After Genna’s husband betrays her, she finds a way to spend six months writing a cookbook based on the city of Paris. In this lighthearted women’s fiction, Cram’s protagonist pairs both famous and lesser-known Parisian landmarks with often mouth-watering sounding recipes. < Back Love Among the Recipes Carol M. Cram April 20, 2021 Today I talked to Carol Cram about her new book Love Among the Recipes (New Arcadia Publishing, 2020). After Genna’s husband betrays her, she finds a way to spend six months writing a cookbook based on the city of Paris. In this lighthearted women’s fiction, Cram’s protagonist pairs both famous and lesser-known Parisian landmarks with often mouth-watering sounding recipes. Genna shops and cooks, sometimes for friends, sometimes for her landlord, but always for herself. Each chapter starts with a description of a different kind of macaron in varying colors and flavors that often describe the mood of the chapter that follows. In addition to exploring Paris, making friends with people she meets in her French class, and meeting a charming widower, Genna begins to understand that she has it in her power to create her own happiness. Carol M. Cram loves the arts, food, travel, and writing novels about people who follow their passions. Three previous novels of historical fiction, The Towers of Tuscany (Lake Union Publishing, 2014) and A Woman of Note (Lake Union Publishing, 2015), and Muse on Fire (New Arcadia Publishing 2018) are also about women in the arts, and she matches her travel-inspired vignettes with pastel drawings created by her husband, Canadian artist Gregg Simpson in Pastel & Pen: Travels in Europe (New Arcadia Publishing, 2018). Carol expresses her enthusiasm for the written word, the arts, and her love of travel on Artsy Traveler ( www.artsytraveler.com ) and Art In Fiction ( www.artinfiction.com ), and on the Art In Fiction Podcast in her chats with authors who write novels inspired by the arts. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

In River Gold (Feet Wet Writing, 2025) Sheriff John Cabrelli is pulled into a murder investigation after a nationally known Great Lakes historian is robbed of his briefcase and shot in the leg. < Back River Gold Jeff Nania May 29, 2025 In River Gold (Feet Wet Writing, 2025) Sheriff John Cabrelli is pulled into a murder investigation after a nationally known Great Lakes historian is robbed of his briefcase and shot in the leg. When the only suspect is killed in a hit and run, Cabrelli is hard pressed to pick up the threads of his investigation. Every lead about cryptic journals and lost gold coins goes nowhere because the historian won’t explain anything. Meanwhile, Cabrelli is up for reelection and a rival keeps distracting him from doing his job. This is a small-town mystery about living with nature, appreciating the Wisconsin landscape, enjoying time for fishing, and about stolen gold, hidden evil, and buried secrets in the Northwoods. Jeff Nania is a former law enforcement officer, writer, conservationist, and biofuel creator. He is the award-winning author of five books in the Northern Lakes Mystery series; Figure Eight , Spider Lake , Bough Cutter , Musky Run, and now River Gold . His narrative non-fiction writing has appeared in Wisconsin Outdoor News, Double Gun Journal , The Outlook, and other publications. Jeff was born and raised in Wisconsin. His family settled in Madison’s storied Greenbush neighborhood. His father often loaded Jeff, his brothers, and a couple of dogs into an old jeep station wagon and set out for outdoor adventures. These experiences were foundational for developing a sense of community, a passion for outdoor traditions, and a love of our natural resources. Jeff has been recognized locally, statewide, and nationally. Outdoor Life Magazine named him as one of the nation’s 25 most influential conservationists, and he received the National Wetlands Award for his wetland restoration work. The Wisconsin Senate commended Jeff with a joint resolution for his work with wetlands, education, and as a non-partisan advisor on natural resource issues. Now a full-time novelist, Jeff spends as much time as possible exploring outdoor Wisconsin with his friends and family, and fishing Spider Lake. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Sisters Nadia and Cass are heirs to a company that builds yachts for the super wealthy, and both are excited about a commission that will introduce them to the huge Asian market. < Back The Drowning Game Barbara Nickless January 1, 2025 Two sisters are heirs to a company that builds yachts for the super wealthy, and both are excited about a commission that will introduce them to the huge Asian market. Shortly after arriving in Singapore, Nadia learns that her sister, Cass has plummeted from a 40th floor balcony. Numb with grief, Nadia takes over Cass’s job of finishing a yacht for a high-level Chinese scientist whose work is important to the repressive Chinese government. In gripping prose, Nickless delves into yacht design, espionage, the world of high-stakes yachting, and China’s repressive regime. Figuring out why Cass died could tear the company apart and might get Nadia killed in this suspenseful intrigue-filled novel about family history, loyalty, and secrets. Barbara Nickless is the Wall Street Journal and Amazon Charts bestselling author of Play of Shadows , Dark of Night , and At First Light in the Dr. Evan Wilding series, as well as the Sydney Rose Parnell series, which includes Blood on the Tracks , a Suspense Magazine Best of 2016 selection and winner of the Colorado Book Award and the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence; Dead Stop , winner of the Colorado Book Award and nominee for the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence; Ambush ; and Gone to Darkness . In addition to her career as a technical writer and instructional designer, Barbara worked as a raptor rehabilitator, piano teacher and performer, and a sword fighter. She served as the Director of Education for the country’s largest public astronomical observatory. It was all great fun. But then a wildfire burned down her family’s home. For Barbara, losing everything also meant she had everything to gain. Her essays and short stories have appeared in Writer’s Digest and on Criminal Element, among other markets. She lives in Colorado, where she loves to cave, snowshoe, hike, and drink single malt Scotch―usually not at the same time. Connect with her at www.barbaranickless.com . Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back Charred will be available on MAY 29th! G. P. Gottlieb May 29, 2026 Two dead bodies are found in the remains of a nearby fire. Alene Baron is dealing with frustrated employees, closed schools, and a homeless man who harasses customers outside the door of her café. Then, two dead bodies turn up in the burned remains of buildings owned by the husband of Alene’s best friend and pastry chef, Ruthie. Both bodies are wearing jackets that once belonged to Ruthie and crumbled in the pockets are the café’s distinctive wrappers. At the same time, Alene's uncle, a convicted felon, has resurfaced after disappearing for 22 years. It's all too much for the owner of t he Whipped and Sipped Café . Previous Next

The Genuine Stories is a linked collection centered around Genevieve “Genuine” Eriksson, a woman with an uncanny ability to heal people. Her gift begins to unfold at the age of eight despite the lingering disbelief of her parents. < Back The Genuine Stories Susan Smith Daniels May 1, 2019 The Genuine Stories is a linked collection centered around Genevieve “Genuine” Eriksson, a woman with an uncanny ability to heal people. Her gift begins to unfold at the age of eight despite the lingering disbelief of her parents. Though she grows up under the watchful eyes of her parents and the jealous protection of the Catholic Church, she strikes out on her own after healing, and falling in love with, Kevin Saunders, a man fifteen years her senior. In her own voice, and those of family, friends, and the healed, Genuine’s experiences peel back and expose the gritty aspects of power and privilege, the far-reaching limit of parental love, the perpetually oscillating balance in relationships, and the ineffable nature of grief. Susan Smith Daniels , author and freelance journalist, is the winner of the Fairfield University Book Prize for The Genuine Stories (New Rivers Press, 2018). Born and raised in Philadelphia, she moved to Iowa with her husband and family in 1981. Susan began her writing career as a columnist for Practical Horseman Magazine when her youngest daughter was attending horse shows. She is the author of the very popular The Horse Show Mom’s Survival Guide (The Lyons Press, 2005). An MFA graduate of Fairfield University, Daniels is currently a PhD student in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

[Equal] parts coming of age, epic travel tale, quest to find a mother who disappeared, and journey of personal discovery. < Back The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern Rita Zoey Chin October 12, 2022 The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern (Melville House 2022) by Rita Zoey Chin is equal parts coming of age, epic travel tale, quest to find a mother who disappeared, and journey of personal discovery. The story begins as Leah Fern is planning to commit suicide. She hears someone banging on her door, which is strange since she has no friends. The visitor is a lawyer who shares a box that sends Leah on the road following clues that she hopes will lead to the mother who abandoned her when she was six, 15 years before. North to Canada and west to the ocean, Leah consumes copious amounts of candy as she surmounts obstacles, learns how to navigate with a piece of magnetite, and recounts her happy carnival life, before her mother, the magician, disappeared. Rita Zoey Chin is the author of the widely praised memoir, Let the Tornado Come . She holds an MFA from the University of Maryland and is the recipient of a Katherine Anne Porter Prize, an Academy of American Poets Award, and a Bread Loaf scholarship. She has taught at Towson University and at Grub Street in Boston. Her work has appeared in Guernica , Tin House, and Marie Claire . Outside of writing, Zoey can often be found hiking with her dogs, making silver amulets in her metalsmithing studio, and concocting herbal brews in her kitchen. This is her first novel. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Don Lank is a newly divorced handyman who spots an imitation Tiffany lamp in the front window of a house and offers the elderly owner $800 for it. He’s shocked to get a check for fifteen thousand and returns to the house to give 95-year-old Millie most of the money. < Back This Room is Made of Noise Stephen Schottenfeld August 20, 2024 Don Lank is a newly divorced handyman who spots an imitation Tiffany lamp in the front window of a house and offers the elderly owner $800 for it. He’s shocked by the price he gets and returns to give 95-year-old Millie most of the money. While he’s there, he offers to do a couple of repairs in her deteriorating house, and over the course of the next few weeks and months, spends more and more time with her fixing her house, taking her to doctors’ appointments, buying her grocers, and slowly beginning to oversee her care. He’s also trying to repair his relationships with his father, his ex-wife, and his stepchildren. He’s not sure why he’s helping Millie, but struggles to focus on being altruistic and not merely greedy. Stephen Schottenfeld is the author of two Bluff City Pawn (Bloomsbury USA, 2014). His short stories have appeared in The Gettysburg Review , TriQuarterly , StoryQuarterly , The Virginia Quarterly Review , New England Review , The Iowa Review , and other journals, and have received special mention in both the Pushcart Prize and Best American Short Stories anthologies. He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and was awarded a Michener/Copernicus Society of America grant, a Halls Fiction Fellowship from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Shane Stevens Fellowship in the Novel from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. His narratives often trace the work lives of his characters—pawnbrokers, postal carriers, telephone repair people, home inspectors, police detectives, clothing manufacturers, trailer-park owners, to name a few—and explore how these professions bring an individual into a unique set of experiences and conflicts and expressions. He is a professor of English at the University of Rochester, where he teaches courses in fiction writing, screenwriting, and literature. When he is not writing or reading or teaching, he likes to walk the parks of Rochester, NY. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Healthy enough for breakfast! < Back Chocolate Zucchini-Pear Cake GF November 12, 2019 Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 35 Minutes Serves: 6-8 Slices of Cake Tags: Vegetarian, Baking, Breakfast, Muffins and Breads, Cakes & Pies & Icing About the Recipe I’ve been experimenting with different combinations of fruits and vegetables in cakes. Most zucchini cake recipes include a full cup of oil, but pear sauce works as a substitute for half of the oil. The pear also adds enough sugar to be able to cut down the usual cup of sugar to 1/2 cup. Of course, the addition of chocolate chips more than makes up for that missing half cup of sugar. I served this cake at my mother-in-law-s 96th birthday, and everyone thought it was moist and delicious, except for a 4-year-old great niece who didn’t like the glaze (added to make it look more festive, but a little too sophisticated with its mocha flavor). SMOTHERED: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery Ingredients 1 juicy pear (seeded, with skin) 1/3 cup water ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (optional but delicious) ½ cup brown sugar ½ cup canola or olive oil 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar 2 eggs 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp vanilla ½ tsp salt ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips Preparation Blend zucchini, pear and water in a processor until smooth Add everything else except chocolate chips, blend Add chocolate chips and pulse a few times Pour into a greased and sugared loaf or 9” baking pan Bake about 35 minutes in a preheated 350-degree oven Cool before turning onto a serving plate Sprinkle w/confectioners sugar or serve as is – healthy enough for breakfast! Previous Next

Discover breakfast recipes to die for by cozy mystery author G. P. Gottlieb. Explore delightful breakfast recipes perfect for your morning! Breakfast Recipes to Die For Muffins and Breads, Gluten Free, Baking, Breakfast Gluten-Free Pancakes We were desperate for pancakes so I tweaked another recipe I was working on to make these. Read Recipe Breakfast, Vegan, Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Cakes & Pies & Icing Almond Berry Breakfast Cake (gluten-free/vegan) Now Alene began measuring ingredients for Ruthie’s strawberry breakfast cake. Read Recipe Vegetarian, Baking, Breakfast, Muffins and Breads, Cakes & Pies & Icing Chocolate Zucchini-Pear Cake GF Healthy enough for breakfast! Read Recipe Muffins and Breads, Vegan, Breakfast Vegan Sweet Potato or Pumpkin Muffins "There are only six sweet potato muffins left," said Alene. Read Recipe Muffins and Breads, Baking, Vegetarian, Breakfast, Cakes & Pies & Icing Chocolate Zucchini – Apple Cake Yes, we eat this for breakfast! Read Recipe All Recipes Baking Breakfast Cakes, Pies, & Icing Cookies & Brownies Dips & Sauces Entrees Gluten-Free Muffins & Breads Soup Vegan Vegetarian Load More

The Lamps of Albarracin tells the story of Sarita, who looks back on her life before and after the Inquisition arrived in her town. It’s 15th century Spain, and Sarita is the daughter and assistant of the town’s Jewish doctor. < Back The Lamps of Albarracin Edith Saavedra April 19, 2022 The Lamps of Albarracin tells the story of Sarita, who looks back on her life before and after the Inquisition arrived in her town. It’s 15th century Spain, and Sarita is the daughter and assistant of the town’s Jewish doctor. She recalls living in a warm, loving household with her sisters and brother and Torah lessons taught by Solomon the Aged. She was raised with several languages and always looking forward to the next holiday. In the kingdom of Aragon, Albarracin was a town in which Christians, Muslims, and Jews still lived mostly in harmony, although the winds of change have started blowing across the Iberian Peninsula. We watch Sarita grow up – she’s skilled with healing, which helps her survive the punishment she receives from the Spanish Inquisition. She hadn’t known that she’d been baptized at birth. Rooted in Judaism, Sarita finds ways to live as her true self even when confined to a convent or masquerading as Muslim to escape the Inquisition. Edith Scott Saavedra was born in California to an American father and a mother from the Republic of Panama. She earned her B.A. (magna cum laude) and J.D. from Harvard University and has had a distinguished career as an international lawyer, business consultant, and author, based in Hong Kong and Singapore. She is the co-author of several leading nonfiction works on the competitiveness of industries, regions and nations. She’s currently focused on educating the public in the United States and Spain, particularly students, about Sephardic heritage and history, including true stories of resistance to the Inquisition, the contributions of the Sephardim to Spain, and the importance of interfaith friendship. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Emma lives in New Jersey, works as a civil engineer, has a reliable boyfriend, and had a wonderful best friend from college who she always secretly loved even. < Back The Almond in the Apricot Sara Goudarzi March 8, 2022 Today I talked to Sara Goudarzi about her novel The Almond in the Apricot (Deep Vellum Publishing, 2022). Emma lives in New Jersey, works as a civil engineer, has a reliable boyfriend, and had a wonderful best friend from college who she always secretly loved even. Not long after her best friend is killed crossing the street in Manhattan, Emma begins having nightmares. In these not-at-all-normal dreams, she is a young girl name Lilly whose life is continuously upended by bombs that force her and her family into a bunker. Unlike normal dreams, Emma’s are continuous and chronological, and she truly inhabits the little girl’s life, including playing with her friends, skipping home from school, or working on her math homework. Lily also finds a wonderful best friend, and when his life is at risk, Emma wants to go back to her dreams to rescue him, but how? Sara Goudarzi is a Brooklyn writer and holds an M.A. in journalism from New York University and an M.S. in engineering from Rutgers University. Her non-fiction, poetry and translations have appeared in Scientific American , The New York Times, National Geographic News, The Christian Science Monitor, The Globe and Mail, Scholastic’s Science World magazine, The Adirondack Review and Drunken Boat, among others. Sara is the author of Amazing Animals, Leila's Day at the Pool (2022) and several other titles from Scholastic Inc. and has taught writing at NYU and mediabistro. She is a 2017 Writers in Paradise Les Standiford fellow and a Tin House alumna. When she’s not writing, she loves swimming, going to the beach, gardening, traveling, and of course reading! Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

A giant sinkhole begins swallowing an enormous swath of a marsh-like ecosystem that has been slated for development, along with parts of a highway and a large lake. The citizens of Opakulla, Florida struggle to understand what is happening as the land is sucked under. They’re also perplexed by un-erasable writing that appears on their new town hall. The sinkhole starts wreaking havoc with their lives and nobody knows what to do about it. < Back Dreaming the Marsh Elizabeth McCulloch December 29, 2020 Elizabeth McCulloch was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and lived in New England, the Midwest, Canada, and the South, before putting down roots in Gainesville, Florida, almost forty years ago. Previously a lawyer, then a teacher, she has had children of various stripes: one born, two foster, one step, and the granddaughter she is now raising with her husband. Elizabeth has always loved to read and always wanted to write. She began seriously pursuing her dream over 30 years ago, with pauses in the pursuit for various events and catastrophes. She has completed three novels and is working on a fourth. At her blog, The Feminist Grandma, she writes illustrated personal essays about family, friends, aging, social justice issues, and whatever takes her fancy. At Big Books from Small Presses, she posts illustrated reviews and other essays about books. Both blogs are at her website, elizabethmccullochauthor.com. When Elizabeth isn’t reading or writing, she sings at a nursing home, swims, gardens, dances, cooks, and has mastered baking pie crusts. In Dreaming the Marsh (Twisted Road, 2019), a giant sinkhole begins swallowing an enormous swath of a marsh-like ecosystem that has been slated for development, along with parts of a highway and a large lake. The citizens of Opakulla, Florida struggle to understand what is happening as the land is sucked under. They’re also perplexed by un-erasable writing that appears on their new town hall. The sinkhole starts wreaking havoc with their lives and nobody knows what to do about it. A lovesick geologist wants to study it, the real estate developers relish its wild beauty, the mayor and members of the town commission want something done to stop it, and the owner of a local café, who speaks with the Ancients, understands it. But she isn’t telling. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next