An Early Christmas Gift

Before the holiday season gets in full swing, I just wanted to let everyone know that I have a free read available on the Musa Publishing site. It's the prequel to my novel Return. Despite the beautiful Christmas cover, the story actually takes place in the spring, but since it's a free gift in December, it's appropriate.
So download it, read it, and if you want to find out what happens to Evelyn next, consider buying the rest of her and James Winchester's story.

http://musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=17&products_id=700&zenid=2c8ae8f6bd429506951c7f17f389ad2f

Let Them Bake Cake

In my upcoming book, Return, Evelyn Prentiss bakes a chocolate cake. There are a lot of reasons why she does this. The main one is she’s trying to get on the good side of someone she hopes will develop some glass plate negatives she bought at auction. She’s a good baker but has something prove after coming in second in the 4-H competition twenty years before.

While I was writing that scene, all I could think about was how many times I’d made the following classic recipe. I found it in a magazine when I was in high school and it’s always turned out well. Without further ado, Evelyn’s favorite chocolate cake.

Hershey’s Disappearing Cake

1/4 cup butter  

1/4 cup shortening  

2  cups sugar  

1  teaspoon vanilla  

2   eggs  

3/4 cup  cocoa  

1 3/4 cups flour  

3/4 teaspoon baking powder  

3/4 teaspoon baking soda  

1/8 teaspoon salt  

1 3/4 cups milk

 

 

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour 2-9 inch round or 13x9 cake pan. Cream butter and shortening, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Blend in eggs. Combine cocoa, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in bowl and sift to mix well.

 

2.      Add milk and flour mixture alternately to batter. Blend well and pour into pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pans if using round pans. Frost with your favorite frosting.

My suggestion is to bake the cake on September 5, 2013 and share it with your family but save a slice. On September 6, go online and buy my book Return from Musa Publishing and give yourself a double treat of chocolate and romance.

http://www.musapublishing.com/

And Here's the Cover!

Isn't it gorgeous?
Musa Publishing will have it ready for purchase on September 9, 2013. As long I as I get the dedication and acknowledgement written in the next few days...
Here's the back cover blurb;

James Winchester is content with his predictable small town life. He lives alone, helps out at his family farm, and doesn’t miss an ice cream social. His life is so neat and ordered he could use one of his accounting spreadsheets to chart his upcoming years.

Evelyn Prentiss’s world is in chaos. She’s returned to her home town twenty years after leaving and the transition isn’t as smooth as she’d anticipated. Her home needs renovated, her parents are once again too hands-on, and she only has the summer months to settle in before she starts her new teaching job.

In an effort to be a good neighbor, James finds himself stopping by Evelyn’s house more and more to help with her endless to-do list. When a mystery from their past resurfaces and opens old wounds, the two find comfort in each other. And so much more.

Aww, I just love them!
Next blog post will be an excerpt...I think I have that selected already...

Busy Again!

At the beginning of the week I set some goals; continue editing my sci-fi romance, try to track down a local printer for my swag, finish up some promo stuff, plan my story for next month's NaNo.
Silly me to make plans!
Yesterday I received an email from the head editor at Musa  Publishing assigning the editor for my book and now I need to go through the whole manuscript and insert all the Musa house style rules that I can and get it to my editor.  And as I'm doing this I'm also fixing all sorts of little mistakes. Me being the overachiever that I am promised to have this done and turned in by the weekend.  I don't have to wonder at my mental stability, I am well aware that it rests upon the shifting sand of unreality.
Arg, so I now have so much work to do over the next three days and have exactly NO time in my schedule where I am not taking care of my son on my own.  Other than the few hours I have on Saturday to attend my local RWA chapter meeting (hey Central Ohio Fiction Writers!) thanks to my parents coming to babysit. But it would be rude to edit my book while attending a talk on time management.  I'd be a terrible example of taking on way more than a reasonable person should.
But I have to wonder, who finishes editing one book on February 23 and starts editing the next one on March 13?  Of the same year? Oh, right, me, that's who.