The paperback cover for The Memory Painter is here! I am so thrilled with this beautiful design my publishing team dreamed up.
The paperback comes out July 5th. I look forward to holding it in hand next summer!
Michele’s “Memory Painter” Baklava ~ a Book Club Recipe
This month my book club, The Page Turners, met to discuss The Memory Painter. Once a month we meet for lunch and someone officially hosts. This month Michele hosted and wowed us all with delectable baked chicken salad and homemade cheddar dill scones. To top it off, she made baklava, the best I’ve ever had. She made it in honor of Bryan and Linz because it’s a Greek desert and she said “the layers of the pastry are reminiscent of the layers of Bryan and Linz’ lives.” I was so touched by the gesture and just had to share the recipe with everyone. So here is the official recipe from Michele along with her photo.
Thank you, Michele!
Michele’s “Memory Painter” Baklava
Butter the bottom and sides of a 13×9″ baking pan; preheat oven to 325.
In a small bowl, put
2 c coarsely chopped walnuts.
In another small bowl, stir together:
1/4 c sugar
1/2 t (heaping) cinnamon
In another bowl, melt 1 c (or 2 sticks) butter (do not use margarine).
Dampen a dish towel with water. Set it aside. Open a 1 lb box of phyllo dough (you’ll find it in the refrigerated or frozen dessert section of the grocery store, probably near the refrigerated or frozen prepared pie doughs). Your box of phyllo dough probably has two sealed packages/rolls of “paper-like” large sheets of phyllo that can tear somewhat easily, so take your time handling them. Open the packages and unroll the sheets; you’ll use about 1 1/2 of the packages. It will probably be necessary to trim the edges of the unrolled/flattened phyllo sheets so they fit the bottom of the 13×9″ baking pan (you don’t have to be precise, but know that fitting the phyllo dough helps with the uniformity). I use a pizza cutter and trim a bunch of sheets at a time. Keep the phyllo dough sheets wrapped in plastic, then cover the plastic with the dampened dish towel (the dough dries out pretty quickly unless it’s covered; it then becomes unusable).
Step A: Once trimmed to size and covered, carefully take out 2 phyllo sheets and place them in the bottom of the baking pan (if they tear a little bit, it’s okay). Quickly brush the entire top sheet with the melted butter (being sure to get all the way to the edges). Repeat with 2 more phyllo sheets. Then repeat a third time (you’ll have 6 phyllo sheets in the pan and have buttered every other layer).
Step B: Next, sprinkle 1/3 of the walnuts evenly all over the top layer of the buttered phyllo sheets. Then sprinkle 1/3 of the cinnamon/sugar on top of the walnuts.
Repeat Step A, then Step B a second time.
Repeat Step A, then Step B a third time. You should’ve used all of the walnuts and cinnamon/sugar mixture. There will be butter left.
Repeat Step A. Use all of the remaining butter on this last top sheet. Using a sharp, serrated knife, cut through all of the layers to the bottom of the pan to make 2″ squares. (It’s important that you cut through to the bottom because once the baklava is finished cooking, you won’t be able to cut it without smushing the pastry. The space you create between the pieces also helps let the glaze soak in.)
Put the baklava baking pan in the preheated oven and bake*. If the top of the baklava becomes golden brown before 25 minutes, place a sheet of foil loosely on top of the pan (this keeps the top of the pastry from burning, while allowing the middle to keep cooking).
Keeping the baklava in the oven, after 25 minutes, reduce the temperature to 300 degrees.
*About 15 minutes after you put the baklava in the oven, start making the glaze. In a medium sized saucepan over medium-low heat, combine:
1 1/3 c sugar
1 1/3 c water
1/3 c honey
1 T fresh lemon juice
Stir to dissolve the sugar and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes; stir periodically.
Once the baklava has baked for 30 minutes, take it out of the oven. Pour the sugar/honey/water glaze mixture all over the tops of the baklava and into the cuts. It may boil up a bit, but that’s fine. Put it back into the oven and bake at 300 degrees for another 15 minutes. You will have baked the baklava for a total of 40-45 minutes.
Take the baklava out of the oven and place the pan on a cooling rack. Cover with foil and let rest at room temperature for at least 4 hours before serving.
Όλες οι εργασίες σας γίνεται και ήρθε η ώρα για να απολαύσετε .
-Michele
Back in TX! At The Texas Book Festival
This past weekend I was in Austin, one of my favorite cities, for the Texas Book Festival. It was wonderful to be back. I’m originally from Houston and lived in Austin years ago before heading to college (to Alaska – where I discovered there is a rivalry between the states and I would get teased “What’s a Texan doing up here?”) A nostalgic fun fact: in Austin I worked for the Austin American-Statesman newspaper as a data entry clerk in the Classifieds Department. Now that feels like a lifetime ago!
The first thing I saw when I stepped off the airplane put a big smile on my face…
Friday night I was thrilled to attend the gala at the Four Seasons and hear Margaret Atwood speak. Daniel Handler a.k.a Lemony Snicket was the host and Taye Diggs spoke as well. It was a fabulous night. On the way to the ballroom, this dramatic wall hanging of horns caught my eye, and in the ballroom, every seat had a book on the chair. I chose The Burma Spring because years ago I helped on a theater performance about Aung San Suu Kyi’s life. I love this picture of the book on the table.
Saturday’s top highlights: “Everything But the Kitchen Sink,” a talk with Daniel Handler and Amelia Gray, moderated by Owen Egerton in The Paramount Theatre (which I heard is celebrating its 100th year!)… Stopping by Typewriter Rodeo‘s tent and getting a poem written for me. (I’m going to do a whole blog post just on that next) … and hearing some incredible jazz at the Elephant Bar – a bar that was rated one of the top ten jazz bars in the US. I highly recommend you go if you’re in Austin.
Sunday I headed to the Texas Monthly building to check in for my event which was called “Thrills, Chills, and Genre Defiance” with Vu Tran, author of Dragonfish, and moderated by Geoff Rips. Here we are heading to the Capital Building, which is opened up for the festival. Our talk was in one of the chambers inside – a one-of-kind experience.
The event had a fantastic turnout. Vu and I both read the first few pages of our books and then did a Q&A. Afterwards we headed outside to the book signing tent. (These pictures below were taken by one of my friends, Charlotte Schillaci.)
Right near the tent I found a consignment shop and art gallery, Old Bakery and Emporium, in an historic building. Inside they had some wonderful art, including this stained glass artwork made by Stephen Moy, who I discovered is a 93 year old artist. I took a dragonfly and a flower with me back to LA to remember this fantastic weekend.
Thank you, Austin!
Litquake Adventures
This year was my first time attending Litquake in San Francisco and it was such a wonderful experience. I participated in two events – the first was “New Voices,” an afternoon of readings from debut authors held at Z Space, a theater downtown. On the way there, my cab driver drove like a maniac and blasted jazz the whole time, all the while wanting to know about my book. It got things off to a real kinetic start.
I read with six other authors: Jan Ellison (A Small Indiscretion), Isaac Constantine (Jeremiah’s Ghost), Victoria Shorr (Backlands), Michaela Carter (Further Out Than You Thought), Val Brelinski (The Girl Who Slept With God), and Angela Pneuman (Lay It on My Heart). I really enjoyed sitting in the audience and listening to everyone’s stories.
For my reading, I had gotten the urge several days before to try something completely new, so I read part of the Alexander Pushkin lifetime and what happens when Bryan comes out of the recall. It’s a good example of the jumps between lifetimes and how Bryan handles remembering. I’ll definitely do it again.
The next event, “First-Time Authors Reveal All,” was a panel discussion geared for writers and was held at the Foundation Center. The event had a great turnout – a big thank you to all the writers who came! Sharing some photos below: heading into the building, the event and our silly selfie afterwards. Also, this talk was recorded. There is a link to it on YouTube if you want to take a look.
While I was in San Francisco, the days could not have been more gorgeous and planes were flying overhead for Fleet Week. There was a real excitement in the air and it was fantastic connecting with so many writers in a city-wide celebration of books. Thank you, Litquake! Happy 16th year and here’s to many more!
Podcast Interview on The Brad Bogner Show
Here is a link to an interview I did with Brad Bogner discussing The Memory Painter.
Interview with Inside Historical Fiction
Novelist M.K. Tod invited me to do a Q&A for her blog Inside Historical Fiction.
Click here to read the interview at awriterofhistory.com