When Is Your Own New Year? (And book giveaway)

By Glenys O'Connell

I gave up on New Year's resolutions years ago. Good Heavens, I can disappoint myself any old time, why set myself up for more pain and humiliation by failing to live up to those nice, shining New Year's vows?

Mind you, I am attracted (like the moth to the candle flame) to all the hoopla that goes with the idea of a nice, shiny clean slate to start the year. Like the moth and the flame, the attraction has frequently ended badly.

Like the 25 extra pounds that still sit in all the wrong places, despite many diet resolutions. Like the exercise plans that have fallen by the wayside, nudged out of mind by pressing deadlines. The always tidy home? Regular notes to distant friends and family? The solid two hours a day of uninterrupted writing? Ha! All sunk without trace.

Being a bit of a contrarian, though, I've tended to celebrate two New Beginnings each year. Yes, you heard right - TWO New Beginnings a year. In September. And March.

September was when our four kids returned to school, leaving behind a summer's worth of chaos. The farm harvest was pretty well in, the garden produce jammed, jellied, frozen and canned, everything winding down to winter. Time to clean house, return to my job (journalism and freelance writing), catch up with friends, complete the house renovation projects, plan, dream....

Then March - Spring about to burst on us, pregnant with potential. Summer clothes out of storage, a cornucopia of new fabrics for little girls' summer dresses and fabric art. The camera primed and ready to catch the images that warm us in the winter months. And the seed catalogues - the excitement and anticipation of the new arrivals in the mail! Oh, my - the possibilities of summer!

Somehow, the conventional New Year's always seemed to pale by comparision to the fresh starts offered by September and March.

 
I have to confess, though, that this New Year's has been a little different. My very first Indie fiction publishing venture, The No Sex Clause, a romantic comedy, was released just before Christmas - and what a wild ride that's been! And on New Year's Eve itself, Crimson Romance published my Canadian set romantic suspense, Saving Maggie. After what seemed a long drought in fiction work, I was back in the game and loving it!

So what's up for the coming year? Two new romance books and a couple of non-fictions. Also, the Indie re-release of three books that are now out of contract with a publisher.

And I'm planning to return to practice as a counsellor and life coach.

Redecorate my home. Do some travelling. Dust off the sewing machine and quilting frame.

And oh, my - that pile of seed catalogues on my desk is positively glowing with happy thoughts....

So, there's my confession. What about yours? Does your new year really start on January 1st, or is there another time that gets your anticpation and creative juices flowing?

Leave me a comment, and I'll gift your choice of an ebook copy of Saving Maggie or The No Sex Clause to the one I like best!

Glenys O'Connell is currently frozen in place  by record breaking low temperatures and snow. She'll emerge briefly in February, like the groundhog, to test whether Spring is imminent or not. You can learn more about her and her work on www.glenysoconnell.com or  Amazon page

Why Do Heroines Never Eat? Tell Me Why for a Chance to Win A Pre-Pub Copy of Saving Maggie!

Glenys O'Connell @GlenysOConnell

This is something that has bothered me for a long time, so I'm reposting from an earlier blog. Tell me what you think - would you like to see better fed heroines?

I read a lot of ‘woman in jeopardy’ and romantic suspense novels, and it really bothers me how emaciated and malnourished those heroines must all be by the end of the book.

Now, maybe it’s just those few extra pounds on my rear, caused by too much computer time and too little exercise, so I could just be bitter about this, but have you ever noticed how little these usually over-active heroines ever eat?

It’s not unusual for them to have coffee for breakfast, be stalked, run off the road, shot at, sprint through miles of woodland, swim a lake, have wild sex with the hero, have a massive fight with the hero, rush home to run into the arms of a crazed kidnapper, be rescued or get themselves out of a scrape, and then remember that they’ve not eaten since coffee at breakfast the day before.

Yeah, really. I’d be chewing off my own foot, I’d be so hungry.

Lovely Food from My Daughter's
 Wedding Reception!

And what do they do then? Set up a good meal with all the foodgroups? No, it’s usually just another coffee and maybe a bit of unbuttered toast. And the coffee’s not a Tim Horton’s double-double – it’s almost always black.

How do they do it? Why do they do it?

Is it the wild sex that keeps them going? Or fear that interfers with normal digestive processes?

Sadly, I get really cranky if I miss a meal, so I guess I’m just not good heroine material. I’d be more likely to shoot the first person to annoy me, rather than solve the crime, save my skin, and bring everything to a happy ending.

So, what do you think? Should we start a campaign to provide a healthy breakfast and organic snacks for malnourished heroines?

Certainly, I’ve been reading some of the neat cozy detective series that are around, and a few more writers are making their heroines a bit more gastonomically realistic, so maybe there’s hope yet.
By way of protest, and to do my bit for starving heroines, I'm adding two yummy recipes to my upcoming release, Saving Maggie, from Crimson Romance. The recipes are for a chicken stir fry delux and some decadent byut healthy cookies. You just gotta see them!

Let me know what you think – should heroines have normal meals like the rest of us, or is starvation an important part of their diet? One lucky commenter will receive a pre-pub galley copy of Saving Maggie!


Glenys O’Connell admits to a love affair with food, and isn’t above a junk food meal when she’s pushed on deadline. Her heroines eat well, everything from home made macaroni tuna and cheese casserole in Judgement By Fire to an elegant three course meal at an expensive Dublin hotel, in Winters & Somers, while Maggie Kendall & Detective Josh Tyler make a wonderful chicken stir fry together in upcoming release Saving Maggie.(Crimson Romance, December 31, 2012)

Confessions - and Recipes - of a Reluctant Cook

By Glenys O'Connell @GlenysOConnell

                So this month we’re talking recipes here at the Roses of Prose. I thought it was a great idea – after all, I thought of it!

          Great, that is, until I remembered my limited talents in the kitchen. I love books where the characters enjoy gourmet foods, expensive wines, and exotic this and that. Unfortunately, we writers do write what we know. In Judgement By Fire, heroine Lauren Stephens makes a mean tuna’n’cheese macaroni casserole. And in my upcoming release, Saving Maggie, (Crimson Romance, December 31) the heroine, Maggie Kendall, has the local pizza place on speed dial.

                You get my drift?

                But my Saving Grace (that’s the title of a 2013 release, by the way – more about that later!) is that I know how to get help. As always, when in need, I find my fellow writers are darn talented and willing to share their knowledge.

                Here’s one of my favourite foodie sites: Chickens in the Road, by bestselling author Suzanne McMinn. If you haven’t visited, the site is delightful and you really, really should go.

                Susan is the one who introduced me to the world of bread. That is, breads that even I could make. Her recipe, which I adapted for my own use, has saved my bacon on many occasions, from having to rustle up a pizza lunch for the bunch, to creating gorgeous bread to glam up a simple soup meal.

Here’s my version:

BREAD:

Ingredients: 1 cup warm/not quite hot water; 1 packet quick rise dry yeast; 1 teaspoon sugar; ½ teaspoon salt; 1 egg, beaten; 2 cups unbleached white flour; 1 cup wholewheat flour.

What you do: ) Put water in a large bowl, add salt & sugar, stir slightly to dissolve. Sprinkle yeast on top, wrap in a clean tea towel and place in a warm, draft-free spot to ferment – about  15-20 min.

2) Add beaten egg to yeast mixture, then stir in flour. Mix together until you have a dough – you may not use all the flour for this.
3) Turn out onto a floured board, knead for several minutes (push, pull, fold) until the dough is elastic, smooth and no longer sticky.

4) Put a tablespoon of olive oil in the bowl, place dough in and turn until covered lightly in the oil.

5) Cover and put back in a warm place until double in size.

6) Put back on floured board, punch down, shape into loaf or rolls, and place on a baking sheet.

7) Back in warm place to rise to double again.

8) Put in oven (don’t preheat!) turn temp to 400 and bake for about 25 min for a loaf, 15 – 20 min for rolls. Don’t overbrown.

9) When baked, brush melted butter over loaf or rolls, place on a cooling sheet and try to resist nibbling – at least until the bread is cool!

PIZZA:

Follow steps 1  - 5. When dough has doubled in size, place on floured board and roll out in a shape to fit your pizza or cookie sheet.

Place in unheated oven, turn heat to 400, and bake for eight minutes.

Cover pizza crust with pizza sauce or my favorite, spaghetti sauce, then sprinkle with your favorite pizza toppings – onions, garlic, sweet peppers, mushrooms, Italian sausage, pepperoni or whatever.

Cover with a nice layer of grated cheese – I use mozzarella and medium cheddar. Back to the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 – 25 minutes.

Enjoy!

Did I mention my December 31 release from Crimson Romance – Saving Maggie? Well, at the end of the book are Maggie’s/my recipes for chicken stir fry and oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies – I can promise you, both are yummy!

Visit Suzanne McMinn’s site, Chickens in the Road, for lots of delicious recipes you can adapt to your own taste, as well as tales of the farm, the animals, and Suzanne’s many adventures, activities, and books.

Glenys O'Connell is busy with two new releases on the way. You can visit her at www.glenysoconnell.com

 

The Most Funny, Sexy Excerpt From Resort to Murder!

By Glenys O'Connell @GlenysOConnell

We're all about The Most here at the Roses of Prose this month. I like my romance and suspense seasoned with a bit  of humor, and banter between two lovers - or would-be lovers - can be very sexy indeed!

 

In Resort to Murder, Det. Ellie Fitzpatrick is becoming re-acquainted with her former lover, Detective Superintendent Liam Reilly, who's now her boss. Even though the relationshop broke up, Reilly's instincts to protect Ellie reignite when her home is broken into and searched. He spends the night outside her seaside cottage, keeping watch....and an early morning shower in Ellie's bathroom gives him the opportunity to bait the current man in Ellie's life, Brad, as well as teasing Ellie.....

 

Excerpt:

"So, again, what are you doing on my doorstep at...?" Ellie paused to peer at the kitchen clock, "Good God, Reilly, it's barely six o'clock!"

"Yeah, well, I have an early meeting in Leeds, and I need to use your shower," Reilly replied, as if dropping in on her for bathroom facilities was routine. He opened the cupboard doors, studying the contents, before shutting them in disgust. He repeated the process at the refrigerator. "Ellie, don't you have anything to eat in this place?"

She couldn't help but smile as memories returned of Reilly, heavy eyed from a night of passion, climbing back into their love-scented bed with tea and toast as morning light filled the room. "You never were much good without your tea and toast."

"There was a time you thought I was pretty good." His temper flared and she blushed. Giving her an evil look, he dropped two bags into the teapot; made a martyred sounding request that she make tea when the kettle boiled, and asked where she kept the towels.

Ellie, about to snap a vitriolic reply, suddenly realized that if Reilly was here so early, it probably meant he'd spent the night in his car. She almost burst out laughing, except that a tiny core deep inside her bloomed with sudden tenderness. He stood watch outside, in the cold, damp, sea-seasoned night, to make sure my intruder didn't return.

 A sensuous awareness snaked lazily from the pit of her stomach and Ellie swallowed on a suddenly dry mouth. Had she known he was there, so close, she would have felt so much safer, so much more secure. Would she have invited him in so that they could keep watch together? Ah, now, that would have been exposing herself to danger for sure. That hungry little quiver beat low in her stomach as her every nerve ending responded to feelings she'd thought had died of neglect. Regretfully, she pushed them away now. She'd need all her wits about her today – her first day back at work. Ellie had bigger fish to fry than Liam Reilly. 

Deep in thought, she poured hot water on the tea bags in the pot. A shadow fell across the thin net curtains and, startled, she sloshed boiling water onto the counter. It took her a moment to realize the shadow was Brad passing her kitchen window en route to the patio. She flicked the lock up and slid the door open to let him in.

"Must be my day for early visitors," she commented, sniffing the air appreciatively as she saw the small white bakery box in his hands.

"Thought I'd bring breakfast for us again– croissants fresh from the oven," Brad said, his arms going around her and drawing her to him as his mouth sought hers.

"Don't let me interrupt anything." Reilly sauntered out of Ellie's bathroom, obviously naked except for the bath towel wrapped precariously around his waist. He rubbed at his damp hair with the end of another towel draped around his neck, the movement causing the towel around his waist to slip ever more slowly downward. Mesmerized, she stared at the tiny drops of moisture clinging to the fine mat of hair on his chest, her eyes following them downward. Once upon a time she'd have licked away those tiny droplets and he'd have…Ellie shook herself back to the present.

Brad was staring, too, his face contorted with rage. Only Reilly seemed comfortable with the scenario as he took the bakery box from Brad's hand.

 "Uhmm, are those croissants? They smell wonderful," he said, casually helping himself to the pastries, then pouring a hot mug of tea, apparently oblivious to the way his presence had exploded into the room.

Ellie had time only to register the scene herself, noting with a little shock the puckered scar, a flash of glossy pink snaking in a livid line from his upper arm across to Liam's shoulder before Brad, white-faced with anger, asked, "What the hell's he doing here?"

"Brad, there's an explanation..." Ellie stammered.

 

Resort to Murder is published by The Wild Rose Press and available here or on Amazon here . Glenys O'Connell is working on a new contemporary romance, The No Sex Clause, and finishing edits on her soon to be released romantic suspense, Saving Maggie, coming December 31st from Crimson Romance