Deborah Vogts's Blog, page 22

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions at Country at Heart Recipes.Join the Vogts Sisters for a performance in Topeka, KSat the Jayhawk Theatre - Last Minute Folk Performance.Learn more HERE.
Spiced Nut Cake with Penuche Frosting
Baked Parmesan Fries
St. Patrick's Day Menu Ideas

Book Preview ~ Almost Home

Almost Home, by Valerie Fraser Luesse

With America's entrance into the Second World War, the town of Blackberry Springs, Alabama, has exploded virtually overnight. Workers from all over are coming south for jobs in Uncle Sam's munitions plants and they're bringing their pasts with them, right into Dolly Chandler's grand but fading family home turned boardinghouse.An estranged young couple from the Midwest, unemployed professors from Chicago, a widower from Mississippi, a shattered young veteran struggling to heal from the war they're all hoping Dolly's house will help them find their way back to the lives they left behind. But the house has a past of its own. When tragedy strikes, Dolly's only hope will be the circle of friends under her roof and their ability to discover the truth about what happened to a young bride who lived there a century before. Buy the book HERE.Valerie Fraser Luesse is the bestselling author of Missing Isaac and is an award-winning magazine writer best known for her feature stories and essays in Southern Living, where she is currently a senior travel editor. Specializing in stories about unique pockets of Southern culture, Luesse has published major pieces on the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi Delta, Louisiana's Acadian Prairie, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Her editorial section on Hurricane Katrina recovery in Mississippi and Louisiana won the 2009 Writer of the Year award from the Southeast Tourism Society. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama. Learn about Valerie and her writing HERE.

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions at Country at Heart Recipes.Have a great weekend! 
Swiss Steak
Sourdough Dinner Rolls
The French Chef Cookbook, by Julia Child

Book Preview ~ Becoming Mrs. Lewis

Becoming Mrs. Lewis, by Patti Callahan

From New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan comes an exquisite novel of Joy Davidman, the woman C. S. Lewis called "my whole world." When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis-known as Jack-she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn't holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and against all odds, finding a love that even the threat of death couldn't destroy.

In this masterful exploration of one of the greatest love stories of modern times, we meet a brilliant writer, a fiercely independent mother, and a passionate woman who changed the life of this respected author and inspired books that still enchant us and change us. Joy lived at a time when women weren't meant to have a voice-and yet her love for Jack gave them both voices they didn't know they had.
At once a fascinating historical novel and a glimpse into a writer's life, Becoming Mrs. Lewis is above all a love story-a love of literature and ideas and a love between a husband and wife that, in the end, was not impossible at all. Buy the book HERE.

Patti Callahan (who also writes as Patti Callahan Henry) is a New York Times bestselling author. Patti was a finalist in the Townsend Prize for Fiction, has been an Indie Next Pick, twice an OKRA pick, and a multiple nominee for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Novel of the Year. Her work has also been included in short story collections, anthologies, magazines, and blogs. Patti attended Auburn University for her undergraduate work and Georgia State University for her graduate degree. Once a Pediatric Clinical Nurse Specialist, she now writes full time. The mother of three children, she lives in both Mountain Brook, Alabama, and Bluffton, South Carolina, with her husband. Visit her online at patticallahanhenry.com

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions at Country at Heart Recipes. This Saturday, the Vogts Sisters return to the stage for their first 2019 performance at the Bluegrass Showcase in Neosho, MO. Learn more HERE.
Refrigerator Bran Muffins
Spinach Salad with Fig Dressing
Featured Author, Regina Merrick, shares her recipe for Chocolate No-Bake Oatmeal Cookies

Book Preview ~ The Baggage Handler

The Baggage Handler, by David Rawlings
When three people take the wrong suitcase from baggage claim, their lives change forever. A hothead businessman coming to the city for a showdown meeting to save his job.A mother of three hoping to survive the days at her sister's house before her niece’s wedding.And a young artist pursuing his father’s dream so he can keep his own alive.When David, Gillian, and Michael each take the wrong suitcase from baggage claim, the airline directs them to retrieve their bags at a mysterious facility in a deserted part of the city. There they meet the enigmatic Baggage Handler, who shows them there is more in their baggage than what they have packed, and carrying it with them is slowing them down in ways they can’t imagine. And they must deal with it before they can leave.In this modern-day parable about the burdens that weigh us down, David Rawlings issues an inspiring invitation to lighten the load. Buy the book HERE. David Rawlings is an Australian author, and a sports-mad father of three who loves humor and a clever turn of phrase. Over a 25-year career he has put words on the page to put food on the table, developing from sports journalism and copywriting to corporate communication. Now in fiction, he entices readers to look deeper into life with stories that combine the everyday with a sense of the speculative, addressing the fundamental questions we all face. Learn more about David's writing here: www.davidrawlings.com.au

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions at Country at Heart Recipes.Have a great weekend!
Joan's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Flourless Chocolate Almond Cake
Valentine's Day Recipe Ideas

Book Preview ~ The Lieutenant's Bargain

The Lieutenant's Bargain, by Regina Jennings

Hattie Walker dreams of becoming a painter, while her parents want her to settle down. As a compromise, they give her two months to head to Denver and place her works in an exhibition or give up the dream forever. Her journey is derailed when a gunman attacks her stagecoach, leaving her to be rescued by a group of Arapaho but she's too terrified to recognize them as friendly.Confirmed bachelor Lieutenant Jack Hennessey has long worked with the tribe and is tasked with trying to convince them that the mission school at Fort Reno can help their children. When a message arrives about a recovered survivor, Jack heads out to take her home and plead his case once more. He's stunned to run into Hattie Walker, the girl who shattered his heart--but quickly realizes he has a chance to impress her. When his plan gets tangled through translation, Jack and Hattie end up in a mess that puts her dreams in peril and tests Jack's resolve to remain single. Buy the book HERE.Charming and vivacious Regina Jennings is a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University with a degree in English and a history minor. She has worked at The Mustang News and First Baptist Church of Mustang, along with time at the Oklahoma National Stockyards and various livestock shows. She now lives outside Oklahoma City with her husband and four children. Learn more about Regina and her writing HERE.

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions at Country at Heart Recipes.Have a great weekend! 
Homemade Pancake Syrup
Homemade Lasagna with Meat Sauce
Featured Author, Elizabeth Goddard shares her recipe for Easy-Peasy Spaghetti

Book Preview ~ A Desperate Hope

A Desperate Hope, by Elizabeth Camden

Eloise Drake's prim demeanor hides the turbulent past she's finally put behind her--or so she thinks. A mathematical genius, she's now a successful accountant for the largest engineering project in 1908 New York. But to her dismay, her new position puts her back in the path of the man responsible for her deepest heartbreak.

Alex Duval is the mayor of a town about to be wiped off the map. The state plans to flood the entire valley where his town sits in order to build a new reservoir, and Alex is stunned to discover the woman he once loved on the team charged with the demolition. With his world crumbling around him, Alex devises a risky plan to save his town--but he needs Eloise's help to succeed. 

Alex is determined to win back the woman he thought he'd lost forever, but even their combined ingenuity may not be enough to overcome the odds against them before it's too late. Buy the book HERE.


Elizabeth Camden is the author of twelve historical novels and two historical novellas and has been honored with both the RITA Award and the Christy Award. With a master's in history and a master's in library science, she is a research librarian by day and scribbles away on her next novel by night. She lives with her husband in Florida. Learn more at www.elizabethcamden.com.