Summer memories with Sandra Brannan

Not participating yet? Click HERE to start!

This lovely lady is Sandra Brannan! She’s the author of the Liv Bergen mysteries, including In the Belly of Jonah (which you can see my review of here), and the recently released second mystery Lot’s Return to Sodom. Sandra’s books are filled with mystery, depth, and characters that will knock your socks off! Liv is NOT a woman you’d want to mess with. She is though, tenacious, and downright awesome!

Anyway I digress. Sandra is here to kick off the guest posts, and tomorrow she’ll be back with a giveaway just for you! Just a hint, commenting on any guest post gets you an extra entry into the giveaway. You know….in case you want to get a head start ;).

Take it away Sandra!

Summers to me as a child were incredible. My family lived in the woods between two quarries so my “friends” included my eight siblings and any wild animals we could catch, encircle, or capture with an empty box, a stick, and string. I still love the smell of lilac bushes, barbecues, and chlorine. And one of the fondest memories I had as a child was my wonderful mother finding time to take us (yes, all nine of us) to our town’s library each week for the summer reading challenge. Of course I spent my time at first searching for the shortest books to read just to hit the magic winning number and only later learned the power of choosing books I loved to read. My mother, no matter how long her days of washing sheets and mounds of clothing, scrubbing floors and cooking in pots bigger than she, always found time to read to us kids as bedtime. Summer meant we could stay up a little later to hear her varying voices for the Wizard of Oz series. We spent a good deal of summer time enjoying the great outdoors in the Black Hills, including hiking, building forts, swimming, playing baseball, and barbecuing. And we spent an incredible amount of time as a family, eating regular family dinners, taking weekly marches through the quarry, and having picnics.

I still love doing all those things with my husband and boys, adding a few more favorites to my summer time list, including having extra hours of sunlight for my bedtime reading pleasure curled up next to my husband.

> Favorite Summer Tradition: Spending 4th of July with my family playing softball, devouring picnic items (including lots of ice cold beer), and enjoying the fireworks over Mount Rushmore.

> Favorite Summer Activities: Camping or spending time in our Black Hills cabin with my boys and husband.

> Favorite Recipe: Cranberry juice, Fresca and Smirnoff on the rocks (oh… did you mean food?) Nothing beats a barbecue dinner made pulled fresh from the grill by my husband, unless it happened to be a squished cheese sandwhich made by one of my boys when they were young. And anytime, I’ll gladly accept a bowl of cumpy mac and cheese from one of my grandkids, or a freshly baked cookie or brownie from one of my teens. Liv Bergen prefers kiwi and cream cheese sandwhiches in the summer, in case you’re wondering.

Life is good and Liv is happy that she can be a part of your summer reading challenge!