Today is the last day to submit entries to my cookbook giveaway! The official end time is 11:59 pm Central Time. Be sure to get your entries in ASAP for a chance to win a signed copy of my new cookbook, A Literary Tea Party, and a Tea with Tolkien mug!
I LOVE the mugs. One is green and says “Tea with Tolkien” and the other is blue and says “Lattes with Lewis”! 😀
As many of you have heard from my posts here on the blog and on social media, I’ve been working hard to get the word out about my book. However, there’s a lot of other new exciting things going on as well! First off, we’re moving! We’re currently in the process of packing and house hunting—with the hope that we’ll be tucked away in our new home before the end of the summer. We’re very excited about this new change for our family and can’t wait to find a new place.
We also have ANOTHER new and exciting thing in the works! The timing isn’t quite right to reveal the details yet, but I’m hoping to spill the beans some time in July. 😉
All that being said, I’m having trouble keeping up with my normal post schedule. And I’ve been just AWFUL at keeping up with blog comments. I’ve tried to work ahead as much as possible, but the fast pace in conjunction with my hectic schedule has created confusion and mix ups (some of you may remember two weeks ago when my Vulcan Spice tea post published a week early…before my Star Trek menu even started! Eek!!!). I was already considering parring down my Tuesday posts, but the Vulcan Spice mix up made it clear that I REALLY needed to.
For the next several months, I’m putting all my regular Tuesday posts on hold (Top Ten Tuesday linkups, reading kits, and tea premieres). I can’t give an exact end time, but it will go at least until the start of October. However, there WILL be lots of new book updates, so I’ll share those on Tuesdays as they occur. Of course, my recipe posts will continue to publish every Thursday as usual.
I’ll see you all on Thursday for my next Star Trek recipe.
It’s a fun one, and I’m happy to say the Little Mister and I are both huge fans of it! 🙂
Hey, everybody! I FINALLY got a chance to write another cookbook post!! 😀 I’ve been sharing quick social media updates when I can, but they’re just no substitute for sitting down and sharing ALL the fun new things going on in cookbook land. I would’ve done so sooner, but after I submitted my final manuscript to my editor in October, I had to submerse myself in my blog for awhile. I needed to plan my first three 2018 menus, and all three wound up including intense recipes (namely, two gingerbread houses and a roast goose). Then came planning and cooking for my son’s first birthday party, which was fun but didn’t leave a lot of free time for cookbook posts. Now things have settled down, and I’m ready to share all the juicy details about what’s been going on since I submitted my manuscript!
My editor and I spent the last several months tweaking everything from minor wording to the cover design. We made one big change and added some new material, and we’ve got some promotional events in the works. I’ve included the details below, so let’s dive in!
Oh, year’s end. I can’t believe how quickly you sneaked up on me. One minute I’m hunkering down to wait out the last few weeks before my baby’s born; the next minute said baby is zooming around on all fours trying to eat all my books (RIP Eva Ibbotson omnibus). Add in writing a cookbook, and this year has been quite a whirlwind.
There are lots of ways I’ve wanted to expand, improve, and otherwise stretch my creative muscles with my blog format this year. However, I knew it was best to put them on hold until the chaos subsided. Now that things are finally starting to approach some semblance of normal, the time has come to dust off those ideas and take them for a spin! After all, the New Year is supposed to be all about new beginnings, right? So I’ve got lots of fun new blog plans—both big and small—in the works for 2018.
And today, we’re setting the very first of those ideas in motion! Y’know how I always choose the Book of the Month in advance and leave a hint on Twitter? Well, for January 2018 I wanted to do fairy tales, but there are so many great ones I had trouble choosing, especially since I wasn’t sure which ones you guys would most like to see on a menu. And then I thought, “Why not ASK them?”
So here’s the plan…
Below you’ll find a poll with a list of 6 Grimm’s fairy tales. Vote for your favorite or add your own! The 4 with the most votes with be featured in my January menu. The poll will be open for all of December, and I’ll make sure to pin it to my Twitter page so you can check progress. Who knows, if we get a big turnout, voting for the January Book of the Month might become a new Alison’s Wonderland tradition!
Thanks for voting, and may the most magical tales win! 😉
What Grimms' fairy tale do you most want to see a recipe for in January?
Hansel and Gretel 25%, 10 votes
10 votes25%
10 votes - 25% of all votes
The Twelve Dancing Princesses 20%, 8 votes
8 votes20%
8 votes - 20% of all votes
Little Red Riding Hood 13%, 5 votes
5 votes13%
5 votes - 13% of all votes
Rumpelstiltskin*13%, 5 votes
5 votes13%
5 votes - 13% of all votes
Cinderella 10%, 4 votes
4 votes10%
4 votes - 10% of all votes
Rapunzel 10%, 4 votes
4 votes10%
4 votes - 10% of all votes
Snow White 10%, 4 votes
4 votes10%
4 votes - 10% of all votes
Total Votes: 40
Voters: 25
November 29, 2017
- December 31, 2017
Voting is closed
NOTES:
- It is possible to vote for multiples (but no more than 3).
- If you decide to add a new fairy tale to the list, be sure it's from the Brothers Grimm (I'm planning on doing a Hans Christian Andersen menu at a later date).
- If you change your mind, don't worry! The poll is set up so you can change your vote if you want.
Our Book of the Month for THIS month will be announced on Thursday!
Check my Twitter for a hint about what it will be! 🙂
Hey, everybody! We’re due for another cookbook update, and what a grand one it is: I FINISHED MY MANUSCRIPT!
I’ve spent the last month or so making final tweaks to recipes, fine-tuning instructions, and finalizing photo choices. My perfectionist streak truly made itself known. I can’t tell you how much time I spent staring at two virtually identical photographs, trying to decide which one I liked better!
Then at 2:20 am (!!!) on Monday morning, I hit send on the final document. It was such an incredible moment…but also strange, realizing I’d completed something I started over a year ago. All of a sudden, I felt like a real author. Despite the early hour, the Little Mister was awake for the occasion…which I’m sure was because he wanted to share the big moment with me. 😉
I haven’t gotten word yet from my editor about what she thinks, but I’ll probably hear from her by the end of the week. There’s still a lot of work ahead, but it’s such a relief to have cleared this first big hurdle!
Here’s a rundown of some new things I added to the manuscript:
Howdy, folks! We’re back with another cookbook update. If you haven’t heard, I’m publishing a teatime cookbook of literary recipes with Skyhorse Publishing, and I’m wildly excited about it. Last month I gave a quick rundown of what we had put together, and today I’m going to be updating you guys on our progress. So here we go! ^.^
Howdy, folks! Back when I first announced I was writing a teatime cookbook, I asked if/how/when you’d like to receive updates, and many of you requested a monthly post detailing how things are coming along. Here’s the first installment! A lot has come together since I first started working on it, but here are the highlights:
February is drawing to a close, and I’m happy to say we’re settling in well with our new baby, and it looks like I’ll be able to be more active on the blog in the coming weeks. That in mind, I think the time is right for another big announcement that I’ve been waiting on for a long while:
Blogging is definitely one of those things that changes your life. Whether you monetize your blog or not, you often find yourself needing to treat your blog like a job so you can bring consistent, high-quality posts to your readers.
Personally, I love the blogging life. I love the new opportunities I’ve been able to pursue and the way blogging challenges both my creativity and my practicality. Still, I sometimes look back on my pre-blogging days with a wistful sigh as I remember the free time I used to have.
Here are a few of the thing I love best about being a blogger (and a few things I miss about life before blogging):
I think one of the best things about being a book blogger is the sense of community. Reading has traditionally been considered a solitary activity, so we readers appreciate it that much more when we meet someone who loves the same books we do. Of course, Twitter plays a huge part in maintaining the online reading community, and the 10 accounts listed below are the bookish “tweeters” I simply couldn’t do without. They’re clever, insightful, and often hilarious—a blessing to all book lovers everywhere! 🙂
This January marked my blog’s second anniversary. I like to think I’ve learned a few things about food blogging over the past couple years, and one of those things is just how powerful the proper tools can be. However, it may surprise you to know that this dish:
….was made in this kitchen:
That’s right! Up until three months ago, I was making all my food in a tiny galley kitchen. It had two squares of counter space, two drawers, and no windows. Though it was bigger than my very first kitchen (a studio kitchenette), I was worried it would be too small to handle a food blog. In fact, I’d read posts about bloggers renovating kitchens that were already bigger than mine. In the end I decided to give it my best shot and see what happened. I was pretty surprised by what I learned!
