Mysteerie Manor II - Sharon Hays, Author

Maryanne’s delicious salad dressing in Mysteerie Manor II.

Maple Dijon Delight

This makes a good sized portion of salad dressing so you will have some for later!

(You could also cut recipe in half to make less, just in case)

3 to 4 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

2 parts oil to 1 part Dijon; 6 to 8 Tbsp. of a light tasteless oil *(I like grape seed oil, as is light, healthy and tasteless, but you can use your own choice of course. Also good for sautéing, if you’ve never tried it)

Whisk well to emulsify, as you drizzle oil into Dijon mustard while it thickens.

Add ¼ C fresh tarragon

S & P to taste

1/3 cup Maple syrup

Whisk in all three ingredients to the emulsified mustard and oil.

½ to ¾ c Raspberry Vinegar:  Add and whisk to emulsify well, to get to your desired consistency.

* (Honey may be used instead of Maple syrup, but I guarantee you will love the syrup combination!)

There you have a tasty new dressing that will delight your taste buds and healthy as well! 

 

Mysteerie Manor II - Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat

‘The fateful day she walked into the Valencia Manor, her life had taken many turns.  What had started out as a property investment opportunity had become an intriguing nightmare of unexpected events and mysterious, supernatural phenomenon.  Murder, strange accidents and tragedy all took their turns in the bizarre adventures at the Valencia Manor.  But through all of the mystery and misery, it had become a reality.  The Valencia Manor would be legally transferred into Maryanne’s name today… Maryanne was reluctant at first, to accept the unbelievable gift of the Valencia Manor, because she felt so bad about the death of the lovely Mrs. Dirkshire.  Maryanne spent weeks trying to find other relatives who might otherwise be next in line to inherit the property, but after careful searching, to no avail and legal counsel, she felt more at ease in accepting the gracious offer.’

 

The Valencia Manor was built in the 1800s.  After several mysterious deaths it was put on the market and bought by John Farthington.  The deaths continued with his child and wife both dying while living at the Manor.  After succumbing to illness himself, Farthington moved in with his sister Irene Dirkshire.  He later died leaving the Manor to her.  She, in turn, decided to sell and contacted Joan Bishop to be her agent.  Joan and Maryanne O’Donnell were close friends and when Irene saw how much Maryanne loved the old Manor she wrote a new will stating that if anything should mysteriously happen to her it was to go to Maryanne.  Upon her death a few weeks later, Maryanne inherited the Valencia Manor.

The Manor wasn’t the only thing that Maryanne inherited.  She acquired all of the ghosts, both good and bad, that called the Manor their home.  So she decided to sell her home and move into the Manor, but before doing this she first had to have the place completely renovated.  After finding the perfect contractor, her plans progressed with a good offer being placed on her home and Maryanne and her new husband Mario made plans to move into what was to be their new home at the Valencia.  Maryanne had already had the Manor swept of its spirits by her physic friend Vivian but when the contractor took out a wall and found an unexpected guest, Maryanne had to call on her friend again.  Vivian found more than expected when she returned to the Manor and with Mario informing her of the mysterious deaths that had been occurring around the area she had no choice but to give them her idea that they may be dealing with the “undead.” 

 

Reading Mysteerie Manor and Mysteerie Manor II made me remember reading my very first “horror” book.  It was called Salem’s Lot.  I read it at night, which was a mistake, and had trouble sleeping afterwards. I couldn’t even leave a curtain open for fear that an unsuspecting predator would be looking in.  That was years ago, but these two books bring some of those feelings back.  Author Sharon Hays has succeeded in giving me the creeps, even while reading during the day.

 

 

A Necessary End - Diana Rubino, Author

Jeff Davis Pie
 

1 c. brown or white sugar
2 tbsp. unbleached or all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. half and half
4 egg yolks
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/3 c. butter, melted
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

Ingredients for meringue:

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
 1/2 c. sugar

Combine sugar, flour and salt. Beat cream, egg yolks, and vanilla. Add to sugar mixture. Pour in melted butter. Spoon into unbaked pie shell and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Top with prepared meringue and brown. Cool on a wire rack.
Note: You can use whole eggs in the filling, and omit the meringue.

A Necessary End - Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat

Booth felt like going behind the saloon and blowing his brains out, so maybe getting it off his chest would help.

 “The day after the election, I decided it was time to begin planning this capture plot we’d discussed in Montreal. So I went to Nettie Colburn Maynard, the Lincolns’ spiritualist, to get information on his whereabouts. Not for any other reason,” he emphasized sternly. “But during the very first visit, strange things started happening to me. She went into trance and conjured up what she believes is a spirit who’s been haunting me ever since, haunting me in the hotel room, backstage at the theater, everywhere. I’ve had this recurring dream where I’m in ancient times, Rome or some old place like that, everybody dressed in tunics, and they’re waiting for me so we can murder somebody. And in real life, I’m constantly looking over my shoulder, feeling someone behind me. It’s all very unnerving. Some days, I can barely get through.” He paused for a sip. 

Sam hunched forward, anticipating every word. 

Booth went on, "I began to think there was something to all the mumbo-jumbo. It even started to bother Alice. She feels cold drafts in the room and sees things moving about like I do. It’s not just me going loony. And now I’m convinced someone from the spirit world is after me to do this deed to Lincoln, and won’t leave me alone until I do."

This is John Wilkes Booth’s conversation with his childhood friend Samuel Arnold.  Arnold, David E. Herold, Mary Surratt and a few other handpicked friends and acquaintances were all responsible for several failed attempts to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln.  Most of their attempts were foiled by actress Alice Grey. Gray was solicited by Senator John Parker Hale to help protect the president by acting as a spy against Booth.  What neither of them expected was for her to fall in love with Booth and even more unexpectedly was for Booth to fall in love with Gray.  His love for her was so great that he asked her to marry him.   

With all attempts to kidnap Lincoln failing, the surrender of Lee and the ending of the war, Gray knew Booth would give up his attempts allowing them to lead a normal life.  But as history proves, that was simply not to be.   

I’ve always had a fondness for certain eras of history, the 1800s being one. Reading the John Wilkes Booth story was like stepping back into time for me. A lot of what I read, I know from reading the history books to be declared as being true.  I had read that Booth was an actor, that he was at one time engaged to Lucy Hale, the daughter of Senator Hale. Reading history books told me that Mrs. Lincoln was heavy into mediums and spiritualists in hopes of contacting her two deceased sons.  And I may have even read somewhere that Booth kept a diary.  So, the writing of A Necessary End was a pleasure in reading for me. I’ve always said that if the history novels written by John Jakes were to be made into history books, kids would enjoy history and learn more.  I feel the same way about A Necessary End’s author Diana Rubino.  She has made reading the history of this event enjoyable. 

Now I leave you with one question.  Did John Wilkes Booth really die in that burning Garrett tobacco barn or did he escape to live a ripe old age?

Find on Amazon

Paperback: 384 pages 

Publisher: Moongypsy Press 

ISBN-10: 1463557132 

ISBN-13: 978-1463557133

Sojourn With A Stranger - Keta Diablo

Crockpot Spinach Dip

(A favorite recipe from Keta Diablo)

Ingredients:
§  8 ounces cream cheese cut in cubes
§  1/4 cup whipping cream
§  1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed & squeezed dry
§  2 tablespoons chopped pimento
§  1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
§  1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
§  2 tablespoons grated Parmesan Cheese
§  2 teaspoons grated onion
§  1/4 teaspoon dried leaf thyme, crumbled

Preparation:
4  Combine cream cheese and cream in slow cooker.
4  Cover and cook on LOW until cheese is melted, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
4  Add remaining ingredients; cover and cook on LOW for about 45 minutes longer.
4  Serve with raw vegetables, crackers, or crusty bread cubes

Sojourn With a Stranger - Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat

“The doll was on my pillow when I returned to my room.”

“What madness is this?” Derek paced the hallway.  “Someone is up to no good.”  When he stopped to look at her, she reminded him of a frightened child.  Her cheeks were pale, her eyes ringed with dark circles.  “I’ll get to the bottom of this.  The Bible and Baby can not walk from that trunk in the attic,” he looked toward the ceiling, “and suddenly materialize in your bedchamber.” 

“Poor man.  The master has finally met a problem he doesn’t understand and doesn’t possess the ability to control.”

 “What is that supposed to mean?  I tell you, someone in the manor dupes you, Raine.”

 “No, Derek.  A spirit placed the objects in my room, a tormented, recently passed spirit.”

“You drag the ghost into the conversation again.  Tell me, what are you insinuating?  You mean to say Cinda’s-?”

“How would I know?”  She hissed the words and wrung her hands.  “You can’t expect me to know what evil machinations occurred before I arrived.”

“Evil?”  He felt his forehead wrinkle.  “Nothing evil transpired.  Lucinda lost her mind, took her life.”  Despite the facts surrounding his wife’s death, a niggling fear crept up his spine.  “If evil played a part, I swear I wasn’t aware of it.”

* * *

Derek Stafford’s father Julian never misses a chance to express to his two sons that the first to provide him with an male heir will inherit Stafford Manor.  Lyman, being the oldest of the two has tried unsuccessfully to produce the male heir but so far his efforts have produced three daughters.  Derek, through an arranged marriage, tried with the death of each child and his wife Lucinda losing her mind, ending with her walking into the river committing suicide.  So, as time goes on, Julian’ pressure for an heir strengthens.  

When disaster strikes one of the ships owned by the Staffords, leaving two dead and one 18 year old young lady alive, Derek and Julian come up with an idea that is sure to produce a male child.  All they have to do is convince the girl, Raine Brinsley, to go along with their scheme and acquire a little help from the Madeline, the local ‘healer’ and all problems will be solved.  What they never expected was the ghost of Lucinda to come into the picture as a protector for Raine.  Lucinda tries desperately to make Raine understand that her life and the death of her babies were not natural and that she will be next if the killer isn’t exposed.  But will Raine understand the clues before it’s too late?

 Sojourn With A Stranger is a story that includes greed, a touch of history and is iced with the paranormal.  By combining all of these into one story Author Keta Diablo has created a beautifully, erotic love story that keeps you on the edge. It was a very enjoyable read.

Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat

Buy Sojourn With a Stranger on KINDLE: http://amzn.to/gQLMV2

Also available on NOOK: http://bit.ly/gS6XvG

Keta Diablo’s Author Web Site: http://www.ketadiablo.com

179 pages

Burn Out - Victoria Heckman, Author

 

Elizabeth Murphy's Junk Food Cookies

1 cup margarine or butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Blend above until creamy
Add in:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Mix in any or all of below-adjust proportions of "junk" to taste!
1 pkg chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries or cherries
1 cup crushed or chopped macadamia nuts
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Roll into balls a little bigger than a golf ball.  Makes approx. 20
cookies that size.
Bake in 350 degree oven for approx. 14 min. Cool 5 min.
before removing from sheet.

Victoria Heckman, Sisters in Crime-Central Coast Chapter President
Author of the K.O.'d in...Hawaii Mystery Series:
www.victoriaheckman.com
& the Ancient Hawaii Mystery Series

Burn Out – An Animal Communicator Mystery – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat

 

Cap continued to dominate the physical space and Shirley’s attention, but Elizabeth watched Missy, too.  Missy was not happy with the attention Cap was getting.  She distinctly said, He is always first.  He’s always getting fussed over.  I deserve that too.  She stuck out lower lip and rolled her brown eyes.  She’s no fun.  She thinks she’s a princess.  She doesn’t know how to have fun.  If Elizabeth had any doubt the speaker was Cap, he removed it by prancing in place, raising his hoof and waving it.  “Okay.  I see what’s going on.”  “Yes?”  Shirley asked.  “It’s an ego thing.  Missy is pretty strait-laced and came from a show background that Cap is working hard to diminish from his high up status as a dressage horse.  Cap has a sense of humor.  He knows it makes her mad to bring it up, so he does.  He doesn’t necessarily really believe that, but she’s so easy to rile.  Then Missy gets mad and retaliates by biting and chasing him.  He comes off looking like the abused one, but it’s mutual.  Like siblings anywhere.”  “I see.  I can believe that.  I’ve had Cap over 20 years and Missy only one.  The other problem is Missy has started trying to do to me what she does to Cap.  Now I understand why she does it to him, but how can I get her to stop doing it to me?”  “We have to come up with a plan and stick to it.”

 

Yep, you guessed it.  Elizabeth Murphy is a “Doctor Doolittle” “Horse Whisperer,” call her what you want but she communicates with animals as well as a bug now and then.  Her “talking” to the animals isn’t something that she makes too public for fear that people will think for one that she needs to be in a loony bin and for another because her husband is a firefighter hoping to make captain.  But, when fires start happening for no apparent reason, talking to the animals at the scene comes in handy. 

 

While visiting her husband Tig at the training center one day, Elizabeth noticed an announcement for a part-time job entering data into the computer.  It was a short time job so she decided to give it a try.  After the job was underway, she started noticing “accidents” were occurring while fighting what were being called arson fires.  After doing more research she determined that the fire that had injured her best friend’s husband Terry wasn’t normal.  Someone had cut a hole in the concrete pad under the floor and dug a hole, covering it up before setting the fire.  Not knowing the hole was there, Terry fell through the burned wood injuring himself.  And when Tig was injured in a training fire, Elizabeth knew it had to be someone connected to the department.  But the Firefighters were like a big family.  Who would want to hurt their own?  With the help of the animals, Elizabeth was determined to find out.

 

Victoria Heckman had me guessing throughout the whole book on this one.  By page 187 I had my suspects narrowed down to 3.  By page 199 I had added another suspect to my list.  Turned out to be one of my weakest suspects! 

 

Burn Out was a joy to read.  I laughed at some of the “conversations” with the animals.  Victoria Heckman had me believing that people/animal conversations was quite normal.  All of her characters were very creatively created making them seem like people you actually knew.  This was a fun, humorous yet serious book to read.

 

242 pages

2010

Revenge Publishing

ISBN# 978-0-9846098-1-9

 

Energetics: The First Order - Daniel Ward and Terre Britton, Authors

Uncle Eddie’s Cinnamon Sticks

Uncle Eddie is a larger than life character in ‘Energetics: The First Order,’ and below is one of his recipes:

“Eddie, Samantha’s brother, was an accomplished baker, and many Saturdays before sunrise Jordy’s nostrils were filled with the smell of yeast and fresh cinnamon sticks, pop-overs, sticky buns or cat pies. Sleepy-eyed, he’d make his way to the dimly lit kitchen and fall into his uncle’s open arms—Just like being wrapped in warm dough, Jordy remembered.”

Ingredients:

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons large granule sea salt, or 1 teaspoon fine grind sea salt

1/4 cup shortening (better yet 1/4 cup salted butter)

1/2 ounce dry yeast, 2 packages (Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast, Instant Yeast, Rapid Rise Yeast or Fast Rising Yeast)

1/2 cup very warm water

2 eggs, beaten

4 cups King Arthur bread flour

Filling:

2 cups brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

1 cup crushed walnuts

1 cup raisins (optional)

1/2 cup (1 stick) of melted butter

Directions:

1. Scald milk and stir in sugar, salt and shortening/butter
2. Cool to lukewarm
3. Dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon of brown sugar in very warm water
4. Wait for the yeast to bloom (approx. 20 min)
5. Stir the yeast mixture into the lukewarm milk mixture
6. Add beaten eggs
7. Add 3 cups flour
8. Beat until smooth
9. Stir in an additional cup flour
10. Turn dough out onto lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic
11. Place in a greased bowl and brush top with melted butter
12. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from draft, until double in bulk (about 1 hour)
13. Punch down and turn out onto lightly floured table
14. Roll into rectangle 2-1/2 ft x 1-1/2 ft  x 1/2” approx.
15. Spread filling onto rectangle evenly
16. Divide down the middle lengthwise
17. Cut across making 9” x 3” strips approx.
18. Fold the strips side to side and twist 3 times
19. Generously butter a large baking dish
20. Place the twisted cinnamon sticks side by side touching each other
21. When all the sticks have been placed in the baking dish, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with brown sugar
22. Put in oven with the oven light on and let rise until double in volume
23. Place in the center of the oven and bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes, or until evenly golden brown
24. Enjoy!

Making this recipe is like uncle Eddie came to visit: the smell of the yeast rising, the aroma of cinnamon, the taste of yesteryear, and of course, dunking the cinnamon sticks in hot coffee.

The memories are priceless.

Energetics: The First Order – Review by Guest Reviewer Matthew Morrison

Three MIT scientists risk their careers, reputations and their lives bringing a new form of energy to life in ‘Energetics: The First Order’ by Daniel Ward and Terre Britton.  Who wouldn’t want America to have a self-sustained energy source?  Only the U.S. government and the “Big Energy” companies.  Now, add the concerns of the entire international community as well as extraterrestrial abduction of one of the scientists, and you are ready to begin the journey. 

This book has the rambling adventure of a Clive Cussler yarn, shrouded in the political intrigue of a David Baldacci thriller, wrapped in the mysterious, other worldly, enigma of a Whitley Strieber diary.  Throw in the esoteric, technical ramblings of Nikola Telsa, a personal laboratory notebook of James C. Maxwell, a cross-country jaunt and a few bloody noses and you too will believe that Energetics is just the First Order.  Be brave, follow along, and see if these inventor’s can reject their null hypotheses, break free of convention, save the world, and reduce the carbon footprint of our modern society down to zero.  I can’t wait!

2010/2011

Sirius Press

225 pages

ISBN# 978-0-9841952-0-6

: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004I8WPDK