Jenyfer Matthews

Gotta love a greeting that can be used for hello or goodbye

I just returned from the Women’s Fiction Festival in Matera, Italy hours ago. It was my first conference and a totally amazing experience. I’ll tell you more about it later, but for now I’ll let the scenery speak for itself…

(click on the picture for a larger view)

My hotel room was fantastic but difficult to photograph. Imagine a pizza oven - a long narrow passage (with kitchen) then you pass through an arch and into a tall rounded room carved from the stone in the hillside. I can’t remember the last time I slept so well in a hotel room…





The view from my hotel courtyard




As you might imagine, it was a little difficult to find my way to and from my hotel. I found it rather ironic to be walking down the narrow cobblestone alleys on my own at night looking for the Museum of Torture on purpose…





“Turn left at the cat.” That’s what I told a fellow author who was staying at my hotel when I showing her my route back and forth. No matter what time of day or weather, this cat was there. Of course the sign helped too…





I could bore you with pictures of the streets and alleys all day…







One of many rock churches in the historic “Sassi” area of Matera




A lovely intersection…




A view of the Sassi Barisano from the piazza near the conference site





A coffee break on the terrace of the conference site, a converted monastery



I’ve only just returned home and I am already scheming on how I can go back next year…

Always good advice, no matter where in the world you are!

I am in Italy at this moment. Send me good vibes for the conference please. And don’t forget to drop by this weekend when Margaret Carter will be here with an excerpt from her paranormal/thriller romance Prince of the Hollow Hills. See you next week!

While I’m zooming around trying to get everything organized for my trip to Italy tomorrow, I thought I’d share some pictures with you. I’ve been meaning to get these posted for a while, but you know how it goes.

I’ve mentioned that I did a lot of shopping when I was home over the summer - but not all of it was in malls. Some of my favorite places to shop are thrift stores - or as my daughter affectionately calls them “rubbish stores”.

Not all thrift stores are created equally but if you’re patient you can often come up with some really neat things. I still have a few items of designer name clothing that I picked up for pennies at a bag day several years ago. Thinking of my luggage allowance, I was fairly discriminating this time, but I just couldn’t pass up these gems.

I love African art and I couldn’t believe my luck when I spotted these beauties sitting on a shelf amongst a clutter of coffee mugs and knick knacks. They were a steal at $12 - well worth any added weight in my baggage!

When I saw the mug below, I was instantly reminded of being a small child at my grandmother’s house. She had an entire set of dishes in a very similar glaze. I don’t want or need an entire set, so this lone mug was a wonderfully nostalgic find and only $0.35 - and they threw in a free pie spatula.

I’m off to Italy tomorrow but don’t worry - Margaret Carter will be here with an excerpt of her Cerridwen Press book Prince of the Hollow Hills, a magical sounding paranormal romance. I’ll be back bright and early next week, with pictures and news from glorious southern Italy!

If you’ve wondered how much writing I’ve gotten done lately, running around with the children’s various sports activities as well as my own, the answer is not much. I’ve done a bit of editing and polishing on my latest manuscript but new stuff? Who has the time?

I also had a few projects hanging around that needed finishing. One of which was a queen sized quilt that a friend commissioned to give as a gift for an autumn wedding. I like to call it Autumn Fire because it’s so bright:

There is a wide green “fire break” border on the edge to cool it off a bit and the other side is a nice calm beige floral for reversibility.

I also whipped up one other fresh project over the weekend. This one has been living in a my head a while so it was nice to get it out of there! I plan to back it with a light green flannel printed with bugs. Cute for a baby quilt, no?

I’d like to make this one again using blues and a few pops of yellow.

Next on my list of things to make? Scarves and hats for the children. We’ll be making our first ever Christmas visit to the US, back to northern Minnesota. Could there be any more shockingly cold time of year to visit for desert dwellers like us?? I never have learned to knit so I’m going to use remnants of fleece blankets to make them. Soft and cuddly.

My only other pressing UFO? A pitch to present at the writer’s conference…

I leave for the Women’s Fiction Festival in Italy in ten days. In addition to trying to figure out what to pack and mentally preparing myself to meet face to face with agents and editors, I have hair crisis.

I haven’t had a hair cut since the end of June and my regular hairdresser can’t fit me in until the end of September - the day after I return from Italy in fact. My hair doesn’t look terrible exactly, but it is getting awfully long. (Some might even say shaggy) Would you:

1) Try a new hairdresser and hope for the best

2) Trim my bangs myself and leave the rest alone

3) Go as is - why take the risk?

Please leave your vote in the comments. Seriously - I need your opinion!

Last day of vacation photos, promise! Just be happy you got the short version. Friends and family will shortly be sent the link to the extended play album!

The last full weekend I was on vacation, my father and step-mother took us out for a picnic and canoe trip on the Swamp River. I always like to get out on the Swamp River. Not only is it a very lovely and serene spot, but I remember going out there to fish with my own grandfather when I was a child. Even if we didn’t fish, it was a nice circle to take my own children out there.

After a picnic of bratwurst roasted over an open fire on greenwood sticks (yum!) and smores (double yum!) we took a ride in the canoe. My children love the thrill of a speed boat and I’ll admit that speed has its thrill, but in a place like this, a canoe is the way to go.

I could have taken pictures of the reflections of the sky in the water all day…

See that hill in the distance? The next plan for the afternoon was to hike up a trail to the top of that hill (locally known as Camp Five Mountain) in search of blueberries

A lovely little water lily that was growing amongst the wild rice along the banks of the river. Try picking a water lily while riding in a speed boat

A view of Swamp River, where we were canoeing, from the top of Camp Five Mountain

It wasn’t much of a trail up the mountain and very buggy, but we were rewarded for our efforts!

Dessert! My daughter wanted to collect the most berries which is why she tossed in all the raspberries she found as well!

Just in case you thought I was foraging for all of my food while in the woods, thought I’d toss this photo in. I’ve eaten “happy pizza” in Cambodia and buffalo milk latte in Cairo - now I can add moose burger in Minnesota. Not sure I’d go out of my way for another one, but it wasn’t bad.


This weekend author Mona Risk will be here to introduce you to the cast of characters from her recently released book French Peril. If you like a thriller set in an exotic location, you’ll want to stop by and check this one out!

I was in Minnesota for about a month. Most of the week days I spent in town, visiting with my mother, poking in and out of the various gift shops that make up most of the town’s businesses, taking the children to the playground or to play mini golf.

The weekends were a different story though. On the weekends my father and his wife would take us on outings - long outings that required packing food and water bottles and bug spray. The three mile hike up the Fingerpoint trail shown yesterday was the first such outing. The next was a five mile hike through part of Judge Magney State Park, along the Brule River.

I’ve known this hike was in the plans since last year when we walked the park trails with the children. They enjoyed it so much and had so much energy to spare at the end that my step-mother commented that next time we’d do the longer version, to which my son enthusiastically replied “okay!” I just wasn’t sure I was going to join them until this year!

Five miles sounds like a long way, and it is. But in reality, it wasn’t too bad. Once we reached the river, we took frequent breaks so my step-mother’s dog could swim and the kids could wade and there was plenty of interesting stuff to see along the way.

(click any picture below for a larger view)

Just in case you thought I was exaggerating about the distance - or you were interested in seeing it for yourself

A toadstool growing in the middle of the trail. Looked so pretty just sitting there in the sun…

It’s never a problem to get my son to walk in the woods where there are such yummy thimble berries to be found and eaten! He snacked the whole way!

Pretty, but inedible.

See - I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a long walk!

Anyone know the name of this wildflower? My step-mother told me but I forgot…

Pretty much the extent of the wildlife we saw that day!

It was just sitting there, waiting for me to take its picture…

But what a reward! The Devil’s Kettle water fall, Brule River. So named because there is a hole on the left that about half of the river plunges down into and supposedly no one knows where it comes out…My step-mother’s dog almost found out this year, trying to retrieve his stick from the current upstream. There were a few tense moments there, but I’m happy to say he let the stick go and came back to shore. Smart dog!

Tomorrow, the last of the vacation photos (promise!)

I have so many pictures of my time in Minnesota - what do you want? It’s a picturesque place! - I can’t possibly share them all here. I took the most pictures when I was out hiking in the woods so those are the ones you’ll get to see

My first stop in Minnesota was Duluth. We stayed in town a couple of days after flying in so I could do a bit of back to school shopping (school starts tomorrow - woo hoo!!) and take the kids to do a few town things, like visit the zoo. As zoos go, it is fairly small but it had some nice exhibits and was just big enough for the kids to get a good run around.

I try to resist taking animal pictures because they never turn out very well, but this guy was practically posing for the camera!

Calm down - it’s not a real tortoise…

Once I arrived in the woods, the first really long hike we took was actually just over the border in Ontario - called Fingerpoint Trail. The trail head actually starts in the parking lot of the Ontario Welcome Center and following the trail to the summit is actually about a 3 mile walk.

See that bump? The top of that knob is our goal…

The view from the top of the knob - beautiful!

This is a beach along Lake Superior where the trail passes. If you collect driftwood, this is the beach for you!

This shiny log caught my eye - hasn’t dried out quite as much as the others and was shining like gold in the sun

The children loved to play on the various beaches along Lake Superior - any excuse would do. It’s hardly the worst place in the world to hang out for an hour so I spent a lot of time there while they stripped down and swam. I thought after the first time that the frigid water temperatures would put them off, but what do I know? So while they played polar bears, I snacked. Look at all the wonderful beach food I found:

There is nothing tastier than wild raspberries - picking them yourself makes them taste better!

Wild beach peas - they only grow in the rocks and gravel along the beach.

These are best eaten raw - like most fresh peas. Yummy!

Tomorrow - more pictures from the deep woods…

All this week, I’ll be sharing photos from my summer vacation. It killed me not to be able to do that all along while I was actually on the spot, but it couldn’t be helped. If looking at other people’s vacation photos isn’t your thing, it could be a boring week for you. I have picked out a handful from the more than 200 I took, but I forgive you if you don’t hang around!

Our first stop was Asbury Park, New Jersey - which also happens to be the inspiration for my first book Here To Stay. Since I only recently found out that Here To Stay will be released in print sometime this fall, it was a particularly nice time to revisit Asbury Park.

I have loved Asbury Park since the first time I visited. Its hey-day as a weekend and holiday getaway was way back in the 40s & 50s and by the time I discovered it in the 90s, it was deserted and decrepit. And a potentially dangerous place to hang around. Stories abounded of people being mugged on the boardwalk in broad daylight and the old buildings were crumbling. Very few businesses existed on that section of the boardwalk and there were fewer people still taking advantage of the beach. I could never get my mind around how such a lovely location could be so neglected and forgotten. Aside from Bruce Springsteen, surely someone somewhere cared about Asbury Park enough to invest some money in it?

Until July of this year, I hadn’t been to Asbury Park in almost seven years. It was a wonderful surprise to see it doing so well. The old buildings are being restored, the Convention Center - once a creepy, echo-y shell of a building - now houses several businesses and hosts events, and the boardwalk is lined with shops and restaurants and people. I can remember when we didn’t go out after dark for fear of our lives. Now it is difficult to find a time when the boardwalk isn’t crawling with people. It’s wonderful.

Asbury Park beach, August 1998

You’ll have to take my word - this is the same stretch of beach in July 2008!

Asbury Park boardwalk, heading toward Ocean Grove, 1998
This same stretch of boardwalk is now lined with shops and activities. I’d have taken a picture this year but it would have just looked like a mass of people!

Asbury Park Convention Center, 1998

This used to be an empty shell of a building that you had to pass through to make your way down the boardwalk

Asbury Park Convention Center, 2008
This shot was taken in late afternoon when most of the sun bathers had gone home for the day. We had dinner at a neat Irish pub in the Convention Center one night. I also noticed a poster advertising an upcoming Bob Dylan concert being held there. Definitely more than a pass through now!

An old amusement park located just beside the boardwalk, 1998

Here’s what’s left of the amusement hall. Judging by how well they are trying to restore most of the older buildings, this one must have been in really bad shape. Nice to see that some of it was able to be salvaged. Though that clown face is enough to keep me from going inside!

Victorian lovelies, Ocean Grove, 1998

These houses start just after the boundary line between Asbury Park and Ocean Grove. The demarcation line isn’t so stark as it used to be but I never could figure out why a few hundred feet made such a difference. But just look at them! Is is any wonder I wanted to put story into one?

Tomorrow and the rest of the week: the wilds of northern Minnesota…

Congratulations Lisa - you’ve won a copy of my book ONE CRAZY SUMMER! Drop me an email and let me know what format you prefer and I’ll get it right out to you.

I made it home without any major mishaps - in fact, it might have been my most uneventful trip yet! In the end I had five LARGE bags, but each only averaged about 40lbs so I was well within my limit. It was an incredibly LONG day since I had to wake up at 4am to catch a 6am flight out of Minnesota to make my way back to JFK. My youngest fell asleep on our direct flight back to Cairo before we ever took off and slept all the way back (hallelujah!) but I don’t sleep well sitting up so I pretty much just sat there and read. I finally read the first “In Death” book by JD Robb. Definitely going to get more of that series.

We arrived back 11am and just…stayed up. The kids were thrilled to catch up with all of their friends and pretty much disappeared for the rest of the day. I wasn’t so ambitious myself, but I did stay up. I finally herded everyone to bed by 9pm and crashed myself at 9:30pm after being up for nearly 24 hours straight.

Today, my task is to put away all of the treasure I hauled home for me. It’s going to take awhile …