Beth Cato's Blog, page 93

C is for Chimera

The Alphabet Anthology series continues! You might recall that I had stories in A is for Apocalypse and B is for Broken. Well, the newest volume is C is for Chimera, and it’s out on April 19th. The cover debuted today! Loooooooook.

What’s more, there’s a giveaway on Goodreads! Enter and you just might win the book.

Goodreads Book Giveaway


C is for Chimera
by Rhonda Parrish

Giveaway ends February 29, 2016.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Breath of Earth Cover Reveal

I started work on Breath of Earth about three years ago. After all that time daydreaming about the book selling, about what the cover might be like… today it finally feels real.

Go to Tor.com and see the full cover reveal post! There are photos of the model from the cover shoot. Check out how things evolved to the final version. Squee!

 

Meanwhile, here’s my January word count on the sequel! I need to start on my words for today.

 

#SFWAPro

Bready or Not: Biscoff Shortbread Cookies

This is a very meta recipe. Biscoff is a Belgian shortbread cookie you can buy in stores. This recipe uses Biscoff spread to make Biscoff-type shortbread. Whoa.

I actually did a from-scratch version of Biscoff cookies a few years ago, too.

These cookies expand a good bit in the oven, so keep that in mind when you put the dough on the baking sheet. The dough isn’t bad to work with once chilled; if need be, you can add a little water to soften it, or more flour to thicken.

The end result looks like it’s fragile but they are actually quite crisp while still being chewy.

Being shortbread, these are excellent with tea, coffee, or just about anything. Heck, you could even smear Biscoff between two and make them super-meta-Biscoff-sandwich-cookies. Live dangerously.

Modified from The Café Sucre Farine.

Bready or Not: Biscoff Shortbread Cookies





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These firm shortbread cookies use Biscoff spread for some extra flavor oomph.

1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2/3 cup Creamy Biscoff Spread
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour

Use an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugars until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the Biscoff spread, salt and vanilla extract. Slowly blend in the flour until just combined.

Divide the dough in half and shape into two discs; wrap each in plastic wrap and stash in the fridge until chilled, at least a few hours or up to a few days.

Preheat the oven at 350-degrees. Prepare baking sheets by using parchment paper or use seasoned stoneware.

Set one of the discs on a lightly floured surface and roll out to about 1/4-inch thickness or just under. Cut cookies into desired shapes and arrange on baking sheet; note that they will spread a good bit, even chilled.

Bake for 14-16 minutes, until they are firm and golden. Let them sit on baking sheet for 10 minutes then move to wire rack to completely cool. Store cookies in sealed container at room temperature. Best eaten within 2 days.

OM NOM NOM!

 

Sunday Quote is 36 years old

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.”

~ J.K. Rowling

50k words in 15 Days

I passed 50,000 words yesterday on January 15th. Fifteen days to write 50k on Call of Fire. I think that’s a record for me. o_0

I also managed to strain my eyes in the process, which I really don’t recommend. The pain has eased off somewhat today but is still very much there, so I am making myself take it easier. More breaks away from the computer. Just pushing to my minimum word count and no more… which is a real challenge because this section has escalating action and is easy to write.

However, as I work on this blog post and see white spots as I type, it acts as a reminder that I should get away from the computer, period. Going blind is a bad thing. Pain is a bad thing.

Time to go offline and rest. More words tomorrow.

#SFWAPro

Bready or Not: Honey Blondies

It’s my birthday (Whoo hoo! Thirty-six!) so let’s bake up something that’s likewise blonde and nutty.

These blondies aren’t purely sweet things because they are cut by bittersweet chocolate. The pecans add a crunch that’s a great contrast to the smoothness.

Actually, the word “smooth” is the best way to describe these bars. The batter is very thick and reminds me of caramel candy. It bakes up in a smooth layer. It cuts smoothly, even with the pecans in there. The blondies almost melt in your mouth, too.

Plan ahead to make these because the batter needs to cool in stages because you 1) don’t want to scramble the eggs, and 2) you don’t want the chocolate chips to melt when you stir them in (not like this would be a total disaster, but still).

I’m not sure how long these stay fresh. My husband took them to work and they were GONE in hours. I imagine the bars would freeze well between layers of wax paper, but I haven’t tried that yet.

Oh darn. I guess I should make them again.

Greatly modified from Martha Stewart Living.

Bready or Not: Honey Blondies





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These blondies are sweet and smooth with lovely contrast from pecans and bittersweet chocolate. Modified from a recipe in Martha Stewart Living.

2 sticks unsalted butter
2/3 cup honey
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 cups flour
2 eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 Tablespoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 cup pecan pieces
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate

Melt butter and honey in a large saucepan. Stir in the brown sugar. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for about 20 minutes.

Since the contents are still likely a bit warm, add some of the flour and stir in to cool things off. Stir in the eggs and vanilla extract followed by the rest of the flour and the salt. Mix until just combined, and let it continue to cool about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees. Prepare a 9x13 pan by lining with foil and spraying with Pam or buttering the surface well.

Mix the pecan pieces and chocolate into the batter, then spread into the pan.

Bake for about 30 minutes; the edges will just be turning brown. Let the blondies cool completely on a wire rack. Use the foil to lift them out to cut into squares. Store in an airtight container.

OM NOM NOM!

Sunday Quote beat Final Fantasy II 24 years ago today

“If I didn’t have writing, I’d be running down the street hurling grenades in people’s faces.”

~Paul Fussell

25000 words

I started Call of Fire on January 1st. In one week, I have written 25,000 words. This is a good thing… and a bad thing. I am enormously stressed. I am actually making myself slow down at this point, as I need to get other things done and actually leave the house sometimes.

This gif is an accurate depiction of my mental state.

How Dinosaurs Can Fix Your Time Machine: Guest Post from Daniel M. Bensen

I’m happy to welcome author Daniel M. Bensen to the blog today! He has a new book you can really sink your teeth into… uh… sorry. We’re talking about a dinosaur book, so I can’t resist a few jokes. His new release is Groom of the Tyrannosaur Queen, a time-travel romance with adventure and dinosaurs. Let’s get to the meat of the post… here’s Daniel!

 

How dinosaurs can fix your time machine

You know what I hate about time travel? Time travel tropes. Oh no, the future is the past and the past is the future! It turns out that by trying to prevent the thing, you caused the thing! The 1983 you went to doesn’t exist anymore! Now you have to seduce your own grandmother and kill your grandfather, clearly.

I didn’t want to write a book about time machines any more than George Miller wanted to write about cars. I wanted to write a book about bad-asses riding dinosaurs. So here’s how I worked it. And the science might even make sense.

What Douglas Adams called “the Whole Sort of General Mishmash” has a real name coined by real theoretical physicists: phase space. A phase space is a way to represent a system, in which each possible state of the system is a given an “address.” Imagine every particle was given a set of coordinates depending on where it is, where it was, and where it could be. Move from one set of coordinates to another set, and you’ve moved through the history of a particle — you’ve traveled through time.

You get into your time machine and select your destination — say 65 million years in the past. Your time machine then traces back the causal chain that ends with you until it arrives where you want it to be…more or less.

For one thing, the time machine is only accurate to the closest ten thousand years, which makes it pretty useless for studying human history.

The other, bigger problem is there is some “sideways” slippage as well. You may come out in a past, but it isn’t necessarily your past. You might find yourself in an alternate past where the Earth never formed, or where intelligent squids built a civilization before fish ever crawled out of the water.

But don’t worry. The time machine in my story is much more accurate than that. It sends our heroes to a prehistoric past that is very nearly indistinguishable from the real Age of Dinosaurs. Except for the stone-age humans riding those dinosaurs around. Oops.

So that’s where the actual story begins. There’s no worrying about changing the past, no possibility of fixing mistakes once you’ve made them. You just get in a machine and pilot it to a place where hairy men ride triceratopses and hurl spears at you. And take away your time machine. And your cybernetic enhancements. And marry you?

Then things get strange. We don’t need messing around with the time stream to make them any stranger.

 

Daniel M. Bensen is the author of Groom of the Tyrannosaur Queen, a time-travel romance with adventure and dinosaurs. You can see more of his work on his webpage.

Bready or Not: Healthy No-Bake Maple Breakfast Cookies

Happy New Year! Let’s make a healthy start. It’s no secret I love maple. This particular recipe has been a huge breakfast favorite of mine for the past six months, along with my other Healthy Breakfast Cookies.

These have another advantage, too… other than stronger maple flavor. They are fast to prepare. Even with my slow stovetop, I can whip these up and have them cooling in about 20 minutes.

Plus, these are fantastic to make and freeze! Since I eat three for breakfast, that means I can have a week’s worth of breakfast stashed away for now or later.

These are similar to the Maple Nut Butter No-Bakes I posted a while back, but this breakfast version is a heck of a lot healthier. No sugar. No butter. I like the taste more, too. It has a great, mild maple and nut butter flavor to it, and the oats soak just enough so that the cookies are perfectly chewy.

Customize these all kinds of ways, too. Use apple butter, pumpkin butter, etc. I’ve made them with cashew butter and almond butter, and combinations thereof. You could certainly use other kinds of milk, too, but I stick with unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Greatly modified from Cookin’ Canuck.

Bready or Not: Healthy No-Bake Maple Breakfast Cookies





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These no-bake breakfast cookies are fast to cook up on the stove, and the result is chewy and delicious. Store them in the fridge or freeze some for later!

2 1/2 cups old-fashioned (rolled) oats
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 - 1 tsp maple flavor (to preference)
1/2 cup apple or other fruit butter
1/2 cup + 2 Tb almond milk
1/2 cup almond or other nut butter
1/4 cup + 2 Tb maple syrup
sprinkle of salt
1/2 cup pepitas or other seeds/nuts (optional)

Measure out the oats and the two extracts, keeping them separate, and have ready near the stove. Prepare a large baking sheet with full coverage of wax paper.

In a medium saucepan, mix together the apple butter, almond milk, maple syrup, and salt. Heat on medium, stirring often.

After about ten minutes, the mixture will thicken; cook it at that level for another minute or two. If you have a candy thermometer, this thickening starts at about 180-degrees; that few minutes will take it to 200-degrees, and make sure it gets no hotter than that. Remove the pot from heat.

Stir in the oats followed by the two extracts. Add pepitas or nuts, if desired. Stir until everything is covered.

Use a tablespoon scoop to dole out cookies onto the prepared wax paper. This will be about 20 cookies or about 29 if seeds/nuts are added. Once they are all scooped, use your fingers to gently press in stray oats.

Let cool for about 30 minutes. They can be kept sealed at room temperature but taste even better from the fridge; store between layers of wax paper. They can also be frozen.

OM NOM NOM!