Squash Soup, Garden gone crazy!

My garden is going crazy. I have a couple of English cucumber plants and they are producing like mad. We are trying to eat one a day just so it doesn’t get too far ahead of us, and we give the rest away. Luckily the tomato plants are just as busy, so we’ve had a lot of Greek salads! 🙂 Then there are the squash plants, too many to count.

Making a batch of Squash Soup today. I got the recipe from the world famous Butchart Gardens near Victoria. It always turns out fabulous – squash, apple, carrot, celery, onion, a stick of cinnamon, not to mention a few tablespoons of curry paste. Just put it through the food processor.

What are you harvesting from your garden?

Dead Wrong! Did you leave a review?

DEAD WRONG  is available. Get it now! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G6YZ3BR/   books2read.com/DeadWRong

Like any new book, reviews are needed. Post a review, then send me an email with the link at – sylviegraysonauthor@gmail.com . You then let me know which of my other books you’d like for free,  and whether you use mobi or epub. I will send it out  to you right away. Easy peasy!

Excerpt from Dead Wrong—

He drove into the shadows of the old parking lot and drew his battered black pickup to a halt near the building entrance. There were a few cars scattered across the cracked blacktop but no one else was in sight. The  apartment building was old, a three-floor walk-up with battered stucco-clad walls and a flat roof. It had clearly seen better days.

The sky was heavily overcast and it looked like rain was imminent. Maybe that’s why everyone was indoors on this dreary February evening. He stepped out of the cab of his truck and stared at the building, hoping Billy was home. It was time to sort out a few things that had been left untended too long. He was in no rush to begin the encounter. On second  thought, knowing how Billy operated, he was better safe than sorry. He  reached behind the driver’s seat to grab the tire iron.

Billy Zach was an unpredictable man. Tonight, he wasn’t going to take any chances with how this played out. But he was going to deal with the  bastard, one way or the other. Why had no one stepped up to take control? This situation had gone on far too long. There were lots of people who should have challenged him over the issue of how he treated his girlfriend, but surprisingly no one had. Well, tonight there was a different agenda, and it was going to cost the asshole big time. He’d take care of things now, because it couldn’t be left any longer to chance.

As he approached the entrance, the front door opened and his target stepped out. Billy wore his usual worn denims low on his hips, feet stuffed into a pair of laceless runners. A faded green tee shirt showed beneath his heavy wool jacket. Most surprising was the bright red bruise forming in front of his left ear. Perhaps someone else had already tried to sort him out. A feeling of satisfaction settled in the man’s gut. Good timing, that’s what it was, remarkable timing to find him here like this.

“What do you want?” Billy snarled, glaring angrily as he came down the stairs. “Are you just hanging out here waiting for me? Coward! Couldn’t even knock on my door?”

“I’m no coward,” he said, determination rising in his chest. “I’ve come to give you a warning. You’d better take it to heart if you know what’s good for you.”

“Take it to heart?” Billy put back his head and laughed derisively. “What heart?” He was staring at him now, a strange penetrating gaze that sent an unwelcome shiver down the man’s backbone. “I don’t have a heart. And no measly warning from you is going to change that.”

“Forget it,” he said. “I’ve come to tell you it’s going to cost. Pay up or else. You owe me and you know it. This is your last chance…”

He suddenly lost his words because Billy took a long step forward and hit him square in the face with a closed fist. His head snapped back and he staggered as blood spurted from his nose. Before he could react, Billy took another heavy swing. At the last minute, he remembered the tire iron in his hand and aimed it squarely at the side of Billy’s head.

Zach fell, whirling in what seemed like slow motion toward the ground. The back of his skull connected with the concrete step behind him. There was a sharp crack like the sound of a hammer on tile. Billy Zach lay still.

*******

I love it when we connect, you can leave a comment for me any time,

Best, Sylvie

 

Cover Reveal, eBook giveaway!

DEAD WRONG–  Shelly’s boyfriend disappeared without a trace. Never did she imagine he’d come back to haunt her!

Shelley Blake is a nine-year-old child prodigy in a sixth-grade classroom when she first meets Christ Wright. He’s the big boy in the desk behind who takes her under his protective wing, fending off the mean kids.

But soon she leaves him behind to attend a different school and skip another grade. When she begins university, her classmates observe her extreme youth and obvious competence and walk a wide berth around her. Lonely, she meets charming Billy Zach, but new love soon turns to abuse. Shelley is too immature to know how to handle it when Billy simply disappears.

Years later, when Chris suddenly shows up again in Shelley’s life, she wonders if she can trust her growing attraction to him. She’s already dealing with her father’s worsening emphysema, her sister’s secrets, and the uncertain demands of her still fledgling business, But things escalate when the police return asking questions about Billy Zach. As more evidence is uncovered about Billy, and she’s dogged by police interest, Shelley realizes none of it will matter if she’s heading to prison for a murder she didn’t commit.

Giveaway! Leave a comment on the new cover, and I’ll select a winner who will receive the ebook when it is released. Someone has to win!

Larkspur, Roses and New Cover Coming

My garden has gone crazy with the heat, now that it has finally arrived. Here are some tall lovelies that shot up. We had quite a discussion about what they were – larkspur? delphinium? Etc. 

Turns out a larkspur is a delphinium, so we were all right!

The climbing rose is healthy. This is a rose that I got from my mother years ago, took some shoots and rooted them. It doesn’t have much scent but is the only rose that will grow in my new place, so I’m grateful.

Still waiting for the cover for Dead Wrong. It’s been a struggle, partly because I started off wrong with my ideas for it, and then I got sidetracked with life. Why does that happen? ? So my poor designer was left in limbo, but I think we are very close. Should be able to reveal it soon. Fingers crossed!

 

 

Visit to Maui – so beautiful

I have taken a break from writing and we are spending time in beautiful Maui. I love it here.

The special things about Maui—

  • Soft balmy air
  • Soft warm salty ocean
  • Doves cooing outside my window
  • Tiny lizards darting all over as I walk along
  • The beautiful palms rustling in the wind
  • Banks of flowers of all kinds and colours

Meanwhile back home, the weather has continued to look like late winter so I don’t miss it at all.

All has not been great here. I broke a crown on a back tooth on the plane on the way here. Found a great dentist who managed to file down the rough parts that were scraping the inside of my cheek and the side of my tongue. So now I’m much more comfortable.

We joined a gym and planned to work out every other day while here, plus a swim every day. We’ve done the swim, but I wrecked my lower back at the gym after the 3rd visit and had to find a chiropractor. Two visits later, I am starting to feel better and only using the ice pack twice a day! ?

Oh, well. It’s beautiful here, the people we meet are friendly and so helpful. We’ll certainly come back.