Gwendolyn Womack

Author of "The Memory Painter" and "The Fortune Teller"

Gwendolyn Womack

The Memory Painter’s First Anniversary

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I haven’t done a blog post in a while and I couldn’t let 4/28 go by without one. Last year at this time I was getting ready for the launch party and I was a bundle of excitement.

It’s hard to believe a year has gone by since The Memory Painter came out, but what a fantastic year it’s been, from the readings to the book festivals and conferences. And hearing from readers and talking with book clubs has been such a joy. Thank you everyone for all your support and enthusiasm. It’s been a wonderful journey this past year.

On the horizon, The Memory Painter is going to be coming out in paperback on July 5th and I’m looking forward to seeing the new cover in the flesh. Also there are some foreign editions out this year that I can’t wait to see. I’ll be posting more on those later. Right now I’ve been a complete hermit working on my next book. (I’ll most likely be talking about it sometime over this summer.)

I also have some calendar events lined up. 

If you’re in the LA area I’ll be taking part at the El Segundo Author Fair on June 12th. I’ll also be doing a reading at The Ripped Bodice  in July with Lady Jane’s Salon that I’m looking forward to (hmm, what chapter to read??) Then in September I’m going to be speaking at Southern California Writers’ Conference. If you’re attending any of these, please say hello!

To celebrate the anniversary today, I’m including a link to the Book Trailer

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& Here’s a little nostalgia with the launch party blog post a year ago along with a picture of the book cake we had (all chocolate of course)…

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Cheers & Thanks!

Gwen

 

 

Reflections on Time & A Debut Year ~ 2015

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Time is a funny thing. I remember the anticipation I felt as 2015 loomed with my debut novel coming out in April. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like and now here we are eight months later and I’m looking back in hindsight, filled with a lot of gratitude. Thank you to all the readers who wrote to me, to everyone who came to the readings, to all the book clubs who made The Memory Painter one of their picks for this year (I Skyped, Facetimed, e-chatted, drove, lunched, and I loved every minute), thank you to the booksellers, bloggers and reviewers for spreading the word, to the libraries, bookstores, conferences and festivals that invited me to come, and to the fellow writers I met along the way. And a huge thank you to my agent, editor, and publishing team at Picador as well as my family and friends for their support. It’s been a fantastic first year.

Looking ahead to 2016, I’ll be busy working on a new story that I’m very excited about. Also, the paperback for The Memory Painter will be out on 7/5 as well as some other foreign editions. I have some book events scheduled too I’m looking forward to as well. (Note to self: Update calendar)

But right now as the New Year turns, I wanted to end with a poem I have been meaning to share. When I was in Austin for the Texas Book Festival in October I encountered a group of poets writing on vintage typewriters and composing poems on the fly (and for free) for anyone and everyone. They call themselves Typewriter Rodeo and I could not have been more taken. At the festival I stood in line to get a poem, and I chose a poet named David who was wearing a cool Fedora, Clark Kent glasses and had a pencil tucked behind his ear. He asked me what I wanted it to be about and I said: Time.

I watched him write this poem and now it’s my 2015 keepsake:

 

A Poem On the Subject of Time (For Gwen)

 

My favorite thing about it may be

That like so many

of my favorite things

It doesn’t really exist

It’s a product of perception

A trick of the light

Physics has proven

that it looks the same

forwards and backwards

And everything that can exist

Does

So take a step back

Consider a human life, viewed

from an extra-temporal

perspective

It’s like a long, fleshy worm

Twining around all the places we’ve ever been

Or will go

With two fixed endpoints

And no decisions to be made

It’s a beautiful thing,

If you look at it right

If you can afford

To take the time.

~~~~~~~~~

 

Happy New Year everyone!

Peace & Love,

Gwen

 

 

Michele’s “Memory Painter” Baklava ~ a Book Club Recipe

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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

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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

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