Egg Whites and Blue Novel Announcement

So did everyone see the strawberry moon last night? I'm a bit like Kiko in that I get nerdy about those sorts of things. I'm also a bit like Dom in that I put off showing you all this great cover for the next Yolks on You mystery until now...So here it is in all its patriotic glory!

Yes, I know there was just a book out over Easter, but I can't help myself--I have too much fun writing these guys solving mysteries together. And the Fourth of July seemed like a great setting with so much heat and sweat and excitement. Of course there's a lot of cooking involved too, so you get to see Kiko grill some delicious burgers and Dom make a valiant attempt at a pie.

Obviously someone's cooking up murder, there's a pesky ex involved, and Kiko and Dom are still figuring out where their relationship stands. Just the kind of high spirits that make for a memorable holiday even before the fireworks come out. And don't worry--Mother is back, and there are even some presidential pigs you might spot.

If you want it--and you know you do--Egg Whites and Blue is available for preorder now and will be out right before the Fourth so you'll have just the book to pull out to avoid those awkward family conversations!

Cheers!

Rainy Day + Bookmarks

Today has been a rainy day here, with off and on thunder and lightning. It seems we finally have our first good storm of the year! Personally I think it's the universe conspiring against me, trying to force me to stay inside and edit. It knows I have so much to edit. It knows I've been avoiding.

So I've been inside, frenziedly working on the recipes for the third Yolks on You book. It's so weird to try to make dishes with the flavors of a particular time of year when you're not actually in that time of year, but I think they turned out well, and even the ones I was less sure about got thumbs-up from my totally-certified taste-tester. Success!

And another excitement: I now have bookmarks for Shell Shocked! Don't they look great? I'm pleased how they turned out, and am eager to find them all new homes. Can't wait to stick one of these suckers into a physical copy of the book!

Cheers!

What's in the Cards Next

So this is me right now. Or part of me! It's been a while since I did a reading, and little novice me ended up with something pretty good. Turns out the cards say I'm mostly on the right path with this writing thing, although my personal life could use a few tweaks...
 

But! My cards were awash in disks, and the good news is this: Shell Shocked is going to print! I'm so excited I will be using more exclamation marks than is strictly necessary. This is really happening! A real, live (okay, it won't be living), physical book you can hold in your hands is now available to purchase.
 

If you're the kind of person who likes to read print copies, go ahead and check out Shell Shocked for a belated basket stuffer. And start getting excited for the next in the series, Egg Whites and Blue, which will be making an appearance over 4th of July weekend. This one is going to be even better! Trust me--would the author lie to you?
 

I'm off to find a glass of wine to celebrate. Cheers!

Spring Update

Well, spring is officially here a bit early this year and I'm just waiting for my cherry trees to blossom. Excitement for all that is new is in the air, and with that in mind, I thought I'd mention what's in the cards for the next couple months.

Expect short stories. Expect science fiction. Expect women loving women. Doesn't that just make your nerdy little heart beat faster? I'll be coming out with two short stories from Torquere, one in their Theory of Love anthology, another in their Time of Your Life anthology. Both were fun to write--and hard to prevent myself from overdoing the worldbuilding! I do have a weakness for extensive worldbuilding...

"Unexpected Dilemmas" is a tale of love weathering catastrophe and appears in Theory of Love. "Orbits" is a story about a long-overdue happily-ever-after on a space station and will be in Time of Your Life. Happy reading!

Cheers!

A Short Vacation

Ah, vacation. Home to this gorgeous sunrise on the beach. How is it that a sunrise is infinitely more magical when away from it all? Just look at it.

That's the view from the beach at New Smyrna Beach, FL, which the internet tells me is the shark bite capitol of the world. I opted not to swim. I did go down to the beach to watch the sunrise every day, but alas the trip was short. I've been decently recharged with inspiration moving forward, though! There were certainly some items of note.

Such as Dummit's Tomb, right in the middle of a street. I can say with complete honesty that a grave in the middle of a street was a first for me.

Other fascinating ruins included this playground/cemetery combo.

And the sugar mill ruins. I can't be the only one who likes to track down interesting or old places, right? Little cold Wisconsin me was very excited to get to run around without a coat or even a hoodie enjoying these things in the lovely weather.

It was a nice few days, but now it's back to writing. I'm not sure yet how this gorgeous place will factor into future stories, but it would be a bit surprising if it didn't, wouldn't it?

Anyway, I ought to leave you with a little something sweet.

Cheers!

 

 

Release Party Recap

Yesterday was both Easter and the day my first novel, Shell Shocked, came out, so I had to celebrate. I baked a phallic cake and have a little recap for those who missed it on Twitter:

I started out strong with my supplies and a generous helping of Spumante + pomegranate juice, ready to bake the best penis cake the world had ever seen.

Then came the boring steps: mixing and pouring. It all fit in the mold, and I was feeling very good about my cake making skills.

While my cock cake was baking, I decided to give myself the fun I never had as a child. All $1 of it. Watching those dinosaurs hatch from little celebratory pill eggs was magical.

Unfortunately, the smell of burning alerted me to a cocktastrophe in progress. The cake was speedily removed and tended to, and then I ate the evidence.

While the cake went back in the oven to get nice and hard, I moved onto egg dyeing. I sadly had no red, so shades of green it was!

Finally the cake came...out of the oven. I set it to cool near my amazingly artistic eggs.

And there you have it! A cock cake and egg-themed release party. Yes, I did bite into this cock cake. Yes, it was pretty all right. Yes, I did drink all that Spumante.

Cheers!





 
 

A Pie for Pi Day

I hope everyone is having an excellent Pi Day! Unfortunately I have to confess that I am not participating this year, even though it's such a great reason to eat all the pie. But I can blog about pie, and so I will.

Recently I've been spending a lot of time working on the sequel to my upcoming novel, and I wanted to keep offering recipes like I did in the first (spoiler: there will be recipes!). Which of course means I have to develop the recipes. It's delicious work, but somebody's gotta do it.

What all this means it that I ended up making two whole pies last month to get a couple of good recipes for more summery dishes, and I just really wasn't about to make yet another pie to celebrate today. I will just have to let the memory of pie suffice.

This pie was a really fun (and easy!) one to make--it's supposed to be Dom's recipe. He's not a good cook. And really, the pie itself doesn't look that great, but trust me, it tastes like summer. Which is just what I was going for.

I guess I'll have to live pie-cariously through it for now.

Cheers!