Stephanie Queen

USA Today Bestselling Author

For Contemporary Romance Lovers: A New Release by Donna Fasano

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Even if you’ve never read Donna Fasano, even if you’ve never heard of her, if you love contemporary romance you owe it to yourself to read her latest release, WILD HEARTS OF SUMMER, Ocean City Boardwalk Series, Book 3

Now Available for Preorder!

Here’s the Quick Slant:

Cathy Whitley’s two best friends, Sara and Heather, may have found the men of their dreams… and that’s all well and good for them. But that’s not going to happen to Cathy. She allowed love to catch her off-guard once and it drained her dry, emotionally and financially. She’ll never let it happen again. Ever.

Brad Henderson has been chasing Cathy for years. He’s settled for their on-again-off-again, “friends with bennies” relationship for far longer than he expected. Attempting to swim through the rip currents surrounding her heart has left him swimming in circles.

Then Brad inherits http://www.achaten-suisse.com/ a business worth millions from billionaire Harold Hopewell.Hopewell had traveled the world and was touched by the stories of the people he met. In death, Hopewell is giving back, leaving an unusual will filled with life-altering bequests. Brad can’t believe his stroke of luck. Now Cathy will surely see him in a new light. Right?

One way or the other, it’s time to draw a line in the sand…

AMAZON     NOOK    iBOOKS      KOBO

SQ Shares Her Grandma’s Recipe

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It’s not that I’m a great cook, certainly no queen of the kitchen, but my Italian grandmother was a fabulous cook. Besides teaching me the only Italian word I know, mange (it means eat), she taught me to cook a few things. I’m not as good a http://acheterdufrance.com/ cook as grandma–especially if you ask my chauffeur, Myren–but I do okay.

Here’s the recipe I’m sharing. Check out the video!

Stephanie Queen’s Recipe for Grandma’s Gravy (aka marinara sauce)
Ingredients:
2 28 oz cans Crushed Tomato
1 lg can Tomato Paste
3-4 cloves of Fresh Garlic
4 medium – large bunches of fresh large leaf basil
¼-1 whole Sweet Onion, chopped finely
Olive Oil
Approx. 1- 1 ½ lbs combined Pork, Sausage and beef (cuts/amounts as preferred, but include some with bone-in)

In large heavy dutch-oven pan, cover the bottom with a generous amount of olive oil and add the meat. Saute on medium heat until lightly brown, turning over 2-3 times.
Remove meat from pan and lower heat.
Add chopped onion, chopped garlic and basil. Tear basil before adding. Saute for a few minutes, adding more olive oil.
Add tomato paste, stir, saute for a couple of minutes.
Add meat back in. Mix in with tomato mixture. Add olive oil and stir to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan.
Turn heat up to medium and add two cans of crushed tomatoes and one half can of water. Stir this mixture thoroughly.
Cover mixture and heat, stirring occasionally, until it begins to bubble.
Turn heat down and simmer for 2-7 hours, stirring occasionally.

SQ’s Delectable Holiday Tradition: A New Year Recipe!

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christmas-partiesTo celebrate the New Year I have a wonderful, mouth-watering holiday tradition that I’m going to share with you. It’s a decadently delectable way to ring in 2017, but first some background…

Every year I make my Stephanie Queen’s Royal Munch Mix. Beginning at Thanksgiving time and spreading, gaining steam and intensity through to New Years Day, the house fills with an irresistible aroma. Pans, mixing bowls, measuring spoons, empty boxes and bottles of spice cover the counters.

On Thanksgiving day I serve the special treat for the first time. Then at every holiday get-together thereafter, whenever I host or wherever I go to celebrate the holiday season I bring it with me to expectant open arms and mouths.

At Christmas, I box it up fancy and give it to my favorite people who love it most and to chex-mixes-in-boxesthose who already have everything money can buy. On New Year’s Day as all my favorite people relax and contemplate the future, they savor the last bits to fortify themselves for the year ahead.

As traditions are wont to do, I’ve created an expectation. I MUST come through every year without fail or disappoint. Feeling like Santa Clause-ette, I now must bring my bowls and boxes of Royal Munch Mix to eagerly waiting eaters of holiday treats.

But part of the specialness of this tradition comes from the absence of this treat all year long. It can’t be helped. There is a cost to the enjoyment of this rich holiday mix and continued indulgence would take a toll.

So I must post this WARNING: It’s a decadent treat that would likely cause premature heart failure if consumed on a regular basis since one of the main ingredients is BUTTER, and SALT follows closely behind.

Like many rare, forbidden pleasures …

mix-in-a-bowlIf you could smell this tantalizing treat, you would love me. If you could taste it, you would be my slave forever.

For any of you out there in Authors Billboard Blog-land who would do anything to create a following of love-slaves, I have the perfect recipe for you. Eyes will light up even as hearts pound on with determination and pleasure (in spite of the butter-induced challenge), once they take one taste.

As long as you swear to prepare this dangerously delicious treat only once a year, I’ll share my recipe with you.

The Crunch:

  • 1.5 lbs mixed nuts
  • 1 Large box Cheerios
  • 1 16 oz bag of pretzel sticks
  • 1 large box Wheat Chex
  • 1 large box Corn Chex

The Secret Sauce:

  • 1.5 lbs BUTTER
  • ½ bottle of Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1.5 Tblsp Celery Salt
  • 2.5 Tblsp Garlic Powder

The Fix:  

Preheat oven to 250 degreesfamous-party-mix-pan

  • In a VERY LARGE deep sided baking or roasting pan (I use foil turkey roasters or extra large foil lasagna pans) mix the crunchy ingredients.
  • Melt butter in the microwave in a large glass bowl. Mix in the remaining secret sauce ingredients and stir well. Reheat if needed.
  • Pour secret sauce onto crunchy mix a little at a time, mixing well.
  • Bake at 250 degrees for 2.5 hours, stirring/mixing every 20 minutes.
  • Remove from oven and let cool. Dish it up or store in plastic containers or bags.
  • Serves: A whole lot of people!

Happy New Year!

 

Writing a Series: Beachcomber Investigations Behind the Scenes

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BeachcombersPrintBookA while back, a friend of mine called and asked me if I wanted to contribute a book to a boxed set she was putting together. I said, “Sure. What kind of book do you need?”

She said, “Think beach romance.”

I said, “Can it have suspense in it?”

She said, “Sure, murder and sex on a beach works.”

That’s what my inspiration was for writing the romantic suspense novel, The Beachcombers.

Now you ask, “I thought this was about writing a series?”

It is.

What happened next was that I fell in love with my characters. When I got to the end of The Beachcombers, I couldn’t say good-bye to Dane & Shana. So instead, I didn’t let them have the ever-after part of their happy ending. I left a relationship hook.

They were happy and outraged with each other at the same time, full of the potential and promise of bliss and spitfire.

The Series

Dane & Shana are a pair of romantic relationship-challenged investigators with muddy pasts. The beach in The Beachcombers is anywhere on Martha’s Vineyard, but the ‘beachcomber’ reference is more about a state-of-mind than anything else. For Dane, it’s an attempt to escape from the hellish missions of his special ops career. He’s not 100% successful at escaping from life’s dark side or the danger.

For Shana it’s about trying to escape the shadow of her cop father and prove herself to him at the same time. Problem is her father is dead.

Dane and Shana are too much alike to get along and too mesmerized by each other to stay apart.

I had to stay with them and now I write one book after another to see how it turns out. Each book can be read on it’s own, but there is a character arc https://www.acheterviagrafr24.com/achat-viagra-cialis-en-ligne/ that threads the stories together so they’re best read in order.

I probably should have written them in order, but that’s a story for another day.3d-cover-beachwedding

Amazon Series Page

New Release:

Beachcomber Wedding

Blurb:

While Dane and Shana are hired to protect a bride from a Russian arms dealer, will the idea of wedding bells inspire romance between the private-eye partners or will the notion of love and marriage scare them more than the threat of a bomb at the church?

Save

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SQ’s Preposterous Black Friday Shopping Quest

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black-friday-specialsSo there I was with my annoying cranky old benevolent and faithful chauffeur, at 6:08 am ready to get into the car and take off on our misshapen exciting shopping adventure. It was Black Friday and we were armed ready with a big heavy bag full of money ready to shove people out of the way with buy all kinds of treats for the local church holiday party for area foster children.

There were many, many problems was only one problem: We were late. The doors to my favorite discount junk store were opened at 6am and I feared we were missing the best bargains.

I flung the door open after waiting for Myren, my Scroogey unreliable wonderful chauffeur to open it to no avail because he was too busy drinking his coffee and looking for the keys because he was too old not used to getting up this early. I wasn’t used to getting up this early either. But I solved that problem by not going to bed at all.

That’s right—I’d been up all night on the super-caffeinated high of triple extra-shot dark French roast espresso with double sugar. I kept busy making my list and checking it twice, three, four, five times, crossing things out and adding them and scribbling something totally unreadable until I had no idea what was on it.shopper

Now I was ready go crash the store and wing it.

Myren finally found the keys and got the car started and I shouted, “On Dasher!”

He didn’t respond by stomping on the gas and screeching the tires as I had imagined. Instead he glanced at me in the rear view mirror with a look that said something unpleasant I figured meant his coffee hadn’t kicked in yet. Maybe he forgot to put the shot of whiskey espresso in it.

I’d like to say Myren made up for his slow start with a quick tire-screeching stop, but my newly acquired whiplash prevents me.

And what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a big glass door with no line of shoppers blocking my entry. So I dashed inside and hoped felt confident that Myren was right behind me. His mission was to lift and haul the massive loads of crazy stuff beautiful thoughtful gifts that I purchased.

Shopping

Seriously, I was in the zone. I didn’t even notice all the other shoppers around me as I zeroed in on my prey the most wonderful bargains. I shopped and shopped and filled carriage after carriage feeling more and more like Santa in my frenzy to find every possible gift a child of any shape and size might even dream of in their wildest imagination. At the end of my exhausting marathon of mad shopping, with my big bag of cash lightened to the point of emptiness, I barely made it back to the car where Myren helped dragged me inside an I collapsed across the seat, catching my breath and wiping my brow.

giftsI don’t know if it was the post-caffeine frenzy crash or the satisfaction of a shopping spree well done or the fact that I plugged my ears to tune out Myren’s lecture on over-spending and materialism, but I lapsed into a deep, much-needed sleep.

I suppose it could have been because I hadn’t slept the night before.

Whatever it was, however it happened, later that night I found myself in bed and happy with the post-successful-bargain-shopping-spree high, doubly pleased because I’ d competed with the Black Friday crowd and won. It didn’t get any better than that.

At least not until witnessing the delight in all the kids eyes when they saw the mountain of gifts under the local church tree and they opened their presents. And then the extra light in their eyes when they realized someone was generous and giving and cared about them as Myren Santa said his “Ho, ho, ho Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night.”

The Top 5 Reasons I Start the Holidays Early

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2015-christmastreeI’m on board the holiday train. I’ve been on board since Halloween. I admit it. I love the holidays. I’ve been looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas ever since the first leaf of the fall fell. Luckily Thanksgiving falls early this year so I won’t feel like a holiday misfit for long.

But in my defense, it’s not all about buying presents and eating too much food.

Why do I do it you ask?

Here are the Top 5 Reasons Why I Start the Holidays Early:turkey

  1. I own stock in Macy’s. I love to shop! In person at the actual stores. None of that online stuff for me. Give me the hustle and bustle of shoving through crowds in a frenzy of gift buying excitement to grab the last carcass of the year’s RARE species gift. (No, I’m not a hunter—why do you ask?)
  1. The sparkly decorations of silver and gold make me feel like I just sniffed glue dizzy with glee. (What do you mean you think I should see a doctor?)
  1. I love to eat the holiday treats! There are some delectable holiday treats that traditionally only come around once a year in my household. My friend’s special caramel and chocolate dipped pretzels, the spicy buttery crunch of Queen’s Royal Munch Mix … I could go on but my mouth is watering now. My body is programmed to speed up my metabolism this time of year so the calories don’t count burn off quicker. (It could be all the energy of my holiday frenzy burning up those calories.)
  1. Ilove the lights! They mesmerize cheer me up. All the decorative lights brighten up the otherwise dark dull late fall skies. I have holiday lights up around the windows in my living room all year long. After the holidays when I finally had to drag the almost pine needle-free tree outside, I couldn’t bear to take the lights down. So I didn’t. (No, I don’t need to talk to someone about this.)
  1. I love the gatherings of family and friends. Everyone seems to come together at the holidays to catch up and give hugs and enjoy the company of those we love but don’t always see. We also get together and party with the people we see all the time only we drink eggnog and champagne instead of beer and wine.

Seriously, this is the best part for me—and for many of you too. I start early so I can host more gatherings, cook more food and make my home as festive and beautiful as possible to welcome all who join me.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

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