Recipe Wednesday - Janis Susan May

Cooking Up A Story




I have been asked to write – which I do moderately well – a post about cooking – which I do not do well at all! The fact that for several years I successfully wrote a cooking column testifies more to my generous cooking friends and a vast collection of cookbooks than to any personal skill. My years as a Food Editor were easy – I like to eat.

The more I think about it, however, there is a distinct correlation between cooking and writing a novel. No, I’ve never burned my fingers on a hot manuscript nor made a delicious snack out of several thousand words, but there is a unity of spirit in both disciplines forged in the act of creation.

First, with book or dish, you have to make the decision as to theme – is it to be hot and spicy? Exotic and redolent of foreign lands? Comforting and homey?

Just like cooking – is it going to be chili with lots of peppers or hummus and tabouli or meat loaf and mashed potatoes? To whom are you going to serve it? Your adventuresome and sophisticated friends or elderly Uncle Homer who’s never been more than fifty miles off the farm where he was born?

And there must be continuity and a similarity of purpose in your entire meal. Imagine a meal made of nothing but homely meat loaf and exotic hummus and fiery chili. While each is delightful in their own realm, combined in a meal those three dishes would be unsettling. That way lies digestion of the spirit as well as the stomach.

Books are similar. Today genre combinations are very popular, but even if your Victorian heroine does travel across the seas or in time, there is a continuity. Readers have a certain set of expectations that is based on any number of things. The author’s brand. The genre. The jacket copy. Primarily the jacket copy. If a customer buys a book that is touted as a cozy mystery and finds half-way through that it turns without warning into an erotic romance – or vice-versa – that is going to be one unhappy book buyer.

You don’t want to bite into a fried stuffed jalapeno to find it filled with mint chocolate fudge, do you?

It’s the same thing within a genre. Once the framework is set up within the book, it must be played out within the rules the author has set up. No fair to use the old deus-ex-machina device, where the skeins of the story are so tangled up that the only way for there to be a happy ending is to have a god descend from Olympus and straighten everything out.

This doesn’t mean you can’t push the envelope. If your heroine is afraid of water and of going out alone at night, there’s no way she should decide out of nothing but curiosity to go swimming in the lake at midnight just to see what it’s like. On the other hand, if the only way she can find the needed clue to save her kidnapped brother’s life is by going swimming in the lake at midnight her need becomes an interesting study in character. Just how much will she sacrifice of herself to save her brother? The believability of this scenario depends on how the writer has set up the framework. Are the heroine and her brother close? Are they enemies? Did she even know she had a brother until this scenario began?

A reader will suspend disbelief to accept almost any world a writer creates – the ordinary world of today we all inhabit or a planet with two moons and cool orange seas – as long as the writer plays fair and lives by the rules he has set up. You can’t have a perfectly normal heroine for twenty-two chapters who suddenly becomes psychic in chapter twenty-three just because the hero needs saving.

Just like you can’t serve elderly Uncle Homer meat loaf and mint chocolate fudge-stuffed fried jalapenos and expect him to be happy. At least, not the elderly Uncle Homers I know!

Now, for a recipe that can be, according to the number of peppers you put into it, either a mild or spicy dish. And easy. Not even I have ever been able to mess this one up!

This dish was created by one of the best cooks – and one of the best friends – I’ve ever known. Sadly she passed away several years ago, but her cooking will live forever.



Peggy's Corn Casserole



Mix :

1 stick of butter

16 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup milk

salt and pepper

sliced or chopped jalapenos to taste

Heat over slow fire – stirring all the time – then pour over:

2 packages (plastic sacks) of frozen corn kernels



in a shallow casserole. Bake at 325o for 45 minutes.

Authorsday - Diane Madsen

If you're looking for answers to healthcare reform, you've come to the wrong place.

Instead I have an interview with author Diane Madsen.

1. How did you pick the genre you write in?
I like to write what I like to read. Mystery, mystery -- murder, murder. That’s what interests me the most. Mystery readers are a discriminating lot, and it’s fun working the plot and the clues to try to mislead them while also entertaining.. Of course I like history and biography as well and tried to combine both these interests in writing my “DD McGil Literati Mystery Series.”

2. Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?
I’ve attended author talks where the guest of honor is very cavalier and he or she swears they never do outlines and don’t know what’s going to happen in the book. While this is amusing in a talk, and while it may very well be true for them, it’s not true for me. I don’t outline – too restrictive; but I do have a plot line worked out before I begin. It may have some holes in it, and that’s okay. While writing, things may change – let me rephrase that – things DO change and sometimes change again, but the path is there.
I like to amuse myself and the reader when I write. I like to get from here to there, but in doing so, I like to take the scenic route and look at all the interesting things along the way. To make the book interesting and entertaining is my goal.

3. What drew you to the subject of A Cadger’s Curse?
I read about a very interesting incident in Robert Burns life which led me to do further research and incorporate it into the plot of “A Cadger’s Curse.” It was August 25, 1787, when Robert Burns stopped in Stirling at the Golden Lion Inn on the way to Inverness. Burns wanted to see Stirling Castle, the ruined state of the former home of Scotland’s kings, and the sight greatly aroused his Jacobite feelings. The next day, Burns took a diamond-tipped pen and scrawled a verse on the window of his room at the Golden Lion Inn. The poem is called Written by Somebody on the window of an inn at Stirling On seeing the royal palace in ruins. Word of this verse spread quickly among travelers and was immediately attributed to Robert Burns. Burns had just published his first book of poems and was the “rock star” of his day, but this poem was considered treasonous by the current monarchy that had come to power after the overthrow of the Stuart kings. Burns was extremely concerned about the rumors and was worried about being charged with treason and executed – a very real possibility. The rumors kept growing, and a few months later in October of 1787, Burns returned to the Golden Lion Inn, and sometime during this visit he broke the windowpane with the butt end of his riding crop to eliminate the evidence.
Burns stayed on for a few days at nearby Harveston House because of bad weather and visited Mrs. Katherine Bruce of Clackmannan, a 95 year old woman descended from Robert the Bruce, the revered 14th century Scottish ruler. Burns’ traveling companion, Dr. Adair, wrote that during this visit, Katherine Bruce “knighted” Robert Burns with the sword of The Bruce during this visit. According to the present day Lord Bruce, the Bruce family maintains to this day a portrait of Katherine Bruce as well as Robert the Bruce’s sword she used that night.

4. Describe your book.
“A Cadger’s Curse” is the first in the DD McGil Literati Mysteries. It mixes modern day corporate treachery and murder with an incident in the life of Robert Burns. Lippy ex-academic DD McGil uncovers murky Chicago business ethics and priceless Robert Burns artifacts that lead to murder. She’s set to be blown to bits on New Years Eve unless her rare book dealer friend who’s passionate about puzzles and her quirky Aunt who’s passionate about Scotland can save her.
Thirty-something Chicago insurance investigator, DD McGil, had been a rising star in the academic world until the suicide of her fiancé, Frank, altered the course of her life. Now she freelances, and she’s asked to vet some new employees for a high-tech company over the Christmas Holidays. Nothing goes well, and the first thing she runs into is the corpse of her dead fiancé’s step-brother. Then her Aunt Elizabeth - just arrived from Scotland – wants her to authenticate a rare Robert Burns artifact. The plots converge when DD walks into a trap that could send her and the Burns artifact to smithereens along with the Consolidated Bank building at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve.
The book is fast paced with plenty of wit and historical data about Robert Burns. A pet wolf and a real life Chicago rare book dealer add interest to what I call a “Slice of Life” mystery that mixes mystery and history in the first of the DD McGil Literati Mysteries. The next one in the series is “Hunting for Hemingway” which is due out in September 2010.

5. What’s your favorite quote?
Other than reading a good review for my book, I like the Ernest Hemingway quote, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”


6. What authors do you admire?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, John Dickson Carr and Josephine Tey have always been in my top tier.
I like Patricia Wentworth and every Dick Francis book. I really enjoy Stuart Kaminsky, especially his latest series set in Sarasota, FL, and I never miss reading a new Michael Connelly. I like John Dunning, Caroline Graham, Sharyn McCrumb, Thomas Cook, and Carolina Garcia-Aguilera. I’ve also just read Michael Gruber’s “Book of Air and Shadows” and Arthur Phillips’ “The Egyptologist.” And I enjoy Ann Rule’s true crime books. I could go on an on because I think there are so many good mystery and true crime writers out there today.


7. What other time period besides your own would you like to experience?
I’d love to step into the Restoration Period (1660), which John Dickson Carr did so very well in his historical novel, “The Devil in Velvet.”


8. What would you like to learn to do that you haven’t?
I wish I could play the piano.


9. Who is your favorite character in your book?
In “A Cadger’s Curse” that’s an easy choice. Aunt Elizabeth, aka The Scottish Dragon, was great fun to write. La Dragon is uninhibited and outspoken with a lot of foibles; but she’s got a lot of romance in her soul and she’s likable. She just kept saying amusing things as I typed the dialogue.

10. Where do you write?
I live in Twin Ponds, 5 acres located on Cape Haze in southwest Florida. It’s quite rural and my office window looks out over Sunrise Pond. I admit it is sometimes distracting, like the time I saw a Florida Panther skirting the edge of the pond and approaching my office window. He (or she) sat down for a minute, then went around the house to my garage apron where it sat down, rump against my garage door with paws extended out in front like a Landseer Lion at the base of Nelson’s Column in London. What a sight! I had three cameras in my house – none of which worked! But it was a wondrous sight - one I’ll always remember.

Recipe Wednesday - M.E. Kemp

A warm welcome to M.E. Kemp today author of Death of a Bawdy Belle with a yummy chocolate cake recipe.

M. E. Kemp was born in Oxford, MA, the town her ancestors settled in 1713, although family roots go back to Salem in 1636. Because of a strong sense of family history Kemp decided to write a series set in Colonial America with two nosy Puritans as detectives. She lives in Saratoga Springs, NY with husband Jack and two kitties but she frequently travels back to her hometown where her family still reside in the family home

ONE BOWL CHOCOLATE CAKE

3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs. Flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsn baking powder
1 tsn baking soda
1/4 tsn salt
1/2 cup buttermilk (mix in 1/4 tsn vinegar to make buttermilk)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tbsn vegetable oil
1 tsn vanilla
1/2 cup hot strong black coffee


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9 inch pan with oil/spray and line pan with a circle of waxed paper. Whisk flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add buttermilk, brown sugar, egg, oil and vanilla. Beat with mixer for 2 mins. – Add hot coffee and beat to blend. (Mixture will be thin.) Pour batter into pan and bake until center is firm, 30 – 35 mins. Cool in pan for 10 mins.; remove from pan, peel off paper backing and cool completely. Dust with confectioners sugar when cool. (Serve with vanilla ice cream if desired.)

Book Blurb: When the beautiful Arabella Edwards, mistress of the Royal Secretary of the Provinces, is found as an extra corpse hanging from the Salem gallows it’s up to wealthy widow Hetty Henry and young minister Creasy Cotton to comb through a host of suspects – Arabella shared her favors – and to uncover a clever killer while themselves escaping from the witchcraft hysteria of Salem, 1692.

Authorsday - Toni L.P. Kelner

Mystery author Toni L.P. Kelner is under the microscope today. See if she's a plotter or a pantser and how she got the idea for her latest novel.

How long have you been writing? When it comes to fiction, it kind of depends on what you count. I did write a "re-telling" of Thumbelina when I was in second grade, but it was a one-shot. It was in junior high school that I started scribbling notes about stories, and I actually finished a few stories in high school. I got my first rejection slips in high school, too.

How did you pick the genre you write in? It chose me. My original plan was to write science fiction and fantasy, and that's what I worked on all through college and for a few years after. Then I started working on a writing exercise from Lawrence Block's book Write for Your Life!, and it seemed to have more personality that most of what I'd written. It excited me. Now the exercise was a character sketch, and I'd created a character who wouldn't work in science fiction or fantasy. So I decided to try to make it a mystery, which I was reading a lot of at that point.

Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants? A little of both. Short stories are a bit more planned out, but only in my head. I don't do a formal outline. For novels, I have a setting and a bit of the plot in mind, but mostly it's by the seat of my pants.

What drew you to the subject of Who Killed the Pinup Queen? Bettie Page, or rather, the story of Bettie Page. She was the Queen of the Pinups in the fifties, and she was extremely well known. Then she disappeared. Nobody knew what had happened to her. Nobody much cared at first, either, but she still had a small following. Then, in the 1980s, a comic book artist named Dave Stevens created The Rocketeer, with a character who was based on Bettie. This started to drum up interest again, and people started looking for her and eventually tracked her down. The actual story of her so-called disappearance was pretty mundane, but the theories that cropped up in the meantime were fascinating. I borrowed some of those theories for my book.

What was the name of the first novel you wrote? Did you try to publish it? The first novel I completed was Down Home Murder, and it was published by Kensington in 1993. However the second novel has never seen the light of day. I think I know what it needs to make it publishable, but I just haven't had time to pick it up again. Some day...

What do you consider your strengths in terms of your writing? Characters and ironically, dialog. I say ironic because my hearing is terrible, and I didn't get hearing aids until after I'd been writing for a good while. Maybe it's because I got used to making up dialog to match what random words I did hear!

What authors do you admire? To be complete would require one heck of a long list, but in brief... Charlaine Harris, because she writes books that are deceptively simple and is never afraid to try something new. Dana Cameron, for much the same reasons. Elizabeth Peters, for writing the best adventure I've ever read. J.K. Rowling for such amazing world building. Rex Stout, Dorothy Sayers, and Fredric Brown for bring their times to life, and for their amazing dialog. That's probably enough to start with.

What place that you haven’t visited would you like to go? Egypt. The Ameila Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters books have got me hooked on Egyptology.

Who is your greatest cheerleader? My husband Steve, but he's got stiff competition from our daughters.

What would you like to learn to do that you haven’t? I'd like to be able to ride a horse. In addition to the pinup queen plot in Who Killed the Pinup Queen?, there's a thread about TV cowboys, and they make horseback writing look so easy and so much fun.

AUTHOR BIO
Toni L.P. Kelner multitasks. In mystery, Berkley Prime Crime has just released Who Killed the Pinup Queen?, the second in her "Where are they now?" series. In urban fantasy, she edits anthologies with Charlaine Harris, and their third, Death's Excellent Vacation, is due out in August. In short stories, she has her first noir story coming out in March in Carolyn Haine's anthology Delta Blues. Kelner has won the Agatha Award and a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award, and has been nominated for two other Agathas, four Anthonys, and two Macavitys. She lives north of Boston with author/husband Stephen Kelner, two daughters, and two guinea pigs.
BOOK BLURB
Freelance entertainment reporter Tilda Harper is working on two articles simultaneously-one about a former pinup model and one about an old Western show. But when she discovers the pinup queen brutally murdered, she finds that the two stories may have some disturbing connections.

Authorsday - Beth Solheim

A hearty blog welcome to author Beth Solheim today. She'll talk about her writing style and how she came to write At Witt's End.

How did you pick the genre you write in?
I am an avid mystery reader. My ideas flowed toward writing cozy mysteries.

What drew you to the subject of At Witt’s End?
Channel surfing. I flipped from channel to channel and heard someone casually mentioned crossing over to the other side. I chuckled and hoped that person wouldn’t take a wrong turn on their journey. That silly thought grew into an idea, moved on to character development, and end up as my Sadie Witt mystery series.

What type of research did you do for your humorous paranormal series?
For the paranormal part, none. It stemmed from my imagination and tidbits I’ve read or watched on television. Because the setting for the series is at a resort situated next to a mortuary, I spent time with a funeral director (grateful it was from a live perspective) so the mortuary scenes would ring realistic. I am in awe of folks in that profession.

How long have you been writing?
About ten years, six seriously. Classes, critique groups and sticking to a schedule helped me understand the intricacies of writing, marketing and the publishing process. It’s an on-going learning process.

Do you plot or write by the seat of your pants?
I plot and outline, chapter by chapter. I can’t go anywhere without a road mad and the same holds true for writing. The hardest part is developing the outline sequence because all those jumbled ideas fight for a starring role. After I have a chapter outline, writing the story is quite enjoyable.

What’s your writing schedule?
I work full time at a hospital in Human Resources, so I write evenings and weekends.

What is your favorite word?
Shenanigan. Sounds like a whole lot of high jinks, humor and entertainment.

What did you learn from writing this book?
Two things. First, if you truly believe in something, keep working on it until it comes to fruition. Second, nearing retirement is the beginning of a whole new adventure. I’m thrilled to see so many senior writers being published. Maybe there’s something to be said about ‘gray’ gray matter.

If you could ask your readers one question, what would it be?
Are you interested in reading the second book in the Sadie Witt series? Their answer will determine the future of Sadie and her wacky cohorts.

Tell me something about yourself that very few people know?
I have a wild female grey fox that comes to feed on our patio. If we entertain around our patio table, Foxy Lou plops down on the grass about ten feet away and rotates her gaze toward the person talking as if she understands every word. She’s frequented our yard for three years. She’s part of our little piece of paradise.

AUTHOR BIO
Like the main character in her Sadie Witt mystery series, Beth Solheim was born with a healthy dose of imagination and a hankering to solve a puzzle. She learned her reverence for reading from her mother, who was never without a book in her hand.

By day, Beth works in Human Resources. By night she morphs into a writer who frequents lake resorts and mortuaries and hosts a ghost or two in her humorous paranormal mysteries.

Raised and still living in Northern Minnesota, she resides in lake country with her husband and a menagerie of wildlife critters. She and her husband are blessed with two grown children and two grandsons

BOOK BLURB
Mayhem is on the rise at the Witt’s End Resort, especially Cabin 14, where no guest ever leaves alive. To make matters worse, Sadie Witt must untangle a murderous web while struggling to prevent an unscrupulous sheriff’s deputy from shutting down her lakeside resort.

When guests arrive at Cabin 14, they’re stunned to learn Sadie is their conduit to the hereafter. Clad in outlandish outfits, (clothing typically reserved for those without sagging body parts) and sporting hairdos that make bystanders want to look away but can’t, Sadie realizes one of the guests has been murdered and works against the clock to prevent further mayhem.

WEBSITE
http://www.bsolheim.com/

ExcerpTuesday - Barbara Colley

Today I welcome mystery author Barbara Colley with an exeprt from her latest Dusted to Death. I think I've been close to that.

Excerpt from DUSTED TO DEATH


Keeping a wary eye on the rearview mirror, Charlotte breathed a tentative sigh of relief when a few moments later there was still no sign of the SUV. As she approached the intersection of Magazine and General Taylor, she began to breathe even easier. Then, as she approached Marengo Street she glanced into the rearview mirror yet another time, and instant fear shot through her. The SUV again, and only two cars separated it from her van.
Along with fear, panic welled in her throat. Her street, Milan Street, was just half a block away. What to do? What to do?
You need to buy time to think.
Charlotte gripped the steering wheel tighter, and eased her foot off the accelerator to slow the van down. Now what?
Think, Charlotte, think.
There was a good chance that the driver didn’t know her address, else why would he be following her in broad daylight, especially since she was listed in the phone book, for Pete’s sake, and anyone could find her? Had to be a spur-of-the-moment decision to go after her, she finally decided. Even so, there was no way she was going to lead him right up to her doorstep.
Charlotte continued driving slowly and passed up the turnoff to Milan Street. So what now? Should she just keep driving or . . .
Suddenly, out of the blue, she knew exactly what she should do, and she grinned. “I’ll fix his wagon,” she whispered.



Blurb for DUSTED TO DEATH

As the owner of Maid for a Day, Charlotte LaRue has learned that behind closed doors, everyone’s dirty laundry holds a few dark secrets—and in the end, they all come out in the wash…

The city of New Orleans has long been a favorite backdrop for movie producers, and now one of Charlotte’s best clients, Bitsy Duhe, is getting in on the action. A big Hollywood studio wants to use Bitsy’s gorgeous Victorian house for a movie shoot and they are willing to pay her handsomely for the honor. Bitsy consents, but only after Charlotte agrees to take care of her beloved home during the shoot and keep the place spotless as only Charlotte can.
For Charlotte, the assignment is an exciting change of pace. On the first day, she meets the whole cast and crew, including one of Hollywood’s hottest ingénues, Angel Martinique. But Charlotte quickly discovers that Angel’s G-rated reputation is nothing like her off-camera, diva-like behavior. Angel, it turns out, is no angel at all…

Once the shoot begins, Charlotte has a front row seat to all the back stage drama: the director who wants to control his favorite starlet’s every move… the make-up artist whose talents with cosmetics can’t hide the mysterious bruises on her face… the bodyguard who is clashing with everyone on the set…. and Angel’s seemingly mild-mannered friend, Nick, whose shy demeanor hides a far more menacing side…

Despite all the tension, the movie seems to be going well—until Nick is found dead in Angel’s dressing room, a bloody letter opener lying just a few feet away. To Charlotte, it seems there is no shortage of suspects. But when the police investigation quickly zeros in on Angel, Charlotte senses there’s much more to her story than meets the eye. As Charlotte does a little digging into Angel’s past, she comes up with a bit more dirt than she bargained for—enough to put her in the crosshairs of danger if she doesn’t watch her step…

Thanks for joining me today Barbara.