A few months ago, it seemed like the entire world was baking their own bread and I couldn’t find a package of yeast in the stores for love or money. My creative son learned to make his own sourdough starter and has been baking wonderful bread with it ever since. Recently, he gave me my own container of the magic stuff so I, too, could bake bread. Not a bad first effort, I thought.
Confession! I think I killed the sourdough. I put it in the fridge and forgot to feed it.
Which is when I realized the care of feeding of sourdough is very much like the process of writing a book. The author has the starter, or the kernel of an idea. We feed it. We coddle it. We play with it, knead it, and form it into a loaf. We feed it some more. And much like that beautiful, golden, delicious-smelling loaf of bread we eventually lift from the oven, one day we have an entire book. Or at least enough pages we can painstakingly revise and eventually shape into a book.
We all know it’s been a tough year. Some writers talk about burn out and Covid fatigue, while others credit the writing for keeping them going and giving them positive to focus on every day.
Personally, I find inspiration in my characters. Those pioneer women living on the frontier, where months might go by before they see a visitor. They can’t afford to let their sourdough die. They can’t loll around watching Hallmark movies and eating chocolate. They have work to do in order to survive. And so do I. I have readers waiting for my next book in my new series. I have brides waiting to get married and babies waiting to be born. Towns to create and outbacks to settle. And so I get busy. I feed the sourdough. I keep it going as I write the next book.
The cover for HOPE, Book 1 in my new series is currently in round 3 of a cover contest, if anyone has a second to pop over and vote I would really appreciate it.
https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month/9870/
As I work on my new series, I found time to put my Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Series into a two-part boxed set. Each volume contains a not-for-sale bonus novella. These sets free to read in KU.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZW9SVZK https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M9L1V2F
And since we’re talking about baking, here’s a link to download a FREE cookie recipe book at your favorite on-line bookstore. https://books2read.com/dickens-cookie
3 comments:
Hi Kathleen! Great blog. I confess I am Not a baker. I would've killed the dough, too. I remember the cake batter that went around many years ago, where you get a bit from someone, add to it, pass on a bit of yours to someone else... yeah, I gave up on that after day 1. Wishing you much success the cover contest. I voted and hope you continue on to the next round. Hugs!
Perfect analogy and kudos to you for bringing it to our consciousness.
Additionally, the best of luck with the new series. Doris
Thanks Doris and Julie for stopping by to comment. It's always nice for a writer to know she's not just throwing words into the wind.
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