Happy Mother’s Day to all! 🙂
Mothers, what are you doing to celebrate this special day?
~Cecelia Dowdy~
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! :-)
4 Replies
Author Archives: Cecelia Dowdy
Congratulations To The 2011 Christy Award Nominees!
A heartfelt congrats goes to all of the 2011 Christy Award nominees! Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think about them?I see many wonderfully fine authors on the list!
~Cecelia Dowdy~
Contemporary Romance
Blood Ransom
by Lisa Harris (Zondervan)
Indivisible
by Kristin Heitzmann (WaterBrook Press)
Sworn to Protect
by DiAnn Mills (Tyndale House Publishers)
Contemporary Series, Sequels, and Novellas/
The Reluctant Prophet
by Nancy Rue (David C. Cook)
The Thorn
by Beverly Lewis (Bethany House Publishers,
a division of Baker Publishing Group)
The Waiting
by Suzanne Woods Fisher (Revell Books,
a division of Baker Publishing Group)
Contemporary Standalone/
Almost Heaven
by Chris Fabry (Tyndale House Publishers)
Lady in Waiting
by Susan Meissner (WaterBrook Press)
A Season of Miracles
by Rusty Whitener (Kregel Publications)
First Novel/
Crossing Oceans
by Gina Holmes (Tyndale House Publishers)
Heartless
by Anne Elisabeth Stengl (Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group)
A Season of Miracles
by Rusty Whitener (Kregel Publications)
Historical/
Chosen: The Lost Diaries of Queen Esther
by Ginger Garrett (David C. Cook)
For Time & Eternity
by Allison Pitman (Tyndale House Publishers)
While We’re Far Apart
by Lynn Austin (Bethany House Publishers,
a division of Baker Publishing Group)
Historical Romance/
The Girl in the Gatehouse
by Julie Klassen (Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group)
She Walks in Beauty
by Siri Mitchell (Bethany House Publishers,
a division of Baker Publishing Group)
Within My Heart
by Tamera Alexander (Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group)
Suspense/
The Bishop
by Steven James (Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group)
The Bride Collector
by Ted Dekker (Center Street)
Predator
by Terri Blackstock (Zondervan)
Visionary/
To Darkness Fled
by Jill Williamson (Marcher Lord Press)
Konig’s Fire
by Marc Schooley (Marcher Lord Press)
The Last Christian
by David Gregory (WaterBrook Press)
Young Adult/
The Charlatan’s Boy
by Jonathan Rogers (WaterBrook Press)
The Healer’s Apprentice
by Melanie Dickerson (Zondervan)
Motorcycles, Sushi, and One
Strange Book
by Nancy Rue (Zondervan)
Stephen Bly Book Giveaway! :-)
THIS BOOK GIVEAWAY IS OVER. WINNER WAS ANNOUNCED HERE!
I’m hosting Stephen Bly on my blog today! If you want to be entered into the drawing for his book giveaway, you must read the following article AND you must leave a comment with your email address and you must REFER TO SOMETHING YOU READ IN STEPHEN’S article…in other words, you have to read his article and comment about it in order to be entered into the drawing!
I’ll start by commenting…the mention of the outhouse scene has piqued my curiosity!
Enjoy!
~Cecelia Dowdy~ON GETTING PLOT IDEAS
for Throw The Devil Off The Train
I don’t have a clue how I derived the idea for my newest release, Throw The Devil Off The Train. Sometimes plot ideas seem to fall out of the sky for me. When I recognize one that I like, I pick it up and run with it, to see where it leads.
I’ve set stories in Colorado and Arizona, in New Mexico and Nevada, in Montana and Idaho, in Wyoming and Nebraska, in Texas and South Dakota. The old western Stagecoach was a road story in a stage. Throw The Devil Off The Train is a road story inside a train headed west.
Idea germs that evolve
The grandeur of the West from a train window.
The very slow journey, compared to modern transportation.
The theme that people are much more complex than first meetings reveal.
The hurts and pains, the victories and defeats of the past form a part in acts and responses in any given situation.
I tossed two cats into a burlap bag, then watched to see how they’d survive. . .or not. After a few gouges and bites between Catherine and Race, I could see the trail and markings of their story in Throw The Devil Off The Train..
Setting A Scene
You’d think after more than a hundred books in print, most of them set in the Old West, that I’d have exhausted every possible location. I’ve used cabins, saloons, dance halls, jails, hotels, cafes, sandbars and most any other place you could name. All, except one. In my newest book, Creede of Old Montana, I set a whole scene inside an outhouse.
As much as I like telling western tales, it was not the time for me to live in. Two reasons at least: health care and sanitation. That doesn’t mean a cowboy never used soap. Some even shaved every morning. Living in a wild and primitive land doesn’t mean you have to look uncivilized.
And I don’t want you to think I’m weak-willed and pasty skinned. I can survive just fine for days, weeks, even months in the wilderness. But I know that sooner or later I’ll be back in civilization that boasts hot showers, waste treatment plants, and flush toilets.
I wouldn’t even mind a footed bathtub. Many fun western movie episodes have centered on bubbly bathtub scenes. But hot baths were a real luxury and only the nicest of hotels would offer such an amenity. Some of the more modest hotels would advertise: Baths 25 cents; Used Water 15 cents. Which, in my opinion, is a great motivator to save up your money when on the trail or hang with friends who smell like you do.
Which brings me back to…setting a scene inside an outhouse.
On a trip to Yellowstone with our teen grandkids, Zachary and Miranda, we stopped to explore at Garnett, a Montana ghost town. One structure that captured the kids’ curiosity: the double set of outhouses behind the old hotel. There was a two-seater for gals and a two-seater for guys. Quite the deal on a busy Saturday night.
Ah, the romantic Old West.
And about that scene in the outhouse…you can read about it yourself after October 1st in Creede of Old Montana. I promise…it won’t be R-rated. That’s the thing about the classic western genre. Good triumphs over evil. There’s little or no bad language. And sensual details are relegated to the fightin’ and shootin’ only.
WRITING EXERCISE for you:
Create two strong characters. Make one the type the other tends to dislike. Make them so disgusted with each that they cannot exist in the same room for several minutes without being at each other’s throats. Then, stick them in a place where they have to co-exist for hours, days, weeks: a cabin, a mine shaft, a train car, etc. Then, write the dialogue. Start out with no descriptions. No identifiers. No narration. Just two voices conversing. Make the words authentic as you can. Then, edit it later.
Do they wind up killing each other? Or total estrangement? Or a truce of some sort? Or a breakthrough to relationship?
Winner And Rejection
The winner for the April Book Giveaway is:
Diana Donnelly – Thayne, WY
Diana, I’ll be mailing your books out to you within the next week. Everybody else, I’ll be posting TWO book giveaways soon. One will be a stand-alone book with an author interview, and the other will be another box of books. Visit my blog often for updates for these giveaways!
Also, wanted to mention that I’ve gotten a couple of rejections over the last few months. I forgot to blog about these. Some have asked why I blog about rejections..why? It’s part of being a writer and I think it helps unpublished writers to see what the rejections say. I like to focus on both the negative and positive aspects of writing to give a realistic view of the industry. Here’s what my most recent rejection said:
Thank you for submitting the proposal for (title of my work). I’m sorry to say that this title is somewhat like some of our other titles. We’re going to release an “identical twin brother” story later this year. However, while that title isn’t necessarily a romance novel it’s a little too close and we don’t want our readers to think that we’re publishing the same story over and over.
Again, we’d like to see some new ideas and hope that Cecelia Dowdy can provide something more for the (XXXX) team to review.
The Royal Wedding! :-)
Did you watch the royal wedding? If so, what did you think about the event?
I have to go off the beaten path of my regular blog topics to talk about yesterday’s Royal Wedding! Wasn’t it lovely? I’m still swooning over the event! What did you think of her dress? I thought William looked handsome in the military uniform. I also loved the feeling of anticipation in the air when Kate walked down the aisle and William had not seen her yet, and Harry glanced back and saw the bride coming.
Like a lot of the world, I was up at 3:45 to watch this event from beginning to end (just as I did 30 years ago for Diana’s and Charles’s wedding)! I didn’t want to miss a moment! I did miss the kiss because I had to take my son to school, but, I was able to see it when they showed the highlights! I watched footage off and on all day yesterday! I also didn’t mind re-watching stuff that I’d already seen! 🙂
I also enjoyed the way the couple glanced at each other…you’ve got two billion people watching your wedding, but, those looks they exchanged, were still private and intimate and touching.
I think this couple will have a happy and long marriage. It appears that they’re really, truly in love and when the press compared their wedding to Diana’s (30 years ago) it was a direct contrast to Diana’s wedding. Charles and Diana barely looked at each other and neither of them smiled. It was almost as if a feeling of doom surrounded them. But Kate and William appear to be suited for one another and I think it helps that Kate is years older than Diana, making her more suitable to enter the ranks of marriage.
I know this couple will have many trials and tribulations in spite of their desire to live a normal life. Can you imagine photographers watching your every move and reporting it? Can you imagine, not being able to eat a sandwich in public without being noticed?
However, in spite of all this, my gut tells me that this marriage will be a happy one, for the most part, and won’t end as traumatically as Diana’s and Chrarles’s wedding.
What are your thoughts about the wedding and the marriage? Leave a comment.
Booksigning! :-)
Come on out Sunday, May 1, 2011 to this address:
Restoration Praise Center
at Community Christian Fellowship
10411 Greenbelt Road
Lanham, MD 20706-2211
I’ll be signing copies of Chesapeake Weddings from 3-5 PM.
The Royal Wedding! :-)
Will you be watching The Royal Wedding tomorrow?
Call me weird, but, I took a vacation day tomorrow just to watch The Royal Wedding! I plan on having scones slathered with Kerrygold butter and preserves! I’m also having coffee (Sorry, no tea. I’ve never been much of a hot tea fan. I only drink tea when I’m sick with a cold.)
The only problem is, I went to both grocery stores nearby and neither sold scones. I’m going to have to make the scones this evening so that I can enjoy them tomorrow morning! If you have a favorite scone recipe to share, I’d be appreciative if you told me about it. I made scones just one time, a gazillion years ago, and I thought the recipe that I used tasted okay.
I recall when Prince William’s parents got married back in the eighties! I was still living at home and I remember getting up at the crack of dawn just to watch the wedding! Also, I recall that I’d never heard much about Prince Charles in the media until he got engaged to Lady Diana! I also remember getting up early in the morning to watch Lady Diana’s funeral! 🙁
I’m NOT a Royal or British enthusiast! I haven’t been following the wedding coverage very much, but, I did take some interest when I first heard William was getting married – I forgot about it a short time later. I don’t watch TV much and I get most of my news from online and via AOL. A high-school friend of mine said she was taking a personal day to watch the wedding and I love a good wedding, being a romance author and all, so I decided to do the same thing. I’ve only started following the wedding coverage over the last few days, but, I’m a bit excited about seeing the wedding and I also want to see her dress!
I’ll be getting up early tomorrow morning, probably around three or four, which is why I need to make my scones today! I’d also thought about making crumpets, but, I’ve never had those before…not sure if I’d like them! I’ve had scones and they remind me of fancy biscuits!
So, will you be watching The Royal Wedding? If so, what time are you planning to wake up?
~Cecelia Dowdy~
Happy Easter!
Amish Friendship Bread Starter – Day One
No, I’m not going to be posting pictures each day for my Amish Friendship Bread Starter. However, I will post this one so that you can see what it looks like. I did this last night. Now I need to put it in a Ziplock bag and squeeze it each day and add stuff to it. I then need to make some Amish Friendship Bread on day 10!
Contrary to popular belief, the origin of this bread cannot be traced back to the Amish. This recipe is several decades old. I did look up Amish Friendship Bread on Wikipedia and it said that to the Amish, Friendship Bread is merely sourdough bread that they give to the sick and needy. I can’t really tell where this Amish Friendship Bread recipe started.
Friendship Bread By Darien Gee – A Secular Title
Please note that this is a secular title.
Have you ever made Amish Friendship Bread (or any other type of bread, like sourdough) that required a starter? If so, did you like it? How did it turn out?
Friendship Bread by Darien Gee
An anonymous gift sends a woman on a journey she never could have anticipated.
One afternoon, Julia Evarts and her five-year-old daughter, Gracie, arrive home to find an unexpected gift on the front porch: a homemade loaf of Amish Friendship Bread and a simple note: I hope you enjoy it. Also included are a bag of starter, instructions on how to make the bread herself, and a request to share it with others.
Still reeling from a personal tragedy that left her estranged from the sister who was once her best friend, Julia remains at a loss as to how to move on with her life. She’d just as soon toss the anonymous gift, but to make Gracie happy, she agrees to bake the bread.
When Julia meets two newcomers to the small town of Avalon, Illinois, she sparks a connection by offering them her extra bread starter. Widow Madeline Davis is laboring to keep her tea salon afloat while Hannah Wang de Brisay, a famed concert cellist, is at a crossroads, her career and marriage having come to an abrupt end. In the warm kitchen of Madeline’s tea salon, the three women forge a friendship that will change their lives forever.
In no time, everyone in Avalon is baking Amish Friendship Bread. But even as the town unites for a benevolent cause and Julia becomes ever closer to her new friends, she realizes the profound necessity of confronting the painful past she shares with her sister.
About life and loss, friendship and community, food and family, Friendship Bread tells the uplifting story of what endures when even the unthinkable happens.
==
My thoughts? I can honestly say that I’ve never read a book quite like this, and I mean that in a good way. Julia is still reeling from the unexpected death of her ten year old son – five years ago. She blames her sister Livvy for her son’s death and as a result of her grief, she becomes estranged from the residents of Avalon, as well as her husband, Mark. Mark finds that he needs to pick up the slack around their home since Julia no longer works and spends most of her time grieving. He’s tired of being the good guy and finds himself somewhat flattered when a woman from the office starts paying attention to him.
Julia bonds with Hannah (a recently divorced professional cellist) and Madeline (the owner of the new tea shop). These women help Julia to heal.
The premise of the Friendship Bread is what drew me to this book in the first place. If you’ve been reading my blog long enough, you’ll know that I love blogging about food and fiction, and this book is a unique mix between the two. This book was written in the present tense and there are about 20 (or more) points of view – but this style of writing worked for this type of book. Some of the characters only have a point of view for a few pages, and then you never hear about these characters again. The only on-going characters are the ones mentioned in the book summary above as well as Edie (a reporter), Edie’s husband, and Livvy’s husband.
The way the story plays out, with the community banning together, the friendship bread starter being passed on from person to person, is truly unique, sometimes funny, and emotional – causing a bond between the Avalon community.
Reading this book has made me want to do my own starter and bake a batch of Amish Friendship Bread for myself. After you do the starter, you bake the bread in ten days. During that ten-day period, you squeeze the bag of starter and add ingredients on a few of those days. The starter ferments and when you bake the bread, you pass on three of the bags of starter to friends or relatives. My only problem? I have no idea to whom I’d gift those extra bags of starter! I guess I could give one to my sister? Or maybe my mom? The town of Avalon soon became overflowing with starter bags, and I can understand how this would happen. You can find the recipes for the Amish Friendship Bread starter here. You can also use the starter to make brownies, pancakes, biscuits, as well as several variations of the Amish Friendship Bread.
The starter reminded me of the sourdough starter that was mentioned in my bread-machine cookbook.
When I do the Amish Friendship Bread starter, I’ll be sure to blog about it.
As I stated earlier, this is a secular title. There was some mild cursing and a few people living together, but otherwise, there wasn’t a whole lot that would offend the Christian reader.
Have you ever made Amish Friendship Bread (or any other type of bread, like sourdough) that required a starter? If so, did you like it? How did it turn out?