Only 4 ingredients and great for last minute cookies anytime of year, but I make these during Passover, when we don't use flour or leavening of any kind. < Back Chocolate Passover Cookies April 5, 2023 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: About 12 minutes, remove from oven, cool about 15 minutes before tasting. Serves: 18 Cookies Tags: Cookies and Brownies About the Recipe These cookies are also good for dipping in the chocolate sauce that I usually serve with dessert - Ingredients 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 6 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 cups fine almond flour Preparation Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C and line two baking pans. In a medium glass bowl, microwave the chocolate chips 1 minute, stir. Microwave an additional minute. Stir until smooth. Crack the eggs into a small bowl and add the vanilla extract. Stir to break up yolks. Add egg mixture to melted chocolate and stir (don't stop stirring until mixture is smooth). Add almond flour to mixture and stir until blended. Pour tablespoonfuls on the lined pans, leave room for them to spread. Optional: sprinkle an additional 1/4 cup of chocolate chips into the mixture before pouring spoonfuls onto the baking pan. You could also add 1/4 cup of sugar (when you add the almond flour) for a sweeter cookie, although we like them just the way they are! Previous Next

When racing yacht “The Revonoc” went down in the Bermuda Triangle’s Sargasso Sea during a freakish storm in January of 1958, the sailing world was dumbfounded. The boat and five people on board, all well-known in the sailing world, completely vanished. < Back Set Adrift: A Mystery and A Memoir Sarah Conover June 27, 2023 When racing yacht “The Revonoc” went down in the Bermuda Triangle’s Sargasso Sea during a freakish storm in January of 1958, the sailing world was dumbfounded. The boat and five people on board, all well-known in the sailing world, completely vanished. Only the dinghy showed up a few days later, but all searches over the following months turned up nothing at all. Sarah Conover, the youngest of the two daughters of Lori and Larry, and granddaughters of Dorothy and Harvey, became an orphan that day. As an adult, Sarah began to ask questions about her parents and grandparents – her memoir weaves interviews with family members, articles, and official Coast Guard reports that Sarah studies to understand her ongoing feelings of loss, loneliness, and depression. Ultimately, her final thought is “There is no true story. Only mercy.” Sarah Conover holds a BA in comparative religions from the University of Colorado, and an MFA in creative writing from Eastern Washington University. She has worked as a television producer for PBS and Internews (an international media NGO), a social worker for Catholic Charities, a public school teacher, and taught creative writing through the community colleges of Spokane, Washington. She is the author of six books on world wisdom traditions and spirituality published by Skinner House Books, the educational publishing arm of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Her poetry, essays and interviews have been published in a variety of literary magazines and anthologies. She is a feature writer and columnist for Tricycle Magazine: the Buddhist Review and has taught meditation for many years at Airway Heights Corrections Center and within the Spokane community. Ms. Conover was a recipient of Washington State’s Grants for Artist’s Projects (GAP grant) and writing fellowships from the Ucross Foundation in Clearmont, Wyoming, and the Willapa Bay Artist Residence Program in Oysterville, Washington. She lives in a condo in Spokane, Washington and in her beloved yurtiverse at the base of the North Cascades in Winthrop, Washington, where she and her husband are building a small hermitage for monastic retreats. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

n Karen Odden’s latest mystery it’s 1878 in London, and Scotland Yard inspector Michael Corravan, a former thief and bare-knuckles boxer, is battling demons, including his urge to drown his troubles in drink. < Back Down a Dark River Karen Odden January 11, 2022 In Karen Odden’s latest mystery (Down a Dark River , Crooked Lane Books 2021) it’s 1878 in London, and Scotland Yard inspector Michael Corravan, a former thief and bare-knuckles boxer, is battling demons, including his urge to drown his troubles in drink. In the wake of a police corruption scandal that threatens to shut down Scotland Yard, Corravan is assigned the case of a young, wealthy woman whose corpse has been set adrift in a small boat on the Thames River. At first, the murder seems to be linked to a stolen heirloom necklace, but then a second dead woman appears and then a third. As the press riles up London and blames Scotland Yard, Corravan’s search for clues takes him from insane asylums to jewelry stores and from brothels to wealthy Mayfair homes. Then his lady friend is threatened, and Inspector Corravan must confront the darkness in his own past to understand the killer and prevent yet another murder from taking place. KAREN ODDEN received her Ph.D. in English literature from New York University, writing her dissertation on Victorian railway disasters and the origins of PTSD. She has taught at UW-Milwaukee, written essays for numerous books and journals, and edited for the journal Victorian Literature and Culture (Cambridge UP). She freely admits she might be more at home in Victorian London than today, especially when she tries to do anything complicated on her iPhone. All of her mysteries are set in 1870s London. Her first novel, A LADY IN THE SMOKE, about a young woman in a 1874 railway crash, was a USA Today bestseller. In A DANGEROUS DUET, Nell Hallam, an ambitious young pianist stumbles on a notorious crime ring while playing in a Soho music hall. In A TRACE OF DECEIT, Annabel Rowe, a young painter at the Slade School of Art, must delve below the glitter of the art and auction world to uncover the truth about her brother's murder. DOWN A DARK RIVER is Karen's fourth novel and the first in the Inspector Corravan series; the sequel, UNDER A VEILED MOON, will be released in November 2022. An avid desert hiker, Karen lives in Arizona with her family and her rescue beagle muse, Rosy. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

It’s 1895, and Tim Badger, who is quite familiar with the inside of a jail cell, and his intuitive friend Ben Watson, who is Black in a society that is weary of difference, are unlikely detectives. But Tim was once one of the Baker Street Irregular urchins who ran errands and spied for the great Sherlock Holmes, and the two young men are trying to be detectives. < Back The Isolated Seance Jeri Westerson July 18, 2023 Today I talked to Jeri Westerson about her book The Isolated Séance (Severn House, 2023). It’s 1895, and Tim Badger, who is quite familiar with the inside of a jail cell, and his intuitive friend Ben Watson, who is Black in a society that is weary of difference, are unlikely detectives. But Tim was once one of the Baker Street Irregular urchins who ran errands and spied for the great Sherlock Holmes, and the two young men are trying to be detectives. They’re struggling with their new detective agency when a potential client staggers in. Thomas Brent is being sought by police after his boss Horace Quinn is murdered during a séance in a closed room in his own house. The only other people in the room in addition to the dead man and his valet, Thomas, were the housekeeper, the maid, and the gypsy woman who led the séance. Thomas Brent hires Badger and Watson, who take turns telling the story. They get into a bit of trouble and occasionally find a clue, but Sherlock Holmes, Badger’s old boss, clearly wants them to succeed. He bails Badger out of jail, arranges a nice place for the two young detectives to live, and although Badger doesn’t realize it, sends clues about the case. Los Angeles native Jeri Westerson authored fifteen Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mysteries, a series nominated for thirteen awards from the Agatha to the Macavity, to the Shamus. Jeri currently writes two new series: a Tudor mystery series, the King’s Fool Mysteries, with Henry VIII’s real court jester Will Somers as the sleuth and a Sherlockian pastiche series with one of Holmes’ former Baker Street Irregulars opening his own detective agency. She also authored several paranormal series (including a gas lamp fantasy-steampunk series), standalone historical novels, and had stories in several anthologies, the latest of which was included in South Central Noir, an Akashic Noir anthology. She has served as president of the SoCal Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, president, and vice president for two chapters of Sisters in Crime (Orange County and Los Angeles) and is also a founding member of the SoCal chapter of the Historical Novel Society. In her copious spare time, Jeri acts as butler to her senior cat Luna, and loves to travel with her hubby and Luna in her vintage RV. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

In 1979 during her freshman year at Denver East High School in 1979, Suzanne’s mother was murdered by an armed robber while working in her record store. < Back Anyone But Her Cynthia Swanson October 1, 2024 Today I talked to Cynthia Swanson about Anyone But Her (Columbine York, 2024). In 1979 during her freshman year at Denver East High School in 1979, Suzanne’s mother was murdered by an armed robber while working in her record store. Suzanne has always sensed ghosts, so she’s not surprised when soon after, she hears her dead mother warning her about her father’s new girlfriend. Now it’s 2004, and Suzanne is back in Denver with her husband, a mouthy teenage daughter, and a nine-year-old son with behavioral problems. The old record store space is available, and Suzanne follows her dream of selling women’s art and craft, but she can’t stop feeling like someone is watching her. At the same time, she starts researching her family history to figure out if there’s a genetic component to her son’s behavior. Suzann is strong, but she’s challenged in this suspenseful mystery about relationships, fidelity, and family secrets. Cynthia Swanson started out in college majoring in Architecture, because she's always loved design, and she thought she needed to pursue a "practical" career. (She can hear all the architects in the room laughing.) But after a few years, she returned to her first love—writing—changing her major to English and becoming a technical and marketing writer. Today, she writes psychological suspense, freelance edits, and occasionally teaches writing classes and seminars. She is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the novels The Bookseller , The Glass Forest , and Anyone But Her , as well as the editor of the Colorado Book Award winning anthology Denver Noir . She lives with her family in Denver, where in addition to writing, editing, and scoping out creepy locales for future books, she raises chickens and grows an extensive vegetable garden. Find Cynthia online and follow her on Facebook (Cynthia Swanson, Author) , Instagram (cynswanauthor) , and Threads (cynswanauthor) . Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

It's 1917 during WWI, and Rand Brandt is living with two dangerous secrets, either of which could destroy him: 1) he can grow any plant or tree, but everything he grows will die within days, and 2) he is gay during a time when the army does not accept homosexuality. < Back Dry Land B. Platek October 3, 2023 Rand Brandt, a forester in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, discovers that his touch can grow any plant or tree. In this tale of Magical Realism, he dreams of using his gift to restore landscapes ruined by the lumber industry, but first needs to test his powers. Gabriel, his fellow forester, and secret lover, finds and saves Rand after he’s pushed himself by spending his nights sneaking into the forest instead of sleeping. It’s 1917 and the foresters are drafted to join in the fight in France. An old friend of Rand’s joins the press covering his unit and helps him cover his tracks. A commanding officer learns about Rand’s gift and demands that he grow forests for the wood needed to win the war, but Rand learns that everything he grows will die within days. Now, he’s keeping two major secrets, either of which, if discovered, could destroy him. Ben Pladek is associate professor of literature at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His first novel, Dry Land , appeared in September 2023 with the University of Wisconsin Press. He’s previously published short fiction in Strange Horizons, The Offing, Slate Future Tense Fiction, and elsewhere. As a colleague pointed out to him, his short fiction is often set in the near-future and his longer fiction in the near-past; other recurring interests include ecology, messy relationships, messier bureaucracy, and people feeling guilty. He’s also written an academic book called The Poetics of Palliation: Romantic Literary Therapy, 1790-1850, that came out from Liverpool University Press in 2019, as well as a number of articles on British Romanticism. Before getting hired at Marquette, he did his PhD at the University of Toronto and taught for a year in the fantastic Foundation Year Programme at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. When he moved to Wisconsin, he fell in love with the landscape and the state’s fascinating history of conservation, including the writings of Aldo Leopold. Ben and his husband have hiked all over Wisconsin. They especially enjoy the Northwoods, Horicon Marsh, and the southwest “driftless” area. In Ben’s spare time you can find him reading, birdwatching, taking long walks around Milwaukee, admiring wetlands, eating peanut butter, and taking pictures of informational signs at historical monuments that he’ll never go back and read. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s award-winning collection of short stories is peopled with characters who leave home, return home, or dream of home. The stories alternate between sweet, thoughtful, and sad, all expressing a universal longing for family, friendship and connection. < Back To Lay to Rest our Ghosts Caitlin Hamilton Summie February 14, 2019 An 8-year-old awaits her father’s return from the war. A young man returns home to northern Minnesota for his sister’s funeral. A woman struggles to survive in New York City. Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s award-winning collection of short stories is peopled with characters who leave home, return home, or dream of home. The stories alternate between sweet, thoughtful, and sad, all expressing a universal longing for family, friendship and connection. To Lay to Rest our Ghosts (Fomite Press, 2017) won Silver in the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Short Stories, was selected for 35 Over 35’s annual 2017 list, and was named a Pulpwood Queen Book Club Bonus Book. It is also the winner of the fourth annual Phillip H. McMath Post Publication book award. Summie, who earned an MFA at Colorado State University, is the co-founder/owner of a book marketing firm and is online at caitlinhamiltonsummie.com . Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Neal bought her a beer and invited her to a Cubs game. That had been her first stout, and she thought it was so... < Back Cocoa-Bear Cake (AKA Dragon’s Milk Cake) July 30, 2019 Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 50-55 Minutes Serves: 12 Slices of Cake Tags: Vegetarian, Cakes & Pies & Icing About the Recipe 173 Battered: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery Alene had gone off to college and forgotten all about Neal Dunn, until a summer day after her third year at Northwestern, when they had bumped into each other at a Wrigleyville bar. Neal bought her a beer and invited her to a Cubs game. That had been her first stout, and she thought it was so yummy she bought a six-pack and shared it with Ruthie, who went on to invent a stout cake. They changed “beer” to “bear” so as not to alarm the customers, and it worked. Ingredients For the Cake 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup packed dark brown sugar ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder 2 tsp instant decaf or coffee powder 2 tsp baking soda ¼ tsp salt ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) 1 tsp pure vanilla extract 1 1/4 cup Dragon’s Milk (room temp) or any dark beer ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips For the Icing 1 can full fat coconut milk ½ cup cocoa powder ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips ¼ cup dark brown sugar 1 tsp pure vanilla extract 1 tsp instant decaf or coffee powder 1 tsp ground cinnamon Pinch of salt Preparation Preheat oven to 350 degrees Grease and sugar an 8” springform Combine dry ingredients in food processor Add wet ingredients except beer, pulse a few times Add beer and mix enough to blend well Pour batter into greased and sugared prepared pan. Bake 50-55 minutes until cake springs under pressure Cool before removing from springform pan Drizzle with icing (recipe below) While the cake is in the oven, mix the icing ingredients in a blender until it’s completely smooth Previous Next

Deanna Raybourne: Veronica Speedwell Mysteries and Lady Gray Mysteries < Back Deanna Raybourne Author of The Veronica Speedwell Mysteries and Lady Gray Mysteries July 7, 2021 Deanna Raybourne (Veronica Speedwell Mysteries and Lady Gray Mysteries) combines romance and mystery in the Victorian era, with charming details about food, dress, and manners of the time. Although there must have been free-thinking young women in the 1900’s, it was probably rare, but I set aside any concern about the appropriation of modern thinking and just enjoyed Veronica’s adventures (A Treacherous Curse, A Perilous Undertaking, A Murderous Relation) as a butterfly collector and amateur sleuth (along with her handsome sidekick, the aristocratic Stoker, who helps solve mysteries when he isn’t stuffing and mounting animal specimens). I read three of these in a row during a vacation and enjoyed every minute, no matter how improbable the situations. Previous Next

In Side Effects of Wanting (Main Street Rag, 2022), author Mary Salisbury spent nearly twenty years gathering together the pieces of humanity she saw reflected in the lives around her and distilled them into a poetically written, beautifully curated short story collection. < Back Side Effects of Wanting Mary Salisbury February 14, 2023 In Side Effects of Wanting (Main Street Rag, 2022), author Mary Salisbury spent nearly twenty years gathering together the pieces of humanity she saw reflected in the lives around her and distilled them into a poetically written, beautifully curated short story collection. In this debut, small-town stories speak of love and belonging, longing and regret. The people who populate these tales yearn for companionship and comfort, but face the trauma of fractured relationships and the ache of not quite becoming the person they hoped to be. Mary Salisbury’s short fiction and essays have been published in Fiction Southeast , The Whitefish Review , Flash Fiction Magazine , Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts , and Cutthroat’s Truth to Power . Her chapbooks Come What May and Scarlet Rain Boots were published by Finishing Line Press , and her poetry has appeared in Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women . Salisbury is an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship recipient and a graduate of Pacific University’s MFA in Writing Program. She is passionate about spending time with her two grandchildren. Monroe is almost four and Roscoe is one and a half—they play hide and seek and read picture books together. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Jacqueline Winspear: Maisie Dobbs Mysteries < Back Jacqueline Winspear Author of The Maisie Dobbs Mysteries July 5, 2019 Jacqueline Winspear was born and raised in England. She began working on her dream of becoming a writer after emigrating to the United States in 1990. Inspired by her grandfather, who was wounded at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, she decided to set her first novel in England during the tumultuous first decades of the twentieth century. Maisie Dobbs, the debut book in a series of fifteen, was published in 2004. Winspear outlines Maisie’s early years, filling in the details about why she is working as a servant for an aristocrat and how she gets an education. Then, WWI breaks out while she’s in her first year at Cambridge, and Maisie enlists in the overseas nursing service. We learn bits and pieces about her life, about her experience during the war, and about why she goes to work for a distinguished detective after the war ends. Then, in 1929, she sets up her own detective agency. I loved the historical details, the attention to period manners and nuance, and Maisie’s gift at working out the psychology behind human behavior. There was just enough romance to assure readers that she’s a healthy, normal young woman. Reviewers who complain about Maisie’s openness (to people with disabilities, for example) need to remember that there were attitudes across the spectrum even back then. It was refreshing to see a woman (of any nationality) who is not marinated in the prejudices that were common to that era. So far, I’ve only read five of the Maisie books. I liked them all despite an occasional need to suspend disbelief (It wasn’t all that easy to fool the SS during WWII, for example). Having gotten through way too many cozy mysteries that lack literary merit, cohesive plot, or interesting characters, I’d spend an afternoon with Maisy Dobbs any day of the week. So what if she has a tendency to be a know-it-all? So what if she’s a little smug on occasion? When it comes to mysteries, I’d much prefer to read about crimes solved by an imperfect but charming female sleuth who knows how to serve tea. Thank you, Ms. Winspear. I look forward to reading the rest of the series. Previous Next

On May 1, 1982, eighteen-year-old Martin Oliphant watches a horse drown off the shore of Lake Michigan—the first of four equine corpses marking the trail that will lead Martin out of the small-minded small town of Pierre, Michigan, onto the open ranges of Elko, Nevada, and into the open arms, or at least open mics, of the cowboy poets who gather there to perform. < Back Four Dead Horses KT Sparks April 13, 2021 Today I talked to KT Sparks about her debut novel Four Dead Horses (Regal House, 2021) On May 1, 1982, eighteen-year-old Martin Oliphant watches a horse drown off the shore of Lake Michigan—the first of four equine corpses marking the trail that will lead Martin out of the small-minded small town of Pierre, Michigan, onto the open ranges of Elko, Nevada, and into the open arms, or at least open mics, of the cowboy poets who gather there to perform. Along the way, he nurtures a dying mother, who insists the only thing wrong with her is tennis elbow; corrals a demented father, who believes he’s Father Christmas; assists the dissolute local newspaper editor; and serves stints as horse rustler and pet mortician. For thirty years, Martin searches for an escape route to the West, to poetry, and to his first love, the cowgirl Ginger, but never manages to get much farther than the city limits of his Midwestern hometown—that is, until a world- famous cow horse dies while touring through Pierre, and Martin is tapped to transport its remains to the funeral at the 32nd Annual Elko Cowboy Poetry Confluence. KT Sparks is a writer and farmer whose work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, Pank , and elsewhere. She received an AB in Politics, Economics, Rhetoric, and Law from University of Chicago, an MA in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from Oxford University, Brasenose College, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University in Charlotte, an educational grounding that matches her lifelong interest in everything and mastery of nothing. She spent twenty-five years in Washington DC, most of it in the US Senate, as a policy analyst and speechwriter and continues to be involved in progressive politics. When she's not reading fiction (all types) or trying to banish weeds from the vegetable garden, she practices Zen Buddhism, binges British detective series, and cooks stuff grown on the farm (or by her more talented neighbors). Her greatest passion is her large distended family, which includes children, stepchildren, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, siblings, parents, in-laws, exes, and seemingly unending concentric circles of spouses, partners, fiancés, more exes, and more spouses—shining bright and swirling outward, like the rings of Jupiter, but less dusty. KT lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with her husband, dog, a fluctuating population of barn cats, and no horses, dead or alive, waiting for the kids to come visit, or at least call for God’s sake. Four Dead Horses is her first novel. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next