Mint Juleps and Southern Plantations

When I hear of mint juleps, it brings to mind southern plantations with the ladies and gentlemen languishing on the veranda sipping their mint juleps whiling away yet another hot summer day. I close my eyes and see one of the southern belles in her hoop skirt with her gentlemen caller, tapping him on the knee with her fan, and flirtatiously batting her eyelashes at him. Days of Scarlett O'Hara and Gone With The Wind.

Being from the South, I often wish I could be transported in time back to those days. To experience it for myself. To be a Southern Belle.

Mint Juleps Recipe

Ingredients
2 cups lightly packed fresh mint
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 cup orange juice
1-1/2 cups bourbon
1 cup orange juice
Granulated sugar
Crushed Ice
Fresh Mint Sprigs
Halved orange slices

Directions
1. Place mint leaves in a medium bowl; set aside. In a medium saucepan combine the water and 1 cup sugar. Bring to boiling, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat; pour over mint leaves. Stir in orange juice.
2. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour. Strain mixture through a mesh strainer. Stir in bourbon. Cover and chill up to 24 hours.
3. Place granulated sugar in a shallow dish; wet the edge of 8 glasses and dip into sugar to coat. Add crushed ice to glasses. Divide bourbon mixture among glasses (about 2/3 cup per glass).

Garnish with mint and orange slices. Makes 8, 5-ounces servings.

Counting Down!

The annual migration countdown has begun ...

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I left St. Croix to return to my home in southern Nevada. It has been nice being at my desert Stateside home but I am soooooo ready to go back to my tropical Island home.

In a little less than 2 weeks, I will once again be back in St. Croix (US Virgin Islands). I am so excited! I want to feel those tropical breezes blowing in my hair and caressing my skin once again. I can hardly wait to feel the hot sand beneath my feet and jump into those warm ocean waters. To see those vivid island flowers and smell their sweet fragrances. To hear that Cruzan dialect and their "everyting'll be all right, mon!" attitude.

Perhaps the change in scenery will make my creative juices flow and help bring on new ideas for new books for me to write. Or perhaps I will just lime on the beach or while away the hours at the pool with a pina colada in one hand and my Kindle in the other.

Have I enticed you to join me in the Islands? Come on down, mon! We'll have a partay!

Author Kiki Howell is guest blogger today!

In my efforts to bring my readers here at Sizzling Hot Romance something new and exciting, I have begun inviting authors who are of interest to me, and hopefully to you, to guest blog here .

Author Kiki Howell is my first guest blogger that I am presenting to you. Kiki and I are friends at Facebook. I was visiting her website and her "slogan" caught my eye. She describes herself as an author of magical erotic romances. Naturally, since I write sensual/erotic romances too, this caught my eye and made me want to know more about Kiki. AND since she is multi-published with Whiskey Creek Press, I wanted to know how she came to be with Whiskey Creek Press and her experiences with them as an author. Without further adieu, here is Kiki telling us about this in her own words.

*****

Hi! I am Kiki Howell, Author of Magical Erotic Romances! My byline explains what captures my imagination and what I write about. “Magic” to me means an escape from life, a mystical world where anything can happen. I have always been enthralled with witches and werewolves, demons and angels, vampires and ghosts. So, I use them as my heroes or heroines, or even sometimes as the entity that brings the hero and heroine together. This leads to the next element, which is “romance” – which is magical in and of itself, right? I love that suspense-filled, bumpy road to a Happy Ever After ending. The last word, “erotic,” just amps both the magic and the romance to a different level!

My imagination works overtime, most of the time! This is how, when I finally got back into writing after a long break having my kids, I started my first published stories. I was looking into different publishers who published in the mixed genres I wanted to write in when I found Whiskey Creek Press Torrid. They had a line called, Celtic Love Knots, at the time where they published two short stories with a Celtic theme by one author each month. My brain immediately started brewing ideas!

Whiskey Creek Press Torrid luckily took both of my submitted stories, “Sexual Magick,” and “Tailltean Marriage” and published them in Celtic Love Knots, Volume 10. This is why I feel that reading Calls for Submissions is a great way to break into the business. When a call gets your imagination working overtime, you are writing a story the publisher is actively looking for.

I did the same thing when I wrote my latest release for them, The Witch’s Beast. Whiskey Creek Press Torrid has another line called Torrid Twisted Tales where they publish erotic versions of fairy tales. I immediately thought up The Witch’s Beast which settled a long standing grudge I had with the Brothers Grimm. Even as a kid I wondered why the witch, who started it all with her spell, only got that one line mention. At the end of the Brothers Grimm version of the Beauty and the Beast it says, “An evil witch turned me into a monster...” with no explanation as to why she did it, and they didn’t even give her a chance to explain herself. Disney does give her three lines to explain that the Prince was selfish and unkind—the why, but again, did we ever hear from her? No! So, I felt she had a story to tell, and I wrote my version of the story completely from the witch’s point of view.

Boy, I think I got of topic there a bit, but it only goes to prove my point that sometimes Calls for Submissions can be great place to find your muse!

Please visit me at http://www.kikihowell.com/. Make sure to look at my COMING SOON page where I have listed a novel coming out in October with eXcessic in print and ebook called, A Modern Day Witch Hunt, that I am very excited about! You will also find my LINKS there to my Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter pages.

******

Thank you, Kiki, for taking the time to visit Sizzling Hot Romance from Kristie Leigh Maguire and for sharing your thoughts with my readers! Much appreciated. :)

You can purchase The Witch's Beast by CLICKING HERE.

BLURB:
A witch rejected…a few spells for revenge…an arrogant Prince turned into a Beast…a beautiful woman taken captive …And, that is just the beginning of this tale of a Beauty and a Beast told by the Witch who cast the spell that began it all. A dismal castle, possessed candles, and a little mangy fur will be the least of the Beast’s troubles as the Witch goes into a jealous rage over the Beauty he now holds captive.A magic mirror…desperate sex spells…magical seductive dreams…orgasmic punishments in a dungeon…This time, the Beast will be caught between a Beauty who has caught his eye but rejects his proposal of marriage, and the Witch who allows him moments in his human form to fulfill his every sexual desire.For whom will there be a happily-ever-after?

REVIEWS:
You Gotta Read Reviews
(Rating - You Need To Read)
Tir said,"In the spirit of Gregory Macguire's Wicked, The Witch's Beast tells an old familiar tale from a different angle with a sexy spin. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and its characters. Ms. Howell paints Beauty and the Beast in an entirely differently light, putting your sympathies in places you wouldn't imagine when thinking of the original tale. Those once loved in the original story are shown in a new way and expands the character of the Witch who turns a Prince into a Beast, in more ways than one. I would definitely recommend you pick up this book so you can read this tale and find out the new ending to the Beast's story."

The Witch's Beast got 4.5 stars at Ecataromance.com!
"Beauty and the Beast…and the Witch with an erotic twist...The ultimate question comes down to, can the Witch get the Prince in the end? This was a really fun read. Enjoy."

Jade at Ready Reader Reviews said,"I loved Kiki Howell's sexy, erotic version of Beauty and the Beast, The Witch's Beast. Ms. Howell hooked me right away with the witch, Seraphina, flying into a rage caused by Prince Amir's brutal rejection of her. Tying in her tumultuous emotions with the violent storm set the scene for how strong her love and sexual desire for the Prince is and therefore how vicious her revenge. Seraphina's spells and Wiccan beliefs were woven throughout the story in a way that has me believing in her powers and being glad I'm not the one falling victim to her whims. Ms. Howell has created a sympathetic heroine, because after all, who hasn't done impulsive things for love? ... but Seraphina has a grasp on the realities of tampering with nature and a genuine remorse for hurting the Prince and then using her powers for her own selfish desires. Kiki Howell wove an emotionally as well as physically sensual story."

-- "Kiki’s use of words and descriptions is indescribable and weaves a kind of magic around the reader." ParaNormal Romance Reviews

*****

Kiki Howell
Author of Magical Erotic Romances
http://www.kikihowell.com/

An Enduring Love - A True Story

Picture of my mother and father on their wedding day - 1937

Lately I have been thinking more and more about my dear mother. Is this because she will be 93 years old in August, if she lives that long, and is most likely reaching the end of her days here on earth? Or could it could be because I am getting older myself and find that I am wondering what my mother was like before she was just "mother" in my mind?

What was her life like besides her life as my mother? it is hard for me to think of my mother as being young. Was it love at first sight when she met the young man who would become my father? Did she experience the passions and desires of a young woman in love with her man? Did her heart go pitter-patter and tingles run up and down her spine when she kissed him? Did she long to make love with him and couldn't wait for their wedding night to "become a woman"?

Did she regret marrying him when he decided to answer the call of God and become a preacher? She certainly hadn't signed on for being a preacher man's wife when they married and it changed the entire course of her life. Even if she didn't want to be the wife of a preacher man, divorce wasn't an option to her. People of my mother's generation didn't "do divorce." You made your bed and you lay in it, for better or worse.

My mother and father married in 1937. They had 6 children, one a little daughter who died when she was 2 years old. They lived, they loved, and they grew old together. They may not have had a bed of roses (who ever promised us a rose garden?) but they stayed together until "death do us part" when my father died in 1996. At the time of his passing, my mother and father had been married for 59 years. My father has been gone for 13 years and my mother still considers him as her husband and she is still his wife.

An enduring love story if I ever heard one.

Author Kiki Howell coming this way! Get ready!

Author Kiki Howell will be guest blogging here at Sizzling Hot Romance on Wednesday, July 1. Mark the date on your calendar so you'll be sure not to miss this event.

Kiki describes herself as an author of magical erotic romances. She is multi-published with Whiskey Creek Press.

"Kiki’s use of words and descriptions is indescribable and weaves a kind of magic around the reader." -ParaNormal Romance Reviews

Kiki's latest book is The Witch's Beast.

A Torrid Twisted Tale

A witch rejected…a few spells for revenge…an arrogant Prince turned into a Beast…a beautiful woman taken captive …

And, that is just the beginning of this tale of a Beauty and a Beast told by the Witch who cast the spell that began it all. A dismal castle, possessed candles, and a little mangy fur will be the least of the Beast’s troubles as the Witch goes into a jealous rage over the Beauty he now holds captive. A magic mirror…desperate sex spells…magical seductive dreams…orgasmic punishments in a dungeon…

This time, the Beast will be caught between a Beauty who has caught his eye but rejects his proposal of marriage, and the Witch who allows him moments in his human form to fulfill his every sexual desire.

For whom will there be a happily-ever-after?

Memories

What makes a writer an author? My dear 92-year-old mother, who is now in a nursing home, was never published but she did write in her own way. Does this make her an author? Maybe not but it does make her a writer in my mind. I was recently cleaning out her house and found this little piece that she wrote about her childhood days as I was going through some of her things. I think I'll make her a published author by publishing it here in my blog. Congrats, Mama! You finally made it to the published author status!

My Old Tree
By Augustine Robinson Kennon

If this old cypress tree could talk it would have some happy tales to tell.
And a few sad ones too.

This old tree grows on the bank of the Ouachita River about five miles up the river from a little town called Harrisonburg, Louisiana where I was born.

This old tree was my fortress and my refuge. A good place to while the day away under its roots. A good place for me and my sister Ethyl to play house with our dolls.

I would sit on the roots of this old tree and read a book in the early morning hours while waiting for the school boat that carried me to school. Sitting on its roots watching my Mama washing our clothes with her tub and wash board and the water we carried from the river. Sitting on its roots watching my Papa run his trot lines in the river.

But it stands there proudly now all alone. With no one to play around its roots or to call it home. But Jesus must have been watching over it all these long years. It still stands there proudly on the banks of the Ouachita River.

A place I once called home with my Papa, Mama, three brothers and three sisters.

Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson

Such different icons and personalities who are now linked together forever by having the misfortune of dying on the same day.

Farrah Fawcett, of the beautiful hair fame, lost all her hair to the invasive procedures of trying to eliminate the cancer from her body. I remember the "Farrah look" very well. I wanted my hair to look just like hers when I was younger and to a degree it did. Farrah fought the good fight to the end. She was a very strong and brave lady but the cancer was unstoppable and it got her in the end. So sad. She wanted to live so bad. She was an icon. She was an "Angel."

Michael Jackson, of the freaky plastic surgery and child molestation accusations and King of Pop fame, was a different story. He was famous from the time he was a mere child, never had a childhood, and never grew up. He seemed to be a child in an adult body. Maybe he slept with children because he thought he was a child himself and saw nothing wrong with sleeping with "friends." Who knows? I certainly don't. He was famous the world over for his music, his dancing, and his freaky ways. He was an icon ... but he wasn't an angel.

Both will be sorely missed. Rest in peace, Farrah and Michael.