Camy Tang's Blog, page 5

February 12, 2025 Weekly Patreon Roundup

REMINDER: Update on Lady Wynwood's Spies Vol. 8 here on Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/posts/120935990/

BONUS: Tote Bag from Year of the Dog

https://www.patreon.com/posts/121005163/

BONUS: Wahiawa Botanical Garden from Year of the Dog

https://www.patreon.com/posts/121006857/

Free eBooks

Sign up for these authors’ newsletters and get free books! Click on the links to check out all the free books. You might find a new favorite author!

Sweet Regency Novels

https://books.bookfunnel.com/sweet-regency-novels-feb-2025/uh9ewyclqy

Jan Thompson

Christian Romantic Suspense

JanThompson.com/thief-roundrobin2025

John Galt Robinson

Christian suspense/thriller

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/98aifh9fnt

Currently posting on Patreon:

Early access chapters and annotated chapters:

Year of the Dog: up to Chapter 23

Protection for Hire: up to Chapter 7 (on hiatus until after Year of the Dog is done posting)

Lady Wynwood and the Senhora’s Bargain (bonus story for Tier 2 and higher): Completed posting!

Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 7: Spinster: Completed posting!

Access to older chapters has been opened up to other tiers.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/early-access-98508510

Thanks again for being my subscribers!Camy

Romance, Danger, and Gold Shoes: The Perfect Combination

In chapter one of Protection for Hire , Elizabeth St. Amant is wearing some droolworthy gold shoes. I imagined them looking a bit like this—elegant, expensive, and completely out of place in a women’s shelter.
The shoes are a reflection of Elizabeth herself—sheltered, from a wealthy family, but thrust into a new life and feeling out of place when she takes her infant son and runs away from her abusive husband.

Elizabeth hires my heroine, Tessa, to protect her. But Charles, the lawyer who comes to their aid, happens to be the man who helped put Tessa in prison years ago. Tessa and Charles get caught up in a romantic suspense story with humor, danger, and faith.

If you’re a fan of stories with sassy heroines, edge-of-your-seat action, and laugh-out-loud moments, you’ll love the world of Protection for Hire. It’s like your favorite rom-com collided with a high-stakes thriller—and those gold shoes are just the beginning.

I love beautiful shoes but can’t wear them because I have flat feet. In fact, I wrote about Elizabeth in those shoes precisely because I couldn’t, so I guess it was kind of a wish-fulfillment kind of thing. What about you?

Writing Progress on Camy’s next book

Join my Patreon or my email newsletter to get regular updates in your inbox!

February 5, 2025 Weekly Roundup

Update on Lady Wynwood's Spies Vol. 8 here on Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/posts/120935990/

BONUS: Year of the Dog cover reveal!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/121002320/

Free eBooks

Sign up for these authors’ newsletters and get free books! Click on the links to check out all the free books. You might find a new favorite author!

Sherri Wilson Johnson

Christian Romantic Suspense, Clean Romantic Suspense

https://sherriwilsonjohnson.com/bayside-betrayal-rr2025/

Terry Toler

Mystery

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/x317hohnap

Safety First: Christian/Clean Suspense/Mystery/Thriller

https://books.bookfunnel.com/safety-first-2025-02-CRS/7bgy95i4rb

Currently posting on Patreon:

Early access chapters and annotated chapters:

Year of the Dog: up to Chapter 17

Protection for Hire: up to Chapter 7 (on hiatus until after Year of the Dog is done posting)

Lady Wynwood and the Senhora’s Bargain (bonus story for Tier 2 and higher): Completed posting!

Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 7: Spinster: Completed posting!

Access to older chapters has been opened up to other tiers.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/early-access-98508510

Thanks again for being my subscribers!Camy

Regency Romance Meets Dessert: Floating Island Recipe

The dessert from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Vol 4: Betrayer
I hadn’t really intended to have so many meal scenes in Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 4: Betrayer . However, at the time I was writing it, I was suffering from my IBS issues, and my diet had been (and still is) terribly bland, so I put every kind of delicious thing into the book that I could.

There was a scene later in the book when Laura kind of forces Sol to eat. He’s come to see her looking rather haggard, after he’s been dealing with some enemies trying to undermine him.

I didn’t intend to do it, but I ended up having them eat a full meal (rather than just tea and sweets). And since there’s something kind of cute about a manly-man enjoying a sweet dessert, I wrote a Floating Island dessert into the scene.

The Floating Island recipe was one I’d seen a few weeks earlier when I was looking through the PDF scans of some old cookbooks from the Regency era. The Floating Island stuck out to me because it was nothing like the French-style Floating Island dessert, île flottante, but was instead more like a trifle.

The original recipe is on pages 46-47 of the book, The Complete Confectioner by Frederic Nutt, published in 1807. The recipe calls for Naples Biscuits, which are on pages 14-15 of the same book. You can click here to download a free PDF of the scan of the original antique book.

Here’s the original recipes for Floating Island and Naples Biscuits:

No. 102 Floating Island

a pretty dish for the middle of a table at a Second Course or for a Supper.

Take a soup dish according to the size and quantity you would wish to make, but a deep glass dish is the best, put it on a china dish; first take a quart of the thickest cream you can get, make it sweet with fine powdered sugar; pour in a gill of fine mountain and rasp the yellow rind of lemon in; whisk your cream very strong as carefully as you can; pour the thin from the froth into a dish; take some Naples biscuits and cut them as thin as possible, lay a layer of them as light as possible on the cream, then a layer of currant jelly, again a layer of Naples biscuits, over that put your cream that you saved; put as much as you can make the dish hold, without running over; garnish the outside with sweetmeats and what else you like.

No. 4. Naples Biscuits.
Take one pound and a half of Lisbon sugar, put it into a little copper saucepan, and three quarters of a pint of wine measure of water in with the sugar, and one small cupful of orange flower water, and boil the sugar with the water till it is all melted; then break twelve eggs, whites and yolks together, whisk them well, then pour the Lisbon syrup boiling hot in with the eggs, and whisk them as fast as you can at the time of pouring in the syrup, or the eggs will spoil, and when you have poured it all in, keep whisking it till it is quite cold and set, and when it is cold, take one pound and a half of flower, and mix it as light as possible then put two sheets of paper on the copper plate you bake on, then take one sheet of paper, and make the edges of it stand up about an inch and an half high, and pour your batter in it, sift some powdered sugar over it, carefully, to prevent its burning on the top; do not leave the oven one minute when you think it is near baked enough; and when baked, take it out in the paper, and let it stand till cold, then turn it over, and wet the bottom of the paper, till the paper comes off with ease, then cut it to what size you like: you may bake it in small tins if you please.

I had to do some research to try to figure out what he meant by “a gill of fine mountain.” A British gill is approximately 142 mL, but figuring out “fine mountain” was harder. I think it might be referring to metheglin, which is supposed to be spiced or herb-infused mead.

When searching for substitutes for mead, most people recommend a dry white wine or a pale ale. I used the white wine since I can’t drink the pale ale, but if I didn’t have this darn IBS, I would have totally used the ale instead, because I think that might be closer to the flavor of mead. As it was, the white wine added a hint of dryness (flavor, not texture) to the whipped cream that was really quite pleasant. 

Naples Biscuits are not really biscuits but more of an eggy cake. While there are a lot of things I can’t eat because of my IBS, I realized it was possible to adjust the Naples Biscuit recipe so that I could use sourdough discard instead of flour. I always have a jar of sourdough discard in my fridge, so the Naples Biscuits turned out to be a quick and easy recipe. However if you’d like, you can use flour instead, as per the original recipe.

I didn’t want to make full recipes, so I quartered the original amounts of the Floating Island recipe (for the cream portion) and it was about enough for 2-4 single servings of Floating Islands, depending on how much cream you added to each glass (I tended to add a lot of cream).

I quartered the original amounts of the Naples Biscuits recipe, and it still ended up being enough for 8-10 single servings of Floating Islands. So be aware that the Naples Biscuits recipe makes a lot of cake. I didn’t want to reduce the amounts of the Naples Biscuits recipe any more because I didn’t have any pans small enough that would fit the smaller volume of batter.

The recipe is also very easy to adjust for your tastes. It originally used currant jelly, but I substituted strawberry jam, and you can use whatever preserves you favor the most.

I made it twice, once whipping the cream into stiff peaks, and the second time stopping at soft peaks. I preferred the stiffer version, but either one tastes good.

The Floating Island was incredibly delicate and “elegant” tasting (is that possible?). The first time I made it, it went well with afternoon tea, but the second time, it tasted great with white wine after dinner.

If you make Floating Island desserts from this recipe, please do let me know! I’d love to see pictures!

You can also get a PDF of the recipe cards at my Patreon (you may need to create a FREE Patreon account if you don’t already have one).
Floating Island
Ingredients:

1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
36 mL dry white wine or pale ale
1/4 of the grated rind of a lemon
Naples biscuits (recipe is below)
currant jelly (or your preserve of choice)

Directions:

In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer with a whisk attachment, whisk the cream with the grated lemon rind and slowly pour the white wine or pale ale into the cream in a very thin stream, until the liquid is emulsified with the cream. Keep whisking until the cream is the stiffness you prefer, whether soft peaks or stiff peaks.

Cut the Naples biscuit/cake into thin slices. The first time I made this recipe, I laid the slices on my cutting board and then cut out circles using the rim of the glass tumbler I was going to put the dessert in. It created a nice perfect circle of cake that fit snuggly into the tumbler. The second time I made it, I didn’t bother to cut circular shapes and instead just layered the cake into the tumbler.

In individual glass tumblers, layer a little whipped cream, then Naples biscuit/cake, then spread some jelly/preserves. Keep layering until the tumbler is full and end with a dollop of whipped cream. You can sprinkle cocoa powder, candies, chopped nuts or chopped dried fruit on top.

To make Naples Biscuits with sourdough discard:


Makes enough for 8-10 Floating Islands. This is the recipe I followed with sourdough discard, but the original recipe using flour is below that.

170 g 100% hydration sourdough discard
88 g flour
1-3 teaspoons orange flower water (the original recipe called for 3 teaspoons, but I found the to be too strong for my taste and prefer only 1 teaspoon)
170 grams sugar
3 eggs

Mix sourdough discard with flour. (Optionally, let it sit overnight to let the starter bacteria ferment the raw flour.)

In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat eggs, sugar, and orange flower water. Keep whisking until it has tripled in volume and reached the “ribbon stage,” which was about 8-10 minutes on speed 4 on my KitchenAid stand mixer.

Add the levain in small spoonfuls while continuing to whisk until all the levain has been incorporated.

Use a nonstick springform cake pan or line a pan with parchment paper up the sides. Pour the batter in, and optionally sift sugar over the top. Then bake at 350ºF for about 15 minutes. Watch over it to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Once it has cooled, you can peel off the parchment paper.

Naples Biscuits, original recipe:

Ingredients:

170 grams sugar
89 mL water
1-3 teaspoons orange flower water (the original recipe called for 3 teaspoons, but I found the to be too strong for my taste and prefer only 1 teaspoon)
3 eggs
170 grams flour

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt sugar in water with orange flower water until sugar is melted, and let it cool.

In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat eggs and slowly pour the sugar water (called Lisbon syrup in the book) into the eggs in a very thin stream, until the water is emulsified with the eggs. Keep whisking until it has tripled in volume.

Gently whisk in the flour until combined.

Use a nonstick springform cake pan or line a pan with parchment paper up the sides. Pour the batter in, and optionally sift sugar over the top. Then bake at 350ºF for about 15 minutes. Watch over it to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Once it has cooled, you can peel off the parchment paper.

The Wax Seal That Binds Regency Romantic Suspense

a.k.a. Camy’s diabolical treasonous organization

I mentioned earlier that the symbol of the Citadel in the series is actually my family crest.

Bianca’s silver seal is also found in Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 4: Betrayer.

What I did was order a custom-made seal of the Citadel—or rather, my family crest. 😄

I thought the company who made the seal did a good job. Bianca’s seal is silver and mine is brass, but it was neat to hold it and feel the weight of it and press a few wax seals (I’ll post pics of those later).

I felt almost like a member of a diabolical treasonous organization sending super-secret messages and trying to help Napoleon take over Europe. 😝

What do you think?

January 25, 2025 Weekly Patreon Roundup

 LAST CHANCE: Subscribe to Tier 3 to get a book box in May

https://www.patreon.com/posts/119485728/

POLL: Kickstarter Stretch Goals

https://www.patreon.com/posts/120580064/

Don’t know how to use Kickstarter? My friend Jonathan made a video to walk you through making an account and how to pledge.

https://youtu.be/X2gAcSq5pJ0

REMINDER: I posted my book release/posting schedule in my New Year’s post

https://www.patreon.com/posts/119127050/

REMINDER: “Bidding on Treason” novelette available for all paid subscribers for this month only!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/119191277/

Currently posting on Patreon:

Early access chapters and annotated chapters:

Year of the Dog: up to Chapter 11

Protection for Hire: up to Chapter 7 (on hiatus until after Year of the Dog is done posting)

Lady Wynwood and the Senhora’s Bargain (bonus story for Tier 2 and higher): Completed posting!

Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 7: Spinster: Completed posting!

Access to older chapters has been opened up to other tiers.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/early-access-98508510

Thanks again for being my subscribers!Camy

Mr. Alex Armstrong and Mr. Levi Ackerman

Here’s a couple Easter Eggs for you in the Lady Wynwood’s Spies series:

There are two trainers in the Ramparts who are mentioned in the books, Mr. Alex Armstrong and Mr. Levi Ackerman.

From Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 4: Betrayer:

Mr. Drydale had been taking Miss Sauber and Miss Gardinier to the Ramparts in the mornings to be privately trained by Mr. Alex Armstrong, who trained agents for both the Alien Office and the Foreign Office. A giant of a man, with muscles the size of headstones and a very impressive blond mustache, he often flashed his gleaming white teeth in a ready smile, which was nearly as blinding as the light reflecting from his balding pate. He was cheerfully relentless in training the two women in the many methods by which they could incapacitate an opponent using only their fists or weapons of opportunity.

From Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 7: Spinster :

So Lena told stories about her training under the swordmaster at the Ramparts, Mr. Levi Ackerman, but disguised him as her father. It wasn’t difficult, since if her childhood memories of him were correct, her father had the same quiet personality as Mr. Ackerman.

The chill of suspicion in Mr. Vipond’s eyes warmed to her tales, which had the ring of truth. She found, strangely, that she didn’t like him suspecting her.

She hoped the stories of being beaten black and blue by Mr. Ackerman softened him enough for her to bring up the attack again. “Mr. Vipond, about the attack last night—”

From Bidding on Treason:

The sword-fighting master, Mr. Levi Ackerman, was quite short, but he had wide shoulders and a lean, nimble body. His unemotional face, coupled with his pale skin and dark hair, made him seem rather ghostly at times, and his trainees complained they slashed through him as though he were an apparition. But his sword was swift and sharp, moving faster than the eye could follow, no matter the width or weight of his blade.

Here’s the absolute truth—both of them are characters from anime TV shows. Yes, I am a complete nerd.

Mr. Alex Armstrong is taken directly from Fullmetal Alchemist, and Mr. Levi Ackerman is from Attack on Titan. I even described them the way they’re drawn in the anime.

So if you have seen those anime and thought the characters were familiar … they were. And that means you are as much of a nerd as I am!

So … am I the only one who has seen those anime?

Writing Progress on Camy's next book

 

Join my Patreon or my email newsletter to get regular updates in your inbox!

January 18, 2025 Weekly Roundup

KICKSTARTER: My Kickstarter is live!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/camytang/lady-wynwoods-spies-vol-1-special-edition-hardcover

Don’t know how to use Kickstarter? My friend Jonathan made a video to walk you through making an account and how to pledge.

https://youtu.be/X2gAcSq5pJ0

THIS MONTH ONLY: Subscribe to Tier 3 to get a book box in May

https://www.patreon.com/posts/119485728/

REMINDER: I posted my book release/posting schedule in my New Year’s post

https://www.patreon.com/posts/119127050/

REMINDER: “Bidding on Treason” novelette available for all paid subscribers for this month only!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/119191277/

Currently posting on my Patreon:

Early access chapters and annotated chapters:

Protection for Hire: up to Chapter 7

Lady Wynwood and the Senhora’s Bargain (bonus story for Tier 2 and higher): up to Chapter 7

Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 7: Spinster: Completed posting!

Access to older chapters has been opened up to other tiers.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/early-access-98508510

Thanks again for being my subscribers!

Camy