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When school starts and the weather starts to cool, I long for sweaters, my favorite poncho and warm drinks. I like a nice drizzly day with no excuse to go outside. A cup of cider or coffee and a good book is all I need.
It's no wonder that the fall season drifts into my writings. One of my favorite people of all time was Ms. Bessie Black, a woman I met while I was a social worker in the late 70s. Bessie put her Christmas tree up in September, because it was an "ember month," of course. My novel, The Ember Months is based on Bessie's real-life experiences as the caretaker of three female relatives with Hunnington's Chorea. She was an inspiration.
In Opal's Story, a novel inspired by summer travels with my grandmother through West Texas, I imagined the setting and people in a story with flashbacks to the 1940s. I always like my grandmother's name, Opal. The reason I recommend it as a fall read is because it begins with a family tragedy in the 40s but ends in modern time with a Thanksgiving celebration.
Two of the novels in my six-book cozy mystery series, have fall themes. In Den of Uncles, Meg Miller arranges a trip for her friends and family to visit a South Texas coastal ranch that had belonged to her mother's family. Meg returns to the ranch at the urging of Petra, the ranch's new owner. Petra and Meg share a haunted history. Their families have been linked since the Irish received land grants in Texas. This could have caused hard feelings: however, Meg has found a way to right wrongs inflicted decades earlier. Meg's group gets to witness the fall return of the monarchs on their journey to Mexico for the Day of the Dead. Den of Uncles is Book Five of the Meg Miller Series.
Book Three of the series, Mystery on Inheritance Ranch, introduces Meg to the ranch her uncle left her in his will. Notification of the inheritance was the first Meg knew she had an uncle. Visiting the ranch is a turning point in Meg's life, one of many that happen throughout the series. Meeting the caretakers, Petra and Javier, give her the history of her mother's family, a history long protected prior to her mother's suicide. The ranch is the perfect setting for a family Thanksgiving dinner and a transition.
The Meg Miller Series is best read in order, but many have given me feedback that they started the series in the middle and then went back to the beginning to fill in the blanks. Follow the links above to read the reviews and find out more about the books. There are recipes from the books in other blogs. The Zucchini Soup is one of my fall favorites. And, the Molasses Crinkles are yummy. Happy Fall Y'all.