Four-Star Web Exclusive Review at Romantic Times!

Our recent vacation had many highlights, but just about the best one was receiving a terrific review from Romantic Times.

"Hero Hooper will appeal to many fans of inspirational fiction. He is thoughtful, caring and devout. Surviving his life-threatening illness has only reaffirmed Hooper’s faith in the Lord. Mallie is an equally winning character. She is upbeat and open, welcoming new experiences into her life. However, while both characters put their faith in the Lord, they are also aware that their cancer might return, which adds a bittersweet, yet realistic, aspect to their relationship."

Check it out the whole thing by clicking on Romantic Times above, and thanks!
                                     Thanks be to God, too.

Meet me at Dora Hier's blogspot today!

Dora Hiers author of God-gracing, heart-racing romantic suspense, has become a good friend through our publishing house, White Rose. I'm so honored she took the time to feature Faithful Danger at her blog today. I'd love to have you join us.

See you there!

Dora Hier's Blog

Nominated for Best Book of 2010: Marrying Mattie YEE HAW

Wow. I'm over the moon about this one. Getting nominated by Love Western Romances for the best book of 2010 has got to be a highlight of an already amazing year.

I hope you'll do me the honor of riding on over yonder to http://www.lovewesternromances.com/ and casting your ballot for my little novel. I'm facing stiff competition and need all the votes I can get. Voting commences today through January 11...but don't y'all take too much time.

Thank you so very much!

Marrying Mattie: treat yourself!

Marrying Mattie, avail. print, digi and Kindle...

Mattie and Call's love story steams up the pages. Yeah, I know. I'm concentrating on Christian romance now (Please visit Hearts Crossing Ranch...)  but the folks in Paradise, Nebraska circa 1880 need love too.

I hope you enjoy your trip back in time!

(Marrying Molly and Marrying Marguerite are in the works...)

Spicy and Sweet...at The Romance Studio

Hop on over to The Romance Studio for a peek at my latest releases, and see if "spicy" and "sweet" conflict with each other..or make it work like Sweet and Sour Chicken.

Hope you enjoy Marrying Mattie, available now at The Wild Rose Press and Amazon...Kindle version, too. Sign my guestbook at my website to enter a name draw for a signed copy.

Marrying Mattie is here, here, HERE

Jumping the gun a bit, my second book in the Paradise Brides series, Marrying Mattie,  is already available at http://www.thewildrosepress.com/ and http://www.amazon.com/   Yee-haw!

All along, I've thought the Big Day was August 27...but while I was up in the Tetons on a wagon-train trip (more details to follow...or you can check out http://heartscrossingranch.blogspot.com/ ) my dream came true. Sincere thanks to my editor Helen Andrew for making it all happen.

The hero, schoolmaster Call Hackett, makes an important appearance in my current release, Marrying Minda, when he woos mail-order bride Minda during her troubled marriage. But her reluctant hubby, hottie cowboy Brix  Haynes mans up and falls hard for his woman. So I reckoned Call deserved a love story all his own.

My free short story His Christmas Angel introduces him --now a self-described horse "doctor"--to Minda's sister, Mattie, and this new longer book shows their road to a marriage interrupted by her rich, evil ex-husband.

I hope you enjoy getting to know the folks of Paradise, Nebraska, their toils and tribulations, their triumphs and loves.

Don't be a stranger at http://www.petticoatsandpistols.com/

A Small Request....please, God?

Cancer is a strange cell.
You can go along for years in remission
and then one day it pops its head up again.
If you ever have it you will never be free of it.
Pray for the day there will be a permanent cure.

A SMALL REQUEST...

Dear God,
I pray that You will guide someone to find a cure for cancer. Amen

In memory of my twin brother Mike and our dear friend Karen who have been
struck down by cancer and to my hubby and family still living with the specter of testicular cancer...

A Candle Loses Nothing by Lighting Another Candle.
If you're reading this, please Keep This Candle Going

Happy Fourth of July...God Bless the USA!

God Bless America,


Land that I love.

Stand beside her, and guide her

Thru the night with a light from above.

From the mountains, to the prairies,

To the oceans, white with foam

God bless America...my home sweet home!

Eric Pettis: 5 Scoreless Innings

Don't think Eric would mind me spreading the word. He's the nephew of very good friends of ours and just got drafted by the Williamsport PA CrossCutters. In his first game--Father's Day, no less, the Cutters extended their extended their record in the all-time SawBuck Series to 27-24.

Starting pitcher Eric Pettis pitched five scoreless innings surrendering only four hits, striking out three and walking none.

Yay, Eric! Hope to see you in action someday soon!. Congratulations!

It's been a good week all around...with Redeeming Daisy getting contracted b White Rose Publishing. Which reminds me: I got work to do.

Redeeming Daisy...

Wow, today I got the contract for Redeeming Daisy, the second Martin story of the clan at Hearts Crossing Ranch, available now at White Rose Publishing. I'd thought to go with another title using Heart or Cross or some variant thereof, but after a brainstorm, my terrific editor Nicola Martinez came up with the present title.

Now comes the delicious "work" involved in a new release: composing blurbs, taglines, gathering reviews and comments about previous books to add as teasers to the frontispiece. So exciting! Esp. tossing out ideas for covers. (Nicola is a master artist as well. Boy, did I get lucky!)

I hope you'll stay tuned. I'll get the blurb posted as soon as...I think of it LOL.

Don't forget to visit my blog dedicated to the folks at Hearts Crossing Ranch  And a chance to win!

Silver Spur Ranch: Yee-haw. I've love to go again...

Just got this e-mail from the Silver Spur. If you're still finalizing plans for Memorial Day Weekend, give the ranch a whirl. One of the funnest times I've ever had!

"Hey everyone,

There are still a few rooms available THIS weekend for Memorial Day. We are offering ALL our subscribers a last minute 15% discount on adults rates.....that is 3 times the Lifetime Discount!!

There are LOTS of fun activities planned on and off the ranch. In town there is a parade down Main Street you won't want to miss with lots of entertainment and venders, Mansfield Park has rodeos going on 3 full days, the weather is great and the river is open for tubing and all the Saloons have great music going on!!

On the ranch we will be doing a Scavenger Hunt on horseback.....prizes to the winners!! Evening rides after supper will be available and you wont want to miss out on our Star Gazing after dark down by the campfire area.....see incredible views of the Universe!! You might even want to try your hand at Karaoke!! And of course we will serving root beer floats and the pool is OPEN!!

Be sure to mention "Memorial Special" when making reservations!! Your friends and family are welcome to this same discount!

Your Friends at the Silver Spur"

Glen Ivy Mudbath...what a way to spend a Saturday with my posse

Yowza. Who'd ever thunk it, a playdate in the mud at our age. Well, it happened, it was weird and cool at the same time. Mostly it was some good old-fashioned girl bonding.

Daughters, sister, friends, cousins.

Oh, and I can't forget the massage! Good time, good people.

Good memory!

Weekend Recipe: Aunt Grace's Killer Banana Bread

Well, I know I've posted this one before, but it's such a keeper that I'll keep on doing so LOL when I'm rushed and out of other ideas. Top Chef I am not! Have a great weekend.

AUNT GRACE’S BANANA BREAD

½ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 medium mashed bananas
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda


Cream shortening and sugar and add eggs and cream well. Sift flour and soda together. Fold flour and bananas into above misture. Add ¼ cup chopped nuts.

Bake in greased floured loaf pan, 1 hour, at 350º.

Writing Stuff: Blurb for "Hearts Crossing Ranch"

My wonderful editor Nicola Martinez helped tweak this a bit. Blurbs are not my strength. But I hope it intrigues you enough to get Hearts Crossing Ranch when it's released. (Date still to be determined....we're working on the "galleys" right now. And I'm in the closing stretch of another Hearts Crossing story, about brother Pike and Kenn's ex, Daisy. Yikes! Can they make it work?

A beautiful city slicker and a rugged cowboy…The perfect Wild West adventure.

Cowboy Kenn Martin bears the guilt for allowing a coach to ruin his younger brother’s bright athletic future. Feeling unworthy of any happiness, he’s lost his faith in relationships and in God. When he meets Christy Forrest, he begins to hope for redemption but soon learns his past mistakes aren't something she'll easily forgive.

On the Colorado wagon train adventure planned by her late father, landscape designer Christy Forrest seeks to find peace in the nature she loves. However, she can't let go of her anger at the drunk driver who killed her dad—or the woman who did nothing to stop the man from driving. Falling for Kenn Martin begins to lighten her heart…until she realizes the handsome cowboy carries heavy a burden all his own—a burden she’s not sure she can accept.

Wild Rose Press Writers Retreat--Bandera, Texas, here I come!

Howdy! Sorry to miss Monday's Places I've Been. I'm waiting on the pix of the mud bath I took last weekend, (honest!) so be patient LOL (Remember my Wine Jacket Posse...well, we took a sojourn to a spa...but that's another blog...)

Right now, my imaginary spurs really are jiggling. I'm doing last-minute shopping and laundry so I can pack up for TEXAS! My publishing house is holding a writers retreat an hour out of San Antone on a real ranch, the Silver Spur, with real cowboys, horses, and rodeo. When I got the invitation, there was no keeping me away! Looks like I'll be staying in the Wild Bill Hickok cabin. Can't get any mow cowgirl than that!

Stay tuned, of course, for my pictures and accounts of my adventure.

In the meantime, here are some pix I lifted from their website.

With Lone Star temps in the 80's (we're full of gloom and fog here at home...) I'll likely be needing a dip in the pool after a long stretch of creating.


Most of all, I get to cross something off my Bucket List. I'll be learning how to ride a real honest-to-goodness horse!

See ya'll soon.

Weekend Recipe: Russian Easter Bread

In honor of my Russian heritage, I thought I’d share a recipe today for Paska, otherwise known as Easter Bread.

2 1/2 cups bread flour
1/4 cup light cream or half and half
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoon yeast
1/2 cup raisins and glazed cherries, mixed

Heat milk, half and half and butter till butter melts. Add to
remaining ingredients in the order your machine requires. Add the
raisins/cherries when your machine stops for adding "extras".

Use the dough setting. Punch down. Traditional way to bake is to place dough in a coffee can to make the traditional "top hat" shape to bake, but it also works as a round loaf when baked on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350F., about 25 minutes. Cover top with foil for last 10 minutes if it appears to be browning too quickly.
Will make two small loaves, or one large one.

Enjoy!

Weekend Recipe: Barbara Edwards' Cake in a Cup

My name is Barbara Edwards. Thanks for having me as your guest.
Since I have a large sweet tooth, I’ve found this recipe to be perfect for the “can’t do without’ moment. Its used by my daughter-in-law although I’ve seen it on the web.

Cake in a Cup baked in a microwave

4 Tablespoons flour
4 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoon cocoa ( or1 Hershey's Instant chocolate packet instead)
1 egg
3 Tablespoon milk
3 Tablespoon oil
3 Tablespoons chocolate chips (optional) I’ve tried M&Ms, too

Mix dry ingredients; add egg and mix well; add milk and oil and mix again. Add chips. Put in a coffee mug and cook for 3 minutes at high. Cake will rise and puff over top like a muffin. Cool before removing from cup.
The recipe has nothing to do with my book Ancient Awakening and everything to do with my love of chocolate.

Weekend Recipe: Chicken in Red Wine Sauce

Current read: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (Sound lame? It's pretty good.)

Since the posse and I recently went wine-tasting, I thought I'd share a chicken with red wine sauce this time. Mostly I see recipes with white wine for chicken. I haven't tried it...so let me know.

Prep Time: 10 Min
Cook Time: 45 Min
Ready In: 55 Min
Servings 12


Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
3 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 tablespoon paprika
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup red wine
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Cook garlic in oil until tender. Place chicken in the skillet, and cook about 10 minutes on each side, until no longer pink and juices run clear.

Drain oil from skillet. Sprinkle chicken with paprika and 1 cup brown sugar. Pour red wine around chicken. Cover, and simmer about 15 to 20 minutes; lightly baste chicken with wine sauce while cooking. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Weekend Recipe: Eggs Margarita

I know, I know. I didn't name this grub and there doesn't seem to be a margarita in the mix, but you can make a pitcher and serve them together! This recipe is from my pal Nancy. She's tried adding lots of different things and says browned sausage is really good, asparagus is good, or add whatever you want to put in. You can make and refrigerate the day before, but it will take longer to bake if straight from the fridge to the oven.

10 eggs
1 lb Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1/2 stick butter, melted
medium container cottage cheese
1/2 cup flour
small or large can diced green chilies

Mix together, Bake 375 degrees, 30-35 minutes.

Writing Retreat: Yee-haw...Silver Spur Ranch, Here I Come!

Well, guess where I'm spending the last days of April and first days of May?

This California girl is heading for Texas! The Silver Spur Ranch in Bandera, outside of San Antone. Writing, plotting, brainstorming, meeting fellow authors. A rodeo and gun show. Wow.

And I'll spend a couple of days afterward, seeing the sites such as the Alamo and River Walk.

It's a writers retreat sponsored by my publisher, The Wild Rose Press and I can't wait. It's a bit of a distance and a little bit of money, but hey, I'm worth it.

I'll be sharing pictures and all the good parts of the retreat a bit later on. But I just had to share my good news!

Stay tuned!