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Oh my word, it’s Thanksgiving Week!

November 21, 2016 By Talya Tate Boerner

Buttermilk Pie - It's Thanksgiving Week!Oh.My.Word. It’s Thanksgiving week, y’all! I know I say it all the time and odds are good this won’t be the last. This year has flown by. And what a unique one it’s been. 2016 was the year I published my first book—something by the very definition can never, ever be repeated. And yes, I’m already talking about 2016 in past tense because if we round up, it’s over. Stick a fork in it.

Ov-er. Well, except for the flurry of activity ahead of us for Christmas.

So Thanksgiving week. We think about family and food and football and no, don’t you dare step on the stupid bathroom scale because during Thanksgiving week, all bets are off about calories. Who cares! And while we’re at it, let’s not talk politics, just this once. Instead let’s watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade(!), an old movie or two, play Monopoly, drink champagne. Celebrate every teeny tiny thing because, yes, some of the most remarkable goodness is doled out in teaspoons and snippets and slivers of time.  Continue Reading

Barbie and Ken plus Gracie Lee!

November 18, 2016 By Talya Tate Boerner

Barbie and Ken

Oh my goodness. I was invited to attend the Book Babes Book Club in Hot Springs on Monday and looky who was there—Barbie, Ken plus Gracie Lee! Well, I represented Gracie Lee, of course, but Cathy S (who invited me several months ago) brought along her original Barbie and Ken (and a second Barbie).

Ken was always the man with a Barbie on each arm.

Barbie, Ken, Gracie Lee

Cathy went above and beyond not only by inviting Barbie and Ken, but take a look at these bicycle bookends! The books displayed between the bookends are all books I referenced in The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee. Continue Reading

Farm Pics from my Farm Weekend

November 16, 2016 By Talya Tate Boerner

Sunset on Tate Farms

After five fruitful days at Hemingway-Pfeiffer, I crashed at home-home (Cottonwood Corner), as opposed to home (Fayetteville) and wrote and wrote and wrote, slept in my “own” bed, walked around the farm, and wrote some more. And I took lots of farm pics from my farm weekend.

Do you know what I mean by home-home? For me, it’s the specific place I grew up. Not everyone has the strong pull of place, as some folks moved all over the world, military families and whatnot. But the roots of my family grow in Mississippi County, Arkansas, the place, the house, the soil. That part of Arkansas always tugs me back. There’s a light for me at home, a truth, a consistency I need.

I believe that one can never leave home. I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and the dragons of home under one’s skin, at the extreme corners of one’s eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe. Maya Angelou said that, and I agree.

I carry home with me like baggage—the good, the heavy, more than I sometimes need— and return to recharge, repack, remember.

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Hi! I'm Talya Tate Boerner. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (2022)

THE THIRD ACT OF THEO GRUENE (coming 2025)

Recent Ramblings:

  • Our Garden Mission Statement
  • Goodbye, 2025. Hello, 2026.
  • Sunday Letter: 11.23.25
  • Maggie and Miss Ladybug: My New Children’s Nature Book
  • Sunday Letter: November 9, 2025

Novels:

Coloring Books:

Fiction-Themed Coloring Books

Backyard Phenology:

Children’s Nature Book:

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