NaNoWriMo 2014 Report

Despite the wine bottle pictured, I was not baking & boozing

I wasn't sure this year is I would do NaNoWriMo or not. But as the first of November approached, I realized that I had to, yet again, restart my current novel. No matter how much I've written, if there's a huge problem with the beginning, I must go back and restart it. I have to get the beginning right in order for the rest to follow. If I just kept on writing with the idea that I'd fix it later, the rest of the story would turn out awful. So I needed something to motivate me, and keeping apace of the word count during NaNo seemed like the trick.

I told hardly anyone this year that I was doing NaNo because, based on how many times I've started this novel, I wasn't sure I'd reach fifty thousand words, and also, I was pretty frustrated with this novel when I started this draft on November 1. I was angry with it, and angry with myself. The last novel I wrote came out so easily. This one has more than made up for that.

Soon to be individual pie cookies

In past years I've written fifty thousand words of short stories and/or novelettes. That was a fun experience. This year, I had a hard time getting the words down, mostly because I'd written the beginning of this novel so many damn times already. But when I hit the fifty thousand mark with one day to spare, I was at the beginning of the novel final act. Pushing through and finishing should be much easier compared to writing the rest of this beast. The book will still require quite a bit of work when I'm through, but holy cow, at least I'll have a rough draft to work with.

I could hardly wait for them to cool!

To celebrate breaking through with this novel and getting most of it written, I made some apple pie cookies. I heard about these cookies on the online writing forum I belong to, Codex. I've been dying to make them ever since. They just looked so perfect, like you could hold a cookie pie thingie in one hand and a cup of coffee or glass of milk in the other and just shovel it in your mouth. Sweet, delicious pie in the shape of a cookie! What a brilliant idea.

I followed the recipe exactly. I made a thin layer of apple pie filling, but I think in future attempts I'll thin it even more. It was a lot of filling for the poor pie pastry to hold when I lifted a 'cookie.' But oh, so delicious! You can take a bowl of ice cream and sit two warm cookies on top. Or put the warm cookies in the bottom of a bowl and scoop the ice cream on top to melt over them.

I would love to hear how you celebrate your writing victories!

Clockwork Cookie Blog Tour: Cookies and Cream Cookies

Please join me in welcoming a guest on the blog today to talk about her novel and also about yummy, delicious cookies. Without further ado, here's Beth:

Hi! I'm Beth Cato. I'm here to share some chocolaty delight and to introduce you to my book.

My debut novel, THE CLOCKWORK DAGGER, comes out September 16th from Harper Voyager. It's a steampunk novel with airships, espionage, and a world tree that seriously plays favorites. Here's the back cover summary:

Orphaned as a child, Octavia Leander was doomed to grow up on the streets until Miss Percival saved her and taught her to become a medician. Gifted with incredible powers, the young healer is about to embark on her first mission, visiting suffering cities in the far reaches of the war-scarred realm. But the airship on which she is traveling is plagued by a series of strange and disturbing occurrences, including murder, and Octavia herself is threatened.

Suddenly, she is caught up in a flurry of intrigue: the dashingly attractive steward may be one of the infamous Clockwork Daggers—the Queen’s spies and assassins—and her cabin-mate harbors disturbing secrets. But the danger is only beginning, for Octavia discovers that the deadly conspiracy aboard the airship may reach the crown itself.

You can also read the full first chapter over at Tor.com. It can be found at Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and most any independent bookstore.

Now, on to the cookies!

I'm an author, but I'm also somewhat infamous for my baking. Every Wednesday over at my site, I post a new recipe in my Bready or Not series.

I modified this recipe by using Mint Oreos, which added a lovely fresh taste. Really, though, Oreos are like ninjas in these cookies. You can't see them since they are finely ground, but they really deepen the chocolate flavor.

Cookies and Cream Cookies
modified from Picky Palate

2 sticks softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips [I mixed mini semi-sweet and white chips]
1 cup cocoa powder
15 whole Oreo Cookies (mint, normal, or double-stuff), finely ground

1. In a mixer, beat butter and sugars until well combined. Add eggs and vanilla and beat again.

2. Place flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Add to wet ingredients along with cocoa powder, and chocolate chips, slowly mixing until just combined. Chill the dough for at least one hour, or your cookies will be very flat.

3. Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Grease or line a large baking sheet.

4. With a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheet, about 1 inch apart from each other. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until cooked through. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

OM NOM NOM.

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Beth Cato's the author of THE CLOCKWORK DAGGER, a steampunk fantasy novel from Harper Voyager. Her short fiction is in InterGalactic Medicine Show, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Daily Science Fiction. She's a Hanford, California native transplanted to the Arizona desert, where she lives with her husband, son, and requisite cat.