Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Tasty Tuesday & A Teaser ~ Lynley Wayne

 
Every Tuesday we'll welcome an Author who will share a foodie type post
with a recipe or two and some book promo!
 
Today please help me welcome Lynley Wayne...

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Hello. I write M/M romance under the pen name, Lynley Wayne. In late 2011 I was lucky enough to sign my first contract with MLR Press. As far as I’m concerned, I have the best job in the world and am lucky enough to have the support of my friends and family.

 

When I’m in the zone, I sometimes lose track of time. If it wasn’t for my husband, I’m almost positive I would have starved to death by now. Thank goodness he’s a good cook and doesn’t mind stepping in on occasion.

 

I learned to cook with the help of my late grandmother and a lot of trial and error. When I was nineteen I moved thirteen hours away from the rest of my family. I wanted to prove to myself that I could make it on my own. After finding a place to live and a job, I quickly realized there was no way I could afford to eat out for every meal––not if I wanted to keep a roof over my head and the lights on. So I had no choice but to learn to cook.

 

Couldn’t be that hard, right?

 

It turned out to be harder than I thought. At least to make good food. In the beginning I threw out more food than I ate. Then I admitted defeat and called my grandmother. We spent hours on the phone with her walking me, step by step, through making this or that. Every few days I would call her up and we would try a new dish and, slowly but surely, I learned to cook.

 

I have improved since those early days, but my late grandmother gave me the foundation to build from. Sadly though, I still can’t make gravy to save my life. Sorry, Grandma. However, I was smart enough to marry a man who makes great gravy, so it worked out all right.

 
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Stuffed Peppers

 

1 pound of ground turkey

1 good sized green bell pepper

½ packet of taco seasoning

1 small can of tomato sauce

1 can of kidney beans

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut pepper in half, lengthwise (from top to bottom) Remove the seeds and the stem and discard. Set aside. 

In a large skillet, brown the ground turkey and then drain any excess fat. Add taco seasoning, tomato sauce and kidney beans. Stir until well incorporated.

Place peppers in a glass baking dish and fill with turkey mixture. I like to overstuff mine. Add about a ½ inch of water to the baking dish.

Then bake for 20-30 minutes or until peppers are fork tender. (Stick a fork in the side and if you can easily slide it in, they are done). If you want a bit of crunch then you can take them out earlier.

 Add sour cream and shredded cheese to the top and serve. This is optional, but really good.

 

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A Life Interrupted by Lynley Wayne  
 
 
 
 
Blurb:
Dan and Travis met in college, the unlikeliest of pairs, and then became friends and lovers.  For the past twenty-two years Dan's lived his own version of happily-ever-after, with Travis by his side. Then tragedy strikes and life as they know it ceases to exist. Will they be strong enough to find their way back from a life interrupted?

While Travis fights for his life, Dan can' t help but relive all those little moments that made up their life. All those things that he took for granted at the time. Those very same events may end up being all he has left of the man who is his entire world. 
 
 
 
 
Excerpt :

Dan pulled the only chair in the room over next to Travis’s bed and took a seat. Tears blurred his vision as he took hold of the hand he knew as well, if not better, than his own. He ran his thumb over the scar on Travis’s first finger. He’d gotten it while chopping vegetables the first year in their new house. Dan remembered how scared he’d been when he’d seen all that blood and how calm Travis had been while he held his hand over the sink. In his typical calm manner, Travis had asked Dan to please hand him a towel and grab him some shoes, because he was pretty sure it was going to need stitches.

Dan traced the callouses on the tips of each finger, from years of playing basketball, playing guitar, and working with his hands.

He pressed the palm of his own hand to Travis’s, aware of its warmth. Travis’s hand was much larger… manlier, than his own. From years of working in an office, Dan’s hands were soft with hardly a mark on them. Travis’s hands were strong— working man’s hands.

Those hands he loved so much had defended him, had loved him, had comforted him, and held him up over the years. So many memories. Dan traced the pale indention at the base of Travis’s ring finger, where his wedding band should’ve been. The worn gold band was on a string around Dan’s  neck, where he’d placed it when the nurse had given it to him a little over a week ago.

It was strange to see the hand he knew so well without that ring. Travis had worn it every day for the last twenty-odd years. Dan had placed the ring on his finger a year and a half after they first met in that horrible sports bar and not once had Travis ever willingly taken it off.

It was back before it was actually legal for them to marry, but Travis had wanted Dan to know he was in it for the long haul. So in true Travis fashion, he’d bought them both rings and right there in the living room of their tiny studio apartment, Travis had asked Dan to spend his life with him.

That day had been the happiest of his life. He could remember the tears streaking down both of their faces, voices quaking with emotion, as they made promises to one another before slipping the simple gold bands on each other’s fingers.
 
 
 
Bio:
 
Lynley Wayne is the pen name of a thirty-something female living on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. When not writing, she can usually be found reading and thinking up creative ways to avoid housework. She is married to a very understanding husband who doesn’t complain when she spends hours in front of the computer and he ends up having to fix supper on occasion. Or when she asks random off the wall questions. Or when she talks for hours about whatever story she’s working on. Yeah, basically he’s vying for sainthood.

Lynley strongly believes everyone is entitled to their own version of happiness, no matter how it may differ from the norm. She writes characters she wants to read and hopes others enjoy them as much as she enjoyed writing them. 

While most people who know her wouldn’t guess, she’s a hardcore romantic at heart and loves nothing more than a happily ever after. Lynley may have come to romance later than some, but once she found it she never looked back. It was years later when she accidentally stumbled onto the male/male genre and knew it was where she was meant to be. From then on she’s spent endless hours writing about love in it’s many forms.

It is her hope that one day society will be able to look past the labels and see the person behind it. That they will realize we are all the same. Until that time comes, she will continue telling stories of a love others may believe is wrong, but she thinks is nothing short of beautiful.
 
 
I love hearing from readers. So feel free to email me at: lynleywayne@gmail.com

 
 
 

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