Five Best Places I’ve Visited #L&SR’s Blogging Challenge
Happy New Year! Welcome to #L&SR’s Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge January 13, 2021. Today’s topic is Five Best Places I’ve Visited. Wow what a coincidence. On January 19th , I’ll be posting Travel Tuesday a blog about my RV travels. Make sure and check back to see where I been and what I loved and didn’t. Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice. Take your choice of a Chocolate Chip, Snickerdoodle, or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate and lets take a peek at Five Best Places I’ve Visited.
Okay, lets start with:
Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee
Gates with Graceland in the background
Okay it’s no secret that I am a big fan of Elvis Presley as my mother was too. The gates Graceland really intrigued me. The #1 American attraction is just a road trip away. Well, for us a long road trip, but well worth it. Did you know they fry everything in Memphis? They even fried our dinner rolls when they ran out of cornbread. Wild huh? 120 acres dedicated to the life and career of an American legend, Elvis Presley, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. See the gold records, the jeweled jumpsuits, the classic cars and, now, all-new interactive exhibits that let you experience Elvis like never before.
Through the mansion tours, you will have the unique opportunity to walk in Elvis’ foot steps. I really loved this.
A visit to Graceland will leave you with a lifetime of memories. At least it did my family and I. We stayed in a great little campground not far from the mansion. It actually offered free rides to Graceland.
Mammoth Cave
Its been several years since we explored Mammoth Cave National Park, the longest cave system on Earth, featuring the richest known habitat for cave wildlife in the world.
It may be difficult to think of caves as spacious and grand, but these are no ordinary caves. Humans first discovered this complex limestone labyrinth some 4,000 years ago beneath the Green River Valley of Edmonson County, Kentucky. To this day, explorers have yet to find an end to it, despite mapping more than 400 miles of passageways.
The last time we were there a boat tour was available through the cave.
Monterey Bay and Aquarium, California
Yellow Seahorse in habitat
Monterey Bay Aquarium is a nonprofit public aquarium in Monterey, California. Known for its regional focus on the marine habitats of Monterey Bay, it was the first to exhibit a living kelp forest when it opened in October 1984. (It’s temporarily closed due to COVID19)
I could spend hours, days, weeks there. I love all the exhibits, there are three floors and always expanding over the years we’ve visited. Overlooking the bay from the observation deck at the aquarium you can see lots of ocean live frolicking in the waves. The whole area coast line is teaming with ocean wildlife, from the tide pools to the beaches and in between.
We stayed in Mari Dunes RV Park a wonderful campground near the beach and walked along the shore line every day of our visit. So much fun and great exercise. Yes dogs were allowed on the beach. Mystic chased the seagulls into the surf. You haven’t lived until you’ve tried to get salt water out of a chow chows long heavy fur. WOW!
Disney Land in California at Halloween! What a thrill.
Disneyland Park, originally Disneyland, is the first of two theme parks built at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, opened on July 17, 1955. It is the only theme park designed and built to completion under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. (Currently temp closed due to COVID)
Obviously, Disneyland is fun anytime, except when it’s really hot. But our visit during Halloween was a blast. Yep Halloween is my favorite holiday. The entire park was decorated for Halloween. There were trick or treat stations, haunted houses, pumpkin popcorn treats, and a fantastic fireworks show and parade. We stayed in a fantastic RV Park not far from Disneyland and road a bus the the amusement park everyday. Didn’t have to worry about parking or traffic. Perfect.
Grand Canyon ancient look out
Grand Canyon National Park, in Arizona, is home to much of the immense Grand Canyon, with its layered bands of red rock revealing millions of years of geological history. Viewpoints include Mather Point, Yavapai Observation Station and architect Mary Colter’s Lookout Studio and her Desert View Watchtower. Lipan Point, with wide views of the canyon and Colorado River, is a popular, especially at sunrise and sunset. It’s been a long time since we’ve been there, and I couldn’t find my photos. That was before they were digital. In recent years, I have them all categorized on my computer for easy access.
Alas, I must return to my writing cave. Stay tuned! Chocolate Raspberry Magic release date been extended until April 2021. As I indicated, I’ve turned in the sixth book in A Demon’s Witch Series to my editor at The Wild Rose Press and I have a Contract!! Now the edits to begin. Yippee! AND A new project is well underway Wylder West Assignment. Keep an eye out for more information. Now let’s see what the other author’s Five best places they visited. LOL L&SR
Oh, one mote thing. my book award winning HIDDEN GYPSY MAGIC is nominated in the Annual Critters Readers Pole this year. I would greatly appreciate your VOTE in the category #Magical Realism Novel Here is the link! https://buff.ly/34Nb8se Thank you so much! Voting ends January 14, 2021.
Pssst… While you’re here, don’t forget to check out my paranormal romance/mysteries click here.
A bit more about my 2020 award winner Hidden Gypsy Magic, available in digital, print or audiobook
The Salem Wildlife Sanctuary is Gwen Taylor’s life work. Her Irish Gypsy heritage provides a hidden talent she uses to help the creatures under her care. But even her magical skills can’t help new rescues in dire need of veterinary care.
The opportunity of signing on as the vet for Gwen’s sanctuary dropped into Brock Scutter’s lap after he expanded his practice to include wildlife. The personal attraction he and Gwen experience is undeniable the more their professional and personal lives collide.
Touring the only “non-haunted” house in Salem they both feel a spark of magic. A trip to his family’s cabin uncovers a heritage he didn’t know existed. If they want a future together, it means facing the consequences of awakening hidden Gypsy magic and a race against the clock to correct past wrongs.
A peek between the pages of Hidden Gypsy Magic:
In the soft light he’d left on, he could just make out both pupils were the same size. He breathed a sigh of relief. I can rule out head injury, so far anyway. The bird toppled over hitting its injured side against the enclosure and screeched.
“Its okay girl,” he cooed. “No one is going to hurt you.”
Gwen sucked in a breath behind him. “What a beautiful bird. And huge.”
Only Gwen could see the beauty in the blood matted feathers of an injured owl. He shook his head. It was the reason he was drawn to her. There was no way he was going to let her get away.
“Never saw one up close before.” Her gaze was full of compassion and understanding as she turned to him. “You’re going to need a bigger enclosure. That one’s not even big enough for her to spread one good wing. She does have one good wing. Right?”
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Posted in My Say What Blog, Uncategorized and tagged #L&SR's #Wednesday's Blog Challenge, Five Best Places I've Visited, Paranormal Romance, Tena Stetler by Tena Stetler with 15 comments.
A Witch’s Holiday Wedding 99¢ Sale- Happy Holidays –
Happy Holidays! Boy do I have a couple of sweet treats for you! A WITCH’S HOLIDAY WEDDING is on sale for 99 cents! AND Your complimentary recipe book, 2020 Holiday Garden Gourmet (Yummy cookie recipes) is here! Continue reading to find out more.
2020 Holiday Garden Gourmet – A holiday gift of yummy recipes from the Authors of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
This is a complimentary recipe book compiled by The Wild Rose Press and is available online for a free download here. The recipes are provided by myself and other TWRP authors. Please enjoy!
My contribution to the recipe book is Old Fashion Peanut Butter Cookies with a Kiss, page 170. Feel free to try all the recipes in the book. They’re YUMMY!!
Click on the cover to read more or purchase!
A Witch’s Holiday Wedding – A small town paranormal romance/mystery. It’s down to the wire, will the nosy McKay ghosts, Lathen’s werewolf pack, Pepper’s parents, and her best friend help or hinder the wedding and holiday plans? Lathen’s covert military mission threatens life as he knows it. Torn in too many directions will Pepper and Lathen make it to the altar?
Can they overcome the obstacles? https://amzn.com/B01MA1GYIB
A peek between the pages of A Witch’s Holiday Wedding
After she set her glass down, Lathen brushed a couple strands of hair out of her eyes and searched her face. “Are you all right?”
“I’m tired, my wedding is in a couple weeks, I have ghosts fighting over who is going to do what. Guests that have no idea the place is haunted and… Your family and pack, my parents, Gwen… To top it all off, the head of my clan, who is a ghost, is sitting in front of me wanting to know who is coming to the wedding and whether the ghosts will be outed. How could I possibly be all right?”
“When you put it that way.” Lathen chuckled. “It sounds just a bit… I don’t know…crazy?” His right eyebrow winged up. She saw mischief sparkle in his eyes. “We could still elope,” he offered.
Thank you for stopping by! Stay safe and have a happy holiday season! Don’t forget to wash you hands!
Views: 134
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged 2020 Holiday Garden Gourmet, Old Fashion Peanut Butter Cookies with a Kiss, Paranormal Romance, Tena Stetler, Urban Fantasy, Witches by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.
Mystic Maples by Tena Stetler #MFRWHooks
This week. #MFRWhooks is the award winning Mystic Maples. When Mercy discovers the truth, Silvanus’ well-ordered life unravels and they’re catapulted into the past to right a wrong.
I had a blast writing this book. A bit of time-travel, mystery, and magic is the small town of Willow Springs makes for a fun romantic adventure and an escape for the reader. A captivating furbaby by the name of Rag-A-Muffin steals the story.
So pull up a chair and get comfy, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Mystic Maples!
A peek between the pages of Mystic Maples: The hook.
Earth/Fire witch Mercy Rose’s insatiable curiosity always gets her in trouble. After a break-in at her Colorado flower shop, and a court battle that comes to a screeching halt in her favor, she arrives at Deerbourne Inn for a much-needed getaway. Looking for peace and quiet, she finds just the opposite in a startling handsome but mysterious man and his dog.
Silvanus Forrest’s gypsy/fae heritage is a double-edged sword. The land he inherited from his parents is rumored to be enchanted. But when Mercy discovers the truth, his well-ordered life unravels, and they’re catapulted into the past to right a wrong. Along the way their lives intertwine, and they discover the true meaning of family and love. Will they change the past in time to save their future?
A little more about Mystic Maples!
“Don’t touch that,” he barked. It was too late.
Her fingers stroked the rusted padlock. It sprang open. Puffs of dried soil sprinkled the carpet around the chest. He placed a restraining hand on her arm just as she tentatively dug her fingers into the soil. “This isn’t from your land. It’s —.” A swirl of colors sucked them in and a feeling of weightlessness surrounded her. She grabbed a hold of Sil’s arm. Then suddenly they were back inside the wagon.
Only something was amiss, the silence, the earthy smell wasn’t right. She shivered. What have I done? Taking a deep breath, she whirled around to face Sil.
“What the hell just happened?”
He shrugged. “You promised not to touch a thing. Lets get out of here.” Reaching for the vardo’s handle, he pushed down and the door opened into a small barn. He strode to the door, tugging Mercy along with him. When he shoved it open moonlight spread across an open field casting silvery shadows through the bordering trees. Off in the distance stood a ramshackle cabin.
A warm breeze swept her hair across her face. She stared unblinking. Nothing about the landscape was familiar except the stands of young trees. She bent as if to touch the soil.
His arm flew out and prevented her from reaching the ground. “Its true,” he murmured surveying the area. His lips set in a thin line, he rubbed his temples and stared. Mocking her. “I won’t touch a thing. Well… you did and now… we are not when we were.”
“Now what?” she whispered.
He sucked in a breath. With his hand at the small of her back, he urged her up the stairs of the vardo.”I think we better go back inside and talk.”
Pssst… While you’re here, don’t forget to check out my paranormal romance/mysteries click here.
Views: 381
Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog, Uncategorized and tagged #MFRWHooks, fourth of July, Gypsy, Holiday, magic, Mayple Syrup, Mystery, Mystic Maples, Paranormal Romance, Tena Stetler, Time travel, Vermont, Witches by Tena Stetler with 8 comments.
Favorite TV Shows and Why #L&SR #Wednesday Blog Challenge 5.15.19
Here we go Favorite TV Shows and Why!
Hummm… While I don’t watch a lot of TV, my tastes in TV shows are nearly as eclectic as my interests in book genres. That being said, Let’s start with S.W.AT. A police drama. Inspired by the television series and the feature film, S.W.A.T. stars Shemar Moore as a locally born and raised SWAT sergeant newly tasked to run a specialized tactical unit that is the last stop in law enforcement in Los Angeles. Torn between loyalty to where he was raised and allegiance to his brothers in blue, former Marine Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson has everything it takes to be an excellent leader and bridge the divide between his two worlds. Hondo’s elite unit includes David “Deacon” Kay, an experienced SWAT officer who always puts the team first, despite feeling overlooked for the lead job; Christina “Chris” Alonso, a skilled officer and the team’s canine trainer; Dominique Luca, an expert driver who gets them in and out of high risk situations; Victor Tan, who started in the LAPD Hollywood Division and uses his confidential informants in the community to help the team; and Jim Street, a cocky and promising new team member who is fired when his troubled family life leads him to compromise his role within the unit. Responsible for the management of all Metro Division SWAT units is Commander Robert Hicks, a senior LAPD official with the Special Operations Bureau. Overseeing Hondo’s team is Hicks’ direct report, Jessica Cortez, the ambitious captain of L.A. Metro whose professional aspirations force her to end an off-the-books relationship with Hondo. Hondo’s team enjoys an intense rivalry with another L.A.-based unit led by Mumford, an aggressive leader who likes to do things his way. With Hondo leading the charge, these dedicated men and women bravely put themselves at risk to protect their community and save lives.
Why I like this show. Its fast moving, the writing and dialog is down to earth and realistic for the most part. Now that doesn’t mean that I think the scenes are true to life, but… I’ve yet to see a situation so far fetched that I have to turn off the TV. Yes, I’ve done that to numerous shows I started out enjoying and then they crashed and burned. It’s almost like the station gets a hit show on their hands, then fires all the good writers ( suspect wages are involved) and hire a bunch of numnuts. Know what I mean? The on screne chemistry between the actors is great.
N.C.I.S. is another favorite. Do you see a trend? LOL Yes, another police drama this one with Mark Harmon. N.C.I.S. is an American action police procedural television series, revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Each week is a different case to solve. The actors are a cohesive unit and work well together.
Why I Like This Show: Through it’s cast changes the show maintains good writing and decent plots. I enjoy figuring out who did it and why. While I can usually figure out who before the end of the show, the twists and turns sometimes keep me guessing and I like that!
Discovery of WItches – on AMC –
Diana Bishop is a Yale history of science professor, who is conducting research at the University of Oxford. She is a witch, but has rejected this aspect of her life; she has not learned to practice witchcraft and has minimized her interaction with other witches.
She discovers a lost manuscript at the Bodleian Library which not only causes a magical reaction in herself, but attracts the attention of others who have long been searching for the manuscript. She finds that for her own safety, and for the well-being of magical creatures, she must re-think her avoidance of magic and magical creatures.
This season is about Diana Bishop discovering her peril, qualities of herself that were unknown to her, and discovering romance, friends, and enemies in the magical community. The later volumes develop her actions to protect herself and her friends, and ameliorate a threat to the magical community.
Why I Like This Show: I LOVED the books by Deborah Harkness. As I’ve stated before. She doesn’t dumb down her language and knows how to describe a scene. Anyway, the TV show digressed a bit from the books. Gee now there’s a shock. Not. But they are true enough to the books that I’ve enjoyed the first season and plan on watching the next one. The casting is for the most part like imagined with a couple of exceptions. The other reason I love this show, don’t believe in living in reality if I don’t have too. One reason I am a writer of paranormal romance. Give me a reason to spend my time writing fantasies and my love of the paranormal it rolls right into my TV viewing.
When calls the Heart – Hallmark – This TV show is a Canadian-American television drama series, inspired by Janette Oke‘s book of the same name from her Canadian West series, and developed by Michael Landon Jr. In the sweeping frontier drama “When Calls the Heart,” the town of Hope Valley adjusts to the changing times– while still maintaining the small-town bonds that connect them. The series follows single mother Elizabeth Thornton (Erin Krakow), Hope Valley’s beloved schoolteacher who navigates life alone when her husband is suddenly killed on duty. Elizabeth’s best friend and mentor is Abigail Stanton (Lori Loughlin), the town’s mayor . Yep, this is the show that Lori Lougthlin’s scenes were edited out due to the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal involving Loughlin causing her subsequent removal from all Hallmark properties, I also liked the Garage Sale Mysteries, but that was also Lori’s baby and is no more.
Why I Like This Show: Again it as to do with suspending reality. As we all are aware life is not simple, sweet and everything the Hallmark Channel is. But… sometimes that is exactly what you need, especially after watching the evening news. Maybe it renews your faith in mankind, just a little. As an aside, the editing out of Lori’s scenes did nothing to spoil the show for me.
Well there you have it. My Favorite TV shows and Why. Now this isn’t to say these are the only ones. But, I need to get back to my WIP, so let’s see what the other authors in this blog challenge claim as their favorite TV shows and why: L&SR
Pssst… While you’re here, don’t forget to check out my paranormal romance/mysteries click here.
See you next week when you learn what Books I love that Became Films or TV Shows. See you then!
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Posted in Uncategorized and tagged #L&SR #Wednesday Blog Challenge, Favorite TV Shows and Why, Tena Stetler by Tena Stetler with 15 comments.
