Fall Flowers, Happy Book News, & Other Assorted Tidbits

I couldn’t quite decide what to write about this week, so I decided that I’d touch on everything I’m excited about in today’s post! 🙂

First of all—after a long, long wait—my sunflowers and zinnias have arrived! I planted them from seed on May 27th, and after several months of anticipation, they finally blossomed this week. The sunflowers (at the top of this post), which I photographed today, are from the ProCut series.

My darling salmon-colored zinnias are from the Benary’s Giant series:

A sure sign that fall is coming—my white hydrangeas are turning a delightful rosy pink!

This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing the one-and-only Eythora Thorsdottir, an immensely talented gymnast from the Netherlands. I’ve been a huge fan of Eythora since 2013, when I first saw her compete at the European Youth Olympic Festival—she has some of the most elegant routines in the world right now. 🙂 I’m hopeful that she recovers from a recent injury in time to compete at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar this October!

I also recently interviewed members of the 2008 U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team for the next issue of Inside Gymnastics, in honor of the 10-year anniversary of their silver medal. I grew up watching and re-watching their amazing performances in Beijing, so it was definitely a thrill to speak with them for this piece! 🙂 The next issue will appear on newsstands later in September.

This summer, my grandma introduced me to watercolor pencils—they are absolutely splendid to work with! Here’s a quick drawing I did the other day—perhaps a future book character! 🙂

In bookish news, I just finished reading Beany Malone by Lenora Mattingly Weber—such a fun novel! Published in 1948, this book is the second in the Malone family series (I read the first earlier this year). A lovely story about a warmhearted family living in Denver right after World War II!

Beany Malone (Beany Malone Series Book 2) Reading Beany for the hundredth time… hooked in the first few pages – yet again. Gusty October, hullabaloo in the Malone house, Beany whipping up 7 minute frosting…. Lenora Mattingly Weber https://t.co/zjKWeOdroY via @amazon #books pic.twitter.com/Tdks7pdgxx

— Image Cascade Books (@ImageCascade) August 29, 2018

I also heard yesterday that there will be a new book in the Judy Bolton series! The original author of the series, Margaret Sutton, passed away in 2001, but Beverly Hatfield coauthored the official 39th volume in the series in 2012. Now, Beverly has written a mystery that is supposed to take place between books #13 and #14. It will reportedly be available later this fall! <3

I’ve written almost 8,000 words of my work-in-progress novella, “The Mistress of Half Moon Hall.” Very eager to keep working on it!

And just for fun, here’s a snapshot of one of my recently-rearranged bookshelves:

Such wonderful books here! 🙂 What have you been reading lately?