A year ago, I shared my favorite Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Aren’t they pretty?
I decided to do a remix of this same recipe but with white chocolate chips and cranberries. See, I had major writing deadlines coming up and I wanted to have reliable dough stashed away in the freezer so I had emergency cookie dough.
Yes, emergency cookie dough. This is totally a thing.
I prepped the dough by scooping it and freezing it on a cookie sheet and wax paper. Then I bagged it all and stashed it in the deep freeze.
Three months later, I baked it.
I took the dough straight from the freezer. I watched it bake because I really wasn’t sure how long it would need. The dough didn’t expand at all, so halfway through I used the bottom of a glass to smush them flatter. The batches ended up taking thirteen to sixteen minutes.
My reliable cookie dough was indeed reliable. The white chocolate cranberry cookies ended up chewy and amazing, just like the original version.
It’s August 19th, and I’m part of a cooperative effort to blog about the end of the world. I’m doing a different take.
If the world ends in the next few weeks, do know that I’m deeply sorry.
You see, on February 8th, 2009 I blogged about a dream I had. To quote:
I dreamed that I sent out queries for Normal and a male agent responded right away to sign me, and in turn sold the rights quickly. I walked through a massive vault filled to the high ceiling with ARCS of all genres. I searched the shelf for the alphabetical placement of my last name – ah! I found the Cs! It should be right about –
The building shuddered, and a hundred books splatted to the floor like paper meteorites. I ran out of the vault and outside, where I found a full alien attack in progress.
Yeah, that’s my luck.
Yep. That’s how my subconscious works.
As with all prophecies, there are some contingencies involved. Normal brought me together with my agent (who is female), but did not sell. I’ve now had my ARCs for The Clockwork Dagger for a few months and thus far the world hasn’t ended. That I know of. But is the apocalypse caused by my having a book release, period?
There is one book that is coming out today, and even if it doesn’t cause the end of the world, it does describe 26 ways it can happen.
What do you get when you take twenty-six amazing writers, randomly assign them a letter of the alphabet and give them complete artistic freedom within a theme?
A is for Apocalypse contains twenty-six apocalyptic stories written by both well-known and up-and-coming writers. Monsters, meteors, floods, war–the causes of the apocalypses in these tales are as varied as the stories themselves.
This volume contains work by Ennis Drake, Beth Cato, Kenneth Schneyer, Damien Angelica Walters, K. L. Young, Marge Simon, Milo James Fowler, Simon Kewin, C.S. MacCath, Steve Bornstein and more!
There’s a release day party over on Facebook today!
This book would make great reading while you’re sitting in a bunker surrounded by canned food. Just sayin’.
And if The Clockwork Dagger doesn’t bring about our demise in the next while, it’d make good bunker-reading, too. Gremlins make everything better.
Read MoreRead More“Dreaming in public is an important part of our job description.”
~William Gibson
There’s so much going on, let’s bust out the bullet points.
– I kinda took over page 99 of the September issue of RT Book Reviews Magazine. Not only did they review The Clockwork Dagger and give it four stars (YAY!), but they interviewed me and gave me a chance to talk about recipes. As I am wont to do.
– I was interviewed by Marina Lostetter AND shared my recipe for bacon toffee (aka Bacon Crack).
– I have a story in an anthology that comes out next week called A is for Apocalypse, and a reviewer had very nice things to say about my story specifically.
It’s impossible for me to pick a favourite in this collection, but I recommend beginning with Ms. Cato’s entry to anyone who likes skipping around.
– Folks are saying nice things about The Clockwork Dagger, too! Like here, with 5/5 stars! Also, I was delighted (to put it mildly) when two authors I greatly respect (but don’t know as friends, at all) gave the book a shout out, too–here and here.
Cool things are happening!
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