Beth Cato's Blog, page 120

Peripatetic Blogging and More

Another happy review from a major site!

Kirkus Reviews, Top Picks for Speculative Fiction Reads in September: “This steampunk fantasy includes all the right elements for a rip-roaring adventure.”

—

New publication! A poem – “To Walk Upon Clouds” at NewMyths.com.

Holy Taco Church post for September–a review of Gadzooks, an acclaimed restaurant in downtown Phoenix!

I’m also blogging, uh, everywhere.

Essay: “How OWW inspired Me to Write Steampunk” in the September Online Writing Workshop Newsletter.

Chat Log from Wednesday’s #sffrtcht can be found here.

Clockwork Cookie Blog Tour

- Pumpkin Snickerdoodles with Pam Wallace

- Shokupan Bread with Lee Hallison

- Buttery Beer Bread with Darusha Wehm

- Cheap Korean-Style Beef with Jodi Scaife

- Double Irish Cream Cookies with Erin Hartshorn

If I forgot something or someone, my apologies. The crazy OMG-BOOK-RELEASE stuff has definitely kicked in these past two days.

#sffwrtcht tonight and Reddit on the 16th

Want to ask me questions about writing, The Clockwork Dagger, cookies, cats, or most anything else? You’ll have a few chances! Tonight I’m taking part in #SFFWRTCHT on Twitter. It’s a live hour-long chat conducted by editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt. It starts at 9pm Eastern/8pm Central/6pm Pacific. You don’t have to be registered on Twitter to follow along through @sffwrtcht or #sffwrtcht, though you will need to be logged in to ask me questions.

On book release day on the 16th (less than two weeks away *gulp*) I’ll be doing an all-day Ask Me Anything (AMA) on reddit/Fantasy. I’ll set up the post early in the morning and you can drop in throughout the day to leave questions. I’ll be on there live (presuming I survived the day) at 7pm Eastern/6pm Central/4pm Pacific to interact with folks and undergo the full inquisition.

Also, do check out my guest post 5 Surprises As a Debut Novelist. Thanks to J.W. Alden for hosting me!

Bready or Not: Apple Cake

I declare September to be cake month. Why, you ask? WHY? Because The Clockwork Dagger comes out in less than two weeks!

 

Cake! A different kind of cake every week! Jazz hands!

We start out with an absolute classic: apple cake. I’m from a family that happens to love apple pie. It’s the favorite of both my dad and my husband. They both rate this cake version quite highly as well.

From the baker’s perspective, this is a whole lot faster than pie. No fuss over making a crust ahead of time. I set the apples to look pretty in the cake pan. I mix up the batter. Bake. Done. That’s why I’ve made this more than once for breakfast or brunch.

This is a straightforward cake that isn’t heavy on the sweetness, and that’s why it’s great for morning or snack or dessert.

But this is CAKE MONTH. We eat cake whenever we darn well please.

[Domokun approves of the cake, too.]

Recipe modified from Grandmother’s Apple Cake

in Chocolate & Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen by Clotilde Dusoulier.

 

Print
Bready or Not: Apple Cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 lb baking apples (like Braeburn or Jonagold, 2-3 apples)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees. Melt the butter and set it aside.
Cut a round of parchment paper to fit inside a nonstick 8-inch cake pan. Spray the pan with nonstick spray, place the paper inside, then spray again. (If you don't do all of this, slices of apple will stick when you flip it over. Trust me.)
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl.
Wash, peel, and core the apples. Cut them in eighths and arrange over the bottom of the pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk the sugar with the eggs until fluffy. Add the flour mixture and whisk until combined. Add the melted butter and whisk again until blended.
Pour the batter evenly over the fruit and bake for 40 minutes, until the top is set and golden brown.
Let the cake settle on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Run a plastic knife or toothpick around the pan's edge to loosen it and flip the cake onto a plate. Carefully peel off the parchment paper. Flip the cake again onto a serving plate, taking care not to squish the cake.
Cool and serve slightly warm or at room temperature.
OM NOM NOM!
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Trade Paperback & eBook

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-06-231384-3

ebook ASIN (Amazon): B00HLIYZ5U

ebook ISBN (Nook): 978-0-06-231385-0

Release: September 16, 2014

Amazon Barnes & Noble Powell’s Books-A-Million Poisoned Pen Changing Hands

FINAL COUNTDOWN

It’s September. We are entering the final countdown.

Sixteen days until the release of The Clockwork Dagger!

Trade Paperback & eBook

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-06-231384-3

ebook ASIN (Amazon): B00HLIYZ5U

ebook ISBN (Nook): 978-0-06-231385-0

Release: September 16, 2014

Amazon Barnes & Noble Powell’s Books-A-Million Poisoned Pen Changing Hands

Sunday Quote offers cookies and fiction, and maybe fictional cookies

“Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.”

~Barbara Kingsolver

Bready or Not: Maple Ginger Fudge

I would like to present to you the best fudge in the history of the world.

Maple ginger fudge. Sweetness with just the slightest zing.

The origin of the recipe brings sweet connotations for me, too. One of my very favorite authors, C. E. Murphy, posted about this recipe last Christmas. We started a conversation about it.

This somehow resulted in her reading The Clockwork Dagger, loving it, and providing a blurb.

BEST. FUDGE. EVER.

That blurb:

“The Clockwork Dagger had me at hello and kept me with unexpected twists, intriguing magic and splendid betrayals. At the satisfying conclusion, my immediate impulse was to inquire in tones of gentle inquiry, when do I get to read the sequel!?!?” ~C. E. Murphy

C. E. Murphy’s Walker Papers series is my very favorite set of urban fantasy books. They were the first series I got into, and most importantly, they taught me how to write. I found them during that time when I realized my writing was wretched. I read through Urban Shaman on a technical level so I could figure out how to write first person and just plain why the books worked.

To have her love my book… it makes me get teary-eyed.

Make some of this fudge. Maybe some wonderful things will happen in your life, too.

Recipe modified from a modified version by C.E. Murphy, who originally found the recipe on Candy.About.Com. In case you didn’t notice, there was some modifying going on.

Print
Bready or Not: Maple Ginger Fudge

Ingredients

3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup (6 oz) butter
2/3 cup evaporated milk (small can)

10 oz white chocolate chips

1 1/2 teaspoons maple flavor
7 oz marshmallow cream
4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup candied ginger, finely chopped
1/2 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

Instructions

Prepare a pan: 9x9 if you want it thick, or 13x9 if you want it thin. Line pan with aluminum foil and apply nonstick cooking spray. Measure out of the other ingredients so they are staged and ready to go.
In a larger saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, and evaporated milk. Cook at medium-high heat and stir until the butter and sugar melt. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture boils.
Keep the candy at a rolling boil, stirring constantly, for five minutes. (If you have a candy thermometer and want to use it, you will be cooking the candy to soft-ball stage, 240 degrees.)
After five minutes, take the pot off the burner and immediately add the white chocolate chips. Stir until they are melted and smooth. Work fast so that everything stays hot.
Quickly add the marshmallow cream, maple flavor, vanilla, ground ginger, salt, pecans, and chopped candied ginger, and stir. Once the marshmallow cream has melted and all of the ingredients are incorporated, pour the fudge into the prepared pan. Smooth out the top; an offset spatula works well.
Allow the fudge to set at room temperature for several hours. Once set, lift it out of the pan using the foil as handles. Use a large, sharp knife to cut the fudge into small one-inch pieces.
OM NOM NOM.
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Trade Paperback & eBook

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-06-231384-3

ebook ASIN (Amazon): B00HLIYZ5U

ebook ISBN (Nook): 978-0-06-231385-0

Release: September 16, 2014

Amazon Barnes & Noble Powell’s Books-A-Million Poisoned Pen Changing Hands

Book Release Event

I’m ecstatic to announce my first signing event will be on Friday September 19th at 7pm at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona. My infamous baked goods will be served, I’ll read an excerpt from The Clockwork Dagger, and I’ll sign stuff. Changing Hands is a great local independent bookstore chain. If you click on that link above, you can also order signed books directly through them!

I have two other appearances planned in the next few months, too:

October 10th and 11th at MPIBA Fall Discovery Show in Denver, Colorado. This is an event for independent booksellers.

November 6th through 9th at World Fantasy in Washington, D.C. My first time in D.C.! I’m excited to do the con through the weekend and cap it off with touristy meandering.

Tor Sweepstakes and Lifestyle Magazine

I know some of you have been waiting for a giveaway of some sort. Here’s your chance! Over on the Tor.com blog, you can comment to win one of three copies of The Clockwork Dagger! (Limited to USA and Canadian addresses only, unfortunately.) This only runs through August 29th, so go comment! And please, spread the word.

Also, I’m thrilled that Lifestyle Magazine back home has published an article about me.

The paper magazine is distributed around the Visalia, California area. My parents are already plotting the 20 minute drive to get their own own copy plus a few more, for bragging purposes. You can also view the full magazine online; my article is page 54-56.

Sunday Quote goes boom

“I use my book like dynamite. I place it where I want the explosion to take place, and then I blast my way through with it!”

~Anais Nin

C.E. Murphy’s Fantasy Fudge

Let’s be honest. I’m a C.E. Murphy fangirl. I found her books back when I was starting to write again and I really really wanted to be published. I learned how to write 1st person by reading her Walker Papers urban fantasy series. Through  a conversation about fudge (yes, really!) she ended up blurbing The Clockwork Dagger. (I’ll talk more about that on Bready or Not this coming Wednesday in a post I’ve had scheduled for months.)

After the recent Kickstarter potato salad incident, she decided to do a fudge fundraiser via Indiegogo. I have eaten her maple and maple-ginger fudges–mailed all the way from Ireland to Arizona–and it is the kind of stuff that makes the heavens open up and angels sing and you don’t give a damn about the calorie content of what you’re eating, because ****FUDGE.*****

The Fantasy Fudge event is in its final hours. Go take a look at the goodies involved. For $5, you get a bunch of fudge recipes. The woman knows her stuff. I’m really hoping the funds cross the $5k mark so that she writes a story about her character Joanne trying to make fudge.