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National Bundt Cake Day 2023

Surprisingly, today is National Bundt Cake Day. That scores a hole in one for me.

Inside

Real riches are the riches possessed inside. ~B. C. Forbes

Please note that this quote does not mean that you should swallow diamonds. You’re not going to want to try passing something that can cut glass.

While I agree with the general principle that Christmas stuff should stay in the box, closet or garage until after Thanksgiving Dinner, I’m totally psyched when it shows up anyway.

Who doesn’t like a cake that looks like a wreath? It’s one of the many reasons I started a site called Christmas All The Time.

I can confirm that I have already listened to Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You several times since January 7th. In fact, I listened to it when I got that link over there.

Of course, now that I’m in a holiday consumer frame of mind, I have to share this with you because I love Aldi almost as much as I do Mariah Carey and Christmas frivolity in general.

10 Things You SHOULD Be Buying at Aldi in November 2023

Man, how old am I that I get excited by a rundown of what’s on special at Aldi?

I suppose I’m excited because it’s time to go grocery shopping again. Kelly’s got to get a turkey to take to her Mom & Dad’s for Thanksgiving Dinner. We’ll be visiting Emmeline’s In-Laws over the weekend, so that’s a big kickoff to the holiday season. Maybe we’ll bring a Bundt…

There’s A Hole In This Cake…

My Big Fat Greek Wedding – Bundt Cake

I could have sworn that Bundt cakes only turned up in the early 80s, but it seems they’re a product of the 50s. The Nordic Ware line produced the Bundt cake pan in 1950 based on European Kugelhopf pans. The Nordic Ware design improved on the original design to be lighter and to facilitate more even cooking.

Isn’t that the American dream? Take something, improve it, sell it for zillions.

If you believe in yourself and your product, that gets attention. If you put pride and craftsmanship in your product, that gets sales and keeps them coming. You might not get much repeat business, but people wondering how their hosts made a ring cake opens tons of opportunity for word-of-mouth business.

Coming back to what I said earlier, these things look like wreaths. Wreaths make me think of Christmas. Thinking of Christmas makes me happy and cozy.

Between the fact that it’s my favorite season of the year and my close second favorite season, it could only get more cozy if I won a big stack of FU money and could retire.

Not likely, but still nice to think about. After all, I’ve got lots of books to write and not much time to do it.

True Value

Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art. ~Frank Lloyd Wright

One of the many things you hear on AuthorTube is an admonition against purple prose. On general principal, sure. Writing in a concise and direct manner is a boon for mass market fiction. Leave the fancy stuff for the Nobel aspirants.

Even so, readers appreciate a well-crafted turn of phrase.

Is it actually too much to hope that we could deliver some artful visuals in poetically minimalistic style? For me, probably. My work tends to be dialog-heavy.

Honestly, if you’re watching a show or a movie, once they get past the establishing shot (they’re in a diner, they’re in Central Park, they’re in an abandoned building where homeless junkies squat) you really don’t take much notice of the actual surroundings.

In fact, depending on how the shot is set up, the focus on the characters conversing may cause the background to resolve to a blur. When the detective is talking to the suspect on the stoop of their apartment building, do you actually notice any detail the director doesn’t deign to show you? Notice that any details that remain conspicuous are probably a Chekov’s Gun.

If you are encouraged to see a bit of graffiti on the wall, it will likely be a decisive clue later in the story.

So, while I tend toward nearly white box settings and definitely need to work on establishing the shot better for my readers, I don’t necessarily need to tell you the species and leaf count of the trees lining the curb in front of the house. I don’t need to say much more than it’s a ranch house, a split-level, an Arts & Crafts bungalow or what have you. I’ll admit that I don’t always provide even that much.

The problem for me is that I can see the whole thing in my head while I’m writing, so I forget that my readers cannot. To me, it’s just a men’s locker room or a post office or a dive bar. I don’t see a need to elaborate, but some people want that.

Sadly, I’ve been terribly busy at work this year. When it comes time to reading newer fiction to see where the bar is set, I have neither the time nor the mental capacity. I’m just exhausted.

I’m so close to the end of Carol’s Christmas and I need to start tying up the loose ends in a satisfying way. Under these conditions, I’m having a particularly hard time confusing the issue with potentially extraneous set descriptions.

I did get started early enough this time around to allow myself wiggle room to add any needed details. Being done the initial draft before Thanksgiving will be a huge morale booster for me.

It’s got some interesting twists and turns in it. I hope you’ll enjoy it when it starts dripping on Thanksgiving Day.

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That’s it for this Hygge Harvest Hump Day. I hope you are having a lovely week and remember, you don’t have to play baseball in order to Bundt.