Dahlia DeWinters - Author

Quirky Heroines, Happy Endings

Evernight Blog Hop – Happy Birthday!

Welcome to the Evernight Publishing birthday blog hop!

Evernight Publishing opened its doors two years ago. In those two years we’ve signed over one hundred and sixty authors and published over three hundred books. From paranormal to contemporary, we’ve had more best sellers than we can count and made thousands of people smile, sigh and gasp. So, as a thank you to all our readers and everyone who has supported us, we’re holding this blog hop and we have a whole lot of prizes to offer you.

Here’s how it works… the more blogs you hop to (shown below) the more chance you have of winning prizes. Each author on the hop is offering a prize and Evernight is offering the following grand prizes, a Kindle, a $100 Amazon gift certificate, two Evernight swag bags (which includes a tote, a tee, vouchers, a mug and other coolness) and a personalized Facebook banner. To be in with a chance of winning the author prize simply follow the blog you’re visiting and leave a comment which includes your email address. Each entry on each blog is then counted towards the grand prize draw. The more entries you have, the better your chance of winning a grand prize! You also get extra points for liking the Evernight Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/evernightpublishing. Just make sure you let us know in the comments that you’ve done so.

Good luck and happy hopping!

 

I’ll be giving away a copy of my book Kitty Wishes, the story of a woman who woke up….as a cat.

Blurb:

Curses, spells, fairy tales…no thanks! Sakaria Thorpe prefers the reality of running a café over the nonsense of make believe. But is it really make believe?

When she finds herself cursed to be a shapeshifting cat, she becomes a believer. Good thing she’s able to fit shapeshifting into her schedule. Life’s fine until she discovers she will be cursed to be a cat forever if she doesn’t find a man to break the spell by midnight on Halloween.

Desmond Fields sticks to routines and cold hard facts. He falls for the beautiful but quirky Sakaria the minute he sees her behind the counter.

Now Sakaria must convince Des of the improbable, that the woman he’s falling for needs him to recognize her inner feline in order to break the spell. Time’s running out and Sakaria is getting desperate…will true love save the day?

 

Hop around to my other Evernight Author friends and see the cool books they’re offering.

Remember the more blogs you hop to and comment on,  the more chance you have of winning prizes. I am offering a copy of “Kitty Wishes” and Evernight is offering: a

  • Kindle

  • $100 Amazon gift certificate

  • two (2) Evernight swag bags (which includes a tote, a tee, vouchers, a mug and other coolness)

  • a personalized Facebook banner.

Leave your comment below to be entered and good luck!

Blogtoberfest – Maple Cinnamon Spider Webs

Total Time:  40 min  Prep:  10 min
Cook: 30 min  Yield:  about 30 webs

Ingredients

  • Vegetable oil, for frying
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon fine salt
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup, plus 1/4 cup for brushing
  • 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • Jelly spiders, orange or black nonpareils, for garnish, optional

Directions

Pour enough oil in a large skillet so it’s about 1 inch deep. Heat oil over medium-high heat until a deep-fry thermometer registers between 280 to 300 degree F.

Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center; add the milk, egg, and 1 tablespoon maple syrup. Whisk the dry and wet ingredients together until smooth.

Transfer batter into a large size pastry bag with a # 3 or 4 open tip. Carefully squeeze batter in a circular pattern and then back and forth into the oil, to make a free form spider web-like design, about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Cook until bottoms are golden, about 2 minutes. Using tongs or slotted spoon, turn fritters over and cook until golden on other side, about 1 minute more. Transfer the fritters to paper towels to drain briefly. Brush lightly with maple syrup and dust with confectioners’ sugar. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve warm or at room temperature alone or with the garnishes.

Copyright 2008 Television Food Network, G.P. All rights reserved

*You may use a zip bag instead of a pastry bag.  Snip a corner to the appropriate size and you’re good.

Courtesy of the Food Network

Blogtoberfest – Vampire Bite Mocktail Recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cranberry juice, chilled
  • 1/2 cup apple juice, chilled
  • 1/4 cup grenadine
  • 1 1/2 cups seltzer water, chilled
  • 1 tube red candy gel
  • 4 gummy vampire teeth

Directions

In a pitcher combine the cranberry juice, apple juice and grenadine. Stir together then add the seltzer water.

Squeeze the candy gel onto a small plate. Rim the edges of 4 low-ball glasses in the candy gel. Pour in the drink evenly into the glasses. Garnish each glass with the gummy vampire teeth and serve.

 

Courtesy of the Food Network.

Blogtoberfest – 31 blog posts

OCTOBER….OCTOBER…OCTOBER!!
Hang with me for …..

Blogtoberfest!

 

Terrible, isn’t it? But fun, right?

The month of October is special to me. It’s not because of Halloween, although that’s part of it. October marks the month in which I had my first e-book published with Evernight Publishing.

In honor of this occasion as well as a personal challenge, I will be posting something Halloween related every single day of the month. In addition, I will be posting snippets of “Kitty Wishes”, that aforementioned published book.

I certainly hope that you will join me for Blogtoberfest – keep me honest with these posts!

Dahlia

Move like Jagger? How about Write like Peyton?

Those who follow my blog regularly will know that I’m a big football person.  I play fantasy football (and get cursed out by guys who don’t know that I’m a gal, or know and don’t care) and I watch the games on television and online.  I’ve been known to watch three games at once, following the scores and the sacks and the bad calls by the replacement refs.

Last year, football was boring.  Why?  No Peyton Manning calling plays at the line.

Say what you will about Peyton,  from his commercial hustle to his pouts and tantrums during the game, (search on YouTube for Peyton Manning/Jeff Saturday and you’ll see him cursing out the former Colts’ center to the point where one of the O-line dudes told him to ‘go sit down’) but he knows what he wants from the game and goes after it.  Mind you, football is not a one-man show, as much as we would like to think it is.  If he throws the ball and no one catches it (I’m looking at you Eric Decker and Jacob Tamme), then he really has no recourse.   Peyton is a perfectionist and you can see it on his face every time something goes wrong.

On the other hand, writing IS a one man show. No matter how you slice it, at the core of the craft, it’s you, your pencils and notebook, or you and the computer screen.

It’s. Just. You.

There’s no Eric Decker to blame if you don’t make your word count.  Didn’t finish the story before the deadline and want to blame someone?  Look in the mirror.  Don’t garner excuses for your lack of performance on the playing field of being an author.  Catch the balls.  Run your routes correctly.

How do you do that?

Be determined.  Get off of Facebook.  Get off of Wikipedia. Yes, we know you need to “research” but don’t let that cut into your writing time.   Set writing goals and MEET THEM.  If Manning can come back from four neck surgeries and throw that ball across the field at thirty-six years old, you can get down a couple of words a day in your notebook or in that Word file.

Peyton was so bad off that he couldn’t lift a tray of drinks at a Colts charity function last year.  Imagine how that affected him, a four time MVP.    And how much balls did it take to get on the field for the first time and take a hit after spine fusion surgery.  Certainly, all the best doctors said he would no problem, every thing is fine, but when it’s YOU out there getting hit…all the yakking of all the very best doctors in the world wouldn’t keep me from having some trepidations about getting sacked by a London Fletcher, Brian Urlacher or Ndomukong Suh.  That would be enough to keep me on the bench.

Love writing like Peyton Manning loves football.  He’s certainly can’t still be playing for the money!