KILLER CRAFTS & CRAFTY KILLERS HOLIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE--CYBER MONDAY EDITION

Today is Cyber Monday. Around the world tens of thousands (if not more) people will be stealing time out of their workday to nail down some of their holiday shopping, hoping to score some great gift deals. Over the next few weeks we’ll all continue to shop, often online. So here at Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers we’re offering some gift suggestions in the form of books—both the old-fashioned kind and the digital kind—that will make some of your recipients squeal with glee—or in the case of today’s offering, drool with delight.

Up first today is Bake, Love, Write: 105Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing, a dessert cookbook and so much more. This book not only includes 105 scrumptious dessert recipes, but it introduces readers to some wonderful authors who offer advice on life, love, and writing. Best of all, by purchasing this book, you’re helping feed hungry kids. A percentage of all sales will be donated to No KidHungry.

Bake, Love, Write: 105 Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Adviceon Love and Writing

edited by Lois Winston

What do most authors have in common, no matter what genre they write? They love desserts. Sweets sustain them through pending deadlines and take the sting out of crushing rejection letters and nasty reviews. They also often celebrate their successes—selling a book, winning a writing award, making a bestseller list, or receiving a fabulous review—with decadent indulgences. And when authors chat with each other, they often talk about their writing and their lives. Recipes. Writing. Relationships. In this cookbook 105 authors not only share their favorite recipes for fabulous cakes, pies, cookies, candy, and more, they also share the best advice they’ve ever received on writing and relationships.

Authors who participated in Bake, Love, Write include: Brenda Novak, Lois Winston, Debra Holland, Dale Mayer, Shelley Noble, Caridad Pineiro, Diana Orgain, Lisa Verge Higgins, Lynn Cahoon, Jasmine Haynes, Jan Carol, Meg Bellamy, Bobbi Chukran, Melissa Keir, Amy Gamet, Kristy Tate, Terry Shames, Barbara Phinney, Kitsy Clare, Raine English, Cathryn Cade, Haley Whitehall, Shilpa Mudiganti, Melinda Curtis, Jessa Slade, Jill Blake, Daryl Devore, Molly MacRae, Elizabeth Rose, Helena Fairfax, Lourdes Venard, Jessica Aspen, Maegan Beaumont, Kay Kendall, Elizabeth John, Victoria Adams, Cyndi Pauwels, Alice Loweecey, June Shaw, Donnell Ann Bell, T. Michelle Nelson, Nina Milton, Pam DeVoe, Skye Taylor, Conda V. Douglas, Pepper Phillips, Judy Alter, Cadence Denton, Lesley Diehl, Erin Farwell, Regan Walker, Kaye Spencer, Barbara Monajem, Kathleen Kaska, Catherine Kean, Rose Anderson, Suzie Tullett, Deborah Hughes, Cynthia Luhrs, Judy Baker, Alicia Dean, Leslie Langtry, Janis Susan May, Mitzi Flyte, Ruby Merritt, Renee D. Field, Kathryn Quick, Susan Cory, Judy Penz Sheluk, Kay Manis, Kathryn Jane, Debra Goldstein, E. Ayers, Chantilly White, Sloan McBride, Triss Stein, Ana Morgan, Adele Downs, L.C. Giroux, Pamela Aares, Nancy Warren, Barbara Lohr, J.J. Cook, Lynn Reynolds, Cori Arnold, B.V. Lawson, Lynn Franklin, M.L. Guida, Irene Peterson, Sue Viders, Liese Sherwood-Fabre, Susan Santangelo, Sheila Seabrook, Elaine Charton, Sharleen Scott, Kathy Bennett, Jody Payne, Reggi Allder, Ashlyn Chase, Beverley Bateman, Susan Lohrer, Donis Casey, Barbara Leavy, Stacy Juba, Karen Rose Smith.

Check out the Bake, Love, Write video author Kaye Spencer created for the cookbook.

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR DEBRA HOLLAND

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Debra Holland wears several hats as both a psychotherapist and an author of nonfiction and fiction, including historial western romance, contemporary romance, fantasy romance, and science fiction. Learn more about Debra and her books at her website. 

Appreciating Conveniences

In our modern lives, the tasks of feeding and clothing a family and keeping a home consume a great deal of a woman’s time, and women today often receive help with cooking and housework from their husbands (if they are married.) But historically women labored from dawn until dark to grow or gather food for their families, take care of livestock such as chickens, can and preserve fruits and vegetables, cook on a wood burning stove or a fireplace, make clothes by hand, wash the family’s laundry using a tub and scrub board, and press clothes with heavy irons heated on the stove. For all but the rich, life was an unending round of chores.

In my Montana Sky Series, the stories are set in the small rural town of Sweetwater Springs, Montana in the 1880s and 1890s. In the books, I like to focus on a few tasks which highlight the difficulties of life in a previous age—for example, the labor involved in taking a bath—hauling the water from a well, spring, or stream, heating it on the stove, pouring it into a washtub, heating more water for rinsing, using the same bathwater for the whole family, then emptying the tub. Imagine doing this in winter, having to bathe right next to the stove. No wonder families only took baths on Saturdays, so they’d be clean for Sunday church service!

In Mail-Order Brides of the West: Prudence, my heroine Prudence Crawford is an unlikable woman from a well-to-do family fallen upon hard times. With her parents dead, and a reputation for being difficult, Prudence knows her only choice for survival is to become a mail-order bride and marry a man who doesn’t know her. The only problem is that Prudence doesn’t want just any man. She wants a husband with money and status.

At the Mail-Order Brides of the West Agency, the potential brides must be skilled in cooking and housekeeping before they are matched with suitors. The women who lack this knowledge must undergo cooking and housekeeping lessons. Prudence hates her lessons, dislikes the other brides, and generally makes everyone around her miserable. Even though she learns to cook and bake, her efforts can never match her rivals, and one day the failure of her best attempt results in a temper tantrum where she throws a tray of biscuits across the kitchen.

When Prudence accepts a match from Michael Morgan, the owner of a mine near Sweetwater Springs, she believes her groom fits her requirements. But Michael hasn’t been entirely honest about himself, and when Prudence discovers the truth about her new husband, the fighting begins. Both of them will need to change to make their marriage work, and Prudence’s skill in baking will turn out to be important.

Old-Fashioned Biscuits

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon soda

2 tablespoons shortening

1/4 cup sour milk

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and soda. Blend in shortening. Add sour mild and work lightly. Toss on floured board and roll lightly to 1" thickness. Shape with biscuit cutters. Bake at 425 degrees on well greased pan 12-15 minutes or until golden.

Mail-Order Brides of the West: Prudence: A Montana Sky Novel

Shrewish Prudence Crawford is the last woman left at the Mail-Order Brides of the West Agency because she’s rejected every match offered to her as not good enough. One-by-one, she’s watched her fellow brides leave for their new lives and has heard tales of their happiness, and she wants that for herself—but not just any man. She will only take a husband who offers wealth and status.

Michael Morgan struck it rich in mining, or at least richer than anyone else in the tiny town of Morgan’s Crossing, Montana. He’s built himself the nicest house in town, which isn’t saying much when there are only ten homes in the whole place. He’s elected himself mayor of the population of 61 inhabitants and keeps his kingdom under tight control. When he hears stories of the mail-order brides arriving in nearby Sweetwater Springs, he decided to send for a wife, even if he has to exaggerate a mite to attract one.

A wealthy mine owner who’s the mayor of a town named after him and has a mansion sounds perfect to Prudence, even if the place is too close to the other mail-order brides whom she dislikes. But when Michael and his circumstances are not what Prudence dreamed, tempers flare and the fighting begins.

Can Michael tame the shrew, or are they destined to have a miserable marriage?

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COOKING WITH CLORIS--BERRY SALAD FROM AUTHOR LINDA McLAUGHLIN

Today we welcome back author Linda McLaughlin, who grew up with a love of history fostered by her paternal grandmother and an incurable case of wanderlust inherited from her father. She has traveled extensively within the United States and has visited Mexico, Canada, & Australia. A lifelong dream came true with a trip to England where she was able to combine sightseeing and theater with research for her novels. She published her first book under the name Lyn O'Farrell. Now Linda writes historical and Regency romance under her own name and sexy to erotic romance under the pen name Lyndi Lamont. Learn more about Linda and her books at her website and blog. Linda joins us today to share a recipe and tell us about her recent release.

My thanks to Lois for inviting me back to Killer Crafts and Crafty Killers.

Today I’m sharing a fruit salad recipe I created. A few years ago, my plot group started having holiday potlucks. At the time, we had a number of people with dietary restrictions, so I set out to create a non-allergic fruit salad. The requirements were that it be free of gluten, dairy products, nuts and citrus, as well as low in calories. Because of my own fruit allergies, I decided to focus on a berry salad.

Cranberries are one of my favorite fall fruits, so I started with whole-berry cranberry sauce and added fresh blueberries. It was tart, to say the least, so I added raisins for some sweetness. Most of the ladies in the group gave it their blessing, though a few don't like cranberries, but that's fine. The great thing about a potluck is you get to choose what you want to eat.

Here is my original recipe:

Cranberry-Blueberry Delight

Ingredients:

1 14 oz. can of Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

1 package of fresh blueberries (about 4 oz.)

1 cup of golden raisins

Mix, chill and serve. That's it!

The recipe serves 8-10 ladies. (The photo doesn't reflect the full recipe. It's what is left over after a couple of days of snacking on it.) I’ve also spread it on turkey sandwiches in lieu of regular cranberry sauce.

Since it's so simple, it's easy to experiment. Add nuts for crunch or sweeten to taste if it's too tart. I'm thinking about adding some of those little marshmallows next time for color and sweetness.

Happy holidays!

The Best Present

Ten-year-old Allison Harcourt's life has been turned upside down since her father lost his job and her beloved grandmother died. She's not looking forward to Christmas, especially since she can't figure out how to finish the scarf she's making for her mother. An unexpected stop in Sweetwater Springs brings her and her parents to the boarding house of the widow Murphy. Sometimes sweet things can be found in the most unexpected places.

The Best Present is part of  Sweetwater Springs Christmas: A Montana Sky Short Story Anthology by Debra Holland and Friends: E. Ayers, Linda Carroll-Bradd, MJ Fredrick, Paty Jager, Jill Marie Landis, Trish Milburn, Linda McLaughlin, Bev Pettersen, Tori Scott, Cynthia Woolf

Come celebrate the holidays in 1895 Sweetwater Springs, Montana, as ten Western Romance authors join New York Times Bestselling author Debra Holland in telling short stories of love and laughter, heartbreak and healing, and most of all, Christmas joy.

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