Booklover, Signings, and Fondue

Libba Bray is totally hilarious. This had me in stitches. It’s usually exactly how I feel… and yet…

I’m doing copyedits for Rampant, the unicorn book, now, and I am still in love with it. This is unusual for me. Usually by copy edits I just want it gone from my life for evah and evah! But as I read through, I find myself getting excited all over again. I can’t wait for other people to read this book!

They had the photo shoot for the cover earlier this week, “somewhere in New Jersey.” You’d be surprised how similar it can look to Italy. The reason for this should be clear: they are both located at 41 degrees north. I’m so excited to see the cover!

Unlike LIbba, though I usually hate my book during revision and production stages, I generally relapse when the book actually hits the shelves. I guess that would be like the ex-boyfriend you totally think you’re over until you go to a party and there he is looking really great, with a new haircut and that shirt he always refused to put on, and maybe like he’s been working out — and before you know it, you’re making out with him behind the punch bowl. And so it is that now Rites of Spring (Break) is out and people are emailing me about it (or just talking on the spoiler thread), I love it again.

It also helps that I’m back to living with Amy and her friends as I finish the fourth book in the series. Every day, I’m revisiting the other three books to make sure that I’ve properly picked up the threads of the stories I’ve been weaving together for almost 300,000 words now.

And if that’s not enough on my plate (as well as the Romance Divas workshop, which is almost over, so get your questions in now) I had the tour, the honeymoon planning, Sailor Boy’s big exam, and four — count ’em! — four fabulous bits of news that I will hopefully be able to share soon.

Also, I got new author photos. Though I’m really tempted to just use this one instead:

Clearly, one of us did not get the memo about the Green Shirt Day at Turn the Page Bookstore. Fortunately, she has a book cover that will do in a pinch.

The TTP signing was amazing, by the way. The entire staff there is so friendly and organized, and the bookstore itself is such a charming place! I’m in awe of Nora Roberts — she told me during the signing that this year will mark the release of her 200th title. TWO HUNDRED!

Cue looking at tiny stack of three books in print and thinking I really need to start getting on the stick.

I also got to have a lovely chat with Catherine Asaro, who was sitting on my other side and also not dressed in green.
And of course I came home with a big stack of books I’m not allowed to read until I have this deadline and four special announcements under control.

Nora Roberts fans came in from all over — by the busload! there were fans from New Jersey, where the unicorns live, and North Dakota, and no doubt places farther flung than that. It was an incredible sight!

Also this week, I had a signing down in Reston, Virginia. I finally got to meet Nessa and her adorable, map-loving son (he even got Sailor Boy to buy a map), and fellow authors Carol LaFlamme and Amanda Brice showed up to offer moral support. Afterwards, Amanda, her husband, a friend, Sailor Boy, and I went to the Melting Pot for dinner, and ate our weight in cheese and chocolate.

Yum…. is there anything better than cheese and chocolate? I ask you. One of my worst nightmares is becoming lactose intolerant. And of the various dippers they offer with your food, my favorites are actually the green apples and of course, the cauliflower. Because I adore cauliflower in all its incarnations.

I actually spent several months working at Melting Pot restaurants when I was in college and right after I graduated, and it was the best non-writing-related job I ever had. Because of this experience, I make really amazing fondue, and it is for this, perhaps, that Sailor Boy and I received no fewer than four fondue pots when we got married. I think a huge fondue party may be in the works sometime this winter.

But even if you haven’t worked at the Pot, fondue is REALLY easy, and it’s pretty impressive when you serve it at a party, so I think we all need to embrace our inner seventies suburbanite or Swiss mountaineer and make more fondue.

Now, here’s the key to easy fondue: a double boiler.

If you don’t have one of those, just put a aluminum bowl on top of a pot with a few inches of water in it. When the water boils, and steam escapes, you are ready to start making the fondue. Into the bowl, pour some kind of base — soup stock, or juice, or wine, or beer, or even milk. Whatever you want.

Here is the second secret to perfect fondue: flour.

When you cut or shred the cheese into little pieces, mix it with flour. You want to put in enough flour that when you squeeze the shreds, they fall apart. THis soaks up all the oil and makes the cheese not separate once you’ve made the fondue.

Then, add the cheese. You can use any kind of cheese you want. I usually advocate using at least half a swiss style cheese, because it melts into a really nice consistency. Whip until it’s al nice and melted.

Then, you want to add some seasonings. What seasoning you add is usually dependent on the type of cheese you are using. You usually can’t go wrong with garlic (a friend of mine born in Switzerland says the really traditional way to do it is to run a garlic clove around the inside of the bowl before you start), lemon juice, pepper… traditional swiss cheese fondue uses nutmeg and kirschvasser brandy. Really, the sky’s the limit. At the Melting Pot, they add dry mustard and Worchestshire to cheddar (and no, that’s not a secret — they tell you right there at the table).

As for dippers, you want slightly stale bread cut or torn into chunks (french bread is good, but so are other types), apples, veggies — actually, strike that. Pretty much anything tastes good dipped in cheese. If you can imagine dipping it into cheese, put it out as a dipper.

Delicious!

(For Carrie.)