Lindsay Eland - Middle Grade Author

And the winner of last weeks contest is……

JENN, the blogger from booksatmidnight! Email me Jenn and let me know what your address is and I will send along a signed copy of Scones and Sensibility and Persuasion!!

And now for a new contest to celebrate another week closer to the release of Scones and Sensibility which is just 21 days away!!

Want to enter?

1. follow my blog by clicking the “follow” button at the bottom of the page: this gives you 1 entry

2. And because Scones and Sensibility has to do with matchmaking gone wrong, comment at the bottom with one or more movie, or literary couples that just would not go together at all!  2 entries

3. announce the contest on facebook, your blog, twitter or all three! 3 entries

Everyone who wants to enter must comment and let me know what they’ve done to support Scones so that I can give you that many more entries!

So the more of these you do, the better chance you have of winning!

This weeks prize is a signed copy of Scones and Sensibility, a copy of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, AND The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook by Kate Macdonald (this is an old book that I bought from a used bookstore, so there is a name in the front cover)!

And lastly, thanks to all those who entered last weeks contest! And thanks also for everyone’s love, support, and encouragement for Scones and Sensibility!

I’ve donated a signed copy of Scones and Sensibility to the Help Bridget Kick Cancer Auction. Bridget is a 32 year-old writer who was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer last February. She and the man who was her boyfriend since they were teenagers got married in the hospital right before she was to go in for surgery to remove a large tumor (I know, how romantic, right?!). Right now she is undergoing all kinds of treatment to shrink and obliterate the rest of the tumors. But their health insurance isn’t covering much of it. This is an auction that will help them raise money for medical bills and show support to a young writer. Oh, and her debut novel recently sold to Disney/Hyperion!

The auction will last until December 11 and signing up is simple and free! To go to the auction (if you can’t bid from the link I posted) the auction ID is: bridget and the password is: rules

In addition to Scones, there are lot’s of other amazing items to bid on!

Click here for an interview I recently did! Thanks for having me Jenn!

I love Thanksgiving.

The warm smell of turkey cooking in the oven.

The sputtering of butter and onions on the stove.

Sweet homemade apple cider steaming in mugs.

Laughing coming from every direction.

Stories vibrating off the walls and trilling through the air.

and then the moment when we sit down and say a simple, heart-felt, and much-needed “Thanks.”

And not only do I love this holiday for all of the warmth and laughter, the smells and tastes, but for the simple fact that we are recognizing and celebrating a day that is all about saying “Thank you.”

Two simple words that are so easy to overlook when we watch the news, or get bogged down in busyness, or look at the many, varied sadnesses that life has dealt us.

But two simple words that can change a countenance in a moment, that can give a renewed sense of joy and hope in our lives.

Thanksgiving to me is looking at my life: the clutter on the floor, the fingerprints on the glass, my husbands socks on the floor, the disarray of pictures on the refrigerator, the pile of to-do’s that sits waiting…waiting…waiting, and realizing that in all the busyness, the craziness, the deadlines and to-do’s, the hurt, and the pain that life has dealt me…that there are always things and people and memories and life to celebrate.

So tomorrow, after we have eaten our fill, I hope that we all  lean back in our chairs, pat our stomachs that are full to bursting, smile, look around, and say “Thanks.”

To celebrate the awesome fact that Scones and Sensibility is releasing in UNDER…yes, I said UNDER one month, I’m gonna do a few fun things!

Now, you must understand that the main character of Scones and Sensibility, Polly Madassa, is overly romantic and overly dramatic and is totally consumed with such classic literature as LM Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. So to celebrate the soon-t0-be-release of Scones, I’m holding four weekly contests!

For this week’s contest, you must submit in the comments section one of your favorite quotes from literature, and a baking recipe that is perfecting yummy and absolutely romantic. I’ll choose a name at random and the winner will get a signed copy of Scones and Sensibility, and Jane Austen’s Persuasion!

And now I leave you with one of my favorite quotes from one of the most wonderful characters in all of literature: Anne Shirley!

“And we had the ice cream. Words fail me to describe that ice cream. Marilla, I assure you it was sublime.” Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables, XIV.

This is how I feel about chocolate eclairs!

Utterly Romantic Chocolate Eclairs!

Ingredients for the eclairs:

1 cup water

1/2 cup STICK butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 large eggs

1. Heat oven to 400

2. Heat water and butter to a boil in saucepan. Stir in flour; reduce heat to love and stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat.

3. Beat eggs in all at one and continue beating until the mixture becomes smooth. Drop heaping spoonfuls of the dough onto a cookie sheet into finger shape. Bake 30-35 minutes or until they are puffed and golden. Cool completely. Cut off top of eclair and pull out any strands of soft dough. Fill with cream filling and pour chocolate frosting over each one.

Ingredients for cream filling:

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 cups milk

2 large egg yolks, slightly beaten in another bowl

2 tablespoons stick butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Mix sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan. Add milk and stir. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and boils. Boil for one minute. Add half or more of mixture into bowl with egg and stir. Stir back into hot mixture and bring to a boil again. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Let cool then fill eclairs.

Ingredients for Chocolate frosting:

1 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate

1 teaspoon stick butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 to 2 tablespoons of hot water

1. Melt chocolate and butter in a saucepan, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and beat in powdered sugar and water until smooth. Poor over eclairs.

I look forward to getting your quotes and recipes! Winner of the books will be announced next Monday!

I’m not sure if it’s because we live at 10,200 feet, or if it’s that we get around eight feet of snow a year, or that we live on a dirt road that’s off of a dirt road which is off of another dirt road, which is off of a paved road that eventually becomes a dirt road, but we always have trouble getting our mail.

“Umm,” we’ve heard many a time on the phone, “I’m somewhere on a hill somewhere, can you give me directions to your house?”

or

“Well, I’m at the bottom of the road, but my truck won’t make it up the hill.”

It can be extremely frustrating for all parties involved because all that I want is the package that I’ve been anxiously awaiting and all he wants is to deliver the package and get home without driving into a six foot drift of snow.

This is what happened last night somewhere between cooking dinner for fourteen people and the power going out for an hour (and yes, all fourteen people were there for that as well). Now, I had been waiting, waiting, waiting for a package like this for the past six-and-a-half years. And I was told that I could expect it yesterday.

So every now and then, throughout the day, I’d nonchalantly walk to the window and look at the snow covered street. Nothing but the two golden retreivers sniffing around our yard and then taking that awkward stance that all dogs do and pooping in the snow. Not the image I wanted to see.

No truck. No package.

And when this happens, I always go over the situations in my mind. “Maybe I gave the wrong address.” “Maybe I put our PO Box instead of our physical address”  ”Maybe I put our physical address and they needed our PO Box.” On and on.

And then I thought of my package sitting on one of the thousands of shelves among the millions of other packages waiting to go home.

But nothing came.

So I went to bed last night, after the dishes were cleaned up and the door was checked just one more time, and the lights had come back on, hoping that tomorrow would be the day.

And it was!

Sometime in the night, the mailman…or maybe it was Santa Claus…pulled up to our house and dropped off three packages. “Hey Linds!” John said setting the packages on the ground. “These were outside the door in the snow.” I squealed, my heart thudding in my chest cause I knew what was inside…and I was right!

Santa came early for me this year because I’m holding in my hands a dream come true…my author copies of SCONES AND SENSIBILITY!

After writing and writing, submitting and submitting, rejection after rejection, then more of the same all over again, I’m finally holding my book! My words. A piece of myself I’ve sent out into the world.

But even though you won’t be able to buy it until December 22 or after (I say after because Barnes and Noble is using Scones and Sensibility for a Valentine’s Day promotion so they may not have it “on the floor” until after the holidays though you can ask for it from the back or pick it up at your local Independant Bookseller), and December 22 is just shy of a month away, here is a picture of it for you to look at!

Thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm and encouragement! And a special thanks to everyone at Egmont-USA for everything!

Yesterday I was talking to a dear friend who mentioned that her friend from college had just had a little baby girl and they named her Story.

Story.

What a beautiful name.

A name that’s full of dragons and princesses, knights and hobbits, wizards and animals, wardrobes and attics, fairies and vampires, beauty and goodness, darkness and evil, truth and light.

I can hardly think of a more magical name for a little girl just coming into a world full to the brim and overflowing with stories.

And now she’s just starting her own story of life. Taking breaths and wailing and staring in wonder at the amazing world around her. A world where she is bound to meet up with dragons and princesses, knights and hobbits, wardrobes and attics, wizards and animals, fairies and vampires, beauty and goodness, darkness and evil, truth and light.

And those last two: truth and light, those are the things that stories do best. They illuminate truth and they emit light so that we can see and understand life and people in a new way. And when we turn the last page of a book that has become a dear friend to us over 300 pages, that story allows us to breath again and to stare in wonderment at the amazing world for the first time all over again—just like a girl named Story.

And I wonder what truth and what light the girl named Story will illuminate in the world as she grows? I do hope that one day I will meet her.

Last week, I got to visit with my daughter’s 3rd grade class and talk about Scones and what it’s like being an author. The kids were wide-eyed and inquisitive, their imaginations sweeping them off their feet, filled with creative, honest questions, and unjaded enthusiasm.

I remembered myself back in 3rd grade…Mrs. Zook’s class. I remember learning about China that year, seeing Mrs Zook’s stomach expand as she got closer to the time for her baby to arrive, and playing What’s Up 7Up on those days that we finished our work early. My best friend Beka and I started a cookie company and planned on selling them though I’m not sure if we ever really did. I remember at recess, searching for four leaf clovers out in the field and walking in the line on our way to art and music and gym.

In third grade I walked around wide-eyed, my mind bursting with imagination that illuminated the world. I asked questions unhindered, and engaged life with unjaded enthusiasm.

This is one of the reasons why I write for ages 9-12! An age range filled with such wonderful growth and change and emotion and humor and potential that it begs to be celebrated and recognized.

So much about being a writer and creating stories, and characters, and setting, happens in the awareness we create in ourselves as we walk around and live each day.

The awareness of the world and it’s happenings.

The awareness of the noises, and the sights, and the smells that surround us.

The awareness of the hundreds of characters that walk by us and around us and with us.

The awareness of the plots and themes of sadness and joy, heartache and love that are a part of every single day if you are a human being living on the earth.

Being aware that there is so much more to the drive to school, or the walk to the post office, or the flight across the country than just the act of driving, or walking, or flying.

The awareness that everything around us is filled with so much life and character and setting that it’s literally an overflowing waterfall. We as writers and humans just have to be aware of the cascading water, and instead of passing beneath, or over, or even through the pounding water without ever really noticing it, we must stop for a moment and feel the spray on our face, and hold out our cup and let it fill up.

I’m sitting in a coffee shop right now, my laptop in front of me, and though my headphones are in, I don’t have music playing on them. Instead I’m listening.

Listening to the coffee grinder whirring, laughing coming from the two employees behind the counter, the frothing of milk. Frank Sinatra croons from the speakers and I’m thankful that the music is not too loud today.

“Thanks, have a great day,” the manager says and hands over a Christmasy looking cup to a short woman with hair almost longer than she is.

There is young guy on a cell phone, his voice traveling around the room. He needs to find a library that’s open so he can print something, he’s looking for a job it sounds like.

A girl runs her fingers through her brown hair, then takes a sip of her drink, stealing a glance at the boy sitting across the room from her. He’s reading intently but glances up briefly from his book, looking at her from under the brim of his hat.

Shy looks and the hope for something more.

The boy beside me is talking to someone on the other end of his cell phone. He’s gonna be set up with a girl named Casey. “Yeah dude, let’s make it happen.” I wonder what Casey thinks.

A man get’s up and puts on his coat, throws away the remains of his drink and wonders outside. He’s meeting his family but I don’t find out where.

Two dark haired boys with dark chocolate eyes peek in through the door and smile, looking around for excitement like all kids do. Both of their hands hold onto juice boxes and a treat in a crinckly bag. Their voices echo in the otherwise quiet room and I can’t help but smile as their mom herds them out of the shop and onto a bench. I can see them sitting down and poking each other in the arm from where I sit.

So many lives interact and intersect in the coffee shop, right around me. Lives passing by, sitting next to me, sitting across from me. Lives that come into contact with mine for brief moments out of a lifetime. And much of my everyday life is made up of these fleeting connections with strangers. Fleeting moments that make up a lifetime.