ENTER TO WIN CHOCOLATES AND ROMANCE NOVELS ~ THE PERFECT VALENTINE GIFTS

Enter to win our Valentine's Day Chocolate and Romance Contest

One entry per person.  Duplicates will be discarded

One Winner will receive their choice of a Valentine Gift Basket or 

A Godiva Valentine Chocolate Box

One Winner will receive a print copy of our January Romance Release, Silver Linings by BWL Australian author Priscilla Brown

Two Winners will Prizes their choice of a Romance Novel from any book in our BWL Publishing Romance Collection

Recipe: Healthy Granola, Happy New Year

Terror on Sunshine Boulevard by J.Q. Rose

Mystery, paranormal

Click here to find JQ's books at BWL Publishing

Hello and welcome to the Books We Love Insiders Blog. My name is J.Q. Rose.

How are you doing with your New Year goals, resolutions, plans? Nearly three weeks have passed. All the "in" people tell us it takes 21 days to make your plan a habit. 

Happy New Year from J.Q. Rose

I believe it. Several years ago I resolved to write every day after lunch. No Internet. No phone. I took my time writing with no limits. Sometimes I played with the story for 15 minutes and sometimes I spent 2 hours on it. That's how I finished my mystery, Deadly Undertaking. 

I continue to keep that habit because it has proven to work well for me. That's how I penned Terror on Sunshine Boulevard, my latest release from BWL Publishing. Now, I look forward to that writing time after lunch and feel cheated if I'm unable to keep that appointment with myself.

Begin Now Quote

If one of your goals for 2018 is to eat more healthy foods, then I have a recipe for you. This granola recipe has all good-for-you ingredients, however, it must be eaten in moderation. I like it sprinkled on top of my Cheerios or yogurt. (not on ice cream, but just between you and me, it's delicious on ice cream!) Caution: It should not be eaten by the bowlful because it has calories and fat in it.

Cathy's Granola Recipe

8 c. oats uncooked (I use rolled oats)

1/2 c. + 1 T. olive oil

1 T. vanilla

1/2 c. + 1 T. honey

1/2 c. each of almonds, walnuts, pecans

1/2 c. each raisins, cranberries, dried fruit

Set oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine oats, oil, vanilla, honey. Spread in single layer on baking sheet. 

Bake 30 minutes turning and stirring every ten minutes. Add nuts after first 10 minutes.

Remove from oven. Cool. Stir in dried fruit. Store in air-tight container.

Yield: 11 cups

Simple and yummy!

Click here to connect online with J.Q. Rose at her Focused on Story Blog.

Farewell to My Loyal Writing Companion, Zak by Stuart R. West

Click to See Stuart R. West's Books

Not too long ago, we lost our beloved dog, Zak. Zak sat at my feet non-stop while I wrote eighteen novels, the best muse a writer could ask for. The perfect sounding board with no mean criticism. 

More than that, he gave us ten joyous years of love, loyalty, and play, while the eleventh year was fraught with emotion, and at times harrowing as we saw him go through four major surgeries, one amputation, rehabilitation, and finally, loss.

Zak was an absolutely unworldly ball of energy finally done in by the limitations of his physical body. He simply couldn't be contained within his aging body. His high-level play did in his back legs.

He will be sorely missed. He is missed. This is the hardest blog post I've ever written.

But I don't want to mourn, but rather celebrate Zak's wonderful life.

Zak was a rescue dog. At six months old, we found him rummaging through trash cans, love at first sight! The first night we brought him home on a trial-basis, I found myself sitting on the kitchen floor, laughing hysterically as he licked me with wild abandon.

I said to my wife, "I really, really like him."

"Yeah," she answered, "we're keeping him."

And we were off! What an adventure we had...

Alas, because of Zak's breed--half pit-bull terrier (the other half never determined and it didn't matter to us one bit)--he faced a life-time of prejudice. My mom, brother, a good friend, even strangers on the street when I walked Zak, were terrified of our dog. We had to be extra careful with him.

Not that we needed to. Zak was the best-natured dog we'd ever met. The only threat from him came from loving you to death, smothering you in kisses. Everywhere Zak went--doggie daycare, the vet, the nail clipper gals at Petco, physical therapy--he received lots of compliments and made fans. Everyone fell in love with him, his good nature, his loyalty, his temperament. Even my mom finally came around (and she NEVER comes around on anything), proclaiming him, "such a sweet, good dog."

In his years of life, Zak only bit two people (not bad odds for any dog): one, a mower in the next yard, who definitely deserved it for taunting Zak; and two, a cable guy who I wanted to bite. Hey, Zak was just doing his job. Loyalty like his couldn't be bought. He took his protection duties very seriously. Just ask the mailman. Dunno what it was about the mailman, but it was pretty much the only person Zak never liked. Even on our walks, Zak could spot the blue uniform several blocks away and wanted to assure the postman stayed far away from invading our turf.

Zak shared with everyone a universal desire to be loved. And we did; we loved him so much that this has been a very painful farewell. Clearly Zak returned that love in bunches. Once, while I sat on the deck, he ran up to me, something draping from his mouth...two rabbit legs. He dropped the half-carcass at my feet. Wiggled his tail, golden eyes full of hope for kudos at his gift to me. A gift presented out of love. Unfortunately, I responded with girlish shrieks. But I understood the intent. It was the kind of dog Zak was. Very giving in many ways. Whenever my wife screamed at seeing a spider, Zak beat me to her rescue.

Oddly enough, Zak was never very food-oriented. Playing was his bag. And play he did, hard and fast and furious. When he was younger, he ran whip-fast, crazy-eights in the backyard. He'd actually pounce--pounce!--on his hind legs like a kangaroo. The first time I ever saw him "play" with another dog, I was horrified; it looked as if he wanted to tear the other dog apart, all growls, nips, rough and tumble worse than a no-holds barred Black Friday shopping spree. But I also noticed Zak never bit the other dogs. Even in the unrestrained passion of play, he withheld himself. When the other dog would take a bite, Zak would just back-off, tail wagging. He loved dogs, never met a dog he didn't like. Except for maybe my daughter's brat of a beagle. Which is weird, because they started as friends (my daughter insists it stems from an unseen backyard bone incident).

In his older age, Zak still maintained his energy and that's what ultimately did his back legs in. Both of them, one by one. We tried to repay Zak's unflagging loyalty. We did everything we could to save him. But my wife saw he was hurting. And the remaining back leg had developed another bone infection, one that antibiotics couldn't stop.

 Seeing that wonderful, loving, playful, force of great-natured energy stilled on the vet's table was hard. So very heart-rending.

Over the last six years, I'd spent nearly every minute of my life with my friend, Zak. As a full-time writer, I wrote eighteen novels with him always beside me. 

I'll miss him greatly. My friend. My companion. My dear loyal, furry love.

Here's to you, Zak. *Tink* I hope you're happily chasing stupid angelic rabbits and mailmen with wings.