Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful Valentine's Day with loved ones. Along with human friends and family, I hope that our special pet love's are a part of our celebrations for love today as well. I am so grateful for my Goden Retriever baby, Lily and my sweet cat, Liberty. Their unconditional love gets me through rough times and they brighten my days.

I just want to say a word about my friends, Kathy, Dottie and Maureen who sent me cards for my recent loss of Acorn, my cat, and to Rev. Renee who made me a memorial bracelet for Acorn. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Your friendship and love is so important to me and your thoughtfulness will be remembered always. On a day celebrating love, I would be remiss if I didn't send out my love for you into the universe today.

May you all have a wonderful and loving day today.

Sarah

Another Contest for BITTER NOTES

Besides my very own contest for BITTER NOTES, there is also a Valentines contest at Romance Junkies that BITTER NOTES is participating in. Here is the tag to get there:
http://www.RomanceJunkies.com/RJValentinescontest/SarahMcNeal.html

SAYING GOOD BYE TO ACORN

My wonderful cat, ACORN, has died. After a year of being cancer free, it suddenly returned with a vengence just 2 days ago. The cancer had metasticized everywhere. It was so hard for me to let him go but I could not allow him to suffer. His vet., Dr Pennae, cried, too. It has been a very sad day for me. I am going to miss his antics, his beautiful presence in my life and his loud voice. I will miss and love him always.
Sarah

CONTEST RELEASE OF BITTER NOTES

BITTER NOTES was just released today and I am starting my release celebration by having a contest. You could win a piano music box, a piano charm necklace, piano shaped pencil sharpner or magnetic calandar with the book cover on it.
HERE ARE THE INSTRUCTIONS:

Go to my BOOKSHELF and check out the excerpt for BITTER NOTES. Answer these two questions:
1. What is the weather?
2. Who are the 2 main characters?
Then look under my Works In Progress and tell me the name of the book that is looking for a home.

That's it. email the answers to me using my email address on the contact page. The contest will continue until Valentines's Day (February 14, 2010)

SNOW DAY!

This is the first snow I've seen this year and I'm happy to see it. I know. Kinda crazy. My dog, Lily, had fun figuring it out since she has never seen snow before. It's fun to watch and neat to sit by the fire and watch it come down.
You may think I'm a nut case getting excited about seeing snow but, here in the South, it's an exciting and noteworthy event.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
Sarah

I Begin My Hostess Job at The Romance Room

GREETINGS EVERYONE!
I cordially invite you to join me on Monday evening, January 11, 2010 for my big extravaganza. I am starting a new job along with author Linday Mooney as hostesses for THE ROMANCE ROOM. To celebrate this ocassion, I'll be posting excerpts from my previous book, THE VIOLIN, my upcoming release, BITTER NOTES and, if there is time, my book HARMONICA JOE'S RELUCTANT BRIDE that is presently looking for a home and my WIP, THE LIGHT OF VALMORA. I will have some truly easy contests and giving away cool stuff like Piano shaped pencil sharpeners, Magnetic calendars, a music bos that's a baby grand piano and a free download of my previous release, THE VIOLIN. I intend to have some fun and welcome anyone who would like to join me there.
Sending good vibes to your corner of the universe.
Sarah McNeal

My New Year's Intentions

My New Year's Intentions

I have made many New Year's Resolutions over the years and I can say, without a moment's hesitation, that I have never kept a single one--nope not one.

So, this year I'm going to do something different; I'm going to make New Year's Intentions. Just to be clear, the idea of New Year's Intentions is not my original idea. The idea of New Year's Intentions came from the sermon Reverend Christy Snow gave this past Sunday. An Intention is an inside thing, something I can do to improve my spiritual being. It is based on the four principles she outlined in her sermon. So here goes:

1. I want to have humility--not me but God kind of attitude about the blessings I have received and having gratitude for them.

2. I want to rely more on Divine Wisdom, that inner voice that whispers the truth I need to listen to more often.

3. I want to be open to Agape Love--the love of all human beings, creatures and creation that God has created.

4. I want to allow my light to shine, to be who I really am every day, in every situation.

If I can put my best Intentions forward in 2010, I will improve my spiritual being. I won't be perfect. Let's face it, no one is going to be perfect, but I can strive each day to be a better person.

So there it is, my New Year's Intentions. I hope that this year will bring you health and happiness and that you will let your light shine and love each and every day as it comes.

Happy New Year!!

Sarah

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Christmas is right around the corner and, finally, I am done shopping. I'm getting ready to do some baking for Christmas Brunch in just a bit. My tree is decorated and my presents are wrapped. It's a great feeling of accomplishment to have it all done. Whew!

I feel better now that I made some donations to my favorite charities, The Humane Society of the United States, the Humane Society of Charlotte and Defenders of Wildlife. All I have to do is watch Animal Planet when they're doing Animal Cops or see the advertisement featuring abused animals with Sarah McLaughlin singing In The Arms of an Angel and I am driven to do something. It's so heart wrenching to watch. Cesar Millan is right up there with Stephen Hawkings on my hero list.

I want to tell you that BITTER NOTES will be released by Amira Press around the middle of January and I am really excited about it. Yeehaw! It was inspired by an actual event. Day after day I drove by this house that had a baby grand piano sitting out in the front yard. At first, I thought they were having difficulty figuring out how to get the huge thing in their house. But when I saw it sitting out there in the pouring rain, I knew it was left out there on purpose. It was so sad when, eventually, its rotted boards and splintered keyboard sat on the side of the road waiting on the garbage collector. God, why didn't they donate it to charity or to a school where its purpose could have been fulfilled--filling the world with the sounds of beautiful music? It broke my heart and so I wrote a story about it. It's a story of revenge, letting go and hope. Please check out my books section for the blurb and excerpt.

In the meantime, I hope you have a safe and memorable holiday. Merry Christmas!!

Sarah

I almost forgot to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving. Well, even though it's after the fact, I I hope you had a good one.
Sarah

BITTER NOTES COVER

Here it is, the cover for my upcoming contemporary book at Amira Press. This cover was created by the multi-talented Anastasia Rabiyah who is not only an artist but a terrific writer as well. Whew! this cover is beautiful.

Sarah

GREAT NEWS!!

I am positively psyched that my new contemporary, BITTER NOTES, is now contracted to Amira Press.

This story was inspired by a sad event. Every day I passed by this baby grand piano that someone had put out in the front yard. At first I thought they were trying to figure out how to get it into the house, but as days passed with it still out there, I realized with horror that it was intentional. There was no "For Sale" sign on it and I thought how crazy it was that they didn't even donate it to a theater or a school. Baby grands are worth around $3000. Eventually the rain poured down on it and, as time passed, it fell into ruin and ended up set on the curb for the garbage collector. It was the saddest thing I'd seen in years.

So I wrote a story around it and used the story as a catharses of sorts. Hopefully, I can get the edits and the story can be released soon.

In the meantime, I want to wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving if you live here in the USA and drive safely if you have to be on the road during the holidays.

All good things to your corner of the universe.

Sarah

Having A Great Day

(Bryan Adams)

October 25,2009 has been a very good day.

It started with a wonderful sermon by Christy Snow called "Mastery" but was really about being who we really are--our authentic selves. I needed to hear that. I sometimes play to an audience just wanting people to like me. I guess we're all a little involved in that.

The music at church is always inspiring and, since I am also a musician, I appreciate the effort that goes into creating a beautiful, harmonic sound. After church, we had a surprise lunch of my favorite food, chili and cornbread with delicious desserts. Loving the desserts, too.

So, filled up with some good spirit, my sister and I went to see Bryan Adams who is doing an acoustic concert. It was just Bryan with his guitar and Gary on piano--no band or loud electronics. I never realized how much his lyrics meant until I heard them sung without the big band behind him.

He was funny and kind, explaining how he came upon certain songs and he managed to good-naturedly put up with some members of the audience who were listening to the football game with the Panthers (who apparently lost.) He encouraged the audience to sing along with him and we did--most enthusiastically.

I like the McGlohon Theater because of it's beautiful stained glass windows with back lights and charming ambiance but it's also an intimate place. The audience and the performer get to have closeness even if you're in the last row at the back. For those of you who don't know the place, it used to be a church in downtown Charlotte many years ago and was converted into a theater for the performing arts.

My day was not marred by a single negative energy or event. The worst thing that happened was that my sister and I didn't get to stay to eat the food we ordered--but they gave us our coffee for free because the service was slow and I felt that that made up for it.

Tomorrow may be crap. The sky might fall or a bill come due, but for now, I had a great day and just wanted to share it with you. I have to treasure perfectly good days because they don't happen that often and must be held in graditude. And so it is.

Sarah

Halloween's Comin'

Halloween Is Coming


This is a photo of me with my pumpkin cake. I made it for my friend’s Halloween party some years back.

Halloween is just around the corner. It’s my favorite holiday because I can become anyone or anything I want from a witch to a walking hamburger. My most inspirational costume was a dead foot on a flip-flop—a sort of after the accident clean up object. I used a green sheet as the foot making sure to create each of the toes and painted the toenails with red fabric paint. The flip-flop was created from a piece of egg crate foam used on mattresses and a large flat piece of cardboard. I was the foot with the flip-flop hung over my back using a strap wedged between my head (the big toe) and the stuffed stand up toes that ran across my shoulder. It was a pain moving around but worth it.

My friend, Kathy Groce used to give a Halloween party every year and each year had its own theme. So one year, she decided to make it like a carnival. Each guest played a game to win tickets for the other events. Her brother, Dave, who is a tall, handsome schoolteacher, was a tattoo artist. Okay, actually, the tattoos were the kind you apply water to and they come off on your skin. A couple of showers and they’re gone. My “booth” was the fortune-telling booth. I read palms and gave a little gift of a fortune telling fish to each of my “customers.” I found the little fortune telling fish at a magic store up the street. What I loved most was that some people actually believed I had the ability to tell their future and one person wanted to hire me for another party. Were they just gullible, or was I just that convincing in my roll?

Madeline, my 8-year-old niece, is as excited about Halloween as I am and planning her costume as we speak. I think she called it a witch princess outfit. I guess that means it’s Cinderella dressed in black. I’d like to figure out how to make a Pez container costume. How do you get the candy to shoot out of your neck?

I hope your Halloween is fun and safe.
All good things to your corner of the universe.
Sarah

Welcome to my new website

I hope you all like my new website that Jodie designed for me. Things still need a little tweaking but I think it's looking pretty fine right now.

LIST OF PRIZES FOR TWO LIPS REVIEWS CONTEST

Oh my word, I had no idea how many prizes were being given away for the TwoLips Reviews Scavenger Hunt. Here is the tag to see for yourself what the prizes are. Someone is going to be mighty lucky!!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TalkingTwoLips/files/

Scavenger Hunt

The TWOLIPS SCAVENGER HUNT is on and I am a participant. Look for their icon here on my website. If you need to know the rules and what you can win, here's how:
www.twolipsreviews. com click on scavenger hunt and you will find the rules! come play with us! and win win win! over 100 prizes to be won come on and play!
So start playing already!
Sarah

RECEIPES!!

HELLO my darlings. In case you missed these recipes when I posted them during my featured Author Day at The Romance Room, here they are:

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
½ cup butter or margarine 1/3 cup Hershey’s cocoa
2/3 cup sugar ¼ teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk (set aside the egg white) Vanilla Filling (below)
2 tablespoons milk Granulated sugar or
1 teaspoon vanilla 3/4 cup walnuts or pecans finely chopped
1 cup unsifted all-purpose flour 2 dozen Hershey kisses

Cream butter, 2/3 cup sugar, egg yolk, milk and vanilla in small mixer bowl; blend into creamed mixture. Chill dough about an hour or until firm enough to handle. Keep the egg white at room temperature until dough is ready to handle. Then beat the egg white until frothy and place in a small bowl. Roll each ball in either the granulated sugar or the ground nuts and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Make a thumbprint in each cookie.
Place in oven preheated to 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
While the cookies are cooling,
Prepare Vanilla Filling:
Thoroughly combine ½ cup confections’ sugar, I tablespoon butter, 2 teaspoons milk and ¼ teaspoon vanilla
Once the cookies have cooled, place a dollop of vanilla filling in the thumbprint and top with a Hershey Kiss.


VANILLA THUMBPRINT COOKIES
¼ cup butter ¼ cup shortening
¼ cup brown sugar (packed) 1 egg separated
¼ teaspoon vanilla 1 cup unsifted all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt ¾ cup finely chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix thoroughly butter, shortening, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla. Work in flour and salt until dough holds together. Shape dough into 1 inch balls.
Beat the egg white until foamy. Roll each ball in the egg white then roll in chopped nuts and place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Press thumb in the center of each ball and pplace in oven for 10 minutes.
After cookies have cooled, place a dollop of vanilla filling (below) in the thumbprint and top with whatever turns your key—candied fruit, Hershey Kiss, Walnut or Pecan half, etc.
Vanilla Filling:
Thoroughly combine ½ cup confectioner’s sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, 2 teaspoons milk and ¼ teaspoon vanilla

WACKY COCOA CAKE
3 cups unsifted all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar 2 cups water
½ cup Hershey Cocoa ¾ cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons baking soda 2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla
Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add water, oil, vinegar and vanilla and beat for 3 minutes at medium speed until thoroughly blended. Pour into a greased and floued 13x9x2 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes.
Cool and frost as desired. Personally I like White Mountain icing but some of my family prefers peanut butter icing.
I got this recipe from the Hershey’s Cocoa Cookbook that was free when I bought a can of cocoa many years ago. I have never known it to fail to rise into a beautiful cake that is delicious and always moist. My best friend and I used to make it for birthdays when we worked in coronary care years ago and everyone loved it.

Remembering An American Hero

I received a message from a friend of mine, Kathy Groce, a veteran from The Gulf War and The Irag War where she helped med-vac soldiers and cared for the injured in an Air Force ground base hospital.
It is amazing to me the things that we Americans choose to honor. There are heroes among us, men and women willing to do whatever it takes to help others, to protect us all and do what needs to be done quietly and persistently—every day ordinary people we seldom hear about because they aren’t entertainers or politicians.
So, I ask you to read about this American hero and let this story sink in deep in your heart and remind you that this is what it means to be an American and a human being.
Subject: Ed Freeman
No matter what your race, creed, color, religion or political preferences, this deserves to be read and honored.
Michael Jackson dies and it's 24/7 news coverage. A real American hero dies and not a mention of it in the news.
Ed Freeman
You're a 19-year-old kid. You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley , 11-14-19 65, LZ X-ray, Vietnam . Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in. You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter and you look up to see an unarmed Huey, but it doesn't seem real because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.
Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.
He's coming anyway.
And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.
Then he flies you up and out, through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses. And he kept coming back, 13 more times, and took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.
Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman died on Wednesday, June 25th, 2009, at the age of 80, in Boise , ID. May God rest his soul.
Medal of Honor Winner Ed Freeman!
Since the media didn't give him the coverage he deserves, send this to every red-blooded American you know.
THANKS AGAIN, ED, FOR WHAT YOU DID FOR OUR COUNTRY.
RIP

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Congratulations, you have found the banner for the Twolips Reviews Scavenger Hunt!!

Have a wonderful and safe Fourth of July. I'll be on my deck at sunset watching my neighbors' fireworks as I sip my cool drink and eat my ice cold watermelon.
Have fun enjoying our Independence Day!
Sarah

HAPPY 4th OF JULY

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

I hope you all have a wonderful day celebrating our Independence Day. So, bring on the hot dogs, barbeque, watermelon ice cream, drinks and whatever else you're having today, enjoy the day and please keep safe. I'll be watching fireworks from my deck. My neighbor, Carlos's cousin, who is a fairly new citizen of the USA always has a big ol' party with real fireworks. It's going to be a wild and crazy night and I don't even have to leave home. Ha Ha

Happy Birthday America!

Sarah
This is the banner you are looking for to play in the scavenger hunt at Joyfully reviewed
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