March 23, 2017 by M A Clarke Scott

I Promised Italian Food! Here’s the First Course!

Cherry Almond Biscotti

I promised you food as part of my All-Italian blog week to celebrate the launch of The Art of Enchantment. And I woke up this morning with a serious craving for biscotti.

When I want biscotti, my go-to recipe is always by Christine Cushing. No need to re-invent the wheel here. If you are a biscotti fan, this is the BEST!

Lately I’ve seen a trend in coffee shops to monster-sized biscotti of strangely ubiquitous consistency and no discernible flavor. Be careful not to break your teeth.

This is not that.

The recipe is quick and easy. I laid out my ingredients first, since I just moved this week and I wanted to know that I could find everything. There are other versions, with hazelnuts, chocolate or whatever you like best, but today I wanted dried cherries and almonds. In my opinion, the secret ingredient that makes these cookies so good is the grape seed oil. Don’t substitute anything else for that. And don’t leave out the lemon zest or anise because the flavor is so Italy.

Basically I mix up the dry ingredients in one bowl, blend up the wet ingredients in the mixer, stir them together and presto!

Then I pour/drop/shape the sticky dough into two long, rather narrow logs on buttered parchment. Bake for about 20 minutes. It gets quite golden brown, but it’s still a bit soft inside.

After the first-baked slabs cool for fifteen minutes, slice on the diagonal into 3/4″ slices, lay them on their sides and bake again until crispy and dry. Yum. You can dip them in your caffe latte if you like them soft, but they are just as delicious eaten straight off the pan all by themselves. Buon appetito!

Recipe

1 1/2 cups and 2 tbsp. all purpose flour (405ml)

2 tsp baking powder (10 ml)

1 tsp ground anise seed (5 ml)

pinch salt

grated zest of 2 lemons

1 cup sugar (250 ml)

1/3 cup grape seed oil (75 ml)

3 eggs

1 cup toasted whole almonds, skin on (250 ml)

1/2 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped (125 ml)

butter, for brushing baking tray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
Line a large baking sheet with parchment. Brush with butter.
Sift flour, baking powder, ground anise and salt into a medium bowl. Add almonds and cherries.
In another bowl, add lemon zest, sugar, oil and eggs. Whisk or mix until smooth. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon and blend well.
Divide dough in half and shape each into a cylinder (roughly 12 x 2 inches). Dough will be sticky so use a little oil on hands or spatula to shape dough. Arrange the cylinders on baking sheet, leaving at least 3 inches – they will spread out as they bake.
Bake for 30 to 35 mutes or until golden and firm. Remove from oven and let stand for 15 minutes before cutting to keep shape. With a large spatula carefully scrape cylinders off tray and transfer to a cutting board. Carefully slice crosswise on the diagonal with a serrated edge knife (in one full cut) into 1/2-inch slices. Put slices back onto the baking sheet, laying flat and not overlapping. Bake a second time (again at 325 degrees F.) for 20 more minutes or until golden brown and crisp. Makes about 40 cookies.

Note: I used my new convection oven for the first time, so I adjusted the times down about 5 minutes per stage.

Let me know if you try the recipe and if you agree they are the best biscotti ever.

I hope you make yourself a nice coffee, sit down with a biscotti or two turn on your soundtrack and settle in to a good read, once you pick up your copy of my new release, The Art of Enchantment, on special this week for only .99. Ciao!

March 17, 2017 by M A Clarke Scott

Romance Novels Set in Italy

Ciao Bella!

While we’re in the mood to immerse ourselves in La Bella Vita, and all good things Italian, I did some research on romance novels set in Italy and personally hand-picked a few I think look amazing.

I haven’t actually read most of these, but judging by the descriptions and ratings, I’m going to! I’ve added all eleven to my to-be-read file in Goodreads. You can follow me there by clicking on the link in the sidebar. I feel a binge coming on.

So, just for fun, here’s the list. They’re all romances, but I’ve included classics, contemporary, historical, paranormal, time travel, young adult, romantic suspense and even redacted Shakespeare. I hope you find something to interest you and this list will inspire your reading.

Arrivaderci!

Breathing Room by Susan Elizabeth Phillips 4.2 star rating

“She’s Dr. Isabel Favor, America’s diva of self-help.
He’s Ren Gage, Hollywood’s favorite villain.
Sometimes you just know that God has a sense of humor.”

Classic SEP absurdity, with fun and games to spare, I’ll bet.

Rosamanti by Noelle Clark 4.6 star rating

Mystery author Sarah Halliman answers a newspaper advertisement—For lease: Isolated villa on Capri, Italy. Must love cats and heads to Italy, where she gets know the locals and solves a mystery.

The Italian Wedding by Nicky Pellegrino 4.3 star rating

“Pieta Martinelli’s sister is getting married…As Pieta stitches and beads her sister’s wedding gown she uncovers the secrets that have made her family what it is and that stand between her and happiness.” A family drama and coming of age story.

A Room with a View by E M Forster 4.1 star rating

A social comedy set in Florence, Italy, and Surrey, England. Its heroine, Lucy Honeychurch, struggling against straitlaced Victorian attitudes of arrogance, narrow-mindedness and snobbery, falls in love-while on holiday in Italy-with the socially unsuitable George Emerson. A classic.

The Visitant by Megan Chance 3.8 star rating

Elena Spira is sent to Venice to escape disgrace and to atone by caring for the ailing Samuel Farber. At the crumbling and decaying Ca’ Basilio palazzo Elena finds herself entangled in a world where the past seeps into the present and nothing is as it seems. A Venetian historical ghost story. Sounds Gothic!

From Italy with Love by Jules Wake 4.5 star rating

‘This epic road-trip is full of glamour, romance and sizzling sexual tension, but at its heart is a truly heart-warming tale of self discovery.”

Juliet by Ann Fortier 4.1 star rating

“When Julie Jacobs inherits a key to a safety deposit box in Siena, Italy, she is told it will lead her to an old family treasure. Soon she is launched on a winding and perilous journey into the history of her ancestor Giulietta, whose legendary love for a young man named Romeo rocked the foundations of medieval Siena.”

The Lost Art of Second Chances by Courtney Hunt 4.5 stars

“When Lucy Parker’s eccentric grandmother, Belladonna, dies, she leaves one last request. Lucy must return a beloved painting to a mysterious man in Italy, leading her on a journey into the past to discover long-buried family secrets that could change everything.”

Homeport by Nora Roberts 4.4 star rating

“An art expert and a thief get caught in a dangerous game in this novel of daring deception and desire from #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts.”

The Juliet Club by Suzanne Harper 3.8 star rating

Kate Sanderson spends the summer abroad studying Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Verona, Italy where she is thrown together with five other teens in the Juliet Club. Can Kate’s cool logic withstand the most romantic summer ever? YA

In My Lady’s Shadow (Lady of Asolo) by Siobhan Daiko 4.5 star rating

Fern’s vacation in Italy turns into a nightmare when she’s snatched back in time and lives the life of Cecilia, lady in waiting to Queen Caterina Corner. Time travel!

Let me know if you’ve picked up any of these books, or even if you’ve already read them. Tell me what you thought of it in the comment section below. And if you connect with me on Goodreads, give me a shout out to let me know where you found me.

March 14, 2017 by M A Clarke Scott

Be Swept Away… A Journey of Love

Life is a Journey

Do you love to travel to foreign locales? I do. I haven’t been everywhere, not even close. But over the years, I’ve been on a journey or three. And the places I haven’t been, I love reading about in novels.

Fiction brings facts alive for me. I always enjoy learning about new places, different cultures or customs, art and architecture and history. This is much better through the lens of a story than from a dry encyclopedia or text book. But that’s me.

So when I set out to write fiction, I couldn’t help but write stories about young women traveling or living abroad, perhaps studying, vacationing or on a personal quest of some kind. I’ve written three books like this.

The Art of Enchantment, though it wasn’t the first written, will be the first to be published on March 20th. I’m so excited to share it with readers at last.

Coming up with a series tagline that represented both the “journey” aspect, and the “personal growth” aspect of these stories was hard. I thought of and discarded two dozen options before finally settling on “Life is a Journey“. It may not be witty, but it captures everything that’s in my mind and in my heart when I write these books.

Travel as Inspiration

Because I love to travel, very often it’s those exotic, stimulating experiences and environments that inspire my story ideas. (That’s as good an excuse as any to plan another trip, if you ask me!) Writing the stories brings back memories, and enriches my original travel experiences. As do these photos from my journey.

A Dissimulation of Doves was inspired by a trip to York, England, back in 2006, and specifically by a charming old inn where we stayed. I still remember lying awake one night, restless with jet lag, imagining the people who owned and worked at the hotel.

What kinds of adventures might they have had, both in the past and present? And what would happen if a young Canadian woman came here to find out?

Another work in progress, currently titled Tempered by Love, was inspired by a summer stay in the south of France in 2009. Not Provence, which is perhaps more familiar to North American travelers. Rather Aquitaine, a very special province full of fascinating geology, pre-history, history and rich culture. In particular, an annual Medieval Festival in the village where we stayed conjured an almost magical atmosphere. Jugglers, acrobats and even giants might appear, and inspire life changing events for an unsuspecting traveller passing through.

Finally, a month long stay in Tuscany in 2012 was the inspiration for The Art of Enchantment. Tuscany is already so rich in art and history. It’s such a beautiful, living landscape, it can’t help but inspire storytelling. Strangely though, the seed for this idea came from an imaginary place – a crumbling Renaissance villa.

As we were driving along a scenic country road, I got to thinking about the fact that the artist Sting apparently owns an old villa somewhere, in Umbria, if I recall correctly. And I got to wondering about the fate of all those old buildings – who owns them now – what are they used for – and how do people, especially old families, afford the costs of upkeep and repairs (it’s the architect in me, I guess.) How would one go about rescuing it? That’s what got me thinking about old money and new money, a clash of worlds, and a way to give an old villa a new life by making it into a passion project for two creative dreamers. Thus Clio and Guillermo were born!

Memories from Tuscany

To celebrate the connection between travel, romance and storytelling, and get you in the mood for reading The Art of Enchantment, I’ve included a few photographs taken on my 2012 trip to Italy. Enjoy!

Tell me about your own travels in the comments section below! What exotic places have you visited that got you dreaming about what might have been, and what could be!

Who knows, maybe you’ll inspire my next book.

And don’t forget to pick up a copy of The Art of Enchantment, available for pre-sale right now. Be swept away on a journey of love…

November 13, 2016 by M A Clarke Scott

A Busy Month of Author Appearances, Conferences & Networking

It’s been such a hectic month I haven’t managed to post any news. Here’s an overview of what I’ve been up to.

Vancouver Public Library Indie Author Day

The first annual Indie Author Day at the Vancouver Public Library was also my first public appearance as a published author. I met with several other authors that I knew, including Joel Mark Harris, Christine Dodd and fellow RWA member Cheri Champaigne, with whom I shared a table. I also did a short reading from my book Reconcilable Differences.

Surrey International Writer’s Conference

For the first time in several years, I attended the Surrey Writer’s Conference as a full delegate and indulged in inspiring keynote speakers such as Daniel Jose Older, workshops and panel discussions with new authors and perennial favorites such as Diana Gabaldon, did a blue pencil session on an unpublished manuscript with favorite author Susanna Kearsley and pitched the same to a few agents and editors, garnering several requests for submissions. Fingers crossed and good luck to book two in the Having It All series: Coming About.

Author Signing at Indigo Park Royal in West Vancouver

My first author signing event involved a bit of nerves and fretting, but ended up being a ton of fun as friends and family stopped by to buy books, get them signed and wish me well. And a few strangers too! Far better than the dreaded picture of me sitting alone in the book store at the mall having people walk by while avoiding eye contact and listening to the proverbial crickets.

Vancouver Women’s Conference

Finally yesterday I attended the full day inaugural Vancouver Women’s Conference organized and hosted by TV and radio personality and sex expert Maureen McGrath who brought together a room full of speakers and presenters to focus on issues of interest and concern, including the new POTUS, women in the workplace, balancing life and work, sexual health, assault and healing, empowerment, business modeling, mothering, fertility and menopause, and even fashion.

And that’s all, except for the fact that it’s National Novel Writing Month now, and I’m supposed to be hunkering down to revise and complete Coming About, book two in the Having It All series. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could get it published by later winter or early spring 2017. That’s what I’m aiming for.

In the meantime, one last promotional effort for Reconcilable Differences, which is free on Amazon Kindle today and tomorrow. So if you’re still looking for a digital copy, now’s your chance. Click here to start reading today.

A final request: if you’ve read it or plan to, don’t forget to leave a rating and review on Amazon or Goodreads. That way I can get put away my promoters hat and back to writing more stories. Thanks!

August 21, 2016 by M A Clarke Scott

RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES AVAILABLE NOW

Published!

I can’t believe it but it’s finally true. You can finally buy my first novel, Reconcilable Differences as an ebook on Amazon HERE. The beautiful trade paperback edition will be released within the next couple of weeks as the interior layout details are finalized.

Despite all my frantic worry about how it would happen, it just happened in its own sweet chaotic way and of course all out of order and in defiance of any plans I might have made.

The Business of Selling Books

So. Phew. You’d think the pressure would be off. But you’d be wrong. Now I’ve got most of the technical publishing stuff out of the way, I’ve got my author-preneur hat shoved tightly onto my head, and that’s a whole other arena of activity and worries. I’m finally in the position to make sense of, choose and implement a raft of book marketing strategies that I’ve been studying for quite some time.

There are too many to mention, not all of them appropriate for me. And no one could do them all. Giveaway and contests, special promotions, discounts and bonus incentives, book reviews and bloggers. All to build an email list, create brand recognition, improve rankings and of course, I hope, sell books.

Sometimes I wonder if the big business opportunity of the day is educating, coaching and selling products and services TO the gazillion new independent authors in the world. And of course any fiction author will tell you that this business stuff isn’t the reason we all buried our heads in the figurative sands of our imagination. Well it is, but in an inverse sort of way. How ironic that the publishing industry asks this of us more than ever before.

By the way you can find Reconcilable Differences online HERE.

via GIPHY

The Philosophy of Vulnerability

Aside from the stresses of publishing and marketing, I’ve been losing sleep and contending with rats in my brain this last few days for an entirely different reason. The moment I hit “publish” I’ve been riddled with anxiety, torn between the urge to run for the hills, delete the book, unplug from all social media, and spend the rest of my days contentedly growing organic heirloom tomatoes. And alternatively, giddily tell everyone I know about my first very kind five star review on Amazon and ask them to tell their friends to buy my book and give me more hugs. Or stars. Or Olympic medals, whatever. I’m easy to please.

My fear, of course, is that someone will find fault. That someone will loath my book and point out it’s flaws for all the world to see. Or tell me that it’s well-enough written but it’s a stupid or boring book in the first place. Isn’t this what I’ve been avoiding all these years? But this is a foolish fear. Of course this is guaranteed to happen. Someone will hate it. Suddenly I’m deeply sympathetic with everyone who throughout history has published their words, shared their art or music, or for that matter, represented their country in a big race for an Olympic gold medal. But hopefully someone will love it too. Many someones.

It Takes A Thick Skin to Share Your Gifts

via GIPHY

That’s part of the territory. It’s time to thicken up my skin and step forward. Feel the fear and do it anyway. If you’re a creative person, the day will come where you have to share what you’ve done with the world. This is where I have to remind myself of the benefits of following my dream, pushing outside of my comfort zone, taking risks and living in the moment. All of which I’ve been trying to do these days. I don’t want, on my deathbed, to regret that I’d been given gifts and failed to use or share them.

Next Steps

Now, I think, is a good time to revert to my best practices. Taking care of myself, spending time with mindfulness, which for me means hiking in the rainforest, and getting centered. Tapping into the part of me that connects with the source of story ideas and the urge to write and share them in the first place. A reminder of why I do this, and hopefully the motivation and drive to carry on. Maybe one of my characters will speak to me, and help me decide whether to work on Book Two of the Having It All series or continue with revisions on Book One of the Growing Into My Skin series.

Please Comment!

If you can relate to this, either to doing, the risking or the fearing, now is the time to share. I know I’ll feel a lot better knowing I’m not alone in these feelings. And I’ll bet you will too. So leave a comment below, telling me what you’ve done, or still dream of doing, that makes you feel vulnerable. Or share what you do to cope with this. Everyone who comments will be entered into a draw for a free copy of my ebook, Reconcilable Differences.

August 16, 2016 by M A Clarke Scott

COVER REVEAL: RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES

The final new book cover

RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES: BEARING SCARS

Finally Reconcilable Differences is ready for publication. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, this is a book that was originally written over ten years ago. For all the revisions, it will always carry the scars of having been my first, and because of that, the vehicle for my learning curve as a writer.

In some ways, this seems appropriate for a book that’s about exactly that. A woman, Kate O’Day, who carries the emotional and psychic scars of a long-ago sexual assault, and the emotional trauma of dealing with and healing from that over many years. Kate, like her story, has been in a long iterative process of revision, learning and rebirth.

I’m so happy to be able to share Kate’s story with you at last. It’s an important story, and as one reviewer said, “we get to ride along on this harrowing journey without getting too beat up along the way.” Reconcilable Differences explores how sexual assault can lead to repressed memories, PTSD, and compromised self-esteem that has deep and lasting impact on a woman and her ability to form lasting and intimate relationships.

I felt it was important to explore these subtler psychological dimensions, since they are rarely discussed, in the context of growing awareness of rape culture, and how it supports, prolongs and institutionalizes the oppression of women for the duration of their lives.

A HOPEFUL STORY OF HEALING & SELF LOVE

But this is not meant to be a dark or a radical book. My goal had always been to tell a love story. A sensitive and intimate exploration of one woman’s journey toward self-knowledge, self-acceptance and love. Although Reconcilable Differences isn’t a classic romance, it is a love story, as Kate navigates the reawakening of a love she lost long ago, along with her own sense of self.

It’s ultimately an optimistic story that hopefully resonates with readers, allowing insight into the inner life of a woman searching for identity, fulfillment, balance and love. In that regard, it speaks to us all.

HAVING IT ALL

Regardless of your personal experience, everywoman’s life shares certain common threads. Despite changes over generations, and from place to place, women have always had to struggle to find their place in society. No matter what choices you are given, or what decisions you make, there are always options, always consequences, always disappointments. I don’t think this feeling is particular to my generation, but I do feel that my own life is a reflection of this truth, and so I write with insight and authority on subjects that have touched me personally.

The Having It All series of novels is my way of exploring modern women’s lives as they try to integrate the particular circumstances of their families of origin and personal experiences with perpetually conflicting goals. How do we balance freedom with security, self-expression, identity and autonomy with love, family and belonging? As we variously lean in and try to participate fully in the world, we also need to keep a finger on the pulse of our inner lives to ensure that we don’t sell ourselves short. True empowerment means living fully in our own essence, and having the freedom to make and live with our choices without regret.

WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK?

This is a good moment to reflect on why I wrote this story, and why I believe you should read it. Women’s Fiction encompasses the woman’s journey no matter where or when or how she lives, and by donning the mantle, and walking in the shoes, of characters that are like, but different from ourselves, we learn. We become sensitized to the particular challenges women face, and we can apply those lessons to our own lives, hopefully for the better. We learn about the world, we learn about ourselves, and we learn about each other.
We are all on a journey, and honest compelling storytelling has always been an important way for us to broaden, deepen and strengthen ourselves for the road. I hope you join me on this journey and both read and enjoy Reconcilable Differences. There are more stories where this one came from!

FOLLOW ME, SUBSCRIBE, SIGN UP, SHARE, BUY THE BOOK & WRITE A REVIEW

These are all the ways you can help me with the business side of being an author. The more help I get with this stuff, the more time I can spend writing new stories to share with you.

M. A. CLARKE SCOTT, Author

Romantic Women's Fiction ~ Healing, Wholeness, Hope ~ Stories for Life

Virtues