From the Horde Speaks Comment section:
“I love the crochet and yarn snippets. Maybe soap making too!“
“Since you’ve gotten at least some people started on soap making, do you have a favorite recipe/scent/technique for pouring?“
The last few days didn’t go as planned. My family taught me to respond to such times by cooking, but we are older now, and cooking is carefully curated.
(This alliteration is criminal, wow.)
Anyhow, instead of responding by cooking, I’ve responded by making way too much melt and pour soap. I didn’t trust myself with lye in my current emotionally compromised state.
Trauma soap. It smells like sandalwood and pumpkin. Well, some of it smells like oat milk and honey and some like autumn figs. I get my soap supplies from Bramble Berry.
Most of that is just therapy. I am reasonably sure that the bars in the first picture will hold up through use. Those molds are very deep. I’ve tested them and everything stays put. But some of the pumpkin bars will likely lose the leaves in the wash. They are not falling off on touch, but those molds needed to be a lot deeper so you can embed them better in the soap. I’d sprayed alcohol between layers, which helps them adhere, but I don’t think it will hold.
Oh well, it is pretty to look at.
I also made some Kair Toren bars again.
These start out as blue and once you use them for a bit, the shells start to show through. I cut this one to show the shell. It smells like Island Escape.
Because these are melt and pour, they should be shrink wrapped right away, but I left a few unwrapped, so Kid 1 can smell them before she picks out the ones she likes. Kid 2 had already taken hers.
I ran out of soap. I still have candle wax though. Food for thought.
Speaking of soap, I have gotten some complaints about This Kingdom’s soap making. Maggie is making hot process soap. She is making it in an iron pot over the fire, which would stay very hot. In my head, that would mimic the slow cooker. However, I didn’t explain it well. That scene was recut several times, because originally I went into too much detail, and we didn’t need a treatise on soap making.
(Originally, it had the whole thing about how she overmixed it, etc. Bottom line: we needed less soap, more story.)
I’ve reread it and I can see how it can be read as cold process soap. I will try to get this fixed in the next reprint.
If you’re interested, here is the video that shows the process.
Mod R will be sending me your questions, and we will kick new blog post round off tomorrow. Unless we do a giveaway. Stay tuned.
First?
Certified!
this sounds interesting…..
happy soap making day
Soap making 😀 Yeah!
I ended up making trauma lotion last night 🤣😂🤣
Enjoy the soap making process. Also enjoy the candle making process if you decide to make candles.
When I read Maggie’s soap process, I wasn’t confused at all as to which method she was doing.
Speaking of Maggie’s soap process, I am re-reading This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me for the I don’t know how many times. 😀
I wasn’t confused either, it was clear for me that is hot, and I don’t know anything about soap making.
I read some books that had detail descriptions of random stuff, and it’s part of the fantasy so don’t stress too much about it, it is your book and you can put as much soap in there as you need and want. We love the soap part, we think it’s genius.
+1
Well said! Completely agree!
Soap making intrigues me. I want to learn how to make soap with lanolin for washing wooly items.
And I’m about to re-listen to Maggie again…
Holygawd! Ami within the Top ten of comments?
And just so you know, thank you for the title of “Trauma SOAP”. The first photo of stuff looked like candies on top of a weird chocolate/ peanut butter / fudge base. Yummy
I will take any of your posts anytime, there is always something interesting to learn.😁
And I might not have the first idea about soap making (so I would never have noticed any inconsistencies in the book…) – but I adore you for for this level of dedication and attention to detail, it really makes your work stand out! Thank you so much.
+ 1
+1
My kid used to make soap a little bit & they knew the soap was hot process but their worry about the soap making was that lye based hot process soaps need to cure before use otherwise they can still be slightly caustic & the book doesn’t show that happening (but obviously magic world soap might be different).
I made 3 different cold process soaps after reading Maggie so many times. Lemon Verbena with olive oil, lemon/lemon verbena with coconut oil and Lavender/tallow. Super fun! Who knew it could be so easy!
I figured soap making, Maggie was outside using a pot over fire, with other world ingredients, therefore you have author’s freedom of imagination to make it work…. Your soap is very pretty…
I loved reading about the soap making, but I do not need another hobby….i really do not…..
Right now I am watching my hubby walk into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of our 50th state….and enjoying the sounds of the surf…
I know it is soap, but that first photo of the autumn pumpkin soap looks like some kind of yummy dessert treat, like some fancy square with layers of chocolate, pumpkin & vanilla filling topped with (maybe) fancy little colored leaves made of chocolate or filled with tasty fancy chocolates filling, like caramel. Just saying. And now I want yummy chocolate! The good, high cocoa mass dark stuff, say 70% or higher from Ecuador. Yes, I am a chocolate snob:)
I think the soap making thing in the book is cool, I liked that. It’s a transformational basic tech that also allows Maggie to make herself financially independent. It’s clever.
OMG I desperately need a new trauma hobby. I’m still baking trauma-infused sourdough and it is currently adding to my stress levels instead of decreasing them (new house, new indoor climate and new oven :((( )
Was also not confused about soap making process because I don’t have a clue, will remedy that this weekend.
I feel you! Moving house also killed my starter, Olivia Low-Gluten John.
Oh no! I haven’t gotten into the trauma baking yet. I’m in the “where the heck did the movers put the box where my cookbooks are in?!” hunt. 🤪
I vaguely recall making soap in chemistry class back in school. It’s been a minute 😅 so the details are fuzzy enough that I didn’t see anything wrong with the scene in the book.
Weirdly enough the only other book I recall mentioning soap making is one of the Jean Auel books, make of that what you will 😂😂
Now we know the title of the second Maggie book!! This Cooking will not Curate me!!!!
+1 Bravo
I love that you craft & try things. The pictures look fabulous . I wish we could smell the soap.
My emotional support thing is cooking great food…. for other people. Feeding myself means something quick.
This sounds like very good therapy. I just ordered another round of bath bomb making supplies in the same vein. I am considering soap as well. But waiting till I perfect the bombs. Last round mostly lost their scents in the water and didn’t give me the milky silky water I wanted.
I am seriously struggling despite having done so many things to make my life better. Still listening (like as I type) to Maggie on repeat. Haven’t stopped since the day after it came out (I read it first). It’s helping to keep me sane.
I had no clue that there was anything off about the soap making descriptions – just enjoyed reading about Maggie’s entrepreneurial experiments.
You are so creative.
we didn’t need a treatise on soap making.
That’s what we have Patrick Rothfuss for!
These are so pretty, I can practically smell them. I love homemade soaps, and thus brings me right back into Kair Toren.
Thank you for sharing parts of your life . I’ve been trying to get my daughter to read your books. Maggie was her first and definitely won’t be her last. I hope your therapy helps. I just retired and am going to have to try myself.
Ok, now I have to make some soaps! Sounds like fun! Spent some time on the Brambleberry site and seems like I could make the melt and pour.
I’m hardly cooking at all right now, which is not great for my nutrition. Been a hard year and I am still recovering physically.
Glad you are done editing and can take a break for awhile!
Im looking forward to the Android app!
I need to find a new trauma hobby as trauma baking when you live alone and work remote is dangerous. Maybe trauma beading? I’ve been trauma cleaning/organizing at random hours since I lost one of my cats on Tuesday. Normal people totally start randomly start cleaning and organizing at 1 am, right? Asking for a friend…
Kelsey, no helpful words but so sorry about your cat. Please tell your “friend” that Normal is overrated!
A great trauma hobby is needle felting: you get to stab wool repeatedly with a sharp needle and end up with something cute or nice. You can also make lovely wool-covered soaps (wet felting) that are great gifts or look nice for guests. You can even cover “oops” soaps that don’t come out quite as you expected. Lots of YouTube videos to get you started. (I actually made up some kits with straightforward needle felting projects for some of the moms at the children’s hospital, so they would have a stress-relieving activity while spending endless hours at their children’s bedside. True Trauma hobby…)
Condolences on losing one of your cats. When I get trauma in my life I do the exact same thing you’re doing right now. I do it until my body tells me to stop, but my mind keeps going until everything’s done.
Right now, I’m in the process of getting my stuff in my new apartment organized and configured to where I want things to go.
I also crochet when I want/need something to do and my mind can’t stop spinning. It’s getting to the point when I move, I make a new blanket. 😂😂
It’s a bit rude to email an author to complain about the mechanics of a thing 🫣
I get it! When you know about a thing you are like, huh?
One of my favorite authors wrote a story where a piece of yarn was spun into a circle on a drop spindle. Never questioned it until I joined a spinning guild and learned to spin.
Now I chalk it up to book magic because you would not end up with a circle for so many reasons. It would be more of a Gordian knot.
Buuuttt that’s a musing I don’t need to take back to the author.
Hope the soap making helped and that you are feeling better.
I do not need anymore hobbies!! Will NOT click links 😂
::clicks links::
That was an awesome share. Watching the soap “cook” was pretty funky. And from Australia – here. I now a lot more about soap making beyond “finding Kye in the tool shed makes you a suspect for the murder…”
Your soaps are gorgeous. So much pretty. Happy. Happy.
LYE
Damn auto correction.
I hope that whatever prompted the Trauma Soap making has been reduced to a minor annoyance, and you can return to regularly scheduled programming, er, life.
Hugs and best wishes…
nice, catching up while trying to eat post dentist…. it’s an experience!
I’ve done soapmaking once… so long ago I’ve forgotten the process and if it was hot or cold. so might have to check it out again. if there cut thesis can be a bonus you know well all happily devour 😄
have a lovely week and hopefully a reduction in the stress/trauma what triggered the making of the soap.
The soap-making scene was hot in my mind. Just putting that out there. Loved the book. Reading through the Kate series now.
You mention fixing the scene in a reprint. How does that work? Can you edit a book already published and change a thing here and there?
Did you go the agent to publisher route? My SO wrote a book several years ago and I think we did absolutely everything wrong. Published it on Amazon one late November.
Yes, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is a traditionally published book, through Tor 🙂
House Andrews are hybrid authors, with a mix of traditionally published series (Maggie the Undying, the core 10 novels from the Kate Daniels series, Hidden Legacy and The Egde) and self published (The Innkeeper Chronicles, Wilmington Years, The Breach Wars – Inheritance, Aurelia Ryder, Iron Covenant, Kinsmen).
Nice! Love the soap making process!
Awesome! Thanks!
FWIW, I only know the basics of soap making that I somehow picked up while learning candlemaking and it seemed pretty clear to me that it was hot process.
a soap giveaway? homemade soap with fragrances like sandalwood and pumpkin, and oat milk and honey and some like autumn figs? my heart went flitter flutter 🙂
Some years ago, okay maybe two decades ago, I made homemade soaps — some were pine-ish and some were warm scents … mmm, but no, if I start another craft, it will be crocheting — some of those yarns at Bad Sheep Yarn are so enticing!
Happy autumn days to House Andrew, the Mod, and the BDH.
I never was interested into making soap.
I want to learn how to make soap now.
My friend and I decided we’ll learn how to make it.
I’m weak. I know.
But if by any chance I get stuck in an alternate dimension, I’ll know how to make it.
I don’t know anything about soap making and so enjoyed reading about it in Maggie’s book. I was delighted with this cool skill she brought into another world.
I enjoy all the topics in the blog – cooking, knitting and crochet, writing, life and family stuff. Gaming is another area of ignorance for me but I’m interested to hear what people are in to. Happy to read anything you are moved to write. I get the blog emails a day late due to mysterious forces, but I don’t mind. Please carry on.
By tomorrow do you mean Monday? I’ve noticed that’s how previous “tomorrow” posts on Friday work.
The soap was interesting. Different hobbies you feature spread the light around the world.
I don’t know anything about making soap, so I thought it was all correct when I read it 😂
it only made we wonder what type of skill I currently had that could help we im a isakai situation
They look great!
Oyyyyy …… What happpened?
*worries*