We continue our American Title III interviews with Judi Fennell who finaled with her book, Beauty and The Best.AT2 Sisters: Where were you or what were you doing when you found out?
Judi: I was doing research for my time travel medieval mystery romance – cooking a pynade, a type of medieval candy, similar to peanut brittle, but made with pine nuts. Anyway, the notice actually came in my junk email folder – it pays to check that before you delete it! – and, needless to say, once the jumping up and down, the screaming and the tears stopped, the pynade was ruined. I have yet to attempt it again. Oh, and the email has now been added to my “accepted” list of recipients!
AT2 Sisters: What is the best part of writing for you?
Judi: I love when it flows – when my characters don’t stop talking to me and I can’t type fast enough to get it all down. It’s such a cool feeling to watch my fingers move over the keyboard as a story comes out, and I’m not event thinking it. That, to me, is magic.
AT2 Sisters: What do you do when you're not writing?
Judi: What? There’s a time I’m not supposed to be writing? Or thinking about a story? Characters? Motivations? Publicity? I must have missed that memo! Seriously, I work part time in a construction office (great inspiration, so maybe that counts as writing too), and have three pre-teens, whose schedules keep me busy, as well as normal wife and homeowner stuff. It’s a busy day.
AT2 Sisters: What is one piece of advice you'd give other aspiring authors
Judi: Join a chapter of RWA, whether it’s an online chapter or one near you. Join a few. Honestly, the feedback, industry information, support, critiques, etc. cannot be duplicated anywhere else. My writing has gone from non-slush-pile-worthy to contest-winning, all based on the help and information I’ve gotten from my chapters.
AT2 Sisters: Name three of your favorite books.
Judi: Ah, this one’s easy. My all-time favorite is Bewitching by Jill Barnett, followed closely by When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn and A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Devereaux. Of course, then there’s anything by Katie MacAlister and Mary Janice Davidson’s Undead series – all of which influenced my own writing.
The AT2 Sisters would like to thank Judi Fennell for taking this time with us and wish her the best in the coming weeks! For more information about Judi, check out her website at: JudiFennell.com and her blog at mavensofthepen.blogspot.com
7 comments:
Love your interview and your pic looks great!
Can't wait to try that medieval dessert of yours LOLOL
Best of luck, Judi!
Hi, Judi! Good luck! And now that you've got my curiosity going, what else is in the medieval candy besides pine nuts? :-)
Jeanmarie
Great interview, Judi. If we all promise to go to RT, will you bring pynade?
Thanks everyone!
Jeanmarie - traditional pynade is actually made with boiled chicken (I know, candy made with chicken? ugh!), honey and an assortment of spices, some of which are very hard to come by. I went with a variation a woman came up with (for a thesis, I think, or some academic document I found online). She investigated what types of fruit they would have had access to and I chose a raspberry pynade. Those ingredients are: 1 cup of whole raspberries, crushed, 1 cup of pine nuts, uncrushed and 1 cup of honey. You boil the whole mixture to 300 degrees (stirring constantly) and then let it cool in a buttered 8x8 pan. I still have yet to attempt it again, but I'll get there. Through The Leaded Glass is almost finished its revisions and that is part of it.
Cathy from AK - I'll definitely make the pynade for RT, but I'm steering clear of the chicken one!
Hi Judi--You're so gorgeous! Is that allowed?? Judges, hello??
The raspberry pynade sounds good. I'll bet if you added some chocolate to that....yum!
Good luck with the recipe and with your revisions!
The pynade sounds yummy...way better than peanut brittle (as long as you keep out the chicken part ;)
Great interview, Judi. Thanks for sharing. :)
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