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