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Smart, sexy, small town romance

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A new release and a new trilogy on the horizon!

December 8, 2020 by Cameron Leave a Comment

I’m the worst at blogging. Truly. But it’s been a wild six weeks, creatively, and I’ve got NEWS.

The first news is that at long last, Nick & Poppy, whose socially distanced romance originated on this site for my newsletter subscribers, finally have a real book that you can preorder now for 99¢. THE BEST LAID PLANS will release on December 18, and the price will go up slightly once it’s released, so grab it now…

For those who aren’t familiar with this story, here’s the blurb and a little cover reveal:

The Best Laid Plans
They didn’t plan on falling in love.

Poppy Daley is staying on her parents’ Catmint Gap homestead when the global pandemic traps them abroad. Their chickens and gardens can’t take care of themselves, and Poppy’s job can be done from her laptop.

Disgraced TV writer Nick Cooper is hiding out in a rented cabin up the mountain from the Daley’s property, oblivious to his neighbors until an old friend gets lost dropping off a care package and offends the girl next door, bringing Lilac Lane’s only residents into one another’s orbits.

Poppy and Nick share an instant connection, but masks and social distancing hardly lend themselves to romance…or do they? When the quarantine curveballs keep coming, it’s up to Nick to prove to Poppy that misfortune can only delay the best laid plans.

THE BEST LAID PLANS is currently available for pre-order via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and Kobo, with more retailers being added daily. The link will take you to your store of choice.

But that’s not all!

In early October, I joined a group of small town romance authors to bring you a box set containing twelve exclusive, new novellas–all for free. In addition to the box set, everyone who signs up to download it will receive another free, exclusive title from each author over the next twelve months. These two new books will be exclusive to the collection from January to April of 2021, then released to the public.

If you’ve been with me long enough, you’ll remember Sam & Will, two characters who, despite not having a book of their own, have stayed with me for a decade. They waited patiently, and you get the rewards. For this collection, I’m debuting a new series of novellas: Green Mountain Hearts. Book one, titled AMBITIOUS HEART, introduces Blueberry Hill, Vermont, a hamlet in the Green Mountains, not far from Catmint Gap, and one of its most ambitious young residents, Marnie Burnham.

Book two returns to Blueberry Hill a few years later, when Sam Ellis returns to town after escaping a miserable marriage, only to run into the boy who stole her heart as a teenager. Will Dryer is all grown up…and ready to go after the woman who’s never quite released her hold on him.

Book three…will release traditionally in the late spring, along with the other two. Who’s it about?Spoilers!

More details will come a little close to the collection’s launch date.

Until then, here’s a little sneaky peek of AMBITIOUS HEART. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Authorlife Tagged With: 2020 romance, new release, Nick and Poppy, pandemic romance, The Best Laid Plans, Thornton Vermont

Blink’s Fry Doe: A Buck’s Landing Excerpt

June 28, 2020 by Cameron Leave a Comment

This excerpt originally appeared here on September 2, 2012. And then I re-did the entire site.

Our annual week at Hampton Beach is off the table this year. The Summer That Wasn’t doesn’t have room for crowds and sharing a cramped beach rental (with a single bathroom!) with several branches of the family. The three of us are making the best of it, and I’m doing my best to recreate some of our favorite vacation treats to ease the pain.

Today, I made Blink’s Fry Doe-inspired fried dough, and thought–as I do every time I have the real thing–of this love song to Blink’s that appears in Buck’s Landing. If you want to try it yourself, there are a few options. One is to grab some refrigerated pizza dough from the grocery store, or you can make any high-hydration yeasted bread dough, and fry slightly stretched out pieces of it until deep golden brown. Brush the finished dough with melted butter, dust with cinnamon sugar, then finish with a dusting of powdered sugar. Trust me, it’s magical.


Sofia couldn’t remember being so happy in Hampton, not since she was a child.

With the panda looped under her arm, she walked in easy time with Silas. At the first cross street, he reached for her hand.

Blink’s was a blaze-orange shrine to fried dough. The porch overhang was crowded with people waiting for orders; the line stretched down the stairs into the sidewalk.

“What do you want?” Silas asked.

She handed him the stuffed panda. “This is on me.”

Silas took the bear. “Cinnamon and sugar.”

She snuck a glance at him while he leaned against the signpost. As if he felt her eyes on him, he turned to her. The street light threw his face into deep shadows but his intent was unmistakable. She shivered, understanding pooling low in her belly.

Rejoining him, she gestured across the street, where several empty benches lined the beach boardwalk. Silas set the panda down to one side to take his fried dough. He looked at hers, brows raised. “Cinnamon sugar and powdered sugar?”

She nodded. “The only way to have it.” The first bite was perfect, crisp from the fryer, soft inside, sugary and sweet. She hummed with pleasure.

“Remind me to buy you fried dough more often,” Silas said, sinking his teeth into his own.

They ate in silence, watching the amateur fireworks displays from the beach followed by the Hampton police on their quads breaking up the lawbreakers. She started to hand Silas a napkin, but he licked the sugar and cinnamon from his fingers with a wink. Sofia swore she could feel his mouth on her own skin.

“Look,” Silas said pointing to the sky above them.

A red Chinese lantern drifted over the beach. It caught a column of air and spiraled gently up before flying out over the Atlantic. They watched it until it burned out over the horizon.

“I’ve never seen one before,” Sofia whispered. “Not like that.”

“Me neither.” Silas stood. “Come on. Let’s walk home on the beach, see if we can find where they’re launching them.”


Buck’s Landing is available in ebook or paperback format from most major vendors.

Filed Under: Authorlife, Personal, Recipes Tagged With: beach food, beach romance, Blink's Fry Doe, Buck's Landing, fried dough, fry dough, Hampton Beach New Hampshire, Hampton Beach NH

How to Publish a Novel in 18 Steps

June 25, 2020 by Cameron Leave a Comment

  1. Draft 50,000 words in two mad months. Convince self you are literary giant.
  2. Lose focus, shelve draft for three years.
  3. Discover the entire secondary plot is crap. Scrap it.
  4. Rewrite over 18 months. 65,000 words of plausible nonsense.
  5. Discover the entire new secondary plot is crap. Scrap it.
  6. Rewrite over another year. Convince self you are not bonkers to have done so. 75,000 words.
  7. Decide to publish in six months. Actually tell people that.
  8. Get solid notes from beta readers. Rewrite. 82,000 words.
  9. Panic. How is the book getting LONGER?
  10. Gain beta reader approval. Send out for copyediting.
  11. Get edits back. Fix eleventy-million things. Send out for proof copy printing.
  12. Send uncorrected digital proofs to selected readers.
  13. Get proof in mail. Squeal like your tween self at an NKOTB show.
  14. Read through proof in horror: So. Many. Wrongs.
  15. Apply 427 sticky-note edits to proof.
  16. Implement changes to book files.
  17. Remember when Chef Louise said you eventually have to stop f*cking with it.
  18. Click ‘Publish.’

An earlier version of this post originally appeared April 3, 2015.

Filed Under: Authorlife Tagged With: how to write a novel, humor, writing

The Enchanted Tiki Coop

June 17, 2020 by Cameron Leave a Comment

I’ve been quietly lurking on BYC for four years, planning, waiting… And last October, my small city relaxed the chicken keeping laws, allowing flocks of up to 6 hens on a residential property, if properly registered.

Over the winter, I hatched my plans, and in March–just before COVID-19 brought everything except domestic arts to a screeching halt, I ordered my 4 flock-starter hens. Ahead of the curve by about 3 days. I read articles, perused plans, considered blueprints and filled up a Pinterest board with coop and run ideas, but even after the little floofs arrived in late April, I was revising my ideas.

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(Holy carp, chicks are cute. In the third image, clockwise from the top left: Flüf, Giraffe, Sharpie, and Trudy–Buff Orpington, Austra White, Green Queen Easter Egger, and Silver Cuckoo Marans) Fortunately for me, I’m married to a finish carpenter who’s been a general contractor for twenty years. “This is your project, he told me, but if you want me to build you something…”

We live in east-central MA. We have four distinct seasons, with hot, humid late summers and bone-dry, frigid midwinters. We live in a large suburb of Boston masquerading as a small city. Our home is on less than a tenth of an acre. We already have a significant raised bed garden and nascent fruit trees; chickens were inevitable, as I see it. I wanted a coop and run my son (12ish) and I could handle between us. He’s all about feeding, watering, entertaining, and egg collection. I shovel the sh– manure.

We chose a site close to the house because our lot is tiny and literally everything on it is close to the house it will suck to be out chicken keeping come winter, and the shortest walk=the fewest cold feet/hands. I hope to offer my girls supervised free-ranging once they’re heavier, and less inclined to scale the 4 foot fence line between us and our closest neighbors, but the area is rife with hawks, and while “Hawksnack” appeals to my gallows sense of humor, it’s not really a great name for a deceased, breakfast-laying pet. Thus, a run.

I opted for 48 square feet, which is comfy for the 4 girls, with a 4’x4’x4′ raised coop. It will be snug, if we get another 2 at some point, but we’ll assess. I hear the Chicken Math Struggle is Real. My contractor is thorough in the extreme and unable to under-construct anything. His only misgivings are that we didn’t dig footings, given that they design changed midway through to accommodate a sand floor in the coop. He took the “chickens want to be dry” message especially to heart. He also has a strong aesthetic and The Enchanted Tiki Coop is just off the deck, in partial view of the neighbors’ patio. No one likes a clucking eyesore, amirite?

Did I mention he fell a little in love with the ridiculous little raptors along the way?

And so it begins…

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We dug out and leveled an old compost pile for the site, so I screened the compost (he re-homed what sod he could) and backfilled the run with the fresh topsoil. The plan is to amend the fill with summer grass clippings and fall leaves, as well as what pine shavings I have left over from the brooder. Next, he built 1/2″ hardware cloth panels to install on the run. Note the base is finished with 1/4″ hardware cloth to prevent diggers. The rolled bit was temporarily stapled in place where the coop would eventually be, so the girls–now aged 4 weeks–could safely play outside on nice days until they’re big enough to move outside.

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The run is about 4 feet high. I can’t stand up, but I’m hoping due to some design updates, that I won’t have to spend a lot of time hunched over in there. We shall see. The coop framing came together in a somewhat modular way. The opening for the cleaning/maintanance door is shown. The rest he cut in afterwards, as we worked out dimensions. He also added latches and a spring on the run door. I added some upside down pots and a big branch to the run.

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Here’s a fun four-day weekend: He used a set of snowblower ramps to bring the coop down to the yard, where he could work on it without scaring his feathered audience. Cut outs for a window, nest box, and gable vents went in, then he roofed it, and sided the two sides which would become inaccessible once it was re-installed. The board-and-batten siding is made from pressure-treated fencing, and has a rough, rustic texture. We may not paint, since it will age nicely to match the fencing we’re slowly replacing around the perimeter. The Omlet AutoDoor was a pricey upgrade, but I want to be able to leave the girls overnight without a full-time chicken sitter, and those guillotine-looking automatic doors made me nervous.

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Then it was time to get the coop into place. It was…heavy. The GC ended up enlisting me to help him shift it Egyptian-style, with levers and blocks. It was dicey, but we did it!

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Tada!

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Two more long weekends saw the second gable vent, the next box, and the hatch-style window installed, as well as the roosting bars and the solar-powered wi-fi chicken cam. Siding is up on three sides now. The carp windsocks keep us from banging our heads.

We decided to do a sand floor in the coop, after reading The Chicken Chick’s article on the subject. She’s a New Englander, so I figured if it worked for her it could work for us, and I like the idea of scooping out only poops and a little sand to add to the compost, instead of having to fill it with shavings more frequently. With such a small property in a dense neighborhood, composting needs to be handled with some diplomacy.

The GC fabricated a sheet metal pan to fit the frame. For now, the nest boxes are blocked off with a broken down Misfits Market box. We have about 6 linear feet of roost, set up so they can use the lower rung to get to the upper one. (The first night they were in there, three of them roosted on the top frame of the box, so basically in the soffits, but what are you going to do? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

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For the first couple of days of That Coop Life, they stayed closed in with their food and water, but we’ve shifted those to the covered run area beneath the coop, which hinges down like a tailgate under the coop’s access door.

I wanted to try the Sugar Maple Farm PVC feeder concept, but we decided that despite the conventional wisdom, we didn’t want traditional drain PVC leaching into the food source. We’re making a small food-grade polycarbonate bin feeder with 1/2″ CPVC (potable rated) fittings, and a horizontal nipple waterer from a smaller food-grade polyethylene bin, since I want to max out the space in the run for chicken playtime and foraging while minimizing the daily feeding routine.

Why the Enchanted Tiki Coop? We’re huge Disney Polynesian Village and Adventureland fans, and our raised bed garden has all kinds of tiki themed statuary and the carp windsocks for charm and scaring off critters. We call it the Enchanted Tiki Garden. The GC added a statue to guard over the run, so it’s thematically connected now :)

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The girls seem to be enjoying themselves!

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We’ll use the same salt marsh hay we mulch the gardens with to line the next boxes when the time comes. Updates as we finish!

Filed Under: Authorlife, Personal Tagged With: chicken coop, chicken keeping, enchanted tiki garden, suburban homestead

Thornton Gone Wide

May 19, 2020 by Cameron Leave a Comment

After perhaps far too long, the Thornton Series is (almost) no longer Amazon exclusive. It’s not exactly the Happily Ever After you get at the end of my books, but I’ve decided to see other retailers.

I’m gradually updating the book listings on my site to take you to your preferred store via Books2Read, and all but Family Practice (Anneliese and Jack will join the others in early June when the KDP Select contract period is over) are live around the internet, waiting for folks who prefer to acquire and read ebooks from Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other smaller ebook retailers.

It also means availability in OverDrive is coming, so request them from your library system. I love libraries!

To celebrate, I’m teaming up with some other romance authors with some other “wide” authors (Can we talk about that particular industry buzzword?) to promote our work.

Have a look, maybe find a new read!

Filed Under: Authorlife Tagged With: promotions, romance author, Thornton Vermont

Spicy Red Lentil Soup: A Recipe from the Damselfly Inn

May 14, 2020 by Cameron Leave a Comment

Originally posted February 14, 2018

The Damselfly Inn’s Spicy Red Lentil Soup

A few fictional years have passed since Nan Grady was feeding her friends at the Damselfly Inn, but she’s still very much a voice in my head. Married now, and going by Nan Fuller, and still feeding her friends. I imagine them gathered around the big farm table in her kitchen, guests out enjoying the art museum or a play at the college, or warming up by the fire in the parlor. It’s cold and snowy outside. The pastures are white; the Fuller herd is in the barns. The sun goes down early, so the sky outside is dark, but the lights are burning bright in the yellow Victorian on County Road, and soup is on the menu.

Nan likes comfort food with a little something spicy and unexpected. Pull up a seat at her table, and enjoy!


  • 2 T. coconut oil (olive oil is fine, too)
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • fresh grated ginger to taste (I used a couple of tablespoons)*
  • 2 T. finely chopped garlic*
  • 1 T. Thai red curry paste*
  • 2 T. Vietnamese chili garlic sauce (Tuong Ot Toi)*
  • 1 t. salt
  • 1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes*
  • 2 t. whole cumin seeds*
  • 3/4 t. ground coriander*
  • 1/2 t. ground turmeric*
  • 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, do not drain
  • 4 c. vegetable or chicken stock/broth
  • 1 c. red lentils
  • good pinch of saffron threads*
  • chopped fresh cilantro (if you’re into that)
  • plain greek yogurt, sour cream, or crème fraîche

Basically, adjust all the flavors to suit what you like.

Heat the coconut oil over medium heat, then sauté the onions until they are softened and translucent, but not browned. Add everything from the ginger to the turmeric and sauté for a minute. Dump in the tomatoes, broth, and lentils. Give it a stir, then add the saffron threads. Simmer for about 15 minutes. If you like, you can immersion blend it at the end for smoothness, but it’s not necessary.

Serve topped with cilantro (or not) and yogurt (or other dairy). Yum!

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: recipes from romance novels, red lentil soup recipe, soup recipes, spicy lentil soup

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