Book Launch & Comfort Food

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Dear friends and readers,

This is going to be a much different blog post than the one I originally planned to write, and I apologize in advance. You see, I’ve been anticipating the launch of the first book in my new Food & Spirits mystery series, A FATAL FEAST AT BRAMSFORD MANOR, for a long time now. I’ve thought about the launch party at 2 Dandelions Bookstore, the wonderful local bookstore that hosts all my book launches. I always look forward to book launches, and I have really been looking forward to this one, where I get to introduce my first hardcover book into the world. How cool! It comes out on August 20th, which is just around the corner. I was planning on promoting it, starting at the beginning of August, and assumed I’d have plenty of time to get the word out.

However, life has a way of shaking up one’s best laid plans.

At the end of July, I was at my mom’s house in Illinois, celebrating her 86th birthday. We had a wonderful time, and I made her a special cake that I’d been working on for the next Food & Spirits book, A Spirited Supper at Dundoon Castle.

Mom's Raspberry Sponge Birthday Cake!

As I was driving home, getting ready to promote this new book as well as the fun-filled launch party at 2 Dandelions Bookstore, I started receiving text messages from friends alerting me that my Facebook page had been hacked. Some hacker had taken it over and was sending weird messages to my friend list. You might have got one too. However, the thought of some stranger trying to scam my friends really angered me.  

When I got back to Michigan, I began the long process of trying to recover my hacked account. Every attempt I made was blocked, and I realized that the hacker had changed all my recovery accounts, making it impossible for me to recover my own account of fifteen years! Frustrated, I Googled the Facebook help line, and made a call hoping that would work. However, I soon discovered that the Facebook helpline was another terrible scam. The man on the other end of the phone was trying to get me to download some sketchy app so that he could take over my phone. Urgh! Are you serious? Never let any stranger have access to your phone or computer! As you can imagine, I swiftly ended the call, feeling as if there were scammers at every turn, which, unfortunately, there are.

I later learned that Facebook doesn’t have a phone number for users, or an email. The only way to contact Facebook is through Facebook forms, which you can only access through your Facebook account. Since I could no longer access my account, that didn’t help me. I then tried to make a new account using a different email, but Facebook somehow recognized me, blocked me for misuse of my page, and suspended my account for 6 months. I then tried two more times using different email addresses, all to no avail. I felt like I was on crazy pills, it was so infuriating.

I lost my Facebook account, and the four pages I have attached to it: my personal page, my author page, my podcast page, and my late father’s memorial page. It was a hefty blow coming right before the launch of this new series. I was unable to share links to my book, important events, lovely blog posts, giveaways, my preorder promotion, and the book launch party. I’ll share all those links at the end of this blog.

While I was working on this problem, I soon learned that my mom had been taken to the hospital with kidney failure. She’d been just fine a few days ago. She sounded normal on the phone but told me that she was preparing to leave us. I dropped everything and drove back to Illinois to be with her. My brother and I gathered the entire family together, so that we could all shower her with love and be there for her in the same way that she was always there for us. She peacefully passed on August 6th, and our family is still reeling from the suddenness of it all and the sorrow of losing our wonderful mother.

My life is forever changed.

As I sit here reflecting over the past few weeks, I can’t help but feel a little awed by the timing of everything, and the feeling that I’ve come full circle. My Food & Spirits Mystery Series was inspired by my late younger brother, Ron. Ron, amongst other things, was a ghost hunter, and delighted in telling me bizarre stories of his adventures. We often talked about how we should combine our “unique” talents and create a reality TV show called Food & Spirits, a humorous food baiting ghost hunting show, based on an old Celtic tradition. We would pitch it to Food Network, because, as we both knew, Food Network was just about the only network without a ghost show. Also, we really liked food.

Food & Spirits is now a book series, a very fun book series combining ghost hunters, an up-and-coming celebrity chef, historic places, haunted legends… and, of course, murder. In many ways writing this mystery has been a cathartic, personal journey for me. In four short years my older brother and I have lost three beloved family members, our younger brother, our father, and now our mother. It has been a lot to deal with, but we do, because we loved them all so very much. I am also so grateful that they were all amazing human beings, and always inspired me to follow my dreams. My mom was so excited about this book that she ordered a bunch of copies to be delivered to her house, as she always does, so that she could give them to her friends. She was a great mom, and I know she’s cheering me on from above, along with Ron and Dad.

I always like to share a recipe on my blog, usually some baked good, but at the moment I think that good old fashioned comfort food would be more appropriate. And who better to make comfort food than a mom. This is my mother’s delicious and very easy recipe for Chicken Divan. It’s a classic.

Chicken Divan

Click Here for the recipe.

I would like to thank all the wonderful bloggers and author friends of mine who have reached out to me over the past few weeks offering to help spread the word about A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor. The cozy mystery community is truly the best, and I am so grateful to all of you! Love you all!

I’m going to keep fighting to get my Facebook page back. And I’m going to celebrate my book launch at 2 Dandelions Bookstore in Brighton Michigan on Tuesday, August 20th. I'll have some fun giveaways as well. If you can make it, I’d love to see you there!

Here's the link: https://www.2dandelionsbookshop.com/bramsfordmanor

If you use Instagram, please follow me at @authordarcihannah for updates. 

This has undoubtedly been one of the hardest few weeks in my life, but I know that with time it will get better. I have more stories to tell, and besides, MURDER AT THE LEMONBERRY TEA, the 6th book in my Beacon Bakeshop mysteries comes out November 26th. That will make 3 book launches for me in one year! Now that is something to smile about!

Best wishes to you all and thank you for all your support.

Love,

Darci