But something more reasonable…write a chapter a month/find some wooded land to buy/run a 5K...those are doable. Breaking a large goal into smaller components helps.  When I'm writing I don’t think about the 300 pages. I think of it by the day. 10 pages.

Newton’s first law says a body at rest will stay at rest unless some force acts on it. Maybe that’s a boss or a spouse, but I think the most worthwhile source is internal. So maybe the best way to fight procrastination is to ask yourself why you’re putting something off and find a solution. Carve our more/specific times. Or even don’t do it. It's okay to decide something isn't working for you.

Perfection: I've already mentioned writing crap drafts. The lesson there is to allow yourself to not be perfect. Allow yourself to realize failure is an option, but not trying isn’t.

Pressure: My friend Susan and I were talking about procrastination. She works best under pressure. I do not. Realize how you work best and use that to get it done.

Next time you find yourself procrastinating, I hope you take a moment and ask yourself why. . . then find some solution.

Holly

Briar Hill Road

Between the Words

Able to Love Again

PTA Moms: the Collection

The Moments

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PPS. Have you missed our most recent Trippin' with Holly and Susan? You can catch up with them all on YouTube.