Coffee with Kate
My favorite brand of coffee is Caribou. Give me the dark roasts, the Espresso, the Mahogany, the French Roast, the Lacuna. Put it through the espresso machine, top with a little cappuccino crema - heaven! I don't get a thing from Caribou for all the free advertising I give them - not even a free cup of coffee. They just call it "word of mouth" and pat themselves on the back. That's OK. They've got me, now. I can't live without the stuff. Whatever may be your brew du jour, grab a cuppa, sit down with me here, and we'll explore this website together.
Coffee with Kate is what I call the column I write weekly for the York (Neb.) News-Times and its sister publication, the T&T Advantage. It is also the name of my new book, put together from many of my favorite Coffee with Kate columns. You can buy that book here, as well as any of the several others I have, or will soon have, available. Each book is clickable in the white bar at the top of this page. Check them out, and if you decide to buy, you can do that conveniently right here.
My writing goes in many directions, following my brain. Coffee with Kate covers a lot of territory - much of it Nebraska Territory, but with a larger look at our modern life in America. Sometimes it's a head-scratcher, sometimes it's just plain fun. But once my brain and my pen get going, no topic is too vast for me - why do "only the good die young"? Or too small - should I spit out my gum while driving? I venture into young adult fantasy with Falcon's Eyrie and into non-fiction with the memoir of my friend "Anna" in HUSH. Some of my favorite stories to write, however, are the true-life kid adventures of my husband, Ron. Most of us wish we'd had a childhood like Ron's, growing up on the farm where we live together today. He is the Blue River Boy.
So, you can buy my books here, or you can just have fun looking around and reading excerpts from the books. My Caribou-fueled brain is always spinning, and when time allows, I want to add some fun stuff about other interests of mine - music, recipes, photography, travel, scrapbooking, paper art, and more. Whatever you do, I hope you leave here with a smile. Do check back once in a while, as we keep adding new things.
And lick that crema off your lip, will you? It's bugging me.
About Kate
My husband and I live on a farm outside Stromsburg, Nebraska. Stromsburg is "The Swede Capital of Nebraska", as proclaimed by the Nebraska Governor, and sure enough, husband Ron is a proud Swede. That comes through pretty clearly in some of my columns.
Sound carries a long ways out here on the prairie. When a cow moos a half mile away, I can hear it as clearly as if it were in my back yard - and sometimes, to my surprise, it is (you'll see pictures). I'm happy to report that our nearest neighbors, a mere quarter-mile away, have never complained about those occasional moments when I bust out the back door singing opera at the top of my lungs, or calling our wayward mutt home in politically incorrect terms. They're nice people.
I grew up around Buffalo, New York, the third of seven kids in a devout German Catholic family. I got my real education from the good Sisters who taught at St. Mary's Elementary school, but went on to get my Bachelor's and Master's degrees anyhow, in Buffalo, NY and Fredericksburg, VA, respectively. After graduating, I taught high school English for ten years, and then "retired" to become a housewife. The housewives among you know that our occupation is one of retirement, right?
When I was in the fourth grade, I wrote a play which was performed by our class, and I have been writing obsessively ever since. My last thousand or so articles and columns have been for the York News-Times. Now I have decided it is time to put some things together in book form. I hope you will buy them, read them and enjoy them.
THE NEW AMERICAN MANTRA
"All change is progress."
KATE BURKE, facetiously