Easy Recipe: Lemon Strawberry Puffs

I recently made a big, but important, food discovery: puff pastry. There are so many possibilities! 

For this particular possibility, I made these Lemon Strawberry Puffs. They are so simple and so satisfying, especially at a luncheon or hors d'oeuvres type party (which is what I used them for).

Anyway, here's all you need to know about this tasty lemon strawberry treat, though I'm sure you could substitute almost any flavor here if those don't match your cup of tea!

Ingredients:

• Puff Pastry
• Lemon Curd
• Strawberry Preserves
• Sugar
• Confectioners Sugar
• Margarine/Butter

I used a store bought puff pastry and simply laid out the sheets and cut into rectangles and squares. Then I put a sprinkle of sugar over them and baked for around 13-15 minutes.

Once they cooled, I opened the puff pastry in the middle and spread some with just lemon, some with just strawberry and some with both. I was really generous with these so there would be lots of flavor in them. Then I used melted margarine and just basted a tiny bit on the top and sprinkled confectioners sugar on them.

That's it! They were so tasty and such a simple alternative to a lemon square (though, I won't say they are a match for them because let's be real, they aren't!) 

If you are looking for a simple party food, this just might do the trick for you! For you food cookers out there, anyone made any awesome things using puff pastry?

—Holli Anne

Pinterest Love: The Baker

No surprise that I love me some Pinterest. It's one of the first sites I visit when I start up my lovely little Mac. Out of all of the social media sites I use, Pinterest is my favorite. I repin for me and me only. Lately though, I've been getting an influx of followers and that couldn't make me happier.

So, to incorporate more Pinterest in your life and mine, I've decided to do one post a week that focuses on the addicting and amazing site.

I'm calling it Pinterest Love and each week I'll search a word or phrase and make a board using some of the results. Sound boring? Nope! It's fun!

For this week's Pinterest Love I searched "The Baker." The top picture and the following mini board are my favorites from the results!

Hope you enjoy!

To find these individual pins, go here to my new Pinterest Love board. You can trace them all back to their original owners that way. My Pinterest profile can be found here.

-Tyler Anne (aka Chick Tyler)

Interview: Story Cartel's Joe Bunting talks free books, writing and new Website

I'm pretty excited about this interview today with Joe Bunting. If you like reading FREE books and/or writing, chances are you'll be excited, too. 

Joe Bunting is the founder of The Write Practice and co-founder of Story Cartel. The first is a blog all about writing and practicing your writing (imagine that!). Story Cartel is a wonderful site where authors give away books in exchange for reviews. WIN-WIN! Seriously, they are two of my favorite places on the Internet, and I think you might like them, too! 

Here's my Q&A with Joe:

For our readers who don't know, could you tell us a little about The Write Practice and Story Cartel?

Story Cartel is a new way for readers to connect with authors. We help authors build their email lists and get reviews on their books by giving away free books to readers. The amazing part is the conversations that happen between readers and authors. Authors tell us all the time that it's one of the most rewarding experiences of their life.

The Write Practice is an online writing workbook sneakily posing as a blog. We post daily instruction on the craft of writing and then ask people to practice with us in the comments section. Daily practice is the best way you become good enough to get published, and we help people practice every day. Also, it's pretty fun. :)

How did you come up with the idea for Story Cartel? Is the concept something you used for your own books?

Exactly. When I launched my first book, I followed a set of steps to build a review team of hundreds of readers, and these readers ended up leaving over 100 Amazon reviews on the book in the first week. It was incredible. We built Story Cartel to help other authors follow the same steps but with a lot less work.

What types of books are typically available through Story Cartel?

It depends on what authors are sharing their books! Right now we have a lot of non-fiction, but in the past we've had quite a few thrillers, we went through a memoir phase, and a stretch with mostly YA books. Books are only available for three weeks, so you have to snap up the ones you like quickly! 

Are the authors who submit books typically independent authors?

Nope. We actually work with traditional publishers to share their books on Story Cartel, too. We want to create a place where independent authors and traditionally published authors can both create meaningful connections with readers.

 

What are the requirements for submitting your book to Story Cartel?

We don't take books with bad covers. The unfortunate truth is that readers judge books by their covers, and they can spot a poorly made, self-published cover a mile away. We want to make our readers happy, so we sometimes have to say no to books with poorly made covers.

As long as you have a nice cover, an Amazon page, a Kindle file, and a PDF of your book, you're set, though.

If I'm a reader, do I have to give a good review of the book to get it for free?

Heck no! If you don't like it, say so. No one benefits with fake positive reviews, not the author and not the reader. 

That being said, the best reviewers know the difference between a book they don't like and a bad book. Hopefully, reviewers can separate their own personal preferences from their critical appreciation of the book. I think that's the best way to create interesting conversations about art.

Tell us what's different about your new Website for Story Cartel?

Since we launched our new website on May 13, we've been blown away by the response. We already have more books available than we had the first three months we started. So the big benefit is more books! The site is much cleaner and clearer, and it's a lot easier for readers to find the perfect book for them. You can sort by your favorite genre, browse our most popular titles, and even book-hop from book to book until you find the perfect book for you.

 

I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the Write Practice. It's one of my favorite writer blogs on the Internet!

Thanks! We like it, too. :) 

 

For our readers who don't know, can you tell us about the daily writing prompts. What should someone expect if they sign up for these?

I think that daily writing prompts, while fun, can be an incredible waste of time. We try to help writers practice a specific skill every day, and the writing prompts are exercises to help you practice that skill. That being said, we occasionally throw in a lone prompt from time to time, just to keep it interesting. :) 

How many different writers contribute to The Write Practice Blog?

We have six right now, including me. It's a pretty amazing team.

Can you tell us a little about your own writing? What are some of the things you've published and your favorite genre to write?

Sure! I like to write literary fiction. My latest published piece is a short story, "Hands," about a dying musician who reconnects with his favorite, former student. It sounds depressing, but it's really about the music, the jazz that bonds these two men. I had a lot of fun writing it.

Any advice for any aspiring authors?

So much. But you'll have to subscribe to The Write Practice to get it. :)

-Holli Anne
 

Writer Talk: Do you Believe in You?

Belief is a funny thing. Whether the belief is in God, Santa Claus or in a friend, the act touches something deep in your core. No matter small or great, very certain or relatively unknown, belief in anything requires a deep level of trust and a leap of faith, at least to some extent. 

I've always personally been someone who likes to believe things, but the meaning of the concept really came alive to me about a year ago when I saw someone pose this question: When does someone become a writer?

At that time, though I had been working for a newspaper for years and literally had my work published, I wouldn't have called myself one. At least not willingly.

I may have said "I write" or "I'm a journalist" but I wouldn't have just gone around telling people I am a writer. 

Essentially, I didn't believe.

I have no idea what my idea of a writer was, but I guess I just always thought something more than what I've accomplished, like publishing a book, maybe even a "successful" book, maybe even getting recognized for it. 

Here's the thing about that kind of train of thought. Sure, I could still write even if I don't believe it, but for the chances of getting someone else to read it or even to finish a project to be present, I really need to buy into it. While a writer might not write only for others to actually read the work, the work itself just won't be the same until you proclaim it to the world—and at minimum, to yourself. 

It's been a year since I decided to declare to myself, on my Website, when people ask me what I do—just everywhere— that I'm a writer. A few weeks later I started to really believe it. A few months later I was supporting myself solely on that skill. And a year later, I'm writing more than I ever have and honestly, better. 

Writers (and I think all creative types really) have a tremendous amount of self-doubt to overcome in the process of creating any work. The true belief in you to come through makes it even possible to complete anything at all. 

If you are a writer or creative person, what has been your biggest tool in overcoming doubt about your work? 

—Holli Anne

HELP: Painting the bedroom

Brown blinds.
My decorating Achilles' heel.
Maybe they are the reason I've been shying away from design posts lately. I just can't get them out of my head.

What am I talking about? Well, it's time to paint the bedroom and, under other circumstances (sans blinds), I'd be pumped as all get out. It's not that I don't like the color brown. I mean, these blinds that run throughout the house are actually a dark brown--three shades away from black (and a color I can work with). So, I guess it could be worse. I shouldn't complain, I know, but every color scheme I wanted to go with didn't include brown. This is the reason for my decorating distress.

Simple solution? Take them down and get new blinds.
Negative, Ghostrider.

These blinds were here before me and expensive. Plus, as far as a blind's function goes, they are brilliant. In short: They are here to stay (at least for a while).

So, instead of NEVER painting the bedroom, I am having to come up with alternate color combos. It isn't such a daunting task as I assumed but I still am stuck.

Current Bedroom Deets
Tray ceiling
White baseboard
Permanent dark brown blinds
A lot of black decorations (picture frames & TV stand)

What colors I love
Teal
Blue
Light Gray

I've really considered the scheme in the picture above, but as you see, I've had some reservations with it as well. See, I have a tray ceiling to deal with. So that means I need to paint that sucker as well and I really don't want it to be a dark or bright color. That's why I want to it to be either light gray or white. 

So here are the three options I've come up with:

1. An accent wall of color (hopefully a teal or blue) and the rest of the walls a gray or white as well as the tray ceiling.

2. All walls painted a color and the tray ceiling a white or gray. (Probably white so it can compliment the trim.)

3. Half walls! Paint the bottom half of the room a bright color and the rest (including the tray ceiling) gray or white.

So, there are my options. What do you think? What would YOU do?

Help!

-Tyler Anne (aka Chick Tyler)

All images can be found on my Color make me go OH! board and tracked back to the original owners.

The Dark Side of Writing: 35 Writing Prompts

I did it! I finally did it! I finished the writing prompt workbook that I've been...well, writing!

It's called The Dark Side of Writing: 35 Writing Prompts and I have to say it was a blast to make.

So, what exactly is the "dark side" you may ask?

Well it's all of those topics that are a bit harder to write--the nastier, grittier side of life. In this workbook I touch on the topics of dead bodies, murder, sex, drugs, and a few more interesting issues that you may have lurking in your book.

You aren't writing a book? The Dark Side of Writing can be used to just exercise your writing technique. The 35 prompts are made to push you to get out of your writer's comfort zone and address real life situations with a few different perspectives.

Here are the 11 sections:

Let the bodies hit...well, wherever
Act of Killing
FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!
Drop that F-Bomb
WHAM BAM, thank you ma'am (and sir)
GO BIG OR GO a little less big
Sweet Jesus, it's a scar!
I can get sexual too!
Drugland (Alcohol not included)
Go Home, You're Drunk
Hate is a strong word

I admit, I had some fun coming up with the names of each section but I had even more fun writing each. Some of the content may seem offensive but I promise it's justified!

To give you a little taste of The Dark Side, here's the copy from Section Eight (I can get sexual too!):

Section Eight
I can get sexual too!

Yes, yes, yes. This section is about sex. Why is writing about sex in The Dark Side of Writing? Well, not all sex scenes in books should be lovemaking, cute and cuddly reads. Sometimes you can’t (shouldn’t) just rush over an important sex scene or skip it altogether because you don’t want to be 50 shades of embarrassed.

Sex is natural. Writing a sex scene that’s needed to further your plot or character growth should be too. The following three writing prompts are to help you get out of your comfort zone and more comfortable with sensual scenes and horny characters.

Get sexy!

Prompt One

Your main character and this other person have known each other a while now and something suddenly changes between them—there’s this explosion of sexual tension. Ease this by having them do the big YOU KNOW WHAT!

Remember, these characters need to know each other and have some sort of pre-existing relationship. (I.e. casual friends, best friends, work colleagues, etc.)

Prompt Two

Your main character needs to basically have a one-night stand. Before you complain, remember—this is a writing prompt. It’s meant to exercise your writing.

Take your main character and put them in a place where they meet someone. It can be a drunken meeting, a heat of the moment situation, or just an I’m-really-sad-about- something-so-help-me-be-less-sad-and-lonely deal.

Bottom line: Write a sex scene in which your main character isn’t that familiar with the person in the scene with them. This will make you address a different side of your main character as they navigate uncharted territory—physically and emotionally.

Prompt Three

Your main character is about to have sex with his/her nemesis. This is by far my favorite situation to write about.

Write a scene in which your main character is fighting with the nemesis but then, something changes and well...they have sex. This also will address the way your main character thinks and acts towards the nemesis during and after.

I hope you enjoyed the sex portion of The Dark Side! Want to see the rest of the sections? Go here to purchase The Dark Side! Only $10!

-Tyler Anne (aka Chick Tyler)

Fellow Creatives: Share your Story

Are you working on a big project right now? Do you have one you've always wanted to work on? 

When the Annes started Almost There, its purpose was sort of two-fold: To inspire ourselves to chase our dreams and to help others do the same. 

Essentially, we live for creative living! So we want this blog to be a place that truly fosters that. 

Since there's really nothing quite like hearing the stories and seeing the work of other creative people, we've decided we really want to start sharing some stories. YOUR stories! 

Whether you are a musician, writer, fine artist, DIYer, blogger, chef…it really doesn't matter! We'd love to show you off and foster a community of support for each other.

Since one of our big dreams is running this blog, we are asking for your help in exchange. All we ask is you subscribe to our blog by entering your e-mail address in the subscribe box under our pictures on the right of this page. You will only get one e-mail for every day that we post. So if we blog 3 times in one day, you'll only get one message with all the goodies! 

We'll message you and ask for details about your project or dream and shine a spotlight on you on this blog and our social media sites.

—The Annes