Coming Soon page has Been Retired

Today, the Coming Soon page has been retired. It has been replaced with those you will find above. For more information, click on any page you may wonder about or have interest in.

I have many things to do where I truly live — for my wife Susan, for our dog Lady, for us, and even for myself — here at The Gathering Place.

All are welcome.

— Dahni

Image rendered by ChatGPT and the artistic Direction of Dahni

The End of All Things

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The End of All Things

Today marks my final post across all my social media, websites, and blogs before canceling and ending all subscriptions, paid or otherwise, and automatic payments. For a time anyway — and if for no other reason than for myself — I will continue posting only here at gatheringplace.blog. If you choose to read it, only here will you find the complete post.

I do not feel I owe anyone an explanation. Consider this a common courtesy.

Talent, quality, insight, sincerity, and hard work are often not enough by themselves in the current environment. Visibility, stamina, distribution, money, timing, networking, algorithms, constant promotion, and the ability to endure long stretches of little visible return often dominate what gets seen.

There was a time when risks were taken on belief in someone or something important, and only lastly upon its potential for profit. Today, whatever a thing may be, it must immediately prove profitable and continue generating profit over a long and measurable life.

Not to compare myself or my works to my fellow Missouri-born Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) or to J.K. Rowling of the Harry Potter world, but those days of self-publishing and eventually finding someone who believed in you — someone with the means or connections to help your work be seen, even modestly — are largely gone.

Not to compare myself to the beloved children’s series author, Beatrix Potter or story-tellers of simple truths such as, Aesop or the staples of, the Brothers Grimm, but they each developed a following and I have none. Who would know my love for children or how much I love them?

The writers and ‘creatives’ or the expressives’ (my word) I mentioned, mostly dealt in fiction. Much of what I do is fiction as well. Yet to many, perhaps the greatest work of non-fiction ever written — while others believe it fiction — is the Bible. It took many writers to record the words of its single Author, and even that struggles to be seen, read, taught and especially, understood today.

I too wrote non-fiction and self-published in 2012: RESET — “An Un-alien’s Guide to Resetting Our Republic.” It was and remains largely unknown. I have spent years working on its revision, RESET- Revised & Expanded, a special FREE-B for readers of RESET (I call, light bearers)— RESET-Remedy. Intended for 6 weeks later, was the sequel to RESET, An Apple of Gold in a Picture [frame] of Silver. All of these were intended for publication in 2026 and with the help of two additional editors. While many sought to just sell something for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I sought to connect with us, WE the People. I wanted us to see what has been hidden and to see perhaps for the very first time, who WE the People truly are. I had intended a FREE gift of a recipe and a blend of coffee, that quite possibly, Thomas Jefferson might have enjoyed in the hot summer nights, while writing the ‘The Declaration’ in 1776. This was to coincide, with the pre-order date of July 4th, 2026. I wanted this published on the date of our 239th anniversary of The Constitution of the United States for America, on September 17th, 2026. And about six weeks later, ‘Apple of Gold’.

Talent, quality, insight, sincerity, and hard work are often not enough by themselves in the current environment. Visibility, stamina, distribution, money, timing, networking, algorithms, constant promotion, and the ability to endure long stretches of little visible return often dominate what gets seen.

I cannot promise that this blog will still be open or that I will post the specials I have planned, for the fourth of this July, 2026. You will just have to check back and see.

I have always loved music — composing, singing, playing, and performing — for as long as I can remember. I probably connect most to the old known, Cat Stevens and still little known, Shawn Phillips. There is a glut of musicians, artists, and what some refer to as “the creatives” and what I coin as the expressives’. Not far from where we live is Rochester, New York. For perhaps fifty years, it has produced an incredible number of gifted people in these fields of music, most of whom the wider world has never known.

Proof enough: they too often cannot be sustained.

Talent, quality, insight, sincerity, and hard work are often not enough by themselves in the current environment.

My bottom line is simple: this present environment cannot be sustained. I am living proof of that because, I must now end what I can no longer sustain.

So ominous? So foreboding? So final?

You may think so if you wish. You may call me a coward or believe I simply lack the commitment to see it through. You may think this is only another emotional reaction from the same old Dahni you may have once known and perhaps still think you do — rising like a rocket only to fall like a rock.

But I can no longer sustain what I have been doing for so many years.

Does this hurt? Of course it does.
Am I angry about it? Yes, I am.
But I am also at peace.

I have many things to do where I truly live — for my wife Susan, for our dog Lady, for us, and even for myself — here at The Gathering Place.

All are welcome.

— Dahni

Image rendered by ChatGPT and the artistic Direction of Dahni

🍸 Drink of the Week #2

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Sips

(It’s a Wonderful Life)

By Dahni
© 2026, all rights reserved

Drink No. 81

Warm spice, dark rum, and red wine — a surprising holiday toast inspired by a wonderful life.

Ingredients

Juice of 1 fresh lime 🍈

1 jigger Ginger Jazz (homemade) or ginger liqueur

2 jiggers claret or Cabernet Sauvignon

4 jiggers dark rum

(Add simple syrup to taste if you prefer it sweeter.)

Directions

Add the lime juice, Ginger Jazz (homemade) or ginger liqueur, claret (or Cabernet), and dark rum to a

shaker filled with ice.

Shake well.

Pour into chilled wine glasses (place glasses in the freezer beforehand).

Makes two libations, one to share and one for you.

ENJOY! 😉 Drink your “Sips” responsibly! 😂

From Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion 🍸

🎥 Some drinks from Sips with Susan are demonstrated on our YouTube channel, with more to come.
Visit here:
https://www.youtube.com/@the_gatheringplace

🍸 Drink of the Week #3

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‘A Pistachio Moment & Smoked Charcuterie’ 

By Dahni
© 2026, all rights reserved

Today, for this week’s Drink of the Week, I thought to do something a little different.

Below is a YouTube video featuring a drink that, although not in the present offering of Sips with Susan, could certainly find its way into a future volume.

Makes two libations, one to share and one for you.

ENJOY! 😉 Drink your “Sips” responsibly! 😂

From Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion 🍸

🎥 Some drinks from Sips with Susan are demonstrated on our YouTube channel, with more to come.
Visit here:
https://www.youtube.com/@the_gatheringplace


📖 Curious to explore more?
Preview a FREE sample from Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion:
https://payhip.com/b/K32Bv


🍸 Ready to bring the full collection into your kitchen?
Get your copy here:
https://payhip.com/b/Sq59W

🍸 Drink of the Week & Drink#1

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By Dahni
© 2026, all rights reserved

Ginger Jazz

(House Ginger Liqueur)

By Dahni Hayden © 2026

 

Introducing Drink of the Week


Each week, we’ll share one recipe from Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion. Some will be simple, some a little more involved, but all are meant to be shared — one to enjoy and one to pass along to a friend.


We begin where many of the drinks begin — with Ginger Jazz. Drinks in
Sips with Susan feature ginger liqueur — often shown using a familiar commercial bottle. Ginger Jazz is our homemade version, crafted right here at The Gathering Place.

Ginger Jazz is a bright, spicy house liqueur that brings warmth and character to your cocktails. Once made, it quickly becomes a favorite to keep on hand.

Ingredients

  • 2–3 oz fresh ginger root
    (2 oz = milder | 3 oz = hotter)

  • 1 whole vanilla bean

  • 1 cup orange blossom honey

  • 1 tsp cinnamon (ground)

  • 1 tsp cardamom (ground)

  • Zest from ½ orange

  • 1⅜ cups water

  • 1⅜ cups V.S.O.P. brandy

  • ¼ cup neutral spirit (190 proof grain alcohol = 95% alcohol)
    (see note below for substitute)

Directions

  1. Peel ginger and slice thin.

  2. Slice vanilla bean lengthwise.

  3. Add ginger, vanilla bean, water, and honey to a pan and simmer about 20 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

  5. Pour cooled syrup into a sealable jar.

  6. Add orange zest, cinnamon, cardamom, brandy, and neutral spirit. Shake well.

  7. Seal and steep 24 hours.

  8. Remove vanilla bean and steep another 24 hours.

  9. Strain through fine mesh lined with a coffee filter into a bottle.

  10. Allow to mellow 24 hours before use.

Makes approximately 2½ cups of Ginger Jazz.

⚠️ Note on Neutral Spirits

Grain alcohol (190 proof = 95% alcohol) is extremely strong and should never be consumed straight. It is used in small amounts to help extract flavors during infusion.

If neutral spirits are unavailable or not preferred, substitute:

¼ cup mixture made from:

  • cup water

  • cup brandy

Finished Ginger Jazz averages about 56 proof (28% alcohol) once diluted.

ENJOY! 😉 Use your Ginger Jazz responsibly! 🍸
From Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion

🎥 Some drinks from Sips with Susan are demonstrated on our YouTube channel, with more to come.
Visit here:
https://www.youtube.com/@the_gatheringplace

 

Why We Started Sips with Susan

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By Dahni
© 2026, all rights reserved

Sips with Susan — Volume 1 A Gathering Place Companion

Some books begin with an outline.

Sips with Susan began with a habit.

Not a business plan.
Not a publishing goal.

Just an evening… a glass… and a willingness to try something a little different.

At The Gathering Place, drinks were never just drinks.
They were conversation starters.
Excuses to sit longer.
Reasons to laugh one more time before calling it a night.

It started with a Moscow Mule — changed just enough to make it ours.

Then another variation.

Then another.

Before long, we were doing what creative people often do without realizing it — we were keeping track.

Not because we planned a book…
but because we didn’t want to forget.

Names were given.
Tweaks were made.
Favorites were repeated.

And somewhere along the way, the number quietly reached one hundred.

That’s when the idea finally spoke clearly:

Maybe this isn’t just a collection of drinks.
Maybe it’s a collection of moments worth saving.

That thought became
Sips with Susan — Volume 1.

Not as a commercial product first —
but as a memory preserved.

Today, the book exists.
But more importantly, the gathering continues.

If you’d like to explore the finished collection, you can find it through I-Imagine Press, where it is available in both free and paid editions.

And if you’d like to see where the drinks truly live —
where new ones are still being created —
visit The Gathering Place, where the stories behind the glass are still unfolding.

Because in the end, this was never just about cocktails.

It was about connection.

And connection, like a good drink, is best when shared.

— Dahni

Explore Sips with Susan — Volume 1:
https://I-ImaginePress/products

Good Morning USA

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by Dahni
© 2015, all rights reserved

GoodMornUSA

Good Morning USA,

What’s offending, You today?

 

Is it that these three, barely exist

or that a remnant, still persist?

Is it that WE do NOT know each other

or WE are impatient, for it all to smother?

Is it that WE were ever united

or the fire has been ignited?

 

From 1776 and 1789, for 239 and 226 years respectively

Through hell and back, these three have stood collectively

Are all just separate relics of the past, WE’d just soon forget

Are all meaningless scraps of paper and cloth, We surely and sorely regret?

 

Good Morning USA,

What’s offending, You today?

 

Is it that WE’ve traded, for all our wants and security

or that we deserve NOT— Life, Happiness and Liberty?

 

Good Morning USA,

What’s offending, You today?

GoodMornUSA2

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