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/616302148428229Cara 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 Ashbury’s Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Morgan-Ashbury/e/B00326WQQU/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1412184410&sr=1-2-ent
Morgan Ashbury’s Goodreads Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/712375.Morgan_Ashbury
Morgan/Cara’s Siren-BookStrand Page: http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
