DECORATING WITH JEANIE--GUEST AUTHOR ANNIE ADAMS

Annie Adams is the author of The Final Arrangement, book one in The Flower Shop Mystery series. When not writing she can be found teaching workshops to authors about the business of being a writer, or arranging flowers and delivering them in her own Zombie Delivery Van. Today Annie visits us to discuss using flowers to decorate your home. Learn more about Annie at her website.

Annie is offering either a paperback or e-copy of The Final Arrangement to one of our readers who posts a comment. Please make sure you either leave an email address with your comment or check back on Sunday to see if you’re the winner. We can’t get your book to you if we have no way of contacting you. -- AP

The Final Arrangement is the first in The Flower Shop Mystery Series, where you will find our heroine, Quincy McKay working away in her flower shop. Following are some things she would like to pass on about using flowers in your home.

Flowers are beautiful, they smell nice, and they are used to mark special occasions. Too expensive to keep around the house…right?

Wrong!

Even a single bloom has the power to make an emotional impact in your life as soon as you see it, not to mention what the aroma can do to balance hormones and improve your overall well being. And, a single flower can cost as little as a dollar or two.

  

Did you know it’s been proven flowers have an impact on your emotions? At Rutgers University, a team of researchers performed a 10-month study of responses of research participants to receiving flowers. They found the following:

1. Flowers have an immediate impact on happiness. All study participants expressed "true" or "excited" smiles upon receiving flowers, demonstrating extraordinary delight and gratitude. This reaction was universal, occurring in all age groups.

2. Flowers have a long-term positive effect on moods. Specifically, study participants reported feeling less depressed, anxious and agitated after receiving flowers, and demonstrated a higher sense of enjoyment and life satisfaction.

3. Flowers make intimate connections. The presence of flowers led to increased contact with family and friends.

http://www.aboutflowers.com/health-benefits-a-research/emotional-impact-of-flowers-study.html

I always recommend visiting your local florist to find out what’s in season and to see some fantastic ideas for what you can do with flowers. There are several economical and long lasting blooms such as alstromeria, carnations and chrysanthemums that come in hot, vibrant colors sure to warm up a gloomy winter room.

Carnations and mums were once the lowly forgotten flowers of design, but they’ve made a big-time comeback in party design at places like the Oscars, Oprah’s parties, and more.

Besides using longer-lasting varieties, there are tricks to extending the life of flowers. Make sure you keep the water clean by changing it daily. If you receive a packet of flower food with your purchase, it is imperative you read the directions on the back of the packet and follow the measurements to the letter. Studies have shown that dosing flower food improperly can actually be worse for the flowers than not using any food at all. So keep the home remedies like sugar, soda pop, aspirin, pennies and whatever else you may have heard of, out of the vase.

Give the stems a fresh cut just before placing them in clean water. Lastly, keep your flowers cool. This is the most important step in my opinion. Optimal temperature for flowers is generally 38-42 degrees Fahrenheit. Most of us don't have a flower cooler in our homes, so the next best place is a cool area in the house.  

It only takes one flower to lift your mood and stave off the effects of depression, so stop and pick up an affordable bouquet, even if it’s from the local grocery store. Flowers are calorie-free, drug-free and guilt-free sources of happiness that don't have to break the bank.

Blurb:

The Vulture is dead.

The body of Quincy McKay’s nemesis and biggest competitor in the floral business has just been discovered in a casket at the mortuary, complete with flowers on the lid.

Derrick Gibbons, aka The Vulture, stole all of Quincy’s funeral business, and now she’s on a mission to get it back. But there’s a problem—Quincy is now the main suspect in The Vulture’s murder.

Armed with only her Zombie delivery van, good intentions, and the business card of a handsome cop named Alex, she must find the killer, save the flower shop, and keep from ending up in the next casket. If she can dodge burning bushes, the plague of a polygamist ex, and her mother's Mormon Mafia Spy Network, her life with Alex and her shop could become the perfect arrangement.

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COOKING WITH CLORIS-BROCCOLI, CHEESE & POTATO SOUP

How would we ever get through winter without hot, hearty soups? Serve this one with a hot loaf of French bread for a stick-to-your-ribs meal. Added bonus—because it’s made with fat-free broth and milk and low-fat cheese, you can eat as much of it as you like without packing on the calories.

Broccoli, Cheese, and Potato Soup

Ingredients:

2 small onions

2 carrots

1 celery stalk

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoons flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

32 oz. fat free chicken broth

2 cups fat free milk

2 medium potatoes, peeled

2 cups frozen chopped broccoli

4 ounces low-fat sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Dice onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes.

Melt butter in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. Sauté onions, carrots, celery, and garlic in butter on low heat. Add flour and salt, stirring until smooth.

Add chicken broth and milk. Bring to a boil. Add potatoes. Cover and cook on low until potatoes are soft. Remove cover and add broccoli. Heat through.

Add cheddar, stirring well until cheese melts.

CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA - EASTER EGG BUNNY

Here’s a cute little Easter bunny to add to a child’s Easter basket. Or make several and add one at each place setting for Easter dinner.

Easter Egg Bunny

Materials:

2-1/2” Styrofoam® egg, scraps of pastel print calico fabrics, pinking shears, ruler, pencil or fabric marker, tacky glue and jewelry glue, foam brush, 2-1/2” white or straw doll hat, two 5mm wiggle eyes, two 5mm white pompoms, 3mm pink pompom, scraps of white and pink felt, scrap of cardboard

1. Using the ruler and pencil or fabric marker, draw 3/4” squares on fabric scraps. Cut out squares with pinking shears. You’ll need approximately 30 squares to cover the egg.

2. Water down the tacky glue to a consistency that will be easy to spread with the foam brush. Working one fabric square at a time, glue squares to egg, overlapping edges. Cover egg completely with fabric squares. Allow to dry.

3. Print out patterns to 1-1/2" in height. Using pattern, cut out feet from cardboard. Glue a piece of white felt to cardboard. Allow to dry. Trim felt to cardboard.

4. Using pattern, cut out two white felt ears and two pink felt ears. Glue a pink ear to a white ear. Allow to dry. Apply small amount of glue to bottom of pink ear. Fold ears in half at bottom edge. Allow to dry.

5. Glue hat to top of egg. Glue an ear to each side of hat.

6. Glue on eyes (using jewelry glue) and pompoms as shown in photo. Make a small bow from ribbon and glue to egg as shown.

7. Glue bottom of egg to feet.

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY - GUEST AUTHOR KATHRYN J. BAIN

To survive and pay bills, Kathryn J. Bain has worked as a paralegal for over twenty years. She began writing more than ten years ago and has since published several books. Today she joins us at Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers to talk about the “What if” game. Learn more about Kathryn and her books at her website. -- AP

The “What if” Game

As a writer, I am always asked where do I come up with ideas for my stories. One of the places authors find to be a goldmine is the news. Dick Wolf of Law & Order fame was wonderful at “ripped from the headlines” stories.

How did he do it? He took a news story and asked “what if”. For instance, take the election back in November. Here are just a couple of “what if’s” I came up with:

1.             What if one of the lesser known candidates won,

2.             Or no one won,

3.             Or what if a write-in candidate won?

Another recent news story was the man who kidnapped and held a five year-old boy in a bunker for seven days. Thankfully, the child is now home safe. But what’s a good “what if” for that? Here are some of mine:

1.             What if the man was the boy’s father who thought his son was being abused,

2.             Or a man who lost his son and wanted to replace him,

3.             Or an ex-boyfriend angry with the boy’s mother?

Now it’s your turn. Take the news story of the thirty-three co-workers who won a one million dollar lottery ticket and give us a “what if” on it.   

I’ll almost bet an idea just popped into your head. I’d love to hear what you thought up.

Of course, now you’ll be mad at me because every time you hear a news story, you’ll be asking yourself “what if”.

Knight & Day

A name can mean a lot. You expect a Jasper to be the CEO of a company. Name your son Phineas, well, he might get beat up a lot. However if you chose to call your daughter Trubleh (True blay), you get what you ask for.

Trubleh Lawrence makes a habit out of discovering dead bodies. When the police look to her as a suspect, she has no choice but to search for the killer. If that’s not bad enough, she has to deal with a grandmother who has visions, a co-worker who makes the Wicked Witch of the West look like Shirley Temple, and a guy who constantly reminds her that celibacy is hard when a hot male's around.

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FASHION WITH TESSA - GUEST AUTHOR TRISS STEIN

Triss Stein’s first job, as a librarian in a dozen sharply different Brooklyn communities, inspired this new series about neighborhoods and history.  Her small-town youth and urban adult years give her the perfect insider/outsider perspective. But wait! Isn’t today supposed to be a fashion post? Well, keep reading to learn what writing a murder mystery has to do with sewing. Learn more about Triss at her website. -- AP

I am not a crafty person. I’ve kindly been invited by Anastasia (so to speak) to visit her blog anyway, but in fact, I am perhaps a black hole for craft ability.   My admiration for people who have those clever hands plus a good eye is endless.

I used to sew, and could make real clothes, but  looking back, I don’t think I was very good at it.  I realize now I was too impatient to take care of the little details along the way that add up to a professional looking garment. Plus, I don’t think I had the designer’s  eye. Sometimes the combination of fabric  and style really worked. (I have fond memories of a ribbed cotton orange and yellow caftan with black braid. Well, what can I say? It was the 60’s) A lot of times my work came out a little …odd. 

I never uncovered a hidden flair for drawing or painting or pottery or quilting.  I just don’t have those clever hands. In fact, I am not even a very good typist.

It’s pretty pathetic. My mother knitted, and my dad could build or fix anything. He spent World War II fixing airplanes!  Three of my four grandparents had worked in the garment industry and could sew with expertise, no pattern needed.

What I do now is go to craft fairs for a fun weekend outing. I admire other people’s work, buy distinctive  gifts for weddings, anniversaries and new babies and sometimes jewelry for myself. I am a sucker for beautiful textiles – that’s the sewing background, perhaps – and have a large collection of scarves.  Oh, yes, and we are running out of shelf space for the hand made pottery.

But wait.  I AM a craft person, because I write.  My materials are my words instead of that hand-painted silk.  My tools are my ideas, my imagination, my research. Also my word processing program.  I am old enough to remember when cut and paste meant getting out the scissors and Elmer’s. Typing skills or not, word processing is a miracle.

I do a lot of rewriting  and for me, it often feels like carpentry or furniture building. I find the story by writing it, and there’s never much of a blueprint. It’s more like a sketch on a napkin. The process is similar to building a house by starting with the bathroom tiles and the curtains. Then, I have to go back and pour that foundation, get the framework up, make sure the wiring connects.  In the mystery game, we call it creating complex characters, building suspense, planting false leads, using subplots to misdirect the reader.

And all the time, I am putting to work the lessons I ignored when I learned to sew.  Baste first. Press the seams open as I go. Measure the hem length all around. Reinforce the collars and cuffs.  Only I do it with words instead of fabric and my hands are on the keyboard instead of the cutting table and the sewing machine.

In Brooklyn Bones, a crime of the past comes much too close to home. Helping with renovation, Erica Donato’s teen-age daughter Chris finds a skeleton behind a wall in their crumbling Park Slope home. Erica – young widow, over-age history Ph.D candidate, mother of a teen, product of blue-collar Brooklyn – and Chris are both drawn into the mystery when they learn this was an unknown teen-age girl, hidden there within living memory. It’s dangerous research; there are people who know the whole story and will stop at nothing to make sure it stays buried forever. 

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HEALTHY LIVING WITH JANICE - GUEST AUTHOR PATRICE WILTON

Romance author Patrice Wilton is part of an exciting new venture with Amazon Montlake as one of their first debut authors in a new program. A Hero Lies Within, the first book in her Returning War Hero series, will be one of the first books to be released as a “serial” Kindle book. Amazon describes this program as, “Kindle Serials are stories published in episodes, with future episodes delivered at no additional cost.” For Patrice’s book, there are a total of seven episodes with new episodes delivered every two weeks. In May the book will be available in every format, and the second of her books, Handle With Care, will start the next serial.

Today Patrice is here to tell us about programs that help returning veterans. Learn more about Patrice and her books at her website. -- AP

It was during my research for A Hero Lies Within, that I realized someone had beaten Jake Harrington, the hero of my story, in providing help for our homeless veterans by a good twenty years.

The Faith, Hope, Love, Charity organization, and the Stand Down House, started by Roy Foster, opened their doors in May 2000. The multi-tiered program provides emergency/transitional housing and supportive services for veterans struggling with addictions, mental illness, PTSD, traumatic brain injuries and physical limitations.

For more than twenty years, Roy Foster, once a homeless vet himself, has roamed the woods at night, and made it his mission to get every homeless vet off the street and ensure that no man is left behind.

Since the inception of this program, more than 2000 veterans have received support and regained their lives.

Here are some startling facts from the Center for American Progress and the Stand Down House websites:

1.    One third of the homeless in American are veterans.

2.    Between 500,000 to 800,000 veterans will be homeless for some time during the year, and 100,000 to 300,000 live in shelters or on the street, on any given night.

3.    968,000 veterans are living in poverty.

4.    1.2 million took advantage of mental health services in recent years.

5.    45% of our homeless vets suffer from PTSD

6.    One in ten of the homeless veterans are disabled due to injuries sustained at war.

7.    The number is increasing – more than 20,000 wounded during the Iraq and Afghanistan war.

8.    2 million Americans fought for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, many have repeated deployments, and the average age is 35 on their return.

9.    Unemployment for veterans aged 18-24 was 33% compared to 15% for non vets of the same age.

10.  The new generation of vets are suffering from PTSD and TBI-traumatic brain  injury- which is making it harder for them to readjust to society.

I was humbled during my research to discover this information, and I have the utmost respect for every man and woman in uniform that fought for our freedom so that we, as Americans, can continue to live as we do in this great country of ours. 

For more information, please visit: www.Standown.org.

A Hero Lies Within

Old secrets linger and two reunited lovers are faced with more deception and mistrust. Can their love survive a second time around?

Tara Winslow is a Palm Beach news reporter, fighting not only to keep her job, but take over the nightly anchor spot. Her boss has axed her special runaway series, and wants “feel good stories”. She has only two weeks to come up with something big, or the special series will be taken over by the new anchorman who seems determined to ruin her career.

Jake Harrington has returned from two tours in Iraq, and this wounded warrior is searching only for peace. Instead, he runs into Tara Winslow, the girl he once loved and wronged, through no fault of his own. Refusing his friendship, she agrees to help him search for a family friend who has gone missing since his return from Iraq. In return Tara requests upbeat, happy-ending stories about the everyday heroes he served with, the men and women who never received recognition but went above and beyond the call of duty. His memory is sketchy at best, and the only stories he remembers are the ones she doesn’t want to hear.

Jake Harrington left her once when her life was falling apart, and now he’s back, and so are all the emotions she fought hard to expel. Can she forget his bitter betrayal, and will he forgive hers when to save her career she must betray his trust?

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COOKING WITH CLORIS - TRADITIONAL IRISH SODA BREAD

Photo by Heather Kennedy

You don't have to be Irish to enjoy this staple of St. Patrick's Day.

Traditional Irish Soda Bread

(makes 1 loaf)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 -1 1/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk together dry dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Add buttermilk and knead mixture into a ball. Add a tablespoon or two more buttermilk if necessary. You want the dough moist but not so sticky.

Shape the dough into a round loaf on the baking sheet. Using a sharp knife, cut a large X into the top of the loaf.  

Bake for 45 minutes or until the loaf turns a dark golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before slicing.