Cindy Arora's Blog, page 2

Key lime pie for quarantine

I made a pie.

A quarantine key lime pie.

It’s a lovely shade of light green, with overflowing graham cracker crust and hand made whipped cream that I piped with a sandwich bag. It turned out messy, but still made me happy when I stepped back to admire it.

Which is what counts these days.

A moment of simplicity wrapped in a pie tin. Or actually a cake pan, because that’s all I had.

On this 25th day of sheltering in place, I have discovered a few things that help get me through the day.

Manage how much news I take in on a day, This can be the tipping point between having a panic attack to maintaining my general level of anxiety.

Be patient and kind. Not just to myself, but to my son. my family and friends. Things are super grim right now. We are all doing our best.

Look for the good. This can be smiling at my neighbor or enjoying the feel of the sun. Be in the moment.

Living 24-hours with people is going to be irritating. Fights over burnt toast are gonna happen.

Find things to focus on. something other than reality. For me it’s running, writing and baking.

It’s lesson #5 that had me squeezing 6 limes and grating them for their magical zest on a Sunday evening. Things feel bleak. And hard.

But making a pie? That’s the sweet stuff.

I’ve been working on my WIP (work in progress) which takes place in a diner, where pie and coffee is a way of life. I bet my character would love this happy Spring pie.

I’m including the recipe I followed by LA pastry chef Nicole Rucker. It’s flawless.

She also has a wonderful cookbook called “Dappled” that’ s worth adding to your bookshelf, especially if you love baking with fruit.

Hope everyone is social distancing and finding ways to manage while we make our way to the other side. Whatever that may look like …

xoxo,

Cindy Arora

Quarantine Key Lime

When the news is too much to bear.

Your quarantine roommates (family!) are driving you nuts.

When home schooling is out of your comfort zone.

And when rain is keeping you from running?

Go ahead. Make a pie.

Even if it’s a bit sloppy. Even if you don’t have a pie tin. Even if the only piping bag you have is a sandwich bag.

Make a quarantine pie.

Nicole Rucker’s Key lime pie

(recipe courtesy of LA Times )

30 minutes, plus cooling and chilling. Makes one 9-inch pie.

Ingredients

1½ cups graham cracker crumbs

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

6 medium limes

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

4 large egg yolks

1 cup cold heavy whipping cream

¼ cup sour cream

Instructions

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly coat a 9-inch pie plate (not deep-dish) with nonstick cooking spray.

Make the crust: Combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, salt and melted butter in a large bowl and stir until moist crumbs form. Transfer to the prepared pie plate and press evenly into the bottom and up the sides of the plate (but not over the rim).

Bake the crust until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Leave the oven on.

Make the filling: Finely grate 1 tablespoon zest from the limes into a large bowl, then halve the limes and squeeze ½ cup juice. (You may not need all 6 limes.) Add the condensed milk and egg yolks and whisk until all the egg yolks have been incorporated and the zest is speckled throughout the mixture. Pour into the cooled crust.

Bake until the filling is set around the edges and the center wobbles slightly when touched, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely, at least 2 hours.

In a large bowl, whisk the heavy cream and sour cream with an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or by hand, until soft peaks form; do not overbeat. Pile the cream on top of the pie and swirl and swoosh with a spoon or rubber spatula. Refrigerate the pie for at least 3 hours before serving.

Reads for the Quarantine - Week 2

I added these three new "#foodanddrink reads to my TBR list and each one offers a great place to dream about visiting from the comfort of our living room..

In the “Lager Queen of Minnesota” order a craft beer at one of the coolest taprooms in Minnesota.

In the “The Late Bloomers Club” have a huge slice of carrot cake at Miss Guthrie’s Diner.

Wait in line (with 6 Feet Social Distance, of course) at the grilled cheese food truck in the novel "The Optimists Guide to Letting Go.”

Bonus Read:

Liza Palmer’s book “Seeing me Naked” is one of my favorite food reads. It’s based in Los Angeles/Southern California, so it’s more of a staycation for me than an escape read, but I am rereading it because of how much I love it. Kinda like watching your favorite movie again!

Happy reading.

#stayhomestaysafe

Mastering Dal Masala during heartbreak & a world pandemic

At the end of February, I began to stockpile.

Not aggressively, but when I would go to the market, I’d grab two of everything.

Hamburgers? Let’s buy the 10-pack.

Canned black beans? Let’s just take 12, there’s always room for frijoles negroes.

Chocolate. Cake mix. Butter. Cheese. Frozen lasagnas. A 10-pound bag of coffee, yes.

I found myself heading to all my favorite places and packing my freezer, all while telling myself that I wasn’t panic buying. I was just … being careful.

But the newscasts grew scarier and scarier each day and truth be told, I tend to run on the anxious side of things in my everyday life. I jokingly refer to this as “white knuckling it through life.”

Sadly, this wasn’t one of those times. My greatest fear has become a surreal reality.

In fact, reality has superseded my anxious thoughts.

Our new reality is frightening and heartbreaking for a million different reasons.

I grieve for what was my normal.

I grieve for my 8-year-old son who wants to know why we aren’t going to his friend’s birthday party this weekend or if we are having our annual Easter Egg Hunt.

I grieve for the warm hugs that I would give my mom and sister’s every Sunday for family lunch.

I grieve for my boyfriend who I don’t know when I’ll see again. Turns out, in this day of Covid-19, seeing each other is not an essential.

It’s just a heartbreak. All of it. There’s no way out, but through, and so here we are.

I’m grateful that at the moment we are healthy and OK.

We are OK.

I keep my focus on the positive stories coming out from the world. Keeping an eye on the “helpers” who seem to make a difference. I’m here for it and ready.

In-between the anxiety, panic, heartbreak and hope, I cook.

I’m not the best cook, but I’m an eager one.

This week, I have been testing an Indian dish called Masala Dal.

A lentil curry that I serve in a bowl and feels like a warm hug with every bite.

It reminds me of childhood. It reminds me of my Dad and it reminds me of going to dinner at our family’s favorite Indian restaurant in Pasadena, where we’ve been going for about 20 years.

My son and I have been eating this for lunch, in-between games of Candy land and handball tournaments in the backyard.

We go for walks. Watch movies. And when we feel scared or out-of-control we talk about it.

Or, we eat ice cream, which is always a cure-all.

I’m going to include my masala dal recipe below, it’s pretty loose, but if you follow it, something delicious will be made.

I serve it over basmati rice and Greek Yogurt. I may make my way to a market today to buy a cucumber so I can make raita. But let’s see what the news tells me to do today.

Everyone, be healthy, safe and stay home.

We can get through this. xoxoxox

Masala Dal

Masala Dal

(serving size 4)

2 Cups of Lentils ( I used Chana Dal, but you can use fresh lentils from Trader Joes, just adjust cooking time)

1 Fresh Tomato

1/2 Yellow Onion

2 Cloves of minced garlic

2 Tbsps of Garam Masala

Lemon Juice

2 Carrots

Cilantro (as needed)

2 Tbsp of Ghee (or butter/olive oil)

2 1/2 Cups of Chicken Broth

Water (as needed)

Salt as needed

Directions:

Add ghee to a preheated saute pan (or whatever you have in your cupboard. Ghee does lend itself to a different flavor, but it will be delicious either way)

Add diced onions, garlic, carrots and chunks of fresh tomato

Saute the veggies for a few minutes

Add 1 tablespoon of Garam Masala

Squeeze lemon juice into mixture and stir for a few minutes, make sure to get the spices blended together

Add lentils and stir together

Add 2 Cups of Chicken Broth and boil. Once it boils, lower heat to low and simmer for an hour or so if you are making with fresh lentils.

I used dried lentils that I soaked overnight and I still had to cook them for three hours. But, man, it was worth it!

Taste to ensure when it is done. Serve over rice!

Journalist creates illustration & scholarship for LatinX writers

First of all, I love your print! I can’t wait to hang it up in my office area. Can we start with what compelled you to create the print? I saw it shortly after the launch of Jeanine Cummins book “American Dirt” and I wanted to find out how you felt about the book and why?

I follow many LatinX reporters,  writers and activists on twitter and I saw many of their tweets describing their anger and frustration at the publishing world and at major literary people, like Stephen King and Sandra Cisneros, giving their thumbs up at this new novel. I started following Myriam Gurba as she was front and center with her raw, honest review of American Dirt. Check it out here. Reading Myriam’s piece and seeing why it was rejected angered me. Then reading Esme Bermudez , reporter for the L.A. Times, twitter threads, I understood the problem. I felt frustrated and anger, but not surprised that yet again, our stories are being told by people not within our culture and reaping 7-figure benefits, when our own stories by writers in the LatinX community would never! The nail on the coffin was seeing Oprah go all in on the CBS morning show.

This is not to say that people outside the culture can’t write about other cultures. I have worked with many reporters who capture the essence and poetry of the Black and Latino culture … There’s a right way to do it and from everything I read, this is not it. Instead of tweeting into the Twitter abyss, because that’s so easy to do, I thought of what I could do with my platform. I started thinking of how I can put my thoughts into an illustration. I looked on Instagram for inspiration as IG has a huge community of readers who post beautiful photos of the books they read …I found Lupita Aquino  of @lupita_reads with a book pile of books one should read instead of “American Dirt.”  And it hit me! I can make an illustration of this book stack to help drive LatinX authors and our voices in a visual direction. 

How did you and Myriam Gurba connect to create this Latinx Writing Scholarship? What does the scholarship entail and do you have any details on when applications will begin to be taken?

I created my own Otomi pattern to embrace the book stack of our voices, inspired by the AD cover and the quote, “They Tried to Bury Us, They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds” with a flower growing at the top. I spent all night working on this illustration on the day the book was released. The next morning, once I posted the final image to my followers on Instagram, the response was surreal. People asked to buy a print but I felt weird selling something and reaping the benefits and then it hit me, “Why not sell it and donate all the money to a scholarship for future LatinX writers so they could fulfill their dream?”

I didn’t know where to start or how, but I kept getting comments and I knew there was more to do than to post an image and get “likes” for it. SO I slid into Myriam’s DMs on Instagram that afternoon and said this exactly:

HOLA ! I’ve been asked by my followers if they can buy my illustration of your book stack. Would you like to sell my design to help fund young Latinx writers with a scholarship? People want to buy my illustration. I think we can capitalize on this to provide for future writers. Just throwing it out there. And she said Yes!

There are no details at this moment on the future scholarship. There’s all sorts of things that need to get in place before we announce all the specifics so stay tune.

Can you share your own thoughts on the importance of having #ourvoices shared in the publishing world? Why is this an important cause for you?

I have worked as a visual journalist for 22 years and I have always been the one Latina of five or less in those newsrooms. Our voices matter and we have not been properly represented. I have always been told, “you work in big newsrooms, so do something about it.” Behind the scenes, I always pitched LatinX story ideas to reporters and editors and some ideas made it unto print and online. But I always felt like it wasn’t enough. Now that I am not in a big newsroom, and I work for a newspaper group with flexibility, I want to do more  to uplift our voices. This was my first step and now I want to create and help my community, our voices, in any way I can.

What has been the feedback you have received on your print and on joining the conversation on the importance of #ourvoices?

It’s been amazing and eye-opening. I am learning so much about our people. There’s so much there and this is our movement. Oprah heard our voices and she should do better and hire LatinX to be on her team. The book publishing world should do the same. Newsrooms need to diversify. All around, if companies spent time courting diversity, there wouldn’t be this uproar. BUT because of this uproar, there’s more unity in the Latinx community. We deserve better.

Did you have your “own” voices to help guide you during your career trajectory?

My parents were undocumented and we didn’t speak English when I was a child. Growing up, my siblings and I didn’t have an allowance. My parents made us work as children and while we had a great childhood, we learned the value of a dollar young in life. I once complained to my mom when we were cleaning a rich lady’s home that I didn’t want to clean houses the rest of my life … my mom told me “estudia mija para que no sufras como yo!”

My mom’s voice and all the crap she’s been through has guided me to create and grow and build my career in visual journalism and my own little design firm, The Designing Chica.

The Designing Chica

Meet the visual journalist who created a print to share her feelings on the controversial book “American Dirt” by Jeanine Cummins.

Susana Sanchez-Young, also known as The Designing Chica. Check out her website and order her print today!

“My parents were undocumented and we didn’t speak English when I was a child. Growing up, my siblings and I didn’t have an allowance. My parents made us work as children and while we had a great childhood, we learned the value of a dollar young in life.

I once complained to my mom when we were cleaning a rich lady’s home that I didn’t want to clean houses the rest of my life … my mom told me “estudia mija para que no sufras como yo!”

My mom’s voice and all the crap she’s been through has guided me to create and grow and build my career in visual journalism and my own little design firm, The Designing Chica.”

Q & A with essayist/writer Claire Yezbak Fadden

Thanks so much for coming on my blog to talk about your new release Woman at Heart: Essays on Life, Love, Laughter & Tears, it was a pleasure to read!

1. Wow! You have an arsenal of essays, can you share how you ended up writing all of these? How you came up with all of your different topics? Sounds like they spanned through the years?

Thank you, Cindy, for this opportunity. It’s a funny thing about essays, they pop into your head at the oddest moments. The yoga piece, That’s A Twist, materialized fully formed during a downward facing dog pose in class. Most of the ones about my sons, like Project Help and MOM = Made of Money, arrived much more slowly, sort of as a compilation of parenting moments.

And yes, the stories span more than a decade. My essays appeared in a variety of parenting publications. In a sense, those magazines walked alongside me on my motherhood journey.

2. I laughed out loud while reading your book! Is/was having a sense of humor an important element to motherhood for you?

Absolutely. How else can we get through what I call the chaos of love that naturally comes with parenting? Having a sense of humor allowed me the space to experience (and survive) the unexpected. Laughter helped shift my thinking from battling a catastrophe to embracing the moment, good or bad.

3. What made you decide to put together your essays in a book? How did you pick the ones that made it into the book?

My sister Sadye (also my biggest fan) wanted me to pursue collecting the essays. And I have to confess, she didn’t have a tough sell. I wanted to have this body of work in one place. To me, each essay is a piece of my life’s puzzle. Individually they are entertaining bits, but together, in my humble opinion, they form a giant tapestry, spanning those busy years of motherhood. Together, they complete the picture.

As to which essays that made the cut – I chose the ones I felt had the largest appeal. I wanted my stories to touch the most readers. There’s something in Woman@Heart for every one of us wife, sister, aunt, mother, girlfriend.

4.  As a mother myself, I enjoyed reading your essays because they felt like solid advice to me, the essay on cavities, the musings on putting your oxygen mask or how to pack a 3rd graders lunch – all very useful! Did writing these essays during this time in your life help you with your own questions about parenthood?

Cindy, I never thought about this until now. But as I reflect on the stories, I realize that writing about the trials and tribulations, the challenges and missteps (Motherhood Hall of Shame), was my way to make sense of what is often the overwhelming responsibilities that surround women in our daily lives.

 Writing questions:

1.  If you could tell your younger writing self-anything, what would it be?

Ah, another insightful question. If I could tell a younger Claire anything, it would be to not take everything so seriously. Not every battle is a hill to die on. Whether it’s writing essays or making dinner, that moment is a small stitch in the fabric of your life. It is more important to be present for yourself, your family and your friends than to be perfect.

2. Can you share your writing background with us?

I graduated from San Diego State University with a Journalism degree and the goal of being the first female to report an investigative story on 60 Minutes. A few twists and turns later, I found myself engaged in promotions for the world-famous San Diego Zoo. Fast forward about 10 years and three children later, I took on the role as editor at San Diego Family Magazine. You don’t realize it at the time, but each step in your life moves you along the path to where you’re meant to be. I still regret not making it big on TV news, but the choices I made brought me to this moment. It’s been a great ride so far . . . and, God willing, I still have more tickets in my possession to continue the trip.

3. What does your family think about your writing and being part of your essays?

As with most things in life, personal essay writing was a lot hard than I had imagined. Lucky for me, I had an amazing mentor, Sue Diaz, author of “Snake in the Spin Cycle.” Essayists like Sue write so well that they make weaving these tales appear seamless, when in reality, essay writing is some of the hardest work I’ve ever done.

In the early going, along with other sage advice, Sue cautioned me to clear my stories with the family for publications. Of course there were a few topics off limits – Superman underwear for example. I was always mindful of my husband and sons’ feelings when I put their lives on display. Fortunately for me, for the most part, they didn’t mind.

 

Meet Claire Yezbak Fadden:

Excerpt from MOM - Made of Money: The truth hit me like two weeks’ worth of dirty clothes, tumbling down my laundry chute. Somewhere along the line, while I was performing day-to-day mothering duties, my three sons grew up thinking that MOM stood for “Made of Money.” I’m not sure when this happened, but I knew how.

It wasn’t such a stretch for my kids to equate MOM with money. Nowadays, everything is labeled with an acronym. Kids watch DVDS, teams play OT and we use the ATM. It was a natural progression for MOM to mean Made of Money.

This wasn’t the definition of motherhood I learned from my mom Florence. Quite the opposite. She raised me to be independent and self-sufficient. If there was something special I wanted, I paid for it with my babysitting money. I never considered using her purse as the means to buy stuff.

Read more about Claire at: www.clairefadden.com and pick up her book, https://amzn.to/38lO97j

A Year in Review - 2019

I love New Year’s Eve for the same reason I love moving.

Clean slate.

It’s like you get to hit the reset button and tell yourself “alright, this time … this time I will do it. “

Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t, either way, I love the feeling of anticipation of what a New Year can bring.

2019 was a mixed bag of highs and lows, but the last few days as I began to reflect on the year itself, I realized it was a year of growth, which isn’t what being a human is all about?

There were many a rough spot, but I gotta say, I think I’m finishing strong.

Here are some of the highlights:

Writing:

This year, I did NANOWRIMO and no, I didn’t win.

But I did write 20,000 words, which is 20,000 more words than I had in October. So I have to say, it’s a win for me. For the last year I have been working on a new novel that is outside of my comfort zone and I’m not having an easy time. Some of it is because I’m just busy with a full time job, being a mom and also just trying to have other interests outside of my computer desk. But a lot of it is also just battling with the insecurities that come with being a writer. But everyday, one way or another, I get in front of the computer and keep going. So, here’s to seeing my novel come to life in 2020.

Reading

This year I gave myself the goal of reading two books per month. I’m an avid reader and always have a book in my car, in my purse or on my phone, so I can pick up a book anytime, anyplace. But having a goal really did help keep me on task and also pushed me to read books that weren’t my usual. I did read outside of my normal genre, including historical romance, YA and mysteries.

A lot of books surprised me this year, those I thought I would love - I didn’t. There were some I picked up on a whim and ended up loving. One of them was a YA book called SMALL TOWN HEARTS, which reminded me a lot of the book FIFTEEN by Beverly Clearly. I am super impressed with YA novels for this generation and I find myself checking out their shelves for good reads.

For those interested, Goodreads has a challenge where you can keep track of what your read and motivates you to meet your goal. Here was my list of books for 2019.

Running

Becoming a runner often makes me giggle, because I nearly flunked out of high school because I refused to run the mile. Physical education was absolute torture for me as a teen. As an adult, running has become a way for me to handle my anxiety and depression. It took me a long time to discover the connection between running and being happy. Now that I have, I can’t stop, won’t stop.

This year, I kept running, even when I didn’t feel like it anymore. I would force myself to lace up my running shoes because I knew that even though it was the last thing I wanted to do, it was what I needed to do to help myself be a better parent.

I ran a 10K to Christmas Tree Lane here in Altadena, it’s a magical neighborhood north of Pasadena where the community lights up its beautiful Deodar Cedar trees. I swear it’s the one time of year where my natural inclination to be a cynic goes out the window. Check out the photo in the gallery below, I’m BEAMING. I don’t beam.

Living

In 2019, I also bought a home. This was such a huge deal for me, because it was something I wanted to do for my son and for myself. There have been some challenges that have come with it, but that’s OK, it has made me stronger and I look forward to making it my home!

All in all. A wonderful year of growth, baking, running, being with family and friends and plenty of writing. I have returned to my blog and look forward to a year of interviewing writers, talking shop and maybe writing a few personal features on cheese, coffee and cake. The three C’s.

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of the holiday season! Happy New Year!

Let’s Chat with California Central Coast Author: Linda Seed

What was your journey to becoming an author and what inspired you to pen your first novel Moonstone Beach?

I’ve always been a writer. I wrote my first full-length book in high school, and I’ve got numerous completed books that never made it out of my desk drawer. It wasn’t until I started writing romance that I really hit my groove. I tried romance because I enjoyed reading the genre and I wanted to do something fun, something that would feel like an escape for me. The book came together so well I decided to publish it, and the response has been wonderful.

The inspiration for Moonstone Beach, specifically, came because I was a frequent visitor to Cambria, California, where the book is set. I was vacationing there regularly, and when I wasn’t there, I missed it terribly. I thought that if I couldn’t be there every day in my real life, I’d be there in my fictional life. I enjoyed writing about the town so much that I’ve set all of my books there. And now, of course, I live in Cambria full-time, which is a dream come true.

Before writing Moonstone Beach what were you doing? Your bio says former journalist, can you share more about this?

I was in journalism for a long time—first as a reporter, then as a copy editor and news editor. My college degree is in journalism. I always wanted to be a novelist—that was my big dream—but I’ve always been practical, and I knew it would be hard to pay the bills as a fiction writer. I went into the news business because I knew it would provide a steady paycheck. And it did, for more than fifteen years. I left the business in the early 2000s to be a stay-at-home mom, well before the collapse of the news business. It was only after my kids were in school full-time and didn’t need me as much anymore that I started turning my attention back to writing fiction.

How do you begin planning, plotting and preparing for your next novel?

The simple answer is, I don’t do any of those things. I’m a classic pantser—I write by intuition. I usually start a book with the two main characters in mind. I know what they do for a living, and I might know how they’ll meet each other. That’s pretty much it. From there, I just go where the story takes me. I’ve tried outlining a novel before writing it, but that has never worked for me. I get bored. Why should I keep writing if I already know how it ends? Where’s the fun in that?

You love to bake? What’s one of your favorite desserts to prepare or eat that makes it feel like the holidays for you?

I do enjoy baking! My favorite holiday recipe is for a cookie we called “snowballs” when I was growing up. We had them every year. Their real name is Russian Tea Cakes, and they’re small spherical cookies with lots of butter and powdered sugar. I like them with walnuts in them. Delicious. I wish I had an original recipe of my own that I could share with you, but I’m not that creative when it comes to baking. I use other people’s time-honored recipes.

What books are on your nightstand right now? Either you are reading or plan to be read?

Right now I’m reading The Ice Storm by Rick Moody. After that, I’m planning to read Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. After that, my to-be-read list is endless.

You have three series you have written (so far), can you tell us about your latest release, FIXER-UPPER, which comes out on December 10th? What do you enjoy about writing a series? I know as a reader, I love getting to learn more about each character and delving into their world and romance.

Fixer-Upper, the third book in the Russo Sisters series, is about Martina Russo, the crunchy, granola-eating, Birkenstock-wearing sister. She’s an interior designer, and her new client is Christopher Mills, a multimillionaire we met in my first series, the Main Street Merchants. She enters the picture just as Chris’s relationship with his society girlfriend is imploding. Much drama ensues! I brought back the character of Christopher Mills because several of my readers requested it. In the first book he appears in, Nearly Wild, he’s left kind of sad and lonely at the end. People wanted him to get his happy ending.

The Russo Sisters series features four sisters: Sofia, a kayak instructor; Bianca, a pediatrician; Martina, an interior designer; and Benedetta, a marine biologist. The series, like all of my books, is set in Cambria.

I love writing in series because it gives me a chance to really get to know the characters over the course of several books. By the time I finish one book, I feel like I’m just getting into the characters’ heads, and it’s too soon to say goodbye. I love getting to spend more time with them in the following books. It’s a full immersion you don’t get with just one book. Having said that, all of my books can function as stand-alone. Each one has its own Happily Ever After, with no cliffhangers. So if you want to dip in for just one, that totally works.

Meet: Linda Seed

Explore the world of Linda Seed who writes contemporary romances based in Cambria, California.

Check out her new release FIXER UPPER or check out her catalog of fun romance novels, here.

Fall Reads: October 2019

Fall in Los Angeles has arrived!

Which means it is hot, dusty and wildfire season has begun.

But, in hopes that I can conjure up the season if “I believe” hard enough, I am curling up with a good book, a hot coffee and pretending that it’s not really 91 degrees outside.

My TBR (To be read) book continues to grow, while I continue to get sidetracked. But I have read some wonderful books so far in 2019 and have even stepped outside of my comfort zone and read a few mysteries, historical romances and took a stab at traditional romances (lusty!)

It’s been a good season for reading.

Right now, I am finishing up October with these three books:

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/43889827

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27209404-the-memory-of-lemon?from_search=true

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42051103-natalie-tan-s-book-of-luck-and-fortune?from_search=true

A Fresh Slice of Heartbreak Cake

I decided my debut novel HEARTBREAK CAKE needed a little refresh. You know, like a haircut or a new lipstick.

I’ve always been a sucker for an illustrated cake and well, this one looks beautiful. Thanks to designer Lyndsey Lewellen who created this cover for me.

Last year, my publisher Simon & Fig closed its doors. This left my novel and a few short stories I had written without a home. I’ve been working on what to do and have also been working on my next novel, which I am writing in between working, parenting and life. It’s not always easy, but I will hopefully (fingers crossed!) have something to announce soon.

In the meantime, you can still find a couple of novels on Amazon.

Where My Moms At with Christina P!

A few months ago, my step sister Christina P invited me to be a part of her podcast Where Your Moms At.

She started it a few months back to have #realtalk with moms about what really happens to you, life and your body after having kids.

She’s hilarious and if you haven’t checked out her Netflix comedy special, pour yourself some wine (or whiskey) and do it. Mother Inferior, check it!

Being on her show was completely out of my comfort level, but she’s such a pro at what she does that I ended up having a great time and we laughed a lot. So, it was painless. I have some pretty severe stage fright and I worried that I would just freeze up, but we made it work.

If you are looking to add a podcast to your weekly listening, try out hers. She’s not Rated G, so just know that this is not for listening while taking your kids to Cub Scouts.