Hey Gang! Happy Spring time wherever you may be. I love this time of year. The birds are back in force, everything is budding and blooming, and the promise of warmer days has me itching to get out and dig in the dirt.
To celebrate this month, I’m joining forces with a fabulous group of authors on a Blog Hop called Authors in Bloom. How it works is that between April 9th and April 18th, you can visit each author’s blog or website and enter to win an amazing array of prizes. At each stop, you’ll be able to pick up some great gardening tips and wonderful recipes to make your spring that much brighter. You'll also be able to collect phrases at each author's site that will add up to a story. If you collect all the phrases, you can enter to win a Kindle or a Nook loaded with free books! You’ll find all the details and the list of participating authors with links to their sites by clicking here to go to the Authors in Bloom landing page.
Don’t go yet! Here are my phrases to the Authors in Bloom Traveling Story.
Line 4: Nestled together in the garden,
Line 5: they present a lovely palette of beauty; fresh fragrant.
I recommend checking out the details of the contest requirements on the Authors in Bloom site, but if you want to hop right on over to the participating authors and their links to collect your phrases, see their recipes and gardening tips, and enter their individual contests, you can find the links here.
Here's my idea of a Sunny Delight dessert. If you want a great super easy pie recipe that's just perfect for spring and summer, try this:
You'll need one package of vanilla instant pudding mix, 2 cups of cold milk, an 8 oz. package of cream cheese, a graham cracker crust (I buy mine ready made), and a banana. Beat the softened cream cheese with a half cup of the milk until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla pudding mix and the rest of the milk and blend until thickened (3-5 minutes). Slice half the banana onto the bottom of the pie crust and then pour the pudding mixture on top. Top the pie with the rest of the banana slices and add whipped cream if you like. I also add sliced strawberries to both the bottom and top of my pie to add a sweet/tart flavor. Chill and serve. Enjoy! You can make this low fat and sugar free by using lite cream cheese, sugar free pudding mix, and skim or 1% milk.
As for gardening tips, here's one of my favorites. Check out this you-tube video to find out how to make manure tea. Trust me; your plants are going to LOVE it!
My Contest
At the end of the blog hop, I’ll pick one lucky winner to receive this awesome prize pack which includes signed copies of each of my books, a free download of ON THIN ICE, a mug, bookmarks, a pen, a tee shirt, a World Wildlife Fund water bottle, and a national Wildlife Federation tote along with a cute stuffed baby polar bear! Whew…what a giveaway!
So here’s how you enter. Between April 9th and April 18th leave a comment on this blog. That’s all you have to do to be in the running. Make sure you include a valid e-mail address. If you want more chances to win, you can subscribe to my Newsletter by "Joining my mailing list" here, “like” my Face Book page here, follow me on Twitter here, and tweet about the Authors in Bloom Blog Hop (#Authors in Bloom Blog Hop. Enter to win amazing prizes @pjsharon http://www.pjsharonyawriter.blogspot.com ). It’s that easy, and for every effort, you will be rewarded by having your name entered for another chance in the drawing. If you do all of the above, I’ll add your name an extra time. That means you could be entered five times! That has got to up your chances. Just let me know in the comment section what you’ve done to help me spread the word.
Contest is only open to US residents and deadline to enter is midnight on April 18th. Winner will be announced here and also on the Authors in Bloom site on April 21st.
And if that doesn’t get you hopping, I’m joining fifteen other authors on April 19th for a “Give Your Child a Free Book Day (or fifteen)!
That’s right, SAVAGE CINDERELLA will be included in this wonderful opportunity to grab free Kindle books for kids from children’s books, to Middle Grade, to YA. You can check out the amazing lineup here. Just so you don’t miss out, I’m extending my free days to include April 20th and 21st. Awesome, right? Here's the link to Amazon where you'll have three days to get SAVAGE CNDERELLA for free!
Before I forget, a big thank you to Gina Beach for all of her creative "Title ideas" for Book One of the dystopian trilogy I'm working on called the Chronicles of Lilly Carmichael. A few other folks chimed in with suggestions, but I had to go with my gut on this one. Book One will be titled "WANING MOON", Book II will be "WESTERN DESERT" and Book III, "WINTER SUN". So there you have it! Now I just have to write it:-)
Well, that’s all I have for now. It’s going to be an exciting month!



