My friend Robin gave me a starter bag to make Amish Friendship Bread; sweet bread that tastes like a moist cake. For the first five days I opened the gallon sized bag to release the air and then seal it and smash the contents in the bag. On the sixth day, I added a cup each of flour, sugar and milk. Then I sealed the bag again and squished all the ingredients until they were mixed together. I continued to squish the ingredients in the bag and release the air once a day. On the tenth day, I again added another cup each of flour, sugar and milk. This time I mixed it all together. I scooped out three separate cups of the mix and poured one cup into three one-gallon sized bags. I kept the last cup of the batch and added the remaining ingredients and baked a loaf of bread for my friend. 1 cup oil 1/2 cup milk 3 eggs 1 tsp. vanilla In a separate bowl combine the following dry ingredients and mix well: 2 cups flour 1 cup sugar 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder 2 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 – (5.1 oz) box instant vanilla pudding 1/2 tsp. salt 1 cup nuts Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix and pour into two well greased and sugared bread pans. While the bread baked a wonderful vanilla cinnamon smell permeated the kitchen. It baked for one hour in a 325 degree oven. I knew…
Meg Donohue knows how to whet an appetite and pay homage to a gal’s sweet tooth. Her first book, How to Eat a Cupcake (William Morrow Paperbacks, March 2012) unfolds over the course of a year, opening in June and wrapping up sweetly in May. The story is told from two perspectives and, while the protagonists duke it out, the reader feasts on some delicious… [Read More]
Are you an author who wants to learn how to use social media tools? Are you looking for some time-saving tricks and tools to help you write and promote your book? Are you overwhelmed and don’t know where to start… or even which questions to ask? This is a 90 minute workshop for authors and writers who want to learn how to: Use track changes… [Read More]
For a comic book, its visual design is superb. Campfire’s latest adaptation, Rudyard Kipling’s classic The Jungle Book, is absolutely gorgeous: it’s not in the same playing field as popular superhero comics by DC and Marvel, that’s for sure. (Feel free to disagree, but neither Spiderman nor Green Lantern has ever been drawn so crisply or in colors so rich.) Children will love the drawings… [Read More]
Too often I hear writers say they don’t see the point of social media, while others say they will use it after they’ve written their book. It’s a common refrain: writers just want to write. Many writers shy away from social media because they think it is nothing more than hype and sales. These are the same people who use Google search engines, rely on online… [Read More]
Literary agents agree. Editors at Big Six publishing houses agree. Bestselling authors agree. If you want to publish a book, you need to use social media. But what is social media? How can YOU use it to sell your book-in-progress? Why have a blog, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn? How will you write your book if you are always online? And who really cares about social… [Read More]



