Tome of the Mommy: “You Know I Hate to Gossip, But –”

Everyone does it, right? We diss on our best buds, tell tales out of school.
When we’re asked to keep a secret, we cross our hearts, hope to die . . .
Instead we spill our guts.
I’ve always been a social animal. In the human jungle, gossip is the best bait, a tasty fodder that shows we’re [...]

Books and Bonbons: According to Jane by Marilyn Brant

The Plot: It begins one day in sophomore English class, just as Ellie Barnett’s teacher is assigning Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”. From nowhere comes a quiet ‘tsk’ of displeasure. The target: Sam Blaine, the cute bad boy who’s teasing Ellie mercilessly, just as he has since kindergarten.
Entirely unbidden, as Jane might say, the author’s [...]

Surviving Your High School Reunion: Why You Should Go

You remember high school, right? Ahhh, the good old days.  Prom, study period, that cutie in science class, not to mention palpitating heart, sweaty palms, raging hormones. . .
A definitive time in anyone’s life: a time some desperately miss, and a few are still vicariously living in—whereas other are thrilled to leave behind.
If you fall in this [...]

Books & Bonbons: CAST THE FIRST STONE by Rebbie MacIntyre

Using a divining rod or a crystal pendulum, dowser Trini Bates can locate the unseen: underground water, buried minerals, lost valuables.Some claim she’s a wonder worker.
Others say she’s a liar, a cheat, a fake.
Trini is neither saint nor charlatan. Recently widowed, struggling with the daily demands of living in Colorado during the Great Depression, she [...]

SMW Books and Bonbons: Karin Tabke’s “Master of Surrender”

em>The year is 1066. William, bastard Duke of Normandy, has claimed the English throne by right of conquest. To quell the Saxon unrest, William sends out his most trusted knights to secure the land. One of those knights is his cousin, Sir Rohan de Luc, known far and wide for his bloody deeds as The [...]