Back to School Deals: The Mall Fairies series! (Why you should go direct to publishers)

 Get The Mall Fairies: Exile and my other Mall Fairies titles for 30% off through September 30th!

Here's one reason why I'm a hybrid author. My publisher, Muse It Up Publishing, is having a great Back to School Deal. What did I have to do? Write my Mall Fairies series as well as I could.

And The Mall Fairies: Exile, The Mall Fairies: War and the stand alone short story, A foodie Fairy's First Foray are not the only Middle Grade, Tween and YA reads you'll find for sale, there's lots more (and having read several, I can say these are often great reads for adults too!). 

The reason to go direct to publishers? Two reasons are here: you get an additional 30% off the eBook already discounted sale price and the authors get a bigger royalty percentage of the sales  (as the publisher doesn't have to pay vendors).

Here's the directions and links (or just click on my titles). Enjoy!

The Mall Fairies: Exile by Conda V. Douglas

Save 30% this month during our BACK TO SCHOOL Event

Use discount code MUSEITYOUNG2015 in your Muse cart, save, then finalize the order.

Perfect time to stock up your child’s eReader for the holiday season or begin your pre-holiday shopping before the hustle and bustle begins.

Special exclusive at MuseItUp Publishing $2.99 plus an additional 30% off with code
MUSEITYOUNG2015 until end of September

http://bit.ly/TheMallFairiesExile

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?

Leftovers? An Easy, Money Saving, Healthy Recipe, Plus a Cookbook Free Today!

Slumgullion is one featured recipe in Starke Deadly Delicious Recipes, FREE today!

 Don't know what to do with all those lovely leftovers? Slumguillion to the rescue! 

My of-Scots-descent mom always made slumgullion for Sunday Dinner because it was always different and always delicious. What is slumgullion, you ask? Simple: mixed up leftovers. Not so simple, because if you mix up the wrong leftovers you get ... cooked garbage. Aunt Maddie does this when she makes this dish in my Starke Dead mystery series. But if you follow a few simple rules, slumgullion will become a Sunday Dinner staple in your home too!

RULES:

Think of like with like and ingredients you'd use together in dishes. In the example pictured above, I took leftover chili (steak, chili sauce, tomatoes), leftover Mexican casserole (hamburger, corn, chilis and carrots) and leftover pasta and combined. Yum!

If you have a lot of one leftover and a little of another, and not quite enough to make a meal consider another item that would combine well with your ingredients. I might add beans or some spaghetti squash to the recipe above. Or add a side dish too, a salad, perhaps.

Avoid mixing too strong of flavors, sweets and sours, for example. If Aunt Maddie was making the recipe above, she'd add apple pie! Okay, an extreme example, but Aunt Maddie is pretty extreme herself. Also avoid too many different added spices. Both these mistakes will make the food taste strange and murky.

If you have "simple" leftovers, such as cooked vegetables and chicken, consider which spices to use and try different ones for a "refreshed" dish. (I might use coriander, thyme and pepper for the vegetables and chicken, for example.)

Avoid mixing tomatoes, vinegar or lemon juice with peas, green beans and/or broccoli as the green vegetables will turn brown and bitter.

One last trick: You can always pour gravy over everything, yum! My favorite gravy recipe follows this recipe in Starke Deadly Delicious Recipes.

Sirens on Death Starke Blvd, another money saver with five authors and four books!

And my mom would be cross if I didn't mention another great deal, the first novel in my Starke Dead series, Starke Naked Dead, is in a book bundle right now! Sirens on Death Starke Blvd has five authors and four books for $1.99, for a limited time. So if you enjoy the free today Starke Deadly Delicious Recipes, head on over to get this bundle and read more of Dora Starke and her ongoing problems, one of which is named Aunt Maddie!

So dear readers, got any leftover recipes for us?

 

A-bundling we go! A great deal! Four Mysteries for $1.99!

Sirens on Death Starke Blvd is out! Available everywhere! Tons of great reading!

Released today! I've found that bundling eBooks is a great way for readers to find new authors and for authors to find new readers. I often buy these myself, lots of reading for cheap! What could be better? I love this new publishing world. Here's one that includes my award winning mystery, Starke Naked Dead, plus three other five star mysteries. 

In Starke Naked Dead, the gossiping women of the Widows Brigade in the new ski resort of Starke, Idaho love a good scandal—this time it’s a murder mystery, and a stark naked corpse! One reviewer said, "Funny small town murder mystery, that will have you trying to figure out who did what!"

In Death Scene by Sara Jayne Townsend, British-born, Toronto-based, actress Shara Summers turns amateur sleuth when her sister is stricken with a mysterious illness. One reviewer said, "Looking for a genuine character in real circumstances with a puzzle to unravel, read Death Scene."

In Sunshine Boulevard by JQ Rose, who or what is killing the seniors on Sunshine Boulevard? One reviewer said, "Baby Boomers are coming into their own as Snowbirds. J.Q. Rose brings them into the realm of Crafty, Amateur Detectives with LOTS of time on their hands to devote to this new passion...solving murders."

In The Sound of Sirens by Heather Fraser Brainerd and David Fraser, having narrowly survived an encounter with murderous black magic, private investigator Josie P. Cates has settled into the humdrum life of her new profession. But she now faces a challenge far more terrifying: spending a week with her mother.One reviewer said, "The Sound of Sirens (José Picada, P.I. Book 2) by Heather Fraser Brainerd and David Fraser is a marvelously entertaining read for people of all ages."

Dear readers, do you buy bundles? If you do or don't, why?

For more on the authors, visit their blogs here:

J.Q. Rose-http://www.jqrose.com

Fraser and Brainerd-http://drivingblindproductions.wordpress.com/

Sara-Jayne Townsend-​http://sayssara.wordpress.com/

Free eBooks, free audio books, No eReader? No Problem!

The new edition with added bonus recipes and FREE today!

It has come to my attention that in this time of eBook prominence, there are a lot of people who still believe they can't participate in the wonderful world of FREE and cheap eBook promotions, including audio books, because they don't have an eReader. But these people usually have computers, cell phones and/or tablets and laptops (I know this because they complain to me that they can't get my books when they are free) and they can get all this and more! (EBooks are also usually cheaper to buy than print, just saying.)

Here's the secret: Download the apps to whichever device (or devices) to getting all sorts of great reads, for example go to Amazon and search for Kindle app (if they haven't already asked you if you'd like the Kindle app!) and Amazon will take you through the download step by easy step. Same for Barnes and Noble and Smashwords. They want it to be EASY to buy eBooks!

I've downloaded oodles of great stuff to my cell phone. I've got great reading wherever I go! AND when I'm doing a recipe from my cookbook I just set the screen to be on for the maximum time. It works great!

AND: if you visit The Cellophane Queen today and comment you'll be entered to win a copy of either The Mall Fairies: Exile or The Mall Fairies: War, the first and second in my Mall Fairies trilogy!

Cheap easy delicious Sunday dinner recipe!

Sunday Dinner Slumgullion, YUM!

My of-Scots-descent mom always made slumgullion for Sunday Dinner because it was always different and always delicious. What is slumgullion, you ask? Simple: mixed up leftovers. Not so simple, because if you mix up the wrong leftovers you get ... cooked garbage. Aunt Maddie does this when she makes this dish in my Starke Dead mystery series. But if you follow a few simple rules, slumgullion will become a Sunday dinner staple in your home too!

Rules:

Think of like with like and ingredients you'd use together in dishes. In the example pictured above, I took leftover chili (steak, chili sauce, tomatoes), leftover Mexican casserole (hamburger, corn, chilis and carrots) and leftover pasta and combined. Yum!

If you have a lot of one leftover and a little of another, and not quite enough to make a meal consider another item that would combine well with your ingredients. I might add beans or some spaghetti squash to the recipe above. Or add a side dish too, a salad perhaps.

Avoid mixing too strong of flavors, sweets and sours, for example. If Aunt Maddie was making the recipe above, she'd add apple pie! Okay, an extreme example, but Aunt Maddie is pretty extreme herself. Also avoid too many different added spices. Both these mistakes will make the food taste strange and murky.

If you have "simple" leftovers, such as cooked vegetables and chicken, consider which spices to use and try different ones for a "refreshed" dish. (I might use coriander, thyme and pepper for the vegetables and chicken, for example.)

Avoid mixing tomatoes,vinegar or lemon juice with peas, green beans and/or broccoli as the green vegetables will turn brown and bitter.

That's it! Otherwise, let your creativity reign!

Do any of my readers have suggestions or stories, good or bad, of slumgullion recipes?

Easy Cheap Delicious Mustard Salad Dressing Recipe

Takes five minutes to make and oh, so good!

In honor of my having sold the first in my Starke Dead mystery series, Starke Naked Dead, to my publisher Muse It Up, here's a healthy and fast dressing recipe that's chockablock full of cancer fighting antioxidants! Why? Because I need fast, healthy food so I can work on the next in the series, Starke Raving Dead!

MUSTARD SALAD DRESSING

Basic recipe:

Ingredients:

1/3 cup vinegar (apple cider, coconut vinegar or rice vinegar work well)

1/3 cup oil (olive oil works best, but grape seed, canola oil or walnut oil also work)

1/3 cup mustard (Dijon works best, but any mustard will do)

1/3 cup water

Mix all the ingredients together in a jar and you're done! Easiest way to mix is to shake the jar.

Variations:

Add complementary spices:

1 teaspoon of curry spice makes a tasty curry mustard dressing

Coriander, cumin and/or pepper

1 to 2 tablespoons of nutritious (brewer's) yeast will make this dressing creamier

Substitute mayo for the oil

Substitute dill pickle juice for the vinegar

Add a splash of lemon or lime

For a thicker "creamy" dressing, process 1/3 cup of cooked or canned beans of your choice in a food processor until smooth and then add the ingredients in the basic recipe.

This keeps well up to two weeks in the fridge, although in my house it never stays that long!

Try your own variations as this is a forgiving recipe. Share your variations!