Bittersweet Creek
Page 27
This isn’t the super-pretty batter-covered okra you’re used to seeing, but it’s tasty and quick.
Tea Cakes
2 cups sifted self-rising flour
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
cup shortening (we usually use vegetable oil)
1½ teaspoons vanilla
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix ingredients. Work enough flour into dough to be able to roll it out. Cut with cookie cutter or the rim of a glass. Bake on greased baking sheet for 6–7 minutes. (I have a note that it took 8 in the electric oven.)
This is my mother’s recipe for tea cakes, and they are delightful. I would love to share my granny’s recipe in which they come out a little more like shortbread, but she took that recipe with her to the grave. I’d be willing to bet lard was involved.
Acknowledgments
Time to round up the usual suspects! As always, thanks to my agent, Nikki Terpilowski, of Holloway Lit, and my editor, Peter Senftleben. I could not ask for better folks to take care of me. Thanks to Kensington for yet another gorgeous cover; and to Paula; and to Monique Vescia, for keeping me on my toes with the grammar and the time lines and all the things, really. Special thanks, too, to Alison Law, who helped me with book one and has helped me with many authorly things since.
Thanks and love to the entire Kilpatrick clan, but especially Ryan and the kids for letting me be more Jessica Fletcher than June Cleaver—well, without all the murders to solve. Thanks, kids, I promise to go lighter on the frozen pizza, rotisserie chicken, and sweet potatoes next time. Thanks to Ryan’s parents, who are keeping the kids as we speak, and my parents, who will have a turn with the “babies” while I’m at a conference this summer. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without all of you or without your very generous support, and I love you! Oh, and Ryan? Thanks for being my Benedick.
I am also deeply indebted to all of the sharp sets of eyes that have read this story and all of the brilliant minds who have dissected it. Thanks, Tanya Michaels, for reading on even after I decided to make this story alternating first person. Sorry about all those head-desk incidents. Thanks to Romily Bernard and Jenni McQuiston, who, in addition to the usual writing advice, made sure I kept my cows and horses straight. Gratitude to Anna Steffl for many run-throughs and for helping me keep my characters true to their nature. Props to my beta readers: Mom, Janette, Gretchen, Ryan, and Cindy. I think that’s everyone. If I missed you, then, in true Fountain tradition, I owe you a cold one.
I need to thank some folks for help with the research side of things. Per usual, if you spot a problem, it’s all my fault and not theirs. It’s possible I took some liberties for, er, narrative flow. Thanks, Daddy, for your knowledge of husbandry, i.e., answering all sorts of cow questions that you didn’t want to hear. Hey, and thanks for giving me my own cow way back when. Rest in peace, Bambi, you were a sweetheart.
Thanks to Steven Salcedo, John Marchese, Jane Kurtz, and Heather Leonard, all of whom have tried their very best to teach me what I need to know about the law and lawyers. They have tried, y’all. My poor characters probably need a lawyer on retainer, someone permanently dedicated to their escapades. Alas, neither my characters nor I can afford it.
Thanks to Cinthia Hamer and Cheryl Perlmutter, who both talked me through protocol and treatment of dog bites. No dogs were permanently harmed in the making of this story. Well, except for the tripod beagle, but I’m happy to report she’s up and around and perfectly happy.
Speaking of dogs, would it be a first if I thanked a character for taking care of a problem I absolutely agonized over? Thanks, Pete Gates, for taking on those poor, mistreated pit bulls. It wasn’t their fault; Curtis made them do it. I feel much better knowing that you’re going to rehabilitate them.
A hearty thank you to all of my English teachers and professors, especially those of you who taught me Shakespeare. Ms. Highers gave me Romeo and Juliet. Mr. Bryant introduced me to Julius Caesar, and Ms. Kelley gave us Hamlet. I’m not forgetting you, Ms. Keller. There’s a hint of American romanticism, don’t you think? I even threw in a little Thoreau reference.
As always, thanks to all my folks in Georgia Romance Writers and my other writer colleagues, too. Thanks also to Suja Kallickal for taking in Her Majesty as one of her own so I can get work sent to those colleagues!
All of my love to West Tennessee and little ol’ Chester County. Read between the lines and sometimes on them to see all the things I love about where I grew up. Sure, I had to add some bad guys so we’d have a story, but there’s no prettier place than home. And, no, none of these characters are based on real people, although I did borrow a few phrases from James Harvey for Hank.
Finally, but most importantly, thank you to anyone who’s picked up one of my books and taken the time to read it. If your to-be-read pile looks anything like mine, I know you have a lot of books to choose from. It means a lot to me that you would choose one of mine. As Flannery O’Connor once said, “Success means being heard.... The act of writing is not complete in itself. It has its end in its audience.”
So, my deepest gratitude to everyone in the audience.
A READING GROUP GUIDE
BITTERSWEET CREEK
Sally Kilpatrick
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The following discussion questions are
included to enhance your group’s reading of
Bittersweet Creek.
Discussion Questions
1. Bittersweet Creek began as a sort of homage to Romeo and Juliet, with a dash of the Hatfields and the McCoys. How many references to Shakespeare did you run across? (Hint: Some are from other plays.)
2. The Satterfields and the McElroys are opposites in a lot of small ways (dogs versus cats, for example). How many little differences can you remember between the two families? Do those differences really mean a lot in the scheme of things?
3. Another theme of Bittersweet Creek is the idea that tradition is being passed over in favor of modernization. Richard sees no problem with selling the Satterfield farm. Romy has an unnatural attachment to her Keurig coffeemaker. Do you think the rural way of life is disappearing? Do you see it as a good or a bad thing?
4. Julian has watched a lot of movies in order to pass the time. How many allusions did you catch?
5. Why do you think Romy fell in love with Richard? In what ways do Richard and Julian represent city versus country life? Do you think she made the right choice?
6. In what ways is this a story of Romy finally overcoming the grief of losing her mother?
7. How would you describe Romy’s relationship with her father? How was her relationship with her parents different from that of Julian and his parents?
8. Julian worries about his “McElroy blood,” and Bittersweet Creek explores the idea of nature versus nurture. Which do you think plays the greater role in who we are and why?
9. Why do you think Debbie stuck with Curtis as long as she did? Should she have?
10. A lot of this book centers around animals. What does a person’s treatment of animals say about him or her as a person? How do the attitudes of the characters who grew up with animals differ from those of characters who did not grow up around animals?
11. Which was your favorite flashback of when Romy and Julian were teenagers in love? Why?
12. Does Bittersweet Creek make you nostalgic for the country or does it make you want to run screaming for the city? Why?
13. Who’s your favorite character? Least favorite?
14. “Islands in the Stream”: Great duet, or . . . the greatest duet?
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
; Copyright © 2015 by Sally Kilpatrick
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-1-6177-3570-7
First Kensington Electronic Edition: November 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1-61773-570-7
ISBN-10: 1-61773-570-1
First Kensington Trade Paperback Printing: November 2015
Notes
1 The 1900 census as well as Yessum County property records show that Magilroy became MacElroy about that time. By the next census they’d dropped the “a” and adopted the current spelling.