The Daily Dish!

My cookbook and I were featured on the Daily Dish morning show today in celebration of National Chocolate Day.

Here's the clip, for those interested. I'll post the recipes of the two cakes here soon!

Chocolate Never Faileth: Corrections and Bloopers

The first typo I became aware of in Chocolate Never Faileth was brought to my attention by my friend TJ, who came to a signing for the book with his wife and kids. He told me about the typo. I didn't believe him. Or, rather, I desperately hoped he was wrong.

The book had been all I worked on for almost a year, shoving my fiction (and creative writing self) aside. At least three people proofed the thing, including me.

On the other hand, I'd already published seven novels. I should have known that mistakes and typos can (and often do) slip through, no matter how carefully the writer and the publishing team work on a book.

As I became aware of a few more errors in the cookbook, I put corrections on my website. Even so, I still get regular questions about the same issues over and over again. I assume that means they aren't finding the list of corrections on my site, so maybe a blog post will help.

They're on THIS PAGE. If I find more things to fix (knock on wood!), that's where I'll put them. Future printings should have these things fixed.

In the meantime, these errors leave us all scratching our heads, wondering how they slipped through and who added them in the first place!

3-MINUTE MICROWAVE CAKE, PAGE 35

A mystery individual added a new first sentence to the instructions. Just ignore "preheat oven to 350." (This is, after all, a MICROWAVE cake.) This is the error TJ told me about. I'm convinced that this sentence didn't exist in the galley proof I saw, and it certainly wan't in my original manuscript. I'm guessing that someone along the pipeline, right before sending the book to press, saw a cake recipe without an oven temperature and added it. We'll never know what happened. Just take a black Sharpie over that bit.

BROWNIE COOKIE BITES, PAGE 55

Here's a situation where my test kitchen notes match the printed book, but the recipe doesn't seem right. The utterly weird thing is that the cookies worked beautifully, multiple times at home (evidence includes the fact that the picture of the cookies on page 54 are from my oven). But as written, they don't work so great. I'm as puzzled as anyone here. Fat is missing, so add some, around 1/3 to 1/2 cup. I'd go with butter, but oil works too.

HEAVENLY CHOCOLATE BARS, PAGE 70

Somehow adding flour got inserted into the instructions for the topping. I get people absolutely panicking about what to do because no flour is listed in the ingredients.

No flour is correct; ignore that word.

MOM'S HONEY CHOCOLATE-MOUSSE ICING, PAGE 176

This typo is in the anecdote above the recipe, which reads "Read Food Chocolate Cake." That should, of course, be Real Food.

CHOCOLATE PAVLOVA, PAGE 193

The anecdote in the original printing states that the countries who claim this dessert as their own are New Zealand and Austria. That should be Australia. (Yes, I know the difference between the two!)

To date, these are the only issues that I'm aware of. The Brownie Cookie Bites and Heavenly Chocolate Bars are the two issues that people contact me about most.

Hope this helps if you use the book for holiday treat making!

In Which Chocolate Upstages an Artichoke

For those who've asked, here's me on our local ABC affiliate's morning show, Good Things Utah, from Wednesday.

This clip has more than the 5 minute segment you'll find on their site. We have bonus material! It includes all the teasers they did throughout and (best of all) the fun at the end of the show when Angel Shannon was at the table to talk about an artichoke but the hostesses were passing around the cookie batter.

And in case you haven't voted yet, yes, I'm pestering again. I have two stories in the running at the Tweet Me a Story contest. You can vote for both (plus other favorites). My group, 13, had to use the word special in a story that consists of only 140 characters, including spaces and punctuation.

If you've voted already, THANK YOU!!! If you haven't voted, here's a HANDY LINK!

Word Nerd Needs Your Help!

Because I'm a nerd and like a challenge, I entered NYC Midnight's Tweet Me a Story contest.

The contest: Using a word they provide, using it exactly as written (so no making it past tense, shortening it, etc.) write a story that's no longer than 140 characters, including punctuation and spaces.

In essence: A story the length of a tweet.

Writers had to register in advance, and then we were placed in groups and assigned our word. We had 5 hours to come up with our stories, and we could submit up to three.

I was in group 13. Our word: special.

Something like 1,000 stories came in. The top 25 stories in each group were chosen by judges. They're now listed where readers vote to determine which ones proceed to the next round.

Here's where I need your help: TWO of my stories made it!

(Can I hear a WAHOOO?!)

Read my stories (and the other finalists in my group) HERE.

Then help me move to the next round. To vote for both of my stories, CLICK HERE.

Thanks in advance!!!

Post Script: I was on ABC4's Good Things Utah this morning showing another recipe from the book. I'll link over to the clip when it's available.

NOW VOTE! :)

Reflections on Costco

Over the last couple of months, I've had a lot of book signings and other promotion.

Most of these signings have been at Costco, which is new for me. I've never before had a book at Costco. Some things I've learned:

Many staffers at Costco are the bomb. (South Ogden, Murray, and West Valley City especially rock. Love those guys.)

One Costco, however, has a total loser working the wireless phone booth. (Although he was delightful entertainment to listen to.) Based on a conversation with a coworker (fifteen feet from me, but apparently clueless that I could hear every word), he'll easily get married to a hot chick as soon as he gets a better job and makes more money. So he totally won't be single like, at 35. The hot chick doesn't need to know how to cook more than chicken nuggets.

Some people enjoy striking up the most bizarre conversations. One guy decided to tell me how much caffeine is in chocolate (way more than coffee, according to him, which not even almost true). Then he launched into a speech about how the "hot drinks" section of the Word of Wisdom was cautioning early Saints to not drink soup too hot, because a lot of people were doing that and burning their throats. (Call me crazy, but I'd like to think Joseph Smith and company were a bit smarter than that.)

Finally, he insisted that the only reason tea was added to the Word of Wisdom (except wait; wasn't it soup?) was a tit for tat. If the women hated tobacco so much, then THEY had to give up something too. And of course, ALL the women came from Liverpool (wait; including Emma, born in the STATES?), where they drink, yep, tea. That conversation left my brain going, "Wha-hahaaa?"

Some people forget a writer at a table is a real person with feelings. One woman leaned in, pointed at the book, looked my body up and down (yes, I could lose a few pounds) and tapped the cover, saying, "Don't you know that's fattening?!"

According to totally non-scientific reactions, the book might sell more if it were diabetic/gluten-free/dairy-free/fill in the blank. Since it's not, it's my obligation to write a version like that.

Utah is far more diverse than I ever knew. I expected to see a good Latino population, and I did (but in greater numbers than I expected). But I had no idea the Wasatch Front also had so many people of Asian, African-American, and Polynesian descent. It was downright fascinating. Maybe we aren't so pale and pasty after all!

I can now go into almost any Costco and walk straight to where they hide the table/chair/cloth and (sometimes) easel for book signings.

Most Costcos are set up almost identically. Except in Sandy. That one will totally screw you up if you're used to the regular layout. I got lost there. Twice. In one day.

A shocking number of women wear 4-inch heels to shop AT COSTCO. That's like walking a 5K with knives shoved in your heels. Worse, many of these women, balancing precariously on spikes, are very pregnant. Absolute masochists, I tell you.

One sweet male worker at a Costco I visited several times reminded me of Dori on Finding Nemo. Every time he passed by (several times during each of 3 signings at that store) he cracked the same joke as if it were the very first time he'd ever seen me or the book.

When the former president (George W. Bush) is coming to sign at the same store in a couple of days, a news station will show up, move you over to the clothing section, and interview the manager. It's hard to be offended by getting upstaged by the former president.

In spite of the giant poster with the book cover, cute layouts of the book, and the words "Author Here Today!" people will still assume you're a store employee.

Nothing seemed to be a sure-fire way to sell books. Sitting at the chair and talking to customers sometimes worked, but other times the table seemed like a barrier. Standing and approaching customers sometimes worked, but other times scared people away. I tried all kinds of things, and in the end just talked to as many people as I could, handed out a gazillion recipe cards, and hoped for the best.

(See THIS POST for a few things I just might have experienced over the last two months or so.)

An astonishing number of people previously bought lots of cookbooks but have collections that reached critical mass in 2010; they simply cannot buy one more. (Or they're totally lying to let me down easy.)

If a woman has nothing but bulk spinach in her cart and is so thin I could tap her with a finger and knock her over (and/or is wearing workout clothing, and/or I can see her ribs), chances are, she won't be interested in my cookbook.

A surprising number of elderly people no longer cook. A surprising number also live in assisted living centers. Yet they shop at bulk warehouse stores. A true mystery.

It's awesome seeing people from my past, even when neither of us remembers the other's name and the conversation starts out with stares and pointing and, "Hey, didn't you go to my high school?"

It's the AWESOMEST ever to see people who came specifically to see me and buy a book. Had lots of that and appreciated it every. Single. Time.

Thank you to every single person who came to support me (and those you came more than once). You rock!

Mixed Bag

Today I woke up to the tragic news about the devastating fire that destroyed the Provo Tabernacle.

If you know Provo at all, you know what a huge loss this is. For me personally, it's part of my childhood and teen years as well that went up in flames. We had stake conference there. I graduated from seminary there. Friends performed in concerts. Others competed in piano competitions.

So many memories.

And that's not even considering the historical loss. I hope they rebuild (if they don't, the center of Provo will have a massive hole in it, emotionally and visually), but even if they do, the original pioneer woodwork, the old organ, all of that . . . gone.

On a slightly happier note, sweet friend Sherry Ann Miller posted a review of Chocolate Never Faileth on her blog, Miller's Musings. She came up with holiday gift ideas for my recipes, things that never occurred to me.

Deirdra Coppel interviewed me on her blog the other day, A Story Book World. (I must say, she asked some fun questions.)

Also:

Book signing today

Fashion Place Seagull

11:00 - 12:30

Reader's Guide to How Publishing Works

At recent book signings, I've had a lot of people ask questions about publishing, stuff that as a writer, you almost forget you didn't know once upon a time and had to learn.

Here's a basic run-down on what publishers do (and don't do) and how a new writer goes about it.

You do not pay a publisher to put out your book.

A legitimate publisher considers your book to be their product, and they invest a lot of money into it to make it successful. That money includes editing (many rounds of editing and revisions), copy edits, proofing, typesetting, and things like graphic design, printing, shipping, and distribution. As a result of all that, they have a lot of overhead and keep most of the money.

But they do NOT ask the author for money. Companies who do are called Vanity (or, the nicer term, Subsidy) Publishers. If you go with one of them, you're essentially self-publishing. (See below.)

Vanity publishers have a very bad reputation, especially those who pretend they're legit and are doing YOU a favor. ("Just pay us $4,000, and we'll publish your amazing book!" Ha. Run. Run like the wind! An example of this type of deal: Publish America.)

(Check the Predators and Editors site to check for shady agents, editors, and publishers before signing anywhere.)

The Writer Is Paid Royalties.

Royalties are based on book sales. Statements (and checks!) usually arrive twice a year. (If you ask me how my book is doing, I can't tell you until I get my next statement.)

Royalties are based on a percentage of the book price, usually retail, although sometimes it's wholesale, with royalty percentages ranging from 6.25% to 15% (lots of factors go into the number, which I won't get into now).

Larger publishers often offer advances. An advance isn't just free money. It's money that the publisher is gambling will pay off. If Joe Author gets a $5,000 advance, he gets no more money in royalties, EVER, unless royalties he would have earned from books sold exceed $5,000. When that happens (which doesn't always), he's "earned out" his advance and will then receive royalty checks.

Advances are pretty rare in the LDS market (unless your name is big enough that the publisher knows that a book by you is a guaranteed check in the bank, and I can think of maybe four names like that). I know a few authors who've managed to get advances, but they're very few and far between.

Some math: You can end up waiting years before seeing a dime on your work. I began work on Chocolate Never Faileth May 1, 2009. I'll see my first dime from it February 2011. And that's a FAST turnaround.

More math: There's not much chance of making really good money from publishing a book, especially fiction. (Non-fiction, with someone who has a big platform, is another animal.) A novelist could very well get about sixty-five cents per copy sold. (So pop that dream of a mansion and a Mercedes. Ain't happening.) The rich novelist, especially of a single book, is a serious myth. (It happens, sure, but you have a better chance of being struck by lightning.)

Return Reserve

Another issue is returns. The writer is paid on books ordered by and shipped to stores, not on books that actually walk out of the store in a customer's hand.

So your royalty check may not reflect actual sales. This can come back to bite you when a bunch of stores (especially ones who buy in bulk, say WalMart or Costco) return cases of unsold books.

What happens: your royalties account goes into the red. You were already paid on those books. While you don't need to cough up money to pay your publisher back, you ARE in the red until future royalties add up to be enough to get you into the black again.

This is why return reserve is so common. For example, my publisher withholds 10% of my royalties earned in every check to cover any possible returns. (And then we both cross fingers, hoping that returns don't exceed 10%.) If, after the next 6 months, we don't end up with lots of returns and I'm in the black, I get that 10% paid in my next check.

What's a pain is when you're in the black from other books but a different book gets lots of returns. Your royalties for your new book are then cannibalized to pay for the returns of a past one. (Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything . . .)

Agent or No Agent? (And What Does an Agent DO?)

Whether you'll need an agent depends on the market you're trying to break into. The LDS market, for example, is small enough that agents simply couldn't making a living in it. It's rare that an agent negotiates a deal here. (It's happened, usually with authors who already had an agent for another project. I could list a few examples, but it's pretty rare.)

Even authors who have agents for national project often negotiate their own LDS publisher contracts. One fun example was Dean Hughes, who was working on his Children of the Promise series, unbeknownst to his national agent, who thought he wasn't doing much work (ha!) and surprised him when she sold a nine-book series for him to write.

For most national houses (versus regional or niche publishers) you will need an agent just to get in the door to be considered. Agents are the gatekeepers who pass along manuscripts to editors that they feel have promise so editors aren't wading through what's called the "slush pile."

Agents have relationships, connections to the publishing world. They're the ones with the Rolodex. You don't. They can sell your book to the best house. You can't. They negotiate the contract. After a book is sold, they can go on to sell foreign rights (which can be a pretty hefty amount of money, if you sell rights in lots of countries), movie rights, and so on.

Agents take 15% of what you earn, WHEN you earn it. That may sound like a lot, but getting 85% of, say $90,000 is a whole lot for more than 100% of $5,000. Agents earn their money.

One big caveat: NEVER pay an agent anything upfront. Run from an agent who asks for reading or other fees. If they have costs to be reimbursed for (copies, postage), that'll come out of a royalty check. You should never be paying them anything directly. They get paid when you do.

How Do You Approach Publishers/Agents?

When I started, we didn't have Professor Google to help. I had to rely on the book edition of Writer's Market. Now they have an online version, and you can find a multitude of blogs out there written by agents and editors on how to write a query and how to approach publishers. (So much is out there, you really have no excuse for not educating yourself.)

Publishers Take so Much Money; Why Not Self-Publish?

A couple of reasons: first, the chances of your book being professionally edited, typeset, and having a great cover are pretty sad. (Self-published books usually LOOK self-published.) That means fewer sales. (People really do judge books by their covers.)

A second, and possibly bigger, factor is that publishers already have distribution arms, relationships and histories with bookstores. Indie writers don't. Bookstores are generally wary about taking on books that don't come from a reputable publisher, especially because they usually can't return unsold books to the author the way they can to a publisher. (This is especially true if the writer used a print-on-demand company.)

It doesn't do a writer much good if they have flat of 4,000 copies of a book in their basement and they can't sell them. Sure, you'll make several bucks per book, but if you're selling under 100 copies, where's that getting you?

E-books

They're changing the face of publishing. How far and in what ways remains to be seen.

One issue is that there are SO MANY e-books out there, so readers still need a way to vet the good from the bad. Publishers still provide that service.

That said, a lot of self-published e-book writers are making pretty good money. But they market as much as they write. They get professionally designed covers, get their books edited, interact with e-book readers, usually have multiple books for sale, and more. It's not an easy route. It's work either way.

I have one Kindle book so far (soon to be three). My first novel, Lost Without You, went out of print some time ago, and after the rights reverted back to me (and after a minor rewrite), I got it onto the Kindle last summer (it's also available on other e-reader formats through Smashwords, which includes Apple, Kobo, Sony, and more).

Sales were slow at first, but they're picking up. And while I'm not going to get rich off it, having the book there is getting me more readers all the time. And here's one great thing: the book won't go out of print again. Ever. I can get more sales as the months go by, not fewer.

For more on this, I was interviewed by the Kindle Author blog today. Check that out for more on my experience with Lost Without You and e-books.

I'm hoping that by February, my grammar guide and my second novel, At the Water's Edge (also out of print), will be available on the Kindle and other e-book formats.

Those are the most common questions I get about publishing. If you have more, throw 'em at me, and I'll add them to a future post!

For Mom, Who Is Not on Facebook

Taking a tiny break from my chaotic editing/proofing/NaNoWriMo schedule to post the television segment that aired like a week ago.

I put it on my Facebook page. Mom's not on Facebook, so for her sake, here it is again (especially because I mention her in the clip . . .).

The two main segments are on the Channel 2 site, but my husband compiled every teaser and clip that I was on.

Another note: Thursday is Veteran's Day! In honor of the holiday, Channel 2's Fresh Living morning show is having me on to talk about Band of Sisters and the Flat Daddy program.

(I know; when it rains, it pours! Never thought I'd do 2 TV segments for the same station in the same month but for different books!)

Fresh Living

KUTV Channel 2

Thursday, November 11

10:00 AM

And now the kitchen segment with Chef Bryan Woolley:

Happy Chocolate Day!

Today's is a mini post with just a couple of quick items:

1) Crash, one my of my favorite bloggers, whom I lub (as she would say), is going after a blogging gig. She needs our votes to get to the next stage. Vote for her HERE once a day.

2) Remember how I got to be part of the cool reenactment of the original Mormon Pioneer Trek via Twitter? SUCH a cool experience. The guys behind TwHistory are shooting to get $25,000 in funding to help create new reenactments, which are excellent educational tools. To get the funding, they have to be in the top 10 by Halloween. Today, they're #12. Please vote for them! (Again, you can vote once a day through the end of the month.)

3) In case you've missed my incessant shouting about it, TODAY is National Chocolate Day and my book launch party in Orem at The Chocolate Dessert Cafe.

The Daily Herald announced it HERE. (See me holding the cookbook and matching my kitchen . . . yes, the very kitchen every recipe was invented/tested/tweaked/enjoyed in.)

The deets:

• 212 South State, Orem
• 4:00-7:00 pm
• The first 5 people get a FREE copy of the Chocolate Never Faileth companion DVD
• Get a free caramel cupcake with each book purchase
• Eat free mint fudge samples
• Have me sign your book!
• (Oh, and you get to meet my brilliant, handsome, taller-than-mom son. He'll be my sample helper tonight.)

Happy National Chocolate Day!

WNW: People Who Became Nouns

I love learning the history behind words.

(Okay, duh. I could have pointed out something else equally obvious to my reader. Hmm. I like chocolate. Yeah, that'll do.)

Life magazine recently ran a piece online that I found utterly fascinating: How the names of people from history morphed into nouns and adjectives we use today.

I knew many of them (sideburns, gerrymandering, Heimlich, guy).

Others were totally obvious once they were pointed out, sort of a head-smacking "Of course!" moment (Colt, ottoman, Kalashnikov, Bunson).

And some were fascinating news to me (pompadour, Ferrari, fuchsia, jacuzzi, kelvin).

Check out the complete list with pictures and explanations HERE.

Tip: It works better if you click on the next picture from the menu below rather than on the NEXT arrow.

REMINDER:

TOMORROW IS NATIONAL CHOCOLATE DAY AND MY BOOK LAUNCH!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28TH

The Chocolate Dessert Cafe

212 South State, Orem

4:00-7:00 pm

-Giveaways & prizes

-Free Companion DVD to the first 5 people

-Free samples

-Free cupcake with each book purchase

-Get your book signed!

Please come!

PAR-TAY!!!

I interrupt my regular blogging schedule to announce what I will be doing on Thursday, October 28th (a week from today) on National Chocolate Day.

I hope you'll celebrate with me at my cookbook launch party!

It's at THE CHOCOLATE dessert cafe in Orem (can I hear a woot, woot?)!

Check out the deets on the invite below. Spread the word!

(Come! Maybe win a free DVD, get a free cupcake . . .)

The Absentee Blogger

Bad, blogger. It's been a whole week, and nothing from me!

Not for lack of trying or lack of inspiration. Just lack of time and stuff piling faster than I can get rid of it. (Much of it good stuff, like extra freelance work, but still.)

A couple of bits until I post again:

• Last Friday, I guest-posted at Christine Bryant's blog about the joys (and constant mistreatment) of being an English major.
• On a similar topic, in November, I get to speak to a class of freshman English majors at BYU. I took that very class (more years ago than I care to admit) and now get to be on the other side . . . published, just as I hoped. COOOOL!
• Today I posted over at Precision Editing Group's Writing on the Wall blog about the crazy timeline that is publishing.
• A couple of weeks ago I got to speak at the UVU Book Academy. The next day I had a book signing at BYU Bookstore, where I handed out fudge samples. One of my daughters was my sample helper. Catch photos of both at Krista Jensen's blog.
• Last weekend, I spoke at the AF Arts Council conference. Got to hang with one of my bestest friends ever, Josi Kilpack, meet John Brown, chat with writer buddies I've met through events like this (like The Damsel and Taffy), and met lots of other new writers.
• I have no book signings this week for the cookbook, but I have TWO next week at the Lehi/AF Costco. Watch my sidebar for details.
  
  Now, back into the fray! (Read: go vacuum, empty the dishwasher, and sort laundry. The glamorous life of a writer . . .)

Top 5 Things to Make the Writing World a Better Place

(Past Top 5 posts HERE.)

First, a couple of housekeeping items:

Still haven't heard from Dan, winner of the redundancy contest. He'll forfeit his prize if I don't have a way to get the prize to him by Saturday night.

Book signings for Chocolate Never Faileth (with FUDGE SAMPLES at both!):

TODAY (Friday, October 1)

BYU Bookstore, 5-8 PM

TOMORROW (Saturday, October 2)

Deseret Book Flagship store, SLC

4:00 - 5:30 PM

Now for today's post:

Top 5 Things to Make MY Writing World a Better Place

Writer's Digest had someone list the "top 5 things to make THE writing world a better place" in their top 10 issue.

I'm already taking the number down to 5, so I can change the premise, too, right?

Things to make MY writing world a better place:

1. A crystal ball.

Not knowing is probably the worst part of writing and publishing. Whether it's submitting and waiting to hear back for acceptance or rejection or trying to figure out which of your ideas would be most marketable, or a hundred other things, not knowing is simply the worst. If I had a little crystal ball to consult about what to write, what's the right place for it, and just the right moment to hit SEND, aaaah . . . life would be so much easier.

2. WordPerfect as the industry standard.

I love, love, love WordPerfect. It's the best and most user-friendly word processor out there. If a techno-idiot (like yours truly) doesn't know how to do something, you can muddle you way through figuring it out. (I have done so many a time.)

Not so with Word. That program, I swear, is of the devil. The newer versions are getting better, but dang, it's hard to figure anything out with it, and it refuses to listen to you, thinking it's smarter than you are.

When I first started writing, everyone took WP files: magazines, newspapers, and even my publisher. Not anymore. Now I have both programs, and I've been forced to learn Word, at least, parts of it. I still use WP whenever I can, though.

Because it's not lame.

3. A housekeeper and cook.

That person would also do grocery shopping and laundry. Man, having someone else deal with all that would free up so much time!

Pardon while I bask in the fantasy . . .

4. Have a body that needs 4 hours of sleep. Or 5 or 6.

As it is, I have a body that, to really function, needs around 8 1/2 or 9 hours of sleep regularly. Lately it's been about 7 1/2. Not good. (REALLY not good . . .) People talk about waking up early to write, and I admire that.

I hope they don't think I'm a wimp, but in all honesty, getting up two hours early is NOT an option for me if I want any semblance of a life (or if my children want a mom). Fatigue is a migraine trigger for me. If I cut out two hours of sleep, I'd wake up early, write, then collapse, whimpering, in a fetal position for the rest of the day. (I'm already paying for getting only 7 1/2 hours). But dang, I love the idea of being able to stay up late and get up early to get SO MUCH DONE.

5. A reward machine.

You know: I made my word count for the day/finished research on this article/completed an edit for a client/revised this chapter/sent out 3 queries. Immediately a truffle pops out. Or a coupon for a free massage. Or a ten dollar bill. There's always a reward, but you never know what.

I'd be so productive!

What would make your (writing or other) world a better place?

Chocolate Recipes & More

I got my author copies of Chocolate Never Faileth yesterday!!!

My children literally danced around the house, sang, and then personalized their copies with Sharpies.

(My son asked if they seriously all got copies, and I had to respond with, "Um, yeah. Actually, I've put aside copies of ALL my books for each of you kids." Apparently chocolate is the first one he particularly cared about.)

(Not that I blame him.)

Within minutes, my youngest begged to make something out of the book. Her first request (Easy Chocolate Pudding, page 87) was met with, "Sorry, we don't have whipping cream." She would not be deterred. She had to make something from the book. Right. Now.

So I helped her make my Sinful Chocolate Cupcakes (page 21) and Classic Chocolate Buttercream Icing (page 170) to go on them.

We used her copy of the book, so it's been officially "christened" in the kitchen, complete with a dusting of flour and a splatter of milk.

The kids enjoyed reading the anecdotes and quotes, looking at the pictures and recipes and remembering how we tested this one and how we came up with that one. My daughters were so tickled with their copies that they shoved the books into their backpacks to show off at school.

It was a fun trip down memory lane . . . especially when I thought about how it's been just under a year since I turned in the manuscript on October 6, 2009.

In honor of the release and my children's enthusiasm, below are the recipes for the cupcakes and the icing. (You'll have more icing than you need for a dozen cupcakes. Like that's a problem, right?)

I'm getting word of a bunch of fun promotional things coming down the pike (one of which I'll let you know about just as soon as it's official!). For starters, watch for TV ads on KSL 5 this weekend between general conference sessions. (I KNOW!!! How cool is THAT?!!!)

This week's book signings:

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 5-8 pm, BYU Bookstore

Signing books and giving away samples.

And the next day:

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, flagship Deseret Book store in Salt Lake

Also giving out samples and signing books. BUT THE TIME HAS CHANGED. I'll be there immediately following the afternoon session of general conference: 4:00 - 5:30. (So NOT during Ladies Night. BEFORE it.)

With housekeeping business out of the way, it's recipe time!

Sinful Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2 tsp baking soda

1 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

2 cups flour

1/4 cup cocoa

Preheat the oven to 400. Put paper baking cups into a cupcake pan. Melt the butter; cool in the freezer for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the soda and sour cream. Stir well and set aside. The mixture will puff up as it sits. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and vanilla. Add the cooled butter and puffed-up sour cream mixture. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the baking powder, flour, and cocoa; beat for a minute or two until the batter is fully mixed. Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners and bake for about 18 minutes. Cool and ice with your favorite icing. Makes 1 dozen.

Classic Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

dash of salt (about 1/8 tsp)

half of a 32-oz bag of powdered sugar (about 4 1/4 cups)

2/3 cup cocoa

5-8 TB milk, as needed

Beat together butter and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together powdered sugar, cocoa, and salt. Add a generous 1/2 cup to 1 cup of the powdered sugar mixture to the butter mixture, followed by 1 TB milk. Continue alternating between the two until you reach the desired consistency.

Chocolate Quotes

We're less than TWO WEEKS OUT from the release!!!

Last week we celebrated the upcoming release with fun anecdotes and trivia that are in the book. Today, it's time for chocolate quotes!

But first, a housekeeping item:

I have TWO cookbook signings scheduled for next week:

FRIDAY, October 1, 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm

BYU Bookstore

SATURDAY, October 2, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Ladies Night at the Salt Lake Deseret Book

Important: I will be bringing samples to both signings.

I also have another EIGHT signings scheduled at area Costcos throughout October. I'll post the schedule for those soon.

Now for a few of the fun CHOCOLATE QUOTES found in Chocolate Never Faileth:

-I have this theory that chocolate slows down the aging process. It might not be true, but why take the risk?

-Man cannot live on chocolate alone. Woman can.

-Chocolate: Here today . . . gone today.

-For my birthday and Christmas, I’ll take anything in a size chocolate.

-Readers Digest, in one of their weight-loss articles, wrote that the average craving only lasts ten minutes. I find that mine last much shorter than that. I mean, really, how long does it take to get the wrapper off an Almond Joy? (From my good friend and hugely successful YA author, Janette Rallison)

-Ugh! They insulted chocolate! (My oldest daughter at the age of 9, on seeing a Verizon commercial about their new “Chocolate” cell phone, which [the nerve!] wasn’t even brown.)

-Many young girls make their first batch of fudge around the same time they kiss their first boy. They will remember the fudge.

In Honor of Chocolate and a Certain Cookbook

As we're only a few weeks out from the release Chocolate Never Faileth (squeee!) I decided to give a sneak peek into part of the book.

No, not into the recipes themselves (although maybe I'll post one or two in the next couple weeks, just for kicks).

I thought that showing some of the other elements of the book, the in-between stuff, would be fun. The book has lots of trivia, facts, and anecdotes I dug up, all centered on, of course, chocolate.

Below are four of many from the book. (Remember that you can now PRE-ORDER Chocolate Never Faileth through Deseret Book!)


True Story #1, about Lynn:
After being admitted at 18 weeks of pregnancy and spending over one hundred days in the hospital, Lynn broke the record for the longest stay at that hospital’s neonatal unit in hopes of saving the life of her unborn baby. Her daughter was finally born, nine weeks early—young but alive and with a good prognosis, weighing in at 3 lbs, 2 oz. Exhausted, Lynn returned home, craving a giant bag of peanut M&Ms. She ate the whole thing in a day . . . then picked up the empty bag and realized with a tad of horror that it had contained . . . 3 lbs, 2 oz. The exact weight of her baby.


Anecdote from Delyana:
A good piece of chocolate has about 200 calories. As I enjoy two servings per night, and a few more on weekends, I consume 3,500 calories of chocolate in a week, which equals one pound of weight per week. Therefore . . . In the last 3 ½ years, I have had a chocolate caloric intake of about 180 pounds. I weigh 165 pounds. Without chocolate, I would have wasted away to nothing about three months ago!

I owe my life to chocolate.


A Bit of Trivia:
A few years ago, Mars. Inc. stopped marketing the Mars Bar candy bar—but they didn’t stop making it. In its place, the company now sells the exact same bar with a new name. It’s now Snickers Almond. Did you realize it’s the exact same candy bar?

But in Europe and elsewhere, the same candy bar is sold as Mars Almond.

Confused yet? Let’s make it worse.

A candy bar marketed to Europeans and others outside the U.S. as the Mars Bar is called the Milky Way here in the U.S.

Wait. What?

And finally, a gem from my dear friend Luisa:

Elga called it a dessert when she gave me the little handwritten index card [with the recipe], but I know she must have been kidding, because, um, see, Elga, it doesn't have any chocolate in it.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

I get to be part of Ladies Night at Deseret Book's flagship store in Salt Lake City on Saturday, October 2! (Woohoo!)

I'll be there signing cookbooks . . . and giving out samples. Please come!

WNW: Department of Redundancy Department

Sometimes when I go over a first draft, I run into hilarious problems like dangling modifiers, inconsistencies, and repetition.

One common repitition problem in first drafts is writers repeating themselves by trying too hard to abide by the adage of "show, not tell."

So they do both: they tell something, then show it. Or vice versa: show it, then recap it by telling what we just saw. I'm guilty of this myself and must weed out repetition from early drafts.

An example:

Sue cried. Plump tears fells down her cheeks as racking sobs wrenched from her throat.

Do we really need to state that Sue cried? The tears and sobs sort of make that self-explanatory, no?

You might think that's an over-the-top exaggeration, but it's surprisingly easily for redundancies like that to slip in, even when they sound obvious and funny when they're pointed out.

Hence our friend: revision!

The other day, I stumbled across a fun blog post that viewed redundancy in a way I hadn't thought of before: using adjectives and nouns together that say the same thing.

The post is by Scott over at Slice of Diction. He made a list of 30 redundant adjective-noun word pairs. Check out the post link above for the full list.

Here are a couple of my favorites he came up with, each of which make me snicker and go, "As opposed to . . .?"

• amorous romance
• contentious dispute
• cryptic mystery
• insane lunacy
• rural countryside
• stupid idiot
• uniquely different

My gut reaction (after laughing) was to think of the flip side: A cool writing exercise would be to find unexpected adjectives, ones that are counter to the noun you put them next to. That could change the meaning or image in surprising and really cool ways.

(Okay, so there's also the point that a writer shouldn't over-use adjectives. Note to self: use adjectives only when needed. Make the most out of your writing toolbox.)

Using some of Scott's words, instead the obvious amorous romance, what about a tempestuous romance?

Or a brilliant idiot?

A peaceful dispute?

Commonly different?

(Reminds me of the "non-conformists" I went to high school with. They refused to conform . . . by wearing black eyeliner, black duster coats, and hair that required Aqua Net to defy gravity. They all looked the same by non-conforming?)

Story and character ideas are already popping up for me simply by thinking of new, unexpected word pairs.

Just for fun, let's have another contest!

Think of adjective-noun redundancy word pairs.

In the comments, throw out your best repetitive word pair (be sure it's adjective + noun).

Bonus entries for then changing up your redundant word pair by putting in a new adjective to make the pair counter to the original meaning. Enter as many times as you want.

The winner gets a Utah Truffles chocolate bar along with a ballpoint pen that celebrates the upcoming release of Chocolate Never Faileth, (less than a month away . . . woot!).

The pen has green polka dots and the words: Money talks, but chocolate sings.

The winning entry and runners up will be posted here for us all to admire.