Thanks for hosting me on Fresh Fictionβs Romantic Suspense Monday, as I
celebrate my debut release, SINGLE MALT, Book 1 of the
Agents Irish and Whiskey male/male romantic suspense series.
AIW features widowed FBI agent and Irish ex-pat, Aidan Talley, who
falls hard for handsome, younger Cyber agent, Jameson βWhiskeyβ Walker, as they
investigate cybercrimes and the murder of Aidanβs late husband.
While there are plenty of car chases, gunfights and explosions in AIW,
thereβs also a lot of food. Iβm a foodie, and a displaced Southerner, and Iβd be
lying if I said Jamie, a North Carolina native now living in San Francisco,
didnβt bear some resemblance in those respects. And like me, Southern-boy
Jamieβs got a hankering for certain foods he just canβt get in California.
Jamieβs Top Five Southern Food Cravings
North Carolina Barbecue
When Tar Heels say βbarbecue,β we donβt mean meat cooked on a grill. We mean
pork, slow-cooked on a smoker, then pulled and chopped. Being from eastern NC,
Jamie prefers whole hog style, vinegar sauce (little-to-no ketchup), red slaw,
AND ALL THE HUSHPUPPIES (dipped in honey butter). A proper eastern NC barbecue
plate right here:
Southern Peaches
While peaches in California are perfectly fine and come in many varieties, they
canβt hold a candle to a real southern peach. One of lifeβs simplest pleasures
is a fresh peach from one of the many roadside stands on HWY 74 or HWY 151/501
on the way to the NC/SC Coast. Sweet, tender, and juicy, youβll never need a
knife to eat one of these. And all the peach cobbler, YUM!
Fish Camps
A restaurant, often in the shape of a barn, in which all manner of seafood is
served, 95% of it fried. There should be a medic on duty. When pounded and fried
is what youβre raised on, all of the grilled, smoked, seared, etc. seafood
options out west are overwhelming at first. And while weβre talking seafood,
forever missing Maryland crab cakes, blue crab, and soft shell crab.
Sweet Iced Tea
You may think youβve had sweet tea before but until your Southern
grandpa makes it for you with 4 cups of sugar per gallon of Lipton tea and
serves it to you in a mason jar full of ice, youβve never really had
sweet tea.
Bojanglesβ
While their fried chicken is tasty, itβs not about that (except on game day,
when their tailgate special wins all the awards). Itβs really about the all-day
breakfast biscuits. Scratch-made and filled with Southern favorites β country
fried steak, country ham, Cajun chicken, sausage gravy, the list goes on. Plus
the Bo-Berry biscuits β blueberry- stuffed biscuits with sweet cream icing. And
they sell super sweet tea by the jug!
So, whoβs hungry now?! I know I am! Grab a copy of SINGLE MALT, OUT NOW, and
your favorite snack, because youβre only going to get hungrier from here ;)
Eight months after the car crash that changed everything, FBI agent Aidan
Talley is back at work. New department, new case and a new partner. Smart,
athletic and handsome, Jameson Walker is twelve years his junior. Even if Aidan
was ready to move onβand he's notβJamie is off-limits.
Jamie's lusted after Aidan for three years, and the chance to work with San
Francisco's top agent directly is too good to pass up. Aidan is pricklyβto put
it mildlyβ but a growing cyber threat soon proves Jamie's skills invaluable.
Jamie's talents paint a target on his back, and Aidan is determined to
protect him. But with hack after hack threatening a high-security biocontainment
facility, time is running out to thwart a deadly terrorist attack. They'll have
to filter out distractions, on the case and in their partnership, to identify
the real enemy, solve the case and save thousands of lives, including their own.
So, whoβs hungry now?! I know I am! Grab a copy of 
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