Today's Special - - Barbara O'Neal

We're delighted to welcome multiple Rita® award winning author Barbara O'Neal (a/k/a Barbara Samuel) to the blog today. Barbara's newest book, The All You Can Dream Buffet, was recently reviewed here at TRD and received a Top Dish 5 Star rating from Janga.  (Read her review here) Barbara lives in Colorado where, when she isn't writing, she indulges her love of the outdoors.  According to her website bio, she loves " olive oil and peaches, good ale and gardening, big dogs and all cats. She's also a long distance walker who traveled a portion of the Camino de Santiago Compestela (in northern Spain) in 2010 and hopes to return to walk the rest.   

Find more information about Barbara at her website and connect with her online at Facebook and Twitter. 

Where would we be without our friends?

Over and over, sisters and friends form the backbone of my books, and never has it been more true than in The All You Can Dream Buffet, in which four women at different walks of life come together at a lavender farm in Yamhill County, Oregon, one of the most gorgeous spots I’ve ever had the good luck to visit.  The women are linked by their love of blogging, food blogging in particular, and have come together at the request of Lavender Wills, the 84-year-old owner of Lavender Honey Farms.  She’s built an empire of lavender oil, honey and mead, and fresh eggs and hopes to find a worthy heir among the other three.

I can’t think when I’ve had more fun with a setting.  I visited Kookoolan Farms, an organic wonderland populated by fat gorgeous hens wandering the paths, and fields of organic vegetables, and a meadery onsite. Later in the day, I also went behind the scenes of a lavender farm, Willakenzie Lavender, where the knowledgeable owner illuminated all the subtleties of various forms of lavender, and how each variety is used.  I inhaled their oils, shot hundreds of photos of the blooming fields and slept that night as if I were wrapped in blankets woven of lavender. 


Which is why this book carries such a gilded feeling. It was written from a place of vast love and enjoyment, and a sense that all of us are in charge of our own lives and can find second chances with the help of our friends.

Ginny, a Kansas supermarket baker who has found some fame as a cake blogger, is caught in an unhappy marriage. Her friends urge her to take a gamble on herself by buying a vintage Airstream trailer, and when she sets out with her dog on a cross country adventure, boy does she ever find what she’s looking for!  Ruby, the 26-year-old vegan of the group, has the sunniest nature in the world, despite her trials as a child whose mother fled when Ruby was diagnosed with leukemia.  Now robustly healthy for more than ten years, Ruby is pregnant and has been dumped and desperately needs the nurturing of her friends.  Val, a former prima ballerina with a troubled teen, is crossing the country to shed the expectations of a whole community.  

And finally, Lavender, the leader of the Foodie Four, is the kind of woman I think many of us would like to find within ourselves. A woman who lives life on her own terms, whether it is flying around the world and taking lovers at her whim, or ridding the farm of an orchard of hazelnut trees to plant the lavender she loves. She is a bold and happy woman and has a lot to offer the other three.  I loved striding around the farm with her, pack of dogs jogging along. I loved hearing her bees sing and smelling the fields.  Oh, she’s a joy, Lavender is.  

Of course there are dogs and food and lovely men in the book, as there always are. I can’t wait for you to meet the brooding and beautiful farm manager, an Iraqi vet with four tours under his belt who needs the land to feel whole again, and the charming trucker who befriends Ginny on the road, a charming dog lover who opens long closed parts of her heart—and reminds her that life is not always about duty.

Hop on, let’s go for a road trip and meet our friends and fall in love and feast…..!

Thank you, Barbara!  Now I'm more excited than ever to read this book!  

Readers, tell us about women you've met online.  How have they impacted your life?  Have you met any of them in person?  

One randomly chosen person leaving a comment on today's post will receive a copy of The All You Can Dream Buffet.  (U.S. and Canadian addresses only)