Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Guest Blogger: A Recipe from Picture Perfect by Leslie Ferdinand



New Orleans is renowned for both her food and her music. In Picture Perfect, several dishes are mentioned, including gumbo. Here’s a recipe taken from the novel. A little about the characters' musical preferences. Elliot loves Classical Music while Alex is a huge fan of Prince.
Pop in a CD of Classical Music or Prince as you prepare one of the dishes.

Chapter 45

"Sitting at the chef's table at the Seabreeze, Alex dipped her spoon into her bowl of gumbo and sipped it. Jade had come to the shop earlier and given her a good scolding for not answering her calls the past four days."

Shirley's Seafood Gumbo Recipe:

1 large onion
1/2 bell pepper
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup shallots
2 lbs medium shrimp
1 pint oysters
3 crabs, halved
1/2 lb jumbo lump crabmeat (picked for shells)
3 qts water
4 tbsp flour
Pepper and salt to taste

Add flour to heated cooking oil. Stir until flour turns brown (this is the roux). Add onion, bell pepper, garlic, shallots, parsley and bayleaf to dark roux. Cook seasoning until soft. Stir in water and let simmer for 15 minutes. Add shrimp and crab halves. Simmer 10 minutes more before adding in remaining ingredients. Salt and pepper to taste and serve over hot, white rice.


Note: Leslie adds cayenne pepper or crushed red pepper flakes for a spicier gumbo.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Back To You heroine Lynsey Reznor tells all about Nick Lincoln







This is the second interview in a series of interviews with Lynsey Reznor, my heroine from my contemporary romance and 2012 Finalist for Best Short Romance at the Festival of Romance Reader's Awards.



NNB: I’m pleased today to be able to interview my character, Lynsey Reznor. Lynsey will be dishing the gossip on one of Unity’s eligible bachelors, Nick Lincoln!

NNB: Welcome, Lynsey! Tell me how life has been since your move from Miami to sleepy little Unity.

LR: It’s been a bit of an adjustment, but over all I’m very happy to be home again among my friends.

NNB: A little bird has told me that Unity is chock full of eligible bachelors. Could you enlighten me?

LR: Well, I don’t like to gossip (wink! wink!) but I can share a little of my insider info with you.

NNB: What can you tell me about Nick Lincoln? Rumor has it that he was your first love.

LR: The Unity rumor mill must be in full production these days. Nick was my first big crush when I was a teenager. Nothing could ever come of it back then because he was engaged to someone else.
NNB: That must have been heartbreaking.

LR: Devastating, actually. But I was only sixteen. Anyway, I was offered a one-year scholarship in Switzerland. I stayed on an additional four years. It was the best move I could have made.

NNB: Now that Nick is a single man again, is there any chance of the two of you getting together?

LR: I would love nothing more, but I’ve got to stay real about the possibilities. I’m at a stage in my life where I’m ready to settle down and have children. Nick is at a stage in his life where he wants to spend some time alone. He doesn’t foresee children in his future.

NNB: So the two of you are more or less at an impasse?

LR: For now, yes. But I still have hopes for a future together.

NNB: I’ll keep my fingers crossed and think good thoughts for you and Nick. Thank you for sharing a little personal insight into Nick Lincoln. Find out more about Nick in Back To You, now available at Amazon through Books To Go Now Publishing.


*All photos are the property of Natalie-Nicole Bates*

Blurb:

On the surface, Lynsey Reznor seems to have it all. She is beautiful, brilliant, and a successful true-crime writer who has been living the past decade in Miami. But what Lynsey lacks is what she needs the most—a family.

After the death of her mother, and yet another failed relationship, Lynsey makes an impulsive decision to return to her hometown of Unity. But Unity will present its own bittersweet memories, most notably, her first love, Nick Lincoln.


Twenty years ago, Nick broke teenager Lynsey’s heart when he decided to marry another. He had his own private reasons—reasons he never explained to Lynsey. Now she is back, along with a chance to reclaim her love. But Lynsey wants answers from him that he may never be able to give out of duty and guilt.

Buy Links:


Natalie-Nicole's Links:

Twitter @BatesNatalie

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Natalie-Nicole interviews Lynsey Reznor from Back To You




I have the joy today of interviewing the heroine of my contemporary romance Back To You. Lynsey is going to dish about her return to her hometown of Unity! This interview is the first in a series of interviews I've done with characters from Back To You, and will share in the upcoming weeks.



NNB: Welcome home, Lynsey! How does it feel to be back in Unity after so many years?

LR: I’m very happy to be home again among friends. I do admit though I am a little nervous.

NNB: Nervous?

LR: I’ve been away for well over a decade. People have come and gone, everything has changed.

NNB: Miami must have been a great place for the last ten years. What made you decide to give up the sun and fun for small town living.

LR: Since my mother passed away I’ve had a lot of time to think about my future. I’m at age now where I want to settle down and start a family. Unity offers me a comforting, familiar place among friends.

NNB: Speaking of settling down, is there any chance at all of you rekindling your romance with the wildly popular progressive rock star Quinn Michaels with whom you’ve been linked to romantically?
LR: Although I enjoyed my time with Quinn, our relationship is a thing of the past. I don’t think Quinn will ever settle down into a normal life. Right now, I crave stability.

NNB: Is there anyone in Unity in particular that you are happy to be reuniting with?

LR: There’s my best friend Suzy. We’ve known each other since we were little girls. I’ve missed her tremendously since I left Unity all those years ago. There’s also Suzy’s brother, Nick.

NNB: I hear that Nick Lincoln is single and available once again. Any chance of a love connection?

LR: I would love nothing more, but Nick is a year out of a long-term marriage. I think he thinks of me as a surrogate sister. He tells me that he may never want to settle into another long term relationship, that he doesn’t foresee fatherhood in his future.

NNB: How does that make you feel?

LR: Sad, actually. I think of all the eligible men in Unity—and there are several—Nick will always be my first choice for a husband.

NNB: Well, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your busy schedule to talk with me.

To find out more about Lynsey, Nick, and even Quinn, read Back To You available now at Amazon through Books To Go Now!

Blurb:

On the surface, Lynsey Reznor seems to have it all. She is beautiful, brilliant, and a successful true-crime writer who has been living the past decade in Miami. But what Lynsey lacks is what she needs the most—a family.

After the death of her mother, and yet another failed relationship, Lynsey makes an impulsive decision to return to her hometown of Unity. But Unity will present its own bittersweet memories, most notably, her first love, Nick Lincoln.

Twenty years ago, Nick broke teenager Lynsey’s heart when he decided to marry another. He had his own private reasons—reasons he never explained to Lynsey. Now she is back, along with a chance to reclaim her love. But Lynsey wants answers from him that he may never be able to give out of duty and guilt.

Buy Links:


*Photos are the property of Natalie-Nicole Bates

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Forgiveness by Dilys J. Carnie




http://www.dilysjcarnie.com


The first book in The Fitzgerald Brothers is called One Night One Mistake. The heroin, Eva is a strong, independent woman who made a mistake that caused her a traumatic loss. With age comes a wisdom and the scars on the outside heal far quicker than the ones inside.

http://www.amazon.com/One-Night-Mistake-Fitzgerald-Brothers-ebook/dp/B00D1B5EW4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385781954&sr=8-1&keywords=One+Night+One+Mistake
Do we learn from our mistakes? Do we get to an age where we should know better? I guess life is a journey of living and part of living is to make mistakes and learn from them. Hurting from the inside out can cause the ruptures of heartache to become imbedded into our souls, but forgiving makes us better human beings. Trusting and forgetting is another story.

The most important lessons in life are from the bad mistakes we make, learning from them so that we don’t repeat them. Developing the wisdom and sense that controls our decisions can only come from bad choices.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new” Albert Einstein. Philosophical words…but invariably there are those heart-breaking mistakes that scar us forever, the type that stay with you constantly it doesn’t matter how hard you try to put them behind you.

Eva and Gabe travel a journey where neither one can offer forgiveness for the mistake they made on one night of impulse. Walking away lost Eva ten years of her life and letting her go cost Gabe the woman he loved. Will he be able to understand why she left? Will she ever be able to love again?