Author Archives: Peggy Jaeger

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About Peggy Jaeger

I've been many things in my life,but the most consistent is WRITER.
July 18, 2024 · 12:34 am

#TBT #Throwbackthursday #TBThursday 7.17.24

From February 2018…

This is a funfunfun topic for me. I sincerely don’t know what writers did before PINTEREST came along. The first time I was ever told about the site and then visited it, I was addicted. For Life. Seriously.

You all know I’m a huge plotter when it comes to my books. I have everything lined up, plotted out, and squared off before I ever start writing because I’m so anal. It’s that damn scientific background – I always need to know where I’m going. In the past I’d look for pictures of my characters or places or settings in magazines. Being able to visibly “see” how I wanted someone to look made it waaaaay easier for me to write about them. With the advent of Google, I tossed the mags and started trolling celebrity sites – because back in the day they were the only pictures you could really find.

It’s a new day, people. We don’t need Google images anymore -we’ve got PINTEREST. Anyone can upload a picture of pretty much anything ( legal, that is!) From the moment I used Pinterest to categorize and help me plot/storyboard my books, my life got sosososos much easier. I had more time to write because I didn’t need to troll endlessly looking for images through mags anymore. I simply plugged in something like “guys, 30’s black hair, green eyes,” and 9,000,000 PINS instantly popped up for me to choose from.

Score!

So, for the first time, I’m giving you a little glimpse into how I storyboard my characters on Pinterest. The links below are to my Will Cook For Love Series books. These Pins/pictures are how I “saw” the books when I was writing them. (A few of the books haven’t been published yet so this is like a little teaser!)  Let me know your thoughts.

Will Cook for Love

A shot at Love/Gemma

Melora and Riley

Abby and Rick

Ellie and Sloan

And I even have an alternative breakout spinoff series to Cooking with Kandy called Bros, Inc.

You’re welcome for that last one!

When I’m not doing RESEARCH ( wink wink) you can find me here: Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// Book Me

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July 17, 2024 · 12:57 am

#wednesdaywisdom 7.17.24

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July 16, 2024 · 12:20 am

#teasertuesday 7.16.24

We’re still celebrating CHRISTMAS IN JULY Over on the CHRISTMAS COMES TO DICKENS FB page, so here’s a little tease from my 2024 addition, A CHEF’S KISS CHRISTMAS. SO, if you read last year’s entry, DON’T MESS WITH THE MISTLETOE, you will recognize Julia Charles here today. Things have changed for the lovely waitress in this past year…

At one point, the noise level rose considerably, and his head flicked toward the swing doors. They blew open as someone pushed them so hard that they bounced back against the wall and then flung forward again as a unit. Amy’s outstretched hand held them at bay, her other hand wrapped around Julia’s upper arm. The younger woman was waddling, the advanced state of her pregnancy evident today.

“Tony,” Amy barked, “Get me a chair.”

He’d been around kitchen emergencies his entire life. Grease fires, ovens shooting flames from food catching fire, a fryolator overheating, a mishandled knife or two. He recognized the urgency in Amy’s voice.

Like a lightning strike, he shot to the office and returned with Amy’s desk chair.

Julia, sweating and panting, eased down into it with her mother-in-law’s and his help.

“Now RayLynn already called for an ambulance, darlin’,” she told the younger woman as she patted her hand, “and I’m gonna call Michael right now and start the Charles’  family phone tree.” She pulled her cell from her apron pocket and pressed a single button.

From the gist of what he’d just heard, Tony deduced Julia was in labor.

He was about to ask her if he could get her anything or help in any way, but the words were never unleashed because the swing door flew open again, and two paramedics from Dickens Memorial Hospital sailed through grasping a gurney.

Questions were asked and answered, a device was threaded around her ample waist with an explanation it was a fetal heart monitor to gage the baby’s heartrate.

Five minutes after they arrived, Julia was secured, monitor in place, along with an Intravenous inserted, and on her way out the door to the hospital.

Amy grabbed her coat from the peg by the back door, and as she shrugged into it told him, “You’re in charge while I’m gone,” before breezing out the door. “Keep my kitchen running.”

He didn’t hesitate before saying, “Yes, Ma’am.” It was only after the doors closed behind her that he realized he’d agreed without any hesitation or worry.

Something to think about later.

For now, there were hungry people in the dining room.

They made it through the breakfast rush, the lunch crush, and the midafternoon lull. Amy had called twice to check on everything and give baby updates. Julia was still in labor, her pilot husband Michael by her side, along with Julia’s eight-year-old daughter from her first marriage, Blake.

She asked him to hold down the fort for a few more hours. Since he’d been planning to, he told her he would.

The last weekend of the month ( July 26-27, ) It will be my turn to take over as a DICKEN’S Author on the FB page. At that time, I’ll reveal my 2024 cover. It’s a beauty!

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July 15, 2024 · 12:42 am

#mondaymusings 7.15.24

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July 11, 2024 · 12:35 am

#TBT #tbthursday 7.11.2024

This one is from January 2018…

So the New Year is 10 days old and I’m already hearing people have broken their NY resolutions. I’ve even seen it with my own eyes at the gym. Last week I had to wait for a few machines because all those people who vowed to lose weight and get in shape for 2018 were all gung-ho about hitting the gym every day and sweating the fat off. Fast forward to week 2 and most of those people are back to sleeping in and saying, “I’ll exercise later/tomorrow/never again.”

This is the reason I don’t make resolutions. It’s too easy to break or ignore them.

Instead, as I’ve said before, I make a list of goals every year that I want to accomplish during that year and then make an action plan for those goals. Just saying, “I’m gonna hit the gym more this year,” doesn’t put any action behind the process. How often? When? What body areas are you going to center on? Those questions need to be asked and answered with a PLAN.

Remember the A-Team  (the television show, not the horrible and lousy movie remake) and the line George Peppard always said when they finished a case? “I love when a plan comes together.”

Yeah. And, duh! What’s the significant word in that line? PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN.

In order to have an effective plan, you need to define the actions to bring that plan to fruition. Once you do, you’ve formed your GOAL.

Seems common-sense-y, doesn’t it?

So, one of my goals this year was to get my life more organized. You might think since I have the luxury of being a full-time writer that there wouldn’t necessarily be a need to get organized. I mean, don’t I just write every day?

Yeah, but….

This year I wanted to set a goal for the number of books I’m going to write and for the number of blogs I want to do each week, so I bought a planner with one section devoted to PROJECTS. Here’s how my process goes:

  • 5 days a week write a minimum of 2500 words daily in your current WIP. No less.
  • On Sundays, write your 2-3 blog posts for the week.
  • Schedule your Social Media posts days ahead of time using Hootsuite. Book those posts on Sundays.
  • Shut off the phone alerts and all SM alerts while performing #1

Now, if I write 2500 words minimum 5 days per week I’ll have 12,500 words written a week. My books usually range from 75000-90000 words, and using this formula I can write a book in 7.2 weeks ( 90,000 words) That’s less than 2 months!!! Yowza. And I’m a good record keeper. This is the daily word count for a Christmas book I just sent to my editor for review:

REGINA daily word count

November 27, 2017                           0                      1064                           1064

November 28, 2017                         1064               1379                           2443

November 29, 2017                         2443               441                           2884

December 4, 2017                            2884               2517                           5401

December 5, 2017                            5401               1622                           7023

December 6, 2017                            7023               2468                           9491

December 7, 2017                            9491               2174                         11665

December 10, 2017                         11665              4307                          15972

December 11, 2017                         15972                2876                          18848

December 12, 2017                         18848                  597                          19445

December 13, 2017                         19445                 2301                          21746

December 14, 2017                         21746                 1438                          23184

December 18, 2017                         23184                  2448                          25632

December 19, 2017                         25632                   2000                          27632

December 20, 2017                         27632                   3138                          30770

December 21, 2017                         30770                    1961                          32731

January 1, 2018                               32731                        5482                          38213

January 2, 2018                               38213                        2578                          40791

January 3, 2018                               40791                        1275                          42066

January 4, 2018                               42066                        3222                          45288

January 5, 2018                               45288                        3812                          49100

January 6, 2018                               49100                        3106                          52206

January 7, 2018                               52206                        696                           52890

Finished!    1.7.18             23 days and a total of 52,890 words.   For me, this isn’t bad!

So, plan+action=goal.

Easy peasy.

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July 10, 2024 · 12:55 am

#wednesdaywisdom 7.10.24

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July 9, 2024 · 12:52 am

#tuesdaytease 7.9.2024 Celebrate Christmas in July!!!

So, In honor of CHRISTMAS IN JULY, I have 2 holiday romance books releasing for the 2024 holiday season. The first is the DICKENS HOLIDAY ROMANCE, A CHEF’S KISS CHRISTMAS, which comes out on 11.11.24. I’ve talked a bit about that one already, so….

The second is a short story/novella in an anthology titled LOVE, LATTES and HOLIDAY TALES. The cool thing about this anthology is that the profits all go towards the charity 4 Paws for Ability, a non-profit organization that matches service dogs with Veterans. How fabulous is that?? The book is available for preorder and is just 99 cents – that’s 25 authors/25 stories for just 99 cents. Come on, kids – what a bargain that is!!!

My story is about a dog trainer and one of her clients…

Here’s a little bit:

Talk about performance pressure.

Ben pointed to my table. We sat, while he held fast to his dog’s leash just in case he decided to bolt again.

He needn’t have worried.  D’Artagnan (and can we just establish how cute that name is ) plopped down between my chair and Juliette’s, his mouth pulled into an enraptured smile as he continued to stare at my little darling.

And that little darling was staring right back, her doggie coquette on full blast.

Ben took a quick look at his dog, seemed satisfied all was well, then turned his attention to me.

“So,” I said. “You’re in the market for a dog trainer.”

He grinned and nodded. “I am, but Dart isn’t my dog.”

That surprised me.

“He belongs to my aunt, who, recently, fell and broke her hip. She’s in a rehab facility for a few months, recouping.”

“I’m sorry.”

He waved a hand at me. “She’s strong and determined, so she’ll be fine. The issue is when she comes home there’s no way she can manage Dart in his present state. He pulls like crazy when you walk him, he’s easily distracted, and I’m not sure she’s going to be able to safely take care of him by herself. He needs to be trained, something she never bothered with.”

“Do you know how old he is?”

“Four. Is that too old for him to learn?”

“Of course not.”

“Even though he still acts like that’s months and not years? He’s a full-on puppy. He doesn’t know his boundaries and he doesn’t listen to commands.”

I refrained from saying he listened to me just fine when I told him to sit.

Here’s the cover for the anthology and my book cover.

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July 8, 2024 · 12:41 am

#mondaymusings 7.8.24

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July 5, 2024 · 3:19 am

#fridayfive 7.5.2024

The five reasons you should read The HEAVEN’S MATCHMAKER SERIES

  1. The series is just 99 cents for each Kindle book right now and for a limited time!
  2. great beach reads
  3. HEA
  4. hunky heroes; strong women, 35+
  5. did I mention the books are just 99 cents? ( LOL!!)

MIX AND MATCH ( JASMINE & DONOVAN) Book 1

Divorced and lonely, nurse Jasmine Green retains the services of Heaven, NH’s very own successful matchmaker, Olivia Joyner. The bar scene and dating apps give Jasmine hives and Liv’s reputation is stellar. If anyone can help guide her through the quagmire that dating has become, Olivia can.

Architect Donovan Boyd is ready to settle down. He wants the kind of marriage his parents have; long-lasting, filled with love, children, and joy. But even after a year of living and working in Heaven, he’s still considered an outsider by many. Finding the type of woman he’s looking for is hard in the tight-knit community. Retaining Olivia Joyner to help him find his forever love is one of the smartest things he’s done, especially after she sets him up with Jasmine Green.

But the red-haired, green-eyed beauty wants a different kind of marriage from the one Donovan considers ideal.

Can these two strong-willed people learn to compromise so they can both find their happily ever after? Or will their relationship forever be relegated to the friend zone?

LOVE MATCH ( LAYLA & CODY) BOOK 2

Running away from a public scandal may be cowardly, but to Layla Warton, it’s her best option.

After her politically connected fiancé is indicted for a laundry list of crimes, Layla wants to put the public ridicule and shame of her guilty-by-association status behind her. Not easy to do when all her supposed friends and supporters lose her number and the taint of scandal-adjacent destroys the successful design business and life she’s built for herself.

Happy childhood memories and the blessing of a local friend push her toward the tiny New England town of Heaven where she spent summers with her loving grandparents. Hiding out in the town until the scandal dies down is the perfect plan.

With the paparazzi hot on her tail, an ancient family home she needs to get livable, and a contractor too hot for her sanity, Layla worries she’ll never be able to get her old life back.

But would that really be such a bad thing?

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July 4, 2024 · 12:34 am

#tbt #throwbackthursday 7.4.24

This one is from December, 2017

We’re winding down on the 52-week blog. Just a few entries left and today is such a hard one for me. I have to share a favorite recipe with you all. Just one. One recipe. I think I mentioned before I am a cookbook hoarder. Truly. I own upward of 130 cookbooks from all over the world and from all eras – case in point, I have a church-sponsored spiral bound cookbook from a Methodist church dated 1913. EVERYTHING, EVERY SINGLE RECIPE calls for whole milk, real butter, pork fat, or fresh cheese. Proof that nutritional times have changed greatly in the past 100+ years!

Any hoo…I digress.

I delved deep into my recipe card files, trolled through my holiday food prep books and came up with a family and friend favorite that’s easy, delicious, and depending on how you make it not too too too calorie-laden!

My Chocolate Trifle

I made this just last week for a holiday party

Here’s the EASY recipe ( the harder one follows!)

Ingredients

1 box of any commercial brand chocolate cake

2 16 oz tubs of Cool Whip Lite

1 5 oz box of instant MyTFine Chocolate, sugar-free  pudding

Crumbled chocolate bar of your choice ( I use the Cadbury Chocolate Orange that comes out at the holidays)

Instructions

  1. Prepare and bake the cake as directed on the cake box using 2 9″ round baking tins
  2. Prepare the pudding and chill
  3. Once the cake is baked and cooled in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, place one complete cake round into the bottom of a trifle bowl. You can either place it in one whole piece, or crumble the cake up.
  4. next, layer one tub of cool whip lite over it. Smooth it out so you get two distinct lines of color
  5. next, layer 1/2 the pudding over the cool whip. Smooth it out so you get 3 distinct lines of color.
  6. Repeat steps 3-5 with the other cake round, the other tube of cool whip and the rest of the pudding.
  7. top with crumbled chocolate bar pieces or you can shave the chocolate on top if you prefer small chunks.
  8. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 2-4 hours.

Delish!
Now the harder recipe ( and the one I make!!!) Ingredients:

a. for the Chocolate Cake:

1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temp

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup all purpose white flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup refined sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

Instructions:

1.oven goes to 350 degrees to preheat. Take 3 9 inch cake pans and grease them

2.In a bowl, mix the cocoa, flour, and baking soda together and set the bowl to the side. With a mixer, cream the sugar and the butter until soft and light. Beat in one egg at a time on low speed. Add the vanilla and mix. Then add in half the flour and cocoa mixture, then the sour cream. Finish with the remaining dry  ingredients.

3. Pour into baking pans evenly, about a 1/2 -1 inch each to make even layers.

4. bakes for 20-25 mins, or until a toothpick comes back clean when placed in the center. Oven temps vary. Check at 20 minutes and every 5 minutes until this happens.

5. cool completely.

b. For the pudding:
Use either  Packaged instant or the packaged kind you have to cook. If you use the old-fashioned kind, make sure the pudding is completely cooled and set before the layering starts.

To assemble, see the instructions as above. Cake/cool whip/pudding. Finish with a  cake layer ( like my pciture_ and top with candy.

Both the easy recipe and the from scratch one are delish!!!! To save calories, substitute skim milk for any whole asked for,  use cool whip LITE and SUGAR-free pudding made with skim milk ( not whole)

Every single time I make this whether it is for a dinner party 0f 6 or a group gathering of 10+, it is GONE. I never have left overs of this dessert. Ever.

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