Even More Free Books

This time I'm giving away two of my literary tour mysteries. I have two books, so there will be two winners. First is my latest a hardback from Kensington, Killer on a Hot Tin Roof. (I love that cover!) and second, recently released in paperback, Huckleberry Finished. Email me at washburn@flash.net by December 5th to enter.

And The Winners Are

Using Random.org the winners are:

The Pumpkin Muffin Murder - Cullen Gallagher

Killer Crab Cakes - Scott Cupp

The books will go out Monday.

Free Books!

I have one autographed copy each of the paperback KILLER CRAB CAKES and the trade paperback of THE PUMPKIN MUFFIN MURDER that I will be giving away, so only two people can win this time. Email me before November 25, 2010 (Thanksgiving) to enter the drawing. washburn@flash.net.

One of my favorite recipes in THE PUMPKIN MUFFIN MURDER:

Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins

Filling:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese softened
1 egg
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:
4 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3 tablespoons chopped pecans
3 tablespoons butter

Muffin:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups canned pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour 18 muffin cups, or use paper liners. Fill any unfilled muffin cups in tin with water.

Filling: In a medium bowl, beat softened cream cheese until smooth. Add egg, brown sugar and vanilla. Beat until mixed, then set bowl in freezer to set while mixing other ingredients.

Topping: In a medium bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and pecans. Add butter and cut it in with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.

Muffin batter: In a large bowl, blend together flour, sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Make a well in the center of flour mixture and add eggs, pumpkin, olive oil and vanilla. Beat together until well mixed.

Place pumpkin mixture in muffin cups about 1/2 full. Take the cream cheese mixture out of the freezer then add one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture right in the middle of the batter in the muffin cups. Having the chilled cream cheese mixture will help you keep the cream cheese from touching the edges. Sprinkle on the streusel topping.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Makes 18 muffins

Note: If you have dogs, add a heaping tablespoon of the leftover canned pumpkin to their meal. All of my dogs like pumpkin and it’s a healthy treat.

The Pumpkin Muffin Murder

Publisher: NAL Trade; Original edition (November 2, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0451231325
ISBN-13: 978-0451231321

This is the fifth book in the Fresh Baked series and on the stands now. Much of the book is centered around Holland Lake Park in Weatherford, Texas. This historical park features two double log cabins built in the mid-1800s. During my research, I discovered that the park where we took our daughters to play when they were young has had major changes. The log cabins are still there, but the old wagon they used to play on is gone and shiny new playground equipment replaced it. I'm sure kids enjoy the new playground, but it was sad to see the old wagon gone. It seems like kids today have less chances to just use their imagination when playing. The research at the park certainly brought back a lot of nice memories even with all the changes. My daughters are both grown now and teachers at our local schools, but I will always remember them sharing bread with the ducks and geese and laughing happily at Holland Lake Park.

Summer Battle with Google

Google I really like Google when I’m looking up anything on the internet. Then the whole Google verses Author lawsuit came up and we discovered several of our books available on Google that paid us nothing. Even that didn’t bother me as much as the latest thing they did. We had an internet bookstore where I sold books from our old bookstores. Most of my sales were on eBay and half.com. In 2008 we lost all of our stock when our house and studio burned to the ground. This summer Google decided that we had a bookstore and gave our home address and phone number. I have been battling to get it off Google since we started getting strange phone calls and I discovered it on their search engine. We would get calls almost every day wanting to set us up with something, usually to take credit cards, and from customers wanting a certain book. This would have been really nice when we actually had some books to sell, but under the circumstances it was just annoying. Every time I’d get set up to do some writing the phone would ring and I’d have to jump up. It became so bad that I ended up buying two more phones so I could put them near where I was working. I had to send off for a pin number, and of course that didn’t work. It would say it’d let me edit, but then it would just post that information, too. Finally after being annoyed all summer, I was able to get a second pen number and take it off the search engine. I'm not sure why it didn't work the first time. That's one thing about computers, you can do exactly the same thing and it won't work 5 times and then it'll suddenly work the 6th time you try something.

Killer Crab Cakes

Killer Crab Cakes is now available in Japanese. I love the covers they put on this series. This book was set in Rockport, Texas where I spent many fun vacations as a child.

The book was published in trade paperback last year and will be reprinted in paperback soon.

Seduced By A Vampire

Just received author copies of the Australian edition of my book The Vampire Affair. It's a 2 book in 1 edition sharing with Nancy Holder's Son Of The Shadows.

I like 2 in 1 books and wonder why there aren't more of them in the USA. Usually here publishers only use this format for reprints not original novels. I would think 2 in 1 books would be a great way to launch new authors paired with a well known. I understand bestselling authors probably wouldn't want to share the royalities, but it is hard for a new author to get a foot in the reader's door.