Suzette D. Harrison's Blog

I was born in California, but there’s enough southern soul left in me to know tea cakes are nothing to play with. The recipe and execution need to be on point. Or else! It’s like potato salad, peach cobbler, or collard greens. Make them wrong if you want to. Your Black Girl card will be revoked and you’ll be banned from the family. Okay, slight exaggeration, but your family gathering contributions will be reduced to paper plates and chips. I’m just saying. 

Now, Mattie Banks? Honey, she can bake! Mattie grew up in Montgomery Alabama and knows something about tea cakes. Except, clutch your purist pearls, Mattie took her mother’s recipe and added a dash of cinnamon, orange zest and juice to it. She’s sixteen and being inventive, so we can live with this. Other than youth, I’m not sure what inspired this creative alteration. Maybe it’s because Mattie’s sixteen, pregnant, and craving something different. She’s not only pregnant, but unmarried in the deep south Bible belt in 1955—long before single-parenting was an acceptable thing. When life becomes difficult Mattie finds herself surrounded by transcendent women. Her mother. Teachers. Relatives. They hold her up as she dares to defy the times. She’ll become an entrepreneur boldly making a living for herself and her baby. What does she sell? You guessed it. Tea cakes. Buttery. Delicious. Orange and cinnamon-scented luscious discs of goodness. She never shares her recipe, but you can read Mattie's story in The Girl at the Back of the Bus, my newest novel. If you don’t feel like reading, get the audio book and treat your ears to something sweet. Either way, come enjoy Mattie and her tea cakes.  

And June R. Mays—tea cake baker extraordinaire—if you’re reading this blame Mattie, not me, for that O.J. and cinnamon twist. I’m just saying.

#thegirlatthebackofthebus

#bakingandbooks

Available in paperback, ebook, & on Audible

Any interviewer who has ever asked me who inspired me to write, received an answer about who inspired me to read. My Granny. Nedra Louise Kelley, my Mother’s Mommy, was an avid reader. Zane Gray westerns were among Granny’s favorites, but she also had a vast collection of books from many genres. She was your “typical” grandmother of her era: she stayed home, raised children (and grandchildren), had a hot meal on the table every night when my grandfather arrived home from work, and faithfully attended church.

But Granny also like her “stories". You know, soap operas. All my Children. One Life to Live. General Hospital. Granny made sure to wrap her day around them. But what she also did to unwind and relax was read.Some of my most precious memories involve summer days, my cousins running amok outside, Granny sitting in her favorite chair by the door, me seated at her feet. What were we doing? We both had a book in our hands, and we were reading. Listen, my grandparents had twenty-plus grandchildren. To get time alone with Granny was a treat. Getting time alone with Granny doing what we both loved to do was heavenly. Add a cookie or two and it was swoon-worthy. Especially if that cookie was baked by Granny.

Admittedly, Granny didn’t bake many cookies. But, honey, let me tell you! That woman was a baking queen. Pies. Cakes. Cloud-like biscuits. If you needed or wanted it, Granny could bake it. She was one of those frustrating scratch bakers. Meaning she never had a recipe and whenever I asked her the ingredients to make something it was, “a pinch of this, a little of this, a handful of that.” Even when I asked her to write down recipes for me she couldn’t because she simply used tried and true instinct. And based on the demand for her sweets, she never missed.

Granny’s birthday is tomorrow, June 10, and I’m honored to honor her today in every possible conceivable way; but particularly by crowning her Queen of Baking & Books. I write because I read. I bake because of Granny. She loved them both, and I’m the proud recipient of those legacies.

It’s my birthday today! That makes me old enough to admit that I’m late to the game. My husband has been after me to blog for years, probably since the release of Taffy. Which, by the way, was in 2016. Has this really been five years in the making? Why yes, that’s correct. But who’s counting? Let’s remain focused on the fact that I’m here. Blogging. At long last. On my birthday! So, hurray. Now, back to the Husband being in my ear about this blogging business. I was far too busy. Okay, and yes, resistant. During one of the many conversations,

I posited the possibility of melding two of my primary passions into one blog forum. I’m an author who loves to bake. Couldn’t I do something celebrating both? Hubby's response, after the blank stare, was that those two passions were too disparate. Like oil on your iPad that houses all your precious reads, they just didn’t mix. That’s not verbatim, but you get the gist. So, what did I do? I shelved the issue and walked away. Yes, I can be stubborn on any given day, but I was disinterested in blogging just to be blogging, and decided to wait until a clear vision formed and had my full attention.

Well, guess what? I’m back at this intersection of baking and books, and can’t seem to dispense with the idea...so here goes everything. Or nothing. I’m going to find a way to whip the two together like butter, sugar and eggs for a pound cake. Or a fine, sexy hero and a beautiful, sexy heroine smoking up the pages of my contemporary or historical romances. It will work! I am determined. How? That remains to be seen. Just stay tuned and come back with an open mind, a glass of milk, coffee, or wine and your favorite cake, pie, or cookie. And a novel, of course. Because after all, this is Baking & Books. 

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p.s. Thanks, Twin (a.k.a. Suzette Riddick), for believing in my nonsense and staying on me until I did this! Oh, and thanks to you too, Honey Husband. I’ll bake you something when I finish this. In the meantime, here’s a cookie and a kiss. Mwah!  Oh yeah…and did I mention it’s my birthday? Happy birthday to me!

#bakingandbooks

Hello Goodreads Readers,

Need a good RomDraMedy? A what? Romance + Drama + Comedy! Well, I have it for you. Let me introduce you to: "My Joy!" An Urban Christian Romance, "My Joy" is spicy, sexy, full of comedy, chaos, and God's goodness. Available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback, "My Joy" is a definite pleaser. Check her out today!

THANK YOU WONDERFUL READERS:
since Taffy's February release, you've posted over 100 Amazon.com reviews!
I'm celebrating & giving back the love with a "1-DAY 100 CENTS SALE" TODAY September 6, 2016 ONLY
Buy TAFFY on Amazon Kindle
for only $1.00!!!
The perfect time to gift yourself
& a friend!
Blessings,
Suzette

Congratulations to Ms. H. Kitsuda, winner of 1 dozen gourmet cupcakes from Sweet Things Cupcakery! Ms. Kitsuda was the first reader to purchase TAFFY. Awww, reading can be sweet...

Congratulations to the following Goodreads members whose names were randomly chosen from hundreds of entries:

Jackie R. (Waynesboro, VA)
Joan T. (Booneville, AR)
Mandy C. (Haddon Township, NJ)
Rachel P. (Aline, OK)
Stephanie L. (Roseville, CA)

Your autographed copy of TAFFY is one the way!
Enjoy,
Suzette

Well...it took more than a minute, but I'm blessed to be back! My newest novel, Taffy, was released last week. It was a divine labor of love, and now she's ready for you to read. By all means, enjoy!

Taffy