Enter to win a cool Halloween Gift basket

Drumroll please!!

It's finally here. I love the holidays and all the fun that goes with it! I signed up to be in an author sponsored contest and everyone is doing their own giveaway on their own website or blog or whatever they want to use.

Hoping not to disappoint I am offering up lots of cool swag, a few print books, cookies, Halloween stickers, and jewelry (hmmm...let's that stay a surprise! The costume jewelry's not pictured and inside the gift box but is for women.) Basically everything you see pictured (except the Fall leaves) is going to one lucky winner who can answer some trivia questions. The picture above shows all the nifty goodies you can get from me.

Most the answers can be found on my website, www.missylyons.com. To enter send me the answers to these questions:

1. Name three books written by Missy Lyons. 2. What am I in the middle of writing now. Hint: you can hang out with me on facebook and hear me talk about it as I write or look on my homepage of my website. 3. What is the book title that will be releasing next in December? Hint: you can find this info on the coming soon page for Whispers Publishing. 4. What do you want to see me write next? Do you crave cowboys and indians, exotic locations in the Caribbean, or an alien abduction? That's it, just name your fantasy.

When you find all the answers please send it to me through my facebook email Author missy lyons or my website which will forward it to me. If you decide to participate in an extra chance to win, please forward the link to me as well. Thank you!!

**This contest open to residents of the continental United States.

To those people who are international and would like to play, you can email me your email address and the answers to the questions and three lucky people will receive an ebook copy of my re-release Party for Three. For extra entries or a bonus chance to win:

1. Share this blog on your social networks, or blogs, or twitter, and tell me about it when you email me. 2. Comment on this blog. . 3. Publicly follow the blog, my facebook fan page, or my twitter account. 4.Buy any book by Missy Lyons and send me a copy of the receipt via email.

This Halloween I am participating in a very large author sponsored contest. Drea was nice enough to organize it and I think I've listed all the participating authors and places. There are some publishers, and some review sites. I love how fun this is going to be. If you want to win some goodies it's only between October 28-31, 2011 and be sure to register everywhere!

I have listed the people that I know have signed up here but there might be new ones that have signed up between now and then. So you can check Drea's site for the official list here:

http://dreabecraft.com/events-2/

Drea Becraft * Lee Brazil * Avril Ashton * Kellie Kamryn * Elizabeth Black * Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy * Lacie Nation * JoAnne Kenrick * Daisy Dunn * Cassandre Dayne * Jessica E Subject * Sara York * Wendy Smith * Anne Holly * Lucy Felthouse * Kiki Howell * Julie Lynn Hayes * J.S. Wayne * Robin Badillo * Karen Erickson * Cari Quinn * Mahalia Levey * Dawn's Reading Nook * Raine Delight * D.B. Moon * Kay Springsteen * Jillian Chantal * Cindy Jacks * Ashley Lucas * Rose Anderson * Eden Gleen * Beth Barany * D. Renee Bagby * S.L. Danielson * Ella Jade * Elizabeth Morgan * Rawiya & BL * Jean Joachim * Jambrea Jo Jones * Trinity Blacio * Debra Dennis * Natasha Blackthorne * S.J. Frost * Jaime Samms * Tabitha Shay * Sandra Sookoo * Kristyn Nicols * Roz Lee * Billi Jean * Dyanne Davis * Kharisma Rhayne * Erotic Diaries * Fiona McGier * Pender Mackie * Lily Sawyer * Roxanne Rhoads * Jodi Redford * Angel Martinez * Mary Absire * Sandy Sullivan * Kaily Hart * Dakota Trace * Lindsay Klug * Marie Rose Dufour * Stephanie Beck * Cara Bristol * B.A. Tortuga * Nicole Morgan * Missy Lyons * Secret Cravings Publishing * Marie Sexton * W. Lynn Chantale * Gabrielle Bisset * Karenna Colcroft * Lia Fairchild * Naughty Between The Stacks * Lelani Black * Wendi Zwaduk * Megan Slayers * Karen Marie Nutt * Kinley Baker * Paty Jager * Katherine Kingston * Beth D Carter * E. Jaime * Elizabeth Noble * Sarah Makela * Gracen Miller * Kerry Adrienne * Staci Brush * Cynthia Arsuaga * Kelly L Lee * Melisse Aires * L.K. Below * Selena Kitt * Ana Hart * Naughty Night Press * Kianna Alexander * Ami Blackwelder * Gabrielle Evans

Cool research trick

Books are great for fulfilling fantasies or getting out of this world's troubles and taking you away for a few minutes, or hours, or days. Books take me places that I have already been and would like to revisit, or have never been but can't afford to go. That's one of the reasons I love setting my books in exotic and strange locations. It's fun for me to explore and see the world but with a family and a strict school schedule I can't exactly take off at a moment's notice and go to Cancun or Brazil. Something wierd about me is I collect maps, travel guides and things that help me get the feel of a story together. I watch travel videos and do everything I can to submerse myself in that culture and the land I am writing my story in. This is if it happens to be a contemporary or set in a real life place. Sometimes I manage to get free stuff by emailing the chamber of commerce or touristry committees. This is a quick way to get an overview of the most exciting things happening in an area and some of the more interesting details of everyday life. I visit sites like this one and ask for travel planners or travel guides and usually get back a thick packet of lovely details in about 6-8 weeks. This is a site to get a travel planner from Alaska. I can just imagine several stories being set in the isolated mountains of Alaska, filled with native wildlife, and rugged good looking men. http://www.travelalaska.com/Planners/Planner.aspx?utm_source=2259&utm_medium=ad Maybe I will set my next book there, but for now I must finish this book in the Caribbean called Strictly Business. Yummy beach bodies and white sandy beaches with pristine blue waters fill the pages and I only have a few more weeks until I can call the first draft done. Yippee. :) Lots of love to you all. Come back soon for the contest I am running at the end of October. There will be links to hundreds of other authors who are all participating in a HUGE Halloween contest. If you enter them, you stand a good chance of winning something.

Really Good Gumbo recipe

I thought I would share this recipe I found on Angela James blog, Nice mommy, Evil Editor. She got it from friends on Twitter and adjusted it to her family's eating habits. I tried and liked it and thought you might too. I have been looking for a good gumbo recipe I could make at home. Chicken, Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo Ingredients •2 1/2 lbs boneless chicken breast, cubed •Tony Chachere Creole Seasoning •1/4 cup vegetable oil •1 pound andouille sausage, cut into 1/4-inch slices •1/2 cup all-purpose flour •1/2 cup Tony Chachere Instant roux mix •2 tablespoons margarine •3 tablespoons butter •2 tsp ground pepper •1-2 tsp cayenne pepper •1 large onion, chopped •10 cloves garlic minced •1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped •1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce •1/4 bunch flat leaf parsley, stems and leaves, coarsely chopped, plus chopped leaves for garnish •5 cups hot water •2 Tbsp chicken base (combined with hot water, this creates chicken stock. You can substitute canned broth instead) •1 (14-ounce can) petite diced tomatoes •1 pound small raw shrimp, peeled and deveined Directions 1. Season the chicken with Tony Chachere Creole Seasoning (no set amount, be generous, about 2 Tbsp) 2. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook cubed chicken until browned. Do not cook all the way through. Remove chicken from pot w/slotted spoon and reserve in bowl to side. 3. Add the sausage to oil and cook until browned, then remove to same bowl as chicken. 4. Sprinkle the flour and Tony Chachere Roux mix over the oil, add 2 tablespoons of margarine and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until brown, about 10 minutes. Let roux cool slightly. (Important note I learned in my reading: use margarine, not butter. Butter burns more easily and when you’re cooking something that needs to be cooked awhile, like roux, it’s easier if you don’t use butter.) Don’t panic if things seem to be sticking to the bottom of your dutch oven. This is totally normal. Once you add the butter, and then the hot water, most of this will integrate back into your dish for an amazing flavor! 5. Return the Dutch oven to low heat and melt 3 tbsp butter with the roux. Add the onion, garlic and green pepper and cook for 10 minutes. 6. Add Worcestershire sauce, ground pepper and cayenne pepper, and the 1/4 bunch parsley. Cook, while stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. 7. During this 10 minute cook period, heat the 5 cups of water in a tea kettle. 8. Slowly add 5 cups hot water and chicken paste, whisking constantly as you add.. 9. Add the chicken and sausage. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes. 10. Add tomatoes (if you want to add okra, this would be the place to add it. My family doesn’t like it so I omitted). Cover and simmer for 1 hour. 11. Add shrimp and another 1/4 bunch chopped parsley. Simmer 1/2 hour. 12. Start rice when you add shrimp. At the end of half hour, dish rice into a bowl and serve gumbo over rice. Enjoy! Notes: Paula’s original recipe called for celery (cooked celery = blech), okra (I omitted) and beef bouillon instead of chicken paste. Most gumbo recipes I saw used chicken stock, so I went with the chicken instead. And I always use paste, in place of broth/bouillon, because it’s easy and tasty.

Relationship quotes--just for fun

There are a lot of funny quotes about marriage. I found a ton online after looking up my favorite and thought you might enjoy a chuckle or two. My two favorites in this collection are the one by Bill Cosby and the one by Zig Ziglar.

Marriage Quotes
Marriage is not a ritual or an end. It is a long, intricate, intimate dance together and nothing matters more than your own sense of balance and your choice of partner. ~ Amy Bloom

My best chosen friend, companion, guide, to walk through life, linked hand-in-hand, two equal, loving friends, true husband and true wife. ~ Sir Charles Gavan Duffy

My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me. ~ Winston Churchill

You don't need to be on the save wavelength to succeed in marriage. You just need to be able to ride each other's waves. ~ Toni Sciarra Poynter

I love being married. It's so great to find one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. ~ Rita Rudner

Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave. ~ Martin Luther

Let us now set forth one of the fundamental truths about marriage: the wife is in charge. ~ Bill Cosby

The man who says his wife can't take a joke, forgets that she took him. ~ Oscar Wilde

If you treat your wife like a thoroughbred, you'll never end up with a nag. ~ Zig Ziglar

Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side. ~ Zig Ziglar

A husband is a guy who tells you when you've got on too much lipstick and helps you with your girdle when your hips stick. ~ Ogden Nash

For years my wedding ring has done its job. It has led me not into temptation. It has reminded my husband numerous times at parties that it's time to go home. It has been a source of relief to a dinner companion. It has been a status symbol in the maternity ward. ~ Erma Bombeck

To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job. ~ Simone De Beauvoir

What is a husband? He is the one who, with a touch, can bring back the starlight and glow of years long ago. At least he hopes he can - don't disappoint him. ~ Alan Beck

When a man and a woman have an overwhelming passion for each other, it seems to me, in spite of such obstacles dividing them as parents or husband, that they belong to each other in the name of Nature, and are lovers by Divine right, in spite of human convention or the laws. ~ Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort

The more you invest in a marriage, the more valuable it becomes. ~ Amy Grant

Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love, and they blossom when we love the ones we marry. ~ Tom Mullen

What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility. ~ Leo Tolstoy

It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer