Recipe for Aunt Lutie's Blog

Hello to all of you who love the South (or maybe would like to know why the rest of us do), who enjoy a good read (set in the South), are a recipe collector (Aunt Lutie and MM make the best Southern food you have ever wrapped your tongue around), and you'll get to learn some things about writing and publishing--especially this book, as we go along.

Barbara Deming (that's me, ya'll) has been writing her stories ever since she climbed up into a mulberry tree (well, she also made it up into Daddy's chinaberry trees, too) with her Red Chief tablet and pencil. Actually, those trees were the best place to hide from Mama. As the eldest of five children, Mama had all sorts of chores for me to do and I plum got tired of them--especially the babysitting ones--so I hid away as often as possible. My love for writing blossomed out of my love for reading and neither of these has disappeared.

So you can say I've been writing since the age of ten--and I refuse to tell you how many years ago that was. Although in some of my writing here you will probably be able to figure the numbers out in no time at all. I've published four other books and they all seem to have that southern voice running through them. The proudest I've ever been was to have a reviewer call me "a Southern writer" for the first time. That's what all that scrippling for years was for in the first place.

Come join me here whenever you have a spell. I'll try to add little tidbits as often as possible, some good recipes from Aunt Lutie's cafe kitchen, and a tale or two about the South that might perk up your ears, or rile up your dander. Whichever, I thank you for reading. And the best way to let me know what you like, or don't, is to send me those comments.

I want you to meet Mary Margaret Butler, better known as MM, and the people who come in and out of her Aunt Lutie's cafe in Harts Corner, Texas. I'll share little things about her on these pages in the hopes, of course, that you will want to read more and purchase "Aunt Lutie's Blue Moon Cafe" when it is released in July or August. I'll keep you posted on the release date you can be sure.

If any of you are writers and have a good book you want the world to read, I recommend you contact Regina Williams, Editor/Publisher, at www.mockingbirdlanepress.com. She is the most outstanding editor--let me tell you, your book will not be one of those pieces of junk you sometimes read from those big-named book pushers who take your money and give you a s.... job of editing. Regina sticks your hands to the fire and makes you work right along with her to create the best darned book you will be proud of to call your own. And wait until you see the cover of my book! Jamie Cook Johnson is the producer and it is perfectly matched to the story.

I could just go on and on but I do need to get this off to all of you--and pick out the first recipe I'll send your way tomorrow. In the meantime, I will give you the recipe for this blog--and my book:
    1 cup of Southern craziness
    1/2  cup humidity
    1/2 cup heat
    3 tbs dirt road

I'll be talkin' to ya'll soon.