Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding is my absolute favorite meal (my grandfather was English), so I know whose house to visit next year!  Jasmine Haynes/Jennifer Skully/JB Skully takes time out from her multiple personalities <g> and her holiday huddle to share some wonderful traditions (and a great recipe).  Enjoy!


Holiday Traditions with Jasmine Haynes

Here’s how my holiday season works.  My two brothers live back East, so my mom alternates years between the daughters and the sons, meaning, one year my sister and I get Thanksgiving with her, and the next year we, the girls, get Christmas.  This year our turn was Thanksgiving, so we’re packaging her up and shipping her off today.  But on Saturday we had a wonderful celebration.  Our feast was turducken (it’s a roll of turkey, duck and chicken with sausage stuffing in the middle), roast potatoes, broccoli and Hot Chocolate pudding for dessert (YUM!).  Now, I have to admit we all agreed that next year we’ll go back to the traditional roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and skip the turducken.  Did I tell you Mom is British?  Yep, and a very proper English lady at that.  Our traditional meal when I was a kid always included Yorkshire Pudding.  It’s not really a pudding like it sounds, but more like a popover.  And you fill it with gravy made from the meat drippings.  To die for.  I always loved the hot chocolate pudding, too.  It’s like a brownie with a hot fudge sauce.  Add a dollop of whipped cream, mmm.  Love it!  The other traditional dessert we often have is English Trifle.  Loads of whipped cream, and a spike to it as well, thanks to the sherry.  Today I’m going to share my mother’s recipe for English trifle with you.

Mom’s English Trifle

            2 packages lady finger cakes

            Raspberry jam as needed

            4 to 6 T sherry

            2 bananas sliced

            1 package thick custard

            2 half pints whipping cream

Place lady fingers around edge and center of dessert bowl, covering the whole bowl.  Spread raspberry jam over top of cake (thin layer to individual liking).  Drizzle sherry on top to soak into cake.  Layer bananas on top of cake and sherry.  Make thick custard from package and spread over bananas and cake.  Whip cream and top cooled custard.
 

Okay, Mom says “drizzle” but let me tell you, she can be very liberal with the sherry, LOL!

Any traditional recipes you’d like to share?

I’ve also got my blog up http://jasminehaynes.blogspot.com/ so feel free to pop over there and check out Mom’s recipe for Hot Chocolate Pudding, too!

Happy Holidays everyone!!!!  And thanks for having me, Lucienne!

 

Jasmine, Jennifer and JB!

www.jasminehaynes.com

Look for Laced with Desire, coming February 2010

Happy release day to the authors of the NEVER AFTER anthology - Laurell K. Hamilton, Yasmine Galenorn, Marjorie M. Liu and Sharon Shinn - and to Diana Pharaoh Francis for her brilliant urban fantasy BITTER NIGHT, Crystal Jordan for her wicked hot erotica UNTAMED and David Mack for his 4400 tie-in PROMISES BROKEN!

 Michelle Buonfiglio from  Barnes & Noble Bookclub's Heart to Heart blogged about Jasmine Haynes' upcoming November 3rd release YOURS FOR THE NIGHT.  Click here to check it out.

  In other news, I'm off at the crack of dawn Thursday morning for two signings in California and then the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose.  For any VAMPED fans out there, the venues for Thursday, the 29th of October are:

Kepler's Books and Magazines
1010 El Camino Real Menlo Park, CA 94025
Tel: (650) 324-4321
4 p.m. PST - Greet and Sign

Borders in Los Gatos
50 University Ave., #280, Los Gatos, CA 95030
Tel: (408) 395-6622
6:30 p.m. - Multi-Author Signing with romance authors Jami Alden, Bella Andre, Mardi Ballou, Jasmine Haynes, Paty Jager, Crystal Jordan, Kate Perry and Veronica Wolff; mystery author Diana Orgain



Don't forget that The Knight Agency is hosting Halloween Week on our blog, complete with giveaways.  Today's guest blogger is Chloe Neill, author of SOME GIRLS BITE and FRIDAY NIGHT BITES.

The blog may be a bit quiet this week because I'm off first thing tomorrow for the big Romance Writers of America National Conference in DC.  Crazy schedule, but I'm excited because I'll be spending time with some of my wonderful authors, including, in no particular order:

Rosemary Clement-Moore: RITA finalist for HELL WEEK, the second in her great Maggie Quinn: Girl vs. Evil series
Crystal Jordan: erotica author extraordinaire
Susan Krinard: amazing and bestselling paranormal romance writer
Janet Mullany: wonderfully edgy author who wears many hats, including presenter of "Writing the Hot Historical" with me and Pam Rosenthal at the conference
(I just spotted this great write up including her new Immortal Jane Austen series in PW.)
Michele Lang: two words "LADY LAZARUS" - look for it in 2010
Jasmine Haynes/Jennifer Skully/JB Skully:
Debra Mullins: award-winning historical romance writer
Karen Whiddon: author of the tres popular Pack series for Nocturne
Vicky Dreiling: whose debut novels we've just sold to Warner Forever/Grand Central Publishing for publication in 2011

Not to mention the parties, the chocolate, the Oscar-style RITA Award Ceremony.  Sigh.  Life is hard. 

I'm especially excited about the "Readers for Life" Literacy Signing event on Wednesday evening from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Washington Marriott Wardham Park at 2660 Woodley Road NW , Washington, D.C.  Just check out this amazing line-up.   I'll be there with VAMPED as well!

If instead of RWA (or in addition to) your plans include San Diego ComicCon, check the schedule for great events featuring Rob Thurman, Marjorie M. Liu, Lynn Flewelling and Keith R.A. DeCandido and be sure to pencil in the Sci/Fi/Fantasy Discussion Panel withPatrick Rothfuss, Rob Thurman, Amber Benson, Thomas Sniegoski, Seanan McGuire, Jeanne Stein, Kat Richardson at Borders, 668 6th Street on Saturday, July 25th at 8 pm.

I'm also thrilled to report that David Mack, author of the forthcoming uf/supernatural suspense novel THE CALLING is guest blogger today at The Knight Agency's site.  Comment there to win a signed copy of THE CALLING!

  If anyone hasn't yet picked up Diana Pharaoh Francis' awesome Crosspointe series yet (THE CIPHER, THE BLACK SHIP, THE TURNING TIDE), here's a review of her new release that might convince you to beat feet for the nearest book store!

For some new and exciting June releases, check out:

CARPE CORPUS by Rachel Caine
#6 in the author's bestselling Morganville Vampires series!

FAIR GAME by Jasmine Haynes

Talk about heat!  If this erotic tale doesn't raise your temperature…well, we'll have to check your pulse to be sure you haven't become one of Rachel Caine's undead.

FARSCAPE by Keith R.A. DeCandido and Rockne O'Bannon
Hardcover collection of the first FARSCAPE miniseries co-written by Keith R.A. DeCandido and series creator Rockne S. O'Bannon.

The fantabulous Jasmine Haynes/Jennifer Skully/JB Skully is here today with not only a wonderful blog, but a chance to take home a signed copy of the award-winning UNLACED anthology.  Comment to win!

"There’s more to erotic romance than being twenty-something..." by Jasmine Haynes

Thanks for having me, Lucienne!  In my Jasmine Haynes persona, I’ve just come off writing an erotic trilogy about women on the cusp of thirty.  I loved writing The Fortune Hunter, Show and Tell, and Fair Game (which will be out in June 2009).  I’m not so old that I’ve forgotten what it was like to be thirty, I swear it!  I even enjoyed reexamining some of the issues I went through at that age, especially in regards to the work environment.  But I’m really ready to get back to writing heroines more my current age.  For a while.  Then, of course, I’ll get tired of that and want to change again!  Unlaced, the anthology I’ve done with Jaci Burton, Joey Hill and Denise Rossetti was my first foray back into writing about women a little older.  I’ve done a May-December romance.  My hero, Dirk, is 12 years younger than Margo.  Of course, in erotic romance, I think we have to fall in love with our own heroes or we can’t really write them with the full emotional impact, so I made him especially yummy. 

 

( Read more... )
Why don’t you share how you pamper yourself for being the totally awesome woman that you are?  I’d love to hear.  One lucky commentor will win an autographed copy of Unlaced.

Jasmine, Jennifer and JB!

Please join me on my blog for more fun chances to win http://jasminehaynes.blogspot.com/

And the winner is...supertailz .  E-mail me at Lucienne(dot)Diver@knightagency.net with your address for a copy of Laura Anne Gilman's novel!

Jennifer Skully/Jasmine Haynes/JB Skully</lj> is a long time fantasy and sf fan whose put her years of "study" on the genres to good use in her own paranormal stories (erotic and otherwise)....  She also writes straight-up romantica and humorous romantic suspense.  You have to figure that with that many personalities all vying for the same headspace that there's something a little preternatural about the woman herself.

I'll be closing out urban fantasy week tomorrow with my own blog.  Paranormal Romance Week will begin November 17th, but there'll be some interesting stuff between now and then, so stay tuned.  Also, if you haven't done so, I'd love you to sign up for my newsletter here.  As soon as my cover for Vamped is finalized, probably by the end of the week, my main character, Gina, will be taking over my headspace and writing up her thoughts on Halloween and costume dos and don'ts.  She's, um, mildly opinionated.

Paranormal Lite: Beyond Shapeshifters, Vampires, and Demons by Jennifer Skully...

I love vampires and werewolves and the fantastic worlds some of my favorite authors create where these creatures live and have totally human--or inhuman--attributes.  I remember reading the back cover blurb of Blue Moon by Laurell K. Hamilton, laughing hysterically (because really, Anita Blake can be quite funny at times), and I was hooked from that moment forward.  I started thinking, breathing, living Anita Blake.  She battles every legendary creature ever thought up by the human psyche, and then some.

( Read more... )Jasmine, Jennifer and JB!

Website: http://www.skullybuzz.com

Blog: http://www.jasminehaynes.blogspot.com/

Newsletter: skullybuzz-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

I know I'd mentioned I'd make the first Friday of every month my new and exciting releases day, but since I'll be away next Friday, I'm posting a little early. 

THE IRON HUNT by Marjorie M. Liu (Ace mass market – urban fantasy)

SHOW AND TELL by Jasmine Haynes (Berkley sensation – erotic romance)

DUTY TO PROTECT by Beth Cornelison (Silhouette Romantic Suspense)

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Huzzah to Jasmine Haynes for winning the Holt Medallion in the Extra Spicy Romance category for OPEN INVITATION!!

Congratulations also to Patti O'Shea, who was a finalist in the Paranormal/Time Travel/Futuristic Category for ETERNAL NIGHTS!