Category: Christina Hollis author

Blueberries, Christina Hollis author, The Count's Challenge

Blueberry Bounty

Christina Hollis
Blueberries are delicious, and home grown ones taste even better than those from the shops. They’re also really easy to grow. They are originally bog plants that like an acid soil, so we grow them here in containers that stand in trays kept permanently topped up with  rainwater. A magnificent harvest was promised from our eight bushes earlier this year. I covered them with a bird-proof net early on in the season, but sadly the local squirrels discovered a taste for them – green! They tore through the nets, leaving holes that blackbirds were quick to take advantage. Much pegging and pinning later, I think the remaining berries are safe. We’ve been picking the odd handful to go on cereals for a week or two, but now the bulk of remaining berries are ripe and ready. I picked over three pounds yesterday, and made the first blueberry tart of the season. Here’s the recipe:

For The Pastry:
250g flour
175g butter
20g caster sugar
1 egg
half tablespoon cold water.

Rub the butter into the flour and stir in the sugar, or blitz in a food processor. Add the egg and water combining it all into a soft dough. Chill in a fridge for 40 mins.
Butter and flour a 25cm loose-based flan tin. Roll out the pastry to more than fit the tin – you don’t want to have to stretch the pastry. Hint: rolling it out between two sheets of greaseproof paper makes a tricky job slightly easier and cleaner! Chill the unbaked pastry case for another 20 minutes.

For the Filling:
500g blueberries, washed and dried.
2 eggs
125g caster sugar + extra for dusting
175ml cream
25g flour
1 desertspoonful of creme de cassis

Put the berries into the pastry case. Mix together the eggs, sugar, cream. flour and cassis well and pour over the fruit. Sprinkle over a little more caster sugar and bake at 200 degrees c/gas mark 6 for about 35 minutes. This is best served chilled.

Once I’ve picked all the berries, I cut out one or two of the oldest branches then give them a good top dressing of home made compost. Blueberries also put on a brilliant show of fiery autumn colours. Then next year their pretty white flowers are a magnet for our bees. All we have to do is keep them constantly moist and the blueberries do the rest. Taken all round, they’re  really good value plants.

Christina Hollis author, Nas Dean, Virtual Blog Tours

Now It’s Your Turn!

Christina Hollis
Last time in my Focus On… spot, Nas Dean contributed an informative and interesting blog about Virtual Blog Tours. Thanks to all the readers who dropped by to post comments. I love hearing from you, so today’s blog is in the form of a question.
Who would you like to see featured in future Focus spots here on my blog? Lots of you agreed with me, that Nas’ post gives a real insight into the publicity aspect of writing. What would you like to get the low-down on? Who would you like to hear from? Let me know who or what you’d like to see in the spotlight, and I’ll do my best to get a Focus feature for for you.
Don’t forget the competition running on my website to win free books. The closing date is 21st August. Visit http://www.christinahollis.com for more details – and good luck!
Christina Hollis author, The Count's Challenge

Bees At Work!

Christina Hollis

This is a lovely time of year – if only I had managed to keep on top of the gardening! Instead, I’ve been so busy writing a new Modern Romance for Harlequin  Mills and Boon the time has flown by and I’m looking out at a scene of self-sown poppies and wild white clover. Luckily, my bees love both these flowers so they are extra busy. One of our hives is packed to the rafters with honey, but that colony is so large I shall have to be careful and leave them plenty of those stores to keep them well fed through the winter.  Some beekeepers take off all the honey and then feed their bees with sugar and water, but I’d rather let them have natural food. If white sugar is bad for us, it can’t be much better for the bees!
July sees the US publication of my romance set in the South of France, The Count’s Challenge. Nip over to my website, http://www.christinahollis.com to read an extract, and for a chance to enter my great new Summer Competition based on the book!

Christina Hollis author, Free Books, The Count of Castelfino

Exciting Times

Christina Hollis

The year is dashing by – I can hardly believe the longest day has come and gone already. It won’t be long before the honey harvest, which happens here in mid to late July depending on the weather. I don’t take much, as I keep bees more for the enjoyment and environmental benefits than for what they can give me. Though I get hours of free entertainment (and sometimes disappointment and frustration) out of them as well! In anticipation of the harvest, I ordered just a few odds and ends of equipment – as I thought. It arrived in three huge boxes, though luckily none were very heavy. It’s amazing how much space a thermometer, some flat-pack carpentry and a few sheets of wax can take up when everything is individually packed in tons of shredded paper! Does your hobby end up filling the house from top to bottom with bits and pieces?
By the same post,  I got some some copies of the Japanese version of The Count of Castelfino and the French edition of Count Giovanni’s Virgin. I like to get these as the cover art is always subtly different from country to country. This means my bookshelves are filling up, so I’m going to be giving away a copy of each of these most recent additions to my collection. If you have Japanese or French friends, they’d make an unusual present!
To get your name into the draw for one of these signed copies, just email me via my website, http://www.christinahollis.com putting either the word ‘Japanese’ or the word ‘French’ in the subject line. Good luck in the draw!

Christina Hollis author, Mills and Boon Limited, The Count's Revenge

News and Views

Christina Hollis

I had some great news this week. My Mills and Boon Modern Romance, The French Aristocrat’s Baby, has gone on release in the US. It’s published as a Harlequin Presents Extra, with a new title: The Count’s Challenge.  You can see the details here:  http://www.eharlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=23974

I’ve also been busy updating my author biography and photographs. If you’d like the new information, please mail me via my website, http://www.christinahollis.com .

Here in the UK we’ve had some beautiful weather over the past few weeks. I hope the weather is good where you are, too!