Annilee Nelson's Blog

an author and her books update

November 10, 2025

It’s November, and the Cozy Season is upon us! (The Cozy Season in my life begins when the clocks roll back an hour as they did a week ago Sunday.) Time to snuggle up with a story and a warm beverage while a fire crackles on my tv screen thanks to YouTube.

It also means that the end of the year is quickly approaching with all of its festivities.

But that’s not the only end in sight! Because I’m so close to done with the first draft of Don’t Tell My Best Friend I Love Her. Just how close to the end am I?

I need to write half a chapter for Fred and Esther’s story, and then, I have to write the Steps Toward a New Beginning chapter that lets us all know who the next couple in the series will be. Any guesses about which Bennett sibling is next? I’m close enough to start making some tentative plans to release the book before the end of the year. (Will I make it before holiday cut-offs from the retailers? I’m working hard to hit that deadline, but… Stay tuned.)

I’ll share details about pre-orders and when I will share the story on Patreon as soon as I have the story completely finished.

So, that’s the future, but in the present, I wanted to let you know about a promotion that Kobo has going on for those who live in the UK, NZ, AU, US, or CA.

Until November 17, 2025, they have a 40% off promotion running, to which I submitted all my Hatfield Falls books.

Click here to go to the Kobo Promotion landing page

Click here to go directly to the Hatfield Falls Series on Kobo

And (as you can see from the graphic) they accepted ALL of them!!

So Books 1-3 are all 40% off until November 17 but you MUST use the promo code NOVEMBER40 at check out to get the discount.

That’s it for my writing and book news for now.

If you’re a YouTube watcher, I am experimenting with creating a series of One Thing I Liked About (a book or movie) videos to see if there is any interest in that sort of thing, to see if I can get comfortable with making short videos (I’m currently very uncomfortable with this lol), to see if I can help the algorithm find more subscribers who love reading for my channel, and to see if I can actually fit making them into my busy schedule. I also hope it helps make me more of a real person in an age where AI is so prevalent. (Yep, that’s a lot of variables to consider — some are more measurable than others.) 

If you’d like to see my most recent upload to this list, you can find it here.

Until next time… Happy Reading!

<3 Annilee

The post Get excited: The end is near! (and a Kobo Promo) appeared first on Annilee Nelson.

Today, I’m doing some summer dreaming as the sun glistens off the snow and the heat pump hums as it battles to keep the house warm against the decidedly frigid outdoor temperatures.

It’s February in Nova Scotia. The time of year when cold temps, snow, winter storms (we have a warning about one of those coming in a couple of days), and the desire for spring and summer settle in around here.

So, I’ve pulled out some pics that I’ve taken over the years when visiting the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia and compiled them into this short video.

I hope you enjoy this virtual step into summer as much as I have while compiling it for you.

About the video:

All images were taken by me. The title card/thumbnail was created using my own images and a Canva template. The video is created on Animoto. The song from their library of music is called Sunshine and is by Colin Whinnery.

If you would like to support me by subscribing to my YouTube channel, you can do that by clicking here.

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Have you ever had a Timbit? It’s a little round donut – what I’d call a donut hole. They are sold by Tim Hortons, a very popular donut shop chain here in Nova Scotia. There are at least three shops that I can drive to from my house in five minutes or less. They are everywhere!

These tasty little treats feature in a scene in Don’t Tell Anyone I Read Romance. Below are a few lines from that scene.

Fred grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards the food court – if you could call three food service places a food court.

“This requires food and sitting,” he said as he stopped at a table. “Sit. I’ll get us a box of Timbits.”

Eddie sat and waited while Fred joked with the girl behind the Tim Horton’s counter and likely ended up with a couple extra donut holes in his box. Why couldn’t twins be alike in more than looks? All his life, Fred had walked into any and every situation as though he belonged there, while Eddie had felt like an outsider more often than not.

His brother plopped the box of twenty Timbits on the table and took a seat. Then, he opened the container. “All sour cream glazed, and she tossed in a couple extra when I said I was using them to bribe you into sharing secrets.”

It was just as he had expected, but Eddie wasn’t complaining about getting extra Timbits, especially since sour cream glazed donuts were among his favourites.

“Now, spill.” Fred demanded…

Click the image to find all the places where you can get this series.

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We’ve been to church a few times in this series already, and I expect we’ll be going back many times. That’s why I thought it would be good to do a quick sketch of how I picture the church in Hatfield Falls to be laid out.

BTW, do you say foy-yay or foy-yer for “foyer”? We say foy-yay here. However you say it, that’s where the short scene below takes place.

“Would you like me to take you down to the children’s area?” Mrs. Bennett asked Ali.

“That would be perfect.” She looked at Ava. “Do you want to come?”

“No, it’s probably best if Miss Peanut only has one of us to cling to.”

“Ok, then, I’ll see you later?”

“Yep.”

She looked around the foyer “Where?”

“Um, I was planning to attend whichever class Trish went to.” Ava glanced at Henry. “If that’s okay with you.”

“Sure. We’ll be in the young adults’ class. It’s just down that hall.” He pointed to his right. “Second door on the left.”

“I’ll make sure she gets there,” Mrs. Bennett assured Ava. “And we’ll mark the classroom on the sign-in chart, so they know where to come find you if you’re needed, which I’m sure you won’t be.” Mrs. Bennett continued talking as she led Ali and Riley down the hall to their left.

“All the nurseries and kids’ classes are down there,” Henry explained.

From the grin he wore while he said it and the way his eyes had shifted from her to the door, Ava knew that Trish had arrived before she even turned to see who had let in the gust of wind that was currently making her shiver.

“Do you want a cup of coffee or tea or a cookie or anything?” Henry asked her. “There’s plenty at the welcome center. Of course, they’ll still be there after Sunday school for a while before church starts.”

“No. I came prepared.” She pulled her thermos from the tote bag on her arm. “I’m kind of picky about what kind of coffee I drink.”

He chuckled. “So, you’re a coffee snob?”

“Nah, I just like it to be more chocolate than coffee most times.”

“If chocolate’s what you’re looking for, I think there are some chocolate chip cookies on the tray today.”

“Oh, tempting! You might be able to talk me into eating one of those.”

Click the image to find all the places where the Hatfield Falls series is available.

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Edmund Bennet wrapped his hand firmly around the door handle, then, drawing in a deep breath and holding it to tamp down the touch of anxiety fluttering along his nerves, he slowly and silently pulled open the door that separated the back rooms of the library from the public areas. He had always been good at spying on his older brothers – well, except for his twin since Fred had usually been spying with him.

Surely, he could find out if Ava was here without being noticed, couldn’t he?

He peeked his head out, glanced right, then left, and sighed in relief.

She wasn’t here. At least, not right here or any place that could be seen from here.

If she was at the library – and he was pretty certain she was since he thought that he had seen her car in the parking lot – she was likely where she always was, in the computer room, which was nowhere near this door. However, one could not be too cautious when attempting to keep from being noticed.

“Are you trying to avoid someone?”

Eddie jumped, and the door thumped against his shoulder. “Ow.”

“Sorry,” came from somewhere to his left.

“Josh?”

The lanky highschooler who worked part time at the library was leaning against the wall in between two bookcases to the left of the door to the back room. If it hadn’t been for his size thirteen red sneakers poking out at the bottom of the bookcase and the fact that he was just head and shoulders taller than the short shelving units, Eddie never would’ve seen him.

“Why are you standing there?” Eddie rubbed his sore shoulder.

“I was just taking a break,” Josh said with a crooked grin as he pushed his glasses up his nose. “And I didn’t feel like talking to anyone, so I picked quiet companions.” He motioned to the rows of reference books at his side. “They don’t get much company, you know.”

That was true. The internet was where people went these days to research things. Therefore, these books rarely got used, and Eddie had to admit that the kid had picked a great hiding spot.

“Is your shoulder okay?”

Even though he wanted to keep rubbing his shoulder until the stinging stopped, Edmund let his hand fall to his side. Josh tended to get fixated on things like injuries, and Eddie really wasn’t in the mood to be asked every day – at least twice per day – for the rest of the week if his shoulder hurt. “It’s just a little bruise if anything at all.”

“Sorry about that. I really didn’t mean to startle you. I thought you saw me. Do you need some ice? I could go get you an ice pack.”

“Nah, I don’t need any ice.” He just needed to get to the front desk and back without being seen by Ava and talking to Josh about a possible bruised shoulder was not going to help him accomplish that. The longer he stayed in an observable spot, the more likely it was that someone, such as Ava, would see him. He could just duck back inside the back room, but that seemed silly since he needed those books from the front desk if he wanted to clear his list of books to be processed or fixed.

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.” Eddie took a step away from the safety of the back room where Ava was not allowed to be and towards the books he needed to retrieve.

“So, were you looking for someone?” Josh fell into step along side him.

“I thought you wanted a quiet break.”

Josh’s watch buzzed at the very moment Eddie finished his comment.

“It’s over.” Josh held up his arm with the watch on it. “That girl you keep talking to is here again.”

“Is she?” So the car he could just see the tail end of from the window in the breakroom was hers. Just as he’d suspected.

“Yep. She’s working on the computer next to your grandmother.”

That was also what he had expected. Next to his grandmother was Ava’s usual spot to work when she was at the library. The two had grown to be good friends from their first meeting, which was not unusual for his grandmother. She made friends easily…

{from Don’t Tell Anyone I Read Romance}

Click the image to find all the places where you can get the Hatfield Falls series.

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Don’t Tell Anyone I Read Romance has a lot of scenes set at the Hatfield Falls Library. Here’s an excerpt from one of those scenes from chapter 1 and an image (above) that I created to go with it.

…“Can I help with any of your work?” Josh offered. He was a good kid in that way. Very obliging and willing to put himself out for someone else. “I did all the shelving that was on the cart, and there’s still half-an-hour before I can start going through the bookshelves in there.” He thumbed to his right. “To search for books that are out of order.”

In the children’s area, Eddie could see Jenna weaving her way in between tables where a half-dozen elementary school kids were bent over books doing homework or whatever. To send Josh with his grade ten “geeky cuteness,” as Eddie had heard one of the older elementary girls describe it, into the area to look for wayward books would not help Jenna keep things in the afterschool program running as they were supposed to.

“I’m afraid I don’t have anything I can pass on to someone else. I’d hate for either you or me to get in trouble.” Edmund paused as his eyes roved the library, looking for something for Josh to do that wasn’t following him and possibly overhearing that he read romance.

Ah! There! A magazine lay open on a chair. “I don’t know if the magazines have been checked yet today. There were quite a few moms here waiting for story time to end earlier. If you could check that, it’d be a big help.”

A broad, but still lopsided, grin spread across Josh’s face. “I can do that. Thanks, Mr. – er… Eddie,” Josh corrected.  

Finally. It had taken a full summer and a month and a half of the school year, but Josh had finally remembered that he could call him Eddie and not Mr. Bennett… 

Read Don’t Tell Anyone I Read Romance by becoming a Hatfield Falls resident at reamstories.com/annileenelson.

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As a writer, I’ve often heard the writing advice to eliminate adverbs. IMO, it’s horrible advice because I don’t think it states what it means very well. I know that this advice is suggesting a writer use stronger, more vivid, and precise language when conveying their ideas to their audience. It’s a suggestion that relying on simple -ly words to describe something might not be the best way to do it. 

However, there are times when an -ly word or two help to clear up any possible misreading. 

Today, I was wishing for an -ly word while reading the Bible, and it wasn’t the first time I had wished for such. You see, I was reading the account of the first murder in Genesis 4. God has come to talk to Cain (a second time) and asks him what he has done before telling him that Abel’s blood cries out from the ground. 

I wondered what tone of voice God used when speaking to Cain just as I wondered what tone of voice He used when He asked Adam the same question in Genesis 3 after he and Eve had eaten from the forbidden tree. 

Was it a foreboding tone – the sort that is intended to make one fearful? The sort that an angry judge who is just waiting to throw lightning bolts at the offender would use? 

Or was it the heartbroken plea of a parent who has discovered the disobedience of a child and knows that correction must happen? 

Or was it something else completely? 

The text doesn’t tell us, but I think the way we read that question – the tone of voice we use in our minds – tells us a lot about how we see God. 

You see; I’ve always read that question as one coming from an angry God because of the way He had always been presented to me over the years: as a God just waiting to judge us for our sins, as a God to be feared and obeyed because of that fear. I’ve always read about the mark that God put on Cain as if it was simply a symbol of shame he was forced to wear. 

But this time, after having spent a few years now purposefully noticing the love of God in scripture, I didn’t hear the angry God. I heard the sorrowful Father who was disappointed and unhappy, who knew that the action could not be divorced from its consequences, who pronounced the punishment from a heavy heart and not one which rejoiced in the pain that would come from it. And I noticed more clearly the benevolence of the Father when he puts a mark of protection on Cain and vows to avenge him should anyone kill him. 

I knew that over the past few years my view of God has been shifting, but I don’t know if I had realized just how much until I heard a different tone of voice saying to Cain, “What have you done?” 

How do you hear it? 

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Have you ever paid an entry fee and later wondered if it was worth it? That happened to me this summer. One of the two day-trips my husband and I took in late August, we went to Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens. 

I’ve wanted to visit it for some time. So, we parked. Looked at the fees. Debated it, and then, paid to enter. The images above are from our stroll through the gardens. 

There are several delightful walking paths, many flower beds, a few water features, and some very large (and old) trees. There’s a path you can take that allows you to walk on the top of a dyke (bottom middle), and there’s a re-creation of an Acadian home from 1671 (top middle), complete with some vegetable gardens (bottom left). 

It’s a beautiful garden. 

However, we hit it late in the season and after a couple of storms; therefore, the number of blooms to be enjoyed was not as great as it could have been. 

We also visited late in the day – a day on which the humidity was high. So, that made for some bothersome walking companions – mosquitos – lots of mosquitos! 

Because of the mosquitos, we had to keep moving and were less able to stop and enjoy the gardens as I had hoped to do. 

Since, I’m still battling with long covid, this caused me to spend that evening and the next day feeling quite ill. 

So was the entry fee worth it? 

For me: Yes, and no. 

Yes, because it assuaged my curiosity, and I have some pictures to add to my collection of places in Nova Scotia. And it really is a beautiful garden.

No, because of the mosquitos that ruined our ability to truly appreciate and enjoy the gardens as we wanted to. 

That being said, if you ever have a chance to visit Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens, maybe try it earlier in the day and on a day without so much humidity, and maybe bring something with you to ward off the mosquitos. I think if you’re prepared, it’s a lovely place to experience at least once. 

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Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. (Psalm 37: 7 NIV)

Is patience what trust looks like?

That was the thought that popped into my mind as I wrote the above verse in my journal. And then, I pondered that thought for a bit.

What girl can rest/be still, wait patiently, and not fret when things aren’t going great? The girl who trusts in God’s goodness and power.

Let me tell you resting and being patient are not strong suits for me, but I excel at worrying (aka fretting). And yeah, I struggle with trusting God’s goodness. I have no trouble believing in His righteousness, His holiness, and His judgement. But His goodness? That’s where I get hung up more times than I’d like to admit.

So this verse was a great reminder to me to remember that He is good, to rest in Him, wait patiently for His timing, and know that He’s got me, so there’s no need to fret.

Not just in the good times, not just in the bad times, but

All. The. Time.

I guess that all means the answer to the original question is yes.

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Today, as I was reading Romans, I was reminded of the Lord’s prayer, specifically of how it starts. 

“Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name” (Matthew 6:9 NIV)

Hallowed is not a word we use very often in life, and therefore, its meaning might be a little lost on us if we don’t stop to consider it – and maybe look it up. 

Name, on the other hand, is a word we use all the time, and therefore, its meaning might be too familiar. 

Here are some of the other words that the original Greek words, which I found here on biblehub.com, in this verse can mean: 

Hallowed. Purify. Venerate. Made holy. 

Name. Character. Reputation. Fame. 

As a fun exercise in meditating on that verse, try substituting some or all of those words into Matthew 6:9. Does it help you understand what Jesus is praying? 

Why would we need to pray that God’s name be made holy? Isn’t He already holy? 

I’m glad you, er, I mean, I asked that because that brings us to the link between the Lord’s prayer and what I was reading in Romans today. 

You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” (Romans 2:23-24 NIV)

It’s that last part about God’s name being blasphemed that made my mind jump to the Lord’s Prayer. 

What Paul is saying has happened because Jews who were proud about how well they knew that law, but who did not keep every single part of the law were the reason that God’s name (reputation, fame, character) was blasphemed (that’s the opposite of hallowed btw). 

While Paul was talking to Jews in that passage, I don’t think it would be wrong to extrapolate the ideas to us who claim to be followers of Jesus, aka Christians. Let me paraphrase it for you. 

“You who pride yourself on your Bible memory trophies and certificates for completion of Bible classes, you who have commentaries and study guides lining your bookshelves for all to see and admire, you who have attended church since you came home from the hospital, yeah, you who claim to love God with all your heart, and yet, you don’t live according to what the Bible says – you’re the reason that the unsaved speak poorly about God.” 

Did you feel that? I did. That’s some strong accusation there, isn’t it? 

This is why we need to pray “hallowed by your name.” Our actions, words, attitudes, etc. reflect on God’s character and reputation – His name. 

When we pray, “hallowed be your name,” it isn’t so much about what God can do for His name, but rather, it’s about what we can do to His name. It’s asking God to keep us from being the reason someone dishonours Him or thinks poorly of Him. 

Now, I know there is going to be someone who says, “But sinners are going to think poorly of God. That’s just how they are. There’s nothing I can do about that.” 

Quite bluntly: So what? It doesn’t matter whether that is true or not. If you believe that they’re predisposed to speak poorly of our God, why are you giving them more reason to do so? 

You and I, my dear Christian friend, were called to be set apart, to be salt and light to the world, to represent Christ to all around us, and to bring honour to God’s name. That’s no easy calling. It’s also one that we’re sure to fail at without the help of the Holy Spirit. 

So, today, and everyday, won’t you pray with me as Jesus taught his disciples?

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Fill me with your Spirit so that all I do, all I think, and all I am bring only honour to You. 

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