Old Cookbooks

So yesterday I was still plugging away at the book, trying to figure out WHY I wasn’t able to just blast through to the end. I’m so close! Really, I could have this book done in a week. But I wasn’t making any progress.

Then a fun idea occurred to me. My heroine loves to cook, and I have an 1887 Cook book. Okay, so it isn’t 1858, but the recipes had been compiled by the author since she was a girl. As long as the ingredients were around, it’s safe to say the recipe has been around a while. I got the fun idea of putting a few quotes from the cook book at the beginning of each chapter. You know, like, “First, kill a chicken.”

It occurred to me that there would likely be copyright issues, even with an old cookbook, so I adapted the recipes, deleted an ingredient or two, added one of my own, and the new “cook book” is one by my heroine. Such fun.

Then last night I outlined my book to see if I could find YET AGAIN where I had gone wrong, and suddenly it struck me. As I outlined, I saw places where I needed scenes. Then there were places where I needed to add the hero’s point of view. I woke up this morning completely fired up to write. I’ve made some great progress, and added three new pages. I had to break one chapter into two, since it was running on toward 25 pages long, so I think I might even have a fourth page. But best of all, the story’s cooking, if you pardon the pun. Thank goodness.

In other news, I went to my son’s daycare to read stories today as the guest reader. I chose “One Dark Night” and “Stellaluna.” Three and four-year-olds are a wonderful audience. Not only were they participating, but at the end, I got hugs and kisses.

Then my son realized that I was leaving and not taking him with me, which caused the sobbing to start. Oh, that mommy guilt. (Michelle runs and hides.)

But back to the cooking question…do you have any old cookbooks in your house with a story surrounding them?