Story Round-Up: Features in The Herald-News, Dec. 28 to Jan. 3

Good morning!

I have six stories to share with you today at the bottom of this post.

Not bad for a week off from work, in theory to get ready for my family's Christmas celebration on January 7 (I made progress). In reality, I got sick (although I'm starting to gradually feel better).

More stories will go live this weekend, too. So be sure to check back on The Herald-News site: shawlocal.com/the-herald-news.

Before the stories I also have a list of additional updates, resources, and information. Please check them out, too.

And if you'd like to find more kindness in your life, consider this book.

And have a great Friday!

Event Updates

The BryonySeries Christmas Display is still up at The Book Market in Crest Hill, although it may very well come down this weekend.

Along with eleven curated BryonySeries books for you to browse and buy, the display features Ribbit-Ribbits from Cindy and free purple music roses with select purchases while supplies last.

It's the perfect way to support the only local book story in the Joliet area and find some wonderful books for your winter reading pleasure.

BryonySeries books-in-progress

House on Top of the Hill: Third book in the BryonySeries Limbo trilogy, and the book is now live on Amazon. Copies are also available at The Book Market. And check out this first review on Amazon.

The Adventures of Cornell Dyer: Timothy and Daniel are super busy with school on top of work (and plenty of work-related traveling). But Sue Midlock is already hard at work with the cover for the next book that involves a toymaker: "Cornell Dyer and the House of Horreur" (because the toymaker's last name is "Horreur."). Timothy and I have tentatively agreed to a "Cornell" breakfast when he's off school and work during the holidays. Here's hoping! (we are looooong over due). But it was postponed AGAIN because I got sick (grumble).

I also outlined a "bonus" book that is intended for distribution at Bicentennial's "Ye Olde Mayfest" event in 2025. Here is a recap of the 2024 event.

Brainy Ann: The fifth book in The Girls of the BryonySeries is outlined and the first chapter is written, hurray! Jennifer Wainwright, who welcomed her first child into the world in April, is nearly done with the cover portrait. I let this book slide for other BryonySeries projects. But I'll return to this book in early 2025.

Jennifer designed the cover portraits for "Julie and the Too-Hard Homework," "Katie and the Big Fear," "Summer Sisters." and "Karla Joins In," as well as the frontispiece for "Lycanthropic Summer."

Rebekah is also slowly (very, very slowly) updating the BryonySeries YouTube and Pinterest accounts. And she' catching up with Kindles for some of the BryonySeries books. So do watch for those.

And finally...

I have completed the hard edits Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara's third book in his Ruthless trilogy: "Recovering Ruthless." and am eagerly awaiting the proof copy so I can check for lingering errors.

Ed's first book is "Ruthless," his second is "The Fifth," and he is also the author of "Denise Unland's Irish Genealogy."

The goal is to have books for our Calkins Day celebration on February 13. More details later.

For books and more information about the series, visit bryonyseries.com.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Sue's Diner is a fictional restaurant in the fictional Munsonville that only exists in the BryonySeries.

Each Wednesday, we post a new recipe. The recipe is either featured in one of our cookbooks, will be featured in an upcoming cookbook, or is just an "extra" we want to share with you.

Check out the recipe here.

WRITERS

If you're a writer anywhere in the world, you're welcome to join WriteOn Joliet's Facebook page. We're based in Joliet, Illinois, but we love to meet and interact with writers outside our area, too.

If you'd like to officially join WriteOn Joliet, we have two tiers of dues and two ways to attend meetings. We also have a marketing arm that's getting longer every year. Check us out at writeonjoliet.com.

I also suggest this book: Little Book of Revision: A Checklist for Fiction Writers. It's exactly as it says. Each page some with one suggestion for revision. The rest of the page is blank, so you can add your own notes. All proceeds benefit WriteOn Joliet.

If you need editing or help with self-publishing, check out dmbaranunland.com.

ARTISTS

If you need an artist for a project, I offer these recommendations.

NEWSLETTERS

Sign up for The Munsonville Times by emailing us at bryonyseries@gmail.com. The newsletter still isn't official yet, so we don't have an actual link on the website - but we are working on it! 

SOCIAL MEDIA

Daily updates: I haven't posted anything on Twitter/X (except a daily Bible verse) since September I can no longer schedule posts in advance. I'm not sure yet how to manage the account without that option. But you're welcome to follow me at @Denise_Unland61.

BryonySeries stuff: I used to curated content relating to the BryonySeries on Twitter/X at @BryonySeries and still post assorted related content at facebook.com/BryonySeries, youtube.com/user/BryonySeries, and themes of each book in the BryonySeries at pinterest.com/bryonyseries.

Again, not sure yet about the direction of the BryonySeries Twitter/X account. Still mulling that over.

And of course, please follow the adventures of Bertrand the Mouse on Instagram at bertrand_bryonyseries.

QUESTIONS

Email me at bryonyseries@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading The Herald-News. And for reading this blog. And if you've read (or plan to read) any of my books. Your support is greatly appreciated.

FEATURES

 Plainfield Maple Butter Cafe owner serves up decades of experience

https://www.shawlocal.com/the-herald-news/2025/01/03/plainfield-maple-butter-cafe-owner-serves-up-decades-of-experience/

Joliet Chamber announces its ‘2024 success’ award recipients

Tickets available now for celebration event

https://www.shawlocal.com/the-herald-news/2025/01/02/eyes-on-enterprise-joliet-chamber-announces-its-2024-success-award-recipients/

Remembering when Joliet church burned to the ground on New Year’s Eve

Elvira Balog of Joliet: ‘We could look out the back window and see it burning’

https://www.shawlocal.com/the-herald-news/2024/12/31/remembering-when-joliet-church-burned-to-the-ground-on-new-years-eve/

Crest Hill’s Jitterhead Brunch & Coffee Co. serves up fresh take on breakfast, lunch

Jitterhead also has a full-service bar

https://www.shawlocal.com/thescene/2024/12/20/crest-hills-jitterhead-brunch-coffee-co-serves-unique-options/

Will County Pets of the Week: Dec. 30, 2024

Will County rescues have dogs and cats for adoption

https://www.shawlocal.com/the-herald-news/2024/12/30/will-county-pets-of-the-week-dec-30-2024/

5 Things to Do in Will County: Winter Break Skate Night

https://www.shawlocal.com/thescene/2025/01/01/5-things-to-do-in-will-county-winter-break-skate-night/

Illustration by Matt Coundiff for "Visage"

We Missed a Million Views

Although I had no plan to stop, I never dreamed I'd still be blogging daily when I started this blog on August 10, 2010.

We celebrated so many "view: milestones: the first, the first time we reached ten views in a day, twenty-five total, fifty total, one hundred total, five hundred, a thousand, almost five hundred thousand, and on our way to a million total views.

A million! Think of it! We couldn't wait to watch the BryonySeries blog turn to one million!

And we missed it.

I was checking the stats for a completely unrelated reason and found that, somewhere in this blur of an autumn, the BryonySeries blog reached a million views.

Yep, we missed the big milestone.

Now, I'm sure some (many) of these views are bots. 

But judging by the analytics, all the views are not bots.

And it's heartening to know that, even in a stretch of some very challenging few years, we're still doing somethings right - and we're doing them consistently.

That's a nice slice of good news for the last day of the calendar year called 2024.

Auld Lang Syne performed on Scottish piano from 1790 circa Rabbie Burns time!

How Uncle Barty and Bertrand the Mouse Passed the Last of 2022

Here are six photos that showed how Uncle Barty and Bertrand the Mouse spent the last hours of 2022.

They played games, ate lots of food, and participated in the cleanup.

Yesterday (New Year's Day), they burrowed away somewhere and rested. Today, they are visiting some mouse friends.

I hope 2023 is being kind to everyone reading this blog today and that you and your loved ones are greatly blessed with each passing day.

A huge thank you for Jasmine and Timothy for snapping these candids.

10 Vintage New Year Movies – 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's & 60's

The History of New Year's Eve In Times Square

Auld Lang Syne - Frank C. Stanley (1910)

Thank You, Thank You

In 2010 I reluctantly started a blog because I'd read authors should have blogs.

My daughter Sarah Stegall, who was teaching herself the technical side of BryonySeries things (web design, social media, SEO, keywords, all the while collecting recipes for the BryonySeries cookbook) researched blogs, narrowed it down to WordPress and Blogger, and decided on the latter, for many reason, none of which are important here.

But I had a bigger problem. I had no idea what to write. Features, fiction: fine; ideas abound. But, blogging? Is't that like "Dear Diary," but online?

Sarah had ideas. Write about anything and everything connected to me writing: my work writing, my fiction writing, the setting, the plot, the characters, the themes (Victorian, 1970s, food, Irish, leprechauns, blood, roses, piano, white cats, fishing and fishing villages, gothic architecture, gothic literature, and so on), self-publishing, my struggles, my victories, and some of me personally.

People would want to read that? Sarah assured me they would. And she was afraid.

Still, I was afraid of being spammy, a fear that persists to this today and helps keep me on track. For instance, here's a piece I'd bookmarked four years ago: http://annerallen.com/2013/10/social-media-secrets-for-authors-par/

We decided to launch the blog Aug. 1, several months in advance of a November release date, never guessing my June surgery would be postponed until August and that the small I press that was readying Bryony for publication would push the release date out a year (and eventually go out of business).

Still afraid of running out of material, I prewrote the first month's worth of posts. Except for some exceptions in 2013 when we were losing our home, I've blogged every day. I haven't run out of ideas and have some new (and will be resurrecting some old) ideas for 2018.

Sarah and I together cheered the first couple of post views, then cheered again when views hit double digits (Ten people read it??? Really???) We cheered when we hit 50 views and when we hit 100. We celebrated 100,000 all-time views in mid-2016 and watched the numbers continue to climb.

Before the holidays, the blog averaged 13,000 views a month. And we almost closed out the year at 200,000 all-time views. I can't tell you how humbling that is.

And yes, even when one doesn't count the Throwback Thursdays (another of Sarah's ideas), some of those older posts still get views. Amazing

I'm convinced the experience Sarah received from learning this stuff helped her land the job (and manager's role) she has today in her company; I'm convinced I work as a features editor today because of the skills I acquired while writing, editing and marketing novels.

Although Sarah is now too busy to play "web administrator" to the BryonySeries anymore (her exact current title is "web administrator emeritus"), my other daughter Rebekah Baran has stepped up into that role.

Rebekah designed the current website at www.bryonyseries.com. She does most of my book formatting and cover creation. She formats and uploads the eBooks. And she's gradually teaching me how to do these things, only calling on Sarah when she runs into a snag.

I never could/can do this without my girls. Their help, expertise, willingness to learn, and ease of navigating technology is invaluable and appreciated beyond measure.

Why am I sharing all this?

Because if you're a writer, hang in there. Be persistent; be consistent. Take the long view of building a writing/editing business. While overnight successes are rare, this industry has a way of rewarding those who keep learning and improving, possibly because the competition quits too soon.

While I'm far, far, far from being a household name, I spend most of my hours (weekdays and weekends) writing and editing something, which is the career I've wanted ever since I was a little girl. The career grows a bit more each year.

If these are your goals, too, I want to help you get there. Because it's possible, you know.

If you'd like to self-publish a book this year for little cost, and you live in the Joliet area, check out this event on Jan. 11: https://goo.gl/aRY4uC

If you're a WriteOn Joliet writer, I want to hear your writing, editing, and marketing goals so we can help each other in 2018. We have local memberships (for those who can attend meetings) and remote memberships (those who live far away and cannot). So the group is open to all adults writers age 18 and up. For more information, visit www.writeonjoliet.com.

If you're a reader, I'm humbled with gratitude.

Thank you for finding something worthwhile to read here.

Thank you for checking back each day.

Both add up to encouragement to me. Page views help let me know what readers are enjoying; they help shape the future of this blog. They fuel my inspiration for yet another post on another day.

Ultimately this blog is meant to entertain you, provide you with information, share great stories from the greater Joliet community, and help connect us with each other.

So readers, if there's something you'd like to see on this blog, message me at bryonyseries@gmail.com. I'd love to hear your feedback and ideas.

For me, 2017 was a hard, challenging year for my adult children and me in terms of work. In fact, as soon as I post this blog, I'm working the rest of this day. Praise God it's work I enjoy!

But.

I'm leaving 2017 with sharper skills than I began it and so are my kids. I hope 2017 brought, for you, many blessings, even if they came disguised.

I look forward to journeying the new year with you. Here's to 2018! (virtually cliinking my coffee mug against yours).

Writing Goals for the New Year

I have not set any New Year's resolutions for a long time, perhaps, because I'm continually setting and refining goals all year long.

However, having survived twenty-four particularly challenging months, with no relief yet in sight, January 1 seemed an appropriate opportunity to refocus, refine, and construct a writing plan for the ensuing three hundred and sixty-six days.

*  Scrap the notion that "fun" composition should be reserved for when I have time. If the past two years have proved anything, it's that I will never have time, if I don't consciously schedule time. Sounds simple, but when you're facing multiple deadlines, looming household tasks, crushing financial obligations, and two teens still requiring schooling, seizing even that lone hour feels, in the moment, anyway, feels cheap and irresponsible.

*  Immerse myself in literature of past centuries to develop a writing voice reflecting different eras and cultures, which I feel is important for Bryony's prequel. Good excuse for checking out books I've deferred for when "there's time."

* Assume additional editing and assessment projects to help cultivate the composition talents of other writers, even as I seek out and learn from the critiques of more polished authors, reporters, essayists, and bloggers.

*  And, most importantly, have fun! Sometimes, I'm so lost wading through haystacks of details and ticking minutes, I forget to enjoy the process.

What resolutions have you set for 2012?

Celebrate New Year's Eve the Ed Calkins Way

Yesterday's chat with Ed Calkins, the Steward of Tara, was brief. While on vacation, he had caught a bad cold and could hardly speak, but he promised a follow-up in a day or two once the vocal pipes were back in shape.

His wife, by contrast, was jovial and laughing, so I've no doubt that, despite the ill health, they will celebrate a hearty New Year's Eve.

Now just what festivities will be part of their evening is anyone's guess, but if you'd like to keep the last day of the year as Ed might, check out the following link:

www.irishcelticjewels.com/celtic-wedding/2010/12/irish-new-years-traditions/

A blessed new year to you and yours!