Who says there's no holiday cheer in space?

Out to Lunch

Earlier this year, when my mother-in-law went into the nursing home, Mr. L and I decided we needed to spend some quality time together away from worries and the hustle and bustle (and Internet) of daily life.  And since we like to go out to lunch, we thought we might like to do it once a week.  Since we often paired our lunch dates with a visit to his mother at the home, we went out a lot during the week.  Sadly, we lost her in August.

At Coleman's -- toasting Jeff.

Over the summer we also took little day trips on the weekend to places like Coleman's Irish Pub in Syracuse and The Sherwood Inn in Skaneateles, and a bunch of other wonderful restaurants outside of Rochester and had wonderful meals. I should also add that we don't go to franchise places. Nope, we like to go to locally owned restaurants where the food is freshly made--not microwaved and served by kids who don't know a spice from an herb.  (Sorry, kids.)

But now it's WINTER and we're not driving very far to get a bite to eat. And we aren't doing it on weekends, either. Why?  Because it seems there's some kind of conspiracy among the locally owned restaurants NOT to open for lunch on Saturday.  What's with that?

We checked (online menus from) restaurants in Syracuse and Buffalo and lots and lots of them are open for lunch on weekends, but not here in Rochester.  The only exception appears to be Keenan's. Okay, we like Keenan's. They make good martinis, have wonderful food, and they have a popcorn machine where you can help yourself, but we don't want to go there every week.

So .. I guess we're stuck going out to lunch on weekdays.  Today we're heading to one of my favorite restaurants, Bernard's Grove, where they have a wonderful beer-battered fish fry and lovely martinis.

Do you like to go out to lunch, and if so -- what kind of restaurant do you frequent?

Some holiday silliness.

Gee, I forgot to post these over the weekend.  Hope you like them.

 
Makes me itch just thinking about all those spiky leaves.



Or maybe she's just a lowercase letter "t".



If she bursts into flames, she can stop, drop, and roll out the door -- and hopefully into a snowbank!

(Stay tuned ... more to come!)

Happy Thankgiving, everyone!

And now for something completely different

Would you just look at this little Beefeater?  My friend Gwen sent him to me.  She said, "I stumbled across something that made me laugh myself silly, and I couldn't think of who else might think it was funny but you,  so I wrapped it up and sent it to you."



A Beefeater French knitter?

Well, I think he's absolutely adorable.  I'm going to hang him on my Christmas tree. And then he can come and live in my office so I can admire him every day.

Have you ever played with a French knitter?  (I think I did when I was a kid, but I can't be sure.)

I love Public Television

I love public television so much, I've been donating books to the New Hampshire Public Television station's auctions for several years now.

You can bid on autographed copies of Murder on The Half Shelf, Not The Killing Type, and Book Clubbed.

Just click here!  Hurry -- the bidding ends on November 18th.

Ready for Pre-Order! A Fatal Chapter

I'm tickled pink that the next Booktown Mystery, A FATAL CHAPTER, is now available for pre-order.

How about this cover?  Don't you love it? I think it's the prettiest so far.  I love Miss Marple in the picnic basket (although, to tell you the truth, Tricia left her at home).

Here's the official back cover copy.

While out walking Sarge, Tricia is led by the agitated dog to a man lying in a gazebo. She’s startled when she recognizes Pete Renquist, the president of  the Stoneham Historical Society, who appears to be suffering from cardiac arrest. When Pete later dies in the hospital, the discovery of a suspicious
bruise and a puncture mark on his arm suggests he may have been murdered.

Haunted by Pete’s enigmatic last words to her, Tricia begins to consider who had a motive to kill her friend. Did Pete take his flirting too far, only to have a jealous husband teach him a lesson? Or did he discover something in the town’s historical records that his killer wanted kept secret? Tricia is
determined to get to the bottom of things before someone else becomes history…

It's good, but misses my favorite part of the plot.  So here's a short version that I wrote.

The Stoneham Historical Society plans to give nighttime tours--ghost walks--of the Stoneham Rural Cemetery, but someone wants to prevent that--taking extreme measures. Can Tricia figure out who is behind the attacks before someone else becomes the cemetery's newest resident?

A Fatal Chapter will be released on June 2nd. It is now ready for preorder from the following places:

Amazon  |  Kindle  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Nook  |  iBooks  |  Kobo
Chapters | Book Depository | Books A Million

Are you an iBooks reader?

At the recent Novelists Inc. writers conference, a number of authors said many of their readers download their books from iBooks for their iPads and iPhones.  I'm curious to know how many of MY readers do the same.



I'll give away one of my titles from iBooks and randomly choose from someone who leaves a comment.  Thanks!

You can now pre-order the first Lotus Bay Mystery

I'm so happy to announce tht my first Lotus Bay Mystery, WITH BAITED BREATH, is now available for pre-order for ebooks.  (The Trade Paperback will be avaiable ... as soon as I figure out how to get it out there for preorder ,.. if it's possible.  Keep in touch!)

Here's a brief description:

Tori Cannon and her grandfather, Herb, return from her grandmother’s funeral, and it’s with sadness that she learns the bait shop and small motel they ran has fallen on hard times. Jammed into one of the motel’s units is the body of one of Herb’s customers, his mouth filled with spikes. The victim had no enemies, except for the rich woman who wanted to level his eyesore of a home. But he’s also got a daughter who’s resentful her father wasn’t a major force in her life, and friends who were anything but.
Tori’s friend, Kathy, arrives to help spruce up the property, and the two of them find themselves mixed up in the petty jealousies and deadly consequences that murder entails. Can they save the bait shop and find a murderer before they, too, sleep with the fishes?

For more information about the series, check out my website.
For preorder, click one of the links below:

Kindle | Kindle Worldwide

iBooks |  Kobo  |  Nook

If you haven't read the prequel, it's avaiable now.

Tori Cannon and her BFF, Kathy Grant, get together for a girl’s weekend of wine, cookies, and laughter, but there’s also the specter of a panty pincher hanging around the laundry room of the complex where Tori lives. Kathy thinks they can catch the culprit red-handed in a panty raid!
This mini mystery introduces the two main characters of the upcoming Lotus Bay Mysteries.

Kindle  |  Kindle Worldwide
iBooks  |  Kobo  | Nook
Smashwords

Opinions, please!

The yard sales are few and far between at this time of year, but Saturday there were three we found.  At one of them was a display of teapots--all pretty cheap.  I bought one.  But ... is it a teapot or is it a chocolate pot?



What do you think.  (BTW, it's Hall china.)

Celebrate a cheesy day!

For cheese lovers, like my character Angelica Miles, the happy day has finally arrived! National Moldy Cheese Day! (She can hardly curb her excitement!)

And to celebrate, here's a recipe for blue cheese dressing.

¾  cup sour cream
1/3 cups mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½  teaspoon dry mustard
½  teaspoon garlic powder
½  teaspoon salt
½  teaspoon ground black pepper
4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

In a large bowl, whisk together the sour cream, mayonnaise and Worcestershire sauce. Season with the mustard, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Stir in the blue cheese. Cover, and refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.

Yield:  2 ½ cups

Foodie Friday: Tacos for everyone!

Today is National Taco Day ... and my character Angelica Miles of the Booktown Mysteries is celebrating with her own recipe.  It's from the fourth book in the series, Chapter & Hearse.

Here's the recipe.

Hacienda Tacos

Ingredients
3 cups coarsely chopped or shredded (pulled) simmered chicken
1 onion, chopped
½  green pepper, chopped
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 ½ to 2 teaspoon chili powder (according to taste)
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
8 oz. water
12 corn (or flour) 8 or 9 inch tortillas (or taco shells)
1 cup lettuce cut into strips
1 tomato, chopped
¾ cup grated or shredded Cheddar cheese
Your favorite bottled salsa

In a large skillet, mix together the chicken, onion, green pepper, salt, pepper, chili powder, tomato sauce and water. Cook covered over low heat for about 15 minutes. Cook, uncovered for five to ten minutes, until excess liquid is gone. Oven heat the tortillas and fill the lower 3/4 with chicken mixture and the remainder with the tomatoes, cheese and lettuce. Top as needed with a spoonful of the salsa. 

Celebrate cats!

Here at Casa de Lorna, we celebrate cats every day.  How about you?

This shouldn't be such a hard decision on National Coffee Day

Honestly, this shouldn't be that hard a decision. Tricia buys her ground coffee FROM The Coffee Bean across the street.  (She's a good neighbor and supports the other businesses in Stoneham!)

Still, what do you think she should do???

It's Foodie Friday! Pancakes on the menu

Some days you just need to eat breakfast for supper ... or lunch ... or even (heaven forbid!) breakfast.

That's the beauty of National Pancake Day -- you can eat them any time of the day or night. (Especially if there's an IHOP nearby.)

Pancakes have a number of aliases, too.  Like flapjacks, griddle cakes, hotcakes, crepes, blintz ... they all sound yummy to me.

So celebrate!

Related articles

FOODIE FRIDAY: Why British Food Doesn't Suck

Take a look at my new cover!

Here's the cover for the first Lotus Bay Mystery, WITH BAITED BREATH I hope to have it available for pre-order sometime in October. Cross your fingers.



Meanwhile, Here's a brief description of the story.

Tori Cannon and her grandfather, Herb, return from her grandmother’s funeral, and it’s with sadness that she learns the bait shop and small motel they ran has fallen on hard times. Jammed into one of the motel’s units is the body of one of Herb’s customers, his mouth filled with spikes. The victim had no enemies, except for the rich woman who wanted to buy his eyesore of a home. But he’s also got a daughter who’s resentful her father wasn’t a major force in her life, and friends who were anything but.

Tori’s BFF, Kathy, arrives to help spruce up the property, and the two of them find themselves mixed up in the petty jealousies and deadly consequences that murder entails. Can they save the bait shop and find a murderer before they, too, sleep with the fishes?

For more information about the series, check out my website!

International Day of Peace

With all that's going on in the world today, I sometimes wonder where we would be if Mark Chapman hadn't killed John Lennon. I like to think that the world would be a much better place where we didn't have to worry about radicals intent on destroying and where Gene Roddenberry's vision of a world at ‪#‎peace‬ reaching out a hand of friendship to the those who live upon other worlds would come to pass. We can't go forth in space in peace until we find it here. We're a long way from that, I'm afraid.

 
Today is International Peace Day.  Let's give it a chance.

Query ...

Will my new Union Jack mug be obsolete tomorrow?

And the logo is revealed!

We're working on the cover for the first Lotus Bay Mystery, With Baited Breath. This is the "finalized" version of the logo for the series. Of course, depending on what the cover designer wants, we can change the background color to match whatever she does. I hope to reveal the cover by early next week (if not sooner).


To read more about the series, check out my website page for The Lotus Bay Mysteries.

Now available in Japan!

Today the UPS man brought the my author copies of the third Booktown Mystery (Bookplate Special) in Japanese.



Here're the first three books together.  So cute!  Now, if only I could read Japanese!

Never enough cake!

Today is my brother's birthday. Back when we were kids, there were five of us in the family. That meant you were assured of having cake more than just on your own birthday.

Well, Mr. L likes pies. On my Mom's birthday, we have fruit cake (*shudder*) so it's now just once a year I get birthday cake. I'll bet my brother hasn't even had a cake in 20 years.

I think I'm going to have to start having an UN-birthday a couple of times of year, otherwise when am I going to get cake?

Do you have an unbirthday?  (If not, would you like to have one?)

A couple of letters makes a big different

To make a good pot of tea, you're supposed to scald the pot with hot water first, then make tea.  Not only do I scald the pot, I also scold it. ("Oh, you naughty teapot!")  Which do you think is more traumatic for the teapot?

P.S. Teacup Tuesdays will soon return!

Related articles

Teacup Tuesday: How do you take your tea?

Teacup Tuesday: Just Drink it!

Happy National Peanut Day!

Don't you just love having something to celebrate?

That's what the name on the paint chip said

Painted my mother's front door. The color is "blueberry pie." It should look good with the yellow on her house.



I read on Pinterest that baby oil will magically take latex paint off your skin. Well, only if the magic includes a scrub brush.

A new voice in mystery: M. Ryan Seaver

I was lucky enough to read (and blurb) No Bad Deed, first in a new series by a new voice in ‪#‎mystery‬ M. Ryan Seaver. All I can say is WOW! It's dark and it's riveting. I couldn't put it down.

Here's the description:

Private detective John Arsenal can’t tell you what terrible crime he committed to wind up in a sweltering urban hellscape, surrounded by thieves, drug addicts and murderers—only that it was very bad, and now he’s being punished. That’s because in Hell—or Brimstone, as the damned prefer to call it—your identity, your memories, even your name, are stripped away from you.

John is relatively comfortable in his damnation, working easy cases and making himself at home in the grimy squalor of the afterlife. That is, until a mysterious woman appears in his office, begging him to find her missing sister, and promising him the impossible in return—a glimpse of his old life, before Brimstone. 

To track down the enigmatic Sophie, John must delve into Brimstone’s darkest recesses, where murderous children run wild in packs, and a strange and terrifying new drug promises to deliver the user to the heights of ecstasy, but at the risk of being snuffed out of existence altogether. All the while, John must grapple with the vivid nightmares that have haunted him since his arrival in Brimstone, and confront the thing he desires and dreads the most—the truth of what he did to deserve damnation.

It's now available for preorder on Amazon and will be available on September 15th. Go for it!

First Tuesday = New Cozy Mysteries!

Okay, I admit it -- I took most of the summer off from blogging.  I hope to get back into the swing of things as the weather turns colder and I'm inside more.

In the meantime, it's the first Tuesday of the month and two of my Cozy Chick blog sisters have new books out.

My good pal Mary Jane Maffini is one half of the mother-daughter writing team of Victoria Abbott. Today, the third book in their Book Collector Mystery series, THE WOLFE WIDOW, is officially released.

As Thanksgiving approaches, Jordan Bingham is grateful for her job researching rare books for Vera Van Alst, the infamous curmudgeon of Harrison Falls, New York. But when an uninvited guest makes an appearance, much more than dinner is disrupted—and Jordan is thankful just to be alive…

Vera Van Alst doesn’t normally receive visitors without appointment, but she agrees to see the imperious Muriel Delgado upon arrival. Shortly thereafter, Jordan is told that her position is being terminated. Evicted from the Van Alst House, Jordan is determined to find out what hold Muriel has over her erstwhile employer.

Amazon  |  Kindle |US  |  Kindle Worldwide

Barnes & Noble   |  Nook

Indigo  |  Chapters

Kobo  |  iBooks

Mary Kennedy is a psychologist who just happens to write mysteries, and NIGHTMARES CAN BE MURDER is the first in her new Dream Club Mystery Series.

Business consultant Taylor Blake has eturned to Savannah, Georgia, to help her sister Allison turn her dream of running an old-fashioned candy store into a reality. Allison is also interested in dream interpretation and invites Taylor to her Friday night Dream Club, where members meet once a week to share and analyze their dreams.

When a local dance instructor, Chico Hernandez, is found dead in his studio, and the murder scene has an eerie resemblance to one of the dreams shared at their meeting, Taylor can’t help but be intrigued. And when her sister, who was briefly involved with the dance teacher, becomes the prime suspect, Taylor and their fellow club members can’t be caught napping. It’s up to them to dream up a solution to the murder before Allison faces a real-life nightmare.

Amazon  |  Kindle US  |  Kindle Worldwide

Barnes & Noble   |  Nook

Kobo  | iBooks

I hope you'll enjoy both of these wonderful mysteries as much as me!

Happy Labor Day!

That sounds like the perfect (un)Labor Day to me.  What are you up to today?

A happy and sad celebrations

It was just under a month ago that our family celebrated my mother-in-law Mary's 100th birthday.  She was surrounded by her family (her children, her three favorite nieces, and me, my mother, and my sister-in-law).  Mr. L made a video. We all took loads of pictures.

 The nursing home provided pizza, punch, and we brought a wonderful (HUGE) birthday cake that was gobbled up in no time flat. A good time was had by all.  It was a happy day we will long remember.

Sadly, two days later, Mary suffered a devastating stroke. A week later, she was gone.

Wow. How could such a small lady leave such a big hole in our lives?

The Cozy Chicks sent us a lovely dish garden that we will enjoy for years to come. Every time we see it we think of Mary and of the friendships we've made with the wonderful women here on this blog.  (Love you guys!)

Mary loved Nilla wafers and hard candy. We bought her boxes and boxes of wafers and pounds and pounds of candy, which she shared with members of the nursing home staff.  When we cleared out her room, we found the last box of Nillas in a drawer. It hadn't been opened.

Truthfully, neither of us are fond of Nillas (I'd prefer a GIGANTIC OATMEAL COOKIE with walnuts and raisins!!!) so we aren't likely to eat them. But ... I know that other recipes use Nillas as a base.  Among them, bourbon balls.  Our friend Jean used to make bourbon balls and bring them to work every year at Christmastime. Boy, they sure were the hit of the office party.  (She did NOT spare the bourbon!) I'm sure Mary would have enjoyed bourbon balls (although she drank beer when she was younger, and white wine these past couple of decades).

I've made bourbon balls before, but I was wondering if there were other recipes out there that use Nillas as a base and that you guys have made and enjoyed.  I know I'd be pleased to know about them, and I'm sure those reading the comments would, too.  So, if you have a recipe, please share it.  (If I make one, I'll let you know the results.)

Thanks!

Happy Day for The Cozy Chicks

It's a great day for the Cozy Chicks.  Not only did our own Ellery Adams hit the New York Times Best Sellers list at #1 for her debut novel in the Book Resort Mystery series, MURDER IN THE MYSTERY SUITE ...



Not only that, but Leann Sweeney hit the list at #25 with The Cat, The Vagabond and the Victim!

So true ...

Don't miss these two new great books!

I love the first Tuesday of the month because that means NEW BOOKS!

This month, two of my best friends have books out:

New from Leann Sweeney:  The Cat, The Vagabond and the Victim
When Clyde the cat travels two hundred miles back home only to find his former owner dead, the story makes national news. While everyone seems eager to tell Clyde’s incredible tale, someone needs to step up to care for him. Because the media attention is creating chaos at the local shelter, cat quilter Jillian Hart agrees to foster the loyal orange tabby, hoping his location is kept secret.

But while the media circus around Clyde continues, Jillian learns the real story behind his owner’s death—he was murdered. Why would an eldery man already dying from a serious illness become a murder victim? As the local police search for an answer, Clyde makes another escape. Jillian is drawn into the case when she finds Clyde has returned to his home again—and he’s found another body. When the motive behind these murders is finally revealed, Jillian understands Clyde is in danger of becoming the next victim, and she must help find the killer before the claws really come out.…

Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Kindle | Nook | iBooks

First in a new series by Ellery Adams
Tucked away in the rolling hills of rural western Virginia is the storybook resort of Storyton Hall, catering to book lovers who want to get away from it all. To increase her number of bookings, resort manager Jane Steward has decided to host a Murder and Mayhem week so that fans of the mystery genre can gather together for some role-playing and fantasy crime solving.

But when the winner of the scavenger hunt, Felix Hampden, is found dead in the Mystery Suite, and the valuable book he won as his prize is missing, Jane realizes one of her guests is an actual murderer. Amid a resort full of fake detectives, Jane is bound and determined to find a real-life killer. There’s no room for error as Jane tries to unlock this mystery before another vacancy opens up…

Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble
Kindle  |  Nook  |  iBooks

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New-Book Tuesday! Try These Out!

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