Followers

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas brings back cherished memories

Merry Christmas!

Christmas means different things to different people. For me, there's nothing like close friends and family all year, but I stop and cherish them all more around the Christmas season, I suppose. I am blessed in massive ways and I know it.

My husband of 45 years is awesome still. His mother left this world on July 4th and we miss her although today we all felt her presence as we prayed and dined together once again.

My two sons are wonderful role models for young people and they (along with their beautiful wives) have given me three precious grandsons.

The creme on the dessert? We all live within seven miles of each other.

I wish for all of you blessings a-plenty throughout 2013.

Monday, December 3, 2012

The treasure of friendship

During this time of year I always become melancholy. I miss my parents, my wonderful mother-in-law who died in July, and so many friends who crossed over far too soon.

But I have a world of treasures around me. So many of you who read this blog are cyber friends, some whom I've had the pleasure of meeting in person, some with whom I've done book business, and many I hope to meet one of these days.

During this time of giving thanks and gifts and eating too much, remember what a blessing you are.


Merry Christmas to One and All!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

My Next Big Thing

I promised to pass along a blog hop. This particular blog hop is making its way around the blogosphere. I was tagged by North Carolina writer, Karen Pullen to answer 10 questions. Then I get to tag some other writers. I decided to post about my new release. Here we go!

1. What is the title of your book?

 SLIGHTLY CRACKED

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

I am blessed to have several lifelong friends and wanted to write a book about friendship and some of the crazy antics that we've been through.

3. What genre does your book fall under?
Women's fiction

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I picture Kathy Bates as Mackie Sue Beanblossom and her sidekick, Daisy Marie Hazelhurst, would be Penny Marshall. Ed Harris would make a great Clayton Beanblossom.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your manuscript?

Lifelong friends encourage and protect each other no matter what!

6. Will your book be represented by an agency?

No agent.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

A year, perhaps? I started writing this book while I was completing final edits for Sin Creek, part of my Logan Hunter Mystery series. And I’m easily distracted by shiny things.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within the genre?

Mary Kay Andrews books and Mary Alice Monroe books.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Some of the best friends anyone could have. And also my fascination with the geese on our pond. I wanted to use the Lessons Learned from Geese as a guide.

10. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

Mackie Sue and Daisy Marie have turned sixty and hot flashes, weight gain and insecurity about aging dominate their conversations.  Daisy's malapropisms are hilarious and some of their misadventures are priceless.

Early reviews:

"...Whitfield has you laughing one moment and crying the next..."

"...touches the reader with its humanity."

"...Whitfield's best so far!"

The book is available in print and ebook. I'm proud that many folks are buying it to give to their BFF for Christmas. That really touches my heart. Have a meaningful Thanksgiving and don't forget to call your friends;-)

Now I’m passing the baton to some truly exceptional writers . . .
Greta James on Wednesday Nov 21, whose next big thing is a novel of linked short stories
AND
Michele Berger on Tuesday Nov 20 whose next big thing is a zine she is co-authoring: ‘Chatmosphere’: The Arts and Cultural Buzz of Chatham County.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

It looks like an early snow!

I don't know about you, but when a day is cold and raw like this one, I get in the mood to cook. I picked a recipe from Killer Recipes. It's  a recipe Judy Nichols submitted for the book. It has chocolate in it! Here it is:


Intense Cincinnati-Style Chili

(as featured in Caviar Dreams)

 

Ingredients:

2 lbs lean ground beef
2 tsps crushed red pepper
4 small onions, chopped
1 qt water
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tbs vinegar
4 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground allspice
6 oz tomato paste
5 medium bay leaves
1 block unsweetened chocolate (yes, people in Cincinnati like chocolate in their chili)
4 tsp cumin

Add ground beef to water in a large pot and stir until beef separates to a fine texture. Add all other ingredients. Stir to blend. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer uncovered for about 3 hours. May cover for the last hour if desired consistency has been reached. For the classic Three Way, serve on spaghetti with shredded cheese. For a Four Way, add onions. If you're really brave for a Five Way, add the beans. And don't forget the hot sauce and oyster crackers.

Judy Nichols, author of Caviar Dreams

Check out Judy at www.judy5cents.com
 
Want to order Killer Recipes to give during the holiday season? You can order them from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, or from my web site at www.susanwhitfieldonline.com.
Stay warm!
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Time for pound cake!


Two years ago I authored a unique cookbook titled Killer Recipes. I invited my author friends to send recipes they loved for the book and we'd give the book sales to charity (ACS). An overwhelming number of them sent as many as five recipes for the book. Each spring when Relay For Life comes around, I am able to donate over a thousand dollars for cancer research because of this book and the generosity of its contributors. During this season of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I will post some fabulous recipes. I hope you enjoy them. I begin with Vicki Lane's recipe, from her grandmother. I'm sure Vicki misses her this time of year.

 

Ba’s* Pound Cake

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 cups flour
5 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla


Cream butter and sugar thoroughly (by hand or with an electric mixer). Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.  Add flour and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Put batter in well-greased tube pan. Put in cold oven, turn oven to 350 and bake one hour. (Note-- this is not a high-rising cake -- it's dense and delicious.) For a decadent treat, cut a slice, butter it, and run it under the broiler. (* Ba is Vicki’s grandmother.)

 
Vicki Lane, author of the Elizabeth Goodweather Mystery series:  In A Dark Season, Old Wounds, Art’s Blood, and Signs in the Blood

 

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Dames Speak Out

I did a post on Dames of Dialogue about my bout with menopause and how I drew from that experience to write parts of Slightly Cracked, my first women's fiction. Quite a few ladies and one gentelman commented, some of them hilarious. I've provided a link to the post in case you're interested.


http://damesofdialogue.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/funny-side-of-menopause-by-susan-whitfield/

Thanks to Maggie Bishop, whom I met at the High Country Book Festival. See? You never know when opportunity will knock.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Aaron Paul Lazar on tour: For Keeps


Aaron Paul Lazar writes to soothe his soul. An award-winning, bestselling Kindle author of three addictive mystery series, Aaron enjoys the Genesee Valley countryside in upstate New York, where his characters embrace life, play with their dogs and grandkids, grow sumptuous gardens, and chase bad guys. Even though I’ve never met Aaron in person, I feel pulled to him not only through his wonderful writing but his kind online nature. Not to mention those eyes, that smile. LOL. It is my pleasure to have Aaron stop by for a visit on his book tour. I truly hope that you’ll read more about him and read some of his works. Visit his website at http://www.lazarbooks.com and watch for his upcoming Twilight Times Books releases in the near future.
FOR KEEPS Synopsis:

When retired family doctor Sam Moore’s old girlfriend is murdered in a local hotel, the police suspect his involvement. The coroner, a former med school colleague whose husband is about to desert her, reveals that she had a crush on Sam in med school. When she is strangled the next day in her own morgue, Sam is once again in the hot seat.

Sam’s world falls apart when he returns home to find a family member killed in the laundry room, stabbed with his own garden shears. Rocketed into a world of denial and temporary insanity, Sam faces his worst fear, and is locked up in the very same psych ward he was in when his brother Bill died fifty years ago. Sam is determined to ask his long dead brother to help him. Billy, who communicates through a little green marble, has the ability to propel Sam through time and has helped Sam unwrap baffling mysteries in the past. 
Sam’s plan: to change time, and bring his loved one back to life.
Reviews:

"Aaron Paul Lazar's deft paranormal mystery starts off quietly and builds to a powerful finish. More than a thriller, FOR KEEPS is a heartfelt story of love and devotion, family ties and emotional crisis, loss and redemption. A winner!" -Michael Prescott, USA Today bestselling author of Final Sins

"Lazar does it again with Sam Moore's explosive return in FOR KEEPS, a story of sordid pasts, buried secrets, and ultimately, true love. This tale will break your heart—and then tenderly stitch it back together—all while you're biting your nails to the quick. Every book in the Moore Mysteries series just keeps getting better!”-Sonya Bateman, author of Master of None & Master and Apprentice
“The author’s gentle prose brings the scents of a summer garden to life, together with rippling shade of forest and cool clear waters of lake. Characters are vividly real and welcoming too, with pitch-perfect dialog around the dinner table, a wonderful grandfather dealing with a two-year-old’s tantrum, and the awkward embarrassment of past secrets becoming public knowledge.”-Sheila Deeth, author of FLOWER CHILD

"I was truly mesmerized by this book, and I can honestly say that I have never been so blown away by the ending of a novel.  I actually felt a painful wrench when I turned the last page of the book as if I was being physically torn away from the Moore family."-CindyTaylor, Allbooks Reviews

Links to purchase:

Kindle eBook (free Sept 15th, 16th, Oct 12, 13!!!!!):






TwilightTimes Books by Kindle bestselling author, Aaron Lazar:
LEGARDE MYSTERIES

DOUBLE FORTÉ (2012, author’s preferred edition)  

UPSTAGED (coming 2012 author’s preferred edition, eBook and print)  

TREMOLO: CRY OF THELOON (2007, AUDIO BOOK 2011)

MAZURKA (2009, AUDIO BOOK 2012)

FIRESONG (2011, AUDIO BOOK 2012)

DON’T LET THE WIND CATCH YOU (coming 2012)

MOOREMYSTERIES:

HEALEY'S CAVE (2010, AUDIO BOOK 2011)

TERROR COMESKNOCKING (2012, AUDIO BOOK 2012)

FOR KEEPS (JULY 2012, AUDIO BOOK 2012)

TALL PINESMYSTERIES:

FOR THE BIRDS (2011, AUDIO BOOK, 2012)

ESSENTIALLY YOURS (2012)

SANCTUARY (coming in 2013)

WRITE LIKE THE WIND, volumes 1, 2, 3 (AUG 2012)