How Writers Relax - Baking with Sandra Sookoo

Welcome Sandra Sookoo, thanks for visiting and bringing your recipe for Landon's Coconut Snowballs!

Now, if you could send some virtual treats as email attachments or pdfs all would be perfect.

Sandra: Thanks for having me on your blog!  For those out there who don't know me, my name is Sandra Sookoo, and I write romantic fiction with YOU in mind!  For more information on what I write, please visit my website where compelling stories, engaging adventures and emotional moments all end with a kiss and a step into a new life...
Amber: Some writers find kitchen time stressful, yet you say "Cooking frees my mind and gets the creative juices flowing. There's nothing more rewarding than pulling a dish out of the oven in all its golden, brown, and delicious glory. When I suffer from writer's block, the kitchen's the first place I head. Of course, this means I often have a surplus of baked goods ..."    Amber: What stresses you about your writing?Sandra:  Well, it's stressful when the people around me don't respect my writing time and interrupt me.  Or, sometimes being on the promo trail stresses me.  In fact, if I'm caught up in a busy editing cycle plus promoting a current book, I've been known to have TMJ pain.    Amber: What else keeps you a relaxed creative writer? Or brings you back when stress takes over?   Sandra:  Besides loving to cook and bake, if I'm really stressed, my husband will bring me home chocolate or a caffeine-laden soda.
Amber: What advice can you offer other writers? Sandra:  First of all, never give up.  If writing is your dream, your passion, pursue it with all your energy and never let people tell you that you can't.  Because you can, I promise.  Second, believe in yourself.  You are the only one who can stop your forward momentum.
Amber: Since fiction is filled with conflict, what do your characters do to release stress? Sandra:  That largely depends on what I'm writing.  Since my work spans several genres and all heat ranges, it could be just about anything.  In some of my pieces, my characters cook, so I suppose it's not all that surprising.
Amber: How do I get some of the surplus? Sandra:  LOL Ah, if only I could have enough time to open up an online bakery…
Amber: Sandra, please share an excerpt and a recipe!
 
Exiles from Christmas(Book One in Holiday Magic series)
Santa's nephews have come to Crystal Falls to run a cookie business. If they fail, they'll have to go back to the North Pole and fill their uncle's black boots when he retires. But sick of toys, elves, and the North Pole's influence, that's the last thing Landon and Aaron want. They're looking for love.
Jayne isn't much for sentimental family holidays and she certainly doesn't believe in magic. Working in the Crystal Falls post office, she is mystified when she handles mail bearing a North Pole postal mark.
When Landon and Jayne meet, their attraction for each other is undeniable, but will the truth about Landon's life make Jayne a believer, or will it be his love that finally melts her heart?
Excerpt:
Landon was glad when Peg finally walked away. "Tell me why you hate Christmas." Pleasure snaked through his gut when Jayne's cheeks infused with a rosy stain. He had the insane desire to see her smile. He wondered if the back of her wrist was ticklish. "Or is it just the commercialism of the holiday that turns you into Scrooge?"
Her lips twitched but she didn't follow through with a full grin. "Why don't you tell me why I should like this holiday?" She dipped a triangle of her golden sandwich into her orange-red soup then took a delicate bite.
"Everyone likes Christmas." He floundered for words. "It's... It's...magical." He broke open the flaky crust of his chicken pot pie to let the steam escape.
"What's so magical about the whole population of the world succumbing to avarice and greed?" She pointed her spoon at him. "And don't get me started about that jolly old fat man in the red suit."
"How do you know Santa is old or fat? Have you seen him?" Her abhorrence to Christmas fascinated him, but the information he was about to tell her would make or break the new friendship.
"Have you?"
It was now or never. For some reason, he trusted her. "Actually, yes. In fact, I know him pretty well." He kept his gaze glued to her face, alert for any outward signs of derision or ridicule. Prior relationships usually broke down at this point. Some had even ended with drinks to his face or upended dinners in his lap. When Jayne did nothing more dramatic than blink, he released his held breath. Maybe it'd be different this time.
"How can you possibly know him? He's a make-believe character from story books." She narrowed her eyes. "Unless he's an invisible friend of yours."
Very witty, Jayne. Funny and sexy. A great combination. He fought a smile. "He's definitely not invisible." No longer hungry, Landon pushed his mostly untouched plate away. "You never believed in Santa when you were a kid?" He watched as hope briefly flitted across her face but that moment of vulnerability vanished as quickly as it had come.
"No."
"Why?" He wasn't about to give up. He felt a tiny seed of belief buried beneath her protests and he wanted to draw it out. He needed to draw it out, if only to justify his own determination to remove himself from his own issues.
Jayne busied herself by crumbling little bits of her sandwich into her soup bowl. "Santa has always been a disappointment to me." She captured her bottom lip between her teeth. "When I was eleven, I desperately wanted a microscope. I loved science and thought it would be fun to look inside living things."
"And you didn't get it, I assume?" He wrenched his gaze from her invitingly wet lips to focus on her face.
"Of course not." Bitterness crept into the confirmation. "Not only that, a few months after that, I found all the letters I'd written to Santa in my mom's underwear drawer. She never mailed them. I understood why later—there was nowhere to mail them to. Santa's a fake." She shrugged. "I found all but one letter. She must have lost it."
"I'm sorry you had a bad childhood. What about now? You're older and wiser. Do you believe in Santa now?"
"Are you kidding me?" She gaped at him as if he were a car wreck. "Why should I believe now? What's the point?"
"Because." Landon cleared his throat. "Santa Claus is my uncle."
 ***
Buy Links for "Exiles from Christmas" Lyrical Press  Amazon All Romance   Fictionwise    Recipe -
Landon's Coconut Snowballs from "Exiles from Christmas"
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut1/3 cup sugar2 tablespoons all-purpose flour1/8 teaspoon salt2 egg whites1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a small bowl, combine the coconut, sugar, flour and salt. Stir in egg whites and vanilla; mix well.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 325 degrees F for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
Baker's note:  you can add lemon or orange zest, mini chocolate chips or nuts for variety.  All additions will be yummy.  Sandra is a writer of romantic fiction. Her portfolio includes historical, contemporary, sci-fi and paranormal romances in full-length books as well as shorts and novellas. No matter if the heat level is hot spicy or sweet, she loves to blend genres and often times will add humor as well.
When not immersed in creating new worlds and interesting characters, Sandra likes to read, bake and travel. Her favorite place to spend vacation hours is Walt Disney World. It's where dreams come true and the soul can play. If she's not writing, she's keeping things interesting at the her  Believing is Seeing blog or spending time with her husband, who patiently answers questions she has about men and/or sci-fi-related subjects.You can write to Sandra at sandrasookoo@yahoo.comand find her at her Website:  http://www.sandrasookoo.com Believing is Seeing blog:  http://sandrasookoo.wordpress.com/Twi...  http://twitter.com/sandrasookooFacebook:  http://www.facebook.com/sandra.sookoo
ContestSandra is offering a packet of book swag 
plus a holiday-scented hand sanitizer (from Bath and Body Works) 
to a random commenter. 
Winner will be chosen Midnight Dec. 5th EST
Include your email so she can contact the lucky winner.