Cooking with Author Katy Lee! Leave a comment for a lobster cookie cutter!

Welcome to the Patchwork Quilt blog, Katy Lee!

Thank you, Alice, for having me as your guest during the Christian Book Launch! I’m excited to share a cookie recipe with your readers. I decided to make it cookies because of the holiday season, but also because my heroine in WARNING SIGNS loves to bake cookies. Miriam Hunter is deaf and uses American Sign Language to speak. In the book, she signs the word cookie like this:

For my cookies, I baked Lobster Sour Cream Sugar Cookies. Cut-out cookies are festive, but I chose the lobster to go along with the cover of my book WARNING SIGNS. It has lobster traps strewn on the rocks. One commenter on this blog will get a cookie cutter of a lobster as well, so you can make them, too!

Miriam doesn’t make these lobster cookies in the book. She does make others, but she’s got too much going on and needs to get out of the way of danger.

Here’s a bit more about WARNING SIGNS:
When a drug-smuggling ring rocks a small coastal town, the DEA sends Agent Owen Matthews to shut it down. A single father with a deaf son, Owen senses that the town's number one suspect—the high school's new principal—doesn't fit the profile. Miriam Hunter hoped to shrug off the stigma of her hearing impairment when she returned to Stepping Stones, Maine. But her recurring nightmares dredge up old memories that could prove her innocence—and uncover the truth behind a decades-old murder. Yet Owen's help may not be enough when someone decides to keep Miriam silenced—permanently.


To purchase the WARNING SIGNS Kindle version, you can go to this link.

B.O.G.O. Sale:
If you purchase WARNING SIGNS between 12/1/13 -12/16/13 from any retailer, contact Katy at her website for directions to claim your FREE ecopy of REAL VIRTUE. Visit this site if you would like to see the details on REAL VIRTUE. But remember to contact Katy directly at her website to claim your e-copy!

Bonus Amazon Giveaway: For a chance to win a $200 Amazon gift card, between December 1 and December 16, 2013, enter the John 3:16 Marketing Network Rafflecopter drawing. You get a free entry just for stopping by!

Now for the recipe:
The one I use is found online (and to get full instructions and pictures), visit this website for the Sugar Cookies Recipe. It really is the best sugar cookie. So soft and crumbly. (Don’t cook too long or it will become crunchy.)
ENJOY!


More about Katy Lee:
As an Inspirational Romantic Suspense author, Katy Lee writes higher-purpose stories in high-speed worlds. Through her writing, ministries, and teaching, she dedicates her life to sharing tales of love, from the “greatest love story ever told” to those sweet romantic stories of falling in love. Katy and her husband are born New Englanders and love to travel with their three adventuresome homeschooled children. You can connect with Katy anytime at her website. There you will find links to her Facebook and Twitter accounts.


Thanks for stopping by, Katy Lee, and thanks for reading, readers! Be sure to leave a comment so that you have a chance to win a lobster cookie cutter. There is one rule: You must follow this blog in order to be entered in the drawing.

Cooking with Katy Lee

Welcome author Katy Lee to my blog today! She's written a post about her latest book, Real Virtue, but first let's talk about food.

Thank you, Alice for having me on the Patchwork Quilt Blog! I am excited to be here with you and to meet all your readers. I have to admit, though, when you asked me to come and share about my favorite dish to cook, I got a little panicky.

You see, I’m not much of a cook. (Hanging my head in shame)

But I got to thinking, something I am good at is Crock-Pot cooking. I am all for throwing a bunch of ingredients into a pot in the morning and around 5PM reaping the tasty reward. And with writing all day, it really is convenient. Plus, I don’t have the kids asking me, "What’s for dinner?" They can see it, and smell it, cooking all day.

I have many dishes and soups and stews that I make, but my two favorites are Chili and Beef Stew. They each have a secret ingredient in them that makes them so tasty. My chili is Ketchup. It sweetens it right up.

As for the Beet Stew, the secret ingredient is Tapioca Granules. 2 Tablespoons of those with 2 Tablespoons of sugar mixed with tomato sauce, makes for a great base that thickens up nicely. Then add all your meat and veggies on top and cover. Stir every now and then and you’ve got dinner waiting for you 8 hours later.

Enjoy!

Pastime or Addiction? And the story behind Real Virtue


Did you know video game addiction is becoming an increasingly difficult problem with the youths in America today? It can affect the everyday life and social situations of children through young adults. Video game addiction can hinder a child's learning skills, cause real life problem solving to become more difficult, and cause a child to spend far less time with family and friends.

In Real Virtue, the story opens with my heroine, Mel Mesini, reaching the highest level in this online interactive game she plays. A game that promises her a life she can love. She’s playing while she is supposed to be working. She plays because she doesn’t feel so great about her real life. She plays because it’s a world she can control.

Or so she thinks.


In a virtual reality game where she can fly, someone’s aiming to take her down.

Mel Mesini is a New York City restaurateur and an avid, virtual reality world traveler. She’s risen above her misfit life and now bears a striking resemblance to her glamorous, gaming avatar. But her successful life—both online and in reality—takes a swerve the night her father is seriously injured in a hit-and-run. Mel is careened back to her judgmental hometown, where being the daughter of the town’s crazy lady had made her the outcast she was. To make matters worse, Officer Jeremy Stiles, the man whose harsh, rejecting words had cut her the deepest, is heading the investigation.

Jeremy knows he hurt Mel and attempts to make amends by finding her father’s assailant. When he realizes she’s the actual target, his plan for reconciliation turns to one of protection—whether she wants his help or not. What he wants is answers, especially about this online game she plays. Is it a harmless pastime as she says? Or is she using it to cover something up? As a faceless predator destroys the things that matter to her, Jeremy knows he’s running out of time before she loses the one thing that matters most—her real life.

Katy Lee writes higher-purpose stories in high-speed worlds. As an inspirational author, speaker, home-schooling mom, and children’s ministry director, she has dedicated her life to sharing tales of love, from the greatest love story ever told to those sweet romantic stories of falling in love. Her fresh and unique voice brings a fast-paced and modern feel to her romances that are sure to resonate with readers long after the last page. Her debut novel Real Virtue is a finalist in many writing contests, and took second place in the 2011 Georgia Maggie Award of Excellence. Katy lives in New England with her husband, three children, and two cats.


Visit Katy at these sites: Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Soulmate Publishing


And at her website.