Where's my money?

“Charleston, I’m really not feeling well. If you want answers to your questions, please don’t hit me anymore. I’ll faint, and you’ll get nothing but silence. If you will please explain what money you mean, I’ll tell you all I know.” She felt Gavin stir again.

“Tell me where the money is, Mrs. Beardsley, and maybe I won’t slap you for a while.” Sarcasm dripped from his voice, his lip curled in an ugly sneer.

Katrina sighed loudly. “What money are you talking about, Charleston? I don’t make much at work.”

“I’m talking about the forty-three million dollars Uncle Andrew left you in his will!”  (From Inherit My Heart by A M Jenner)http://tinyurl.com/q4zfau7

Best Cookies Ever to Touch my Tongue

Choc-Scotch Cookies

Contributed by Romana

Invented while at college, and very few could guess what that other flavor was.

½ C butter

½ C shortening

¾ C sugar

¾ C brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2½ C flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips

½ pkg butterscotch chips

Cream butter, shortening, and sugars. Add liquid ingredients and mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in chips.

Bake on an ungreased sheet 8 - 10 minutes at 375°F.

(From Clues to Food, by A M Jenner) http://tinyurl.com/psrsn3x

Please Don't Slap Me!

A tall, slender man stepped into the room, and the impact of the stunning vision before her rendered Shenda’s voice dead in her throat before she’d made a sound. If this man was her purported boyfriend, it was most definitely not Steven.

This man was gorgeous. His blue eyes were a startling contrast to the evenly tanned skin on his face and forearms, while his obsidian hair was shiny and thick. Those were the only features her brain cataloged before he proclaimed a loud “Darling!” and swooped her up into a full-body, all-encompassing hug, whirling her around as he did so.

When his back was to the nurse, he whispered urgently in her ear. “I’m your bodyguard. Please, for your own sake and for your life, play along with me. I’ll explain everything when we get outside. I won’t make you go anywhere you don’t want to go, I promise you, but please play along for now. I’m going to kiss you. Please don’t slap me!”

With those words still seeping into her ears, the hunk leaned back just a little from the embrace and loudly proclaimed, “I love you and I’ve missed you, Sweetheart!” and soundly kissed her. (From Deadly Gamble by A M Jenner) http://tinyurl.com/qd4n8sb

Charleston's Evil Smile

Some small sound alerted Katrina that she wasn’t alone in the house.

Dear Lord, Charleston was in here, she just knew it! The feeling was prickling the back of her neck, making the hair feel as if it were standing straight out from the nape. Another muffled sound came to her ears. He was in her bedroom. If she could just get to the back door again, she’d be free!

As Katrina reached the back door, she heard her name called from the kitchen doorway. The sound, far from stopping her, gave her an added burst of speed.

Even as she cleared the porch and steps, her mind rejected the thought of finding the spot in the bushes where she’d entered her yard. Her main thought was to put distance between herself and the man in the house.

She rounded the corner, heading for the front of the house and ran smack into a man. Startled, she looked up as his arms closed around her. Even the pale light from the moon could not hide the evil smile on Charleston’s face.  (From Inherit My Heart by A M Jenner) Read More Here

Kidnapped!

A dark figure emerged from the bushy shadows beside her. Marilee didn’t see him fully until he had grabbed her. She struggled, but with one strong arm around her, lifting her from her feet and the other hand covering her mouth to prevent her screaming, there was little her flailing hands and arms could do.

Shoved into the car, the man lay across her in the back seat, his sheer mass holding her still. The door slammed shut, and moments later the car drove off. The entire abduction had taken only seconds, and Marilee knew there’d been no witnesses.

These had to be Tony’s men; no one else had reason to take her prisoner. She didn’t think a random mugging would have been handled like this; at least not in any of the books she’d ever read, but then, books weren’t reality.

Her reality now was a nightmare, Tony’s men or not. She knew she’d be killed; she’d never again see Richard or Derrek. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she fought to hold them back. (From A Heart Full of Diamonds, by A M Jenner) Read more here.

A Nutty Recipe

Glenn’s Nut Mix

Contributed by Safari Man

Pecans, Almonds, Filberts, Dirt, Worms, and Grass Clippings.

1. Remove nut from jug.

2. Using nut cracker, Hammer or Heel of shoe, crack nut. (Caution: Using your teeth may be hazardous to your health!)

3. Pick nut from shell.

4. Eat nut (not shell).

5. Repeat recipe for remaining nuts.

6. Vacuum floor.

(From Clues to Food, by A M Jenner) Read more here

Tree Through the Roof

“Lightening usually hits tall things. We’re surrounded by very tall trees, so we should be okay with that. Light the fire and let’s keep watching.”

She’d no sooner spoken the words when the air in the cabin turned blue with lightening while thunder showered an angry roar around them. The crack of splintering wood followed the sound. Frozen in petrified horror they watched as part of the tree barely five yards from their front door disintegrate ten feet above the ground. The balance of the sixty foot pine shuddered, briefly suspended in the air before it tilted, gathering momentum and closed the distance to their cabin’s roof.

Matt yelled. Katy screamed. Melanie automatically gathered Katy in her arms. The tree settled with Melanie half sitting, half lying on the floor still clinging to Katy, who had buried her face in her mother’s neck. Melanie looked for Matt amid the debris which had been the living room just moments ago. Rain was pouring in on them where the roof had been destroyed, but Melanie ignored it as she turned her attention to finding her son.

“Matt!” Panic filled her. “Where are you?” (From "Hidden Strengths" by Natalie Peck, Bits and Bites) Read More Here

Lap Full of Soup

Dallyn Withers Maitland frowned with concentration at the report he was writing. While his right hand moved the mouse across his screen following the words and numbers he’d written, his left reached for his nearly full cup of hot soup.

The telephone rang, startling him. A curse left his mouth, and he moved the cup so it dripped soup on the floor now instead of in his lap. Exercise shorts may be comfortable to sit in, he thought, but they are not enough to keep hot broth from burning.

He glanced at the caller ID. Aunt Adelle. He cursed again and was grateful she couldn’t hear it. She was a royal pain. Whenever she called it was always for some penny-ante reason. He dare not ignore the call, though, or she’d go running to Johnson, and Johnson didn’t need to be – his eyes flicked to the clock – awakened – in Europe just because Dallyn didn’t answer his phone. He set the soup down on the absorbent coaster and reached for the phone.

“Hello.”

“DW,” came the childish, whiny voice he detested. “This is Aunt Adelle. Where’s Terry?” (From Deadly Gamble by A M Jenner) Read More

Call for Beta Readers

I've got two novels in need of beta-reading.

Bolts from the Blue is a contemporary romantic suspense by A M Jenner, set in Arizona and Washington D. C. It involves a woman who can see emails as they float through the air, and what happens to her because of her ability.

Sirens in her Heart is a contemporary romance by Natalie Peck. It's set in an unnamed large city in the United States and centers around a once-bitten twice-shy ambulance attendant. It's only nearly contemporary, as it is placed when female ambulance attendants were still fairly new, unusual, and, some think, not to be trusted.

I'm looking for people who enjoy reading, are good at picking mistakes out of movies and books, and have time to get the editing done and the manuscript back on time. Beta readers are allowed three weeks to read, mark-up, and return the manuscript. Must have Microsoft Word. No, OpenOffice won't cut it, the programs aren't good as passing tracked changes back and forth between them. All readers will receive an ebook copy on publication, and a mention (if they want it) in the acknowledgments.

Anyone interested in either novel please email secretary@electric-scroll.com. I will take the first three readers for each book, and place other interested people on a list for the next time I'm looking for beta readers.

Inherit My Heart

Whew! Three books published within five days of each other. I don't know that I'd want to do this again, but it's nice to know I can if I need to.

Inherit my Heart is about a woman, Katrina Lee McSwayne. She's successfully escaped from her abusive husband, Charleston. Everything is going great in her life. She has a good job, rents a nice old house, and has a great friend at work.

Then lawyer Gavin Browning starts calling her, and when she hangs up on him, he comes to her door. He's asking questions about Charleston, and he won't leave without the answers. Everything starts falling apart in the wake of Gavin's arrival in her life. She gets run over, then shot at. Even hiding in a motel isn't any use. And Gavin is still after his answers. Katrina's stuck between a rock and a hard place. How can she give him answers she doesn't have?

And then, if things weren't bad enough, Charleston shows up. Did he follow Gavin, or are they in collusion? You'll have to read the book to find out!

Exciting! And a little Crazy!

Publishing is a strange world to live in. It's a world of hurry up and wait.
You send the manuscript back and forth between the editors and the author. When it's your turn with it, you work like mad, then wait several months until it's your turn again. There are sometimes delays because, well, life happens. And sometimes there are serendipitous moments when you realize you can bring a project in ahead of schedule.

Take April for example. We're publishing three books at or near the end of April.

Inherit My Heart, by A M Jenner, is a romantic suspense about a woman who's running from an abusive relationship, and what happens when a lawyer inadvertently leads her husband to her.

Inherit My Heart was originally intended to be (re)published in February, but some family funerals and unexpected travel delayed its release.

Jenny's Daughter, by Jaqi Wade, is a nonfiction memoir of a fascinating life. Jaqi grew up in depression-era California. At the age of 40 she and her husband packed up their children and went to live as missionaries in Brazil. The culture shock of moving there was nothing compared to the shock of moving back "home" again twenty years later.

Jenny's Daughter is being published right on time.

Fabric of the World, by Scott Ashby, is a fantasy novel about a young man who accidentally kills the Archmage on his seventeenth naming-day, the day he becomes a legal adult. By the end of the day he's been forced to abandon his plans for his life and flee the city...and he's been kidnapped by a band of nomads, to boot. As he tries to find a place in the world, he has two choices: stay with the nomads, marry the chieftain's daughter, and become fabulously wealthy as his adopted heir; or return to Turpan and fight the rest of the corrupt mages who rule the city to bring freedom and justice to all the city's inhabitants.

Fabric of the World was scheduled to be (re)released in June, but the work went faster than expected in every phase of development, and it's ready now.

All three books have been sent to the printer, and we're waiting for the proof copies to arrive. In the meanwhile, we're putting information about them on the website as it becomes available, and working hard to prepare the ebook versions.

Chatting with A M Jenner

Today we hear from our third new author, A M Jenner.

ES: Tell me a little about yourself as a person.

AMJ: Like most people, I own many hats (nearly as many as Dobby the house-elf!) Some of my hats are labeled sister, wife, mother, grandmother, writer, letterboxer, budding artist, and newly-retired secretary. When I look in the mirror at me wearing all of those hats, I can giggle along with most of my fourteen (and counting) grandchildren! I’m happy in front of my computer, a cold glass of icy water near my elbow and a plate of chocolate something next to my keyboard. Occasionally my lap holds both, depending on how wild my characters get.

ES: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

AMJ: What I like to do and what I get to do are two different things. I like to travel, read, enjoy a quiet but beautiful flower garden, and watch the different birds in my nearby riparian preserve. What I get to do is muddle through my pre-algebra class, try to understand my art teacher, and care for my family, which brings a joy of its own.

ES: If you could have one super-power, what would it be?

AMJ: I would be invisible. It’s much easier to people-watch when nobody knows you’re looking.

ES: What is your favorite color?

AMJ: Teals, purples, and burgundy.

ES: What’s your writing tool of choice?

AMJ: That depends entirely on if I’m home or on the go. I’ve been known to write on napkins, toilet paper rolls, and fast food sandwich wrappers. Legal pages are nicer, but computers are easier.
ES: What genre do you write, and why?

AMJ: I’ve been known to write poetry (from romantic to horror), and murder-filled suspense with a healthy helping of romance on the side. Friends have often asked me where I’ve been hiding the most recent bodies, as my favorite genre is suspense. At this moment, my friends Scott, Natalie, and I are in the process of separating our careers into our own genres, and I’m really glad the Electric Scroll has taken on the challenge of republishing our several books.

ES: Tell me about your most recent published work, and why people should buy it.

AMJ: Bits & Bites is a collection of short stories that Scott, Natalie, and I worked on together. It has a bit of something for everyone, no matter what genre they like to read. When you finish that, you’ll know the three of us better, and hopefully you’ll like all of our offerings. You can read more about it here.