Guest Post (and a Giveaway!): Carrie Cotten & Dark of Night

I’m delighted to welcome Carrie Cotten back to the blog today to chat about her new novel, Dark of Night – plus, she’s sharing a yummy recipe from the book!

DARK OF NIGHT
SERIES: Dreamwalker #2
GENRE: Inspirational Speculative Fiction
RELEASE DATE: March 25, 2021
PAGES: 329

A new life, a new love, and even a new name. For former secret agent Andromeda Stone – now Joanna Carter – a normal, boring life with her handsome husband was the happy ending. But an old enemy resurfaces, determined to leave nothing unfinished, and Andy must step back into the nightmares once again. Andy and Will each face their own worst fears in their search for answers. Will this new mission cost Andy more than she’s willing to pay?

When the journey takes her to deeper and darker places than she’s ever been before, Andy discovers it’s more than just answers she’s looking for.

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dark of night preorder goodies

Dark of Night paperbacks are available for pre-order until March 1^st HERE, and ebook pre-orders are available on Amazon.

Each pre-ordered paperback comes with themed book swag (including another recipe), free personalized inscription, free shipping, and entry into a giveaway for Book One of the series, Dreamwalker. (Paperback for US only, International winner receives an ebook)

by Carrie Cotten, author of Dark of Night

Food!!

My name is Carrie Cotten and I’m a Christian speculative fiction writer currently living in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. I’ve also lived in Texas and Alaska, but I’m originally from Louisiana. So when I was plotting locations for scenes in my upcoming release, Dark of Night, it was a natural choice-not much research involved, and so many interesting places. In fact, most of the action takes place in the city of New Orleans and as a tribute to my Cajun roots, my MCs enjoy some of the finest cuisine the Big Easy has to offer.

I’m sure readers will wonder why I went into such detail about Andy and Will’s meals and honestly, I don’t have some fascinating, meaningful answer.  I just really, really miss the food! I miss being able to walk into almost any restaurant and grab a hot bowl of etouffeé, or a shrimp po-boy. Boiled crawfish, muffulettas, boudin, beignets…mmm, now I’m hungry.

In honor of the fine dining detailed in Dark of Night: A Dreamwalker Novel (Book 2), I would like to share the quintessential Cajun recipe: Gumbo! Andy and Will don’t get a chance to feast on this delicious dish, but if you ask about Cajun food, gumbo is always one of the first on the list. Now there can be a lot of controversy surrounding the making of gumbo as everyone’s grandma has their own recipe, but this is the way my own momma makes it, and it is delicious.

Ingredients:

½ cup oil
½ cup flour
3 stalks celery (chopped)
1 medium onion (chopped)
6 cups chicken stock
1 lb. chicken, cooked and diced (or you can use a whole chicken that’s cooked and deboned)
1 lb. andouille sausage (cooked)

Spices:

Tony Chacheres Cajun Seasoning (pronounced “sash-er-eez”)  *this has a lot of salt in it
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Sage
Rosemary
Thyme
Bay Leaves
Gumbo Filé (Add at the very end)

Directions:

As with most Cajun dishes, first, you make a roux.

Add ½ cup of oil and ½ cup of flour to a hot cast iron pot and stir, stir, stir. Keep stirring. Stir some more. The mixture will form a sort of ball and start to turn a dark brown. The darker the roux, the darker your gumbo will be, BUT do not let it burn!

As soon as the roux is a nice dark brown, toss in the vegetables and let those cook until tender. You can add about 1 cup of your stock to help mix the vegetables and roux. Once tender, add the remainder of your stock and let that cook down for about thirty minutes.

Add your chicken, sausage and spices and let simmer for an hour. The very last thing to add is the Gumbo Filé. It will give your gumbo a nice flavor and thicken it up a bit.

Serve over rice.

Notes: If you live in a place that doesn’t sell Tony’s or Gumbo Filé, you can use any Cajun spice. You can also use seafood, like shrimp and crab if you’d prefer, and a lot of people like to add okra to their gumbo. All these options will be equally divine.

Pro-tip –It’s always better the next day.

Everyone is invited to attend my virtual launch party on Facebook, March 25^th. Join here- https://fb.me/e/3Oi6wEOq2. There will be an author panel, read-aloud, author q&a, a virtual book themed escape room, and I’ll be giving away beignet mix and a sweet mug from the famous Café DuMonde in New Orleans.

Carrie Cotten is a recent transplant to the Appalachian mountains where she and her family are trying their hand at homesteading in the tranquil community of Grassy Creek, North Carolina. By day she is a farming, homeschooling mom of four and by night, a writer of intense, emotional and intriguing Christian fiction novels.

While she has been writing her whole life, the Dreamwalker books are her first complete and published series. Her ultimate goal is to share the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ through her words. Her characters, though dealing with unbelievable situations experience real, raw, and believable faith.

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Carrie Cotten is offering a print copy of Dreamwalker AND Dark of Night PLUS a bookmark, recipe card and Mardi Gras swag to one of my readers! (US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

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What about you? What makes you want to read Dark of Night by Carrie Cotten? Do you have a favorite food from your hometown?