The Food of the Heroic

Yesterday was one of my favorite holidays--National Pie Day. That's right, there is an entire day dedicated to that delectable combination of flaky crust and delicious filling we call pie.

When I discovered this amazing holiday two years ago, I immediately decided we needed to celebrate it at work. Tomorrow will be our third annual observation of National Pie Day, and I've been on a strict no-sugar diet for the last week to prepare.

This quote from the New York Times ca 1902 is the best explanation for my deep and abiding love of pie. An Englishman had suggested that Americans--who at the time ate pie on a daily basis--might want to limit themselves to twice a week. This was the editor's response:

"It is utterly insufficient, as anyone who knows the secret of our strength as a nation and the foundation of our industrial supremacy must admit. Pie is the American synonym of prosperity, and its varying contents the calendar of the changing seasons. Pie is the food of the heroic. No pie-eating people can ever be permanently vanquished.”

No pie-eating people can ever be permanently vanquished.

What other food can claim that? Does cake help with longevity? Do cookies lead to national unity? No! Only pie does those things. It is truly the food of the heroic.

Do you have a favorite pie recipe you'd be willing to share? Post it in the comments, along with any fun pie-related stories.

Blogiversary!

Happy One Year Blogiversary to Me!

What I have learned in my first year of blogging:

1. Blogging takes time. I don't just mean the actual time to sit down and write a post, or even the time I spend reading other blogs. Building a readership takes time--months, even. 
2. Fun events draw people in. I got a huge stats jump last February, thanks to my Romance Title Generator. People who don't read my blog on a regular basis came by every day just to see what the new category was, and to offer suggestions.
3. You get out of it what you put into it. If you want people to read your blog, you've got to read theirs. It's as simple as that.

And the biggest thing I learned this year?

Shakespeare Sells.

Yep, Madison Avenue is wrong. It's not sex that sells, it's Shakespeare. Last April, I wrote a blog post about how to write like Shakespeare. That post has received far, far more page views than any other. Part of that is because I discussed the authorship controversy, right before Anonymous came out in theaters. That was just dumb luck, frankly.

I am amazed, however, at the number of people who've found my site by searching for variations of "write like Shakespeare."

So what's in store for 2012? Well, the biggest news is that I'll be moving to a Wordpress blog in February, with my own domain name. I've been putting this off for a while, but with some help from my brilliant cousin, it's finally going to happen.

That's the only real plan for the blog. I've got a set of goals for the new year though. Why don't you share yours in the comments?

1) Pay off my credit cards. (Gotta put the boring one first.)

2) Revise and publish my Colonel Fitzwilliam story.

3) Go to NYC for JASNA this October.

4) Go to San Francisco for the Night of Writing Dangerously in November.

5) Write book 3.

6) Plan a trip to England for fall 2013.

ETA @ 12:00: Cause for even more celebration! I just passed 2500 sales! *cue streamers and balloons*

True Confessions, pt 3

Me at Shakespeare's Birthplace

After the geek-out confession posted, I received a tweet from someone wanting to know why Shakespeare didn't make the list. Well... Shakespeare is his own post. That's fitting for the man who is the only author to have his very own classification number in the Dewey Decimal System. Shakespeare, and Shakespeare alone, is 822.33.

Here's a secret for my Austen friends: I started reading Shakespeare before I read Austen.

And a secret for my Shakespeare friends? I still haven't read nearly as much of his works as I feel I should have.

That's why I devised a plan shortly after my return from England last spring. I will read all of his plays in reverse alphabetical order. The one exception is that I'm planning to read all the histories in one go, chronologically. (I am willing to be talked out of that madness, if anyone would care to knock some sense into my head.)

More than any other author, Shakespeare formed the English language. I used to own a little book called Coined by Shakespeare, which detailed all the words and expressions he invented. Granted, he had the good fortune to live in a period when the language was still fairly elastic, but I think there's something to be said for that level of creativity and imagination, no matter what era he lived in. If the word he needed didn't exist, he simply created it.

I may not be able to invent words, but I hope I can be even half as imaginative as he was.

True Confessions, pt 2

Last week I admitted my deep and abiding love for all things geeky. Today I want to share something even more important to me: Christmas.

I love everything festive. I am the annoying person who places Christmas music in July. I used to start itching to decorate right after Halloween, but in recent years November has been too busy with NaNoWriMo for me to even think about Christmas trees. I'm not entirely convinced my mother didn't have something to do with that.

And oh, the baking! Mint cookies, molasses crinkles, fudge, homemade caramel! The calories go on and on, but it's only for a few weeks, right?

I have a collection of Christmas headgear. The first piece was a regular Santa hat, of course. Then I got the reindeer, with little jingle bells attached. A few years later I bought a very stylish Santa hat, trimmed in leopard print fur. And finally, last year, Heather bought me this awesome penguin Santa hat.

And of course, there's always the Christmas baking. This is what I'm really known for in my family--cookies, candies, fudge, and more. In fact, as soon as I finish typing this I'll be making molasses crinkles.

What about you? What are your favorite parts of the holidays?

True Confessions of Nancy

There's been a lot of blogging and talking about Jane Austen, Mr. Darcy, and His Good Opinion lately. That's not over, not by a long shot, but I thought it was time to throw some other topics into the mix. In that vein of thought, I'm calling Tuesdays for the rest of the year "True Confessions." Each week will feature something new that you might not know about me yet.

Today's confession:  I Am A Geek.

Yes, capped like that because it is so, so true. I am the geekiest of geeks.

I was recently asked what other interests I have besides Jane, and the irony of the question made me laugh. I collect interests the way some people collect stamps, only mine are always, always related to story telling somehow.

In middle school it was Zorro.
High school and college, Star Wars.
Then a series of television shows: JAG, Alias, The Pretender...
Lord of the Rings
Stargate: SG-1


I watch the shows, read the books, buy the DVDs, check out extra materials from the library. I write fanfiction (obviously) and I read it as well.

And, upon occasion, I buy merchandise.

I've confessed, now it's your turn. What things do you geek out over?