RACHAEL STAPLETON

Hi there I’m Stella McLeod. I write paranormal and contemporary romance but like all authors there’s more to me than that. I am a Clinical Psychologist and I’m also a trained chef. (Elizabeth Russell’s French Cookery School, London and The Cordon Bleu, London).  My new release is a paranormal romance, Always Have and Always Will, about an Immortal ancient warrior and his long dead partner who has been reincarnated after 2000 years as a modern woman. Some people say authors are born not made, I think authors are just people who decide they want to write. The only problem is that once you begin you don’t want to do anything else.  I decided I wanted to write when I was a teenager. I was abysmal at Maths, Physics and Chemistry but I was good at English so I entered competitions and started winning awards. And that old adage about positive reinforcement strengthening behaviour is true. But what I didn’t know and wasn’t to learn until I became a Clinical Psychologi...

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Photo Credit: www.mcall.com Autumn season connotes many things: falling leaves, warm fires, cozy mysteries, and pumpkin spiced low-fat no-fat chai lattes (hmmmmm). Putting the garden to bed, fretting over a non offensive, yet creative costume for that annual Hallowe’en party you love going to also comes to mind. But for me there’s something else: something not forgotten, but no longer practiced because it is culturally specific, based on a country that no longer exists, spurred along by people no longer living. Can this intro form part of a foodie blog? You better believe it! For that thing I pine for, that singular thing that meant AUTUMN to me when I was a child was none other than the annual Schlacht. WARNING: SOME CONTENT MAY SEEM STRANGE Schlact? What’s that? Well, gentle reader, it’s complicated. Schlacht is a German word that literally means ‘battle’.  But to a family of Danube Swabians, it meant quite another. Danube Swabians once formed a colorful com...

Several months ago, six authors decided to put together a stew (or is it a roux?) of new paranormal noir novelettes—the spirit of film noir with a paranormal twist. The name of the collection? Dark Secrets. What does that have to do with food? Well, hey, even faeries have to eat. So here is a three-course meal from some of the authors, paranormal noir style. (Wait, you might say—is that two soup courses? Just roll with it, okay?) The Appetizer: Faerie Gumbo, by Suzanne Johnson In my paranormal noir novelette The Consort , the Faerie Winter Princess Tamara and faery-in-hiding Liandra are in New Orleans. The appetizer served in their French Quarter restaurant is gumbo. Gumbo is all about the roux. Butter, flour, and water, browned to a dark burnt siena color. Cook it too short a time and it’s bland; cook it too long and it’s bitter. Faeries like their roux just right. Lazy people like the author like the slow-cooker version. 1/2 cup vegetable oil or butter 1/2 cu...