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Motivational Monday: Revisiting Old Friends

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bird chirping

It’s Monday–and the last day of March! Spring is here, and no matter where you live in the U.S., whether the temperatures are unusually cold or hotter than normal, the earth is abuzz with new life. And so is my brain.

A few days ago I pulled out an as-yet unpublished book I finished sometime back. A book I’ve been itching to clean up and either sell or self-publish. It’s amazing how the characters have stayed with me, and how they’ve changed since I first typed The End. I feel as if I’m visiting old friends. I’m loving all that I’m learning about them, and what I’ll be sharing with you, my readers.

This is where my head and heart will be for a while, delighting in and being surprised and sometimes stunned by these three closer-than-sisters friends. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Until Wednesday,

Ann

Ann Roth

Hump Day Wednesday: Exercises for Thinking Out of the Box

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get out of the box

In my search for thinking outside the box, I came across this terrific eHow website, http://bit.ly/1riQo13 .

These folks claim that with practice, practice, practice you can learn how to think outside the box and offered the following exercises. Here are three exercises taken directly from their site.

Instructions

Set aside time for these exercises. Fifteen minutes may or may not be enough, but it has to be an  uninterrupted fifteen minutes. No phone calls, no co-workers, no family.

brain

Creativity Exercise One:

Look around you . Pick a familiar object, and study it. Touch it, pick it up, smell it. Keep studying it until you have learned something about it that you didn’t know before. Maybe it’s the varied thickness of even the smoothest paper, or the fact that your cat only has four toes on each back foot.

This is what it means to think outside the box. The box is what you know.

brain

Creativity Exercise Two:

Pick up a book. Close your eyes, open it to a random page, and stab your finger at the page. Look and see which word your finger landed on. If you don’t like the word, you get one do-over. Now get a paper and pen or pencil, or type at your computer, and come up with 25 ways that word relates to your life. If that’s too easy, make it 50.

When you do this exercise, you will come up with a few items right away. They are the obvious things you already know. After that, this exercise will suddenly get very hard. That’s the wall of the box. This is the place where you must press on. Think outside the box. When you get through that wall, those new ideas will come easier. You’ll come up with things you never thought of before.

brain

Creativity Exercise Three:

This one will take longer than your fifteen minutes, but that’s part of the point. Now  you have to learn to think outside the box all the time, not just within your isolated creativity exercise.

This time you have to come up with a list of 100 things to consider before making a certain decision. What decision is up to you — it can be who to vote for, or whether to buy a new TV, or even where to take someone special for a romantic dinner. An important decision will probably be easier, but not necessarily.

You won’t get this done in fifteen minutes, but get as far as you can. Then make it a hobby. Think about it each day. Try to come up with just one more consideration or reason when you’re on your break, or in line at the store.

You’re not going to get to 100 without getting silly or ridiculous here and there. And that’s okay, because the wall of the box here is made up of your assumptions of what is right and appropriate. To think outside the box, you have to start considering things you thought were wrong.

Feeling challenged? I do!

But there is a payoff, the folks at eHow claim. Once you get the hang of each of these creativity exercises, you can start applying them to your real projects and goals. Study an element of your project until you learn something new. Pick a random word and think deeply about how it relates to your goals. Make a hobby of thinking up new considerations to understanding the problems.

Thanks, eHow!

Guess we all have homework, huh? Or not… Maybe you’ll opt to think outside the “eHow box” and try something totally different instead. LOL!!!

Remember that your comment automatically enters you in a monthly drawing for a free, autographed copy of an Ann Roth book!

Have fun, and until Friday,

Ann

 

Motivational Monday: More on Thinking Outside the Box

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think_outside_the_box1

It’s Monday, and my efforts to think outside the box continue. Over the next few weeks or months, I plan to alternate between multiple projects: the workshop I’ll be presenting in San Antonio at the annual Romance Writers of America conference in July, a women’s fiction novel already completed but in need of editing, a short story and a novella to go with the women’s fiction, and new stories for my Prosperity, Montana miniseries.

The first two projects are complete and awaiting revisions. Rather than simply reworking the material, I’m going to dig deeper. I’ll turn the conference workshop on its head and make it fresh and fun. As for the women’s fiction novel, anything goes! My three heroines are going to venture into places from which I’ve held them back. I can’t wait to see what unfolds.

These changes won’t come easily. They’ll take time and work, and I expected to be challenged and stretched considerably. I’m open to that. In fact, I’m excited to see where thinking outside the box takes me.

And those new stories for the Prosperity miniseries? Even now, they’re forming in my subconscious, gaining enough heft to pique my curiosity. When the time is right, I have no doubt that they’ll hop over to my conscious mind.

How are you planning to think outside the box, or are you happy with your current way of thinking?

Remember, your comment automatically enters you in a monthly drawing for a free, autographed copy of an Ann Roth book!

Until Wednesday,

Ann

Sunday Musings: Thinking Outside the Box

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think-outside-the-box

I’ve been away for a while, working on a book. Finished yesterday-hooray! Now that I  am finished and have rejoined the living :-), I am making a commitment, right here in writing, to bring you a blog three to four times a week. I expect you to hold me to it. I welcome comments. Your comment automatically enters you in a monthly drawing for a free, autographed copy of an Ann Roth book!

This morning while I enjoyed my Sunday-morning bubble bath and listened to the Sunday puzzle on NPR, Will Shortz, the New York Times puzzle editor, reviewed last week’s challenge: “Take the brand name of a popular grocery item, push two consecutive letters together without otherwise changing the name in any way, and the result will be a make of car.”  The answer: Mazola.  Push the o and l together and get Mazda. Clever, isn’t it? I sure didn’t figure it out.

Which got me thinking. How often do I think outside the box? Sure, I can develop fictitious towns, come up with interesting plots and create memorable characters, but is that actually thinking outside the box? I don’t think so.

My challenge for the coming week: Think outside the box. Turn “what-if” on its head and look at life from angles I’ve never even considered. I’ll report back. I’d love to hear suggestions on how to think outside the box. What do you do?

Until next time,

Ann

Gingerbread Birls, Boys, Birds and more…

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gingerbread

Over the years I’ve tried many gingerbread cookie recipes, but this one has become the all-time favorite. It comes from Jann Johnson’s The Art of the Cookie, and is outstanding.

I can’t tell you exactly how many cookies the recipe makes–that depends on the size of your cookie cutters. At our house, we usually end up with several dozen.

Gingerbread Cookies
Note: The dough will need to be chilled for at least one hour before using

1/2 tsp each salt and baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom (optional, but I use it every time)
1/2 tsp ground cloves
3 1/4 cup flour (I use unbleached)
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 stick butter), softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1/4 cup water
In a medium bowl, whisk salt, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and flour; set aside. In a large bowl with the mixer at medium speed, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in molasses and water; mixture will look curdled. On low speed, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mixing well. Divide dough in half and shape each into a flattened ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill 1 hour or overnight. Dough may be frozen at this point, but it must be thawed completely before using.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease baking sheets. (I use Silpat.) On lightly floured surface, with a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out one half of the dough 1/4 inch thick. Lift dough occasionally to prevent sticking. Lightly reflour the work surface and rolling pin as needed.

Cut out the cookies and decorate. Place on cookie sheets. They spread so leave space between them. Bake in the center of the oven 12-15 minutes, or until set. Let them cool.

Cooled cookies may be frozen… If you have any left!

If you make anything gingerbread, email to me at ann@annroth.net and I’ll post your photos here.

Until next time,

Ann

Contest has ended!

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12dayscover2

Thank you for participating in the 12 Days of Small Town Christmas with Harlequin American Romance Authors! The winners have been drawn and are listed on the giveaway page. Here are two of the lucky winners…

drum-roll-please

Deanna Vrba is the lucky winner of 23 books. Included in her bounty will be an autographed copy of A Rancher’s Christmas.

Alyssa Palmer won A Rancher’s Christmas, autographed by me!

front cover

All winners should receive emails from the author they won a prize from. If your author does not contact you within a few days please email marin@marinthomas.com for assistance.

Congratulations winners!

http://statictab.com/q9kitvm

Until Next Time,

Ann

Panna Cotta

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panna cotta

Last weekend I listened to The Splendid Table on NPR http://www.splendidtable.org/, the show for people who love to eat. I love this show but don’t get much chance to listen to it.

The host, Lynne Rossetto Kasper, gave a recipe for panna cotta. Naturally I had to try it. I have never been a fan of the stuff served in restaurants, but Lynne’s recipe is very good. And easy to make.

Warning: This stuff is killer rich, made mostly of cream and sour cream, with sugar and gelatin tossed in. I made a wine sauce to go with it. What can I say except that my arteries are now clogged… LOL! But I had to test it out, to see how it tastes. Now I’ll be able to serve it at our Winter Solstice party in a few weeks.

Here is the recipe. Give yourself a good 24 hours to make it and let it set, in the fridge so that it has a chance to firm up.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin (use the entire packet instead)
  • 2 tablespoons cold water
  • 3 cups heavy whipping cream
  • 1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar, or more to taste
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup (8-ounce container) sour cream

1. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water. Let stand for 5 minutes. In a 3-quart saucepan, warm the cream with the sugar, salt, and vanilla over medium-high heat. Do not let it boil. Stir in the gelatin until thoroughly dissolved. Take the cream off the heat and cool about 5 minutes.

2. Put the sour cream in a medium bowl. Gently whisk in the warm cream a little at a time until smooth. Taste for sweetness. It may need another teaspoon of sugar. Rinse 8 2/3 -cup ramekins, custard cups, or coffee cups with cold water. Fill each one three-quarters full with the cream. Chill 4 to 24 hours. For a very pretty and tasty treat, layer the panna cotta with this wine “filling”:

Wine “Filling” :

    • 1 1/2 cup red wine
    • 1 cinnamon stick
    • 1 whole allspice
    • 1/2 tsp vanilla
    • 1/4 cup sugar
    • 1 packet gelatin dissolved in 2 tablespoons cold water

Bring wine, sugar and spices to a boil. Boil 3 minutes.  Remove from heat and taste for sweetness; add more sugar if needed. Remove cinnamon and allspice. While still hot, whisk about 1/4 cup of the wine with the gelatin; when incorporated, add this to the rest of the wine. Whisk until smooth and there are no lumps.

Let cool thoroughly. If you have the time and patience, grab a pretty glass bowl and layer with the panna cotta. Here’s how to do that: Spoon about 1/2 of the panna cotta in the glass bowl. Chill until firm, about 4 hours. Without disturbing the panna cotta, gently add a new layer of 1/2 of the thickened wine . Chill 4 hours. Repeat, ending with a layer of the wine.

By the way, the photo above isn’t mine. I didn’t know that I needed to let everything set for such a long time, and mine turned out… not so pretty, but yummy all the same.

If you try it, let me know how it turns out.

Enjoy!

Until next time,

Ann

 

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