This week I’m hosting Pamela Meyers with Love Will Find a Way (soon to be released) and Thyme for Love (give this book away), Sharon Souza with Unraveled and Irene Brand with Taking a Risk on Love. If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (November 25th) evening.
Picture of Pamela Meyers
Interview with the heroine from Love Will Find a Way by Pamela Meyers (Pamela doesn’t have a cover yet):
1. April, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
Lately, it’s been all the crazy things I find myself getting into. In fact I recently thought maybe I should find another line of work because since working as a chef, it seems someone is always trying to kill me. Last spring when it became apparent my former fiancé, Marc Thorne, was being framed for murder, I set out looking for the killer and nearly became another victim of the murderer. Then a few months ago, my wonderful aunt bought an old Victorian and insisted I use it for the catering business. Not long after the renovations started it became very clear that someone didn’t want my business to start. Talk about distractions between testing recipes and dealing with one catastrophe after the other. Not to mention a few skeletons in Marc’s closet he not mentioned. We overcame those and started dating again. I have to admit, my life is never boring.
2. What do you do for fun?
My recent experience with the house has prompted both an interest in historical buildings and in particular, the history of southeastern Wisconsin, where I live. Quite a few gangsters from the depression era hid out at various places around my town and over in Lake Geneva, too. Lake Geneva is a stone’s throw down the highway from Canoga Lake. The more I learn, the more I want to know more. I’ve been spending quite a bit of time at the Geneva Lake Museum over in Lake Geneva, lately. I hope to eventually have a small café in my house and would love to decorate it as authentically as I can with historical pieces and be able to share bits of history about the area with my guests.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Visiting my parents. They live about an hour away from me. I love my mom to pieces, but Dad and I don’t always get along. He has a real control issue and will never give up on me coming to work for him. It kills him that he paid for my college tuition in finance and I’d rather cook for a living. He owns a financial services company and hoped I’d want to work for him and eventually take over the business. I’d rather eat grubs for the rest of my life than number crunch. I did that for eight years while working my way through culinary school and that was enough for me. Visits with him drain me.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
God has taught me a lot about fear. He says quite a few times in the Bible to “fear not” and I’ve learned, even in the most perilous of times, He is right there with me. Still, it’s a hard lesson to learn. If I let myself take my eyes off God, I fear my business failing, growing old, and sometimes I have insecure moments regarding my relationship with Marc. But then God reminds me that no matter what He has my back. I find that very comforting.
5. What do you want out of life?
To be the best that I can be, doing what God has called me to do. Does that sound too pat? I’ve learned what He’s called me to do isn’t always what I think. A few months ago my best friend from culinary school in Atlanta, Lonnie King, showed up on my doorstep. I knew something huge was bothering her, but I couldn’t pull it out no matter how much I tried. I’m glad she came to me and that God gave me patience to stick with her at a time I had little what with all that has been going on with my house and love life. Marc and I have had some rocky moments in that department.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
God, the people I love most. . . Marc, Aunt Kitty, Mom and even Dad LOL. Of course my business and my cooking. I consider it an honor to have been given the ability to turn out delicious food and please people by feeding them and making their dining experience memorable and fun. That may sound haughty, but truly I know where my gifting comes from.
7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?
LOL, the most reading I do is cook books. I stopped reading mysteries. Lately I’ve had too much of life imitating art. I do enjoy a good romance – one with depth. I’ve been reading historical romances lately seeing I am so interested of late in history. It takes me a while to get through a novel though. Maybe after the house is finished and the business is established I’ll have more time.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
That’s easy. Be able to eat everything I cook and it wouldn’t go to my hips. I hate working out and yet I have to taste test everything. It’s a loosing battle, I’m afraid. I think I’m overweight, but Marc insists I’m curvy and he likes me that way. Gotta love him.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
No pets. But I live with Aunt Kitty in her rambling lakeshore home and she has two cats, Rosebud and Violet. They are really sweet cats. When I finally move to the apartment on the second floor of my house, I have no plans to get a pet. My life is too busy at the moment to have an animal. Maybe once my life is more established I’ll get a dog. I had a pet dog growing up, and a dog would be my first choice.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
With my renewed interest in the gangster period, speakeasies, etc. I would love to go back to that time and experience how it was in the thirties in our area. I’ve been watching a lot of old movies lately from that time period it would be fun. I’d love to see how restaurants managed back then on limited food supplies and still turning out a good meal at a good price. I think I’d miss the conveniences of a modern kitchen though, so I wouldn’t want to stay there too long.