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:
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
Love the analogy!
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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