Cake Finale! You Won't Believe It

I've finally found something that would pay me less per hour than writing -- something I'd thought an impossible feat. This cake occupied me for four solid days.

Let me give you a blow by blow of my adventure in creating the tier cake for my fondant class. First of all, long before I even baked the cake itself, I spent at least 9 hours creating the roses that would decorate it. And I don't think this process would increase in speed with more practice. First of all, the fondant had to be colored and each rose bud center had to be created and allowed to dry.

And this is just the first batch. Then the three additional layers of petals were added. The fondant was rolled out, cut with cookie cutters, then each petal had to be separated from the other with a knife, the edges then tooled to be thing and ruffled -- and then it was time to add it to the bud. Repeat this about a hundred and fifty times and you have enough roses to decorate this cake. Of course, they spent a day all over my kitchen drying before they could be moved.



Now it's time for the cake itself. Two ten inch layers and two six inch layers. Surprisingly the ten inch were a breeze, but those darn six inch didn't want to come out of the pan and were horrible to cover with fondant. Don't think I'll be making that size again.

Anyway, cakes baked. Then they had to be covered with a "crumb coat" of buttercream frosting. Believe me, I was tempted to stop there, you know, quit while I was ahead because it was looking pretty good.


Then came the fondant. Oh my gosh, this was an adventure. Kneading. Rolling. Draping it over the cakes. Working out the wrinkles and fitting it, then trimming. People who do this for a living have all of my admiration! But once the sweat was wiped from my brow (literally), I was surprised I hadn't messed it up totally. Then the tiers were stacked -- piece of cake. ;-) I added buttercream borders and then applied the flowers.



VOILA!
















Now here is my daughter's beautiful cake. She might actually have a future as a baker!


















Cake class is over. I kinda miss those Tuesday night's. My neighbors miss the Wednesday cake consumption. Although I'll never be a professional cake creator, I am putting my newfound knowledge to good use. The heroine in my next book is a baker ... but that's not the part of her life that creates trouble. Trouble comes from a most unforseen source... but that's a topic for another day.

Best Buddies Indiana Fundraiser and Book Signing

Saturday was a very special day, one I'll remember for years to come. Many new friends from Best Buddies Indiana joined me to help launch my latest romantic suspense, SLEEP NO MORE.

Best Buddies is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. And what a wonderful organization it is!

I was reminded of the value of friendship, a thing many of us take for granted, and how a life without it can be so very desolate. This organization is particularly helpful to high school and college age people with intellectual disabilities, a time in everyone's life that is made richer by friendships. With this kind of social and emotional support, many people with disabilities develop the necessary social skills to better able to integrate into the flow of life and the workforce.

We had a great party at Noblesville, IN Barnes & Noble, gave away some goodies, raised some money for Best Buddies and more importantly raised people's awareness of this great organization. You see, up until recently, I didn't even know about Best Buddies Indiana. But in writing SLEEP NO MORE I created one of my all-time favorite characters, Maggie, a young woman with Mosaic Down Syndrome. During my research, I learned much, gained a better insight, and discovered Best Buddies.

I have a couple of "small world" stories, three actually. First there was the book club I visited in early January (on a horrible, frigid day, but these ladies were hearty souls who ventured out anyway). I mentioned my upcoming signing and the tie-in with Best Buddies. Lo, and behold, one of the women there was on the parents' advisory board and has a son who participates in Best Buddies. Now M.J. and her son Jeff are among my newfound friends. I'm going to get a photo up on my website of Jeff at the signing.

Small world story number 2. The woman on the right of this photo is Kim, she works for Best Buddies Indiana and was there the whole day. As Kim and I were chatting, we were discussing Noblesville, as I grew up here and live here, and discovered that her father was my band director when I was in junior high!

Small world story number 3. Katie, on the right in this photo, also works for Best Buddies. One of my friends from waaaay back, a friend of my older brother in fact, was at the signing, saw her and said, "Hey, she took care of me while I was in the hospital a while back." He and Katie had a conversation, and yes indeed, Katie was a nurses aid and took care of him. (And we have lots of hospitals in this area!)

How about that for one short afternoon?

Katie also shared a story with me that I will never, never forget. She said that while she was in high school, she did not have a person who she could call "friend." For four years, she ate lunch alone and walked the halls alone. Katie is now working to make sure others with disabilities such as hers don't have to go through their days alone. It seems such a small thing, having a friend. But you don't realize, until you walk those halls alone day after day, what a huge difference it can make in your life.

Best Buddies and the people I've met through them have enriched my own life. And I'm thinking Maggie won't be my last character with an intellectual disability.

If you'd like to know more about Best Buddies, visit www.bestbuddies.org

Book Covers

Here's a sneak peek at the cover for my upcoming romantic thriller, Sleep No More (January 2010). Just a little scary, just a little sexy -- just like the book.

For those of you who don't already know, as a general rule we authors get to see our covers when they're just about a done deal. Which I suppose is a smart idea. Writers write. Publishers and marketing departments sell. And that's the name of the game, after all -- sell that book! The sole purpose of the cover is to get you, the reader passing by in the retail store, to stop and pick up the book, read the back cover copy (which generally is also written by someone other than the writer of the novel).

We novelists sometimes have a problem with being concise when it comes to describing our stories. Back cover copy is an entirely different skill set. Of course, there are authors who possess both. I am not one of them. But I digress.

Back to covers. Although I was privilaged to have my publisher use an idea I offered for Sleep No More (the van partially submerged in the water, which was one of the most fun-to-write scenes in the book) I still did not see the cover until it was finished. Luckily, I was thrilled with the finished product.

Another fun fact about book covers, there are actually contests devoted to cover art. Two of my covers have been nominated for said awards: Back Roads and A Kiss in Winter

Truly beauty is in the eyes of the beholder ... but a beautiful cover can still fail to prompt the desired response ... a reader picking up the book. I have had people tell me they chose my book because of the cover. Which is wonderful. But I would urge folks to open up that cover and read the first page before dismissing a book because the cover does not appeal to you. The words inside could very well sing to your heart.

Welcome!

Because this is my first blog on this site, I'll give a bit of a rundown on how I came to be here -- and how I ended up with this fabulous career as an author.

Unlike many writers, I didn't major in English Literature (I was a science major) and I didn't begin penning stories as soon as I learned to write. My path was much more convoluted and, yes, I'll admit it, serendipitious. Born with a love for words, and raised as an avid reader, it seems that the idea of becoming a writer really should have crossed my mind without prompting. Alas, it did not.

It wasn't until my younger sister, she of the avid imagination, came to me one day with a stack of track-feed (yes, it was that long ago) computer paper and admitted to "closet writing" that my adventure as a novelist began. Working with her on that manuscript I discovered that although I loved reading, I knew less than nothing about novel construction and even less than that about the publishing industry.

And here comes the most serendipitous even of all. I wrote a letter (real snail mail, mind you) to the author of one of my favorite books Outlander. Imagine my shock when I received an actual telephone call from Diana Gabaldon herself! She was amazing and kind. She pointed me in the direction of the two organizations that ended up changing my life: CompuServe's (again, it was a while ago) Writer's Forum and Romance Writers of America. Those two connections opened up a whole new world for me.

Now I have eight published novels (six women's fiction and two romantic suspense), the ninth, another romantic thriller, SLEEP NO MORE, is slated for January 2010. I've been honored with my very own RITA, as well as other awards that are so very precious to me. I might have gotten here without fate intervening, but it certainly gave me a big boost.

So, the lesson learned: persistence and patience, hard work and committment will someday deliver your dreams to your door. And sometimes it gets a little help along the way.