MERRY CHRISTMAS (or) Maybe A Little Too Merry? - Meg Mims

My friend Tarrin Lupo does these interesting videos about all kinds of neat stuff. I laughed when I saw one of his latest, about bizarre Christmas ornaments. And since my WF day falls right smack dab on the actual DAY, I thought - who's gonna take time to read my post? Why not share a fun and fast video...

So here you go, and MERRY CHRISTMAS! or Happy Holidays. or get your JINGLE on... whatever best suits you. Since I kind of felt like a cheat this month, I'll share a cookie recipe I love. Toss these babies in the oven and save 'em for your New Year's Eve party. Mmm! Very easy to make.

TINY PECAN TARTS

Tart Crust -- CREAM 1 cup butter with 6 oz. cream cheese, then add 2 cups flour. Make 48 small balls and then (I use my fingers) press into tiny tart pans. Mine are like mini-cupcake tins.

Filling -- place 4 eggs unbeaten in bow, add 3 cups brown sugar, 4 Tbsp. melted butter, a pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 cup chopped pecans. MIX WELL. Fill tart shells and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Eat a bunch of cookies this holiday season. Take a Christmas nap by the glowing tree. Indulge in some holiday nog, or snog with a loved one... ENJOY! and happy writing in 2016!

Mystery author Meg Mims earned a Spur Award from WWA and also a Laramie award for her western historical mystery series, Double Crossing and Double or Nothing. Meg is also one-half of the writing team of D.E. Ireland for a mystery series featuring Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins for Minotaur books. Book 2 just came out, MOVE YOUR BLOOMING CORPSE. Book 1, WOULDN'T IT BE DEADLY, was nominated for a 2015 Agatha Award. Meg lives in Southeastern Michigan. Meg has currently has a Malti-Poo who causes plenty of holiday trouble. Maybe 2016 will feature Dusty on the cover... 

FRIDAY FIVE with MEG MIMS

What, me again? I wrote about My Favorite Western Novel on Sunday -- all about True Grit, so if you missed it, here's the link. Today's post -- more about me. Probably *far* more than you want to know. Bear with me, folks. I ran out of ideas for a topic this month. I'll try to come up with something more interesting in May.

1. The most horrible day of my life was followed by the most exciting day. Usually Christmas is pretty happy and fun, but that year I was three weeks overdue with my first (and only) child. If I'd found a knife, I'd have ripped that watermelon out myself. Instead, I suffered through a sleepless Christmas Eve, waddled to my parents' house and then visited my in-laws Christmas Day. Next day my husband drove me to the hospital  for induction, and the rest is history - but no natural delivery. Ha. I'm very grateful for modern drugs and hospitals. 100 years ago, my daughter and I would never have survived. No way. Now, she's my #1 fan, beta-reader, proofreader and idea-generator. 

2. My favorite food is a cookie... or I should say a handful of cookies. I can't stop at one. Crunchy, plain sugar with icing, chock-full of nuts or M&Ms, or chocolate chips, or cranberries and walnuts, "icebox" or molasses, spiced with cinnamon, gingersnaps, lemon with powdery sugar, shortbread drizzled with chocolate, Christmas cookies of all kinds, Halloween haystacks or spiders - you name it a cookie, I'll try it. Mmmm. With tea or coffee.

3. My favorite car I ever owned was my first -- a pale blue classic Volkswagen Beetle with a sunroof, 1971. Stick-shift, too, so I had to learn to drive it after I'd bought it. No heat to speak of in winter, so I kept a thick wool blanket to spread over my lap and legs, plus kept the ice-scraper handy to scrape the inside windshield so I could see to drive. But summer driving sure was fun! My best friend used to stick her head out the sunroof (while I was driving, of course) and sing at the top of her lungs. Oh yeah. Good times.

4. Something you may not know about me is that I teased my grandmother mercilessly about her nickname. The story? The first grandchild of her oldest daughter (my mother was the baby of the family) couldn't pronounce Grandmother. So she ended up calling her "Mim." By the time I came around, I called her "Mimsy-Pie," which she loathed. I was a brat, what can I say? And I hadn't even read Carroll's Jabberwocky poem! Sooo, yep, you guessed it. When I met my husband and discovered his last name was Mims, I thought long and hard about how you can't mess around with God. He always has the last laugh. Trust me on that. And if anyone calls me Mimsy-Pie, I will smack them upside of the head.

5. I'm a product of the "melting pot" of the late 1800s. My maternal great-grandparents owned a prosperous farm in what is now Detroit, but back then was country. My great-grandmother, Adeline Maddelein (yep, her married name! Her sister-in-law was also stuck with a doozie, Madeline Maddelein), enjoyed having servants and took the interurban to shop in downtown Detroit at Hudson's. After selling the farm to a real estate developer after the turn of the century, they named the street after my great-grandfather. The name may be Belgian-French, we're not sure. My paternal grandfather, born in Kiev, came to America with five languages under his belt.

That must be why I love studying words and slang, and making my heroines wealthy enough to have servants in my books. (wink) Sure... anyway. Hope you weren't bored to dust today! Happy Friday!!

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A mysterious explosion. A man framed for murder. A strong woman determined to prove his innocence.

October, 1869: Lily Granville, heiress to a considerable fortune, rebels against her uncle’s strict rules. Ace Diamond, determined to win Lily, invests in a dynamite factory but his success fails to impress her guardian. An explosion in San Francisco, mere hours before Lily elopes with Ace to avoid a forced marriage, sets off a chain of consequences.

When Ace is framed for murder before their wedding night, Lily must find proof to save him from a hangman’s noose. Will she become a widow before a true wife?

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