Tag Archive for: Easter

Happy Easter!

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by Maria Geraci

I love Easter weekend! When I was kid, growing up in central Florida, Easter was one of the most anticipated holidays at my house. My parents, being strict Catholics, always emphasized the importance of the holiday over all the other religious holidays and made a huge deal of the entire weekend.
As a kid, the best part of Easter was that Lent was over. We didn’t have to go to church on Fridays for Stations of the Cross and we could eat meat again any time we wanted. Plus, we could resume eating/doing whatever it was we’d “given up” for Lent.

One Lent I gave up chocolate and candy of any kind. Pretty tough for an 8 year-old. That Easter Sunday I woke up and promptly gorged on all the goodies in my Easter basket. I remember feeling sick all during Easter mass and vowed I’d never give up candy again. After all, if I hadn’t deprived myself, then I wouldn’t have felt the need to overindulge, right? (at least that kind of logic seemed to work for me at that age!).

The other best parts of Easter? Egg hunts, warm spring weather, pretty pink dresses, gloves (yes, white gloves!), white frilly anklet socks, and Easter hats. Aw, the joys of growing up in the 60s and 70s. I remember sitting in the pew, alongside my sister and parents, feeling very important in my Easter finery.  I don’t think little girls wear white gloves on Easter anymore, but they should. If only to have the experience just once.

What are you fondest Easter memories?

The Clock is Ticking

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By Evelyn David

This week is BIG!

Today our new mystery, Zoned for Murder, has been published in all e-book formats. It’s the first book of a new series, The Sound Shore Times Mysteries. Join us for the exciting new adventure we’ve created. Zoned for Murder has a killer story, compelling characters, and humor to make you laugh out loud.

Here’s a quick synopsis. Former Newsweek reporter Maggie Brooks has two kids, a dead husband, a mortgage to pay, and a lot of competition when she tries to get back into the shrinking newspaper business. Landing a job with a local paper, she’s bored to tears covering bake sales and Little League games. But when a developer tries to build an outlet mall in a neighboring town, what starts out as potentially a great clip for her resume, suddenly turns dangerous and ugly. Someone will do anything to block the mall’s construction. Dirty money, nasty politics, and shady land deals abound as Maggie pursues the scoop that might jumpstart her career. When murder is added to the mix, she realizes that meeting her deadline might be the last thing she ever does. Read Maggie’s byline as she rebuilds her career, dips her toes into a shark-filled dating pool, and investigates a small New York town Zoned for Murder.

Jean Rigod, avid mystery reader and reviewer, got a sneak peek at Zoned For Murder, and thrilled us when she wrote: What I truly loved about this new series was its complete believability. Maggie rings true as a reporter, friend, mother, and romantic interest.

We’re doing a blog tour this week and spreading the word far and wide that Evelyn David’s got the goods that will intrigue you, delight you, and make you want to know what happens next to Maggie Brooks (and it’s BIG in book two).

Along with all the book hoopla, this week is also BIG because on Friday, April 6, it’s first Seder for the Northern half, Good Friday/Easter weekend for the Southern half. In other words, BIG holidays coming up too. So in addition to sharing the good news about Zoned for Murder, one half of this writing duo will be making (BIG) matzoh balls, while the other half is dyeing eggs. We create these worlds of murder and mayhem, but each of us also lives in real worlds of mayhem (no murder so far, but the Northern half gives fair warning that matzoh makes her reallllll cranky).

Stiletto Faithful, in honor of our new book and the upcoming holidays, please share your favorite Passover or Easter memories and traditions.

Marian, the Northern half of Evelyn David and the one making matzoh balls

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Review –
“With a solid foundation at its mysterious core, Zoned for Murder offers fans of fast-paced, traditional mysteries everything they are looking for: strong characters, tight plotting, and a conclusion that left me stunned. If you like strong female protagonists with imagination and ingenuity to spare, look no further than Maggie Brooks, a small-town journalist with big-time investigative chops. Evelyn David has done it again with a mystery that touches on universal themes such as family, betrayal, and love.” – Maggie Barbieri, author of The Murder 101 Mysteries

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Win a Free Copy – Leave a comment on this blog for a chance to win a free download of Zoned for Murder from Smashwords (all e-book formats are available there). One winner will be picked at random. Be sure to leave a contact email in your comment or drop us an email at evelyn@evelyndavid.com so we know how to send you the 100% off coupon code for the download.

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Zoned for Murder – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

Brianna Sullivan Mysteries – e-book series
I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries- Kindle (Exclusive at Amazon this month)
The Dog Days of Summer in Lottawatah- Kindle (Exclusive at Amazon this month)
The Holiday Spirit(s) of Lottawatah- Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Undying Love in Lottawatah- Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
A Haunting in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Lottawatah Twister – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Missing in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Good Grief in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

Sullivan Investigations Mystery – e-book series
Murder Off the Books Kindle (Exclusive at Amazon this month)
Murder Takes the Cake Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Riley Come Home (short story)- Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Moonlighting at the Mall (short story) – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

Romances
Love Lessons – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

Passover and Easter

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This is the garden at the bookstore where I did a signing this weekend–thought it looked appropriate for Spring.

Not being Jewish, I don’t celebrate Passover, though I certainly know the Passover story. As a Christian, and a Sunday School teacher, I’ve read the Bible and heard about and taught what happened the night the Jewish people put the blood of the lamb on their doors, and the angel of death passed over and none of the Jewish children died when the first born of the Egyptians did.

I’ll be celebrating Easter on April 4th. Our little church always has a Sunrise service at 6:30 a.m. Suprisingly, we always have a crowd despite the cold and the early hour. We see people who never come to church, but want to participate in an Easter sunrise service. We sit outside and our praise team leads us in Easter songs and our pastor gives a short sermon. Afterward, we enjoy a breakfast provided by different members of our church. At the usual times, Sunday School and our regular worship service begins.

Again, because it’s Easter, we’ll have folks turn up to the regular service who haven’t been to church since Christmas and even a few new people who are just looking for a church to attend on Easter.

In earlier days, women wore new dresses and often a fancy new hat. Now it’s different, people come as they are. Little girls might have a new outfit, but not even many of them do. That’s something that seems to have gone out of favor–or maybe it’s because our church has so many poor people who belong.

I’ll probably have to figure out something to fix for Easter dinner–something easy, because I won’t be up to cooking anything big since I’ll be up so early to go to the Sunrise Service. (Since I first wrote this I ordered a honey-baked ham and plan to make potato salad and macaroni salad. Invited family members to bring something to share.

Tell me about what you do for Passover or Easter, if you celebrate one of the other. Or any rituals that signify Spring for you.

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com

Easter Time and the Eating is Good

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As I read Marian’s blog on Monday, I got to thinking about the upcoming Easter festivities that will take place here this coming Sunday. We do the eggs, too, but rather than eat them and enjoy them with the meal, we’ll color them, hide them, stick them in the refrigerator after they’re found, and eventually, make egg salad in a week or so when it becomes apparent that nobody who unearthed an egg would ever eat it unless I doctored it up with mayonnaise, salt and pepper.

And while I’m sure there are some wonderful culinary traditions for Easter that exist in many families, we don’t have one that I recall. Which is why I’ll be crashing Marian’s Passover dinner. (Just kidding. You can’t write about food like that and not expect me to covet an invitation.) Our family thought we had the tradition of roasted spring lamb but apparently it was a culinary tradition that left some family members cold. Sure, Mom would roast a leg of lamb when we were children, but it has come to light that many of the family members do not like leg of lamb with the exception of me and Mom, and most would prefer something else. This became apparent ten years ago on Easter Sunday when I gave birth to Patrick, child number two. Although I expected to be with the family around the table for the celebration, I was in labor. Mom had bought the biggest leg of lamb she could find—just for me (!) as I’m constantly reminded—and then I didn’t attend, having a baby taking precedent over my dining on lamb with mint jelly. (Which, I assure you, was so much better than the post-labor ziti and ginger ale I was served by a very surly orderly who wondered why I was so hungry at seven in the morning.) So, I find myself with the task of having to make up for the Easter where “we had to eat lamb and you weren’t even there.” Remember, we’re Irish Catholics. We hold grudges.

This year, Dad wants filet mignon. Mom wants lamb. Husband will eat whatever I serve. We have an assortment of children between the ages of two and fifteen who have their own mealtime idiosyncrasies with at least one vegetarian and one chocoholic in the mix and another who joneses for Diet Coke like it’s nobody’s business and would eschew food in favor of carbonated beverages. Henceforth, I’ve decided to go with what we affectionately call the “combination plate” here at Chez Barbieri: filet mignon, lamb chops, mashed potatoes, a variety of vegetables, a meatless ziti, and a lasagna. Oh, and bread! Because if there is nothing that pleases this crowd more, it’s bread, more bread, and lots of butter.

See, here’s the thing: we’ve all supposed to have been doing some sort of fasting and abstinence for the last forty days of Lent, the holy season that precedes Easter. Sunday’s upcoming Bacchanalian festival of eating, otherwise known as a very holy day in the Christian faith, is intended to make up for how hungry you ostensibly are or should be. This tradition dates back to ancient times and is supposed to usher in our season of planting and harvest (did I get that right?). But let’s face it—how many of us are ever truly hungry? We may get a hunger pang that indicates “oh, it’s lunch time” but for many of us, true hunger is not something we experience on a regular basis. That’s something I’ll think about as I serve more food than my ten guests could ever eat and give thanks for the bounty that our country affords us.

As far as I’m concerned, everyone should just be happy with the spread, and I promise you, they will be. If they know what’s good for them.

Maggie Barbieri