Mary Pat Hyland

Beautiful description of the reading experience.

Dear Readers:
We made it to a new year. Happy 2024!
First I would like to thank you all for your support over the years. It has meant so much. My goal is to get both books in progress published before December 31. Fingers crossed.

I also want to wish you a good year ahead. Here's an Irish New Year's Blessing:

“May love and laughter light your days and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures.
May all life’s passing seasons bring the best to you and yours.”

~*~*~*~ END OF YEAR SALE STARTS TODAY ~*~*~*~

All of my books (except When Stardust Fell on Keuka Lake) are 50% off in ebook format in Smashwords annual End of Year Sale!
The sale starts December 15 and ends January 1.

Here is the direct link to my books: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/MaryPatHyland

Beginning today, view thousands of books on sale here: https://smashwords.com/shelves/promos

Any book can be sent as a gift. Click the "Give As A Gift" button on the book's page.

Plan now to save!

Who else is in the midst of holiday baking?
Yesterday I went to three stores to get the ingredients for this year’s Christmas cookies.
I’ve got one variety baked and stored in tins. Soon I will make my signature cookie, nutmeg logs.
Below is the recipe I use, from A Baker’s Field Guide to Christmas Cookies.
What’s your traditional cookie or treat to make each year? Feel free to add your recipe below.

This morning I checked the time of sunset today and also for the rest of the week. Today it sets at 4:33 p.m here. For the past few days it was at its earliest time of the year, 4:32 p.m. That means as of today, the sun is setting later. Hooray!

I find it interesting that during this time of year there are so many festivals connected to light: the Hindu celebration of Diwali in November; Hanukkah, the Jewish festival that lasts eight nights—this year ending on Friday, Dec. 15; Christmas, the celebration of the Light of the World; and the African American tradition of Kwanzaa, in which lighting the kinara illuminates the seven principles of African culture.

Today is another such tradition: the Feast of St. Lucy. This Italian martyr, whose name comes from the Latin word lux—meaning light, is celebrated especially in Scandanavia. A procession of girls and boys in white gowns with red sashes follow Lucia who wears a wreath of candles on her head. Traditional foods include lussekatter, a saffron sweet bread which is served with coffee, glögg, or julmust (a special soda served at this time of the year).

As with most, Saint Lucy is known as the patron saint of several categories: the blind (her eyes were gouged out...yikes), laborers, peasants, salesmen, stained glass workers (how cool is that?) and, drum roll, AUTHORS! I never knew that.

So may you find light this feast day and throughout this season. (And may I find inspiration as I work on my latest book.)

Woke up to a fleecy blanket of snow smothering the lawn. That’s when I knew it was time to bring out my favorite winter mug for coffee.
Are you like this? There are coffee mugs I choose depending on the season (or my mood).
The daily mug choice might make for an interesting form of psychology. 😄
What’s your coffee/tea/chai/whatever in this morning?

For historical fiction fans, you’ll understand.

LAST CHANCE!
This is the final day in the Mystery Kindle Countdown sale of When Stardust Fell on Keuka Lake.

There will not be another sale on this book in 2023.

What discount price will you get between 99 cents and $2.99?
https://www.amazon.com/When-Stardust-Fell.../dp/B0BKYQ26YK

Just two more days left in the Mystery Kindle Countdown sale of When Stardust Fell on Keuka Lake.
What discount price will you get between 99 cents and $2.99?
https://www.amazon.com/When-Stardust-Fell-Keuka-Lake-ebook/dp/B0BKYQ26YK

When Stardust Fell on Keuka Lake: A Caviston Sisters Mystery (Caviston Sisters Mystery Series Book 3) It's been five years since Maureen Caviston McCarthy lost her husband Bob in a fatal car wreck. She's about to turn 60, and that milestone triggers wistful memories of him, the newspaper where they met, and the song that brought them together: "Stardust." A rumor persists that Hoagy Carmichael wr...

What's the Mystery Kindle Countdown price of When Stardust Fell on Keuka Lake right now? Check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/When-Stardust-Fell-Keuka-Lake-ebook/dp/B0BKYQ26YK

On sale now through Nov. 30th. What price will you pay? 99 cents? $1.99? $2.99?

Don't snooze, you'll lose!

Happy Small Business Saturday. My Kindle Countdown Mystery Sale begins today and runs through Nov. 30.

This is a Mystery Kindle Countdown because all I'm going to tell you is that during those six days the price will fluctuate from 99 cents to $1.99 to $2.99 and then back to list price of $4.99. Don't snooze or you'll lose!

Click the "Buy for others" button on the page to send the book as a gift.
https://www.amazon.com/When-Stardust-Fell.../dp/B0BKYQ26YK

In honor of Hoagy Carmichael's 124th birthday, I'm putting the Kindle version of When Stardust Fell on Keuka Lake on sale from Nov. 25-30.

This is a Mystery Kindle Countdown because all I'm going to tell you is that during those six days the price will fluctuate from 99 cents to $1.99 to $2.99 and then back to list price of $4.99. Don't snooze or you'll lose!

Click the "Buy for others" button on the page to send the book as a gift.
https://www.amazon.com/When-Stardust-Fell-Keuka-Lake-ebook/dp/B0BKYQ26YK

~*~*~*~ END OF YEAR SALE STARTS DEC. 15TH ~*~*~*~

All of my books (except When Stardust Fell on Keuka Lake) will be 50% off in ebook format in Smashwords annual End of Year Sale!
The sale starts December 15 and ends January 1.

Here is the direct link to my books: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/MaryPatHyland

Beginning Dec. 15, view thousands of books on sale here: https://smashwords.com/shelves/promos

Any book can be sent as a gift. Click the "Give As A Gift" button on the book's page.

Plan now to save!

Last night as I watched the half moon rise, couldn’t help but think about my character Andy Krall.

That New Zealand sale got me curious about where my books have been sold. Here are the countries I could find in my records.
Really need to work on South America! And, Antarctica.

Coming up for air as I near the completion of the first draft of the new novel. This one is sure taking its time, but I'm enjoying my visit to Cayuga Lake (in my mind).

In other news, today I made my first book sale in New Zealand! Woohoo!

A year ago I published When Stardust Fell on Keuka Lake. I wanted it out as close to Halloween as possible, because that was the day Hoagy Carmichael first recorded the song that changed his life.

He didn't see overnight success with it. No, Stardust simmered on the back burner for two years until bandleader Don Redman recorded it with the McKinney Cotton Pickers and it became a hit at the famed Cotton Club. Redman, uncle to saxophone great Dewey Redman and great-uncle to Joshua Redman, led quite an all-star group at the time whose regular players included Benny Carter, James P. Johnson, and Doc Cheatham. Around the time Stardust became a hit for the band, jazz legends like Fats Waller and Coleman Hawkins sat in regularly with them.

The next year Isham Jones recorded it and Stardust became a radio hit. Stardust's rise after that is legendary.

I grew up hearing stories about Hoagy's summer at Keuka Lake and the time he sat in with my great-uncles' band. For more than a year I chased down every rumor I could find about him writing the song there, and spent hours combing through online newspaper and university archives.

This novel was truly a labor of love for the community of Keuka Lake. I wanted to get the story as historically correct as possible.

Take a trip with me back a century ago, back to that summer when Hoagy Carmichael saw stardust fall on Keuka Lake.

When Stardust Fell on Keuka Lake: A Caviston Sisters Mystery (Caviston Sisters Mystery Series) It's been five years since Maureen Caviston McCarthy lost her husband Bob in a fatal car wreck. She's about to turn 60, and that milestone triggers wistful memories of him, the newspaper where they met, and the song that brought them together: "Stardust." A rumor persists that Hoagy Carmichael wr...

Today is the twelfth anniversary of the launch of The Terminal Diner at Riverread Books in Binghamton, NY.
“Men like pie,” the main character’s mother tells her. To celebrate I baked apple pie.
Guests included two of my editors Lori McIlwaine Hammond and Betsy Herrington.
Betsy heard an interview with me on WSKG FM for my novel 3/17 and we became friends. Lori was a Facebook friend of hers, and Betsy introduced us. This was the first time they’d met in person.
I love the interconnectedness of this moment.
Sadly, Betsy and her delightful husband David (also my editor) have passed.
I also lament the closing of RiverRead.
This was a moment in my writing career that I will always cherish .

You may not know how important this is to every author, both trad and indie. Thank you to all of my readers who have reviewed my works.

Fellow author Dorothy Callahan posted this today. This is one of the methods I use to determine how bad a winter we'll have. Haven't seen a woolly bear yet, so I'm not sure what's up for my hometown.

Another indicator I watch for is the fullness of squirrel tails. Well, they are FAT this year.

Uh-oh.

A woman who forages in Appalachia posted a video recently about cracking open persimmon seeds to see what shape is inside.

According to a post by WHTN, "The persimmon seed may either have a fork, knife, or spoon shape on its inside. The fork is said to stand for a mild winter, while the knife shape means that there will be frigid winds. The spoon shape is supposed to represent a shovel and therefore you could expect plenty of snow in the upcoming winter."

Just for the record, she found a spoon. UH-OH!

What methods of winter prognostication do you follow?

One of my college roommates is a school librarian. Borrowing this wonderful post from her page. ❤️

Years ago when I was in a local writing group I learned something that utterly stunned me: not all of the writers visualized what they described in their stories.

“You mean you aren’t transcribing the movie playing in your mind?” I asked. Nope! They didn’t “hear” the characters speaking either, or “smell” the food cooking on the stove in the scene, either.

What a revelation that moment was!

Probably just a fourth of the group was a 1, as pictured below, that is someone who has vivid visualization in both reading and dreaming.

Just now I was reading responses to a post about this and was intrigued to learn that people who are 4-5s hate long descriptive passages in books.
Fascinating stuff!

So, dear readers, how are them apples for you? Are you a 1 or a 4.5?

Where are my fellow 1s?

Sunday Funnies

People ask me all the time if the characters in my novels are actually me. The answer is no, however life experiences have definitely influenced my writing.

Here's a good example that comes to mind as I see the Harvest Moon is this Friday night (and it's a supermoon).

In September of 2021 we rented a cottage on the East Side of Keuka Lake. The Harvest Moon rose on the last night of our stay. We love the song Neil Young wrote with that title, and so as we gawked at the moon's beauty from the dock with glasses of local wine in hand, I played the music on my iPod. It was such a beautiful moment, swaying in the moonlight as we sang the song to the night sky.

Fast forward to November 2021 when I was writing the opening scene of my latest novel, When Stardust Fell on Keuka Lake. The image I had in my mind as I wrote it came directly from that night at Keuka Lake, singing to the Harvest Moon. It's one of my favorite scenes in the story.

Don't forget to look in the eastern sky Friday at 7 p.m. ET.
https://www.amazon.com/When-Stardust-Fell-Keuka-Lake/dp/B0BKS8QWY7

Congratulations to my friend Jim Fanning on the publication today of his latest book!
Sure to be a bestseller.

https://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Years-Disney-Wonder-step/dp/0760384622/

Drawing 100 Years of Disney Wonder: A retrospective collection of artwork and step-by-step drawing projects featuring a curated collection of iconic ... the past 100 years (Licensed Learn to Draw) Drawing 100 Years of Disney Wonder: A retrospective collection of artwork and step-by-step drawing projects featuring a curated collection of iconic ... the past 100 years (Licensed Learn to Draw)

A friend posted this on my page years ago. It came up in today’s memories and I had to share.
Proof that books are magical!

Thirteen years ago, graphic designer Jocelyn Bailey revealed the cover for my novel 3/17 and I fell in love with it instantly. I wanted something that would capture the essence of this wild, Dante Alighieri-esque parody of American celebrations of St. Patrick's Day.

Boom, there it was!

There's a story behind the green beer.

At the time I was supporting my writing by being a cook. My boss had had a party in which people brought cheap beer...MONTHS previous. One lone can sat in the back of the fridge. I knew Jocelyn needed a photo. So I asked him if he wanted it and he said no. I raced home after cooking his dinner. Added green food coloring to the open can and then poured it into the mug.

Out on the patio I had placed white poster boards as a backdrop, and taking advantage of the waning natural light, shot as many photos as I could before the foam dissipated. Handed those photos off to Jocelyn and she worked her magic.

That's one small can of beer, one giant cover for the ages.
Sláinte!

Friday funnies

Here's a little tidbit of my writing that you might not be aware of: I use the actual weather and moon phase conditions when I write about a specific date. It's very easy to check weather archives online.
For the work in progress, each time I choose a date, I do this before writing the scene. And yes, the actual conditions on that date end up affecting the story line.
This morning I'm writing about Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021. Here is evidence of what it looked like that day.