It's almost Christmas

It's almost Christmas. I did my shopping the easy way, gift cards. Yes, I love to get them and they are so easy and I'm sure everyone loves getting them. What can you get for teen-agers? Unless they tell you of something specific that they want, cash or a gift card seems to go over well.
Last year everyone got one of my books. It just came out in time for Christmas and I was so excited about having it in print, I was just busting my buttons. This year not doing so well. Yes, I'm working on the 2nd book and it is going pretty well, but I have a long way to go.
My son Mark set up a new web-site for me and I'm so proud of him, he did a beautiful job.
www.joycecaudelmysteries.com. As I have more information he will post it and I hope you all will check it out every now and then for the updates.
Our family will be celebrating Christmas with two dinners, one on Friday evening then another on Sunday after church. I'm pretty excited to be able to go to church on Christmas morning, it doesn't happen very often. We have three little children that will be opening gifts on Friday evening and they are the only ones that I actually shopped for. That was a lot of fun and I actually found what I went looking for.
My daughter-in-law, Ingrid, and my granddaughter, Natalie, will be arriving from New Zealand around the middle of January. I'm so excited, it has been too long since I've seen them and my son, Mark is even more excited since the family has been seperated for almost six months. Mark and Matthew came in August so Matthew could start his Freshman year at Cheney High School, but Natalie wanted to finish her Elementary school in New Zealand. So that is why the family has been seperated all these months. It will be a joyful New Year for them to be reunited and for the rest of us to have our family complete. With two more major earth quakes in Christchurch, NZ today, there arrival in the USA won't come any too soon.
For all of you bloggers out there, I want to wish you a very Blessed Christmas and a New Year with all the love, health and happiness you are hoping for. God bless us everyone.

It's almost December.

It's almost December and I can't imagine where the year has gone. Yes, we always say that when what we really mean is we didn't get all those things done that we wanted to get done. I know I spend a lot of time planning what I want to do and then get side tracked. So my project now is to decorate the Christmas tree, yes it is a fake tree, since I am really, really allergic to pine. I got the tree put up and the bottom half has lights on it. I bought lights today, Bi Mart in Cheney has a real good price on them. Since I had an appointment with my publisher to pick up some books for my signing on Saturday, I decided to check out the new Ross store on the South Hill in Spokiane and the new Trader Joe's. I also went to Hastings Book Store and sold back some of my books to them and bought another one, THE BISHOP by Steven James, I've read several of his books and then put them in our church library. Since I am an award winning 'Finalist' in the USA 'Best Books 2011' awards contest, my publisher printed up 100 book marks with the award sticker on them and he also printed some one page sheets and added the mention of the award on them. He always does nice things like that and doesn't charge me for them, he says it is good advertisement. Well it is 12:03 a.m. and I'm off to bed. Good night to you all.

It's almost Thanksgiving.

It's almost Thanksgiving! I just feel so blessed and this is the time to think about those blessings and give thanks for them. I just took 3 pumpkin pies out of the oven. The house is warm and smells heavenly. We will be celebrating the Day with famly and friends. My daughter-in-law says a 22 or 23 pound turkey should feed us all. I hope there will be some left over. Oh yes, I do not have to cook the turkey, she is doing all of that. That is really something to be thankful for.

Does your dog snore?  My dog, Jake, has gone back to bed this morning and is snoring away!  Yes it's cute and a little annoying.

Good morning bloggers. I'm on my second cup of coffee this morning so the cob webs have lifted and I'm ready to do some serious writing. Last night I attended a meeting of Authors4Authors and I'm always energized after one of those meetings.  New ideas are flooding my mind for my next book.  As usual I'm a little bewildered how to bring it all together.  I really need to get this one finished by the end of the year.

Oh yes, if you haven't heard, my book THE HAT PIN MURDERS was a finalist in the USA "Best Books 2011" Awards.  You can go to USABookNews.com and find it there.  I'm pretty excited about it.  Now I need to get busy on my next best seller.

It's Saturday morning and gray and gloomy outside, but as far as I'm concerned it's a beautiful day inside. I have nothing scheduled for today so I'm planning to do some writing. I had to take my desk top computer to Staples yesterday, thank God I have a lap top and do my writing on it. This was a fun week for me. My Red Hat ladies, THE NOBLE BABES IN RED HATS went for a tour of the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, in Spokane. We had a very informative tour guide by the name of Beth Moore. Beth is 80 years old and just full of fun. The Cathedral is breathtakingly beautiful and worth the time we spent there. After the tour we had lunch at Applebees on 29th on the South Hill, where the manager gave all 10 of us free dessert of a brownie with ice cream. Yum! Seems I had more than my share of desserts this week. I won a dessert, another brownie, at DESSERT PALS in Cheney. They are featuring my book,THE HAT PIN MURDERS, and sold 2 books. They will give a free dessert to the person that buys one. Saturday, December 3rd I will be signing my books at the Cheney High School, Arts and Craft sale. My son, Mark, does some incredable crocheting of hats and scarves, etc. will be sharing the booth with me. It is time to start thinking about those special Christmas gifts. I think I had better blog off and do some real writing, I'd like for my Christmas gift to myself to be a finished manuscript.

I'm Back....

Good morning and happy October.
I'm back after a visit with my mother and other family members. When I left Cheney, WA it was 92 degrees and 102 in Sacramento, CA. I remember when I was a kid that Sacramento was always execessively hot in September so I went prepared. What I didn't remember was that the first week in October turns windy and rainey. Atleast it did this year.
My mother, is such an inspiration and just a beautiful woman. No, seriously! she is 98 years old and has this thick white hair, short and styled beautifully. I love the way she plants her glasses on the top of her head. When I do that they always seem to either slide down or they irritate me so I can't stand them, any way I wear mine all the time. Last time I visited she was always leaving hers some place and looking for them, so she has finally found the solution for a place to leave her glasses when she isn't reading. Yes, she reads! She has a stack of her favorite books next to the rocking chair that is her nesting place most of the day. She reads the newspaper, her Bible and 4 or 5 others, among them THE HAT PIN MURDERS by Joyce Caudel. Yes, that is me her daughter, she likes to remind me that it is dedicated to her, Natalie Scaggs, the best mother a girl could have. That is a true statement! My mother has served the Lord Jesus Christ all her life and taught me to do the same. I feel so blessed to have been grounded in the Christian Faith since I was a child. Even though I strayed from it in my youth I always knew that God was with me and I came to that day when I truely made a commetment to serve Him. What a blessing to have a mother that prays for her children and loves them unconditionally.
My cousins, Kathy, Patty and Mary Ann drove up from Visalia, Fresno and Madara for a short visit. Patty and Kathy are my double cousins. Let me explain, their father and my mother are brother and sister. Their mother and my father are brother and sister. It's as simple as that. We all 4 went to Fairfield for a short visit with our Aunt Sally and her son, Roger. We picked up burgers (IN AND OUT BURGERS, which we do not have here in Spokane), they are Aunt Sallys favorite meal, at 91 she is still the fun lady I always remember. How to live a long life? Be an inspiration and pass your love around. Of course I had mailed my book to her when it was first published, she said she couldn't believe that I had written a book. (I can't either) She was sure happy and surprised when she received it.
A visit from (my other daughter,) Erin and her son Matthew, surely blessed us all. Erin makes necklace scarves, beautifully croched scarves that she passes out to everyone she meets. She also sells them to help her sons sports team with uniforms or what ever is needed. Erin can be reached at - efrederici@digitalpath.net. She gave me a dozen to sell and to use the money to help with Natalie's ballet lessons. The scarves sell for $20 and I can mail you one, contact me on Face Book. Natalie is my granddaughter living in New Zealand, but will come here, with her mother, after Christmas to join my son, Mark and grandson Matthew that are already living here. Long story but the devistating earthquake in NZ hastened their move to America. So Mark and Matthew came in August so Matthew could start high school and Ingrid and Natalie stayed in NZ so Natalie could finish out her elementary grade and continue her ballet. I'm sure they will spend Christmas with friends and family there, we will surely miss having them with us for that celebration.
The only down side to my visit in California was that my nephew, Vernon passed away suddenly while I was there, but I'm blessed to have had a good visit with him just the evening before he passed. Prayers for his family would be appreciated.
It is so nice to be back at my desk typing away, I have been filling your eyes with so many of my thoughts, but there is so much to talk about and a Blog is the place to do it. I've been asked if I'm working on a second book? Yes! I'll close this Blog and get to it.

Just another summer time blog.

It's time to post another note to my blog. It's still summer here in Cheney, WA. I'm excited about the coming weekend, I will be attending the Spokane Red Hat Convergence at the Double Tree Hotel. I will also have a booth to sign and sell my novel THE HAT PIN MURDERS.

I have had such good feed back from my readers that I'm encouraged to work on my next book. The Red Hat Ladies are busy solving another crime against one of their own. Many of the same characters will be there and I've added a few new ones.
I hope that all of you that bought and read my first novel will purchase and read the next one.

I will be heading to Sacramento, CA to visit my mother and celebrate her 98th birthday. If her long and healthy life is any indication of my own, I should be able to finish off a whole series of mysteries. I thank God for all His blessings and the wonderful friends I've made along the way.