Maxine Douglas Affairs of the Heart Newsletter

June 1, 2017

The first camping weekend of the year is over. School is out for the summer. And we are all heading to the beach for the surf and sand with a good summer book in our hands to read. My favorite place to listen to the waves crash along the shoreline is in Galveston, Texas.

In this Issue:

© Quote of the Month

© Check This Out

© Featured Author

© New Releases

© Author Recipe of the Month

© Upcoming Events

© Coming Next Month

Quote of the Month: “Summer bachelors, like summer breezes, are never as cool as they pretend to be.” ~~ Nora Ephron (1941-2012, American Author)

Check This Out:

Hope everyone had a safe Memorial Day weekend. Our eldest daughter came from Wisconsin to visit us here in Oklahoma. It was her first time here and I think she was glad to be back home where the weather is a bit cooler.

I got my cover for Simply to Die For! This is the first in the Black Horse Canyon Novels I plan on writing over the next couple of years. I don’t have a release date yet, as the edits keep coming in sections which drove me crazy at first, but now I find that it is more thorough.

I am still working on The Cattleman’s Bride, the third in the Brides Along the Chisholm Trail series and hope to have it available in the fall.

Maxine’s Romance Bookshelf ~~ Maxine’s Hot and Spicy Bookshelf

Featured Author: Toni V. Sweeney

They say Imitation is the best form of flattery.
Many years ago, I was intrigued by a TV show called Beauty and the Beast. Not the latest one where the Beast is the result of a secret US experiment to create super soldiers and the Beauty is the police detective who loves him, but the original series in 1987. In homage, I wrote my own spin on that story: The Adventures of Sinbad. My Beast isn’t simply a man who by some quirk of birth looks like a lion. He is a lion, a native of Felida where the inhabitants evolved from a feline. He’s also a smuggler, wanted on seven worlds of the United Terran Federation, with more than a hundred thousand credits bounty on his capture—and then he meets his Beauty, a little Terran named Andrea Talltrees and gets shot right out of orbit...

Once more, Earth is at war…and this conflict also affects both the innocent and the guilty, sending Andrea Talltress to Old Town, seeking the help of part-feline smuggler Sinbad sh’en Singh in finding her husband Tran, an accused spy.

What she gets instead is exposure to a way of life completely unknown to the naïve Navajo, a clash of personalities and cultures, plus a heavy dose of instant attraction building to unexpectedly passionate love denied by either of them.

Encountering old friends and one very deadly old enemy with a score to settle, Sinbad takes Andi halfway across the galaxy, uncovering a secret which may shatter the war-torn Federation as well as their own lives.

When all’s said and done, Andi and Sin will acknowledge that the duration of love is unimportant…its existence is what matters.

Buy Links

Kindle / Print / Class Act Books

Author Links

Facebook / Twitter @ToniVSweeney

New Releases This Month:

J U N E 1
Mail-Order Brides of Oak Grove It's sweet, sassy, & double the trouble when twin sisters sign contracts to become mail-order brides with every intention of escaping before the actual wedding. Website / Amazon		Sweet Home Cowboy Love at the Chocolate Shop series When Marietta newcomer Elena Puente is coerced into attending a speed dating event at Copper Mountain Chocolates, she's blindsided by a serious attraction to local cowboy, Wesley Banks. Website / Facebook / Newsletter
One Night in New York *Episode #3 of 4 (Stockholm Diaries, Alice)* Jonas's past is exposed. And Alice knows she could never be with a man like him. But when Jonas shows up in New York, the attraction sparks just as hot as it did in Paris. Can she find a way to reconcile the things he's done with the man who makes her come alive? Amazon		Naughty Getaways Eleven Sultry Stories Includes Contemporary, Fantasy, Historical, Magic, New Adult, Older Woman/Younger Man, Paranormal, Rubenesque, Sci-Fi, Stepbrother, and Threesome Romance from best-selling authors writing as The Naughty Literati! Website / Blog
J U N E 6
Winning Dr. Wentworth A professor returns to her hometown to escape the disgrace of a nasty divorce and shake off the taint of her ruined career, but a reunion with her former high school crush derails her plans. Website		Orphaned Elkridge Series, Book 4 The search for a sister. Decades of guilt. Who to trust? Jenna is desperate to find her younger sister. Unfortunately, she’s attracted the attention of the last man to see her sister alive. Amazon
J U N E 10 Beachcomber Reckoning *Beachcomber Investigations - Book 6* Is the cost of being a legend too high when someone Dane loves must pay? Amazon		J U N E 13 Playful Hearts A sweet smile, a dirty mind, and a playful heart. Amazon
J U N E 13 Butterfly Kisses The girls of Orange Blossom have all grown up and are coming home to renew old friendships, grab a second chance at life...and fall in love. Amazon		J U N E 15 Sinbad Sails Again Book 7 of the Adventures of Sinbad Sinbad decides to take son Mal and grandson Lynx on a sentimental journey to the places he and Andi visited when they were young. What the boys don't know is that he's also going as a spy for the Federation, to help bring down illegal slave trade in the Fringes. When Mal's kidnapped and sent to the Bel-Ammon slave pits, Sinbad's mission becomes a quest for revenge for no one touches one of Sinbad sh'en Singh's sons and lives. Facebook / Class Act Books
J U N E 23 Bring Your Fiction to Life Crafting Three-Dimensional Stories with Depth and Complexity Applied to writing, the word "three-dimensional" is solid, realistic, rounded and lifelike, even living. Three-dimensional writing allows a reader to step through book pages and enter that world. Learn the distinctive layers of a story and how to build in 3-D aspects Website / Facebook / Angelfire / Writers Exchange		J U N E 24 One Night with a Duke His nearness too intimate--his desire too obvious. Amazon US / Amazon UK / Wild Rose Press Print

Author Recipe of the Month: Danica Winters

I like making this simple yet elegant cake for special occasions. I've included it in my latest release, The Touchstone of Raven Hollow, as one of the desserts Tara chooses to prepare for Thanksgiving dinner. It's light and refreshing and most importantly delicious! Enjoy!

Butte Pasties

½ pound raw beef-steak, diced

1 cup chopped onion

1 large tablespoon butter

salt and pepper

1 cup diced rutabagas (if desired)

1 medium-sized potato, diced

Pie Dough:

1½ cups flour (pastry)

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

⅓ to ½ cup shortening (butter or other fat)

¼ cup hot water

· Sift flour, salt, and baking powder together. Then mix, shape, and roll as in directions. (This recipe makes 2 pasties)

· For 1 pasty, take ½ the dough. Roll thin to shape and size of pie plate. Pile half the potato, onion, meat, and if desired, the rutabaga on only ½ the round of pie dough and within 1 inch from the edge

· Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dot with butter

· Fold the other half of the dough over filling, pressing edges together well

· Repeat process for 2nd pasty

· Place 2 pasties in pie plate and cut a slit into the top of each, in which a teaspoon of hot water should be poured occasionally to keep from drying out.

· Bake 45min at 400˚ or until well browned, then reduce to 350˚ for 15min

Recipe from Mrs. Maureen Mansfield

Helena O’Driscoll and Graham Kelly’s first few months together haven’t been easy. Helena, missing the traditional Traveller lifestyle she gave up for Graham, can’t help but feel that their cultural differences have doomed their relationship. And with preparations for their brand-new hospital for Supernaturals filling their days, they feel out of sync, and maybe even out of love.

When a man is murdered, Helena begins having visions of the future darker and more dangerous than ever before. With a killer in their midst, everyone at Adare Manor is at risk, and Helena and Graham must work together to catch the culprit even as their relationship unravels. And when the murderer claims another victim, the question becomes not whether their love will survive, but whether they will.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo | Google Play

Upcoming Events:

Ø Third Saturday of the Month: OKRWA Meeting, Oklahoma City, OK

Ø July 14-17: A Weekend With The Authors, Nashville, TN

Ø October 6-8: Rock Island Arts Festival 2017, Chickasha, OK

Ø November 1-December 20: New Voices Young Writers Competition entry dates

Coming Next Month: Diane Burton, July releases, and a new recipe.

With much gratitude, until next time…keep reading.

Maxine

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