If you read last week’s post, you know I ate a cricket. Several crickets, in fact. And if you haven’t read it yet, you should check it out because there is actually video of me eating a cricket. Yep, pretty sure that’s going to come back to haunt me at some point.
Anyway, the eating of questionable protein continued during our writing retreat: I ate worms. Two different kinds of worms! Even though I'm making a disgusted frowny face as I type those words, just like with the crickets, it wasn’t all that bad. Okay, I’m lying. One of them was horrible, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
First up was the wax worms. One of the big scenes in Rebecca Petruck’s upcoming middle-grade novel WILL NOLAN EATS WORMS involves wax worm cookies, so Rebecca wanted to make some for accurate research.
Rebecca got the worms a few days before we arrived and froze them, so I never had to see them wriggling – except on video. So the first thing we had to do was pick frozen worms out of their sawdust beds. It was fine at first because they were frozen, so they just felt like skinny crackers or something. But then they started to thaw out. Very quickly. Which meant they were squishy when you picked them up. I started to worry I was going to wimp out and not be able to eat them.
Next Rebecca made the cookie dough and added the worms to it. Oh dear, ruining perfectly delicious cookie dough with WORMS!
After some time in the oven, they were ready. And I was ready … to run!
But I finally screwed up my courage. You know how when you’re picking out a chocolate chip cookie you look for the one with the most visible chips? Yeah, this was the complete opposite. I was looking for one with the least amount of visible worms. But Rebecca had been quite generous with her worm to dough ratio. *shudder*
So I bit into it, and it was okay. The cookie itself was super tasty. I didn’t actually notice a taste with the worms, but the texture was … unsettling. Like I don’t eat mushrooms or oysters because I hate the texture, so the worms pretty much fall into the same category. But I do feel pretty badass for having eaten a worm cookie!
Next up was the earthworm jerky. Yep, you read that right. Rebecca ordered it already prepared, so we just had to open the package and “enjoy.” The ingredients listed all kinds of spices, which sounded like it would be tasty enough to cover any potential earthworm flavor. It was not. That stuff was FOUL! It was really tough, so it was hard to chew, and it had this super strong, terrible fishy taste. NEVER AGAIN!
Here's Rebecca trying to tear off a piece of her jerky:
Here's me before eating my earthworm jerky:
Here's me after eating my earthworm jerky:
Besides all the fun with bug eating, we also got a lot accomplished on the writing front. We did tarot card readings for our characters and plots (which were eerily accurate), brainstormed story ideas, and I got feedback on my latest rough draft. I’m dipping my toes in the middle-grade waters, and their feedback on my WIP was very inspiring and has me ready to dive into revisions. So it was a very productive week!
Now it’s finally time for this week’s 15 Minute Tweet Tales word:
feuillemort – having the color of a faded leaf.
6/14 – Her hair was feuillemort, the texture just as brittle, but even when the sickness stole the rest away, he remained dazzled by her beauty.
Play along and write a tweet tale for the above word. If you’re willing to share, post it on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add it below in the comments because I’d love to read your tales. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tale or #15tt word?
If you read last week’s post, you know I ate a cricket. Several crickets, in fact. And if you haven’t read it yet, you should check it out because there is actually video of me eating a cricket. Yep, pretty sure that’s going to come back to haunt me at some point.
Anyway, the eating of questionable protein continued during our writing retreat: I ate worms. Two different kinds of worms! Even though I'm making a disgusted frowny face as I type those words, just like with the crickets, it wasn’t all that bad. Okay, I’m lying. One of them was horrible, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
First up was the wax worms. One of the big scenes in Rebecca Petruck’s upcoming middle-grade novel WILL NOLAN EATS WORMS involves wax worm cookies, so Rebecca wanted to make some for accurate research.
Rebecca got the worms a few days before we arrived and froze them, so I never had to see them wriggling – except on video. So the first thing we had to do was pick frozen worms out of their sawdust beds. It was fine at first because they were frozen, so they just felt like skinny crackers or something. But then they started to thaw out. Very quickly. Which meant they were squishy when you picked them up. I started to worry I was going to wimp out and not be able to eat them.
Next Rebecca made the cookie dough and added the worms to it. Oh dear, ruining perfectly delicious cookie dough with WORMS!
After some time in the oven, they were ready. And I was ready … to run!
But I finally screwed up my courage. You know how when you’re picking out a chocolate chip cookie you look for the one with the most visible chips? Yeah, this was the complete opposite. I was looking for one with the least amount of visible worms. But Rebecca had been quite generous with her worm to dough ratio. *shudder*
So I bit into it, and it was okay. The cookie itself was super tasty. I didn’t actually notice a taste with the worms, but the texture was … unsettling. Like I don’t eat mushrooms or oysters because I hate the texture, so the worms pretty much fall into the same category. But I do feel pretty badass for having eaten a worm cookie!
Next up was the earthworm jerky. Yep, you read that right. Rebecca ordered it already prepared, so we just had to open the package and “enjoy.” The ingredients listed all kinds of spices, which sounded like it would be tasty enough to cover any potential earthworm flavor. It was not. That stuff was FOUL! It was really tough, so it was hard to chew, and it had this super strong, terrible fishy taste. NEVER AGAIN!
Here's Rebecca trying to tear off a piece of her jerky:
Here's me before eating my earthworm jerky:
Here's me after eating my earthworm jerky:
Besides all the fun with bug eating, we also got a lot accomplished on the writing front. We did tarot card readings for our characters and plots (which were eerily accurate), brainstormed story ideas, and I got feedback on my latest rough draft. I’m dipping my toes in the middle-grade waters, and their feedback on my WIP was very inspiring and has me ready to dive into revisions. So it was a very productive week!
Now it’s finally time for this week’s 15 Minute Tweet Tales word:
feuillemort – having the color of a faded leaf.
6/14 – Her hair was feuillemort, the texture just as brittle, but even when the sickness stole the rest away, he remained dazzled by her beauty.
Play along and write a tweet tale for the above word. If you’re willing to share, post it on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add it below in the comments because I’d love to read your tales. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tale or #15tt word?
