Cooking with Author Ann Tatlock

What an honor to have my friend and fellow LPC author, Ann Tatlock, as my guest today.

I asked Ann to share about cooking and her new novel, Once Beyond a Time, that was just released last month.

Here's Ann . . .

In my house, I’m the sous-chef. I have been appointed to this lofty position because I can’t cook worth a hill of beans. In spite of my own mother’s best efforts, the kitchen remains for me a foreign land, cookbooks a library of cryptic words. In fact, if eating were optional, I’d gladly give it up and spend the time reading instead.

My daughter Laura, on the other hand, enjoys making all sorts of culinary creations. One of her favorite things to do is whip up a batch of cupcakes and take them to her friends at school.

Invariably, as she begins to putter about the kitchen, she hollers, “Mom, come and be my sous-chef!”

I dutifully enter that foreign land.

“Okay, Mom, I need you to measure out a cup of water.”

I can do that!

“Okay, now spray the cupcake pans with the cooking oil.”

I can do that too!

Laura smiles. “I love having you as my sous-chef, Mom.”

Happiness arises from the kitchen! My teen-aged daughter enjoys being with me! Together we make some tasty and attractive cupcakes while at the same time making precious memories.

Fortunately, too, my husband is an excellent cook, which has helped to keep my body and soul together for the 22 years we’ve been married.

I have always been far more comfortable, far more at home, in imaginary worlds—those found in books, those dreamed up by my own imagination. So I can’t cook, but if you don’t mind my carrying the cooking analogy over to what I can do, I love mixing together the ingredients of characters, plot, theme and voice, popping it all into the oven of time and effort (it can get pretty hot in there) and seeing what comes out in the end.

My newest dish is Once Beyond A Time.









Normally I write historical or contemporary novels, but this one’s a bit different. The setting is a house high on a mountain where all of time is happening at once, so that the present residents of the house can see and talk with those who have lived there before and those who will live there in the future.

It’s the story of a broken family, a lost child, and a God who transcends time to bring healing to his people and to work out his good plans.

So that’s the latest story cooked up in my imagination. I hope for you it’s a tasty morsel of good reading. Bon appetit!

Thanks, Ann, for joining us here today. You can read reviews of Ann's new novel here.

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Ann Tatlock is a novelist and children’s book author. Her newest novel, Once Beyond A Time, was published in December 2014 by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. Her books have received numerous awards, including the Christy Award, the Midwest Book Award and the Silver Angel Award for Excellence in Media. She also serves as managing editor of Heritage Beacon, the historical fiction imprint of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. She lives with her family in Western North Carolina. Please visit her website.