LeseLust & LeseLiebe

Year 7 was a lucky one for me, as so many terrific authors stopped by to share their food for thought: Jeffrey Beesler – Speed Demons Eldritch Black – The Book of Kindly Deaths Jenn Brink – Silver Bells Carole Brown – The Redemption of Caralynne Hayman Peggy Chambers – The Apocalypse Sucks Jeff Chapman – The Black Blade Debra Chapoton – Sheltered Caroline Clemmons – The Texan's Irish Bride April Michelle Davis – A Princess in Disguise Steve DeWinter – Forgotten Girl Brittany Hawes – Wicked Cathryn Hein – The Country Girl David Hogan – The Last Island Holly Jacobs – Steamed Jessica Knauss – Awash in Talent Deborah Lawrenson – The Lantern John Mefford – IN Doubt Assaph Mehr – Murder in Absentia A.G. Moye – Cronicles of the Marauder Luke Murphy – Wild Card Patricia Obermeier Neuman & Rosal...

Riggs isn’t kidding – the children* certainly are peculiar. Emma can make fire with her hands. Millard is invisible. Hugh has bees living in his stomach. There’s also Olive, the levitating girl, and Claire, who is a  backmouth . (I’ll let you read the book to discover what that is on your own.) And it’s not just the children who have “gifts;” their headmistress Miss Peregrine can in fact morph into a bird at will! So it stands to reason that the food this strange cast partakes in must also be “special,” right? Not so much. Newcomer Jacob joins them for a dinner consisting of: a roasted goose, its flesh a perfect golden brown; a whole salmon and a whole cod, each outfitted with lemons and fresh dill and pats of melting butter; a bowl of steamed mussels; platters of roasted vegetables; loaves of bread still cooling from the oven; and all manner of jellies and sauces [he] didn’t recognize. Okay, maybe that’s not a typical American dinner, but Jacob has come a very long way - to a re...

Hello, everyone. Thanks for stopping by, and thanks to Shelley Workinger for inviting me to her blog. My latest novel, A Lack of Motive , is book #8 In my David Brunelle Legal Thriller Series. These books are set in Seattle, but for this most recent installment, I moved the action to Bellevue, an affluent suburb across Lake Washington from Seattle. I've lived In Seattle for over 20 years now, and have watched as the city has changed from a smaller, sea-based community to a corporate, high-tech hub. But there are still remnants of the old Seattle hidden, almost out of sight, between the shiny new glass-and-steel skyscrapers. So when my hero, Dave Brunelle, meets an old flame, I knew where they were going to dinner. In part, because I'd just eaten there myself. Dave's old flame, Victoria Cross is rich, much richer than my public servant protagonist. When they decide to catch up over a potentially romantic dinner, he lets her pick the restaurant. He expects a pretentious, over...

Page 261. That’s the pivotal point where the two main characters meet. Mikael Blomkvist: crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case , and Lisbeth Salander: 24-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age – and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it . Mikael has been hired to research the 40-year-old disappearance of a wealthy octogenarian’s 16-year-old niece, Harriet Vanger. When he realizes that he needs help with the convoluted archive work, Herr Vanger actually recommends the researcher he hired to look into Mikael . Now that’s a set-up for a good meet if I ever read one! Mikael arrives on Lisbeth’s doorstep unannounced, rousing her from a hung-over lie-in. She’s disheveled and bewildered; he’s curiously amused. And all I can think about is the bagels . Filled bagels , brought by Mikael: one with roast beef, one with turkey and Dijon mustard, and one vegetarian with avocado. Well, now I ha...

I like crime reporter Britt Montero. Yes, I like her for all the usual reasons – she’s smart, tough, relatable and all that. But I also like that she can feel sympathy for a perp, even when she didn’t expect to; she learns the story of his childhood trauma and can see shades of gray. And I like that she prefers cocktails to beer. Really, how can a Coors Light compete with rum, coconut cream, pineapple, and orange juice? I very much like that she finds flirting long-distance much easier than in person. (And rightly so – when phone-romance-guy shows up at her door, her greeting is far from sexy.) And I most like that she leaves her conditioner on for 10 minutes versus the recommended 2. I do that sometimes, too, trying to believe that gives the product a little extra oomph, even though she and I both know it doesn’t. See, I find that it’s good to funnel all of your irrational thinking into meaningless outlets like that, so that you stay sharp when it actually counts. ;) There’s just one ...

Have you ever participated in one of those silent auctions? You know the ones, where a charity offers up themed gift baskets, tickets to a sporting event or a concert, or, possibly, a chef-prepared meal by one of the top chefs in the country. Well, that’s how Ivy Nash—the protagonist in my bestselling mystery-thriller series—happens to hit the food lottery in my latest novel, IN Doubt (due out on May 5). With her and her old / new flame, Saul, sitting at his kitchen table, they watch a famed chef personally cook them a meal that might normally cost north of five hundred dollars. They start with Texas gulf crab cakes, with tomatillo-poblano cream and jicama-tortilla slaw. And then they reach the main course: wood-grilled pork tenderloin, with jalapeno-charred corn, drizzled with Texas peach barbeque sauce. Ivy, a former CPS Special Investigator in Texas, has never had much money. In fact, food is usually not much of a priority because all of her energy is focused on helping troubled ki...

In early February, just gone, I spent three days in Cairo researching my upcoming mystery novel, The Cairo Puzzle .   Cairo is an extraordinary city, the largest between Mexico city and India, far larger than any in Europe. Twenty million people in the metro area makes for a dense and bustling space, filled with beeping cars at all hours of the day and night. My main reason for going there was to get inside the Great Pyramid to visit the King’s Chamber, which I succeeded in doing. To see the small, claustrophobic main passage inside the pyramid in 360VR, possibly the first such view ever, click here. We stayed in the Rameses Hilton, a stone’s throw from the Nile and a little down the river from the Antiquities Museum, with its unmissable treasures of Tutankhamun. The giant self-service breakfast bar at the hotel served a tasty beef bacon substitute along with an array of almost every type of breakfast food you would find in any major hotel on any continent. There were lots of Middl...

Yes, indeed - time to celebrate another yummy year of FoodFic! These delectable authors stopped by over the last 12 months to share some food for thought: Lee Bice-Matheson – Wake Me Up Inside Lee DuCote – MICAH Catherine Greenall – A Quirk of Destiny Tim W. Jackson – Blacktip Island Russell James – Q Island Nancy Lynn Jarvis – A Neighborly Killing Auden Johnson – The Sciell Charles W. Jones – Circus Tarot Jackie Jones – The Wardens Series Merry Jones – Child's Play Sharon Ricklin Jones – Ravenswynd Series Wendy H. Jones – Killer's Cut Stacy Juba – Fooling Around with Cinderella Audrey Kalman – Dance of Souls Tonya Kappes – Spies and Spells C.M. Keller – Screwing Up Time Nancy Klann-Moren – The Clock of Life William Knight – GeNeration Karen Kondazian – The Whip E.A. Lake – Stranded No Wher...

Don’t get it wrong: Child's Play is not a children’s book. Nor is it a book about games and toys, or the importance of either. No, Child's Play is a dark and shadowy thriller that begins in an elementary school. And however slightly, food plays a part in the story. Since the main character, Elle Harrison, is a second grade teacher, the first and foremost food item on the book’s menu is peanut butter sandwiches. Even though in reality, some classrooms forbid peanut butter due to student allergies, Logan Elementary is a fictional school. Peanut butter is the number one favorite sandwich of the kids who go there. They also like ice cream. Ice cream man Duncan Girard parks his truck at the edge of the school yard. Kids line up there every day, eager for treats.  Beyond ice cream and peanut butter, food plays an important part in depicting the characters in the book. For example, protagonist Elle. She is recently widowed, her house for sale. For her, food is a reminder of meals sh...

In Gossamer , Lady Alex attempts a daring rescue of her grandmother and her friend who are being held hostage by rebel soldiers and uncovers a plot of betrayal and deception that reaches to the very pinnacle of power in Eledon.   But what are they eating, you ask?  I’ve never had anyone ask before.   Alex is one of those lucky people who can eat almost anything and doesn’t have to worry about her weight.  She’s as comfortable eating at the table of her cousin, Prince Darin, as she is around a campfire.  The menu for her lunch at the Prince’s table includes roasted squab and potatoes, pea soup, tomato salad, bread and butter as well as a piece of cake.  A girl needs her nourishment before embarking on a difficult mission.   Alex also depends upon her cousin to provide provisions for her mission.  She fills her backpack with a map and essential food items, enough to last for a few days—bread, cheese, dried meats, and fruits both dried and fresh....

REFRESHMENT IN THE HOUSE OF WISDOM In the House of Wisdom, the scholar and mathematician al-Kindi offers Ella and Shomari refreshment. The year is 841 CE, and the city is Baghdad, center of culture and government for the caliphate. The two time-traveling middle-schoolers are visiting to learn from the master about how to decode a secret message. Food puts them at ease. The teenagers drink cardamom coffee and fruit juice. They nibble on apricots, nuts and dates from Persia as al-Kindi discusses his theories on the origin of the universe, the benefits of trade and the importance of religious tolerance. Finally, he shares his method to decode any substitution cipher. The food and conversation contrast with the menacing behavior of the guards who swarmed Ella and Shomari on their arrival. In book six of Tumblehome Learning’s Galactic Academy of Science series, The Cryptic Case of the Coded Fair , four friends work together to outwit the evil Dr. G, who is scheming to undermine the interna...

In 1993, I was fined a trivial sum by the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission for allowing a friend of mine to pay for my Osso Buco (and a few martinis as well). I had no idea at the time that would become the focal point of a novel I would write sixteen years later: “What is ‘ osso buco’ ?” “Braised veal shank. It’s a northern Italian staple. Delicious.” While the novel represented a radical fictionalization of events surrounding the federal indictment of that friend (he was just as generous to many others), the novel’s treatment of gastronomie is as true as I can tell it, as are the two following sequels, Full Irish and Half Irish . I cannot say I did this consciously. The vast majority of Diary of a Small Fish I wrote merely as a scribe for a bunch of characters who evanesced in my imagination and dictated to me like I was paid a penny a word. Apparently, they liked food, too. This leads me to suspect that they are all alter egos, at least as it comes to the culinary arts. But ...

It wasn’t that long ago that if asked to compare her life to food, Nina Andrews would have described it as rich, enticing, and fulfilling. She would have gone on to recite the menu. Begin the meal with escargot covered with a rich garlic butter.  Next a Caprese salad which consists of ripe tomato and fresh mozzarella cheese, sprinkled with just a drizzle of olive oil. For the main course veal fillet cooked perfectly in a Port wine sauce and a bottle of Pinot Noir to enhance the succulent flavours. And, to complete the meal, a variety of cheeses and fruit served with a coffee. If asked that same question now, her response would be tasteless and empty.  Her meal, when she had one, was a frozen dinner picked up at her corner grocery store and the closest she came to having fruit these days was the grapes used to make the bottle of wine she drank each night. On the Other Hand is the story of one woman’s journey after being suddenly widowed. Nina Andrews loved her life and conside...

What is it about Waverly Bryson and Dino’s Pizza? In my first two novels, Perfect on Paper , and It’s a Waverly Life , Waverly Bryson and her two best friends frequently get together at Dino’s Pizza, located in the heart of the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. While Waverly is not a real person, Dino’s is a real restaurant, and I have many fond memories from the years I spent living around the corner. Brooklyn is my home these days, but my parents and sisters are still in the San Francisco suburbs, and I visit them often. Whenever I’m in town I usually drive by Dino’s at least once, and I inevitably feel a sense of nostalgia not just for my own past, but for Waverly’s too. The backdrop of her life is based on mine (I like to say that her life is my life if my life were more exciting), and when I see Dino’s I remember the days when my girlfriends and I would plop down at a table, order a pizza and a pitcher of beer, and wonder out loud when we were finally going to figur...

The most frustrating thing that was said to me as a budding writer was, “write what you know.” This one sentence made me stop short and realise that I didn’t know very much and certainly nothing that anyone would want to read about. Another thing they tell you is to find your voice. How I struggled to find a genre where I would fit in until giving up on the standard ones and combining history with horror. My first novel, The Paupers' Graveyard , dealt with a very important time in Irish history, the time of the Great Famine. As I wrote, I began to realise that food, like most things in life, only becomes important when there is a shortage of it. Even before the famine, those who worked on the land were poor and their diet lacked all the nutrients we have come to take for granted. Potatoes were the mainstay, and on rare occasion’s pieces of dried fish, but this was for the man of the house, as he was the breadwinner. It seems such a meagre thing, a piece of dried fish, but to hear t...