It's out!

My second book Dumpster Dying is here.

Emily Rhodes came to rural Florida for the cowboys, the cattle, and to do a little country two-step, not to fall head first onto a dead body in a dumpster.


Ah, the golden years of retirement in the sunshine state. They’re more like pot metal to Emily, who discovers the body of the county’s wealthiest rancher in the Big Lake Country Club dumpster. With her close friend accused of the murder, Emily sets aside her grief at her life partner’s death to find the real killer. She underestimates the obstacles rural Florida can set up for a winter visitor and runs afoul of a local judge with his own version of justice, hires a lawyer who works out of a retirement home, and flees wild fires hand-in-hand with the man she believes to be the killer.

The Real Life Hera

Above: That's me, Alysha, Glenn, and a happy book buyer at Orlando Brewing.

On Wednesday Glenn and I traveled to Orlando, but not to see Disney.  We went for a book signing at Orlando Brewing.  This was not just a regular old signing, but one where I had the opportunity to connect again with one of the first brewers I interviewed for A Deadly Draught.  Since that first visit, Ed Canty and I have become friends.  Not only has he been kind and beyond patient in his willingness to answer all my brewing questions, but he's read several of the chapters in my new book about Hera Knightsbridge and given me great technical input.

That first day at Orlando Brewing when Ed was showing Glenn and me around the place (our own private brewery tour), I met Ed's apprentice and told Alysha, "You look just like my Hera."  And she did.  Alysha is tall, slender, and has plenty of woman muscle as I imagined Hera did.  I didn't have the opportunity to get to know her at that time, but on Wednesday night she came to the signing with Ed.  It gave us the chance to reconnect and to talk for the evening and to begin our friendship.   For more information about Orlando Brewing, go to http://www.orlandobrewing.com/.  Orlando Brewing is Florida's the only certified organic brewery and brews in accordance with the German Purity Law of 1516.

Back in Rural Florida: Hooray for Cowboys, Waterfowl, Alligators, and Horses

No, this is not a picture of a palm tree on a beach with a bikini-clad babe under it.  This is what you can expect in the Florida in which I live.  And you wonder why I have set many of my short stories and my next book Dumpster Dying here!  This is what I saw in the canal next to our house as Glenn and I were having afternoon tea today.  Even better, we spotted the herd of horses that graze in the pasture across this canal.  They were too far away for me to get a good photo, but I'm pleased they are still there.  Unfortunately things do change, and our foray last evening to our favorite cowboy bar was a disappointment because we saw no one there we knew.  We'll try again another weekend.  I refuse to give up dancing to country western music.  If any of you know of a good cowboy bar around Okeechobee, let me know.  I've got a pair of boots that I'm itching to slip on and boogie to some sh-- kicking tunes.

In time for Thanksgiving

Good news for me and for you.  My story entitled "Murder with All the Trimmings" was accepted for publication by Untreedreads.com and is available as part of their Thanksgiving anthology, The Killer Wore Cranberry.  You can buy it in a variety of eformats at http://untreedreads.com/, http://omnilit.com/ , or at Amazon.com.   If you don't want the entire anthology, you can also purchase just my story.  The anthology or the story would make a nice holiday gift.

We're now in Florida for the winter and I'm working on my upcoming book Dumspter Dying for Oak Tree Press.  I hope it will come out this month, but surely by next so you can buy it for your holiday gift giving.  I was welcomed back to my home here by a variety of birds including wood storks and our resident alligator and four turtles on the canal in front of our house.

I'm jumping into the warm waters here right away with a book signing at the Miami Book Fair on November 21 at 1:00.  Stop by if you're at the Fair.

A New Book for Fall

Fall on the Butternut Creek

Fall settled in on upstate New York suddenly; last week it was late summer, but, by the end of the week, leaves were falling, and now the yard is filled with them

My new book, entitled Dumpster Dying, is due out in late October, early November from Oak Tree Press.  I thought you might like to read a bit of it to get a taste of life for my "winter visitor" protagonist in rural Florida.

Dumpster Dying                                                            

Chapter 1                           

Emily Rhodes, the new bartender at the Big Lake Country Club, blew damp tendrils of sun-bleached hair out of her face as she kicked and dragged three plastic trash bags across the sun-baked asphalt lot behind the clubhouse. A full moon illuminated the area’s lone palm tree under which sat a metal beast waiting for its nightly feeding.

“Here you go, big boy,” she said. She let go of the bags and, with one hand, lifted the dumpster’s lid on the side closest to her. The usual stench of rotting garbage assaulted her nostrils. She ignored the smell and tried to heave the bag into the container, but it tumbled back out. Too full. She shoved back the lid on the other side, and mentally crossed her fingers that she wouldn’t have to hop in there and stomp around on that stuff to make room as she did the other night.

By the glow of the security light she spotted a white object lying at the far end of the dumpster, a cowboy hat, a very special cowboy hat, a Silver Belly, expensive and worn by very few men. She’d encountered just such a man earlier in the evening. The circumstances of their meeting were not pleasant.

What the hell was that doing here, she wondered. Emily leaned in as far as she could. Her feet left the ground, and she teetered on the rim of the dumpster. She struggled to reach the hat, tugged at it, and almost went head first into the bin, head first onto the man’s face hidden beneath the hat.

Ugh! She fell back and dropped the metal lid, the clang reverberating off the side of the building in the still night. She covered her mouth with her hand, and leaned against the dumpster. That can’t be. I didn’t see that, did I?

She turned, opened the lid once more, gingerly pushed a garbage bag to one side, and peered in for another look. She remembered him from earlier in the evening when he had grabbed her blouse and tried to pull her across the bar. He had worn a brilliant white cowboy shirt with roses appliquéd on the front yoke. Now the shirt front was as dark as the blood-red flowers.

She gulped hard to hold back the bile working its way up from her stomach and looked around the lot. It was empty. Help. She needed help.

She ran for the door of the clubhouse. The knob wouldn’t turn.



Cooking with Beer

Now that cooler weather is here, I've been searching through recipes to see what I can make that will require heating up the oven.  Friday night I did a book singing at a local restaurant and bar, The Empire House, in Glibertsville, NY.  The bar features some of our local brews from Butternuts Beer and Ale Brewery down the road from me.  I decided to make muffins for the evening, and I've included the recipe below.  These tasty little morsels are made with stout.  I used Moo Thunder Stout, the great brew from Butternuts Beer and Ale, but you can use any stout you like.  If you don't like muffins, I've included a way you can convert the recipe to a cake.



                               Butternut Valley Ginger Stout Mini-Muffins




2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 tablespoon candied ginger (finely chopped) or 1 teaspoon ground ginger or 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs

12 ounces stout (I recommend Moo Thunder from Butternuts Beer and Ale)

½ cup molasses

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Grease mini-muffin cups. Combine flour, ground
ginger, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and cloves; set aside.

2. Beat butter and candied ginger with electric mixer on medium speed until
combined. Add sugars; beat to combine. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after
each addition.

3. Mix stout and molasses to combine. Alternately add dry ingredients in 3 additons, with the beer mixture; beating until combined and scraping down side of bowl as needed.

4. Pour into the mini-muffin pans. Bake 12-15 minutes. Makes over 60 muffins.


Note: You may make this batter into a cake. Grease a 13x 9 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.


The muffins turned out so well, I wondered if any of you have tried cooking with beer?  Would you share a favorite beer recipe with me?  I'd like to add them to the next Hera book or complile them into a down- loadable booklet that all of Hera's fans could get by contacting me.  Of course, I would give each one of you credit for the recipe you contributed and your name might find its way into my next Hera book.
 
Send your recipe(s) to me at LesDieh60@aol.com .  I'll continue to put together the recipes throughout the fall months until I get enough to use in the book or to put together in booklet form.
 
Try the muffins with a dollop of whipped cream.  Yummy!

Announcing the Winner of the Beer Name Contest

In July, I began a contest to name Hera's newest beer, to be created in the second Hera Knightsbridge book.  I've decided on the winner.  Drum roll, please.  Throw confetti.  Open champagne.  Eat dark chocolate.  Okay, okay.  Open a bottle of stout and eat strawberries masserated in balsamic vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar with just a pinch of black pepper.  Add dollop of creme fraiche.

The name will be CLEAR CREEK, a perfect label for an ale to celebrate Hera's commitment to maintaining clean water in Upstate New York.  The individual who suggested this name was John Sullivan who wins a copy of A Deadly Draught.  Enjoy, John.

I haven't yet decided just what kind of ale this will be.  It sounds like a light one, but it could be darker if one considers the deep, cool pools in the Butternut.

Thanks to everyone who entered.  There were some great names and I had a difficult time making up my mind.  Hera may have to create many other beers in the future.