Susan Rooke's Blog, page 5
January 31, 2019
An Interview with the *ahem* Author
Before the end of last year, my Twitter friend, fellow author Amy Elizabeth Miller (find her website here), messaged me to ask if I’d be interested in doing an author interview as part of a series she’d planned for her blog. Amy has an amazing work ethic. She’s a talented artist. She blogs about subjects I wouldn’t have the nerve to touch with such depth and passion it often takes my breath away (I’ve been a subscriber for some time). She writes The Endeavor Series: captivating, imaginative fantasy novels that feature a host of magical creatures and endearing (or hissable!) characters (find them on Amazon here). As if all that weren’t enough, she homeschools her four kids! That alone is sufficient to inspire my stunned admiration. (Don’t take this the wrong way, Katie, but after teaching you how to read, I was tapped out.) We’d never met in person, but I knew from reading Amy’s words that she’s the best kind of friend to have: generous, kind and supportive, and when she tells you she’s going to do something, you can take it to the bank. So of course I told her, “Yes, please, I’d be honored to do an interview!”
As most of you have probably deduced over the past 105 (!) posts, I’m a gabby person by nature, and I really enjoy gabbing about writing and the way I do it. Even more, I love reading interviews with other writers about how they do it. (Especially their writing schedules. Probably because I can never stick to one.) Every writer’s process is different and to me, they’re all fascinating. But Amy had something a little out of the ordinary in mind. She sent me a list of twenty-five questions, and only five had anything to do with my writing. Answering them, I found myself laughing as well as tearing up. And it was a blast.
Below is Amy’s interview. For space reasons, it’s only the Q. & A. To read the whole thing, which includes her wonderful intro and review of The Realm Below, see the full post here.
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR: SUSAN ROOKE
1. Introduce yourself. Name. Nickname.
A. Susan Rooke. No middle name. I’ve had several nicknames over the years (“Rookie,” “Monkey Arms”), but my favorite is still the one my older brother (by 8 years) came up with when I was just a little girl. He called me “Bug,” because I was an annoying little sister; I bugged him. And it stuck. In time I became “Aunt Bug” to his kids.
2. If your Wi-Fi name was a reflection of you, what would it be?
A. WhenIGetAroundToIt. I’m an awful procrastinator.
3. What personality trait has gotten you into the most trouble?
A. Probably the mistaken notion that I’m going to last forever, so what’s the rush?
4. What genre (of collection) do you write in and why?
A. I write all sorts of poetry, but the fiction I write (short stories and novels) is always speculative. I don’t know why, though, because I read in any genre.
5. Who is important to you?
A. My family and friends. Plus our animals: Australian Shepherd Lucy; our part Maine Coon Phoebe, aka Tatonka or Jabba the Catt [oh lord, here she comes now. It must be time to feed her again]; and our dear grandcat, Tsuki.
6. Where do you call home?
A. Central Texas.
7. What books are/have you written?
A. The Space Between: The Prophecy of Faeries, and The Realm Below: The Rise of Tanipestis (which is brand new, even as we speak). I’ve just started writing the third book in the series.
8. If you are having a rotten day, what do you do to conquer that?
A. If it’s not something that I’ll probably find humor in eventually, I just try to soldier through. Then that evening, I’ll pour myself a stiff highball and turn to my husband Glen for solace. Poor man! (He gets a stiff highball too.)
9. If you were invisible for a day, what would you do?
A. I’d walk our property trying to get some incredible, close-up nature photographs without nature being any the wiser.
10. Your life is made into a musical. What is the title of at least one of the songs?
A. “Better Late Than Never”
11. What are your sleeping habits?
A. Nonhabitual. The lack of consistent sleep is annoying. And fatigue makes my lazy eye skew a bit, which is weird.
12. What would you name your boat?
A. The Slithy Tove
13. What’s your biggest kitchen disaster?
A. At bedtime one night I was prepping a 14 lb. brisket for Glen to put in the smoker at 5A.M. the next morning. I had the brisket in the kitchen sink and was hauling it out of its vacuum-wrap using a pigsticker: a sharp steel skewer with the pointy end curlicued like a pig’s tail. I was tired and not paying close enough attention. The pointy end wasn’t all the way in the meat. It ripped loose and flew up and hit me in the forehead, right above the bridge of my nose. This was followed by a trip to the ER, a tetanus shot and some glue to close the wound. I was lucky not to lose an eye.
14. Tell me about one of your characters. Would you get along in real life?
A. I can’t pick just one to tell you about. When I tried, they all came crowding into my head, wanting to have their say. I’m grateful to have their trust, and it’s an honor to be able to record their stories. (Don’t tell any of them, but Lugo is my favorite and we would get on famously!)
15. If you were arrested with no explanation, what would your friends and family assume you had done?
A. They would assume it was a case of mistaken identity. I haven’t even had a speeding ticket since 1984.
16. What are your favorite clothes to wear?
A. Around the house, T-shirts and knee-length yoga pants, or fleecy long pants and long-sleeved henleys in cooler weather. Running errands, jeans and linen blouses.
17. If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what would they end up learning?
A. They’d learn how to put off until tomorrow what they could have easily done today. And then how to freak out over it. There’d also be some cooking, baking, cocktailing and playing Cards Against Humanity.
18. What are your future writing plans?
A. There will be at least a third book in the Space Between series. As for a fourth, I don’t know. I’m not a fast writer, and the books are somewhat intricate, requiring my careful thought and close attention because of their interweaving storylines and timelines. I’ll continue to write poems and short stories/flash fiction. And there’s always the possibility that there’ll be another book that’s not in the series.
19. What’s one thing you absolutely adore in life?
A. Leaving aside beloved people and pets, I absolutely adore Glen’s barbecue pit. It’s a combination grill and smoker. After much research, he designed and built it in his shop, working late several nights a week for months. With this contraption and his mad pitmaster skills, he makes the best Texas-style barbecued brisket and pork ribs I’ve ever tasted. No barbecue sauces, no fancy dry rubs. Just salt and pepper, heat, time and smoke.
20. What is one of your pet peeves?
A. Hearing people end their sentences with “at.” “Where are you at?”
21. You’re in the middle of a wizarding duel. What animal do you transfigure into?
A. Why be an animal when you can be a cosmic entity? Cthulhu, of course!
22. Would you survive if you were a character in your own books?
A. Maybe. If I got too gabby, the author might kill me off just to shut me up.
23. You are putting on a dinner party. What do you serve and who do you invite?
A. The weather would be mild, low 70s, with just enough cloud cover as the sun sinks, and a soft breeze. We’d be eating outside on the patio, digging in to Glen’s brisket and pork ribs, or, for the pescatarians, grilled swordfish with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and capers, prepared on the grill side of the pit. There would be sides: a gratin of potatoes, a cucumber-cherry tomato-kalamata olive salad and feather-light yeasty rolls. A selection of cocktails and beers/wines. Coffee macadamia brickle ice cream for dessert. And everyone we love would be there. Including a handful who can’t be there under any circumstances anymore.
24. Would you rather relive the same day for 365 days or lose a year of your life?
A. I can’t relive the same day for 365 days. I wouldn’t be here at the end of that time anyway, so I might as well pick the other option.
25. You are transported to one of your favorite books. Where are you?
A. I’m in T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone. Learning, as the Wart did, how to live as different creatures under the instruction of Merlyn and his owl, Archimedes.
Thank you for everything, Amy! This was fun!
An Interview with the *ahem* Author
Before the end of last year, my Twitter friend, fellow author Amy Elizabeth Miller (find her website here), messaged me to ask if I’d be interested in doing an author interview as part of a series she’d planned for her blog. Amy has an amazing work ethic. She’s a talented artist. She blogs about subjects I wouldn’t have the nerve to touch with such depth and passion it often takes my breath away (I’ve been a subscriber for some time). She writes The Endeavor Series: captivating, imaginative fantasy novels that feature a host of magical creatures and endearing (or hissable!) characters (find them on Amazon here). As if all that weren’t enough, she homeschools her four kids! That alone is sufficient to inspire my stunned admiration. (Don’t take this the wrong way, Katie, but after teaching you how to read, I was tapped out.) We’d never met in person, but I knew from reading Amy’s words that she’s the best kind of friend to have: generous, kind and supportive, and when she tells you she’s going to do something, you can take it to the bank. So of course I told her, “Yes, please, I’d be honored to do an interview!”
As most of you have probably deduced over the past 105 (!) posts, I’m a gabby person by nature, and I really enjoy gabbing about writing and the way I do it. Even more, I love reading interviews with other writers about how they do it. (Especially their writing schedules. Probably because I can never stick to one.) Every writer’s process is different and to me, they’re all fascinating. But Amy had something a little out of the ordinary in mind. She sent me a list of twenty-five questions, and only five had anything to do with my writing. Answering them, I found myself laughing as well as tearing up. And it was a blast.
Below is Amy’s interview. For space reasons, it’s only the Q. & A. To read the whole thing, which includes her wonderful intro and review of The Realm Below, see the full post here.
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR: SUSAN ROOKE
1. Introduce yourself. Name. Nickname.
A. Susan Rooke. No middle name. I’ve had several nicknames over the years (“Rookie,” “Monkey Arms”), but my favorite is still the one my older brother (by 8 years) came up with when I was just a little girl. He called me “Bug,” because I was an annoying little sister; I bugged him. And it stuck. In time I became “Aunt Bug” to his kids.
2. If your Wi-Fi name was a reflection of you, what would it be?
A. WhenIGetAroundToIt. I’m an awful procrastinator.
3. What personality trait has gotten you into the most trouble?
A. Probably the mistaken notion that I’m going to last forever, so what’s the rush?
4. What genre (of collection) do you write in and why?
A. I write all sorts of poetry, but the fiction I write (short stories and novels) is always speculative. I don’t know why, though, because I read in any genre.
5. Who is important to you?
A. My family and friends. Plus our animals: Australian Shepherd Lucy; our part Maine Coon Phoebe, aka Tatonka or Jabba the Catt [oh lord, here she comes now. It must be time to feed her again]; and our dear grandcat, Tsuki.
6. Where do you call home?
A. Central Texas.
7. What books are/have you written?
A. The Space Between: The Prophecy of Faeries, and The Realm Below: The Rise of Tanipestis (which is brand new, even as we speak). I’ve just started writing the third book in the series.
8. If you are having a rotten day, what do you do to conquer that?
A. If it’s not something that I’ll probably find humor in eventually, I just try to soldier through. Then that evening, I’ll pour myself a stiff highball and turn to my husband Glen for solace. Poor man! (He gets a stiff highball too.)
9. If you were invisible for a day, what would you do?
A. I’d walk our property trying to get some incredible, close-up nature photographs without nature being any the wiser.
10. Your life is made into a musical. What is the title of at least one of the songs?
A. “Better Late Than Never”
11. What are your sleeping habits?
A. Nonhabitual. The lack of consistent sleep is annoying. And fatigue makes my lazy eye skew a bit, which is weird.
12. What would you name your boat?
A. The Slithy Tove
13. What’s your biggest kitchen disaster?
A. At bedtime one night I was prepping a 14 lb. brisket for Glen to put in the smoker at 5A.M. the next morning. I had the brisket in the kitchen sink and was hauling it out of its vacuum-wrap using a pigsticker: a sharp steel skewer with the pointy end curlicued like a pig’s tail. I was tired and not paying close enough attention. The pointy end wasn’t all the way in the meat. It ripped loose and flew up and hit me in the forehead, right above the bridge of my nose. This was followed by a trip to the ER, a tetanus shot and some glue to close the wound. I was lucky not to lose an eye.
14. Tell me about one of your characters. Would you get along in real life?
A. I can’t pick just one to tell you about. When I tried, they all came crowding into my head, wanting to have their say. I’m grateful to have their trust, and it’s an honor to be able to record their stories. (Don’t tell any of them, but Lugo is my favorite and we would get on famously!)
15. If you were arrested with no explanation, what would your friends and family assume you had done?
A. They would assume it was a case of mistaken identity. I haven’t even had a speeding ticket since 1984.
16. What are your favorite clothes to wear?
A. Around the house, T-shirts and knee-length yoga pants, or fleecy long pants and long-sleeved henleys in cooler weather. Running errands, jeans and linen blouses.
17. If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what would they end up learning?
A. They’d learn how to put off until tomorrow what they could have easily done today. And then how to freak out over it. There’d also be some cooking, baking, cocktailing and playing Cards Against Humanity.
18. What are your future writing plans?
A. There will be at least a third book in the Space Between series. As for a fourth, I don’t know. I’m not a fast writer, and the books are somewhat intricate, requiring my careful thought and close attention because of their interweaving storylines and timelines. I’ll continue to write poems and short stories/flash fiction. And there’s always the possibility that there’ll be another book that’s not in the series.
19. What’s one thing you absolutely adore in life?
A. Leaving aside beloved people and pets, I absolutely adore Glen’s barbecue pit. It’s a combination grill and smoker. After much research, he designed and built it in his shop, working late several nights a week for months. With this contraption and his mad pitmaster skills, he makes the best Texas-style barbecued brisket and pork ribs I’ve ever tasted. No barbecue sauces, no fancy dry rubs. Just salt and pepper, heat, time and smoke.
20. What is one of your pet peeves?
A. Hearing people end their sentences with “at.” “Where are you at?”
21. You’re in the middle of a wizarding duel. What animal do you transfigure into?
A. Why be an animal when you can be a cosmic entity? Cthulhu, of course!
22. Would you survive if you were a character in your own books?
A. Maybe. If I got too gabby, the author might kill me off just to shut me up.
23. You are putting on a dinner party. What do you serve and who do you invite?
A. The weather would be mild, low 70s, with just enough cloud cover as the sun sinks, and a soft breeze. We’d be eating outside on the patio, digging in to Glen’s brisket and pork ribs, or, for the pescatarians, grilled swordfish with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and capers, prepared on the grill side of the pit. There would be sides: a gratin of potatoes, a cucumber-cherry tomato-kalamata olive salad and feather-light yeasty rolls. A selection of cocktails and beers/wines. Coffee macadamia brickle ice cream for dessert. And everyone we love would be there. Including a handful who can’t be there under any circumstances anymore.
24. Would you rather relive the same day for 365 days or lose a year of your life?
A. I can’t relive the same day for 365 days. I wouldn’t be here at the end of that time anyway, so I might as well pick the other option.
25. You are transported to one of your favorite books. Where are you?
A. I’m in T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone. Learning, as the Wart did, how to live as different creatures under the instruction of Merlyn and his owl, Archimedes.
Thank you for everything, Amy! This was fun!
An Interview with the *ahem* Author
Before the end of last year, my Twitter friend, fellow author Amy Elizabeth Miller (find her website here), messaged me to ask if I’d be interested in doing an author interview as part of a series she’d planned for her blog. Amy has an amazing work ethic. She’s a talented artist. She blogs about subjects I wouldn’t have the nerve to touch with such depth and passion it often takes my breath away (I’ve been a subscriber for some time). She writes The Endeavor Series: captivating, imaginative fantasy novels that feature a host of magical creatures and endearing (or hissable!) characters (find them on Amazon here). As if all that weren’t enough, she homeschools her four kids! That alone is sufficient to inspire my stunned admiration. (Don’t take this the wrong way, Katie, but after teaching you how to read, I was tapped out.) We’d never met in person, but I knew from reading Amy’s words that she’s the best kind of friend to have: generous, kind and supportive, and when she tells you she’s going to do something, you can take it to the bank. So of course I told her, “Yes, please, I’d be honored to do an interview!”
As most of you have probably deduced over the past 105 (!) posts, I’m a gabby person by nature, and I really enjoy gabbing about writing and the way I do it. Even more, I love reading interviews with other writers about how they do it. (Especially their writing schedules. Probably because I can never stick to one.) Every writer’s process is different and to me, they’re all fascinating. But Amy had something a little out of the ordinary in mind. She sent me a list of twenty-five questions, and only five had anything to do with my writing. Answering them, I found myself laughing as well as tearing up. And it was a blast.
Below is Amy’s interview. For space reasons, it’s only the Q. & A. To read the whole thing, which includes her wonderful intro and review of The Realm Below, see the full post here.
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR: SUSAN ROOKE
1. Introduce yourself. Name. Nickname.
A. Susan Rooke. No middle name. I’ve had several nicknames over the years (“Rookie,” “Monkey Arms”), but my favorite is still the one my older brother (by 8 years) came up with when I was just a little girl. He called me “Bug,” because I was an annoying little sister; I bugged him. And it stuck. In time I became “Aunt Bug” to his kids.
2. If your Wi-Fi name was a reflection of you, what would it be?
A. WhenIGetAroundToIt. I’m an awful procrastinator.
3. What personality trait has gotten you into the most trouble?
A. Probably the mistaken notion that I’m going to last forever, so what’s the rush?
4. What genre (of collection) do you write in and why?
A. I write all sorts of poetry, but the fiction I write (short stories and novels) is always speculative. I don’t know why, though, because I read in any genre.
5. Who is important to you?
A. My family and friends. Plus our animals: Australian Shepherd Lucy; our part Maine Coon Phoebe, aka Tatonka or Jabba the Catt [oh lord, here she comes now. It must be time to feed her again]; and our dear grandcat, Tsuki.
6. Where do you call home?
A. Central Texas.
7. What books are/have you written?
A. The Space Between: The Prophecy of Faeries, and The Realm Below: The Rise of Tanipestis (which is brand new, even as we speak). I’ve just started writing the third book in the series.
8. If you are having a rotten day, what do you do to conquer that?
A. If it’s not something that I’ll probably find humor in eventually, I just try to soldier through. Then that evening, I’ll pour myself a stiff highball and turn to my husband Glen for solace. Poor man! (He gets a stiff highball too.)
9. If you were invisible for a day, what would you do?
A. I’d walk our property trying to get some incredible, close-up nature photographs without nature being any the wiser.
10. Your life is made into a musical. What is the title of at least one of the songs?
A. “Better Late Than Never”
11. What are your sleeping habits?
A. Nonhabitual. The lack of consistent sleep is annoying. And fatigue makes my lazy eye skew a bit, which is weird.
12. What would you name your boat?
A. The Slithy Tove
13. What’s your biggest kitchen disaster?
A. At bedtime one night I was prepping a 14 lb. brisket for Glen to put in the smoker at 5A.M. the next morning. I had the brisket in the kitchen sink and was hauling it out of its vacuum-wrap using a pigsticker: a sharp steel skewer with the pointy end curlicued like a pig’s tail. I was tired and not paying close enough attention. The pointy end wasn’t all the way in the meat. It ripped loose and flew up and hit me in the forehead, right above the bridge of my nose. This was followed by a trip to the ER, a tetanus shot and some glue to close the wound. I was lucky not to lose an eye.
14. Tell me about one of your characters. Would you get along in real life?
A. I can’t pick just one to tell you about. When I tried, they all came crowding into my head, wanting to have their say. I’m grateful to have their trust, and it’s an honor to be able to record their stories. (Don’t tell any of them, but Lugo is my favorite and we would get on famously!)
15. If you were arrested with no explanation, what would your friends and family assume you had done?
A. They would assume it was a case of mistaken identity. I haven’t even had a speeding ticket since 1984.
16. What are your favorite clothes to wear?
A. Around the house, T-shirts and knee-length yoga pants, or fleecy long pants and long-sleeved henleys in cooler weather. Running errands, jeans and linen blouses.
17. If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what would they end up learning?
A. They’d learn how to put off until tomorrow what they could have easily done today. And then how to freak out over it. There’d also be some cooking, baking, cocktailing and playing Cards Against Humanity.
18. What are your future writing plans?
A. There will be at least a third book in the Space Between series. As for a fourth, I don’t know. I’m not a fast writer, and the books are somewhat intricate, requiring my careful thought and close attention because of their interweaving storylines and timelines. I’ll continue to write poems and short stories/flash fiction. And there’s always the possibility that there’ll be another book that’s not in the series.
19. What’s one thing you absolutely adore in life?
A. Leaving aside beloved people and pets, I absolutely adore Glen’s barbecue pit. It’s a combination grill and smoker. After much research, he designed and built it in his shop, working late several nights a week for months. With this contraption and his mad pitmaster skills, he makes the best Texas-style barbecued brisket and pork ribs I’ve ever tasted. No barbecue sauces, no fancy dry rubs. Just salt and pepper, heat, time and smoke.
20. What is one of your pet peeves?
A. Hearing people end their sentences with “at.” “Where are you at?”
21. You’re in the middle of a wizarding duel. What animal do you transfigure into?
A. Why be an animal when you can be a cosmic entity? Cthulhu, of course!
22. Would you survive if you were a character in your own books?
A. Maybe. If I got too gabby, the author might kill me off just to shut me up.
23. You are putting on a dinner party. What do you serve and who do you invite?
A. The weather would be mild, low 70s, with just enough cloud cover as the sun sinks, and a soft breeze. We’d be eating outside on the patio, digging in to Glen’s brisket and pork ribs, or, for the pescatarians, grilled swordfish with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and capers, prepared on the grill side of the pit. There would be sides: a gratin of potatoes, a cucumber-cherry tomato-kalamata olive salad and feather-light yeasty rolls. A selection of cocktails and beers/wines. Coffee macadamia brickle ice cream for dessert. And everyone we love would be there. Including a handful who can’t be there under any circumstances anymore.
24. Would you rather relive the same day for 365 days or lose a year of your life?
A. I can’t relive the same day for 365 days. I wouldn’t be here at the end of that time anyway, so I might as well pick the other option.
25. You are transported to one of your favorite books. Where are you?
A. I’m in T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone. Learning, as the Wart did, how to live as different creatures under the instruction of Merlyn and his owl, Archimedes.
Thank you for everything, Amy! This was fun!
An Interview with the *ahem* Author
Before the end of last year, my Twitter friend, fellow author Amy Elizabeth Miller (find her website here), messaged me to ask if I’d be interested in doing an author interview as part of a series she’d planned for her blog. Amy has an amazing work ethic. She’s a talented artist. She blogs about subjects I wouldn’t have the nerve to touch with such depth and passion it often takes my breath away (I’ve been a subscriber for some time). She writes The Endeavor Series: captivating, imaginative fantasy novels that feature a host of magical creatures and endearing (or hissable!) characters (find them on Amazon here). As if all that weren’t enough, she homeschools her four kids! That alone is sufficient to inspire my stunned admiration. (Don’t take this the wrong way, Katie, but after teaching you how to read, I was tapped out.) We’d never met in person, but I knew from reading Amy’s words that she’s the best kind of friend to have: generous, kind and supportive, and when she tells you she’s going to do something, you can take it to the bank. So of course I told her, “Yes, please, I’d be honored to do an interview!”
As most of you have probably deduced over the past 105 (!) posts, I’m a gabby person by nature, and I really enjoy gabbing about writing and the way I do it. Even more, I love reading interviews with other writers about how they do it. (Especially their writing schedules. Probably because I can never stick to one.) Every writer’s process is different and to me, they’re all fascinating. But Amy had something a little out of the ordinary in mind. She sent me a list of twenty-five questions, and only five had anything to do with my writing. Answering them, I found myself laughing as well as tearing up. And it was a blast.
Below is Amy’s interview. For space reasons, it’s only the Q. & A. To read the whole thing, which includes her wonderful intro and review of The Realm Below, see the full post here.
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR: SUSAN ROOKE
1. Introduce yourself. Name. Nickname.
A. Susan Rooke. No middle name. I’ve had several nicknames over the years (“Rookie,” “Monkey Arms”), but my favorite is still the one my older brother (by 8 years) came up with when I was just a little girl. He called me “Bug,” because I was an annoying little sister; I bugged him. And it stuck. In time I became “Aunt Bug” to his kids.
2. If your Wi-Fi name was a reflection of you, what would it be?
A. WhenIGetAroundToIt. I’m an awful procrastinator.
3. What personality trait has gotten you into the most trouble?
A. Probably the mistaken notion that I’m going to last forever, so what’s the rush?
4. What genre (of collection) do you write in and why?
A. I write all sorts of poetry, but the fiction I write (short stories and novels) is always speculative. I don’t know why, though, because I read in any genre.
5. Who is important to you?
A. My family and friends. Plus our animals: Australian Shepherd Lucy; our part Maine Coon Phoebe, aka Tatonka or Jabba the Catt [oh lord, here she comes now. It must be time to feed her again]; and our dear grandcat, Tsuki.
6. Where do you call home?
A. Central Texas.
7. What books are/have you written?
A. The Space Between: The Prophecy of Faeries, and The Realm Below: The Rise of Tanipestis (which is brand new, even as we speak). I’ve just started writing the third book in the series.
8. If you are having a rotten day, what do you do to conquer that?
A. If it’s not something that I’ll probably find humor in eventually, I just try to soldier through. Then that evening, I’ll pour myself a stiff highball and turn to my husband Glen for solace. Poor man! (He gets a stiff highball too.)
9. If you were invisible for a day, what would you do?
A. I’d walk our property trying to get some incredible, close-up nature photographs without nature being any the wiser.
10. Your life is made into a musical. What is the title of at least one of the songs?
A. “Better Late Than Never”
11. What are your sleeping habits?
A. Nonhabitual. The lack of consistent sleep is annoying. And fatigue makes my lazy eye skew a bit, which is weird.
12. What would you name your boat?
A. The Slithy Tove
13. What’s your biggest kitchen disaster?
A. At bedtime one night I was prepping a 14 lb. brisket for Glen to put in the smoker at 5A.M. the next morning. I had the brisket in the kitchen sink and was hauling it out of its vacuum-wrap using a pigsticker: a sharp steel skewer with the pointy end curlicued like a pig’s tail. I was tired and not paying close enough attention. The pointy end wasn’t all the way in the meat. It ripped loose and flew up and hit me in the forehead, right above the bridge of my nose. This was followed by a trip to the ER, a tetanus shot and some glue to close the wound. I was lucky not to lose an eye.
14. Tell me about one of your characters. Would you get along in real life?
A. I can’t pick just one to tell you about. When I tried, they all came crowding into my head, wanting to have their say. I’m grateful to have their trust, and it’s an honor to be able to record their stories. (Don’t tell any of them, but Lugo is my favorite and we would get on famously!)
15. If you were arrested with no explanation, what would your friends and family assume you had done?
A. They would assume it was a case of mistaken identity. I haven’t even had a speeding ticket since 1984.
16. What are your favorite clothes to wear?
A. Around the house, T-shirts and knee-length yoga pants, or fleecy long pants and long-sleeved henleys in cooler weather. Running errands, jeans and linen blouses.
17. If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what would they end up learning?
A. They’d learn how to put off until tomorrow what they could have easily done today. And then how to freak out over it. There’d also be some cooking, baking, cocktailing and playing Cards Against Humanity.
18. What are your future writing plans?
A. There will be at least a third book in the Space Between series. As for a fourth, I don’t know. I’m not a fast writer, and the books are somewhat intricate, requiring my careful thought and close attention because of their interweaving storylines and timelines. I’ll continue to write poems and short stories/flash fiction. And there’s always the possibility that there’ll be another book that’s not in the series.
19. What’s one thing you absolutely adore in life?
A. Leaving aside beloved people and pets, I absolutely adore Glen’s barbecue pit. It’s a combination grill and smoker. After much research, he designed and built it in his shop, working late several nights a week for months. With this contraption and his mad pitmaster skills, he makes the best Texas-style barbecued brisket and pork ribs I’ve ever tasted. No barbecue sauces, no fancy dry rubs. Just salt and pepper, heat, time and smoke.
20. What is one of your pet peeves?
A. Hearing people end their sentences with “at.” “Where are you at?”
21. You’re in the middle of a wizarding duel. What animal do you transfigure into?
A. Why be an animal when you can be a cosmic entity? Cthulhu, of course!
22. Would you survive if you were a character in your own books?
A. Maybe. If I got too gabby, the author might kill me off just to shut me up.
23. You are putting on a dinner party. What do you serve and who do you invite?
A. The weather would be mild, low 70s, with just enough cloud cover as the sun sinks, and a soft breeze. We’d be eating outside on the patio, digging in to Glen’s brisket and pork ribs, or, for the pescatarians, grilled swordfish with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and capers, prepared on the grill side of the pit. There would be sides: a gratin of potatoes, a cucumber-cherry tomato-kalamata olive salad and feather-light yeasty rolls. A selection of cocktails and beers/wines. Coffee macadamia brickle ice cream for dessert. And everyone we love would be there. Including a handful who can’t be there under any circumstances anymore.
24. Would you rather relive the same day for 365 days or lose a year of your life?
A. I can’t relive the same day for 365 days. I wouldn’t be here at the end of that time anyway, so I might as well pick the other option.
25. You are transported to one of your favorite books. Where are you?
A. I’m in T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone. Learning, as the Wart did, how to live as different creatures under the instruction of Merlyn and his owl, Archimedes.
Thank you for everything, Amy! This was fun!
January 3, 2019
Macadamia-White Chocolate Shortbreads: A Cookie Recipe
Happy 2019, Dear Readers! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! It’s been a rainy, grey start to the new year here, but I’m holding out hope that someday we’ll enjoy sunshine again. In the meantime, cookies will do nicely.
Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I used to, when I was young and naïve. Despite years of evidence to the contrary, when each new January rolled around I thought that would be the time I’d actually make resolutions and stick to them. Until one year I’d finally had enough of that. I decided that instead of trying to impose puritanical self-improvements, I would begin each January with an easy intention: to make something delicious on New Year’s Day, and then to continue having fun in the kitchen often in the next 364 days. No hard and fast rules. No unrealistic expectations. Finally. I’d found a plan I could stick to! *
I made these cookies this January 1st for the 2019 intention. They were inspired by Alison Roman’s “Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Shortbread,” a recipe that my dear friend Claire M. shared with me and urged me to make. I’m so glad she did. As usual, I was incapable of following the recipe to the letter, starting with the salted butter part, but doing it my way still turned out some very wonderful cookies. I made them again a couple of weeks later, and then decided to reimagine the recipe for New Year’s Day fun. And they were delicious.
First, however, a confession of bone-headedness: These cookies never spread much. You’ll see in the pictures that this batch did, though, due to the fact that I forgot the essential step of sprinkling them with flakes of sea salt just before popping them in the 350° oven. I remembered three minutes later and yanked the cookie sheets out of the oven in a panic. And there the cookies sat, heating and spreading on the hot pans while I fiddled with sea salt for an interminable time. Plus the oven cooled a bit every time I had to open the door. But hey, it was New Year’s. Not only a day of good intentions, but also a day of facing facts—even the warty ones.
MACADAMIA-WHITE CHOCOLATE SHORTBREADS Makes about 24-28 cookies
For the dough:
2 sticks plus 2 Tbs. unsalted butter (9oz.), softened
½ c. sugar
¼ c. (packed) dark brown sugar (see Notes below)
1 tsp. good vanilla
2 ¼ c. all-purpose flour (I use unbleached)
4 oz. white chocolate, chopped into chunks
3 oz. macadamias, rough-chopped (I use the Costco dry-roasted, sea-salted Kirkland brand)
For rolling and slicing (just before baking):
1 egg, lightly beaten, OR a couple of Tbs. of heavy cream
2 Tbs. sugar mixed with 1 generous packed Tbs. dark brown sugar
Sea salt flakes to sprinkle on top (Maldon is awesome)
To mix the dough:
1. In a large bowl, cream the butter, the brown and white sugars and the vanilla until fluffy. (I like the stand mixer for this.) Scrape down the bowl sides as needed. You know the drill.
2. Add the flour and mix. It will look crumbly. But as the butter warms in the bowl, the dough will start to come together.
3. At that point, add the macadamias and the white chocolate and mix a bit more. Don’t overbeat, but it should be smooth enough to form into logs.
To form logs:
1. Divide the dough into two equal parts and roll each into a log about 7-7 ½” long. The logs should be about 2” in diameter, or a bit larger. Good luck getting them exactly even. I never can.
2. Wrap each log tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate (a couple of hours, at least) until thoroughly chilled. This is important to help keep the cookies from spreading in the oven, since the warmth from your hands as you roll the logs in sugar and then slice them, etc., will definitely hasten the spreading if they aren’t totally firm. (You can also keep the logs several days in the refrigerator, OR, if well-wrapped [first in plastic wrap, then in foil, followed by enclosure in a plastic zipper bag with the air squeezed out of it], the logs can be frozen almost indefinitely. If you can resist baking them off and eating them “indefinitely,” that is.)
To bake:
1. Preheat the oven to 350° and line one or two half-sheet pans with parchment paper (see Notes below).
2. Unwrap the chilled logs and place them on a sheet of waxed or parchment paper. Brush them all over with the lightly beaten egg or heavy cream, then spoon the white and brown sugar mixture evenly over the logs and roll them in it to coat.
3. Cut the logs into ½” slices carefully, with a serrated knife. These cookies are cold and loaded with chunks, so don’t force the cutting. Let the sharpness of the blade do the work. If they’re tending to break apart on you, squeeze them gently so they hold their shape.
4. Arrange them on the cookie sheet(s) about an inch apart.
5. Sprinkle each cookie with a few flakes of coarse sea salt.
6. Bake a total of 12 to 15 minutes (my oven takes 15) until the edges are browning, and see Notes about turning cookie sheet(s) during baking.
7. Leave them to cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to finish cooling. Or pop them in your mouth.
Notes:
• I like dark brown sugar because of the deeper flavor it has than light brown. But light brown works fine.
• No need to toast the macadamias before adding them in. If they’re roasted and salted, they’ll be great.
• You’ll notice the dough has no added salt other than what’s on the macadamias. This is the point. Then the sprinkling of Maldon flakes on top adds just the right touch of salt, hitting the palate all at once, making a heavenly contrast to the white chocolate and nuts, and the creamy, bland sweetness of the dough.
• Do try to cut ½” slices. At that thickness they’re more likely to hold their round shape without spreading. I’ve never been very good at cutting exact slices.
• I buy only extra-large eggs, and hate to waste a whole one to brush on the cookie logs. So I switched to brushing on heavy cream. It works well and it’s also a lot less . . . slippery . . .
• As an impatient person, I use two half-sheet pans so that I can bake the whole batch of cookies at once. But then during the baking, I have to reverse the pans back-to-front and change the places of the top pan with the bottom one. It may be faster, but it’s not the way to make identical-looking cookies. To do that, bake them in two batches, one sheet pan at a time, reversing the pan back-to-front when they’ve been in about 9 or 10 minutes, then finishing the rest of the baking period.
Have a blessed 2019, filled with sweet rewards!
*Actually, there was one hard and fast resolution I made that I managed to keep: I vowed never to drink orange juice again unless it was in a mimosa. Easiest resolution ever. Cheers!
December 20, 2018
Home for Christmas
Just a short one today . . .
I want to wish you all the most joyous of holiday seasons, and the hope that your year concludes with many blessings and hearts full of love. I’m going to be kicking back and having fun for the rest of the year, because . . . The Daughter’s home! And The Son-in-Law will be joining us soon!
It’s been seven years since Glen and I have had the chance to spend Christmas with Katie and Wesley. The last time they weren’t married yet. Or even engaged. So we’re taking full advantage of this opportunity. There will be days of delicious food, fabulous cocktails, abounding snarkiness, clever puns and uproarious laughter over raucous games of Cards Against Humanity (“A party game for horrible people”).
The one thing I’ll do during this time that counts as work will be reading The Realm Below. In paperback, because the proof copies arrived Monday!
This is the fifth or sixth time I’ve read it, but it has to be done. And no skimming allowed. I’m on page 150 (out of 453) and I’ve already found two errors that slipped past me before. (This is in addition to two others that one of my wonderful advance readers, author Diana Conces, found.) So, all cocktails aside, I have to be paying attention when I’m reading.
Later this month, most of you will probably receive a brief newsletter from me announcing that print copies of The Realm Below are available for pre-order from Amazon. (Not sure of the date yet for that. If you don’t receive the newsletter, you can subscribe by going to the right sidebar here where it says “Subscribe and Download Chapter One.”)
You can already pre-order the e-books, though, and some of you have done so. Thank you! The release date is only a month away: January 22, 2019.
And to everyone who has taken the time to read The Space Between and tell me how much they enjoyed it (a new person just reached out to me on Facebook as I was writing this!), I’m always, always thrilled and grateful to hear from you. And thank you for your reviews!
Happy Holidays, Dear Readers! See you in 2019!
December 6, 2018
Bringing It Home. Forever.
This past Saturday I witnessed something that was I was starting to think might never happen. (When I could stand to watch the drama, that is. There were a few moments that I thought Glen would wind up as a grease spot on the driveway.) This was a milestone in our relocation to the country 3 years and 5 months ago. Yes, yes, we moved into the “forever home” in that time, and that was huge, of course. But this event marked the culmination of everything Glen has been working toward thus far in making us comfortable here.
Okay, in making me comfortable. He still has to finish relocating his welding shop and all of his equipment out here. But as far as I’m concerned, the pinnacle of his many achievements has reached its own forever home. “Forever” because he swears he’s never moving it again.
That’s right. Glen brought the smoker home.
And the day after that, he fired it up.
Here’s what I wrote about it in last year’s Thanksgiving post, “A List of Small Gratitudes, 2017”:
• That, on the smoker he designed and built, Glen makes the best Texas-style brisket and pork ribs I’ve tasted. EVER.
• For the day when Glen will finally move said smoker from his warehouse to our forever home so that we can enjoy his best-ever brisket and spare ribs at least one more time before the zombie apocalypse
He’d aimed to have it here by this Thanksgiving, but due to a driver who didn’t show up to transport it, he missed that goal by about 10 days. But that’s okay. It was worth waiting a little longer for.
It’s hard to get an idea of the scale of this thing in photographs. It’s 8’ tall from the base to the top of the smokestack and about 4’ wide. It weighs 3800 lbs., as much as my mid-size SUV. Every hinge and every handle is custom, fabricated by Glen and his friend Gene, also a welder.
The grilling side is on the left. This is the counterweight at the rear of the grill lid:
It weighs 300 lbs. It’s filled with lead. Without the counterweight, you wouldn’t be able to lift the heavy grill lid to check on your ribeyes or your swordfish. In the smoker, there are four racks that spin, making it easy to load and retrieve your sixteen sides of ribs or twelve briskets or twenty turkey breasts. There’s a thermometer built into the exterior smoker wall to keep track of the interior temperature.
As you might imagine, this thing took a long time to build. Glen (and usually Gene, too) worked late most nights every week for four or five months. Before he could even begin the cutting and welding, there had to be a thorough cleaning, because the smoker side is made of leftover drill casing pipe. There were practical design issues to figure out, like how to make the curved smoker door fit snugly to the curve of the smoker walls. Drill casing pipe is seamed like a toilet paper roll, and that caused a conundrum with the door which took days to solve. (Glen tried to explain it to me at the time, but I just nodded and smiled.) Sometimes, when he came dragging in exhausted on yet another late night, I thought he’d never spend his evenings at home again. More than once he wondered why he’d thought such an ambitious project was a great idea. But when it was finished, it added so much pleasure to our lives and opened up delicious new ways to entertain. And after doing without it for the last three-and-a-half years, I missed it terribly.
Finally Glen was ready to have it hauled out here to its new home, but with something this massive, the feat requires planning. He first hired a flatbed tow truck to bring the smoker out, and a few days later the tow truck returned with a SkyTrak, a type of small crane, which is needed to correctly lift and position the smoker on the ground. Here’s a screenshot of a SkyTrak from the Briggs Equipment website.
It’s a serious undertaking and tricky to do. Including Glen and the SkyTrak driver, there were four men outside the day it was moved into place. I didn’t take pictures because I was inside by the windows, peeking between my fingers. I was afraid I’d see someone smashed flat when the smoker tipped too far to one side. And when it finally touched down, exactly level on the concrete tiles where it will probably stay for the rest of our lives, I thought I was going to cry.
The next evening we enjoyed the result of Glen’s labors.
Please forgive the lack of artistry evident in the plating. It was all I could do to restrain myself long enough to take the picture, and you can tell I’m hovering too close to the food. Those ribs are bare not for their photo op, but because I’m a purist: no barbecue sauce. And no fancy rubs applied before they’re smoked. Just salt and lots of finely ground black pepper.
One bite told me: Glen still makes the best ribs I’ve ever tasted. And this home of ours? Now it’s forever.
November 22, 2018
Giving Thanks
Greetings, Readers! I hope the Americans among you are enjoying a wonderful holiday, and that the rest of you are blessed with delightful November weather. Everyone, I pray, is blessed with good things to eat and good people to eat them with in this turning of the year. That’s what holidays and cold snaps are for, after all. Glen and I are grateful to be luxuriating in all of the above.
Gratitude, in fact, is so beneficial for the body and the soul that I try to be mindful of my blessings every day. Some days, of course, the wheels fall off the bus and gratitude gets shoved aside. That’s life, unfortunately. But lately I’ve been feeling especially blessed and grateful. The reason is all of you.
There are masses of struggling writers working in obscurity. The number of J.K. Rowlings and Stephen Kings among us is minuscule. We don’t write because we want to be breakout stars. Truthfully, I’m not even sure that’s a desirable thing. We write because we can’t stop ourselves from writing. Once I’d written several revisions of The Space Between, I told my family I didn’t want fame and fortune, and certainly had zero expectations of either. My dream, I said—and here I pulled out a number that seemed unattainable—was to reach a couple hundred people. Strangers, who just happened to see the book and feel curious enough to read it. Never in a million years did I expect what has happened in the 14 months since the book’s publication: the paperbacks sold, the much greater number of e-books sold, the thousands of people downloading e-copies on giveaway days and the thousands of Kindle Unlimited pages read.
Sure, The Space Between doesn’t appeal to everyone. I knew that would be the case going in. It’s an intricate, quirky story, and hard to pigeonhole. But everyone who reads it is a hero to me. Even the ones who detest me for writing it and wish me in Hell.
By gosh, I have readers. I still can’t believe it.
Even more incredible? People have been asking me when Book 2, The Realm Below, will be released. Because they’re excited to read it. (It’s coming in January!)
One of them is my wonderful sister-in-law, Glen’s sister Denise. A few days ago she called me, and after we caught up on family stuff, our conversation turned to The Realm Below. Denise has the only existing copy of TRB’s first draft, taking it with her every time she’s moved for the past 7 or 8 years. Besides me, she was the first person to read it. She told me she’s been wanting to read it again in anticipation of its upcoming release (in January! Did I mention that?). When I protested, slightly horrified, she reassured me that she would wait for the real thing to come out. The problem is, Denise’s copy comes in at a bare-bones 51,000 words. The finished manuscript today is 128,000. That first draft does not even hold half of the story.
Then she said, “How’s Book 3 coming? You must have it mostly written by now.”
She was kidding. I think. The fact is, I still have work to do on TRB so that it can be properly formatted for print and e-book. When I told her I hadn’t started writing Book 3 yet, she said, “Okay, but you already know where it’s going, don’t you?”
Well, kind of, but I don’t know nearly as much as I’d like to. However, after talking to Denise, I feel much easier in my mind about it. Her belief fills me with confidence. There’s a reason that this is The Space Between’s dedication:
The Realm Below owes just as much to Denise’s years of faith and continuing encouragement as the first book does. And thanks to The Daughter’s in-depth (and persnickety) developmental edit, it’s a really good read. Katie didn’t let me slide on anything.
Neither book (Oh my gosh, I’ve written two books!) would have been possible without the aid of my wonderful editors and publicist at The Authors’ Assistant, who all helped me avoid shooting myself in the foot. Thank you, Mindy Reed, Danylle Salinas and Danielle Hartman Acee! And a big thank-you to my artist Heidi Dorey! Her marvelous covers keep drawing people in and making them want to read.
Then there’s my website designer, Sherry Scott of Resource Connection. My site needed updating to accommodate information about the new book (coming in January!). If you take a look at the updated Home page and Novels pages on susanrooke.net, you’ll see Sherry’s crisp, superbly professional work. She’s a resource, all right. Thank you, Sherry!
There’s another important step before The Realm Below’s release: advance reviews. I am hugely grateful to the terrific authors (whose names I can’t yet reveal) who soon will be reading the book. You know who you are!
I am so blessed to have all of you in my life. Readers. Believers. Keepers of the faith. Thank you all. For everything. Happy Thanksgiving!
November 13, 2018
The Realm Below – Audio Clip #1
November 8, 2018
Cheddar Spread: A Recipe
Before we get started, I hope everyone had a frightful, delightful Halloween! Here is the jack-o’-lantern I carved for us. I made the mouth smaller than I had drawn it to maintain the shell’s structural integrity. Turns out there was a bit of rot inside. We can’t have Jack collapsing in on himself!
Now on to food matters. The cocktail hour is my favorite part of the day. Glen is almost always home by then and we can relax and catch up on how we’ve each spent our time since he left for work. If I’ve already made a start on dinner, it’s baking in the oven or simmering on the stove. We’ll put our feet up and sit back with a highball or something a little more special I’ve mixed up. (And thanks to The Daughter’s cocktail-themed birthday presents, those somethings are getting even special-er!) We’ll usually have some nibblies too, to tide us over until we have dinner at 7:45 or so.
An aside: I love the word “nibblies.” I first came across it years ago in a Dan Brown novel, of all places, and was charmed by it. My phone had never heard of it and neither had Microsoft Word, but it’s approved by dictionaries such as this one:
I like the example they give, too. It’s as if they know me!
So far I’ve shared quite a few recipes for cocktails with you, but only two recipes for nibblies to accompany them: Savory Cheese Cookies and Jalapeño Poppers. Both of those are wonderful, but require a little planning, preparation and baking time. My Cheddar Spread, however, is quick and easy. Mix up the ingredients and you’re done. I invented it one morning before our dear friends Karen and Jim came over for an evening of Glen’s smoked brisket and spareribs. We’d be starting with a carefully curated selection of Jim’s sophisticated cocktails (does anything beat a guest who always arrives with an icy thermos in each hand and his own cocktail shaker?), and we needed something to nibble while imbibing. Et voilà.
This spread is delicious, with a bit of zip to it, and you won’t be paying ridiculous prices for tiny packages of seasoned cheeses with French names (at least one of which never came within 1,000 miles of France). So, for a little more variety at the cocktail hour, here is:
CHEDDAR SPREAD
1 lb. grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese
8 oz. softened cream cheese
½ c. good beer
1 ½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 generous Tbsp. prepared horseradish
2 tsp. Colman’s Mustard Powder
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper, or to taste
2 Tbsp. minced fresh chives (or a mix of green scallion tops and Italian parsley)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Mix ingredients in food processor and refrigerate the spread, covered, for an hour or two for flavors to develop. Before serving, soften it at room temperature for a few minutes until spreadable. Serve with your favorite crackers.
Notes:
• Be careful not to over-salt, since most of these ingredients are well-seasoned just the way they are. I start with a ¼ tsp. of salt and cautiously increase the amount if I need to. This, of course, involves tasting the cheese spread (on the crackers I’ll be using, because their salt content makes a difference), possibly several times. Oh, darn!
• By “good beer,” I mean something with a more assertive flavor than America’s best-selling light beer. I’ve never gone so far as to make the spread with stout or porter, but who knows? Guinness, for instance, might be great in it. Personally, I’d be careful with IPAs, though. If you decide a beer is too bitter to enjoy drinking, chances are you won’t like it in your cheese spread, either.
• “Prepared horseradish.” There are a lot of brands out there. Atlantic, easily available at my grocery story, is the one I’m liking now, after years of trying various bland disappointments, some of which required me to use most of a jar to get that horseradish fire. Atlantic has a satisfying zing while still allowing you to breathe. Then there’s Atomic horseradish (available from Amazon), which is in a league of its own. Use it incautiously and it will light your hair on fire. A “generous Tbsp.” of that would be at least 1 Tbsp. too much.
• One more thing: This spread isn’t just for the cocktail hour. It’s also wonderful at breakfast time. Spread it on a toasted bagel or sturdy piece of bread and run it under the broiler until it gets bubbly.
Cracker, Jack? (hee!)
Enjoy!
