Biting more than you can chew, again - a rye and walnut bread to ease off the workload

Long time no post, right? And this is going to be short and sweet, actually, as I'm in the middle of complete chaos overload. As usual, I bit more than I can chew and am stretching myself thin with way too many projects up my sleeve, so besides feeling rather exhausted, I'm also scatter brained with all the things I need to get going! Well, no one ever said the life of a writer is an easy one, but this does sound like a lot of work and very little play, lately. Ah, who am I kiding? I love it.

So, what's new, here in the HQ? Earlier this week I finished writing the (not so) first draft of book three on my fantasy trilogy, so that's another project done - of course it still needs a lot of revising, editing and rereads before I even think of putting it out there! At the moment, I happen to have six complete novels written and yet to be published, so if the muse fails me, at least I have these to fall back to, right? I'm a bit sad to say goodbye to those characters and that story, but I'll be back there soon, when I start working on getting it ready for the world.

In the meantime, I've been lost in editing hell, getting my Autumn release ready for publishing. Avalon Hall is the name, and it's book number one in an Arthurian trilogy that will get readers travelling through time and enjoying two distint timelines and a set of memorable characters - at least I hope they're memorable! I can't wait to have this one out there for the world to enjoy it, it was so much fun writing those books, and a project I have wanted to tackle for a really long time. I've dreamt of writing an Arthurian retell for ages, and never had the guts to do it, well, I finally did and am damn proud. The Heir of Avalon trilogy has been a work of love, and a lot of work it was.

And while I'm editing, I'm also working on social media graphs for my upcoming books, and working on promoting them ahead, while I keep up the hype for the already published novels, in the hopes sales pick up. I won't lie, it's been a rough few months, the year ahsn't been going as I had hoped it would, where my already published work is concerned. No way to make ends meet for the time being, but I'm not ready to throw down the towel and quit. I believe in my work and stand by it, thankfully a few lovely people do to, and they've done me the honour of buying, reading and reviewing my novels, something I can never thank them enough.

And while I'm so hard at work, I need all the carbs, like this delicious rye and walnut bread. If you care to indulge, here's how you can:

• 250 gr strong bread flour
• 100 gr rye flour
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 200 ml lukewarm water
• 10 gr bakers' yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-2 tbsp oil

Place the flour and walnuts in a bowl, and dig a hole in the middle. Scatter the yeast around the edges. Inside the hole place the salt, the oil and add the water. With the help of a fork start mixing flour and water together. WHen it's all mixed in, take the dough off the bowl and start kneading by hand over a surface scattered with flour. Knead until you obtain a silky, smooth dough, that has some elasticity to it. Form into ball and let it proof inside the bowl four a few hours. Once it has proofed, get the dough off the bowl with the aid of a spatula onto a floured surface, knead it for a couple of minutes and place it in a loaf tin. Let it rest for 30 minutes. Bake in a previously heated oven at 200º, with the fan on, until it's golden and cooked.