New Sales & Toadstools for Jody

First, my news, then a little garden fun... I've just sold a novella titled One & Only to Samhain. It's the first in my out-of-print vampire series that has been rewritten and expanded from a measly 3,500 words to somewhere around 23,000 words. It should be out sometime later this year. Stay tuned to my website for more information!

I should also mention my upcoming release - Jaci's Experiment - will be out on August 5th. Get ready! I also noticed that three of my upcoming print books are now available for pre-order through Amazon: Sweeter Than Wine, Davin's Quest, and also FireDrake. They won't be out until the ends of October, December and March, respectively, but Amazon's getting a jump start and at sale prices too! ;-)

Now, in honor of Jody's upcoming release, I promised to share a little garden tidbit passed down in my family. Gnomes and fairies are said to inhabit fairy rings of toadstools. (Check upcoming installments of "Legends & Lore" on my blog on 7/19 & 7/26 for the lodown on toadstools and fairy rings.) There's something particularly magical about the poisonous red toadstools with white dots.


If you want those magical 'shrooms in your garden, but don't actually want the danger of poisonous fungus, here's a way to make your own garden statuary mushrooms! You'll need a couple of bowls of varying depths and sizes, some plastic wrap, old newspaper red and white paint, cement and a few sturdy dowels or stick. Here's how you do it:

- Line the inside of the bowls with plastic wrap so that the edges hang over and you have something to pull on when you want to remove your newly-formed toadstools.

- Then line that with a layer of old newspaper to help soak up some of the liquid from the cement.

- Mix your cement and pour it into your "molds" - the paper and plastic lined bowls. Make some shallow and some deep to vary what your toadstools will look like when done.

- Poke a hole in the bottom of each one where the dowel or stick will sit when it's dry. You can even leave the sticks/dowels in while they dry. Push them deep enough so that they have a good grip on the toadstool, but not so deep that they will poke out of the top.

- Let them set. Probably overnight.

- When they're hard enough, pop them out of the molds and remove the plastic and paper. Let them dry fully.

- Paint them red. I use acryllic craft paint available in most stores. The outdoor kind is better, but all acryllic paint is waterproof after it's dry, so the cheap stuff works fine too. ;-) Let the red coat dry. Reapply if you need to make them redder or cover any bald spots. Let them dry completely.

- Paint white dots over the red. Let dry.

- Position them in your garden. Little clumps of them with a gnome in front is precious!

Best of luck to Jody with her new release!!!

Bianca D'Arc
Come over to The D'Arc Side... http://www.biancadarc.com/