What's Cooking Wednesday - Easy Apricot Chicken

First, a thank you to Mel for taking us to Australia yesterday.

Next, congratulations to Karin Anderson who was the winner of Giveaway #3. I'll have another drawing as soon as I get to 20 new newsletter subscribers. Sign up at my website. 

And thanks to author and frequent visitor to Terry's Place, Elizabeth Spann Craig, for today's recipe. I think I've got this one buried in my own recipe files. Thanks for sharing, Elizabeth, and now I'm going to have to make this one myself.

Apricot Chicken

12 chicken thighs (I used chicken breasts—about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 cup apricot preserves (can use whole cranberry sauce instead, if you like)
1 cup French dressing
1 package dry onion soup mix
pineapple chunks (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine the preserves, French dressing, and dry soup mix in a bowl.
Put the chicken in a 9 x 13 baking dish and cover with apricot mixture.
Cook uncovered for 50 minutes. Add pineapple chunks (if you like) and cook for 10 more minutes.

Elizabeth’s latest book Hickory Smoked Homicide released November 1. Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series for Penguin/Berkley (as Riley Adams), the Southern Quilting mysteries (2012) for Penguin/NAL, and the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink. She blogs daily at Mystery Writing is Murder

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My Writer's Knowledge Base Interview

Tomorrow's the deadline to enter Giveaway #2. Don't miss out. Details in the Deals and Steals tab.

As I type this, I haven't left for Arizona yet. As you read this, I'm on my way home. Since Nicole hasn't run the Iron Man in "real time", I can't give you any results or trip highlights, so I thought I'd run part of an interview I gave to Elizabeth Spann Craig for the Writer's Knowledge Base newsletter in September.

ESC: You do a little genre-blending with your books. How would you categorize them and what are the pros and cons of genre blending?

TO: I like to think of my books as "Mysteries with Relationships" although the publishing industry calls them Romantic Suspense. I think with the explosion of the indie market, it's easier to blend genres. Readers like a wider variety of genres and subject matter than the NY print publishers are willing to risk money on. I have one 'straight' mystery that was rejected by publishers because they said it was a blend of police procedural and cozy. I'm seriously considering publishing that one myself, because I think readers won't mind the crossover.

ESC: You’re not a plotter, but you’re writing complex mysteries. Can you tell us a little about how far you plan ahead in a story or what your writing process is?

TO: I don't normally know what's going to happen more than a few scenes ahead of time, although I have a very (VERY) broad, general idea of the framework for the story. If I can write without needing to know specifics, I plow ahead. For example, in When Danger Calls, I knew Ryan had a disc that held some Very Important Secrets. I didn't know exactly what they were, or how they were encrypted until I learned more about Frankie's talents – because it made good "writing" sense for her to be the one to decipher the code. In Danger in Deer Ridge, I knew my heroine had taken something from her husband, but I was probably 2/3 of the way through the book before I knew exactly what it was. And if I don't know, then I certainly can't be dropping brazen hints to my readers.

All Over the Place

What I'm reading: Welcome to Harmony by Jodi Thomas

I'm doing the clone thing a lot this week. Today, I'm over at Mystery Writing is Murder, Elizabeth Spann Craig's fantastic blog. I'm talking about doing your homework when you write.

Tuesday, July 20th, author Avery Aames will be hosting visitors here. You'll want to be here for that, because it's another foodie post! Yep, her new cozy mystery series features a cheese shop. Now, she had fun doing her homework. Rumor has it there might be recipes. While Avery is greeting readers here, for a change of pace, I'll be blogging at Naughty Author Chicks. When Nowhere to Hide was picked up for review by an erotic site, I got to thinking about the blurred lines between genres, and frequent blog commenter, Wynter Daniels offered me a slot. It's definitely an adult blog, but my post is barely PG-13, I'd say.


Wednesday, the 21st, I'm having my official on line release party. Mark your calendars, because it's going to be a day where commenters and followers can win prizes—lots of prizes. If you're not already a follower of Terry's Place, there's time to hook up. And Twitter followers will have extra chances to win as well. Follow me there or on Facebook: Links are on the "Contact" tab above.


On Friday, July 23rd, I'll be at The Romance Studio, and on August 5th, Patricia Stoltey has invited me to talk about how I became a writer by mistake.

I'm also starting a new monthly contest—my Swag Giveaway. It'll run until August 15th, and details are on my Contest tab above.

So, for the 'meat' of today's blog, get over to Mystery Writing is Murder. Leave a comment over here, over there—I'll be spending some time with family today, but will check in whenever I can.

Working Around Absent Muses

Today I’m welcoming Elizabeth Spann Craig (who also writes as Riley Adams) to Terry’s Place. Have you ever gotten discouraged with your manuscript or hit a slow spot with your writing? Elizabeth shares some tips for working through it.

Working Around Absent Muses—Tips for Completing Your Manuscript

My muse and I haven’t been on speaking terms for years. She’s high-maintenance, easily offended, and rarely shows up for our writing sessions at all.

I’ve learned to work around her.

Most of writing is, after all, perspiration instead of inspiration. Yes, you need the original brainstorm to kick off your project—then you really just need a lot of dedication to get it finished and polished.

What if you’ve reached a spot in your story where you’re floundering? Lots of story middles are mushy because writers are um-ing and uh-ing their way through while looking for ideas.

Here are some tips to keep writing through the mushy parts…and uninspiring days:

Catching Up a Bit

What I'm reading: Lakeshore Christmas, by Susan Wiggs; To Scotland with Love, by Karin Hawkins.

Good Stuff from while I was gone -

I came home to an award from mystery author Elizabeth Spann Craig, a previous guest here and a frequent commenter with a marvelous blog of her own. My kind of award - no strings! Thanks, Elizabeth.



And an invitation to present my "Storyboard Plotting for Non-Plotters" as a workshop for a Jacksonville RWA chapter in February. And while I'm there, I can hook up with Sandra McDonald, my first writing mentor.

Right now, I'm working on that pesky scene I mentioned a while back. The 'is there a reason for a budding relationship, and even if there is, how much needs to be on the page.' I had two plane trips to mull over it, and I think I've finally got a handle on it. I'll have more next week, after I actually write the revisions.

Hope you'll have time in your busy holiday season to pop in from time to time.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet

I promised another look at an aspect of social networking. People love it, hate it, and everything in between. To tweet or not to tweet? How useful is Twitter for writers? Today’s guest, cozy mystery author Elizabeth Spann Craig, weighs in. I'm anticipating some lively conversation in the comment thread.


It used to be that I could say “sign up for Twitter only if you want to.” I wasn’t really getting a whole lot out of it, but was dutifully tweeting several times a day.

I think now I’ve got to give Twitter a big thumbs-up. Used correctly, Twitter can be an incredible tool for networking, driving traffic to your blog, and connecting with the greater writing community.

The key is finding the writing community on Twitter. I’m including book bloggers, avid readers, as well as industry professionals in the term ‘writing community.’ Think of Twitter as a huge university and your writing buddies as your fraternity or sorority that gives you a smaller group to communicate with—instead of trying to tweet to a random group of people.

Keep Reading...

Don’t be surprised by the learning curve on Twitter. It took me a week before I felt comfortable using it. There are many easy tutorials on YouTube to help you learn the basics. This one is good: http://tinyurl.com/b4b78p.


Get started by going to your favorite writing blogs and finding the blogger’s Twitter address. Start off by following these bloggers. Then you’ll see who they are following. Click through the community of people who they follow. Follow some of those people.

Twitter lists is just starting out. Basically, if there’s a writer you like, and they’re using Twitter lists, you can follow their entire list. In their sidebar will be labeled lists. My list is called “Great Follows for Writers.” You click on the list and Twitter asks if you’d like to follow the list.

You can use 3rd party applications like TweetDeck to organize the people you follow. You could have your favorite tweeters in one column, family or friends in another column, and local businesses in yet another one. I mainly follow book industry people, but I do also follow local weathermen, news organizations, and local businesses that tweet coupons.

What do I get from Twitter?

•Excellent links to writing articles
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•An opportunity to learn more about writers I follow
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•A chance to share my article discoveries with other writers.
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•An opportunity to promote my own blog and blogs I’m interested in.
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•Industry-related news in real-time.
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Disadvantages

•As with all social media, it’s easy to spend too much time using it.
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•It’s time-consuming to set up a list of good people to follow.
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•It’s one more distraction from writing.
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Some recommendations for usage:

•Set a timer.
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•Use Twitter three times a day, sparingly, after getting it set up.
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With a little time and effort, Twitter can be a great tool for writers to network, obtain industry information, and promote their work.

Elizabeth Spann Craig writes cozy mysteries for Midnight Ink (The Myrtle Clover series) and Berkley Prime Crime (The Memphis Barbeque Mysteries). Her latest release, Pretty is as Pretty Dies is available in bookstores now. You can enjoy Elizabeth's enlightening posts at her blog, Mystery Writing is Murder.