Valerie Davisson's Blog, page 2

Love in Logan Land

LOVE IS IN THE AIR! Valentine’s Day got me to thinking about not just Logan’s love life, but of the many faces of love that have popped up over the years in the Logan McKenna Mystery series. I always dish up at least one murder in each book, but Logan and friends have layered lives, which include loves lost, gained, and longed for—some of them happy, some of them not—many of them unconventional.

Take Iona Slatterly of the neon geranium lips and platinum beehive hairdo with an ever-present cigarette either dangling from the side of her mouth or balancing precariously on a can of diet Coke within easy reach.

One of my favorite characters, Iona is head of security at the Otter Arts Festival in the coastal town of Jasper, CA, Logan’s home town in Shattered, Book 1. Somewhere along the line (I won’t tell you which book) Logan spots Iona with a much younger man (We’ve met a time or two, but I won’t tell you who, either, but she’s got at least 20 years on him). Everyone assumes the pairing must be a one-time thing, but their relationship is genuine. Story to be continued. . .

Tava’e’s, the local coffee shop in Jasper, holds two other seemingly odd love matches. Epiphany, the multiply tattooed and pierced barista at Tava’e’s coffee shop and a sweet, mentally challenged but talented young man. Their love story almost didn’t happen when one of them is accused of murder. Jean, a French baker who never emerges from the kitchen, but creates the gigantic cinnamon rolls Logan is addicted to, is married to Tava’e, the magnificent Samoan chess queen who runs the front of the shop and mothers everyone in need of mothering within fifty miles. In the series, we only hear them bark at each other through the swinging doors that lead to the bakery in the back, but they have been happily married for years.

I write a full backstory for most of my characters, even though most of this detail never makes it into the books. This makes them real to me—then all I have to do is place them in a scene and they create their own dialogue and behavior.

Tava’e, for example, was born in Samoa, named after a graceful, small sea bird. Treasured by her father after her mother’s death, Tava’e grew up with a rocksolid sense of self and the strong desire to care for others. She also learned to play chess from the sailors who came into port. One of the ships’ cooks was a tall, slender French baker named Jean.

Although he could have worked anywhere in Paris, Jean had a burning itch to travel, so signed onto a ship set to travel to Polynesia as soon as he was old enough. He took his first step off the ship, spotted Tava’e beating the pants off one of his crew mates, and fell immediately  in love. Wooing her with baked goods, he never got back on the ship.

Logan’s love life has been the most challenging to write.

When we meet her in Shattered, Logan had been in a horrible car crash a year or so before, that took her husband’s life and nearly killed her. Slowly and painfully, she recovers from her physical injuries—and her emotional ones—her husband had been unfaithful, it turns out, and probably many times.

Logan meets Ben, her love interest, early on in the first book, but is gun shy. She’s not ready to start a relationship. First of all, she does not trust herself to know what is real and what is not. Is she just horny? Is Ben the nice guy he seems to be? She just established her own independent life. She’s okay on her own, now. She doesn’t need a relationship. She already has a wonderful, grown daughter, Amy, so what does she need a man for? Why start something up? Particularly with a neighbor.

Although my personal experience with love is nothing like Logan’s, I’ve had a bad marriage, a good marriage, and single years in between, so I know something about the angst, the pluses and minuses of being alone or with someone, and what a healthy relationship looks like—what it takes to make it work and how easy and joyful it can be to live alone.

Logan stumbles along, but she’s figuring it out. And luckily, Ben is a patient man. Bless his big heart. We all need a Ben in our lives. I met mine 15 years ago.

Looking over the series, I realized how many love stories I wove through the main plots. Rita Wolfe and her wife, Nicole, Logan’s best friend, Bonnie and her firefighter husband, Mike. Bonnie credits their happy marriage to his four days on/three days off schedule.

On the opposite end, office manager Carla boots her lazy, mean husband to the curb. He is not missed. Carla’s exuberant, capable personality continues to grow and blossom. In Vanishing Day, a young mother is put in the ICU by a violently abusive husband, the only witness her three-year-old daughter, Shannon. In the mother’s backstory, she comes from a wealthy family and was a competent horse woman before her marriage and her husband’s slow strangulation of her independence and self-confidence.

Littered among the solid love stories are hookups and users—forming needy immature relationships that last about as long as it takes to mention them. I could create two characters that have an ongoing, horrible relationship, but I don’t think I could stomach writing about them and certainly wouldn’t want to inflict them on my readers!

Speaking of real, I always keep in mind that life is not neat. Not all true love is romantic or results in marriage or long-term relationships. Some love blooms in the cracks between the platonic and the passionate, but although not sexual, can be as strong and fulfilling.

In Forest Park, I introduced the tender, loving, but definitely platonic, relationship between a Vietnam vet and a younger woman who has experienced war in her own time. It doesn’t have to ‘go’ anywhere—it’s already there. I enjoy exploring the often unvisited or uncategorized types of human relationships.

Which brings me to my current project, Logan Book 9 (as yet unnamed). I’m writing the backstory for the characters now, and boy, do we have some doozies! You’re really going to hate Roxy! Maybe. . .

For now, I’m leaving the ends of all the connecting character strings loose—even I haven’t decided which of them will actually commit the murder, although several excellent suspects are already emerging. . .one thing’s for sure, the motive for murder usually grows out of love in one form or another.

What have your experiences with love been?

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Paleo Lasagna

AS YOU KNOW, LOGAN WOULD NEVER GO TO THIS MUCH TROUBLE! Luckily, you can make much or all of this Paleo Lasagna ahead, then bake to piping hot goodness right before serving. Great for the holidays, or just a family meal with leftovers. This dish freezes very well. I discovered these great SouperCubes on Amazon. I freeze big chunks of it so I can bake at another time when I don’t feel like cooking, but want a nice, hot meal. (I don’t get any kickback from SouperCubes-I just like them, so am passing along the tip. Works for soup, too. I use the small size to make lemon juice cubes.)

This lasagna hits many special dietary marks, also. It’s gluten and lactose free and can be made vegetarian, although I love the Italian Sausage, so I make mine with lots of that! I had never made cashew ‘cheese’ before, but have to say, it tastes just like ricotta in the lasagna. Tossed Salad and some good bread and you’ve got yourself a great dinner with plenty of leftovers.

Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS (for one 9 X 13” lasagna)

SAUCE (can make ahead or use bottled sauce in a pinch)

1 lb Italian sausage, mild or hot

½ lb grass-fed ground beef

Olive oil

½ cup onion diced small

3 cloves of garlic pressed or minced

1 28-oz can San Marzano peeled tomatoes

1 15-oz can tomato sauce

1 6-oz can tomato paste

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried oregano

Pinch of salt

Ground black pepper

Fresh Italian parsley leaves for garnish

Red pepper flakes to taste/optional

CASHEW CHEESE (can make ahead)

1 ½ cups raw cashews

½ cup almond milk

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp dried onion

¼ tsp dried garlic

¼ tsp black pepper

LASAGNA LAYERS

2 8-oz packages of fresh sliced mushrooms

2 10-oz packages frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed dry)

4-5 medium zucchini

  Directions for Sauce:

In a large pot, saute onion and garlic in 2 tsp olive oil until tender.Add Italian sausage and beef, cook until browned-Drain fatAdd remaining sauce ingredients, Simmer 30 min to 1 hour

Directions for Cashew Cheese

Soak raw cashews overnight in water (no need to refrigerate) (OR, quick soak by boiling for 15 minutes) then drainPlace drained cashews, lemon juice and spices in food processor with almond milk and pulse or blend until it has the consistency of ricotta cheese-smooth and creamy-doesn’t have to be perfect

Directions for Making/Assembling the Lasagna

In a frying pan, sauté mushrooms with a little olive oil-set asidePlace thawed spinach in a bowl, squeeze out as much water as possibleCombine 2 cups cashew cheese with drained spinach and mix well with your hands (gooey!)Preheat oven to 350Slice zucchini lengthwise ~ ¼ inch thick (trim one side so it doesn’t roll around on the board while you slice the rest)In your 9” X 12”baking dish, spread a little of the red sauce on the bottom, then place one layer of zucchini slices lengthwise across the bottom of the panAdd ~ half of the cashew cheese/spinach mixture (will be thick, use your fingers to spread as best you can)Add half of the sautéed mushrooms in a layer on top of thatTop with lasagna sauce enough to cover the top (about half of what’s left)Repeat with another layer of zucchini, cheese, mushrooms & sauceAdmire your masterpiece and bake uncovered for ~ one hour or until sauce is bubbling around the edges.Let stand a few minutes, slice and serve!

(Leftovers freeze well. To reheat, place in a casserole dish, cover with foil, and bake at 350 for ~30 minutes until hot all the way through. Does not reheat well in the microwave from frozen.)

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Meet Rupert!

A FEW DAYS AGO I RECEIVED A SURPRISE package in the mail. With a hand written return address, I knew it was from an actual human, so I ripped it open and there he was, staring up at me with those big, chocolate eyes. I promptly named him Rupert. Turns out he was from Jan, a Logan fan from Colorado who was inspired by the cover of In Plain Sight. Thank You, Jan!

As you can see, Rupert has been making himself at home since his arrival. Here he’s enjoying his morning coffee on the back deck. I have to make an extra pot now, because he’s a guzzles as much as I do, which is saying something.

Watch for more Rupert adventures in the future. . .

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New Book!

SO EXCITED! In just six short weeks, on August 18th, In Plain Sight: A Logan McKenna Mystery Book 8 will be released. This one was definitely a labor of love. I fell in love with owls and other raptors when I moved here to the Oregon coast and the next thing I knew, Logan was falling in love with them, too 🙂 Hence her fictional stint as a volunteer at the real-life Cascades Raptor Center in Eugene, Oregon. At which, of course, she discovers a dead body. . .

I was very fortunate to be generously welcomed for a behind-the-scenes tour of this raptor rescue and rehabilitation center by their wonderful director, Louise Shimmel. Once you have pre-ordered In Plain Sight: A Logan McKenna Mystery Book 8 (wink wink) check out their website, Cascades Raptor Center. and if you are ever in Eugene, OR, stop by. It is well worth the visit. I learned all kinds of new things. Who knew that owls are zygodactyl (they can rotate one of their toes back and forth as needed for a better grip on their prey) or that turkey vultures defecate straight down their legs? Also, some owl species mate for life, some just for a season. And peregrine falcons are the fastest animals in the world, clocked at 242 mph when they go into a stoop or dive after prey.

The killer in this book is solitary in many ways, like most raptors, and just like my friend, the owl, well-camouflaged. Hiding in plain sight. . .

P.S. I selected August 18th for the new release date to honor my sister, Michelle Montclaire, who passed away at the beginning of the Covid pandemic. August 18th is her birthday. She was always so supportive of me and my writing. Miss her every day!

 

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French Onion Soup

Logan may not like to cook, but I sure do! My main character in the Logan McKenna Mystery series is famous for assembling vs cooking, but we do have one thing in common, we love to eat! I used to only order this soup out at restaurants, but during the Covid shutdown I realized how easy it was to make and now we have it often. It is warming in the winter, but with a tossed salad, makes for a light lunch or dinner any time of year. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

~4 cups thinly sliced onions. You can use any variety, but yellow work well.1/2 cup dry white wine (and some for you to sip while you are carmelizing the onions, ha!)2 T cooking sherry (one or the other will do)1 tsp dried thyme and a sprig or two of fresh thyme to garnish if you have some1/2 cup unsalted butter (salted works okay-just don’t add salt later)2 T olive oil~40 oz good beef bone broth, stock – whatever you have on hand (that’s 4 10.5 oz cans if you use those or a box and a half)Gruyere cheese and good croutons or slices of baguette-sourdough, whatever bread you like. Use parmigiano reggiano in a pinch.

DIRECTIONS

Put on some French cafe music, pour yourself a small glass of wine (you will be near live flames after all. . .), pull out a medium to large heavy pot and your favorite long wooden spoon. Melt the butter, add the onions and stir to coat onions with butter.Oh, and pull up a stool, you’re going to be here for a while!Stir the onions over medium heat until carmelized. This will take at least 30-45 minutes. Really. When they are a lovely brown, pour in the beef broth, dried thyme, wine, and/or sherry. Simmer for another 30 minutes.The last step is where you can get fancy, or be lazy – it’s up to you. For the best presentation, ladle the soup into individual, oven-proof bowls, place your croutons or baguette slice on top of each bowl with a slice of Gruyere, then broil until cheese is browned and bubbly. BE VERY CAREFUL not to burn it at this stage. When I’m making this for us at home, I just throw it all in the bowl, it melts and it’s all good without risking burning the house down.

Serve with a simple, tossed green salad and Voila!  DINNER!

And here’s a quick look at what carmelized onions should look like. I go about 40 minutes on mine. Many French Onion soup recipes include sugar. DO NOT ADD SUGAR! Trust me, you won’t need it. The sweetness comes naturally from carmelizing the onions.

 

 

 

 

 

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What is Your Spirit Animal?

YOUR SPIRIT ANIMAL IS PROBABLY AN EAGLE, WOLF, OR DOLPHIN, but when I saw this guy’s mug, I knew he was the one for me. And I like the name. Emu. A bit odd, scary and funny at the same time. I’d love to have him by my side in a bar fight. If I ever went into a bar these days..or fought. I’m more of a run-away-er.

I never knew much about emus, but just Googled them. Interesting birds. They go to bed with the sun and then get up five or six times during the night to pee or read books on their Kindle.  Hmmm….sounds familiar. They’re kind of docile, so wouldn’t be much help in the above mentioned scenario except maybe the intimidation factor from their size. Oddly, the young stay with their father vs their mother the first few months of their lives and I was more of a daddy’s girl than a mama’s girl, so that fits.

And this was cool…once the female lays the beautiful, big green eggs, it’s the male who incubates them. Why have humans not adopted this system? He sits on those eggs for months, just living off his body fat while the female goes off and does whatever she wants. Wow. Maybe she has spa days or meets other free female emus for lunch at Nordstrom’s.

All in all, I love this goofy bird. And if you’re wondering what a post about emus and spirit animals is doing in my author website blog, well, I have no good answer except to say that going down little side trails like this makes me a better writer somehow. Stirs up the creative juices!

(Full disclosure: my real spirit animal is the snowy egret, but that’s another post.)

What is your spirit animal?

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Creating Freely During Cancel Culture

CREATING CHARACTERS is one of my favorite things to do, particularly the eclectic minor characters that people Logan’s world. What would Logan’s hometown of Jasper be without Tava’e, the massive Samoan chess queen, or Iona Slatterly of the spray on jeans and neon geranium lipstick and prodigious love life?

But as I write Logan McKenna’s 8th adventure, for the first time ever I felt a slight hesitation—particularly as I created the killer. For a brief moment, I felt the looming judgment of card carrying members of our insidious Cancel Culture waiting in the wings with red pens. Ugh. It seems we can’t turn on the TV or read the Times without learning of another career being ruined because someone took offense at something they said or wrote—often when they were 12. Do they interview these people’s middle-school teachers? I wonder.

When I give creative writing workshops, I encourage wild diversity when creating characters and follow my own advice. Readers should be able to tell the characters apart, if nothing else. That means giving them different ethnicities, ages, genders, faiths, finances, education, health, and tastes in music, food, and clothing. One might have a lisp, have red hair, be allergic to cats, or a member of Mensa.

So, as I brainstormed who my killer for Book 8 was going to be, I wondered. If I made him or her gay, or black, or a member of M-13, would members of the gay or Salvadoran or black communities come after me for insensitivity? For writing from those perspectives when I am not any of those things? That would be ridiculous. If authors are limited to only writing from their own perspectives, all of my characters would be white, middle-class women. Those would be boring books to read.

If I make my killer a redhead, it doesn’t mean all redheads have homicidal tendencies. Duh.

So, I decided to just write. Let the cancel culture busybodies come after me if they want to. I deal with sensitive topics in my novels as they come up. Homelessness, PTSD, spousal abuse, organized crime, immigration, and addiction. Difficult subjects are part of our lives and I don’t leave them out just because they are difficult. When a sensitive topic does come up, I usually have my characters show different sides of an issue. I never preach. Some authors use their platform to promote a certain point of view, but even if I have one, I would rather respect the intelligence of my readers and let them come to their own conclusions.

Apparently, I’m in good company. J.K. Rowling joined 150 other writers and academics, including Salman Rushdie, in signing A Letter on Justice and Open Debate. Click on the link. It’s worth a read. I feel much better, now.

Some of my killers are women, some are men. Some are old, some are young. Some are American, some are not. Loud, quiet. Tall, short. I’ve got a psycopath, a troubled religious zealot, a military vet, and a sociopath, along with your garden variety killers—people who became twisted somewhere along the way and kill for the usual reasons: jealousy, unrequited love, or greed.

So, if my next killer is Lithuanian and likes peanut butter and green olive sandwiches and you are a Lithuanian who likes peanut butter and green olive sandwiches…just deal with it! (By the way…I LOVE peanut butter and green olive sandwiches and I haven’t killed anyone this week.)

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Savory Stuffed Peppers

I DOUBLE THE RECIPE for these and freeze half of them for those nights when the ‘Logan Light’ is on later than I intend. Sometimes its 6:00 by the time I look up from my keyboard and nothing’s ready for dinner. Having these on hand is a lifesaver. A salad and some sourdough bread and you’re good to go!

(It does take some prep for the filling, but not much and it can be made ahead.)

Savory Stuffed Peppers is a bright, healthy, colorful addition to your recipe repertoire. My husband likes his drizzled with ranch dressing. I like a dollop of sour cream, but you can eat them as is, or douse them with marinara sauce. The recipe is forgiving, so I add mushrooms or olives or zucchini or summer squash to the mix-whatever I have in the fridge.

You can use the same filling to stuff zucchini, too!

INGREDIENTS

3 or 4 T olive oil

Italian sausage – mild or hot – half to one pound, depending on what you like or have

1 yellow onion, diced or minced

minced garlic if you like it (we do!)

1 zucchini or summer squash

~1 cup of portabello mushrooms (or whatever you have)

1/4 cup black olives chopped or sliced

~1/4 to half cup Parmigiano Reggiano grated

2-4 cups cooked rice (basmate, jasmine-long grain)

1/2 cup breadcrumbs (gluten free are good)

4 large bell peppers (variety of colors if you have them-we like the yellow, orange, and red ones) halved LENGTHWISE, ribs and seeds removed. Leave stems on.

DIRECTIONS

Brown sausage, drain and remove from pan. Add onion and garlic with some olive oil, saute until soft.

Put all into a large bowl, mix in zucchini and other vegetables with rice and a drizzle of olive oil.

Place peppers onto a baking pan lined with a silicone sheet or foil. (if using foil, lightly oil first)

Spoon savory mixture into peppers. (HINT: If you don’t have a lot of peppers, or only want to make a few, you can freeze the mixture you don’t use and then the hard part is done next time you want to make these.)

In a small bowl, drizzle some olive oil into the bread crumbs, mix with your fingers, then sprinkle onto the peppers.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Peppers will be fork tender but not mushy.

Enjoy!

 

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Go-To Potato Leek Soup

THERE’S NOTHING LIKE THE AROMA OF HOT SOUP bubbling on the stove. Add this easy-to-make, delicious potato soup to your recipe box. It is one of our winter favorites! Easily adaptable, you can doctor it up with bacon and extra sour cream, or make it vegetarian, even lactose free.  It’s already gluten free.  Add a side salad and some crusty bread and you’ve got yourself a meal! Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

5 large russet potatoes (peeled)

3 leeks (cleaned by separating, soaking and rinsing well)

1.5 cups whole milk  (can use lactose free or almond milk)

sour cream to taste

salt and pepper

caraway & dill seed

water enough to cover potatoes in soup pot

DIRECTIONS

discard tough, green ends of leeks and chop the rest well

Boil potatoes and leeks for ~30 minutes or until fork tender

Add milk, caraway seeds, dill, salt, & pepper to taste-cook an additional 15 min until it begins to thicken a bit

stir in a few spoons of sour cream and some butter (to taste)

garnish with fresh chives or parsley if you have any or just sprinkle some dill weed on top

 

 

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How Much Water???

IF YOUR NEW YEAR’S GOAL HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH HEALTH you probably know you need to drink more water. But how much? For a 175-lb woman, that means about 117 oz or ~15 cups of water per day. More if you’re going to be very active. Yikes! Half of your coffee or tea counts, but eventually, you gotta chug some water.

No matter how good your water is, that gets boring pretty quick. Enter flavored water! You could buy it, but that gets expensive, not to mention containing artificial sweeteners that actually spike your blood sugar, not to mention all that plastic being bad for the environment, so…it is super easy to make your own. I started small, just by slicing up some oranges and lemons I had in the fridge and tossing them into a liter container. Add water and voila! I sweeten mine with Truvia, but you could drink as is or use monk fruit, honey or whatever you like. I keep a pot of fresh mint outside my kitchen door and that works great with cucumbers, too. Here are some other ideas to get you going!

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