New book cover for Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense!

Smoky Mountain Investigation out July! Preorder your copy now!!

A favorite memory from Writer Nancy Sonneman

Writer Nancy Sonneman

                This happened nearly 50 years ago.  I was about 8 and the little girl in the apartment above us was 7. Her father went to the neighborhood grocery and brought us each a chocolate Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in silver foil.  I ate mine right away, but my friend decided that it would look pretty as an ornament , especially if the lights were shining on it.  She attached yarn to it and hung it over a yellow light.  In those days, the lights got hot. The longer they were on, the hotter they got. (It was a fire hazard so these lights were eventually replaced with ones that didn’t get hot.) As my friend and her parents were sitting in the living room that evening, they heard “drip, drip, drip”, coming from the Christmas tree. Her mother went over to investigate.  The candy had melted and was running down one side of the tree and dripping into the water that the tree was standing in.  The lights beneath were completely ruined.  My friend cried because she couldn’t eat the candy after all—and they had the world’s first chocolate Christmas tree!

Nancy Sonneman

Hard at work on her first romantic suspense novel, Miss Sonneman lives in OH. She is handicapped and lives with her Mother. Her other interests include Bible reading and study, ceramics, embroidery, and all kinds of puzzles. 

Thanks Nancy!!

Cooking with Kids and Canned Biscuits by Author Tanya Everson!

Cooking with Kids and Canned Biscuits! A Perfect Mix!

Almost every time we go to the grocery store, I let the kids pick out their favorite canned biscuits. One child likes flaky, one wants buttery, and the other—you guessed it, plain. But no matter what type they pick, these snacks will come out to perfection. Have fun and enjoy!

Recipe #1   Hot Dog rolls

                                     Ingredients:

• Canned biscuits
• Hot Dogs
• Fork
• Cooking spray
• Cooking Sheet

                                    Directions:

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees
• Separate biscuits and roll them flat.
• Cut Hot Dogs in half and place each half on a rolled out biscuit.
• Fold the biscuit over the hotdog.
• Seal dough by pressing the fork along the edges.
• Place the rolls on the greased cookie sheet and bake until golden brown.

Recipe #2   Mini Pizza

                                    Ingredients:

• Canned biscuits
• Cheese
• Pepperoni
• Pizza sauce
• Cooking spray
• Cooking Sheet

                                    Directions:

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees
• Separate biscuits and roll them out.
• Spread pizza sauce on the rolled out biscuits.
• Add cheese, then the pepperoni slices.
• Place mini pizzas on the greased cook sheet and cook until cheese is melted and the edges are golden brown.

 Tanya Eavenson

Unconditional~Amazon

Tanyaeavenson.com ~Website

Guided Girls ~Writers blog

@Tan_eave ~Twitter

Quenching Thirst With Living Water

 

A fun post from Author Debbi Wise

Author Debbi Wise

Curbside Chitchats

                                                 

The other day, I told an acquaintance my age. “I’m fifty-five.” Then it hit me. Holy cat fur, I just told a fib! My real age…?  Well, let’s just say, birthdays are escaping me faster than money in my wallet. It seems just yesterday I was sitting curbside in my hometown, Memphis, Tennessee, with teenager girlfriends, gabbing about the only subject consuming our brains—boys!  

Before internet, texting and chat rooms, the curb on Kenosha St. was the place for social networking with my close friends: Judy, Pat, Debra B., Amy, and my sister Kacky. I remember one of our get-togethers when we spotted a creepy, brown spider, his back hairy like sprouts on a Chia Pet. My sister got the bright idea to bump the creature with her shoe. Eck! A gazillion babies scrambled off that spider’s back and scattered in a naked frenzy.

Maybe that’s what happened to all my birthdays. Life bumped into me, and like those baby spiders, the years just took off. Gone. Skedaddled. Gee, what I’d give to go back to my youth. Back when life was as carefree as a pair of flip-flops and cut-off jeans.

Many times I have gone back (to the curb that is) and met with my longtime friends. But due to a few minor issues—creaks in our knees, stiffness in our backs—we sometimes avoid the curb and meet in coffee shops, restaurants, or someone’s cozy kitchen. But no matter where we unite, we talk like chatty teenagers, our souls uniting like jam in a jelly jar. The only difference between forty years ago and now is the topic that consumes our mind. Boy talk…um…not so much. Instead, we discuss those creaky knees, our stiff backs and the best hair color to hide unwanted grey. But more important, we talk about the blessings God gave us in good friendships and style of social networking from the old days of curbside chats. 

Bio:  

I was raised in Memphis, Tennessee, and lived ten years in New Orleans, Louisiana. My story, We’re In This Together, appeared in Cup of Comfort, Parents of Children with Special Needs, May 2009. Holiday Blockbuster appeared in The Ultimate Christmas series, October 2008. I wrote and performed one-act plays in the New Orleans area. Among them Makin’Groceries, Breakfast at the Southern Café, and Vacation. I now live in Castle Rock, Colorado where I’m a member of the Castle Rock Writers’ Association.

A Favorite Memory from Author Marianne Evans!

Author Marianne Evans

In the Baking of the Bread

Is there a more beautiful aroma than that of baking bread? For me, when wisps of onion-zested steam carry through the kitchen, I know I’m home—not just in a logistical sense, but in an emotional sense that stems straight from the heart.

I follow in the footsteps of my grandmother and my mother. I bake onion bread. Upon removal from the oven, those golden brown loaves laid out on a cooling rack fill the atmosphere with a promise of nourishment. But that's the end result. Let's take a look at the bigger picture...the process.

Creating bread is hard work. It also requires patience. The kneading, the rising, none of it can be rushed. Perhaps that's why baking bread has always been such a treasured tradition in my family - especially for me, my mom, and the woman who began it all, my grandmother. Conversations are shared while finger-pushes and palm-presses stretch and form the dough. We laugh, sigh, rejoice and sometimes even cry as we wait for the bread to rise, or bake. She did the same with her mom. I’ve done the same with my son and my daughter.

Old family stories are shared time and time again. ‘Remember when grandma used to make six loaves from one batch?’ ‘Remember the first time we let Dan’s wife in on the recipe and had her help us bake it?’ ‘Remember shipping a loaf to the kids when they lived in Virginia?’

Many of the same remarks come to pass with each session: ‘Be sure to give the second rise enough time.’ ‘Be sure the yeast, sugar and warm water have been given enough time to activate.’ And then there’s my favorite: ‘Get in there and work the dough! Don’t be afraid to get your fingers gooey!’

Family moments are shared across generations, over a recipe that’s family owned, protected and beloved. I savor the continuity of the bread-making process just as much as I love that taste of the freshly toasted, hand-made treat. It’s the passing on of tradition – not just when you make the bread, but when you share your heart, and life, with those you love.

And the time spent? It’s so worth it – on a number of levels.

PURCHASE LINKS:

http://www.pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/devotion-softcover

http://www.amazon.com/Devotion-Marianne-Evans/dp/1611161649/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357833027&sr=8-1&keywords=devotion+marianne+evans

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/devotion-marianne-evans/1111297628?ean=9781611161649

BLURB:

From This Day Forward
Christian Music agent Kellen Rossiter has everything he ever wanted: A-list clients from coast to coast, a loving wife who honors and respects him, and a faith life that’s never wavered—until now.

Juliet Rossiter has the perfect life: a rewarding schedule serving the underprivileged, a husband who loves her as Christ loved the church, and a blessed future as a mother—at least that's what she thinks.

For Better or Worse
But what happens when their rock-solid marriage begins to crumble under the weight of an unexpected and powerful temptation? How does love survive when its foundation is shaken?

'Til Death Do Us Part

When human frailty and the allure of sin deal a harsh blow to their relationship, it will take more than love to mend the shattered trust and heartbreak. It will take a lifetime of devotion. 

Author Linda Rondeau's Pistachio Pudding!

 Author Linda Rondeau

Grandma’s Green Stuff

AKA Pistachio Pudding

1 package Pistachio Pudding mix

1 can crushed pineapple drained

1 package cool whip

Mix together then chill until set.

***

Every year, the children looked forward to Grandma’s Green Stuff, as they nicknamed it. Sure enough, Mother always delivered without being asked. Even after Alzheimer Disease claimed her memory, she somehow managed to bring the Green Stuff…her way of showing how much she really did love her family.  

Life is ever-changing and family gatherings never remain the same. The older generation eventually passes on and the younger generations begin new traditions with their growing families. My husband and I sometimes make the trek to visit the married children during holidays and sometimes they will visit us. Sometimes we are alone. But a major holiday does not seem complete without Grandma Wood’s Green Stuff.

My relationship with my mother was sometimes tumultuous,but, her son-in-law could do no wrong. How she adored him. 

When Mother went into the nursing home, my husband took up the cause of the Green Stuff, continuing the tradition after she passed away. Wherever we spend the holidays, he makes certain a bowl of Green Stuff is on the table...his tribute. 

Funny thing, though, when the Green Stuff comes out, I forget the silly quarrels we may have had and recall only the good, the visible reminder that love surpasses all obstacles, even a fractured relationship...love that arrives in a tasty green delicacy.  

 Linda's latest book!

Author Robin Patchen's family tradition and Crab Rangoons recipe!

Author Robin Patchen

Nothing says Christmas like…Crab Rangoons?

“Chinese food…seriously? On Christmas Eve?”

That was my reaction the first Christmas I spent with my soon-to-be husband, Eddie. He confirmed—Chinese food on Christmas Eve was his family’s tradition. Not only that, but right after I arrived, he and his cousin Tim left to pick up our dinner from the restaurant about a mile away. I could have picked it up, but apparently, the young men picking up the food was also a tradition. When they returned—an hour later, explaining the food hadn’t been quite done when they’d arrived—my fiancé smelled of soy sauce and Mai Tais. As the years went by and the trip to the Chinese restaurant lengthened, I realized that the restaurant owners were happily keeping the food under the heat lamps until the men had finished their drinks.

Another family tradition, apparently.

My family had few such traditions. Because we lived in New Hampshire, a thousand-plus miles from my parents’ families in Oklahoma and Louisiana, our Christmas Eves were a little different every year. Some years, we’d get together with friends. Some years we’d go to church. By the time I was engaged to Eddie, we had for a few years gone to a party at some friends’ of my mother’s with others who had no family close by. The same thing a few years in a row—that felt like a real tradition. It seemed normal to me, until I met Eddie.

Many of the Patchen family traditions had held on since his parents were newly married, including the darned sock they gifted each other every Christmas, a humorous reminder of their first Christmas together, when my mother-in-law, a new bride, had darned her husband’s socks—and he refused to wear them.

It’s those traditions that weave together the fabric of our families. Even when they’re strange to outsiders, like Chinese food and darned socks, they make us who we are. So when I married into the Patchen family, I was honored to join in their family traditions.

We’ve even kept the Christmas Eve tradition of Chinese food—sans the Mai Tais, these days. Can somebody pass the crab rangoons?

Blurb:

Movie star Blake Carmichael found more than just freedom from his drug addiction in rehab. He found God. And he has just one wish for the first Christmas of his new life: reconciliation with his teenage son, Eli. But after eight years of hardly hearing from Blake, Eli wants nothing to do with his father. So when his mother forces Eli to stay with Blake during the Christmas holidays, Eli sneaks out of the house.



From the New Hampshire seacoast to the dangerous streets of Boston, Blake searches for his son, desperate to protect Eli from sins Blake knows all too well. But even if he finds his son, will he ever be able to convince Eli of his love?





Bio:

If time and money were no object, I would travel constantly. My goal is to visit every place in the entire world--twice. Because, as you know, the first time, you don't know exactly what you want to see. So you flit from one tourist attraction to another and enjoy every minute of it. But it's always on the last day that you find the best thing, and you don't have enough time to explore it properly, and you wished you'd discovered it first (but even if you had, you wouldn't know it was the best thing, because you hadn't seen everything else yet). So you have to go back a second time. It's just logical.

Alas, time is short and money is scarce, and my family doesn't really want to follow me all around the world, so I do the next best thing: I write. In the worlds I create, I can go back to the best places time and again. And when they're not perfect, that's all right--I just edit until they are.

In the real world, I'm married to the man of my dreams, Edward, and together we have three children, Nicholas, Lexi, and Jacob. They are a close second on my list of priorities after my relationship with my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

So that's my life: God, husband, children, and made-up worlds where I have complete control. Who could ask for more?