I hope you all had a great weekend. I’m sorry I still am so behind on blog visiting and responding to comments. Unfortunately my weekend was a bit focused on my job search so mostly everything else fell by the wayside. I will get caught up soon.

I did have the chance though to go to The Writing Barn. I had no idea this wonderful creative space existed! They have workshops, events and rental space to nurture writers. I need to check out some of their classes and maybe one of these days I’ll be inspired to try it out but this time I was there for a book group friend who was launching her book.

Shrouded is the work of Meredith Lee, the pen name for Austin writers Dixie Lee Evatt and Sue Meredith Cleveland. I know Dixie from my mystery book group and I remember when she told us about a year ago that she was working on her book. It’s so exciting to see the actual copy.

There was a nice size crowd for the launch and we got to hear a bit about how the two work and the research they did as well as got to listen to both read some excerpts from the book. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m a bit behind on a read I need to finish for our book group, I would have started this one.

Here is a bit about Shrouded from the publisher: American grad student, Crispin Leads, is at the Vatican to study burial rituals and catch up with her friend, Sister Lew. Within hours of her arrival, Crispin witnesses a murder and is drawn into an investigation of multiple homicides. Meet ups with a young priest, Father Roberto Rossini, seem coincidental but she soon learns that little is left to happenstance in this palace of games. When Lew disappears, blame falls on Crispin and Roberto. Desperate to find Lew and prove their innocence, they make a run for it. In the days that follow they escape death and torture as they unravel the secrets of an unholy plot.

You can read more about the writing team on the Meredith Lee website. I look forward to reading this one soon.

I have to say it’s been a bit hard to be back from vacation. The constant barrage of awful news this week, whether it’s Mother Nature related or politics and then having received some not good news at work (meaning, I’m now on a job hunt), it all makes me want to get on a plane and head back to Germany & Sweden.

While I can’t do that, I will work on my pictures from our vacation this weekend so I can put together a photo album, and I’ll try to recapture that feeling of freedom, peace and joy that I felt while we traveled. I hope you don’t mind if I share some of the pictures with you.

After a day in Gothenburg we drove towards the west coast of Sweden and our first stop was the Nordic Watercolour Museum. The building was beautiful and the exhibits we saw were really nice as well.

One of my favorite parts of Sweden was the West Coast, known as Bohuslän. There are many quaint and charming fishing villages that make up this area. We had a cottage in Lysekil and from there we visited Smögen and Fjällbacka, which has been made famous as it’s the setting for Camilla Läckberg’s crime novels.

We had yummy fish & chips, indulged every day in the wonderful Swedish tradition of Fika, “a relaxing coffee and cake break”. You know I was up for that one. And, we took lots of pictures of the beautiful scenery, walked a lot and felt energized by the fresh, cool air. I loved seeing the grey granite cliffs and hearing the sound of seagulls as we walked around.

We spent four days in the coast before moving on to Stockholm to visit our friends. If I were to go to Sweden again I would definitely visit this area.

So, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. For those of you in any paths of hurricanes and affected by earthquakes and just any other disaster, I wish you and your loved ones the best. Sending love and light everywhere. I think we could all use a little vacation from the bad news right?

And, I promise I will talk about books soon!

P.S. – Yes, that’s me with the most delicious danish ever. That was actually taken in Malmo but I had something just as delicious every day we were there. Thank goodness for all that walking.