Having a wonderful time but I'd rather be whistling in the dark
Dear friends,
Just this morning I sent off another draft on a major project, which means that I've put my feet up and am relaxing, right? No, sorry, that's as close as you're getting to an April Fool's joke from me, I have another deadline yet this week, three more major projects in the works and several smaller ones. Naturally, this is when our clothes dryer chose to break. But we're fine, we're all fine here now, thank you, how are you?
(I did not mean that to become the single line of Star Wars I quote the most often, and yet here we are.)
Two new pieces out this month! The first one is a poem, "Mistletoe Theodicy," in Not One Of Us magazine, issue #78. Mistletoe doesn't have the same connotations in Norse mythology as it does in Christmas decorations, and this poem is the first one, so if you're wondering why this magazine didn't want to save my poem for December, that's why.
The second one is a short story, "Islands of Stability" in Lightspeed magazine. If you click through you can listen to it as a podcast, and there's also an Author Spotlight where I was interviewed about the story and some other neat stuff. This one is the chemistry-eldercare mashup my heart needed at that time--I wrote it right after my dear Aunt Judy died and while my beloved Aunt Ellen's health was seriously failing. You can tell because the elders in the story are perfectly well and happy and there's cake. I need to whistle in the dark sometimes, but I try to do it with plot and characterization and science fictional ideas like super-long lifespans so it's not too obvious. Then, of course, I ruin that confessing it in my newsletter. Well, you have to get some benefits of subscribing to the newsletter, aside from the links and the recipes.
I'll be making another appearance on Story Hour on Wednesday April 24 at 9:00 p.m. Central (7:00 Pacific, lots of other times in lots of other time zones). You can tune in on Zoom or FB video and hear me and another person--they have not told me who yet--read a story to you, or the recordings are available afterwards. Which story, you might ask? And the answer is: it is still a mystery to me, that's more than three weeks from now. It might even be a brand-new story! We shall see where the spring takes us. You can be along for the ride if you like.
And speaking of "along for the ride," I made up cherry cheesecake cookies because I was having a bunch of writer friends over and I already had a chocolate cookie, and I wanted a non-chocolate option. ("But why?" asked both T and my mother. I don't know, I feel like it's nice to have some kind of balance? Sometimes the things I make up don't make a lot of sense, I admit.) And my friend Aimee Kuzenski just had her new book out--looking forward to reading it, life has been a lot--and I wanted Aimee to have Notable Cookie Choices. For some reason, my brain said: cherry cheesecake cookies, that would be a notable cookie. My grandmother agreed, we were trying to get out the door for my godchild's school play and my grandmother insisted on standing there eating her cookie because she liked it so much and we had plenty of time anyway. (She was right, we did.) I hope you like them too if you try them.
Excelsior,
Marissa
Cherry Cheesecake Cookies
For the filling:
3/4 c. cream cheese, which is 6 oz, softened
1/3 c. powdered sugar
Combine these well. Drop in scant teaspoonsful (actual teaspoon measure, not a kitchen spoon) on a plate with parchment or waxed paper on it and freeze solid.
For the cookie dough:
1 c. butter
3/4 c. white sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 t. vanilla
1 t. t. baking soda
1/2 t. orange zest
1/4 t. salt
2 3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. diced dried cherries (dried strawberries or other dried fruit also fine if you like the flavor of it with cheesecake--I think raisin cheesecake would be weird but you do you)
Line baking sheets with parchment. Cream butter and sugars together, then add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Then add the dry ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Make the same number of balls of cookie dough as you have cheesecake filling balls, working quickly or keeping half the dough in the fridge to keep it chilled. Push the cheesecake filling ball completely into the middle of each dough ball--really, completely, you need it to be covered with dough. Place on cookie sheets, leaving room to spread. Put the cookie sheet(s) you're not baking into the fridge to stay chilled until it's their turn. Bake one sheet at a time, 13 minutes or so, until the tops are set and the edges are golden.