A Taste of Gratitude & Joy: Tried and True Comfort Recipes

                          https://bit.ly/GratitudeandJoy

When Amanda McIntyre asked if I'd be interested in doing a cookbook with her a few months ago, I jumped at the chance! It started with discussing recipes our characters baked or prepared in our books. Then we started talking about recipes we loved, which one of our relatives handed the recipe down to us, traditions, etc.

But we were both immersed in other writing projects and had to put the cookbook collaboration on the back burner.

Then the unthinkable happened, and the COVID-19 became a pandemic. I was not as aware of it at the time because of my husband's health crisis going on at the same time. But I was quickly brought up to speed when I was able to bring him home from the hospital.

Amanda and I started chatting about the changes in our lives during the pandemic, sheltering in place and the differences between what my family was doing here on the East Coast, and what her family was doing in the Heartland. 

One thing was clear to the both of us, the need to draw our families as close as possible, protect them, provide for them...and for us...it all started in the kitchen. My favorite room in the house!

We both knew we had something to offer our Readers...recipes from our hearts, with memories of the strong women who taught us to bake, to cook, and to handle whatever life had in store of us. Because life is not for the faint of heart!

This collection of recipes is our way of thanking our great grandmothers, grandmothers, and our mothers for their lessons in the kitchen and in life. 

https://bit.ly/GratitudeandJoy

They not only passed down traditions and their culinary expertise, but how to survive their generation's crises. For our great grandmothers it was the 1918 Influenza epidemic and The Great War. For our grandmothers, it was World War II, Polio and Small Pox. For our mothers it was the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Measles and German measles epidemic. For Amanda and myself it has been 9/ll and the COVID-19 Pandemic.

We encourage everyone to...

Keep the Faith!

Wash your hands!                          Practice Social Distancing

Keep 6' between yourself and others when shopping for essentials at the grocery store, the pharmacy, and running essential errands.

Be Safe!

Be Well!

Be Happy!

And know you are not in this alone!!!

Amanda and I are praying for you and your families!

A Taste of Gratitude & Joy: Tried and True Comfort Recipes is available today at Amazon in print and e-book, and coming soon in hardback!

Get your copy here:

https://bit.ly/GratitudeandJoy

A PORTION OF SALES GO TO
FEEDING AMERICA.ORG

About Amanda

Published internationally in print, eBook, and Audio, bestselling author Amanda McIntyre finds inspiration from the American Heartland that she calls home. Best known for her Kinnison Legacy cowboys and Last Hope Ranch series, her passion is writing emotional, character-driven small town contemporary western, historical, women’s fiction, and Celtic fantasy. Amanda truly believes that no matter what, love will always find a way.

Connect:

Website: http://www.amandamcintyresbooks.com   

Newsletter: http://bit.ly/AtHeartNewsletter

Amazon Author Page: http://bit.ly/AmandasAuthorPage

Book Bub: http://bit.ly/AmandasBookbubPage

Facebook:  http://bit.ly/AmandasFacebookPage

Amazon UK http://bit.ly/AmandasUKAuthorPage

GoodReads http://bit.ly/AmandasGoodreadspage

 About C. H.

C.H. writes about the things she loves most: Family, her Irish and English Ancestry, Baking and Gardening. Take a trip back in time to Regency England for her new series: The Lords of Vice, coming from Dragonblade Publishing in 2020! Venture back to the Old West with her bestselling Irish Western Series. Fast-forward to the present, stopping at the Circle G Ranch in Pleasure, Texas, before finally landing in Apple Grove, Ohio–Small Town USA–for a slice of Peggy McCormack’s Buttermilk Pie!

Connect:
Website: http://www.chadmirand.com

Newsletter:  C.H.s Newsletter

Amazon Author Page:  C.H.s Amazon Author Page

Book Bub: C.H.s BookBub Page
Facebook: C.H.'s Facebook Author Page
Amazon UK: C.H.s Amazon UK Author Page

Goodreads: C.H.s Goodreads Author Page

First Friday's With The Crew..."The First Romance I Read Was..."

Do you remember the very first romance you read? Do you remember where you were and what you were doing? How old were you?

C.H.:

I remember Mom letting me walk to North Island by myself (I was 12 and quite independent) because our public library's Bookmobile would be parked there all day!  Summers were busy around our house with the four of us kids driving Mom crazy most of the time, in between doing our chores and then helping Mom garden or canning peaches, tomatoes, chili sauce or making jam, etc.

I remember the warmth and beauty of the bright summer day changing as I stepped into the bookmobile--library card in hand. It was cooler and smelled faintly of old books. I couldn't have been happier! Searching through the titles, one jumped out at me: Lost Island by Phyllis A, Whitney. Mom was pretty stern about only taking out one book, and leaving the rest for other library patrons on the Bookmobile's stops that day.

My world irrevocably changed that day through the power of Phyllis A. Whitney's words. I fell in love with Lacy and Giles and a new genre for me: Romance. I returned the book on time, but kept thinking about it. My Dad bought me the paperback copy. I still have it and have read it too many times to count and taped the binding at least a half dozen times over the years. I had to take a pic of the cover...check out the price back in 1970...95 cents ;) 

What was the first Romance you read?

AMANDA

My enjoyment of reading stretches back to a summer spent in southern Missouri with my grandmother. Thus, began a life-long love of eclectic reading that ranges from The Boxcar Children to Alfred Hitchcock, from Dr. Zhivago to dictionaries. (Yes, I still love perusing dictionaries for new words and Thesaurus as well- but, that’s another topic) Fast forward to junior high (just after dinosaurs became extinct)) and as an impressionable and shy student librarian,(all through my junior high/high school career) I was also deeply passionate about many things.

I discovered the book Five Smooth Stones, by Ann Fairburn, which by definition today may not have been considered a “romance”-rather an historical fiction. Set during the American Civil Rights movement, it told the story of a young couple, of different backgrounds, struggling with the obstacles of race and prejudice and trying to hold on to a love that, at the time, was not widely accepted at the time. The struggle was real. Their love even more so.

Their passion for each other, their character, and desire to make the world a better place made such a profound impact on me that it inspired the first book I ever penned--pages and pages in a three-ring notebook-a story that would never see the light of day.

This book set me on the path to loving character-driven stories where ordinary people placed in extraordinary situations rise up to overcome their obstacles-internal and external-to achieve their HEA. It was the inception of the belief I carry now in my writing and in my life that #lovewillfindaway.

.

LIZBETH

As usual, I'm breaking the rules a little because I honestly don't remember the very first romance I read. I fell in love with love stories from some of my earliest-ever books. My dad was a HUGE reader--both to himself and out loud to my brothers and to me. He also would bring us books from the library that were not what we would have chosen ourselves but ones he was sure we'd like. And we always did. Any book that  had love and happy endings was my favorite. Then I started falling in love with the heroes of books I read. My first true love met in the pages of a book was Alec Ramsay--hero of Walter Farley's Black Stallion series. 
But...real romance books is what we're remembering! My grandma had a collection of 50 or 60  Grace Livingston Hill books. GLH wrote what we now call inspirational romance, and these were hard and fast "altar call" stories--where the hero and or heroine came to faith in the pages of the very sweet romance! I devoured these like M&Ms! 
The first specific romance I remember in vivid detail is LaVyrle Spencer's "Hummingbird." The story of a spinster who takes in a wounded train robber, who turns out to be the exact opposite of what she expects has THE greatest sex scene ever (a 180-degree change from Grace L. Hill's stories, and a wonderful eye-opening experience) and is romantic from start to finish. I'd been hooked on romance from an early age--but LaVyrle's stories made me a lifelong junkie. And Hummingbird, dated as it is now, was the true gateway drug!

New Release! WORTH THE WAIT

Hank is ready to set the date. Julie likes the way things are. Can love overcome the pain of the past and prove that it’s all been…worth the wait?

ORDER FROM AMAZON

Julie and her sons moved to End of the Line after a dangerous encounter with her abusive husband led to a rescue by her brother, Clay and an old friend, Hank. Over time, her relationship with Hank takes a turn and when he unexpectedly proposes, she is forced to face the battle between her heart and her newfound freedom.

Hank hadn’t seen the woman he held a secret crush on in years, but when her brother asks his help in a dangerous hostage stand-off, he is there in a heartbeat, even taking a bullet to protect Julie and her kids. But will these rekindled feelings Hank has be enough to hold against the time that Julie needs to adjust to her new life and, will Hank decide that it’s worth the wait?

~Read an Excerpt from Worth the Wait

Hank’s body was drenched in sweat, his skin covered with soot. Fear, but a greater determination to survive—to see Julie and the boys again—drove him.

The nose dipped slightly, offering a clear, panoramic view of the lake of fire below. He pulled up, fighting the heat and the crosswind caused by the fire. The plane jerked from right to left. His arms ached from gripping the controls. His jaw muscles twitched as he fought to get more altitude.

“How are we doing, Jack?” he asked, his back teeth grinding from the force of his determination.

“Good, just a minor complication,” Jack answered, as he glanced out his window. “We’ve got a fiery branch sucked into one of the engines.” Just then the propeller slowed to a complete stop.

The sputtering started, and it rattled the plane. “We need to set her down. Any ideas?” Hank asked, his heart dwindling as he looked over the glowing sea of red.

Jack took out the map. “There’s a lake not far from here. It might be our only chance.”

“Sounds like a deal,” Hank said. “Anything is better than blowing up in the sky, right?”

“Agreed.” Jack pointed to the lake. “There it is.” Surrounded by mountains, it was formed like a giant crater had dropped onto the earth.

“At least the fire is behind us,” Hank said with a wry grin.

“You can do this, sir,” Jack said, flipping switches and checking the view in front of them.

“This isn’t going to be pretty.” Hank slowed his engines in order to coast in and hopefully soften the landing. “You know how to swim?”

“On my college swim team,” Jack said, turning to Hank with a wide grin.

Hovering over the lake, the distance between plane and black water closed in at a rapid pace. 

The plane hit the surface, spraying water into the air with the force akin to hitting a freight train head-on. Hank’s body, pushed forward by the force, slammed into the controls. He felt a quick snap in his side before the front window imploded and knocked him back in the seat. Frigid water rushed over him. 

He only had time to glance over at Jack, who was doubled over, his chin dropped against his chest. I’m sorry, Kyle, was his last thought before his world went black

~*~

This story is about second chances and believing that you are worth being given a second chance. It's a story of miracles--of family & thanksgiving--of the power of faith. It seems entirely appropriate that it should release in the season of gratitude.  

Julie's entire life is changed when there is a risk that she could lose everything. It's a hard lesson to learn, that life is fragile and to be grateful for whats right under your nose! Fortunately, love always finds a way!!

What you are grateful for?

One person will receive an autographed copy of  WORTH THE WAIT eBook (international guests)  or paperback copy (USA continental guests only) 

**SPECIAL BONUS OFFER: ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS (a Kinnison Legacy Holiday novella) 

***FREE 11/19-11/23/2018