Blog Hop 2013

Kick those resolutions to the curb and spend some time curled up with a good book.  The Plotting Princess Blog Hop is almost over and we hope you've enjoyed our hop to get the New Year started.

Below is my favorite cheese ball recipe.  My family loves everything spicy, so I always chop several jalapeño slices up and mix in to give this cheese ball a little zing. This is one of our favorite Super Bowl recipes and with the big game right around the corner, I thought this would be a good time to share.

Cheese Ball

1 8 oz. package cream cheese softened

1 8 oz. can crushed pineapple drained

1 tablespoon finely chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped bell pepper

1 teaspoon seasoning salt

2 cups chopped pecans

            Finely chopped jalapeño's -- this is optional.

Mix everything together except the pecans.  When you have the cheese ball formed and everything mixed together, then roll in the chopped pecans. I recommend that you let it sit overnight.  Serve with crackers.

To be eligible for the grand prize, be sure to leave a comment. I'm also giving away a copy of Wronged, but at the end of the hop, we're giving away a grand prize, which is an ebook/print book from every participating author.

There are still two more stops:

Thursday ~ Jan. 10th ~ Willa Blair (Guest Princess for a Day)
Friday ~ Jan. 11th ~ Lynn Rush (Guest Princess for a Day)

Three Wives One Dead Husband!

Below is an excerpt from my newest release, The Cuvier Widows -- Wronged. This series is about three women who all find out at the same time that they are married to the same man and he's dead.  But who killed Jean Cuvier? And how can these three women ever trust or find true love?

Wronged

New Orleans, 1895

Marian Cuvier for years thought her husband kept a mistress and that her marriage to Jean Cuvier wasn’t worth the paper their marriage license was printed on. Still, the sight of the man she had spent the last twelve years of her life with—borne two children and made a home for—lying dead on the floor of a bedroom in the Chateau Hotel ripped a sob of anguish from her throat

"What happened?" she cried, her mind reeling with thoughts of her fatherless children wrenching her heart.

Policemen stood around the body in small groups, ceased their low whispers and glanced her direction, their gazes stern, but curious.

A man half-bent over Jean’s body turned and gazed at her, his dark eyes intense. "Who are you, Madame?"

"I’m his wife, Marian Cuvier," she said, starting to tremble from the shock of her husband’s death. His body lay twisted grotesquely on the floor, his skin an odd pinkish hue.

Oh God, no matter how much I hated him, I would never have wished him dead!

The man crouching over the body slowly rose to his full height, his brows drawn together in a frown. "His wife is sitting in the next room Madame."

"What?" she asked, not sure she heard him correctly. "I’m Marian Cuvier. I’m his wife. Who are you?"

"I’m detective Dunegan." He gave her a stem look and took her by the arm, leading her from the bedroom.

Unable to resist, she glanced back perhaps for the last time at the still form that long ago had been her lover, and of late an absent husband. She closed her eyes, the image of the handsome man she’d married twelve years ago foremost in her mind. When she opened her eyes she looked toward the detective, not at the corpse who’d never been a good husband.

"Madame, I will ask you again. Who are you? His wife is sitting in the next room."

Confusion rippled through her and she pulled away from the man as they entered the parlor. "That must be his mistress. I am Mrs. Jean Cuvier, we’ve been married for twelve years."

The hotel clerk, who earlier had summoned her from her house and brought her to the Chateau Hotel, cleared his throat to draw the detective’s attention. He leaned over and whispered something to the younger man who glanced again at Marian.

As if she were at a play, she watched from a distance as the scene unfolded before her, a sense of uneasiness holding her in its grip. The body lying on the floor of the bedroom looked like her husband, Jean, who was expected home today. She supposed the corpse littering the floor must be her cold-hearted husband, the man who had visited her bed fewer times than he had the church, which was almost never.

Detective Dunegan gazed at her, his expression one of bewilderment. "My apologies, Mrs. Cuvier. There seems to be some confusion. The hotel clerk confirmed you were indeed married to Mr. Cuvier. If you’re his wife, then, who is the woman who was with Mr. Cuvier?"

Reunion Stories

Contemporary Romance - Reunion Stories

Do you love a good reunion story? Recently a lady at my day job, whose husband had passed away, was contacted by a man she dated in high school. They went out to dinner, caught up on what had happened to them in the last forty years. During dinner, he told her after high school graduation, he went into the military. On his first leave, he intended to ask her to marry him and become an army wife. Eager to reunite with her, he went to her home, only to learn she'd married and moved to California.  Now forty years later, they are dating and are engaged to be married.

A good reunion story always has built in conflict. Maybe they were attracted, but one wasn't ready for a commitment. Maybe something is keeping them from being together, like a parent or a job or location. Maybe there's a secret that can't be revealed at the moment, but years later they're ready to deal with the problem.

In any sub-genre of romance, you can use reunion stories. In contemporary romance, they are often used for the secret baby plot, mistaken identity or something brings them back to the small town where they grew up where the hero/heroine still resides. These are some of the standard plot lines used in contemporary romance. If you take this plot line, add an unusual twist, along with strong writing skills, you're a candidate for Harlequin/Silhouette.

Small contemporary romance is usually a quick read. The story is fast-paced, and in the 250 pages, you have to take your characters from dislike with interest to madly in love and ready for their happily ever-after. Your conflict should be strong, yet resolvable in those short pages.

How many of us have thought about old boyfriends and wondered if we saw them today, would we consider them? My first love in high school was a boy who broke my heart. Today, he's been married five times, and I thank my lucky stars we parted ways. 

With reunion books, there is built in sexual attraction. Most of the time, they've been intimate with one another and remember what it was like to be with that person.  And usually, some significant conflict tore them apart.

In My Sister's Boyfriend, she traded places with her twin sister and went out on a date with her sister's boyfriend. Things went further than she intended that night and she gave him her virginity in the back seat of his Mustang. Now fifteen years later, she comes face-to-face with him once again. Will he 

realize it was her all those years ago and not her sister?

So do you enjoy reunion stories as much as I do? Tell me some of your favorites.