Skip to main content

Lady Wynwood #7 early release Kickstarter

I worked on my first Kickstarter and it got approved! It’s for the Special Edition Hardcover of Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 1: Archer and the release of Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 7: Spinster. I contacted my graphic designer about the Special Edition Hardcover of vol. 1: Archer—it’s going to be SO beautiful! The Kickstarter focuses on the Special Edition Hardcover, but it’ll also include vol. 7: Spinster so that it’ll sort of be like a launch day for vol. 7, too. A third special thing that’ll be in the Kickstarter is Special Edition Paperbacks of all the books in the series. They won’t be available in stores, just in the Kickstarter (and later, from my website, and also in my Patreon book box tiers if I decide to do them). The Kickstarter is not live yet, but you can follow it to be alerted when it has launched. (You may need to create a free Kickstarter account.) Follow Camy’s Kickstarter

Favorite chocolate?

Captain's Log, Stardate 04.22.2008

Lately I’ve been on this chocolate kick. Normally, I’m not a huge chocoholic like Captain Caffeine. I enjoy chocolate, but if given a choice, I’ll usually choose a fruit or custard/creamy dessert over a triple decadence chocolate layer cake or a chocolate-lovers’ downfall brownie.

But lately, I’ve been eating dark chocolate squares. I think it started when I went into Joseph Schmidt gourmet chocolate shop in Santana Row.

We’d gotten Joseph Schmidt truffles for Christmas, and they’d been fabulous—I can honestly say that they were as good as DeBrand truffles (author Colleen Coble’s favorite).

So when I saw the brick and mortar shop in Santana Row, I went in immediately.

Inside, this man was buying up stacks—and I kid you not, stacks—of the Joseph Schmidt Belgian Dark Chocolate bars. He raved about them, said they were terrific.

A cashier was restocking the display case the man had cleaned out, and I snagged a bar. “I’ve got to try one, after watching him,” I told her.

She laughed. “The last time we didn’t have any, he got so upset. I’ve never seen a customer so upset that we didn’t have a chocolate bar.”

I have had Ghirardelli chocolate, and Trader Joe’s Belgian chocolate, and DeBrand, and Scharffen Berger, and Vosges Haute-Chocolat, and See’s, and Ethel M—basically, a lot of gourmet chocolate. So I was a bit skeptical about this particular chocolate bar.

OH. MY. GOSH.

This chocolate really is very good. It’s smoother than most chocolate, yet not as sweet as some other dark chocolate bars (which is an aspect of it that I like). It’s bitter, but not too bitter, without the harsh aftertaste you sometimes get with bittersweet or extra dark chocolate.

I even tasted it side by side with Scharffen Berger just to make sure I wasn’t kidding myself. I can truly tell the difference between them, and the Joseph Schmidt chocolate is better.

My second favorite is Vosges Haute-Chocolat, but that is just insanely expensive and I only indulge because my friend Patti Lacy gave me two bars that I’m savoring.

So lately I’ve been keeping some dark chocolate by my computer and eating small pieces while I work. I’m a good girl—I break off a small piece and let it melt in my mouth so it lasts longer and I ingest less fat and sugar. My thighs have been thanking me.

So how about you? What chocolate do you turn to to warm your heart, ease your aches, dry your tears, or just boost your spirits?

Comments

Anne Dayton said…
Mmm... Vosges. The black pearl bar is my favorite chocolate bar ever.
Carole said…
Great post! I'm not a big chocolate fan, although I do like plain chocolate-covered cherries. Then I remembered that my daughter brought some chocolate bars home from a mission trip in Germany, and they were wonderful. My favorite had a strawberry center.
Brenda said…
Oh goodness, I love chocolate, so almost any chocolate is good for me. My husband used to go to Brussels a lot, and would bring home the yummiest chocolate. Dark chocolate is my favorite, but I'm too cheap to buy expensive stuff.
Camy Tang said…
Anne, I've got a black pearl bar on my desk right now! I've been making my way through it. :)

Oh my gosh, German chocolate with a strawberry center???? I'm drooling. With envy.

Wow, Brenda, Brussels chocolate? You lucky girl!

Camy
Tanja said…
I am no chocolate buff. That would be my husband. I stick to rushes from pure sugar... Twizzlers, Hot Tomales, etc. And I like junk food to be cheap. A couple months ago I had a Milky Way Midnight bar. And then I had a second... and a third. I liked it. A lot. Too much. Try it and see if it'll take care of that dark chocolate hankering without denting your budget.
Trekkie4Ever said…
I confess I am a chocoholic, and when I am really down I run down to a Christian owned coffee place and order a medium soy Snikkers latte, and that usually cheers me up.

However, I would love to try the chocolate bar you are talking about, yummy.....
Moonstruck. It's a local chocolate from Portland, though you can get it online. I've never had a taste of it as it's so expensive. In fact, I only buy it to send as thank yous to editors!
Gracie said…
I LOVE dark chocolate, and now I can't wait to try the Joseph Schmidt chocolate. As of yet, though, the best chocolate I've ever tasted is Dagoba. It's organic, 73% cacao, and has a creamy taste minus any bitter aftertaste. Plus, one bar has only seven or nine grams of sugar and I think thirteen carbs (I haven't checked the fat content yet). Even one of my friends, who usually doesn't like dark chocolate, loved it.
Blessings!
Deborah said…
personally i can be in 7th heaven with just a regular hershey bar with almonds. but if i'm going to splure Lindor ball truffles from Lindt are simply divine. Everytime we go to the store, we tell them we've never had one so we can get a sample. Absolutely delish.
Ausjenny said…
I love white chocolate and i love Lindt's white (ok any belguim or swiss for that matter). I will treat myself occasionally if i can find some when in the city. I also like milk chocolate and I love Cadbury's (aussie Cadbury's) the best. but im a chocoholic.
Im currently trying to get off it.
its been about 40 hours since the last chocolate bar!
I cant stop at one square i tend to have to keep eating it.
White chocolate I can make last longer as its much richer.
Now I have to get through today without having any just reading this is making me want some bad.
Fedora said…
Whoa... Camy, that sounds really good. I do love chocolate, but I'm hardly a connosieur (sp? see? I can't even spell it!)--most of the time I'm pretty happy with Dove, milk OR dark. I'm also a big fan of See's, having grown up with it. My husband splurged and bought me a couple pounds of Leonidas a few years ago, and that's good stuff, too. I'll have to look for the Joseph Schmidt and the Vosges...
Camy Tang said…
Wow, I haven't even heard of some of those chocolates! Leonidas? Dagoba? Moonstruck? You guys are BAD FOR MY DIET.

camy
Ausjenny said…
i ended up buying some Darrel lee chocolate (aussie) white cos i just needed some. my reasoning white chocolate isn't really chocolate.
ellehasuly said…
I have been on a Lindt chocolate truffle kick for a while now. The black or the royal blue wrappers are the ones I gravitate towards. They are the dark chocolate choices of a number of truffles I find in the local drug store. Oh,yes. Try one with a cup o'joe and be blessed:).

Cup o'joy
and a fresh taste of the bread of heaven...

Lynne
Anonymous said…
And I just finished a few (ahem) Nestle dark chocolate Treasures with caramel. Do I even want to know where they rate with the "good" stuff? :)

Popular Posts

Tabi socks, part deux

Captain's Log, Stardate 07.25.2008 (If you're on Ravelry, friend me! I'm camytang.) I made tabi socks again! (At the bottom of the pattern is the calculation for the toe split if you're not using the same weight yarn that I did for this pattern (fingering). I also give an example from when I used worsted weight yarn with this pattern.) I used Opal yarn, Petticoat colorway. It’s a finer yarn than my last pair of tabi socks, so I altered the pattern a bit. Okay, so here’s my first foray into giving a knitting pattern. Camy’s top-down Tabi Socks I’m assuming you already know the basics of knitting socks. If you’re a beginner, here are some great tutorials: Socks 101 How to Knit Socks The Sock Knitter’s Companion A video of turning the heel Sock Knitting Tips Yarn: I have used both fingering weight and worsted weight yarn with this pattern. You just change the number of cast on stitches according to your gauge and the circumference of your ankle. Th...

Lady Wynwood #7 early release Kickstarter

I worked on my first Kickstarter and it got approved! It’s for the Special Edition Hardcover of Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 1: Archer and the release of Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 7: Spinster. I contacted my graphic designer about the Special Edition Hardcover of vol. 1: Archer—it’s going to be SO beautiful! The Kickstarter focuses on the Special Edition Hardcover, but it’ll also include vol. 7: Spinster so that it’ll sort of be like a launch day for vol. 7, too. A third special thing that’ll be in the Kickstarter is Special Edition Paperbacks of all the books in the series. They won’t be available in stores, just in the Kickstarter (and later, from my website, and also in my Patreon book box tiers if I decide to do them). The Kickstarter is not live yet, but you can follow it to be alerted when it has launched. (You may need to create a free Kickstarter account.) Follow Camy’s Kickstarter

Camille's Writing Progress

Join my newsletter to get regular updates in your inbox!

A List of my Free Blog Reads

Curious about what my writing is like? Here’s a list of all my free books and the free short stories, novellas, and novels that you can read here on my blog. I’ll update this post as I add more free reads. Christian Romantic Suspense: Necessary Proof (Sonoma series #4.1, novella) Click here to buy the FREE ebook on all retailers Alex Villa became a Christian in prison, and because of his efforts to help stop a gang producing meth in Sonoma, he has been set up for the death of a cop. Can computer expert Jane Lawton find the evidence that will prove his innocence before the gang eliminates them both? Fantasy short stories: Pixies in a Garden in Kyoto There were pixies in the garden. Since she was in Kyoto, she was certain they were not called pixies, but she didn't know what they would be called in Japanese, and they certainly looked like what she imagined pixies would look like. The King’s Daughter The trees in the King's garden were full of colored pixie lights. The...

No Cold Bums toilet seat cover

Captain's Log, Stardate 08.22.2008 I actually wrote out my pattern! I was getting a lot of hits on my infamous toilet seat cover , and I wanted to make a new one with “improvements,” so I paid attention and wrote things down as I made the new one. This was originally based off the Potty Mouth toilet cover , but I altered it to fit over the seat instead of the lid. Yarn: any worsted weight yarn, about 120 yards (this is a really tight number, I used exactly 118 yards. My suggestion is to make sure you have about 130 yards.) I suggest using acrylic yarn because you’re going to be washing this often. Needle: I used US 8, but you can use whatever needle size is recommended by the yarn you’re using. Gauge: Not that important. Mine was 4 sts/1 inch in garter stitch. 6 buttons (I used some leftover shell buttons I had in my stash) tapestry needle Crochet hook (optional) Cover: Using a provisional cast on, cast on 12 stitches. Work in garter st until liner measures...

My first hand-spun yarn!

Captain's Log, Stardate 01.22.2010 Since late December, I have been learning how to spin wool into yarn using a drop spindle. Yes! It’s true, I have gone totally Amish/old school. (No offense to any Amish or old school people. I mean that in the nicest way.) I don’t know why I suddenly decided to learn to spin. Or if I did know why, I’ve forgotten (I probably explained it to Captain Caffeine at some point, but now I don’t remember what excuse I gave to him). Not having any yarn shops nearby that teach spinning, I bought a Cascade spindle online and some really soft, silky merino wool roving from Etsy.com. I read all kinds of online articles and watched youtube videos. And I spun my first yarn! Here it is! It’s a lace weight yarn (about 30 wraps per inch), since I like using finer gauge yarns over bulkier yarns. It’s rather uneven (although it’s not as easy to tell in the picture) and I didn’t ply it very well, but I made it all by myself! Captain Caffeine does not...

Behind the Scenes: Original Cover

Prelude for a Lord (the extended version) releases on Amazon on December 2! You can buy it early at a discount from my website . (Want to join my Launch Team ?) The current cover is actually the second version of the cover for this book. Here’s what the original cover from my publisher, Zondervan, looked like. The original stock photo was of a blonde woman, and when I pointed out the error, the graphic designer at Zondervan did a nice job coloring her hair brown. For the new cover, I kept the orange and blue colors but chose a model in profile rather than with her entire face hidden. This new re-release is an extended version of the original book. Zondervan had a strict word count of 100,000 words, but my original manuscript was 120,000 words, so I had to cut 20,000 words. But when I got my rights back and started planning to re-release it, I realized I could release the original manuscript before it was cut. So the version coming out is the uncut, extended version. ...

Toilet seat cover

Captain’s Log, Supplemental Update August 2008: I wrote up the pattern for this with "improvements"! Here's the link to my No Cold Bums toilet seat cover ! Okay, remember a few days ago I was complaining about the cold toilet seat in my bathroom? Well, I decided to knit a seat cover. Not a lid cover, but a seat cover. I went online and couldn’t find anything for the seat, just one pattern for the lid by Feminitz.com . However, I took her pattern for the inside edge of the lid cover and modified it to make a seat cover. Here it is! It’s really ugly stitch-wise because originally I made it too small and had to extend it a couple inches on each side. I figured I’d be the one staring at it, so who cared if the extension wasn’t perfectly invisible? I used acrylic yarn since, well, that’s what I had, and also because it’s easy to wash. I’ll probably have to wash this cover every week or so, but it’s easy to take off—I made ties which you can see near the back of the seat. And...

Grace Livingston Hill romances free to read online

I wanted to update my old post on Grace Livingston Hill romances because now there are tons more options for you to be able to read her books for free online! I’m a huge Grace Livingston Hill fan. Granted, not all her books resonate with me, but there are a few that I absolutely love, like The Enchanted Barn and Crimson Roses . And the best part is that she wrote over 100 books and I haven’t yet read them all! When I have time, I like to dive into a new GLH novel. I like the fact that most of them are romances, and I especially appreciate that they all have strong Christian themes. Occasionally the Christian content is a little heavy-handed for my taste, but it’s so interesting to see what the Christian faith was like in the early part of the 20th century. These books are often Cinderella-type stories or A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett) type stories, which I love. And the best part is that they’re all set in the early 1900s, so the time period is absolutely fasci...

Kickstarter postponed (yes, again!) and book release news

My family was a bit stressed while I was visiting my parents (I promise, it wasn’t me!) and so I decided to postpone my Kickstarter. It has changed my book release schedule, and so I’ll be releasing Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 7: Spinster hopefully next month? It has also allowed me to figure out when book 8 will be released. Check out my (rather lengthy) explanation on my Patreon . (You’ll need to set up a free Patreon account if you don't have one.) Read when my books are coming out: https://www.patreon.com/posts/113452442/