Category Archives for Uncategorized

FRENCH BAKING I’m currently in the South of France, where the countryside in warmer seasons is saturated in lavender and olive, yellow and azure. But it is winter even here, and so the colours are more subdued–except in bakery windows! On this vacation again I’ve pressed my nose up against the glass of many patisseries and boulangeries (they still make a […]

          PUBLISHING CONTRACT I just signed my second book contract! The flush of excitement (fear?) isn’t nearly as overwhelming this time, maybe partly because publishing this book isn’t really a “new venture” but a reworking of graduate research I completed back in 2001. This is the brief story behind my upcoming […]

      PRIDE I am so delighted to have won TWO honourable mentions (with the third short story I entered also selected as one of 35 finalists) in this wide-reaching contest that attracted well over 1,000 entries, awarding only 12 prizes. And in my delight I’ve been sharing the news everywhere, many friends and associates rejoicing with my giggling […]

          SIMMER, SCOOP, SLURP Soup making is more art than science. Baking chocolate cupcakes is science, as anyone who’s added a pinch too much soda knows. And of course entire cookbooks have been devoted to soup recipes (take the title of this post, which is the fictional name of a cookbook I […]

          CORN CHOWDER It’s corn season here in southern Alberta, where the long hours of sunshine ripen golden cobs to sweet perfection. As some of you know, I’ve been collecting soup recipes for a while on behalf of the main character in the novel I’m currently drafting (almost done!). So in […]

          NOT SO ENGAGING I’ve been a very errant blogger of late because my head has been in the clouds of novel drafting. I’m just at the stage now of cleaning up my manuscript so I can see what I really have, and then I’ll  begin edits in earnest before I send […]

          LEMONY YUM A friend of mine in Saskatchewan—a neighbour I know from ranching days—is a farm wife who grows lentils. I asked her for her favourite recipe, then tweaked it a bit, and might use it as one of the soups appearing in my novel. (Feel free to improvise your own […]

FAN CLUB  I just got off the phone with my dear friend Christelle, whom I met twenty years ago in a small town in the Savoie department of the Rhône-Alpes and who now lives in the South of France with her husband and two boys. Christelle is a true Frenchwoman, a university teacher who has taught […]

           THE TAO OF TOES I’ve found a great pedicurist who makes my feet look cute. So for a break from my everyday schedule of writing that plays havoc with my neck and shoulders, I thought I’d book a different treatment at the same spa. My appointment yesterday for a deep-tissue massage […]

          THAI CHICKEN SOUP I found a lovely looking recipe on Pinterest and modified it to my taste. I think I’m going to include it in my novel, having my main character brew it up. Check it out! First, I diced and browned in olive oil in my cast iron soup […]