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A Pilgrimage to Walton’s Mountain
For my 50th birthday this year, I made a list. It’s not a bucket list. It’s not a list of things I want. It’s a list of things to do, adventures to experience, and places to explore this year. It’s a list of short day trips to get me out of the house and exploring my environment. This month, our trip took us on a pilgrimage to Walton’s Mountain, otherwise known as Schuyler, Virginia. The Walton Museum is located in a repurposed school building off of Route 6 in Schuyler. The building itself is interesting; Earl Hamner, Jr., the author of the original Waltons stories, lived down the block just…
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Goodbye, Peter Tork
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On a Quest for the Perfect Oatmeal Cookie
I am on a quest for the perfect oatmeal cookie. Or am I searching for something else?
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The Quest for the Perfect Oatmeal Cookie Continues
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The Jewels in Our Midst: In Praise of Local Arts and Culture
I don’t know what impetus pushed me out the door last night. Boredom, the arch-enemy of creativity, crept into my work, and thus I found myself seeking any excuse to drive from my farm into town. I love my farm. I love the life that I live, the quiet, the solitude, the peace. But six days out of seven, it’s just my husband, my cats, and myself. Social media helps break the isolation, a little. However, all the funny memes, status updates, and pictures of friends cannot suffice forever. A good friend of mine, a professor back in New York and one of my mentors, accepted a position at a…
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Pruning Away the Dead Wood
I stepped back, studying the lattice of branches arcing overhead. My husband stood across from me and a few feet away, studying the apple tree in our orchard. “Here?” I asked, using the long-handled pruners to tap on the offending branch. “That one,” he nodded. It took every bit of strength in my upper arms to close the pruners over the thick branch, squeezing until it finally fell, crashing, to the orchard ground. My trapezius muscles ached, a deep, satisfying pain that meant we had finished pruning eight apple trees in one afternoon. A good day’s work for late winter. We collected the branches, living and dead wood, that we…
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Goodbye, Peter Tork
Today, the world learned of the passing of Peter Tork. The oldest member of the Monkees, Tork was the sad, puppy-dog-eyed member of the group clowning around in the background of many shots. He had sandy brown hair that seemed to fall over his eyes continually. I imagine teenage girls, sighing over the Monkees, wishing they could be the one to brush back that hair. I remarked to a friend, “It feels like a bit of my childhood just slipped away,” but that’s not entirely accurate. It feels more like it cleaved, the way rocks or glaciers do, a giant shelf sliced and sliding into the endless ocean of time.…
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A Pilgrimage to Walton’s Mountain
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The Pain We Cause by Gossiping
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” It’s a commandment. Not a suggestion.
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Living as Flesh and Blood in a Virtual World
We are living in an age when calumny is king. It is becoming difficult to live as a flesh and blood being in a virtual world.
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It Was Mine Selected as Top Novella, Receives Great Reviews
My novella, It Was Mine, is receiving pure 5-star ratings on both Amazon and Goodreads – the top rating you can give a book. Shortly after Christmas, I found out that the blogger over at Franciscan Mom had awarded It Was Mine the title of “Best Novella” of 2018. I’m thrilled. It’s not a Pulitzer, but it’s something, and it gives me a great sense of satisfaction to know that my story touched at least one person so much that she wanted to share it as a book worthy of recommendation to others. If you haven’t purchased your copy of It Was Mine yet, it is available in paperback and…
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Pictures from the Book Signing
My first book signing and reading event on October 28th was a success – thanks to YOU! A huge thank-you to all of the people who came to the event, and to those on social media who so generously shared the information with their friends and family about it. We had coverage in all the local newspapers, posters in the windows of the bookstore, and my very first book-on-the-shelf moment when I saw my books on a bookstore shelf and went, “Ah…yes…that’s it! Author!” Here, a few pictures from the day’s fun and festivities. I read a brief excerpt from the prologue to my new Majek Family Mystery, “The Red…
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Meet Local Author Jeanne Grunert at Book Signing Event, Baines Books & Coffee, October 28, 2017
PROSPECT, VIRGINIA — Local author Jeanne Grunert will be signing copies of her novel, I Believe You, and her new novella, The Last Run of the 6:01 at Baines Books & Coffee, Main Street, Appomattox, on Saturday, October 28, 2017, from 12 noon to 3 p.m. Copies will be available for purchase. Last year, Grunert released her first novel, I Believe You, to considerable acclaim. Her work blends elements of traditional Gothic fiction, ghost stories, and the mystery genre. One reviewer called her writing “A cross between Flannery O’Connor and Edgar Allan Poe.” Her stories are tales of mystery and imagination akin to spooky tales such as those in the…
