I thought today that I’d talk about what’s growing around the property, what we’re getting ready to harvest, as well as what isn’t growing or we aren’t harvesting.
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If you don’t train apple and pear trees, they’ll go boom-bust. So you’ll get a tremendous amount of apples and pears one year, then none the next, and then a lot, and so on. We’ve never trained our trees, so this is a year we have apples.
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Apples aren’t self-fertilizing. You need a different type of apple to cross-pollinate your apple trees. That’s why we have a Fuji tree and a Honeycrisp tree.
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And here’s a “beauty shot” of just apples on the Honeycrisp:
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In addition to the apples, we’re getting grapes again. Because of the weather that we’ve had, the grapes aren’t doing as well this year. Some of the vines have a lot of grapes, (the ones that had more shade through in the afternoon) while others don’t.
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So we probably won’t be making any wine this year. But we’ll do something with the fruit. Just not sure what yet.
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Here’s one of the healthy plants, with purple grapes:
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Here are some of the green grapes:
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It wasn’t the best year for blueberries. We have both regular blueberries as well as pink-lemonade blueberries. We cut back the pink-lemonade blueberry plants a few years ago. This is really the first year they’ve come back at all. Hopefully next year the weather will be better and we’ll have more.
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The aronia did fairly well, but again, not great. We do have a couple of plants with more berries on them. Not sure what we’ll do with them this year. They’re very tart, have a lot of tannins in them, as well as seeds. But we’ll figure out something.
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One of the things we will NOT be harvesting are hazelnuts. *cue very sad face* A couple weeks ago, when the weather got really hot, all of the hazelnuts fell off the trees. I don’t know if that was weather related, or if this was just because it was the first year the trees fruited. All I know is that one day, the nuts were in the trees, the next they were gone, scattered on the ground. None of them were ripe enough to dry out even. Fingers crossed that next year, we’ll actually have nuts that survive until harvest time.
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A couple other things we probably won’t be harvesting: lingonberries and strawberries. While there are a few of each, there just aren’t that many.
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And I guess that’s it for the growing stuff on the property.
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It's September. The start of the cozy season. What better way to celebrate than with a sale on one of our most popular cozy fantasy books?
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The perfect cozy mix of dragons, myths, gods, magic, and found family.
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An evil wizard tries to transform the great champion Killian into a common garter snake.
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The spell misfires (or the fates intervene) and Killian instead becomes a dragon.
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Killian can’t wield his sword and lead his men into battle. Can’t speak. Can’t even shoot a majestic gout of fire but only spits a measly dribble of acid. (Which honestly? Kinda gross.)
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Thus begins the tale of the dragon named Talon, and his eventual fight with a God.
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Well, maybe just a demi-god.
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Okay, all right. Perhaps the person in question doesn't have any divinity at all.
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He will have you know that he is Someone Important, though.
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Plus all the other lies...
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Welcome to this lovely cozy fantasy filled with humor, found family, and plenty of breaking of the fourth wall. Prepare to be swept away into this somewhat silly world full of wit and heart, with adventures you'll love reading about again and again.
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For fans of T Kingfisher, Casey Blair, and Lindsay Buroker.
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This is our annual cozy issue!
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What sorts of crimes take place when students are on a spring break? Or perhaps what happens at an abandoned campus?
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Come see what the syndicate of MCM has dreamed up.
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Available at all reputable–and some not so reputable–retailers.
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I have a new book coming out at the end of October! It's a cozy fantasy romantic retelling of Sleeping Beauty. I did both a non-spicy version as well as a spicy version, as indicated by the green and red covers.
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Perfect for readers who love:
• Forced proximity
• Slice-of-life fantasy
• Slow-burn yearning
• Witty banter
• Gentle caregiving
• Mutual rescue and devotion
• Fairy-tale retellings
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The book is currently available for preorder on the KRP store and Amazon. It'll be available for preorder everywhere else by mid-September.
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In addition, I'm accepting ARC reader applications. Here's a link to the form if you're interested:
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