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How ‘No Limit To Love’ Came To Be

How ‘No Limit To Love’ Came To Be A funny thing happened on the way to a contemporary romance novel: Here’s the story. I had an idea for a romance with a big-name hockey player, a record-setting forward, as the male protagonist. I named him Beau Scott, called Beau Brummel in the sports press because he was gorgeous and a sharp dresser. Beau had a best friend, a defenseman, called Bruiser McKay. Bruiser was everything Beau wasn’t: he was big-boned, a gentle giant, not handsome but compelling in his own… 

Our New Year’s Eve Tradition (2025) Part 2

The day before New Year’s Eve, I dug out our French tart pan with its removable bottom and made dessert: Tarte aux Pommes from Julia’s book, with an occasional glance at La Rousse. Not my first turn with this dish, so it didn’t take forever and the scent of the apples baking was ambrosia-like. A few days before that, I cavalierly added some lemon juice and sugar to some heavy cream, and to my delight—and surprise—it turned into a passable version of crème fraiche to garnish the tart. The penultimate… 

Our New Year’s Eve Tradition (2025) Part 1

Ever since our son moved out, over twenty years ago, we’ve had a special New Year’s Eve dinner tradition: We cook a special meal together. Some years we’ve skipped cooking in, to do something outside our home, like a dinner-and-show event, but most years, we pick a theme and create a meal. We’ve done Chinese themed meals, Italian themed meals, plain-old Canadian themed meals (hearty and comforting). But until 2025, we’d never done a French themed meal, so that’s what I decided we’d do. The men wisely decided that they’d… 

More Things that Don’t Make Sense to Me… Or Are Just Plain Wrong, Part 2

On our new house front and side entrances, we have those new-fangled doorbells that have cameras. They also have “repeaters,” gizmos that make sure the ringing doorbell can be heard on every floor. We can, on our smart phones (and on my smart watch, too) see who’s at the door and even, if we aren’t fumbling too much to find the app, talk to them. The bell is audible inside the house, and also outside, playing Westminster Chimes. So, why do some people feel the need to follow up making… 

Things That Don’t Make Sense to Me… Or Are Just Plain Wrong

Call me persnickety, but there are some things I’ve seen—a lot—in books that, as the title says, don’t make sense to me, or are just plain wrong. One of the most glaring things that doesn’t make sense is where people land when they do a pratt fall, or where they drop things or where they put things: the ground. Now, if these clumsy characters are in the garden, it’s okay to fall onto the ground. But seriously, unless a character lives in what the pioneers called a “soddy,” a house… 

Mystery Musings (Pt2)

When we add romance to the mix, we have to increase the emotional components. (That’s why those hardboiled “dicks” never have real relationships: too icky for their manly readers who really want their cowboy myth updated.) In a romantic detective story, the romance has to be intricately involved with the detection in some way: perhaps the love interest knew the victim or knows one or more of the suspects; perhaps the love interest is an intended target; perhaps the love interest causes the detective to question the value of putting… 

Mystery Musings (Pt1)

Lately, some friends and I have been discussing the mystery genre from the perspective of writers and storytellers. Since I wrote my M. A. thesis on classical British detective stories of the 1920s and 1930s, I like to think I know a bit about the mystery genre. A mystery is a story about someone solving a murder, and it’s always a murder in a “real” mystery because that’s the gravest (pun intended) injury one can do to society. One of the distinguishing features of mystery/detection fiction, as opposed to suspense/thriller… 

All The Mod-Cons (Pt2)

Insurrection of the Doors and Drawers All of our new cabinets and drawers in our new house have what is called “soft-closing” mechanisms. This means there’s a sweet spot from where they close themselves quietly. Very convenient if the person closing them finds the sweet spot. Useless if the person closing them doesn’t, because then they just stay open, threatening heads passing by the upper cabinets and legs walking past open drawers. After over seventy years, my husband has not acquired the skill-set to close a door or drawer. But—pardon… 

All The Mod-Cons (Pt1)

Rebellion of the Plug-Ins – Part 1 We have a new house. While we didn’t buy any new furniture, we did acquire new appliances. All the “mod cons” (modern conveniences) as the real estate ads say. Now, I can’t imagine a situation in which I would want to—or need to—connect with my oven or washing machine via Bluetooth, but I could. There are apps for that, for all the new gadgets. Really. What I noticed as soon as we moved in is that just about everything that is plugged in…