Tomorrow is the final day of Banned Books Week, 2011.  In the words of the American Library Association:

“Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.  Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.” (more…)

If you’ve tuned in for the first time, you can read all about CHUsday and my monthly giveaway here.  Or go to Cookbook Hoarders United under categories and see what we’ve been doing.

The comments have slacked off, so if you’re pulling out old cookbooks, you’re not telling me and entering the giveaway.  Why not make something by the end of the month, tell us what you made and how it went, and enter for September’s autographed book and silly kitchen gadget (Yolky, the amazing egg separator.) Kids are back in school and it’s autumn.  Think soups, or stews, or maybe hot apple pie.  There’s always a wonderful casserole you’ve yet to discover.

Several years ago my youngest son gave me a new bread book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day by Hertzberg and Francois.  He knew how much I love to make bread, and he thought this would be a fun new addition.  I thought so, too, only I had my own bread ritual, and never quite got into this radically different approach.  (more…)

Welcome to Sunday Poetry.  If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday blogs here.

Friday was the first day of fall, and deserves a poem in commemoration. I’ve chosen Autumn  Movement by Carl Sandburg, and because it’s in public domain, I can quote it here.   

Autumn, a time of pumpkins and cornstalks, harvest celebrations, and ghosts and ghoulies trick-or-treating on our doorsteps, is also a time of endings.  Sandburg doesn’t dwell there, but talks about “new beautiful things” to come, suggesting that change is just that, and not to be feared. (more…)

In my house it’s easy to tell how close I am to turning in a book. 

1–We eat takeout and frozen foods from the last decade.

2–I begin to wear clothing that under normal circumstances I would use to dust my furniture.

3–I can’t remember the date, often even the month, since it does NOT coincide with the month I’m writing about.

4–When the neighbors actually catch sight of me, they ask if I’ve been away.

5–I ask doctors and dentists if I’ll survive until October 31st if I don’t have that root canal or pesky laser treatment on my retina.

6–I wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night.

Lately cold sweat and I have become friends.  I’ve even contemplated counting cold sweat as a shower and thereby saving myself the minutes it takes to stand in a real one.  I am nearing a deadline and I still have ten chapters to write. (more…)

Let’s get the biz part over fast.  In an effort to make use of some of those MANY cookbooks lining your shelves, some (most?) of which you haven’t opened in a year, we’re doing a fun giveaway here called Cookbook Hoarders United.  Just try a recipe from one of your orphaned cookbooks (one you haven’t used in a year or more, or never used) and tell us about it by clicking “comment” above.  For every recipe you try, you’ll be entered for one chance at a giveaway of a copy of an autographed novel AND a silly kitchen gadget.  Behold Yolky, this month’s gadget.  Separate eggs with ease by perching Yolky on the side of your bowl.  Need more info on what to do?  You can find that here. (more…)

Welcome to Sunday Poetry.  If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday blogs here.

Today’s poem, Numbers by Mary Cornish, comes to us from Poetry 180, and I’ve included it in honor of all those students and teachers back in classrooms this month, struggling with addition or algebra or calculus.  I relate.  I would find calculus a struggle, wouldn’t you?  (more…)

Okay, who remembers Tom Paxton?  Remember his song Daily News?  “Daily news, daily blues, pick up a copy every time you choose.  Seven little pennies in the newsboy’s hand. . .“  Seven little pennies?  Newsboy?  How old is this song, anyway?

Apparently it’s this old: “Civil rights leaders are a pain in the neck, can’t hold a candle to Chiang Kai-shek.”  Ask your children or grandchildren who Chiang Kai-shek was and gauge accordingly.  Or for a real eye-opener, ask them about civil rights.

Vintage or not, I find myself humming Daily News sometimes when I see an article or headline in the newspaper that sounds like an idea for a book.  While I have access to many newspapers online, my book ideas usually come from the Washington Post, which is delivered straight to my sidewalk.  For this purpose a newspaper in the hand is worth two on the iPad.  It’s the little articles, the ones you’d never notice online or that wouldn’t even make it there, that often have the best story ideas hidden inside.  Local crimes and gossip.  Obituaries.  Letters to the editor. Advice columns–always good for romances and family drama. (more…)

We completed August with some great entries in the CHU giveaway.  Random.org chose Lee Ann’s entry–which was actually the first–a selection from the cookbook, Adventures In Cooking, from the Sunnyside Presbyterian Church in South Bend, Indiana and submitted by a Mrs. G.V. Swigart.

The book came to Lee Ann from Great-Grandmother “B,” and Lee Ann chose this recipe (see below) because she’d never used sour cream in a chicken recipe and thought it might be interesting.  Lee Ann was glad she did, and reading it, I can see why. 

Lee Ann said in addition to the cookbook, her “Mamaw” wrote a letter to go with it, which she pasted inside, and that some of the recipes come from her great-grandmother’s sister.

Lee Ann has touched on my own fascination with cookbooks.  Each one seems to come with a story.  The torn-up copy of Joy of Cooking that my mother wrote a message in when she gave it to me one Christmas a few years before she died.  The Good Housekeeping Cookbook I bought at a rare bookstore on my fiftieth birthday, because it had been my mother’s favorite, and she had mourned its loss after a move.  Although she’s been gone for more than thirty years I feel closer to her having both with me now.

And what about all those cookbooks we’ve picked up at charitable functions or fundraisers (like Lee Ann’s great-grandmother did?)  Cookbooks we’ve picked up on our travels?  I have a Hungarian cookbook I’m determined to pull out soon.  I used it once, but it deserves better.

I love having the cookbooks, and now I love making time to use them.  I hope you will, too.  Pictured above is September’s silly kitchen gadget prize, the Yolky egg separator from Joie,  You simply clip Yolky to the side of your bowl and break your egg into the little cup, and the white runs through.  And of course, there’ll be an autographed novel to go with Yolky boy. 

I hope you’ll pull out that unused cookbook you’ve never quite been able to throw away, make a recipe and tell us about it by commenting on any CHU post.  Then you’ll be entered in this month’s giveaway.  And don’t forget, you have one chance for EVERY recipe you try, so increase your chances of winning and get busy in the kitchen.  Be sure to tell us about your connection to the cookbook you’ve used.

Thank you, Lee Ann, for this recipe and the story that went with it.  This sounds yummy.

Welcome to Sunday Poetry.  If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday blogs here.

Today is September 11th, and the poem, Heaven by Patrick Phillips, is in honor of all who live on only in memories.  Phillips gives us a poignant image of the afterlife to ponder.  What is your own vision of heaven?  Does Phillips’s give you a strange lump in the throat as it did me?  Do you want to relive the past you “remember,” eternally, and not the one that may actually have occurred?

I loved the simplicity of this poem, but also its power and the images it created.  And you?

Remember there are no quizzes here, no right ways to read or contemplate the poem we share.  No dissecting allowed.  Just come along for the “read,” and enjoy the experience.    What line or word or thought will you carry along with you this week?  And if you’d like to tell us where the poem took you?  We’ll listen.

Welcome, Kylie. Before we go too much further I ought to point out you’ve been here before under an alias. Now you’ve taken on an entirely new identity? Exactly what are you running from and who’s after you? Are we going to get into trouble for harboring you on this blog and for giving away a copy of the evidence?

Ah, if only my life was that exciting! Actually, I do have two different names I’m writing under right now, but for way more boring reasons. As Kylie Logan, I’m writing the new Button Box mystery series. As Casey Daniels I write the Pepper Martin mysteries. Why the name change? Because there is a paranormal element in the Pepper Martin mysteries (she works in a cemetery and investigates for the ghosts there). The Button Box mysteries, on the other hand, are “straight” cozies. Nothing woo-woo or paranormal, just cozy mysteries.

Years ago you and I went antiquing and saw Mason jars filled with wonderful old buttons. I bought one and still have it in my sewing room–although with fewer buttons since they now adorn a quilt. Did you file away the idea for a button shop then? Or when did the idea occur to you and how did you mold it into a brand new series?

I wish I would have bought a jar of buttons that day, too. Since I’ve started writing the series and have been looking for old buttons, I haven’t found any jars of them anywhere! As for how I got started with the Button Box mysteries .

I’ve always liked old buttons. As Josie Giancola, the heroine of my series says, they’re little bits of history, tiny pieces of art. Like all writers, I look at things like buttons and imagine who owned them and what kind of lives those people had. And buttons really can tell us a lot about the people who owned them: what styles they likes, what their social class was, how they took care of their clothes. There are lots of interesting customs associated with buttons, too. For instance, in the nineteenth century, girls would have photographs of their boyfriends put on their buttons and would wear those buttons on their coats.

That’s a long way of saying that I think buttons are fascinating!

So all that has always been in the back of my mind. Then, a couple years ago, I was up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, having lunch by myself on the front porch of a charming coffee shop. Two people came out to the porch and sat at the table next to me and decided to use that exact moment to break up with each other! They went on and on, and I kept expecting them to apologize. It was obvious I could hear every word they were saying! Well, I finally had enough, and I gathered up my things and headed to the first place I could find, an antique shop nearby. When I opened the door, I saw buttons. Thousands and thousands of buttons! Visiting that antique button shop gave me the idea for the Button Box, the shop my heroine owns. Hers is not in Ann Arbor, but in Chicago, in a converted brownstone.

Tell us about any interesting research you did along the way. Is button collecting really a thriving hobby? Do you have your own collection?

You know, I met a newbie writer recently, and she said something about how easy it must be to write contemporary books because they don’t require any research. Wrong! Every book demands research, and I’ve had fun doing it for the Button Box books. I visited a historic museum in Milan, Ohio that houses a great button collection and the nice folks there let me play with the buttons to my heart’s content. I’ve also assisted on a judging panel at a contest at a button show. Yes, there are button shows. All over the country. And knowledgeable, interesting experts who know everything there is to know about historic buttons. There is a National Button Society for those interested in collecting and according to what I’ve read, button collecting is the third most popular hobby in the country, right after coin and stamp collecting. 

As for a collection of my own, I do have a few buttons, but hardly what I’d call a collection. I’m still at the point of learning which buttons I like the most. There are so many possibilities! Right now, I’m particularly attracted to realistics (buttons that look like real things, i.e, dogs, houses, birds, etc.). I also like black glass buttons, mother of pearl buttons, Bakelite buttons, art glass buttons . . .

In the fabulous review from Blogcritics, the reviewer was particularly pleased that you didn’t let the hobby overtake the mystery. How do you balance the two? Buttons are fascinating, but clearly your mystery and characters are equally so.

That’s the trick, isn’t it? For any writer. We’ve got to take whatever element we think is particularly interesting (like buttons) and put it in a book without it overshadowing the book. I think the trick there is to integrate the two. Buttons are interesting in Button Holed, but they’re only interesting as they relate to the story and because the buttons are vital to the solution to the mystery. If all that button info was just thrown in there for window dressing, it would be an instant invitation to boredom for the reader. A writer’s job is to mix and blend and make sure that the info that is there is important. That’s what gets a reader involved and lets that reader learn a thing or two about buttons along the way.

There’s a rumor making the rounds that Kylie Logan/Casey Daniels/Miranda Bliss/Connie Laux may have come up with yet another fabulous idea. You’re a woman of many talents. Can you give us a sneak peek and tell us when we might see that one on shelves, too?

It’s true, though since I haven’t officially signed the contract yet, I’m not going to reveal too many details. I’ll have a new series starting, probably in 2013. I can tell you the series takes place on an island, and that it involves four women who really (really!) don’t like each other. Ah yes, they will be thrown together and will have to solve mysteries, too. It’s going to be a whole lot of fun to write, but before I can begin book #1, I’ve got Pepper Martin mystery #9 to finish (should be published fall, 2012) and the third book in the Button Box series. The second in the series (title looks like it’s going to change so I won’t tell you the working title) will be out summer, 2012. As for that new series, I’m not sure what name I’ll be using for that one! 

I’ve just bought Button Holed for my eReader and can’t wait to dive in. And one lucky reader who comments on this blog in the next week will be entered in a giveaway for a signed copy of Button Holed, so don’t be shy.  Add your comments or ask your questions here for a chance to win.  As always, random.org will make the selection.

Thanks for being here, Kylie, to tell us about your latest.