Karen’s Killer Fixin’s
**AUTHOR SPECIAL**
with CHARLENE RADDON!
Welcome to my Friday bonus feature called Karen’s Killer Fixin’s **Author Special**!! Today, in lieu of one of my own recipes, I’m going to introduce you to a new author who will share one of her favorite recipes. Not only will you and I occasionally learn how to make something new and delicious, but we’ll get a chance to check out some wonderful authors. Introducing author, Charlene Raddon, and her favorite recipe for SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE!
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TAMING JENNA
BY CHARLENE RADDON
Blurb
THE WRONG MAN
Deserted by her father at the tender age of seven, Jenna Leigh-Whittington had taught herself to ride, shoot, brawl…and steer clear of the opposite sex. But now, in a lonely Utah canyon, the Pinkerton agent has drawn her gun on a rugged stranger—only to discover that, far from the dangerous outlaw she’d been tracking, he is Branch McCauley, hired gun…and the most irresistible rascal ever to tempt and torment a woman!
THE RIGHT WOMAN
If there’s one thing McCauley trusts less than a female, it’s a female who packs a six-gun. But what a woman! Vowing to bring the sensuous hellcat to heel, McCauley has no inkling that their passionate battle of wills has just begun. Taming Jenna will be the most seductive—and satisfying—job he’s ever taken on.
TAMING JENNA
BY CHARLENE RADDON
Excerpt
Jenna scowled as she studied the man by the flickering glare of his campfire. He had the right build and appeared close to thirty, Mendoza’s age. But something didn’t fit.
The Denver police chief had described her quarry as a spoiled aristocrat, too busy wooing Lady Luck and every other female to be much of a train robber, let alone a killer. But the rogue in front of Jenna looked too lean and hard to be spoiled, too wary and aloof to be a ladies’ man.
To Jenna he seemed the perfect gunslinger: cold, tough, and ready to spring. Like a big yellow cougar perched on a ledge. Or a rattler, tightly coiled. Either way, his bite would be deadly.
In spite of the cool night breeze, sweat oozed from her pores. She couldn’t forget that lightning draw. Why had she come here? How had she expected to take an outlaw Pinkerton’s other agents had failed to bring in? No, she refused to think that way. She was every bit as capable as any man to capture Mendoza. She had to believe that, the same way she had to do what she’d set out to do. Only one question remained: Was this Mendoza or not?
“Who are you, mister?”
“Who am I? Hell, who are you? ”
Blast! Did no male exist in this empty wilderness who wasn’t so taken with himself that he couldn’t cooperate for a change?
She took a calming breath. A body could catch more flies with honey than vinegar, old Charley Long Bow used to say. Jenna figured flies might fancy the hairy creature facing her, so she decided to try being friendly. “Listen, I smelled your coffee and hoped you might spare a cup, is all. You can understand me being a mite leery of walking into a stranger’s camp without knowing who I’m hooking up with.”
Firelight glinted on the man’s straight white teeth as his whiskers parted in a cold smile. “Don’t recall inviting company, but I’ll play your game. Name’s Branch McCauley. Now it’s your turn.”
His smile unnerved her. It held no humor, only a lethal sort of grimness that cannoned her stomach into her throat and made her wish she’d wired William Pinkerton for instructions instead of going off half-cocked this way. “I’m Jim…Jim White,” she lied.
“All right, Jim, how about some honesty? You come here looking for me?”
“I’m not looking for anyone named Branch McCauley. If that’s who you are, you’ve nothing to worry about.”
The wide, innocent eyes McCauley studied held honesty. He relaxed. “In that case…be glad to pour you some coffee.” He reached for the battered graniteware pot. His visitor’s next words froze him in a half-stoop: “I’d feel more welcome if you’d set aside your gun first.”
Cool as Montana sleet, McCauley straightened, hand poised above his holster. “Reckon you would. Wouldn’t do much for my sense of well-being, though.”
So much for trying to be friendly, Jenna thought. What now? She clenched her knees together to still their shaking and swallowed the fear knotted in her throat.
“Look.” McCauley shifted his weight to one leg. “Why don’t you put your gun away and have a sit? Could be I might know something about the hombre you’re hunting.
Hombre. Sounded Spanish. Like Mendoza. It must be him. She had to get his gun away from him. Surprise seemed the best means. She squeezed the trigger of the .44 Starr. The bullet kicked dirt onto the man’s scuffed boots. He jumped and let out a yelp as though she’d set his feet afire.
“Dammit, kid, going up against me won’t get you anything but a six-foot hole in the ground.”
“Shut up and toss over your gun or I’ll turn them boots into sieves. ‘Course, my sights might be a bit off.” She raised the muzzle toward his groin.
“You made your point,” he growled as he unbuckled his gun belt and tossed it over.
Instead of the fancy weapon she had expected a gunslinger to own, an ordinary, six-gun lay at her feet. No ivory handle or engraved barrel. Only an ordinary .44 Peacemaker, crafted and worn for one reason—to kill. The thought did funny things to her innards.
“All right,” she said, getting back to business. “You aren’t going to like this, mister, but I don’t know any other way to be sure who you are. Drop them trousers to your ankles.”
“Do what?”
Charlene Raddon’s first serious attempt at writing fiction came in 1980 when a vivid dream drove her to drag out a typewriter and begin writing. She’s been writing ever since. Because of a love for romance novels and the Wild West, her primary genre is historical romance. At present, she has five books originally published in paperback by Kensington Books. More recently these were published as e-Books by Tirgearr Publishing. Taming Jenna and Tender Touch are also available in print from Tirgearr. Charlene also designs book covers and other graphic materials for authors at her site, http://cover-ops.blogspot.com. Her latest historical romance is Dances in Moonlight, which she is self-publishing and plans to release in November 2015.
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Links to Charlene’s Website, Books, & Social Media:
Buy Links:
Smashwords – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/377875
Apple – https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/taming-jenna/id757619273
Kobo – http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/taming-jenna-1
Nook – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/taming-jenna-charlene-raddon/1000084962
Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Taming-Jenna-Charlene-Raddon-ebook/dp/B00GNR87BS/
http://www.amazon.com/Charlene-Raddon/e/B000APG1P8/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
https://twitter.com/craddon
http://www.facebook.com/charlene.b.raddon
http://www.facebook.com/CharleneRaddon
http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/Raddon_Charlene/
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?trk=tab_pro
https://www.youtube.com/user/gengirl69
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1232154.Charlene_Raddon
I hope you enjoy the recipe Charlene is sharing with us today on Karen’s Killer Fixin’s. Happy eating!
Karen
P.S. We’re at 237 recipes and counting with this posting. Hope you find some recipes you like. If this is your first visit, please check out past blogs for more Killer Fixin’s. In the right hand column menu, you can even look up past recipes by type. i.e. Desserts, Breads, Beef, Chicken, Soups, Author Specials, etc.
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SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE
3 C mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 stick butter melted
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 C milk
Mix, pour into long, shallow baking dish. Sprinkle topping over top.
Topping:
1 C brown sugar
1/2 stick butter, cold
1/2 C flour
1 C chopped pecans
dash allspice and cinnamon
Cut butter into flour-sugar mixture with pastry blender.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min. May be frozen and baked thawed.
**SPECIAL GIVEAWAY**: Charlene will give away an eBook of TAMING JENNA to a lucky reader who comments on her Karen’s Killer Fixin’s blog. Thank you, Charlene, for sharing your story and recipe with us.
Don’t miss the chance to read this book!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND YOURS!!
Thanks for the recipe and excerpt, Charlene! They both sound yummy!
The yams are a yearly demand from my family at holidays. Thanks for commenting.
Thanks for having me, Karen.
It’s great to visit with you today, Charlene!
Hi Charlene! That casserole sounds great. It will be on my table on Christmas Day. And the excerpt sounds very intriguing!
Thanks, Rose. Hope youl like the yams.
nice recipe
Hi, bn. This is an old book for you. Keep watching though, I’ll have a new book out for the new year. Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter on my website so you qualify to win the new Kindle. http://charleneraddon.com
Thanks for sharing and for the chance to win! Happy Holidays! 🙂
While I am not a fan of historical fiction, I did enjoy the interview, excerpt and meeting Charlene Raddon.
This recipe sound similar to my daughter-in-law’s, which is delicious, but she adds fresh apples and cranberries. I love it.
Thanks, Karen and Charlene 🙂
Hm, I’ll have to try the apples and cranberries. Sounds good.
Thanks for the bok excerpt. Love this sweet potato recipe! I’m going to have to make this as I have sweet potatoes that I need to use up.
Let me know how you like the yams, Susan.
The recipe sounds great 🙂 I’m looking forward to reading this book.
I hope you like it, Lori.