Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Cara Covington brings double the Christmas cheer!


Cate: Please help me welcome Cara Covington with some holiday cheer! Cara, please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Cara: I’m a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother! I had to “retire” from working outside the home at the age of 48 after triple by-pass surgery. That’s too young to retire, so I decided to try to make my life-long dream of being an author come true. It worked! I have 2 pen names, Morgan Ashbury and Cara Covington. As Cara, I’m the Cara of the Lusty, Texas series published by Siren Publishing. The 22nd book in the contemporary series will be out December 19th! This will be my 40th published title.

Cate: Wow, very impressive. :) What do you love most about Christmas?
Cara: I love the feeling of hope. I love that it’s a season of giving (I’m a giver) and that at this time of year more than any other, people are moved to do good things for others.

Cate: Wish that could last all year. Do you have a favorite memory of a Christmas past?
Cara: I recall Christmas as a child, when both parents were still alive. We didn’t have a lot, but somehow they made Christmas seem magical. Santa was generous, and always left a really big orange in the toe of my stocking!

Cate: So sweet. If Santa could grant one wish, what would you ask for?
Cara: That all my readers have a very merry Christmas!

Cate: Even sweeter! What was the best gift you’ve ever received? What made it so special?
Cara: Actually, I just got the best gift I have ever received last week. My street team got together and sent me a large – very large wall picture that had their photos in it, and that was accompanied by a book of “messages” for me—how my words made a difference to them. Seriously, that was the most amazing thing!

Cate: How cool is that? Any favorite Christmas recipes you’d care to share?
Cara: Oh, yes! Here it is, a “steamed” Christmas pudding:

2/3 cup of flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup raisins
2/3 cup currants
2/3 cup grated raw carrot
2/3 cup grated raw potato
1/3 cup of milk
Butter a one quart casserole dish. Set your steamer on to get making that wonderful steam.
Mix together all the dry ingredients. In a small bowl, place all the liquid ingredients (the grated veggies and the milk). Pour the liquid into the dry, stirring just until mixed. Pour into the buttered dish, and put in the steamer. Steam for 2 to 2 ½ hours, until the top is set.

Sauce for Pudding
¾ cup brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
¼ cup butter
1 cup light cream
Mix sugar, syrup, butter in a sauce pan, then heat and boil for five minutes. Add cream and bring just to a brisk boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Spoon over Carrot pudding.

Cate: Yum! Tell us about your latest release, and where readers can find it online.
Cara: Love Under Two Outcasts will be available for “pre-order” on December 9th, available for download December 19th. All my books are held exclusively at my publisher’s e-tail site, Bookstrand, for 4 to 6 weeks. Here is a link that will take you to my page there, where the book will be listed on December 9th: http://www.bookstrand.com/cara-covington

Cate: Care to share a blurb or excerpt?
Cara:  Here is a small excerpt:
Charlotta retrieved three bottles of water from her small office fridge. She set theirs on the table before them and then sat across from them in the chair closest to Jesse. “I understand you’ve only been in Texas for a couple of months. What prompted your relocation? Was it employment related?”
“No, ma’am,” Jesse said. “It was personal. Our brothers settled in the area about a year ago, and we offered to come and help them get their ranch up and running.”
“We also have a sister who lives a couple of hours away from us, in a town called Divine,” Barry said.
Divine?” It was all Charlotta could do not to shout the name of the town.
“Have you heard of it?” Jesse asked.
Charlotta felt blindsided, hearing that name and being asked that question, especially after having talked to Camilla earlier today. She made it a rule to keep her past in the past. She had only to think back to her broken engagement to understand why that was such a good idea.
Still, there was something about the genuine interest in those two sets of Benedict eyes—one grey, the other deep brown. Oh, what the hell.
“One of my best friends lives in Divine.”
“It’s a small world,” Barry said.
She wondered if either of them was going to ask if maybe her friend, or she, for that matter, knew their sister. But neither man asked.
We’re not playing getting to know you here, for goodness sake. I’m supposed to be interviewing them. Focus, Shar. Focus!
As she did, she realized the conversation had naturally veered close to the question she needed to ask. “I spoke with Dr. Wainwright. She was very impressed with not only your horsemanship, but your ability to communicate with and relate to some of her clients. She was understandably disappointed that you had to leave. So I need to ask you, is this something we have to worry about in the near future? Do you think you might leave the area, and the program, within a few months?”
“No, ma’am.” Jesse’s response was quick. A little too quick? She didn’t know him well enough to say.
“I’m not ma’am. I’m Charlotta.”
“That’s a pretty name,” Barry said. She met his gaze and he blushed.
“Thank you.”
“You don’t have to worry about us pulling up stakes, Charlotta.” Jesse sat forward, resting his forearms on his legs. “We didn’t leave Montana on a whim. Also, we’ve recently bought property—actually the property that lies between our brother’s spread and that of our cousins’. We’re going to be amalgamating our ranching operations, and that’s going to take us years to fully develop. We’re here for the long haul.”
“You have cousins here, then, too? As well as your brothers and a sister?” Charlotta knew that family tended to stick together. Their having family in the area suggested they would have more reason to sink down roots.
Jesse laughed. It was Barry who answered. “We have cousins, aunts, uncles…though in actual fact they are all mostly cousins to one degree or another. Our grandfather was born and raised in Benedict County—in a small town called Lusty. That’s where we’ve moved to. I guess you could say, in some ways, we’ve actually come home.”
Hell. They were a part of those Benedicts. She was Texas born and bred. To her the name Benedict—especially the Benedicts from Benedict County—was synonymous with wealth. They were cut from the same cloth as Roger Brown and his family. She’d heard of Lusty, too, of course. One day when she’d visited Camilla they’d talked about the Parks’ ménage marriage, the logistics and the many—according to Camilla—benefits. Then Camilla had told her that not only were there several such unions in and around Divine, but there was another small town where ménages not only flourished, they were considered normal.
But until this moment she’d never, in her mind, connected the Benedicts of Central Texas to the town of Lusty. Hmm, maybe they’re not quite like Roger Brown and his pompous parents after all.

Cate: What inspired you to write about the theme?
Cara: The theme is redemption and second chances. Everyone deserves the latter and can achieve the former, if they want to.

Cate: Anything else you’d like to share?
Cara: Only that I’m grateful for the opportunity to chat with you. I hope some of your readers will pay a visit to Lusty, Texas – and let me know what they think!

Cate: Cara has her Santa hat on, you lucky peeps!
Cara: Bookstrand is an e-book bookstore with not just Siren titles, but also titles from many other publishers including Harlequin and Kensington. I’m offering a $5.00 giftcard, called “strandbucks” to a winner of your choice, which they can use toward the purchase of any e-book sold there.

Cate: Thanks so much for being part of the 12 Days of Christmas! Hope you have a jolly holly holiday!

Here's more about Cara:

The only dream I’ve ever had was to be a published author. It was a dream formed in childhood and held onto through the business of growing up, getting married, and raising my family.
Being an author was a dream deferred, not a dream abandoned and now I have not one, but two stunning careers.
Under the pen names of Morgan Ashbury and Cara Covington, I write Erotic Romance for adult women who like something extra with their love stories.
Romance is a wonderful genre that accommodates every other. Comedy, mystery, western, paranormal, suspense, or science fiction, romance embraces them all. Erotic romance gives the reader all of that, and so much more.
For readers who want all the best that Romance has to offer — great characters, compelling stories, and a happy ending — and for those who like their Romance served hot and spicy — I invite you to read one of my novels and tell me what you think.
Morgan Ashbury or Cara Covington — two different pennames, one dedicated author.


Links:
Cara Covington’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaraCovington
Cara Covington’s Facebook Fan Page: facebook.com/pages/Cara-Covington/616302148428229
Cara Covington’s Amazon Author Page: www.amazon.com/author/caracovington
Cara Covington’s Goodreads Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3504559.Cara_Covington

Morgan Ashbury’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/morganashbury
Morgan Ashbury’s Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/morgan.ashbury?fref=ts

Morgan/Cara’s Siren-BookStrand Page: http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury