Judith Hudson's Blog, page 5
December 5, 2017
Home for Christmas half-price sale – everywhere
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It’s not all mistletoe and holly.
I’ve cut the ebook price of Home for Christmas in half because, hey, it’s December and I really want everyone to have a chance to read Louise and Blue’s Christmas story before the next book comes out in January. Each book can be read alone, but I know I like to read a series in order when I can.
So I’ve cut the ebook price of Home for Christmas down to $1.99 (or thereabouts – according to the vagaries of online booksellers!) until the end of the year.
Home for Christmas ebook is available at
Amazon Kobo nook apple/iTunes
and these international online stores
and as paperback at Amazon
Welcome to Christmas in Fortune Bay.
Sometimes falling in love means risking it all.
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Louise is finished pastry school and is back in Fortune Bay for Christmas, before returning to Seattle to find her dream job.
She’s staying at the Murphy cabin for the month, with a new boyfriend in tow. Blue knows the relationship won’t last very long, it never does, but even so, it makes him more determined than ever not to get caught up in her life again.
Blue understands her better than anyone. He’s been her shoulder to cry on since the horrible accident years ago that, following close on the heels on the death of her mother, left Louise convinced she would never have a family of her own.
But how long does a guy have to wait? It’s time he got on with his own life. With or without her.
As Christmas festivities swirl around them, fate steps in again and Louise’s plans for a new life begin to crumble. Will Blue be there this time to pull her through?
CLICK HERE To read a short excerpt from Home for Christmas.
Happy reading and happy holidays!
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November 16, 2017
Christmas fruitcake cupcakes
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This is my fantastic old recipe for the Best Christmas Fruitcake Ever, but in a new form. Fruitcake cupcakes!
It’s always so popular, so sweet and moist, that even though the recipe makes 5 small loaves, it’s never enough to give a nice looking piece to the number of people I want to share it with.
So this year I tried baking it in muffin cups–with some success. I immediately discovered that if it’s not a loaf, you’ll want to cut the cherries into smaller pieces. (When you slice the loaf the cherries automatically get sliced.) That left me digging the cherries out of the batter–well, you get the picture. The alternative would be to put in a lot more cherries! I’ll leave that decision to you.
I started with the tiny muffin/ cupcake tins, 1 1/2 inches in diameter, and saw right away that the fruit mix was too coarse for that size–and that you’d want to do something about that before mixing into the batter. (see above) Also, they baked too fast and got very crispy on the top. Basically little rocks. Most of those went into the compost. 
November 9, 2017
Announcing a new monthly contest!
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I’ve been quiet much too long, a combination of working hard on the new Fortune Bay book (Starting Over off the editor’s today. Yay!), lots and lots of wonderful guests basically all through October (the two-month old and two-year old were just adorable), and just plain life.
So now I feel like reaching out to my readers and, to get back on track,
I’m starting a new monthly contest.
I’ll be giving away a print copy of one of my Fortune Bay books. (Yes they are available in print. Did someone say Christmas present?)
This month, it’s The Good Neighbor. (You can read an excerpt HERE )
To enter, all you have to do is answer the question of the month HERE on my facebook page, in the comments.
I’ll be picking a winner on the 15th of each month.
Good luck!
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October 10, 2017
Fall Sale — 2 books for $1.59 USD & $1.99 CAD each
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It’s the sale I told you about in my last newsletter. Five days only. Get these e-books today for your holiday reading.
Although The Good Neighbor and Home for Christmas are books 2 and 3 in the Fortune Bay series, each book is a stand alone story.
This sale won’t last long so get your ecopies today, just click on the links below:
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THE GOOD NEIGHBOR (Frankie and Sean)
KOBO.COM
Amazon
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Home for Christmas (Louise and Blue)
Kobo.com
Amazon
(Sorry, the sale is on KOBO and Amazon only)
This sale is part of KOBO’s
199 ebooks for $1.99
So expect to see lots of other bargains there!
Meanwhile, no rest for the wicked–I’m back to work on editing Starting Over, Book 4 in the series due out at the end of November 2017.
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September 25, 2017
Quick Fruit Surprise Muffins
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Perfect for breakfast or tucked in a back-to-school lunch.
For me, September is all about keeping up with the ripening fruit from our garden. This year everything is ripening at once, so I’ve made peach jam, frozen figs to make leather later, pitted and frozen Italian prune plums and made Mostly Plum Jam from a mixture of other plums and the end of the blueberries.
It has even trickled into Starting Over, the story I’m almost finished writing, when Lily, trying to win over Marshall’s children, bakes them Fruit Surprise Muffins.
We’ve enjoyed these moist fruity muffins for years. I usually poke a frozen cherry in the center of each muffin, (that’s the surprise!) but since I’ve been working on plums this week, I made this batch with chopped plums. The original recipe calls for plums, but that has never stopped me from improvising!
Try them. I bet your family will love them.
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Fruit Surprise Muffins
A delicious healthy muffin that keeps well.
CuisineSweet Treats
Servings12 large muffins
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
1cup
rolled oats
1 cup
yogurt
1/2cup
vegetable oil
3/4 cup
brown sugar
1
egg
Dry Ingredients
1cup
flour
1tsp
salt
1/2 tsp
baking soda
1tsp
baking powder
Fruit
1 cup
stone fruitdrained, chopped, fresh or frozen. cherrie or plums are good.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Soak oats in yogurt
Add oil, sugar and egg. Beat well
Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add to moist ingredients all at once. Before stirring, pour fruit over dry ingredients. (Or add whole cherries at the end.)
Stir to blend.
Spoon into muffin cups. (I use paper liners.) (This is when I poke in the cherries.)
Bake for 20 minutes.
July 27, 2017
Cherry Cake
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[image error]I had a house full this week, my niece, her partner and their 5 children visiting and, it being cherry season here in BC, I took the opportunity to make my favorite Cherry Cake. It’s sort of like the French Clafoutis but the beaten egg whites make it more of a cake, less pie. And the almond extract makes it smell amazing!
We’ve been lucky to have a prolific cherry tree for many years and I make this cake form either fresh or frozen cherries. Best eaten the first day – as if you could resist!
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Cherry Cake
A light un-iced cherry cake bursting with juicy cherries.
CuisineSweet Treats
Servings16 pieces
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time45 minutes
Ingredients
25
cherriesfresh, washed and pitted, if frozen or canned drain well
3
eggsseparated
3/4cup
buttersoftened
3/4cup
white sugar
1tsp
almond extract
1cup
white flour
pinch
salt
1/4 cup
dry bread crumbs
Instructions
Wash and pit cherries.
Separate eggs and set yolks aside. Beat egg whites until stiff. Set aside in another bowl.
Cream butter. Add the sugar. Add egg yolks and almond extract and beat vigorously.
Mix in flour and salt.
Butter mixture will be quite stiff. Add a bit of the egg whites to soften, then fold egg whites into butter mixture. Do not over blend.
Butter 9" X 9" baking pan (or slightly larger) and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Pour in batter and stud with drained cherries.
Bake at 375° F. for 30 minutes. Cool and sprinkle with icing sugar to decorate if you wish.
Enjoy.
July 14, 2017
Family Matters
It’s the sequel to The Good Neighbor and, if you’ve read that and have posted a review on the online bookseller of your choice, let me know (by email) and
I’ll send you a free VIP Readers copy of Family Matters.
Reviews don’t have to be long, just tell other readers how you felt about the story.
I love this one by the husband of a reader! It made me laugh.
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And here’s s another example.
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Thanks Sarleigh!
Here’s the Blurb for Family Matters.
Welcome back to Fortune Bay
Spoiler Alert!
Be sure to read The Good Neighbor before reading this novella!
Hi Everyone!
When I finished writing Home for Christmas, Louise and Blue’s story, I sat back and thought about [image error]where everyone in Fortune Bay was in their lives at this point. Louise and Blue were fine, all lovey-dovely, Louise moving into Blue’s new log house, both of them ecstatic about the possibility of twins.
But what about Frankie and Sean? By spring, it had been five months since they found Amber—or rather, since she found Sean. Now he and Amber were living with his mom Stephanie, and Frankie was living alone—not the best situation for Sean and Frankie – or for Stephanie and Max.
And what about Amber? It was hard to believe everything was just smooth sailing for her after such a huge upheaval in her life.
By now you have probably figured out how real these characters are to me! Lol. I couldn’t leave them in this situation. The story started to grow and turned into this sequel novella, written specially for my most loyal readers who have been reading all the Murphy family Fortune Bay books.
If you haven’t read the other books, do yourself a favor and put this book aside until you have.
I hope you enjoy Family Matters as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Judy Hudson
One reader obviously felt the same way when they finished The Good Neighbor.
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I hope she finds this book now. If she is on my mailing list she’ll know by now.
Thanks for reading,
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Available at:
AND MOST OTHER ONLINE BOOKSELLERS
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July 2, 2017
Long Weekend Rhubarb Cake
It doesn’t feel like a summer long weekend to me without the rhubarb coffee cake my mother-in-law Betty always served at the cottage.
The Canadian and American July long weekends fall just a few days apart; July 1, Canada Day, the big 150 this year, and the Fourth of July. If your house is like ours, people are coming and going all weekend. We spent Canada Day at my sister-in-law’s lake house this year, and I brought the rhubarb cake as a tribute to Betty.
Sweet, not too rhubarb-y, it’s perfect anytime when you have a houseful.
Have a wonderful holiday!
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Rhubarb Coffee Cake
Everyone loves this sweet coffee cake.
CuisineSweet Treats
Servings1 13 x 9 pan
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time45 minutes
Ingredients
1/2cup
butter
1 1/2cup
white sugar
1
egg
1tsp
vanilla
2cups
all purpose flour
1tsp
baking soda
1/2tsp
salt
1cup
buttermilkcould substitute yogurt mixed with milk
2cups
chopped rhubarbtossed in 1 tsp flour
3/8 cup
butter
2tsp
cinnamon
3/4cup
brown sugar
Instructions
- cream butter and sugar
- beat in eggs and vanilla
- sift together flour, salt and soda and add to creamed mixture alternating with buttermilk
- toss rhubarb with 1 tsp flour and mix in by hand.
- pour into buttered 13 x 9 pan
- Mix butter, cinnamon & brown sugar and sprinkle on top of cake
- bake for 45 minutes.
June 15, 2017
Just want to share my new cover.
If books are our babies, I have to share my first book in her new party dress.
I loved the graphic quality of the old cover, but too many people asked me if it was for adults. YES!
It obviously looked too young though, some thought Young Adult. So time for a new cover, and my cover girl Rosey Hudson and I agreed this was perfect. Same scene, better representation.
[image error]Had to show it again ’cause it’s so pretty.
If you haven’t read it yet, check your eReader– I’ve given away thousands of copies to introduce readers to the Fortune Bay series.
If you only ready print, it is available in print at Amazon, Barnes & Noble online, and the Createspace store.
For a sneak peek at chapter one, CLICK HERE.
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June 10, 2017
Update!
I’ve been really busy and thought I’d give you an update.
How do you like my new website? I love it! Except that I can’t get my “Find me on social media” buttons to work. Hopefully soon.
The Getting to Know You Survey is now closed. There wasn’t a spot for people to enter their name, just their email addresses. My mistake. I don’t want to post their email addresses here, so I have contacted the winners (Check your email) and will post their names when they respond. Half of the 16 winners have already responded.
The facebook party was quiet but fun. I enjoyed a more intimate ‘chat’ with the people who visited.
In all, I have a much better ideas of who my readers are, so I don’t feel like I’m writing in a vacuum, and I possibly got some ideas on how to reach them and how to keep them happy.
