Humor is Good - Even in Bloodsuckers!

by Lizzie T. Leaf

I like humor in my life. I like to read humor and to write it. So when originally approached to write a Halloween story, no surprise my mind went in the humor direction.

When I mentioned to a friend the possibility of a vampire story that wasn’t horror, she suggested making the heroine Jewish (which my friend is) and throw in Kosher (yet again, my friend’s food style) to add conflict to the drinking blood issue. I took the bull by the horns and off I went. Thus evolved DEAD Awake, where the heroine is a socialite whose grandmother, a Reform Jew, keeps a Kosher Kitchen.

Our gal, is a little on the wild side…think Paris Hilton…and a paparazzi darling. Her connection with the hot guy in a vampire costume at her Halloween party, leads to a life change she’s not too pleased about.

She wakes up smelling pine and discovers, thanks to the helpful stranger lurking outside the mortuary, she’s not one of the living dead. And, her new main food supply is blood. Yuk! She doesn’t eat food that’s snuggled with blood, let alone drink the stuff.

Not to bore you with details, I finished the book and moved onto other work—my vampire days behind me—so I thought.

Then readers started to ask, “When’s the next book in the series?” Series? My mind hadn’t gone down that path, so what to write next? Then another friend said, “How about a vampire who faints at the sight of blood?”

Once she planted the seed, my mind wouldn’t leave the idea alone and plans for DEAD Faint came to be and with that the DEAD series was born. The next book in the works is DEAD Hunter, about what else…a vampire hunter (or so she thinks…snicker).

Then there is DEAD Memory. What if you’re a vampire, but don’t remember that little detail. All you know while you’re recovering from your wounds from what must have been an awful beating is blood smells wonderful. Why does his hot care provider insist on cooking the food…raw works.

Vampires don’t always have to be blood thirsty beasts. They can have an attitude that will make you smile and love problems, too. Check out Mary Janice Davidson’s, Undead series (which I had not read until after my first DEAD released and readers kept telling me I had a similar style, to which I say “thank you for the compliment,”) and you’ll find humor.

Are there more in my DEAD series? Definitely! DEAD Hot is another story in the planning stages and there are several more on the dying to come onboard.

People have to stop planting seeds in my head. Combined with all that appear on their own, I have a headache. Now I’m off to pop a couple of martinis and write…which is the only true way I can purge the noise.

Here's a brief intro to my vampire story that is guaranteed to heat up your chilly fall nights.

Socialite Deb Stein lives a life of luxury until she takes the hunk dressed as a vampire to her bed. When she wakes up one of the living dead, she's pissed-off. To complicate matters more, she has to find a new identity since everyone thinks she's dead. Plus, if she's dead, she can't touch her trust fund, and that means she has to work! How can someone who has never had a job find one?

And her social life is in the tank. Her new friends are a street guy called Rat and fellow strippers at the dive where she works. If she ever sees Aaron Lowell again, she'll put a stake in his heart.

Aaron Lowell feels guilty he took his mentor's advice and left town after taking the sexy socialite into the undead world. Concerned, he returns to check on her and discovers she's become a stripper - and not a very happy one when she sees him. But she's still hot, and he can't stay away from her, even if their meetings are explosive.

Can two vampires move beyond anger, combined with a strong sexual attraction, to find the kind of love they both crave?

Buy Links
Decadent Publishing
Amazon

To read excerpts from other books by Lizzie T. Leaf please click onto Amazon.

Lizzie T. Leaf loved books since she opened her first one. Her dream was to write them herself. Lost in the hectic day to day world of family, job, laundry and housework, writing became a distant memory. When the twinkling ember did spark, it was usually doused by someone demanding their share of her time.

Lizzie's life went full circle. The desire to put the stories that continued to play in her head on paper emerged stronger than ever, and at a time when there was someone who encouraged. Now she lives her dream.

Learn more about Lizzie T. Leaf on her website and blog. Connect with Lizzie on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.

SHIFTERS and SPICE

20 Shifter Stories by 20 Authors

For a limited time 99 cents

If you dream of shifters, this set of 20 brand new shifter stories featuring USA Today and New York Times best-selling authors has you covered. Whether you like them large and in charge or sleek and sexy, you'll find the right story to spice up your night in these pages.

Featuring:
A.J. Bennett — Masquerade 
Becca Vincenza — Contracted 
Blaire Edens — Frenzied 
Carolyn Spear — Taming the Puma 
Dara Fraser — Lion's Pretend Girlfriend 
Desiree Holt — Shadow of the Wolf 
Dominique Eastwick — Bearing the Hunger 
Erin Hayes — I Found My Rhino 
Ever Coming — The Mismatchmaker
H.D. Gordon — Blood Sport 
Hazel Boyer — Accidentally Mated
Kate Richards — An Evening in the Superstitions 
Lila Felix — Wolf Protector 
Lisbeth Frost — Encounter on a Mountain 
Louisa Bacio — The Luna Twins 
Margo Bond Collins — Laugh Out Love 
Marissa Farrar — Wolf Torn 
Merryn Dexter — Bear Faced Lies 
M.J. Haag — Escaping the Lutha 
Rachael Slate — Untamed Lord of Thessaly

Bearing the Hunger 
Shifters of Yellowstone Book 2

by
Dominique Eastwick

If Grant had his way, humans and their stupidity would be banned from Yellowstone, leaving the shifters who knew the land to live and take care of it. Until he meets human geologist Morgan Jenkins, who is only working in Yellowstone until winter comes. Suddenly, the one shifter in the park who most wanted all humans gone found he wanted one human to stay forever.

Amazon -Barnes and Noble -Kobo

Also Available for 99 cents

Bear with Me

Shifters of Yellowstone Book 1

Yellowstone National Park is known for its majestic beauty, breath taking scenic views and the opportunity to see nature up close and personal. Park ranger Quinn loves everything about her job. But her canny ability to find grizzlies is starting to raise eyebrows. When she stumbles across a close encounter of the bear kind, she is suddenly thrown into a side of Yellowstone she never imagined existed.

Brutus has been watching his mate from afar for too long both as human and bear. But another clans actions force him to introduce himself early then Quinn was ready. Forced to defend his beta he brings her into his world. A world that
hangs in the balance if Quinn can’t take her rightful place as his beta.

Can the grizzly alpha make her see that they could be hotter than the geysers at
Yellowstone or will it be too late when rival males start moving into the park?

Amazon - Barnes and Noble - ARe - Kobo

Award winning author Dominique Eastwick currently calls North Carolina home with her husband, two children, one crazy lab, and one lazy cat. Dominique spent much of her early life moving from state to state as a Navy Brat. Because of that traveling is one of her
favorite pastimes. When she’s not writing, you can find Dominique with her second love…her camera.

  

Connect with Dominique: 
Website - Blog - Facebook - Twitter - Pinterest - Tumblr

Newsletter

INTRODUCING JOANNE KELTNER

Welcome to the 2-week blog tour for Goth Girl, Virgin Queen, a YA Paranormal, by JoAnne Keltner releasing December 3, 2016 from Solstice Publishing.

Follow the tour and connect with wonderful bloggers, read reviews of the book, and meet the author. See the tour schedule here. Be sure to enter the Goodreads Giveaway.

Here's a brief introduction to this soon-to-be best seller.

Calling Jackie Turov psychic makes her cringe. But Jackie’s no normal seventeen-year-old. She picks up emotions from people and objects like a freak. The emotions make her sick, and the guilt she feels for lying to her church when she was twelve causes her to deny her psychic abilities.

So Jackie goes goth to make others stay away from her and forget her past. But her past is soon resurrected when her jealous friend Trish invites a demon, a persecutor of healers, to steal away Jason’s love for Jackie. The demon causes Jackie to be bullied for the lie she told and puts her best friend, Jason, in danger.

Jackie must learn how to use her gift to protect Jason and herself and to heal the negative energies of those around her. To do so means she must overcome her guilt and accept who she is before the demon claims her soul.


EXCERPT
The medicine cabinet mirror—dotted with rust and turning gray—made the powder foundation on Jackie’s face look ashen and her jet-black hair, blurry. She looked like a shadow of a girl. She smeared black lipstick on her lips and shook out her shoulder-length hair. Her straight-cut bangs veiled her mascara-lined eyes, and the layered ends of her hair stuck out in defiant wisps.

Some of the kids at school—the ones she didn’t hang out with—called her Goth Girl. Some, whose memories wouldn’t die, called her VQ for Virgin Queen.

Jackie preferred Goth Girl, to be one of the living dead, to be numb to the emotions that plagued her. But this was what she wanted, not what she got.

Goth Girl or Virgin Queen, she was a freak, absorbing the emotions around her like a sponge. Sometimes the emotions made her sick. Sometimes they made her see things.

Because of this, she kept to a tight-knit group of goth friends—Jason, Zeta, and Trish—and avoided social activities. She attended high school only because Mom wouldn’t let her homeschool. Mom was afraid she’d hang with Babu all day, making piroshki and doing needlepoint instead of studying. Jackie, afraid of what life offered a freak like her beyond high school, had to admit that hanging with Babu all day was tempting.

Typically, Fridays were movie nights for Jason and her, but tonight would be different. Tonight, she’d subject herself to a hodgepodge of emotions from crowds and rides and the very ground she’d walk on to protect Jason. For this, she would need physical and spiritual strength, which she sought from Babu these days.

Babu’s door was cracked, and Jackie slowly pushed the door open. “Babu?”

The room smelled of beeswax and down. A candle burned on the shrine on the dresser. The flickering flame animated the icon of the Virgin of Vladimir and cast shadows across the picture of Babu, Grandma, Mom, and Jackie. Although Babu didn’t speak English, and Jackie didn’t understand much Russian, Jackie knew Babu kept that picture on her shrine to pray for Grandma, who passed away several years ago; for Mom, who divorced Dad; and for the girl who saw the Virgin when she was twelve—for the girl she had become as a teen.

Babu sat in bed, a country quilt spread over her legs, her thumb pressed against a knot of her prayer rope, her head bowed sleepily, and her lips wording prayers.

“I wanted to say goodbye,” Jackie whispered.

Babu crossed herself and then smiled at Jackie, her gold eyetooth shining from the light of the bed-stand lamp. She patted the empty space beside her. “Sadees.”

Jackie sat down beside Babu at the edge of the bed and took Babu’s hand in hers. Babu’s hand was warm and knotted with arthritis. Jackie rubbed her thumb over the bumps on Babu’s knuckles; her black fingernails were a sharp contrast to Babu’s flour-white skin.

She wasn’t afraid to touch Babu’s hands and absorb her emotions. Jackie got a good feeling from her. Babu filled Jackie’s inner vision with white light. She renewed her spirit. And this is what Jackie needed for the commitment she had made for tonight.

“Kooda eedyosh?” Babu asked.

“I’m going out,” Jackie said as if Babu understood her. This is how they communicated: Babu telling her stuff she couldn’t understand, Jackie telling Babu stuff she couldn’t understand. Somehow they carried on fine this way.

“Eedyosh sdroozyamee?”

“I’m going with Jason.”

Babu rubbed the top of Jackie’s hand and ran her thumb over black fingernails. “Fsyevo kharoshevuh,” she said in a comforting tone and gently squeezed Jackie’s hand. Then she cupped her hands around Jackie’s jaws and pulled her forehead to her lips. Jackie imagined Babu’s kiss imprinted on her forehead and carrying Babu’s blessings and love with her tonight.

BUY LINKS Amazon - Solstice Publishing

JoAnne Keltner is the author of Goth Girl, Virgin Queen (Solstice Publishing, 2015) and Obsession (Musa Publishing, 2013 ed.). As an only child and avid daydreamer, she spent hours alone in her backyard on the South Side of Chicago, which she imagined to be everything from an alien planet to the Antarctic. She currently lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband, four dogs, cat, and three chickens. When she isn't writing or freelance editing, she's obsessively streaming popular TV shows.

Learn more about JoAnne Keltner on her website and Goodreads page. Stay connected on Facebook and Twitter.

Blog tour arranged by

FALL in LOVE with THIS EASY DINNER

from Eris Field

If it is one of those times when you want the heady scent of something delicious cooking gently in the oven to welcome people coming home, go for labor-free, my fail-proof Beef and Sherry casserole, but add a surprise with the refreshing taste of a gremolata topping.

Warning: This dish creates powerful memory traces of pleasure.

BEEF and SHERRY CASSEROLE

1 ½ pound of chuck beef
1 can Campbell’s Golden Mushroom Soup
½ can of water
½ package of Lipton Onion Soup mix
½ can of good sherry, use the one you drink and have a glass before dinner.

Preheat oven to 325°F

Cut the beef into bite size pieces, about ¾ of an inch, (no browning thank goodness). Lay meat in a Dutch Oven. Stir in the other ingredients, cover, and then bake for 2 ½ hours.

GREMOLATA

Photo by Popo le Chien

¼ cup finely chop parsley, flat parsley is better but curly is good too
2 tbsp. coarsely grated lemon rind
2 garlic cloves, crushed

Mix these ingredients together. Cover tightly and refrigerate until needed.

Serve the casserole over cooked noodles or rice. Or add cooked baby white potatoes, tiny boiled onions, and mushrooms at the last minute to cooking the beef and heat through.

Top the dish by sprinkling the gremolata.

This recipe serves four but can be doubled and the cooking time increased to 3 hours.

In my contemporary novel, No Greater Love, on a snowy evening in Western New York, Janan adds gremolata to a casserole of lamb shanks and serves it to the man she has just fallen in love with. Here’s a little more about their turbulent romance.

Janan, orphaned at age eight by an earthquake in Turkey and adopted by an American couple in a small town in Western New York has grown into a beautiful woman, a Circassian beauty. She dreams of having a home of her own, a home with love, but spends her time working as a nurse and looking after her family that includes an elderly, honorary uncle, Carl who had been sent as a child from Leiden to escape Nazi deportation of Dutch-Jews and now yearns to go home.

Jilted once, Dutch child psychiatrist Pieter has retreated from life and devotes himself to caring for the child refugees flooding into Amsterdam. Now, struggling with late-onset leukemia, he travels to New York for a second opinion and to visit his old friend and mentor, Carl. At Carl’s home, he meets Janan and feels love again.

Janan recognizes Pieter as the man of her dreams. Believing that love is passing her by and knowing that Pieter will be gone in the morning, she asks him for one night. Pieter introduces Janan to the purposes and outcomes of each of eight magical kisses and vows to himself to overcome his illness and return a well man.

Later, alone and facing complications of pregnancy, Janan accepts an unusual offer of help even though it may destroy her chances of finding happiness.

AMAZON BUY LINK

Eris Field was born in the Green Mountains of Vermont—Jericho, Vermont to be precise—close by the home of Wilson Bentley (aka Snowflake Bentley), the first person in the world to photograph snowflakes. She learned from her Vermont neighbors that pursuit of one’s dream is a worthwhile life goal.

As a seventeen year old student nurse at Albany Hospital, Eris met a Turkish surgical intern who told her fascinating stories about the history of Turkey, the loss of the Ottoman Empire, and forced population exchanges. After they married and moved to Buffalo, Eris worked as a nurse at Children’s Hospital and at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

After taking time off to raise five children and amassing rejection letters for her short stories, Eris earned her master’s degree in Psychiatric Nursing at the University at Buffalo. Later, she taught psychiatric nursing at the University and wrote a textbook for psychiatric nurse practitioners—a wonderful rewarding but never to be repeated experience.

Eris now writes novels, usually international, contemporary romances. Her interest in history and her experience in psychiatry often play a part in her stories. She is a member of the Romance Writers of America and the Western New York Romance Writers. In addition to writing, Eris’s interests include: Prevention of Psychiatric Disorders; Eradicating Honor Killings, supporting the Crossroads Springs Orphanage in Kenya for children orphaned by AIDS, and learning more about Turkey, Cyprus, and Kurdistan.

Learn more about Eris Field on her website. Stay connected on Facebook.

NEW RELEASE for SHARON LEDWITH

Escape to the past and have a blast with an outstanding new release by Sharon Ledwith, and published through Mirror World Publishing. The Last Timekeepers and the Dark Secret is Book 2 in The Last Timekeepers series. This WWII fantasy is filled with action and is an excellent read for everyone ten years old through adulthood.

Only a true hero can shine the light in humanity’s darkest time.

Fourteen year-old Jordan Jensen always considered himself a team player on and off the field, until the second Timekeeper mission lands him in Amsterdam during World War Two. Pulled into the world of espionage, torture, and intolerance, Jordan and the rest of the Timekeepers have no choice but to stay one step ahead of the Nazis in order to find and protect a mysterious book.

With the help of the Dutch Resistance, an eccentric baron, Nordic runes, and an ancient volume originating from Atlantis, Jordan must learn that it takes true teamwork, trust, and sacrifice to keep time safe from the evils of fascism. Can Jordan find the hero within to conquer the darkness surrounding the Timekeepers? If he doesn’t, then the terrible truth of what the Nazis did will never see the light of day.


EXCERPT
“I wonder what else is down here.” Drake beamed his cell phone across the basement, hitting jars of jams, pickles, and relishes. His stomach growled.

Jordan pulled the cheese from his pocket and handed it to Drake. “Trade you for your phone.”

“Best. Trade. Ever.” Drake passed his phone to Jordan.

Jordan walked over and grabbed a jar of pickles off the dusty shelf. At least they wouldn’t arrive at the baron’s place hungry. He hoped his uncle had managed to stop Amanda’s bleeding. His hand tightened over the jar, the ridges of the lid cutting into his palm. A scrape from behind the shelves made Jordan jump.

“Hello?” he asked, pushing jars aside. He flashed the cell phone into the small, dark area.

“Who ya talking to, Jordan?” Drake asked with his mouth full of cheese.

“Shhh, Drake.” Jordan listened. Hearing nothing, he shrugged and turned back around.

“I thought I heard—” Jordan stopped and pointed the phone at Ravi. His jaw dropped. “A-Are you serious, Sharma?”

Drake spat out his cheese, snorting with laughter.

“Is there a problem?” Ravi asked, tying the bowtie of his tuxedo.

“You look like a penguin with attitude!” Drake slapped his knee.

“Say what you want, but I’m glad we didn’t hit the cleaners on the way to school now,” Ravi replied, pulling down his sleeves, “or else I wouldn’t have these dry clothes.”

Jordan chuckled. Suddenly, he heard a door creak open, followed by heavy footsteps squeaking down the stairs. Panicking, Jordan stuffed Drake’s phone in his track suit jacket’s pocket and waved Drake over by the shelves. Drake slipped behind Jordan just in time, before the small light bulb above the bottom of the stairs clicked on. Jordan swallowed hard. There, staring directly at Ravi was a portly man in a blood-stained apron. Tufts of blond hair sprouted from the sides of his balding head. His brown trousers were pulled up past his waist, making him resemble an evil garden gnome. In one of his hands, he held a huge butcher knife, its blade flecked with blood.

Wielding the knife, the man pointed at Ravi. “Who are you?”

Ravi licked his thick lips nervously. “The name’s Bond. James Bond.”

BUY LINKS

Mirror World Publishing: Paperback - eBook

Amazon - Amazon.ca - KOBO - Barnes & Noble

Follow the Tour

Sharon Ledwith is the author of the middle-grade/YA time travel series, THE LAST TIMEKEEPERS, available through Mirror World Publishing, and is represented by Walden House (Books & Stuff) for her teen psychic series, MYSTERIOUS TALES FROM FAIRY FALLS. When not writing, researching, or revising, she enjoys reading, exercising, anything arcane, and an occasional dram of scotch. Sharon lives a serene, yet busy life in a southern tourist region of Ontario, Canada, with her hubby, one spoiled yellow Labrador and a moody calico cat.

Learn more about Sharon Ledwith on her website and blog. Stay connected on Facebook and Twitter, Google+, Goodreads, and Smashwords. Look up her Amazon Author page for a list of current books.

LET THERE BE SOUP

by Dominique Eastwick

One of the many reasons I just love about fall are pumpkins. I love to carve them, look at them, and eat them.

I love pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin bread, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice Latte…I could go on and on. But one of my favorite things is Pumpkin Soup. So celebrate this spooky day with a bowl of the easiest soup ever, especially if you use canned pumpkin. And you can quote me on this - nothing tastes better on a cold day.

Pumpkin Soup

1 stick butter or margarine
2 clove garlic, finely chopped
4 tsp. packed brown sugar
2 cans of chicken broth
1 cup water
½ tsp. salt (optional)
2 cans (15 ounces) Pumpkin or 2 cups pureed fresh pumpkin
2 cans (12 fluid ounces) evaporated milk
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
Ground nutmeg to garnish

Melt butter in large saucepan. Add garlic and brown sugar; cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until soft.

Add broth and water; bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Cook on low, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes.

Stir in pumpkin, evaporated milk, and cinnamon. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

With real pumpkin you may need to puree your soup again.

Serve warm and enjoy.

serves 10

How about a hot read while you enjoy a warm bowl of soup?

The babies are coming… the Wiccan Haus will never be the same.

Things are not as calm at the Wiccan Haus as they usually are. The impending birth of Dana and Rekkus’ cubs has everyone on edge. The last thing anyone wants or expects is a series of uninvited guests.

Ashlynn Stone hasn’t spoken to her sister Dana since she left for the Wiccan Haus over a year earlier. But when a fluke accident on the fashion runway forces her to seek the healing of the Wiccan Haus, she has no choice but to pack her bags and take the ferry to the island with her family in tow.

Shadedor has been sent to the Wiccan Haus to assess the situation. But he soon finds more than he expected. His soul mate in need of healing. Can he negotiate the issues of the Wiccan Haus and overcome the walls Ashlynn has built to protect herself.

As the Haus prepares for the biggest event since it opened, can the siblings find harmony and manage to do what they do best, heal those in need? Or is it too much for them to take?

Welcome back to the Wiccan Haus.

EXCERPT
He walked. This morning, he had been right next to her, and there had been constant contact. Now they would appear to anyone passing to be complete strangers. “You want to tell me what is going on?”

“We are attempting to remove all stress from your life in hopes of easing the headaches.”

“No, with you. If you would prefer to be elsewhere, I can go back to my room and lie down.”

He stopped. “There is nowhere I would rather be.”

“Then why are you acting like I have the plague? Was it the kiss earlier?”

“I overstepped my boundaries this morning. I should not have done so.”

“Do you regret it?”

“I am assisting the staff here in your healing. It is inappropriate for me to come on to you.”

“Are you on staff here?”

“No.”

“That settles it.” She smiled. Closing the distance between them, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I do not know what is going on, but I do know my pain and fears ease when you are near. I don’t claim to understand how you discern all you do, but I am starting to see things here aren’t always black and white, and sometimes I have to have faith and trust.”

After a brief second of him standing as still as a statue and her wondering if she read too much into this morning’s embrace, he relaxed. His arms snaked around her, pulling her against his hard body. His mouth came down on hers begging her to open for him, demanding she submit to his kiss. She might have started this dance, but he would damned well be leading it.

BUY LINKS
Amazon - Decadent Publishing

Award-Winning author Dominique Eastwick currently calls North Carolina home with her husband, two children, one crazy lab and one lazy cat. Dominique spent much of her early life moving from state to state as a Navy Brat. Because of that, traveling is one of her favorite pasttimes. When not writing you can find Dominique with her second love…her camera.

Learn more about Dominique Eastwick on her website, blog, and Amazon author page. Be sure to join her Newsletter for up to the minute info on new releases, contests, and more.

Stay connected on Twitter, Tublr, Tsu, and Pinterest.

Prying into Someone’s Life

What it’s Like to Write a Real Person’s Story

by Carol Browne

When I volunteered to write the life story of local woman, Krystyna Porsz, I was a very reluctant biographer. I did it because no-one else could be found to do it, so I thought, “If I don’t do it, no-one will.” It seemed far too big a responsibility to me but I told Krystyna’s son I’d give it a go, even though I was convinced I wasn’t up to the job. I write fiction. I make stuff up. I assumed non-fiction would be completely different.

It turned out not to be so different after all. Although I had the facts of Krystyna’s life, they amounted to a few sheets of A4 paper, hardly enough material for a book. So I had to build a structure to hang those facts on, very much like creating a plot for a work of fiction. My friend Agnieszka had visited Krystyna on two occasions and I used her as a narrative device, so we see the story unfold through her eyes. This gave me much more opportunity to pad out the text while still being true to the available facts.

Writers of fiction know that characters are apt to take on a life of their own. They seem real to their creators and as authors we want to portray them in their best light. When you are writing a real person’s story, this becomes vitally important. The sense of responsibility the author feels is magnified. For me, writing about Krystyna, it was off the scale; here was a very old lady whose ability to communicate was seriously hampered by dementia. There wouldn’t be any chance of being able to discuss the book with her. There wouldn’t be any feedback. While I was writing the book, I kept thinking, “If this were my life story, would I be happy with how it’s being handled?” That was my benchmark all the time and I’m confident I kept to it.

Writing a real person’s story seems to provide you with a ready-made plot but you can’t simply make the book a record of the events in someone’s life. That would be dull. You still have a responsibility towards the reader to make it as compelling as possible so they want to keep reading, but you mustn’t sensationalise the facts to do that; this is someone’s life you are dealing with and you have to keep that in mind.

Third-party involvement can cause problems too, and in this case it held up the book for several months. This just doesn’t happen with make-believe characters and so I wasn’t expecting it and it was very frustrating. However, it hasn’t deterred me from tackling anything similar in the future because I now know I must address issues such as these before I commit myself.

Writing a real person’s story is a challenge. It’s hard work. But I recommend it, especially if that person’s life is drastically different from your own. It’s an enlightening experience. It will broaden your mind and test your ability as a writer. It will give you the opportunity to write something that really deserves to be written. I only met Krystyna once but I made a point of shaking her hand before I left. I needed to physically touch someone who had survived the Holocaust, who had lived a history I had only read about or seen on black and white newsreels. Krystyna Porsz is a truly brave person. A survivor. I’m grateful not only to have met her, but to have had the honour of telling her story.

Look for Being Krystyna, releasing from Dilliebooks, on Amazon this winter.

Carol Browne regards Crewe, Cheshire, as her home town and graduated from Nottingham University in 1976 with an honors degree in English Language and Literature. Carol writes speculative fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. She is also a ghost blog writer, proofreader, copy editor, and copywriter. Along with a passion for gardening, Carol is an avid animal lover.

Carol lives in the Cambridgeshire countryside with her dog, Harry, and cockatiel, Sparky.Pagan and vegan, Carol believes it is time for a paradigm shift in our attitude to Mother Nature and hopes the days of speciesism are numbered.

Stay connected with Carol on her website and blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

Batten the Hatches, S.S. Hampton Sr. Is Cooking!

by S.S. Hampton, Sr.

Monday afternoon I received an urgent request from Sloane Taylor to send one recipe that I’ve adapted—other than dessert or chicken. I immediately sensed either a blog of some sort or perhaps a sultry scented trap. Maybe sultry scented food?

There’s an old saying that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Well, this is a family blog so, yes, I’ll agree with that. After all, many years ago my future wife made a steak dinner for me…well, truthfully, that was only part of the evening… But anyway, yes people, ahem, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

Anyway, back on track—a recipe that I’ve adapted. Well, there isn’t. Not really. I mean, regarding Dijon-Deviled Eggs (About.com Southern Food), I don’t add green onion because near-by family members don’t like it. But I don’t think that’s what Sloane has in mind. I don’t think there is a recipe for cheeseburger or steak or French fries or fried hot dogs or ham sandwiches with potato chips.

And then I thought of one. My generation-long staple: milk gravy and biscuits!

So, here’s my recipe:

Milk Gravy and Biscuits
Open a can of biscuits and pop into the oven.

Buy 1-pound ground beef; tear off a handful and break up into small chunks for the skillet.

Salt and pepper to anticipated/desired taste.

Put the burner on medium.

Chop up a small chunk of onion (about the size of a small plastic container of whole cloves) for flavoring and add to the skillet.

Stir occasionally.

When the meat is browned, turn the burner almost to high. Wait until the grease starts to explode everywhere.

Shake a decent amount of flour out of the bag into the skillet. Just eyeball it. Stir the flour and hamburger and onion together.

Add a lot of milk, but not so much that when it boils, it will spill over the sides of the skillet. Makes a big mess when it does.

Start stirring until the milk gravy begins an excited and energetic bubbling (boiling). After a minute or two (sort of) reduce the heat a little, but not quite to medium. The milk gravy has to keep bubbling.

After 2-3 more minutes (if you’ve eyeballed the ingredients properly), the milk gravy—with hamburger and onion—will start to thicken. Keep stirring. Reduce the heat to medium.

Maybe 3-4 minutes later when the milk gravy has thickened more, put the burner on low.

Take the biscuits out of the oven and you’re ready to go! (You can also use toast instead of biscuits, if you like.)

Oh, yeah—the original recipe. I don’t know. I’m sure there is one somewhere, but I’ve never looked one up. This is basically how I saw my grandparents make milk gravy, and so it’s how I’ve always made milk gravy and biscuits for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner.

I wonder if this recipe adaptation is what Sloane had in mind?

Note from the Blog Mistress: Absolutely, Stan. And your recipe made the perfect breakfast this morning while I worked my way to a man's heart. wink

Here are teasers into SS Hampton's terrific anthology, Intimate Journeys, for your reading pleasure.

Rose Cliffs
Archaeologists accidentally set free survivors of an ancient race, who require sexual sacrifices to bring back more of their kind.

The Christmas Queen
A young man returning home for Christmas encounters a legendary succubus who wants him for her lover.

No. 55 Cherry Apple Court
Believe it or not, sometimes within a gated community there are worse things than a home owners association.

The Whisper of Ereshkigal
An immortal Sumerian in love with a human woman is finally discovered by pursuing goddesses determined to take him to the underworld.

Imnachar
A frustrated incubus has a young woman cornered in a small country church, and he attempts to entice her to leave her sanctuary.

Galleria Millennia
An unusual group of female artist-collectors descend on a city at the edge of the Rocky Mountains before Y2K.

The Samar Café
On the eve of joining his combat ship during an interstellar war, a young sailor spends the night with a prostitute, with surprising results.

A Harsh Lesson
A female military officer dons a haunted Waffen SS jacket and attends a costume party, where she intends to kill a Senator.

Aztec Ridge
An Aztec goddess claims a lover from the same family line every 52 years, and now it is time for her to take a new lover.

Dawn at Khabari Crossing
As the US combat role in Iraq ends, a middle-aged soldier faces the uncertainty of demobilization and returning to Ground Zero of the Great Recession.

Between Flagstaff and Gallup
They say curiosity killed the cat, but what happens if it didn’t, and the cat is still alive?

The Ledger
A married sutler, unhappily retired and in ill health, remembers the example of the love of a young 7th Cavalry trooper for an Irish laundress.

Grandpa’s Bon Qui Qui
While deployed to Afghanistan, an older soldier in a May/December relationship must decide if the young woman really loves him, and if he really loves her.

Buy Link

See more books by S.S. Hampton Sr. on Amazon.

SS Hampton, Sr. is a full-blood Choctaw of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a divorced grandfather to 13 wonderful grandchildren, and a published photographer and photojournalist. He retired on 1 July 2013 from the Army National Guard with the rank of Sergeant First Class; he previously served in the active duty Army (1974-1985), the Army Individual Ready Reserve (1985-1995) (mobilized for the Persian Gulf War), and enlisted in the Nevada Army National Guard in October 2004, after which he was mobilized for Federal active duty for almost three years. Hampton is a veteran of Operations Noble Eagle (2004-2006) and Iraqi Freedom (2006-2007) with deployment to northern Kuwait and several convoy security missions into Iraq.

He has had two solo photographic exhibitions and curated a third. His writings have appeared as stand-alone stories and in anthologies from Dark Opus Press, Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy, Melange Books, Musa Publishing, MuseItUp Publishing, Ravenous Romance, and as stand-alone stories in Horror Bound Magazine, The Harrow, and River Walk Journal, among others.

In May 2014 he graduated from the College of Southern Nevada with an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Photography – Commercial Photography Emphasis. A future goal is to study for a degree in archaeology—hopefully to someday work in and photograph underwater archaeology (and also learning to paint). He is currently enrolled as an art student at University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

As of April 2014, after being in a 2-year Veterans Administration program for Homeless Veterans, Hampton is officially no longer a homeless Iraq War veteran.

Hampton can be found at:
Dark Opus Press - Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy Publishing - Melange Books - MuseItUp Publishing - Goodreads Author Page - Amazon Author Page - Amazon UK

ROSH HASHANAH

Photo by Boaz Yiftach

The Taylor Family

Wishes you and yours

a

Healthy and Prosperous

New Year!