Laura Florand's Blog, page 34

Chatting with Ruthie Knox and with Books N Kisses

There has been a LOT going on with THE CHOCOLATE TOUCH release, and of course I escaped to the mountains with no internet for part of it.

A beautiful recommend on USAToday.com for THE CHOCOLATE TOUCH. (I can’t quite get over that it was recommended with MAGIC RISES. I adore Ilona Andrews’s books.) “This is fast-becoming one of my favorite and most-anticipated series. . . .A very adorable, well-done romance. I highly recommend this series.”

Ruthie Knox and I get a little out of hand in our interview, but I blame Ruthie. She’s like the Oprah of blogger interviewers, that’s what I say: she gets us to say things we never meant to confess! There’s also a giveaway with this interview, if you want to check it out.

And on Books N Kisses, I share a little glimpse of the real-life inspiration for the setting for Dom Richard’s salon de chocolat in THE CHOCOLATE TOUCH. With photos!

Meanwhile, one of the chocolatiers I was interviewing recently, Andrea Smith of DiAmano Chocolate, also does THIS in her spare time.

Do you see why I love writing about people like this? I might have to do another chocolate book just to have a derby girl-chocolatier heroine. I’m getting a vision. People are AWESOME. So fascinating and multi-layered.

 

CHOCOLATE TOUCH in stores Tuesday!

THE CHOCOLATE TOUCH comes available at midnight! Reviews have been so sweet. I’m so glad people are responding to this book, because this is just the couple I want to curl up and cuddle with and it’s a bit hard letting them go, to be honest.

Now I know I’ve mentioned the PW STARRED REVIEW probably fifty times before, so just a few snippets from some reviews coming in this weekend:

“Gorgeously written, in that way that sort of creeps through my entire body and makes me shiver with delight.” (Dear Author Recommended Read)

“A wonderful story of love, seeing in someone else what you think in lacking in yourself, and coming to terms with your past. . . . amazing.” (Harlequin Junkie Recommended Read)

“A stay-up-until-my-eyes-burn-with-sleep kind of read.” (6 matryhoshkas from Ruby’s Reads--I love this rating! It means she would take it to the afterlife with her. OK, then. I’m good with that. )

I hope you enjoy this book! I’m so excited for its release.

What I’m Reading–What About You?

I am on the most incredible run of good luck in my reading material this month! I keep saying I should buy a lottery ticket, but what if that ate up all my reading good luck and left me with filthy lucre instead? So I’m sticking to books.

And just to help you get lucky, too, here are the two new ones from this past week that I’ve been talking about:

Confidence Tricks by Tamara Morgan. This was so funny! I laughed and laughed through this book. It’s a thief caper, and you know how much I like those. (Although honestly, I don’t think you can qualify The Chocolate Thief as a thief caper. I’m not so good at writing capers, but I do love to read them.) The playboy-thief hero Asprey is hilarious, and I dare you to read one chapter and not fall for him. Go ahead–check out the sample and let me know if I won the dare or not! And the heroine, con-woman Poppy, is priceless. She can beat him up! And his masculinity somehow doesn’t suffer at all for that. His own madcap humor forms part of his very powerful masculinity, if you will. I love this. I laughed all the way through the book, and yet at the same time, I thought it was a very intelligent read–much more than the humor, a story with a lot of heart.

Making It Last – A Novella (Camelot Series)by Ruthie Knox. This is only 0.99, by the way and so incredibly worth it. Ruthie is an amazing writer, and I was particularly interested to read this one,  and have been all antsy for it to come out, because I knew she was taking on a similar concept to my novella Turning Up the Heat. I love seeing what different authors do with the same trope or the same essential idea, and in this case, I feel like there are just not enough books out there that look at an issue I absolutely love: that of a marriage ten years or so on. A marriage that is essentially a good marriage, the couple is doing their best by each other, and yet, and yet . . . they need to renegotiate who they are as individuals and who they are with each other. They are at a crossroads where they can reaffirm their love or perhaps see it die, if they aren’t careful. And Ruthie Knox does this story beautifully. She has such a down-to-earth-I-know-these-people way with her writing, with that vivid detail that makes them ours so very clearly, and this is a very emotional story. I would love to hear what you think of it. If you have read Turning Up the Heat, too, come back and have a comparative literature discussion! Remember, I had a lot of training as a literary scholar at one point in my life, and I just love thinking about and analyzing how different authors treat an idea.

What about you? What have you been reading this week? Are you having a good run, too, or in a rut?

Wonderful Welcome in Georgia

It’s official: I love Friends of the Library hosted events. This whole series of talks, everyone has been so sweet, AND they have made chocolate every single time. I want to give a big thanks to Roni Tewksbury, director of the West Georgia Regional Library system, for organizing these events for their Adult Summer Reading Program finale.

Also, she kept telling everyone stories of how when we were kids, she would be working at the library desk of our hometown library in the system and see two giant stacks of books approaching the desk. Then the books would be set down and my sister and I would peek around the edge of them, ready to check out. Every few days.

This is a true story. My dad used to say the car didn’t know how to get home from school without turning into the library, because I was always insisting we stop by there.

So THAT’s why I love libraries and think all authors should. Plus, you know–they feed me chocolate these days. That’s always a plus.

A few photos of the events:

With an old dear friend who came to the signing.

 

With one of my closest friends from school.

With Roni Tewksbury, director of the West GA Library system & responsible for organizing this series of events. The Buchanan Library is in the old courthouse–utterly charming. I pretended I was Perry Mason.

Jana, branch manager at the Buchanan Library, made truffles. Teresa Jones made truffles at the Neva Lomason library, too, but we failed to get a photo before they were all gone!

With Donna Alvis, head of the Ephesus Library & responsible for the lovely baskets and bouquets of chocolate-y gifts.

Signing away…

The mayor of Ephesus took a course with my dad. You can see by the expression on my face what kind of stories he is telling on my dad.

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“Yes, that sounds like my dad, all right,” I am saying.

A huge thanks to Roni Tewksbury for organizing all the events and being there in person to make sure every single one went off without a hitch. And a big thank you to everyone in the system who made it possible–branch managers such as Jana, Agnes for all the technical assistance, children’s librarian Teresa Jones (who makes awesome truffles), all the amazing Friends of the Library groups, and all their generous members who made chocolate and other goodies and showed up to support. Another thanks to Donna Alvis, because I am still gleefully enjoying all the chocolate-y goodies in the gift basket. And of course one Giant Enormous THANK YOU to everyone who turned out. Your support is so much appreciated.

It was a wonderful “advance premier” for THE CHOCOLATE TOUCH.

And I am now officially open to chocolate bribery from Friends of the Library everywhere.

BIG BASTILLE DAY GIVEAWAY!

Okay, I’m super excited about this giveaway. If you’ve managed to get an advanced copy of THE CHOCOLATE TOUCH, you’ll have seen a certain key scene using caramels.

Those caramels were inspired by these caramels, from Jacques Genin’s in Paris.

And I brought back a box for you! Well, one of you. Now these aren’t just your average caramels. They’re $90/lb caramels and quite a few people call them the best in Paris. (Which, you know how it is in Paris, means of course the best in the world as far as they’re concerned!)

With the caramels, one lucky winner also gets a full set of the Chocolate books up to now: THE CHOCOLATE THIEF, THE CHOCOLATE KISS, THE CHOCOLATE ROSE, and, of course, THE CHOCOLATE TOUCH.

So check out Smexybooks for the giveaway!

Dal Nirvana

Some time ago, I promised to share my own recipe for dal, in honor of THE CHOCOLATE ROSE. (If you’ve read it, you’ll know why. If you haven’t read it, can I just mention that Gabriel is one of my favorite characters? Hint, hint.)

I was making it today and remembered at last the request for it! So here is my recipe. If you make this version without the butter and cream for any reason but severe lactose intolerance, all of my French chefs will personally come haunt your kitchen and curse it.

Dal Nirvana

1 cup basmati rice
1 cup dry red lentils
1 (6-ounce) can tomato sauce or puree or even paste


1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger (use fresh if you can)
3-4 cloves minced garlic
¼-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper to taste (this is in the original recipe, but in my family we actually don’t use any)
water


3-4 tablespoons butter
Salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4  to 1/3 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro (if you don’t like cilantro, try parsley)

Prepare rice according to package directions.

Rinse lentils. In a large sauce pan, add the lentils and fill pan with water to cover lentils by 2 inches. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, until the lentils open and are tender. Drain the water from the lentils and return the lentils to the pot. Add the tomato sauce, spices, water, butter, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, lower heat and cook, covered, for 1 hour, until the dal is thick. Check the pot from time to time and add water if the mixture is getting too dry. Stir in cream and cilantro last minute, adding more salt if needed.

Serves 4. (Kind of. My friends are pretty athletic, so always hungry, so if I’m serving 4, I double it. It makes good leftovers for weekday lunches, anyway.)

Source: Recipe slightly adapted from Nirvana Restaurant, Beverly Hills.  I originally saw it at Shockingly Delicious.

What do you think? Worthy of Gabriel? What’s your dal recipe?

Correction to Saturday talk time

The talk I’m giving on Saturday, in Villa Rica, is at NOON, not 2:00.

So the upcoming events are:

Sat. July 13, 2013 @ 12:00 noon, Villa Rica Public Library (Villa Rica GA)






Sun., July 14, 2013 @ 3:00, Neva Lomason Memorial Library (Carrollton GA)






Mon. July 15, 2013 @ 6:00, Buchanan-Haralson Public Library (Buchanan GA)


Tues., July 16, 2013 @ 6:00, Ephesus Public Library (Roopville GA)

Chocolate galore! Hope to see you there!

Some Good Books–What about you?

I’ve been having a really good run of luck the past couple of weeks in books, as I do my summer reading catch-up*, and I wanted to share some standouts with you.

(*When I am working on my own books and teaching, I often go long periods where I only look at my own work, because I am too deep in the story to pull myself out of it for someone else’s. So in the summer, I am often a reading glutton to make up for it.)

Here are two contemporaries that I loved for different reasons, and I have a couple of historicals to share with you later. What about you? Any recommends? Can you  help me maintain my lucky great books reading spree?

Up first on my end, The Story Guy (Novella), by Mary Ann Rivers. I’m mentioning this one first because she is a debut author, so let’s give her a little extra love. This was just AMAZING. On Facebook, I described this book as erotic, exquisite, and tender, so very true and so very heartwarming. I particularly admired the perfect strength of the author’s writing, the detail that sucked the reader in, made us believe. It is a novella and comes on sale today for only 0.99, so what can I say? Just get it! How can you go wrong? I was just stunned by how good it was.

Next up a full-length contemporary, from one of my much-loved authors, Virginia Kantra. Carolina Girl (A Dare Island Novel) is the second entry in Virginia’s Dare Island series, and if you haven’t read the first, CAROLINA HOME, yet, I tend to recommend starting with that, because one of the great pleasures of this series to me is how beautifully drawn the family is and seeing those relationships grow and evolve. I also just love the Carolina island setting here and sinking into it. And, of course, all this ties in with the beautiful love story that is the central part of each book. Virginia Kantra is a master of her craft, and she knows how to evoke people and places in a way that makes us both dream about them and feel how real they are.

Have you read these? Did you like them? What else are you reading that’s great this summer?

 

CHOCOLATE TOUCH receives starred review from PW!

I can’t believe the things I didn’t mention while traveling. While I was sporadically posting Roman bridges, etc., THE CHOCOLATE TOUCH RECEIVED A STARRED REVIEW FROM PUBLISHERS WEEKLY!

This is such wonderful news, and I’m so excited about it. Here I was thinking I must have told everyone a million times, and apparently I only mentioned it on Facebook. (In my defense, FB is a bit easier than a blog post when working from a phone at a rare hotspot while traveling France and Italy.)

Here’s an excerpt of the review:

“The emotionally intense third Amour et Chocolat romance stands well on its own…Both Jaime and Dom are highly complex characters, with layers of emotions, thorny pasts, and tangled relationships with family and friends. Readers will cheer for both of them to work past their issues and find their chocolaty ever after.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

You can see the full review here.

Very proud, and excited for this book to be out. July 30 seems like such a long wait!

 

Chocolate Touch talks, July 13-16

Remember, for the Adult Summer Reading Program Grand Finale in Georgia, I will be doing 4 chocolate talks-events over Bastille Day weekend. (See all the tie-ins there: France, chocolate, books, me!)

AND . . . early copies of THE CHOCOLATE TOUCH are supposed to be available! Exclusively at those talks! In limited quantities, I should warn, so if you are an impassioned fan, maybe you should slip me a chocolate bribe discreetly or something. (Just kidding! Well . . . mostly. Depends on how good the chocolate is, really. : ) I’ve been bought with chocolate before.)

Never fear, if copies of CHOCOLATE TOUCH run out, because, you know, it got a STARRED REVIEW from Publishers Weekly (have I mentioned that yet? oh, really, only thirty times? I can mention it some more, then) . . . well, in that dire eventuality, there is still supposed to be CHOCOLATE. As in the kind you can eat, not long to eat while reading.

Here are the dates and locations:

Sat. July 13, 2013 @ 2:00, Villa Rica Public Library (Villa Rica GA)






Sun., July 14, 2013 @ 3:00, Neva Lomason Memorial Library (Carrollton GA)






Mon. July 15, 2013 @ 6:00, Buchanan-Haralson Public Library (Buchanan GA)






Tues., July 16, 2013 @ 6:00, Ephesus Public Library (Roopville GA)

As a special note, the Neva Lomason Memorial Library is the library I grew up in! (Almost literally, yeah.) Where I read all those books about girl heroines doing their study abroad in France and all that. So I am very excited to return to my literary roots!

If you live in the area or know people who do, please spread the word! I’m looking forward to seeing people.