Interview - Hiding Out by Nicole Andrews Moore

Synopsis:
Samuel Davenport runs his family's New York advertising agency. His brother, Adam, runs from responsibility and anything remotely boring and his temp, Haley, runs so she'll never be caught and hurt again. She moved to the city New Year's Day to hide and recover, to build a new life far from her past. In an effort to lie low, Haley never expects to be more than a temp. What begins for Sam as an excuse to get to know her better, ends up being an opportunity for advancement and excitement for Haley. When Sam tries to uncover all of Haley's mysteries, he exposes her hiding place, endangers her life, and threatens to destroy any chance of them ever having a future together.

Interview:

1) You posted your travel goal is to visit all the Margaritaville's. Which two have you visited so far?

The very first Margaritaville I visited was the one in Cozumel, Mexico. My husband and I were dating and he claims that cruise cemented our relationship. Visiting all of them became our couple project. It's more about the togetherness and the locations than anything else...although we do enjoy a nice margarita here and there in the summer.

2) It always fascinates me how authors choose their character names. How did you choose the names for your book Hiding Out?

I swear that I would love to be able to tell you some cute story about that, but Haley was just a name that I liked. And the irony about Samuel Davenport is that soon after creating the character, I met my husband...and his name is Samuel. Other than sharing the name, the two have nothing in common.

3) Do you write during the day or night and do you have a favorite spot you like to write at?

We have a fourteen month old high maintenance baby. (Kenna was born 16 weeks early, weighing 9.6 OUNCES. She was in the NICU for 183 days. She is still on oxygen and has a feeding tube. We have speech therapy to work with her on eating by mouth. Her physical therapist is helping her catch up her gross motor skills. A nutritionist helps ensure that she gains weight appropriately. I could go on and on, but you get the idea...) I write when she allows. That tends to be very early in the morning, mid afternoon, and late late at night. My writing spot, much to my husband's chagrin, is the couch. If he didn't want me to be comfortable, he shouldn't have purchased an electric recliner. And if he didn't want me to make it my office, he shouldn't have conveniently located an end table right next to it. Lesson learned.

4) If you could only have one meal over and over for the rest of your life what would it be and why?

I swear this is the hardest question I've been asked in an interview to date! Food...is kinda my thing. I'm already feeling really limited as it is because Sam eats chicken. About five nights a week. And he'll find a way he likes to fix it and we eat it like that until we can't stand it any longer. Right now..it's Panko Chicken. Over and over and over again.

5) Do you have any pets?

At the moment, and for a while we will be petless. We have had pets. Lots of pets. We've had cats and a cat that had kittens. We had a Harlequin Great Dane. We had a dwarf rabbit named Runny Babbit. And then we had Kenna with her immature lungs. By then, we only had the dog left and we sent him to live with friends, removed the carpeting and replaced it with hardwoods, and remodeled the house to make it Kenna-safe while she was in the hospital.

6) What is something unusual about yourself that not many people know?

Hmmm. I've had a blog for nearly four years. I'm not sure that there is anything anyone doesn't know about me by now. Unusual... Okay...how about this: I'm going to be a grandmother in October. I'll be 41. Kenna will be an aunt at 21 months. That feels pretty unusual. Of course, that's because I was a young mom...having my kids with my first husband when I was 22. And now I'm an older mom, having had Kenna at 39 1/2.

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Hiding Out Excerpt

“Is that what you like?” The words had come out all wrong. What she really intended was to check for understanding. She should have said, ‘Would you like me to handle that?’ The minute the words escaped the safe but sensual confines of her lips, Haley Iverson cringed on the other end of the phone. What was it about that man that made her bungle her phrasing? She bit her lip while she awaited a response.

Samuel Davenport’s eye brows had arched instantly. Every time he spoke with his assistant, he was left feeling like a dissatisfied 1-900 caller. It was something in her voice, the sexy, yet professional way she spoke. Or maybe it was in the way he imagined her soft, full lips curving to form each word. It might be the way he pictured her sitting at her desk with her shapely legs crossed, exposing ample calf, slender ankle, and whichever open toed shoe she was sporting that day. He shook his head slightly to focus on the question at hand.

Is that what you like? He wrapped his mind around the question. “Oh, yes, Miss Iverson,” he said, his response immediately taking on a double meaning. He pushed the button to disconnect then, and leaned back in his leather chair, spent.

********************
Author Info:

Nicki has lived in Charlotte, North Carolina with her children for the past eleven years and her husband for the past three years. Her journey has barely begun and she loves every minute of it. Every day of her life seems to bring new adventures, some bigger, better, shinier and prettier than others. She's still getting used to that new life smell she's experiencing, a combination of hope, love, and happiness. (The perfect scents to build a new life on...)

For fun, she spends time with those she cares about, cooks, reads, writes, and especially lives to travel. The current travel goal: visit every Margaritaville. Two down! (Eleven to go?)

In addition to writing on Suddenly Single Journey, Nicki is a contributor for Project Underblog. Her writing can also be found on Shine, where she is a Shine Parenting Guru and an award winning Yahoo! Contributor on YourWisdom as the relationship and dating expert. And she has been published by McClatchy News in their syndicated papers.

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Amanda Roberts - Crazy Dumplings - PROMO Blitz

Hi! My name is Amanda and I am an American who has been living, writing, and cooking in China for nearly three years. China’s favored dish, the dumpling (or jiaozi in Chinese), can be found on every street corner, in every restaurant, and in every kitchen in China, but they are all pretty much prepared the same way: a bit of meat, some garlic and ginger, and a bit of vegetables if you’re lucky. Even a visit to the freezer section at any grocery store displays hundreds of packages of dumplings that all look and taste the same.


But the dumpling is so versatile! Have you ever tried stuffing a dumpling with chicken? Refried beans? Cheesecake filling? No? Hardly anyone has! My cookbook, Crazy Dumplings, takes this simple staple food and prepares it in ways you never thought possible! From buffalo chicken dumplings to pizza dumplings to apple pie dumplings, a world of foods is available to you in an easy dumpling wrapper with Crazy Dumplings.

EXCERPT/SAMPLE

Basic Dumpling Wrapper

3/4 cups flour
1/3 cup boiling water
Dash of salt
Flour for dusting

1) Mix flour and salt together in a mixing bowl.
2) Drizzle in water, mixing with a chopstick or fork.
3) Leave in bowl, covered with plastic wrap for 15 minutes.
4) Gather dough up into a ball and kneed on counter for a minute or two (until the dough is
smooth)
5) Pinch off small portion of dough and roll into a ball (about 1 inch in diameter). Roll out into a
flat circle on the counter, dusting with flour to keep dough from sticking.
6) Put small amount of preferred dumpling stuffing mixture into the middle of the flat
dumpling wrapper. Pinch the dumpling closed.
7) Cook dumplings.
a. To fry dumpling, preheat oil for 30 second then lower heat. Cook dumpling on each
side for only about one minute or until golden brown.
b. To steam dumplings, place in a steamer or on an elevated plate in a wok over water
for about 10 minutes.
c. To boil dumplings, place in boiling water for about 5 minutes.
8) Always cut a dumpling open to make sure it cooked through.
9)Serve!

Taco Dumplings

½ lb ground meat (beef, pork, or turkey)
½ cup shredded cheese
1 tablespoon chili seasoning
1 tablespoon ground cumin
½ tablespoon garlic powder
¼ cup chopped cilantro (optional)
12 dumpling wrappers
Salsa, guacamole, cheese sauce, sour cream (as optional dip options)

1. Mix ground meat, shredded cheese, spices, and cilantro together in mixing bowl.
2. Spoon mixture into dumpling wrappers.
3. Fry dumplings for about 1 minute on each side or until golden brown (be sure to
open one to make sure the meat is thoroughly cooked).
4. Serve hot with sauces for dipping.


Guacamole

2 avocados
1 small tomato, finely chopped
¼ of an onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, pressed
a few sprigs of cilantro, finely chopped
1 lime or lemon, halved
Dash of salt

1) With a spoon remove the avocado meat from the rind and remove the seeds. Mash the
avocado meat with a spoon and fork.
2) Mix in tomato, onion, garlic, and cilantro
3) Squeeze in lemon juice (watch out for seeds!)
4) Add salt to taste
5) Enjoy!
Amanda Roberts received her master’s degree in English from the University of Central Missouri in 2009. In 2010, she and her husband moved to rural Hunan, China to teach English. Amanda has been chronicling their adventures on her blog Two Americans in China for nearly 3 years.

One of her biggest obstacles to overcome was learning how to cook all over again. She discovered that this is a major frustration for most expats living abroad. Crazy Dumplings is her first book in what will hopefully become a full line of cookbooks for expats and people living at home who want
to learn fun and more natural ways of cooking.
See More about it at her Website

Blog Tour & Scavenger Hunt - Monster Night by P.B. Azeltine & M.E. Drewry

Synopsis:

When a drug surfaces in town that turns teens into the mythological creature of the chupacabra, David Copperfield Finkleman is called in to help. Why? Because David possesses a rare gift. He is a true blue, magic out of the fingertips, potions and spells, wizard. Well, that and because his grandfather is the lead investigator on the case and the drug is circulating in David's own high school. David is thrust into a world of danger and monsters he never knew existed, all the while living his normal daily life. He learns that he will have to save the very bullies who torment him in school and the chemistry teacher who wants nothing more than to flunk him. Adding to his problems, he deals with girl troubles, a boss who doesn't appreciate his sarcasm, and saving an agent's life before it's too late...no pressure!

P.B. Azeltine has been writing for many years. She is a Land Surveyor Instrument woman by day and a writer at lunch time, traveling in the car time, any spare moment time, days off time, and evenings. She loves writing young adult, middle-grade, historical romance, and contemporary romance. She tries to put humor in all her writing. She has learned that as she goes through life, humor can
make it much easier to get through. She lives in Olympia, Washington (U.S.A.) with her husband, two daughters, son in-law, future son in-law, two dogs, one cat, and one lovebird.

www.pbazeltine.com

M.E. Drewry

M.E. Drewry is a teacher and writer. An avid fan and reader of fantasy, she decided to co-write her own fantasy story for young adult. She lives in Rochester, Washington (U.S.A.) with her husband, Jacob and her overly pampered black lab
Shadow.

Each blog stop in this tour will have a hidden phrase or object within their post that you must look for and mark down. For participating stops in the hunt and to enter to win head on over to Reading Addiction Blog Tours’ blog. Be sure to keep a look out because you will need to match the item to the blog it was shown on.

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Review - Rumor Has It by Virginia Nelson

Elvis left the building a long time ago…

Marrying an Elvis impersonator was one of Liz’s biggest mistakes, yet when he comes rolling into town, needing a place to couch surf, she can’t say no to the father of her child.

Rumor has it could have been my own story the more I reflect on it because I also fell in love with my childhood friend but for many years we were fools in love yet never letting the other know how we felt so I can understand the feelings shared by Jeremy and Liz. I so agree with Sarah about it takes more than sperm to make a father! The story was short but went straight to the heart of the matter!


Disclaimer I received Rumor Has It by Virginia Nelson for free for an honest review.

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Rebecca Rembish - Taming Tyler - Virtual Book Tour

Synopsis:

In Rebecca Rembish's premier novel, 'texting tyler', Chris lives in the shadow of his older brother, struggling to be the popular one... the good looking one... the one all the girls adored.

No doubt about it, Tyler Clarke is hot. Tyler Clarke has a reputation. Tyler Clarke has been with every girl in school. Tyler Clarke is also a virgin... or at least he was until his first date with Lori Matthews.

One thing Tyler could never seem to avoid was a label. Good or bad, no label had ever bothered him quite as much as the one he received from Lori. What was it about her that made him care so much? Why was she different from all the other girls he ever met?

While Tyler never made decisions on a future beyond high school, Lori is a planner. After graduation, she decides to spend her first year at home and attend the community college for two reasons. She needs more time to plan her future and she needs to save money. Tyler and what came next were never part of her plan.

With an uncertain future, a pregnant girlfriend and not many people to turn to, Tyler struggles with one of the toughest years of his life.

Lori's careful plans are turned upside down. The fear of raising a baby in the same difficult circumstances she grew up with and a relationship that scares her to death, Lori must make the most heart wrenching decision of her life.

Author Bio:
Rebecca Rembish is a stay at home mom to a mini super-hero. To help balance out her adventurous days with a pre-schooler and grown-up married life, she escapes by writing Young Adult Romantic Fiction.

She is a compulsive nail biter, who makes daily trips to 7-11 for blueberry coffee. Rebecca grew up in Rockland County, New York, and now resides in New Jersey with her husband and son. Although Rebecca loves to text, amazingly, she and her husband of ten years have never once sent each other a text message.

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