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Part memoir and love letter, too, A Cookbook for Katie offers simple recipes and practical advice to a young bride about to walk down the aisle and into her own future of homemaking. Cooking tips and recipes are framed by family-themed essays that capture the flavor, heart and humor of home life. Readers say it is: "Comforting and tender--a pleasure to read." Faye "Wonderfully friendly." KR "I spread it out and made the book last as long as I could, but it was a challenge. I wanted to race through to see what would happen next." Cecelia While written specifically for the writer's niece in response to the bride's request for a collection of family recipes when she was about to marry, this unusual memoir-cookbook could help any new bride who may need to answer the question, "What's for supper?" with good spirits, a hot meal and a pan of perfectly baked cornbread. Highly readable and wryly wise, A Cookbook for Katie, Recipes and Reveries for the Bride, is a celebration of love and food, with recipes not only for simple suppers and holiday meals but also for living lovingly after you say, "I do." Buy a copy for yourself or a bride today.

From the author of Lovejoy and Blessed comes a series about church ladies of the South. After reading this first novel in the series, fans of Southern fiction write, "I want to live next door to Mildred Budge." A retired school teacher, Mildred Budge just wants to live a quiet life in her hometown of Cloverdale. But retirement does not mean she can say no to a friend--not a friend in trouble. A disciplined woman, Mildred can breathe the word "no" to a second cup of ice cream. Can resist drinking too much champagne. But when it comes right down to a friend needing a favor, she may say no first, but if someone really needs her-really needs her -she always said yes. That's how Mildred ended up with strangers camped out in her spare bedroom while helping her friend Fran launch a new business at the antique emporium. The only real 'no' Mildred had said in recent history was to a man who loved her. Hugh wasn't the first man to pursue her. But he was the most recent. And she had been flattered but not interested-not in the way the widower wanted her to be interested.Hugh didn't give up right away. He lodged himself near her at church. Found her in the church kitchen after a fellowship supper to aid in the clean-up. And finally, her would-be lover just asked her to say 'yes' to him outright. That was the moment when Mildred had to say a final 'no.' Only her best friend Fran understood. Fran said when Mildred finally felt the regretful effects of that no, "We're all of us such fools."But they aren't fools. Mildred Budge and her friends are just people trying to live inside the faith released from heaven through the One who didn't say no.This is the first novel in the series about Mildred Budge and her friends-just ordinary people trying to live out an extraordinary hope available to anyone who realizes what kind of help he or she really needs. That hope has a name, and Mildred Budge knows it. Need hope? Need a friend? Mildred Budge is a very good friend. If you like spending time with people who are ordinary but extraordinarily hopeful, then you'll love this story. Get a copy of this first novel in the series and find out for yourself what church ladies really think.About the author: Daphne Simpkins is a Southern woman who writes about a variety of subjects and often on the secret lives of church ladies. Befriend her on Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin.com. To sign up for new release information go to DaphneSimpkins.org. Other Mildred Budge titles include the next two novels: Mildred Budge in Embankment and The Bride's Room. Early short stories which were published in the United States and Canada are in two books: Miss Budge in Love and The Mission of Mildred Budge. A stand-alone Christmas story featuring Mildred Budge and her friend Dixie is Miss Budge Goes to Fountain City. That Southern city is also celebrated in another book not in the series called Christmas in Fountain City. Other titles by Daphne Simpkins are: The Long Good Night, A Cookbook for Katie, What Al Left Behind, Blessed, Lovejoy, a novel about desire.

In this second full-length Mildred Budge novel, the retired school teacher gets physical. By temperament a contemplative, in this story Mildred bravely leads the way to safety after the pulpit committee with whom she is traveling in an old-fashioned Buick flies off an embankment. Not only does Mildred discover in herself reservoirs of physical strength, but she also experiences new spiritual adventures as she continues to "work out her salvation" within the context of friendships and church relationships.Mildred Budge in Embankment challenges men and women to reconsider the tensions between grace and human will while experiencing glimpses of heaven along the way. It is perceptive, funny, and uplifting. Readers will enjoy the journey with Mildred and her friends.If you enjoy a wholesome story that explores the mysteries of grace and being human, you will enjoy Mildred Budge in Embankment.

There is a surprising and very freeing future for caregivers after Alzheimer's disease runs its course and leaves the building where you have been trying to make a home. The house will never be the same. Your heart will never feel the same. But in spite of its bad reputation, living with Al isn't all about heartbreak. It is about change for Al refocuses the way you see yourself, your home, the people around you and the way you wake up to your day and envision your future--and some of those changes are quite liberating.Buy a copy for yourself if you are a caregiver of someone with dementia or for a friend who needs a boost of encouragement. All caregivers need encouragement WHAT AL LEFT BEHIND is a follow-up to Daphne Simpkins' touching memoir A LONG GOOD NIGHT: My Father's Journey into Alzheimer's (Eerdmans).

Each Christmas retired chemistry teacher Edwina Bopp makes her newest invention of miracle fudge as a fundraiser for missions in her small Southern town Fountain City. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the good lady cooks through the night and then gives the candy away to the fudge-hungry group of people who know this year's newest recipe is coming and line up in front of her store before she ever opens the door of her Main Street candy shop. People receive their portion of this year's fudge and place donations for missions in her jar on the counter, expecting miracles. Some miracles have occurred, so they said. Lonely people fell in love. Couples who wanted children have fat babies. Heartsick people wake up to hope. Afterwards, they say the fudge did it. But it isn't the fudge. It's the secret power that enlivens this small town. The secret ingredient for life in Fountain City is their love for God and for one another. Fountain City folks know this, but they also want that miracle fudge. Friends and neighbors wait for it year-round, hoping Mrs. Bopp won't veer off into some weird recipe that doesn't include chocolate. She did that once, and the residents of Fountain City are still talking about it Available only at Christmas, the demand for her miracle fudge is high-an intensity of desire that could be lessened if she would just share her recipes. But she won't do that. It's not selfishness. Mrs. Bopp's fudge recipes keep changing. She's never finished with perfecting the perfect batch of fudge, and so she keeps working on measurements and ingredients. And in her slowness and inscrutable gifts and responses to their demands, she models what the world calls faith and patience, too. All of that comes to an end when Mrs. Bopp is attacked and her day's fudge supply stolen. How the neighbors of Fountain City respond to this calamity is the new experience of miracles in the daily life of Fountain City at Christmas. An uplifting story, Christmas in Fountain City will remind you that the existence of love itself is the great miracle, and you can have it every day of your life if you trust the One who invented the miracle of grace. And you can also have fudge.... Check out Christmas in Fountain City now. About the author Daphne Simpkins: Daphne is best known for her series about church ladies of the South featuring Mildred Budge and friends. There is a primary series of novels that begins with Mildred Budge in Cloverdale. There is a secondary series of shorter fiction that begins with Miss Budge in Love. There is also a spin-off series about Mildred's friends, and that series begins with Belle: A Mildred Budge Friendship Story. To keep up with new releases, follow her on Amazon or Facebook.

In MISS BUDGE IN LOVE Daphne Simpkins offers an entertaining collection of insightful and often humorous short stories that feature the endearing Miss Mildred Budge. A retired public school teacher, Miss Budge embarks on a series of slice-of-life adventures that take readers into the intriguing and authentic lives of Southern church women. "What our readers love about Miss Budge is that they all know her personally. In fact, they all are her in one way or another. Daphne's stories are instantly recognizable to those in a church community, and that's where the real humour and real pathos comes from. Daphne is a keen observer of the strange and wonderful subculture of 'the church lady.'" Brett Alan Dewing The Christian Courier (Canada) "Mildred Budge is a forthright, almost larger than life, woman who challenges every reader's faith walk by being transparent about her own. She reminds us that Jesus loves us the way we are but He loves us too much to leave us as we are." Julie Innes EvangelBuy a copy today for yourself or your favorite church lady or teacher who inspired you to become who you are today.

The secret lives of church ladies continue to be explored in The Mission of Mildred Budge: The Short Adventures of Mildred Budge. Like the first volume of short stories, Miss Budge in Love, The Mission of Mildred Budge collection offers a fresh and often funny behind-the-scenes look at Southern church life with an emphasis in this collection on the work of missions, fund-raising for missions, and the mysterious ways that people unite in the fellowship of the saints called worship. The short stories in this newest collection look deeply into the motivations of hometown Christians and the power that fuels their faith. While the stories in this collection have a missions focus, they branch off into a spontaneous exorcism (Sibel, You're Getting Fat) considerations about grief (The Unfaithful Widow), and even the kind of funeral some people want (Muffins all Around). Lifelong friendships are explored and even the best of friends in church who routine squabble doing committee work are rightly sent to time-out in the story The Doghouse Fellowship. One reviewer called it "wickedly funny." If you are involved in your church or in missions or in women's ministries, this collection of short stories about church life will enrich your understanding of how other people in the church think and believe. Any church lady in your life will want a copy. There are seventeen stories and a Bonus excerpt from the most recent Mildred Budge novel. The stories are: 1.Pulling a Martin Luther2.The Golden Rule of Missions3.Lunch with the Boys4.Widow's Mite Nite5.Sibel, You're Getting Fat6.Spiritual Gifts: X Marks the Spot7.Loose change and Happy Dollars8.Recipes from the Grave9.Practice Being Dead10.In Your Easter Bonnet11.The Unfaithful Widow12.See You In Heaven13.Volunteering with Hospice14.The Doghouse Fellowship15.Dixie Attends a Missions Meetin'16.Praying Hands and Other War Stories17.Muffins all Around18.Bonus excerpt: Mildred Budge in Embankment There are three books, so far, in this series of The Shorter Adventures of Mildred Budge. They are: Miss Budge in Love, The Mission of Mildred Budge, and Miss Budge Goes to Fountain City.There is a primary series of novels that include four titles so far: Mildred Budge in Cloverdale, Mildred Budge in Embankment, The Bride's Room, and Kingdom Come. There is a spin-off series featuring the friends of Mildred Budge. It begins with Belle: A Mildred Budge Friendship Story followed by the recently released A Gentle and Lowly Christmas. Daphne Simpkins writes on a variety of subjects, from cooking to caregiving to church life. To keep up with new releases follow her on Amazon, Facebook, or Linkedin.com. To contact her: [email protected]

Loving others is a blessing, and caregiving is just one of the paths to knowing and living a fuller and more loving life. That's the philosophy of the author Daphne Simpkins in this newest collection of stories about caregiving: Blessed. Daphne developed her point of view by being a lifelong caregiver and as a Christian who takes that story about the Good Samaritan to heart. These stories celebrate the aspects of loving and giving care that include child raising, parent tending, being a good neighbor, and seeking help with assisted living establishments and respite ministries which she believes are active and invaluable care partners in our society. If you are an unrepentant caregiver and don't think loving others is a condition that needs to be named as a symptom and cured, this book is for you. About the author: Daphne Simpkins has been living in and writing about life in the South for most of her adult life. Her short stories and essays have been published in a variety of periodicals including The Chicago Tribune, The Atlanta Constitution, the Miami Herald, the Baltimore Sun, the Detroit Free Press, The Christian Courier, The Christian Century, Style, Tropic, and dozens of others. To keep up with new releases, follow her on Amazon, Facebook, Goodreads, Linkedin.com and BookBub. Other titles on caregiving by Daphne Simpkins: The Long Good NightWhat Al Left BehindBelle: A Mildred Budge Friendship StoryWhat Makes a Man a Hero? Stories about Men for Father's DayLovejoy: a novel about desireTricks of the MindClassic Birthdays of 20th Century Popular Culture Creators January-February-March A Memory Care Book for Activity Directors and CaregiversClassic Birthdays of 20th Century Popular Culture Creators April-May-June A Memory Care Book for Activity Directors and Caregivers

I was having dinner at Bucky's bar at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, Alabama, when I saw an older distinguished man sipping a martini and staring through the back window at the horizon of the Gulf of Mexico as the sun set. And I knew him-not his name or the name of the woman he was missing and privately toasting with his small sips of that martini. But I knew him, and the concentration of his memories filled the space around him and drew me to him, like a love song. Like the great old love songs I grew up singing. Those songs fit his story. When I got home, I wrote this story that happened to me when I saw a man whose name came with the sunset and the martini and the black grand piano he kept eyeing longingly: Franklin Lovejoy. So, in a way this story is autobiographical. I never met the man but Franklin Lovejoy happened to me. LOVEJOY was inspired by a real-life sighting of a man who had been deeply in love and as it turns out with more than one woman. It's part of the mystery of writing that stories come this way from chance encounters or in this case, a chance sighting. This is Lovejoy's story-and mine, in a way. I hope it will be one you enjoy too.The love story begins in a Southern church where desire for God is often confused with desire for a lover. Lovejoy happened to a Southern belle who, at first, admires the eligible older man from afar. Here's a little bit of that first spark between Lovejoy and the woman who, like others, couldn't say no to this man who had a way with the ladies.Excerpt from Lovejoy: I was past my prime but not yet old when I met my match, Mr. Lovejoy. The distinguished widower had been part of the background of my community, an old Southern church where tradition is as romantic as the scent of magnolia and the fragrance of the gospel is as abundant as the scent of that flower that ladies in social clubs use for tabletop centerpieces.Through a natural reluctance to join myself to a ladies' social club that defined me by my gender or marital status, I kept myself apart in the Southern society where God had placed me. I lived on the perimeter where spectators observe and often have opinions. In Sunday school I sat near the wall. In church I sat near the back, where I was occasionally shaken out of my church-time reverie when I heard a man belt out "Amen" whenever the preacher made a point that might have gone without attention otherwise.Heads turned at the sound of one of us agreeing out loud with the preacher. Eyes widened to discern the rebel among us-- the man of the Amen. He wasn't hard to spot. The man who vigorously agreed with the preacher was Franklin Lovejoy, a widower of two years.A handsome man, Mr. Lovejoy sat by himself five pews up from me, and often I watched with amusement the number of ladies who attempted to establish a stronghold beside this older available man. They came and went. I don't know what he said or didn't say that did not encourage the ladies to return. Some did come back, for a while. There were even some Sunday mornings when a single woman nestled in on Lovejoy's left side and another lady snuggled in on his right. Sunday mornings became like a soap opera to me. I watched, taking note of the women who came and went while the preacher positioned himself behind the pulpit, oblivious to the sexual tensions brewing in the pews.For the rest of this story, grab a copy of LOVEJOY today. The experience of real desire is very different than its reputation. Find out for yourself.About the author: Daphne Simpkins is an Alabama writer. Connect with her on Amazon, Facebook, BookBub, and Goodreads.

"Don't you ever want to run away from Christmas?"Mildred Budge's answer to Dixie was immediate and truthful."Yes, yes, yes," Mildred said with conviction.She couldn't stop saying yes, though the very idea that a good church lady would want to run away from the occasion during the year that marked the birth of Jesus-- the reason for the season for a tried and true church lady of the South-- was almost beyond explanation."Then, let's go. Let's go to Fountain City and find Mr. Fixit and eat sublime pies," her friend Dixie urged.The two needed Mr. Fixit because of a recently bought vintage music box that won't play. They can't hear the song, and the angels on top can't fly. The problem feels urgent. By the time Mildred and Dixie find Mr. Fixit and sample pies at the shop next door, the two runaways from Christmas find themselves right at home in Fountain City and more comfortable with who they areIf you are looking for an uplifting story that reminds you of the reason for the season after all, you'll surely enjoy this newest short adventure of Mildred Budge and her new friend Dixie, a woman whose multiple personalities encourages readers to enjoy the dimensions of personhood that can't be labeled and which often respond to beauty and shared joy.If you don't love Christmas and especially if you do, grab a copy of this charming Christmas story today. You'll be smiling by the time Mildred asks Dixie, "Are you ready to go home?" And you'll want to go with them.More about Mildred Budge....This story is an intermission between the larger novels featuring Mildred Budge and friends. It fits companionably with the two other sets of shorter adventures: Miss Budge in Love and The Mission of Mildred Budge.Longer novels include Mildred Budge in Cloverdale and Mildred Budge in Embankment.About the author: While Daphne Simpkins is currently engaged in writing about church life in the South with her Mildred Budge stories, she has also written non-fiction books about caregiving and cooking. To find out more about her books, just follow her on Amazon, Goodreads, and BookBub.

If you are an activity director or group leader who can't invite a speaker to give a small talk that would interest your members, this book could help. Written by the author of the beloved Mildred Budge church lady series, this collection of Small Talks is meant to be read or summarized by anyone who has a group of people who need some entertainment or some fresh ideas about old entertainment that rolls around during the holidays, and can't invite a speaker because of the lockdown and health concerns. The first six of these Small Talks are about classic Christmas movies with some interesting insights that will create some small talk among your assisted living residents or group members.The first six subjects are: #1 Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol #2 It's a Wonderful Life (Really ) #3 What'll I do? A Story about Irving Berlin #4 Holiday Inn #5 White ChristmasThe second set of Small Talks begins with a whimsical discussion about whistling, and then onto other classic shows and themes. #7 I Love to Whistle #8 The Andy Griffith Christmas Show #9 The Bethlehem Bible Story #10 Tell Your Pandemic Story in the New Year #11 Auld AcquaintancesEach Small Talk has a synopsis page that recaps the summary and offers information for you to choose whether it's right for your group or not. The Small Talk follows. Selected Small Talks have additional information in the form of story-driven biographies of people in the movies or TV shows.About Daphne Simpkins: The author of 14 books, this Small Talks collection represents some of the programs that Ms. Simpkins has given to assisted living homes and women's clubs. She is the author of the church lady series featuring Mildred Budge, but she has also written about caregiving and cooking. To learn more about her, follow her on Amazon, BookBub, Twitter, LInkedin.com or connect with her on Facebook.

Always a bride's maid--never a bride. That's part of the story of the life of Mildred Budge in this third novel in the series. But there is more to know about this Sunday School teacher who has been recruited to be a maid of honor for her good friend's wedding. As someone who has routinely had to muzzle herself at weddings by not calling out when the preacher asks if anyone knows a reason these two should not be wed, "It's not going to work out," this new role of supporting the bride has its challenges for this church lady of the South, Mildred Budge. But being a bride's maid also has its benefits for by the time the journey is over--by the time the bride herself walks down that aisle--Mildred Budge has become a different woman. Renewed. Refreshed. And she's not alone either. In The Bride's Room, readers will delight in the everyday antics of Southern church women and their neighbors. But readers will also be at ease, at peace, moving at the preferred pace of grace that Miss Budge lives out in her daily life. If you enjoy Southern fiction and stories that showcase an older heroine, you will surely want to live with Mildred Budge and her friends in the garden district of Montgomery, AL, called Cloverdale. And you will enjoy your time in the bride's room, too. It's real and Mildred Budge abides there with her friends. To enjoy more time with Mildred Budge, download the first novel in the series, Mildred Budge in Cloverdale, and the sequel, Mildred Budge in Embankment. Since the publication of The Bride's Room, the fourth novel Kingdom Come has also been released.Additionally, a spin-off series that focuses on the friends of Mildred Budge has two novels already. The series begins with Belle, A Mildred Budge Friendship Story and is followed next by A Gentle and Lowly Christmas. If you enjoy shorter fiction, you'll find three volumes that capture slice-of-life adventures in Mildred's life. Those books are: Miss Budge in Love, The Mission of Mildred Budge, and a Christmas story, Miss Budge Goes to Fountain City. To learn about new releases, follow Daphne Simpkins on Amazon. Or, you can like the Facebook page for Mildred Budge or Quotidian Books. You can contact her through [email protected]