Welcome!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful January. It’s almost over, you know; and a couple exciting things are happening on February 2. First off, it’s Groundhog Day. So if you’d like to celebrate the little guy seeing his shadow, you might want to make a bundt cake, sprinkle crushed chocolate cookies on the top and use a devil’s food cake or Twinkie(TM) decorated to look like a groundhog popping out of the hole.

February 2 also marks the long-awaited return of Lost. Since this is the final season (gasp!), you might be having a Lost premiere party. You could make a cake of the island, of course, or of the plane, or you could simply make a white sheet cake and pipe the Dharma logo on it in black.

Site Spotlight: Cake Central

Cake Central Magazine

As many of you may already be aware, Cake Central is a place for cake decorators to share photographs, techniques, recipes and encouragements.  The site also features contests, links and articles.

Now, however, Cake Central has launched a magazine. And who should be featured on the cover but none other than Kerry Vincent, host of the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show, frequent judge on Food Network’s Challenges, member of ICES Sugarcraft Hall of Fame and gracious guest star of Dead Pan. The cover promises Mrs. Vincent will dish on reality cake-tv as well as share her personal story.

Check out the magazine and see what you think. And please share your comments with Killer Cakes!

Marcy’s Musings

Hi, there! Have you settled into a post-holiday routine yet? I’m trying to, but it’s really hard. It’s easy, though, to lose touch with those you connected with or reconnected with from the end of November through the first week of January. Let those people know you’re still thinking of them by doing some easy stitching, placing your work in a card frame and sending it off with a note. You’ll make someone’s day!

Stitch Spotlight: Candlewicking

Since candlewicking is all about easy stitching, I’m spotlighting this needlework technique today. I’ll give you some pointers on how to do it (it’s basically just Colonial or French knots along with some straight or back stitches) and links to some free patterns. Plus, the white-on-white designs mean you don’t have to spend a lot on or waste time changing threads. See Gayle’s article on candlewicking in The Old Schoolhouse Magazine (p. 180).

This post on About.com has a lot of information on candlewicking techniques, and there are pages and pages of free patterns. I love the L O V E hearts and the kittens! For a history of candlewicking, see this article on BellaOnline written by Megan McConnell. Connie’s Cross-Stitch Blog has some beautiful square candlewicking patterns that would be beautiful on a pillow. If you’re really industrious, you could even make a quilt!

If you do get into candlewicking and stitch up some wonderful things, please share them with us.

Don’t neglect that research!

by Helena Harper

Last year, I participated in an online Children’s Author Academy course, run by New York Times bestselling author, Laura Duksta, who originally self-published her bestselling children’s picture book I Love You More and was then taken up by a traditional publisher.

Laura talked about the pros and cons of both self-publishing and traditional publishing and said that whichever way you go – and that has to be your own personal decision based on what you want to do with your book – make sure you do your research regarding editors, printing houses and publishers. At the time I was interested in two publishers in the UK who offered combined publishing/marketing packages for authors who financed the publication of their own book. I had asked both to send me information regarding their publishing packages. One sent me a very informative booklet which gave me a good idea of the kind of books they had helped authors to publish, their approach to marketing, and the successes they had had. I still had a few questions and when I sent them an email, they were more than happy to answer them.

The other publisher sent me a glossy catalogue of their current books and lots of newspaper cuttings with articles about mainly non-fiction books they had published. Having participated in Laura’s course, I proceeded to contact this publisher to ask them what percentage of their books were children’s books, particularly picture books? What kind of results had they achieved with children’s books written by new authors, particularly picture books? And what was the average number of books sold? Laura had said that every author is entitled to know these things, particularly if the author is paying out a large sum of money (and this publisher wanted a very large sum of money!). After several enquiries, I finally got a response. They told me that they did not think these questions relevant when authors were financing the publication of their book themselves and some books did well and some didn’t. What they advised was that the author should think of the whole thing as an exciting adventure, like a special holiday, and they should not be concerned about the return on their investment – they should just enjoy the process!!!!  Needless to say, I crossed that publisher off my list. Thank you, Laura!

So, don’t forget that research – it most definitely is the key!

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Helena Harper is a native of England, but she grew up in a household that did things somewhat differently to other English households, because her mother was German (her mother had met her father in Hamburg at the end of WWII, when as a British soldier he had been stationed there). This mixed background has had a profound influence on Helena and her understanding of so-called national divisions and whom we call an ‘enemy’ and whom we call a ‘friend’.

From an early age she loved to read and write, particularly fantasy stories, and later she enjoyed studying foreign languages. At Surrey University she studied German, Russian and International Relations and spent considerable periods of time in Germany, Austria and Russia as part of the course. After university she went into banking, but soon realised that was a big mistake. “I felt like I was being suffocated,” she says of the experience. 

She then spent a year teaching languages at a private school in London, and enjoyed it so much she decided she would get properly trained. She did a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at Exeter University and then started her career as a modern languages teacher, a career which has lasted twenty years. During that time she has continued to write, concentrating primarily on fantasy stories for young children. However, in the past few years she has also discovered the joys of writing poetry for adults, and her first two books are poetry collections: It’s a Teacher’s Life…! and Family and More – Enemies or Friends?, which have been inspired by her professional and personal life.

Helena is now a private tutor and translator. She is continuing to write children’s stories, and illustrations for her first children’s picture book are now being done. Her aim is to see the book in print before the year is out. Many people ask Helena why she likes to write. She feels she can best express it like this:

The blank page calls,

the heart responds,

imagination spreads wide its wings

and launches into infinity…

Fingers dance,

words flow,

the page fills,

the soul takes flight

and the spirit sings.

Copyright © Helena Harper

Welcome!

Happy New Year, everbody. I hope it has started well for you. For those of us in Southwest Virginia, we’ve been off to a snowy start. The children were supposed to go back to school on January 4, but they haven’t been back yet. And we’re supposed to get more snow this week!

Gayle got a mention in GalleyCat! You can read the piece by clicking the link. Gayle is really thrilled about it. I, of course, am happy about the good reviews both Murder Takes the Cake and Dead Pan have been getting.

Reader Spotlight: Denise Turocy

This is a Killer Cakes first…but I hope it will be the first of many. After enjoying Murder Takes the Cake, Denise wrote Gayle and sent links to some of her own work. Gayle asked her to participate in this newsletter.

Denise’s adventures in cake decorating began in the early ’80′s when she took her first class through her local parks and recreation department in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada. She went on to decorate cakes for family and friends.

Later, her interest waned and she gave up her hobby until Christmas of 2008.  She sold a few Valentine’s cakes and then worked at a famous Pittsburgh bake shop during the 2009 holiday season. In her spare time, she taught cake decorating, knitting and crocheting classes.

Denise has taken three or four Wilton cake decorating classes and attended an “Enthusiast” class at the Pittsburgh Culinary Institute in Sept. ’09  where the topic was Sheet Cake Decorating. “Says Denise, “We got to torte, fill, frost and decorate our very own sheet cake and take it home.  It was a fantastic learning opportunity and fun experience to say the least.”

E-mail Denise at adairdet@gmail.com.

Marcy’s Musings

Happy New Year, everybody! Remember, if you’re snowed in, there’s no better excuse than that to stitch or read.

As for our site spotlight, all I can say is “Wow!” You will, too, when you take a look at the beautiful embroidery designs offered at this site (some are free).

Site Spotlight: Solaria Gallery

This is Stoyanka Ivanova. She lives in Bulgaria where she is an architect and a chief assistant professor at the University for Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy. She also has her own company called Solaria. With Solaria, Stoyanka is able to combine her love of painting and stitching.

I’m not kidding when I tell you that Stoyanka’s designs are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.

This free design, a red Faberge Valentine heart, would be gorgeous to put in a card and send to someone special for Valentine’s Day. Other Valentine’s Day-related complimentary designs include a teddy bear holding a heart, a rose and blackwork tulips.

And if you’re way more ambitious than I am, give this one a try. Isn’t this amazing? Look at the detail. I might get brave enough to give a try one day…but not today.

So, click on over to Solaria Gallery and see what gorgeous patterns you can find. After you complete one, be sure and share a photo with us!

On January 1, Jodi Webb began a new blog, Words by Webb. The blog is a combo of information for writers and readers. On Fridays,  Jodi will be doing book reviews; so contact her if you have a book you’d like for her to review.

Congratulations, Jodi!

I hope all of you have a wonderful and blessed 2010.