It’s day 1 of the much anticipated
Hot Winter Nights Giveaway Hop!

From today to December 4th, my blog will be linked to  author blogs participating in the Hot Winter Nights Giveaway Hop. And giveaway is exactly what we’re doing! There are many prizes up for grabs including a grand prize valued at over $100 consisting of an ebook package and $60 in eGift Certificates ($50 Amazon gift card and $10 Bookstrand Bucks)

Visit the participating blogs and leave a comment and your contact email on that day’s post. Be sure to visit every blog on the list and comment each day to increase your chances of winning the grand prize. What’s more, every author is offering additional prizes on their blogs. It’s a win win! or maybe even a win win win win….

Winners are chosen from among the comments so be sure to leave your contact email and comment daily. Ask questions. We authors are wordy creatures!  🙂
Here’s the link:

Hot Winter Nights Giveaway Blog Hop

If you don’t have a Kindle, Nook, Kobo etc to read all those ebook prizes on, did you know you can get a free Kindle for PC and read those prize ebooks right on your computer? And the good news is all the books you accumulate there can be transferred to a hand-held Kindle should you get one. Free Kindle for PC

It just so happens, my Hot Winter Nights Giveaway is an ebook copy of Dreamscape.
Here’s the scoop:

Unable to deny his own translucence, Dr. Jason Bowen determines his lack of physical substance could only mean one thing-he’s a ghost. Murdered more than a century before, Jason haunts his house and ponders the treachery that took his life. When Lanie O’Keefe arrives with plans to renovate her newly purchased Victorian mansion, Jason discovers, ghost or not, he’s still very much a man.

Despite its derelict condition and haunted reputation, Lanie couldn’t be happier with her new home, but then she has no idea a spirit follows her every move throughout the day and shares her captivating warmth at night. Jason soon discovers he can travel through Lanie’s dreams and finds himself reliving the days before his murder with Lanie by his side. It took one hundred and twenty years for love to find them, but there’s that insurmountable little matter of Jason being dead.

Written in homage to Agatha Christie, Dreamscape is a haunting, a murder, a mystery, and a love story that transcends time. Above all, this sensual tale is a reader’s Easter egg hunt in the truest sense. Peppered throughout are hints suggesting a story behind the scenes. Will you find them all before it ends?

And I’ll even sign it for you using Authorgraph!
Rose will autograph your ebook – click here!

So imagine snowflakes falling. Curl up on the sofa under a quilt or one of those silly sleeved blankets you got as a gift last year. Grab a hot toddy and a copy of Dreamscape and lose yourself in a very unusual ghost story. Hmm…snowflakes, warm quilt, terrific book, hot toddy. It all sounds good to me!

How often do we crave a hot drink on a cold winter’s night? While children go for hot cocoa topped with whipped cream or marshmallows, and teetotalers content themselves with steaming cups of herb tea or a glass of warmed milk, nothing warms the belly so much as a hot toddy. Warm alcoholic beverages, like toddies, rum punch, flips, and hot buttered rum trace their origin to Europe where liquors, wines, and ciders were mulled with spices such as cloves, nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon and enjoyed hot to take the chill off the ol’ bones. Just as toddies are synonymous with cold nights, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is synonymous with the holiday season, and wouldn’t you know, Dickens enjoyed a good toddy too. As an author, I find it interesting that he often used hot drinks to add a human quality to his characters. In his novel David Copperfield, David has this to say about his friend Wilkins Micawber:

David Copperfield’s friend Wilkins Micawber

I informed Mr. Micawber that I relied upon him for a bowl of punch, and led him to the lemons. His recent despondency, not to say despair, was gone in a moment. I never saw a man so thoroughly enjoy himself amid the fragrance of lemon-peel and sugar, the odour of burning rum, and the steam of boiling water, as Mr. Micawber did that afternoon. It was wonderful to see his face shining at us out of a thin cloud of these delicate fumes, as he stirred, and mixed, and tasted, and looked as if he were making, instead of punch, a fortune for his family down to the latest posterity.

Then in A Christmas Carol after Ebenezer Scrooge finds his heart among his spirit-led flashbacks and flash forwards, he shows up at Bob Cratchit’s  home and says:

“A merry Christmas, Bob!” Said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken…”I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob!…”

Smoking what?? A little research on my part discovered people enjoyed a whole range of clerical drinks back in Dickens’ day, and Smoking Bishop was among them. I have no idea why they named their drinks as they did, but I suppose it’s not much different than our Harvey Wallbangers or Black Russians. Apparently, the range of clerical drinks goes from high to low down the church hierarchy – Pope = burgundy, Cardinal = rye, Archbishop = claret, and Bishop = port. I never did find out if there’s a Deacon’s drink back then, but I suspect so.  🙂

I stumbled upon a book written by Charles Dickens’ great-grandson entitled Drinking with Dickens and found a traditional recipe for the Smoking Bishop:

• Take six Seville oranges and bake them in a moderate oven until pale brown. If you cannot procure any bitter Seville oranges, use four regular oranges and one large grapefruit.
• Prick each of the oranges with five whole cloves, put them into a warmed ceramic or glass vessel with one-quarter pound of sugar and a bottle of red wine, cover the vessel, and leave it in a warm place for 24 hours.
• Take the oranges out of the mixture, cut in half and squeeze the juice, then pour the juice back into the wine.
• Pour the mixture into a saucepan through a sieve, add a bottle of port, heat (without boiling), and serve in warmed glasses.
• Drink the mixture, and keep Christmas well!

I don’t know…that just isn’t catching my fancy. Further scouring the web turns up some tastier-looking historical alternatives:

Hot Buttered Rum or Hot Toddy Batter

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 4 oz unsalted butter, room temp
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp nutmeg or mace
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/8 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients thoroughly. Refrigerate in an air-tight container for up to two months. This mixture can also be frozen for up to one year before using. Makes eight servings.

Preparing your Hot Buttered Rum

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp refrigerated hot buttered rum batter
• 6 oz boiling water
• 1 1/2 oz dark rum
• 1 Tbsp light cream (optional)
• nutmeg for garnish

In a hot beverage mug, combine hot buttered rum batter with boiling water, stirring well until dissolved. Add in rum and cream. Garnish with a sprinkle of nutmeg. Serves one.

Or you can do it up without the rum!

Non-Alcoholic Hot Buttered Rum

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp refrigerated hot buttered rum batter
• 2/3 cup boiling water
• 1/3 cup vanilla ice cream
• whipped cream (optional)
• nutmeg for garnish

In a hot beverage mug, combine hot buttered rum batter with boiling water, stirring until well dissolved. Stir in ice-cream and mix until incorporated. Top with whipped cream and garnish with a sprinkle of nutmeg.
Serves one and sounds delicious.

Rose Who?

Hello, I’m Rose Anderson, the author of these scorching romances:
The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo, Loving Leonardo, Dreamscape, and Hermes Online.
You can find me just about anywhere these days. I’d love if you’d stop by. Check out my books or just say hi.

Rose Anderson – Love Waits in Unexpected Places
WEBSITE | BUY eBOOKS & PAPERBACK | TWITTER | GOOGLE+
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All titles on sale now!

Buy Rose Anderson Books On Amazon

Collectors of Romance Memorabilia,
I have Rose Anderson Goodies for you!

Would you like some soon-to-be-famous author swag? *grin*
Just send me an email with your address and I’ll mail your choice.
roseanderson4858(at)yahoo(dot)com

~ My Bookmarks ~

~ My Cool Bumper Sticker ~
Other drivers will wonder!

~ Autographed Book Covers ~
Soon to be Famous!

~ Quotes by that sexy, sensual, smooth talking, man from my novel Hermes Online~
Ooh that S can sure turn a phrase
On refrigerator magnets!

~ Free Downloadable Bookplates ~
Print on adhesive-back paper at home

Tomorrow – Day 2 of the hop
Visit all the blogs & comment daily for more chances to win.
Don’t forget to leave your email address!

And…

During the week of December 9th, I’m participating in The Romance Reviews’ big Year End Splash Party! Join me and more than 300 authors and publishers for a month of goodies. There are hundreds of excerpts (you just might find that perfect read for a cold winter’s night) And there are over 300 prizes too! Like I said, I’m there the week of December 9th. To see my part in the whole thing, I need to send you to my satellite blog. Rose Anderson’s Satellite blog on blogspot.com There you’ll find an excerpt of my recent release Loving Leonardo.

The week of December 9th my question will be posted on The Romance Reviews site. Simply find my name on the participant list. Follow the link given to my excerpt posted on my satellite blog, read it, then go back to answer my multiple choice question on The Romance Reviews site. Play the other games and amass more points and you’ll have a pretty good chance to win an ebook copy for yourself!

And another blog hop follows this! Busy busy… As good ol’ Wilkins Micawber said as he lifted his glass to his pal David Copperfield:

“Punch, my dear Copperfield,’ said Mr. Micawber, tasting it, ‘like time and tide, waits for no man. Ah! it is at the present moment in high flavour.”