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Life as a Writer Being a writer has its quiet moments when you’re holed up in a room with your computer and your imagination, painting pictures with words. But there are other times when writers get to go out into the field and do research. When I was writing the first book in my Harlow Cassidy Magical Dressmaking series, Pleating for Mercy, I knew I wanted to add an animal. After all, what cozy mystery reader doesn’t love an animal in the books they read? My character, Harlow, was moving back to Bliss, Texas from Manhattan, so she couldn’t have a dog or cat. When I came up with the idea that Harlow descended from Butch Cassidy, the answer came to me. A herd of goats called The Sundance Kids. Get it? Kids? Goats? And the grand dame of the herd is Thelma Louise, a feisty goat if there ever was one. She graces every cover in the series. Research I knew nothing about goats, which meant I got to leave my office and go to a goat farm! I went to Latte Da Dairy Goat Farm in Flower MOund, Texas. They raise LaMancha and Nubian Goats and I got to spend some quality time with them. What I learned: Goats can be very stinky! The cheese and soap and milk is quite a business. They have a lot of personality. They can be adorable. Today I’m sharing some of the photos from my trip to Latte Da Dairy Goat farm. Check out the Harlow Cassidy Magical Dressmaking Mystery Series ▶︎▶︎▶︎ HERE. Buy the series ▶︎▶︎▶︎ HERE.

Download the September Quotes! ⬇︎ ?? September Quotes ?? The Memories and Emotions of September For me, the nostalgia, memories, and emotions September brings are visceral. When September 1st hits, I feel a shift in myself. I experience an emotional charge. In fact, more than any other month or season, September makes me reminisce about my childhood. It makes me yearn for the specific feelings I experienced during that season of my life. The nostalgia, memories, and emotions September brings don’t happen in any other month.  My love of September starts with it marking the beginning of the –er months because those four months make up the last third of the calendar year. These are my four favorite months and I love them the best.   My Emotional Connections to September The gut-level sentiment I experience in September through nostalgia, memories, and emotions swirls inside me with remembrances from my early years. The shift from August to September is powerful. Thos myriad childhood memories that surface every year at this time are each tied to the promises of the new month. For example, growing up, September marked the beginning of school. There was always something so exciting about moving up a year, about deciding what I was going to wear on the first day and just the newness of it all.   September Emotions as an Adult As I got older, September marked the beginning of the school year for me as a public school teacher. While I still experienced the same emotions and those nostalgic memories arose, I also viewed the transition from summer to fall through a different lens–that of a middle school teacher. I readied myself for the new school year with teacher supply goodies and my own new outfits, just as I’d done as a child. In addition, I got to see my students bustling in with their new outfits and supplies. September always brings this newness with it, and a unique kind of excitement.   Experiencing September as a Mom Finally, when my kids were school-age, I got to usher them into their new school years each September (or August as the start dates changed). First, we loaded up on school supplies. Second, they each got new outfits. And third, Grammie always got my kids one new pair of shoes every September. She does love her shoes! In addition to all of that, September is my dad’s birthday month!  ❤️   Let the Seasons Begin In addition to all the nostalgia, memories, and newness of September, the month also ushers in autumn, which is my very favorite season. I grew up in California, lived in Texas as a little girl, and again in my  40s for ten years. Now, however, we’re in North Carolina and we love it here, in great part because of September.   Autumn in North Carolina In North Carolina, we get seasons. Actual honest-to-god seasons. It’s almost as if a switch is flipped. When the calendar page turns from August to September, the weather starts to cool, and the nights get brisk, which, of course, leads to the leaves changing color.   The Scent of September There’s also a certain fall scent in the crisp air. The crunch of the leaves sounds underfoot, but at the same time, the vibrant cornucopia of red, orange, and yellow still hangs to the branches.  Finally, September means it’s time to think about pumpkins, not to mention pumpkin spice lattes (yes, I’m one of those people).    Ah, Sweet September, Thank You for the Reminiscing To sum it all up, September is filled with a ton of good memories for me, which means the transition from August to September gives me an emotional shot of just…something wonderful.   September Quotes This collection of quotes captures much of what I love about September. Enjoy!      “Autumn is the antidote to stifling summer.” —Terri Guillemets     “All the months are crude experiments, out of which the perfect September is made.” —Virginia Woolf   “I love September, especially when we’re in it.” —Willie Stargell   “September is the month of maturity; the heaped basket and the garnered sheaf. It is the month of climax and completion. September! I never tire of turning it over and over in my mind. It has warmth, depth and color. It glows like old amber.” —Patience Strong   “Wine is the divine juice of September.” —Voltaire   “September has come, it is hers whose vitality leaps in the autumn, whose nature prefers trees without leaves and a fire in the fireplace.”—Louis MacNeice   “There comes a day each September when you wake up and know the summer is over and fall has arrived. The slant of the sun looks different and something is in the air — a coolness, a hint of frosty mornings to follow.” —Ann Rinaldi   “This windy, bright September afternoonMy heart is wide awake, yet full of dreams.”—Charles George Douglas Roberts   “September tries its best to have us forget summer.” —Bernard Williams   “As the alluring song of September begins to whisper in my ear, my passionate spirit yearns for the splendor of its promise.” —Peggy Toney Horton   “Come September, children return to school, grownups to work, and the brain to the head.”—Roger Rosenblatt   “The seasonal urge is strong in poets. Burns chose autumn. Longfellow liked the month of September.”—Helen Bevington   “We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer’s wreckage. We will welcome summer’s ghost.”         —Henry Rollins   “Rest your eyes well before September because with all its colours autumn is coming to visit them!”—Mehmet Murat Ildan   “September days have the warmth of summer in their briefer hours, but in their lengthening evenings a prophetic breath of autumn.” —Rowland E. Robinson   “Outside the leaves on the trees constricted slightly; they were the deep done green of the beginning of autumn. It was a Sunday in September.” —Ali Smith   “September was a thirty-days long goodbye to summer, to the season that left everybody both happy and weary of the warm, humid weather and the exhausting but thrilling adventures.”—Lea Malot   “The old summer’s-end melancholy nips at my heels. There’s no school to go back to; no detail of my life will change come the onset of September; yet still, I feel the old trepidation.” —Sara Baume   “That old September feeling, left over from school days, of summer passing, vacation nearly done, obligations gathering, books and football in the air… Another fall, another turned page: there was something of jubilee in that annual autumnal beginning, as if last year’s mistakes had been wiped clean by summer.”—Donna Tartt, The Secret History “Happily we bask in this warm September sun, which illuminates all creatures.” —Henry David Thoreau   “September is the month of maturity; the heaped basket and the garnered sheaf. It is the month of climax and completion. September! I never tire of turning it over and over in my mind. It has warmth, depth and color. It glows like old amber.” —Patience Strong   “September is dressing herself in showy dahlias and splendid marigolds and starry zinnias.” —Olive Wendell Holmes   “It was a lovely afternoon—such an afternoon as only September can produce when summer has stolen back for one more day of dream and glamour.” —L.M. Montgomery   “Happy September! The world shall now transform into pumpkin everything.” —Keith Wynn   “Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple.” —J.K. Rowling   “How smartly September comes in, like a racing gig, all style, no confusion.” —Eleanor Clark   “By all these lovely tokens, September days are here. With summer’s best of weather and autumn’s best of cheer.” —Helen Hunt Jackson   “But the days grow short when you reach September.” —Maxwell Anderson   “It was September, and there was a crackly feeling to the air.” —Carolyn Parkhurst   “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald   “The windows are open, admitting the September breeze: a month that smells like notepaper and pencil shavings, autumn leaves and car oil. A month that smells like progress, like moving on.” —Lauren Oliver   “Ah, September! You are the doorway to the season that awakens my soul…but I must confess that I love you only because you are a prelude to my beloved October.” —Peggy Toney Horton   “I guess I’m just feeling all September-ish…All the trees change color, the days get very clear—with little smoke on the horizon from burning leaves. Pumpkins begin to come out.” —George Selden   “September days have the warmth of summer in their briefer hours, but in their lengthening evenings a prophetic breath of autumn.” —Rowland E. Robinson Download the September Quotes! ⬇︎ ?? September Quotes ??

I love bookish quotes. My life revolves around reading, so it makes sense! Visit this page to grab, enjoy, and share. “There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.” ~Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis A child who reads will be an adult who thinks.                            ~Unknown I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Reading is a passport to countless adventures, all from the comfort of your own mind. I’m a book lover. Are you? “You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.”  ~Paul Sweeney

I love books. I love art. I love painting. This is my fun creative outlet…painting book covers on bricks! Come back to see what’s next. https://melissabourbon.com/wp-content/uploads/TheSecretGardenPaintedBrick.movhttps://melissabourbon.com/wp-content/uploads/NancyDrewPaintedonBrick.mov

The release of Death Gone a-Rye inspired me to write this post. It’s the 6th book in my Bread Shop mysteries. If you haven’t heard about it, here’s a little into to the series (from Kneaded to Death, book 1): Struggling photographer Ivy Culpepper has lots of soul-searching to do since returning to seaside Santa Sofia, California. That is, until the thirty-six-year-old enters a bread making class at Yeast of Eden. Whether it’s the aroma of fresh conchas in the oven, or her instant connection with owner Olaya Solis, Ivy just knows the missing ingredients in her life are hidden among the secrets of Olaya’s bakery . . . The Bread Shop Cozy Mystery series is for anybody who loves cozy mysteries, baking, and bread. It’s set in the fictional central California coastal town of Santa Sofia, a place I’d love to live. Seems almost all of my books feature versions of my dream towns. Minus the murders, of course. As I was writing this post, I got to thinking about why I write mysteries.  What I came up with is that they are close to my heart. Truly all books are close to my heart, but mysteries, in particular. The mystery can be large or small.  It can be the central focus of the story, or play a supporting role. It really doesn’t matter to me the scope of the mystery elements, as long as it’s there in one way, shape, or form. My love of mysteries started, like most young girls of a certain age, with Nancy Drew.  From there I graduated straight to Agatha Christie.  I have a distinct memory of going with my mom to our town’s library so she could check out the last Hercule Poirot novel, Curtain.  She was crushed that it was to be Poirot’s last, and her love of these book intrigued me enough to start reading them. I spent almost all of my high school lunches in one classroom or another reading, mostly mysteries. I love the deduction and the sense of justice at the end. So, of course, I when my passion for writing grew, it was no surprise that it manifested itself in the form of mysteries. I began with the Lola Cruz Mystery series. Then I wrote 2 suspense mysteries. They’re based on Mexican legends (see them on my HERE). Then came my cozies: A Magical Dressmaking mysteries. Next was the Bread Shop Mysteries. Then the Book Magic mysteries, which have brought me full circle to the kind of books I love the most.  They are small town, feel good whodunnits.  They are like comfort food.  They just make me want to curl up in front of a fire and escape. Mysteries, mysteries, mysteries. The characters.  The communities.  The crime.  The puzzle.  The deductions.  The justice.  All of makes for such a satisfying read. If you’re here, you probably love mysteries, too. I’m sure I have a series for you. Check ’em out on my bookshelf!

Who doesn’t love book-themed books? I definitely do! So much so, even, that I wrote one. Murder in Devil’s Cove is a love letter to books. The Hobbit and The Odyssey are two of the biggies featured in Murder in Devil’s Cove and in the series.  I had to include it on this list of the BEST book-themed books.  Y’all, I highly recommend all of these bookish books.  For you historic literature fans, The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society, The Book Thief, and The Paris Library are definitely for you! If you like things both spicy and with a feminist flare, Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows is so fun and, well, simply awesome. Murder in Devil’s Cove has magical elements, a 2000 year old Irish Curse, Irish Deities, and bibliomancy.  If you like dual timelines, The Thirteenth Tale fits the bill. It’s historic with it’s timeline in the past, and contemporary with its contemporary storyline. For the fantasy and futuristic book lovers (and Jane Eyre fans), The Eyre Affair is a fun, inventive, and unique story about a detective who literally goes into books to solve literary crimes while Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore takes you on a fun adventure. Finally, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is a contemporary island bookshop story about a bookshop owner (and widow) and a publishing rep. It’s a great story. No matter what kind of bookish story you enjoy, there is definitely something for everyone on this list. Enjoy!

Why Audiobooks? I love audiobooks. No matter what is happening in my life, I usually have three books going: one I read mostly at night before bed on my eReader. One in print–usually a cookbook, an educational book, or some form of self-education. And an audiobook, which I listen to daily when I walk my dogs and when I’m in the car. If a book is a particularly good one, I will walk longer than planned, or I will come home and do chores or something that allows me to keep listening. The Narrator The narrator for any given audiobook is just as important as the book itself. Listening is an experience. The narrator can make or break that experience. I’ve come across books that were interesting, but I couldn’t bear to listen to the narrator’s voice for one more second. It could be because the voice itself wasn’t appealing to me, or it could be the way they spoke, the speed and intonation, and overall manner. When I find a narrator I love, I will look them up to see what else they’ve narrated and if that is something that sounds interesting, I’ll add it to my queue. Imogen Church is one of my favorite audiobook narrators. I first heard her when I listened to The Death of Mrs. Westaway.  I loved everything about how she narrated this book I searched her on Audible (this is my listening platform) and picked something else of hers. Now, she’s one of my Go Tos. My Books on Audio My Bread Shop series is on audio. So are the first three of the Lola Cruz Mystery Series and the Pippin Lane Hawthorne Book Magic Series. The production process, meaning bringing these books to audio, was such an interesting experience. For the Book Magic series, I auditioned narrators and had the pleasure of working with Abigail Reno, who captured Pippin and the North Carolina vibe of the story so well.  So, for all you audiobook lovers, I hope you’ll give one of my books a try. Again, the first three Pippin Lane Hawthorne Book Magic books are available everywhere on audio. I love this series so much. Get the prequel (Murder on Rum Runner’s Lane) and the first two full-length books (Murder in Devil’s Cove and Murder at Sea Captain’s Inn) everywhere audiobooks are sold. ? And look for the rest of my audiobooks HERE!

Christmas romance. Christmas cozies. These are 12 of my favorite Christmas books. Enjoy! Two people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love story. Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn’t exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there’s a moment of pure magic…and then her bus drives away. Certain they’re fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn’t find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they “reunite” at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It’s Jack, the man from the bus. It would be. What follows for Laurie, Sarah and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness. The most magical time of the year… For the first time in ten years, Freya is back in the little village of Middlemass for Christmas. The streets might be twinkling with fairy lights, but after the recent loss of her mother, she’s never felt less festive. Forced to sleep under the same roof as her handsome neighbour Finn, Freya realises she’s going to need a distraction – fast! So she sets herself a challenge: to cook the ’12 Days of Christmas’. Her delicious food soon brings the villagers together, and as each day passes, old friendships are renewed, memories stirred and there’s even the flickering of romance… She was only meant to stay for the holidays, but could Middlemass – and Finn – steal her heart forever? It’s the most wonderful time of the year…but not for Maelyn Jones. She’s living with her parents, hates her going-nowhere job, and has just made a romantic error of epic proportions. But perhaps worst of all, this is the last Christmas Mae will be at her favorite place in the world—the snowy Utah cabin where she and her family have spent every holiday since she was born, along with two other beloved families. Mentally melting down as she drives away from the cabin for the final time, Mae throws out what she thinks is a simple plea to the universe: Please. Show me what will make me happy. The next thing she knows, tires screech and metal collides, everything goes black. But when Mae gasps awake…she’s on an airplane bound for Utah, where she begins the same holiday all over again. With one hilarious disaster after another sending her back to the plane, Mae must figure out how to break free of the strange time loop—and finally get her true love under the mistletoe. Jam-packed with yuletide cheer, an unforgettable cast of characters, and Christina Lauren’s trademark “downright hilarious” (Helen Hoang, author of The Bride Test) hijinks, this swoon-worthy romantic read will make you believe in the power of wishes and the magic of the holidays. Freelance photographer and Yeast of Eden bakery assistant Ivy Culpepper has just scored the job of a lifetime shooting the Dickensian dress-up X-mas party thrown by It Girl film actress Eliza Fox . . . until an unwanted guest appears. A holiday costume party in the sleepy coastal town of Santa Sofia could be just the boost Ivy needs for her fledgling photography business. At the party, Ivy enters a Victorian fantasy come to life, all courtesy of the fabulous Ms. Fox. Ivy gets to play shutterbug while hanging with Scrooge, Marley, the Cratchits, and more classic Dickens characters.  But what begins as the best of times turns out to be the very worst for one of the party guests—a tabloid journalist with more enemies than Ebenezer himself. When the man’s body is found sprawled across the jagged rocks below the house, the fingers begin pointing at Eliza. Meanwhile, Ivy gets roped into helping prove the starlet’s innocence. Her festive photos are now official evidence—and the Ghosts of Christmas Present could mean the party for Eliza is over, once and for all. A novella celebrating the magic of Christmas and second chances. When newly-divorced Ivy Perkins buys an old farmhouse sight unseen, she is definitely looking for a change in her life. The Four Roses, as the farmhouse is called, is a labor of love—but Ivy didn’t bargain on just how much labor. The previous family left so much furniture and so much junk, that it’s a full-time job sorting through all of it. At the top of a closet, Ivy finds an old Santa suit—beautifully made and decades old. In the pocket of a suit she finds a note written in a childish hand: it’s from a little girl who has one Christmas wish, and that is for her father to return home from the war. This discovery sets Ivy off on a mission. Who wrote the note? Did the man ever come home? What mysteries did the Rose family hold? Ivy’s quest brings her into the community, at a time when all she wanted to do was be left alone and nurse her wounds. But the magic of Christmas makes miracles happen, and Ivy just might find more than she ever thought possible: a welcoming town, a family reunited, a mystery solved, and a second chance at love. Finding the Christmas Spirit… Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered yuppie life does not appeal. Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs help revitalizing his shabby old bookshop. So Carmen moves in and takes the job. Thrown rather suddenly into the inner workings of Mr. McCredie’s ancient bookshop on the picturesque streets of historic Edinburgh, Carmen is intrigued despite herself. The store is dusty and disorganized but undeniably charming. Can she breathe some new life into it in time for Christmas shopping? What will happen when a famous and charismatic author takes a sudden interest in the bookshop—and Carmen? And will the Christmas spirit be enough to help heal her fractured family? A Christmas story filled with merriment, mystery, and murder. Bliss, Texas, is gearing up for its annual Winter Wonderland festival, but when a mysterious Scrooge ends the merriment with murder, it’ll take more than a ghost from Christmas past to set things right. Designing a holiday fashion show set in the town’s most prominent historic mansion seems like a job tailor made for dressmaker Harlow Jane Cassidy. But with the mansion’s restoration still in progress and threatening weather on the horizon, she’s feeling on pins and needles more than reveling in holiday cheer. Having volunteered to play Santa in this year’s festival, Dan Lee Chrisson was ready to move on after his divorce—until Bliss became his final resting place. Discovering his body puts Harlow at the scene of the crime. She’ll need plenty of help from friends and even her late great-grandmother’s spirited sleuthing if she’s to have a ghost of a chance of catching a killer who’s just jumped to the top of the naughty list…. All they want for Christmas is a different life. When chef Charlie Goodwin gets hit on the head on the L.A. set of her reality baking show, she loses a lot more than consciousness; she also loses her ability to taste and smell—both critical to her success as show judge. Meanwhile, Charlie’s identical twin, Cass, is frantically trying to hold her own life together back in their quaint mountain hometown while running the family’s bustling bakery and dealing with her ex, who won’t get the memo that they’re over. With only days until Christmas, a desperate Charlie asks Cass to do something they haven’t done since they were kids: switch places. Looking for her own escape from reality, Cass agrees. But temporarily trading lives proves more complicated than they imagined, especially when rugged firefighter Jake Greenman and gorgeous physician assistant Miguel Rodriguez are thrown into the mix. Will the twins’ identity swap be a recipe for disaster, or does it have all the right ingredients for getting their lives back on track? When fate intervenes… On a snowy evening in March, thirty-something Noelle Butterby is on her way back from an event at her old college when disaster strikes. With a blizzard closing off roads, she finds herself stranded, alone in her car, without food, drink, or a working charger for her phone. All seems lost until Sam Attwood, a handsome American stranger also trapped in a nearby car, knocks on her window and offers assistance. What follows is eight perfect hours together, until morning arrives and the roads finally clear. The two strangers part, positive they’ll never see each other again but fate, it seems, has a different plan. As the two keep serendipitously bumping into one another, they begin to realize that perhaps there truly is no such thing as coincidence. With plenty of charming twists and turns and Lia Louis’s “bold, standout voice” (Gillian McAllister, author of The Good Sister), Eight Perfect Hours is a gorgeously crafted novel that will make you believe in the power of fate. The most delightful Christmas romance. Shell Smith is the most popular make-up artist on the ART counter at Duke & Sons, a beautiful but old-fashioned department store in her hometown. But whilst Shell’s love life is looking up, now that she’s dating long-time crush Nick, and business is booming in the beauty department, the rest of the store is noticeably quiet . . . The owner’s grandson Callum has come up with some creative ways to keep Duke & Sons afloat this Christmas, including allowing a production company to secretly film a romcom after hours. When Callum recruits her to help out, Shell finds there is more to Mr Duke Jr. than sharp suits and a business-like demeanour. With a store to save and her own romance with Nick going off-script, Christmas just got complicated for Shell. But this is the most wonderful time of the year, so there must be a happy ending awaiting . . . Right? Three generations of Murphy women come together to face a hurricane that threatens their hometown—and the holiday season. When the Murphy women are in trouble, they always know they can turn to their mother, Ansley. So when eldest daughter Caroline and her husband announce they are divorcing—and fifteen-year-old daughter Vivi acts out in response—Caroline, at her wits end, can’t think of anything to do besides leave her with Ansley in Peachtree Bluff for the holidays. After all, how much trouble can one teenager get into on a tiny island? Quite a lot, as it turns out. As the “storm of the century” heads toward Peachtree Bluff, Ansley and her husband, Jack, with Vivi in tow, are grateful they’re planning to leave for the trip of a lifetime. But Vivi’s recklessness forces the trio to shelter in place during the worst hurricane Peachtree has ever seen. With no power, no provisions, and the water rising, the circumstances become dire very quickly…and the Murphy sisters soon realize it’s up to them to conduct a rescue mission. With the bridges closed and no way to access Peachtree Bluff by land or air, they set sail on Caroline’s boat, The Starlite Sisters, determined to rebuild their beloved town—and their family.   What do you do when the man you pledged your life to breaks your heart and shatters your dreams? You pack your bags and travel the big, wide world to find your destiny—and your true love . . . Ten years ago, a young and naïve Cassie married her first serious boyfriend, believing he would be with her forever. Now her marriage is in tatters and Cassie has no

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