Anne Gracie's Blog

(Or cookies, if you’re American.)

 I had some hazelnut meal (flour) left over from something I made earlier and decided to try out this recipe for hazelnut shortbread biscuits. It was quick and easy to make and I’m happy with the results. It’s one of the recipes I’m trying out for my Christmas biscuit collection to give as a gift.

I didn’t have pure icing sugar (confectioners’ sugar) so I used soft icing sugar. I don’t think it made any difference, actually, and the biscuits worked well. The recipe also called for Chocolate Hazelnut Nutella to sandwich two bikkies together, but I didn’t have any so I used Nestlé Dark Choc Melts.

After the biscuits had baked, and left to cool a few minutes so I could handle them, I simply turned the biscuits over and placed a choc melt on each and returned them to the oven, which was off but still hot. A few minutes was all it took to melt the chocolate and I spread it out with a knife and then pressed another biscuit onto it. In the pic above, you can see some of the sandwiched biscuits, and a couple of bikkies, one with  melted chocolate and the other with an unmelted choc melt so you can see the size.

I will definitely make these again. They tasted good, not too sweet, and even plain with no chocolate they were quite moreish. The recipe said to pipe the uncooked mix to make it look elegant (as it shows on the website) , but a lot of the comments said that was too hard, and to just roll the mix into little balls and press down with a fork. I pressed mine down with the patterned base of a small crystal ornament and liked the effect. It’s not as elegant as the website piped ones, but I like the effect. However next time I’ll make the biscuits smaller — about the size of the space left  by joining my thumb and finger. They’ll be daintier, I think, which will look nicer as a gift. And with the chocolate in between, they’re quite rich, so maybe I’ll just have them as single biscuits with a chocolate base.

I suspect these would be just as nice made with almond flour. Next timeI ‘m going to try it with gluten-free flour, as I want to make a gluten-free collection as well. I have several more hazelnut recipes to try, like this one and this one with a yummy looking maple glaze but most of them involved chopping up hazelnuts, and I didn’t have any nuts, only the hazelnut meal. I also have a yen to try these little hazelnut meringues, which look very pretty.

Do you like hazelnuts? When you read recipes on-line, do you read the comments? I always do, and sometimes it’s the difference between trying the recipe or not. This one had a lot of 5 star reviews.

From the Homes & Gardens website.

I saw this photo on the Homes and Gardens website recently and liked the look of the collection of bright and interesting pots. Then a few days later, on a gardening show I regularly watch, the presenter collected some unusual containers to put indoor plants in. (See pics below.) He bought the containers from the op-shop (charity shop — short for “opportunity shop”) and then cut down the plastic pots the plants were growing in to fit inside them.

Such a simple idea, but not one I’d ever thought of. I usually look for containers that already fit the plant pots that will go into them, but cutting the plastic pots to size makes for a much wider variety of containers possible. So I’m off to scour my local op-shops for some likely bright and interesting containers.

Yes, that big mess below is my dining room table, covered with beads and half-made items of jewelry.

In the last few months I’ve been making earrings and other things in my spare time. Making jewelry the way I do it isn’t hard — it’s just threading beads and twisting wire, really, and not difficult. It’s a form of relaxation for me, and often while I’m fiddling with small beads and trying different designs, in some other part of my head, I’m working out a scene from the book I’m writing.  I know it sounds like an excuse for procrastination, but it’s really not.

But after those rotten movers stole a heap of my bead supplies when I moved into this house, I lost all heart in making jewelry — and I think my writing suffered too. But in the last few months I’ve recovered my spirits, gone on-line and to my favorite bead shop to buy more supplies, and started making things again.

Last week, at the gym I attend (for strength training) one of the girls admired the green earrings I was wearing. I immediately said, “I made them — would you like some?”

She was a little taken aback at first, until I explained that it was a hobby, that I did it just for fun and never sold what I made, just made things and gave them  to people I liked. (I might have used the term “foisted them on people.” ) I also showed her some earrings I’d just made for my trainer’s girlfriend. So she said, yes, if I was sure, she would like some in blue. I also love blue, so I have heaps of blue beads. Here are some earrings I’m making at the moment. The ones with the hooks are finished, and the others with the long pins are still designs I’m playing with. I’ll show them all to her and she can choose what she wants.

And then she asked, “Do you make Christmas earrings?” Of course I said yes.
And thus, though it’s only just September, I’ve been making not only blue earrings, but some Christmas earrings she can choose from.  I’ve made lots of Christmas earrings in the past: one time I made twenty-five pairs —all different — for a writers’ group I was in. But I like to make up new designs, so I spent a few hours yesterday making up some new Christmassy earrings. You can see them in the pic below. I love those metal deer head charms but I haven’t decided what to do with them yet.

Anyway, that’s what’s keeping me entertained at the moment, when I’m not writing. And if you ever want to make jewelry or anything else crafty, there are heaps of youtube videos to show you how. Honestly, these days, youtube can teach you just about anything. And making jewelry or other things is fun,  not too difficult, not too expensive, and a lovely creative break.

Do you have a favorite of the ones I’ve shown here? I’d love to know.

 

As promised, here is a collection of photos I took at the RWA  — mainly of the costume cocktail party that traditionally kicks off the conference. I wrote about the conference on the WordWenches Blog, so rather than repeat myself, you can read it here.

Tasmania is an island — comparable in size to US states West Virginia or South Carolina, and around the same size as Scotland,  Ireland, Switzerland, and Belgium.

(It’s affectionately known as Tassie — pronounced Tazzie.)

Flying in, I was glued to my window and taking snaps of all the water views.

The hotel where the conference was held overlooked the large bay on which Hobart is situated.

We were very lucky with glorious sunny weather, though when you stepped outside the wind was bitter, coming direct from Antarctica. But the views were gorgeous, sparkling water with yachts heading out for a day of sailing. Here’s one from my breakfast table.

And below is the view from my window at dawn. I never sleep well at conference — too many thoughts whizzing around my brain — so I was generally wide awake at dawn, and enjoyed the view coming to life in the rosy light of sunrise.

I described the program on the WordWenches site, so if you’re interested in that aspect of things, click here.

And now, onto photos of  the costume cocktail party.

One of my favorite costumes was this one of a white witch with a beautiful ‘Harry Potter” type  white owl, that could turn its head and look at you. The full length photo is on the Wench site,  but you can’t see the gorgeous hat there. Isn’t is lovely? I confess, I have a fondness for hats. And owls.

Here I am with author Alyssa Montgomery. The theme for the cocktail party was “Writer Wonderland” but the theme for the conference was “A Winter Wonderland” and many of us thought that was the cocktail party theme as well. Clearly I was one of them — my spotty top is meant to be snow, and that “hat” is actually a length of icy-looking Christmas tinsel wound around my head and every bit of crystal jewlry I could find. I decided my usual “trademark” feather boa would be too hot, but it still got used. Scroll down to see how.

And if you’re wondering why I’m wearing sunglasses — and no, I wasn’t attempting to look like a pop star in disguise or some gangland villain. *g* They’re my long-distance driving glasses and I accidentally left the clear ones at home. They were great for the bright sunshine outside and at breakfast, but I also needed them to see across a large room clearly, and also to read the subtitles on the panels and keynote speeches — see the photo below — and  to read the screens in workshops.

And if you’re wondering how my feather boa got used, you can see it here worn by my friend Janet Gover, an Australian who lives in the UK, and is friends with some of my UK writing friends. She didn’t have a costume — though that silk top of hers is gorgeous — and happily wound the white boa around her head, this being “snow.”

Georgia Moore made the costume below, and I thought it was brilliant.

Tracy Brenton (below) was the Queen of Hearts.

Here I am with guest speaker , historical author from the USA, Sarah MacLean. This wasn’t at the cocktail party, but after her excellent keynote speech.

Here is Maryanne Ross, also a Queen of Hearts ‚ but you can’t have too many of those at a romance writing conference, can you?.

Below is Erica Hayes, and to be honest I’m not sure what her costume was — a scarecrow maybe? Any suggestions? Erica writes  fab, very original  paranormals.

Below is Leisl Leighton, who always has a great costume with wonderful makeup. Her skin this time was shimmery blue.

And finally, here is Milly after I got home and collected her from the kennels. She loves it there and they put her in with another dog and they play and play and play. So when she gets home, she sniffes every corner of the house and yard, and then, because she’s all tuckered out, she goes “thunk” for the rest of the day.

The Romance Writers of Australia annual conference always kicks off with a costume cocktail party on the Friday night (after a day of workshops by the visiting overseas authors.)

When I first joined RWAust, it was called the “Meet the Authors” cocktail party and was a very sedate affair. There weren’t many published authors back then — maybe 20 who attended, and they’d all chat to each other while the unpublished writers more or less looked on and talked among themselves. I blogged about it here. 

Me as Dame Barbara Cartland.

Then in 2002 the conference was in a historic hotel in Melbourne, and we decided to make it a “Retro” costume affair. There were a lot of complaints from people on the loops — “I don’t like costume affairs,” “I don’t know what to wear”, etc — and I, who had run the costume cupboards in my high school, realized that people needed to be led /encouraged.

So I sent an email to the loop saying “Dress up, ya wimps!” (yes. I could have been more tactful) and basically said people could wear any retro historical outfit they liked, or at the very least they could buy a feather boa and wear that, and be in the spirit of things.

I even drove a group of authors into the city so they could buy feather boas a good half hour before the cocktail party started. It worked, a heap of people came with boas, and since then the costumes have got more fabulous and fun and the majority of people dress up — though it’s no problem if they don’t.

Me in a “glittery” costume — the theme that year was “Glitter.”

 

 

Since then, I have always worn a feather boa in some fashion. They get a bit hot and prickly when worn around the nck so I generally make some kind of silly headdress with a boa — it’s dead easy: I just wind a boa around my head, tuck the ends in, and voila! It’s done.

The hotel in Hobart has a display of fabulous feathery cabaret costumes. My breakfast friend showed me where the display was, and of course I couldn’t resist taking the photos below.

 

I’ll post photos of this year’s cocktail party costumes in a day or two.

 I’m in Hobart now for the annual conference of Romance Writers of Australia.  Hobart is the capital city of the state of Tasmania. It’s one of the oldest cities in Australia — the second colony to be established by the British, and was a penal settlement (for convicts), as was Sydney (NSW), Brisbane (Queensland) and Perth (Western Australia). Adelaide and Melbourne were free settlements.

Hobart is a lovely small city, set around a bay with hills forming a kind of ring in the background. It reminds me of a smaller version of Vancouver, with the hills not as dramatic as Vancouver’s.  The older buildings are built of bluestone, and very attractive, and the gardens are lovely.

Spring is beginning here and on the way to the hotel in the taxi, I saw one of the biggest, oldest magnolias I’d ever seen in full bloom. It’s the kind that has masses of pink blooms and have a sweet perfume that has a hint of lemon — just glorious.
The one in the photo is not the one I saw — I just included it so you’d know which sort of magnolia I meant.

The flight from Melbourne was very smooth—it only takes an hour. My room wasn’t ready so I went for lunch — calamari (squid) and salad, which was delicious. And once I got into my room, this was the view. I could have paid extra for an ocean view, but decided it wasn’t worth it as at conferences, I’m really only in the room at night, or for a quick change of clothes in the daytime. So this is a “mountain view” room — the big hill you can see is called Mount Wellington.

At night the hills are a sea of twinkling lights shining through the trees, like earth-bound stars — very pretty, but I couldn’t get a good photo of it. But this was the view from my bed at sunsise — looks so cosy, doesn’t it, but it was 3 degrees (38 F) outside.

But hotels protect you from the weather, so I had to go outside for a dose of brilliant sunshine and a breath of freezing, clean, bracing air.

I met a UK friend for breakfast, and we were interrupted numerous times by others who’ve also come for the conference, which starts tonight (Thursday) with a party for Harlequin authors. It’s always lovely, meeting up with people you haven’t seen for a year or more. So the excitement is building. I’ll tell you more about the conference in the next post.

My silver princess (eucalyptus caesia) is flowering. 

It’s a beautiful bright splash of color on a wintry grey day. The rainbow lorikeets (small, colourful, noisy parrots) and other birds love the blossoms too and gather in the branches, feasting and chattering and squawking.

I love this tree, with its weeping habit, its dark shaggy bark at the base, silvery branches higher up, and every stage of the flowering process is beautiful, from the delicate pink buds, to the red flowers, and finally, the silver gum nuts.

The photo below is one I took last year and it shows the buds as well as the flowers.

And below that is a photo of the silver gum-nuts that remain when the flowering is over.

 

I sometimes cut them off and leave them on the nature strip (grass strip) in front of the house, and they always disappear fast.  People collect them for dried arrangements. They also make beautiful natural Christmas decorations.

When I was young, around 18 or 19, I went with a friend to back-pack around the island of Tasmania (also known as Tassie, pronounced Tazzie). We were students at university, and it was our first “solo” holiday. We carried everything on our backs, and stayed in YHA Youth Hostels, of which Tassie had plenty, more or less circling the island. Tasmania is beautiful, with stunning wild places, many of which were accessible to us.

Photo by justin-clark-on-unsplash

The youth hostels were cheap and well run — everyone was given daily chores — and in excellent locations.

We went to Tassie by ferry from Melbourne, disembarking in Devonport. We travelled aound the island by various means — postal vans, an occasional bus, but mainly we hitched lifts (though we never told our parents that.)

As it turned out, a lot of other young people were doing the same thing, and we often met up with the same people at each hostel.

We got pally with a couple of boys, a few years older than us — they had real jobs — and were mad-keen hikers and bushwalkers.

Tassie is such a beautiful place, and we had a wonderful time, doing lots of bushwalking and exploring — not with the boys, who tended to turn every walk into a race — but just enjoying the scenery, much of which is wild, pristine and absolutely stunning.

Photo by Tim Lippis on Unsplash

When we got to Hobart (the state capital) the boys were dead keen to go to the Wrest Point Casino. It was the first legal casino in Australia, and hadn’t been open very long, so it was still a novelty. My friend and I weren’t interested, but the boys were. The problem was, the casino had a strict dress code — smart casual wear: no jeans, a jacket, collared shirt and tie for men, and no sports shoes or runners. No backpacker was travelling with that sort of clothing.

The hostel, having faced this issue before, had laid in a stack of used jackets, pants, ties and so on for people to borrow. The boys got dressed up, but the trouble was, there was only one tie left. What to do? 

My hasty imitation tie

 

 

 

 

I whipped out a clean pair of navy blue tights and looped it around the tie-less boy’s neck, tucking the waist part under his collar and jacket. I tied the legs in a Windsor Knot (years of school uniforms with ties had made me an expert) and he tucked the feet into his waistband.

It looked surprisingly okay — see this photo, which I took this morning — though he was pretty dubious about it and half expected not to be allowed in. So off they went.

Next morning we saw them at breakfast and the first thing he said to me was “It worked!” and we all laughed.

And if you’re wondering why I’m telling you this story, the upcoming Romance Writers of Australia is being held at the Wrest Point Casino in Hobart, so of course I remembered the story of the tie-that-wasn’t. I never did visit that Casino — or any other— but I will have to now, though I won’t be gambling.

I checked, and the casino still has a dress code, though not quite as strict. I did laugh at the rule that all visitors must wear shoes. Tassie is the southernmost part of Australia — next stop Antarctica — and it’s cold, so I can’t imagine not wearing shoes, but clearly some people need to be told.

But if you ever get to Tasmania, skip the casino and head for the beautiful wild countryside and the gorgeous  coastal areas.  (That’s Cradle Mountain in the background — a bushwalker’s delight.)

The e-book of THE PERFECT RAKE is on sale via BookBub for less than $2. Find it on the usual e-book sites. The sale finishes on 11th August, so be quick. (For some reason the books2read link didn’t pick up everywhere — sorry — but the books are on special at all the e-book retailers.)

THE PERFECT RAKE stars Gideon, who is a reader favorite hero. Here’s a snippet:

“I would appreciate it if you would stop… stop… ogling me like that,” Prudence hissed, tugging her very modest neckline higher. “It is very embarrassing.” She folded her arms defensively across her breasts.Gideon tried to look contrite. “It wasn’t me,” he confessed. “It was my eyes. They are bold and easily led and have no sense of propriety.”            

I’ve just sent out my monthly newsletter with this announcement.
After 20 years of being published by Berkley, we’ve parted ways.

There are several reasons for this. First is that Berkley and most of the large US publishers and book distributors are moving away from mass market paperbacks (MMPB) — which is how my books were published. They’re dropping MMPBs and publishing the larger and more expensive Trade Paperback size.

Mass market paperbacks are around 4.25 x 6.87 inches  whereas trade paperbacks are larger, ranging from 5 x 8 inches to 6 x 9 inches.  (See the pic on the right)

Secondly, the market for historical romances has been dropping, and as my editor told my agent: “Historical romance is just too tough right now. We wouldn’t be able to publish in mass market and trade historical romances are very challenging these days.”

I’m by no means the only historical romance author who has been let go. In the next year or two, you might notice some of them changing genres, writing historical romance with magic or witches, or romantasy, crime, or contemporary romance.  If you want to know more about the demise of historicals and mass market paperback, read this article.

I might have tried changing genres too, except I didn’t want to. While I like reading fantasy and crime and contemporary romance, I’m still enjoying writing my own style of historical romances, and so my plan is to keep writing, and self-publish them.

My agent did ask if I wanted to try other publishers, but I’ve decided to go it alone. Having already successfully self-published three novellas, I know I can do it. I originally dipped my toe into self-publishing because I was curious about the process and knew lots of people doing it. So that turned out to be a lucky decision I made back then.

So that’s it — a new path for me. I will continue writing, and will publish my stories as e-books and paperbacks. I very much hope you will all continue to support me.

I’m Still Writing.
Even though my publisher has let me go, I’m still writing, and in fact, as regular readers of this blog will know,  I’m half way through writing Marcus’s story. He’s the last hero of the Devil Riders series, the Earl of Alverleigh, and the eldest of the Renfrew brothers.

I’ve had literally hundreds of emails from people asking for his story — and my responses have generally included this explanation.  Now that I’m out of contract with Berkley, I’m able to write his story at the length it deserves.  So stay tuned. . .