http://www.ebooknetworking.net/books_detail-1478276363.html

Why I wrote my Hard Times cookbooks

Dear Readers:

I started writing years ago as a newspaper journalist. I have written a lot of things in my time, but the hardest thing I ever personally wrote was a cookbook. And that is because it was so personal and something I wanted to do to help other people. And I wanted to help people who were struggling to feed their families, not back then, when I was trying to feed my own children, but right now, when people are trying to do the same.

I have read hundreds of cookbooks and loved to find a new one and I also have shared recipes with people all my life.
  But writing something is not like writing something our on a piece of stationary and handing it to a friend. It is so much harder to write a cookbook.

But the main thing is it made me remember Hard Times something no one would willingly want to do. I can remember working in a factory one summer while I was waiting to go into a university full time that next year. I saw people tape their fingers because of blisters due to repetitive work and they went on to work with these sore hands all day, sometimes for twelve hours straight.

I have seen people go out to the cotton fields with these old gloves and the fingers were cut out of them so they could pick the cotton, a stickery bush for sure and there was blood everywhere. I know some old people who used to brag, "Well, I have sure had it hard, but I never picked cotton." I can see why they say that when I saw all that cotton being picked.

I talked to a woman who can remember hog killing season, and the neighbors helped each other out and killed the hogs, dressed them out (which means cleaning them) and then canned the meat for the winter. I myself have canned pork. Most people don't can meat nowadays, it is just too high risk and dangerous. I feel the same.

But I can things today. It matters what you have done when you start to write anything, I believe. I had a journalism teacher in high school who told us, "Write what you know."
 
A smart alec of the class said, "What if we don't know anything."

Back then, we thought we knew everything, but now, we have learned differently.

I wrote the Hard Times Cookbooks (two little books both together now in one at Amazon.com,) because I knew something about stretching the food dollar. I still know something about this.

So I just wrote down things I wanted to share, like I was sharing it with my daughter or son or a dear friend. Because that is what I wanted to do. I wanted to help people learn some things which might do them good.

Anyway times are not getting any better, I would think. The economy is still going bad, many people have had their hours cut, or can't find work at all.

So those Hard Times cookbooks, well, I am very glad I shared them. They are not fancy, they are plain, but they still tell the hard, plain truth about cooking.

Remembering Hard Times

A note about my new Steam-punk book

http://www.slideshare.net/88A88P1/about-my-steampunk-novel-by-anna-patterson

http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=230445

http://www.steampunk.coffeetimeromance.com/?p=3760

Celebrating a Western Summer

Hi Ya'll!

It's Summer, FINALLY here and we are celebrating it.

Lots of neat things going on. We are part of the April in Bloom Author's Hop, and you can find out something about gardening tips and cooking on all of the sites until Saturday.

So follow the links.

Thanks for stopping by.

About this Video: I don't know if you have ever been a part of the Western Square Dancing, but I love it. The Western I wrote shows my love of all things Western, but has a touch of my recent fascination with the genre Steampunk. It is a simple little book, but I hope you enjoy its efforts.

So welcome and have a great time!

Celebrating release of Steampunk Book

This is a Steampunk Western, illustrated, and we are celebrating its recent release!





http://www.amazon.com/Steampunk-Lily-Stowaway-Engine-ebook/d









This is a Steampunk Western Romance Yarn for General Audience. In color, illustrated. 
Excerpts: So they went out to the barn and saddled up their horses and raced like children after they closed the barn door. She put the horse to its paces, kicking it slightly, with a tight and expert hold on the reins. He admired her and her tight fit to a horse and her blowing hair beneath her cow girl hat. 

He followed her, but didn't want to outride her. The whole point of this day was to enjoy this time with her, and he planned to. So they rode into the hills, all fleshed out with new growth of sapling pine, and green grass and bushes here and there, but perfect for a ride up into those lovely hills with a backdrop of clouds low hanging and moist and blue with rain.p/B00BO83WHA