This is Valentine’s month. Read romance, write romance!

Today is a snow day. DH is thinking about when to begin the shoveling. It’s his birthday as well, and so I baked his birthday cake: Caribbean black cake. It’s a typical cake recipe–sugar, flour, butter and eggs, but you add dried fruits, and burnt sugar to give it the dark color.

People often have it for Christmas, but I like to make it for special occasions, which includes DH’s birthday. I think I might make one for Valentine’s Day as well.

This past month, DH and I have been talking about stews v. soups. I like stews, he likes soups. I felt inspired to get a new cookbook full of recipes for each type of dish. It’s called a Taste of Home.

On the writing front, this month should be the last month that I present my latest work in progress to my critique group. It’s been almost a year of critiquing and revising, which is new for me, but I don’t mind. Feedback is invaluable. I’ll reach out to the editors next.

I began another work in progress in December. That’s the next project I’ll present.

On the reading front, I have an interesting story. A friend who teaches junior high school talked about how she encouraged she felt when her students were excited to visit the library. It was as though a whole new world was opened to them.

That was me as a child. My mom got me my first library card when I was of elementary school age. The library was around the corner from our house. By junior high school, I had a library bag that I would take along with me and a tiny notebook of interesting things I wanted to learn more about.

It was where I got my first job my last semester of high school.

All these years later, I’m a reader as well as a writer. But the library culture has changed. Nowadays, people go for the computer access. I’m sure that’s changed because of Covid, with the libraries being closed.

A romance novel I’d been waiting for finally became available, Toni Shiloh’s latest. Even better is that my local romance chapter hosted an interview with her about writing inspirational romances, and I was the moderator. Once I knew her book was forthcoming, I requested that each of the three libraries I’m a member of, buy a digital copy. I wound up first on the waiting list and I got notifications from all of them when it became available today.

I downloaded this morning and I’m ready to go!

Do you like my little avatar? It’s the one I set up on Reddit, where I post mostly on the Anglicanism and Episcopal Church boards.

Regards until next time!

Copyright Barbara James. All rights reserved.