One of the things I’m most thankful for – every day of the year but especially at this Thanksgiving time of year – is my family of friends, far and near. I’ve been fortunate enough to retain friends from everywhere I’ve been, every school I’ve attended, every place I’ve worked, every country I’ve visited and lived in. I’m a rich girl when it comes to friends, and I’m deeply grateful for this non-material form of riches. My enduring friendships are precious and priceless to me.

And one of the ways I manage to keep in touch with this cherished family of friends is through my weekly blog posts. I can see, when I check the stats, where in the world my posts are being read: the States mostly, plus here in Mexico, Canada, parts of Africa, England, Scotland and Wales, France, Switzerland, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, sometimes even India, as well as farther afield.

So it’s thrilling to me to think that at my upcoming Zoom event I might see on one screen at one time the faces of many of those friends from around the world whom I haven’t seen in years. It could be a virtual reunion – across decades, continents, and time zones! Will this be possible, I wonder, or am I dreaming?

Zooming is still a mystery to me. While others, I’ve read, are tired of it already, thanks to the pandemic’s lockdown, I’ve barely begun to use the technology. I’ve been successfully skirting it, I confess. But soon I’ll have to get up to speed, because I’m slated to do a Zoom book reading on Sunday, December 6, through the literary nonprofit, SOMOS (the Society of the Muse of the Southwest) in Taos, New Mexico, where I used to live and where my independent publisher, Nighthawk Press, is.

My best friend in Taos, Barbara Scott, will host this event. And she’s put together this invitation for all:

You are invited to a SOMOS book launch: 

Sweet Tarts for My Sweethearts, with Bonnie Lee Black

Date: Sunday, Dec 6, 2020

Time: 04:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada);

please be sure to check the time difference for your location

Zoom Meeting link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5757701789

Or just launch your Zoom app and use the Meeting ID: 575 770 1789

It’s important (read: vital) to note that the 4 o’clock start time applies only to those who live in the Mountain time zone. If you’re like me and need some hand-holding for such calculations, I suggest you turn to Google (www.google.com) and ask a question along the lines of: If it’s 4 pm in Taos, New Mexico, USA, what time is it in [and then add your own location]? The answer, by the way, for San Miguel de Allende is 5 pm.

My dear friend Sandra Affleck in Kirriemuir, Scotland, for example, plans to attend. She tells me she’ll be tuning in at 11 pm her time. I asked whether she’ll be showing up in her pj’s. She said no.

I doubt that this Zoom event will last longer than an hour. I plan to read a few short (true) stories from Sweet Tarts for my Sweethearts, then do a brief, quasi-demonstration of tart-making showing the necessary implements and techniques, then take questions.

So, friends, please do plan to join in. I don’t know how many people this Zoom “auditorium” can hold, but we’ll soon find out. I’d love to see your pretty faces there!

~ ~ ~ ~

This week I made a tart (what else?) for the small Thanksgiving dinner gathering I attended here in my apartment building in San Miguel de Allende. It was an iconic holiday tart, Cranberry-Walnut, the recipe for which is in Sweet Tarts.There is no photo of it in the book, though, because cranberries were not in season when we did the photo shoots for the book this past summer. So here it is, in all it’s rubied splendor, to whet your appetite:

 

For those in SMA who wish to purchase Sweet Tarts for my Sweethearts, it is available at the front desk at Casa de la Noche (Organos 19), as well as at the Tesoros gift shop at the Biblioteca on Insurgentes, and at La Conexion on Aldama. And it is always available to all from Amazon.com (https://amzn.to/3l3zOmz) and Nighthawk Press (www.nighthawkpress.com).