Busy Times!

May was a busy month! Two daughters in less than two weeks had to have major surgery. Both are fine, but it is very nerve racking for Mama.

Tomorrow a good friend is going into surgery. 

I don't write medical romance, nor do I watch medical shows on television, even though back in my club hopping days all my friends were in nursing school. (I refused to be in the lab when my biology partner dissected the earth worm and the frog, I just transcribed his notes into passable reading material. Which is why I didn't even consider being a nurse.)

Even though I do not write medical romance, I do enjoy reading a good one, thanks to years of reading Betty Neels.

Last week at the Maine Romance Writers Retreat I met the lovely Susan Carlisle. I highly recommend her newest book, THE SURGEON'S CINDERELLA.

http://amzn.to/2qCFuMh

Maine Retreat Intro

I love Maine!!! Especially when it allows me to enjoy a second spring.

My lilacs had just passed from blooms to none, but the ones in Maine opened to full glory while I was there.

I hope you are enjoying spring where you are.

Home Schooling Nanny

Sounds like an excellent title for an erotica, doesn't it? (I'll have to remember it just in case I decide to write one.)

However, this blog is not about that, it is about how I, in my dotage, have become a grandmother who is homeschooling three grands.

It is fun and invigorating, but it also eats up a great deal of energy.

We visit the library an average of three times a week. That's three times a week for the children, my own personal trips add another three visits a week. My library is only open five days, one of them is Saturday, and I don't go on Saturday and usually not on Fridays, so yes, I spend a lot of time there.

We also travel into Boston to attend art classes at the Museum of Fine Arts, we have skating every other week, and weekly park days, which are about to become twice a week. 

We do not lack socializing opportunities.

We have organic classes in the car, at Starbucks, or walking on the beach.

The children are happier and learning things they would never get in school.

And best of all, I get to spend a lot of time with three wonderful children.

And occasionally I get to write.

Do you, or have you ever considered, home schooling?

RIRW Retreat

Hello friends. Welcome back to Liberty's Spell Room.

I just arrived home from the Rhode Island Romance Writers Retreat. I would like to say it was the best retreat EVER, but that would be immodest since I organized it with the assistance of Christine Donovan.

http://a.co/aG4dbaC

The retreat began in the 90s and was organized by Blanche Marriott, author of April's Fool.

http://a.co/1JcnVkh

We used to go to our regular February meeting and then retire to a local hotel or bed and breakfast and do writerly stuff. 

After some time had passed other people took over the running of our "unofficial" retreat.

Eight years ago the baton was passed to me. I continued the Saturday night party for a few years, but I always dreamed of a retreat that lasted a weekend.

I approached the group and gently suggested the change. We now have a retreat that starts Friday evening and ends on Sunday. We have great food, wonderful speakers, and lots of writerly stuff.

Saturday night we had a Murder Mystery Bash written by our very own Jennilee Brown. She set it up perfectly, we all participated, and it was a great deal of fun. (If you would like Jennilee to write a Murder Mystery Bash for you, let me know and I will hook you up.)

So it is with a great deal of sadness, relief, and joy that I put Retreat 2017, The Magical Mystery Bash to bed.

Time to start planning for 2018.

The Journal of Leah MacKinnon Walker

Today is release day for The Journal of Leah MacKinnon Walker. Leah came to me when I was in a class with Dr. Grace Fraser as my mentor.

The class was amazing it was called Women's Stories of the Westward Movement.

It's a shortie and a western, but I think you will like it. (At least I hope so.)

The Journal of Leah MacKinnon Walker
a short story by Liberty Blake

http://amzn.to/2gMx9zp

The Giving Season

Once again it is the season where every charity is looking to you for a donation. 

It's easy to toss some money into a bucket next to a bell ringer or to click a button to send money to another organization.

It's a little more difficult to pick out toys for the Toys for Tots boxes because you walk through the toy aisles searching for the right toys, and having to decide for what age group you are buying the toy for. (May I suggest something for a tween or teen, they are the forgotten children.)

I knit and crochet garments for the knitting box at AC Moore, and hats for the homeless and working poor which I give to a local church that ministers to the physical needs of the needy.)

Soup kitchens are always glad to welcome volunteers and it is something you can do all year long. (It's a good experience to take your teens to help out. It's a great time to bond.)

Donating to a food pantry isn't as much fun as picking out toys for tots, but the items handed out there are desperately needed and might ensure one family doesn't have to go to bed hungry for one night. Think beyond the usual jars of peanut butter, boxes of mac and cheese, and cans of tuna fish. They are welcome, but there is so much more that is needed such as feminine hygiene products, toilet paper, diapers, shampoo, soap, tooth paste, tooth brushes, laundry detergent, dish soap, socks, underwear, baby food.

My inbox is filled with every organization under the sun looking for money. "Give now and your donation will be matched by an anonymous donor." Great plan, but how much of that money trickles down to the needy in your community?

The holiday season isn't defined by what you call a decorated tree or if a store clerk wishes you a "Merry Christmas" or a "Happy Holiday". The season is defined by what is in your heart.

Give from the heart.

Give local! 

Yesterday Was Veterans Day

In the United States we celebrate military veterans on November 11th.

Some towns hold small parades and have a bugler play taps at the town's war memorial. 

Old men sell paper poppies outside of box stores. Once upon a time people proudly wore them on their lapels, but lapels are no longer common wear on Veterans Day, because Veterans Day is a day off from work for many, with the exception of food service workers, retailers, and car salesmen, and lapels are no longer in fashion on non-work days.

On FaceBook people proudly display pictures of their veterans in uniform and we all thank them for their service.

We all acknowledge they are heroes.

However, in America we have many forgotten heroes. The ones we walk around in the parks, step over in the early morning hours when they are still sleeping in doorways or under store awnings in large cities, or avoid their encampments when they are camping out in a local park or copse of woods.

They are the lost.

They are the forgotten.

They are the homeless.

Not all homeless people are veterans, but many of the homeless are.

Years ago when I used to go into Boston I brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my bag, and anyone who approached me looking for a handout received a sandwich, and if they were lucky a juice box. 

But I don't go into Boston often anymore and when I do carrying a large bag filled with sandwiches and juice boxes doesn't work well with my walking staff.

Me and my stick with cover model and friend Vikkas Bhardwaj.

I spent yesterday making hats for the homeless. On Tuesday, November 22nd I am going out with a group called Project Do Something Boston (a grassroots action group). It is a group of people who have gathered together to feed the people living on the streets of Boston, many of whom are veterans.


I am making dozens and dozens of hard boiled eggs to add to the food to be handed out, plus I am bringing the hats that I made yesterday and in the past few weeks.

My hats are simple and similar, with nothing to fancy them up. Pompoms or tassels are a waste of yarn that can be used in another hat. No yarn is wasted. When a ball gets too small to make a hat, I use it to make stripes in another hat. No yarn goes to waste.

Two weeks ago I mailed out fifty (50) hats to agencies that will distribute them in one of the poorest communities in the United States. I wish I could have sent more, but I ran out of postage money.

Since then I have been dedicating the hats I am making to the local homeless.

I am almost out of yarn and I am out of money for more yarn.

Please keep your fingers crossed that I have enough hats for all the people I meet on the 22nd. In the meantime, my fingers are working away on more hats.

I used Stitch Studio by Nicole Chateau yarn.
Super bulky (6) 

If you would like to help Project Do Something Boston here is the link to their wish list.

http://dosomethingboston.blogspot.com/p/project-do-something-wishlist.html

I know with the holiday season quickly approaching there are dozens of charities begging for your donation, but there are none as needy as the homeless and considering that so many of them that are homeless are veterans, they have earned our help.