Sad Valentine's Day

by Janis Patterson

It is common wisdom that most murders are committed for either love or greed. It is also pretty much accepted that deaths increase around holidays, especially those celebrating love and/or family such as Valentine's Day and Christmas. All of this, while being pretty depressing in real life makes things a lot easier for us mystery writers.

Today is the Day of Saint Valentine, the patron saint of romantic and courtly love. It is a day of flowers, cards, candy, dinners out, gifts and - in most cases - a whole lot of kissing. It is also a day of loneliness, despair and sorrow. When you have someone to love, Valentine's can be a time of joy and shared affection. When you want someone to love and don't have anyone, Valentine's day can be a day of gloom and loneliness and sorrow. Most people have experienced both kinds of day.

What's truly sad, though, is the person who wants a particular person... and that person doesn't want him. Now this happens all the time - but this situation can turn real scary depending on how unstable the rejected one is. Just how far will he (or she) go to prove he is worthy of love? What will he do to convince his object of desire that she must return his feelings? Or will he decide instead to punish her for not responding to him? (I'm not being deliberately sexist - either position of this scenario can be taken by either sex, though statistically more women are victims than men.) It can go either way, and most of the time neither alternative is pleasant.

We see a similar situation around family-centric holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. As on Valentine's Day there are preconceived notions of how we should feel - happy family reunions, fabulous meals, presents, good cheer, decorated trees, peace-on-earth-and-good-will-to-men and all that. Unfortunately, even though so many people have the outward trappings - trees and presents, for example - they don't feel like people tend to think they should feel. The holiday is not a panacea that makes everything in their life all right; in fact, it often makes them feel worse.

There are more suicides around Christmas than any other day of the year. I don't know the exact statistics for murders, but I do know it's generally higher than on the average day.

So how does this help us as mystery writers? If you write about a murder on a July beach or a Halloween murder, not much. Neither the Fourth of July or Halloween are really family- or romance-centric. Of course, any holiday can be used, as can any day of the year, but in general it doesn't carry the same emotional weight as the romantic/family holidays.

The emotional stress of holidays cannot be discounted. If holidays can make the normal ones among us crazy, imagine what they can do to the unstable. These holidays and their often unreal expectations are something pushing at the villain not only from outside but from inside. This offers the writer all kinds of opportunities to give depth and reality to their characters. Good characters aren't just composed of height, weight, eye color and occupation; they are all of that, but what makes them individual are their hopes and dreams and disappointments.

There is no disappointment worse than an unrealized holiday feeling.

Merry Post Christmas!

Another Christmas over: Church services, presents, family visits. Done. But before you head out to the mall to begin the Great Exchange, go ahead and admit it. There’s something you wanted for Christmas – and you didn’t get it. 

Lean in close and whisper your secret desire.

I’ll go first – I wanted a tractor.


Not a toy, the real deal. The kind that until this past year I figured existed only in Kenny Chesney songs (She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy) and square states in the middle of the country. 

Maybe I should explain - we bought land in the mountains (You might've seen a few of my pictures of the deer. And the snow). All around us, guys grow hay to feed their horses or for export to Japan. The former owner of our land’s failure to take care of his property… well, let’s just say it was a sore point in the valley. 

Summer rolled around and the grass started growing, as grass does, but the weeds were getting there faster. So I fired up the Forrest Gump machine. Y’all have seen Forrest Gump one of the nine million times it’s been on TV, right? 

In case you missed it, this is the mower Forrest used: 

It took hours to cut that field. 

And I’m sure you noticed there’s no padding on that seat. 

Fast forward a few weeks and the grass – and the weeds – had done their thing. I looked at Forrest Gump, sighed, and fired it up. I’d made about two laps when my neighbor drove into the field on his enormous John Deere. “Cathy, let me teach you how to drive a tractor.”

That sucker had lots of bells and whistles, buttons, knobs and levers, but it also had a huge mowing deck and the field looked pristine in no time flat. 

And so it went all summer. I’d fire up Forrest Gump, clear the edges and cut around the irrigation heads and my neighbor would show up with his tractor. 

Granted this wasn’t like borrowing a cup of sugar and I lived in fear of somehow breaking it, but I loved that tractor. 


So when the holiday season rolled around, I asked Santa for a tractor. 

Left homemade cookies and everything. 

Our family celebrated Christmas at the new house (yeah, yeah, another story) and when all the packages were open, there wasn’t one with a set of keys. I checked the barn, the garage, the shed. 

No tractor. 

Kinda like the pony when I was a kid. 

Hmmm … I wonder if the dealer puts tractors on sale after Christmas? 

So what did you wish for – either this year or when you were a kid – that Santa didn’t tuck under your tree?

In the spirit of Things You Didn't Get For Christmas, I've put So About the Money on sale – just in time to load up that new e-reader you got for Christmas!

Book one in the Holly Price series, the story romps through eastern Washington with its rivers, wineries, Native American casinos, and assorted farm animals. Add in some wicked fun chemistry between the CPA amateur sleuth and a local detective and Holly better solve the case before the next dead body found beside the river is hers. 

Amazon       Nook        Kobo        iBooks    

If you enjoy the story, send a copy of the review (any retail outlet) and I'll send you a gift copy of either Malbec Mayhem or Double Down. 

Send it to cathy@cperkinswrites.com or use the contact form on my website - http://cperkinswrites.com. You can sign up for my (infrequent) newsletter at the same time!

Winner of the Prize Draw

I hope everyone's having a good holiday, however they celebrate :D.

I'm briefly dropping in between turkey sandwiches and too many chocolates to announce the winners of our Prize Draw. As you can see from the picture, my new calendar Christmas gift has been very useful as a Random Number generator - I used the cubes as dice! - and our main winner is No. 8 commenter.

Congratulations TINA H! Please let me know your preferred ebook format, and I'll arrange to have the books sent to you.

And the other winners are:

Laura's Reading - $10 Amazon voucher

Joan Verner - $5 Amazon voucher

Please let me know your Amazon account email address and I'll get the gift cards arranged.

Thanks to everyone who visited our blog and entered the draw. It's wonderful to hear from so many of you!

Romantic Suspense Holiday Giveaway WINNERS!

Yes, SIX glorious years of NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS, and none of us look a day older *wink*.

The HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY is now complete, and the winners are below. If you see your name there, please use the contact email provided, and claim your prize!

THANKS to everyone who took part, we had a fabulous response. It's very heartening to welcome friends old and new to the blog. We all have such fun here, we like to share it with you! :D.

PRIZE + the contact email / the winner:

$40 Amazon voucher (US or UK): / Contact Clare London / SHELLEY PHILLIPS

Free ebooks - PLEASE let your author know what format you'd like:

Anne Marie Becker - YOUR CHOICE of author's backlist / GHEORGHE RADU

Sandy Parks - UNDER THE RADAR / LINDA VILJOAN

Laura Carter - VENGEFUL LOVE: DECEPTION / KIA BUNBY

Nico Rosso - COUNTDOWN TO ZERO HOUR / ESHA BHATIA

Jean Harrington - THE DESIGN IS MURDER / ROSA NIETO

Clare London - 72 HOURS / LINDA RIMER-COMO

Cathy Perkins - SO ABOUT THE MONEY / JAN MCKAY

Kathy Ivan - DEADLY JUSTICE / CAROL SMITH

Marcelle Dube - GHOSTS OF MOROCCO / VALERIE TEMPLE

Julie Moffett - NO STRINGS ATTACHED / KATY KITCHIN

Maureen A Miller - MIST (kindle/nook) /  JACKIE DONADIC

Janis Patterson - MURDER IN DEATH'S WAITING ROOM / KATINA PRADO

Josh Lanyon -  ADRIEN ENGLISH series / LINDA BUZARD-MOFFITT

Dee J Adams - OUT OF THE BLUE / PAULA EADES

Romantic Suspense/Mystery Holiday GIVEAWAY!

This month we celebrate SIX glorious years of NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS! Join in the celebrations with us, with a HUGE Giveaway!

We're offering 14 free ebooks from our fabulous authors PLUS a Grand Prize of a $40 Amazon voucher. That's FIFTEEN PRIZES in all!

And you can enter more than once through the Rafflecopter BELOW.

FOLLOW our blog - and our series of fun, fascinating and entertaining posts. =3 entries=

FOLLOW our authors through their mailing list =1 entry each=

or on Facebook =1 entry each=

Many thanks to all our followers over the last 6 years, and welcome to our new ones!
We'll announce the winners on the blog on 30 December.

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Happy Holidays from NYUS!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us here at Not Your Usual Suspects. 

We hope this holiday season finds you surrounded by warmth and happiness (and curled up with a fantastic mystery, thriller, or romantic suspense book)!


May 2016 bring you many hours of reading time and anything else you could hope for!
 

-- The NYUS Gang

Holiday Recipes & Tips

Most cooks have their tips and secrets, and certain recipes they do better than others. For me, it's my stuffing and gravy that my family raves about. My secret? Lemon juice and white wine. 

Photo courtesy couponclippingcook.com

Stuffing/Dressing: Sauté the chopped celery and onion in a small amount of butter until they caramelize a bit, then add seasonings, a splash of white wine (and add a little bit to the cook while you're at it), a few squeezes of lemon juice, more butter, chicken stock, and some water as needed, and then mix in the bread cubes/crumbs. This is the best way I've found to make a moist, delicious stuffing. (You may notice that I don't mention measurements. That's because I don't have any patience. LOL I prefer to eyeball it and if I make a mistake, I claim artistic license. *wink*) But that touch of citrus is key and seems to make the rest of the flavors sing. 

I do the same thing for gravy, adding lemon and white wine for a bit of enhanced flavor.

Marcelle Dube shared a recipe for a traditional French-Canadian dish that her mother would make every Christmas. Of course, it always tasted better reheated the next day! The quantities will vary according to the size of pot you have. Use a heavy pot with a lid. This dish is easy and delicious, but definitely not for vegetarians.

CIPÂTE

You will need:

Chicken, veal, pork, rabbit, moose (any kind of meat you prefer) cut into one-inch cubes NOTE: you will be limited by the size of your pot

Peeled and sliced potatoes to a ¼-inch thickness

Peeled and sliced onions to a ¼-inch thickness

Salt, pepper, spices to taste

Chicken or beef broth (your preference)

Pastry to cover the top; also sliced in one-inch strips (I use the ready-made stuff from the store)

Ready? Okay. Now, place a layer of potatoes on the bottom of your pot, followed by a layer of onions, then a layer beef (or chicken, or veal…). Season with salt and pepper and any herbs or spices you favour. Then add one-inch-wide strips of pastry in a criss-cross pattern. Repeat the layers with a different kind of meat until you are near the top of your pot. Don’t forget to season as you go along. When you’re close to the top, pour in about a cup of broth. Then cover everything with pastry, with slits for venting. Cover with the lid.

Cook at 250°F for about five hours. Check every hour or so.

Yum!

Another favorite of my family's is snowball cookies (also known as Mexican Wedding Cookies, and they have other names as well). They're easy and fun to make (and delicious!):

Photo courtesy americanheritagecooking.com

SNOWBALL COOKIES

1/2 lb. butter

2 1/3 c. flour

1/2 c. sugar

1 c. walnuts or pecans

2-3 tsp vanilla

about 2 c. powdered sugar and/or sprinkles

Cream the butter with the sugar and vanilla. Add the flour gradually, then the nuts. Form into balls about 1-2 inches in diameter (using the palms of your hands to roll them gently). On ungreased cookie sheet, bake for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, but do not brown. While the baked cookies are still hot, roll them in powdered sugar (and sprinkles if desired). Roll in powdered sugar again once cool.

Enjoy!

Any holiday traditional recipes that you'd care to share? (Christmas is the season for sharing!) Got a good recipe for egg nog? Your secret family recipe? Or just some tips in general for saving time or creating flavor?

Thanksgiving and the Christmas Crazies

by Janis Patterson

It’s half a week past Thanksgiving, and I can just about fit back into my clothes. The Husband and I joined his family at my mother-in-law’s for the holiday again. I will forever say I am so blessed to have The Husband’s family; mine is pretty much gone or far away, and his is both lovely and loving. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law cooked the holiday lunch, and they are absolutely superb cooks. Early on they learned never to let me bring anything – I am a decent plain cook and have never poisoned anyone (other than in print), but my skills are nothing compared to their culinary artistry. I do, however, excel at eating. And when you’re good at something, you should do a lot of it, right?

This year The Husband and I brought roses to his mother and aunt, for no reason other than they were so pretty. (They were on sale, too, but that really didn’t enter in to it – we found out they were on sale only after going into the shop to buy flowers!) As always, we brought home enough leftovers for three or four meals.

So what does all that have to do with mystery? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

We’re twenty-five days away from Christmas, the most blessed holiday of the year. The next twenty-five days will be full of shopping and parties and gift wrapping and family and friends… all the good things of the earth. And faith. We mustn’t forget faith.

Which means that Thanksgiving, for all of its overindulgence in food and family and laughter, is a watershed of reasonable quiet and reflection before the madness of Christmas begins. I, for one, enjoyed it thoroughly.

All year long I spend my days creating a group of people where murder could be a believable alternative, figuring out how to kill someone, how my character can justify killing someone, and how my sleuth solves the case. As we all know, this is not the most tranquil or restful way to spend your time. Now add in the inevitable Christmas crazies – which seem to start earlier each year – and a bountiful meal with family on Thanksgiving can seem like a respite even for those who do the cooking.

So – as deadlines, uncooperative characters, sudden plot holes, research and the Christmas crazies fill our days, let us take joy in our lives. We get to create wonderful stories. We – at least most of us – have families and friends and traditions. Thanksgiving was last week, but let us never forget to be thankful.

One thing for which I am not thankful, and one which I believe needs to be mentioned so that people will not think I am ignoring them. This begins the sixth week we have been without internet at home, and the only time I can log on is when I can make it down to our local internet café. Sigh. Just – sigh.