holiday – Jackie Layton

Merry Christmas

December 24, 2025December 1, 2025 Jackie Layton

It’s always good for me to take a moment to reflect on the reason for Christmas. If you’d ever like to have a conversation about Jesus, please reach out to me.

I hope you have a joyous Christmas!

holiday

Christmas Cooking with Sophie

December 18, 2025December 16, 2025 Jackie Layton

Sophie Becker owns Sophie’s Bakery on the town square in Lutz, Texas. She’s Emma Justice’s best friend in A Texas Flower Farmer Cozy Mystery series.

Springerles are German cookies that require special molds or rolling pins. My ancestors brought these molds to America many years ago, and they have remained in the family.

Here’s one recipe for Springerles.

Ingredients:

cooking spray
1 ½ tablespoons crushed anise seeds
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup confectioners’ sugar

Spray 4 cookie sheets with cooking spray; sprinkle with anise seeds and set aside until needed.

Mix flour and baking powder in a large bowl until well blended. Place sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a separate large bowl; beat with an electric mixer until light and frothy, 5 to 8 minutes. Gradually stir flour mixture into egg mixture to form a thick dough.

Working with handfuls of dough at a time, roll out onto a lightly floured surface until 1/4 inch thick. Lightly sift confectioners’ sugar over the dough. Place springerle molds onto dough; press down hard and evenly until the mold’s design registers in dough. Remove the mold. Use a small knife to cut around each cookie, and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Repeat, until all dough has been used. Cover cookies with a lightweight cotton cloth, and allow to dry for 8 hours, or overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Bake cookies in preheated oven until tops are pale brown and cookies are set, 25 – 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

I hope you and your family have a warm and cozy Christmas.

Events, holiday

Wait, what? What happened to November?

November 30, 2025 Jackie Layton

One day it’s Thanksgiving and fall decorations and then it’s time to celebrate Christmas.

I have so much to be thankful for. I have a wonderful family and I am thankful for them every day. I’m also thankful for all of you who read my books.

Speaking of books, Killer Secrets is now available as eBook and paperback.

Here are some of the links where you can find Killer Secrets.

Amazon eBook:

https://amzn.to/48pubbZ

Amazon paperback: https://amzn.to/3M75ycS

Barnes & Noble eBook: https://bit.ly/4pEqWEC

Barnes & Noble paperback: https://bit.ly/4iwp5PV

Kobo: https://binged.it/3K4DuGx

Killer Secrets is the third book in An Organized Crime Cozy Mystery series.

Speed dating sabotage?

Or straight-up murder?

Kate Sloan’s best friend, Bess Walker, decides to try speed dating and convinces Kate to go with her for moral support.

The night of the event is filled with many emotions. Excitement, hope, jealousy, fear, greed, and even anger. Emotions spiral out of control for one person.

Before the second round, the event’s host is murdered.

Kate will use her skills at organizing, list-making, and questioning to try and solve the murder. Can she unravel the mystery before the killer leaves town for the next weekend of singles events?

If you’re interested in some fun Christmas bookish activities, I’ll participate in a few this week.

Tuesday, December 2, I’ll participate in Murder, They Write’s Christmas Party on Facebook. It will be a lot of fun and there will be prizes.

I’ll be blogging at 1:00 ES and live at 6:00 ES. But join us whenever you can.

If you’re in the Pawleys Island area, I’ll participate in Shine Bright, Friday night, at the Presbyterian church. Please stop by and say hi.

Then on Saturday, at 3:30 ES, I’ll be hosting at the Cozy Mystery Party Holiday Party.

I hope you have a great week, and happy reading!

Jackie

Cozy mystery, holiday

A Zappy Little Christmas

October 20, 2025October 6, 2025 Jackie Layton

A Zappy Little Christmas in October? You bet. Paula Charles’ new book releases October 21, and I preordered it months ago. Isn’t the cover beautiful? I can’t wait to read it. Paula agreed to stop by the blog today, and here’s Paula.

Thank you, Jackie, for inviting me here today to chat about my newest book.

A Zappy Little Christmas is the third book in the Hometown Hardware mysteries. This series features Dawna Carpenter, the widowed owner of Carpenter’s Corner Hardware in the mountain town of Pine Bluff, Oregon.

In Zappy, Dawna, her daughter April, and elderly family friend Smitty are taking a festive tour on the town bus, dubbed the Christmas Light Trolley, to ooh and ahh over all the beautifully decorated homes in town.

Having them jump on the Christmas Light Trolley was inspired by a similar tour we took my husband’s grandmother on years ago when we all lived in Cody, Wyoming. That tour was just like the one I described in the book, (sans a dead body!), with festive treats, lights, and fun Christmas music pumping through the speakers. We all enjoyed it so much, and Grandma Mary’s eyes truly sparkled that night. When I thought about writing a Christmas cozy, I knew the trolley had to be included.

I hope you all enjoy your time experiencing Pine Bluff at Christmastime!

My website: Paula Charles Books | Paula Charles

From the back cover:

Silver bells ring out, but in the air there’s a feeling of…murder.

Pine Bluff, Oregon resembles a perfect cozy Christmas card. Sparkling Christmas trees line snowy main street. Wreaths, red ribbons, and colored lights adorn every door. Hardware store owner Dawna Carpenter is in a festive mood. She invites her elderly neighbor, Smitty, to join her and daughter April on the Christmas Light Tour, a trolley that takes guests through all the best decorated neighborhoods while they enjoy steaming mugs of hot cocoa and scrumptious treats.

But when Smitty spies one of the homeowners dead—a macabre decoration in an otherwise merry display—the cheerful ride turns somber fast. Dawna notices the ghost of the deceased woman standing next to the display, clearly angry over her recent demise. As snow blankets the valley and her newest employee is implicated in the crime, it’s up to Dawna to find out who’s been naughty and who’s been nice—before it’s lights out for her, too.

Thanks for sharing, Paula. Congratulations on A Zappy Little Christmas!

holiday

Happy 4th of July

July 2, 2025July 2, 2025 Jackie Layton

I hope you have fun plans for the holiday, and I hope you find time to read a good book.

We’re celebrating my sister-in-law’s birthday this week by hiking, playing games, and laughing a lot.

Happy birthday, Carol!

In book news, I’d like to introduce you to Annie McEwen’s book, Dead, White, and Blue.

It’s the 4th of July in the Wisconsin Northwoods, and no one is more excited than Emmy Cooper. She’s happy to be back in her hometown, settling once again into small-town living and helping her family run Cooper’s Cove, their lake cottage resort. Emmy and her teen crush, police officer Dean Erickson, are enjoying getting reacquainted, while she and bestie Whitney are closer than ever.

Lake Covington and its quaint namesake town are bustling with visitors celebrating during the annual three-day Independence Day Freedom Fest. Everything is Yankee Doodle Dandy until a local man with a reputation for trouble starts fireworks of his own. And the explosions just keep on coming when Emmy stumbles over a dead body at the celebrations!

The dead man is Jordan James, and as Emmy soon finds out, there’s no shortage of people who might want him dead. From a jealous jerk to a conniving cousin and even a former friend from his past, suspects are more plentiful than ants at a July picnic! Despite promises to stay out of the investigation, Emmy finds herself smack in the middle of it. Can she and Whitney figure out the truth and find liberty and justice for all?

Another cozy mystery that you’re probably familiar with, Bleeding Heart Librarian, begins on the 4th of July.

Emma Justice is friends with the local librarian and brings her extra flowers once a week. On a hot July morning, when people are gathered outside the closed library past opening time, Emma calls the police. The librarian’s body is found in the building and beside the body is a pink and white bleeding heart plant.

Tess Carranza was a lovely person dedicated to children and patrons of the library in Lutz, Texas. Tess recently confided to Emma about her fear someone was using the library to gather information to commit crimes. Emma didn’t get the entire story from Tess before her death, but now she’s determined to stop the crime and catch Tess’s killer.