Labor Day has come and gone. It is officially autumn. Summer is over, but I don’t have to believe it if I don’t want to. Still, the days are still warm and sunny, the trees are shedding brilliantly colored leaves and my roses remain in full bloom. Soon it will be Thanksgiving and the Henke household will again feast on turkey with all the trimmings at the table pictured above. Life is good.

Hey, I’m entitled to enjoy an extended summer since I spent most of this one in front of my “devil machine” finishing a manuscript. But LOVE LESSONS AT MIDNIGHT was really a labor of love. I have not had this much fun watching characters come to life since Alex and Joss in WICKED ANGEL. But Alex was a classic bad boy hero. Rob is his polar opposite—a second son destined for the Church who inherits an earldom and becomes an ardent reformer in Parliament. I have never before written a good boy hero (is there such a term?). It took me a while to figure out what made him tick. Of course, Amber, aka, Lady Fantasia, aka Gabrielle, showed me just how to wind him up and... Well, let’s just say that she is two very unique heroines and leave it at that for the present.

The summer was not entirely spent writing. I did take time out to enjoy our annual vacation in the Rockies and to play in my yard. Jim and I belong to the St. Louis Jazz Club and have really become addicted to the wonderful music we hear at their monthly concerts. New Orleans, Memphis and Chicago always get their due when jazz is mentioned, but my town can hold its own against all comers. Dixieland, blues and all shades in between, you’ll find hot and sweet sounds in the Lou.

Since we have gone to several picnics and potlucks with family and friends over the past months, I have added a couple of my most requested recipes. Check out my version of an old favorite, deviled eggs, and a chocolate peanut butter pie to die for, plus other recipes from earlier months.

One of my professional writer’s organizations, Novelists, Inc., held its annual conference in St. Louis this year. My local writer buddies and I were tasked with selecting the best restaurants and entertainment venues for visitors (a real hardship). October 1st through the 4th I stayed downtown with old friends from around the country, yuking it up and closing down the jazz bars while poor ole Jim remained at home. Our son Matt took a vacation that same weekend, so guess who was left in charge of litter-pan detail for Inky and Pewter plus Matt’s geriatric cat Max? Grandpa Jim had his hands full (no pun intended). Ah well, I had to work all summer on deadline. As his uncle used to say, “Sometimes you’re the dog and sometimes you’re the fireplug.”

Jim finally has written a new Newsletter. He’s tried his hand at a Bret Harte kind of local color piece, describing our adventures attending a most unique gathering while in Colorado. Check it out for a good chuckle. Honest, he was not making this up!

My best buddy Carol Reynard and her husband Ken paid us a visit in October. She called me to say she wanted to celebrate her birthday at our house. “My only requests are Ponticello’s pizza, your lemon meringue pie and Jim’s barbecued ribs,” she said. To which I replied, “That can be arranged.” A local institution for over sixty years, Ponticello’s makes the best thin-crust pizza in the world as far as those of us raised in the Lou are concerned. We ordered two bacon and mushroom pizzas for dinner the first night. Then Matt brought his aunt Carol two more to take home. She was blissed out. I made her birthday pie (see the recipe section for lemon meringue pie), and Jim, bless his black shriveled ole heart, stood out in the rain to grill her ribs!

As the weather starts to chill and the kids return to school, it’s time to curl up with a good book. Happy reading while you watch the fall colors pop out!

Shirl