Mollie Cox Bryan's Blog, page 28
October 28, 2011
Meet Paige, Cumberland Creek Cropper & Red Velvet Cake Expert
Paige Swanson grew up just outside of Cumberland Creek proper—sort of between Jenkins Mountain and the town. She grew up in the modern Mennonite church, which means that to look at her, you'd never know she was a Mennonite. In fact, you might think "aging hippy" when you first see Paige, even though that is not what she is at all. She is fond of tie-dye shirts and dangly earrings. In fact, when Annie first meets Paige she thinks her name doesn't suit her at all. "She looks more like a Willow or Moonbeam."
Paige is the high school history teacher. She's the mother of one son—Randy, who is a chef living in Washington, DC, with his partner. She has not spoken to him in years. This issue is a dark cloud hanging over her that bursts from time to time. His homosexuality goes against everything she believes in—or so she thinks.
Like all Cumberland Creek Croppers, Paige is a pretty good cook, but she loves to make cakes and cupcakes. Her specialty is red velvet.
If you're interested in more recipes from Cumberland Creek, email me and I'll send you some. Also, there are recipes in every one of my monthly newsletters–Paper. Story. Recipe. You can subscribe on the sidebar form. You can pre-order Scrapbook of Secrets on Amazon.
Red Velvet Cake
No wedding, no funeral, no picnic is ever complete in the South, without out the comfort of a red velvet cake.
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ounce red food coloring
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans.
Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside. Place all the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together well with another wire whisk. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined. Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature
8 ounces of Philly cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
2 – 3 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Mix the butter and cream cheese together, about 3 minutes on medium speed until very smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure even mixing. Add the vanilla extract and mix. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Keep adding until you get to desired sweetness and thickness. Either spread on with a blunt knife or spatula, or spoon into a piping bag to decorate your cake or cupcake.
October 27, 2011
Five things I thought about during my morning walk:
1. Hey, there's Tom and Susan running together. Sweet. Hello, friends.
2. Walking this hill is getting easier and I make better time since I've become a runner.
3. I know people love the autumn. But I have mixed feelings about it. Yes, it's pretty and the cooler temps ate a blessing. But there's always a hint of sadness in it for me.
4. Is the sadness just a noticing of the passage of time? Or is it the feeling of a chance of impending doom with the oncoming winter?
5. Or. It could be the light–or the lack of it. It's a hard transition for me. I so need the light. How about you?
October 26, 2011
Five things I thought about during my morning run:
1. Beginnings and endings.
2. Trusting my instincts. Stronger. Louder. Clear.
3. Samhain. (Halloween.) Great time for shedding, renewal, commitment.
4. Running on a Wednesday. Usually, it's Yoga. But not tonight.
5. Fire.
October 24, 2011
What do readers want?
As most writers, probably, I think about this very question a lot. I say "probably" because I think we all have different reasons for writing. When I first started writing, I didn't think about the reader at all. I wrote to express myself. When you write articles and books for a living, you get to express parts of yourself, but you always must keep your reader in mind. Are you writing for a group of professionals about mathematics education? Or are you writing for a person who needs escape and enjoys a good yarn?
So I've come up with a list of what I think the readers of my Cumberland Creek Mysteries might want. I think of my readers as intelligent, and above average in every way—except that they don't have much time. This seems to be the modern malaise. They are busy, curious people and many things fight for their attention.
I am a new mystery author, so I may be completely wrong about all of this. If so, it's not the first time I've been wrong. And it won't be the last.
Here's what I think MY readers are looking for:
A good plot that achieves a balance wherein their intelligence isn't insulted and they don't have to work too hard at understanding it. (For example, who wants to stop in the middle of a novel and look up obscure words? I mean maybe a little of that is okay…)
Interesting quirky characters that have to be relate-able in some way.
Entertainment. Pure and simple. My readers are busy people that need a little bit of fun. They want to laugh. They want to cry, a little. They want to feel something.
They want to learn a little something. Whether it's deadly detail about poison or an interesting quilting pattern, they like to feel like they are expanding their mind in some fun way.
The mystery aspect to the story has to be believable and satisfying. (See #1.) But they want some surprises, too.
The further I get into my writing career, the more respect I have for my readers. This is one of the reasons I blog and do Twitter and Facebook. I want to know who my readers are. I love a dialog with them. I'm as approachable as the next guy. C'mon in!
Here are the other writers on the blog tour today. Please stop by and read their posts.
http://kathleenkaskawrites.blogspot.com
October 22, 2011
Meet Sheila Rogers, another Cumberland Creek Cropper
As promised, another installment of "meet my characters" from SCRAPBOOK OF SECRETS. Sheila is one of the most interesting characters in the book—she is the scrapbook consultant who refuses to allow her children into basement, where she holds her weekly scrapbooking crops. She is also an avid runnier, rarely missing a day.
Sheila and Vera grew up together—their mothers were best friends. Sheila mom passed away years ago from breast cancer—and so this is an issue that is near and dear to Sheila's heart. She runs in a lot of breast cancer awareness marathons and so on.
Sheila's scrapbook room, house, and scrapbooks are immaculate—but Sheila herself rarely is. She wears wrinkled mismatched clothes at times and hardly bothers brushing her hair—or wearing lipstick.
She and Beatrice pick on each other incessantly—but underneath, Beatrice and Sheila care for one another. One of the ways Sheila endears herself to Bea is by making sure she's well-stocked in pie.
Sheila's Apple Pie with Bourbon
'Nuff said.
Pastry:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening
3 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter
4 to 6 tablespoons ice water
Filling:
3 pounds mixed sweet and tart apples such as eastern Golden Delicious, or Fuji and Jonathan, Stayman Winesap, or Braeburn, unpeeled, halved, cored, and cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick slices
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
10 to 15 gratings nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
4 to 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup bourbon
2 teaspoons grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon sugar
To make the filling, place the apple slices in a large bowl. Sprinkle evenly with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, and stir and toss with 1 or 2 large spoons to coat the slices evenly.
In a large frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the apple slices and cook, turning as needed, for 5 to 10 minutes, or until beginning to turn golden. Add the bourbon and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until the apples are soft and the liquid is reduced to a light syrup. Stir in the orange zest. Let cool.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
This pie requires a top crust. So you need two pie crusts—what ever recipe works for you.
Spoon the filling evenly into the pie shell. Drape the second pastry round around the rolling pin and let it fall gently over the filling. Trim the overhang so it extends about 1/2 inch beyond the rim of the pie pan, fold the edge under, and flute. Cut a few small vents in the top, then sprinkle the surface with the sugar.
Bake for 10 minutes. Decrease the heat to 350°F and continue to bake for about 50 minutes longer, or until the pastry is golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm.
Serves 8
If you're interested in more recipes from Cumberland Creek, email me and I'll send you some. Also, there are recipes in every one of my monthly newsletters–Paper. Story. Recipe. You can subscribe on the sidebar form. You can pre-order Scrapbook of Secrets on Amazon.
Five things I thought about during my morning run:
1. Breaking a sweat against the cool autumn breeze.
2. Feel so much better after my conversation with the publicist at Kensington. She is so upbeat and enthusiastic.
3. Eric and his cataract–coming out finally on Monday. This weekend he's prepping for it with eye drops, which make it hard for him to see. Oye.
4. Emma's many rehearsals today. Two for the Nutcracker and one for Creepy Tales.
5. Winding roads and old hotels.
October 18, 2011
Have you seen Pinterest?
Pinterest is a virtual pin board. And I've been having some fun with this. As I am deep into writing the third book in my series, sometimes it helps to "play" with my characters and certain spots in my fictional town of Cumberland Creek. Sometimes it's visualizing Annie's pink kitchen or Betty White as Beatrice. This morning I thought of Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony—a secondary character in the first book, a more important character in the second, and so far, non-existent in the third. But still. Great fun to think of him—this sexy dancer from Brooklyn who, after twenty years, still has a thing for Vera. Check out my Scrapbook of Secrets pinboard here. Let me know what you think.
October 17, 2011
What comes first character or plot?
This article is part of the Rolling Mystery Blog Tours Ink group. To read articles on this subject from other members of the group, see the list of participants and their blog addresses below.
I'm really happy to jump on board for this topic. As luck would have it, I was just on a panel at the Mystery Day at the Library of Virginia that discussed this.
As I listened to a few master's of the craft, I realized that for me it's hard to distinguish the two. My brain just doesn't seem to work that way. I mean I do know the difference between them, but once I think of a plot, characters to carry out the plot immediately spring to mind. They may not be fully fleshed out—but if you start with an image like, for example, scrapbooks sitting on a curb, then you begin to wonder WHO do they belong to? Why did that person leave them there? Which leads to the glimmer of this character about whom the plot revolves.
My novels all begin for me with a series of images, which relate directly to the characters and the plot. Let's take the example of the empty scrapbooks left on the curb, which is one of the beginning scenes in my first book—SCRAPBOOK OF SECRETS . The very next action is that a group of women (characters) abscond with them. Without that action, there is no plot. Without those women/characters movement of the scrapbooks, there is no action.
You can read a lot about character-driven plots and narrative-driven plots, but I think an enjoyable read is about balance. Who wants to read about characters that are doing nothing? Or read a story without any characters?
Of course we can all point to novels that don't work because of this imbalance. As readers we might say, "You know, I never felt like I knew that character." Or "The plot just didn't hook me in."
As writers, we take note and hope to never hear those words about our books.
For me the whole process of creating story is a bit like creating an intricate weave on a rich and textured cloth—it all works together, just the right amount character, just the right amount of plot. Or at least we hope so.
Check out what the blog tour's other writers have to say about plot and character.
http://kathleenkaskawrites.blogspot.com
http://sarahwisseman.blogspot.com
October 16, 2011
Five things I thought about during my morning run:
1. Scent of pine.
2. Strands of sunlight beaming through branches and clouds.
3. Crimson, gold, flaming orange.
4. Heart pounding.
5. Movement. One foot after the other.
October 11, 2011
The Cumberland Creek Croppers: DeeAnn
So, in my last post I introduced you to my main three characters in my upcoming novel, SCRAPBOOK OF SECRETS—Annie, Beatrice and Vera. Three other regular croppers meet every Saturday night—DeeAnn. Paige, and Sheila, who is the scrapbook consultant in the group.
Since my last post was a bit long, I thought I'd keep it short this time and tell you a bit about DeeAnn.
DeeAnn has been in Cumberland Creek for twenty-five years—and she's still considered a newbie. She married a local man—her college sweetheart—who is the high school principal. She's got two daughters, both in college. Fair skinned and freckled, she's a large, muscular woman—with a baker's arms and heart. There's nothing she likes better than feeding people. She brings the most delicious snacks to crops. Her bakery is the only one in town. There are others on the outskirts of Cumberland Creek. As a baker, her focus has always been on bread, cake, and cookies. (Pamela's Pie Palace has the pie market cornered.) In the first book, DeeAnn hires an intern who has a way with muffins.
A quote from DeeAnn:
"Classical tonight ladies?" Sheila asked.
"Hell no," DeeAnn said, getting up to head for her bag, pulling out a CD. "Let's hear some Stones."
Blueberry Muffins from DeeAnn's Bakery
DeeAnn's intern whipped up a batch of these and forever endeared herself to her boss. When Annie was first offered one, she thought it was almost as big as her youngest son's head.
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 400°F .
Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.
If you'd like more recipes from Cumberland Creek, email me at molliebryan@comcast.net. I'll send you more. Also, my monthly newsletter, "Paper. Story. Recipe." will include at least one recipe—along with links to scrapbooking deals and my journaling tips. You can subscribe over there on my sidebar.
