Recipe for Honey Pie (November theme) by Claudia Mills

My most recent book is the fourth title in my Franklin School Friends chapter book series, titled Simon Ellis, Spelling Bee Champ.

Part of the fun in writing the series, for me, is finding some way for exuberant, ebullient principal Mr. Boone (to use two of Simon's favorite spelling words) to throw his always abundant enthusiasm behind the central activity of each book. Here Mr. Boone comes "buzzing" into each classroom to generate enthusiasm for the grade-wide spelling bee, offering as a prize for the winning team a chance to attend a pie buffet starring his famous honey pie.

My editor read the book and said, "We should definitely include the recipe for honey pie."

"Yes!" I said. And then remembered one small problem. I didn't have a recipe for honey pie. I had no idea if honey pie even existed.

So add to the many uses of social media for writers: putting out a Facebook call for honey pie recipes. Within an hour I had several replies, including one from brilliant middle-grade author Lisa Graff, whose delightful National-Book-Award-long-list title A Tangle of Knots is filled with mouth-watering cake recipes. I took Lisa's recipe, added a tweak or two of my own to simplify, and another editor at my publisher did one last tweaking. The book now has a recipe for Mr. Boone's famous honey pie.

We've had snow here in Colorado this week. Maybe I should bake a honey pie this afternoon and cut myself a nice warm slice to enjoy with a cup of tea and gratitude for Facebook and the generosity of fellow authors who not only know how to write wonderful books but know how to bake wonderful pies as well.