CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--NASHVILLE ZOOLUMINATION

Zoolumination at the Nashville Zoo is billed as "the country's largest lantern festival, featuring magical scenes of more than 1,000 custom-made silk lanterns," some 100 feet long and 50 feet high. You'll find everything from mythical creatures to wildlife to flowers and even an outdoor skating rink! Each year the event grows bigger and more spectacular. If you're anywhere near Middle Tennessee through February 9th this year, it's a not-to-be-missed evening of awe.

And for another special evening, join author Lois Winston on Monday evening, January 27th at 7pm ET (6pm CT, 5pm MT, and 4pm PT), where she'll be the guest of the Cozy Mystery Party Facebook Group, hosted by Heather Harrisson and Shawn Stevens. If you'd like to join in for a fun hour + of all things murder, mayhem, and cozy mysteries (there will be prizes and surprises!), join the group ahead of time at https://www.facebook.com/groups/cozymysteryparty. Hope to see you there!

CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--ZOOLUMINATION AT THE NASHVILLE ZOO

During a recent holiday trip to visit family in Nashville, I had the chance to go to the Nashville Zoo's Zoolumination: Chinese Festival of Lights. 

This massive lantern event spans more than sixty acres and features more than 500 custom-designed lanterns, along with a life-size North Pole holiday village, acrobats from Zigong, China, and artists who practice traditional Chinese crafts. 

Here are just of few of the incredible exhibits on display. Some of the lanterns are as tall as a four-story building. The dragon is nearly the length of a football field. 

The festival runs through February 2^nd. If you’re within a drive of Nashville, you won’t want to miss this extraordinarily breathtaking event.

WHEN YOUR AUTHOR CAN'T TAKE THE HEAT

Thanks to Lois Winston, my author, I’ll be digging my way out of debt well into my eighties. Vacations are a thing of the past for me. Although a while back Lois did surprise me with a brief excursion to Barcelona, Spain, but then, sadist that she is, ruined it by having me kidnapped within hours of my arrival.

Lois, on the other hand, has taken several vacations in the years since she created me. On a recent trip to Nashville, she and her family spent the day at the Nashville Zoo. One thing you should know about my author: unlike me, she can’t take the heat. Only for her, it’s literal heat. The heat she gets me into is more metaphoric in nature.

Anyway, Lois always says she’d rather be cold than hot because when you’re cold, you can always add another layer of clothing or pile an extra quilt onto the bed. When you’re hot, there’s just so much you can strip off before you’re arrested for indecent exposure.

Getting back to that trip to the zoo, it’s summertime in Nashville, and that means it’s sizzling hot—the type of day my author would never have left the comfort of her air-conditioned home had she been home. Even the animals didn’t feel like moving, as you can tell from these pictures.

Personally, I was quite happy that Lois was out in the hot sun all day. That meant she wasn’t sitting at her computer dreaming up some new ways to create murder and mayhem in my life. And for me, that’s a vacation!