Chris Karlsen's Blog, page 2
February 7, 2021
A Venomous Love is the Chanticleer’s Global First Prize winner for suspense!
Grab your copy of A Venomous Love 
I’m excited to share that A Venomous Love is the Chanticleer’s “Global First Prize” winner for suspense
You can visit their website HERE.
A Venomous Love is on the short list for the CIBA awards (Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards)
Grab your copy of A Venomous Love I’m excited to share that A Venomous Love is on the short list for the CIBA awards (Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards) in the mystery and mayhem category.
You can visit their website HERE.
March 20, 2020
Praise for A Venomous Love + an Excerpt
See what readers are saying:
A VENOMOUS LOVE by Chris Karlsen – Victorian Detective, Historical Thriller, Suspense Mystery
Read An Excerpt Here
Puzzled, Ruddy asked, “You say the body is still in the chapel? Couldn’t the nurse bring an exam table to put him on and start treatment?”
“She did. Young and I attempted to help but he suffered violent convulsions. Because the hospital is for children, they don’t have restraints. The head nurse instructed us to leave him back on the floor. She was afraid he’d fall off the table.”
“Makes sense.” The timeframe of Underhill’s death didn’t make sense. At minimum it usually took an hour and more often, hours for the venom to kill. A horrible thought occurred to Ruddy. What if it was a different suspect with a different lethal snake? “But he died while you were still here?”
“Yes. He convulsed brutally hard a few more times and an excessive amount of drool came out his mouth. Then he lost consciousness. A nurse put a blanket over him and a pillow under his head. He died as she was making him comfortable.”
“Strange. This is abnormally fast even for cobra venom.” Flanders stepped up on Ruddy’s right. “What is it, constable?”
“Shall I leave you to start my search?” Flanders asked.
“Yes. Collect anything, and I mean anything, you find that looks out of the ordinary,” Archie told him. “This case is so unusual we can’t be sure what is important and what isn’t.”
The nurse led them to the curtained-off bed. Honoria Underhill lay on her side softly sobbing. Her legs were curled up so she fit on the short bed meant for a child. The nurses had covered her with a blanket. When she saw Ruddy and Archie, she sat up and swung her legs down to the side of the bed.
“Yes. We know this is traumatic for you but we need to ask you to repeat what happened with as much detail as you can recall,” Ruddy told her.
“I understand.” Her shoulders trembled. She buried her fists in her skirt and kept her head down as she fought to control her emotions.
Ruddy brought the conversation back to the crime. “Did the suspect say anything when he attacked?”
“’A pretty little damsel, worth a pretty risk,’ he said as he rushed toward us. Then he leapt at me with the snake in hand inches from my face. Father pushed me out of the man’s reach and stepped between us. My father tried to knock the man’s hand away and swatted at the animal.”
She dabbed at her nose again and then offered the handkerchief back to Archie who waved off the return. “It happened so fast,” Honoria continued. “In the time it took me to blink, the snake’s throat blew outward, like a fan opening.” She demonstrated the action with her hands. “A second later it lunged and struck.”
November 3, 2019
Easy & Tasty app
Yields: 24
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
1 8oz. tube of crescent dough
Cooking spray for pan
Flour for surface
1 8oz. wheel of brie
½ cup whole berry cranberry sauce
¼ cup chopped pecans
6 sprigs of rosemary cut into 1” pieces.
Preheat oven to 375* and grease a mini muffin tin with cooking spray. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the crescent dough and pinch together the seams. Cut into 24 squares. Place squares into muffin tin slots.
Cut brie into small bites and place inside the crescent dough. Top with a spoonful of cranberry sauce, some chopped pecans and little sprig of rosemary.
Bake until the pastry is golden (about 15 minutes)
**Recipe courtesy of Delish.com
Harvest Shepherd’s Pie by Weight Watchers
1 ¾ lb. sweet potatoes, peeling and cut into chunks
2/3 cup fat free milk
1 Tbl. Butter
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground pepper
1 lb. ground turkey (they call for lamb but we don’t eat lamb so I substitute the turkey)
1 onion chopped
4 garlic cloves minced
2 tsp. curry powder
1 ½ cups reduced sodium beef broth
2 Tbl. Tomato paste
1 10oz. package of frozen peas and carrots.
Preheat oven to 350* spray 2 quart baking dish with nonstick spray.
Boil sweet potatoes until tender enough to mash. Drain potatoes and add milk, butter and half of salt and pepper and mash then set aside.
Cook Turkey in nonstick pan until browned. Set aside.
Add onion, garlic, curry powder to pan and cook until onion is lightly browned. Add ½ cup of broth and the tomato paste, stir occasionally until slightly thick. Add peas and carrots, cook until thawed, stir in remaining broth and cook until that mix is slightly thickened. Stir in turkey or lamb and remaining salt and pepper. Transfer to baking dish. Spread mashed potatoes evenly over the top and bake until edges are bubbly.
For browned top heat under broiler for 1-2 minutes.
Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Soup from Betty Crocker
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 6 hr. 45 min.
Servings: 6
2 Tbl. Butter or margarine
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 butternut squash (2lb.), peeled and cubed
2 cups water
½ tsp. dried marjoram leaves
¼ tsp. ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. red pepper (cayenne)
4 chicken bouillon cubes
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese cubed (at room temp)
In a skillet melt butter and add onion, cook stirring occasionally until crisp-tender.
In 3-4 quart slow cooker, mix onion and remaining ingredients except cream cheese.
Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours OR 4 ½-5 hours on High
In a blender or food processor place 1/3 to ½ mixture at a time. Cover and blend on high speed until smooth. Return mixture to slow cooker. Stir in cream cheese. Cover and cook on low for about 30 minutes until cheese is melted, stirring with whisk until smooth.
Fall Recipes
Yields: 24
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
1 8oz. tube of crescent dough
Cooking spray for pan
Flour for surface
1 8oz. wheel of brie
½ cup whole berry cranberry sauce
¼ cup chopped pecans
6 sprigs of rosemary cut into 1” pieces.
Preheat oven to 375* and grease a mini muffin tin with cooking spray. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the crescent dough and pinch together the seams. Cut into 24 squares. Place squares into muffin tin slots.
Cut brie into small bites and place inside the crescent dough. Top with a spoonful of cranberry sauce, some chopped pecans and little sprig of rosemary.
Bake until the pastry is golden (about 15 minutes)
**Recipe courtesy of Delish.com
Harvest Shepherd’s Pie by Weight Watchers
1 ¾ lb. sweet potatoes, peeling and cut into chunks
2/3 cup fat free milk
1 Tbl. Butter
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground pepper
1 lb. ground turkey (they call for lamb but we don’t eat lamb so I substitute the turkey)
1 onion chopped
4 garlic cloves minced
2 tsp. curry powder
1 ½ cups reduced sodium beef broth
2 Tbl. Tomato paste
1 10oz. package of frozen peas and carrots.
Preheat oven to 350* spray 2 quart baking dish with nonstick spray.
Boil sweet potatoes until tender enough to mash. Drain potatoes and add milk, butter and half of salt and pepper and mash then set aside.
Cook Turkey in nonstick pan until browned. Set aside.
Add onion, garlic, curry powder to pan and cook until onion is lightly browned. Add ½ cup of broth and the tomato paste, stir occasionally until slightly thick. Add peas and carrots, cook until thawed, stir in remaining broth and cook until that mix is slightly thickened. Stir in turkey or lamb and remaining salt and pepper. Transfer to baking dish. Spread mashed potatoes evenly over the top and bake until edges are bubbly.
For browned top heat under broiler for 1-2 minutes.
Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Soup from Betty Crocker
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 6 hr. 45 min.
Servings: 6
2 Tbl. Butter or margarine
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 butternut squash (2lb.), peeled and cubed
2 cups water
½ tsp. dried marjoram leaves
¼ tsp. ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. red pepper (cayenne)
4 chicken bouillon cubes
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese cubed (at room temp)
In a skillet melt butter and add onion, cook stirring occasionally until crisp-tender.
In 3-4 quart slow cooker, mix onion and remaining ingredients except cream cheese.
Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours OR 4 ½-5 hours on High
In a blender or food processor place 1/3 to ½ mixture at a time. Cover and blend on high speed until smooth. Return mixture to slow cooker. Stir in cream cheese. Cover and cook on low for about 30 minutes until cheese is melted, stirring with whisk until smooth.
Historical Factoids for 2019
Baldric:
A broad belt or girdle, often richly ornamented, passing over one shoulder, across the breast, and under the other, supporting sword, dagger, or bugle.
From the Lady of Shalott by Lord Tennyson
*The gemmy bridle glittered free
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden galaxy
The bridle bells rang merrily as he rode down to Camelot
And from his blazing baldric sling swung
A mighty silver bugle hung
And as he rode his armor rung
Beside remote Shalott.
Trebuchet:
A stone-throwing machine used in siege warfare. Once the range was secured, it was fairly accurate.
Queen Victoria anecdote:
At a dinner party the Queen described how her mother, the Duchess of Kent, had once carried a fork out of the dining room, mistaking it for her fan. At another dinner party she related with roars of laughter, how shocked her Master of the Hounds had been by the design for the Ashanti Medals: “Roman soldiers with nothing-nothing at all but helmets on!”
Origin of the word “cab”
In 1823 a new type of transport came into fashion, a 2-wheeled, one horse cab, cab being short for cabriolet, French for “a little leap.”
September 18, 2019
The Secret of Suspense
I am speaking for myself in this article. But I believe with many of the genres we love, we enjoy them because the hero or heroine elicit either sympathy or empathy. For example, in Bernard Cornwell’s historicals, we empathize with the men on the battlefield. He paints the brutality of war with such expertise we can almost smell the blood. Julie Anne Long makes us want to give her Regency heroine a sympathetic hug. We see her standing by the garden door watching the handsome hero she believes is unattainable. Or in a good sci-fi like The Martian, we empathize with the panic the astronaut suffers when he wakes up and finds he’s been abandoned on Mars.
Suspense offers the reader a wider choice of reactions to the character’s dilemma(s). We can remain observers. As such a good suspense is brilliant at keeping a tight hold on our attention and emotions. Three outstanding examples to me are: The Sixth Sense, Taken, and Wait until Dark.
In The Sixth Sense, the answer to the suspense is given from the very beginning but most of us simply didn’t recognize it for what it was. We see Bruce Willis get shot. The wound looks lethal. A short time later we see him called in to interview Hayley Joe Osment (Cole Sear), a young boy who claims, “I see dead people.” Most everyone I knew, myself included, watched, wondering why the boy saw dead people, what was Willis going to do. We watched never realizing until the end that Bruce Willis was dead. Yet, we were told.
In Taken, we feel the urgency Liam Neeson’s character is going through. He knows the clock is ticking on finding his daughter before she is sold by a brutal sex trafficking ring. We know too, that he has “special talents” as a former CIA operative. We cheer him on because we want him to use those talents not just to find his daughter but to punish.
Wait until Dark had all of us on the edge of our seats. When Alan Arkin stalked blind Audrey Hepburn in her apartment, I held my breath. And I swear everyone in the theatre, men and women, jumped a foot out of their seats when we thought he was dead, but he wasn’t, and out of the dark, he grabbed her ankle.
For readers who want more than being interested observers, suspense satisfies that desire. It is the genre that allows the reader to be either the detective or the victim. Suspense can also be a story that walks a fine line where you, as reader, aren’t sure if the protagonist is the killer or the victim. The perfect example of that is Gone Girl. Gillian Flynn did a remarkable job with Nick Dunne. The question of did he or didn’t he kill his wife hung in the air for most of the story.
If a reader always wants to opt for being the detective, Christie’s Hercule Poirot is a safe choice and she gives the reader interesting settings for crime scenes.
In my Bloodstone series, I like giving the reader two POV’s, the killer’s and Detective Inspector Rudyard Bloodstone, my protagonist. I don’t write slasher type killers. I like to write more complicated antagonists. I prefer to get into their heads and let the reader see why the killer feels no remorse for what they’ve done. In their twisted way of thinking, they feel justified. The fact that they aren’t doesn’t come into play for them.
Rudyard or Ruddy as I like to refer to him is my favorite character to write. As a retired detective, I guess in many ways he is my alter ego. I love putting him in Victorian London. I believe that setting is perfect for murders. There’s such a diversity of social classes. I enjoy creating the variations in the classes and the environment.
Ruddy is a war hero who doesn’t consider himself a hero. I love that about him. He’s from a working class Welsh family. He has a sometimes healthy and sometimes problematic disregard for influential political forces and administrators. He has a sharp tongue and a short fuse. I especially love filling his world with a wide variety of characters. Some are friends, some associates from work, some enemies, and some just folks who cross his path. It is great fun to flush out his personality by showing how he reacts to the various people and events in his life.
One of the things I like best about Ruddy is that he’s not Sherlock Holmes. I’ve heard the comparison made several times due to the timeframe of the books and the setting. The first book, Silk, was set in 1888, (no, it is not a Jack the Ripper story.) The latest book, Snifter of Death, is set in 1889. Ruddy is not perfect like Sherlock. He makes some mistakes in his investigations. He occasionally follows the wrong leads. He doesn’t have the incredible Dr. Watson to work with but the very reliable and affable, Archie Holbrook. Archie is the perfect foil for Ruddy. He is cool-headed and does a good job of keeping Ruddy’s temper in check when fools are looking to start up with Rudyard.
I think the ultimate secret of suspense is satisfaction of finding out who did it! It’s about a story that keeps you going and going, wondering and wondering, guessing and guessing, then finally, you find out if you were right. It was Miss Scarlet in the library with the candlestick! We only have to look to Clue, one of the most enduring board games to see how charmed we are by suspense.
I am currently working on book four in the series, A Venomous Love. It should be released either late this year or early 2020. In it, Detective Bloodstone and his partner are investigating what starts out as a most unusual robbery but quickly turns into unusual murders.
There is a fourth book, a novella called Choosing Heart or Home. This is a Christmas story and I send Rudyard home to Wales for the holidays with his new lady, Honeysuckle Floweres. There is no suspense in this but a warm-hearted story of love and friendship.
November 13, 2018
Winter Wonderland Romance Reader Scavenger Hunt 2018
The annual Winter Wonderland romance reader event is on!
Ready to Win? I’ve teamed up with Night Owl Romance and other authors to bring you the chance to win a Kindle, Amazon cards, SpaFinder.com cards, Sephora.com cards and eBooks.
During this event I’m going to help you find some great new books. Make sure to check my novel Choosing Heart or Home – Coming Home for Christmas along the way.
The grand prize is a Kindle Fire HD 8 w/Alexa.
Enter the giveaway at: http://bit.ly/NorWinter2018
I wish you much luck in winning.
October 10, 2018
Hallowpalooza 2018 – Win a Kindle Fire HD
Ready to enter the Hallowpalooza romance reader giveaway?
OVER 100 BOOK LOVER PRIZES
,
Ready to win Amazon cards, romance books and other prizes? I’m one of the sponsors of the Night Owl Romance Hallowpalooza Scavenger Hunt.
During this event I’m going to help you find some great new books. Make sure to check my featured title out along the way.
The grand prize is a Kindle Fire HD 8 w/Alexa.
Enter Now at: https://www.nightowlreviews.com/v5/Blog/Articles/Hallowpalooza-2018
Event Dates: October 11 – 31
September 9, 2018
Night Owl Reviews Chat with Chris Karlsen
Tune in September 15, 2018 at 5:00pm PT. Use the link below to access the chat. I hope to see you there.
Night Owl Reviews Chat
