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Night Owl Stories October 11, 2024

The Hoot

Hello Readers,

While I love this season, it definitely has its challenges. To all of those impacted by the recent hurricanes, Helene and Milton, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your families. My small town in the Smith Mountain Lake area of southwestern Virginia got through Helene relatively unscathed but some surrounding counties were absolutely devastated. My uncle in Asheville, N.C. was without power for days but thankfully he was otherwise okay. And my mother-in-law got lucky - AGAIN - in Bonita Springs, FL. We have been through this with her before where she doesn't want to evacuate. Thankfully, she got through Milton with very little damage. I hope all of you and your families were as lucky as mine in getting through these hurricanes.

On a happier note, I had to share the pumpkins my daughter carved. She drew the pictures by hand and carved them herself. Yes, I'm biased but these are amazing!

Something to Fight For is coming along. I would like to say I made a lot of progress but that may be overstating things. But, I did make progress so I will take that as a win. Next newsletter, I promise to provide another excerpt from the book. I can't wait to tell you the story of Benny & Lexie. There is no shortage of drama and maybe a little action and suspense.

I ended the weekend with a little fall baking. My daughter wanted to make pumpkin bread so I dug out my old recipe that I used to make all the time. I had to go through my old recipe box and search to find the very used and stained recipe that I only had on paper for some reason. But, it was worth it. If you are interested, I typed it and included the recipe below and I did find it on allrecipes.com.

Author Promos

Yours Truly by R.M. Demeester

Love finds us, but so does she.

I know what it’s like to be underestimated. At almost twenty, I’ve learned that life isn’t easy on people like me—a high school dropout working in a dead-end bar. So when Chad, from an influential family, walks into my life, I think I’ve finally caught a break. But, of course, things are never that simple.
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Then there’s Sarah, his ex-fiancée. She can’t, or won’t, let him go. Chad says she’s just struggling to move on, but I’m not so sure. Sarah is everywhere. She’s inserting herself into our business, and her behavior crosses lines I can’t ignore. I try to tell myself she’s just obsessed and harmless, but deep down, I know better.
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Now I’m wondering how far she’ll go to get him back and what it will cost me. I’m worried I’m risking my happiness, my sanity, or even my life.

​Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread​

This pumpkin bread is a great old Maine recipe, moist and spicy. The bread actually tastes even better the day after it is baked. It's easy to make and perfect for holiday gift-giving!

Submitted by Laurie Fontaine Bennett on allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• ⅔ cup water
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger

Directions

Step 1. Gather the ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9x5-inch loaf pans.

Step 2. Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger together in a large bowl.

Step 3. Mix pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water, and sugar in a separate bowl until well blended.

Step 4. Stir flour mixture into pumpkin mixture until just blended.

Step 5. Pour batter into the prepared pans.

Step 6. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.

Step 7. Enjoy!

Where It All Started (Something to Hope For Prequel)

Where It All Started is going on a hiatus, so I can focus on telling the story of Benny and Lexie. You can read the previous installments at the links below and I promise to finish the story. It is only on hold. I always had hoped to turn it into a novella and publish it and this has now become the plan. It will be available as a free prequel to Something to Hope For.

Where It All Started is the story of the older generation of Crossroads - Joe, Laura, Ruby, Rob, Tom, Jenny, Patrick and Becca. Please keep in mind, this is a raw story that has not been professionally edited. Please be forgiving of any small mistakes.

If you missed Part 1, you can catch up here, The Hoot 21 June 2024.

If you missed Part 2, you can catch up here, The Hoot 21 July 2024.

If you missed Part 3, you can catch up here, The Hoot 18 August 2024.

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up for The Hoot to keep receiving installments of Where It All Started (a Something to Hope For prequel), updates on the next book in The Crossroads Series, recipes from Crossroads Diner, and more.

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Copyright © 2024 by T.S. Robinson

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