Christmas Romance Audio Novella Giveaway! Free! While supplies last!

Some of this year's Christmas Decorations

To get you off in a festive mood, here's a gift to get you into the holiday spirit. While supplies last you can have a code for an audio book download of A Crispy Rice Christmas FREE.

Fun, clean Christmas romance! A Crispy Rice Christmas!

This will be a download from Audible, the audio book arm of Amazon. You will have to go onto Audible.com and sign in (no membership required) to redeem. Yes, they'll send you a few emails asking you to become a member, those can be ignored. And yes, I would love an honest review IF you have time! But mostly I really loved writing this story and want to share the Christmas joy!

So COMMENT (with your email written out as in: name dot yahoo dot com and I won't publish your comment either) for your free audio book!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Christmas romance short story on sale until December 13th! And a recipe!

On Sale for only 99 cents until 12/13/15 from Muse It Up Publishing!

Yes, it's that time of the year, Christmas reads! My novelette Christmas romance A Crispy Rice Christmas is on sale until the 13th! It tells the tale of a gal whose culinary skills are worse than lacking...

And for more Christmas great reads all on sale visit Muse It Up Publishing! Romance, mystery and more!

Now for the easy childhood recipe we all remember.  This recipe was the inspiration for A Crispy Rice Christmas, because one Christmas I decided to use red food coloring and here were the results.

No one would touch them. And a recipe my main character...well read the story to find out!

Crispy Rice Bars

4 tablespoons margarine, butter or coconut oil

6 cups crispy rice cereal

1 16 ounce bag of marshmallows (fresh mini marshmallows work best)

In a large saucepan, heat the butter on medium heat until it melts. Add marshmallows and stir constantly until marshmallows all melt. Remove from heat. Add crispy rice cereal and stir well. Using a greased spatula, spread mixture in a buttered 15 X 10 inch pan. Cut into bars when cooled.

Okay, now for the variations:
Add vanilla or rum or orange or lemon extract, a teaspoon or two.
Add a cup of nuts, or raisins or any dried fruit, or a cup of chocolate bits (or a third a cup of each!).

Add any spices you like, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, cardamon.
Add 1/3 cup of cocoa.
Or be daring and trying a bit of pepper and hot sauce to the cocoa! Strange but good if you like it weird and spicy!

Readers do you have any tales of Christmas cookery disasters to share?

 

Wedding Horror Stories and a Bridesmaid Short Story on sale!

My honey Bruce and I at our niece's ceremony, fun, but a little damp!

June, the month of brides and weddings, just ended. Whew. We attended my niece's ceremony in a tiny town outside of Austin. A delightful time, although my niece worried because of what happened while the minister was giving the vows. We were out in a large tent and an enormous thunderstorm blew through, emphasizing the minister's words with thunderclaps and great rumblings, as if the skies objected. The rain managed to find every single crack and hole in that tent, dousing a number of people, including the groom! Upsetting to the bride until Bruce mentioned that this would be a memorable occasion and a great story.

In honor of all those June wedding disasters, The Bridesmaid Wore Stains is on sale for only 99 cents until July 4th! Get your copy here.

So dear readers, let me know in the comments your tales of weddings past, present and maybe future?

My Bridesmaid Romance Story on SALE, Plus Happy Rocky Road Day with a recipe!

Now on sale for 99 cents for a limited time only! Get my humorous romance, The Bridesmaid Wore Stains, now here!

 My publisher and I, in honor of June brides, has placed The Bridesmaid Wore Stains on sale, in which will Kat's trademark clumsiness condemn her to a bridesmaid's worst nightmare? Enjoy!

But wait, there's more...in honor of today, Rocky Road Day, here's an easy, fast and cheap recipe for Rocky Road Bites, with how to make it dairy, soy and egg free as well. Who knows, the bride of The Bridesmaid Wore Stains may very well have served this at her wedding! She's that kind of gal.

Rocky Road Cups

These Rocky Road Cups are ooey-gooey delicious and for that reason work best in cupcake or muffin papers. Although licking your fingers is not only allowed but encouraged.

Makes six, may be doubled.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk chocolate morsels or dairy and soy free chocolate morsels

1 cup mini marshmallows, check to make sure they are egg, dairy and soy free

1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped with fairly big pieces

Directions:

Place large cupcake papers into a large muffin tin.

In a saucepan, slowly melt chocolate on low heat. Or place in a microwave bowl and melt slowly by microwaving for 30 seconds at a time for about a minute and a half, stirring between times. Do not overcook. If in a saucepan, stir constantly to avoid scorching and burning the chocolate. It will turn grainy and nasty if overcooked. Trust me, I’ve done it.

When melted beat until smooth.

Stir in marshmallows and walnuts or pecans.

Spoon by generous tablespoons into cupcake papers. The Rocky Road mixture will be irregular in shape—that’s part of the fun.

Chill to harden. I leave the cups in the fridge or freezer and take out one by one and let soften for a few minutes before eating. Will last for a week to 10 days, I think, in the fridge and longer in the freezer. I say I think because they never last that long! Sometimes it's difficult to wait until they set up!

And everyone, what are some other holidays you enjoy celebrating?

Happy Thanksgiving with a fun Christmas romance audio book! Recipe too!

My humorous romance short story A Crispy Rice Christmas out in audio and eBook.

Now that it's Thanksgiving, "It's beginning to feel..." and to get everyone in the spirit, here's some fun stuff.

First, a gift with a small request attached. My humorous romance short story, A Crispy Rice Christmas, is, ahem, a Christmas story and in need of a few more reviews for the season. If you would be willing to give an honest review of my story on Amazon or Audible, I will gift the audiobook to you. Please just comment on this post. You may leave your e-mail address as follows: Name (at) email server which is yahoo, or whatever dot com (In other words, obscure your address.)

In A Crispy Rice Christmas, if Beth can't figure out a way to seduce her love's picky appetite, she fears her relationship is toast-burnt. She cooks up a plan only to have it boil over. What's a terrible cook to do? Can Beth brave a winter storm in search of a Christmas dish to save her relationship - or will the holidays be a distasteful disaster? One reviewer said, "You will need to read this funny story to see how she gets herself in and out of trouble. It's the perfect book to curl up on the couch and get in the Christmas spirit!"

Second, in honor of this story about a wretched cook, here's the easy, iconic recipe Beth tries to make in A Crispy Rice Christmas, with a photo of the dish that's turned out being considerably better than Beth's--despite the pink! (I was going for a Christmassy red and failed.)

Rice Crispy Cereal Bars

Basic Recipe:

4 tablespoons margarine or butter or even coconut butter (oil)

6 cups crispy rice cereal (can be the gluten free variety, if needed)

1 16 ounce bag of marshmallows (fresh mini marshmallows work best)

In a large saucepan, heat the butter on medium heat until it melts. Add marshmallows and stir constantly until marshmallows all melt. Remove from heat. Add crispy rice cereal and stir well. Using a greased spatula, spread mixture in a buttered 15 X 10 inch pan. Cut into bars when cooled.

Okay, now for the variations:

Add vanilla or rum or orange or lemon extract, a teaspoon or two to the melted marshmallows and stir well for rum bars or lemon bars—well, you get the idea.
Add a cup of nuts, or raisins or any dried fruit, or a cup of chocolate bits (or a third a cup of each!).

Add any spices you like, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, or cardamom.
Add mini chocolate chips, butterscotch chips or

Add 1/3 cup of cocoa for chocolate bars.

Or be daring and try adding a bit of cayenne pepper and hot sauce to the cocoa! Strange but good if you like it weird and spicy!

The recipe above was the inspiration for A Crispy Rice Christmas. Where do you find your inspiration? 

The cover for the eBook version of A Crispy Rice Christmas.

A Crispy Rice Christmas and a recipe

Here's the cover for my brand new ebook short story, available now here and here and lots of other places soon!

Just in time for Christmas, my short story A Crispy Rice Christmas is released! The tag line: 

If Beth can't figure out a way to seduce her love's picky appetite, she fears her relationship is toast—burnt. She cooks up a plan only to have it boil over. What's a terrible cook to do? Can Beth brave a winter storm in search of a Christmas dish to save her relationship—or will the holidays be a distasteful disaster?

And in honor of the release, here's a Pumpkin Pie Rice Crispy Treat recipe--I just discovered that they come out with different flavors of marshmallows, including pumpkin pie, during the holidays--how cool is that? 

Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispy Bars
 
4 tbsp butter or solid margarine, room temperature
10-oz Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows (1 large bag)
or 10-oz plain marshmallows + 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice mix (or make your own pumpkin spice mix: 1 teas. cinnamon, 1 teas. nutmeg, 1/4 teas. cloves, 1/2 teas. ginger)
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 cups puffed rice cereal 

Combine butter and marshmallows in a large, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 60-90 seconds, until marshmallows have melted. Stir the marshmallow mixture, add the teaspoon of vanilla (adding spices, if using), then add in the cereal. Stir with a large spatula until everything is evenly combined. Or melt the butter in a saucepan and then slowly melt the marshmallows and add the vanilla and spices, if using. Yes, this is the old fashioned way, but it reminds me of doing it as a child.

Spoon/Pour into a 9×13-inch pan and press into an even layer. Let cool completely (if you can wait that long) before cutting into bars. I usually end up cutting and pulling off a couple of pieces long before--and eating them too--good while warm!