Gratitude ... and a Video

Cricket McRae



Yesterday I drove down to Denver to have lunch with my publicist at Midnight Ink, who's there for a trade show. She's a delight, and three and half hours slid away like it was nothing. Our afternoon together sparked thoughts on the drive home about all the people who have helped my writing career in both small and large ways.

And that in turn sparked a memory. Hadn't I already written a post here about how lucky I felt? Yep, it turns out I did, and it was timed almost exactly the same as this one: right before the release of a book.

That post was prior to the release of Spin a Wicked Web, book three in my Home Crafting Mystery Series. This time Something Borrowed, Something Bleu is due out in six days. Funny how the prospect of a book hitting the shelves fills me with gratitude. Or maybe not so funny. Maybe it's just right.

I've thanked everyone I've worked with at the publisher, the terrific group here at Inkspot, kind blurbers, reviewers and, of course, readers. My acknowledgements mention my agent(s), family, friends, critique partners and people who helped me with research. This fourth book is dedicated to libraries everywhere.

And I'm still grateful to them all.

But unmentioned elsewhere are the other writers who encouraged me early in my journey and also later in my career. Fellow workshoppers and students, teachers and generous published writers. The time William Dietrich told me to never stop writing because I told a good story and he knew I'd make it. When William Kittredge told me after a creative nonfiction workshop that I'd be published within two years (it was close). My chance encounter with Skye Kathleen Moody in the basement of the Denny Building at UW and her out-of-the-blue offer to read my manuscript and recommend it to her agent if she liked it. Robert Michael Pyle's constant, gentle appreciation of my off-the-cuff prose.

Over the years I've contacted them all to say thanks.

And now there are the people in the various professional organizations who offer advice, camaraderie and keep me sane simply because they get it. I've heard of stingy, jealous writers, but I have yet to run into any of them.

Of course I may have tempted fate by writing that. I'll let you know.

Anyway, the book is coming out next week, and I'm guesting at various blogs and wandering around to book stores to do my dog-and-pony show (since it's just me maybe it's only a pony show?). For anyone interested, the whole schedule is here.

Now I'll leave you with the trailer for Something Borrowed, Something Bleu. And THANKS!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Book Brain

The deadline for getting my fifth Home Crafting Mystery to the publisher is approaching. I'm at that stage of the game where I'm editing and proofing, looking for continuity mistakes, and getting feedback from other people.

The whole book is in my head. It pushes a lot of other stuff out.

Yesterday I momentarily blanked on my cat's name. The coffee mysteriously appeared in the vegetable drawer instead of the cupboard. My ability to construct a meal is rudimentary, and we're eating a lot of leftovers out of the freezer. I am a less than scintillating conversationalist.

The book in my head opens at night, and the characters escape into my dreams. They do things they wouldn't normally do. I wake up in the morning and briefly wonder if I really wrote it that way. Or if I should have.

Sometimes I lug the book around with great fondness, like a sweet-smelling baby. I don't want to let it go. Other times throwing it out altogether seems not only like a good idea, but utterly necessary.

At the same time, I'm working on promotional activities for Something Borrowed, Something Bleu which will release on July 1. (You can preorder it now, though.) See, I wasn't kidding about the promotion. But there's no room for the plot of that book in my brain right now. There will be by the time I'm actually out there talking about it, though.

I hope.

Say Cheese!

Cricket McRae

This is the new cover for my fourth Sophie Mae Reynolds Home Crafting Mystery. It will be released in the spring of 2010. My cover designer, Lisa Novak, has done it again. Simple, sensuous, appealing yet with a hint of danger. A knife. Broken glass. Spots of vivid red.

This time around I got to kill someone by bashing them over the head with a bottle of heavy cream. Thank you, Raconteurs, for the song Carolina Drama. Inspiration comes in all forms.

As you can see from the cover, Something Borrowed, Something Bleu features cheese making as the backdrop to the mystery. I started making cheese about fifteen years ago, mostly jack and cheddar. It took months to properly age, and I had to keep an eye on humidity and temperature during that process. When I started writing this book I dove into it again, this time focusing on fresh cheeses like mozzarella, paneer, queso fresco, ricotta and fromage blanc.

I love cheese. Lots of people love cheese, it turns out. And lo and behold, there is a very good reason for this. Sure there are the awesome, often intense, flavors. The textures. The melty goodness. The way it accents pasta, eggs and fruit. But there's also the PEA.

Phenylethylamine, or PEA, is the love drug. The one that makes us feel giddy and goofy, clouds our judgment and in many ways makes us downright stoopid. Some studies have concluded PEA affects the human brain like cocaine. Brain scans of people in the head-over-heels stage of falling in love resemble those of psychotics. It's strong stuff.

Chocolate contains PEA. That's one of the (many) reasons chocolate makes us happy. But get a load of this: Cheese contains more PEA than chocolate. One study I ran across said ten times more.

Yea, baby. That's what I'm talking about.

Oh, oh, catch that buzz.
Cheese is the drug I'm thinkin' of.

And PEA isn't the only drug cheese contains, either. I grew up thinking penicillin came from bread mold. Not so, I eventually learned. Those charcoal blue streaks in bleu cheeses? Yep. Penicillin.

Now, I doubt eating a hunk of bleu cheese would cure an infection, but I'd sure be willing to give it a try.

But wait! There's more!

Cheese made from organic raw milk from grass fed cows contains high amounts of CLAs, or conjugated linoleic acids. These are omega 6 fatty acids vital to health. They're potent anticarginogens, may prevent atherosclerosis, ease inflammation, and even adjust metabolism to increase weight loss. And CLA from animal sources is the easiest for human digestion to access.

That's right. Cheese can be good for your heart and help you lose weight. How crazy is THAT? Plus, it makes you happy, happy, happy..

No wonder we love it!