Tim Cody is currently:
Working on: The Perfect Girl Drinks Root Beer (polish and finishing touches)
Playing: Guild Wars 2
Watching: Doctor Who (hating Matt Smith pretty hardcore)
A little while ago I decided that I wanted to do more than a typical book preview. Instead of yanking a couple chapters out of the book and throwing them up on the internet early, I decided to write a few entirely new, independent chapters--similar to what I outlined in my blog post a while back where I discussed the idea of novel DLC. These are chapters starring the cast of The Perfect Girl Drinks Root Beer that puts them in a setting to showcase their characters.
The girls have been asked to take part in a cooking show, the task of which is to each make root beer using a recipe of their own. The chapters don't really fit anywhere in the book--they were written purely as additional content for distribution across the internet, and their non-canon status will become confusingly apparent almost immediately.
I've always been interested in tearing down the fourth wall (think Deadpool), so decided to have a bit of fun with the outline for this preview. Think of the characters as actors in a film who are now appearing on a show to promote the book--only instead of writing the characters like actors who were playing characters, they're characters who are all aware that they were invented for this book.
So in order to give the audience an accurate representation of their character, they act like they do in the book--just in this new situation.
It makes more sense to read, trust me--it's good for a laugh. The plan is to upload it to Scribd, mainly because I can embed the file from there onto my blog and it gives it a nice e-reader appearance. Additionally, Scribd seems like a pretty popular site--meaning random people could always stumble upon it, which is never a bad thing for increased exposure. So keep an eye out for that, because I'm super excited to finally share a considerable chunk of The Perfect Girl Drinks Root Beer-related writing with everyone! Also be on the lookout for a Crimson Soul Easter egg or two. ;)
Secret Technique #46: Blog Topic Change!
"But what about your attempts to make your own root beer!?"
That did not go extremely well.
First of all, it requires a ton of sugar--three cups! Two cups of white granulated sugar, and one cup of brown sugar--which is just sugar with syrup in it, which is also made of sugar. So, lots of sugar: Check. After I threw all the ingredients in and mixed them up nice and good, I began throwing random ingredients such as extra vanilla extract and chocolate powder.
Talk about delicious, though. It was a giant bowl of the most concentrated root beer I've ever encountered (and trust me, I've encountered a lot of giant bowls of root beer!) With just a hint of chocolate, that shit was ready to go.
So the instructions say something to the effect of, "Stick it in a cabinet at room temperature until the bottle becomes firm, which usually takes about three days. After this, put it in the refrigerator so it can appropriately carbonate." Putting it in the fridge too early means it doesn't carbonate, but it still tastes fine--too late, and I risk over carbonating, which can make it taste kinda funky.
So what happens? Naturally the bottles are quite firm after about three hours. The special foam thing on the caps are bulging out, which is supposed to mean it's carbonated. So I stick them in the fridge.
Three days later, I crack open a bottle of completely uncarbonated root beer. It doesn't taste bad (a little weird, but mostly fine), but hot damn if it ain't lacking any and all forms of carbonation.
So what went wrong?
I'm not entirely sure! I assume it has to do with when I put it in the fridge, since the instructions clearly said it could take up to three days, but I only waited about three hours. But the cap thing was bulged out, so who knows! I was messing around with a test bottle, which fizzed as if it was perfectly carbonated--but it tasted like craaaaapola.
Luckily, I still have enough ingredients to make another gallon. So once more into the fray! In pursuit of the last good root beer I'll ever know. To taste root beer on this day. To taste root beer on this day.
That's that and marmalade!
-Tim Cody
