I’ve just been a guest blogger on the Amish Wisdom site. It was interesting to think back on everything that led up to The Narrow Path and The Path to Piney Meadows.

Here’s a link to the site and my post – http://amishwisdom.com/modern-mennonite-life-by-gail-sattler/

Thinking back to those books, I do have a story in mind for a 3rd book in the series, after I’m done my current project, I think that’s what I’m going to do. As a reader, I love to read about a community and see how characters I’ve come to know in previous books carry on with their lives. I’ve done many series books, starting back with Vancouver, the four books in that series were originally published by Heartsong Presents, then compiled. Even though it’s been many years, I still get comments from readers on those.

Now to start some serious thinking about Piney Meadows…

With the release of my latest new book, Dating The Best Man, I’m trying to think of something for my next project. I’m almost finished my current project which will be an ebook only release in the summer that’s part of a series with 5 other authors. The writing is almost over, and now comes the business of editing, proofing, and compiling, then converting to e-book format to be sold on Amazon. I’ve never done this before, and it’s quite an adventure.

But now comes the next adventure of thinking of a new idea. For now I have 2 continuations to think about. I’ve had a number of responses from people to finish up an old series, the Men Of Praise series, with a book on Paul. I’ve also had a number of people ask if I’m going to continue on with my series in Piney Meadows. The answer to both is yes.

So now to start formulating ideas, and back to the drawing board.

Here on the west coast where I live we are having a very early spring. The crocuses have come and gone, my daffodils and tulips are up, all the spring blossoms are either out or are nearly finished. I have even seen a bee on one of my blossoms!

The early spring is beautiful to look at, but not so great for some people who have allergies. I’ve heard that the spring allergy season is going to be really long this year where I live, because everything that irritates is simply out longer.

But I’m still enjoying the flowers. Much to my husband’s dismay I have already started my tomato and cucumber plants above the kitchen sink, something that drives him crazy every year. He just wants me to go to a garden center, in May, and simply buy the plants. What fun is there to that?

This year I have tried to plant some cantaloupe, but for some reason when the plants got to a couple of inches tall, they died. I fear in my excitement I am over-watering them.

I wonder if this year I might try to grow pumpkins. I bought plants once and I grew some lovely pumpkins in my back yard. I didn’t realize, unfortunately, that the vines grow everywhere. But it was amusing, so maybe I’ll do that again. The reason I’d like to try that is that my Miniature Schnauzer has had some health problems and my vet put her on a vegetarian diet. Yeah, a dog on a vegetarian diet. Go figure. But that said, she really loves mashed pumpkin added to the vegetarian kibble. My vet said that pumpkin is very good for all dogs. I forget what it is great about it, but when the vet says it’s good, it’s good.

Now to find some pumpkin seeds, and I’ll soon have more little pots of mud in my kitchen window.  And I know I’ll hear about it, too.

Here it is mid-March, and it’s got me thinking about the old saying that March either comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, or the other way around.

On the west coast, March definitely came in like a lamb, and now, mid-month, it’s still a lamb. It’s so much like a lamb that I think it will go out like a lamb, too – at least here.

I have continued to watch how the weather is treating the rest of the continent, and I think it’s the opposite way. It came in like a lion, and still looks awful lion-y out there.

This got me to wondering how this saying came to be, so of course, I googled it. So I will copy and paste – the origins of this phrase relate more to astrology rather than meteorology. The lions and lambs of March come from the constellations, Leo the Lion and Aries the ram or lamb. Leo is more prominent in the night sky toward the start of March, while Aries is at the tail end of the month.

The advice on the site I looked said people were better off sticking to the predictions of meteorologist’s, and now that I know how this came about, I’m include to agree.

But I still like the lamb to lamb weather we’re getting in my corner of the planet.

Happy spring!

I have to say that like all authors, I love to get a good review that the reader has enjoyed one of my books. I was pleasantly surprised this weekend to get an email from a lady who found an older book of mine, and liked it so much she posted a review.

How the world has changed. How many of us remember the only way to get a book was to go buy it at the store, and if they didn’t have it in stock, they would order it, they would give you a call when it was in, and you’d go get it, happy to take home, knowing what you were going to be doing for the next few hours.

Then came Amazon. If you ordered enough books, shipping was free, or if you only wanted one or two, the cost of shipping was better than having to take the time to go out, and add the cost of gas to get to and from the store.

Then came e-books. Not only are books cheaper, no shipping. Except e-readers were really expensive, and most people don’t find it relaxing to read a book on their computer.

Then came laptops. Then came Kindle and Kobo and other inexpensive e-readers. Now we have tablets that are so small and convenient (and lightweight) they’re the same as an e-reader, except it does everything your computer does, and often more.

Now you can read books on many cell phones.

I like to think that with all these advances to make reading easier and books more accessible (many  older books are now available again as ebooks), in addition to being cheaper, that more people are reading.

That is, if everything is charged… Yikes…

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve never been one to go outside in the winter. First, though, I feel I should qualify that. I live on the west coast where it is rare to have any snow. I live in an area that is defined as a “rain forest”. When most people hear that term they automatically think of the Amazon Rain Forest in Brazil, which is a tropical rain forest. However, take out the tropical, and what have you got?  Rain forest. Which means someplace with a lot of rain for trees to grow on land that isn’t already cemented (ie roads or parking lots) or turned into front lawns that surround suburban homes, which is metropolitan city living (which is me).

Here in Vancouver where I live, places that are not cultured or cemented over are filled with lush greenery all year round. WET greenery. My lawn is green all year round. It’s a good thing when the temperature is lower, but seldom freezes, that the grass stays green but doesn’t grow. Not far away from where I live thee are marvelous cedar forests going up the hills and mountains.

It’s beautiful to look at, but when it’s pouring rain for weeks at a time, what do you do that doesn’t require an umbrella?

Not much, I’m afraid. I can’t go outside and build a rain-man, so I spend most of my winter reading or writing, which is a good thing for a writer to do. I’m right now working on a novella to go into an ebook set to be sold on Amazon about a town making a Christmas In July celebration to raise money for their animal shelter that lots its funding. I’m having a lot of fun writing it, so I hope it will be just as much fun for people to read.

Speaking of reading, I’ve just picked up a novella by Annette M. Irby called Her Nerdy Cowboy. It’s short (and a good price), and I’m enjoying it so far.

What do you like to do when you don’t want to go outside?

I’m pretty sure that a lot of people are settling down about now, not only because the colder winter weather keeps us quieter indoors, but also because this is the cycle where many of us sit back to pay off the holiday charge card bills.  Usually nothing helps except for the lack of a social life and cutting back on shopping this time of year. But have you seen the price of gas? As I watch the news they say it hasn’t been this low for many years, and these low prices are going to hold for a while. If only I can put the money saved on gas against my charge card, I’ll be doing good.

Because gas is so cheap right now, already I’m thinking of my summer and driving to Portland for the annual OCW writers conference. I can do that on two tanks of gas, so my mental calculator is already working.

I don’t think January is too early to start thinking about summer vacation. I think the only thing that it’s really too early to think about is next Christmas.

Yet, many people in my neighborhood still have their Christmas lights up, and I think it’s very pretty.

I think people should change the lights to red, and we can just call them Valentine lights.

It is now a few days past Christmas 2014, and I must say this has been a really good one for me.

My family had a great time with two out of three sons and their girlfriends – my third son moved to Fort St. John, BC and part of his contract is that he can not take vacation time in December as he is in middle management in retail.

My father-in-law’s health was good and we had a great visit with him. We ended up watching the made-for-TV movie Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever. I laughed so hard, parts of it were hilarious. Part of the fun was that our dog Fred watches television, and he barks at every animal, real or cartoon. That includes the cartoon caribou in Frozen. The dog also enjoyed the Grumpy Cat movie, barking at that cat with the horrible attitude.

We also had a couple of guests, so we had a really fun Christmas day.

However, every Christmas season, there is always some kind of Christmas Disaster. One year the element on the oven burnt out with the turkey in the oven. Last year my father-in-law got the worst of a bad virus and we had to call an ambulance on Christmas day. This year, fortunately not on Christmas Day, the seal for the toilet in the ensuite bathroom gave out and we had a flood of water that went through the floor, through the basement ceiling, and onto the couch in our office downstairs. We are drying everything out, hopefully the couch can be saved, and our son the apprentice plumber is going to fix everything up so the bathroom works again in the coming week.

But all in all, a great Christmas.

I hope everyone else had a great Christmas, too, but with better plumbing.

It’s almost here, it’s almost time. It’s almost December 1st, and that means my next book is almost out.

If you’ve read other books I’ve written, you probably know that I love Christmas stories, and here is another one. This one was a lot of fun to do, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I hope you enjoy – The Best Man’s Holiday Romance – out with Harlequin Heartsong for the month of December.