Introducing Guest Blogger and Best-Selling Author Sharon Kleve!

Bestselling author  Sharon Kleve is a Passionate Cook.Food and love have had a long association, for Passionate Cooks: Free Recipes From Today’s Hottest Romance Authors, over 150 authors of the genre have put their pens and computers aside to don aprons, get down and dirty in the kitchen, and share their love of food.Much like romance novels themselves, the dishes range from spicy to sweet. There is something for every taste and every level of culinary expertise. The cookbook includes bestselling author Sharon Kleve's Lip Smacking Pork Roulade and New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mari Carr’s “Wild Irish” Cream of Crab Soup recipe. Western GBLT author BA Tortuga contributes a dish as spicy and colorful as the straight-shooting author herself with Ranch Hands—a blend of Tabasco, salsa, onions and cumin, added to pinto beans, eggs, Canadian bacon and cheddar cheese and served in a tortilla. And for those of you who are feeling extra creative and sexy, there’s the Avocado Dip that doubles as body paint from mystery writer Marcia James.Some recipes are simple, such as Down Home Mac & Cheese, while some are more exotic, such as Spicy Shrimp Risotto. There are even some gluten-free selections, like the Sweet and Spicy Gluten-Free Lo Mein-ish Noodles from erotica author Sommer Marsden. And a few are perfectly timed for a Halloween, such as Tracey H. Kitt’s Gamberi del Diavolo or Shrimp of the Devil.Best of all, they are all FREE!You can find the link on my website: http://www.sharonkleve.com/And my blog:  http://authorsharonkleve.blogspot.com/https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-passionatecooks-944744-174.html 

Sharon's Blog Hops and Stops

I'll be spending the day at Lily Sawyer Books Blog on September 25th, Come join us. http://lilysawyerbooks.blogspot.com/Please join me at Rosanna Leo's Room on October 3rd for an exciting Blog stop.http://www.rosannaleo.blogspot.com/?zx=80dd22c6d3317020I'll be joining Kayelle Allen at Romance Lives Forever on October 10th.  Take a minute and come join us. http://romancelivesforever.blogspot.com/p/guest-blogger-faqs.htmlI'll be visiting Jen at Romancing The Book on November 7th. Come join me.http://romancing-the-book.com/author/romancing-the-book-reviewsI'll be visiting Marianne Stephens at Romance Books '4 ' Us on November 16th. Come join me.http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.comI'll be visiting Aimme Terry at The Window Seat on a Rainy Day on December 7th. Come join me. http://thewindowseat13.blogspot.com/ Contact me at:http://www.sharonkleve.com/http://authorsharonkleve.blogspot.com/http://www.facebook.com/sharonrklevehttps://twitter.com/#!/SharonKlevehttps://pinterest.com/srkleve/http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?trk=tab_prohttps://plus.google.com/u/0/b/106597108511066054614/106597108511066054614/posts#106597108511066054614/posts You can purchase my books at:http://www.amazon.com/Sharon-Kleve/e/B006JAH14S/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Sharon-kleve?keyword=Sharon+kleve&store=allproducts&iehack=%E2%98%A0http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=sharon+kleve Blurb:Corny is a hot chick with a great job that she loves. All that changed in the blink of an eye when her boss had an accident involving an oversized rubber band. She’s still a hot chick, but her boss is dead.Steve Spears is a seasoned narcotics cop who ends up wanting to strangle Corny on a regular basis. After finding out Corny’s dream of opening a pet detective business, he decides he doesn’t want a girlfriend who routinely puts herself in danger. That’s his job!Corny misses Steve, but she’s getting on with her life. She decides to get a month’s worth of dating out of the way in a single night, by combining her three favorite things—men, food, and alcohol.Steve’s big gun and cop’s intuition saves Corny’s life, but not from another trip to the emergency room. He makes Corny promise never to get hurt again—she agreed, but has her fingers crossed behind her back.Author Bio: Sharon Kleve was born and raised in Washington and currently lives on the Olympic Peninsula with her husband.She loves romance. She loves reading romance, living romance, and especially loves writing about romance. She gets no greater feeling than watching her characters come alive in each other's arms. Most of all, she loves giving her characters the happily ever after they deserve—with a few bumps and bruises along the way.One of her favorite things to do is picking up a new book and sinking into the story, immersing herself in the emotions between the characters. She hopes to inspire her readers the same way her favorite authors have inspired her.When not writing, she can usually be found either curled up in her recliner with her cat and a good book, or in the kitchen baking sourdough bread or bagels. 

Guest Blogger and Author Margot Vesel Rising

My name is Margot Vesel  Rising, a composer and author. A few years ago after church every Sunday, a group of widows went out for lunch. Some of the women were exchanging books with each other.  I finally asked what they were reading. They said romance novels. I asked if they wouldn’t like to read stories about people of our own age. They agreed that they‘d enjoy that. That is when I seriously started to write with a purpose.

Having composed for years, I decided to use part of my life as a composer for WHIRLWIND. That was followed by Whirlwind II and BEYOND THE WHIRLWIND. All of them were about an older woman composer and her romance. I followed with other books about younger women, but I found it was easy to put older people along with the younger ones. My thought was that there would be something of interest for everyone.One by one, I published nine novels through iUniverse.  When Books To Go Now accepted ORPHAN ON MY DOORSTEP, I was thrilled that I didn’t have to spend one cent on it. It is now an eBook. It has more than one story in the novel, and I hope people enjoy it as much I have enjoyed writing it. (By the way, the orphan is not a child, but a young woman who grew up in foster homes.)We all need to have some reason to write a book, even if it just an idea for the plot. My mother wrote poetry in Germany and many of them were published.  After learning the language, she started to write again. The year before she died, a publisher accepted several of them to print in his next book of poetry. Unfortunately, his wife wrote a month later that she had to return the poems. Her husband had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and they closed the publishing company immediately. I felt bad for Mother; but two years after her death, I wondered why I couldn’t write a novel around her poems. I enclosed a few of my own (really nothing compared to Mother’s poetry) and POETIC JUSTICE was created. I composed my music as Margot Vesel , (my name at that time.) I try to use Margot Vesel Rising when the novels concern music.I valued the editor of Books To Go Now who read my book and made suggestions for corrections. It is wonderful to have someone read the words I wrote. Self-publishing companies like iUniverse don’t read or edit them unless you pay them to do it. The cost has gone up so much, I can’t afford to publish any more with them.I can only hope that ORPHAN ON MY DOORSTEP is read by many and enjoyed. Please feel free to connect with Margot on Facebook!  Or Check out her books on Amazon! 

“Casual Day at the Crazy House,” Where It Came From, and a Cool Giveaway by Helen W. Mallon

A very warm Thank You to Danica Winters for hosting me today!I'm thrilled to announce the release of my new short story!

In 2007, I decided to break from work on my novel and write a new short story.  Problem was, I had no ideas…I tried doing writing exercises, but the results were lame and embarrassing.  Embarrassing I could work with, but lame has to be left alone to nurse its sore leg.  I tried not caring, but that only reminded me that I wasn't writing.Some ingredients were already in place: I wanted a character who used the old-fashioned Quaker plain speech; I wanted to question liberal white racial attitudes, but not in a heavy-handed way. (There's a line of dialogue in "Casual Day at the Crazy House" that someone actually said it to me. Anyone who correctly identifies it will receive a previous story, free.)Then we went to the movies: The Darjeeling Limited, (directed by Wes Anderson), a study in privilege if there ever was one.3 brothers tote very expensive luggage across India in search of their estranged mother. Photo courtesy of: http://emmab90.wordpress.com/2010/04/04/the-darjeeling-limited-2007/The only direct relationship between the movie and "Crazy House" is that two of my characters are Indian.  I  didn't make the connection until several drafts into the story.  I didn't watch it and think, Wow, Indian characters would make this piece!  I hijacked them without realizing it.The actual inspiration was murky, but I left the theater with a solid idea in place: What if the father in a family suddenly moves into the bathroom and won't come out?  It's a quirky, Wes-Anderson-y idea.My conscious mind, which had been grinding away, took a vacation during the movie. The unconscious, often the smarter sibling, was free to soak in the movie's fantastic imagery.*Bloggers: Anyone who re-posts this blog will receive a free copy of  "Casual Day," but please send me your link:  hmallon@navpoint.comEnjoy this excerpt from "Casual Day at the Crazy House""Dad?” He didn’t move. I noticed his bald spot was getting bigger. “Dad. I’ve got a question?”“Everything changes,” he told the window. Then he turned. “Ah, Livvie.” His smile looked like it hurt.I gave him the Cheezits. “My thanks. Have a seat.” The chair Dad offered visitors was the toilet, but I never sat there. He slept in what used to be a large, old-fashioned bathtub before he moved his bedding in here. He kept clean in the freestanding shower, which otherwise held a rack with extra clothes.“Cheezit?”I shook my head. Dad sat on the bathtub’s edge, munching and sad. “You’ll graduate soon.” He sounded like I had stage three cancer.“Ye-ah…”"How’s that English seminar going? Seaver still as sharp as when I had him?”How would I know? “Maybe.” Dad used to take me out, comparing restaurants. Then poof. Last October in the middle of roast lamb and vegetables, he stood up white-faced and gasped— as if he’d suddenly remembered something—knocking over his chair. He straightened it and left the room. Mom went right on with her story about a stray bat in the Assisted Living wing where she worked....Within a week he had moved into the bathroom. There, thanks to wireless and his cell, he continued running his company. Nobody seemed to think all this was as weird as I did. “The energy in the house is imbalanced,” Mom had said, pushing out a laugh. Gammy got an inward look. “There always was more to him. Give it time.”Purchase HereWhen you're stuck for a story idea, how do you handle it?  A random commenter will receive a copy of my story, "You Say You Want a Revolution"The Next Big Thing! "Casual Day at the Crazy House" http://ftheeiwasateenagequaker.wordpress.com/