Our Potluck continues with yet another delicious recipe and fabulous author with a new book! Don’t forget to follow along all week for more recipes, more books, and more giveaways!  Day 1 with Elizabeth Goddard: http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10267    *** When Cody Ford is back home on the ranch, he loves nothing more than the comfort food he grew up with as a kid. So I can imagine Cody and Lexi curled up by the fire at Christmas, while it’s snowing outside, eating this devious beef stew! Aromatic Beef Stew You don’t need a slow cooker for this recipe, it’s equally as good if you do it in the oven, or if you simmer in a pot on the stovetop. The combination of orange peel, star anise, and hoisin sauce makes it aromatic and delicious! Ingredients Approx. 1.5 kg beef blade steak or beef cheeks 2 Tbsp flour 2 Tbsp cooking oil A handful of shallots 1 cup red wine 1 x 400g can tomatoes Half cup prunes 60ml hoisin sauce 1 star anise One approx 3cm length of orange peel Extra water if necessary Trim the fat off the meat, then cut into large chunks. Put the flour in a plastic…

“Seeing as we’re going to be partners, want to grab dinner?” Vaughan asked. “I’m starving, and we could talk about the case.” It was a ritual Zoe had shared with her late husband. Dinner had always involved a cold beer, maybe a steak, and discussion of a case. They had both loved the intellectual challenge, the sparring, and the lovemaking afterward. “I know a place.” “Lead the way.” He drove them to a small diner surrounded by a cluster of fast-food restaurants near the interstate. When she shot him a questioning look, he held up a hand. “Trust me.” “I’m holding you to a good meal, Detective Vaughan.” He opened the door, held it, and waited for her to pass. The hostess called out his name; he waved and headed toward what had to be a favorite booth. Men, she noted, were creatures of habit and liked routine. She slid across the red vinyl seat of the corner booth. From this vantage, they both had a clear view of the front and back exits. Like all cops, he probably wanted to know who was coming and going while he ate. She reached for a laminated menu and opened it. “So,…

There was blood on the ice. Rick Jordan jolted to a stop, gaze riveted on the crimson spots blemishing the frosty ground, fingers tightening on the disposable cup of coffee he’d just nuked. Could his eyes be playing tricks on him in the waning light of the December afternoon? He leaned closer. No. His 20/20 vision hadn’t failed him. It was blood. After all the gore he’d seen, it wasn’t difficult to make a positive ID. But with all the wildlife on the wooded acreage he called home, could it be from an animal? As he peered at the ruby-­colored stains, the hair on the back of his neck snapped to attention–and since metabolic cues had saved his hide on more Night Stalker missions than he cared to remember, ignoring them would be foolish. The blood was human. Giving the landscape a thorough, methodical sweep, he set down the cup of java he’d picked up at the café during his supply run to town, balancing it on the uneven ground. No movement other than the huge flakes that had begun to sift down from the leaden sky. Apparently the blizzard warning issued this morning had been spot-­on. Missouri would have…

Welcome to the Fall Slow Cooker Recipe Potluck! All week we’ll be joined by awesome authors, talking about their new books, sharing delicious Fall recipes, and book giveaways on each post. Check back tomorrow and every day this week for more fun! And now, Elizabeth Goddard will kick things off. . .  In ALWAYS LOOK TWICE, rancher/deputy Heath McKade grew up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He now runs the Emerald M Guest Ranch and offers cabins, fishing, hiking tours, and horseback riding, and a guided wilderness camp tour. He has worked hard to renovate his life after his difficult childhood and now his ranch’s reputation is growing, but Heath still struggles to overcome the past. He’s more than surprised to save a woman from a bear attack, or rather, she saves him–and discovers that woman is none other than his close childhood friend who moved away–Harper Reynolds. But Harper is in trouble, and Heath isn’t sure he’s the best man to protect her. On the other hand, can he truly trust anyone else to protect Harper? Harper has taken a year off from photographing crime scenes–too much blood and death–especially considering what she witnessed as a child. She’s finally on…

Thank you so much for having me back to Fresh Fiction! How much do I love Fall? I love it as much as my heroine, in The Boyfriend Contact, Emily Birmingham does. . . bring on pumpkin spice everything! I was married in the fall, both of my children were born in the fall (okay, we didn’t actually plan to have two kids in the fall, but still), and my current book release is in the fall. A few years ago my husband, kids, cat, and I moved from the city to a small town on the shores of Lake Erie, in Canada. It has been an adventure and a huge learning experience! Who knew driving only an hour and a half from the city would be like an entirely different world. Here are my top five favorite things to do in the fall now that we live in the country: 1) The County Fair-okay we get a real kick out of this every year. We must really look like city people as we walk through the various displays and barns filled with animals and pumpkins waiting to be judged and ooh and aah. 2) The foliage-it is truly as…

The question I get asked more than any other is: How do you come up with ideas? The answer is through interesting news stories that I’ve tucked away. After all, truth is always stranger—or more memorable–than fiction, right? Here’s an example: Years ago, I heard an amazing story about a pastor and a church in Texas. On a Sunday morning, Bishop Aaron Blake challenged his small congregation with a powerful question. “Brothers and sisters,” he said, “there are about 30,000 children in the foster care system in Texas and nearly a half a million in the U.S. Who will stand with me to defend, care, and support abused, abandon, and neglected children in our community?” After a brief moment of silence, one lady rose to her feet. “Pastor,” she said, “I will.” Then another family stood up, and another, and another. Twelve years later, their Texas county has more than enough foster families to meet the need. That story inspired the plot for my novel Stitches in Time. The new and improved Luke Schrock, now a deacon, poses the same question to the Amish church of Stoney Ridge. Schoolteacher Mollie Graber is the first to raise her hand. Weeks later,…

In my late-twenties, I went through a terrible time where I suffered insomnia, depression, and anxiety and ended up in intensive psychotherapy. I began going through flashbacks of sexual abuse I’d suffered as a child while living in various foster care situations. I began keeping a journal to maintain my sanity. I felt that if I could write a few sentences a day, I would not go mad. The journal entries gradually morphed into short stories. One of those stories was about a traumatized girl who is being used without her knowledge and a transient boy who is abused and photographed by an older man. The story just kept getting longer and longer. I was terrified. Terrified of the subject matter, but also terrified because I didn’t know how to write a novel. So, my starting point was traumatic memory. The adult me was grappling with how and why the boy had ended up there. I posed myself some questions: why would a boy be lured by this older man? What would be the appeal? What would he be fleeing, what were his vulnerabilities and how would the perpetrator seduce him and convince him to stay? I wrote the book…

There have been some changes occurring in the Cullen household over the past year or so. When you have children, you think they will never grow up and that they will never move out on their own. I believe most parents, like me, feel that parenthood just goes on and on in an endless loop. Recently, two of my three children have moved out. Moved on. They’re ADULTING. And I couldn’t be prouder of both of them. They’re actually doing it! Taking the examples my husband and I set, the tools we’ve taught them, and they’re actually, really, living on their own. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing your little ones become functioning, productive members of society. But there is another side to all of this. They’re not home with me anymore. And I don’t quite know what to do with myself these days. I have one more at home but she’s rarely here and that leaves, well. . . me. And my husband. It’s weird. It’s like we’re dating again. A few weeks ago, we went kayaking. Just the two of us. There was no logistics involved. No babysitters to hire. No juggling of the calendar to make…

Against the odds, the oak sapling took root in our backyard that was filled with scrub pine trees and overrun with bramble. Despite the strong growth of the underbrush, the oak sapling, with its tiny trunk and even tinier branches, pushed upward, reaching for sunlight from high above. It was a decent height, maybe five feet, but scraggly and skinny. A canopy of other trees and thicket kept the sapling in the shade and depleted its soil of nutrients. Vines of various kinds wrapped around it, using it to gain a height of its own. But it didn’t die. It also didn’t thrive. It reminded me of a vine of poison oak more than an oak tree. Its sickly trunk bent and twisted, always jetting out and then reaching up, clearly trying to find a way to reach life-sustaining sunlight. At the time our backyard had a blind fence enclosing a half-acre of mostly scrub pines and thicket. We’d left it that way for over ten years because our youngest son asked us to. He loved being outdoors as well as the feel of “deep woods.” It seems he spent half of his childhood in that space. As children do,…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Charish Reid! Writes: I write interracial, contemporary romances featuring sexy academics who are trying to keep their lives from imploding with deadlines and grading. In The Write Escape, readers will meet, Antonia, a literary editor turned romance writer, who falls in love with an English professor, Aiden, in Ireland. Sparks fly in the rolling hills of the tiny village of Tully Cross, bringing two adorably bookish people together. About: 30-something romance author/professor seeks a reader who enjoys: Irish holidays, heroines who are ready to finally ready to start living, and devastatingly charming heroes with great forearms! What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: – Doesn’t mind travel mix-ups if they lead to true love – Enjoys close proximity – Wants heroes to listen to their meddling mothers – Agrees with cake baking that leads to amazing oral sex – Must love nervous heroines who take drastic leaps of faith in order to get what they want. (ex. driving a…