Bell Bridge Books

Red Headed Heroines Throughout History

by Niki Flowers

“Red-headed stepchild,” “Ginger,” “Fire-tempered.” These are just a few of the names that redheads get called just for being redheads! It’s mean, there’s no need for it, and (by the way) red hair is gorgeous! (In fact, I was a red head for a while 😉 Course it wasn’t as pretty as natural red hair. Haha).

All of that being said – and to start off BelleBooks’s Red, Green, and Irish Week – I would like to name and talk about some fantastic Red Headed Heroines Throughout History!

1. Emily Dickinson: A reclusive American poet who, unfortunately, wasn’t made famous by her work until after her death when her parents put it out for the world to see.

2. Margaret Sanger: The woman behind Planned Parenthood and who said it was okay for women to have a say in whether or not they had children. She rallied for birth control and brought about the age of liberation for women.

3. Elizabeth I: The daughter of Anne Boleyn and King Henry VIII, she was the last of the Tudor Line and was referred to as “The Virgin Queen,” for she did not marry, nor did she bear any children. Her reign was titled The Elizabethan Era and was written of in plays by Shakespeare and Marlowe.

4. Carol Burnett: Host of her own variety show – The Carol Burnett Show – from 1967 to 1978. She’s been in a plethora of other TV shows, movies, and voice overs. She will always be known for her Tarzan call, Went With the Wind (A Gone With the Wind parody), and her ear-tugging salute to her grandma.

5. Geri Halliwell (or Ginger Spice!) She was the most musically famous of The Spice Girls. She was on the Spice Girls Reunion of ’07 and she has many solo albums out. Even though she didn’t marry soccer hottie – David Beckham – she’s still very famous and very lucky. What could beat a music career (besides publishing ;P)?

6. Lucille Ball: I Love Lucy! In fact, who wouldn’t? Married to Desi Arnaz and mother of two adorable munchkins. I Love Lucy will always be remembered as the first American program to have a lady in the leading role and also one of the first to show a woman who was preggers (even if they weren’t allowed to say the PREGNANT word).

7. And last but not least, my three personal favorite Red Heads: Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Anna from Frozen, and Meridia from Brave! As a Disney-a-holic, I can safely say that these three redheads show Bravery, Beauty, and Brains (And a lot of Awkwardness from Anna) and they also have the ability to inspire little girls to believe that they can be and do whatever they want in life despite the challenges they face. 🙂

Those are just a few of the numerous Red Headed Heroines of History. Who are some of your redheads? Let us know in the comments!

And don’t forget to celebrate Red Heads by grabbing BelleBooks’s own Red Headed Heroines off of Amazon!

Just click the links! 

These are just a few of the many red heads we have over here at BelleBooks! Check them all out at Bellebooks.com and on our Facebook page here! 

WHEN IRISH EYES ARE SMILING

by Mary Strand

From a certain perspective, I grew up in an Irish household.

This is pretty funny, actually, since I’m only 1/8 Irish and half Norwegian.  My mom was 1/4 Irish but, not being a math person, thought of herself as 110-percent Irish.  This mostly meant that she tended to lead the wailing on “Danny Boy” and sang the loudest on “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling,” the latter possibly with the assistance of Irish whiskey, and she had a penchant for giving her kids names like Brian, Sheila, and Patrick.  My dad had little say in the matter, but he sighed a lot.

I followed in my mom’s footsteps, but mostly just on St. Patrick’s Day.  In college this meant green beer, lots of it, and dancing Irish jigs to any song, most of those songs entirely inappropriate to an Irish jig, especially since the bar where we performed these jigs was a disco bar.  (Don’t blame me.  Blame the late 1970s.)  In law school my so-called Irish self and I spent St. Patrick’s Day in one of the Irish pubs a block or two from Georgetown, on Capitol Hill.  I was kicked out of one of them one year.  For an Irish lass, it was a proud moment.

Next thing I knew, I was married and practicing law, and St. Patrick’s Day became yet another day of work or, in a wild moment, a civilized dinner of corned beef and cabbage.  No more green beer.  No more getting kicked out of anywhere.  No more Irish jigs.

And then, one year, kidlet # 1 was born.  Due on Easter, he arrived four weeks early (bless his little 1/16 Irish heart) on St. Patrick’s Day.  My mom insisted he be named Patrick.  Tom and I had long since named both of the kids we were to have, and Patrick wasn’t in the mix.  My mom declared, mournfully, that I had failed her and all of Ireland.  These things happen.

Ever since, St. Patrick’s Day has been all about kidlet # 1.  His lifelong favorite color is green, but he has no interest in corned beef, cabbage, Irish soda bread, or (so far) green beer, and he calls the shots on his birthday.  As a result, my wild St. Patrick’s Days have become a distant memory.  One of my brothers, who remains as 110-percent Irish as my mom was, calls me every year to explain that he might not be able to come to kidlet # 1’s birthday dinner, because, gee, it falls on St. Patrick’s Day.

Yes, it does.  And it will next year, too.  But now we celebrate a more important holiday:  my son’s birthday.  Still, I’ll always have a fond spot in my 1/8 Irish heart for St. Patrick’s Day and my mom’s favorite Irish blessing, embroidered on a decorative pillow:

May those that love us, love us.
And those that don’t, may God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn’t turn their hearts, may He turn their ankles
So we’ll know them by their limping.

LET YOUR IRISH EYES SMILE ON MARY STRAND’S ROMANCE NOVEL – COOPER’S FOLLY.

HEAD ON OVER TO AMAZON AND GRAB IT TODAY! JUST CLICK THE LINK! 

It’s National Kahlua Day!

To celebrate, we’re giving away one pack of the Kahlua brand coffee!

It’s refreshing, delicious, and it smells fantastic!

To enter, just “like” the Bell Bridge Books Facebook page here!

And while you’re enjoying your Kahlua Coffee, you can cuddle up with the Tiki Goddess Mystery Series by Jill Marie Landis available on Amazon!

Just click the links!

Caro’s PAWS Good Dog Treats

by Sparkle Abbey

Today is Dog Biscuit Day and we would like to give you a recipe so that you can make delicious dog treats for your furry friends! Just follow this easy recipe and you’ll have your pooches happy for days! 🙂

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Creamy, Unsalted Peanut Butter

1 Cup Oat Flour

1 Cup Brown Rice Flour (Caro uses organic)

1 Egg

1 Tablespoon of Honey

1/2 Cup Finely Grated Carrot

(Dogbert loves carrots and so does Abbey!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°

Once you’ve got your treats dough all stirred up, put it between pieces of parchment paper and roll it out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Then cut the dough with a cookie cutter.

Next, put them on a regular cookie sheet and bake them between fifteen and twenty minutes or until they’re golden retriever brown.

Let them cool and then put them in an airtight container. You can store your PAWS Good Dog Treats for about a week (or you can freeze them for later use) but keep an eye on them. There are no preservatives.

Make sure you grab Sparkle Abbey’s fourth book in the

Pampered Pets Mystery Series – YIP/TUCK!

Just click the link!

We  LOVE  Mysteries with Animals

by Sparkle Abbey

We love mysteries that feature animals. Dogs, cats, parrots, ducks…okay, we’ve never actually read a mystery featuring a duck but if there’s one out there that you’ve read, please let us know. We figured there might be more people out there like us – well, not exactly like us – but people who also love mysteries featuring animals. That’s how we ended up writing the Pampered Pets mystery series for Bell Bridge Books – we wrote the kind of stories we like to read.

Our pets comfort us, entertain us, lift our spirits and ask nothing in return. Those furry, feathered, or otherwise adorned creatures make our lives fuller just by being a part of it, don’t they? They do their part and it’s important we do ours.

Alert: We’re about to climb on our soapbox.

If you’re planning to adopt a pet, please consider saving a life by adopting a pet from a local animal shelter. There are many wonderful pets who are looking for their forever homes. If you need help locating a shelter in your area try, this handy finder from Adopt-a-Pet. All you have to do is put your zip code in and it brings up a listing of shelters near you.

And if you’re able, consider a tax-free donation to organizations that help take care of abused or neglected animals like your local shelter. These organizations are always in need of funds and some may also take donations of newspapers, blankets, and other items.  Also, most local shelters are vastly under-staffed and appreciate the assistance of helpful volunteers.

Finally, many strays who end up in shelters are lost pets who did not have identification or the result of unwanted litters. Be a responsible pet owner, make sure your pet has proper ID and please, please get your pets spayed and neutered.

Our pets give us a lot of love – it’s the least we can do for them.

Okay, stepping down off the soapbox.

Now, we’ve got a fun contest for you (and your adorable pets).

Just post a funny picture of your pet on the Sparkle Abbey Facebook page and the poster of the picture that gets the most “Likes” will win a mystery t-shirt, a Petco gift certificate and the Sparkle Abbey book of their choice!

Make sure you grab all of Sparkle Abbey’s fantastic PAMPERED PETS MYSTERY SERIES available on Amazon!

Just click the links!

Today is National Cherry Pie Day! So to celebrate, we are giving you a delicious cherry pie recipe to create and share with family and friends today!

Ingredients
4 cups fresh or frozen tart cherries
1 to 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 tablespoon almond extract (optional)
Pie crust or pie dough recipe for 2 crust pie
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, to dot
1 tablespoon granulated sugar, to sprinkle

Cook cherries in medium saucepan over low heat and cover. Remove the pan after the cherries have lost much of their juice. Mix the sugar and cornstarch into a small bowl, then pour the sugar and cornstarch into the pan of heated cherries and mix. (You can also add in the almond extract now if you would like). After mixing, put the pan back onto the burner and continue cooking over low heat, stirring frequently until the mixture has thickened. Take off the burner and let the mixture cool. If your mix is too thin, you may add more cornstarch; however, if it is too thick, you should add a little water to thin it.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Now time to prepare your crust. Cut your crust in half and flatten or roll each half into a piece that will be big enough to fit into a pan that is 8 to 9 inches. After preparing your crust,  pour your (now cool) cherry mixture inside of it. Use the butter to dot and to moisten the edge of your crust bottom. Now place your crust top on top and crimp your edges. Use a knife to make a cut into the middle of the top crust to let steam escape (and also for decoration ;)).  Sprinkle the pie with sugar and bake for 50 minutes before removing and letting it cool.

I recommend setting on top of a windowsill like they do in movies. Haha. 🙂

Also in honor of National Cherry Pie Day, we are putting Trish Jensen’s STUCK WITH YOU on promotion for only $0.99!! Just click the link and grab it now!

And while you’re there, make sure you grab the rest of Trish Jensen’s fabulous romances! 

And coming soon….

Brain, Be Mindful of What the Heart Knows

by: Kathleen Eagle

WHAT THE HEART KNOWS is dedicated to two men who helped me grow up.  One was my father.  The other was a fine student who represents all my students, for I have learned so much more from them than I could possibly have taught.  The book is about a man whose heart condition forced him to retire from his pro basketball career.  The story opens when his father’s mysterious death brings him home, where he runs into the woman he left behind.  Full circle.  Once we’ve grown up, full circle can be full of surprises.

How often do we find ourselves saying, “We (or I) have come full circle”?  The answer probably has a lot to do with how old we are, or maybe how introspective we’re feeling at a given moment, or how often we’re given to taking a step back from the moment in order to have a look at the big picture.  Having married into the Eagle clan, I’ve come to appreciate the Lakota view that life’s journey is not, as I once thought, linear—think time line—but rather it is circular, and at the center is the heart.

Picture a dance circle.  The step is simple—side to side—and the rhythm is the most natural beat we know.  Lub-dub, lub-dub.   I haven’t fully researched this claim, but I’m willing to bet that every culture, every human society has a traditional circle dance.  And every circle has a center.  When we speak of the center, we often say at the heart of.  Laughter, love, life—we say these things come from the heart.  When the heart stops beating, life “passes away.”  But we also say, “life goes on.”  Once again, picture the circle.  People holding hands and moving in unison.  They’re not marching in straight lines.  They’re moving side to side, bodies keeping time with the rhythm of life—lub-dub, lub-dub—and life goes on, passed parent to child, hand to hand.

My father died of a heart attack when he was 48.  He had become a teacher after he retired from the Air Force, and he was pleased with my decision to become a teacher.  Since Daddy was a stickler for good grammar and never hesitated to correct mine, I was probably destined to become an English teacher.  I have always loved basketball (Go Timberwolves!) but didn’t know until I was grown that Daddy’s high school basketball team from tiny Colonial Beach, VA won the state championship in the early 40’s.  I met the other four members of his team (they had no bench) at Daddy’s funeral at Arlington National Cemetery.

Robert Eaglestaff was one of my students the first year I taught at the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation.  I taught juniors and seniors that year, and the kids were quite patient with the new fresh-out-of-college teacher from the East. Oh! I was so young, and so naïve.  Bob was the star basketball player.  He went on to play college basketball, became a teacher, later a highly-respected principal.  He died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy—a common cause of sudden death in young athletes—when he was in his early 40’s.  He was dancing at a powwow.

And now, here’s icing for the circular cake.  Among some pictures my cousin sent me was one of a basketball team that traveled around the country back in the 40’s playing exhibition games against high school teams.  The Sioux Travelers.  The picture was taken at Colonial Beach High School, probably by my uncle.  My brother-in-law told me that there was such a team from South Dakota that was organized by a man from Standing Rock in the 40’s and 50’s.

How’s that for full circle?

Visit Kathleen Eagle on Facebook and read an excerpt from WHAT THE HEART KNOWS and other Bell Bridge Books publications by Kathleen Eagle at www.kathleeneagle.com.

Make sure you grab WHAT THE HEART KNOWS from Amazon for only $1.99!!

Just click the link!

BEING UGLY

by Nicki Salcedo

We aren’t allowed to say the word ugly anymore unless we’re talking about someone’s personality. Ugly is a way of acting, but you can’t call a face or body ugly anymore. In our politically correct world, we have “beauty” and “not quite” as beautiful. No one is allowed to be ugly. Ugly is dead.

I’ve been ugly my whole life. Do not fill up the comment box with false compliments. I don’t need them. I’m better than beautiful. More often than not, I am happy. When things get better, I am confident.  With age I have learned that I am not ugly. I have 10 things I do every day to feel beautiful.

10. Beauty is humor. I laugh as much as I can. Even at sad things. Even rainy and cold days.

9. I find something very small that is beautiful. Usually it is a leaf. It could be an acorn or a blade of grass. Have you ever looked at a single piece of sand? It is a crystal.

8. I become the beholder. Remember that Twilight Zone episode where they people had pig faces? I try to remember that when the hideously disgusting aliens land on Earth, they are going to think that we are ugly. A little mascara isn’t going to change that.

7. I hardly ever wear makeup. You know how the media likes to post pictures of celebrities without makeup? That makes me mad. Why don’t they leave those women alone? Don’t click on those stories. 99% of the time we see movie stars as perfect, but the paparazzi wait for the 1% of the time they aren’t. Not cool.

6. I do wear makeup once in a while, and you all act like I’m a movie star! You say that I’m pretty. The heroine in my novel ALL BEAUTIFUL THINGS has been brutally attacked and wanders the streets at night. She is scarred. She feels ugly. What’s one of her biggest fears? Mascara. I rarely wear mascara, but when I do I’m a rock star.

5. I confront stereotypes. I confront racism. Daily. Do you read books with characters from different backgrounds? A part of racism is alienating yourself from other races. The next time you walk into a waiting room, notice who you choose to sit next to and who you avoid. I’ve had security follow me around a store. I’ve watched women at the doctor’s office specifically not take the seat next to me. I get it. I am ugly to others, but here’s how I feel beautiful. I don’t just ignore it. I’m the queen of the friendly “hello!” when someone tries to make me feel invisible.

4. I love my ugly. I see myself as I am. I do have scars. I have a few extra pounds around my middle.  Warts, scars, stretch marks, and all. I accept my body without excuses. When I’m 80 years old, I’m going to wish I had this body and this face.

3. I look for beautiful things in other people. And I tell them. I see beautiful hands, legs, and smiles. That person may not think that they are beautiful. They might appreciate hearing it.

2. I let beauty grow.  When I’m not wearing makeup, I can rub my face against my kid’s face. That is beautiful. I hope I feel more beautiful tomorrow than I do today. I hope when I’m 80 years old I’ll think I look great in a swimsuit. Hope is another one of those beautiful things.

1. Instead of looking for beauty, I listen for it. I know lots of people, but I couldn’t tell you what they all look like. I couldn’t give you a police sketch of their faces. They might be gorgeous or plain by society standards. I don’t know. I’ve allowed myself to be blind. I know about them through their words and stories. We close our eyes, and our senses blossom. That kind of beauty lasts forever.

Nicki Salcedo is a graduate of Stanford University with a degree in English and Creative Writing. She was born in Jamaica and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a member of Romance Writers of America© and a Past President of Georgia Romance Writers. Nicki is a two-time recipient of the Maggie Award of Excellence and a Golden Heart© Finalist. Her debut novel, ALL BEAUTIFUL THINGS, is a reversal on the beauty and the beast story with a touch of Southern Gothic and romantic suspense. ALL BEAUTIFUL THINGS is available now. You can find Nicki on Twitter @NickiSalcedo, Facebook, and at http://www.nickisalcedo.com.

 Make sure you grab ALL BEAUTIFUL THINGS from Amazon!

Just click the link!

Living the Dreamy Dreamland of a (cray-cray) Writer

Kathryn Magendie

Oh, the joys of being a writer! Why, we see the world in ways unlike mere mortals. Yeah. We do. Of course we do. We walk about with our heads in the clouds, or huddle inside our little spaces with far away dreamy dreamland eyes that rarely blink. I think I once didn’t blink for a week—no! Really! When one of my eyeballs fell out, I thought, “Dang, woman! For gawd’s sake blink!” So I did, and believe you me, I make sure I blink every once and a while. It’s much better that way; take it from me, the voice of experience.

I’m more the reclusive kind of writer. There’s only rumor that I really actually do exist at all. No! Really! There’s no one actually to prove it—okay, there are some who have seen me, waiflike and ethereal, meandering in an otherworldly way with clouds hovering over my wittle head. I’m so incredibly cute!—um, in very very weirdly dangerous to myself way—but I promise I am absolutely not dangerous to others. No sirree. I don’t even see others most of the time to be of any danger to them. Yeah. I just think of really strange things because my characters are doing all this cool stuff and I want to do it along with them. I do! I want to have all that excitement, and mysterious happenings, and!, all that good hot sex. Woooowheee.

Yeah, while writing The Lightning Charmer, I was so in to that book, I actually considered running outside nekkid while calling out to the lightning to “Take me! Take me, lover! I want you! Oh yes yes yes YES!” And without one shameful bone in my little body. Yeah. I surely am telling you the truth. I mean, Laura, that’s the main character, bless her heart, got to have sex with a lightning bolt!—how hot is that, my friends? How dagum hot is that? And Ayron? He’s the love interest, and so much more (I have a crush on him to beat the band so I won’t gush on and on about his awesomeness while I sigh with breathy sighs *cue rising music that fills the chest with longing.*); well, Laura has Ayron, that big hot sexy man who calls down the lightning for her. Oh, to have me an Ayron calling me down some lightning, mm hmmm—why can’t I go find a secret place in the woods and a big hot sexy mysterious man who charms the lightning comes take me in his big ole arms . . . *Kat will return in a moment—she’s having a quick fantasy daydream . . . nothing to see here, move along.*

Welp, luckily I have good sense god gave a goose and won’t go outside nekkid calling to the lighting to give me some hot sex. Huhn. And if I go up in my woods looking for a man, well, I just may find one, but what if I find a Flem and he takes me off to his nasty old shack like he did Laura? Ewww. He was some nasty. Dang it.

Sometimes I think of chunking this writing life. I do! You don’t believe me? Well, buh-leeve me I do. Sometimes I think I don’t want to do this anymore. It’s such a strange business. One that sometimes is unforgiving, and lonely—*sobs quietly for a moment*—and as for money? Good lawd! Let’s don’t go down that sad road.

But then, if I didn’t do this, who would I be? What would my world be like? How would I think of all kinds of cool things I’d love to do, even if I really can’t do them. Even if I can’t sex it up with a lightning bolt or a sexy lightning charming man, my character can, and I can live vicariously through her, and the others I create (or are they creating me?—stop the existentialism, Kat!). And it’s fun. And exciting. While I’m writing it, I am living it, y’allses! I am!

And when I’m not writing it, I’m thinking about it. And when I’m not writing and thinking about writing, on the seventh day, I rest. Dang, that might sound blasphemous, and in the south and mountain south you just don’t DO that kind of thing. Even if you might not believe in God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit, it doesn’t matter—you by gawd better respect it! So, let me rephrase that: I never rest. At all! Yeah, even a god will get to rest, but my brain is on electro-dynamic-zippity-do-dah-day seven days a week, even when I’m sleeping—you don’t EVEN want a peek inside my brain, or my dreams. No. No, you do not *shivers.*

Now. If you are a writer, then you might be nodding your head, or you just might be going, “This woman is cray-cray! Good lawd!” And if you are not a writer, you might be going, “This woman is cray-cray! Good Lawd!”

Later y’all! Oh! Before I go: thank you all. Thank you all for supporting us writers by reading our work and encouraging us and staying ten feet back from us when we stare up at lightning with a gleam in our eyes. Teehee. But I adore you all. I do!

(A big P.S. The Lightning Charmer is on promo for one day only! For $1.99—wooowheee! That’s pretty danged cheap, y’all!)

Make  sure you head over to Amazon today in order to get this great deal on THE LIGHTNING CHARMER!! Just click the link!

“I don’t listen to music when I write. I like silence. My mind fills with whispered words from other writers. Sometimes the words are from books, sometimes music, sometimes poetry. I remembered my favorite poems as I wrote ALL BEAUTIFUL THINGS. This is my poetry soundtrack.”

–Nicki Salcedo

1. “We wear the mask that grins and lies. It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes.” Paul Laurence Dunbar, Poem: “We Wear the Mask”
2. “And then last night I tiptoed up to my daughter’s room and heard her talking to someone, and when I opened the door, there was no one there…Only she on her knees, peeking into her own clasped hands” Amiri Baraka, Poem: “Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note”
3. “We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head, and bought a morning paper, which neither of us read; And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears, and we gave her all our money but our subway fares.” Edna St. Vincent Millay, Poem: “Recuerdo”
4. “How you must have wondered to see me taking chances, dancing on the edge of words, pointing out the bad guys, dreaming your x-ray vision could see the beauty in me.” Lucille Clifton, Poem: “note passed to superman”
5. “Her terrified hands will lie still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by. The tigers in the panel that she made will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.” Adrienne Rich, Poem “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”
6. “And now the moon, earth’s friend, that cared so much for us, and cared so little, comes again—always a stranger!” Robert Lowell, Poem: “Public Garden”
7. “In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me. Not of woods only and the shade of trees.” Robert Frost, Poem: “Mending Wall”
8. “Don’t look now. I’m fading away into the gray of my mornings or the blues of every night.” Nikki Giovanni, Poem: “Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day”
9. “I lay waiting on the gravel bottom, my brain darkening, a jar of spawn fermenting underground dreams of Baltic amber.” Seamus Heaney, Poem: “Bog Queen”
10.  “In the mirror, the angles of the room are calm, it is the hour when you can see that the angle itself is blessed, and the dark globes of the chandelier, suspended in the mirror, are motionless” Sharon Olds, Poem: “After Making Love in the Winter”
11. “I have slept with you all night long while the dark earth spins with the living and the dead, and on waking suddenly in the midst of the shadow my arm encircled your waist. Neither night nor sleep could separate us.” Pablo Neruda, Poem: “Night on the Island”
12. “Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well.” Sylvia Plath, Poem: “Lady Lazarus”
13. “They love each other. There is no loneliness like theirs.” James Wright, Poem: “A Blessing” 

Don’t forget to go grab ALL BEAUTIFUL THINGS from Amazon TODAY! 

Just click the link!