Banana Bread Recipe

This is what I made last night (loosely following the prescribed measurements) - came out light and fluffy and good with coffee. Makes 1 loaf.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare loaf pan by buttering. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat shortening in mixer until creamy. Add sugar and eggs, continue beating at medium speed one minute. Add bananas to egg mixture. Mix until blended. Add flour mixture, beating at low speed only until blended. Turn into loaf pan and bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean.

Writing a 2nd Book - the halfway mark

It’s almost halfway through the month of November and the book is currently only at 27% (might make it to 30% today) - arrgh! What with the traveling, the two art shows, the painting, the procrastinating, I just haven’t gotten back into the groove of things - I count five days where I wrote exactly zero words in fact (!!) - this has got to change. On top of that, Thanksgiving is still to come, and it looks like we’ll be able to have it with family, after all (which is good, except I don’t see myself breaking away during that time to write a couple thousand words a day). Sooo, we’ll see.

At this point, I’m still shooting for 50,000 words by end of month, but if I don’t quite make it, that’s fine too. Wish me luck. That’s all for now - more later.

(writing focuses your mind)

Writing a 2nd Book - Change of Plans

November has begun, and like so many others this month, I have started writing in earnest. (see nanowrimo.org for more information on this phenomenon) I’ve changed my plans, however, and I’m putting my space opera idea on hold for awhile. New story idea began as a stream of consciousness description of a childhood playground scene and turned quickly into a prequel to my last story. So, same main character, a couple years younger than in the first story, bouncing back and forth, revisiting childhood memories and such. And I’m pretty sure at this point, I will probably end up combining this story with the last (the last was a little flimsy on wordcount, anyway, and needed an ending to cap it off).

I’m technically at 6771 words, unofficially at 11,162 words (I had started a few days before the first of the month) - goal: 50,000 words by the end of November (unofficial goal: 54,391 words :-). At the rate I’m going, I should be fine, though I will have a few days of travel this month where I’m not sure if I’ll get a chance to write.

(Writing is an adventure.)

merlin:

Top 1 Habits of Amazing Writers

1. They write.

Writing a 2nd Book - Changing the Plan

Update: I’m still writing another book during the month of November, and I’m still writing that space opera book some time in the future, but I’ve decided to push the space opera further back in my schedule. Next month, I’ve decided on a comical novel - not sure of the name, not totally sure of the plot, though I’ve got a lot of it already in mind (I would especially like to come up with a good ending before I begin writing, as well as a few more characters … it’s just that kind of story, I think). Thanks. More later.