Jessica Randolph's Blog

Breakfast ought to have only one syllable, two at the most, according to Jesse Stewart, the ex-Marine who shows up from North Carolina to work on the roof of Morgan Bailey’s Seacoast Island Bed & Breakfast in ISLAND AUTUMN: A Seacoast Island Romance: Volume 2.  (He’s also her late husband’s best friend.)  “Eggs.  Pan-cakes.  Cof-fee.”  But Morgan is preparing for the Simple Food “Best B&B Breakfasts” contest, and she has other ideas.  Polynesian French toast with braised pineapple-banana filling and blueberry lemon verbena compote.  Blackberry waffle bread pudding with citrus creme anglaise.  Georgia peach and mascarpone stuffed crepes with praline sauce…  Jesse turns up his nose at all of it, at least at first.  He won’t even try a scone.  

But when it turns out there’s a mole in the tasting group that’s supposed to help Morgan decide on what to serve once the judge arrives, stealing her spectacular breakfast ideas and serving up the recipes to her competition, the evil new Woods & Water B&B owned by newcomers from New Jersey, Jesse’s the only one she can trust to help her root out the culprit — and taste her ideas.  Turns out, he not only opens his mind, taste buds and heart to her ideas, but he also has the brainstorm that can lead her to win the contest — if only someone on the island wasn’t still set on sabotage.

To celebrate ISLAND AUTUMN being on sale this week (Monday 9/12/16 through Friday 9/16/16) for only $0.99 (click here to visit the Amazon page), I’m going to be sharing some of the recipes with you (giving credit where credit’s due, of course.)  If you try them, please let me know your results.  Maybe the special someone in your life will like them as much as Morgan’s ex-Marine did!

Blackberry waffle bread pudding with orange blossom creme anglaise — by The Inn at the Round Barn Farm

 

(Speaking of a romantic New England Bed & Breakfast, this place looks fantastic!  Here’s where you can make a reservation.)

(recipe taken from www.bedandbreakfast.com) 

Ingredients:

Belgian Style Waffle Pieces
Large Egg Yolks
Whole Milk
Heavy Cream
Brown Sugar
Vanilla Extract
Kosher Salt
Fresh or frozen Blackberries
Milk
Heavy Cream
Sugar
Egg Yolks
Vanilla Beans, scrapped and pod
Orange Blossom Water



• Day before: Make homemade waffles or use leftover from another breakfast. Cut into bite-sized pieces and place on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes to crisp, lightly brown and dry them. Place waffle pieces into a buttered 8×12 casserole dish, cover tightly. • In a large bowl combine egg yolks, milk, cream, brown sugar, vanilla and kosher salt. Mix well until combined. Chill overnight.
• For the creme anglaise: Heat milk, cream, sugar and vanilla beans in a medium sized-thick bottomed pot until the mix reaches a simmer. Place yolks in a large mixing bowl. Once the cream mixture has reached a simmer, ladle the hot mixture very slowly into the yolks while whisking vigorously. Once the cream mixture has been fully incorporated into the yolks, return the mix back to the pot and heat on the stove on medium-high heat. Heat the mix to 170 degrees or until the mix coats the back of a spoon. Strain through a fine strainer, add the orange blossom water to taste. Chill.
• The next morning: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Add the blackberries to the waffle pieces. Pour the uncooked egg-milk mix over the waffles and blackberries, the wet mix should fill the dish about 3/4 full. Using a fork (or your fingers) press the waffles down into the mix incorporating all well, then cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil during last 20 or so minutes of baking. The top of the pudding should be crispy and golden brown and the inside custard should solidify. Remove from the oven and brush top with softened butter. Serve hot over the creme anglaise and then topped with warm maple syrup. Enjoy!

Click here to order ISLAND AUTUMN: A Seacoast Island Romance: Volume 2

The post Breakfast for an ex-Marine — ISLAND AUTUMN appeared first on Jessica Randolph.

Romance – who needs it?  Life on Seacoast Island, Maine, is just perfect, as far as Wildflower Books owner Lainey Severson is concerned.  Slow-paced and tradition-oriented, the place looks the same as it has for 100 years.  Lainey has her little shop (where she also lives), her cat Henry James, and her best friend, Morgan.  The busy summer tourist season is just starting, and she’s bound and determined to make this year far better than her last, especially if she can get her plans in gear for expanding into a wine shop, too.  The last thing she’s looking for is romance.  

Especially with Brick Adams, the man whose golden retriever has just destroyed her shop and who, it turns out, is an architect working for a developer on an idea that will not only change EVERYTHING about the look and feel of the island, but will completely ruin Lainey’s business, her home, and her way of life.

ISLAND SUMMER, the first book in my Seacoast Island Romance series, is on sale for only 99 cents here at Amazon through Friday, July 22, 2016.  You can read all about the inspiration behind the book here, and meanwhile here are five more tidbits to give you the inside scoop.

I wrote the first draft of ISLAND SUMMER in January and February, in the quite drafty house where I was living at the time, layered up in fleece and blankets.  Imagining summer breezes and sweaty skin wasn’t too bad a way to pass the coldest months.
I did, of course, go virtual shopping for Lainey’s cowboy boots, and found the perfect pair here.  (Only hers would be worn out from her wearing them a thousand times.)
  I used to work at a bookstore, and still remember the excitement of getting a brand-new box of new release hardcovers!  So I felt every bit of Lainey’s pain when Ella, Brick’s dog, does damage to a bunch of them.
One time, I went on a “puffin cruise” off the coast of Maine — and actually saw a couple!  (They’re much smaller than I’d imagined they would be.)  I’ve loved puffins ever since, so Bev Hargrove’s affection for them and Lainey’s fascination seemed natural.  Though I do believe it’s true that, as Bev says, in Iceland they eat them like we eat chicken.
One of my favorite scenes to write was the one in which Ella chases Henry James, Lainey’s cat, up the tree, and all the neighbors come to offer commentary and advice.  I think that if a man climbs a ladder up a tree to retrieve an angry cat, that’s a pretty good sign of potential romance — don’t you?

Till next time,

JR

The post ISLAND SUMMER romance — The inside scoop appeared first on Jessica Randolph.

Giveaway winners have been announced on my Facebook page.  More giveaways and news coming soon!  

The post Giveaway winners announced! appeared first on Jessica Randolph.

Black Dinah truffles

Giveaway extended!  Great news!  You can still enter to win a box of the world’s best chocolate truffles (pictured), made right here in Maine by the amazing Black Dinah Chocolatiers; a printed, signed copy of ISLAND SUMMER; or a printed, signed copy of ISLAND AUTUMN.  All you have to do is sign up for my mailing list and/or follow me on Facebook.  Do both and you’ll be entered twice!  The deadline has been extended until midnight (Eastern time) on Sunday, June 12, 2016. 

Three winners will be chosen at random on June 13, posted on my Facebook page, and notified via email or Facebook.  (This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with, Facebook in any way.)

Black Dinah chocolates are made on a remote Maine island, much like Seacoast Island where ISLAND SUMMER and ISLAND AUTUMN take place.  As they explain on their website, “nestled into the long shadows of Black Dinah Mountain, we craft beautiful chocolates completely by hand, inspired by fresh, local ingredients and our love of flavors from the tiny corners of the world… We make our truffles and caramels using fresh cream; organic herbs, flowers, fruits, coffees, teas and whole spices; and the very best Venezuelan, Belgian and rare Peruvian chocolate. Because the best chocolates deserve the freshest, tastiest ingredients, we buy from local farmers and producers whenever we can.  Because we believe in sustainable agriculture and feel strongly that farmers to the best cacao in the world should get an above-market price for their products, we use organic, fairly-traded chocolate. Like other small artisan food makers in Maine and around the world, our goal is to contribute towards an invigorated, sustainable and rich community.”

I can promise you, these chocolates are as irresistible as they sound.

And, one more giveaway to announce!  From now until May 29, 2016, you can enter at Goodreads to win a signed copy of ISLAND SUMMER.  Just click the link.

I hope you’ll take a moment to enter these giveaways, and don’t forget to let me know what you think of ISLAND SUMMER and ISLAND AUTUMN by leaving a review on Amazon.

Thank you, and happy almost-summer!

JR

The post Giveaway extended! Enter to win truffles and books appeared first on Jessica Randolph.

In a special ebook deal being offered at Amazon, through Tuesday, May 10, ISLAND SUMMER is on sale in a Kindle Countdown Deal for $0.99 (a savings of $3 off the regular Kindle price and a whopping $11 off the print price!).   Click the link to see the countdown clock and download your copy.

And don’t forget, please do leave your reviews on Amazon or Goodreads — I can’t wait to hear what you think, and readers’ feedback is such a great gift to ANY author, since you’re the whole reason we have for writing!  You will truly make my day by leaving a review.  Thank you!

Island Summer cover

Also, I’m giving away a box of the world’s best chocolate truffles, made right here in Maine by the amazing Black Dinah Chocolatiers; a printed, signed copy of ISLAND SUMMER; and a printed, signed copy of ISLAND AUTUMN.  All you have to do to enter to win one of the prizes is to sign up for my email mailing list and/or follow me on Facebook by midnight (Eastern time) on Sunday, May 15, 2016.  Do both and you’ll be entered twice!  How easy is that?!

Three winners will be chosen at random on May 16, posted on my Facebook page, and notified via email or Facebook.  (This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with, Facebook in any way.)

Keep watching my website and Facebook page for future Amazon giveaways, and, next week, a fresh Goodreads giveaway opportunity!

Thank you so, so much for your support.  I can’t wait to hear what you think of the Seacoast Island series, and I hope you have a great Mother’s Day weekend with your families!

Download ISLAND SUMMER here — and happy reading!

-JR

The post Special ebook deal – ISLAND SUMMER $0.99 thru Tuesday! appeared first on Jessica Randolph.

Part four of the love story “Cherry Pie” — enjoy!

“I know him.  He’s never mentioned you,” she told Mack.

“He’s never mentioned John Junior?  That’s me.  They just call me Mack.”

“Oh.  Well, then, he’s mentioned you.”

He smiled.  “I’d hate to know what he’s been telling you about me.”

Her cheeks felt hot.  “He thinks you’re smart.  You graduated from high school.  And got your electrician’s certificate in Chicago.” 

Mack laughed, looking a little surprised.  “Well, then you know all about me, I guess.”

“Good,” Hattie said from the front seat, with a satisfied nod.  “Then the two of you don’t need to waste any time.”

“Hat!” Della said.  She wished she could say more: How many times have I told you I’m done with men?  And even if I wasn’t – a high school graduate?  Taking interest in a plain-Jane seventh-grade dropout with work-red hands and a daughter plus an ex-husband somewhere on the run from the law?

“We just thought – since Mack’s in town – we could do things the four of us this winter,” Roy hollered back over his shoulder. 

“Yes, don’t you ever get tired of being the third wheel?” Hattie said, her green eyes weighty on Della.  With that, she turned to face front.

Della bit her lip and looked out the window.  Her hat was beginning to itch her head.  It was ridiculous to think that just by showing up Sunday after Sunday in the same purple dress that she could ever seem glamorous enough for Josie not to wish she had a real mother and dad.  A real family that was together all the time, and a mother who would fix her breakfast, dinner and supper every day and make sure she ate her vegetables and didn’t hurt herself on the tire swing.  Della knew with all her bones and flesh just how much Josie must want those things – even if she wasn’t old enough yet to realize it – because they were the very things that she herself had yearned for after her father died.  The feeling that you knew who you were and why it mattered.  That feeling of being a piece of that puzzle called a family, where all the other pieces held you in place, and together you made a picture that was something, and it was square and reliable and could not roll away or break apart or disappear.  She knew Josie would realize all of this soon enough, even if she might not have the words to describe it.

She suddenly felt it in her gut that she was going to lose her.  Just the way she had lost everything else.

Then she felt Mack’s elbow nudge hers.  She looked over at him. 

“Guess we’d better do what Hattie says,” he said, quietly enough so that only Della could hear.  “She looks like a woman not to be crossed.”  With that, he mimed a horrific death, choking himself with his big hands and rolling his eyes back in his head, finally slumping against the door.

Della began to laugh, a good belly laugh the likes of which she hadn’t laughed since she didn’t remember when.

Hattie looked back over her shoulder.  “What on earth?  Mack?  What is he doing?  Della?  Roy, make them stop!”

Della just kept laughing, even after Mack had straightened up and grinned.

###

(Next part coming Monday.  And sign up for my mailing list or follow me on Facebook to enter to win truffles from Black Dinah Chocolatiers of Maine or copies of ISLAND SUMMER or ISLAND AUTUMN!)

Cheers,

JR

The post Love Story “Cherry Pie” — part 4 appeared first on Jessica Randolph.

Here’s part three of the love story “Cherry Pie,” based loosely on the family story I always heard and loved about my grandparents meeting in the 1920s — enjoy!

“You work at the hotel?” Mack interrupted.

 “Yes.”

“In the café?”

“She bakes the pies,” Hattie supplied.

“Mmm – mmm!” put in Roy.

Mack laughed.  “You’re the one!  My dad’s been talking a blue streak about you since I got home.  Told me I had to get down to the café and sample some of your pie.”

“Who’s your father?”

“John Kiernan.”

“Oh!”  On Della’s first day waiting tables at the café, the other girls had put her up to serving John Kiernan, a big man with a booming voice whom the other girls said was an utter grouch.  The coffee’s never hot enough, and the pie’s always too dry or too thin or the crust is like cardboard – we hate him! You’ll see, they told her.  She had shrugged, and went to take his order. 

“You’re new here,” he had grumbled, wiping his hand on the rumpled leg of his work pants.  His mouth was turned down in what seemed a perpetual frown, and, above it, his nose was the size and shape of a wedge of pie.  It was about the biggest nose Della had ever seen, and she had to bite back a giggle, suddenly giddy at the thought of all the hours she’d spent worrying over the size of her own.

“What’ll you have?” she asked him.

“What kind of pie have you got?” he said, with a trace of an Irish lilt in his voice, pointing that nose in her direction.

“Dried apple, cherry, custard, chocolate, butterscotch, and peach.”

His gray eyes narrowed.  “What’s going on in that kitchen?  Six kinds of pie in one goddamn afternoon?”

“Me,” Della said, lifting her chin.  “I started today.”

“Ah, the new mistress of the pies, are you?  Any one of them worth my spit?”

“Haven’t had any complaints so far.”

His eyes narrowed further.  “Custard,” he decided.  “Nary a woman I’ve known can make a custard pie worth my spit.”

“Coffee?”

“Provided it’s not the brackish sort they’ve passed off on me before.”

She grinned, liking him.  “I make good coffee.” 

“We shall see,” he grumbled.  But later, when she checked back to see how he’d liked the pie, he told her, “I can see you’re a woman of salt.”

“Too much salt?”

He’d just laughed as he pushed back his chair to go, and said nothing. 

###

(Next part coming Friday.  And sign up for my mailing list or follow me on Facebook to enter to win truffles from Black Dinah Chocolatiers of Maine or copies of ISLAND SUMMER or ISLAND AUTUMN)!

Cheers,

JR

The post Love Story “Cherry Pie” — part 3 appeared first on Jessica Randolph.

 

“Does Josie know we’re coming?” Hattie asked over her shoulder, once they were underway, the square of town fading behind them.

Hugging herself tight against the jouncing of the car, Della glanced out the window at the farmland they were passing through, the harvested fields warming under the October sun, everything drying up, getting ready for the freeze.  “I called my mother yesterday,” she said.

“Roy says you go to see your daughter every Sunday,” Mack said, from his side of the back seat.

Della glared at him sideways.  “Of course.”

“And she’s how old?”

“Two and a half.”  A little shiver passed through Della, and she hugged herself tighter, looked out the window again.  Every Sunday, fear would tickle her skin: what if she doesn’t know me?  So far, Josie had not forgotten her.  But the way that time stretched for someone so young, and memory was barely formed, Della couldn’t help but imagine that one day soon Josie would have filled up her short life with so many things other than Della that Della would become as irrelevant to her as last year’s dress to a debutante.

“That’s some dress you’re wearing,” Mack said.  “And the hat, too.”

She looked at him, startled, then offended.  He thinks I’m a fool.  In fact, the dress she was wearing was a lifelong dream come to fruition: royal purple gabardine, with an accordion-pleated skirt that fell just at her knees and black embroidery on the drop-waist bodice.  The hat was a stylish black cloche, with a purple ribbon that matched the dress exactly.  It was all a little much for a picnic, maybe, but she didn’t care.  “I bought it with my ex-husband’s money, the day I got my divorce.”

Mack’s eyes opened wide, then he tilted his head back, his laugh booming.

Della raised her chin, liking the shape of him as he laughed.  “He owed me it.  At least.”

“I’ll bet that’s true,” Mack said.

“Very true!” put in Hattie from the front seat.  “Besides, Josie thinks she’s the cat’s meow in it.” 

“Well, I can see why,” Mack said.

Della glanced out the window again, watching a house they were coming up on.  She remembered it.  She remembered everything along this road.  She walked this road in her dreams every night, though she never did make it the whole twelve miles to Josie.    

Hattie turned to look at Della.  “You were busy getting dressed, weren’t you?  That’s why you were late?”  She turned to Mack.  “I always tell her, you’re the girl’s mother, she doesn’t care what you wear!”

“I was fixing my hair,” Della said.  She had arrived home from church to find that her brown bob looked lifeless peering out from under her cloche, and knew she had to put the situation to rights before showing herself to Josie.

Hattie shook her head, still addressing Mack.  “This one!  Content in these awful threadbare numbers six days a week at the hotel and never a worry about her hair or face or anything, even though I always tell her she could at least try, there’s so many men in and out of that place, but then come Sunday, when the only person she’s going to see is her little girl who couldn’t care less what she looks like – ”

“You work at the hotel?” Mack interrupted.

###

(Next part coming Wednesday.  And sign up for my mailing list or follow me on Facebook to enter to win truffles or copies of ISLAND SUMMER or ISLAND AUTUMN!)

Cheers,

JR

The post Love story “Cherry Pie” — part 2 appeared first on Jessica Randolph.

Here’s the first installment of the love story I promised in yesterday’s post, based very loosely on an old family story and an old photograph — and involving pie!  Called “Cherry Pie,” it’s inspired by how my grandparents met and fell in love when my grandma was working at a trackside café in rural Illinois in the 1920s. I was always amazed by the fact that she’d baked 24 pies every day (I am STILL amazed by it!), and when I was a child one of my favorite questions to ask her was, “What kind of pies did you make every day?”  She would look up and recite thoughtfully: “Four apple, two custard, three cherry, four peach, two chocolate, four pecan…” and so on, until the whole inventory was accounted for.

Enjoy!  And don’t forget to follow me on Facebook and/or sign up for my mailing list to enter to win a box of truffles (who doesn’t love truffles?) from Black Dinah Chocolatiers or a copy of ISLAND SUMMER or ISLAND AUTUMN.

 

October 1926

Della slammed out the door and hurried down the steps.  She was late.    

Turning up the street, she held her hat as she ran, setting her mouth against the idea that she might miss her ride.    

Sweat was pooling under her arms, her skirt flapping around her legs, feet pinching in her Sunday shoes.  Her breath was coming hard.  Two blocks east, first; the town was square like God had made it with a cookie cutter.  The houses she passed were white and yellow and blue.  The only green house in town was where Della lived, the Randalls’, which was the green of the pine trees Della had loved up north.  The greens here in Illinois were different.  Corn green.  Grass green.  The soil, too, had its own Illinois color, like manure from a healthy animal.  Not like the pale-red clay up north, which had been murder on the tomato plants Della had tried to grow.     

She didn’t think, as she ran, about who at their Sunday tables might glance out and see her running by, shake their heads and say to their families, “That Della Kate is one fast girl,” not meaning her foot speed.  She turned south toward the Depot, and kept running, her ankles and knees aching. 

The afternoon sky was bluer than her father’s eyes had been when he laughed.  A few puffy clouds decorated it.  Up ahead, just outside the Depot, she could see Hattie sitting on the hood of Roy’s Model T, Roy leaning up against it flirting with her.  Seeing they hadn’t left without her, she could almost breathe again, though she kept running.  There was another man with them, too, whom she didn’t recognize.  He was standing with his back to her and had one hand in the pocket of his dark pants.

When Della reached the trio and pulled up in front of Hattie, she was short of breath, still clutching her hat.  “Sorry I’m late –”

The stranger turned toward her.  Out of the corner of her eye, she could see he was tall, and his close-cropped hair was black and wavy.  He was holding a cap in his hand, and his white shirt was open at the collar.    

“Think we’d leave without you?” Roy said.

Hattie appraised Della over her cigarette, blowing out smoke.  “My mother packed us chicken and potato salad and chocolate cake, and creamed peas for your daughter,” she said.

Della caught her breath and laughed.  “Peas!”

Hattie laughed.  “Sorry, Della.  I told her how Josie hates anything green, and she got all up in arms about it.  Swears the kid’ll love this recipe, though.  Said I did when I was that little.”

“There’s vanilla pudding for her, too,” Roy said.  “But we’re not supposed to give it to her unless she eats the peas.  She made Hat promise.”

Hattie blew out smoke again.  “She was about to march down here and make you promise, Della.  Full of opinions on how you’re likely going easy on the child because you only see her Sundays.”

Della’s toes curled within her shoes.  “Well, I doubt my mother is easy on her the rest of the week,” she said.  “If it makes yours feel any better.  Or will she feel better only if I come home with green throw-up all over myself?”

Hattie’s mouth quirked up in a little smile.  She brushed Della’s arm with her fingers, and let it pass.  Both knew that Hattie’s mother didn’t exactly approve of Hat’s being such close friends with Della these days, but they had long since ceased to speak of it.  “Mom thinks we’re crazy, by the way, taking a picnic this time of year,” Hattie went on.  “But I told her, Josie has such fun.  Not to mention Mack missed out on all the picnics this summer.”

Della looked at the stranger.  Mack.  He smiled.

The smile spread to his eyes and brightened his whole face.  He was handsome, Della saw, now that she was looking him straight in the face.  That beautiful black hair.  A considerable, stately nose that seemed to smile, too, dipping like a water-witch over a well, as his mouth formed to show straight white teeth.  His shoulders were broad, his forearms were thick, and his waist was very thin.  He was at least a foot taller than Della.  His skin was smooth, young-looking.

“Sure, Dell, I forgot you’ve never met Mack,” Roy said, nudging Hattie’s shoulder.  “He’s been gone since back before I knew you lovely gals.  Working in Chicago.  Anyway, Mack Kiernan, this is Della Kate Brown.”

Mack extended his hand to Della, and she reached to meet it.  His hand was warm, and large enough that she felt hers get lost in it.  “Nice to meet you, Della Kate.”

Mack’s eyes were the color of much-washed denim.  Looking up at him, Della felt like a child.  “Just call me Della.”  She let go of his hand.

“Well, kids, let’s get a move on before the afternoon’s gone,” Harriet said, jumping down from the car’s hood.  “Our little Josie awaits!”

Della hurried around the passenger side of the car.

“Are we going to let the boys have the front, or shall we sit boy-girl, boy-girl?” Harriet said.

“Boy-girl, boy-girl,” Roy grinned.  He looked at Mack.  “If that’s all right with you, Mack.”

“Suppose it’s either that or have you squeezing my knee the whole drive over,” Mack said, and Della looked up in time to see him wink at his friend, to see that smile again.  His eyes shifted to her as he put his cap on, and his smile deepened.  She was disappointed to see that black hair covered up – then she about kicked herself for the thought.

She glanced at Hattie, who was getting in the front passenger side, but Hattie just smirked and slid into the car.  Then Della knew it had all been a set-up. 

Della got in the car, pulled the door shut behind her, and tugged her skirt down over her knees.  She folded her arms across her queasy stomach, not looking as she felt Mack settling in the seat next to her.  She was going to have words with Hattie about this, that much was certain.  She wouldn’t stand for her so-called friends making a fool out of her for their amusement.  

She wondered if Mack was in on it, or if he was an unwitting victim like herself.  The poor man.

Out of habit, the fingers of her right hand reached for her left-hand ring finger, and were startled – as they’d been just about daily for more than a year – to find the finger bare.  And as she always did when her hand made that mistake of seeking out the ring, she remembered the exaltation she’d felt when she wrenched it from her finger and hurled it into Lake Superior from the front yard of the Paxton mansion.  She could recollect the taste of the lake air, spray coating her face like a light mist.  The gold ring had caught the sun, and glimmered like a somersaulting star before being swallowed by the waves.  And though when it hit the water she heard nothing to demarcate the moment, nothing but the rolling waves and the wind, there was no doubt that it was gone. 

Sometimes she still pictured it, imagining it at rest there on a particular stone in that vast field of stones under that clear water.  A small circle of cheap gold gone back to the earth it came from, but maintaining its form and its one-time meaning.  That was thing, she had found: that nothing was ever really gone.  That absence was the loudest sound of all.    

###

(Next installment coming Monday.  Be sure to sign up for my mailing list and follow me on Facebook to enter to win those truffles and books!  Have a great weekend.)

The post Love Story “Cherry Pie” – part 1 appeared first on Jessica Randolph.

Yes, you read that right: free truffles!  And free books! 

I’m giving away a box of the world’s best chocolate truffles (pictured), made right here in Maine by the amazing Black Dinah Chocolatiers; a printed, signed copy of ISLAND SUMMER; and a printed, signed copy of ISLAND AUTUMN.  All you have to do to enter to win one of the prizes is sign up for my mailing list and/or follow me on Facebook by midnight (Eastern time) on Sunday, May 15, 2016.  Do both and you’ll be entered twice!  Just click on the “like” button to the right and/or enter your name and email address in the boxes over there.  It’s as easy as that.

Three winners will be chosen at random on May 16, posted on my Facebook page, and notified via email or Facebook.  (This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with, Facebook in any way.)

Meanwhile, it’s been great hearing enthusiastic reviews from so many readers who’ve read ISLAND SUMMER and ISLAND AUTUMN – thank you!  I’m working on ISLAND WINTER and it’ll be out in the fall.  For this spring, I’m going to be publishing here on my blog in installments a little romance that takes place in a totally different setting from Seacoast Island.

Before I moved to Maine, I had my roots in the Midwest, and, all my life, I’ve loved stories about how people meet and fall in love.  The romance I’ll be sharing here is inspired by a story from my family about how my grandma, as a young divorcée in rural Illinois in the 1920s, captured my grandpa’s heart when he worked on the railroad and she baked pies and served them up at a tiny depot café in a small town.  (Turned out that wasn’t exactly true – it was his dad who worked on the railroad and befriended my grandma at the café, and friends set up the meeting between my grandparents.)

I have a black-and-white photo of the two of them (supposedly taken “on their first date”).  They are so young, both with their hands folded, squinting into the sun.  He’s a foot taller than she is, and thin.  She looks slightly ill-at-ease in her Sunday dress, her hair bobbed and crimped in perfect 1920s style.  There’s no hint they’re anything but strangers. 

Stay tuned for the first installment of “Della Kate,” which I’ll post tomorrow.

And don’t forget to enter to win those truffles!

Cheers,

JR

The post Win truffles and books! (& introducing a new romance) appeared first on Jessica Randolph.