Read the other day in Cook’s Illustrated—one of my very favorite magazines—that rather than just soak beans, one should brine them. Yes, I know, our mothers all taught us not to salt beans before cooking them. But Cook’s did all kinds of tests and determined that soaking overnight in salted water (two teaspoons of salt per quart of water) yields better-seasoned and more evenly cooked beans in the end. So we shall see! I put my pound of great northern beans in brine last night and later today will make my soup.

As for the soup recipe itself, well, it’s never quite the same. Take some nice lean bacon and cook it crisp. Drain it and put it aside; discard most but not quite all of the bacon fat; in the remaining bacon fat sizzle up some chopped veggies, onions and celery and carrots and whatever else you like. Then add the brined beans (drained and rinsed), enough water or chicken or veggie stock to cover it all, and simmer for a couple of hours.

When the beans are tender, whizz the soup with an immersion blender (or puree about half of it in a regular blender), add more stock if it’s too thick, add some greens (I like spinach) and continue to simmer just long enough to wilt them down. Then add back in the crumbled crisp bacon, adjust the seasonings, and serve. Heavenly, and despite the bacon, very healthy. The trick is to use a smallish amount of bacon and discard most of the bacon fat. It only takes a teeny bit to produce wonderful bacon flavor.

Mmmmm, bacon.

And the living room goes quiet as Boudin Loupas attempts—holy cow, ladies and gentlemen, this is a first—it’s the full Sphinx-Frog position—and he’s doing it while he’s half asleep! And he sticks the landing! <Audience goes wild.>

<edit> <edit> <edit> <coffee> <edit> <rewrite> <rewrite> <tear out hair> <rewrite> <edit> <edit> <write new stuff> <write new stuff> <write fantastic new stuff> <run up and down hall shouting whoo-hoo!> <scare doggies> <edit> <edit> <edit> <coffee> <edit> <edit> <edit> <edit>……..

It’s Duncan the Beagle for MVP (Most Valuable Puppy, of course) in Puppy Bowl VI, beginning at 3:00pm eastern time on Sunday. What Saints? What Colts?

Sometimes I watch the various webcams of modern-day Ferrara.

Città di Ferrara, various webcam views

Today, for example, it’s clearly sunny and cold—the sky is blue behind the clouds but there is snow on the roofs and here and there in the streets. Much of my story takes place in December, January and February of 1565 and 1566, and I imagine the weather to have been similar. I imagine Barbara’s breath as a visible cold mist when she goes out into the city to pursue her secret plan…

“If only you’d remember before you ever sit down to write that you’ve been a reader long before you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world Buddy Glass would want to read if he had his heart’s choice. The next step is terrible, but so simple I can hardly believe it as I write it. You just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself.” —From Seymour: An Introduction.

Intend every word you write.

Its corollary for life-in-general, of course, would be intend every thing you do.

Harder than it sounds.

The blog post by Eric Cummings on intentionality (yes, there really is such a word) in writing that got me started thinking about this is here, on one of my favorite blogs, Write to Done.

Accustomed to the veneer of noise, to the shibboleths of promotion, public relations, and market research, society is suspicious of those who value silence. —John Lahr

Silence, blessed silence! I’m deep in edits of The Second Duchess and I am indeed valuing silence and solitude. I know some people write to music, but I’m not even comfortable with that. Just sweet, sweet silence…

“Scentimental” is the peppermint-striped one—beautiful and unusual, with no two flowers alike. The scent is a very rich rose-spice, ergo the name.

“Double Delight” looks rather like a “Peace” that’s gone over to the dark side—deeper crimson edges to the petals and a creamy-gold heart. It also has a fabulous fragrance (one of our requirements for roses), described as both spicy and fruity.

I’m looking forward to planting these and nurturing them along, although I must say that the names “Scentimental” and “Double Delight” are not as romantic or literary as the names of some of our other roses. How can they compare with “Jude the Obscure” or “Fair Bianca” or “Eglantyne”? Once we have them settled in their new homes, we may have to re-name them so they feel comfortable with their siblings.

—from Ecclesiastes 3

When it’s typed or written, “2010” looks really different from “2009”—more consistent, streamlined and futuristic. A solid, stable, blocky-looking year. I’m counting on you, 2010, to follow through on that promise. 2009 was a very good year for me in many ways (like this, this and this) but it was an exhausting and heartrending roller coaster of a year in other ways, purely personal. I am ready for some consistency. Some solid, stable, blocky-looking days and weeks and months. Bring them on, 2010.

My resolutions: love more, laugh more, read more, write more. Kalo Podariko!

Cressie: “Uh-oh, I don’t think we were supposed to start taking down the decorations quite yet. Boo, quick, help me hide the evidence!”

Boo: “We are so busted.”

Cressie, Boo, The Broadcasting Legend™ and I will be back in 2010. We wish everyone a very safe and happy New Year!

Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming
From tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming
As seers of old have sung.
It came, a blossom bright,
Amid the cold of winter,
When half-spent was the night.

(Photograph of a tiny brave rose bush just outside our front door, blossoming despite our out-of-the-ordinary Christmas morning snow.)

’Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…

First published anonymously in the Troy, New York, Sentinel on December 23, 1823, “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” (more commonly known from its first line, as “The Night Before Christmas”) is credited with pretty much single-handedly (or single-footedly—a little poetry humor there) creating the American conception of Santa Claus. It was much reprinted and, as we would say today, “went viral.” Some years later, in 1844, Clement Clarke Moore, a Bible scholar and professor of Oriental and Greek literature at Columbia College, modestly took credit for writing it. This has recently been disputed by Don Foster, an English professor at Vassar College and a scholar of authorial attribution, with some very interesting bits of literary forensics.

But it doesn’t really matter who wrote the text. This gorgeous pop-up book is a perfectly delightful way to re-read it every year, and introduce it to tiny young readers. Robert Sabuda is a master of intricate paper engineering, and as Paul Hughes writes in the Amazon.com review:

“Santa pops in and out of the chimney, beds fold out, a window shade rises and falls, and, in a clever nod to Moore’s not-a-creature-was-stirring text, it’s a family of mice who are receiving Santa’s nighttime visit. A pull-out tab even lets readers interact, when Santa’s sleigh glides out on the clouds and over an intricately realized village. It’s hard to pick a favorite scene here, but you can bet that kids will love the book’s pop de résistance, in which Santa’s lead reindeer nearly fly right up your nose (if they don’t knock you out of your chair first).”

The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clark Moore and Robert Sabuda is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, and of course your favorite independent bookstore. You may not have it in time for tonight, but it will be a wonderful addition to all your nights-before-Christmas to come.

Howdy! I’m thrilled to be Elizabeth’s latest guest for her Twenty-Four Days of Christmas Book Shopping Marathon blog series! Before we get into my book, can I just say I’ve read The Second Duchess, and it is awesome? I’d tell you all to pre-order it too, but I think it’s still too soon. So, just, pre-pre-order it! You’re in for a treat. [Thanks, Lisa! And may I just add that as one of your crit partners I’ve also read Rock Paper Tiger, and it’s absorbing, suspenseful, and simply crammed with fascinating time-and-place atmosphere.]

Okay, back to me. My debut novel Rock Paper Tiger is coming from Soho Press in June 2010. Which is a ways off, but that means your recipient will have a nice, shiny new book just in time for summer vacation.

Rock Paper Tiger is mainly set in China, a country where I’ve spent a considerable amount of time (in fact, I just got back and am trying to write this post while slightly jet-lagged). One of the reasons I wrote the book was that I felt today’s China was underrepresented as a setting in contemporary fiction. I’m not sure why, because if ever there were a place with the sorts of complexities, contradictions and global importance that make for a rich and relevant setting, that would be China. If I’ve managed to capture a tiny fraction of any of that, I’ll feel like I’ve done my job.

Your guide through this territory is one Ellie Cooper, an American and former National Guard medic who has plenty of reasons to get lost on the other side of the planet from her native country. Estranged from her husband, she’s tending bar in a Beijing dive and hanging out with video gamers and performance artists – one artist in particular, Lao Zhang, who has a few secrets of his own. When a chance encounter with a Uighur fugitive drops her down a rabbit hole of conspiracies, Ellie must decide who to trust among the artists, dealers, collectors and operatives claiming to be on her side – in particular, a mysterious organization operating within a popular online game.

Rock Paper Tiger has some suspense and thriller elements, but for me it is more of a journey story and a meditation on global communities, in both the positive and negative sense. What does it mean to live in a surveillance society? How do we live creative and free lives in a world that is dominated by huge, impersonal organizations that are largely indifferent to “ordinary” people’s individual concerns? What will Ellie do when she runs out of the Percocet she uses to self-medicate, and will her failure to forward her mother’s prayer chain emails to ten people she wants to bless really result in disastrous consequences?

You can find out more about Rock Paper Tiger at my website, and in the Spring 2010 Soho Catalog (hey, that’s my book on the cover!). Rock Paper Tiger is available for pre-order at Amazon.com, Borders, and IndieBound. (Hey, Barnes and Noble! Where’s the pre-order? Get with the program already!).

Hello! I’m Katharine Beutner. First of all, many thanks to Elizabeth for kindly inviting me to write a guest post for her holiday book-shopping series about my forthcoming book! [You’re very welcome! –Elizabeth.]

Like Elizabeth’s The Second Duchess, my debut novel Alcestis gives voice to a fabled female character who lived a remarkable life. Alcestis retells the story of a Mycenaean queen who chooses to go to the underworld in her husband’s place. In Alcestis’ world, the gods are not abstractions—they’re her relatives. Her grandfather Poseidon might drop in to visit at any time, and might not be very pleasant when he does. The novel follows Alcestis from her childhood through her marriage to her cousin Admetus, the young king of Pherae, then shadows her into the underworld. She’s one of few female characters in Greek mythology to make this journey, but the myth of her life is not widely known.

My inspiration for the novel came from two sources. The first is the beautiful Rilke poem about Alcestis, which I read as a teenager. (I highly recommend Stephen Mitchell’s translations of Rilke.) I studied classics in college, and finally read Euripides’ Alcestis after graduating. I love Euripides, but I was stunned by the ending of the play, in which Alcestis is rescued from the underworld by the hero Heracles, a friend of her husband’s, and brought back to life as if nothing had happened. Essentially, she’s treated like a prize, while men who venture into the underworld—Odysseus, Orpheus, and later Aeneas—get their own epic poems. I wanted to write a version of Alcestis’ story that would not only cover the three days she spent in the underworld, but would allow readers to experience life in a world peopled by capricious gods.

Alcestis will be published on February 1, 2010—it’s currently available for pre-order at Amazon (in Kindle format, too!), Borders, Barnes & Noble, Powells, and IndieBound.

[Elizabeth again. I can’t wait for my own pre-ordered copy of Alcestis to arrive, and an “IOU” of Alcestis to come would make a wonderful gift for anyone who loves historical fiction, Greek mythology, or simply strong tales of remarkable women.]

Hello, granddaughter of the Broadcasting Legend™ and the Time Traveler here to tell you about a fairytale first written by Grimm but twisted by one of my favorite Newbery-Honor-winning authors, Shannon Hale.

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love fairy tales; I have princess dresses of every size from all ages. As my dress size got larger I started to see the unjustifiable bias against the fairer sex. The guys always got to be the heroes in fairy tales so I began to wonder… What would happen if the girls got to be the heroes? I was elated to discover the realm of twisted fairy tales where girls stepped forth as adventurers. Regrettably, the boys became… how shall I say it… less than Mr. Darcy. [LOL! —Elizabeth] Finally, I stumbled upon Shannon Hale’s The Goose Girl. At last, a story void of a single weak character! A daring princess, murderers, an unyielding prince, betrayers, evil impostors, heroic animal keepers, rescuers, and just a tad of romance. It blew my mind!

Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee was born Crown Princess of Kildenree but after the death of her father, life takes a desperately wrong turn. First, her brother usurps her place of succession, becoming Crown Prince as she is sent away to marry the prince of the neighboring country, Bayern. Unfortunately, her lady-in-waiting Selia is not content to be a lady-in-waiting, and soon there is an evil revolt among the camp. In an instant, life is changed for Isi (as her true friends call her). She must hide her beautiful blonde hair to disguise herself from Selia’s evil guards in the dark-haired land of Bayern, while her impostor threatens the throne. When she is designated caretaker of the Bayern king’s geese, she is welcomed into an unpretentious world she never knew. Isi must learn who to trust and who to forgive if she is going to save the Kildenree from a deadly danger that could wipe out the entire country.

This small summary has just scratched the surface of what this book has to offer. Shannon Hale doesn’t just create a story, she creates a world that swallows you up and you never want to leave. The characters become your friends and you are genuinely worried about where their predicaments will lead them.

No matter how many times I’ve read Shannon Hale’s books, I always find myself in a place where I just can’t stop reading. The Goose Girl is only the first of what I hope will be a long series called the Books of Bayern, followed by Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Shannon’s newest creation Forest Born. These books are good for anyone on your list, big or small. Nothing beats a well-written book with fabulous characters and a plot so complex even I couldn’t guess the ending.

Find The Goose Girl and all Shannon Hale’s books at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon, Books-a-Million, and of course your favorite independent bookstore. Buy in person at your favorite brick-and-mortar bookstore to have your books in time for Christmas!

As an aside, I always envy the people who haven’t yet read the books I love. Gone with the Wind. The whole Angélique series by Sergeanne Golon. The Crawford of Lymond novels by the incomparable Dorothy Dunnett. Spangle and The Journeyer by Gary Jennings. The early Saint-Germain novels by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. Shogun by James Clavell. Oh, I could go on and on. I re-read them, and re-reading is a wonderful thing, but it’s not quite the same as that breathless first reading.

Anyway. Back to Ross Poldark. Ross is an Englishman, a soldier on the losing side of the war in America, come home in 1783 to a derelict estate in copper-mining Cornwall. He finds the woman he’s loved with peculiar intensity all through the years of war and separation preparing to marry to his cousin. And from there the story rockets on. There’s a teeming, colorful cast of characters, sharply drawn (I love whiskery old Aunt Agatha and the crop-tailed mongrel dog of “unimaginable parentage,” Garrick), from which eventually emerges the grubby, spitfire urchin Demelza Carne, first Ross’s kitchenmaid, ultimately his wife in the teeth of society’s disapproval.

There are various printings of the Poldark books—the one shown here is simply the newest in a long line. They’re well worth collecting, whether the covers match or not. (And for that matter, whether they’re new or not.) Search for “Ross Poldark” at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, and of course at your favorite independent bookstore. In these last few days before Christmas shop a nearby brick-and-mortar bookstore to avoid expedited shipping charges.

Young readers will read Misty for themselves, and even younger ones will delight in having the exciting story read to them. Will the plucky Paul and Maureen Beebe earn enough money to buy the Phantom and Misty? For me it never, never tires. And even today I thrill to the moment when the Phantom flies to meet the Pied Piper at the end. (I think I always loved the Phantom almost more than little Misty.)

The wonderful drawings of Wesley Dennis are as much a part of Misty as the story. He and Marguerite Henry had a fruitful partnership through the years, and I collected and treasured many of their books—not only Misty but Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague, King of the Wind, and Album of Horses.

Misty of Chincoteague is available from Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Books-a-Million, and of course your favorite independent bookstore. In these last few days before Christmas shop a nearby brick-and-mortar bookstore to avoid expedited shipping charges.

Mark Peel is the chef/owner of Campanile, an award-winning restaurant in Los Angeles. In this book he takes traditional, best-loved family dishes (meat loaf, barbecued ribs, hamburgers, pork chops, macaroni and cheese, tuna noodle casserole, chocolate pudding) and realizes them in a beautifully polished style—not so much “re-imagined” with a bunch of fancy additions, as made into the most perfect, most refined version of the simple original dish. That’s what makes this book a fabulous gift for plain home cooks (like me) as well as more ambitious foodies.

Peel’s voice is friendly and accessible and the photographs are simply stunning—this is not only a book to cook from but a book to curl up with on a rainy Saturday afternoon. For example, when he’s writing about his chocolate pudding he says “If Jell-O Pudding could fantasize about becoming something great, this would be it. Lighter and less intense than pots de crème, the creamy, comforting pudding with a whisper of mint added to the chocolate is very popular at the restaurant. We serve it in whiskey glasses. Note how little peppermint extract is needed here. You have to use this ingredient with caution. Mint is delicious right up to the point where it turns awful.” Heh. Now that is my kind of chef.

New Classic Family Dinners by Mark Peel, with contributions by Martha Rose Schulman and photographs by Lucy Schaeffer, is available at Borders, Books-a-Million, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and of course your favorite independent bookstore. For these last few days before Christmas, shop in a brick-and-mortar bookstore to save expedited shipping charges.

I like thrillers and I’ve enjoyed Clive Cussler since I read Raise the Titanic back in whenever. This guy can tell a story and that’s what I like—I read on airplanes and a book like this sure helps me forget the hassles and indignities of air travel today. Anyway.

In Arctic Drift, Cussler and his son (I can’t believe he actually named him “Dirk,” but that’s another story) collaborate on a yarn set in the near future, with the U.S. and Canada all set to go to war over global warming and the price of gas. Well, sometimes I feel like I’m ready to go to war over global warming and the price of gas, but still, Canada? It does sound weird but Cussler père et fils make it work. Suspension of disbelief, people. Add in an artificial photosynthesis process that could eliminate the threat of global warming (and hopefully bring down the price of gas), a couple of spooky Victorian ships (appropriately named the Erebus and the Terror) wrecked during an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage and frozen into Arctic ice [Note from Elizabeth: a nifty touch for history-lovers], a rare element called ruthenium (which I thought was made up because it sounds like it’s named after somebody’s maiden aunt, but which turns out to be real) and something called the Devil’s Breath, which supposedly according to Haisla of British Columbia is “a cold white breath of death that [kills a man] and everything around him.” I researched this a little and although the Haisla are real, I think the Cusslers made up the Devil’s Breath. More power to them—it’s still pretty cool. No pun intended.

I liked this book. I think other guys would like this book. And with that, I’ll turn the blog back over to Elizabeth to add the cover image and the links.

Arctic Drift by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler is available from Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon, Books-a-Million, and of course your favorite independent bookstore. For these last few days before Christmas, shop in a brick-and-mortar bookstore to save expedited shipping charges!

In Roman and medieval times people believed spices came from Paradise, that misty garden of Adam and Eve somewhere far away to the east, and that is part of what made the flavors and scents of spices so precious, costly and mysterious. No, they weren’t really used to make rancid meat edible—fresh meat was less expensive and more readily available than spices were. But they were used with meats (and every other possible kind of foodstuff) to show off one’s wealth and social position. They were also mixed with wine, incorporated into magical potions, and used in sumptuous perfumes and unguents.

Let me just quote a bit from Publisher’s Weekly: “Turner’s lively and wide-ranging account begins with the voyages of discovery, but demonstrates that, even in ancient times, spices from distant India and Indonesia made their way west and fueled the European imagination. Romans and medieval Europeans alike used Asian pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and mace to liven their palates, treat their maladies, enhance their sex lives and mediate between the human and the divine.”

Spice is based on painstaking research and scholarship, but it’s shot through with such fascinating anecdotes and written with such wit and style that even casual readers will find it to their, well, taste. Find Spice: The History of a Temptation by Jack Turner at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, and of course your favorite independent bookstore.

We enter into Juana’s life when she is just thirteen, an exquisite child at a Spanish court which for her lifetime has been little more than a series of military camps while her parents, Fernando and Isabel, drove the Moors out of Spain and created a united nation. She is married off to the Habsburg archduke Philip sight unseen, for political advantage—the usual fate of princesses at the time—but falls passionately and jealously in love with him. Poor Juana. Philip proves to be a philanderer, which is bad enough. (Supposedly Juana attacked one of his mistresses with a pair of scissors, slashing her face and cutting her hair.) Worse, he wants her throne for himself. Gortner’s Juana is proud, willful, high-hearted, and trapped—not so much mad as understandably driven to extremes of love and hate.

Royal secrets, opulent intrigue (the best kind), passions and poisons, love and death—this is my favorite sort of book. The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner is available at Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Borders, Amazon, and of course your favorite independent bookstore.