Available Soon --- Spoonful of Sugar by Tia Dani

 

BLURB:

 

During a drug bust, friendly fire almost ended Brad Davidson's career on the St Louis police force, but his wife's social avarice, was the final blow. Divorced and disillusioned, Brad returned to his home town of Coker City to become its County Sheriff, content to keep the town, and his heart, safe. Until, he meets the new pharmacist. Brad decides he's wasted plenty of time running from his own broken heart.

 

Dana Barrett looks for a fresh start in a small town. Coker City, Illinois is about as far away as a young widow with four small children can afford to get from Chicago and its painful memories. Malicious gossip ruined her life once and she swears she will never let it happen again. While Dana struggles to keep a professional relationship with the handsome, attentive sheriff, Brad is ready to take a chance on love again. Dana's fear of gossip raises an unswayable wall between them.

 

The entire town is convinced Brad is the answer for Dana's family and the town's future. Through their eyes, Dana decides not all gossip is meant to be destructive. When she learns Brad is considering another job out of state, she risks the outrageous so she and her children can keep from losing the sweetest love of her life.

 

Cover by Bella Media management  http://www.bellamediamanagement.com/

 

Available soon on Amazon.com

 

 

We had a lot of fun writing Dana and Brad's story and we hope you have as much fun reading about them.

 

Available soon in ebook and print  --  Spoonful of Sugar.

 

Tia Dani

 

America's Sweethearts

Don't be misled by the title. I'm talking about those chalky mint flavored hearts that practically everyone in the US has seen or received for Valentine's Day. Yes, since I couldn't come up with a fun and interesting topic, I thought I'd research those sweethearts.

Technically, they're called conversation sweethearts and they weren't always heart shaped. In the beginning when Abraham Lincoln was president, the New England Confectionary Company sold a shell-shaped cookie and wrapped it in paper stamped with a saying. Fast forward 20 or so years and the owners of NECCO, first found a way to press candy into lozenges (pill-shape) then came up with a way to stamp sayings on the lozenges using red food dye.

Around the 1900s, the process improved and soon the company turned out heart-shaped candy with sayings. Of course, there were other shapes--baseballs, horseshoes, etc, but the heart-shape won the day. There were larger hearts produced to hold longer sayings and these were apparently very popular for weddings.

The 1990s saw a few changes as the company sought to update the sayings stamped on the candy. They reflected new fangled technology with sayings such as call me, fax me and email me. This year, there's rumors that some will even say tweet me. They jumped on board the Twilight phenomenon in 2009 with such phrases as Dazzle and Bite me. And each year they get suggestions for new sayings.

According to the company's website, the recipe hadn't changed much over the last 144 years but in 2010 they reformulated adding new sugar-free and chocolate versions (as well as a few new flavors.)

I might have to keep an eye out for the chocolate ones this year when I pick up boxes for my kids.