Welcome to new viewers -
especially our new friends from Bouchercon, Magna cum Murder and
The Great Manhattan Mystery Conclave,
and friends from the past who have come to visit and play.

BREAKING NEWS!

Our first cookbook is out!
A Killer Cookbook Volume #1: Recipes to Accompany The Chef Who Died Sautéing
contains recipes for all the food mentioned in the novel.
(See below for order information.)

Ariel's 2nd adventure is in the works!
The Lawyer Who Died Trying
(ARC - January, 2007
Pub. April, 2007)

Psychic sleuth Ariel Quigley is back, and this time she’s dealing with the death of a prominent lawyer, an investment scheme that may be a scam, and the machinations of a black magician. Add to this a budding romance with a hunky cop, a cast of kooky new friends who write naughty limericks, a killer Halloween party, and a ghost that just won’t leave her alone. Then Ariel’s life is threatened…by a force from the Spanish Inquisition!

UPDATES
November 10th, 2006

Tours & Events: Updated
Where We've Been So Far: Updated
Convention Activities: Updated
Contest #2: Win a cookbook!

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When you've finished reading, visit our home page,
for links to photos, contests, recipes, and other awesome treats!

Visit our Online Calendar

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We would like to make the site and the newsletter as interesting as possible!

'Wise' Cracks

A cooking quote from our Kitchen-Anomalies section

The critical period in matrimony is breakfast-time.

A. P. Herbert Uncommon Law, “Is Marriage Lawful?” (1935).

The Current Contest

Our current contest runs until November 31st.

Bernice is always looking for new things to cook.
Submit a recipe for Bernice to try out in her kitchen.
On December 1st, we will chose a name from all the entries,
and send the winner an autographed copy of

A Killer Cookbook #1:
A Collection of Recipes
to Accompany 'The Chef Who Died Sautéing'

Check it out on the Contest page.

Buy The Books!

If you don't yet have a copy of  The Chef Who Died Sautéing, or the Companion Cookbook,
and would like one:

Click here for Purchase Options

A Variety of Links

Honora Finkelstein and Susan Smily are the proud "parents"
of several other webs and subwebs.
Click below to visit these sites.

A Chance of a Ghost

Ariel Quigley - the heroine of the Ariel Quigley Mystery Series -
talks to ghosts, and she’d like to meet yours!

New-Wisdom

This is a site developed to accompany Honora's college level classes
in World Cultures and Humanities.

ScienceWorks

Elementary Science Units
& Instructional Resources for Teachers and Parents

Hemi-Sync Products and Programs

Hemi-Sync is a state-of-the-art audio technology
that enables us to mobilize and direct the power of our mind.

Visit these authors' websites!

Just For Fun...

Of Interest...

What We've Been Up To (Our Madcap Adventures)

Our Madcap Adventures:
3 Conventions, 2 Operas, & a Visit to Vancouver

Once again, we've decided to put the somewhat lengthy 'travelogue' on a separate page.
To see what's happened since August, click below.

The Rest of 2006:September (On the Road, Part 3)

Honora—Saying Goodbye to my Recliner

Well, Susan tells me I can't play sick anymore, since I'm walking all over the place without my cane. So we're moving my computer back down into the office next week, and I'll have to limit my time in the recliner to my TV viewing hours. (My favorites are Dancing with the Stars, Ghost Whisperer, Medium, Numbers, My Name is Earl, House, Bones, NCIS, Las Vegas, the CSI and Law and Order shows, Boston Legal and Justice. Plenty of time to sit in the recliner!)

Susan - News from the Garden

Today we bid a fond farewell to the honeysuckle. It seemed to be in full leaf early this spring, but I noticed several dead branches mid-summer, and noticed that it was totally dead upon our return from the last road trip. From it's location at the edge of the patio, I fear that it didn't so much die for lack of water, as it may have drowned.

So, today I cut it right back, not an easy job when dealing with a bush that had grown to be about 15 feet tall. There were a lot of side branches, and the lower parts of the branches has intertwined quite a bit. But there was rot in the center, so I don't think it will return with new growth next year.

But as mentioned in Volume1, No.3, I had some replacement plants due to me from the Arbor Day Society. Well, last week I received a shipment of 5 Rose of Sharon, and yesterday the rest of the trees arrived - 3 fruit trees and 6 azaleas. The trees are 3 feet tall, and dormant, so I braved the 40 degree weather and planted them in the garden this morning. I've set up pots on the back porch, (which receives nice afternoon sun through the 6 foot windows) for the azaleas and Rose of Sharon to spend the winter. Come next spring, I can find them a nice home somewhere in the garden.  And I'll probably buy a new honeysuckle at that time, and find a different corner for it to grow in.

I had a great crop of tomatoes and green peppers--I harvested them just before the first frost we got a couple of weeks ago. I still have green tomatoes ripening in a brown paper bag, hopefully enough for another couple of weeks. I diced the green peppers and froze them on cookie sheets before bagging them, and should have enough to last me through the winter and beyond!

Until then, I watch the leaves fall, and consider how I'll extricate them from the wood chips and stones ...

Where We're Going...

Next -  A Holiday!

On November 19th, the gang embarks on a 4 week holiday adventure. Honora, her husband Jay, and Susan will take off for a visit to Epcott Center in Orlando, a week in a resort on Marco Island on the west coast of Florida, a cruise to Panama, and a week in a resort in Edisto Beach, S.C. Watch for updates on our blog!

Check our Tour and Events pages to see where we're heading for the rest of the year - we will update it regularly as we figure out just where we're going to be. And if you'd like us to head to your area, let us know where you live, and what bookstores or libraries we could do a signing in, and we'll try to get there at some point. Nowhere on the continent is totally out of the realm of possibility, even though some places may be a bit hard to reach!

A Recipe from Bernice's Kitchen

Bernice's Peanut Soup
(from A Killer Cookbook #1)

This is the soup Bernice was trying to make when the spices were knocked out of her hand by the ghost of Annie Grace. It seemed she had a ghost that was interested in Colonial cooking! As she put it, “I was in the middle of making peanut soup for the family when suddenly I felt the chili powder being yanked out of my hands” This is also the point at which my life changed, as you will know if you’ve read the account of my induction into the work of being a psychic detective in The Chef Who Died Sautéing.

½ cup roasted peanuts
3 cups beef broth
1 cup half-and-half cream
½ teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon salt
whipping cream
cucumber

Blend the peanuts with 1 cup of the broth in a blender until smooth. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and add all the remaining ingredients. Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat to simmer, and cook slowly for 15 minutes.

Served hot, this can be garnished with whipped cream, or cold, with thin slices of cucumber.

We've written a cookbook!

Responding to overwhelming pressure from our fans (both of them!)
we've put together an 88 page cookbook.

A Killer Cookbook Volume#1: Recipes to Accompany The Chef Who Died Sautéing
contains recipes for all the food mentioned in the novel,
spiced with a bit of information and humor.
Cost: $12.95
 

This book is now available on Amazon,
or from HilliardandHarris.com.
If you'd like an autographed copy,
purchase the book below,
using a secure PAYPAL site,
and tell us in the "Notes" section what inscription you would like.

Ariel's Metaphysics Corner

Tarot

Part 5 - The Empress
© 2006 Honora Finkelstein

Unlike the High Priestess, who is sequestered inside a temple, the Empress sits on her throne outdoors, representing her fecundity in the natural world. There are green growing things and flowers in her world, for the Empress is the epitome of the natural woman, for whom love and reproduction are life. Indeed, some Tarot interpreters suggest that she is pregnant with new life, as she leans comfortably on the red pillows of her chair. The color red is appropriate, for it suggests the power of creativity, which the pregnant queen would certainly represent.

The Empress is an embodiment of all of the goddesses of love of the ancient world. She is Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth among the ancient Sumerians, for whom the planet we know as Venus was an alter ego. She is Isis, the holy mother of the god Horus in Egyptian myth. The ankh, key of life of the Egyptians, which was sacred to Isis, has become in the Empress’s garden the emblem of her femininity on the shield that leans against her throne. A similar emblem is formed from the shape of the flowers imprinted on the dress this queen wears. And it is this emblem that modern biology has adopted to represent the female. She is the Greek Aphrodite and the Roman Venus, each seen by their respective cultures as the goddess of love. 

The Empress wears a crown of twelve stars, similar to the crown often given to the Virgin Mary in Roman Catholic iconography. The stars appear to be six-pointed—in the Mogen David of the Hebrews, the six-pointed star is created from the balancing of an upward pointing triangle, which is a masculine symbol, and a downward pointing triangle, which is considered to be feminine. Thus, a six-pointed star is a balance of the masculine and feminine energies. 

The Empress is not a virgin like the High Priestess—rather she is the sexual woman as mother in all her fecundity. And she is literally the Queen of Heaven and of Earth in her ability to bring forth new life. If the twelve stars represent the Zodiac that rules the lives of humans, then it is the Empress, the very embodiment of Mother Nature, that rules the Zodiac, for it is love that guides the balance and reproductive nature of the universe. In her hand, the Empress holds a scepter with a perfect globe on its top, representing the perfection of the universe she rules. 

As an archetype to which each of us can relate, the Empress is romantic love, motherly love, love of life, and love of the physical universe. She is also the embodiment of the creative imagination of the human being. The water that we saw flowing out from the subconscious intuition of the High Priestess into the ocean of possibilities has flowed forward from one card to the next and now comes from behind the Empress to create a waterfall and rippling pool in the background of her fertile garden. Subconscious intuition moves forward to become self-conscious creativity and imagination, the power of the mind to make new combinations out of remembered experiences and dreamed-of images. For the person who is open to subconscious stimulation, the mind is always in the process of imagining and creating new possibilities.

Symbolically, the Empress says to everyone, “Go forth and make love. Live life. Be fruitful and multiply. Let your mind and imagination bring about new creations everywhere in time and space. And let love be your shield, for perfect love is the source of everything that is.”

Fan Corner

Please sign our GUESTBOOK and let us know what you think of the book, our website, this newsletter - what ever!

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Also, please feel free to chat with us regarding anything at all. We'll reply to all our email, and try to answer all your questions, share some adventures, have some fun.

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