April 2016 Newsletter
Vol. CLXXIII

Gentle Readers:

Welcome to April! I hope spring has sprung in your neck of the woods. Here in Nashville the forsythia is blooming, the tulips paint jeweled carpets, and the now-warm breezes are a harbinger of summer days. The world is alive again, and I am so happy to welcome it back.

March was a busy month for me; a little bird may have told you I released a new book. To everyone who bought, reviewed, Thunderclapped, or were somehow involved in the release of NO ONE KNOWS, thank you. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. It took me five years, eighteen drafts, and four titles to get this book into your hands, and I appreciate everything you've done to spread the word about this book and for all the well-wishes and feedback. You, my readers, are the reason I have the greatest job in the world.

If you can believe there's even more good news, NO ONE KNOWS was named to the Book of the Month Club for April! To make it even better, I'm alongside my brilliant friend Ariel Lawhon with her divine book FLIGHT OF DREAMS. They have a great deal if you sign up, so get thee a BOTM subscription!

Major congrats to Diana J. who won the iPad in the pre-order contest—your slick new machine is on its way! Thanks to everyone who entered, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your pre-orders!

We have a listing of all the fun PR we did, including a few radio interviews and a cool podcast on creativity, which you might enjoy. Click here to see the roundup!

Also, if you participated in my NO ONE KNOWS Thunderclap, I have a special thank-you present for you: the alternate ending to the book! If you're interested, email Amy (amy@jtellison.com), and she'll hook you up. It's a whopper of an ending, I'll tell ya . . .

You know the saying's true: when it rains, it pours. In eight short weeks, I'll be releasing another book: FIELD OF GRAVES, the Taylor Jackson prequel! You'll hear more about it in the coming days, but I just wanted to put that on your radar, especially because it was just given an OKRA Pick! from SIBA. I'm finalizing a book tour for it, too, so stay tuned for more info on that front. I may be in your backyard soon!

Events

Speaking of tours, I'm thrilled to make my annual pilgrimage to Southern Kentucky Book Fest later this month! Swing by SOKY on April 23 from 9:00 a.m. ‐ 3:00 p.m. CST, and come see me (and my bestie Laura Benedict—we get to sit together!) in the big signing hall. I've got some prezzies for you!

Get Thee to a Bookstore

It's been somewhat slow reading this month. Tour and PR and houseguests will do that to you. Plus, I've started about 6 books, and none really caught my fancy. I'm in the mood for a deep, intense, magical book (series), something transcendent, like Harry Potter, or Discovery of Witches, or Shadow and Bone. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. In the meantime, I finished up a couple and did read a few new ones.

NO ONE KNOWS ‐ ME!!
FIND HER ‐ Lisa Gardner
ADA'S RULES ‐ Alice Randall
THREE WISHES ‐ Lianne Moriarty

If you’re on Goodreads, friend me, and follow along. I’m always interested in what you’re reading, too!

April Contest

The April contest is live now: enter to win a a paperback copy of KILLER YEAR, a small paper notepad, and a $10 online book store gift card to Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million OR iBooks (winner's choice).

Enter here to win.

April Recipe — Chipotle Corn Cakes with Avocado & Goat Cheese Salsa

I found this recipe on Naturally Ella, a lovely site that has all kinds of excellent clean recipes. When I made it, I messed it up entirely — I was out of my usual GF King Arthur so used brown rice flour, and I didn't get enough in the mix, because my adorable patties fell apart the first time I tried to flip them. So. I ended up mixing it all together in the pan in a hash, and it was DIVINE. Feel free to screw up the way I did, you won't regret it.

Ingredients:

For the Corn Cakes:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ red onion, finely diced
• 2 ears sweet corn, or 1 ½ cups frozen corn
• ⅓–⅔ cup pastry flour (for you GF folks, use GF King Arthur or rice flour)
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup cilantro

For the Avocado and Goat Cheese salsa:

• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 2 tablespoons minced red onion
• 2 tablespoon minced cilantro
• Sprinkle of salt and pepper
• 1–2 ounces goat cheese

Directions:

For the Corn Cakes:

• Heat ½ tablespoon olive oil over medium heat in a skillet. Add in onions and cook until translucent, 4–5 minutes.
• Remove corn from cob (if using ears) and stir in to onions, continuing to cook until corn becomes soft, 4–5 minutes.
• Remove from heat and place mixture in a bowl. Add ⅓ cup flour, baking powder, egg, honey, lime juice, salt, and cilantro; stir until well combine. Add more flour until mixture pulls together and can form patties.
• Divide batter in to 5–6 patties.
• Heat ½ tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Place patties in the skillet, and pat the patties until they are one-inch thick.
• Fry on each side for 5–6 minutes. Each side should be browned.
• Top patties with avocado and goat cheese salsa.

For the Avocado and Goat Cheese salsa:

• Remove the skin and pit from the avocado and cut into cubes. Toss with lime juice, red onion, cilantro, and salt/pepper. (Chef JT's note — this is also possibly the best fresh guacamole recipe ever. I didn't have red onion so used white and it was awesome.)
• Gently fold goat cheese into the salsa.
• Devour!

That's it from me! Thunderclappers, don't forget to snag your alternate ending, enjoy your spring-like weather, thanks again for making NO ONE KNOWS a hit, and I'll talk to you soon!

xoxo,

*If you're interested in printing out the recipes I have in this newsletter, I'm happy to tell you that they are all available in PDF form.