Translating a World on the Edge

Welcome to the Tasty Reads Blog Hop!

This is my first time to participate in a blog hop, thanks to the invitation from Anastasia Abboud, author of Let Us Not Live in Ignorance and If Only You Knew. It’s seems a fun way to learn about other authors and their publications as well as to collect some great new recipes.

Here’s how it works: each author invites up to five other authors to answer five questions about their current release or WIP and to share a recipe that ties into it. The links to the participants’ websites will be provided at the end of this post. As more authors join the hop, I will post links to their blogs as I learn of them.

My debut novel, A Hunger in the Heart, published by Tuscany Press in April, 2013 is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other bookstores. Also, two of my short stories are included in The 2012 Tuscany Prize for Catholic Fiction: Selected Short Stories.

A Hunger in the Heart is set in 1955 Florida. Its characters are flawed, aren’t we all? And they all desire something. Sarah Neal longs for her husband, Putt, a WWII hero with a traumatic brain injury, to be like he was before the war. Because he can’t be, she fills her longing with whiskey. Coleman, their son, needs his father and wants his mother’s love and affection. C.P., the B.O.S.S. of Gator Town, Florida, and Putt’s dad and Coleman’s grandfather, wants everything to be normal, and he yearns for his dead wife’s forgiveness.

They all must learn how to live through tragedy and treachery when Putt is accused of a heinous crime. Fig, the gardener, with commonsense wisdom explains to Coleman, “. . . a hero makes a choice to put somebody else ahead of himself,” and Anna, Coleman’s first love, teaches him the most valuable lesson of all.

Ultimately, A Hunger in the Heart is a story of hope and love: How we find it and thrive in even the darkest circumstances.

Here’s some praise:

“Kaye Park Hinckley’s novel, A Hunger in the Heart, is a story of hope, forgiveness, and redemption. It’s a great read in the tradition of southern fiction.” Winston Groom, Author of Forrest Gump and Shiloh, 1862

“Kaye Park Hinckley is a writer with a sensitive ear and a keenly developed sympathy for her characters. Her debut novel, A Hunger in the Heart, marks the beginning of a promising career in the world of fiction.” Mark Childress, author of Georgia Bottoms and Crazy in Alabama

“In the tradition of Flannery O’Connor, Robert Penn Warren, & Walker Percy, A Hunger in the Heart by Kaye Park Hinckley brings alive the south and the search for meaning and forgiveness.” Peter Mongeau, Publisher, Tuscany Press

Please check out my book: http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Heart-Kaye-Park-Hinckley/dp/1939627060/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376578467&sr=1-1&keywords=a+hunger+in+the+heart

Now for the Random Tasty Questions:

1) When writing, are you a snacker? If so, sweet or salty?
No, I don’t snack when writing, but since I’m up early to write, I drink lots of coffee.

2) Are you an outliner or someone who writes by the seat of their pants? And are they real pants or jammies?
I don’t outline. I start with a Character and his problem. And for the first couple of hours, I’m always in my pajamas.

3) When cooking, do you follow a recipe or do you wing it?
Both. But I’ve been cooking for so long, I do most of my family’s favorite recipes from memory.

4) What is next for you after this book? I’m hoping to have an historical fiction published, The Wind That Shakes the Corn. This epic saga, inspired by my own family legends, is about an eighteenth century Irishwoman’s struggle through British tyranny, enslavement on a sugar plantation, and finally immigration to pre-revolutionary America. In Philadelphia, and then in the Carolinas, she fights for the Patriot cause, but her understandable vindictiveness brings tragic repercussions for her family.

5) Last question . . . on a level of one being slightly naughty and ten being whoo hoo steamy, how would you rate your book?
Absolutely a one.

Now for the tasty part! (Because I’m a Southerner and love fresh tomatoes)

Tomato Pie (You have to try it. It’s delicious and sort of like a quiche)
Ingredients
1 9 inch prebaked, deep dish pie shell
3 medium tomatoes, peeled and sliced
1 small Vidalia onion, chopped
6 strips of cooked bacon, crumbled
1 cup of grated cheddar cheese
1 cup of mayonnaise
Salt and pepper to taste
8 fresh basil leaves, chopped (so easy to grow and keep on hand)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Bake frozen pie shell for 5 to 7 minutes and remove from oven.

Layer the tomato slices, basil, and onion in pie shell.
Add bacon crumbles. Combine the grated cheese and mayonnaise. Spread mixture on top of the tomatoes and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Serve warm. You’ll be surprised at how good this is!!

Following are links to the participating author blogs so far.  I encourage checking them out, even if you only have time for a few.  There are some interesting people and books to enjoy as well as some excellent recipes.

• Christy English
• Donna Russo Morin
• Nancy Goodman
• Lauren Gilbert
• Lucinda Brant
• Prue Batten
• Anna Belfrage
• Ginger Myrick
• Jo Ann Butler
• Kim Rendfeld
• Cora Lee
• Jessica Knauss
• Susan Spann
• Patricia   Bracewell
• Kathleen Rollins
• Richard Abbott
• Anastasia Abboud

http://kayeparkhinckley.com