And then there was cake!

Some while ago someone posted a photograph on Facebook of individual cupcakes on top of which were little mini-books made of icing.

Yes, this really is a cake!

It was such a fantastic idea that I decided I'd like to do something similar when the new Esme Quentin novel,
The Indelible Stain, was published.

My cake making skills aren't up to anything as detailed as individually made folded mini-books but there are simpler options, which can be just as effective.

And so, this weekend at the official Launch Party, we had a Book Cake!

Set in the middle of the table, it made a striking impression as everyone arrived.

I hadn't realised how far the concept of edible icing had come. There are several companies who have the facility to print a copy of any photograph you care to send them with edible inks on to a thin icing layer.





All set. Now pop open the Champagne!   


The printed image arrives through the post (and, in our case, extremely promptly from Cake Topper Designs) in a sealed polythene bag and, if required, keeps for up to 6 months.






When your cake has been iced and you're ready to position the image (not too early, or it will dry out and crack before you get it in place), you remove it from the bag, carefully lay it on top of the cake and smooth it into place. Brilliant!







 

 

Never trust a woman with a glass of bubbly in one hand
and a knife in the other. Especially a crime writer!



When I lifted the knife to make the cut (in true crime fiction style), there were comments that it was a shame to cut it up.

 

Not an idea which persisted for very long, though, once everyone realised they'd then not be able to tuck into the cake underneath...

 

 

...which as the evidence shows, they did (with the rest given out in doggy bags).

 



Many thanks to all those who came along to celebrate, eat cake and buy a book!

 

 

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And to those who weren't at the launch and want to find out more about The Indelible Stain, click on the image on the left or below for all the details.

 

 

 

 





Written the novel - now for the blurb!

With the manuscript of the new Esme Quentin novel currently being copy-edited (exciting news of that coming soon!), I've been focusing on writing the blurb. Always a challenge!

The word 'blurb' is said to have originated in 1907 when a young lady, the fictitious Miss Belinda Blurb, was pictured on the dust jacket of a book at a publishing trade event, apparently shouting out the merits of the book. She was said to be 'blurbing'. The term stuck.

The trick with a book blurb, of course, is not to give too much away, while hooking the reader into the story.

A good blurb shouldn't be too long winded and should only offer a taster of the story, rather than a plateful.  There's nothing that turns me off more than a rambling summary of events in the first quarter of the book. And I lose the will to live if I'm not completely grabbed by the first sentence or two. 

While browsing my bookshelves for inspiration (something you can't easily do with a kindle, it has to be said!) I came across this example.

"What can you say about a 25 year old girl who died? That she was beautiful. And brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me." 

The blurb (and opening lines), of course, to Erich Segal's Love Story, published in 1970.

Segal had originally written it as a screenplay but it was rejected by the main studios as being too sentimental. It was suggested that Segal write it as a novel instead. It proved good advice. It spent a year in the New York Times' hardback bestseller list and sold tens of millions of copies, helped no doubt by the movie of the same name, which came out later that same year. 

The book is only 127 pages long. Erich Segal said of it, "The average person takes an hour and a half to read the book. The movie lasts longer." That can't happen often, if ever!

Love Story has a special place in my past reading list. It was the first book I ever read which made me cry. A lot.