mystery

Hello, friends! Today please welcome author Wendy Kendall as part of my holiday guest series featuring talented authors who will share a little about themselves and their books. I asked them each to answer a few holiday-related questions. Let’s meet Wendy!

–What’s your favorite holiday tradition and why? Besides all the delicious food on our table for Christmas, at each place setting there is also a colorfully wrapped and tied-with-a-ribbon tube at every place setting. What are these? They’re Christmas Crackers – but not the kind of cracker you eat. These are the kind you pop open. You grab one end, and another person at the table grabs the other end and when you each pull there’s actually a loud bang of a pop as it opens. Inside are the fun goodies including: a paper crown, a corny joke, and a fun surprise little gift.

Christmas crackers are a British tradition dating back to the early 1850s, London confectioner Tom Smith started adding a motto to his sugared almond bon-bons which he sold wrapped in a twisted paper package. As many of his bon-bons were bought by men to give to women, many of the mottos were simple love poems. He was inspired to add the “bang” when he heard the crackle of a log he had just put on the fire. He decided to make a log shaped package that would produce a surprise bang and inside would be an almond and a motto. Soon the sugared almond was replaced with a small gift. The paper crown was added to the cracker in the early 1900s by his sons and by the end of the 1930s, the love poems had been replaced by jokes.

Our family and friends always enjoy the fun of our Christmas Crackers, and of course we want to hear all the jokes.

–What’s your holiday “specialty?” It’s such a fun family activity to cook and bake together especially in the holiday season. As my sons were growing up we put together gingerbread houses, cut out cookies, and my specialty – homemade lasagna warms up the whole house. When I plotted this romantic suspense novel, it was inspired initially by a vision I had of what a delicious Snow Kiss cookie could mean. I shared my inspiration with my son Brad and he created the completely original, melt-your-soul, delectable cookie recipe. These cookies are all I’d hoped for, just like the story. Brad Riggs’ original recipe is included in the book.

SnowKissCookiesToDieFor_w15575_ib

The result of Wendy Kendall’s passion for purses, mystery and romance is the intriguing In Purse-Suit Mysteries published by The Wild Rose Press. Kat Out of the Bag introduces Katherine Watson purse designer/sleuth, also published by Harlequin at Harper Collins, available February 20, 2024. Finalist for Best Romantic Suspense at Killer Nashville, Snow Kiss Cookies To Die For creates a tangle of mystery and love, raising suspicions about a teacher’s romantic new sweetheart. Wendy enjoys investigating the Pacific Northwest life, and she leaves a trail of her own clues as a blogger, YouTube podcaster, speaker, and syndicated columnist.

Book blurb:

This holiday season Desiree, teacher at Bayside’s elementary school starts a fun secret Santa game for her first grade class. Danger hits when each day someone leaves creepy secret Santa gifts addressed to Desiree in her classroom. The gift giver threatens to reveal who they are soon. Time is ticking before school is out for the holidays, and Desiree’s threatening stalker may strike with deadly force. Among several suspects, is her romantic new love Leo who is on the school’s maintenance staff. While the children learn the wonderful lesson of kindness in giving, Desiree is on the edge of her seat. Who is threatening her? Is Leo The One, or The Stalker?

A favorite line/short quote from the book: Dez looked around. Was anyone watching? The idea of anyone putting up a stocking with her name was odd enough, but with this inside? Her phone vibrated. It was from the anonymous sender.

Her hand shook as she clicked on the text and read. How did you like your card?

Connect with Wendy: Wendywritesbooks.com

Amazon Link

Wow, impressive that your son developed the recipe for Snow Kiss cookies! How fun! Thanks for sharing with us today, Wendy!

Darlene

Hello, everyone! Today it’s my pleasure to introduce you to an author who does fascinating research for her historical fiction novels. Follow her on a journey to visit the homeland of Genghis Khan!

Mongolian Safari
Researching: She Rides with Genghis Khan
A Novel, by Pam Eglinski

It was six o’clock in the morning when my guide and driver picked me up at my brother’s home in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. Tanks were in the streets, blocking access to Sükbataar Square—the center of the city. The night before we’d witnessed a street battle between the “old guard” Soviets and the new Democrats. Six men died and six-hundred were shipped off to jail—all protesters of the rigged parliamentary election of the day before.

We skirted the city in a large black SUV, making our way to Khentii province and the homeland of Genghis Khan. I was on safari, a mission to understand the soul of Mongolia and the one-time ruler of the known world. My quest would take me hundreds of miles across the legendary Mongolian steppe and deep into the Great Taboo Area.

Within an hour we’d reached the colossal equestrian statue of the great Khan—a newly erected one-hundred and thirty foot steel giant holding a golden whip—a whip that pointed toward his homeland, a day’s journey away.

We stepped out of the SUV to take a few pictures. Turning back toward the car I heard a train rumble down the tracks, just below the highway. It was the historic Trans-Siberian railway, with passengers traveling to St. Petersburg. It reminded me of the Stalinist era, when trains linked Mongolia to the oppressive Soviet state and the man who forbade travel to the spiritual center of the country—the Almsgiver’s Wall—holy ground for Mongolians and perhaps the resting place of the great Khan.

Now, free of Stalin, visitors and scholars are able to explore the land of Genghis’ birth, where he came to be a man and where he gathered his first army—an army which ultimately conquered the known world. I took a deep breath. This was more than a research trip for my novel, it was a journey to the heart of a nation and its spiritual power center.

***
My second novel in the “Catalina and Bonhomme Spy Series,” She Rides with Genghis Khan, weaves fact with fiction similar to the way Dan Brown presented The da Vinci Code. But She Rides is uniquely Asian, esoteric, and exotic. Research took me to the homeland of Genghis Khan, to ancient Buddhist scriptures housed in the British Library, to the Bamiyan Buddhas along the Silk Road, and The Secret History of the Mongols. I grappled with mystifying objects like the Buddhist wish-fulfilling jewels, and the Wind Horse—a shaman’s passage to the Blue Sky Heaven and an allegory for the human soul.

My journey began with an exploration into Mongolia’s Great Taboo Area, and concluded with a novel rich in Buddhist lore, a modern day caravan across the ancient Silk Road, and a supernatural ride with Genghis Khan. Come, feel the wind in your hair and the spirit of a nation in your heart. Enjoy the wild ride as you dip into a novel rich in imagery and history—a story never before told.
Find Pam’s books: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CXGCDAY

Connect with Pam!
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pamela.b.eglinski.fans
Website: www.pamelaboleseglinski.com
Twitter: @pameglinski