HUCKLEBERRY HAPPINESS - Ice Caves and Wild Huckleberries

She dreams of winning the contest, but what does her heart want? 

Huckleberry Happiness, a  novella for The Wild Rose Press “One Scoop or Two” collection, highlights two things unique to Pennsylvania: ice caves and wild huckleberries. In 1885, Emerlia Stone, the heroine, wants  to make huckleberry ice cream to win a dessert contest offered by the railroad.

       The hero, Joe Sawicki, owns an ice cave and supplies ice to Emelia’s bakery and the townsfolk. Huckleberries are native to Pennsylvania, dating back to the first bushes which survived as the ice cover was melting over 13,000 years ago. Ice caves are rare phenomena that maintain freezing temperatures year ’round and contain ice during the hottest days of the summer.

Strip mining erased almost all traces of them after the 1920s.

BLURB:  

         In 1885, Emelia Stone and her sister must learn to operate their deceased parents’ bakery in a small town in Pennsylvania. A large mortgage looms on their family home. When her sister leaves town, Emelia is forced to handle the bakery and burden alone.

 The Pennsylvania Railroad is searching for the perfect dessert for its passengers. Joe Sawicki, owner of Sawicki Brothers Ice Company, is certain Emelia can win the contest and the hundred- dollar bonus if she creates a special ice cream to accompany her popular huckleberry pies. He has loved her since they played hooky in grade school to explore the company’s ice cave.

Can Emelia find courage to stand up to the town’s bully to win the competition? And will Joe have the mettle to express his undying love and win first place in Emelia’s heart?

            An engaging romance for only $1.99 -  HUCKLEBERRY HAPPINESS

HUCKLEBERRIES - A 13,000-year-old, Pennsylvania Native Bush

My latest novella, Huckleberry Happiness, was recently released. It’s the historical story of a young woman, Emelia Stone, who runs a bakery and her best friend from childhood, Joe Sawicki, who owns an ice company with his brother. Amelia bakes pies from native Pennsylvania huckleberries and buys ice from Sawicki Ice Company. She wants to make a special huckleberry ice cream to enter in the Pennsylvania Railroad’s dessert contest.
 
Huckleberries are edible, small, round berries resembling blueberries. In fact, in some parts of the United States, huckleberries might be called blueberries and blueberries might be called huckleberries, although they’re not the same fruit.

The various species of huckleberries range in color from bright red to dark purple to blue. The purple and blue huckleberries taste sweeter. In addition to humans, many animals enjoy huckleberries, including bears, red foxes, opossum, skunks, squirrels, chipmunks and white-footed mice.

Huckleberry bushes are native to Pennsylvania and stay green all year. A patch, discovered near Losh Run, north of Harrisburg, has two plants that botanists determine are 13,000 years old, older than the Sequoia trees of the West. The gigantic patch sprang from the same plant thousands of years ago as the ice cover was melting. 

Huckleberries also grow wild in many different parts of the U.S. Perhaps this is why the huckleberry inspired many different phrases dating back to the 1800s.

Because huckleberries are small, the word “huckleberry" was often used as a nickname for something small, unimportant, or insignificant. Scholars believe this was the meaning Mark Twain had in mind when he named his Huckleberry Finn character. People at that time would have understood that “Huck" Finn's name was a clue that he was a small boy who was of a lower class than his companion, Tom Sawyer.

MY FAVORITE PASSAGE:

  Emelia jabbed furiously at the mixture inside the bowl with her pastry cutter. How could her very own sister abandon her without an ounce of misgiving? Couldn’t she have waited until the end of the month and, at the very least, earned her pay before leaving the bakery?
       Joe watched her work, his hands shoved in his pockets. “Are you trying to kill the lard…or is it the flour that has you so riled?” He peered over the rim of the bowl.
       “Be careful,” she shot back and gave him a lethal glare that would stop a rattlesnake from making a fuss. “This place is armed with sharp knives.”

 AMAZON LINK

What We Know About Worrying

                 Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow—Swedish Proverb

Are you a person who worries? With the current problems we are now facing with the COVID-19, I’m certain there is a lot of worry going on over the entire world. However, worry does absolutely nothing for our physical, emotional, or spiritual health. It makes us anxiety-ridden and often prone to blow a small situation or thought into a giant one, casting a big dark shadow upon our lives.

Generally, if we dissect our worries, we’ll find that they are either something that happened in the past or something we think that might happen in the future. So, while we’re focusing on what is bothering us, we forget to live in the present.

There are many things we can do to dispel worry and anxiety. Psychologists believe that the first thing you must do is face your fear and then refrain from unrealistic thoughts. How? Focus on mindfulness, which is being in tune with things that are happening right now. Divert your attention by doing something different like going for a walk, cleaning a closet, listening to music, solving a crossword puzzle, or working on a creative project. Lastly, devise a plan or practice problem-solving. Focus on the things you can control in a less than perfect situation.

What is my favorite way of dispelling worry? I find a quiet place, usually outdoors on our patio swing, and clear my mind. It’s my form of meditating. I also talk to myself and repeat my very favorite saying: “Never let anyone steal your joy.” At times, I have had to revise the phrase to include: “Never let anyone (or anything) steal your joy.” Whatever best works for you, do it. Yes, these are unfortunate times, but we must not give up hope and allow ourselves to hide in the shadows of despair.  

Emily Dickinson said, “Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.”

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Although I don’t have a release date yet for HUCKLEBERRY HAPPINESS,” the edits are finished. Here are the cover and blurb:
 
In 1885, Emelia Stone and her sister must learn to operate their deceased parents’ bakery in a small town in Pennsylvania. A large mortgage looms on their family home. When her sister leaves town, Emelia is forced to handle the bakery and burden alone.

The Pennsylvania Railroad is searching for the perfect dessert for its passengers. Joe Sawicki, owner of Sawicki Brothers Ice Company, is certain Emelia can win the contest and the hundred- dollar bonus if she creates a special ice cream to accompany her popular huckleberry pies. He has loved her since they played hooky in grade school to explore the company’s ice cave.
 
Can Emelia find courage to stand up to the town’s bully to win the competition? And will Joe have the mettle to express his undying love and win first place in Emelia’s heart?

Huckleberries and Ice Caves

I have just finished writing a short novella for a summer release where ice cream must be used somewhere in the story line. Although Huckleberry Happiness will stand alone, it will be part of the One Scoop or Two collection published by the Wild Rose Press. 

Huckleberry Happiness was fun to write because I wandered back to 1885 when refrigeration consisted of ice boxes, sometimes called ice closets. I also used huckleberries as the flavor, because in Pennsylvania, these little dark berries were picked and used in recipes like cultivated blueberries. The heroine, Emelia Stone, makes huckleberry pie for her bakery, but also plans to make a special ice cream dessert for a contest the Pennsylvania Railroad is having. 

An ice cave

I’ve always been interested in ice caves since one exists in Coudersport, Sweden Township, Pennsylvania. Originally, ice caves were used to store meat and for ice harvesting. So naturally, Joe Sawicki, my hero, has to own an ice company with his brother. He stores some of his ice in an ice cave and regularly delivers ice to Emelia Stone’s bakery to keep her perishable goods fresh.

How do ice caves work? Heavy cold air from outside cascades into the cave and warmer air inside the cave rise up and escapes, lowering the temperatures. The ice that forms inside makes it harder to warm the space and acts as a buffer that stabilizes the temperatures to freezing.

Although Huckleberry Happiness is still

in the production stage, here is the blurb:

In 1885, Emelia Stone and her sister must learn to operate their deceased parents’ bakery in the small town of Pennsylvania. A large mortgage looms on their family home. When her sister leaves town, Emelia is forced to handle the bakery and burden alone.

The Pennsylvania Railroad is searching for the perfect dessert for its passengers. Joe Sawicki, owner of Sawicki Brothers Ice Company, is certain Emelia can win the contest and the hundred- dollar bonus if she creates a special ice cream to accompany her popular huckleberry pies. He has loved her since they played hooky in grade school to explore the company’s ice cave.

Can Emelia find the courage to stand up to the town’s bully to win the competition? And will Joe have the mettle to express his undying love and win first place in Emelia’s heart? 


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Creative Writing as an Art and Craft

Creative writing is both an art and craft. It’s a set of intellectual skills that we, as writers, must possess. We are always searching out new ideas for stories. How do we do that? Through exploring our memories, using imagination, following and researching our curiosities, and observing our world.

Creative writing is also an art of self-expression and requires that writers share their thoughts and feelings. We must write imaginatively with similes, metaphors, sensory imagery, and more. And, we must also possess a perspective about ourselves, others, and the world around us.

Lastly, all writers must have a command of the language. They must be able to learn the rules, use grammar properly, and be aware of the guidelines and techniques of the genres they have chosen to create.

This has been a busy five months for me personally. I’ve been juggling three different works at one time. I was part of the Australia Burns, three-volume anthology series, where Wild Rose Press authors submitted stories with all the proceeds targeted for the Australia Red Cross to help victims affected by the wild fires. This was a wonderful project. I’m included in the second volume with a very short story titled, The Season of Withered Corn. For readers who like a variety of short stories, check out the various volumes.

Currently, I’m working on edits, cover art ideas, a tagline, and the blurb (short description) for the digital version only of Huckleberry Happiness, to be published by the Wild Rose Press this summer. It’s a short novella with ice cream woven into the story line and reflecting the overall theme, “One Scoop or Two.” It will be released, along with other authors’ works, for summer reading. All stories will be published as single digital novellas or short stories, not as an anthology. Please stay tuned.

And of course, I want to finish the last Christmas novella which will end my Musical Christmas trilogy series. It’s titled, Lucy ~ The Clarinetist.

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