FAQ 13 SNOW DAY in AZ with Easy Vegetable Soup Recipe

FAQ 13 Snow Day in Flagstaff, Arizona 

ADOT Winter Driving Warning on I 40 past Flagstaff Arizona

I'm stuck in the house, drinking my coffee. . .

MODOT has issued a NO DRIVE ALERT

for Joplin, Missouri 

My solution. Stay home. 

The roads are covered in ice with a topping of powdery snow - more to come. It's not so bad with a couple of inches of snow but when you add the ice underneath, it's a recipe for disaster. Lovely grand-daughter got a notice that a MODOT vehicle had slid off the road. I 44 closed. Grand-son-in-law decided to stay at the hospital all night where he works, which better than risking a drive back and forth on the icy roads.

Easy Vegetable Soup Recipe

In a large crock-pot:

1 -32  oz bottle.of V-8 juice

1 -16 oz can of the following veggies: (This is quick and easy. If you want fresh brave the storm and go buy some fresh veggies-good luck. I use no salt canned veggies but regular is ok-it's cold for crying out loud!)

16 oz corn

16 oz mixed veggies

16 oz green beans

16 oz peas

16 oz black beans

1 large onion diced -  red or yellow

6 small potatoes diced (yukon gold or red is great), 
or 3 Large Idaho diced

2 cup Salsa (your favorite-Mild, Medium or Hot your choice)

1 small can of diced Hatch green chiles

2 diced jalapenos (you can leave this out if it's too spicy)

16 oz grass fed beef (or lean hamburger cooked and drained)

Spices:

All to taste. I'm a dump and pour cook. I've been cooking for 40+ years and I make it up as I go. 

Mrs. Dash Onion Herb- yummy

Pepper- more the merrier especially on cold days-to taste

Dash salt -to taste

Dried Parsley- lots. need vitamin C

Paprika (Hungarian is really good)

Dump everything in the Crock Pot. Let it simmer on High for 2 hours or medium for 4 hours. Depends on what you are doing. Stir every once in a while.

Calories -about 245 a cup. You'll probably burn up 1000 calories trying to stay warm. 

It's almost all veggies. Leave out the meat and add an extra cup of black beans if you want vegetarian.

Serves 16 -  one cup servings

This recipe freezes great. Make a big batch. Wonderful to take for lunch.

Now Available in ebook, paperback, and Large Print


Murder@ the Black Mesa Cafe

A toxic Mom instigates her murder.

Marty Knox

Request ARC Copy of ebook

Murder@ the Black Mesa Salon

Murdered Lovers who disappeared 20 years ago 

discovered in a lake.

Coming in Summer 2019

MARTY KNOX

Request an ebook - FREE ARC copy of 

Murder@ the Black Mesa Salon 

email me: martyknox4@hotmail.com

Your choice of file: Kindle (.mobi), 

Any electronic device (epub), or PC (.pdf)

.

In the upcoming novel in my mystery series, Murder@ the Black Mesa Salon Book 2, cyber forensic expert Minerva Doyle makes this soup to take with her to work. Trust me - it's a lifesaver when she is trapped in a blizzard on the mountain. School is canceled. 

Minerva braves the snowstorm driving home on the back roads of the Hopi Reservation. When the perpetrator of the murders disables Minerva's car, she needs her smarts to outwit the below zero wind chill. 

Then freezing temperatures suck the life out of her cell phone. An endless night and bleak day go by, In the meantime, back home, Michael rounds up the Navajo Search and Rescue Team. 

Will someone find her in time before hypothermia and frostbite set in, as the storm buries her car under 6 feet of snow on a deserted highway?

Murder@ the Black Mesa Dance

A murdered nerdy student commits suicide.

Coming in Winter 2020

Murder@ the Black Mesa Mailbox

A vigilante murders a cyber troll.

Coming in Summer 2020

FAQ 12 Hoarding: Thoughts about Possessions, and Marie Kondo

 FAQ 12 Hoarding:
Thoughts about Possessions and Hoarding
January 2019

Before, Murder@ the Black Mesa Cafe, Book 1,  Minerva Doyle had lost everything she owned in a massive tornado that hit on a beautiful summer's day in Joplin Missouri. Sometimes it takes losing tangible possessions to realize the most important thing in your life are your family and friends. 

In my novel, Minerva's friends, Marshal Charles Dubois and his wife Sunny had to start over with the clothes on their back after a devastating fire on the Mogollon Rim wiped away everything they had worked for their entire married life. Sunny escaped with the kids and pets but not much else. They started over in Black Mesa.

Read how Minerva helped the two Steven sisters, Deborah and Loretta, clean up their mother's hoarder house. A massive chore awaited Minerva when she helped the daughters of the murder victim, Mary Steven. Did the twin nurses save their mother or did they have anything to do with the elderly woman's death? Read Murder@ the Black Mesa Cafe to find out.

In real life, I went through the horrible Rodeo Chediski Fire in Northern Arizona. My husband had taken the truck full of what we could pack during the early morning hours. After the Apache Police gave me notice to evacuate, I had one hour to pack the rest what I needed. I looked around my house if I could buy it again I left it. Even all my books! I took the dogs, a few precious handmade quilts, important papers, my grandfather's paintings, and photos on a flash drive. I tied a white rag on my front door and I left it unlocked.  

In my rear view mirror, I saw a cloud of fire and ash rising in the sky behind me as I drove up the mountain to Snowflake, Arizona. I had no regrets. I've started over from scratch too many times. I realized the most important possessions are family not things.

After watching Marie Kondo on Netflix and reading her book-
"The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up"!

How does this stuff entrench itself in my life? Doing the Marie Kondo "Tidying Up" process, I started with my clothes. I don't have too much trouble with clothes although I did give away two bags. I loved the whole folding clothes into neat little packages. Once you get the hang of it, easy to keep up. I kept the joyous things. 

I now spend time writing instead of caretaking stuff I dislike. All warm, fuzzy and cozy now. In the winter I use my bedroom as an office. (Trying to save money on the heating bill.) 

The large white barn, 24'x50'  - 2 stories, where my writing studio is located, is too big to keep heated in the winter. especially when it's close to 15 degrees above zero outside. I keep the bathroom pipes from freezing with a heat lamp, or a hen house heater depending on how much electricity I want to use. The barn is well insulated and finished off as an office. It stays around 40 degrees inside even in the coldest weather.

I'm hibernating this winter. Writing every day, and enjoying my life with all my children, grandchildren, great-grand children, and living at home with the adventures of a two-year-old and a five-year-old.

Now available in ebook ($2.99), paperback ($9.99), and Large Print ($14.99) USA Amazon.
Also available on KOBO and Worldwide.

"All my possessions for a moment of time." Elizabeth 1 Queen of England

"Treasure your relationships, not your possessions." Anthony J. D'Angelo

"Your peers will respect you for your integrity and character, 

not your possessions." David Robinson

"A free life cannot acquire many possessions because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs." Epicurus

Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul." Democritus

"When I was in college, my parent's house burnt down and took a lot of the possessions I grew up with. That's probably one thing that made me realize material stuff is not really that important." Rick Riordan

Murder@ the Black Mesa Salon

Request a FREE ARC ebook copy 

I'm finishing the final version of Murder@ the Black Mesa Salon Book 2 in the mystery series. Organized my current book notes, Murder@ the Black Mesa Salon. I tend to write things that pop into my head in green 5 section color-coded spiral bound notebooks. I have big green binders for outlines, character studies, scenes, and research. If you would like to know how I get my ideas check-out my storyboards at :

Https://www.pinterest.com/marthaknox58

Murdered Lovers who disappeared 20 years ago 

discovered in a lake.

The rough draft is done on  
Book 2 - Murder@ the Black Mesa Salon, 45K. 
ARC reader's copy will be available soon. If you would like to be an ARC reader email me at:
martyknox4@gmail.com
I will send you a FREE  ebook ARC copy.
Let me know if you read on a Kindle (mobi), any other electronic device (epub), or your computer (pdf). 

FAQ 11 What does "Turn Around Don't Drown" Mean?

FAQ 11 Turn Around Don't Drown

Well, folks, it's that time of year again. Dry washes fill up in seconds. The power of water in the desert is massive. It can devour families, semis, and even houses, and mobile homes. One lone person is no match for a desert storm. 

Washes in Arizona are very dangerous during monsoon season. A family who explored a wash in Northern Arizona was decimated by a sudden powerful flooded wash.

In my story,  Murder@ the Black Mesa Cafe, Minerva, and Michael Doyle, along with neighbors Victor and Pearl Steven rescue an unsuspecting motorist and her family from a flooded wash. 

In my Book, Murder@ the Black Mesa Cafe, Michael, and Minerva Doyle rescue a teenage boy stuck in a flash flood. The woman and her daughters walked up the road when she ran out of gas. Her son refused to go with them and was trapped in a flooded wash. 

The woman was lucky that Minerva and Michael, along with their neighbors Pearl and Victor Steven, who volunteered to rescue the family. Even then, the cost of a helicopter rescue from Show Low to Holbrook could be astronomical.

When I lived in Northern Arizona I constantly watched the Weather channel because I drove a hundred miles or more to the outlying towns every day. Once I was stranded for several hours on Concho highway between the Silver Creek and the wash by the Country Store. 

Car Trapped in Wash

Please if you are not from Arizona take care. A storm miles away in the distance can bring a wall of water crashing down the narrow bone-dry washes. The water has no place to go. the desert ground is like cement, it can't absorb a year's worth of rain in one hour. 

Any amount of substantial rain in Arizona can cause instant flash flooding in the washes and creeks. Don't ever camp or hike near a wash no matter what time of year. Especially don't drive through one. Don't underestimate the power of a flash flood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3akkSEGFhI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZair4Snmko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZqCGbHCZn4

To cover the cost of rescuing obstinate drivers Arizona passed a Stupid Driver law.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PduoXsei-mo&t=94s

From Arizona Statutes

28-910. Liability for emergency responses in flood areas; definitions

A. A driver of a vehicle who drives the vehicle on a public street or highway that is temporarily covered by a rise in water level, including groundwater or overflow of water, and that is barricaded because of flooding is liable for the expenses of any emergency response that is required to remove from the public street or highway the driver or any passenger in the vehicle that becomes inoperable on the public street or highway or the vehicle that becomes inoperable on the public street or highway, or both.

B. A person convicted of violating section 28-693 for driving a vehicle into any area that is temporarily covered by a rise in water level, including groundwater or overflow of water, may be liable for expenses of any emergency response that is required to remove from the area the driver or any passenger in the vehicle that becomes inoperable in the area or the vehicle that becomes inoperable in the area, or both.

C. The expenses of an emergency response are a charge against the person liable for those expenses pursuant to subsection A or B of this section. The charge constitutes a debt of that person and may be collected proportionately by the public agencies, for-profit entities or not-for-profit entities that incurred the expenses. The person's liability for the expenses of an emergency response shall not exceed two thousand dollars for a single incident. The liability imposed under this section is in addition to and not in limitation of any other liability that may be imposed.

D. An insurance policy may exclude coverage for a person's liability for expenses of an emergency response under this section.

E. For the purposes of this section:

1. "Expenses of an emergency response" means reasonable costs directly incurred by public agencies, for-profit entities or not-for-profit entities that make an appropriate emergency response to an incident.

2. "Public agency" means this state and any city, county, municipal corporation, district or other public authority that is located in whole or in part in this state and that provides police, fire fighting, medical or other emergency services.

3. "Reasonable costs" includes the costs of providing police, fire fighting, rescue and emergency medical services at the scene of an incident and the salaries of the persons who respond to the incident but does not include charges assessed by an ambulance service that is regulated pursuant to title 36, chapter 21.1, article 2.

FAQ 10 Where is Sunset Crater AZ? Volcano erupts in Northern Arizona!.

FAQ 10 Sunset Crater Arizona. Volcano erupts!

My Imaginary town of Black Mesa is at the foot of a dormant Volcano. For a picturesque view of the real volcano check out these video tours. The real Sunset Crater is an actual volcano that erupted and covered Northern Arizona with ash. 

In my novel, Murder@ the Black Mesa Cafe, Minerva's friend and neighbor Flynn Steven is a Geology professor. You can imagine him taking Minerva and Michael on a day trip to Sunset Crater. Yes, the sky is the most intense blue I've ever seen in my life. The only other place in the world is Delphi in Greece.

Sunset Crater Volcano near Flagstaff  AZ
Click on the links below:

View 1 Sunset Crater Geology

View 2 Sunset crater

View 2 continued Sunset Crater Geology

View 3 Sunset Crater geology

Sunset Crater flyover

another view of Sunset Crater

FAQ 9 A Vacation Guide to Old Route 66

FAQ 9 Arizona Vacation Guide on Old Route 66. 

Good morning. Although the temperature in Phoenix is a blazing 107 degrees (F) in Black Mesa it's 80 degrees (F) today. You can count on the temperature here is twenty degrees cooler than the Salt River Valley. It is better known to Maricopa County residents as 'The Valley,' and the Mogollon (Pronounced Muggy-yon) rim better known as 'Up the Hill." ( 10,000 foot to 12,000 foot hill). 

In my novel, Murder@ the Black Mesa Cafe, the Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, Meteor Crater, Sunset Crater are all about a days ride from Phoenix. Don't forget my imaginary town of Black Mesa is located on old Route 66 outside the Petrified Forest. Visit the little towns in Arizona along Route 66 for a flavor of the Black Mesa Cafe. Lots of little Mom and Pop diners.

A great place to stay is in Holbrook at the Wigwam Motel near old route 66, even though Minerva thought the place was tacky. I think she was hot, tired and thirsty. She needed a big sweet tea to refresh her. Try out the places in my book. The Wigwam is real as is the great little Mexican restaurant in Holbrook.

Minerva's husband Michael loves old cars from the 50's and 60's. They took a romantic side trip to stay at the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook so Michael could check out the cars.

Click on the links below:

Cement tepees Holbrook AZ Wigwam Motel

Stay the Night. Classic cars right out your door.

Travel down old route 66

Another Route 66 tour Fun backroads

FAQ 8 Haboob in Phoenix AZ?

FAQ 8 Haboob in Phoenix AZ and

 on the 202 Mesa AZ

Phoenix made it to the National News, and Weather channel today. The midwest readers of my novel, Murder@ the Black Mesa Cafe, wondered - What is a Haboob? 

Haboob: An Arabic word meaning dust cloud of enormous proportions. It turns a scorching hot, bright summer day into a swirling morass of black impenetrable chocking fine dust. If you are driving on the I-10 going towards Tucson or the 202 to Mesa beware. It's a nightmare twenty times worse than fog.

Once I was driving on the 202 in Mesa going to Scottsdale. There is no way to stop on a freeway. I hoped everyone else would slow down. I could see the ominous black wall of dust behind me. The wind rocked my car. Thank goodness I saw an exit to Mesa. I huddled on a side street in Lehi surrounded by farms. The Palm trees bent double in the fury of the dust cloud. I was enveloped in a smothering envelope of dust. Daylight had turned to midnight. I was trapped in my small world, and forced to wait while the dust monster blasted away.

Click on the links below:

https://youtu.be/wMNZimmNnMY

https://youtu.be/RD5I9UhbRgg

https://youtu.be/3glyRZLZAR0

How do they form?

Click on the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSzvjdoU8mI

FAQ 7 GDPR Plain Talk Privacy

FAQ 7 GDPR Privacy

(General Data Protection Regulation) 

Compliance information for my US and

Worldwide readers. 

After I gave a presentation at my local library "How to Protect Yourself from Cyber Trolls, Hackers, and Identity Thieves" my readers asked about newsletters and emails.

So for all my readers of Murder@ the Black Mesa Cafe here is the lowdown as my cyber forensics sleuth, Minerva Doyle,  would tell you.

I am a practical person. Basically, GDPR is a common sense approach to gathering data yet protecting privacy. It came about because several big name companies did not respect their customers.

• I DO NOT personally gather any data on my blog. 

• I offer easy ways to buy my books at major Digital Stores and outlets.

•  I DO NOT keep track of anyone's data.

• You MUST e-mail me in person at martyknox4@gmail.com to request be an ARC reader and to receive an ARC copy of my books.

• I have met wonderful people through writing my book in the United States and worldwide.

• I want to be fully compliant with the GDPR rules. 

I have personally talked to each of my ARC readers. As a professional author, I appreciate each of my reader's time and privacy. You are my most valuable source of feedback. I write about subjects that affect families. Your honesty and support kept me writing when I felt like giving up.

I have researched the GDPR as the logical/analytical nerd that I am. This is one of the best explanations I have read so far. Use common sense on the internet, and treat your customer's privacy with respect. GDPR Plain Talk.

Remember what my Grandma Ruth always said: "Never put anything in writing you don't want the whole world to see." She was born one hundred and thirty-three years ago it still holds true today. Her favorite book was "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". I read it many times as a child I identified with the smart young girl who wanted an education, as a young mother I identified with the Mother's struggles to raise her children, as a widow I identified with the hope of a new husband and better times.

When I read this book I imagine my Grandmother sitting in her parlor after a backing breaking day earning a living. She hand washed, starched, and ironed rich patrons delicate linens. I read the same words she read. I picture the same story in my head. Even though she has been gone for many years I connect with her, this is the power of books.

I can read about the Trojan wars in Greece, visit the spot where they fought, and travel through the adventures of Odysseus. A man who has lived thousands of years ago. I can touch their lives as no artifact can. My research into my new book concerning widows, divorced women, and single mothers brought the tale close to home. Penelope's weaving and staving off the obnoxious suitors until her husband returned from war hit home. Books allow us to go into a magic time travel adventure like no other media. I will protect your right to privacy to read any book you so desire.