Let Me Eat Cake!

In the Doghouse Audiobook Cover

Let Me Eat Cake

Dear Friend,

At the time of this post, I will be forty-nine years old plus one week. Only fifty-one more weeks until I turn fifty.

And I won’t have eaten an entire Betty Crocker’s Cherry Chip Cake over a two-day period as I have almost every year for the past four decades. Why? In an effort to embrace aging, and therefore, an ever-demanding healthier diet, I’m scrapping the once-perfect-for-me cake along with the once-perfect-for-me icing*.

But honestly, in the past when it’s been suggested that I shouldn’t eat Betty Crocker’s Cherry Chip Cake, or the time when somebody altered my cherry chip cake because they were “tired of making the same cake every year,” I threw a tantrum. A bonafide tantrum. I even used the cake crime in In the Doghouse, Chapter 5 (“Lucy: Cherry Chip Cake”)Writing about it was cathartic.

However, my cherry-chip-cake catharsis wasn’t well-received by my trusted beta readers. I, ahem–I mean Lucy–came across as “spoiled and ungrateful.” Oops. I had to do some soul searching about my behavior and then rewrite the chapter several times, adding backstory for Lucy (not true to my own) explaining why the traditional cake was so important to her. After several rewrites, I got the thumbs up from my editor and beta readers. Whew!

In case you haven’t read In the Doghouse, you can listen to the infamous fifth audio chapter of In the Doghouse. Or you can buy the book here in audio, paperback, hardback or ebook.

By the way, my lovely partner got me the sweetest gifts for my birthday. Not only did he have a poster of Tiger Drive printed and framed for me, but he also got me a dog!

Introducing … Stickers,

Image: Stickers Dog by Teri Case

I love Stickers so much.

Image: Stickers the Dog by Teri Case

What kind of dessert do you like for your birthday? And what’s on your wish list this year?

As always, thanks for being YOU!

Teri

*Instead I had a delicious individual-size key lime tart from a local DC bakery. BUT if you do find a cherry chip cake (because I also can’t find one on the east coast) and bake it, send me a picture. I recommend the cream cheese or vanilla frosting made by Betty Crocker.

P.S. Good news! In the Doghouse just won Best Book in the cross-genre fiction category at the 2019 Best Book Awards!!!! Skip, Lucy, and I are feeling the love! Read more about it here.

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