Holiday Author Guest Post & Book Giveaway: Laura Childs

Todays guest blogger is Laura Childs, author of the New York Times bestselling Cackleberry Club Mysteries and Tea Shop Mysteries.

Greetings all and happy holidays!

As I fuss about my writing studio, gazing at the Christmas presents I’m attempting to hide from family members, my thoughts just seem to naturally drift back to Christmases past.

I have a hazy memory of a Christmas party I attended when I was just three. This was back in the fifties, mind you, when moms baked cookies, cakes, bars, and fudge, and congregated with their toddlers at each others homes. While kids played with train sets and fuzzy bears under a Christmas tea, our moms sipped coffee and gazed benevolently at us. As the day slipped into a blue-black winter evening, fathers would arrive from work, stomping snow and wearing hats and dress coats, ready to gather up wives and children. It was magical and lent a feeling that all was safe and right with the world. And I miss that feeling terribly.

Years later, as an adult and busy ad agency owner, I was searching for the perfect gift for my dad. I finally settled upon the complete set of tapes of Victory at Sea, a marvelous World War II series that had been produced in the fifties, I remember the look on his face when he unwrapped his gift. He gazed at it for the longest time, then murmured, “This is so special”. You see, he’d been in that war, he’d been at sea, and he’d been one of those quiet victors.

When I wrote Bedeviled Eggs, my just-published Cackleberry Club Mystery, I tried to capture that magical, innocent, fifties-feeling. Though the mystery is set in contemporary times, it offers a raft of small-town characters that make you yearn for simpler times. At the top of the list are Suzanne, Toni, and Petra, the wise-cracking (and egg cracking) entrepreneurial ladies of the Cackleberry Club Mornings where they whip up Egg Strata and Slumbering Volcanoes, then work a double shift as amateur sleuths. Because in this third book of the series, a read dating event ends badly when a mayoral candidate gets lobotomized with a crossbow. Two days later, a sheriff’s deputy is found murdered on the historical society’s Quilt Trail. Now Suzanne, the Cackleberry Club’s founder, and Sheriff Doogie must struggle to unravel clues even as they contend with rescued fighting dogs, a prison break, and some very dirty politics.

Spirituality abounds, too, along with pulse-pounding action and tasty recipes for breakfast egg pizza, crabby omelets, pumpkin pancakes, and hazelnut scones. And for readers on the lookout for stocking stuffers this holiday, theres a $7.99 mass market price.

Happy Holidays and peace to all!
Laura Childs

About the Author:

Laura Childs is the author of the Cackleberry Club Mysteries, Tea Shop Mysteries, and Scrapbooking Mysteries. Her books have been named to the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists and been featured selections of the Mystery Guilds Mystery Book Club. Visit Laura at www.laurachilds.com.

About the Book:

Bedeviled Eggs (A Cackleberry Club Mystery)
Publication Date: December 7, 2010

The ladies at the Cackleberry Club café are busy preparing for Halloween. But someone’s jumped the gun on the tricks. As mayoral candidate Chuck Peebler leaves the café, he gets struck with a crossbow arrow and is killed instantly. And when another murder occurs on the historical society’s Quilt Trail, the Cackleberry Club needs to sniff out the bad egg-before he strikes again.

Book Giveaway:

Thanks to the publisher, I have 1 copy of this book to give away to a lucky USA blog reader!

RULES:

1. Giveaway is open to residents of the USA only!

2. Please complete the form below (do not leave information in the comments – it will not count!)

3. Giveaway ends January 11, 2011 at 11:59pm EST; 1 winner will be selected and contacted thereafter.

4. Once the winner is contacted, he/she will have 48 hours to respond to my email or another winner will be chosen (make sure to check your spam filters!).

5. No PO Box Addresses!

6. Books will be shipped directly from the publisher.

7. You are not required to be a follower of my blog to enter my giveaways, but it would be awesome if you liked my blog enough to start following me!