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Upcoming Event
I hope to make an appearance at the Ottawa Romance Book Fair, when a date is officially announced for 2027. This is a one-day event held at the Conference Centre, so check back soon for updates.
I hope to make an appearance at the Ottawa Romance Book Fair, when a date is officially announced for 2027. This is a one-day event held at the Conference Centre, so check back soon for updates.
2026-09-29
It's simple for me. You'll no doubt have your version. The three C's which are an essential ingredient for me in life are coffee, chocolate and coconut—all that falls within the categorization of food products. Yes, coffee is surely a food, so there's really no point in arguing with me over this fact. And, chocolate is a life-blood food that should be ingested at all intervals, whereas coconut is optional. Not everyone loves coconut. Though, and when it comes to macaroons... dayum these are fine and tasty, the fresher the better.
The image that comes along with this post is courtesy of a recipe, the one sphere of the world that hasn't waned, in all the decades that we've had access to marvelous recipes on the internet, there for the taking, to download, to prepare, to eat. This drink is called a Chocolate Coconut Iced Coffee, blended of course, which is the only way to go when combining the three C's, sumptuous taste ingredients that were destined to find one another.
I cannot recall a period in my life when I haven't loved dark chocolate, in small or large doses, frozen or eaten at room temperature. Easter is to blame. Every Easter, there'd be milk-chocolate bunnies hidden in less-than-obvious places in our home that required us to hunt before being able to gobble up the bunny's ears. Hollow wasn't that bad, and it made it easier to bite off the bunny's head, while solid bunnies were sublime, and would last a week, if not more.
Whereas coffee, that elixir of energy and thoughtful rumination, is becoming more expensive by the day. Why, even as I type these words, the price of coffee is crawling ever upward. Prior to the pandemic, as I've noted in posts, the price of purchasing a quality, fair-trade, organic coffee was reasonable. Since the year 2020, the price of my favorite brands have doubled, and this equates to an increase in price of 100%. You might ask yourself how is this possible? I, too, have asked this umpteen times. The sad reality is that major producers of coffee have suffered severe crop failures, as well as insanely rising tariff rates, over and above having to cope with droughts. There's a phenomena called 'precipitation whiplash', where arabica and Robusta plants have been damaged by severe heat. These conditions have translated into some producers sitting on their coffee supply, to push up the price, at the same time battling with lower crop yields that have seen deficits for years running.
I wish... I wish upon a star that the end game of human civilization will realize the error of its ways, and settle down when it comes to greed. When are tariffs good?
We're currently dealing with a mass shortage of cocoa beans in West Africa, and this more often than not is caused by higher demand competing with low supplies. Chocolate suffers and can't cope with the pressures of the future. Then there's bad weather like floods that are heavier than normal in places like the Ivory coast and Ghana. Chocolatiers insist on preparing their delectable goodies using nothing but the finest of chocolate vs some of the more alarming trends of using 'chocolate compound'. I retch at the mere thought of eating this fake chocolate because it blends a low grade of chocolate with a fat compound to fool non-aficionados. The real stuff, the true dark chocolate of this world is fussy to deal with because it requires tempering, to be heated and cooled properly. Whereas, the cheap crap variety of chocolate is easy to work with but you'll notice the difference in taste.
My brain reacts instantly. When it comes to eating cheap chocolate I end up getting a headache. When I eat pure dark chocolate, I am elated, a new woman!
Chocolate is one of those substances in the world that cannot be replaced with another bitter food product because there's only one product that comes from the fermented seeds of the cocoa tree and it's chocolate. And this post is reminding me that I need to pick up a container of Fry's Cocoa. Every morning I prepare my protein shake, using a vanilla based protein powder (another yummy flavor - love you vanilla 😘) I'll add a teaspoon of cocoa powder, for a hint of chocolate. I try not to overdose on chocolate, and yet my brain understands why it loves it so. Chocolate is rich in flavonoids and these help the blood flow in your brain to function better, while protecting memory centers. It's comforting to know this, that chocolate has hidden nutritional value, to keep the gears running smoothly, in the old noggen, as they say, but it's really all about the taste, the texture on your tongue, as well as the flavor combinations.
If I were a man, and I was in the throes of wooing a new woman, the first order of business would be to learn her favorite brand of chocolate, whether she prefers dark or milk, and what percentage strength of dark chocolate. Or, does she prefer hot chocolate or white chocolate, though the white variety is merely a fad, and I pay it no mind. Knowing this preference would enable me, as a pretend-man, for the sake of this scenario, to learn how to elevate her mood. By the way, men have hormonal dips too but chocolate doesn't affect their brains in the same manner that it does with women.
It is also a socially acceptable method to bestow on someone a gift of chocolate, and it doesn't have to be a special occasion. I would show up for our date with a selection of fine chocolates, and present them to her, then leave the choice up to her, while paying attention. One option in this selection, as part of my gift, would be the finest truffles that chocolate has ever seen.
If, however, she told me that chocolate isn't her thing, then I'd suggest the best fresh ground coffee house I know, and not one of those cookie-cutter franchises parked on every street corner. Not on your life! Rather, I'd run with an excellent fairtrade coffee house. A good impression is worth the research beforehand.
Finally, if coffee and chocolate don't do the trick, then perhaps it's time to review your preferences in women. Though before throwing in the towel, try purchasing a specialty brand of coconut macaroons that are made with raw cane sugar. When macaroons are fresh, and they dissolve in your mouth, you'll feel as though the troubles of the world can be circumnavigated.
I should report that while coconuts are not yet ready to go extinct, to the degree that we may experience with chocolate or coffee, it nonetheless pains me to admit that coconut trees are aging, and are becoming less productive.
This is the way of the world, of our lives, for a natural decay in the order of things to occur. Everyone and everything, every living plant, fish, animal and human will experience a decline before permanently expiring. It is inevitable and can't be avoided. Sure, maybe well into the future we'll create technology that allows us to download our brains into a holding apparatus, to later be dumped into a synthetic body and voila! You'll be walking around in a city, maybe your hometown, and you won't recognize a thing, because hundreds of years have passed, and everything has changed, to include access to coffee, chocolate and coconut.
I have my list. You have yours. We each gravitate to the very thing we desire, knowing fully that our pleasures are temporary, hopefully our pain too, though as I've observed in the elderly, their pains never go away, that is until that day comes when they are due to expire. I sure hope I go with a wedge of dark chocolate melting on my tongue, and a cappuccino by my bedside, the cup freshly inhaled, with a box of macaroons emptied.
Don't ask for much. Wanting too much is almost too much. Want for the specifics, rather than the general. Be specific in your wants and you'll find that you'll also realize, as I've known for decades, that living in North America and other Western countries means we're the luckiest of people. We're able to enjoy good quality chocolate, coffee and coconut.
I won't let you finish this blog post, if you've managed to read this far, without educating you on the harsh reality: the vast majority of chocolate isn't harvested humanely. Over 70% of cocoa comes from West Africa and some two million children work on these cocoa farms in hazardous conditions, expected to work with machetes and to carry heavy loads. This is the reason why I only buy fair-trade chocolate, coffee or coconut. I'm prepared to spend heavily to do so because if I can afford the pleasure then it follows that I should take a hit to my pocket book along with the guilt.
Fair-trade farms harvest their product with stronger and ethical humane practices, as it should be.
Food for thought: buy fair-trade wherever its sold.
The image that comes along with this post is courtesy of a recipe, the one sphere of the world that hasn't waned, in all the decades that we've had access to marvelous recipes on the internet, there for the taking, to download, to prepare, to eat. This drink is called a Chocolate Coconut Iced Coffee, blended of course, which is the only way to go when combining the three C's, sumptuous taste ingredients that were destined to find one another.
I cannot recall a period in my life when I haven't loved dark chocolate, in small or large doses, frozen or eaten at room temperature. Easter is to blame. Every Easter, there'd be milk-chocolate bunnies hidden in less-than-obvious places in our home that required us to hunt before being able to gobble up the bunny's ears. Hollow wasn't that bad, and it made it easier to bite off the bunny's head, while solid bunnies were sublime, and would last a week, if not more.
Whereas coffee, that elixir of energy and thoughtful rumination, is becoming more expensive by the day. Why, even as I type these words, the price of coffee is crawling ever upward. Prior to the pandemic, as I've noted in posts, the price of purchasing a quality, fair-trade, organic coffee was reasonable. Since the year 2020, the price of my favorite brands have doubled, and this equates to an increase in price of 100%. You might ask yourself how is this possible? I, too, have asked this umpteen times. The sad reality is that major producers of coffee have suffered severe crop failures, as well as insanely rising tariff rates, over and above having to cope with droughts. There's a phenomena called 'precipitation whiplash', where arabica and Robusta plants have been damaged by severe heat. These conditions have translated into some producers sitting on their coffee supply, to push up the price, at the same time battling with lower crop yields that have seen deficits for years running.
I wish... I wish upon a star that the end game of human civilization will realize the error of its ways, and settle down when it comes to greed. When are tariffs good?
We're currently dealing with a mass shortage of cocoa beans in West Africa, and this more often than not is caused by higher demand competing with low supplies. Chocolate suffers and can't cope with the pressures of the future. Then there's bad weather like floods that are heavier than normal in places like the Ivory coast and Ghana. Chocolatiers insist on preparing their delectable goodies using nothing but the finest of chocolate vs some of the more alarming trends of using 'chocolate compound'. I retch at the mere thought of eating this fake chocolate because it blends a low grade of chocolate with a fat compound to fool non-aficionados. The real stuff, the true dark chocolate of this world is fussy to deal with because it requires tempering, to be heated and cooled properly. Whereas, the cheap crap variety of chocolate is easy to work with but you'll notice the difference in taste.
My brain reacts instantly. When it comes to eating cheap chocolate I end up getting a headache. When I eat pure dark chocolate, I am elated, a new woman!
Chocolate is one of those substances in the world that cannot be replaced with another bitter food product because there's only one product that comes from the fermented seeds of the cocoa tree and it's chocolate. And this post is reminding me that I need to pick up a container of Fry's Cocoa. Every morning I prepare my protein shake, using a vanilla based protein powder (another yummy flavor - love you vanilla 😘) I'll add a teaspoon of cocoa powder, for a hint of chocolate. I try not to overdose on chocolate, and yet my brain understands why it loves it so. Chocolate is rich in flavonoids and these help the blood flow in your brain to function better, while protecting memory centers. It's comforting to know this, that chocolate has hidden nutritional value, to keep the gears running smoothly, in the old noggen, as they say, but it's really all about the taste, the texture on your tongue, as well as the flavor combinations.
If I were a man, and I was in the throes of wooing a new woman, the first order of business would be to learn her favorite brand of chocolate, whether she prefers dark or milk, and what percentage strength of dark chocolate. Or, does she prefer hot chocolate or white chocolate, though the white variety is merely a fad, and I pay it no mind. Knowing this preference would enable me, as a pretend-man, for the sake of this scenario, to learn how to elevate her mood. By the way, men have hormonal dips too but chocolate doesn't affect their brains in the same manner that it does with women.
It is also a socially acceptable method to bestow on someone a gift of chocolate, and it doesn't have to be a special occasion. I would show up for our date with a selection of fine chocolates, and present them to her, then leave the choice up to her, while paying attention. One option in this selection, as part of my gift, would be the finest truffles that chocolate has ever seen.
If, however, she told me that chocolate isn't her thing, then I'd suggest the best fresh ground coffee house I know, and not one of those cookie-cutter franchises parked on every street corner. Not on your life! Rather, I'd run with an excellent fairtrade coffee house. A good impression is worth the research beforehand.
Finally, if coffee and chocolate don't do the trick, then perhaps it's time to review your preferences in women. Though before throwing in the towel, try purchasing a specialty brand of coconut macaroons that are made with raw cane sugar. When macaroons are fresh, and they dissolve in your mouth, you'll feel as though the troubles of the world can be circumnavigated.
I should report that while coconuts are not yet ready to go extinct, to the degree that we may experience with chocolate or coffee, it nonetheless pains me to admit that coconut trees are aging, and are becoming less productive.
This is the way of the world, of our lives, for a natural decay in the order of things to occur. Everyone and everything, every living plant, fish, animal and human will experience a decline before permanently expiring. It is inevitable and can't be avoided. Sure, maybe well into the future we'll create technology that allows us to download our brains into a holding apparatus, to later be dumped into a synthetic body and voila! You'll be walking around in a city, maybe your hometown, and you won't recognize a thing, because hundreds of years have passed, and everything has changed, to include access to coffee, chocolate and coconut.
I have my list. You have yours. We each gravitate to the very thing we desire, knowing fully that our pleasures are temporary, hopefully our pain too, though as I've observed in the elderly, their pains never go away, that is until that day comes when they are due to expire. I sure hope I go with a wedge of dark chocolate melting on my tongue, and a cappuccino by my bedside, the cup freshly inhaled, with a box of macaroons emptied.
Don't ask for much. Wanting too much is almost too much. Want for the specifics, rather than the general. Be specific in your wants and you'll find that you'll also realize, as I've known for decades, that living in North America and other Western countries means we're the luckiest of people. We're able to enjoy good quality chocolate, coffee and coconut.
I won't let you finish this blog post, if you've managed to read this far, without educating you on the harsh reality: the vast majority of chocolate isn't harvested humanely. Over 70% of cocoa comes from West Africa and some two million children work on these cocoa farms in hazardous conditions, expected to work with machetes and to carry heavy loads. This is the reason why I only buy fair-trade chocolate, coffee or coconut. I'm prepared to spend heavily to do so because if I can afford the pleasure then it follows that I should take a hit to my pocket book along with the guilt.
Fair-trade farms harvest their product with stronger and ethical humane practices, as it should be.
Food for thought: buy fair-trade wherever its sold.
2026-09-28
Attractiveness is
Goose flesh mud
One hour from now,
My skin emerges
from under salted drops
of Dead Sea,
How beautiful was my body
floating
floating on black water hours,
Serenely, I reclined
pestered to death by flies.
Funny - I didn't seem to mind.
COPYRIGHT © Patricia K McCarthy
Goose flesh mud
One hour from now,
My skin emerges
from under salted drops
of Dead Sea,
How beautiful was my body
floating
floating on black water hours,
Serenely, I reclined
pestered to death by flies.
Funny - I didn't seem to mind.
COPYRIGHT © Patricia K McCarthy
2026-09-24
This isn't going to be a safe place to land, where your discomfort has been removed, to replace it with floral-smelling concepts of sugar goodness. Why not read on, regardless, just for the hell of it all, right?
Some are of the mind that words carry connotations that offend others, even though they're perfectly fine words, meant to denote something specific. We're quixotic people, however, who are prone to projecting and attaching other feelings to words, when the word doesn't have feelings whatsoever. And so, if you're still with me, while I continue, there are some who are prone to being overly sensitive, and they'll assert their personality and position into a situation, where they feel that it's in their best interest to do so. I try to keep an open mind, to accept that we each are different in our approach to life, yet there are times, of course, when I have to disagree, and when I, too, am offended by some words, though not the ones that most would think.
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Some are of the mind that words carry connotations that offend others, even though they're perfectly fine words, meant to denote something specific. We're quixotic people, however, who are prone to projecting and attaching other feelings to words, when the word doesn't have feelings whatsoever. And so, if you're still with me, while I continue, there are some who are prone to being overly sensitive, and they'll assert their personality and position into a situation, where they feel that it's in their best interest to do so. I try to keep an open mind, to accept that we each are different in our approach to life, yet there are times, of course, when I have to disagree, and when I, too, am offended by some words, though not the ones that most would think.
Read More
2026-09-22
Hurry up, will ya? Get busy living before you get busy dying. For before you know it, you'll reach a vital stage in your life when you surpass that point, and you won't notice at first. Eventually you will. The realization will land like the sun hitting the surface of the ocean. The sunbeams will penetrate only so far, before you figure it out. When you do finally clue in, your concerns of the past will seem trivial. You'll become focused on leaving behind a legacy, if you're able to do so, as well as to define those memorable moments where you had shined like a diamond.
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2026-09-21
I am the ghost of whoring
as old as the secret closet of photos
taken in scandal,
I am the justice of beauty,
here today and tomorrow.
Longer than integrity will last
in falling, I am the criminal of covet
into whose hands will falter,
every moral and darkest fantasy.
From altar to begging
I am the bend in the break
the direction of my heart always floating.
COPYRIGHT © Patricia K McCarthy
as old as the secret closet of photos
taken in scandal,
I am the justice of beauty,
here today and tomorrow.
Longer than integrity will last
in falling, I am the criminal of covet
into whose hands will falter,
every moral and darkest fantasy.
From altar to begging
I am the bend in the break
the direction of my heart always floating.
COPYRIGHT © Patricia K McCarthy
2026-09-14
I have no lips
without your mouth upon mine,
nor lashes dark
without your gaze through me.
The softness of my skin is felt
only by your touch
to guide me
over each crevice.
I have hidden myself
in my flesh shivering.
Without your love,
I have no one to fill my heart.
COPYRIGHT © Patricia K McCarthy
without your mouth upon mine,
nor lashes dark
without your gaze through me.
The softness of my skin is felt
only by your touch
to guide me
over each crevice.
I have hidden myself
in my flesh shivering.
Without your love,
I have no one to fill my heart.
COPYRIGHT © Patricia K McCarthy
2026-09-07
I take wing to glory
when I touch him,
I fly with his body.
There is but one place I go to,
At the dawn of all that is new of him,
I know the depths of despair
that is my separation from him,
the opposite end of falling forward.
My mood turns thick into blackness.
To the marrow am I drenched,
too weak to stay apart.
For tonight,
I take him to the other side.
Tonight,
I compare him to the brighter side
of my under-self.
COPYRIGHT © Patricia K McCarthy
when I touch him,
I fly with his body.
There is but one place I go to,
At the dawn of all that is new of him,
I know the depths of despair
that is my separation from him,
the opposite end of falling forward.
My mood turns thick into blackness.
To the marrow am I drenched,
too weak to stay apart.
For tonight,
I take him to the other side.
Tonight,
I compare him to the brighter side
of my under-self.
COPYRIGHT © Patricia K McCarthy
2026-09-03
The Erotic Woman, a website based in Australia, has sadly gone the way of the Dodo bird many years back, but when they were active, they had graciously reviewed my third novel in my Crimson Fantasy series. So it is, given that it's a positive one. I'm of the mind that any author whose book is reviewed knows that these are often fraught with criticisms, just for the sake of being critical. Some spoiler alerts, FYI
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2026-09-01
If you're active on social networks, in this surely twisted world of interconnectivity, you'll understand what I mean when I say it's a level of exposure to one element of the world that oscillates between two realms, sometimes like a seesaw that bounces up and down, and sometimes like a snake that sidewinds, more often the latter, more than I'd necessarily like.
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