NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS

A group blog featuring an international array of killer mystery, suspense, and romantic suspense writers. With premises and story lines different from your run-of-the-mill whodunits, we tend to write outside the box. We blog several times a week on all topics relating to romantic suspense and mystery, our writing, and our readers. We welcome all comments and often have guest bloggers. All our authors can be contacted separately, too, using their own social media links.

We find our genre delightfully, dangerously, and deliciously exciting - join us here, if you do too!

NOTE: the blog is currently dormant but please enjoy the posts we're keeping online.


Julie Moffet . Cathy Perkins . Jean Harrington . Daryl Anderson . Nico Rosso . Maureen A Miller . Sandy Parks . Lisa Q Mathews . Sharon Calvin . Lynne Connolly . Janis Patterson . Vanessa Keir . Tonya Kappes . Julie Rowe . Joni M Fisher . Leslie Langtry

Monday, December 4, 2017

Simple is Best When Baking Cookies and Writing Books

The best cookie recipe in my personal arsenal of sweet bribes is my great aunt Maggie’s whipped short bread cookies (recipe below). These one-bite treats melt in your mouth, leaving you reaching for more. I’ve been accused of evil misdeeds when gifting them, because the recipient immediately demands the recipe in order to make more.

With only four key ingredients, they’re easy to prepare, but require a cookie press, exact timing, and practice to create the perfect cookie. My name is occasionally cursed by those who try to replicate my cookies, and fail because they’ve never made them before, and lack the skills, tools (cookie press), and/or experience to create a good cookie.

Writing a good book also requires the right number of key ingredients. Characters, conflict, plot, theme, and the writer’s voice must all be present and in the correct amounts. Too much of one or two and not enough of the others with result in a book that doesn’t satisfy the reader. Skills like pacing and writing experience/practice are also essential to creating a novel that goes further than just satisfying the reader—it hooks them and has them eager to read more.

My favorite novels are those with interesting and flawed characters, whose goals are clear, but face difficult challenges in order to achieve those goals. Nalini Singh, Patricia Briggs, and Anne Bishop are all authors who excel at creating stories that are simply and perfectly satisfying for me as a reader and writer.

Which authors satisfy your need for a great story?


Aunt Maggie’s Whipped Short Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups of butter
1 cup of icing (powdered) sugar
½ cup cornstarch
3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Beat ingredients with electric mixer until the consistency of whipped cream.

Use a cookie press, icing bag or roll in a ball and place on an ungreased cookie sheet (the last option should only be used…last).

Bake for between 10 and 15 mins or until golden brown on the edges.




Julie’s most recent release is Viable Threat (May 22, 2017), book 1 in her Outbreak Task Force series. Smoke & Mirrors, the 2nd book in the series, will be released on Feb 26, 2018. Check out her website and/or social media channels for more info on her books.

@julieroweauthor



3 comments:

Julie Moffett said...

I'm officially starving after reading this blog!! Thanks for sharing the recipe. And your new cover. All I can say is WOW. Just WOW!! Congrats, Julie!!! ox

CathyP said...

Love the analogy!

Sandy Parks said...

I used to have a cookie press, and may still have one, but haven't used it in years. Now you're getting me inspired. The recipe looks deceptively simple, but if I remember right, it is hard to get them to come out right. PS. Hot hot hot new cover.

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