End of the year Potpourri: Rocking the Writers of the Future, Izzy Crow, and Surviving December

 

Izzy Crow

I’m currently writing Chapter 11, as soon as I finish, I’ll be taking a some time to reoutline. I love outlining. I need to outline, but my outline is not a static document. The first draft is full of discoveries and course corrections – everything is fluid. So, at about the 25 percent point, I’m going to take a step back and look at the big picture again and redraw my map a bit. I still don’t think I’ll have it outlined all the way to the end, but that’s okay. Maps of undiscovered territory are always a bit sketchy.

 

After skipping a few quarters, I sent a story to Writers ofthe Future this fall and it received a Silver Honorable Mention, which is the category just below Semifinalist! Essentially, this story made the top 50. I am quite jazzed and have already sent this story off to a pro market. Hopefully I’ll have publication news for it before too long.

The last story I sent to WOTF, by the way, was Futile theWinds, which garnered an Honorable Mention and was published in Interzone.

December is a tough month to write through, what with the crushing amount of errands and non-negotiable family obligations joyful Christmas shopping, decorating, and precious family time.*

Returning to my outline will be a relief from pushing the narrative forward on my novel. Seriously, a novel is an endurance event. In the afterglow of my WOTF success, my December writing assignment is to rewrite a novelette that I’ve been tinkering with and send it off to the contest. I just keep repeating to myself, “write a little every day to keep the holiday insanity away.”

 

* Precious family time is the one part I unironically love. That and time to knit.

Ginger Snap!

I'm afraid the blog fell into the gap between our late Thanksgiving and my obdurate refusal to do anything for Christmas before Thanksgiving. I stand by my choices, even if I'm only now slowly getting back to my writing and critiquing and blogging. I suppose this happens every year. 

Another thing that happens every year at our house is gingersnaps. Lately, it's rare to even see gingersnaps in the grocery stores. I think this is because they are so uniformly unappealing, dry as cardboard and nearly as flavorless. Ironically, my cookie press gingersnaps look like cardboard but taste delicious, spicy and sweet!

It's a strong cookie for a season that is both blissful and a little stressful. So, have a little yin for your yang, a little Krampus with your Santa. Enjoy!

Gingersnaps

From The Fanny Farmer Baking Book

¾ cup vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar, plus extra to roll the cookies in
1 egg
¼ cup black strap molasses
2 cups flour
2 tsps baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tblsp powdered ginger*
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and cover a couple cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Beat together the shortening and 1 cup of the sugar. Add the egg, and beat until fluffy, then add the molasses. Stir and toss together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, and cinnamon, and add to the first mixture, beating until smooth.

Gather up bits of the dough and roll them into 1 inch balls,** and roll them in the sugar. Place about 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the cookies have spread and the tops have cracked. Remove from the sheets and cool on a rack.

* I suppose you could grate the ginger, but the powdered is stronger, and I like a cookie that bites back. Buy the best ginger you can find.

** for cookie press style (pictured above), load up the press. If individual portions don't easily drop off, just squeeze out a long ribbon of dough and cut it into squares with a knife or a pizza slicer. Sprinkle sugar on top and bake for about 7.5 minutes.