DAY 6-HOLIDAY BLOG TOUR WITH PAT BROWNING

Hi Readers, it’s the 6^th day of our fabulous MYSTERY WE WRITE HOLIDAY BLOG. Remember, our 15-member tour-group will be giving away over 50 FREE BOOKS during this 2-week period. For a chance to win one (or more) mystery, visit each blog and leave a comment.

Today I’m delighted to present Pat Browning as my guest author. Pat draws ideas from her exciting personal experiences and uses them to conjure up her mysteries. She’s been a newspaper reporter and columnist, a travel agent, a correspondent for a travel magazine and a globetrotter. Wow! I’m breathless just thinking of all these things.

Pat Browning
 

Browning’s mystery ABSINTHE OF MALICE was published by Krill Press. (An earlier version titled, FULL CIRCLE, was published by iUniverse. ) An extensive excerpt can be read at Google Books --

http://tinyurl.com/23pojdm.

Absinthe of Malice

Now Pat’s going to amuse us with tales of her some past experiences, including what she sometimes cooks for breakfast.

 ~~~~~

PERFECT PITCH

By Pat Browning

Iwas going through three days' worth of mostly junk mail when I remembered that I was frying potatoes for breakfast. Rushed to the kitchen, lifted the skillet lid. Sizzle, sputter and snap. The spuds were just this side of burned. Dark, dark brown. Just like I like 'em.

It has something to do with growing up in Oklahoma. I picked up some new eating habits in California, but they didn't always replace the old ones. I still like my steaks well-done and I like my country fries crisp. Don't just drag the potatoes through the grease on their way to my plate. I want them crisp, darn it, CRISP.

Fred Harris wrote the perfect description of old-time Okie cooking in his mystery, COYOTE REVENGE:

(Quote)

Most of Mama's recipes, if she’d ever written them down, would have probably started out with: "First get the grease hot.” All the meat we ate—home-cured ham and sausage, newly killed chicken and meat-locker steak—was salted with a heavy hand and then fried nearly stiff. She salted and fried potatoes and mealed-okra, too, in plenty of lard. And Mama’s string beans or a mess of greens always went into the pot with a good dose of bacon drippings that she’d saved in a tin can on top of the stove. Then, salted generously, too, they were boiled to kingdom come.”
(End Quote)

The North Canadian River runs through Central Oklahoma.

Harris grew up in Walters, Oklahoma in the 1930s and ‘40s, which may be why he nails that time and place. mostly, though, I think God gave him perfect pitch.

I lived in Walters in the late 1930s. Harris’s writing fits my memories down to the last fried pork chop and we remember some of the same people. 

Coming to a bookstore near you: Mr. or Ms. Famous Author, reading from his or her latest novel. Question and answer period will follow; refreshments will be served.

 If you see such a notice in the newspaper or on a telephone pole, move heaven and earth to get there, and learn from a pro. Rules Number One and Two: Serve refreshments; drop a famous name if you know one.

Harris is a star of considerable magnitude in the worlds of politics and academia. He’s now Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque but he's a former U.S. senator from Oklahoma and a former presidential candidate. He has written 17 non-fiction books, plus a couple of mysteries.

I first met him when he signed copies of COYOTE REVENGE at the Full Circle Bookstore in Oklahoma City. It was another example of perfect pitch.

We were seated on the mezzanine, not far from a coffee cart. The host circulated with a carafe of wine. Harris told a couple of funny stories about writing the book and the tips he got from Tony Hillerman. He opened the book and read the first chapter aloud, then answered questions before taking his place at a signing table.

  Fred Harris signs a copy of COYOTE REVENGE for Tom Lucas, Cleveland County District Court Judge, at the Red Dirt Book Festival 2007

Blabbermouth me, I told him about my sojourn in Walters, and about the little red-headed boy who chased me into the cloakroom and gave me my first kiss, along about the 4th or 5th grade. I remembered the kid’s name, and so did Harris.

Well … some things a girl doesn’t forget. I wonder if that red-headed kid is still around …

~~~~~ 

Jackie, thanks for hosting me today. It was great fun!

The pleasure is all mine, Pat. I loved your stories about some of the famous people you’ve known and I know my readers have been entertained, too.

Here’s a little more information about Pat and her books:

ABSINTHE OF MALICE can be ordered through any bookstore or online from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Barnes and Noble, print and Nook
http://tinyurl.com/43lgk5u

Amazon, print and Kindle
http://tinyurl.com/3ry9gya

 The second book in the series, METAPHOR FOR MURDER, is a work in progress. ABSINTHE takes place on a Labor Day weekend. METAPHOR picks up the story the week before Christmas. Log line: Small town reporter Penny Mackenzie tracks an offbeat Christmas story and finds herself in the middle of a murder and the mysterious desecration of an old Chinese cemetery.

Remember Readers, our 15-member tour group is giving away over 50 FREE BOOKS during this tour. For a chance to win one (or more) mystery, visit each member’s blog and leave a comment.

I’ll be giving away a signed copy of THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE and another of FOXY STATEHOOD HENS AND MURDER MOST FOWL, a collection of 3 novellas. My story, “The Spinster, the Pig, and the Orphan,” is a Historical Mystery set in 1889 Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory. To get your name in the hat for my free books, leave a comment below.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by today.

Also Hugs,

Jackie