Interview and Giveaway

with author Jennifer L. Hart

Jennifer L. Hart is the author of the Misadventures of the Laundry Hag Mysteries and The Damaged Goods Mystery series. 

Her newest title in The Damaged Good series, 

FINAL NOTICE released today (June 10).

To celebrate, Jennifer is giving away a copy of 

FINAL NOTICE and a little extra surprise to one lucky winner!

Please enter using RaffleCopter 

at the end of the interview

LKBR: Hi Jennifer. Thank you for taking the time to chat.

JLH: Thanks so much for having me here, Lisa!

LKBR: You write The Misadventures of the Laundry Hag mystery series. How did you come up with the series? And where did the Laundry Hag name come from?

JLH: Pure, undiluted frustration, LOL. We were a military family, both of my children were born at NAS hospitals, one in California and the other in Virginia so we moved, often. During the last move I was alone with a not quiet two year old and a four year old and a mountain of stuff to unpack in our new house. This was after packing up and moving out of the old one. I was tired and wished I had someone to do the dirty work for me. Then I got to thinking, yeah but then she’d see all my dirty laundry. That’s where it began.

As for the name, well I’d actually called myself that during one off the cuff rant. I was feeling particularly self-deprecating and put upon and it sort of stuck.

LKBR: Not only do the books have a great mystery, but a lot of humor. Which aspect is easier for you to write?

JLH: The humor, definitely. That’s more natural for me, especially because I know these characters so well, inside and out. I know what Maggie will say next, how Neil will respond and so on. Most of the time I have no idea whodunit until I’m most of the way through the book.

LKBR: Can you give us a sneak peek of what Maggie will be facing in the next installment?

JLH: Cleaning out an estate for a recently departed friend’s aunt. Who was a hoarder. Her personal life is always complicated, and she can’t help but meddle in her friends’ lives as well.

LKBR: Mysteries aren’t the only thing you’ve written. What other genres and which do you prefer to write?

JLH: I’ve also written, science fiction romance and BDSM romance. Chalk it up to a phase, mystery is where I belong.

                           

LKBR: You’ve been working on a new series and the first book FINAL NOTICE is now available. What is this new series about?

JHL: Well, post laundry hag I wanted to create something a little edgier, something with more opportunity for hijinks and mayhem—

JP: And you succeeded! Edgy, sassy, smart and savvy, I go by many names!

LKBR: Jackie from The Damaged Goods series has joined us. 

Hi Jackie. Thank you for joining us. Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself.

JP: Be happy to! I’m Jackie Parker, a certified process server operating out of my hometown of Miami, Florida. I used to work for a lousy lecherous estate lawyer but he made one too many grabs for my “assets” so I had to serve him my notice. Now I work with my husband Luke and Luke’s brother, the bane of my existence, Logan. We run a property management team, Damaged Goods. Basically, property owners hire us to help resolve disputes they have with their tenants.

LKBR: How do you think Jennifer does in telling your story?

JP: Stellar! Well, with a few glaring exceptions, because way too many of my favorite outfits get ruined.

LKBR: What are you hoping Jennifer will have you doing in future books? Does she listen to your ideas?

JP: I don’t give her much of a choice, I tend to squeeze in, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. J Hmm, I’d like to go on vacation somewhere cold. Being born and raised in the Magic City I’ve never seen snow, or mountains. And target practice, we’ll use, Logan. He won’t mind.

LKBR: Jennifer, I ask all my guests this next question. What are three things you would like readers to know about you?

JLH: I start every day with a cup of coffee and end it with a glass of wine. I’m a reader first, and I write to support my reading habit.

LKBR: Is there anything else either of you ladies would like to share?

JP: Nachos! Let’s get a big party platter and a pitcher of margaritas and just hang out.

JLH: Sorry Jackie, we’ve got work to do. They can see more of you in Final Notice.

She's serving up mayhem in the Magic City....

FINAL STRAW
 Dishing out bad news is Jackie Parker's job. So when her boss grabs her assets one time too many, she serves him her notice and hopes he chokes on it. There must be a better way for a certified process server to make a living in Miami than working for a lousy lecherous lawyer. Whatever Jackie decides, her number one priority is to spend time with her husband, Luke, preferably without his brother Logan--AKA the Dark Prince.

FINAL WARNING
Despite Logan's objections, Luke asks her to join forces in their own property management team, Damaged Goods. Drawing the line between professional and personal lives proves challenging, especially when Logan serves her an ultimatum--tell Luke the truth about what really happened the night they first met, or he will. Sexual harassment is looking better and better.

FINAL NOTICE
Fester Gomez is three months behind on the rent for his pricey South Beach condo and Damaged Goods is on the job. Either they convince the tenant to pay up or he'll face eviction. The simple task turns deadly when the team discovers Gomez missing and a Jane Doe slowly decomposing in his bathtub. Serving a killer up to justice, wrestling family secrets--it's just another day on the job for Damaged Goods.

ISBN-10: 1499516592

ISBN-13: 978-1499516593

Thanks Lisa, next time I’ll keep a better reign on my imaginary friends.

JP: Spoilsport. Later, alligator!

LKBR: Thank you both so much.

Check out the links below to learn more about Jennifer!

www.jenniferlhart.com

Facebook Jennifer L Hart    Facebook Damaged Goods

Twitter @AuthorJennLHart Twitter Jackie @DamagedGoodsAce

Good Luck!

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Giveaway with author 

Liz Mugavero

Liz Mugavero is the author of the wonderful

Pawsitively Organic Mystery series

 The first book in the series, 

KNEADING TO DIE became a big hit with animal and cozy lovers.

It's no wonder the second book in the series, 

A BISCUIT, A CASKET has done the same

Liz was in the mood for a giveaway, which is great because I was too!

One lucky winner will receive a copy of one of Liz's books signed by Liz, her cat Tuffy, and her dog Shaggy. 

Please enter using RaffleCopter at the end of the page.

Maybe the best thing that ever happened to Kristan "Stan" Connor was losing her high-stress public relations job. Now there's plenty of time to spend in her sleepy new Connecticut town working on her dream: baking healthy, organic pet treats!

Before long the neighborhood dogs are escaping their yards to show up at Stan's doorstep, begging for the kinds of special homemade treats her Maine coon cat Nutty loves so much. And Stan's pet-loving neighbors are thrilled with the new organic options available to their furry family members. But not everyone loves Stan and her newfangled organic ways. . .

It seems Carole Morganwick, the town vet, is from the old school of pet care. But when Stan swallows her pride and brings a very unwilling Nutty in for a checkup, she not only finds Carole dead under a pile of kibble. . .but also that she's in the dog house as the prime suspect! Finding the real killer and clearing her name will require some seriously surreptitious sniffing around. . .and hopefully, curiosity won't kill this innocent cat!

Includes Gourmet Pet Food Recipes!

The small town of Frog Ledge, Connecticut, has wholeheartedly embraced Kristan "Stan" Connor's new business--preparing quality organic treats for dogs and cats. On a healthy diet, the animals may live longer. . .but one local farmer won't be so lucky.

As Halloween approaches, Stan is asked to cater a doggie costume party hosted by the Happy Cow Dairy Farm. Part of a local co-op, Happy Cow specializes in organic dairy products, and farmers Hal and Emmalee Hoffman have started opening up the farm for parties, offering a "haunted" corn maze as an added attraction.

When Hal's lifeless body is found in the maze, the police at first suspect his wife, but Stan soon learns the dairy farmer had plenty of enemies--from bitter family members to shady business associates. If Stan can't extract a kernel of truth from the labyrinth of lies, she may be the next one to buy the farm. . .

Includes Gourmet Pet Food Recipes!

Liz has included some wonderful recipes for 

dog and cat treats in both of her books. 

The following recipes are from A BISCUIT, A CASKET.

DOG BONE CAKE

   Bowl One:

             1 cup peanut butter

             3 eggs

             1.5 cups water

   In a separate bowl combine:

             2 cups wheat flour

             .5 cup oat flour

             3 Tbsp baking powder

             3 Tsp baking soda

   Grease and flour the bottom of a 9-x-11 inch cake pan.

   Combine all cake ingredients. Do not over mix. Pour into pan and bake immediately at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. Let cool completely before turning out. Cut out bone shape.

Wrap and freeze.

   Frosting

         16 oz cream cheese

   Frosting is best to work with at room temperature. Only frost a frozen cake. Frost by adding small amounts of frosting by hand to the cake and spreading, creating a smooth bone shape.

   Decorating

          Cream cheese

          Food coloring

  Trim as desired. 

Shape, size, and appearance with vary from photos shown

PUMPKIN COOKIES

   Batch: This recipe will produce approximately 24 large cookies.

      4 cups whole wheat flour

      2 cups canned natural pumpkin

      2 cups water

      2 Tbsp baking powder

   Mix all ingredients in a stand mixer and knead for 4 minutes. Ensure dough is pliable and not fracturing. If dough fractures, add small quantities of water and mix. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes, then check. Dehydrate for minimum 10 hours. 

Recipes courtesy of the Big Biscuit

Photos are not from the books. 

If you make any of recipes, please take pictures 

and I'll post them on the blog!

Good luck!

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It's

Cozy Food Friday!

That means it's time to share another recipe from 

another great cozy mystery!

Warm weather is here so BBQs and parties are happening 

almost every weekend. And what makes any get together a happy one?

Dessert!

I don't know about you but my favorite dessert is cake. 

Oh, and chocolate. Always good to have chocolate!

With out further ado....

TEXAS SHEET CAKE

  (Michele Masarech's recipe)

1 cup butter

1 cup water

1/2 cup cocoa

1 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups sugar

1/2  tsp. salt

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 eggs (slightly beaten)

Preheat oven to 350 degress Fahrenheit. Bring butter, water, and cocoa to boil in saucepan. Remove from heat.

Add remaining ingredients, mixing after each addition. 

Pour batter into greased and floured 12 1/2" x 17 1/2" x 1" baking pan.

Bake 22 to 27 minutes.

FROSTING

(spread on hot cake)

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup cocoa

4 cups confectioners' sugar

1/3 cup milk

1/2 to 1 cup ground nuts

In saucepan, bring butter, milk and cocoa to boil.

      Add confectioners' sugar, adding more if needed

to make it of spreading consistency.

      Spread frosting on hot cake.

      Sprinkle with ground nuts.

Lisa's Note: My sister had a good friend (we miss you Joann) who made an amazing Texas Sheet Cake. She mixed the ground nuts into the frosting instead of sprinkling them on top giving the cake more of an appearance like in the photo below.

You can find Michele's Texas Sheet Cake

 and other great recipes in

A SECOND HELPING OF MURDER

by Christine Wenger

Book two in her Comfort Food Mystery series.

A SECOND HELPING OF MURDER

Trixie Matkowski is warming up to running her family’s diner in the small town of Sandy Harbor in upstate New York. But the only thing more demanding than serving up piping-hot comfort food twenty-four hours a day is getting to the bottom of a double homicide....

Trixie fondly remembers summers as a child spent visiting the shores of Lake Ontario. Not much has changed—there are still vinyl booths at the Silver Bullet Diner, families eating home-cooked comfort food, and days of swimming in the lake.

But before Trixie can say “Order’s up,” someone’s summer is abruptly cut short. One of the cottage residents is found dead, and Trixie suspects the crime might be linked to an unsolved disappearance in the picturesque town’s past.

As Trixie works with Deputy Ty Brisco to solve both mysteries, their shocking discoveries will shake up the small town. And when word gets out that she’s on the case, Trixie’s in trouble—after all, the murderer won’t spare her life just because she makes a killer corned beef sandwich....

Want to appear on my blog?

Take photos making a recipe 
featured on my blog

 and email them to me at

 lisaksbookreview@aol.com 

I will post them on an upcoming 
Cozy Food Friday!

As always, please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Also, become a Follower of my blog by clicking on the

 link in the upper right hand corner of this page.

*********************************************************************

The Friday 56 is a meme hosted by Freda's Voice

My Friday 56 this week will be 

will also be from

A SECOND HELPING OF MURDER

by Christine Wenger

I peeked out the pass-through window. The cops were seated in groups of four to twelve. Tables were moved around and the noise level was high. After the gruesome scene that they'd witnessed, and all the caffeine they'd consumed, they seemed ready to let loose.

It's

THROWBACK THURSDAY!

Ready to learn about a new old series?

Today I am featuring an author who 

was new to me with the first in her 

Pickled and Preserved Mystery series 

A PICKLED PIPER

(Released May 2014)

author Mary Ellen Hughes

For the craft lovers out there, Mary did a series called 

A Craft Corner Mystery series

This was a three book series containing the tiles...

It's opening day at Jo's Craft Corner, and Jo is wired more tightly than the wreath on her store's front door. The entertainment she's hired, Cuddles the Clown, is little help, grumbling and complaining until Jo is ready to strangle him. Someone else does silence him, though – for good. With a dead clown in her storeroom and murdered with one of her craft items, Jo becomes the prime suspect. She works to clear her name, unaware that the crafty killer is ready to do anything it takes to stop her – and won't stop at murder!
Includes directions for a craft project!

Parker Holt has started gobbling up properties housing small businesses in town, and Jo worries that her Craft Corner shop will be next. But when she arrives at Holt's home to learn his intentions, she finds him dead – the victim of an insidious electrical trap.

The police draw a bead on the construction crew working on the house, led by Jo's good friend, Dan. Anxious to clear him and his workers, Jo and her beading crafters set to work. Motives are dissected as necklaces are created, and Jo follows a chain of clues back into the past, hoping to unknot the current crime – and catch a murderer before he pulls any more deadly strings.

With Jo's Craft Corner becoming better established, owner Jo McAllister has snagged a weekend spot for her jewelry creations in the prestigious Michicomi Craft Festival. It's bad enough that Jo's stand is directly opposite that of conniving Linda Weeks, but then Jo allows Linda to goad her into publicly losing her temper. It gets even worse when Linda drops dead -- after eating candy that Jo unwittingly delivered to Linda's booth.

Includes directions for a paper-craft project! 

All three titles can be purchased on Kindle and Nook

They are out of print in paperback. 

I recommend checking with The Book Rack Of Murray 

A wonderful new and used bookstore that ships! 

(click on store name for more information)

Tell them you heard about them from Lisa Ks Book Reviews!

Remember to check back here every Thursday for more great Throwback cozy titles!

Want to Follow my blog? Go to the top right corner of my page and click to follow!

And please, leave a comment. I always love reading what you have to say!

Interview and Giveaway

with author Karen Rose Smith

Karen Rose Smith is the author of the delightful

Caprice De Luca Mystery series

 The first book in the series, 

STAGED TO DEATH was an instant success.

The second book in the series, 

DEADLY DÉCOR releases on June 3

Karen is giving away 2 copies of  

DEADLY DECOR

One each to two lucky winners!

Please enter using RaffleCopter at the end of the interview

LKBR: Hi Karen. Thank you for being here!

KRS:  It's great to be here. I always look forward to chatting with readers and talking more about Caprice and her adventures.

LKBR: You’re known in the book community for the dozens of romance books you have written. When did you know you wanted to try your hand at a mystery series? 

                 

KRS:  About 2 1/2 years ago I was approached by an editor through my agent asking if I ever considered writing a cozy because they felt I had the voice for it.  I was between contracts with Harlequin at the time, and I decided this would be a writing challenge I could enjoy.  It seemed it was meant to be.  Once I developed names for my sleuth and the members of her family, they emerged practically full blown.  I have a traditional Italian background to draw on, so it was so easy!  Caprice is my alter ego.  We share so many loves--love of family, love of animals, love of cooking, love of anything retro and vintage fashion--that her thoughts and actions are natural to create.  This series has given me a freedom in writing and a joy that I haven't felt since I first began writing over twenty-five years ago.

LKBR: The idea of a house stager is so original. How did you come up with the idea for the Caprice De Luca Mysteries?

KRS:  When my son was young, I left teaching for a while and became a Home Interiors decorator.  I had the opportunity to enter customers' homes and help them decide their themes, their styles, and the types of decorating items they wanted to surround themselves with.  My own home has rooms decorated in themes from western, to cat crazy, to Victorian, to 50's retro.  My color palette is what makes it all work together.  I do watch HGTV.  When we rescued our youngest kitty, I left the HGTV channel running much of the day so noises wouldn't scare her.  So I was really up to date on DIY decorating.  Just from contemporary awareness, I knew decorators were having problems acquiring clients in the economic downturn.  Due to relatives and friends trying to sell their houses, I realized how popular home staging had become.  I wanted my sleuth to have a career that I knew something about...yet could be timely.  Home staging with unique themes for high end clients added the drama the series needed.

LKBR: With two Caprice books under your belt and I’m hopefully assuming you’re working on a third, do you have any ideas for a new mystery series?

KRS:  I'm working on the 4th Caprice De Luca mystery.  I'm contracted for 6.  So they are keeping me busy in their various stages of production.  I do have an idea for a new mystery series.  But I'm going to keep that secret for the time being.  I promise I'll share details with my readers as soon as I can.

STAGED TO DEATH

LKBR: Is there a certain type of scene that is more difficult to write than others? Action, Romance, Death, etc.

KRS:  The action scenes are probably the hardest to write.  Sometimes I plan them out but then the murder plot requires adding different details.  Pacing for those scenes can be a challenge because I want the reader involved in every detail as my sleuth is, yet I want to keep the scene moving so my reader is gripped by the sense of danger or excitement.

DEADLY DECOR

 LKBR: How long on average does it take you to write a book?

KRS: My mysteries take about six months to write.  I allow myself five months for actual writing and then a month for detail editing, proof reading and logic analysis.

LKBR: What was one of the most surprising things you learned when trying to get your first book published?

KRS: The surprising thing about getting my first book published was that I needed perseverance as much as writing skill.  I wrote for six years and finished 13 manuscripts before I sold 2 books in the same week to different publishers.  Since then I've been fortunate that readers and editors have liked my novels.  Kensington will be publishing my 86th novel in February 2015—GILT BY ASSOCIATION, Caprice De Luca mystery #3.

LKBR: Do you have any advice for the aspiring authors out there?

KRS: Aspiring writers need to realize that writing and getting published was never simple but it's even more complicated now.  Even if you indie publish your work instead of going through a traditional publisher, you need to learn about the business of writing and become your own CEO.  Marketing, promotion and social media connections are all part of writing and selling books now.

LKBR: What are three things you would like your readers to know about you?

Shasta from DEADLY DECOR

KRS:  I love animals. We have three rescued inside cats who rule the house and we also feed feral cats and strays.

Caprice's cat Sophia

Gardening and relaxing around our gardens fills me with the peace and relaxation time away from the computer that is so necessary to stay creative.

Developing recipes is something I've done all my adult life. I learned from my mom and grandma how to cook and I'll always be grateful for the time I spent in the kitchen with 

them.

Fran's Pasta Fagioli from DEADLY DECOR

LKBR: Thank you so much, Karen. I had such fun getting to know you better!

Want to learn even more about Karen? Check out the following links….

Website: http://www.karenrosesmith.com/

http://www.karenrosesmithmysteries.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenRoseSmithBooks

GOOD LUCK!

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