Karen’s Killer Fixin’s **AUTHOR SPECIAL** with JOSIE MALONE!

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, JOSIE MALONE, and her favorite recipe for MA SIM’S OLD-FASHIONED DOUGHNUTS!

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THE MARSHAL’S LADY
Liberty Valley Love Book 3
BY JOSIE MALONE

Blurb

While trailing a serial killer on horseback, homicide detective Beth Chambers finds she has somehow ridden back in time—to 1888! When she comes across injured Marshal Rad Morgan, she has no choice but to try to save his life. Though the handsome marshal believes a lady should stand behind her man, Beth is determined to catch the killer she’s chased through time and prove she’s a capable law enforcement officer in any century.

A former Union soldier, Rad has survived the Confederate hellhole of Andersonville Prison—but his toughest challenge is beautiful Beth Chambers. As the headstrong female detective from the future lets him in on why she’s there, Rad becomes convinced that her stubbornness may get her killed. But when he is shot and left for dead, the marshal has no other choice but to put himself in Beth’s hands—and hope they can both survive!

Two officers of the law from different centuries chasing the same killer could be a recipe for disaster—especially with the distraction of love!

THE MARSHAL’S LADY
Liberty Valley Love Book 3
BY JOSIE MALONE

Interview

Thanks for inviting me. I’m glad to be here and talk about horses…..

I grew up on a pony farm in Everett, Washington. I say, “grew up” although we didn’t move to the farm until I was seven years old. I received my first pony, Star, as an Easter present that year. And I learned everything the hard way, i.e. how to feed carrots, how to avoid being kicked, how ponies see – and no, they don’t like mud puddles. Got that lesson by being bucked off into one and walking home looking like the Loch Ness Mud Monster – Star made it to the barn before I did.

When I was growing up, people still did things the old-fashioned way. I learned to ride from the old cowboy who ran my 4-H club like a drill sergeant. His wife used to throw live firecrackers under our horses’ hooves to prepare us for the Fourth of July parade every year. The lecture went something like, “The safest place for you is in the saddle. You don’t want to bust your head like a watermelon on the city street when some dude does that to your horse.”

This was in the days before our horses were our “friends” and natural horsemanship meant leaving your saddle in the tack-room and riding your horse on a grocery string hackamore. Yes, I can still do it, but I sure don’t let the kids I teach try that one. I also insist on equestrian helmets – another “new” innovation. So, when I wrote my western romance novels, I remembered those “good old days,” and tried to incorporate that traditional attitude into the books. If you think of horses as the equivalent of pickup trucks, you start to understand how cowboys viewed their working buddies.

In A Man’s World, the first western romance in the Liberty Valley Love series, Trace Burdette masquerades as a man, fooling everyone but new neighbor, ruggedly handsome Zebadiah Prescott. With their love on the line, they had to deal with the past and the outlaw who killed her grandfather and stalked her. Trace was busy on the ranch so her housekeeper and cook, Missus Sims not only ran the house, but she also looked after the orphaned children Trace collects.

During the story, everybody raves about Missus Sims’ doughnuts or “bear sign” – yes, sign means what you think it does – “poop,” and Ma Sims as everyone calls her always takes offense at the description. The recipe I had for the doughnuts comes from the 1908 edition of the Fannie Farmer’s cookbook. It was the one my grandmother used, and I always got to dump powdered sugar into a brown paper sack and put in the hot doughnuts and shake, shake, shake until the fresh doughnuts were covered with sugar.

And of course, then we got to eat them – my grandfather swore that he always needed a fresh pot of coffee to go with them or it didn’t count. He liked it when we made coffee in the tin camping coffee pot, but Grandma swore the electric percolator was simply fine. And since it was “her” kitchen, that’s the way things were. If you decide to go with Grand-dad’s coffee, let it perk in the pot until it’s a dark brown – then you can dip the doughnuts.

The Marshal’s Lady is a spin-off of A Man’s World. Trace and Zeb have been married for just over six months when renegades rob the bank, she owns in the town of Junction City. Rad Morgan, the marshal of Junction City sets off to capture the miscreants. Along the way, he meets his match, Afghanistan War veteran/homicide detective Beth Chambers who takes no prisoners. She’ll fit right into 1888 Washington Territory. Of course, I had to figure out how to get a woman from 2018 to the Old West and why she was even there, but that was part of the adventure and the paranormal elements kept escalating.  Much to Rad’s initial dismay, Beth and Trace become fast friends.

Karen

P.S. We’re at 535 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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MA SIM’S OLD-FASHIONED DOUGHNUTS

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Special Giveaway: Josie is giving away an ebook copy of A MAN’S WORLD, Book 1 of the series, to one lucky reader who comments on her Karen’s Killer Fixin’s blog.

Thanks, Josie, for sharing your story with us!

Don’t miss the chance to read this book!