Archive for September, 2011
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A Recipe for Autumn Breakfast Cake (plus The Princess Bride Monopoly)
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
“- In the farthest corner of the Great Square -
- in the highest building in the land -
- deep in the deepest shadow -”
- lies…The Princess Bride Monopoly Board Game
HUZZAH!
I love the book. I heart the movie. And now, I must own this piece of inconceivable genius. Seriously. Check out those game pieces. Westley’s mustache? Who wouldn’t want to venture around the board with that?
Now that I’ve got you all hung up on the need for your own copy, I recall you to the fact that you should never get involved in a land war in Asia. Also? I owe you a recipe. Which is awesome because it means you can now play with Westley’s mustache while eating tasty cake. So, as you wish, this month’s delicacy comes from my dearest Sharla, who is as autumn obsessed as I am. It’s a perfect breakfast cake, all warm and flavorful with bananas and chocolate and mm…. You should try it with a caramel latte. While challenging your enemies to a duel. With swords. Or iocaine.
A Recipe for Autumn Breakfast Cake
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 1 t. baking soda
- ¾ t. salt
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 1 ½ cups smashed bananas (3 bananas)
- ½-3/4 cups semi sweet Chocolate Chips
Directions
- Turn on oven to 325 degrees
- Grease two bread pans or a fluted cake tube
- Stir: flour, baking soda & salt
- In another bowl, beat: eggs, oil and sugar
- Add bananas and beat again
- Add flour mixture
- Stir in Chocolate chips
- Bake: 45-50 minutes
And with that, my lovelies, I bid you all goodnight. Sleep well. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.
:0)
Tags: Autumn recipes, best book ever, cozy recipes, fairytale book review, Games, Reading Recipes, recipes, The Princess Bride
Posted in Games, Genre Savvy, Literary Classics | 13 Comments »
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Braving the Wilds of a Writers’ Conference
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011
Hello, bookish explorers! Last year (as you’ll recall), I stealthily returned from the Central Coast Writers’ Conference to give you my Nine (only slightly creepy) Reasons to Attend one of these babies. Today, I take you back there, this time behind the scenes, where we will brave the wilds of the conference together. I will be your guide, taking you up close and personal for a few brief encounters with some of the more intriguing things writers do in their natural habitat.
Our first stop on the tour is the Pride. A Pride is a group of writers (also referred to as a herd), related or not, who stick together for the common goals of stalking famous authors (without appearing overtly creepy—the creepy ones use the herd to blend in), saving seats behind said authors, and making Starbucks runs in between classes. In this photo, we have a Pride of yours truly alongside mother (Susan) and sister (Kati) at breakfast.
The next place we come to is the Author Brawl. This is where authors challenge each other to strange feats of mental prowess such as word games, prose twisters, and blog visibility while the rest of us surround them chanting the biggest words we know. In this pic, we’ve got the plucky challenger, New York Times bestselling author, Jay Asher, arm wrestling Anne R. Allen. Unfortunately for Jay, Anne is winning (though just barely) by the sheer force of mind over matter and her invention of the word “Snookibooks.”
Third stop on our tour is the Watering Hole where writers converge every chance they get to eat, refresh, and seek out savage sage advice from other more experienced authors and super cool agents. Here, you can see Susan, Kristen, myself, agent savant Laurie McLean, Kati, and Jay eating all of Ms. McLean’s french fries whilst discussing the finer points of Doc Marten shoes. Don’t be misled by the tame-looking smiles. This table was a riot of awesomeness.
Last, but not least, we come to the Moment of Humility. When, just as you’re leaving this wild and slightly-terrifying land, a bird craps on your boot and Jay is there to photograph it. Well, first he and Kati laughed. Like any good friends would.
What’s the mood noise of the moment? Guns N’ Roses: Welcome to the Jungle
:0)
Tags: agents, Anne R. Allen, authors, Central Coast Writers' Conference, Jay Asher, Laurie McLean, writer's retreat, writers conference
Posted in A bit of brag, Author Tidbits, Book Nooks | 15 Comments »
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Writers’ Conferencing and Some Sweet Tunage
Wednesday, September 14th, 2011
First things first: ((:o)…@><(:o) <—- This is me sneaking up on you and using my awesome ninja-nunchuck-nudge to remind you that if you live anywhere near Cali’s central coast and you like to write or people watch (or be around fantastic people who write and people watch…ahem) you should be signing up for this weekend’s Central Coast Writers’ Conference. Hint: this would be an appropriate moment to recall my awesome Nine (only slightly creepy) Reasons to Attend a Writers’ Conference post, which is all about how attending such a shindig is crazy fun. And also slightly creepy.
((:o)@@><@@><(:o} <—- Oooh, ooh, ooh, see how I did that? Snuck up on you again, didn’t I? Just blame it on my sweet skills of raw, nunchuck power.
Okay, where were we? Oh yeah, back to the fun part. And by fun, I’m mainly referring to the food. Well, and the writing. And meeting suave peeps like Jonathan Maberry (zombies, anyone?), Mark Coker (Smashwords guy), Laurie McLean (novelist and lit agent savant), Catherine Ryan Hyde (Pay It Forward and #dailygratitude guru), Anne R. Allen (awesome blogger and author who comments here frequently), Anthony Peckham (Invictus and Sherlock Holmes!), the very fundiculous Mr. Jay Asher (whom we met last year and is now our friend), and tons of others. Need I say more? I think not.
Okay, now that my influential ninja skills have been put to good use…I move along to this awesome tunage by Sarah Jaffe. May the musical force be with you, my lovelies. I’m off to eat conference food.
SARAH JAFFE: CLEMENTINE
:0)
Tags: authors, Central Coast Writers' Conference, music, sarah jaffe, SLO Nightwriters, tunage, Twilight, writers conference
Posted in A bit of brag, Book Nooks, Book Trailers, Twilight | 6 Comments »
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Little Free Libraries
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
A concept this magical hasn’t captured my attention on such obsessive proportions since the discovery of fairy steampunk tea parties, unicorns, and snickerdoodles dipped in white chocolate.
Little Free Libraries
Promoting “literacy and the love of reading” while building a sense of community through sharing. Suggestions for placement are in community gardens, parks, hospice and health centers, and neighborhoods. Give a book, take a book, with the idea of paying it forward.
Okay, seriously? What more magical way to spend the autumn season, with its cozy crackly fires and damp leaves and afternoon tea with the neighbors, than by putting up a cute little neighborhood library to share BOOKS with said neighbors? I want one. On my street. In my driveway. In fact, excuse me while I go find my husband and plead with his engineering self to build me one for my very own.
In the meantime, you must read about these Little Free Libraries.
And then you must visit their website.
And don’t eat my white chocolate snickerdoodles until I return.
;0)
Tags: Book Nooks, cookies, little free libraries
Posted in Book Nooks, Book Reviews | 18 Comments »
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