The Forty Column Castle

I've been very busy this last month editing, proof reading and formatting a novel I wrote that the New York publishing gods never bought. So I decided to publish it myself for ereaders because I like the book a lot and wanted it to share it with others. The cost of entry is relatively low in electronic publishing if you do a lot of the work yourself. So I jumped in, kicking and screaming, to the world of digital publishing. I wanted to be writing, but actually the process helped me to improve my writing and control the artistic quality of my work.  Bookbaby did the conversion to epub software and they did the cover art which is in this photo. The book will be available next week end on Amazon Kindle and iBooks. It will be available later on Sony and Nook.  I do not have plans now to publish a print edition.  All the marketing, which I handle myself, will be online.  Some people are stuck in the world of print books. I was, too.  But my dear friend, Marlis, gave me her old (a mere three years old) Kindle and I started using it and got hooked.  E Books will not go away. You might as well wade in.  Ask Santa for one. Kindle Fires are $199 on Amazon and there are cheaper versions. The IPad is more.  The Nook is about the same range as the Kindle.  For more information on The Forty Column Castle, check out my new (just published this week) web site:  www.MarjorieThelen.com. I'm also on Facebook.  Happy reading!

Community Concert

The Harney County community concert was last Sunday afternoon, December 4.  Bell ringers, orchestra and chorus sing and play. John and I are in the chorus and I forgot to ask someone to take a photo. This is the orchestra made up of community members of all ages. No auditions required. Anyone can join and make music. There are some really fine musicians in this county. And there is always a fabulous cookie reception after, coordinated by the ladies of a local church. The concert takes place in the Church of the Nazarene which has good acoustics. We had standing room only this year because there was no snow and it was sunny.  The chorus sang the Hallelujah chorus, and the audience rose to their feet for the whole thing. It was very moving. If you ever have the chance to sing the Hallelujah chorus in a choir, do it!

St. Andrews Episcopal/Peace Lutheran Church Decorated for Christmas

We decorated last Sunday. Our Christmas potluck is this Saturday evening.

Cat communion

Lemons again

In this photo you can see how very brown it is now.  But no snow!  We've had great, sunny weather up into the 40s during the day, single digits at night.  We are now harvesting our five lemons. They are so sweet, very juicy and very thin skins.  They smell almost like evergreens.  We only have two left.  Boo Hoo. It is a Meyer Dwarf Lemon Tree and took three years to produce but well worth it.  I got mine from Gurney's catalog. I'd recommend trying to grow your own lemons.  The other plants basking in the sun are basil I brought in from outside. I made basil pesto last week. Almost as good a chive pesto.

Thanksgiving friends

Here's the group we had over for Thanksgiving Day. We served parts of our roasted home grown turkey and our very own red potatoes went into the mash potatoes. Real turkey does taste better. The second group we had over Saturday evening for turkey casserole was The Band. We were having so much fun playing and singing I forgot to take a photo. We had two guitars, mandolin, flute, accordion (moi), spoons and whistling.  And lots of singing, not always on key.  We played mainly bluegrass, cowboy and Christmas songs.

Another honey photo

I just love the color of our honey. The bees shared about 100 pounds of honey with us and they still have about 65 pounds each hive to make it through the winter. Hopefully. John put up the window windbreak this week.