LitPunch - A Great Idea

It is sad to say, but it seems that literary events such as author talks or book signings don't typically draw huge crowds.  Our culture doesn't make authors famous very often.  The Anne Rice or Tom Clancy phenomenon is rare.  BookTV does not command a huge viewership compared to a Sitcom or Desparate Housewives guilty pleasures.

When I stumbled across LitPunch I thought it was a simple yet brilliant idea to encourage more participation in literary events.  Minneapolis/St. Paul merchants banded together with a handful of independent publishers and developed a unique reward program called the Literary Punch Card - or LitPunch (http://www.litpunch.com/).  The card gets punched when you attend a literary event at participating merchants and after twelve punches you get fifteen dollars credit at any of the merchants in the program.  The hope is that attendance numbers will jump at author events in the Twin Cities and possibly the idea will spread to other cities.

I hope this does spread.  Anything that brings more attention to literature, the suffering publishing industry, and hardworking authors is a fantastic idea.  Know anybody who can help spread this idea to more communities?  Pass this along.

Now for a great summer time treat, Peach Cobbler.

 

Ingredients:

For the peaches:

5-6 cups sliced fresh peaches (if you use canned peaches, do not make the syrup)

1/8 tsp Chinese 5-spice

1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest

1 cup water

1 cups sugar

For the batter:

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter (real butter! Do NOT use margarine!)

1 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour (or 1 1/2 cup AP flour, plus 2 1/2 tsp baking powder and 3/4 tsp salt - NOTE: this does not work as well...get some self-rising flour!)

1 1/2 cups milk