Captivating

What are you doing here, Maddy? What's this Texas woman doing freezing in Door County, Wisconsin?

Earning some money. Wait a minute. What scenic beauty. None like I've experienced before. Snow drifts, birch trees, a grand view of Ephraim. Like a picture postcard. And the sweetest elderly couple I've ever known. Their love for each other is amazing. Captivating. Contagious?

Counting the Days

I love my job. . .I love my job. . .I...rrrr. It's not like I'm not trying, but stuck in a sterile cubicle with a boss everyone secretly calls Napoleon paroling the perimeter is hardly an atmosphere conducive to creativity. “Faster, Jillian, faster.” I’m putting big black Xs on my calendar until I leave for a whole glorious week in Door County...orange and gold leaves, the smell of wood smoke in the air, watching the boil-over at a fish boil, the Sister Bay Fall Fest, and laughter, lots of laughter. Nobody makes them laugh like Uncle Buster and his comedy troupe. And best of all—I’ll be miles and miles away from the last guy I’ll ever date.

Love on Wheels

In the movies, two-in-a-canoe scenes are romantic. Horseback rides, too, in the brisk morning air as the heroine and hero eye each other adoringly. Do that on bicycles, and you and your honey may exchange longing looks across the emergency room from his-and-her body casts.

Still, cycling is a fun couple thing, especially in beautiful Door County, Wisconsin.

"Joanna, God did some of His finest work here," my late husband always said.

Now, my bike is buried under piles of unopened boxes in the garage of our dream retirement home. I don't like to ride alone. But the guy next door--the one with the awful haircut and the Goodwill flannel shirt--just pedaled off on a classic Raleigh.

Bad taste in clothes. Good taste in bikes. Hmmm.

Laugh Your Way to a Better Christmas

An early reader of "The Heart's Harbor" in A DOOR COUNTY CHRISTMAS novella collection commented that Harland's swim fins were a romantic gesture that showed the depths of his love for Lola. Only Harland and Lola could pull that off. It blessed me, Amanda Brooks, too. I'm the invention of my author--Cynthia--but you and I know better. Most of me is just like most of you. If you could have seen Harland flip-flapping on the hardwood floors of that beautiful inn, you would have reacted the same way I did. Good talking to you. I have to go now. Cherry pecan coffee cake's about to come out of the oven. That first slice with a shingle of good old Wisconsin dairyland butter...mmm! Oh, that reminds me. I'd better start the coffee maker. You never know who might drop by.

Q: Take a Beautiful Setting...

add four barren Christmas cacti, an innkeeper in swim goggles, a big hairy spider, a frustrated realtor, two water-damaged wisemen, and what do you get?

A: A teaser-taste of the ridiculous obstacles confronting the heroines of A Door County Christmas.

What you see to above is the needy Christmas cactus I just adopted. I'll post pictures of it's progress or lack thereof as we approach the holidays. May it blossom in time, just as innkeeper Lola Peterson promised the heroines of our stories. I'd love suggestions from green-thumbers.