A Fun Day

I thought I'd share an experience I had this weekend.

Living in a small town in Washington state is different for me. I've always lived n the big city of San Francisco and as far as I know there was nothing like this. Yesterday my sister and I went to the moveable feast.

The moveable feast is all different food trucks. We're not talking just any food truck but gourmet.  There was trucks with: 

Grilled cheese but not just plain grilled cheese, you had choices of cheese, could add bacon, avocado, jalapenos, tomatoes, and other things.

Then we had the Tokyo hot dog truck, hot dogs with all things Japan.

Cajun food including beigns and crawfish Mac & cheese.

Fried meat pies, Taco's, burrito's, sushi, Asian fusion, Filipino, Mediterranean, Greek, and oh the dessert trucks.

Ben &Jerry's, brownies, ice cream social, ice pops, but the two we tried were celebration cakes and the donuts.

The donuts were amazing, slightly bigger than donuts holes, they were small donuts and very light, they're put into a basket and the you can add your toppings we got vanilla and chocolate mixed plus another of caramel and chocolate. They were delicious. 

At celebration cake, the had glutton free brownies, and cake. The cake were flavors like cappuccino, chic mouse, snow ball, and eclairs to die for.

It was a good thing we did some walking because of all the food we ate and took home.

It was fun and something I'll do again next year.  Any maybe next year I'll remember to take pictures.

So what did you do this weekend?

Blog Guest: Sandra Sookoo

Today I have a special guest blogger, Sandra Sookoo, who is doing her virtual book tour for her new release Hollywood Dreams and Buttercream.

Welcome Sandra.

Thanks for hosting me today, and thanks to the readers who’ve joined up as part of the Hollywood Dreams and Buttercream virtual blog tour. This is stop #1. Be sure to visit all stops to better your chance of winning swag!

First, let me introduce myself. My name is Sandra Sookoo. I write romantic fiction, but over the course of the last year, I’ve primarily focused on contemporary and Regency romance. My latest book is a sweet contemporary.

I don’t know about you but I’m a sucker for old Hollywood movies. I’d say anything from the 1950s is my absolute favorite. When I set out to write this book, I had no idea I would include Hollywood trivia from that time period. One day, I had an urge to watch The African Queen, so I called it up on Netflix and became absorbed in the film. I’d seen it before, of course, and it always stuck with me (especially since bits of Disney’s Jungle Cruise ride are inspired by it) Anyway, I’m sure it comes as no surprise Gwynn and Cole watch this movie as part of the Movies in the Park in this book. It worked out surprisingly well and I’m very pleased with how it played out. I hope you will be too. (But you have to buy the book to find out what I’m talking about!)

Here’s the blurb for Hollywood Dreams and Buttercream:

Sometimes the sweetest things in life don’t have anything to do with dessert.

Gwynn Flannigan wants respect from her father and freedom from her big, loud family. The icing on her cake would be to win a decorating competition hosted by her favorite food magazine writer. Cole Marshall's one outlet from the stress of business life is writing his Cooking in the Buff feature. Who cares if he never has time for fun?

The answer for them both lies in the deep freeze at Sweet Endings, the struggling ice cream shop Gwynn manages and the one property Cole needs to secure a big promotion. He’s stuck in Madrigal, Indiana to unravel a knot of family drama that drives him crazy.

Things heat between Gwynn and Cole on the competition floor when Cole’s alter ego is revealed.  Cake and accusations fly while dreams and goals are left crumbling. In order to balance family, business, and love, Gwynn and Cole will need to work together and become partners—in more ways than one.

And here’s an excerpt:

The ring of the smartphone sounded once more, this time with a series of high-pitched electronic beeps.

"That's it!" Before she could rationally think her plan and its repercussions through, Gwynn grabbed the offending piece of technology and shot to her feet. "Get out now." She glanced at the phone, found the appropriate button, and shut the thing off.

"Not without my phone." Cole stood. He held out his hand, fingers wiggling. "It's my property and taking it without asking is stealing."

"So is selling this place without giving me a chance. You, my father, and my brother are all the same. You never want to hear what I want. You all think a woman couldn't possibly do anything as well as a man." Her chest heaved from the force of her passion. "Well guess what, it's a brave new world, buster, and women are leading us all into the future."

His eyes were as cold as the dead of winter. His hand never wavered. "My phone, please."

The thrill from intercepting his phone died an early death as a dark expression crossed his face. The man who stood before her was every bit the arrogant attorney. No trace of compassion leaked into his bearing. He'd take what he wanted regardless of anything else. Gwynn swallowed past the lump of sudden fear in her throat. "You can have it back when you start negotiations for the store."

"There won't be any negotiations."

"We'll see." When Cole lunged for her hand, Gwynn shrieked and ran behind the counter. Hearing the clatter of his dress shoes against the tiles behind her, she ducked into the supply room then yanked open the door to the walk-in freezer.

The frosty interior instantly cooled her heated skin. Gwynn quickly moved to the far shelf, and then she turned around and held the phone behind her back. Cole's presence filled the freezer space. His broad shoulders blocked her view of the door and the florescent light beyond. Her heart raced as he approached. He didn't stop advancing until his body almost touched hers.

"Give me the phone, Gwynn. It's a vital part of my business." He inched close enough to slide an arm around her waist in an attempt to retrieve the smartphone.

"And this shop is my business, so I guess we're at a deadlock." Her backside pressed against the shelves stocked with frozen cardboard tubs of ice cream conflicted with her front that was wedged against the very warm, very hard body of a very angry Cole. In a different world, Gwynn acknowledged that having such a sexy man trying to feel her up in the freezer, albeit accidentally, would have been a highlight of her day, but this man was dangerous. He wanted her job, her livelihood, and he didn't care that she wanted to fight for it. "You need to leave."

"You need to return my phone." As Cole renewed the fight to retrieve his phone, his body rubbed against hers for one brief moment -- chest to chest, hip to hip, thigh to thigh and everywhere in between. Tingles erupted down her spine, intense and breath-catching. Gwynn caught a whiff of his cologne, a mix of cedar and citrus. She tamped the urge to put her face in the crook of his shoulder in order to smell him again.

Oh man, he'd be the perfect vehicle to lick ice cream from. She shook her head hoping to shove the thought away.

"No." Was it in answer to his question or her inappropriate thought?

"You're an adult, Gwynn. Such behavior is asinine and childish."

He sounds like Lyle. Another reason to avoid him. Her desire to annoy refreshed her anger. She pushed him away. He stumbled back, which gave her enough time to turn and chuck the phone into an open box of fudge pops on the top shelf. It landed with a satisfying thud. "Too bad. It's stuck there now, and technically, you're trespassing on private property." She crossed her arms over her breasts, hiding the evidence of the cold or her budding arousal. She didn't want to give him any ideas if her reaction was due to his closeness.

Or give me any ideas.

"Get out."

"Fine." Cole shoved the fingers of one hand through his hair. The look he shot her made Gwynn feel like pond scum. "I'll be back tomorrow morning. Your father had better be here, pen in hand, because whether you like it or not, I'm leaving town with a signed deed for this property. Your opinions hold no sway on the transaction."

You can purchase this book at the following locations:

Desert Breeze: http://www.desertbreezepublishing.com/hollywood-dreams-and-buttercream-epub/

ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-hollywooddreamsandbuttercream-1230731-149.html

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Dreams-and-Buttercream-ebook/dp/B00DVLQCMA/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373586343&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Hollywood+Dreams+and+Buttercream+by+sandra+sookoo

ibookstore: http://www.ibookstore.com/products.php?i=B00DVLQCMA

Have we connected on social media yet? If not, here’s my info. I’d love to talk to you!

Website:  http://www.sandrasookoo.com

Believing is Seeing blog:  http://sandrasookoo.wordpress.com

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/sandrasookoo

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/sandra.sookoo

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2931453.Sandra_Sookoo

Giveaway information on this post: One lucky random commenter will receive a Hollywood Dreams and Buttercream swag pak. Be sure to leave your contact information.

Thanks, Sandra for that hot excerpt.  I can see Gwynn and Cole are going to have a great story.

I've been bad

I know, I've been a very bad blogger.

I haven't kept up with my blog hardly at all this year.  All I can say is I'm sorry.

Life has really stuck her big nose into my life this year and I've been struggling, but now it seems like things are finally calming down.

I'm going to talk about my struggles as a writer in finding writing time and how hard it is sometimes to make myself sit down and write.

Next week I'll have a guest blogger, Sandra Sookoo talking about her new release.

Have a great week.

Marie

Special Guest: John Holland

Cowboy Poet:

Interview with John Holland, Author of Dry Bone

Today my guest is John Holland, Author of Dry Bones, #1 bestseller, Amazon Kindle Poetry Australia and Oceania.

Welcome, John, and thank you for visiting my blog.

John, your book has drawn a lot of attention and great reviews. The first thing that drew me to your book was the title and cover. Can you tell us how the cover art came to be?

I can't take credit for that.  It was chosen by my publisher Lazarus Media.  I was happy for it to be used however. 

I think it suits the title and the book.

John, in addition to being a poet, your interesting bio says you were a stockman, which I now know is an Australian cowboy. We’ll get more into those nuances in a minute and at the end I’ll provide links to Dry Bones and to a review on the blog of fellow romance author Nia Simone.

Today, I’d like to focus on your cowboy experience. Let’s start with something simple. Did you wear cowboy boots when you rode? What are they made of?

Yes.  R.M. Williams riding boots with a Cuban heel.  They are leather.

http://www.bootsonline.com.au/boots.htm

Western saddle?

No.  Australian stock saddles.  The Cox poley was my favorite.

http://www.horsedeals.com.au/index.php?p=view-horse&horse=279025-Syd-Hill-Cox-Poley-Saddle

Rope?

No.

Did you lasso the cattle ever?

Rarely.  The only time a rope was used much was to rope unbranded cattle and drag them to a wooden panel called a "bronco panel" for branding etc.

http://www.broncobrandingaustralia.com/wordpress/?page_id=5

Ever do a rodeo?

A couple of times when I was very young.

What do you think of rodeos?

They can be a great spectacle.  But rodeo is now a spectator sport and no longer mirrors actual station (ranch) work.

What’s the difference between being a cowboy in Australia versus, say, Montana, you think?

I think the main difference is that cattle stations here are huge by comparison.  The climate is a big factor too. 

How many other cowboys did you work with?

This varies immensely.  A stock camp in the Northern Territory might consist of a Head Stockman, a cook, a horse tailer (wrangler) and a dozen ringers.

The term "ringer" is used more commonly in the North for a stockman (cowboy).

How long is a drive? How long are you out there for?

A cattle drive is known here as a "droving trip".  But this is to describe long trips to market.  Station work with cattle that takes place on the station itself is called "mustering".

Did you camp?

Yes.  In the north you could be camped out for weeks.  Even months sometimes.

Campfire?

Yes.

Is it all guys around the campfire?

Not always.  But that was the case in my experience.

What do you talk about?

Just about anything and everything.  There were some very well read people there.

How hot does it get during the day?

You try not to work cattle in the hottest times of the year, but summer temperatures are commonly over 100 degrees.

Did you carry your sleeping bag in a roll on the back?

No.  Your swag (bed roll) is usually carried on what American's would call a chuck wagon.  Motorized these days of course.  In the past pack horses were often used to do the same job.

Did you love your horse?

Of course.

Is there a ranch house?

Yes.  It is called a homestead here.  On big stations it is almost a small village.  Big stations (ranches) might also have several "out stations" each with it's own homestead and out buildings.

Who was your employer?

Often an absentee owner who employed a Station Manager to run the place for him/her.

How did you feel about him/her?

Not always kindly.

Do dogs go on the rides? (Term for rides…?)

Dogs are used for mustering and for working cattle in stockyards.

Dogs around the ranch house?

Always.

Cats? Indoor cats or all farm cats with a job to do?

Rarely.

Other pets Americans have never heard of?

You would have heard of baby kangaroos and parrots.  Sometimes there might be a pet Emu or Plains Turkey raised from a chick.

How big was the ranch? (Acres)

The biggest station I lived on was Coolibah Station in the Northern Territory.  It was several million acres in area.

It is still about 1,800,000 acres.  But only about half the size it was when I lived there.  I was a child and my Father, Jack Holland, was manager.  It was owned at the time by the meat canning company Tom Piper.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/21443041?versionId=25676236

Did you ever let a woman ride behind you in the saddle?

No, but I would have been happy to.

How many months a year did you work?

Most stockmen were employed full time.  But cattle work was confined mostly to the cooler months from April to September.

At other times you would be mending or building fences and any one of a multitude of other jobs that need doing on stations.

How many days in a row?

If you were out mustering you worked every day for several weeks at a time.  Around the homestead it was usually 6 days a week.

Thank you for visiting with us today, John, and congratulations on your release of Dry Bones.

Here are the links and please feel free to ask John some questions.

Nia Simone’s review: Can a dash, a space, a word convey worlds? Book review, Dry Bones, John Holland.

Link to book at Amazon Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Dry-Bones-ebook/dp/B00AAX3N7E/ref=sr_1_36?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1353704619&sr=1-36&keywords=dry+bones#_

Author website:

http://poetrysansfrontieres.weebly.com/

I want to thank John for agreeing to be on my blog today and to my friend Nia who introduced me to John and his beautiful work.

Have a great week.

Marie

Read an E-Book Week

Until I saw a reminder this morning, I totally forgot about this.

It's "Read an E-Book Week".

My publisher The Wild Rose Press has lots of great deals include a lot of Free books this week, just click here to be taken to their main catalog. If you want the more erotic stuff click here for the Wilder catalog (this is where my books are.)

Also my first book In Plain Sight is on sale for $2.99 (click here)

Enjoy the week.

Marie

Where does time go?

The days are passing faster than I can count.

This last week has been a world wind of getting things done, just not writing things.  With the holiday last Monday (President's day) it threw my week totally off.  Then on Sunday, my sister reminded me that the first of March is this Friday and here I thought I had another whole week in February yet.

The life of a writer isn't always about writing.  I'd like it to be, but life does get in the way.  This last week is an example.

There are things like: grocery shopping, cleaning the house, laundry, bills, balancing check books, runs to the bank, run to UPS to overnight paperwork, phone calls, cleaning out e-mail boxes, taking the dog to the groomer, training the dog (although I think she's training me), errands, lunch out with family and then there is preparing dinner every night and the clean up.

Oh and I forgot to add exercise.

In the next week, my life should calm down considerably.  A lot of last week was dealing with the sale of property, having the check finally arrive, and needing to get it invested where it would keep making some money and trying to minimize tax implications.

But it was also doing some necessary other things that I'd put off.

I honestly work at putting my writing first, but it doesn't always work for me.  I'm a work in progress, just like my books.

Have a great week.

Marie  

Snippet from Work in Progress

I thought I'd try something different and give you a snippet from my current work in progress.

            His kiss would be the death of her.

            "Oh, darling," his breath, hot and moist against her ear.

            "Yes, honey." She rubbed her body against his. She was giving the performance of her life. Her hands tightened on his broad shoulders, his soft hair just brushing her skin.  She nibbled at his ear.

            "Bedroom?" His voice was tight.

            Reaching down, she slipped her fingers between his hard stomach and jeans, then pulled him by his belt buckle.  She kept the barest of distance between their bodies while walking backwards.  The bedroom lay at the end of the hallway.

            Once inside, their legs tangled and they fell upon the blue satin quilt.  His hard erection pressing into her softness.  The bed quivered.

            "Oh, baby."  His fingers began unbuttoning her blouse.

            A crack and a snap filled the air, then there was air between her and the mattress.  She didn't even have time to let out a scream as the bed collapsed beneath them.

How is that for the beginning?  Can you guess what happens next?

Have a great week.