METHODS OF MADNESS
By Stephanie Black
By Stephanie Black
It’s
been three years since the terrible night Emily Ramsey suffered
a double tragedy—the death of her sister and the disappearance
of her fiancé. She deserves another chance at happiness, and
gentle, adorable Zach Sullivan is the perfect man to mend her
shattered heart. But from the moment Emily opens the hand-carved
box holding a glittering diamond solitaire, she’s seized by an
unshakeable fear: she’s going to lose Zach. That’s exactly
what Monica, Zach’s ex-girlfriend, is banking on. Bitter with
envy, Monica will stop at nothing to sabotage Zach and Emily’s
romance. Troubling notes show up in Emily’s mailbox, fanning
the flames of suspicion. A bloody photograph sends her reeling.
But when someone is brutally murdered, will Emily be able to
escape suspicion and the possibility that she might be next?
Whitney Award–winning author Stephanie Black treats readers to
another of her brilliantly thrilling stories that will leave the
reader no choice but to keep reading well past the stroke of
midnight.TRIVIA QUESTIONS: 1. What subject does Zach teach at the high school? 2. What gift from Tricia does Emily turn to for comfort? 3. To what country did Ryan go for an art study program? 4. What is Carolyn Ramsey’s hobby? 5. What is Emily’s favorite drink? Trivia Answers: 1. Math 2. A daisy-decorated photo album containing pictures of Tricia and Emily together. 3. Ireland 4. Cooking 5. Welch’s Sparkling Grape juice |
RECIPE:
Mysterious Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake
Ingredients:Crust: 1 ½ cups + 1TB graham cracker crumbs 2 ½ TB sugar 5 TB melted butter Filling: 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 1/3 cup sugar 2 ½ 8-oz. packages cream cheese, softened 1 cup minus 1 TB sugar ½ cup + 2 TB sour cream 1 ¼ tsp. vanilla 5 eggs Directions: Over low heat, melt chocolate chips and 1/3 cup sugar, stirring until smooth. Set aside. Make crust of crumbs, 2 ½ TB sugar, and melted butter. Pat mixture firmly into a 10-inch springform pan, covering the bottom and 1 ½ inches up the sides. Refrigerate. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until creamy. Gradually beat in 1 cup minus 1 TB sugar. Stir in sour cream and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg. Divide batter into fourths. Stir chocolate mixture into ¼ of the batter. Spoon chocolate batter in large spoonful-mounds into crust. Cover with plain batter. With a knife, swirl plain batter with chocolate batter for a marbleized appearance. Bake at 325 degrees for 50 minutes, or until only a 3-4 inch circle in the center is depressed or will shake. Cool at room temperature. Refrigerate. Number of servings: 16 |
Getting
to Know Stephanie Black
When I’m starting a new project, my first step is brainstorming. I like to type ideas into a brainstorming file on my computer, listing ideas and working with them until a story finally starts to form. Next, I hammer out a rough outline. My outlines are very broad—I need to know the basic story and where it’s going in order to get started, but I won’t know the details until I actually write the book. As I write my first draft, whenever I get stuck, I’ll brainstorm again until I figure out what comes next. My goal is to get that draft written without worrying about revision. Once I’ve got a draft to work with—and it’ll be a messy, inconsistent draft, because I will have changed things about the story along the way—I revise, revise, and revise, adding things, deleting things, changing things, weaving in new threads until the story is finished. 2. What do you most enjoy about being an author? I enjoy the process of writing—especially after the first draft is finished! Revision is the part of writing I like the most. I enjoy going through a manuscript multiple times, making it better and better. It’s exciting to watch a new story taking shape. I love hearing back from readers. It’s such a thrill to hear that someone enjoyed my work. I also love the strong, supportive community of LDS authors. I’ve met so many wonderful people in this industry. 3. What do you hope people come away with after reading your book? The sense that they’ve enjoyed some good, clean, thrilling entertainment! As far as deeper themes, I hope the book helps warn against the potential problems involved when people let pride lead them into thinking they need to keep up a perfect façade, rather than seeking help when they need it. 4. What is the next project you are working on? I’m working on a novel that centers around a woman struggling to repair the rift between her younger brother—who has a troubled past—and her parents, who fear to trust him again. When her brother is accused of murder, she’s the only one who believes in him, which puts her in peril from a ruthless killer intent on framing him. 5. How did your love for writing begin? My mother reports that I’ve loved books since I was old enough to grab the pages. As a child, my favorite game was Barbies, and my sisters and I would invent long Barbie games filled with intrigue and danger. I think a love of books and a love of participating in make-believe stories helped lead to my love of writing. In a lot of ways, writing is a grown-up way of playing Barbies! When I was in high school, I took a creative writing class. On the last story I turned in, the teacher wrote, “Interesting—don’t stop.” I didn’t. I played with that story for years, writing different scenes. That story led, years later—after tons of writing and rewriting, and the reading of many fiction technique books—to my first novel, The Believer. |