A warm welcome to author KC Burn joining us to talk about her newest release “Just Add Argyle” which is part of her Fabric Hearts Series.
Check in the great post from K.C and the giveaway she brought also
Welcome K.C 🙂

Hello! I’m so happy to be here at Love Bytes for my newest release, Just Add Argyle. Now, I was planning to talk a little bit about the book, but I’m gonna go rogue here instead, for what I hope will be a good and/or entertaining reason. My mother recently passed away, and I’ve been going through her things. One of the items I came across was a booklet – an entire booklet – devoted to Table Settings for Canadian households. I mean, who knew there were that many, never mind ones that were culturally specific? I’m the first to admit I’m an uncouth savage though, so perhaps everyone else but me knew that.

 

Anyway, I’m talking to my best friend (who’s been helping me sort stuff) and her mom about this book, and her mom says “oh, I can do better.” And she locates a book she was given when she married, a book with information for brides. Now, its copyright date is 1932 which is some 30 or 35 years before my friend’s mom got married so a bunch of it was probably sadly out of date even then, but it is filled with SO MUCH AWESOME. I can’t even recreate it all here, but take a look at the table of contents.

 

 

In case you can’t see it, in addition to baby stuff and normal (for the time) information about how to treat your man right and how to stay attractive for him, there’s things like…

 

Science of Graphology. Yes, that would be HANDWRITING ANALYSIS! Because what bride doesn’t need that?

Care of the Canary. Two whole pages devoted to bird care. I hadn’t realized canary ownership had been so prolific.

Mystic Art of Tea Cup Reading. Uh… really? I’m sure it’s fun and all but is this something all brides needed to know?

Poisons and Their Antidotes. I’m not sure if they’re expecting new brides to be so completely useless at life that they could easily poison their hubbies all unawares or if they figure a new bride is going to be so overwhelmed by this crock that they’d figure widowhood would be easier… because this information could easily cover the bride who wants a good poison, and a bride who maybe might have second thoughts after she’s done the deed.

 

Then there are the recipes. Some of them are decent, a lot are NOT, and there is a much heavier reliance on gelatin than I think is warranted for any reason, but I thought I’d include an image of some of the most… interesting… ones. Ahem.

 

 

Lets start with sandwiches. In my humble opinion, they didn’t really understand sandwiches. The whole cheese and walnut thing is a little odd, but to me what was even more unusual was that there were two other cheese & walnut sandwich recipes. Surely one was enough! As for the other sandwich recipes, I don’t even know what to say. I think it would be a bit of false advertising to offer someone a lettuce sandwich that appears to be a single leaf of lettuce with, oh yes, mayonnaise with nuts or olives. I can’t even imagine what a sandwich filled with mayo and peanuts would even be like, nor do I know why it must be cut in circular shapes. And the Harlequin sandwich is nothing more than a fancy name for bread and butter with way too much effort attached.

 

Then there’s dessert.

 

Heathen that I am, I have only a vague understanding of what blanc mange is, but the whole sea moss ingredient (and instruction) adds a whole different dimension to it.

Peanut Brittle… I gotta admit, I was expecting peanuts in the ingredients! They fooled me!

 

And finally we have Banana Sauce.

 

There is so much wrong with this sauce words cannot describe. The worst offense (IMO) is the horseradish/banana combination in the ingredients. But then, we look a little further in the directions and find that this whole abomination is meant for cold roast beef. Seriously, I’m still shuddering.

 

Anyway, the book was a hilariously unexpected break from what was a somber week, and since I needed a blog post, I thought I’d share with you. Pretty much the only connection with Just Add Argyle, though, is that I hope the book will also give you a smile, a bit of feel good in your day.

 

Blurb:

Tate Buchanan is a troublemaker who can’t keep a job, no matter how many times his lucky argyle sweater gets him hired. Add to that a learning disability and an impetuous nature that sends him into altercations to protect the defenseless, and he hardly manages to make friends, let alone find a man who’s interested in him for more than one night.

 

Most people think EMT Jaime Escobar is a player, but the truth is he wants a serious partner—he just can’t justify wasting time on guys he knows aren’t a match. But when he treats a gorgeous redhead after a fight, he finds the spark he’s spent so many years looking for.

 

Jaime wants to take the next step with Tate, but it’s clear Tate’s not going to curb his impulsive behavior—his next fight sends him to the hospital. Jaime’s relationship with a near criminal isn’t something his family is ready to accept, not any more than Tate is willing to be kept a secret. Jaime will need a lot of understanding—and some luck of his own—to keep them both. But this is one fight he’s going to see through to the end.

 

Available at: Dreamspinner Press and Amazon.

 

KC Burn has been writing for as long as she can remember and is a sucker for happy endings (of all kinds).  After moving from Toronto to Florida for her husband to take a dream job, she discovered a love of gay romance and fulfilled a dream of her own — getting published.  After a few years of editing web content by day, and neglecting her supportive, understanding hubby and needy cat at night to write stories about men loving men, she was uprooted yet again and now resides in California. Writing is always fun and rewarding, but writing about her guys is the most fun she’s had in a long time, and she hopes you’ll enjoy them as much as she does.

 

Visit KC at her website, on Twitter, on Facebook, or find out about new releases by signing up for her newsletter.

 

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