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lf care will surely bring out the scatological fifth grade humorist in us but it s important to take time to poop yes i said it when i grew up our family bathrooms were devoid of reading material we were encouraged to spend as little time there as possible it wasn t until i began visiting the bathrooms of friends that i discovered the whole reading room concept what the heck are all these magazines doing in the bathroom needless to say years of chronic constipation taught me that some things just can t be rushed take time to rest if we grind ourselves down to the bone again mentally or physically there is nothing left with which to carry out that important work we are driving ourselves to perform and sleep oh my goodness food of the gods science is now telling us that sleep isn t a waste of time it s essential to our brain cells to regroup and revive and keep on ticking away savor food think of this as a subset of self care even the most humble of meals deserves our attention after all without food where would we be nowhere and i ve been told that focusing on each bite we take really tasting it noticing its texture is one way to slow down our consumption and actually eat less eat less enjoy more mindful eating sounds reasonable to me and lucky for me i m married to a man who loves to cook win win time to pull this post together because i smell something delectable coming from the kitchen there are many more things for which i need to take the time but this is a start i welcome your own thoughts on taking time in the comments below thanks for stopping by y all come back now kate posted by kate louise wood at 5 26 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels listening mindful eating reading self care taking time time thursday july 1 2021 baking a book don t judge a book or cake by its cover as i was preparing my latest cake celebrating member birthdays for my writers group it dawned on me how similar the baking process was to the writing process especially with this cake baked in the shape of a giant open book with its particular challenges i have to say that in the end it was delicious and well received but it was quite a journey getting there choosing the confection type literary vehicle first i had to make a choice of the type of baked goods cupcakes short stories cookies poetry cake novel ok cake it was a full fledged novel of a cake seemed most appropriate for a birthday party flavor genre chocolate mystery coffee literary coconut fantasy citrus humor oh we all needed a good laugh so citrus was my choice cake size word count single layer double layer large sheet 60 000 120 000 words well the book shaped cake pan i purchased for the occasion determined this a large very large sheet cake the equivalent of three cake mixes worth with the frosting my cake weighed in at a whopping ten pounds i weighed myself empty handed on our bathroom scale then stepped back up on the scale balancing the finished cake in my hands this was not going to be a fast read if it were a book it would be pushing close to a 200 000 word tome at least there would be plenty extra cake to hand out to all the group members to take home to their families customizing the cake literary voice just as the author s own unique word choice and narrative style determine the voice of a book so does adding those extras to a basic recipe to make the end product special i normally make my baked goods completely from scratch but this time i began with three boxes of orange cake mix to which i added exchanged some extra ingredients orange juice sour cream vanilla instant pudding mix orange zest that made it sing with moist flavor icing the cake mixing genres all went well until i got to the icing of the cake i wanted a lemony cream cheese based frosting for the balance of flavors but i needed a frosting that would dry firm enough to allow me to write on it with edible markers so i created a combo icing much like mixing genres fantasy and humor literary and mystery harder than i thought first i laid down my yummy cream cheese frosting and let it chill well in the refrigerator then i attempted to coat the cream cheese frosting with buttercream frosting all that lovely soft slippery cream cheese icing didn t make a very sturdy foundation for the heftier buttercream and sadly even after allowing the buttercream topping to dry it still wasn t firm enough for writing with the edible markers argh so i made matters even more complicated by adding medallions of firm glossy royal icing on top of the buttercream on top of the cream cheese on top of the orange cake by then i was running low on time to have my masterpiece completed for the night s meeting checking online for ways to make royal icing firm up faster i discovered the quickest method was warming it with a heat gun my husband just happened to have one of those in his workshop so i plugged it in and set to firming up the royal icing of course you can already see the problem heat is great for drying out royal icing in a jiffy but also for melting its buttercream and cream cheese underpinnings having failed to first create a high enough border between the medallions and the rest of the top of the cake the confectionary dam broke in places and royal icing oozed out of its assigned position my cake was taking on a decidedly surreal salvador daliesque appearance but i finally wrestled the frosting back into place kind of and was able to write words on the royal icing medallions not beautifully but at least somewhat legibly then there was the challenge of storing the cake before its evening presentation you guessed it mixing genres and frosting were again the issue cream cheese frosting requires refrigeration but the moisture inside a fridge will soften royal icing and make it run noooooo so that s why our home office that has its own window air conditioner was sealed off with the ac running full blast we turned it into a giant dry cooling area for the giant mixed genre cake the time arrived for transporting the cake to the meeting with no container big enough to safely cover it i sat in the backseat of our car balancing the cake on my lap no sudden stops or fast corners i instructed my husband we made it with the cake in one piece and it was after all the drama a hit with our beloved group members they are astute enough readers and writers to know you can t always judge a book by its cover and they know me well enough to know my heart was in the right place even if i did make some misguided frosting decisions so lesson learned think ahead when baking or writing and if you decide to mix genres be sure they are compatible thanks for stopping by y all come back now kate posted by kate louise wood at 4 23 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels baking books cake genres mixed genres novels recipes writing wednesday april 28 2021 if spring had a color then yellow it must be it s the end of april and spring has come at last not the false spring of february or the teasing spring of march but finally the true spring i m celebrating with an original poem inspired by that most springy of colors yellow all of the photos are ones that i took in my own backyard with the exception of the forsythia and carolina jasmine which i let slip past my camera lens this year those are from the royalty free pixabay site bless em spring yellow yellow spring by kathryn louise wood if spring had a color then yellow it must be buttercups and daffodils and carolina jasmine forsythia and dandelions and yellow powdered pollen it s as though the flowers and their magical dust collected by the bees and spread from bloom to bloom encourage the young sun to linger ever longer until the old world dances in the golden youth of spring thanks for stopping by y all come back now and happy spring kate posted by kate louise wood at 1 22 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels april buttercups daffodils dandelions flowers forsythia kathryn louise wood poems pollen spring sun thursday march 4 2021 on writing just do it foreword please forgive any wonky formatting you see in this and future posts i am still trying to get a handle on blogger s new version with my first traditionally published book zephyr stone and the moon mist ghost being launched by blue ink press next month i am in the midst of developing my author website one of my pages will be a section on writing and so i thought i d give you a preview of my soon to be published website by sharing this page with you ahead of time when asked my advice on writing my words are simple just do it set out a time each day or each week pour yourself a cup or glass of your favorite beverage and set pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and start writing this part of your writing is for your eyes only you know that popular phrase dance like nobody s watching well write like nobody s reading over your shoulder not your family not your friends and certainly not your former english teacher it doesn t have to be pretty and it probably won t be the procrastinator s best friend is perfectionism trust me i know this intimately you can and will always go back and clean things up hunt for that perfect word run down that bit of research and polish that diamond in the rough until it shines but if you don t write something down there will be nothing to polish my second piece of advice is also simple read read read read read within your current genre read outside of your current genre read the classics read the new read the great and read the not so great we learn from it all read write repeat my third suggestion is to find yourself a group of kindred spirits either in person or online in which you share your written work with one another and where each member reads and offers impressions of the writing you will learn at least as much from the act of reading and thoughtfully considering the writing of others as you will from the insights they provide into your own writing i am so very fortunate to be a member of a wonderful and supportive local writers group that meets twice monthly for this purpose even in the time of covid 19 we continued to meet via zoom it has truly helped me stay sane and grounded i am often asked if i am a planner creating thorough outlines and character sketches before i write that first chapter or am i a pantser writing by the seat of my pants without a safety net just like my car i am a hybrid of the two long before i begin writing my new manuscript i ve thought in generalized terms about the plot the setting the characters and what they have at stake in the world i will be creating around them as well as the genre and the target audience then as i consider the book as a whole i write out a loose outline of the action opening rising action climax falling action resolution i include my main characters but leave them lots of leeway to expand upon themselves and introduce me to supporting characters i didn t even know i needed this flexibility allows my book to live and breathe as it takes on a life of its own but the general outline makes sure my characters don t lead me too far astray and down a rabbit hole that might take me weeks from which to dig back out my favorite music to write by the sound of a fire crackling in the fireplace or a virtual one on my computer or tv the sounds of the natural outside world birds rain wind and waves when it comes to manmade music it has to be purely instrumental i am way too verbally oriented to tune out lyrics that goes for either vocal music or even tunes associated with lyrics known to me i will hear the unsung words in my head and they interfere with my concentration i enjoy movie soundtracks for background music especially music from the harry potter films one more thought i love to bake check out my recipe face book page kate s giving plate https www facebook com kateplate15 and i see a direct correlation between baking and writing both take forethought assembling the right ingredients measuring them out into workable proportions mixing them together then allowing them enough time in the right environment to bake to delicious fruition food for thought you might say with that in mind i look forward to meeting with school children as we step into my literary kitchen and bake books together thanks for stopping by y all come back now and write on kate posted by kate louise wood at 3 10 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels authors blue ink press book fiction kathryn louise wood reading writing writing advice zephyr stone and the moon mist ghost saturday january 30 2021 old dog young year wolf moon having had both big and small dogs share his life over the years my brother once told me that little dogs often live longer but they were old for a lot longer too this is certainly playing out with our experience with our dear little shih tzu minna who turned fourteen this past december she has lost her sight and has become increasingly frail suffering what her vet calls cognitive decline in other words doggy dementia hers mostly takes the form of getting turned around in odd places getting stuck in corners or behind doors and barking for no apparent reason our younger dog sophie just looks at her then with a puzzled look on her face as though trying to understand what she s talking about but just as with some old humans who have a sudden decline in physical and mental abilities it s important to keep in mind that in the big picture of a lifespan these last years of fragility are just a tiny part of the life they give to the world and so i was inspired to write a poem after our wee hours of the morning experience today please forgive the awkward formatting i ve yet to master the new version of blogger old dog young year wolf moon by kathryn louise wood since her decline in body and mind blind in eye though not in soul we watch and listen for signs of distress and come to her aid when she s stuck behind doors and ask without hope of answering word what it is that she needs when she croaks out a bark as sometimes her blind eyes stare out into space and she shouts to the empty air that surrounds her now our sleep comes in fits and in frustrating starts as she woofs in our bed just under her breath and our muscles clench tight at the 3am hour we know that soft woof will reach desperate pitch then it s jump up and carry her into the night out the back door in the wintery cold but sometimes the chore is a gift unexpected as early this morning when urgency barked i gathered her up throwing coat over gown and carried her out for her needed relief into the frost prayed inspiration would strike her and hoped she d remember our purpose outside i noticed the snow laden ground was quite glowing and turning my gaze away from her snuffling my tired eyes were filled with the shimmer of moonlight ...