Gayle Trent

Did you guys catch this Food Network Challenge first elimination-style competition? If not, it airs again tonight beginning at 7 p.m. The next leg of the competition airs tomorrow and so on until you see who ultimately wins. I highly recommend watching this competition. It’s incredible!

*Spoiler Alert — Don’t read past this point if you don’t want to know who wins!*

In the first competition, six pastry chefs are asked to showcase their skills and show one story from their lives depicted in cake. The pastry chefs are Michelle Bommarito, Courtney Clark, Mary Maher, James Rosselle, Elisa Strauss and Bronwen Weber. For more information about the competitors, visit Food Network’s page for a brief biography on each of the finalists.

The winner of the Last Cake Standing competition was Mary Maher of Cakegirls!  

**Congratulations, Mary!**

Visit Mary’s site and see some of her gorgeous cakes at Cakegirls.

Paper? Embroidery? Those two just don’t seem to go together, do they? And, yet, paper embroidery is a hot form of embroidery being used on greeting cards and in scrapbooking. Think string art you used to do as a child with yarn and construction paper evolved into a classier version.

Check out these links telling you more about paper embroidery and providing you with free patterns if you’re interested in trying it yourself.

http://www.mcuniverse.com/Paper-Embroidery-Faden-Grafik.1786.0.html

http://www.needlepointers.com/ShowArticles.aspx?NavID=1577

http://www.creativepapercrafts.com/products/paperembroidery.aspx

Have you ever done any paper embroidery? If so, please leave me a comment below and tell me more about it!

Make plans now to attend or to compete in the Oklahoma Sugar Art Show October 3-4, 2009 in Tulsa. Here’s a slideshow made up of photos I took at last year’s show.

Visit the Oklahoma Sugar Art Show site if you’re interested in participating in the show and to see additional photos of beautiful cakes.

Welcome!

Thank you for subscribing . . . or re-subscribing . . . to Writing Up A Storm. In this month’s issue, we’ll discuss the importance of your website and its relation to your writing. If you prefer to read this newsletter in plain text, please stay tuned to my blog where I’ll post the newsletter in plain text format on August 15.

IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE:

Question of the Month: How can my website help/hinder my writing?
Link of the Month
Market Spotlight
SHAMELESS Self-Promotion

Thanks again for joining me. I hope you have a wonderful month.

How can my website help/hinder my writing?

Before you go thinking you’ve heard all you need to know about websites, you might want to take a look at this article. I thought I knew everything I needed to know about websites, but I found I was horribly wrong when I had my website overhauled by a professional.

Blogs

We’re told every writer needs a blog. So I had blogs. I had a WordPress blog, a Tripod blog and three Blogger blogs. This scattered me and my brand all over the place. While it’s good to be found in a number of places, I learned that search engines don’t recognize free sites as well as they do hosted sites. Therefore, it’s better for your main blog to be a part of your website.

More Than One Site

I had sites for different books, different names and different ventures. As a result, the web designer told me I was too fragmented. Your one website should act as a funnel, directing attention to you, building your brand as a writer and bringing everything together. Your site should define who you are and what you do. First and foremost–careerwise–I write cozy mysteries. I also do coaching and speaking. Those two features now have tabs on my main website. That way, someone who goes to a site and learns about Gayle Trent, the writing coach, will also be aware that Gayle Trent writes cozy mysteries and enjoys speaking.

What Will It Take To Get YOU To the Next Level?

Basically, you need to ask yourself where you want to be and what it will take to get you there. Do you need a more professional online image? Do you need clips to entice editors and/or agents? Are you effectively promoting your books, your writing or your coaching talents? Is your site clear and easy to navigate? If you’re not sure, ask someone to go to your site and tell you how quickly and easily they found your book; learned what your book is about; learned where to buy your book; learned how to become part of your community; learned what else you do; learned about your upcoming appearances, if any. Then, take a look at a number of sites of writers you admire to see what they’re bringing to their site that your site may be lacking. Discover how you can add something similar to your own site.

Link of the Month: Joomla Jump

Susan Gilbert of Joomla Jump was the brains behind my website overhaul. If you’re interested in checking out Joomla Jump, go over to http://www.joomlajump.com for more information.

Market Spotlight: Good Housekeeping

If you’re a short story writer, you have the opportunity to be published in the May 2010 issue of Good Housekeeping. Go to http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/real/short-story-contest?click=main_sr for more information.

S H A M E L E S S Self-Promotion

Gayle Trent – Bell Bridge Books has accepted the second book in the Daphne Martin mysery series, Dead Pan. Thorndike, the large-print publisher who has contracted for Murder Takes the Cake, is also interested in Dead Pan. English publisher, BBC Audiobooks, will also be publishing Murder Takes the Cake in large-print hardcover.

Don’t forget to send in your own writing news!

Check out my Fatal Foodies post today on the worst diet advice EVER!

Today the Muppets’ famous Swedish Chef will illustrate how to make a variety of desserts.

Swedish Chef makes donuts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbs64GvGgPU

Swedish Chef makes cake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT_n__vsguk

Swedish Chef makes chocolat mousse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAsYwW7pt7o

Yesterday, my family and I went to Gatlinburg, TN. We had a lot of fun,  especially in the Hollywood Wax Museum. That’s Nicholas, Duane “the Rock” Johnson as the Scorpion King, me and Lianna. As you can see, my children are hammy. I think they get it from their dad. Yeah. . . their dad . . . that’s it.

But “ham” is not the food for thought I intended to talk about in this post. After leaving the wax museum, we went to Fort Fun, a place where they have laser tag, 3-D movies, motion rides, gem mining (we each got a bag of rocks–whoo-hoo!), boogie bodies and mini-golf.

Here’s the thing: As we were walking out of the 3-D movie theater under the black lights, I noticed a fingerprint on my shirt! It was as clear as could be. I was completely amazed. In the regular light (daylight and white lights), the fingerprint was invisible. But under the black lights, there it was. Only one. And it was in a weird position. Pointing down from the top of my shirt. It must’ve got there when I was putting the shirt on. My husband said maybe I had a little makeup on my hands when I put on the shirt. And yet, there was only the one fingerprint.

Naturally, I went in search of the use of black lights as fingerprint detection devices and found this: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/fingerprints-in-forensics-searching-for-invisible-fingerprints.html. And, of course, this will probably show up in a novel eventually. It’s just too good to waste.

Have you ever seen the magazine A Needle Pulling Thread? I recently came across a copy at my local Books-A-Million. It’s dubbed “the magazine promoting Canadian needle arts,” and it has some fascinating stuff.

This particular issue features Celtic gift boxes (fibre art), Swedish weaving, cross stitch, rug hooking, silk ribbon embroidery, knitting, quilting and Gerdany Ukrainian Beadwork. Various designers are spotlighted, and they tell readers about their work, their inspirations and their techniques.

The issue I bought also has a reproduction of a schoolgirl sampler stitched by Mary Keillor in 1837. Mary stitched the piece when she was nine years old. The sampler is displayed at New Brunswick’s Keillor House Museum and was reproduced by Sheila F. Horsman. Ms. Horsman goes on to explain that Mary Keillor’s sampler is typical of those used to educate girls during the 1700s to mid-1800s. The samplers were used to teach the girls a variety of embroidery stitches, their alphabet, numbers and a verse. This particular sampler has a version of the Golden Rule with the sampler saying, “Do as you would wish to be done by.”

Taken at the 2008 OK Sugar Art Show

If you love cake decorating, then you might’ve already discovered Pastry Wiz.  I only discovered it today, but already I’m learning new stuff. For example, did you know wedding cakes are a fertility symbol?

Pastry Wiz’ website explains: “Ancient Romans would bake a cake made of wheat or barley and break it over the bride’s head as a symbol of her fertility. It became tradition to pile up several small cakes, one on top of the other, as high as they could, and the bride and groom would kiss over the tower and try not to knock it down. If they were successful, it meant a lifetime of prosperity.”

In addition to the trivia, Pastry Wiz provides decorating tips, supplies, books and examples. For instance, the Wedding Cake section provides information on basket weave piping, piping a square wedding cake and how to decorate a Victoriana wedding cake.

Check out Pastry Wiz to see what you can learn!