I’m pleased as punch to announce that
Miss Kerah Hope Smith
has a won triple-decker order of western romance.
Be watching your email inbox for instruction on how to claim your prize, Kerah.
Karen Witemeyer
Goodies for You!
My next book releases in December, and I’m trying something new for the launch. Cloaked in Beauty is the third book in my Texas Ever After series, and it wil be a mash-up of Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty.
Here’s a little snippet of the plot: Raised in isolation with only her grandmother and her pet wolf for company, Letty Hood must learn to trust the Pinkerton agent tasked with her protection as she embarks on a journey to face her destiny and the dragon who has sought her destruction for the last 15 years.
I’ve watched other authors offer bonuses to readers who preorder their books, and I’ve always thought it would be fun to try. So after talking with my marketing team this fall, I’m taking the plunge!
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The first 250 readers who preorder Cloaked in Beauty from Baker Book House will receive three bonus goodies. A custom bookmark that features the entire series, a fun vinyl sticker, and an autographed book plate.
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Even better than the goodies, preordering from Baker gives you a 40% discount on the retail price along with free shipping. Yay!
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If you have already preordered the book from Baker Book House, you are already in line to receive the goodies.
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Giveaway
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In addition to the preorder goodies, I also want to share some bookish goodies with you. I recently attended a writing conference in Phoenix, where I got to meet up briefly with fellow filly, Cathy McDavid. I also had the chance to pick up some free books, including these three western reads!
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One person who leaves a comment will receive all three of these books. Just tell me about your favorite place to read during the fall season. Indoors? Outdoors? Hammock? Reading Chair? Front porch swing? Bed? Pumpkin patch? Hay loft? Where do you go for the perfect fall reading experience?
Cowgirls in the Kitchen – Karen Witemeyer
With Thanksgiving coming around the corner, I thought I’d share one of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes–Candied Yams. This is a tradition handed down from my grandma to my mom to me. They aren’t exactly quick, but there are only three ingredients, so they are pretty easy, and absolutely delicious!
Candied Yams
- 5 large red garnet yams
- brown sugar
- 2 sticks butter, melted
(Red Garnet Yams taste better than sweet potatoes, in my opinion, but if you can’t find them, sweet potatoes will work just fine.)
Wrap yams in foil (poke a few vent holes with a short knife in each) and bake in a 400 degree oven until soft (about 1 to 1 1/2 hours). Let cool.
Unwrap yams, remove skin, and slice lengthwise into thin, oblong strips about 1/4 inch thick. Lay flat in a shallow baking dish (jelly roll pans work great), fitting them close together so almost no pan is visible. You will probably need at least 2 pans. Sprinkle generously with brown sugar. Drizzle (or spoon) melted butter over the yams until all the sugar is moistened. Bake in a 400 degree oven again until yams get dark (sticky and candied) around edges (usually 45-60 minutes).
Use a metal spatula to remove yams. Serve in a shallow dish.
Old-fashioned. Simple. And delicious!
What is your favorite potato dish?
Karen’s Winner
Congratulations go to . . .
Barbara Raymond
You’ve got some edge-of-your-seat romance
coming your way!
Turning My Hero into a Cowboy & A Giveaway
When I first met my husband, he was very anti-cowboy. Except for the Dallas football team.
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Despite being raised in Texas, he hated country music and wanted nothing to do with trucks. He preferred sporty cars and high tech gadgets. But after over 30 years of living with me, he’s slowly turning into my very own cowboy hero. I got him into a pair of Wrangler jeans a couple years ago, then he bought himself a pair of boots for my birthday this year.
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And this month he traded in his sporty car for a . . . truck!
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Now, there still won’t be any country music twanging from the speakers, and there is a whole host of high tech gadgets for him to play with, but it’s still a truck. A BIG truck. The side mirrors are taller than I am.
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His old car was starting to fall apart and we both want to get a travel trailer eventually, so we decided we’d take the first step by getting the truck that will pull the trailer whenever we can afford to buy that piece of the travel puzzle.
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But for now, I’m enjoying watching my man embrace the inner cowboy he never knew was there.
Giveaway!
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This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the American Christian Fiction Conference in New Orleans. While I was there I got to enjoy lunch with two of my P&P Filly Sisters – Winnie and Mary.
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Also, while I was there, I had the opportunity to pick up a couple of free books. I thought I’d share the fun with one of our P&P readers. Leave a comment for a chance to win these two romantic suspense books set in the west.
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Do you have cowboys/cowgirls in your family, or do most of your cowboy friends live inside books?
Reading Olympics
I love the Olympics. The amazing athletes, the human interest stories, and the spirit of sportsmanship and patriotism. Every two years, my daughter and I get together to watch either the summer or winter games. She geeks out about it as much as I do, which makes it that much more fun. We love wathcing the big events like gymnastics, swimming, and track & field. But we also enjoy watching the niche events like equestrian, archery, and badminton. We even watched a few rounds of shooting, though I tried to imagine the competitors wearing cowboy boots and hats for a more western experience.
Now that the Olympics are over, I thought it might be fun to turn that sporting spirit in a more bookish direction. So, I’d like to invite you to participate in the . . .
If you were participating in the Reading Olympics, which event(s) would you be most likely to medal in?
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Weightlifting – Reading the heaviest tomes
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Sprinting – Epically fast reading
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Wrestling – Taking down the TBR pile
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Gymnastics – Reading in twisty, convoluted positions
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Equestrian – Reading books about horses
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Shot Put – Longest toss of a disappointing book across a room
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Synchronized Diving – Diving into a good book with a reading partner
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Archery – Pinpointing the exact right book for a friend
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Relay Racing – Reading series straight through without dropping the baton to pick up a different book
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Marathon – Reading an author’s entire backlist in a single year
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Rowing – Participating member in a book club who keeps conversations on track while never rocking the boat
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Triathlon – Reading multiple books at the same time.
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Sailing – Skimming the surface to sail through as many books as possible.
- Boxing – Needing the largest number of boxes to pack up your personal book collection
My best two events would be Wrestling and Equestrian.
How about you?
A Western Theme Park Adventure
At the end of June, my husband and I took a trip to Branson, MO for a few days to celebrate our 32nd wedding anniversary. We had a great time! We stayed in a cabin in the woods and really felt like we were stepping back in time. Especially the first day, when we visited Silver Dollar City.
If you’ve never been to Silver Dollar City, I recommend it. Especially if you love the idea of exploring life in the 1800’s. I had never been, but when I heard that there was a theme park celebrating 19th century pioneer life, I knew I had to visit. We weren’t able to do everything on my list in one day, but we squeezed in as many things as possible.
We rode a few rollercoasters, including the steampunk-inspired Time Traveler. Wes and I had our picture made to commemorate the event.
But even better than the rides were the historic buildings available to explore. We started at the Wilderness Church, an authentic log structure, orignally built near a local creek, that was dismantled log by log, and lovingly rebuilt in its current location. Not only could we go inside and explore, but several times a day, they had old-fashioned hymn sing-alongs! I adore hymns, so Wes and I made a point to join one of the sing-alongs and enjoyed worshipping with other park attendees.
Next to the church was McHaffies Homestead. A real, hewn-log cabin built in 1843 by the pioneering Levi Casey family, it was home to the McHaffie family before it was reassembled and preserved at Silver Dollar City in 1960. Most historic buildings are “look but don’t touch,” but this one was open for exploration. I loved that! I decided to fix my hubby a little snack while we were there.
After some actual lunch, we headed to the local saloon for some entertainment. The bar served sodas and rootbear floats, but Wes and I headed to the balcony to watch the show from there.
After spending over 8 hours in the Missouri heat and humidity, we decided to unwind in a shaded area full of good old country rocking chairs. Most of the other guests had cleared out of this section of the park by this time, so we enjoyed the quiet along with some end of day treats. We found a shop that sold our two favroites desserts – Cakes & Cones. Wes loves funnel cake, and I’m an ice cream girl. Such a sweet way to end the day.
On the way out of the park, we spotted a giant-sized triangle peg game. My son and daughter-in-law always play this game whenever we go to Cracker Barrel. So in their honor, we grabbed a quick picture.
They have working craftsmen who demonstrate trades from eras past as well, like blacksmiths, candymakers, glassblowers, and soapmakers. I wish I’d had time to watch them work. We also weren’t able to find time for the train ride or exploring the cave the the theme park is built over. I guess we’ll just have to go back for another visit!
Have you ever visited Silver Dollar City?
If so, what is your favorite thing to do there?
A Cowboy Surprise
It’s always a special treat when my birthday falls on Memorial Day as it did this year. Not only do I get a day off of work (the day job, anyway) but I also get to spend extra time with my family. But my husband surprised me a couple days early with a romantic cowboy gesture on the Friday night before.
First, he showed up at my office unannounced and kidnapped me from work an hour early. He brought me a change of clothes, including my cowgirl boots, then showed me his own footwear. He’d bought HIMSELF a pair of cowboy boots that afternoon just for the occasion. He hasn’t worn boots ince high school, so this was a big deal. He wore Wrangler jeans, boots, a button-down shirt, eveything but the hat. It was as if he’d walked out of the pages of one of my books!
Then he took me on a 90+ minute drive through the country (we saw wildflowers, longhorn cattle, herefords, deer, and sheep) to a ranch outside of Graham, TX called Wildcatter Ranch. They have a steakhouse there with beautiful hilltop views.
We had a scrumptious dinner next to a large set of windows looking out over this porch and the wooded hills below. So lovely! They served cheesy southern biscuits with a honey glaze for an appetizer, which were scrumptious! I had trout with glazed carrots and salad and Wes had a half-rack of ribs with a baked potato and salad. My fish was good, but when he let me sample the ribs, I regretted not getting some for myself. They were literaly melt-in-your-mouth tender and delicious.
After dinner, we walked around the grounds, and took lots of pictures.
One of my favorites was when we sat in a pair of rockers on the back porch of the Wildcatter Hotel and snapped a photo of our boots.
Then in true Texas style, we stopped at a Dairy Queen in Breckenridge,TX on the way home for a Blizzard. Ha!
It was a wonderful western evening with my personal cowboy hero!
When was a time you received a fun surprise?
Fan Fiction Contest
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One of the characters in my latest book – If the Boot Fits – is a young boy with a vivid imagination. Fergus Ellis is the hero’s youngest brother, and he never goes anywhere without his pencil and tablet. He names the animals around the house and dreams up adventures for them that he jots down in his tablet. He has dubbed the family milk cow Mrs. Merriweather and has set her up as banyard maven. Throughout the novel different people (especially ther hero and heroine) introduce new animal characters into his story world and help him come up with adventures for them to experience.
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I had so much fun with Fergus in this story, and readers have clamored for a bonus story about Mrs. Merriweather and her barnyard friends as written by Fergus. I love the idea, but I just don’t have the time to write one myself. So why not turn it into a contest?
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Several years ago, I ran a fan fiction contest asking readers to write a romantic epilogue pairing Chloe and Duncan from To Win Her Heart. I received some fabulous entries, and the winning epilogue has been posted on my website as bonus material for the last twelve years. You can read it here: http://karenwitemeyer.com/epilogue-twhh.html
I decided to try that again with a Fergus story. If you have read If the Boot Fits and if you enjoy writing, I’d love to invite you to submit an entry. Fergus is a bright ten-year-old boy, so we will be looking for a children’s story. Here are the official details:
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RULES
- Write a children’s story about Mrs. Merriweather as if you were Fergus Ellis. (Bonus if you incorporate details Fergus was already considering in If the Boot Fits.)
- There are no word count parameters, but children’s stories are typically short, so I’d expect something between 1,000 – 2,000 words. If you go a little shorter or longer, that’s fine.
- DEADLINE: May 18, 2024
- Send your story to me as a Word doc attachment to this email address – karen@karenwitemeyer.com
PRIZES
- The winner’s story will be published on my website.
- The winner will receive two autographed books of their choice from titles I have in stock. (If the winner is international, we will come up with an alternative prize.)
I can’t wait to read these stories!
Once I have chosen the winning story, I will run an illustration contest as well so that we can add 2-3 images to the text. The illustrator who wins will receive the same prizes. This is going to be so fun!
Have you ever written a fan fiction story?
Karen’s Favorite Things – Bookish Socks!
Writers are a quirky bunch. We talk to imaginary people, dream up ways to torture characters we claim to love, and have been known on occasion to show up to work in our pajamas. We all have different ways of getting into the writing zone, too. Some create playlists for each book they write to set the mood. Others load up on coffee and dark chocolate. Me? I put on bookish socks.
Fun socks make me happy and put me in a positive frame of mind as I sit down to write, and over the years I’ve amassed a pretty good collection of book-themed footwear.
Books and tea are always a favorite of mine. And I adore the cute little bookworms!
Jane Austen even makes an occasional appearance.
I thought I would personally foot-model my cowboy socks for you. (You’re welcome for not blinding you with the white legs above the sock line. Thank goodness for crop capability!)
I even have a pair of knee-highs, but I don’t wear these very often for writing sessions. Unless it’s really cold in my office.
Do you have any favorite “fun” socks you like to wear?