Next step, choosing...

Choosing the best of the bunch...

So I spent the better part of several hours last night pouring over the millions of photos of Horsetail Falls to try to decide which picture might be the very best one to represent Jack Diamond's first book.

It seems like such a simple task, sorting through photos.  And yet, no.

Some of the photos were easy to eliminate.  With the massive influx of rain we have had over the last several months, the waterfall was simply brim to overflowing with gorgeous Mt. Hood snowy runoff.  That said, the waterfall's "girth," so to speak, was excessively large.  As the water hit the pool beneath, the water sprayed everywhere, coating everything with mist.  My camera (my hair!) and the ground surrounding the area were all positively coated within moments.  The mist's spray created a mirky cataract-like haze over many of the pictures, thus making those easy to eliminate.

I photographed the area from several different vantage points.  I quickly eliminated all the photographs where sizable trees and limbs impeded the view of the waterfall.  I also eliminated photographs where the placement of the waterfall fell toward the right of the photo, rather than to the left.  I also eliminated photos that had a lesser view of the pool beneath the falls.

That left me with only half a gajillion photos left to choose from.

From there, I created a "rough estimated size"  I needed for the cover.  I picked a font, somewhat at random.  I picked a color for the font.  And then I started experimenting.

As the hour grew late, and then quite late, and then even later, I created four possible contenders.  Each one has its benefits and drawbacks.  I may still go back and pick one of the many, many other possible photos instead.  But at least this will give you an idea.  For those of you who want to be surprised, don't read ahead.  

*SPOILER ALERT!*

I like each one of these possible book covers for different reasons.  Let's go through them one at a time, shall we?  In NO PARTICULAR ORDER.  Seriously.  I don't have a preference just yet.

I love the colors of this one.  I love the sinister feeling.  I love the rocks in the foreground.  I was standing with my feet at the water's edge, crouching down when I took this photo.  I could have taken a few short steps and slipped into the pool.  I love how violent and fast the water is flowing down toward the water.  Did I mention how much I love the colors of this one?  Great photo choice.

This cover idea is very similar to the first.  

However, 

there is a splash of water on the left hand side that bounces off the pool below, and arcs up.  To me, it looked eerie -- like a hand reaching up and out of the water.  Gave me a bit of the willies, that did.  And I like the idea of the book cover giving off the willies.  Implying something sinister.  Love the colors.  Love the deep, richness of the moss, the dark colors of the pool of water.  And the splash of the waterfalls seemed quite nice.

Here's a closeup of the eerie bit, in case you missed it.

Maybe it's just me.  Maybe I'm the only one who gets a slight shiver and a creepy, eerie feeling when I see it.  But I *do* see it.  And I *do* get a creepy, eerie feeling.  And I *LOVE* that creepy, eerie feeling sensation, whilst I flip open the cover, and start to read the first several chapters of a book.  So that is why I love this book cover idea.

On to the next one.

This photo exactly represents my perceptions of what I wanted for my cover when I set out to the falls to take photographs.  I love the depth created by this one.  I love that you can see the falls to the left, the sky to the right, the pool of water beneath, and the hiking trail that leads into and out of the pool.  I love that the font is ever so slightly bigger, and more spread out.  I love how none of the letters from the title is impeded by the waterfall.  I love how it *feels* like a book cover for me.  It's deep, and rich, and captures a lovely moment.   I like the rich, mossy colors.  I love the rounded edge of the rocks below, sweeping in toward the pool of water.  I love the rounded rock on the upper right that pulls your eyes down the path and into the water.  The falls' splash seemed to ease off just a bit as I snapped the photo.  I love how inviting it seems to take a few steps and actually touch the water, to feel the power of the water pouring down over you.  And how deadly that mistake would be.  Does the photo feel sinister? No, perhaps not.  But not all of Jack Diamond's adventures are sinister.  The innocence of the waterfall, the serenity and peace of the picture, the deadly force and power behind it could represent something else, altogether.  It's exactly right.  I love this one.

 Oh, this decision is going to be a challenge!

But wait! There's one more.

Here's the final one from which to choose:

Oh wow, I love this one for a variety of different reasons.  I love (love love *love!*) the broken limb in the foreground.  The broken limb symbolizes the sinister implications of the area.  When I took this photo, I thought of my daughter's voice in my head -- she is the queen of symbolism.  I thought about trackers who look for things like broken limbs out of place when they are hunting missing people.  Hunting missing people.  Who is hunting? The good guys?  The bad guy?  That broken limb just feels so right to me.  

 I love that the waterfall isn't quite in focus, and yet, the falls are still the focal point of the photo.  Oh so much I love about this option.  I love the colors.  I love the shallow waters in the front, and the deep, very deep, misleadingly deep pool behind.  Absolutely perfect for the book cover.

So there you have it folks, four possible ideas for book covers.  I won't be making my decision quite yet.  There are still a few more things behind the scenes that need to happen before I'm ready.  But putting together these book cover drafts truly gave me a lot to think about.

Do you have a preference?

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One small step...

One step closer to publication!

So today I took advantage of the lack of rain, and headed out to the beautiful Columbia River Gorge just east of Portland, Oregon to take photos for the book cover of my first Jack Diamond murder mystery manuscript.  Two cameras and several hundred pictures later, I left with my winning shot, a massive smile upon my face, and ultra curly hair from the mists of Horsetail Falls.

For inquiring minds who wish to know, I chose Horsetail Falls for a variety of different reasons.  The first two reasons have to do with Jack Diamond books number three and two (in that order), whose cover ideas sprang to mind just a few short weeks ago.  More about that later.  

I had given no thought, whatsoever, to the idea of a book cover for Diamonds for Diamond until I began my tentative research for self-publication.  One of the instructions indicated I needed to upload my book cover.  That would imply that I had a book cover to upload.  Or that I had thought about a book cover.  Or that I had some idea, any idea, even a remote idea, as to what that cover would look like.

So time went by, and the rain started coming down, and kept coming down, and refused to stop coming down, and mold started growing everywhere.  Desperately hoping for a reprieve, I finally looked up the weather forecast.  Much to my surprise, I discovered a sunny and beautiful forecast for this week for the first time in three hundred gajillion years.  Bliss!  And just like that, I knew I had to drive out to Horsetail Falls to take the photograph that will be the cover for my very first Jack Diamond novel.  Why? you ask? Well, you'll just have to read Diamonds for Diamond to find out why, exactly, this location is perfect for my book cover.  Until then, I'll leave you in suspense.

Off to go pick a favorite photo!  Perhaps I'll post a few 'samples' as teasers?  Hmmm... 

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Blueberry Pie for Pi Day!

GranNini's Blueberry Pie

GranNini's Blueberry Pie.  Yum!!!

The wonderful thing about March, is Pi Day!  And the last two years have been spectacularly important Pi Days, because they were the two "official" pi days of this century.

Yes, 3.14159 

Last year, March 14, 2015 could be simplified as 3.14.15

And THIS year, March 14, 2016 can be simplified as 3.14.16

if you round UP, 159 rounds up to 16, thus truly making this year's Pi Day a perfection.

For this year's Pi Day, my kiddos voted for triple crust blueberry pie.  Triple crust? you ask?  Why yes!  There's a crust in the middle.  I'm not sure why having a crust in the middle is so yummo, because sometimes it simply looks a bit like a gooey mess, but for some reason, it adds another layer of fantasmic yummo tastiness, that we can't resist!

GranNini's Blueberry Pie is best served one of two ways.  Hot and steamy, fresh out of the oven with a healthy dollop of French Vanilla Ice Cream.  OR, left over, cold and crisp, fresh out of the fridge. And, shhhhh, don't tell, with ice cream.  For breakfast.

A couple quick notes about my berry pies.

1.  I pick my berries in the summer, wash them, pop off all the stems and unpleasant bits, dry them out on my kitchen table, and then freeze them, laying flat, in ziplock bags in my deep freezer.  By the end of the summer, I have bags upon bags upon bags of blueberries filling up the shelves.  

2.  When it's time to make pie, I simply dump out the berries into an extra large glass bowl, and pop the whole thing in the microwave for about 3 minutes or so.  It's fine for the berries to still be a little frozen.  However, you'll need to lengthen your baking time.  I prefer the berries to be fully thawed, and if I think ahead enough, I'll set them out in the morning.  But evening, they're thawed and ready for mixing.  As the berries thaw, they become wet.  That's just fine.  The ingredients for the pie innards will take care of that.  I have found that the more thawed, and less frozen the berries are, the more gooey the pie innards.  Which, I personally prefer.

3.  I love the Ikea extra large glass bowls for just such an occasion -- they're the perfect size and the price is right!

4.  For strawberries, I have a whole different procedure for freezing.  I wash and cut my strawberries.  When there's a rather large bowl of them, I spoon the strawberries and their juices into snack sized zippy bags.  Then I fill a gallon freezer sized zippy bag with all my mini snack sized zippy bags.  I pop these out when I need them for smoothies, and dump the whole frozen clump into my blender when I'm ready to use them.  I tend not to make strawberry rhubarb pie except in the summer, and then I use fresh berries, rather than frozen strawberries.  But that's just my preference.

5.  And whilst I'm rambling, I thought I'd mention that I rarely, if ever, freeze blackberries or raspberries.  Costco sells a berry mixture (several, really) in their frozen section, and it works splendidly for smoothies.  It costs just a wee bit more than buying the berries fresh -- and is infinitely less time consuming than buying berries (or picking them!), washing, drying, culling them, and freezing them.  Save yourself some trouble.  If I want a blackberry pie, I use fresh blackberries.  But I prefer blackberry roll-up, where you make a heavier pie crust hybrid with a scone / biscuit dough, roll it out into a rectangle, spread the berries on top, roll it out, and brush with sugar and bake.  If you're interested, I'll make a post about that too.  But for now, let's focus on blueberry pie.

So here you go, my recipe for triple crust blueberry pie.

I am a loyal fan of the 1953 edition of the Joy of Cooking's berry pie recipe.  I adapted it a wee bit, but here's what I use.

Recipe

3 unbaked pie crusts

6 cups of thawed blueberries

1 cup sugar

4 Tablespoons flour

2 Tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca (*yes, I said TABLESPOONS)

1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter (*set aside)

Directions:

Line a pie plate with unbaked pie crust.  

(If you need a recipe, and instructions, simply click here: GranNini's Pie Crust.)  

In a large glass bowl, place six cups of thawed, washed and stemmed blueberries.  If they're not thawed, they will make your berry pie runny, not gooey and yummy, and delicious.  Trust me on this.

Stir in sugar, flour, dry tapioca, and lemon juice.  Stir the berries gently until all the ingredients are evenly coating the berries, and the berries appear "wet" rather than berries-coated-in-flour-sugar-mixture.

Pour 2/3 of your berries into the bottom of your pie plate.  

Cut 1 Tablespoon of butter into very thin chunks, and dot the top of your berries with the butter.

Place a second pie crust (the shape of a circle -- no need to go back up the sides of the pie plate) on top of your berries.

Pour the remaining 1/3 of your berries on top of the 2nd pie crust, and dot the top of the berries with your remaining butter.

Gently place a top pie crust over the entire pie.  Crimp your edges to help retain the berries and prevent too much oozing.  Decorate as desired.  Poke a few holes on the top to let out the steam, and to help you determine when your pie has finished baking.

Bake at 350˚ for 50 minutes to 1 hour, checking frequently to determine when the pie has finished baking.  You are looking for a dark blue/purple, THICK, bubbly goodness leaking out of the top or out of the sides.  If the liquid is THIN, the pie isn't quite gooey enough and isn't done on the inside.  Don't hesitate to keep the pie in much longer than you thought.  Keep an eye on the outside crust not to allow it to get too dark.  But I have found that by baking at a slightly lower temperature, and baking a bit longer, makes all the difference with creating an ooey gooey tasty pie.

When your pie has sufficiently oozed out a dark, thick, gooey purple goodness, pop it out of the oven and onto a cooking rack.  Don't be surprised if it oozes onto your counters.  You may wish to clean up any spills rather quickly, because berries do tend to stain.  

I usually allow my pies to cool and rest for ten minutes or so because (a) I like to torture my family with the lovely smells (b) 🎤an-ti-ci-pa-tion🎤 -- yes, I know that's the ketchup song from my childhood, but that "catchy" aka "annoying" jingle makes me reminisce as I torture my family with the yummo smells of pie.  (c) Letting the pie rest somehow allows all the flavors to evolve.  The liquid solidifies a bit more into a jelly, and the pie will just taste oh, so much better.

Once your pie has set, simply slice, plop on a big dollop of French vanilla ice cream (or two!), and serve!!  Mmmmmmm.  Yummo pie!!!

For those of you who like pictures, here you go! 

 Here you can see the middle crust peeking through a bit under my berry mixture.  Oh, and you can see sometimes my "3 Tablespoons of butter" is a bit slightly under-exaggerated.  I can be a bit liberal with my butter.  Probably why I'm squishy.  But alas, it does make for a tasty pie.

 Here's my pie right before I popped it into the oven.  My little pin prick holes turned out to be a wee bit too small.  My pie didn't vent as well as I would have liked, so it burbled out the sides.  I recommend slightly larger holes than the ones I have here.

NOT quite done yet.  Yes, the pie is slightly golden brown, but you can't see any of the deep purple (oh dear, now I've got Donny & Marie in my head!) bubbly goodness.

Same pie from the sides -- you can't see bubbly goodness quite yet.  Needs about 10 more minutes.

Okay!  There it is!!   If you look closely to the pie plate, you can see the deep purple bubbly goodness running over.   Yes, the inside of my oven is a mess.  But it was worth it.  You can also see the pie crust on top of the sliced piece is nice and golden, without being burnt.  Probably could have used another 3 or 4 minutes to set in the pie plate, but I was drooling by then.  Just needs ice cream, and off to the old tummy it goes!

mmmmmmmm.  Pie.

Now I'm off to go make snickerdoodles with the remaining unbaked pie crusts.  Snickerdoodles? you ask?  Why yes!  If you're intrigued, click here for the Snickerdoodles recipe.

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Find other tasty Thanksgiving Dinner dishes here:

And tasty pie recipes here:

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I not only bake and cook, I write murder mysteries too!

Both books are available in paperback and kindle versions

Diamonds for Diamond 
(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)
and
No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)