Seven Deadly Sins: Simply Delectable Stories: The Deadly Sevens Book Club Series, #1

THE DEADLY SEVENS BOOK CLUB SERIES™ #1

SEVEN DEADLY SINS: 

SIMPLY DELECTABLE STORIES

An Anthology of Sin wrapped in Orgasmic Gastronomy

A DINE & DISCUSS PARTY BOOK™

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by:

Kelly C. Brown

H. Craig Erskine III

V. J. Hurst

L. W. Koehler

G. Thomas

Edited by: Susan Falkman

Cover Design by:  P. D. Adams

Credit  Book # 1 © Can Stock Photo Inc. / Curaphotography

Credit  Book # 2 © Can Stock Photo Inc. / Dashek

Founder of The Deadly Sevens Book Club: 

Aurelia Windsong

Copyright © 2015 by Third Thursday Publishing, LLC

™

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.  For information, address Third Thursday Publishing, LLC.

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ISBN:  13-978-0-9970640-0-1

Disclaimer

Third Thursday Publishing is pleased to offer this work of fiction and at times, creative nonfiction, to our readers.  As a work of fiction, the names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

As a work of creative nonfiction, this book is a combination of facts from the individual author’s life and certain embellishments. Names, dates, places, events, and details have been changed, invented, and altered for literary effect.  The reader should not consider this book anything other than a work of literature.

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THIRD THURSDAY PUBLISHING, LLC

Stow, Ohio

USA

Email:  info@thirdthursdaypublishing.com

www.thirdthursdaypublishing.com

Dedication of Authors & Founder

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Kelly C. Brown:  For my family of origin, Graham, the Davids, Paul, Ken, Mike, and Alicia, all of whom fueled my fire to succeed.  But best and most of all; for Richard, who gave me the freedom to pursue my dreams; for Joel, who gave me the heart to live them; and for Samson and Bandit, who kept my feet warm while doing it all. 

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H. Craig Erskine III:  I dedicate this book to my sister, Diane, for all of her support and encouragement over the years.

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V. J. Hurst:  Here’s to those, all y’all know who you are, who have encouraged me, loved me or kicked me in the butt as I’ve walked my trail to becoming...with all my heart, I love you and am so grateful for you!  Raising my glass in your general direction! 

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L. W. Koehler:  For Dano, who lives through everything I write.

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G. Thomas:  For my husband, Jim, who has always been my number one fan.

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Aurelia Windsong:  For my grandfather, Evan, who started me down this Deadly Sevens path of Sin, and for Delectable, where it all happens.

Join us for a Journey into SIN...

Dear Reader,

My name is Aurelia Windsong and I invite you to join me and my friends on an intriguing journey.

It began when my grandfather, Evan McDermott, passed away and left me not only the deed to his downtown bistro, Delectable, but also a secret cache of journals he had written when the restaurant catered to artists and writers in the 1960’s. 

In the journals, I learned of one group of writers, the Deadly Sevens Book Club, who wrote their stories in groups of seven, like the seven deadly sins. One night, my grandfather served them a seven-course meal, one for each sin, and a tradition was born.

When I reopened Delectable, I decided to begin another Deadly Sevens Book Club. A new group of writers created a collection of poems and stories with discussion questions for each, and I provided recipes for a complete seven-course meal. We call it a Dine & Discuss Party Book™. This book is the first in our series.

You, dear Reader, are invited to join our NEW Deadly Sevens Book Club!

As a member, just for joining, you’ll receive my FREE BOOK, the Seven Deadly Sins Cookbook!

We’ll send you contests, recipes, updates, excerpts from our next book, and even a chance to be a character in an upcoming story! Join on our website: www.thirdthursdaypublishing.com

Come relish our views on sin at YOUR OWN PARTY and fill it with friends and sinful cuisine.  Revel in Gluttony as a Parsley Potato Bisque made with a whole pound of bacon!  Taste Sloth as a slow cooked Rib Roast, and experience Wrath in one bite of a Chipotle Chili Brownie.

Step by step instructions for hosting a party can be found at the back of this book or on our website: www.thirdthursdaypublishing.com.

Meanwhile, enjoy a taste of the Seven Deadly Sins...

~Aurelia Windsong

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Watch for #2 in the Deadly Sevens Book Club ™ series

CHAPTER 1:  LUST

[...] each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can't strike them all by ourselves

~Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate

Appetizer:  Creamy Mushroom Tart

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

2 slices bacon, chopped

2 Tbsp minced red (or yellow) onion

1 clove garlic, minced

4 oz cremini or mini bella mushrooms, cleaned, and rough chopped

1 tsp dry herbes de Provence

2 Tbsp dry white wine

1/2 cup cream cheese

1/2 tsp each of salt and black pepper

1/3 cup shredded Mozzarella or Provolone cheese

Preheat oven to 425oF.

Roll out puff pastry to fit a small tart pan, either round, rectangle, or simply free-form on a parchment lined baking sheet. If doing free-form, using a sharp paring knife, cut a border about half of the way through the dough about 1/3 of an inch from the edge.  This outside edge will puff more and give you an outer crust. Place pan in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

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To make the filling:

Cook the chopped bacon, onion, garlic, chopped mushrooms and herbes de Provence over medium heat until the bacon is cooked and the mushrooms have released most of their liquids.  

Add wine and continue to cook until the liquid is mostly evaporated.  

Add salt and pepper.  Remove from heat and stir in the cream cheese until smooth

Mix in the shredded cheese.

Bring the tart pastry out of the fridge and spoon the filling into it.  

Bake for 20 minutes or until the puff pastry is golden brown and the tart filling is also browning.

Serve as small wedges for party apps or cut into four and serve with a salad for a decadent brunch. Makes 16 App-Sized Wedges

Morning Dreams

by V. J. Hurst

I was in the middle of a great dream.  I was surrounded by hunky men in the jungle.  Or at least I think that was where I was.  Anytime a dream has hunky men, I don’t care really where it’s located.  In this particular dream, they were bare-chested with tiny loincloths, sweat pooling in their well-defined musculature.  They were mocha brown, the color of my favorite beverage.  Each had his long hair tied behind his neck with a leather strap.  They danced closer until circling me, arms out-stretched; they corralled me into the center.  I was dancing snakelike, free, enjoying every minute of this lusty dance. 

Suddenly, a fire engine entered the dream somewhere off in the bushes.  Loud, rhythmic clanging startled the native dancers.  They paused and stared at me, telepathically telling me to make the noise stop.

I cried, Stop the clanging! because, of course, when you are dreaming you have the ability to do magical things like switch things off telepathically, right?  But it persisted.  Over and over in pulsating waves it clanged.  We all clapped our hands over our ears and scattered in different directions.  I guess we thought that we could outrun it.  Unfortunately, the sound followed me as I ran through the jungle.  I broke through the bushes into a clearing that looked familiar.  It was my bedroom.  Looking down upon the sleeping me, I realized that the clanging came from my phone’s alarm.  I swam up through the broken dreams and floating native men.  I tried to open my eyes.  Finally, I reached the surface of consciousness and burst through, startled by the piercing brightness coming from between the blind slats.

It was Monday morning.  I’d had way too much Tequila over the weekend, thus the dream.  My hand moved puppet-like over to the phone.  I dispelled the urge to hurl the offending piece of electronics across the room.  As a second round of clanging commenced, my swollen fingers stabbed at the phone’s buttons, attempting to stop the second round of clanging. I ended up pushing all the wrong ones.  I think I dialed Australia.  I managed to stand on my leaden legs, patted down my crazy-assed hair and walked down the hall following the smell of coffee coming from the kitchen.

Ah... coffee...the elixir of life.  Sam, standing with his back to me, sans clothing, would have looked fine, fine, fine on any other day.  Normally, I would have paused to admire what was mine on a regular basis.  However, today, there were those dreamy, dancing men. 

Turning towards me, humor flashed in his eyes and then disappeared.  I assume it was due to my appearance.  Even after 15 years, he’d never really gotten used to my normal ‘morning look’.  It was a constant irritant to me that I couldn’t EVER wake up looking like the models in the magazines.

Mornin’, babe, how’d you sleep?

Wow, some crazy dreams last night, honey, I should not have had that last shot!

Well, there is that.  Here have some coffee.

Thanks, love, I need it for sure.

He pulled me towards him, ruffling my hair as his arms encircled me.  I put my head under his chin and squeezed back, enjoying his familiar smell, waiting for him to release me.  The sun glistened off his pale flesh where rippling muscles used to be.  His frame had a little more fluff than when I first met him but then didn’t we all.  Pictures of nearly naked dancing men flitted across my closed eyelids.  I sighed.

Breathing in his spicy, after-a-hot-shower smell, I thought of pirates and ocean waves.  Cue the palm trees and dancing men again.

I have got to get those guys out of my head, I thought, as Sam released me. 

What do you have going on today?  I took a sip of coffee, choking noisily as the scalding liquid ran past my tongue and down into my throat.

Not too busy today, Sam said as he patted me on the back.  I’m heading into town to put some gutters up for that new client.  Then I have a meeting with Susanne to work on the new website.

Do you need me to come along?  I have some ideas for it, too.

Oh, no, no, that’s ok.  I have it under control.  I thought you were going to drop off the new brochures and put the posters up on the grocery bulletin boards today?

Well I am but I can break away if you need me.

Nah, it’ll be ok. I’ll bring home the ideas we talk about and get your approval before we make any changes.

Ok. I turned and walked towards the bathroom so Sam couldn’t see my disgusted look.  I hated it when he met with Susanne.  I knew he had the hots for her.  What guy wouldn’t?  She was 35. Her long legs, blonde hair and blue eyes were all natural.  She was gorgeous.

I sighed and continued down the hall, all the while discarding clothing.  I dropped my robe in the middle of the hall, kicked off my slippers at the entry to the bedroom and pulled off my nightgown, throwing it onto the chair.  Housecleaning and hair control were not my strong suits.  I’d pick it all up later.

Sam hated clutter.  Lately he’d become less understanding about my little messes.  I’d chalked it up to the fact that his schedule had been pretty demanding.  He’d come home, drop into a chair in front of the TV and only get up to eat before he fell asleep.  When I shook him awake as I headed to bed, he’d blink and ask about the time, kiss me good night and say he’d come right to bed, but really he’d just fall back to sleep in that old Barcalounger of his.  With him too tired for snuggling or sex, I’d resorted to dreaming about hot guys. 

I turned on the shower, adjusting the temperature to just right.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!  I couldn’t help myself, the hot water slid down my body as memories of past showers filled the steamy tub. Like the water running off my body, they swirled around me and went down the drain, carrying my hope and self-esteem with them.  I popped the top on the shower gel. The smell of coconuts and vanilla filled the shower.  I squirted some on to my wash rag and started to scrub.

Who says I’m not attractive anymore?  I can’t help what my hair does overnight.  I know that I’m not as beautiful as Susanne.  My hair is brown, my eyes are brown, my boobs are saggy. But my legs are long and I have cute dimples!  I have a sparkling personality, I’m funny and smart.  Gad, I’m not 35 anymore!  But I look 35, right?

From the open doorway came an answer.

Yes, you do still look like you’re 35, babe.

I jumped and turned to face the voice, soapy washrag in hand.  There, looking at me through the steamy shower doors, was Sam.  A thrill went up my spine.  A familiar thrill.  A thrill that had always been there between us.  His blue eyes started at the top of my head and traveled down to my toes.  I wondered how much he had heard.

Gosh, Sam, you scared me.  Did you forget to tell me something? I blinked my eyes a couple of times to enhance my attitude of innocence.  The water beat against my back and ran down my less than perfect body.

His hand touched the shower door, pulled it back slowly and he stepped into the shower still completely naked. "Well, it seems that I have forgotten something." 

The Jewelry Box

by Kelly C. Brown

Your naked body should belong only to those who fall in love with your naked soul.

~ Charlie Chaplin in a letter to his daughter, Geraldine

Sordid Lust 

I was born of beauty, earth and blood 

From the wombs of Kashmir, Burma and Thailand,

And in the midnight depths of the heart and mind.

I am a soldier of song and fortune.

I adorn the breasts of courtesans, the heads of queens, and the swords of warriors.

Kneel before me to kiss the rings of kings and popes.

I am the Chosen one of emperors, priests and prophets-

Ornamentation for Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Marie Antoinette.

Know you what kind of future they had,

And yet, man risks all for me

Traveling the ancient Silk Road from China

And the