Over Thanksgiving, I went up to my sister’s place in the pacific northwest, where we partook of the noblest of all family traditions: Christmas cookie making. We do spritzes, bourbon balls, gingerbread, etc. All the cookies we were raised making. But this year I decided we have to do something else too. Something different. You gotta try something new every once in a while, right? Something that looks appetizing in a magazine, like this:
(I apologize for all picture quality, they were taken on my phone)
It’s called a croquembouche, a tower of what (after 5 hours of cooking) turned out to be cream-filled donut holes held together by caramel. The dough was pretty tasty, puffed up nicely, the cream filling was DELISH, and my version is not magazine worthy, but it still looks pretty decent:
But here’s one thing that the magazine didn’t tell me: Caramel is CEMENT. Also, in that constructing these delicious little cream filled poufs, I’m constructing something purely decorative (why they had me pipe in cream then I do not know) because its impossible to pull apart. Case in point:
Yes, I’m holding this thing upside down. I’m gonna need a hairdryer and a chisel to get it off the plate.
Oh well, you gotta try something new every once in a while, right?
As I sit here on my sister’s couch, watching football with her, as her husband fetches and cooks, I come across that rare realization that all is right with the world. I’m where I want to be with the people I want to be with, doing what I want to do. And therefore, I would like to present to you my list of what I’m Thankful for this gluttonous holiday.
(Side note: I’m gonna skip over family and friends, because, yeah, they’re handy, and obviously I’m thankful for them. But this list is for what I’m TRULY thankful for.)
1. A solid internet connection. Too often I find myself in the land of No Wifi, and the withdrawal symptoms are ugly and painful. It hurts me. It hurts me to my core.
2. That the Muppets exist. Specifically, that they exist doing this:
3. Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans. I may have won only three games so far in my fantasy football league, ranking me second to last, but Chris Johnson is the reason I managed to win those three games.
4. That my 4-year-old niece knows all the words to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” thanks to Beatles Rockband. I now have hope for future generations.
5. That my third book, The Summer of You, will be released in April 2010 (*cough* shameless plug*cough*)
And lastly…
6.That Thanksgiving calories don’t count.
7. … they don’t, right?
Happy thanksgiving, happy reading everyone, and be sure to be thankful for the important stuff!
I am the occasional practitioner of omniscient voice, or as I like to call it, the Tom Jones voice. This name is not in reference to the knighted swinging singer of “Its Not Unusual”, but instead a reference to the 1749 novel by Henry Fielding. You see, when Mr. Fielding needed to explain a small bit of backstory, he used omniscient voice, and simply… explained it, and generally with a very dry wit. No need to filter it through a character’s point of view or shoehorn the info into dialogue. I have used the Tom Jones voice in the same manner – whether it be to give the background of a fictional country or the heretofore unknown to the reader (but known to the characters) tidbit of information, such as the identity of a spy.
Omniscient voice is not that common in romance novels – and it’s easy to understand why. When a story is as internal and personal as falling in love, you (the reader and writer both) don’t really want to interrupt the flow of emotion just to step back and view the larger picture, which is what omniscient voice does. The downside is that the information has to come out somewhere, and sometimes it makes dialogue a little lumpy. So for me it’s a bit of a gamble. But, here’s the reason I prefer it:
Which sounds better to you…
While Mary and John were married, he was employed at the DoReMi Agency, which had any number shady dealings. Difficulty arose when he decided to blow the whistle on his bosses, resulting in his firing, subsequent destitution, loss of wife, and loss of dog to his best friend Joe — who, deciding he could not possibly own a Chi-Chi, renamed the pup Larry.
Or…
Cindy reached over and took Joe’s hand. “Do you mean to tell me,” she said, “that your friend Joe who used to work at the DoReMi Agency blew the whistle on his bosses’ criminal dealings and because of that lost his job, his money, and his wife? And you got his dog?”
“Yep,” said Joe. “And I renamed the dog Larry.”
What voice or person do you prefer to read and/or write in? First? Third from character POV? Third omniscent?
Quick post today: I’m over at RomCon Inc today as their historical guest blogger! Stop on by and possibly win a copy of Revealed — hope to see you there!
Amidst the faaaaaaaabulous things I have been writing this week (heh… right.), I, on occasion (read: every 15 minutes) peruse the internet, for inspiration, information, and just plan fun. Among the things I’ve learned this week:
I landed on Katiebab’s list of favorite debut authors of 2009! Very pleased to be in such illustrious company of Leanna Renee Hieber and the awesome Tessa Dare. “But,” you might say, in your British and proper way, darn you – “you’re not a debut author of 2009. Compromised was originally released in 2008.” And I say curse you and your logic! Yes, technically, I’m not a 2009 debut author, but Compromised was rereleased in 2009. Besides, I’m going on the assumption that I was not read by Katiebabs until 2009, so at the very least, I’m a debut author to her. So…. Ppppplllllffffftttttt!
The people over at MyLifeIsAverage have a far less average life than me. And yet, their version of average sounds really fun! I never had a sword fight with my mom in Target. Perhaps I should challenge her next time we go.
Nowhere in the New York Magazine’s Sex Diaries could I find an entry by a romance novelist. There’s likely a reason for this. Disappointed, but the reading itself totally counts as research.
And finally:
Matthew Morrison is going to record an album! Mr. Schuster on Glee! The cutie pie has curly hair too! (I feel a kinship. I can’t help it. We of the curled persuasion have to stick together.)
And that’s all for this week. But there will be TERRIBLY interesting things happening on the interwebs on Tuesday Nov. 10th, when I guest blog at RomCon. Stop on by!
