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Blood of Earth Trilogy

Breath of Earth – Call of Fire – Roar of Sky
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Treats, Not Tricks

Posted by Beth on Oct 31, 2014 in Blog, poem-a-day, public speaking | Comments Off on Treats, Not Tricks

First of all, Happy Halloween! And Happy Clearance Candy Day tomorrow!

Expect the blog to be quieter in November. I’ll be extremely busy, so posts, comments, social media, and emails will be a lower priority. So, what do I have planned exactly? For starters…
– World Fantasy Con in D.C.
– Poem-A-Day Challenge
– Novella Challenge on Codex. I’m aiming for 25-30,000 words, so it’s like a mini NaNoWriMo. I have never written to this word length before, so this will indeed be a challenge.
– Thanksgiving

… and other stuff, too, that I can’t talk about yet but will need to complete on a tight deadline. Somewhere in there I need to eat and sleep and tend to the family, too. *twitch twitch*

Bready or Not: Pumpkin Pudding Snickerdoodle Cookies

Posted by Beth on Oct 29, 2014 in Blog, Bready or Not, cookies, pumpkin | Comments Off on Bready or Not: Pumpkin Pudding Snickerdoodle Cookies

The name of the recipe is somewhat misleading. These don’t actually include pumpkin. Instead, they use dry pumpkin pudding mix!

This important ingredient vexed me. I found this recipe for pumpkin streusel pudding cookies at Chef-in-Training two years ago and wanted to do my own remix as snickerdoodles last year. The pudding mix is a seasonal ingredient. Foolish me, I started looking for it at Walmart in September, which is when I really want autumnal food even though it’s still 110-degrees here. No luck. I looked at every grocery store around. Still no luck.

Finally, the first week of November, I happened to be in Walmart. Lo and behold, they had the pudding mix! I bought several and resisted the temptation to cackle and dash through the store.

Therefore, you see, the timing of this post is so you can be on the prowl, too. Grab’em while you can!

Pudding mix is awesome in baked goods. It makes the end result soft, moist, and tender, and it stays like that for days. The pumpkin pudding here tastes like real pumpkin, but it has a lot more endurance. (If you want a real pumpkin snickerdoodle recipe, I posted one last year!)

This recipe makes a lot, too. I ended up with about 50 cookies using my teaspoon scoop.

Print Recipe

Bready or Not: Pumpkin Pudding Snickerdoodle Cookies

Course: Dessert

Keyword: cookies, pumpkin, snickerdoodle

Author: Beth Cato

Ingredients

Cookie Dough:

3/4 cup butter softened
3/4 cup brown sugar packed
1/4 cup sugar
1 small box pumpkin spice instant pudding mix dry
2 eggs room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/4 cups flour

Topping:

1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat oven at 350-degrees.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar.
Add the dry pumpkin spice instant pudding mix and beat until well combined. Next, mix in the eggs and vanilla.
In another bowl, combine the flour and baking soda. Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mix.
Prepare the snickerdoodle topping in another bowl.
Form dough into small balls. Use a spoon to roll them around in the sugar and cinnamon. Place them on a greased or lined baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

OM NOM NOM!

“As seen in the New York Times” … and a lot of airports

Posted by Beth on Oct 28, 2014 in Blog, clockwork dagger | Comments Off on “As seen in the New York Times” … and a lot of airports

This whole publication thing is crazy, man. I had to go into it realistic about the amount of media exposure my book would get. It’s necessary for sanity’s sake. I was gobsmacked that The Clockwork Dagger was featured in Entertainment Weekly, NPR.com, and USA Today.

Now here’s a whole new level of mind-boggling: a review in the New York Times. It’s in the print edition published this past Sunday, too. Just… whoa.

Another cool thing has been brought to my attention by friends all over the country: The Clockwork Dagger is being sold in airport bookstores. It’s prominently featured on a small kiosk toward the top, and often as part of a “Buy 2 Get 3rd Book Free” deal. Don’t take my word on that–look for a deal sticker on the books!

So far, I know of it in these cities (I hope I haven’t forgotten one):
La Guardia
JFK
Charlotte
Raleigh-Durham
Houston
Seattle
Pittsburgh
Baltimore Washington
Chicago
Dallas-Fort Worth

If you see the book in an airport, please let me know! I love to see pics on Twitter or Facebook, or email me. I have yet to see it myself but I’ll certainly be on the look-out when I head to World Fantasy next week.