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Another heads up: All of my Meanderings are written by me. Not AI.
Hello, my favorite VIP Readers!
Am I the only one who’s kind of jealous of the kids going back to school after a summer of fun and games? Hopefully, not filled with boredom and ennui, a topic for another day!
I was talking to my five-year-old grandson, Liam, yesterday about going back to school next week as a kindergartener. He went to Pre-K last year, so he knew what he was getting into. I asked him if he was excited to be going back. I watched his eyes widen, a broad smile on his face. His excitement was palpable. He immediately launched into a list of the supplies he had and those he didn’t.
Why would a five-year-old need earbuds at school? “For my tablet, Grandma!”
I forgot about the list of “necessities” that kept growing and updating year after year. I feel for the parents today. I’m sure their list is far worse now than when my mother was tearing out her hair trying to find me an abacus.
I’m so out of the mainstream. Duh, grandma!
Anyway, I do miss the excitement of going back to school in the fall. Why? New clothes and school supplies. Don’t you love the smell of a new pencil bag, the sparkle of a binder, the finetip pens in various colors? I’m distracted even thinking about these things. It’s not like I need them.
Sorry! Meandering all over the place today. Hang in there with me!
I think the thing I miss most, though, is the connections we made when we were in school. Not necessarily just being able to play on the playground, talking in class—yeah, I could be pretty chatty, who knew?—and connecting with classmates. There was always the hope that the new year would mean you'd forge new friendships and find camaraderie with kids just like you.
It’s probably why I love social networks. Okay, today, right this moment, I l don’t love them. The Facebook site hasn’t loaded for me today for some stupid reason.
Anyhoooo. Thanks to my social media and this newsletter, my playground has gotten bigger. I’ve made a lot of friends across the country and around the world. With a click-clack of my keyboard, I can keep in touch with new and old friends I would probably never have met any other way. I’ve been riding Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads for a long time. Before that, I had a huge bunch of friends on MySpace. Yeah, there’s a mind-blowing time reference!
I’ve made thousands of friends. Yes, you all are friends. I talk to everyone daily in my Docter in the House reader chat group. I share jokes, writing triumphs, boohoos, wonders, and “huh?”s. I commiserate, encourage, and celebrate with my friends. And sometimes, when I’m really lucky, I get the chance to meet one or two in person.
And, you know what? It’s not like I’m meeting strangers. It’s one of the reasons why I miss RomCon, a Denver-based reader convention that I helped to run for several years. Timing is fuzzy. The memories are not. Each year, we’d run amok (okay, not really, maybe) in the hotel conference rooms, playing games, signing books, and hanging out at the bar, chatting. Talking books with readers for an entire weekend is such a rush! (All of the photos above and below are from the 2013 RomCon event.)
I missed that conference once it shut down. I didn’t miss all of the work. It’s tough to organize an event like that, although we always had a successful conference. I miss seeing the authors and readers who came every year and making new friends. Connections. My adult version of Back to School. I haven’t been able to replace the experience because…life!
Thankfully, social media was there to pick up the slack. Whenever I find myself railing at how a network behaves or at how long it sometimes takes to wend my way through the timelines to find what I want, I remind myself of the reason I go to each digital playground. Several times daily.
These are my friends and readers…like you. The networks allow us to connect, even if I’ll never get a chance to meet you personally. If I’m really lucky, there will come a day when I can hug you up close (yeah, I’m a hugger, fair warning) and chat like we do each and every day online.
Toddling off to play in the Facebook sandbox, if they let me. If not, there’s always my writing.
Have a wonderful day, my friends. Would love to meet you all someday!
START YOUR NEXT READ HERE…
Contemporary Romance with a kick of humor. Karen Docter’s romantic comedies and contemporaries are spicy-sweet hometown-hero romances filled with warmth, love, family, and happily-ever-afters. You might even laugh out loud.
Women hunted by killers…men who’d die to protect them. K.L. Docter’s psychological romantic suspense novels are filled with romance, although the dangers the hero and heroine face are intense…usually because a serial killer is bent on ending one or both of their lives. You’ll find romance, danger, justice, and a happily-ever-after between these pages!
I had a stressful medical test on Tuesday, and it’s been my major distraction this week. Now to wait on pins and needles for the result. I distracted myself nicely with writing on one of my secret projects (yeah, as in more than one) I’m hoping to finish in the next couple of weeks. More books! Yay! You’ll definitely be hearing a lot more about this in the Meanderings to come. Something to look forward to…wink, wink!
I’m thrilled KILLING SECRETS, Thorne’s Thorns Book 1 is a part of N. N. Light’s Book Heaven’s Mystery, Suspense, Thriller Bookish Event. Check out all of the books and enter the giveaway to win a $ Amazon gift card: https://substack.com/@nnlightsbookheaven/p-210622111 #mystery #suspense #thriller #books #giveaway #nnlbh @nnlightsbookheaven
Giveaway Info:
Enter to win a $50 Amazon gift card:
https://kingsumo.com/g/m7gp6lm/mystery-suspense-thriller-bookish-event-giveaway
Open Internationally.
Runs August 11 – August 20, 2026.
Winner will be drawn on August 21, 2026.
Book Club Appearances
I would love to visit with your book club or library via a personal local appearance or Zoom to chat about any of the books in my True Love in Uniform or Thorne’s Thorns series. (No speaker fee, of course!) If you’re interested, please contact me at kldocter@yahoo.com.
Please use BOOK CLUB/INVITED in your subject line so I don’t discount you as a scammer and delete you. (It’s sad I have to add that caveat.) Thanks.
Website/Karen’s Killer Book Bench & Killer Fixin’s Blog
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Explore this week’s books, spotlighted on Karen’s Killer Book Bench (spotlight) & Karen’s Killer Fixin’s (spotlight + recipe).
MONDAY #NA #FICTION: SIX WEEKS OF LOVE & LARCENY, The Secrets Trilogy Book 1 and TWELVE WEEKS OF LOVE & LOSS, The Secrets Trilogy Book 2 by Rebecca Gould Baeurle
WEDNESDAY #Paranormal #Horror #Romance: DEVIL INSIDE, A Paranormal Horror Romance About Obsession and the Darkness of Love by Clay McLeod Chapman
FRIDAY FIXIN’S #Chicken #Recipe: BAKED MARINATED CHICKEN from Karen’s Kitchen
What are you reading? I’m always on the lookout for books to add to my TBR pile! Join me for the challenge. It will be fun to motivate each other. You can find my 2026 Goodreads Challenge here.
Thank you for being a huge part of my reader community. Y’all are the best! Wishing you oodles of reading pleasure and happiness. Hope you are getting cooler weather.
Happy Reading!
Karen
P.S. Every heart/like you click helps other people find my books. Leave a comment so I know you were here. I read every single one. Thanks for being here.
Recommend Docter’s House of Books & Meanderings to your Besties!
Karen Docter writes contemporary romance and romantic comedy under her own name, and romantic suspense as K.L. Docter. A book lover, she spotlights books of most genres on her Karen’s Killer Book Bench & Killer Fixin’s blogs and her newsletter, Docter’s House of Books & Meanderings. When she’s not hanging with her own personal hero, a persnickety Border Collie, and a flock of chickens that “sing” really loud every morning, she’s living her best life reading and writing lakeside on the South Carolina coast.
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