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Italian Murder Mystery is here!

Posted on by judyhudson@shaw.ca

My new Rocky and Bernadette international mystery,

Italian Murder Mystery, is coming out October 29th on Amazon!

Pre-order it now!

It’s been a long wait, but book 2 in the Rocky and Bernadette series is finally here!

(Book 1, Temple of the Jaguar is on sale this month on Amazon for 99¢ so you can get caught up on their travels)

Italian Murder Mystery is set in Cremona Italy, an ancient city that is close to my heart.

Cremona was the perfect setting for Rocky and Bernadette’s second murder mystery. A historic city in northern Italy, an hour south of Milan, Cremona’s beautiful central piazza, surrounded by 13th century buildings, is pictured on the cover of the book – because, of course, that’s where the murder takes place.😉

It’s the home of Stradivarius and the violin capital of the world. Because of my husband’s business, we have gone many times, usually in October to visit Mondo Musica, the stringed instrument trade show that happens there every year. Sure there’s business, but with the exuberant Italians hosting the event, it’s anything but stodgy! Wine flows freely in the booths as musicians from all over the world try out the instruments. I’ve probably been 7 or 8 times, and I’d go back in a heart beat!

So it was a natural for me to send Rocky and Bernadette, my travel journalist, mystery novel protagonists to Cremona on their second adventure. Particularly since Rocky, the American son of Italian immigrant parents, still has family there. (I think they are becoming too real. Note to self: Must get out more!)

Below are my pictures of Lago Scuro, the historic, ethereal agritorismo where we often stayed while in Cremona. It is my inspiration for Rocky’s family farm, Castello Maria.




 

Writing this book was a joy, like visiting Cremona all over again. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

 

Picture of Judy standing outside in the garden, smiling.

What is BookBub, and why should I join?

Posted on by judyhudson@shaw.ca

The bookbub logo

 

If you are one of the millions of readers who already subscribe to BooBbub, I’ll just say it now – Please, follow me on BookBub!

 
Not familiar with BookBub?
 
You can check it out here
 
and join millions of ebook readers on this free, curated online platform.
Once BookBub knows your reading preferences (which you tell them by filling out a form up front) you can receive a curated daily or weekly email with Featured Deals by authors in your chosen genre. Or not. Your choice.
 
These spots are fought over by authors and you will find many books by big name authors, as well as authors new to you. All of the featured books are greatly reduced in price, usually for a very limited time, sometimes one day, often to 99¢ or even free. You can request only the biggest name titles or only free books if you so choose.

One day’s BookBub Feature Deals

If you want, BookBub will also send you Author Alerts when authors you follow have a new release or a featured deal.
 
Readers – and authors, who of course are readers too – also post Reviews on their accounts to share with other members. (Note to self – get caught up on my reviews!)
 
If you decide to join, please find me and follow. I will greatly appreciated it!
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/judith-hudson
And I promise – I’ll catch up with some new reviews!

Elk Horn Lodge on Vancouver Island

Posted on by judyhudson@shaw.ca

My new book, The Secret of Elk Horn Lodge, (Published September 1st, 2021) a women’s fiction family drama, is set on Vancouver Island, the place I called home.

In the book, I tried to be true to the spirit of the land, however, in the name of artistic license I have taken a few liberties with locations on the Island.

Calling the town in the story Skookum is kind of a local inside joke. A historic word of Chinook jargon that is still commonly used on the coast to mean “strong” or “powerful”, it is not actually the name of a town on Vancouver Island, although my town of Skookum bears a strong resemblance to other towns on the rugged west coast. And some of the other names, like The Loggers Hut Restaurant, are imported from other Island towns.

And while Trumpeter swans do winter on the Island, they winter on the east, not the west coast. However, they are beautiful symbols of the Pacific Northwest, and as one of my favourite reasons for living here, I had to include them.

On the other hand, Orcas are found in the waters all around Vancouver Island, and I love going whale watching out of Cowichan Bay with Ocean Ecoventures in their orange zodiacs, crashing over the waves of the Salish Sea searching for these magnificent creatures. I love how the first resident whale sightings in the spring, and particularly the sighting of a new calf, are front page news in the Victoria paper. Unfortunately, too many articles these days chronicle the trouble the orcas are in. Sadly, that part of the book is true.

As is the decimation of our old growth forests. As I write, a protest is heating up in the Fairy Creek Watershed here on the Island to protect one of the last stands of old growth trees on the west coast.

But in spite of these troubles, it is still the most beautiful, inspirational place I’ve ever been. And I plan to stay.

I hope I’ve given you a taste of my Island, and that you will check out my romantic women’s fiction series of Fortune Bay books that might, in reality, be set on Vancouver Island, too. You can get a taste of that series by clicking here to get a copy of the prequel novella, Lake of Dreams, free when you join my Readers Group.

Thank you for reading Tall Trees Books.

You can find The Secret of Elk Horn Lodge HERE.

And soon on online book stores everywhere.

Judith Hudson

Bingeing on Comfort Food.

Posted on by judyhudson@shaw.ca

Today it is bright and sunny. A real gift in late November here on Vancouver Island. But cloudless days mean cold days, and that means soup for lunch.

I surprise myself by how often I write about food and cooking in my Fortune Bay books! It seems when I want to show a connection between characters or a sense of stability, I often include comfort food in the scene.  

I don’t consider myself a foody, but we have always enjoyed big family meals, and all of our family gatherings seem to happen over a meal.

Last winter my sister came out from Ontario for a visit here on the Island, and together we went to visit our brother on Salt Spring Island, a short ferry ride away. Because our elderly mother lives near me, we usually visit here, so it was nice on that sunny January, pre-Covid day, to go to his house in the forest for lunch. His wife Susheela served a hearty soup that was a revelation to me. Although I often make soup, it’s usually chicken-noodle, and now that my husband and I are on a strict no-wheat diet, the soups were looking a little thin.

The soup Susheela served that day was wonderful. Thick and creamy with aromatic eastern spices. I phoned her the next day to get the recipe and was happy to learn it was perfect for my husband’s Parkinson’s-fighting diet. Since she gave me  the recipe over the phone, it may have changed a bit in the sharing, but I’ve always been a what’s-in-the-fridge kind of cook anyway, and so is she. 

I called it Coconut Lentil Soup. Now, don’t let the coconut part scare you. It’s the secret ingredient! It refers to the canned coconut milk you stir in at the end to thicken the soup and make it deliciously creamy. 

Here’s the recipe: (Print it out here.)

Sauté, in lots of ghee (Susheela) or olive oil (me) –
1/2 a large onion – chopped to dice
2 cloves of garlic, diced
2 tbsp curry powder – or to taste. (Our new curry powder is really hot! so I’ve since reduced the amount.)
1 tsp ground cumin 

Add 4 cups chopped vegetables – Winter vegetables like carrots, turnip, cauliflower, celery, broccoli, kale, potato or sweet potato work well. Whatever you have in your fridge.
Add broth (home made is best of course. I save chicken bones and veggie bits in bags in the freezer and cook them up every few weeks. Makes the kitchen smell devine!)
Then add the lentils. Red or brown. Canned would be fine. 

I like it a little chunky so when the vegetables are soft I put about 1/3 of it in the blender, or use my immersion blender until the soup is the thickness and smoothness I like. Then add
½ a large can, (or one small can) of high fat coconut milk to add the final creaminess.  
Season with Salt and pepper.

A hearty soup, made from scratch, it warms you from the inside out. I think I’ll make some today.

Find the print recipe here.

Do you make soup from scratch? It’s not as hard as you may think. What’s your favourite?

Canadian Thanksgiving was in October, but I want to wish all our American friends a happy holiday. We used to be 14 for Thanksgiving, always at our house, but now our numbers have dwindled and this year we were five. Probably a good thing in these days of Covid lockdowns.

And next month will be Christmas! Oh my! 

A lighthearted, Fortune Bay, Christmas novella.

To get a jump on your Christmas reading get Starlight and Tinsel, a Fortune Bay Christmas novella, on sale on Amazon from now until Christmas for 99¢.

Stay home, keep your gatherings small and above all, stay safe.

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Judy Hudson

Location is where the story starts.

Posted on by judyhudson@shaw.ca

A story idea has to start somewhere, often with a random thought or image. For me, it is usually a place, or more specifically, an old building. In my current work in progress, it’s a hunting lodge. So far, predictably, I call it The Lodge.

This image is sort of what I had in mind, only bigger and more elaborate because it was built by the protagonist Holly’s great grandfather who was a lumber baron in the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the last century. A Victorian monstrosity, in Holly’s own words.

All of my stories seem to center around these buildings, and I have to wonder – what is it about old, derelict buildings and ruins that intrigues me, and how do they impact the people in the story?  The more I think about it, the more I see it is the history of these places and the stories they tell that gives my imagination flight.

The cabin in the Fortune Bay series is a good example.

This building was around the corner from a house I lived in for a number of years, and I set the Fortune Bay stories around it. In the first story, the cabin has been empty for years, since Aunt Augusta died, but the spirit of the old lady is still active and eager to interact with the new story residents. 

In Temple of the Jaguar, the first Rocky and Bernadette mystery, it was a visit to an ancient Mayan ruin in the jungle that set my mind racing.

Beginning to see the pattern? The Lodge started out with the idea of the lodge itself, loosely patterned on a few old lodges I’ve visited here on the Island and in Washington State. In this book, Grandad has died and left it to two granddaughters he’s never known, and who don’t know him. Holly, the protagonist in book one, has only a vague memory of a long ago visit when she was a very young child. Now he’s gone, and she’s left to piece together the family history through  secrets hidden in plain sight in the rundown old mansion. 

Of course, there are more pieces to the story puzzle, but that was the start. There was Covid, and family interruptions, but now I’m glad to be back in the story again!

As a reader, I’m also often drawn  to old house settings, going right back to Nancy Drew and The Mystery at the Moss-Covered Mansion. What kind of books are you drawn to? Do you find yourself returning to the same kind of story again and again? Does setting play a part?

If you haven’t check out Goodreads, it is an amazing community, designed specially for readers and writers. Please find and follow me on Goodreads for more updates on how the new book is going.

That’s all for now.


PS – The ebook of The Good Neighbor, book two in the Fortune Bay series, is on sale on Amazon for 99 cents until the end of the month! You can read the books in any order.
See you on Goodreads!