Currently reading: WINTER’S BONE by Daniel Woodrell (Adult Book Club selection)

Well, it’s snowing here in NY (AGAIN!). Sigh. We just hope my kids get their midterms in and don’t have it dragging out over the weekend.

On a brighter note, I found the perfect book for a snowy day. It’s a fun read and totally inspires you to unleash your inner cook. Read on to learn more about Just Add Magic and its author, Cindy Callaghan.

AND….as a special hope-you’re-not-snowed-in, but here’s-something-to-cheer-you-up-if-you-are incentive, comment at the end of this post and tell us your favorite thing to cook. The winner will be drawn in one week and will win a signed copy of Just Add Magic.

About Just Add Magic:

When Kelly Quinn and her two BFFs discover a dusty old cookbook while cleaning out her attic, the girls decide to try a few of the mysterious recipes inside.  But the ancient book bears an eerie warning, and it doesn’t take long for the girls to realize that their dishes are linked to strange occurences.  The Keep ‘Em Quiet Cobbler actually silences Kelly’s pesky little brother and the Hexberry Tarta brings an annoying curse to mean girl Charlotte Barney.  And there is the Love Bug Juice, which seems to have quite the effect on those cute Rusamano boys…

Could these recipes really be magical? Who wrote them and where did they come from? And most importantly, what kind of trouble are the girls stirring up for themselves? Things are about to get just a little too hot in Kelly Quinn’s kitchen.

About Cindy:

Just Add Magic is Cindy Callaghan’s debut novel. Cindy grew up in New Jersey and attended college at the University of Southern California before earning her BA and MBA from the University of Delaware.

Her full-time job is in corporate America; her other full-time jobs are mom and writer.

She is very involved with her children’s activities, including coaching the occasional soccer team.  Cindy lives, works and writes in Wilmington, Delaware with her family and numerous rescued pets.

On to the interview:

1. In Just Add Magic, you center the book around food. Are you a big cook? And did you have to do a lot of research (i.e. cooking and eating!) while writing?

I am not a good cook.  I can admit it.  And I don’t really like to cook when I have to.  I like to cook for fun.  For example, I don’t make very good pancakes (instant kinda stuff), but I make them pink, purple, blue…whatever color I feel like that day.  The hardest part about the recipes for JUST ADD MAGIC is that I don’t follow them.  I just have an idea for how much seems about right.  Then, I taste test.  Usually I’m pretty close, but sometimes it’s disastrous and I order pizza to be delivered.

I do like to bake.  I toss in a little of this…some of that…and oh yumm.

2.    What’s the nicest thing someone has said about the book?

There has been so much.  The feedback has been amazing both from adults who have read it and kids too.  I love, love, love going to pick my kids up from school and the other children run up to me with a copy of the book to sign.  I feel famous.

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