FATAL FOODIES: Fun Food Festivals

Christine Verstraete is an award-winning journalist and author of a children's mystery and numerous short stories. She's now seeking publishers for a children's picture book (with funny monsters!) and a cozy mystery set in a diner. She also blogs about books, miniatures and whatever else strikes her fancy at the Candid Canine blog, so stop on by and say hello. ) in Rosamond, California, I’ve had a full-grown leopard sit on my feet, been kissed by tigers, held baby jaguars and had hmy thumb sucked by an ocelot with nursing issues. I’m addicted to bad movies and any book or film, good or bad, which include zombies and/or chocolate. My other hobbies include surfing (badly), collecting beach glass (obsessively), and wine tasting (happily). Donis Casey writes the Alafair Tucker Mystery Series set in Oklahoma in the 1910's. Alafair is a farm wife and mother of ten who cooks gigantic country meals with a serving of mystery on the side. Recipes for many of the authentic Southern dishes Alafair creates are included in the books. Two of Donis's Alafair Tucker novels have won the Arizona Book Awards for Best Mystery/Thriller, one was named an Oklahoma Centennial Book and was runner-up for the Benjamin Franklin Award, and two were finalists for the Oklahoma Book Award in the Fiction category. I'm a full-time freelance writer, editor and author living in Virginia. I have a terrific husband and two wonderful children who are, by the way, boy/girl twins. I love writing, reading, baking, cake decorating and, sometimes, needle crafts. I prefer almost instant gratification with my needlework, though. I have a cross-stitch picture I've been working on for years; but in the meantime, I've finished several pieces that can be done in an afternoon. Marian Allen has had short stories appear on the labels of coffee cans and the wall of an Indian restaurant. Many of her stories involve food, although she is not, as her youngest daughter claims, obsessed. She is not. She is currently working on a novel with recipes in it, which she'll finish if she can stop cooking and eating long enough to write. Short stories and recipes are available for free on her website, http://marianallen.com/ . Vicki Delany’s newest novel, Winter of Secrets, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which said, “she uses…artistry as sturdy and restrained as a Shaker chair.

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