105 AUTHORS and their DESSERTS

Get Lost in a Story Readers, today is a special day at GLIAS, you’re exposed to 105 authors true confessions. All right, not explicit confessions, more that they love sweets and they’re always willing to share their advice.  Please welcome USA Today Bestselling Author Lois Winston as she spearheads this project and touts BAKE, LOVE, WRITE’S release day!

BAKE, LOVE, WRITE

105 AUTHORS SHARE DESSERT RECIPES

AND ADVICE ON LOVE AND WRITING

edited by Lois Winston

What do most authors have in common, no matter what genre they write? They love desserts. Sweets sustain them through pending deadlines and take the sting out of crushing rejection letters and nasty reviews. They also often celebrate their successes—selling a book, winning a writing award, making a bestseller list, or receiving a fabulous review—with decadent indulgences. And when authors chat with each other, they often talk about their writing and their lives. Recipes. Writing. Relationships. In this cookbook 105 authors not only share their favorite recipes for fabulous cakes, pies, cookies, candy, and more, they also share the best advice they’ve ever received on writing and relationships.

Amazon   Digital  Paperback    Kobo   Nook   iTunes

A LITTLE ABOUT THE COLLECTION

DONNELL:  Hi, Lois, happy release day on Bake, Love, Write! This was your brainchild, right? A cookbook filled with author recipes and advice about love and writing? I’m curious: do the Julia Childs of the world have anything to worry about in this cookbook?  These are original recipes, correct?  Tell us what criteria you asked for from your collaborators.

LOIS: Hi Donnell! Thanks so much for inviting me to spend the day with you today. Some of the recipes in the book are original; others are author favorites. According to the U.S. copyright office, recipes can’t be copyrighted. Only the way the recipe is written is copyrightable. I asked authors to provide original dessert recipes if they had them. If not, they were welcome to include recipes that had been handed down from relatives, or favorite recipes they’d tweaked in some way.

As for the Julia Childs of the world, they can rest easy. Many of the recipes in the book are quick and easy because although all the participating authors love eating desserts, they’d rather be writing than spending time in the kitchen.

DONNELL: How is the book put together, first come, first serve? In any particular order?

LOIS: I spent quite a bit of time mulling over how to arrange the cookbook. I didn’t want people picking it up and immediately turning to their favorite author or only searching out the brownie recipes. Because the goal of the book is to introduce readers to authors they don’t know, I want people to read the book in much the same manner they’d read a novel—from cover to cover—and along the way discover tempting desserts, tempting novels, and a bit of advice on love and writing.

I thought about alphabetical order, but those of us at the end of the alphabet are always stuck at the back of the classroom or the back of the book. So I went with a first come, first served solution. Authors are presented in the order they signed on to the project.

DONNELL:  Have you tried any of the recipes yet?

LOIS: Only my own contribution, thanks to my ongoing personal battle of the bulge. However, there are a few that have been calling to me, and I’ll probably break down eventually.

DONNELL:  Did any author’s advice resonate so much that you had to do a pull-quote?  Would you be willing to share?

LOIS: What impressed me the most was the tenacity of some of the authors who contributed to this project. Many of them worked at their craft for years, against steep odds, refusing to give up. No matter how many rejection letters they received, they kept learning, kept writing, kept improving. Eventually, all that work paid off, and their dreams came true. Their journeys are quite inspirational for anyone with the same dream.

DONNELL:  If Bake, Love, Write does well, should we expect a sequel, say, Appetizers, Entrees? What comes next?

LOIS: I’ve learned never to say never because you never know what tomorrow may bring, but right now there are no plans for a sequel.

DONNELL: Off topic from recipes, what’s Lois Winston been up to?

LOIS: I’ve been busy. Over the last several months I released Definitely Dead, the first book in my new Empty Nest Mystery series, and The Magic Paintbrush, a children’s chapter book. And I’m currently working on the fifth full-length mystery in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series.

Website   Blog   Twitter  @AnaSleuth    Contact  

DEFINITELY DEAD

An homage to Dashell Hammet’s Thin Man movies

with a modern day spin on Nick and Nora Charles

When her career is outsourced to Asia, fledgling romance author and empty-nester Gracie Elliott wants a job that will allow her time to write. So she opens Relatively Speaking, becoming a wing woman to the senior set. Since her clients need several hours each morning to find their teeth, lube their creaky joints, and deal with lower GI necessities, and they always turn in after the early bird specials, she has plenty of time to pen her future bestsellers.

Gracie deliberately avoids mentioning her new business venture to husband Blake until after she signs her first client. Blake joins the company as a not-so-silent partner, tagging along to make sure Gracie doesn’t cause a septuagenarian uprising. When Client #13 is found murdered in the parking lot behind the Moose Lodge, Gracie knows, no matter how much Blake protests otherwise, she can’t wait around for the police to find the killer if she wants to save her livelihood.

Amazon   Digital   Paperback

THE MAGIC PAINTBRUSH

When nine-year-old Jack and his seven-year-old sister Zoe are snowed in for days with nothing to do, their complaints land them in every guy’s worst nightmare—the kingdom of Vermilion, a land where everything is totally pink! At first Jack is mistaken for a spy from the neighboring kingdom of Cobalt, but Zoe convinces Queen Fuchsia that they’re from New Jersey and arrived by magic.

Queen Fuchsia needs a king, but all the available princes in Vermilion are either too short, too fat, too old, or too stupid. Jack and Zoe suggest she looks for a king in Cobalt, but Vermilion and Cobalt have been at war since long before anyone can remember. Jack and Zoe decide Vermilion and Cobalt need a Kitchen Table Mediation to settle their differences. So they set out on an adventure to bring peace to the warring kingdoms—and maybe along the way they just might find a king for the queen.

Amazon   Digital    Paperback

Authors include: Brenda Novak, Lois Winston, Debra Holland, Dale Mayer, Shelley Noble, Caridad Pineiro, Diana Orgain, Lisa Verge Higgins, Lynn Cahoon, Jasmine Haynes, Jan Carol, Meg Bellamy, Bobbi Chukran, Melissa Keir, Amy Gamet, Kristy Tate, Terry Shames, Barbara Phinney, Kitsy Clare, Raine English, Cathryn Cade, Haley Whitehall, Shilpa Mudiganti, Melinda Curtis, Jessa Slade, Jill Blake, Daryl Devore, Molly MacRae, Elizabeth Rose, Helena Fairfax, Lourdes Venard, Jessica Aspen, Maegan Beaumont, Kay Kendall, Elizabeth John, Victoria Adams, Cyndi Pauwels, Alice Loweecey, June Shaw, Donnell Ann Bell, T. Michelle Nelson, Nina Milton, Pam DeVoe, Skye Taylor, Conda V. Douglas, Pepper Phillips, Judy Alter, Cadence Denton, Lesley Diehl, Erin Farwell, Regan Walker, Kaye Spencer, Barbara Monajem, Kathleen Kaska, Catherine Kean, Rose Anderson, Suzie Tullett, Deborah Hughes, Cynthia Luhrs, Judy Baker, Alicia Dean, Leslie Langtry, Janis Susan May, Mitzi Flyte, Ruby Merritt, Renee D. Field, Kathryn Quick, Susan Cory, Judy Penz Sheluk, Kay Manis, Kathryn Jane, Debra Goldstein, E. Ayers, Chantilly White, Sloan McBride, Triss Stein, Ana Morgan, Adele Downs, L.C. Giroux, Pamela Aares, Nancy Warren, Barbara Lohr, J.J. Cook, Lynn Reynolds, Cori Arnold, B.V. Lawson, Lynn Franklin, M.L. Guida, Irene Peterson, Sue Viders, Liese Sherwood-Fabre, Susan Santangelo, Sheila Seabrook, Elaine Charton, Sharleen Scott, Kathy Bennett, Jody Payne, Reggi Allder, Ashlyn Chase, Beverley Bateman, Susan Lohrer, Donis Casey, Barbara Leavy, Stacy Juba, Karen Rose Smith.

LOIS WILL GIVE AWAY a digital copy of BAKE, LOVE, WRITE to one commenter.

Note: COMMENTERS are encouraged to leave a contact email address to speed the prize notification process. Offer void where prohibited. Prizes will be mailed to North America addresses only unless specifically mentioned in the post. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants. Winners of drawings are responsible for checking this site in a timely manner. If prizes are not claimed in a timely manner, the author may not have a prize available. Get Lost In A Story cannot be responsible for an author's failure to mail the listed prize. GLIAS does not automatically pass email addresses to guest authors unless the commenter publicly posts their email address. 

UP NEXT ON GLIAS:  Rachel Thomas

Get Lost on Goodreads, Facebook

or @GetLostInAStory  #GetLostStories

LOIS WANTS TO KNOW:  Do you have a favorite dessert or recipe?