Leigh Goff

Writing Enchanting Ever-Afters

Category Archives: Uncategorized


by 3 Comments

Damned Good Date Night Dinner

Today I am reviewing a recipe I tested from Sloane Taylor’s Date Night Dinners – an inspiring new recipe book.

This is true comfort food and a recipe I plan to make over and over!  51BbV5n9boL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpgI have never reviewed a recipe before so this was new for me. I am happy to report that testing out the “Damned Good Pot Roast” recipe, knowing I had to stick (mostly) to the ingredients and instructions and report on my experience was actually a lot of fun!

I enjoy cooking, and as my husband and I have recently become empty nesters, I’ve been struggling to recall how to cook for two. Thanks to this cookbook, I don’t have to. My favorite recipes are in there and designed for two, making this cookbook perfect for us!

What was really great was that I didn’t have to search somewhere else for complimentary side dishes to go with the main course. Taylor includes suggestions with each main course recipe. I went with her suggested loaf of French bread for the pot roast, but I opted for the Snazzy Tomato Salad only because I had two large, ripe, summer tomatoes on the counter and I wholly enjoy fresh tomatoes.

Sloane Taylor even offers wine pairing suggestions to go with the meals, which I again followed. A lovely glass of California Cabernet paired perfectly with the juicy roast. Unknown-2.jpeg

The main course recipe listed easy to find ingredients, such as fresh garlic, dried oregano, and beef stock. The instructions were easy to follow, too. The only thing I changed was the amount of mini carrots I added to the cooking roast. The recipe suggested fifteen, but I love carrots, so I doubled the amount. After two hours and fifteen minutes in the oven, I removed the roast and vegetables. While the meat and vegetables rested on a platter under a sheet of aluminum foil, I proceeded to make the mouthwatering gravy.

This was an easy, five-star meal to prepare and the final result of savory beef and tender roasted carrots and red potatoes was simply scrumptious. As we head into a season of cool evenings and changing leaves, I found this to be the perfect meal to warm hearts and souls.

If you’re looking for a cookbook with fresh ideas on dinnertime favorites, I am happy to recommend DATE NIGHT DINNERS – Meals to Make Together for a Romantic Evening.

31YNsRNX6ZL._US230_.jpgAbout my favorite Kitchen Goddess, Sloane Taylor:

Sloane Taylor is an Award-Winning author with a second passion in her life. She is an avid cook and posts new recipes on her blog every Wednesday. The recipes are user friendly, meaning easy.

Taylor currently has seven romance novellas released by Toque & Dagger Publishing. Her first solo venture into non-fiction is a cookbook with eighty of her favorite recipes DATE NIGHT DINNERS – Meals to Make Together for a Romantic Evening: Cookbook for Two  was released  June 5, 2018.

Excerpts from her books can be found on her website, blog, and all popular vendors. Connect with Taylor on Facebook and Twitter.

BUY LINKS:

AMAZON

KOBO


by Leave a comment

Eat Local ~ Read Local Book Festival at Cascades Library!

40920940_10156553007295688_5879110148554752000_n

Get a taste of homegrown writers and food sources at Cascades Library‘s Eat Local, Read Local Book Sale & Festival. The FREE third annual event features food trucks, live music, story times, raffles and more than 70 local authors selling and signing books. Bring the whole family and support the writers, businesses and artists in our community. Over 70 authors, including Leigh Goff will be on hand for the third annual celebration of local writers and food vendors. For a list of other participating authors visit https://bit.ly/2wMnNe5.

Enjoy live music from Laurie Blue and McKenzie Mees, and let the littles get decked out with Let’s Make a Face – Face Painting and Temporary Tattoos.

Food truck vendors include Blue City Food, Flavour, Jambalaya Bros. and PokeMan Truck.


by Leave a comment

Author Shadow Leitner’s New Release–Death & the Maiden

Introducing a new dark tale by Shadow Leitner – Death & the Maiden

Screen Shot 2018-09-23 at 2.26.21 PM.png

A century ago, Death made  deal with a woman to save her child’s life, but it cost the Devil a soul.

Now, the Devil wants his due. And the only who can save her descendant from an eternity in Hell is Death.

But some fates are worse than death. They are curses. And not all curses can be broken.

Yours for FREE when you sign up for Shadow’s Newsletter, Shadow’s Web.

Screen Shot 2018-09-23 at 2.26.40 PM.png

 

Screen Shot 2018-09-23 at 2.27.15 PM.pngAbout the Author:

Shadow Leitner started storytelling early on and spent over a decade in the performing arts but left the stage for the page and now writes Paranormal, Gothic/Dark Fantasy and Sci Fi Romance books for Teens and Adults.

Besides torturing her imaginary characters with love and other peculiar things, she creates beautifully haunting art with her iPhone, consumes absurd amounts of coffee and is enchanted by all things vintage, old world, and macabre.

She haunts from Frederick, Maryland with her husband, two spawn, and a menagerie of mostly domesticated creatures.

Shadow is also the Dark Fiction Maven of Dark Inklings, her blog for Dark Fiction Writers.

Feel free to stalk her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr. But beware, she will most likely stalk you back.

 


by 7 Comments

New Middle Grade Paranormal Mystery–The Ghost in the Gardens by HL Carpenter (Exclusive Excerpt)

 

Welcome the 1-week Virtual Book Tour for The Ghost in the Gardens (A Flower Girl Mystery) by HL Carpenter.
About The Ghost in the Gardens:
Until the first spooky visit, ten year old Chrysantha Howe doesn’t think about ghosts. She thinks about plants.
All.
The.
Time.
She has her future planned out, and that future includes plants. Chrys is going to be a plant scientist like her uncle and her favorite teacher, and she’s determined to find the very rare Coralroot orchid.
The ghost is not in the plan.
But when her teacher disappears and the police suspect her uncle was involved, Chrys has to figure out what the ghost is trying to tell her—before it’s too late. 

Follow the Book Tour:

Book Details:
 
Genre: Middle Grade Paranormal Mystery
Page Count: 152 pages
Publisher: Mirror World Publishing (http://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com/)
Order Links:
Mirror World Publishing:  Ebook  Paperback

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT!!

The word eidolism means a belief in ghosts.

Until last week, when a ghost visited me for the first time, I didn’t believe in ghosts. I didn’t even think about ghosts much. I thought about plants—and no, that’s not weird. Plants are fascinating. They’re part of our world, but they live in a mysterious world of their own at the same time. They’re so…different. The way they turn sunlight into food. The way they use chemicals to talk to each other. The way they lure birds and bugs into helping them make more plants.

Plants.

Are.

Fascinating.

That’s why I’m going to be a plant scientist like Ms. Winger and my Uncle Everett. I’ll work in the Botanical Gardens right here in Clear Creek. My name will be on the sign at the entrance of the Gardens: Chrysantha Howe, Botanist.

I had the future planned out.

The ghost was not in the plan.

After the first visit, I still didn’t really believe in ghosts. But when she came back the second time, I had to change my mind. I hadn’t been dreaming and I wasn’t crazy. The only other alternative was: I had seen a ghost.

I started researching ghost visitations. What made them stick around in this world? How did they choose who to haunt? Why had no one ever caught a legitimate sighting on video or made a recording?

Mostly what I learned was that people argued a lot about whether ghosts existed. People who believed in ghosts liked other people who believed in ghosts. People who didn’t believe in ghosts thought people who did were crazy.

I was not crazy.

Finding out the answers to my questions about ghosts should have been easy. I had my own personal ghost to ask. But every time she visited me, I couldn’t say a word. My thoughts got all tangled and my breath stuck in my throat and I got dizzy. Having my own personal ghost was not helpful. The visits were…creepy. Like are-you-here-because-I’m-going-to-die creepy. Maybe the creep factor was why no one had ever documented a ghost.

I shivered, though I hadn’t seen the ghost in hours and cheerful sunlight warmed the early June morning. The Water Garden, a magical green fairyland of trickling streams and arched bridges, closed in around me. Shadows shifted. Bushes rustled.

I’d never seen a ghost before, not even when my dad died. Why had one decided to haunt me now?

“Just lucky, I guess,” I said. “What do you think, Barkley?”

My long-legged Schnauzer scratched his ear with his hind foot.

“That’s what I think too.”

Meet the Author:
Florida-based mother/daughter author duo HL Carpenter writes family-friendly fiction. The Carpenters write from their studios in Carpenter Country, a magical place that, like their stories, is unreal but not untrue. When they’re not writing, the Carpenters enjoy exploring the Land of What-If and practicing the fine art of Curiosity. Visit HLCarpenter.com to enjoy gift reads and excerpts and to find out what’s happening in Carpenter Country.
Connect with HL Carpenter:


by 1 Comment

Date Night Dinners from Sloane Taylor

COMING to a KITCHEN NEAR YOU

JUNE 25, 2018
in
E-Book and Paperback

 

Ready to ignite that old flame? Or perhaps spark a new one? Take your partner by the hand and turn on your stove. A true romantic, award-winning author Sloane Taylor brings her creativity to the kitchen with easy-to-make meals sure to spark the intimacy and quality time you want with your special someone. Cooking together is only the start of the fun!

Create 45 complete dinners for two and flavor your evenings with a new dish. These 80 recipes use everyday foods already on most kitchen shelves. The recipes are easily increased for those fun times friends or family join your table.

Date Night Dinners, Meals to Make Together for a Romantic Evening, is an ideal gift for engagements, bridal showers, anniversaries, or for anyone who wants to spice things up.

Sloane Taylor is an Award-Winning author with a second passion in her life. She is an avid cook and posts new recipes on her blog every Wednesday. The recipes are user friendly, meaning easy.

Taylor currently has seven romance novellas released by Toque & Dagger Publishing. Her first solo venture into non-fiction is a cookbook with eighty of her favorite recipes DATE NIGHT DINNERS, Meals to Make Together for a Romantic Evening releasing June 25, 2018.

Excerpts from her books can be found on her website, blog, and all popular vendors. Connect with Taylor on Facebook and Twitter.

 


by Leave a comment

Maryland’s Royal Bloodlines Inspire YA Novel Set in Annapolis

images
“Till so for ways of witchery,

And arts of darkness famed

In all the land, that he at last,

‘The Wizard Earl’ was named.”

—The Wizard Earl-A Legend of Kilkea Castle

Anyone familiar with Maryland’s history will recognize the surnames Calvert and Arundel, after all numerous parks, historic sights, and streets bear the names, especially in Annapolis. However, not many people realize these historic Maryland families are connected to a centuries-old legacy of royalty, witchcraft, and alchemy.

The Greys

images-8In the 1400s, Henry de Grey, 4th Baron Grey of Codnor, and the fountainhead of the Grey family, was an avid alchemist, going so far as to garner the King’s permission to transmute mercury into precious metals. In 1478, the king appointed Henry de Grey as the Lord Deputy of Ireland. He was also a distant blood relation to Queen Jane Grey.

Elizabeth Woodville, an infamous witch whose first husband was John Grey of Groby, produced a son from that marriage–Thomas Grey, the 1st Marquess of Dorset and two daughters, one of whom was Lady Eleanor Grey who married Sir John Arundell. They are the royal ancestors to Maryland’s Arundel and Calvert families and the fictional ancestors to the enchanting trio, the Queen Js and the mysteriously scarred William Calvert in Bewitching Hannah.

Elizabeth Woodville went on to marry King Edward IV and became the Queen consort of England. The TV series, The White Queen, is based on her life. Their daughter, Elizabeth of York, became the Queen consort of England and the mother of King Henry VIII.

The Fitzgeralds

Unknown-3In 1530, Henry de Grey’s descendant, Lady Elizabeth Grey, the granddaughter of the witch Elizabeth Woodville, married the 9th Earl of Kildare, who was rumored to be a warlock. They produced a son, Gerald FitzGerald, the 11th Earl of Kildare, who is referenced in the poem above. He was commonly called the Wizard Earl for his fascination with alchemy, metallurgy, and ancient magic. He was also known to have magical powers, which allowed him to transform himself into a blackbird. The FitzGerald bloodline claims the magic from Áine, the Irish goddess of summer. She is associated with the Fitzgeralds through marriage to the 3rd Earl of Kildare[1]. The troubled heroine in Bewitching Hannah, Hannah Fitzgerald, is fictionally descended from this bloodline and the earl’s magic courses powerfully through her veins.

Family Tree

The magic and royal connections of Maryland’s Calvert and Arundel families have left lasting marks on the state’s history and inspired the creation of characters in Bewitching Hannah, which is set in present-day Annapolis. Attached is the family tree that shows the relationships of these historic figures to the book’s fictional main characters.

Screen Shot 2018-04-16 at 10.26.53 AM

More about Bewitching Hannah

51l+xEpRjJL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_Sixteen-year-old Hannah Fitzgerald has always known she is descended from a royal legacy of dark magic. Although a stranger to her coven in Annapolis, she is no stranger to grief and denial. However, when an ancient prophecy reveals the rise of a young, powerful witch and the impending death of another, she realizes she can no longer afford to suppress the magic that has taken away so much. She seeks out the frighteningly scarred, yet mysterious W who is destined to change her life, but even he cannot prepare her for the danger that lies ahead.
Engaged in a deadly game and not knowing whom her true rival is, Hannah isn’t certain she will survive, and if she loses, she may lose everything, including the ones she loves.

If you’d like to purchase a copy, please click here.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Grey,_4th_(7th)_Baron_Grey_of_Codnor#cite_note-13


by 2 Comments

Leigh Goff–Writing & Thriving With Type 1 Diabetes

Leigh Goff's avatarLeigh Goff

Screen Shot 2017-08-24 at 10.45.40 AM
I’m a wife, a mother, and a young adult writer with type 1 diabetes. I was diagnosed as an adult in 2001. My first novel was published in 2015, and my second novel, Bewitching Hannah, which is set in Annapolis, just released. I’m in the middle of a busy fall season full of book signing events that will challenge me to get out there and do my writer thing while keeping my blood sugar levels balanced and staying healthy.

On a daily basis, I’m home writing, which should be easy, but the challenge is staying vigilant when I get sucked into the writing zone because I lose track of not only time, but also my type 1 routine. Fortunately, my writing companion, a sweet golden retriever, lets me know when she’d like a walk, which is often—thank goodness! I also use a Medtronic insulin pump and a Dexcom CGM (continuous…

View original post 1,208 more words

A Bewitching Literary Tour of Historic Annapolis

by 1 Comment

Leigh Goff's avatarLeigh Goff

In my second novel, Bewitching Hannah, the reader can follow in my main character’s footsteps and relive her bewitching drama as it unfolds in present-day downtown Annapolis.

The first sight Hannah, a reluctant sixteen-year-old witch, encounters on her return to Annapolis is Witch’s Grave in Truxton Park. According to local lore, the crooked tree marks the burial site of three witches who were hung and buried there. She’s reminded that being a witch, even if she doesn’t want to be one, is a dangerous business with deadly outcomes–a lesson she learned from her parents’ fates.

The next stop is Main Street and McGarvey’s Saloon & Oyster Bar in downtown Annapolis. Hannah makes lots of stops along Main Street, and off Main is McGarvey’s, a dockside restaurant where she orders an Annapolis favorite–crab dip pretzel (click this link for the recipe).

great_hallHannah and her quirky aunt then attend a Chesapeake witches…

View original post 985 more words

This gallery contains 7 photos


by 2 Comments

Ghosts & Exiles–Super Secret Cover Reveal!

Spellhaven is no more, but its spirits remain.
About the Book:
Tilda Gray hates Spellhaven, the city where her husband was born, even though she has never set foot in the place, and she does not believe in the magic it’s supposed to have held. Now her husband is dead, she would rather avoid any mention of the city. But her sons, Nicholas and James, have befriended Hugo, a young boy threatened by forces none of them understand. When Hugo’s uncle and guardian, Stephen Cole, visits the Gray family to ask for help, Tilda agrees against her better judgement. Between them, as they search for ways to banish or at least help Hugo cope with the ghosts that are driving him mad, they seek out the dubious aid of the exiles from Spellhaven. In doing so they must face new dangers and unknown magic, unlike anything Tilda could have believed possible.
Book Details:
Print Length: 300 pages
Publisher: Mirror World Publishing
Publication Date: April 17, 2018
ASIN: B07B24HY9Z
Genre(s): Magical Realism, Historical Fantasy
Read a Short Excerpt:
Stephen Cole would never have asked for help on his own account, not from strangers and especially not from a woman and a couple of young boys. Since his slow recovery from his experiences in the trenches during the First World War, he had devoted himself to his work at the Bar and had spent little time in the company of women or children. But the help was for his nephew, Hugo, and by the time Stephen arrived at the Grays’ house in Highgate one Sunday morning in November 1933, he did not know where else to turn.
When he was shown into the drawing room, Stephen looked round to try and gain an impression of the family. He decided that the room had been decorated about ten years ago and hardly changed since then. The yellow and grey curtains had lost their bloom and the wooden feet on the armchairs were scuffed, but the parquet floor round the carpet was thoroughly polished, as were the tiles inset into the fireplace. Mrs. Gray must have had skilled and hardworking servants, not as easy to find as they would once have been. Botanical illustrations hung on the panelled walls. Stephen had no time to notice more before Mrs. Gray entered the room. 
Her appearance took Stephen aback. When he had been told she was a widow, somehow he had pictured a middle-aged woman, dumpy and depressed. Maybe he had been thinking of Queen Victoria, even though he had seen enough war widows in the early days of his practice to know they came in all shapes and styles. Matilda Gray was tall for a woman, with light eyes and a pointed chin. Her pale brown hair was bobbed and smooth. She wore a fawn twin-set and a brown skirt, not new or fashionable but shapely and trim.
‘Thank you for seeing me on a Sunday, Mrs. Gray,’ Stephen said. ‘It’s your son, Nicholas, I’d really like to talk to. He is home for the weekend, isn’t he?’
Hugo lived at school all term, and often in the holidays as well, but Stephen had been told that the Grays were weekly boarders. 
‘The boys are at breakfast, Mr. Cole.’ Mrs. Gray looked as wary of him as he was of her. 
‘I hope your maid gave you my apologies for disturbing you.’ 
‘It doesn’t matter, but you will have to explain what this is about before I decide whether Nicholas should be involved.’
Pre-Order from:
Read About the Book at Mirror World Publishing
Add to Your Shelf on Goodreads
Meet the Author:
Sandra Unerman lives in London in the UK. When she retired from a career as a Government lawyer, she undertook an MA in Creative Writing at Middlesex University, specialising in science fiction and fantasy, and graduated in 2013. Since then, she has had a number of short stories published. Her latest stories are in Sword and Sorcery magazine, June 2017, and Fall into Fantasy, an anthology from Cloaked Press. She writes reviews and articles for the British Science Fiction Association and the British Fantasy Society. She is a member of London Clockhouse writers and other writing groups. Her interests include history, folklore and medieval literature.
Connect with Sandra:
Sandra’s Website:
Sandra’s Author Page: 
Goodreads Author Page: