C h e r y l     R E A V I S

Former public health nurse, now award-winning romance novelist, Cheryl Reavis, describes herself as a "late bloomer." Her Silhouette Special Edition™, A CRIME OF THE HEART, reached millions of readers in Good Housekeeping magazine and won the Romance Writers of America's coveted RITA award the year it was published. She has also won the RITA award for her Harlequin-Silhouette novels, PATRICK GALLAGHER'S WIDOW, THE PRISONER, and THE BRIDE FAIR. BLACKBERRY WINTER, THE BARTERED BRIDE and a Berkley novel, PROMISE ME A RAINBOW, have been RITA award finalists. She has received numerous awards from Romantic Times magazine.

Her award-winning literary short stories have appeared in The Crescent Review, The Bad Apple, The Mosaic, The Sanskrit, Laurels, The Emrys Journal and Writer's Choice.

Publishers Weekly described her Berkley single-title novel, PROMISE ME A RAINBOW, as "...an example of delicately crafted, eminently satisfying romantic fiction."

THE DVD KEEPER SHELF

I just added THE PAINTED VEIL with Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. I loved this movie -- intelligent, complex characters, stellar acting, stunning scenery, strong sense of time and place, none of those fake-looking video game special effects. I wish I had seen it on the big screen. A movie like this one is the reason I USED to go to the movie theater.

Other movies or TV seasons on the Keeper Shelf:

UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN
CHICAGO
COLD MOUNTAIN
All the HARRY POTTERS
Walt Disney's CINDERELLA
DEAD LIKE ME
OVER THERE

Not Just For Christmas

Here's the recipe for just one of the Reavis Family Christmas Cakes -- but it's good anytime:

GAZIE'S LEMON FRUIT CAKE

1 pound butter
6 eggs at room temperature
2 and 1/3 cups of sugar
3 ounces of pure lemon extract. ("Pure" is underlined twice in the hand-written recipe, so I'm guessing it matters.)

4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 pound of candied cherries (red)
1/4 pound of candied cherries (green)
1/4 pound candied pineapple, diced
1/4 pound white raisins

4 cups of chopped nuts

Lightly flour fruit and nuts with a couple of tablespoons of additional flour.
Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar.
Add eggs one at a time and beat well.
Add lemon extract and beat well.

Mix dry ingredients together.
Beat it into the creamed mix a little at a time.
Fold in candied fruit and nuts.

Pour into 10" greased and floured tube pan.

Bake at 300 degrees (F) for 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours or until cake tests done.