Live to Love on the Edge Blog

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#WriteWed – Playing Genre Roulette

Some people may know that I started out writing contemporary romance. Eight of them in fact for Kensington Publishing’s defunct ENCANTO romance line. I had written those novels over the course of about three years and I wanted to challenge myself by writing something totally new and different. Being a fan of The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I wondered what I would do if I mashed the two genres — suspense and vampires — and tossed in some romance as well. That’s how THE CALLING IS REBORN series was created. Little did I know I would be sucked into a world of both regular and paranormal suspense for the next ten years. WOW! But like I had before, I felt myself craving doing some different and definitely something lighter. That’s how ONE SUMMER NIGHT and WHAT HAPPENS IN SUMMER came about as well as the TAKE A CHANCE Military Romance novellas.

It is a risk to mix genres like that. For an author it’s like playing roulette because you never know if you’re going to have a winner and make a reader happy. Ultimately, that’s one of the big end goals – happy readers. But there is also another goal: loving what you do as a writer.

Will writing in multiple genres work? It has for some people, but I always caution first-time authors to focus on one genre for at least a few books. Develop a following before you go off and try something different. If readers like you, they will follow. If not…

Publishing is a crap shoot for sure. If you’re going to be a winner in the long run the most important thing is to be passionate about what you write.

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Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup Comfort Food #TuesdayTip

My all time fav comfort food on a cold day is a hot grilled cheese sandwich with a bowl of tomato soup. Don’t know what it is about that combo, but it just says home on a snowy day for me. Apropos since we are supposedly getting snow today here in NY/NJ. There are so many variations on grilled cheese, but I normally like to keep simple and today I’m offering up my recipe for it. As for the soup, likewise, keep it simple. I’m so not a fan of all the latest heavy basil tomato soups. Give me rich and creamy and all tomato!

Grilled Cheese a la Caridad

Ingredients

    2 slices country white bread
    3 or 4 slices medium cheddar or slicing cheddar
    Mayonnaise

Directions

    Heat a cast iron pan until it’s grilling hot. If you don’t have cast iron, non-stick is okay, but there’s something about the cast iron that just produces a better caramelization on the bread. Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise on the slice of bread. Yes, I thought it was gross also when I first heard it, but after I tried it I discovered that it really worked! Lay that bread mayo side down on the pan. Add the cheese. Spread the second piece of bread with the mayo and lay it mayo side up on the cheese. Press down gently on the sandwich and listen for that searing sound on the hot pan. Cook for about four to five minutes and check to see if the bread is golden brown. If so, flip and cook on the other side until golden brown. Serve with some tasty tomato soup!

    You may be wondering why not sharp cheddar? It’s too dry and crumbly and won’t melt well. Keep in mind that the more moisture in a cheese, the better it melts.

Want to play around with your cheeses? These are some other good melting cheeses:

    Fontina
    Gruyere
    Asiago
    Gouda
    Provolone
    Mozzarella (not the fresh kind)
    Camembert
    Velveeta (yes, I still love Velveeta)
    American Cheese

Want to know more about the science of melting cheese? Check out https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/08/the-science-of-melting-cheese.html. You can also visit https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/articles/50-grilled-cheese for more grilled cheese recipes.

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#ManCandyMonday – Sebastian from Danger Calls

Sebastian Reyes was one of the hardest characters I had to write. Sebastian started out very much a beta hero in Danger Calls, but he quickly had to answer the call (big pun intended) when he’s thrust into the vampire world inhabited by older sister Diana, her lover Ryder, and Dr. Melissa Danvers. Melissa is Ryder’s keeper and honor bound to take care of Ryder’s vampire needs. Sebastian is not sure he’s up to being a hero since for all his life he’s felt like a disappointment thanks to his dead father’s disapproval. But after a night of lovemaking, Sebastian cannot stay away from Melissa and he realizes he’s more of a hero than he ever thought possible. So for today, I bring you sexy computer hacker Sebastian Reyes.

As a way to say Thank You to you all for your support of this series, DANGER CALLS is available for 99 cents for a limited time at the following retailers:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2I0WYuA
Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/2WP4TOY
Apple Books: https://apple.co/2MUwrOl
B&N: http://bit.ly/2MUdY4G
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2MWBwWm
Playster: http://bit.ly/2MULec1
Scribd: http://bit.ly/2MUdU4W

Also, don’t forget to download your free copy of DESIRE CALLS by following this link: https://claims.prolificworks.com/free/dVMOvTrM

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#FreebieFriday – Free Download of DESIRE CALLS

When you’re writing a series, especially one that you hope to have run for a long time, you have to build a world and also create characters to inhabit that place. For The Calling is Reborn vampire novels, the world was New York City because I wanted to share with you the city that I love and where I spend so much time. As for the characters, Diana and Ryder were alive for me from the moment they started screaming in my head. As I wrote their story, DARKNESS CALLS, I knew they’d be with me for some time. But then I had to give birth to other characters for future books and also, secondary characters to just populate the world. Sometimes those secondary characters became so intriguing that I knew they would get stories as well. That’s what happened with Blake and Stacia. They were just too much fun and too much of everything. I knew they needed their own stories. For fun, Harlequin and I did a little novella with them that really showed the best and worst of their personalities. Today I’m offering that novella, DESIRE CALLS, as a free download. I hope you like Blake and Stacia as much as I do. Blake gets his eternal love in FURY CALLS, an RT Book Club Top Pick. Stacia earns her happily-ever-after in KISSED BY A VAMPIRE which is the only Calling book not set in New York. Instead, Stacia flies off the South Beach to escape the human wanna-bes in New York who are making her crave the love Stacia doesn’t think she can ever have.

You can download DESIRE CALLS with this link: https://claims.prolificworks.com/free/dVMOvTrM

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#ThrowbackThursday – Philadelphia Flower Show

I am so counting down to spring! Only 41 more days to go and it’s hard for me to think that it’s think that it’s that far away without a little hint of spring to keep me going. That’s why I love the Philadelphia Flower Show! We go every year since it’s also the same week as my birthday so it’s a super special celebration with my sister and sometimes our daughters. So much fun. For today, I’m sharing a little blast of my fav flowers with you: Carnations. Yes, I know, very pedestrian, but I love them! They just smell so good and they last forever when they’ve been cut.

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#HumpDay – Counting Down to Valentine’s Day #WaybackWednesday

Trying to stay positive on this Hump Day by counting down the days until Valentine’s Day! Only 8 to go until a romance writer’s fav day of the year. One of the things I love is hearing how people first got together. In my case, it was rather embarrassing I must admit. Hubby and I had kind of met at a Freshman Orientation mixer that the university was holding so new students could get to know one another. As was typical after such parties, I rushed home to pull out our Freshman yearbook to find out more about “Bob”, the young man I’d just met. Turned out he was a Brooklyn boy who was also in my major and after a few days of class, I ran into him again off and on. But that’s not where it gets embarrassing. When it came time for one of our classes to assign seats in the lecture hall where we had class, I looked him up on the seating chart and saw he was sitting right in front of me. Unfortunately, when Bob sat down it was in the wrong seat and silly me, I was only too quick to tell him! Ugh, I was so not savvy about the whole man/woman thing having been too involved in my studies and other non-romantic type activities. Sigh. But somehow it worked out all right since we’ve been married forever. Today I’m sharing this photo of those two awkward freshman who were dating! LOL

How about you? How did you meet your significant other?

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#TuesdayTip – Exploring Your Other Creative Sides

Being a writer is not only a solitary life at times, it’s a sedentary life. Plus, putting words on paper doesn’t have an immediate sense of satisfaction at completing something, mainly because it often takes weeks or months for your work-in-progress to be completed. For that reason, I take time to explore my other creative sides which provide that burst of “I got this done!”

Sometimes it’s making SWAG for you guys, like bookmarks or necklaces. Other times it’s about building something, like this tree hall I just finished this weekend! I had been shopping around and most of the tree halls were $300 plus and I have to confess to having a very big frugal streak (my husband calls it cheap, but I prefer frugal).

Since I had wood lying around and also a door that was no longer in use I thought: How hard would it be to turn this into a hall tree?

Well, after three weekends it turned out that it wasn’t so hard. Scrap wood, the door, some pipes and spray paint I had lying around, hooks that were on sale at Hobby Lobby, a door knob, and some gloss white paint and voila! Upcycled hall tree. Total out of pocket cost about $40. Yep, $40 and not $300. I’d say that worked out well and I got to exercise that other creative muscle in my body.

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