Welcome back to Wednesday Links!
We are rushing right up to Thanksgiving. I think my partner and I are going to do an “all sides” Thanksgiving again. It was so much fun last year eating mashed potatoes and stuffing and green beans.
My partner was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in January, so if you have any good gluten-free Thanksgiving dishes, please let me know!
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Laura sent a couple related links in!
Laura: A romance bookstore near me, Friends to Lovers in Old Town Alexandria, had to close due to a fire just 3 days after their grand opening. I didn’t even get a chance to visit it yet.
The story is here including a link to their GoFundMe. It’s at 80% of its goal already, but I’m sure could use all the help it can get. Friends to Lovers lost much of its inventory and will have to find a new space to rent in a very expensive area.
Note: It looks like they updated their fundraising goal after a full assessment of the damage.
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Starting December 1st, Author Jae is once again hosting a sapphic romance advent calendar! How fun!
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Expect the fictional Critical Role romantasy novel Tusk of Love to be made real! The cover is very cute and I wonder if there are enough “fictional romance novels made into real romance novels” to do a post. I know there was the Jane the Virgin one and one from Dragon Age.
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Sarah: The Novel Refuge is a volunteer bookshop in Laurel supporting refugee resettlement in Maryland. They do have an online shop that sells genre themed book bundles!
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Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
Additional FRNMiRRN:
The Carry On series
Possibly the Castle TV show tie ins? Although maybe that’s more mystery or thriller, idk I never read them.
Casanova LLC.
When Julia Whelan was writing “Thank You For Listening” (two audiobook narrators fall in love as they record an audiobook), she wrote a few snippets of the fictional audiobook for some of the scenes. And eventually wrote the whole book.
(Note that if you look at the book listing for Casanova LLC, the authors are listed as Julia Whelan and June French. June French is the author of the then-fictional audiobook in “Thank You For Listening”.)
Choir! Choir! Choir! does Taylor Swift. Always fun to watch a lot of people singing together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYZnpdNwmGs
Karen at soupaddict dot com is an all sides Thanksgiving person and her recipes are delicious. Highly recommended, also many are gluten free.
Further on the fictional novels… I’d like to read any of “Mrs. Swann”‘s novels from KJ Charles’ Regency universe. Also, Amanda’s Lord Darkdown novel from Band Sinister. Plus the gothic novel from Cat Sebastian’s. The Ruin of a Rake.
If you like using a slow cooker, try some of these:
https://www.ayearofslowcooking.com/search?q=thanksgiving
I can’t say I’ve done all of them, because one of my kids is very picky, and we also have issues with dairy, but I adapted the green bean one, and it was great. For everyday, I have all her cookbooks and use them frequently.
For stuffing take your favorite recipe, and replace the bread with gluten free bread.
Gluten free is much easier now than it was 20+ years ago when I had to go gluten free.
For anyone with gut issues, I recommend checking out the book Super Gut, by William Davis. Two of my friends with multiple food sensitivities have followed the protocol and are now eating things they haven’t been able to eat in decades. Plus you can make your your own yogurt to build good gut prebiotics, and it’s easy. (Well, I got starter from one of my friends, and it’s been easy. I think he had a few more challenges getting going.)
Bookology is a bookstagrammer and she has an etsy shop. She upcycles and pours her own candles into teacups named after book characters, makes ornaments and other items by hand. She also carries used vintage books.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/BookologyCo?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
Bookology is a bookstagrammer and has an etsy shop with many handmade items, handpoured candles, and some vintage classic books.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/BookologyCo?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
The cover for _The Flamingo’s Fated Mate (Lawn Ornament Shifters Book 1)_ by Elva Birch was originally an April Fool’s prank. After many fans clamored for it, the author wrote the book [recently mentioned hereabouts on Cover Snark]. It’s actually quite fun [albeit fluffy].
There are definitely enough fictional romance novels made into real ones for a post! Off the top of my head I can already think of 2 not yet listed: Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron by Julia Quinn and The Wicked West by Victoria Dahl.
If you are a pumpkin pie fan, I can confirm from experience that pumpkin pie filling can be baked as a custard. Tried this a few years ago and quite enjoyed it. I haven’t tried to make a gluten free stuffing, but would probably try to find a cornbread stuffing recipe because I have yet to find a gluten free version of wheat bread I consider worth eating, but gluten free cornbread is okay.
One caveat: I baked pumpkin pie filling as custard once, and it cooked faster than the same amount in a pie crust. Maybe the crust absorbs some of the heat, or it could also be that my in-laws’ oven ran hotter than mine. Anyway, it tasted good and they ate it all up!