May 2013 Book in a Week class

Well, it's that time....

Here's the information on my next Book in a Week class--one of the best gifts I believe an author can give himself or herself. It's a chance to write better, faster and have more fun doing so. It's a new way to look at the process of creating a book.

Dates: May 26, 2013 to July 5, 2013 (Note: Last week of class is wrap up and relatively low key.)
Cost: $85 ($45 if you've taken the class before)
Deadline to sign up: May 24, 2013
Lessons: Everything is handled by email so you do the lessons at YOUR convenience
Class size is limited.

Payment for the class may be made by check or by PayPal. To sign up send an email to aprilkihlstrom@yahoo.com with the title of the class you wish to take in the header and in the body of the email please put: your name and whether you prefer to pay by check or PayPal. Also, please let me know if you have taken the class before.

 

Note: If you do not get a response back from me, please try emailing me at april.kihlstrom@gmail.com. Unfortunately email does sometimes simply disappear into cyberspace.

 

Class Description: I try to ask questions no one else thinks to ask and suggest new ways of looking at your writing. In doing so, this class takes you through every step of the writing process—from beginning to brainstorm all the way through sending material out to be published. And it will help you discover who YOU are as a writer. You can participate as much or as little as you like in email discussions.

 

Weeks 1-3: This is when you do the prep work with lessons that are designed to get you thinking in new ways about your project. Among other things, I'll cover characters and book structure, imagery and use of names, POV and how to make sentence and paragraph structure work for you. If you choose, you can post answers and get help brainstorming ideas for your book but NO ONE is required to do so!

 

Weeks 4 and 5: Intensive Writing Weeks (June 15, 2013 through June 30, 2013)This is your chance to write better and faster than you ever have before, to discover what YOUR natural first draft will look like and ways to fit writing into your life that you may never have thought of before. Among other things, this allows for days/times you can't write.

 

Week 6: Here's your chance to look at the experience of weeks 4 and 5 and use it to create a writing method that works for YOU and is tailored to your most natural writing style. We'll also look at how to revise your work in the fastest, most effective way possible and I'll be sharing some of my thoughts on query letters, synopses, etc.

 

Does BIAW work? Well, a number of people who have taken this class are now published or under contract and/or finalled in or won contests with material they worked on during my classes! One author has had her book optioned for a movie!

 

Bio: April Kihlstrom is an award winning author of 32 published romance novels. She offers coaching to fellow writers as well as classes and workshops on writing and has spoken at many conferences including: the Romance Writers of America

 

Normally at this point I list a lot of testimonials. Basically people rave about the class. If you'd like to see some of those raves let me know--otherwise I'll spare you reading them, at least this time. Just know that my goal is to offer a class that helps each writer discover his or her most natural process and well as look at the writing itself in new ways so that writing becomes easier, more fun and leads to success.

Pflugerville Romance Reader Social

This past Saturday was the Romance Reader Social at the Pflugerville library. Patrice Sarath, Julie Kenner and I were the authors. We had a great turn out and it was a lot of fun! I thought I would share a couple of pictures from the event. You'll notice that this year I wore my rose colored Regency gown. Somehow the color seemed appropriate for a Valentine's Day event...

 

This is Bette McDowell who organized the event, me and Patrice Sarath.

 

Here I am with Julie Kenner and Patrice Sarath.

next Book in a Week class

Well, it's that time....

Here's the information on my next Book in a Week class--one of the best gifts I believe an author can give himself or herself. It's a chance to write better, faster and have more fun doing so. It's a new way to look at the process of creating a book.

Dates: Feb, 17, 2013 to March 29, 2013 (Note: Last week of class is wrap up and relatively low key.)
Cost: $85 ($45 if you've taken the class before)
Deadline to sign up: Feb. 15, 2013
Lessons: Everything is handled by email so you do the lessons at YOUR convenience
Class size is limited.

Payment for the class may be made by check or by PayPal. To sign up send an email to aprilkihlstrom@yahoo.com with the title of the class you wish to take in the header and in the body of the email please put: your name and whether you prefer to pay by check or PayPal. Also, please let me know if you have taken the class before.

Note: If you do not get a response back from me, please try emailing me at april.kihlstrom@gmail.com. Unfortunately email does sometimes simply disappear into cyberspace.

Class Description: This class will take you through every step of the writing process—from beginning to brainstorm all the way through sending material out to be published. And it will help you discover who YOU are as a writer. You can participate as much or as little as you like in email discussions.

Weeks 1-3: This is when you do the prep work with lessons that are designed to get you thinking in new ways about your project. Among other things, I'll cover characters and book structure, imagery and use of names, POV and how to make sentence and paragraph structure work for you. If you choose, you can post answers and get help brainstorming ideas for your book but NO ONE is required to do so!

Weeks 4 and 5: Intensive Writing Weeks (March 9, 2013 through March 24, 2013)This is your chance to write better and faster than you ever have before, to discover what YOUR natural first draft will look like and ways to fit writing into your life that you may never have thought of before.

Week 6: Here's your chance to look at the experience of weeks 4 and 5 and use it to create a writing method that works for YOU and is tailored to your most natural writing style. We'll also look at how to revise your work in the fastest, most effective way possible and I'll be sharing some of my thoughts on query letters, synopses, etc.

Does BIAW work? Well, a number of people who have taken this class are now published or under contract and/or finalled in or won contests with material they worked on during my classes! One author has had her book optioned for a movie!

Bio: April Kihlstrom is an award winning author of 32 published romance novels. She offers coaching to fellow writers as well as classes and workshops on writing and has spoken at many conferences including: the Romance Writers of America national conference (romance) and the East of Eden conference (non-romance).

 

online motivation class

Recently I led an online writing motivation class for the Beau Monde chapter of RWA. If you missed it or just want some inspiration to write, I'm offering it again, privately, starting Feb 3, 2013.

Cost: $12
Dates: 2/3/2013-2/10/2013
Lessons: via email at your convenience

Goal of the class? To help you discover reasons to WANT to write. I'm a big believer--and research shows--that the more fun we have doing any creative activity, the better our brains will work and the more productive we will be.

So come take the class and write more and have more fun while doing so!

To sign up, email me at aprilkihlstrom@yahoo.com.

Finnish Coffee Bread

I've been asked for my recipe for Finnish Coffee bread and I thought I'd post it here since it's too long for a tweet or even a FB post. It's a recipe I found in the paper years ago. I used to make 3 loaves at a time and braid them but often had trouble getting them to bake evenly. Now I cut the recipe in half and use a bread machine.

Warning: Doesn't work to add fresh cranberries! My worst disaster with Finnish Coffee bread was the one time I tried doing that.

Ingredients:

2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (105-115F)
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
1 cup sugar
1tsp salt
1tsp ground cardamom
4 eggs beaten
8 cups all purpose flour (approx.)
1/2 cup melted butter

Sprinkle yeast on the warm water and let stand a few minutes then stir to blend. Stir in milk, sugar, salt, cardamom, eggs and 2 cups flour. Beat smooth. Add 3 more cups of flour and beat until smooth. Stir in melted butter. Now add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough which can be handled. Cover. Let rest 15 minutes. Turn out on floured board and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl, turn greased side up. Cover with a damp towel. Let rise in warm place until double in bulk--about 1 hour. Punch down. Cover. Let rise again until almost doubled (about half an hour). Turn out on lightly floured board. Divide into 3 equal parts to make three loaves. After shaping breads, let rise about 20 minutes until puffy but not doubled, then bake at 375 for 20 or25 minutes until lightly browned.

Note that for me, it always took longer to rise--probably because my house was cooler than for the times they mention.

For bread machine:

The shape isn't as pretty but it bakes evenly all the way through and tastes heavenly!

My machine makes 2 lb loaves and I'm still tinkering to get exactly the right mixture. Sometimes it rises so high the top doesn't bake all the way through but here's my best so far....

1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup water
2/3 cup warm milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cardamom (I like the flavor so I didn't reduce the amount)
2 small eggs or 1 jumbo egg
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tbsp butter (a little less than 1/4 cup)

I add the ingredients in the order recommended by my bread machine.

When my kids were growing up I tried to always have Finnish coffee bread for us for breakfast on Christmas morning.

Whatever holidays you do or don't celebrate, I hope that this time of year reminds you of love and hope and the power of finding moments of joy in the midst of even the greatest challenges. Eating Finnish coffee bread for me is always one of those moments.

IT'S HERE!!!

It's here!!! DUTIFUL WIFE has gone live today!

For those of you who don't know, it's been a while. I loved writing Regencies for Signet and when they closed the line I was sad not only for myself as an author but also as a reader. Signet has been bringing out backlist titles and now some new titles as well in e-book format.

Here's the cover for DUTIFUL WIFE: 

What happens when a viscount must marry and chooses a girl he thinks will be docile and sweet only to discover that isn't what he's getting at all? And what if having his life shaken up is just what he needs?

You can find it at your favorite e-book store. You can find it at Amazon for kindle and at Barnes and Noble for Nook or at Penguin's own website.

I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

New date for Book in a Week class

I've rescheduled the Book in a Week class to start September 30 (full details of class in blog post below. This means that the class will end November 9 and the two intensive writing weeks will be October 20 to November 4. Deadline to sign up will be September 28.

 Note: I realize this coincides with both the NJRW and NINC conferences. The NJRW conference, however, falls during one of the "quieter" and more laid back weeks of the class. The NINC conference falls during the writing weeks but the class now does include TWO writing weeks rather than one so there's still plenty of time to write.

 Why take my Book in a Week class? Every writer's brain works a little differently. The more you know about what works for YOU, the easier it is to write and the better you can write. By the end of this class you'll have a pretty good idea when and where and how you write best AND what kind of brainstorming ahead of time is most useful to YOU.

 My goal is to suggest ways to brainstorm and think about your book that you won't see anywhere else. My goal is also to help you recognize your own unique strengths and how to work with them.

 As I said, details about cost, how to sign up, etc. are in the blog post below. I look forward to hearing from you!

Note that this will probably be the last Book in a Week class in 2012 because it's too hard to schedule in November and December due to Thanksgiving and Christmas.