Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Sherwood (a Robin Hood time-travel romance)...

Available now at Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E1O1WNO

Some are born to greatness. Others have it thrust upon them. Marian Allanson would prefer to avoid it, period. Emotionally scarred, and haunted by nightly dreams of the mythical Robin Hood, Marian is just limping through life till a mysterious quirk of fate tosses her and twelve-year-old street kid Orlando Konstantinos centuries into the past. Now she's on a full-scale run through medieval Sherwood, threatened by the Sheriff of Nottingham, and discovering there may be truth to the myth, after all. A forest phantom appears out of the shadows to rescue her from death, then disappears again, leaving her to a different danger in the form of a forced marriage to Lord Roland of Hunterdon, a man hot enough to melt a maid's skivvies (despite the fact underwear hasn't been invented yet). To make matters worse, when the old sheriff is murdered, Roland steps into the job with plans to kill Robin Hood, unless Marian can stop him. Or will Roland be the one to die?... With the questions striking deeper than Robin's arrows, and a sudden uncertainty as to who's the villain and who's the hero, "Maid Marian" has much more to worry about than her missing unmentionables. And speaking of missing, where the devil is Orlando?... Before the secrets crack open and the dust clears, an unlikely heroine will rise from her own ashes, a legend will be rewritten, and a love will be forged strong enough to conquer time...


Sunday, December 28, 2014

A New Year's Coin Cake

Coin cakes are traditionally made for New Year’s Eve; and any cake recipe will do, providing a coin is put into the batter before baking (just be sure to alert everyone it’s there, so nobody accidentally swallows it).

The important part of a coin cake is the cutting and serving thereof. The first piece cut is always set aside for the house. The next piece goes to the head of the household. Then the rest of the cake is cut and served according to the ages of the people present, beginning with the eldest and working downward to the youngest. Tradition says that whosoever gets the coin will be prosperous and lucky in the coming year. And if the coin turns out to be in the piece set aside for the house, the entire household will enjoy good fortune.

Happy New Year! :-)

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Contemporary romance with humor and heat...


Billionaire Tyler James didn’t get where he is by playing nice. He’s a hard man, and proud of it. But Tyler has a hidden soft underbelly that’s about to be exposed by three little boys and a beautiful Wiccan, the bewitching Molly Leigh. The boys are Tyler’s orphaned nephews, and he didn’t even know they existed until recently. Now that he does, Tyler wants those kids. A lot. But so does Molly. She is, after all, the one who’s been raising them. When the two adversaries lock horns over custody of the boys, the sparks fly and incinerate into a bonfire. Before the smoke clears, Tyler must learn a powerful lesson. And Molly may discover that a hard man is good to find.

Lifestyles of the Witch & Famous

Just released on Kindle
URL: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BEPAI3E


Book Cover by Melissa Alvarez
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Sunday, December 23, 2012

Greetings of the Season!


“I salute you! There is nothing I can give you which you have not. But there is much that, while I cannot give, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven. No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this our present instant. Take peace. The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take joy. And so, at this Christmas time, I greet you with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.”
~by Fra Giovanni (from a salutation to a friend, written in 1513)

Wishing you all a magical Holiday Season and a bright Happy New Year!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

FREE this weekend through Wed.

Odd True Tales, Volume 3
Free on Kindle this Sat.-Wed. (Dec. 15-19)
URL: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009LTC42I

The third installment of the popular “Odd True Tales” series… Some of the stories deal with the paranormal, while others relate curious events from history. Some are a bit grisly, and some may make you laugh. All are good reading and full of food for thought. Volume Three includes the tales: “Charlie”... “They Saw It Coming”... “Honey, I Shrunk the Heads”... “The Sorcerer’s Sorry Apprentice”... “No Demon is an Island”... “The Cycling Santa”... and “Is There a Shaman in the House?”...

Saturday, December 8, 2012

The Kitchen Witch Yuletide Book -- $0.99


A holiday "fruitcake" of facts, fun, and food. Recipes and tales for the Yuletide season. Includes sweet treats and saucy trivia, heartwarming memories and magical lore. Delightful reading and delicious eating for the merriest time of the year.

Available at Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo, Sony, and Diesel

Sunday, November 25, 2012

FREE on Kindle for a limited time...

Scrumptious holiday recipes, plus a Christmas short story as a special bonus… Good food and good cheer! Festive fare that’s sure to delight. This is a little book that’s big on warmth and color. It focuses on variety and culinary vivacity, taking some of our classic holiday foods and doing delicious new things with them (but without getting too complicated). Some of the dishes are sweet, some are savory, some are a bit of both. All are easy to prepare, and almost too easy to eat. Add in the bonus short story, and you’ve got food for the soul as well – all the joyful inspiration you need to start cooking up Christmas!

Free on Kindle from now through Wed. (Nov. 25-28)
URL: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009PVI5HK

Happy Holidays!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

FREE on Kindle for Halloween


Odd True Tales, Volume 2
FREE on Kindle today thru Halloween (Oct. 27-31)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009CFXDBC

A new crazy collection from the “Odd True Tales” series. Some of the narratives deal with the paranormal (ghosts, angels, and more), while others tell of curious events from history. All are good reading and full of food for thought. Volume Two includes the tales: “High Planes Drifters”… “Call Me Angel”… “Blessing In Disguise”… and “The Female Paul Revere”...

Happy Halloween!

Friday, October 19, 2012

New release...


Homemade Halloween Treats
Available at Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009SI7P8K
Also available at Apple, Kobo, B&N, Smashwords, and other online bookstores.

Frightfully fun Halloween recipes, from the sweet to the savory, the grotesque to the gourmet - cakes and candy, party dips, drinks, and more - a colorful assortment of bloody good food that will make your Halloween party a spooktacular event! And to top things off, the authors have included a ghostly little story from Volume 3 of their “Odd True Tales” series. You’ll find it at the end of the recipes, as a special bonus.

Happy Halloween!
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Friday, August 17, 2012

It's never too late for love...

Authors sometimes talk about writing "outside the box." With this novel, I almost broke the box. Every Jack Needs His Jil is a comedy for sure, but it's also about beating the odds, a book about hope and healing, family and forgiveness. It's a reunion tale of love lost and found. And it features not one love story, but two. When I first began this novel, I thought it was going to be all about Jack and Jileana, then another couple appeared and nearly stole the show. Harper and Evangeline are in their seventies (gasp!) and have been separated for fifty long, angry years. They're really too old to pick up the pieces and fall in love again... Or are they?

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EXCERPT (PG-rated):

“Open up, you old rooster! I want to talk to you!”

Harper Rourke couldn’t get across his living room fast enough. He knocked over a chair, toppled a lamp, and scattered three stacks of books in his mad charge to the door.

“Evangeline! I knew it, I knew you’d come back to me,” he crowed in triumph at the sight of her poised on his threshold. He could scarcely believe his eyes. Maybe he was dreaming?

“Prove to me you’re really here, honey.” He leaned toward her with lips on the pucker. “How about a little smack?”

Evangeline obliged him with a big one. It knocked him a full pace back into the trailer.

“Thanks a heap.” He worked his jaw around to make sure it wasn’t broken. “That wasn’t quite what I had in mind.”

“Shove it, Harper. I’m not here for what you’ve got in your warped mind. I just want to ask you one straight question. And I’d better get a straight answer, or you’ll be walking crooked till Christmas.”

Well, at least she was talking to him again. It was a start.

“Ask away, honey. Everything I have is yours.” Harper grinned. “Including the contents of my head.”

“Now there’s a scary thought.” Evangeline shuddered and pushed past him into the trailer’s living room. She stopped short at the sight of the scattered volumes. A pretty weighty collection. Her gaze swept over the titles. There were books on radiation, light, magnetism, mathematics, a biography of Einstein and another on Newton...

“Okay, what’s going on here?” She planted her hands on her hips and nailed him in place with a pointed stare. “You never used to read anything heavier than Superman comics and Louis L’Amour westerns.”

Blushing like a bandit under his leathery tan, the old man broke the hold of her eyes and hustled to collect his carefully acquired reference library.

“Is that your question?” he asked, trying to skirt around the issue. His passion for physics had been triggered years before by his passion for Evangeline. Her explanations back then of why she felt such a driving need to pursue the subject had piqued his own interest enough for him to eventually begin studying it himself. But he was too embarrassed to admit that now. He doubted she’d believe it anyway.

“Wait a minute--let me see that.” Evangeline snatched one of the volumes out of his hands. “Where did you get this? This is my book.”

 She didn’t mean that particular parcel of bound pages belonged to her. She meant that she had written what was on those pages, over forty years before. E=Everything: A Layman’s Guide to Physics, the book was titled.

“Mercy, this looks like a first edition.” She opened it to check. “There aren’t too many of these around. The publisher started off with a minimum print run, because the book really wasn’t expected to sell as well as it...did...” The words trickled off as a handwritten note on the flyleaf snagged her attention. Her eyes narrowed, and her voice went cold.

“Who is Maddie?”

Harper dropped his gaze. “Evangeline, you said you had one question for me. That’s three you’ve asked so far. Which do you want me to answer?”

“All of them! You can start by telling me who Maddie is.”

Would it do any good to play dumb, Harper wondered. Pretend he couldn’t remember? Ask what she was talking about? He kicked the notion aside. Evangeline would never let it pass so simply. But still...

“Honey, what difference does it make?” He lifted soulful eyes to her icy glare. “It was such a long time ago.”

Evangeline made a strangling noise in her throat, whipped the book up in front of her nose, and read aloud:

“Dearest Harper, You don’t really want to spend our precious time together discussing the unified field theory, do you? Read this, instead. The author explains it all so much better than I can. At least, I can never explain things when you’re looking at me--and if you had any idea how handsome you are, you’d understand why. Our weekends together mean the world to me, I hope you know that. And this weekend I’ll have an even better gift for you than this book. A wonderful gift, I think. But I’ll know that for sure when you tell me that you think it’s wonderful, too. Until then, Maddie. P.S. I love you.”

I... Love... You...

The words hung heavy in the air as Evangeline lowered the book. Time skidded to a crawl. Or maybe it spun backward, carrying her too many years into the past.

Handsome, huh? Well, she could hardly fault Maddie for that. Harper had turned more than one head in his day. She raised her eyes and stared hard at the rugged face across from her. Her heart skipped several beats as she saw too clearly what she’d been trying so hard to not notice since his return.

Blast his hide, he was still handsome. Gray hair, weathered skin, blackened eye and all, he was still the most beguiling man she’d ever known. She caught her breath as the memories swept in, and a long forgotten fire flared to life deep within her. Her abdomen tightened like a fist squeezed her inside, and her mouth went dry, as though all the moisture in her had drained south. Evangeline pressed her legs together till she quivered like a struck harp string where she stood.

And the player of her body--the Harper himself--stood but a tempting arm’s length away. She groaned and locked her hands at her side to keep from reaching for him. Damn the man--and damn her own traitorous hormones along with him. Where did she get off having hormones, anyway? This was depraved.

Mercy, I’m too old for this. She glared at him through rising clouds of hot steam. The randy old goat. The miserable, maddening, aggravating, disconcerting... Desirable... Oh, merciful heavens.

She grappled to wrestle her mind back to the issue at hand. “Harper, tell me--I need to know. Who was this girl?”

Stepping forward, Harper gathered her into his arms. “Only someone who wasn’t you, honey.”

Soft and sultry as his whisper, his lips claimed hers...

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Every Jack Needs His Jil
Winner in the P&E Readers Poll
FAR "Recommended Read"
Available at B&N, Apple, Sony, Kobo...
Smashwords: http://smashwords.com/b/47940
and KINDLE: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004KKXTR2

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Wednesday, May 9, 2012

NEW release - The Kitchen Witch Spring into Summer Book

A holistic hodge-podge of tips, tricks, and timeless wisdom…recipes, remedies, and real magic…

Springtime, the season of renewal and rebirth, which leads us into the blossoming abundance of Summer. Forward motion! Healing and happiness! That’s what this anthology is all about. Here you’ll find surefire inspiration for a joyful rejuvenation along with magical tools to achieve it. You’ll also find holistic health tips and natural remedies, plus easy no-cook recipes perfect for warm weather days when you crave cool food. But most of all you’ll find the path to perpetual growth, an inner Springtime that will keep you blooming all year.

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Available now at Kindle
URL: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0081AN5EO

Friday, April 27, 2012

FREE for a limited time...

Off-the-cuff and Off-the-wall! An eccentric collection of articles, essays, and science-fiction that begins with the insightful (or possibly insane) musings of propellerhead Rob Riser. What is a propellerhead? You’ll find out in “Propellerheads-iconoclasts” (aka “Pi”). From there, if you dare, move on to “Einstein Was Light…er, Right?” (which features a real life UFO sighting) and “Don’t Let the Gravity Get You Down” followed by “Tai Chi and the Science of Bowing a Fiddle” and “The Selfless Ones.” Then, if your brain hasn’t exploded yet, you’ll be all set for “The Robin Flies Again,” a shiny new space opera vignette from the warped imagination of Mimi Riser (who’s still wondering what spawned the holoid). Sound strange? It is! But it’s all in good fun--a wild and wacky bunch of reading that’s sure to put a smile on your face and odd ideas in your head.

Free on Kindle now through Monday (April 26-30)

URL: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007RVGQVW