The Wild Rose Press Summer Blog Hop 2016 - Sneak Peek of "Four White Roses"

A sneak peek at "Four White Roses," my new 
contemporary romantic mystery coming soon:

Leave a quick comment and your email in the comment box below
to win a gifted digital copy of "Four White Roses" 
upon publication later this year.
Be sure to sign up for the Rafflecopter to win a free Kindle Fire!

Short Blurb:

When Dallas lawyer Rich Redman returns to Pennsylvania with his young daughter to sell his deceased grandmother’s house, he discovers his grandmother's last wish was for him to find a missing half-sister and a stash of WWI rubies.

Torrie Larson, landscape owner and single mom, is trying to save the lineage of a rare white rose brought from Austria by Rich’s great grandmother.

Together they team up to try to locate the jewels and sister. But will they find love? Or will a meddling ghost, a pompous banker, and an elusive stray cat get in their way?


Excerpt:

 Rich Redman looked toward the porch in the dying light and sighed. “I don’t know what to do with this monstrosity of a house. No one seems interested in buying it. No one wants to live in it. It’s like a giant worthless gift from my grandmother. Maintenance costs exceed its usefulness. The heating bill is enormous. I have to pay to get the grass mowed in the summer and the snow shoveled from the walks and driveway in the winter.” He shrugged his shoulders in resignation and gazed down the street where the street lights had come on and their globes looked like Japanese lanterns floating in the air. His gaze found hers again. His expression was miserable and grim.

Torrie Larson tipped her ball cap up and gave a cursory glance at the house. She pursed her lips and fell silent. Should she tell him the truth? Or should she wait until he and his daughter were settled in? The knowledge twisted and turned inside her. As much as she was someone who hated rumors, she hated lies even more. There were enough of both of them flying around town…and some of them were about her. What to do? Finally, she flung her hands up in despair.

“Of course no one wants to buy it, Richard Lee,” she uttered with unmistakable candor. “I have it through reliable sources your grandmother’s house is haunted.”

 

                Check out all the fabulous writers and their blogs
                          in the SUMMER BLOG HOP below!

1.

Sorchias Wild Rose Summer Treats Post | Visit blog

2. RV Memory | Visit blog

3. Tricia Schneider | Visit blog

4. Anna Durands Spunk & Hunks | Visit blog

5. Judy Ann Davis Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop | Visit blog

6. Spicy Summer Treats with Mia Downing | Visit blog

7. Linda Nightingale. . . Wordsmith | Visit blog

8. Jana Richards - Journeys with Jana | Visit blog

9. Summer Memories of books well read @ Peggy jaeger. com | Visit blog

10. Summer on Cape Cod ~ Kathryn Knight books | Visit blog

11. Summer Fun at the Beach, with Katie OSullivan | Visit blog

12. I Believe Ill Go Canoeing - C. B. Clark | Visit blog

13. Summertime Love is Sweeter with. . . Frozen Mango? @ Kimberly Keyes blog | Visit blog

14. Wild Rose Summer Treats Blog Hop @ Brendas Blog | Visit blog

15. Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop | Visit blog

16. Midsummer Magic on the Isle of Skye! | Visit blog

17. My Guilty Summer Treats from Lori Sizemore | Visit blog

18. Wild Rose Press Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop | Visit blog

19. Hywela Lyns post for the WRP Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop | Visit blog

20. Wild Rose Press Summer Treats & Reads | Visit blog

21. Camping is a Recipe for Summer Treats and Reads | Visit blog

22. The Snarkology | Visit blog

23. Summer Survival Tips @ Nitty Gritty Romance | Visit blog

24. Wild Rose Press Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop | Visit blog

25. Nell Castle - Summer of the Sweat Lodge | Visit blog

26. Myth, Magic & Wonder Susan Edwards, Breathing Life into the Past | Visit blog

27. Romance with Spice, Sydney St. Claire | Visit blog

28. Author Kat de Falla | Visit blog

29. Anni Fife. Exciting new author of Steamy Romance with Irresistible Heroes | Visit blog

30. Summer Vacation, Victorian-Style, AND a Giveaway | Visit blog

31. Wildfires, Monsoons, and Mojitos - Author Susabelle Kelmer shares how she keeps cool in a climate that is on fire! | Visit blog

32. Casi McLeans recipe for Hot Reads and Cool Treats | Visit blog

33. Cool Summer Reads: Jeannie Halls Romantic Suspense Blog - Where Hearts Tremble From More Than Attraction | Visit blog

34. Summer treat - Adult Slushie | Visit blog

35. How to Rediscover the Magic of Bicycling | Visit blog

36. Charlottes Tips on How to Stay Cool in HOT New York City | Visit blog

37. Caryn McGill | Visit blog

38. Hywela Lyns Inrerplanetary Summer | Visit blog

 
A Rafflecopter giveaway

BON APPETITE - A Weekend Treat: Chili with Italian Sausage

             I admit, I'm a fan of chili year 'round. 

This recipe gets its spicy flavor from the Italian sausage.

                CHILI with Okra, Mushrooms and Italian Sausage

Three links Italian hot sausage, casings removed

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
½ cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 Portobello mushrooms, stemmed and chopped
2 cups frozen corn or two cups canned corn

1 cup frozen okra (optional)

2 - 14 -ounce cans pinto beans or kidney beans
1 - 14 -ounce can diced tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream for topping (optional)


Directions:

Fry the hot Italian sausage, breaking it into small chunks and drain.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add chopped onion. Stir in the garlic, chili powder and cumin and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms stirring occasionally, until just tender, about 3 more minutes. Add the sausage, beans, corn, okra, tomatoes, 1 1/2 cups water and 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then stir and reduce the heat to medium. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and the chili is thick, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Top with the cheese and sour cream.  Serve with the tortillas if desired.

Lazy Summer Days of July

 I love when July marches in announcing "summer is at its best" with the clean scents of grass, new mowed hay, and fragrant breezes stirring the pines and cedar. The colors of the July flowers are brighter in the sunlight and smell even sweeter after a soft rain. The land is alive with the chirping of birds, the cry of the crows and blackbirds, and the rustle of the squirrels and chipmunks searching for seeds and food.  And oh, what fun it is to taste the first wild strawberries along the roadways or watch children pick daisies while they chant: he loves me, he loves me not!

 

"Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world."  -- Ada Louise Huxtable

WHAT IS SO RARE AS A DAY IN JUNE?

And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days. . . 
     --From: The Vision of Sir Launfal by James Russell Lowell

Like a swindler playing shell games, May’s unstable weather finally allowed summer to emerge from beneath its ever changing days and nights of warm to chilly and rainy to clear. The sun climbed higher, chasing the cold from the winds. For those who wait all year to enjoy summers in Pennsylvania, June’s arrival heralds a kaleidoscope of exquisite scents, sounds and scenes.

There is nothing more uplifting than the first smell of clover-scented grass, the delicate fragrance of wild roses, or the aroma of rain-soaked earth mingled with new green foliage. Old, gray weathered barns, tucked among the distant hills, have overflowing mows of sun-kissed, sweet-smelling hay.

If you listen closely, you can hear the rustling of the pines, the singing of a meadowlark or catbird, and the humming of busy bees. In the evening, when summer breezes drift though open windows, they carry the lowing of cattle in distant fields, or the cicadas and crickets conversing on the lawns and in the bushes. Tree frogs and bullfrogs chatter and croak, and far off, a loon or coyote calls in a lonesome voice.

Along the roadways, blackberry bushes bow down with frilly white blossoms that will bear black, sweet, ripe fruit in July. High above, billowy white clouds skip across a sky of robin’s egg blue. In the tall grass, wild strawberries elbow for room with buttercups, daisies, and blue chicory. Mornings bring hummingbirds to perform midair pirouettes among the flowers, and when the sun has gone to rest, bats soar over the treetops and fireflies twinkle as they play a game of light tag.

June is a month when nature’s at its best and the scents, sounds, and sights of summer make us glad we are alive. Oh, “what is so rare as a day in June?”

Springtime in Reverse

“Children hold spring so tightly in their brown fists—

just as grownups, who are less sure of it, 

hold it in their hearts.”
—E. B. White

It’s finicky May when everyone is thinking of sunshine, spring, sowing seeds, and watching things grow. Despite the persnickety weather which plays hide and seek, revealing itself with a rainy, cold, or warm countenance, May is one of my favorite times of the year as the earth bursts forth with its many colors of green.

Traveling north from Texas to Pennsylvania over the last few days, I was able to see spring in reverse through the car’s windows as we flew by the rural countryside of seven states.

When we departed from Texas, the landscape was dressed in lush dark green colors. Mature leaves on the trees fluttered in the breeze. Roses bloomed, emitting sweet, fragrant scents, and verdant lawns gave off the old familiar smell of newly mown grass. The state is approaching early summer with temperatures soaring as the days fly by.

Oklahoma, “where the wind comes sweeping down the plains,” boasted meadows with Herefords and Angus grazing knee-high in the

spring grass. While In Missouri and Illinois—where miles of fields line the highways—crops are just starting to push their tiny heads through the rich soil.

In Indiana and Ohio, farmers on disc harrows kicked up dust as they tilled the earth in readiness for planting, still leery, still on the lookout for ol’ Jack Frost.

As we finally crossed Pennsylvania, we saw a whole palette of green shades—from the early lime green of new growth on the bushes, birch, and willow trees along Route 80 to the rich, dark emerald of fully emerged leaves on maples and fruit trees.

And somewhere deep inside of me, as I watched springtime arrive backwards, the farmer in me begged to be set free. I’m itching to check out the lawn and garden centers, nab a few favorite annual flowers, maybe a few tomato plants, and play in the sunshine and soil for a few hours.

Yes, it's finicky May!

KEY TO LOVE - $0.99 Sale Ends Friday the Thirteenth

Amazon Buy Link

Excerpt:

    

 

 “You still haven’t told me about your nephew,
Todd.”
      The luster in Lucas’s face faded. “There’s not
much to tell. He lost his mother and father and has been
tossed into foster care with the Johnsons. I’m trying to
get temporary custody, but I’m not hopeful anything
can be done until the investigation of Mike’s death is
completed. I guess it’s standard procedure when a cop
gets killed. I’ve been lucky enough the Johnsons let me
have him on weekends.”
     “Is that allowed?” Elise opened the bread drawer
and withdrew a half loaf of bread.
      Lucas rose and walked to where she was working.
“Well, it’s bending rules a little, but they trust your
father, and the Johnsons need a break. In case you
haven’t noticed, they’re elderly, not in shape for
chasing a child Todd’s age.”
      He slapped a palm against the refrigerator. “Damn
it, Liz, it’s not fair. The kid is the one being punished,
taking the brunt of things he had no part of. He’s so
lonely he cries himself to sleep at night. He doesn’t
understand what’s happening. He doesn’t even know
where he belongs.”
     “So we spring him.”
     “It’s not that easy!”
      “Of course, it’s not going to be easy.” Elise forced
herself not to shout back, “but that doesn’t mean it’s
impossible, Lucas. Sit down, will you? I’m cooking this
morning.” She waved the half loaf of bread at him, then
withdrew four slices and dropped them into the toaster
slots.
      He blinked. “Toast? You call that cooking?”

Mother's Day: Thinking of Our Mothers

                                                 Buy Now  -   KEY TO LOVE

                                      
                       Your Mother Is Always With You...

Your mother is always with you...
She's the whisper of the leaves
as you walk down the street.
She's the smell of bleach
in your freshly laundered socks.
She's the cool hand on your brow
when you're not well.
Your mother lives inside your laughter.
She's crystallized in every tear drop.
She's the place you came from,
your first home...
She's the map you follow
with every step that you take.
She's your first love
and your first heart break...
and nothing on earth can separate you.
Not time, Not space...
Not even death...
will ever separate you
from your mother...
You carry her inside of you... 

                  --Deborah R. Culver
                        

Now $0.99 ~ KEY TO LOVE

                                                             KEY TO LOVE

A romantic suspense with lots of comedy!

                                   

When architect Elise Springer's father is injured, she immediately leaves San Francisco to care for him. The last person she expects to encounter in her Pennsylvania hometown is her childhood friend Lucas Fisher. Lucas is investigating his brother's mysterious death, and Elise can't resist lending a hand.

Lucas longs for the close family ties he never had. He's back in Scranton to set up a classic car restoration business and build a future. The torch he carries for Elise burns brighter than ever, but before he can declare his love, he must obtain the legal rights to adopt his nephew--and prove his brother's death was no accident.

As they unearth clues to find the murderer and a missing stash of money, Elise faces a dilemma. Is her career on the West Coast the key to her happiness, or is it an animal-cracker-eating four-year-old and his handsome uncle?

BUY IT NOW:  AMAZON

Spring is a Benchmark

Spring is a benchmark. It's a new beginning when the earth is fresh and clean and new. Outside, windflowers are in bloom and the grass is a blinding green for a warm Pennsylvania April. The trees are bursting with red buds. Tulips, daffodils, crocus, and grape hyacinths are profusely blooming in a palette of colors in the flowerbeds which have shed the last of their mushy snow.
Onion sets have been tucked into the soil in the garden.

Each morning, fussy wrens sit in the front maple chattering as they fight for the two birdhouses we hung in the front of our house while robins bob, bob, bob on the lawn below digging for insects and worms. Even the doves have returned and coo up on the rooftop.

Under our carport, a couple of chickadee squatters work diligently to build a nest in a birdhouse placed there. They scold anyone who tries to get close to their home, then arrogantly sit in a nearby buckthorn and reprimand us again when the nearby bird feeder is depleted of sunflower seeds.  

Inside, seed catalogs are piled high on the table. All the windows in the house have been thrown open, allowing the scent of loamy soil and new mowed grass to perfume the air. After weeks of winter chill, it’s not hard to welcome spring.

Productivity Is Not a Synonym for Happiness

Everyone has stress. Stress is a response to challenges in life. And let's face it, a life without challenges would be dreary and boring.

If you’re a writer, stress manifests itself when you write and when you don’t. If the writing flows, we say we’re in the zone. When it stops, we agonize over how to kick-start ourselves. When we end a piece, we fuss over the editing process. And when we’re finally finished with it, we ponder whether our creation is worthy enough, then lapse into the insecurity of “what will we write next”?

I’ve decided, after a half-dozen books, there is no happy medium to getting the right balance in life that will relieve a writer’s stress level. But there are small things to ease our anxieties.

We all know we have to eat healthy and exercise, but there are other things to consider. One is to stay as organized as possible, and simplify routines, commitments, and clutter. A messy desk doesn’t cause us stress. Not finding the papers we need which are buried in a chaotic heap on our desks causes us to stress.

We also need to let go of multi-tasking and slow down. We’re in a society that says we can do it all. We want to write, but not upset our family’s routine or our commitments to others, so we rush, rush, rush. Maybe it’s time to go back to the single task philosophy our parents used. Maybe it’s time to streamline our time and eliminate unnecessary commitments. Instead of the mental “to do” list which stretches for miles in our mind, it’s time to write down a realistic “to do” list and only put down five essential tasks we want to complete in a given time.

And lastly, here is my favorite de-stressor idea. I’m giving myself permission to have free time for myself—whether it’s to do a hobby, read, travel, or just take time off from writing without guilt. Life doesn’t have to be about always accomplishing things—always placing the next word on the page. After all, productivity has never been a synonym for happiness.  

FOUR WHITE ROSES - Needs Help with Kindle Scout Program

My new book, FOUR  WHITE ROSES, which is a romance and mystery, was recently selected by Amazon Kindle Scout to be featured for thirty days on their site where readers can nominate it to be chosen to be digitally published and marketed by Amazon. I need your help with the voting process. By the way, the cover was designed by local graphic artist, Kerry Hynds of Hynds Studio - Book Cover Designs!

 

If you have an amazon account, could you please go to this link and hit the blue nominate button? (Lower right hand corner)  And if you have a moment, please send the link out to any friend you have who may be a reader or who may help me. Many thanks!

 

Link:   https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/9TDETVSOWL7B   

 

Why I Like Golf

There's a lot to be said for golf. It's a mental game as well as a physical one. Many people consider it a difficult game to play since it requires focus and form. I have to admit that there are many times when I feel like listing my clubs on eBay and walking away. So why do I continue to play?

Golf is one of the few games that you can play throughout your entire lifetime—from an early age through retirement years. It is a place where you can go to get exercise and appreciate the outdoors, where you can meet new people, and where you can play a quick nine-hole round by yourself or with your spouse, significant other or friend.
                                                                  

Most golfers will unanimously agree that golf courses are some of the most charming and appealing places on this earth. They are environmentally friendly, well-groomed, and landscaped. They encourage many species of birds such as ducks, herons, and cranes with their bodies of water; and many position birdhouses among the flora to entice bluebirds, catbirds, and wrens, to name a few, to nest.

You will find the most beautiful flowers, plants, and trees as well as other wildlife on golf courses. Even though I’m convinced trees have been planted to tease the golfer who slams a drive and bounces their errant ball off a pine or palm, I’m aware they are an integral part of beautifying the course and offering much-needed shade. I have seen raccoons, bald eagles, snakes, squirrels, and turtles on the courses I’ve played.

Golf courses are all over our fifty states, all over the world. I’ve only been playing for about ten years, but each time I play, I find it exciting to stand on the tee, feel the sunshine on my face, listen to the lyrics of the birds, and breathe in the clean air.

And, I also know if I don’t keep score, I can have two fun-filled hours in our great outdoors.