Cate: Woot! Desiree Holt's here to add some spice to our Halloween celebration. Desiree,
please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Desiree: I’ve ben published since 2006 and I have to say, writing is my
passion. I did a lot of different things before I became an author, everything
from higher education to the music business. I enjoyed them all and they
provide background for many of my books. My children are all grown and on their
own and in different ways participate in my career so it’s kind of a family
activity (although they don’t read what I write! Wink) I live in Texas,
love it, and most of my books are set here.
Cate: What do you love most about Halloween?
Desiree: I think all the legends and stories that are built around it.
Everything from ghosts to goblins to vampires to shifters and stuff in between.
I’m a big paranormal fan so of course Halloween is one of my favorite days.
Cate: Do you have a favorite memory of a Halloween past?
Desiree: Before we moved to Texas my late husband and I lived in
Florida and we always decorated for Halloween. He loved holidays. Anyway he
created a big stuffed dummy that looked like a corpse and put it on our front
lawn in a rocking chair. We had a little portable stereo that we set up and
whenever kids came up the driveway he would play spooky music and pull the
strings so the dummy sat up. It was hysterical.
Cate: What frightens you the most?
Desiree: The specter of death, although I write about it a lot. Go
figure.
Cate: Ever gone on a ghost tour? Or ghost hunting on your own?
Desiree: Went on a ghost tour in downtown San Antonio. The Menger
Hotel, where five other authors and I hold our Wild Wicked Weekend every
February is haunted and sometimes you can see a piece of furniture move. One
person said she saw the floor moving gin a wave and we even had people tell us
someone touched them in a room when they were alone. On the ghost tour I got to
see a lot of those spots.
Cate: Oh, I so want to go to the Wild Wicked Weekend! I'm going to start saving. :) Any favorite Halloween recipes you’d care to share?
Desiree: Iced pumpkin cookies, hands down. I give them to my neighbors now that I live alone or I’d eat all three
dozen myself!
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
(175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg,
ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream
together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1
teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry
ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in
the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.
To Make Glaze: Combine
confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.
Cate: Yum! I'll have to try these out on the grandboys. Tell us about your latest release, and where readers can find it
online.
Desiree: Eyes of the Wolf is just out and part of the Red Hot Teats collective. Link to follow
Cate: Care to share a blurb or excerpt?
Desiree: Absolutely. Meet your neighborhood shifter.
When Jamie Dalton moved into the mouse
her grandparents left her she was just looking to reconnect with her past and
settle in familiar surroundings. Digging through the attic for treasures, she
found a nearly life-sized statue of a wolf and a very old, very strange
book, Legends
of the Werewolf. Each night after returning home from her job as the town's head
librarian, she curled up in a big chair with her little black cat, Mischief,
fascinated by what she read. She was shocked when her new neighbor, Mike Volka,
introduced himself and the eyes watching her looked just like the wolf in the
book.
Mike Volka's ancestors once
owned Jamie's house and the book that is his heritage as a wolf shifter, the
one that will guide his future, is hidden somewhere inside. He sure didn't
expect the intense sexual heat the erupted between them. When he sneaks into
her house and sees her asleep in the big chair, the book open on her lap, the
temptation to have her is too great for him. Using the hypnotic power of the
shifter, he draws her into his web and they have sex so hot it nearly burns
down the house.
But can a union born in stealth
survive? Is she the human mate his family had told him might be waiting for
him? Will Jamie succumb to his hot alpha impact and can she believe what others
dismiss as a fanciful legend? On Halloween night it will come to an explosive
conclusion but will the heat consume them or bind them closer together.
Cate: Also very yummy! :) What inspired you to write about the theme?
Desiree: I love shifter stories. I’ve done some cats but wolves are my
favorites. The legend of the Chupacabra is very big in Texas and my daughter
suggested I build a series about the hunt for it, which I did. And of course,
most of the Night Seekers are … wolf shifters. I think the wolf is such a
noble, romantic animal I love to write about it.
Cate: Anything else you’d like to share?
Desiree: I hope everyone will follow me on FB and Twitter where you
camn get all the news ofmy latest releases and activities and ask me any
questions you’d like t. I love “chatting” with readers.
Cate: You lucky peeps! Desiree has a fantastic giveaway!
Desiree: Yes. One lucky person will win all four copies of NIGHT
SEEKERS. I’ll choose from comments about Halloween.
Cate: Thanks so much for partying with us, Desiree! Happy Halloween!
