Have you taken revenge on someone by putting them in your book?
Oh yes. There was a particularly obnoxious review on Amazon, which speculated about our personal life. Yup, she is in a book as a sniveling weak villain, and she is now dead. Muhahahahaha! Cross me at your peril!
What’s the recipe for apology banana bread?
I use this one. It’s a basic recipe that’s easy to modify and it doesn’t call for sour cream or buttermilk, which I don’t usually keep stocked. I also add a cup of frozen blueberries to it. If you are going fruit or berry route, it helps to coat the fruit in about a quarter cup of flour. You just want it dusted. That way it will stay distributed through the batter rather than sink to the bottom. Thanks, Paul Hollywood. 🙂
What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food?
Ham. I don’t typically buy it during the year, but when holiday season rolls around around, it’s like a switch in my brain gets flipped that says “ham time.” It must be salty, not sweet and not spiral cut. Just a hunk of ham on the bone. And I know exactly why.
Pork sausage, commonly known in Rostov-on-Don as “rulet.” Unlike people in Moscow and St. Peterburg, I grew up in a provincial city. We had basically two sausage choices: bologna or rulet. Everything else was gross. Bologna tasted like it was mostly paper pulp, but rulet at least had chunks of meat in it.
One of the stand-out moments in my early time in US was when Gordon took me to a grocery store while we were in college. When I was growing up, one of the annual traditions in Russia was a rerun of 17 Moments of Spring, a spy miniseries set during WWII. It features a Soviet spy, Shtirlitz, who somehow made it high up in Nazi Reich. In one scene, he is in a train and he is trying to get someone, I think a Nazi officer, to talk to him, and he says, “Yes, but I have Italian salami” and the officer quickly decided that lunch with Shtirlitz is in his best interests. Salami was a special treat. Sometimes Dad would bring some from a business trip to Moscow.
My shopping trip with Gordon went something like this.
Me: Is this Italian salami?
Grocery person: Yes.
Me: And this is the price per pound?
Grocery person: Yes?
Me: And it’s available year around? This isn’t a special thing? If I come back in a week, you will still have it?
Grocery person, who is working in a small Ingles in the middle of Smoky Mountains, squinting at me: Yes.
Me: Okay. I will take a stick.
Grocery person: We have it precut over there in a package.
Me:
If Kate and Curran really fought, who would win?
Is magic up or down? If magic is up, Kate would win. If magic is down, well, Kate is a badass, but she is just a human, and Curran is a werelion.
Will Kate and Curran ever have another baby?
Hehehe.
The last “hehehe.” KILLED.ME. ????????????????????
I was curious as to whether or not Kate’s regeneration extends to her fertility. Will her body just keep making new egg cells? Will Conlan be grown, mated and having children of his own the same time as he’s getting a new sibling?
That was a very nice evil chuckle. You been practicing. I can tell.
Awesome you guys rock. you are The very Best authors you’re fun and interact with your needy fans.
I love the questions almost as much as I love those answers.
I wish Kate’s world were real. I would pray for a thousand years of happiness prosperity and productive rating for you both. By the time we were done you might even be deities
Thanks for some smiles/wicked grins, and for the tip re. flouring berries. I love blueberries in things, so it’s definitely one I’ll remember.
Also, re. Nancy’s tip to make moist baked goods with applesauce, [canned] pumpkin is another flavor possibility.
“Apology bananas bread”? I’ve missed something again haven’t I?
So, years ago my in-laws came for a visit. My mother in law decided to get up early and make breakfast for us all. She turned on my oven to preheat. We all woke up to the sound of the smoke alarm. She hadn’t looked, and so missed that the chocolate cake was hiding in the oven from the very big dog who had discovered that he was now tall enough to pilfer from the countertops.
On another topic some time ago I saw a blog post looking for possible retirement options. May I suggest Florence or another of the Quad Cities in Alabama? A lovely smallish town with a university, near an active music business or five. We have a big river and several large lakes. Yes, you silly thing there is a state income tax BUT… It is 2 percent. We found that the decrease in insurance costs and property taxes has more than offset that pittance.
Example: property tax on a home in Fort Worth, Texas was well in excess of $10,000 per year. A nicer house in Florence with an equivalent price tag costs less than $1000 per year in Property Tax and the insurance on houses and cars are about 1/3 of what we paid in Texas. Don’t take my word for it, look us up online.
When I was studying Russian, we used actual recordings made in the field. One, a soldier was calling his wife and letting her know he was coming home. She asked what he was bringing her, and he laughed and said, “Sausage”. She giggled, and asked, “How much?’ His voice got very low, and he said, “All you want”. I don’t think it was salami.
Love this, and thank you for your blog! Your posts on writing and your start in the business are immensely helpful and relatable, and each new post on any topic is a treat to read. It’s so generous that you share what you do, and it’s appreciated. Plus, your writing/books…So Good.
The last answer made me cackle LMAOOO you tease!