Beth Overmyer's Blog: The Blog of Beth Overmyer, page 12

Upcoming Virtual Author Appearance

On June 1st from 7:00 PM to 7:30 PM EDT, I’ll be on Avon Lake Public Library’s Zoom program called Read/Write/Local: Unbound. The half-hour presentation will just be a casual Q&A with me as the bullseye target…I mean guest of honor. It’s free to attend and you don’t have to register. Details are here and this is the Zoom link, which is good for every Tuesday night program: tinyurl.com/RWLU-ALPL

I hope to see you there and answer your questions!

Keep your nose in a book,
Beth

Holes in the Veil is 99 Cents!

My book Holes in the Veil is on sale for 99 cents from now until Sunday (the ninth.) Of course, this is e-book only. Snag your copy while the sale lasts!

Keep your nose in a book,
Beth

A Short Overview of WandaVision

WandaVision takes place several months (or weeks) after Bruce Banner snapped his fingers and brought half of the world’s population back after Thanos’ purge. It opens with Wanda Maximoff and the Vision in a black and white tribute to The Dick Van Dyke show…but with magic. It isn’t clear in the first episode why there’s a laugh track and why Vision and Wanda can’t seem to remember their history together. It’s just like they’ve always been together. But the first sign that really shows that someth...

Six Helpful Tips to Avoid the Stress of Creative Burnout

I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed. Maybe it’s the pandemic starting to finally get to me (well, get to me more than it already was.) Or perhaps it has something to do with all the expectations I’ve piled on top of myself. Perhaps a bit of both.

          If we creative types want to avoid burnout, which is a few steps away from overwhelmed, there are some things we should do. So, let’s get into it: Six Ways to Avoid Burnout:

Avoid setting unrealistic go...

Baking Magic With Beth: Magical Chocolate Pudding Cake

Can’t decide if you want chocolate cake or chocolate pudding? What a dilemma! Both are so yummy. What if you didn’t have to decide? What if there was a…MAGICAL solution?

CHOCOLATE PUDDING CAKE RECIPE

3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 and 1/2 cups water

Sift the first five (dry) ingredients into a 9×9...

Seven Simple Ways You Can Be a Kinder Reader

There’s a lot of meanness in the world. You see it every day on social media (or anywhere online, really) and in person. People are upset and on-edge. We’re out of patience. This pandemic has gone on for more than a frickin’ year. But let me ask you: if you’re not part of the solution, are you at least not part of the problem?

I know, I know. I’m not perfect. I’ve had my share of angry moments—okay, more than my share—and I am in no place to judge anyone. It’s HARD being kind…isn’t it? We...

Four Fantastic Reasons You Should Read More Fantasy Novels

If you are a regular on this blog, you might know that fantasy is my favorite genre. But it would be foolish of me to assume it’s yours as well. I do blog about other things, to be sure, and have written in other genres (CIRCUS IN A SHOT GLASS, woot!) Now, I’m going to say something important:

Life is too short to read a book you don’t like.

It’s true. You should read what you enjoy. BUT…have you given fantasy a fair shake? No two books are exactly alike, and I think it’s a pretty awesome ...

A Review of February 2021

Well, it’s been a year since things shut down. At the beginning of 2020, I for one had no idea where this was headed. Call me naïve, but I didn’t expect life to come to standstill. So many lives lost, so many people suffering, so many out of work–or under-employed. I can’t even begin to unpack this here, but I thought I’d like to post a link to an organization that’s been setting up field hospitals and helping people throughout this perfect storm. They have a good rating on Charity Navigator, an...

PO-TAY-TOES

… boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew? Nope. Today we’re going to be making foil pouch potatoes. Medieval folk did not eat taters. They were more widely known/harvested later in history, but since THE GOBLETS IMMORTAL is set in a mash-up of Medieval and Georgian history, it suits just fine. Imagine cooking potatoes on a fire. You want the fire to burn down to hot embers, then you’d prick your cleaned taters (so they don’t explode), wrap them in something (aluminum foil these days) and set t...

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Are you wearing green next Wednesday? Gonna dye your beer green? Saint Paddy’s is the one day where every one of us likes to think we have a bit of Irish in our blood.

One year, I had a party for my friends. I baked soda bread and an apple cake, made potato leek soup and a cottage pie (or was that a different year?), and tried to make the place look like a pub. It was a lot of fun. This year, with the virus still being in play, I’m going to stay home and not worry about wearing green. Ma...