Lisa Renee Jones's Blog, page 115
October 6, 2013
Spiderweb Caramel Apples & Spiderweb Candy Dish GIVEAWAY
This week’s recipe from Rae is a spooky treat – Spiderweb Caramel Apples! Keep stopping by on Monday’s when we’ll have another new recipe and giveaway posted!
CARAMEL APPLES
Ingredients:
6 apples
6 craft sticks
1 (14 ounce bag) wrapped caramels, unwrapped
2 tablespoons milk
Directions:
Remove the stem from each apple and press a craft stick into the top.
Grease baking sheet, I used cooking spray
Place caramels and milk in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, stir then add back to microwave again 30 seconds, continue until smooth.
My caramels were melted and smooth in 1 ½ minutes
Allow to cool briefly.
Roll each apple quickly in caramel until well coated.
Place on prepared sheet to set.
You can roll the apples in nuts, sprinkles, candy pieces, or drizzle with chocolate.
I melted chocolate in microwave, put in a pastry bag with tip cut off and made a spider web design.
Tip- if you can’t find craft sticks you can use lollipop sticks or even chop sticks.
Enjoy!!!
Rae
Enter to win a Spiderweb Candy Dish just in time for Halloween! Good Luck and Thanks for entering!!
September 30, 2013
First Chapter of Play With Me from Heating Up the Holidays
Releases October 28, 2013
Request it at NetGalley
Keep an eye out for a big contest next week!!
Play With Me
Kali Miller has spent three years reporting fluff stories for a small-town Texas paper, waiting for the opportunity to pen the article that will launch her to new heights. That dream has never felt further away when she suddenly finds herself out of work, forced to take a job as an executive secretary at a Las Vegas casino. But that’s exactly where Kali meets the subject of what will surely be a career-defining exposé: her boss, Damion Ward, the casino’s arrogant and undeniably sexy CEO.
Watching Damion make his cold, calculating business maneuvers, Kali is positive she’s doing the right thing. But after Damion invites her to help him plan a Thanksgiving charity event, Kali begins to see another side of the man. And when she surrenders to the exhilarating tension that’s been simmering between them since day one, Kali becomes part of her own story, which she hopes will have a happy ending.
Part One
The first meeting . . .
“Ms. Miller.”
At the sound of my name, I hop to my feet in the center of the Las Vegas temp service. Rushing forward, I stop in front of my interviewer, a forty-something woman in a navy suit not so unlike my own.
“Hi,” I say, sounding as awkward and nervous as I feel about being unemployed for the first time in my life.
My greeting earns me a quick up-and-down inspection that has my already rattled nerves swan-diving off an invisible cliff. She levels a stare at me and asks, “Can I help you?” And her prickly tone says I’ve failed her sixty-second assessment.
“I’m Ms. Miller,” I reply, and try to win her over. “But, please, you can call me Kali.”
Her lips twist and tell me she is clearly not charmed, as I had intended. Instead, she looks down her nose, which is as straight as the long brunette hair neatly tied at her nape, and repeats with formality, “Ms. Miller. I’m Ms. Williams, your job-placement counselor. Come with me.”
“Ms. Williams” charges down a narrow hallway and I chase after her, just as I did for the reporting job at the Vegas Heat that fell through before I ever started to work. She disappears into an office and I follow, swiping at a strand of my long blond hair, which suddenly feels as disheveled as the new life I’ve gambled on.
Ms. Williams settles behind a basic wooden desk and motions me to the burgundy cloth-covered visitor’s chair. Claiming the seat that might as well be labeled for desperate, unemployed folks, I adjust my skirt to rest primly at my knees and watch Ms. Williams study my paperwork for what feels like an excruciatingly long amount of time.
She glances up at me, and the skeptical glint in her eyes—real or created by my insecurity—makes me wish she hadn’t. “Let me get right to the point,” she declares. “You were working as a reporter in college.”
“And for a year at the Texas Sun,” I quickly add, afraid she’s missed that line on my application. “I only left for a better offer, which was eliminated while I was en route.”
“I was getting there, Ms. Miller,” she reprimands sharply. “My point is that I do not have any reporting jobs. They’re hard to come by. In other words, no one has any reporting jobs. If you can return to Texas and get your job back, you should.”
The whiplash effect of her words has me slumping and then straightening in rebellion. Even though my savings are gone, I will not go back to covering watermelon festivals and, well, other . . . stuff I’d rather not think about now. Or ever. I’d rather not think about it ever. “I took your administrative tests,” I point out, “and, as you should be able to tell, I have excellent clerical skills. Additionally, I’m highly organized and I’m dedicated to whatever I do. I need work—therefore, I will be timely and productive while on the job.“
“I saw your testing. The question is, will you be reliable if I send you to a job that isn’t a reporting position?” It doesn’t come out as the question it claims to be but more as an accusation.
“My experience in journalism should assure an employer that I’m articulate and know how to censor when necessary. And I want to be an asset. I need a stable career.” Not a dream that can’t pay the bills, no matter how hard it is to let it go.
She purses her lips and stands up. “Give me a moment to look at our job board.”
Yes. Yes. Yes. She’s going to the job board, whatever that is. I track her departure, twisting in the chair and watching her from over my shoulder, then sinking down when she disappears from sight. Thrumming my nails on the arms of the chair, I anxiously feel every second Ms. Williams is gone. I used my savings to come here and start a new life. I couldn’t leave if I wanted to, which I don’t.
“Okay,” Ms. Williams announces, walking back into the office. “I have a secretarial job opening, but you have to start today.”
I sit up on the edge of the chair. “Now? It’s already two in the afternoon.”
“Now means now. The pay is exceptional and the opportunity amazing. You just happen to be at the right place at the right time. If you do well, I have no doubt you could go full-time. The CEO of the Vantage Hotel and Casino group has fired his assistant. Because he is in a high-profile position and fields a great deal of press, I think you hit the nail on the head in your earlier assessment of your journalism background as being useful. He oversees a three-property operation and is extremely powerful. That will make you extremely powerful if you do well. He’s leaving town in an hour. He needs you there for a briefing immediately. In or out, Ms. Miller?”
For a moment I am paralyzed by where this is taking me. How far from my dreams, and how close—even at a distance—to a home that is now hell. But stability is not overrated. Not when a girl is alone in a new city. Not even when a girl is near family who feel like strangers.
“How much is the pay?” I ask. Then, holding my breath, I wait for the answer and curse the part of me that wants it to be bad, the part of me that wants an excuse to turn this down and cling to my dreams, to my escape from greed, pain, and powerful people who will stomp on you for no reason other than that they can.
She grabs my application off her desk, studies it for a moment, and then flicks me a look. “Double the salary you made in Texas.”
The promise of stability wins over watermelon festivals and ramen noodles much easier than I’d expected. I stand up. “Where do I go?”
* * *
Thirty minutes later, I’ve parked the rental car and found the lot’s elevator when my cell phone rings. Quickly scooping it from my purse, I answer to hear Ms. Williams demand, “Why are you not there yet?”
Shifting my purse and briefcase on my shoulder, I straighten my navy-blue jacket and reply, “I’m headed into the casino now.”
“Make it snappy. Mr. Ward has to leave. He needs to meet you first.”
“I’m almost there,” I assure her, right before I enter the building and the phone thankfully goes dead. That woman is as rude as they come, but she will be my new best friend if I get this job.
Once inside the building, I walk through rows of clanging slot machines to yet another elevator. Twenty-five floors later, I exit to a lobby that screams of money and luxury, from the fine hardwoods beneath my feet to the gorgeous mahogany desk.
The pretty blond receptionist, who I guess to be twenty-three, or maybe twenty-four like me, stands up. She is strikingly similar to an older version of someone I’d rather forget, and I am angry with myself for how easily the confidence I’ve fought to recover slips away. Suddenly I am not blond enough, not tiny or pretty enough.
“Kali?” she asks hopefully.
“Yes, I’m Kali.”
“I’m so glad you’re here,” she says, pressing her hand to her chest, and her genuine friendliness begins to ease my tension. She waves me toward a hallway and I follow as she adds, “I’m Dana, and I’m so glad it’s you working for Mr. Ward instead of me. You just shout if you need anything, and I’ll help you.”
“Oh. Thanks. Why didn’t you want to work for him?”
She snorts. “Too good-looking and intense for me.” I barely have time to process that answer when we enter a second lobby, with leather chairs, fancy art on the walls, and a secretarial desk that looks as if six or seven files exploded on top of it.
“Good grief,” I whisper, but before I can ask what happened, Dana motions to the door directly behind the mess. “That’s his office,” she whispers, as if it’s a secret, then rushes forward and grabs the phone in the midst of the piles of papers. “Mr. Ward,” she says into the receiver, “your new secretary has arrived.” A brief pause, then, “I’ll send her right in.”
Dana hangs up and turns to me. “Good luck.”
“I’m supposed to just walk in?”
“Yes.”
“Knock first?”
She gives an uncertain shrug. “Whatever feels right.” She waggles her fingers at me and hightails it in the other direction.
I sigh and walk behind the desk, intending to take the liberty of placing my purse in the drawer of what I assume will be my work space, but I gape at how much worse the mess is from this angle. The papers that have erupted on the desk are scribbled on with a black marker, as if someone was being malicious. And childish.
I study them, and it appears many are financial reports. Reaching for one, I freeze when the door behind me creaks, followed by, “Ms. Miller?”
The deep, richly masculine voice has me whirling around and then freezing: My new boss is an early-thirties, clean-shaven version of Robert Downey, Jr., in a gray pin-striped suit perfect for the role of Tony Stark. And while I’d have sworn the past few years had left me immune to men like this one, the low thrum of awareness pulsing through my body says otherwise quite loudly.
“Ms. Miller?” he repeats, arching a brow at my silence, and I am appalled to realize I am gaping. At my new boss. Who clearly knows it. Brilliant. He now has an upper hand I shouldn’t have allowed. It’s not as if I’m an amateur with corporate wolves. I know how easily they will gobble you up if you let them. And that isn’t going to happen this time.
Straightening my spine, I attempt to reclaim the power I’ve given him and persuade us both that my gaping was in our imaginations. “I’m Ms. Miller, Mr. Ward,” I confirm. “I know you have a flight to catch. What can I do to help?”
The amusement in his unique pale-green eyes says he’s fully aware of the gift I gave him and he’s keeping it. “I need you in my office. We have to cover a few things before I leave.”
“Yes, of course,” I agree quickly, and, expecting him to turn and lead the way, I take a step closer. He doesn’t move. We end up almost toe-to-toe, with me staring at his chest. It’s safer than his eyes, which will see too much. It’s a nice chest. Broad and hard enough to flex beneath his shirt and suit jacket as he reaches for the ringing cell phone in his pocket.
I take a step backward. He turns and faces the other direction and answers the call: “Right. Yes. I’ll be on my way.” Short and sweet, and he ends the connection before facing me again. “Change of plans. You’re riding with me to the airport.” He doesn’t wait for my agreement, but, then, he didn’t really ask a question. He gives me his back and disappears into his office.
I blink after him, trying to process what has happened. Ride with him to the airport? I swallow the cotton forming in my throat. This is going to be him and me in a small space, playing with who gets what power, before I’ve even sat down at my desk.
“Ready?” he asks, reappearing with a briefcase on his shoulder and stopping only a few steps from me.
“Yes,” I say. “I’m ready.”
His eyes narrow ever so slightly, and suddenly we are standing here as if he doesn’t have a flight to catch, staring at each other, and I am drowning in the depths of his light-green eyes. He’s sizing me up in some way, and it’s unnerving. He’s unnerving. Seconds tick by, until his lips hint at a curve of a smile, as if he has seen something in me I did not intentionally mean to show him, and he says, “I guess we’ll find out just how ready you are, now, won’t we?”
I see the challenge in his eyes, read the undertone of his words, and this pleases me. There is a reason he didn’t pull Dana from the front desk despite her reservations. He doesn’t want the timidity of insecurity. And while I might have lost myself for a while, I am back, and Bambi I am not.
“Yes,” I say, lifting my chin. “We will.”
September 29, 2013
Italian Sausage Sandwich & Amazon Gift Code Giveaway
This week’s recipe from Rae is an Italian Sausage Sandwhich! Keep stopping by on Monday’s when we’ll have another new recipe and giveaway posted!
Italian Sausage Sandwich
Ingredients:
6 Italian Sausage links
2 sliced peppers, I used red & yellow
1 onion, sliced
Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
1 loaf fresh Italian bread NOT SLICED, whole
4-8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese. use as much or as little as you like
1 can diced tomatoes, you can also use fresh about 3, diced if you prefer
Directions:
Cook Italian Sausage in saucepan, just until they are done, I boil in a bit of water for approx. 15-20 minutes.
Remove sausage from sauce pan, remove all the excess water and grease from pan, slice in bite size pieces.
Add sausage back to pan, add sliced peppers and onions, cook about 2-3 minutes, add entire can of diced tomatoes, juice and all, add seasonings now
Cook for approx. 5 minutes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Slice the bread in half,
Put a piece of Reynolds wrap on a cookie sheet, place bread on cookie sheet, add sausage mix. Sprinkle on cheese, add top of bread
Place in oven 10 – 15 minutes or until bread is crisp and cheese is melted. Slice and eat.
Tips- Don’t have bread, serve over rice. Tastes delicious both ways.
Enjoy!
Rae
Enter to win a $20 Amazon Gift Code for yourself or to give to someone as a gift! Good Luck and Thanks for entering!!
September 25, 2013
A special message from Suzanne Todd, the amazing producer developing INSIDE OUT
Hi all!
Want exclusive updates on the TV show and a chance to be a part of casting chats and more? I had a fabulous meeting with Suzanne Todd (Alice in Wonderland, Must Love Cats and Dogs, Austin Powers) and her team about INSIDE OUT here in LA yesterday and @teamTodd shared this email
All you have to do is send an email that says I WANT TO BE AN INDIE OUT INSIDER or whatever fun thing you want to say!
Sign up for updates now because when announcements are made things will move fast. Rally your friends who want to talk about casting too so you will have a voice when the time comes:) Not now. But when the time is right.
Also news about more books in the series if you tab down my front page. Blurbs for new INSIDE OUT BOOKS are on my Coming Soon page!
And don’t forget IF I WERE YOU is free at xoxoafterdark.com until October 7th.
A special message from Suzanne Todd about the TV show!!
Hi all!
I’m in Los Angeles and ready to get excited with my news about the TV show??? I had a fabulous time with the amazing producer SUZANNE TODD talking about the shows development yesterday and I have a message for you! #insideout
@LisaReneeJones Loved our lunch – excited to bring this to life on screen! Fans can email rebecca@team-todd.com for insider info #insideout
***
There will lots of fun stuff coming up and they plan to engage YOU the fans in what is coming! So sign up! I think they might even do some fun fan casting chats before they cast!
LOTS OF FUN TO COME!
Also news about more books in the series on the front page of my website too! Blurbs on my Coming Soon page!
And don’t forget IF I WERE YOU is free at xoxoafterdark.com until October 7th.
September 24, 2013
Heating up the Holidays Pre-order Your copy TODAY!!
HEATING UP THE HOLIDAYS
3-Story Bundle (Play with Me, Snowfall, After Midnight)
Lisa Renee Jones, Mary Ann Rivers, Serena Bell
Published by Loveswept
On Sale October 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8041-7840-2
HEATING UP THE HOLIDAYS features three sexy holiday novellas, each one centered on a different holiday: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. With stories from bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones, the popular Mary Ann Rivers, and Loveswept debut author Serena Bell, HEATING UP THE HOLIDAYS is the perfect anthology to keep the romance going throughout the holiday season!
Play with Me:
The warmth of Thanksgiving gives a dedicated reporter and a powerful businessman a chance to count their blessings in this tender, sensual novella from Lisa Renee Jones.
Kali Miller has spent three years reporting fluff stories for a small-town Texas paper, waiting for the opportunity to pen the article that will launch her to new heights. That dream has never felt further away when she suddenly finds herself out of work, forced to take a job as an executive secretary at a Las Vegas casino. But that’s exactly where Kali meets the subject of what will surely be a career-defining exposé: her boss, Damion Ward, the casino’s arrogant and undeniably sexy CEO.
Watching Damion make his cold, calculating business maneuvers, Kali is positive she’s doing the right thing. But after Damion invites her to help him plan a Thanksgiving charity event, Kali begins to see another side of the man. And when she surrenders to the exhilarating tension that’s been simmering between them since day one, Kali becomes part of her own story, which she hopes will have a happy ending.
Pre-order HEATING UP THE HOLIDAYS from your favorite retailers!
Amazon.com: http://goo.gl/psgb3b
Amazon.ca: http://goo.gl/AZ3rb9
Amazon.uk: http://goo.gl/VH0vrQ
Barnes and Noble: http://goo.gl/BPII5b
iBooks: http://bit.ly/1fgPXk6
Google Play: http://bit.ly/16o5SK3
Books a Million: http://bit.ly/1al1WXF
eBooks.com: http://bit.ly/15pkYsC
Add Heating up the Holidays to your GoodReads shelf:
http://bit.ly/17ZxfqV
MEET THE OTHER AUTHORS:
ABOUT MARY ANN RIVERS (Snowfall)
Mary Ann Rivers was an English and music major and went on to earn her MFA in creative writing, publishing poetry in journals and leading creative-writing workshops for at-risk youth. While training for her day job as a nurse practitioner, she rediscovered romance on the bedside tables of her favorite patients. Now she writes smart and emotional contemporary romance, imagining stories featuring the heroes and heroines just ahead of her in the coffee line. Mary Ann Rivers lives in the Midwest with her handsome professor husband and their imaginative school-aged son.
Connect with Mary Ann Rivers
Facebook | Twitter | Website
ABOUT SERENA BELL (After Midnight)
Serena Bell writes stories about how sex messes with your head, why smart people do stupid things sometimes, and how love can make it all better. She wrote her first steamy romance before she was old enough to understand what all the words meant and has been perfecting the art of hiding pages and screens from curious eyes ever since—a skill that’s particularly useful now that she’s the mother of two school-age children.
Connect with Serena Bell
Facebook | Twitter | Website
Connect with Loveswept
Facebook | Twitter | Website
September 22, 2013
Puerto Rican Beans Recipe & Caldero Giveaway
This week’s recipe from Rae is Puerto Rican Beans! Keep stopping by on Monday’s when we’ll have another new recipe and giveaway posted!
PUERTO RICAN BEANS
INGREDIENTS:
1 teaspoon oil
1 (15.5 OZ.) can pink beans
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 package sazon, (can be found in an orange box in Hispanic isle)
1 tablespoons sofrito, (can be found in a jar in Hispanic isle)
7 green olives, (can be found in Hispanic isle, I use Goya salad olives, pitted Manzanilla, olives and pimientos)
2 cubed medium potatoes
1 can water, (use the tomato sauce can)
Cooked rice, to serve beans over
DIRECTIONS:
Put oil in a deep saucepan, on low/medium add sofrito. Cook 1 minutes.
Add tomato sauce, sazon, olives, cook and stir for 2 minutes.
Add drained beans, potatoes and water.
Cook to a boil, then turn heat to low, cover and cook 20 minutes, or until potatoes are fork tender.
Serve over rice
Enjoy!!!
Rae
Do you like traditional Puerto Rican food? Or have a recipe in mind that could use a new Caldero? Enter to win a IMUSA Cast Aluminum Caldero for yourself or to give to someone as a gift! Good Luck and Thanks for entering!! 
a Rafflecopter giveaway
September 15, 2013
Pineapple Upside Down Bundt Cake & Bundt Cake Pan Giveaway
This week’s delicious recipe from Rae is Pineapple Upside Down Bundt Cake! Keep stopping by on Monday’s when we’ll have another new recipe and giveaway posted!
PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN BUNDT CAKE
INGREDIENTS:
1 (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained, (I used pineapple chunks and cut them, I find it easier to drain juice that way.)
½ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Maraschino cherries, about 8-10
1 yellow cake mix, plus eggs, water and oil, per mix directions
DIRECTIONS:
Mix cake mix per directions
Preheat oven 350 degrees
Spray a Bundt pan with cooking spray, add melted butter to bottom of pan, even out butter in pan
Sprinkle brown sugar over butter
Place maraschino cherries over sugar
Spread crushed pineapple over cherries evenly, careful not to disturb sugar to much
Pour cake mix over top of pineapple layer
Bake 40 minutes or until golden brown
Test to make sure cake is done, toothpick should come out clean
Remove cake from oven, use a knife to help release cake from side of pan
Invert cake onto a cake plate, right after cooking to insure the cake comes out of pan, (careful when inverting pan, there may be hot juice from pineapple)
Cool before serving
Enjoy!!!
Rae
Do you enjoy making bundt cakes?? Enter to win a Nordic Ware Platinum Non-stick Cast Aluminum Fleur De Lis Pan!
September 11, 2013
Update: Responding to the many questions about INSIDE OUT future books
Hi all –
I was trying to wait until the official announcement to tell more about INSIDE OUT but some people are getting upset because they don’t know what is happening next and even feeling frustrated. I appreciate that you are that invested in the characters!
I’ll have official news VERY soon.
Some of you have ask about the word ‘trilogy’ but you also all see that there is much more to come, and you’ve expressed the idea of not knowing what happens to Mark, Ava, Chris, Sara, and even Rebecca, is not a good one. And Ricco and Mary are in some pretty hot water, too! Ryan is also an issue and Chantal and Rey. I don’t plan to leave any of them ( or you) hanging. I’d planned more books from the day I outlined the series but to spin them off into another series. With the TV stuff and the connected characters staying so interwoven though that just made no sense the change the series name. So the stories continue as I’d always planned and with the same series name.
Added notes:
#4 is in Sara’s POV and #5 is in Mark’s POV. Another reason I originally called it a “trilogy” was I planned to make 4 and 5 in Mark’s POV. I wanted that shift to be clear. However as I wrote #3 I decided #4 has to be in Sara’s POV. There are just too many things to do with her and Chris we still need to visit. These characters are so alive they make decisions for me and I think many of you would be upset with me if you didn’t get to see the final pages of Chris and Sara from inside their relationship. There will be lots of Mark though in #4 as it was originally planned in his POV.
Ella is a completely new trilogy that will be a completely new storyline.
Hang in there with me and we’ll share more soon.
I can’t wait to tell all!
Lisa
Responding to the many questions about INSIDE OUT future books
Hi all –
I was trying to wait until the official announcement to tell more about INSIDE OUT but some people are getting upset because they don’t know what is happening next and even frustrated. I’ll have official news VERY soon.
Some of you have ask about the word ‘trilogy’ but you also all see that there is much more to come, and you’ve expressed the idea of not knowing what happens to Mark, Ava, Chris, Sara, and even Rebecca, is not a good one. And Ricco and Mary are in some pretty hot water, too! I don’t plan to leave any of them ( or you) hanging. I’d planned more books from the day I outlined the series but to spin them off into another series. With the TV stuff and the connected characters staying so interwoven though that just made no sense the change the series name. So the stories continue as I’d always planned and with the same series name.
Hang in there with me and we’ll share more soon.
I can’t wait to tell all!
Lisa
