The Wedding Circle Read online

  Periwinkle’s Chicken Salad

  Ingredients you will need:

  1 half-pound fryer

  2 tablespoons seasoned salt

  2–3 ribs of celery

  ¼ onion

  ¼ bell pepper

  5 lemons

  4 eggs

  Dash of salt and pepper

  1 cup of mayo (preferably Hellmann’s)

  Dash of paprika (optional)

  Lettuce (optional)

  Cover fryer with water and simmer until tender; add seasoned salt, celery ribs, onion, and bell pepper. Continue simmering until vegetables have softened. Remove fryer and cut 4 cups of chicken using kitchen scissors. Remove vegetables. Cut celery ribs into 2 cups of chopped celery. Finely chop onion into 2 tablespoons—more if desired. Finely chop bell pepper into 1 tablespoon. Juice 5 lemons and set aside. Boil 4 eggs. Finely chop the eggs. Mix chicken, all veggies, all seasonings, lemon juice, egg, and 1 cup of mayonnaise together. Best served chilled. May add dash of paprika on top and a leaf of lettuce on bottom.

  —Courtesy Helen Byrnes Jenkins, Natchez, Mississippi

  Periwinkle’s Artichoke Party Dip

  Ingredients you will need:

  1 can artichoke hearts (buy variety with hearts only, no

  leaves)

  1 cup mayonnaise (preferably Hellmann’s)

  1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

  1 pie pan or Pyrex dish

  Paprika

  Corn chips

  Drain and mash artichoke hearts. Mix in mayonnaise and cheese. Spoon into pan or dish and bake at 350 degrees until bubbly. Remove from heat, dust with paprika, and serve with corn chips.

  —Courtesy Lucianne Wood, Natchez, Mississippi

  Mr. Parker Place’s Crème de Menthe Cake

  Ingredients you will need:

  1 18-ounce package white cake mix (may substitute yellow,

  if desired)

  2½ tablespoons crème de menthe liqueur or flavoring

  1 16-ounce can chocolate syrup

  8 ounces fat-free whipped topping

  1½ tablespoons crème de menthe liqueur or flavoring

  5 or 6 hard peppermint candies (optional)

  Prepare cake mix per package instructions, but stir in crème de menthe instead of water. Bake in 13 x 9-inch pan according to instructions. When cake is done, remove and immediately poke holes throughout cake top with toothpick; pour chocolate syrup across top so that it will seep into the holes. When cake is cool, mix whipped topping in bowl with 1½ tablespoons crème de menthe liqueur or flavoring and spread over cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve; also may freeze, if desired.

  Optional: Pulse 5 or 6 hard peppermint candies in food processor until in shard or powder state; dust shards or powder over top of cake.

  —Courtesy Lauren Good, Mobile, Alabama

  Periwinkle’s Crazy Caprese Salad

  Ingredients you will need:

  1 12-ounce can roasted red peppers

  12 slices fresh mozzarella cheese

  12 slices ripe tomatoes

  25 leaves fresh basil

  Olive oil

  Salt and pepper

  Julienne can of red peppers and arrange in any pattern on platter as a base for the salad. Layer slices of cheese next; atop that layer, place tomato slices; final layer should be basil leaves. Splash olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste. Serve by scooping up portions of all layers per person.

  —Courtesy Marion Good, Oxford, Mississippi

  Periwinkle’s Super Crazy Caprese

  Ingredients you will need:

  All of the Crazy Caprese ingredients in previous recipe, plus:

  1 ripe avocado

  Worcestershire sauce

  1 container (regular size) roasted red pepper hummus

  (preferably Sabra)

  Prepare Crazy Caprese salad according to previous recipe; then julienne avocado and add slices of ripe avocado atop basil leaves. After olive oil and salt and pepper have been added, splash Worcestershire sauce over all ingredients. Atop each serving of salad, place a generous dollop or two of red pepper hummus.

  —Courtesy Marion Good, Oxford, Mississippi

  Mr. Parker Place’s Frozen Key Lime Pie

  Ingredients you will need:

  1 8-ounce tub whipped topping

  1 can condensed milk

  ½ cup key lime juice (fresh squeezed is best)

  Prepared graham cracker crumb pie shell

  Mix together whipped topping and condensed milk in bowl. Add in lime juice slowly until all is thoroughly mixed. Pour into pie shell; freeze. Pie is best if allowed to thaw for about 5 minutes and then served still frosty. Do not overthaw, as pie will become runny. Garnish with mint leaves or fruit of any kind, if desired.

  —Courtesy Sissy Eidt, Natchez, Mississippi

  A READING GROUP GUIDE

  THE WEDDING CIRCLE

  Ashton Lee

  ABOUT THIS GUIDE

  The suggested questions are included to enhance

  your group’s reading of Ashton Lee’s

  The Wedding Circle!

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. How did your wedding preparations and issues stack up against Maura Beth Mayhew’s? Easier, or more difficult?

  2. Have you changed your mind pro or con about a character in this, the third Cherry Cola Book Club series installment?

  3. There were several new characters introduced in this novel, among them, Cara Lynn Mayhew, William Mayhew, Cudd’n M’Dear, and Elise McShay. Which one most caught your imagination?

  4. What is your favorite sequence in this novel?

  5. What was the biggest surprise for you in this novel?

  6. What would you like to see happen in the next novel?

  7. If you had to change one thing about Cherico, what would it be?

  8. Do you agree that all the wedding hoopla doesn’t really prepare people for life after the honeymoon? Why or why not?

  9. Do you think Maura Beth and Jeremy would make good parents? Why or why not?

  10. What character would you like to know more about in this series?

  Please turn the page for a very special

  Q&A with Ashton Lee!

  What inspired you to write a series with a librarian as your heroine?

  Many writers have day jobs to support themselves until and even after they get published. I made what I think was a very smart choice of careers in becoming a vendor to public libraries in six Southeastern states. Libraries have budgets to buy all of the materials that patrons often take for granted. They must pay for reference materials, periodicals, best-sellers, research titles, audiovisual materials, furniture, computers—indeed, everything that makes a library complete. And they rely upon library vendors to sell them these materials within the confines of their budgets, which are generated through taxes. Over the years I have sold everything from DVDs to large-print books to research titles to libraries, and that has helped me pay the bills while pursuing a writing career full-time.

  As a result of this work, I learned quite a bit about the inner workings of libraries—but particularly their budget issues. Many libraries are woefully underfunded, and their budgets are the first to be cut when there is a municipal or county shortfall. My agent suggested to me that an entertaining series about what librarians have to endure in this arena might sell successfully and educate the public about how libraries work as well. I believe that libraries are the repositories of our culture. They tell us where we’ve been, where we are now, and prepare us for the future. New technologies will be incorporated into their mission, but cannot ever replace it.

  How have libraries responded to your series?

  Since I have hundreds of librarian friends because of my vendor work over the years, the response from libraries has been phenomenal. I have been invited to give book talks and do signings at many libraries, but I was most honored to be invited by the Louisiana Library Association to be their Luncheon Speaker at their Public Library/Trustees Section at t
heir 2014 Convention/Conference in Lafayette, Louisiana. At that function I explained in great detail how my career as a published writer has been intricately interwoven with my library vendor work. One has complemented the other, and I have every reason to believe that that will continue indefinitely.

  When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

  In elementary school, believe it or not. I would spend my allowance on buying ruled tablets and Ticonderoga pencils at the five-and-dime store. Then I would write these little stories with illustrations. There wasn’t much to them, but it definitely indicated someone who wanted to tell stories rather than do anything else. When I learned that my father had been an editor and writer in New York briefly after World War II, writing what is now known as pulp fiction, I began to realize that perhaps this urge to write was in my genes. My best grades were in English, and I majored in English at Sewanee—the University of the South. I suppose a lot of aspiring writers major in English, but I didn’t have to think about it twice. It was always my best subject.

  Other than your father, did you have any other influences regarding your writing at an early age?

  Yes, my mother. She enrolled me in summer reading at the library in my hometown of Natchez, Mississippi. I got caught up in reading to earn ribbons for prizes, and I loved the books I read. Then, she would also read to me every night. My favorite of all time was Adventures of Uncle Wiggily. I loved the way each chapter ended with a cautionary statement such as, “And if all the trees in the forest don’t fall and the river doesn’t flood, Uncle Wiggily will be back to live another day.” Or something on that order. I also loved the fact that each Uncle Wiggily chapter was titled. To this day, I title each of my chapters. It helps me focus on what I want to accomplish with my characters and the plot in that segment of the novel. And I also think it intrigues the reader if the chapter title is particularly unique. For example, in the second novel in this series, The Reading Circle, there is an early chapter titled “Hieroglyphics and Empty Pajamas.” Several readers have told me that they couldn’t wait to find out what that chapter could possibly be about.

  Your hometown is Natchez. Many other writers have hailed from there—such as Richard Wright, Alice Walworth Graham, and Greg Iles. Is there something in the water down there?

  If you’re implying that we drink the Mississippi River water and that makes us a little crazy, that’s not true. Natchez gets its water from deep wells. But I do think Natchez is a laboratory for writers. It’s the oldest city on the Mississippi, founded in 1716, two years before New Orleans. As a result, there’s a lot of history that has taken place there, and the people who live there reflect that. Old Southern cities, particularly river ports, have seen it all and generally have a more laid-back attitude when it comes to human behavior. If you’re a writer and have the knack for listening and observing generations of people, you have a leg up on those who want to get published. In fact, you may have to water down some of the characters and episodes drawn from growing up in a town like Natchez so that they will be believable. As in—the truth really is stranger than fiction.

  Finally, how would you like to be remembered as a writer?

  I’d like for my readers to find themselves in some manner or other in my writing. Perhaps it would be a character who reminded them of themselves or a family member. Or an episode that rang true because it happened to them or someone they knew. I’d like for them to be entertained and, if possible, educated now and then on some subject or issue. Most of all, I’d like for them to disappear in my writing, come up for air, and think, “Thanks for that little vacation in my head, Ashton. And it only cost me the price of your novel!”

  KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2015 by Ashton Lee

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  eISBN-13: 978-1-61773-342-0

  eISBN-10: 1-61773-342-3

  First Kensington Electronic Edition: April 2015

  ISBN: 978-1-6177-3341-3