No Knead Bread with my notes

November 8, 2006 Recipe: No-Knead Bread (The comments in Red italics are mine) Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery Time: About 1. hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting Sometimes I sub in ½ cup whole wheat...

Patience, Grasshopper

I haven’t posted recently for a couple of reasons. The first is I love my picture of me and Buckeroo (that’s my deer’s new name as he’s the smallest of the three bucks who visit us, unless you count Nubby, who is still just a baby) and I like...

Patience, Grasshopper

Turns out all those agents, editors, writing teachers, critique partners, articles, books, etc. were right when they said you should let a manuscript sit for a while. And I don’t mean a week, either! Last June I sent my finished manuscript off to my agent...

Books with long titles…

I’m using WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL WORKBOOK to help me flesh out some of my characters on a revision I’m working on right now. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this workbook (and the regular book) and credit it with much of the improvements in my writing in the last...

Santy’s got nothing on me! — UPDATED PICTURE!!!

This deer just let me feed him carrots right out of my hand! I know what it feels like to have a deer nibble my fingers. I love our new house!!!!!! Happy Holidays, everyone! P.S. Quite by accident, I figured out how to post these pictures so if you click on them they...

A new kind of censorship

Sometimes, library books leave something to be desired. I don’t meant the actual story, I mean the book. Unless you are the first reader of a new copy, chances are, someone got hot sauce on page 94 and someone else’s long black hair is tucked in between...

A new kind of censorship continued…

So, last night I was all stretched out on the couch in front of the fire, happily reading Rachel Vail’s, IF WE KISS, when I discovered a new kind of censorship. Apparently, if you don’t like something in a library book, you can just take a felt tip pen and...

Resting on my laurels…

Aren’t laurels leaves and how do you rest on them? I’ve actually been resting mostly on the blue chair in front of the fire with Iain Lawrence’s very interesting and heartfelt book, Gemini Summer. Well, that’s not all I’ve been doing. I...

Off the writing topic – My fabulous husband!

  See my fabulous husband perform with his band, The Ragtops, at the world famous Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, TN. Mr. Cinnamon The Very Last Leaf This is a partial and its mis-labled “Salad Days”, but is worth watching anyway. Call Me Up April’s Got...

1-800-Where-R-You #2,3 & 4 by Meg Cabot

Didn’t just read ’em, I devoured them – 3 in 3 days. And the good news is there’s a new one coming out this month! For those of you who care, #s 3& 4 have a little bit more gruesomeness than I usually like, but are very exciting...

First Impressions cont.

Just about the time I moved to the South to live with my husband (boyfriend at the time), he got new next door neighbors. We rarely saw the woman who lived there, but the man was out in his yard from daybreak to sunset. His lawn was meticulous (although later he would...

First Impressions

I think a running theme in books is often mistaken first impressions. Especially in romance or chick lit or…well, anything. I mean, what was PRIDE AND PREJUDICE about if not mistaken impressions? continued…

Lefty Carmichael Has a Fit by Don Trembath

The only bad thing about this book is I’m done reading it and I wish I had three hundred more pages to read. This is an amazing book, full of hilarious but very authentic characters, vivid detail and amazing writing. I finished it earlier today and while I was...

$7 haircut

It’s funny how when you decide to write something, people, incidents, news stories, and things you hear all seem to have to do with whatever you are planning to write. Maybe you just notice them or something…I don’t know. As you know, I just finished...

$7 haircut cont.

Except, someone is going there! Just last week I got an email from someone I was friends with from fifth to ninth grade, primarily in seventh and eighth grade. Her emails have been full of “Remember the time…?” and now suddenly the floodgates have...

THE WRECKERS by Iain Lawrence

  I believe this is Lawrence’s first book, but he has had many published since it came out, including two sequels. He was recently nominated for The Governor General’s Award in Canada for his latest offering, Gemini Summer. Because Lawrence and I live in...

The Big Blue Chair

Before we met, my husband bought an enormous blue velvet chair. His idea was to put it in a room with a lamp and some books and then he would spend many nights luxuriously reading in it by the fire. Unlike other people who buy furniture…okay women because they...

Remainder continued

I really enjoyed this book, but I did want to comment on the fact that I bought it as a remainder. One time, in the early days, I bought a book at a library book sale and the writer was on one of my list serves. I mentioned it on the list and was admonished by her...

love, cajun style cont.

It is a very sweet book, published in 1965, and a Newbery Honor Book. I had it in my pile of books to read before I moved, but it ended up being the “on the road book”. Every night in the hotel, my husband would gently remove it from my hands after...

FROGS AND FRENCH KISSES cont.

Anyway, this is a seriously funny book with a bit of a twist to it. The main character has no magical powers of her own, but both her younger sister and her mother are witches. She’s very engaging and likable and except for one annoying thing, I really liked...