Welcome toSweetSaturdayat Charlene Blogs. For the next four months (all the way through the holidays), I'm going to be sharing some treats that you can make for your sweetheart, family, friends, and, of course, for you. Now, if you know me at all, you know that simple is King. Make it easy, and you've won my cooking and baking attention. My daughters can attest to my inept abilities in the kitchen--just yesterday I burned the baked squash beyond crisp. I made them promise not to hit me over the head with it as I cracked it on the counter top. So, rest assured these recipes will be easy as well as yummy. *smile* And rest assured that I am not the creator of these treats. All credit will be given to the wonderful sources. To begin
SweetSaturday off, I'm sharing a recipe for Heart of My Heart Tarts that I found at TasteOfHome.com. They have some wonderful goodies there and you should check them out.
Heart of My Heart Tarts Recipe photo by Taste of Home
Prep: 15 min + chilling.
Bake: 25 min. + cooling.
Yield: 8 servings.
Ingredients
1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour
Filling
1 egg
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
Directions
In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy; beat in flour until blended. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.
Shape dough into eight balls; press onto the bottom and up the sides of greased heart-shaped or regular muffin cups. In a small bowl, beat egg. Beat in brown sugar and vanilla until blended. Stir in walnuts. Spoon into cups.
Bake at 325° for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes before carefully removing from pan to a wire rack. Yield: 8 servings.
Nutritional Facts1 serving (1 each) equals 346 calories, 22 g fat (10 g saturated fat), 69 mg cholesterol, 163 mg sodium, 34 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 6 g protein.
Enjoy! And let me know how that special someone or someones like them. *smile*
Congratulations goes out to Martha T. who is the winner of my Special Giveaway For Fans! She chose the copy of Cornerstone Deep Echoes and will also receive high resolution images of the Cornerstone Deepand Cornerstone Deep Echoesbookmarks to print as many as she likes.
Saturday, the authors of Class Act Books had an
author/reader chat at Coffee Time Romance.
It was our first time in their forums and we got off to a rocky
start. It was also the first time for me at
one of these chats, and I was clueless about how to hold a giveaway there. For those of you who dropped in to check it
out and didn’t see me offer the giveaways I promised, I’m sorry. To make up for it, I’m holding one here.
For three days (now through Wed), I’m offering a PDF copy of
either Cornerstone Deep or Cornerstone Deep Echoes (winner’s
choice) and printable book marks.
* Just enter using the Rafflecopter below. The winners will be drawn using Random.com
and announced on Thursday. * Of course, I added a lot of ways for you win extra entries. Have fun!
Please welcome Paranormal Romance Author, Kiki Howell, to Charlene Blogs. I'm thrilled to have her here as my guest blogger today! Ever since she was young, Kiki Howell has loved to listen to a well-woven tale with real characters, inspired plots, and delightful resolutions. Kiki could spend hours lost in a book, and soon she knew that creating lives, loves, and losses with just words had to be the greatest thing that she could do. To that end, she pursued her study of literature and writing, earning a bachelor’s degree in English. She then followed in a Master’s program in Creative Writing.
She has now had over twenty stories published between seven different small presses. She could not be more thrilled or grateful to see her creations polished and out in the real world. In May, 2011, Kiki was chosen as an Ohioana Book Festival author for her novel, Torn Asunder. Although, a bit of caution, most of her stories tend to hang out on the graphically sexy side of town.
~ * ~
Tolerance and Compassion… Escape… and Fear Conquering Love…
Yeah, I know, what does this all have to do
with some dark, erotic, paranormal romantic suspense series? Well, let me try
to explain…Bear with me. *giggles*
So often, after too much time on social media
sites, or the off chance I catch the news, it’s easy to start viewing the world
with a half-empty glass frame of mind. School bullies, judgmental adults, etc,
can start to bring one down in their view of humanity. How do I process this
all as a peace-maker, why can’t we just all get along, type person? Well, in my
mind I get ticked…okay, steaming mad… You can feel sorry for my husband now.
I’ll wait. LOL
Seriously though, I turn to my own form of therapy
– writing. I find it easy too, to mouth off, rant if you will, about injustices
in the world, through my paranormal fiction. I mean, people fight due to land
lines, color of skin, and people they fall in love with. I find the fighting
much more justified in a paranormal world where vampires, werewolves and
witches have serious powers they can hurt each other with. *winks* And, it is
in this dark and sexy world that I get to rant, first off, and then make my own
point about how love, compassion, a little trying to put yourself in another’s
shoes and unconditional love and refraining from judgment can go a long way to
peace between clans.
The world can make one feel helpless, and so
I’ve always been one to escape into books, into fantasy, to escape it all.
Funny I pick such dark and paranormal stories to read, but then, it’s the world
I like to escape into. Now, I not only read, but have the privilege of writing
them. Guess I hope that they will give someone else a place to escape into.
And, if I sneak in a little rant, a little message, well I hope they don’t
mind. In my dark world full of prejudices and war, I promise you love – intense
and sexy. But also, I deliver those who are passionate enough to fight, with
all they are, for what they believe in and the one they love. Love conquering
fear, well I think that is the only way… Want to see how this all translates
into a three book series? Check out my Book Trailer and information my At War
in the Willows series.
Watch the Book Trailer Video on YouTube!
At War in the Willows
Series
Blurb
The Willows is a resort town run by
vampires, werewolves and witches. Here, their true identities are kept secret
from humans, and intimate relations between the individual clans are strictly
forbidden.
When it becomes known that the vampire
Amberlyn has fallen in love with the werewolf Kane, the tedious line of their
co-existence has been crossed. Caught in the crossfire of this revelation,
Drake, the vampire clan leader and Amberlyn’s maker, is killed along with an
innocent witch. These deaths spark a series of horrific events leading to an
all out War In The Willows.
In Book 1, Amberlyn’s vampire brother,
Isaac, always one to kick ass first and deal with the consequences later,
kidnaps a witch, Winter. He intends to find out what type of retaliation the
witch clan is planning against the vampires and werewolves. In doing so, he
finds so much more than he bargained for.
By Book 2, Isaac and Winter devise a
plan to try to get the Elders of the clans talking peacefully. But, things
don't go as they'd hoped, and the fighting between the clans becomes more
devious - deadly. Now, Devin, another Vampire of Drake's making, steps in to
help pick up some of the pieces as his sister, Amberlyn, fights to be with the
werewolf, Kane.
When Book 3 begins, it is Devin who
hides the biggest secret; he’s in love with a local human. In a moment of
desperation – of love – Devin sweeps this human, Sara, away to his home in
order to keep her out of harm’s way.
Unexpected close encounters, bodies
ripe with need, and situations beyond their control lead to forbidden
relationships. Now three vampires, a witch, a werewolf and a human must ride
along the edges of the rules. They will attempt once unthinkable romantic
entanglements despite all those who oppose their relationships while fighting
for their lives as well.
With the Willows full of violence and
bloodshed, meetings and magic amiss, will the clans ever be able to find peace
among them again? Or, will this war destroy the Willows?
“This is the first adult book I've read
by Kiki Howell. And it was delicious! Good plot, great characters and sexy
enough to raise the temperature in my house about 20 degrees... It's a very
fast read, only about 50 pages. But it's a real page turner!” ~4/5 Stars
by Lilac Wolf
“Ms Howell weaves a spell binding web
that ensnares the mind and lets the reader drift away in to another world. I
highly look forward to the next two books in this series!” ~4/5 Stars by
Phoenix Johnson
The Vampire’s
Wolf, Book Two
Excerpt
Into his arms she fell, knocked them both off balance until
they landed on the bed with the grace of lovers long kept apart. That’s to say,
no beauty or finesse at all; just two bodies which came together, joined as
close as they possibly could from head to toe, connected by what felt like the
beat of only one heart. Even though the fall was enough to take one’s breath
away, Amberlyn felt like she’d really taken her first real breath in a long
time when Kane’s mouth took hers. His lips claimed hers, pressed down hard,
consumed her own. He nipped at one spot, kissed another, parted her lips with
his tongue. She relented, gave herself more than willing, ready and able.
As they rediscovered all a simple kiss could be, their limbs
tangled together, warred for closeness that would never be enough, could never
be enough unless joined as one. Sometimes, even not then.
No matter what people were, no matter what the social laws, regardless
of the social conventions, beyond the uninformed beliefs, the rulers of their
clans could not police or keep apart two hearts such as theirs – so hopelessly
in love. Her vampire heart wanted a werewolf and she had to live with the
consequences of her actions. They’d held back, not seen each other since her
maker, Drake, had been killed when her relationship with Kane went public.
Still, no amount of time apart, blood shed, threat of war or all-consuming
guilt was going to change the way she felt about Kane.
This week her traitorous, dead heart had broken, had missed
Kane and Drake. All she’d really done with her time was lay low as if she’d
been told and get pissed about with the way things were. In their small resort
town of the Willows, in the mountains
of Tennessee, witches and werewolves and vampires were supposed to co-exist,
mingle for show in public, but not form relationships and never, ever fall in
love. But, sadly, the announcement that she loved Kane had gotten Drake killed
and a witch dead in the crossfire. Now it seemed war had been declared against
the clans.
She’d had hours to pine away the last few days, lost in all
of her losses, to think on such things – what she’d done right, what she’d done
wrong, how to make herself love no one – but there was no reasoning with the
cold, dead organ which beat no more in her chest. Though the guilt was a bitch,
she would forever long to be in Kane’s arms. These were the sad facts, her own
catch-twenty-two.
The Cornerstone Deep Echoes Goodreads Giveaway has ended, and we have a winner!
Congratulations Brooke!
Your signed paperback and bookmarks will be in the mail tomorrow.
If you haven’t checked out Goodreads.com yet, you’re really missing out! It’s a HUGE site of readers and authors, all there to enjoy all things books.
You can check out my Author Profile to get an idea of how it all works. Then, branch out and see what’s available for you to enjoy. Join groups, enter to win new releases by some absolutely fantastic authors. Get to know them through the books they have on their shelves. Many have blogs there and free downloads. You can follow reviews, give reviews and ratings of the books you read, even keep track of your progress as you read. Oh, and you can vote on books in specialized categories like Books That Should Be Made Into Movies in Listopia--books, from Harry Potter to Gone With the Wind to Cornerstone Deep! Honestly, it’s a great book lover’s site!
Already a member? Look me up and request a friendship. I’d love to get to know you there.
Just a note to remind everybody that the Aumelan Name the Character Contest is still going on and will end on August 31st. You can find the full details on the previous blog entry, but I'll give you the rundown here....
~ * ~
I've posted a Rafflecopter on my Facebook Fan page and added it here so you can just click and enter. You can suggest up to 10 names. :) First name only.
If I find one I think fits her personality, the name will be in my upcoming Aumelan book. And if you suggested it, I'll send you a signed copy of Aumelan when it's published!
Those who offer suggestions but aren't chosen, I'll send a PDF copy of Cornerstones: The First Ten Chapters From Cornerstone Deep, a sampler booklet which introduces you to the Chronicles of Shilo Manor series. So, everyone gets something for helping out. :)
