Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, Chris Matheson Cold Case, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty-five titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!
Killer Deadline marks Lauren’s first venture into mystery’s purely cozy sub-genre with a female protagonist.
Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, crime fiction, police procedurals, romance, and humor.
A popular speaker, Lauren is also the owner of Acorn Book Service, the umbrella under which falls iRead Book Tours. She lives with her husband and two spoiled rotten German Shepherds on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.
Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Pinterest
Sterling and Me: Losing Battles:
Is It a Surrender or Declaration of Defeat?
This weekend was a rough one in Sterling and my war against the COVID-20 – by that I mean the 20 pounds Sterling and I have put on since the shut down a year ago.
It was my birthday weekend. Shout out of thanks to the many, many birthday wishes on Facebook and other social media platform.
Each birthday is now a horrible reminder that a little over ten years ago, I proudly wore skinny jeans to my birthday dinner of crab-legs and feasted on chocolate birthday cake—declaring that this middle-aged woman was HOT at 50.
My sister and niece came to visit for the weekend, and we spent it eating birthday cake, breakfast pastries, oriental take-out and brownies in between. Sterling’s diet also hit the skids as he feasted on chew bones (brought by my sister), last bites of breakfast pastries, dog biscuits, corners of grilled cheese sandwiches, and anything else he could extract from guests.
In resignation of losing this weekend’s battle, I recalled something my mother used to say, “I don’t drink to excess. I don’t smoke. I don’t cheat on my husband. So, why shouldn’t I get to eat cake?”
My niece said, “But I want to be healthy.”
Does that mean only un-healthy people eat cake?
This birthday, I am 61 years old and not hot anymore—unless you want to count hot flashes. I’m finding myself identifying with Valerie Bertinelli, author of Losing It—and Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time, which detailed her diet journey. I devoured it in one day. Written in plain language, I identified with much of what Valerie experienced and felt in her life—mainly because she and I are the same age.
Middle-aged really became a reality as Valerie’s life went sideways. I don’t know what it is that makes growing older more apparent than weight-gain. I mean, young people can be overweight—right?
So, Valerie Bertinelli became a spokesperson for Jenny Craig and worked months to lose 50 pounds. She celebrated turning 50 with those famous bikini pics splashed across People magazine.
She was 50 and hot—just like me.
Ten years later, Valerie Bertinelli, a Daytime Emmy Award Winning host on the Food Network, says ‘There’s a lot of pride and a lot of shame associated with that cover. I worked really, really, really hard. Physically definitely. I wish to God I had worked just as hard on my mental shape.’ (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8319725/Valerie-Bertinelli-60-says-worked-hard-slim-bikini-cover.html )
Cute at 60, Valerie Bertinelli now introduces fans to delicious foods and looks like she truly enjoys what she is doing. She’s enjoying life and everything that it has to offer—like great tasty food. Who cares if it goes straight to the hips?
Maybe we should consider the source when talking about those pounds sitting on our hips. I mean, what kind of people rob lovely, happy, middle aged women of the joy of good food?
During this birthday weekend, I enjoyed the time with my sister and eating birthday cake. It would have been better if I didn’t have the guilt pangs with every brownie I ate.
I wish I could be more like Sterling. When Karen extracted the big shiny tasty chew bone from her purse, he didn’t groan with guilt.
A party-pooper, Guilt was not allowed to his party as Sterling enjoyed the company of good friends and family and embraced every bit of tasty goodness this weekend.
Of course, in our war against unwanted pounds, we haven’t declared defeat. But maybe there are times when we should think about calling a truce.
Buried Under Books 