Girl with a New Life

Enchanted by Starlight is a Book Awards Finalist

Tina L. Hook — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:14:44 +0000

Put on your dancing shoes. Enchanted by Starlight has been nominated as a Finalist in the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the Science Fiction/Fantasy Category. There is a certificate, a medal and a New York City awards ceremony in the works. My initial reaction? Shock. Joy. And then relief. A giant sigh of relief. Below are the words I wrote to my editor in February 2012.I want you to know how grateful I am for your thoughtful guidance and...

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BEST KENTUCKY DERBY HATS 2013 & CELEB HATS 2012

Tina L. Hook — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:44:38 +0000

What do you wear to a Kentucky Derby Party? A quiet dress. And a loud hat. After a few rounds of Derby parties, I've learned that a good hat is hard to find. And a miss in the hat department? That can follow you around forever. *There is an awful photo of me lurking somewhere.* One of the easiest and best places to shop for hats online is Etsy. Here are my picks for best Derby Hats for 2013. See my Derby clip below to see what the celebs wore last year. Which...

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A COUNTRY GARDEN IN THE SPRING

Tina L. Hook — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:42:53 +0000

Spring is in bloom. Pink Dogwood. The Hubs and I spent the weekend in Nashville enjoying all the delights we don't get in the country--fine dining and sophisticated gatherings. We drove home with happy bellies and colorful stories, and the smallest twinge of guilt. You see, it's been almost two years since we moved out into the quiet lifestyle of Western Kentucky, and we've come to love how uncomplicated our lives have become here. We have grown to like the twang of our new...

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4 Little Things I Love for Spring

Tina L. Hook — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:25:34 +0000

These days you can find me covered in dirt and sporting some pretty bad hair. Blame it on my first ever veggie garden experiment. In addition to taming my tomato plants, I'm also working on cultivating more joy. Much like everyone else, life can wear me out at times, and I have to remind myself to celebrate what I can when I can. Spring is the perfect reminder. Everything always begins anew. 1. Mini Cast Iron Skillets inspire casual brunches and an extra...

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Breakfast with Mom & Photos of My Orlando Trip

Tina L. Hook — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:29:55 +0000

Me and Mom Mom insisted on cooking me breakfast every day of my working vacation in Florida. The backdrop was more faded than I remembered, my childhood kitchen contracting in on itself, cabinet doors loosening on stiff hinges and old linoleum bubbling up at the edges. Mom had changed too, her feet less steady as she chopped garlic for the fried rice, her gaze less focused as she slipped the egg onto my plate. Time had not touched her exotic cinnamon color or her...

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36 Pictures of My Life Never Before Posted: 2011 - 2012

Tina L. Hook — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:00:00 +0000

This is me catching up on all the miscellaneous snapshots from my life I never had time to post. Enjoy. The Capitol Grille, Nashville TN We escaped for a romantic weekend. Spring 2012. ...

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You Support Me: Thank You Blog Community

Tina L. Hook — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000

On a phone call to an old friend, I found myself confessing something I rarely if ever say out loud. After over two decades of friendship there are few confessions to be hashed out between us anymore, and yet this one landed with a heavy silence. Despite the beautiful life I've built for myself, I sometimes feel alone. And then, in that wonderful way that our close friends do, she confessed the same. Don't we all want to feel supported by a community of family, friends and...

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Stories from Real Women: Life Beyond High School

Tina L. Hook — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:00:00 +0000

We honor a tradition of lady truth-tellers here at GirlwithaNewLife2, and I would like to introduce you to Sara Bell, the winner of my Name Your Superpower Contest. Sara is a self-published author and the blogger behind The Traveling PhoBlogWripher. Sara brings a young perspective to the table, which I think we sometimes need to reconnect with our own beginnings. Like a breath of fresh air, her words recharge my sense of optimism. Enjoy. Sara Bell “At the...

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Pretending it's Summer: Strawberry & Nutella Muffins

Tina L. Hook — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:15:03 +0000

Our football fundraiser sells strawberries this time of year, shipped in from the blessedly winter free state of Florida, so you can't go very far in town without bumping into some, sometimes in the form of a strawberry pie or a strawberry smoothie. Insert giant smiley face. One of my friendly neighbors was kind enough to stop by with a bag full, and friendly neighbors are truly the best part about living in a small town. You would think we might all be tired of strawberries by...

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WHY WRITING CHANNELS MY INNER TEENAGER

Tina L. Hook — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:31:21 +0000

CONGRATULATIONS to Sarabell from The Traveling PhoBlogWriPher for winning my Name Your Superpower Book Giveaway. * * * * * * * When I think about myself as a teenager I cringe. A pop of red from my garden. There were only two settings for me then, either stone silent or blistering with emotion. My dial didn't have any mid-range options. I was simply on or off. People in my adult life, the ones who never knew me back then, describe me as "calm" and "relaxed." It has...

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Rescuing an Old House: Renovation Updates

Tina L. Hook — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:25:27 +0000

My Dream Project: Renovating an Old House. Transformation. I love that word. I think it gives me hope. While I won't win any awards for having ever stayed in one place for very long, I've always endeavored to leave things better than I found them. So far so good. Please enjoy my recent renovation results. You can visit my last renovation post here. Before After Before During... During... Before. This is the original view into the master...

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Green Bean Salad from Frozen Green Beans

Tina L. Hook — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:03:42 +0000

Is it spring yet? No. I guess not. Maybe we can raid your freezer veggies while we're waiting. This green bean salad has made it into our regular rotation and we love it. It will be even better when the growing season starts and all my ingredients are fresh out of the dirt. You can visit the original (fresh green bean) inspiration recipe from Jamie Deen here. Or you can see my version from frozen green beans below. Ingredients 12 oz bag frozen green beans Good...

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Rescuing an Old House: Master Bathroom Renovation Progress

Tina L. Hook — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:22:14 +0000

My Dream Project: Rescuing an old house. The Master Bathroom Renovation is in full swing and on the verge of completion. Here are the original plans I drew up for the Master Bath. This remains the same except for the shower, which I redesigned into a partial-open concept that helped me get rid of the glass door. To accomplish this I settled on an angled entry (imagine the forward-facing door in the pic moved to an angle at the right hand corner of the shower stall) to accommodate my...

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Enchanted Book Giveaway and Florida Book Signing

Tina L. Hook — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:26:14 +0000

If you live in or near Orlando, please join me at the UCF Book Festival marketplace on April 13th. I will be selling and signing books. Date: April 13, 2013 09:00AM -- 04:30PM Venue: UCF Arena, 4000 Central Florida Blvd., Orlando, FL, US Author Website: ...

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Life Affirmation: We are Connected

Tina L. Hook — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 19:01:02 +0000

Hanging by the creek. Summer 2012. There are times in my life I look back on with regret, the times I was wrong, or desperate, or angry, or scared. The times I didn't give myself what I deserved and the times when I could have been more gentle. I recently reunited with some old faces from my past, and plugged myself back into a life I walked away from years ago. It felt like a leap of faith, not knowing what animosity might be waiting for me there or if my sudden return would be...

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Rest in Peace, Robert

Tina L. Hook — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:28:03 +0000

On Sunday my old friend and old flame passed away at age 40. I feel like I need to acknowledge him here, in my little corner of the world, because for three years in my hopeful twenties he was my life. Our relationship was a complicated failure. Back then I carried the dreamy expectations of an uninitiated 24 year old, dreams too big for even me to sustain, though I didn't know that then. For all of our shortcomings we were young and alive and figuring ourselves out, and that truth...

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A Writing Challenge: More Perfect

Tina L. Hook — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:10:07 +0000

This post won Second Place in the Trifecta Writing Challenge, Week Fifty Three. More Perfect Sister and I balanced on our haunches, tipping our bowl toward the mouth of the rice dispenser. It was Mama's prized possession, handcrafted from wood and painted with exotic flowers, hauled across the ocean to join her life in America. For us it was a piece of furniture decorated on top with a bowl of plastic fruit. For Mama it was more than that. We pulled down on the crank...

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Rescuing an Old House: The Kitchen

Tina L. Hook — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 03:48:21 +0000

I held the paint samples against the cabinet to visualize the contrast. The paint color I chose is Windham Cream on the far right. My Dream Project: Rescuing an old house. In my house, our kitchen is the center of our home. It is where we greet each other at the end of a work day. It's where we laugh and create and begin our nightly ritual. On holidays and special occasions, our celebrations start elbow to elbow at the kitchen counter, where the effort behind our meals...

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Photos from Nashville: Union Station Hotel

Tina L. Hook — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:00:00 +0000

The Union Station Hotel lobby. I love hotels for the same reason I love books. They offer escape. This is even more true for historical hotels, because not only do they pull you out of your regular routine, but they also transport you into the past. Please allow me to introduce you to the Union Station Hotel. Whether you plan on visiting Nashville or not, it is sweet to daydream. Isn't it? The Union Station Hotel in Nashville makes a striking appearance. What...

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Winter White Chili Recipe

Tina L. Hook — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 02:24:59 +0000

My hubs and I are improvisational cooks at best. Some of our favorite recipes come from the meals we make up on the fly, and this Winter White Chili is one of them. We discovered that the cats love playing with tinsel. This past Christmas Eve found me nursing a terrible cold, and executing the grand dinner I had planned was just not happening. Instead we decided to make something fast using what we had on hand, which was a pound of country sausage leftover from a previous...

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