She lets ideas cook for a while

When the words don't come, Richmond author Mary Burton turns on the oven.

"It's my delaying tactic," Burton said with a laugh about baking. "The running joke is, you can tell how the writing's going by the number of cupcakes on the counter."

Burton, who has written historical romances and these days focuses on romantic suspense novels, came up with a recipe for lemon-cherry teacake cookies while working on "Christmas Past," a novella for "Silver Bells," a collection of four short novels by Burton and three other authors. "Silver Bells" spent several weeks on The New York Times best-seller list.

Naturally, Burton calls the cookies "Silver Bells."

"I looked in my refrigerator and thought, 'What do I have and what should I make today?'" Burton recalled. "I started playing with the ingredients and mixing things. I didn't have enough butter so I used cream cheese, and I went from there."

Burton began baking as a child growing up in Midlothian, and she has developed an even greater appreciation for it since she became a professional writer. She finds the pursuits similar in that both require a certain creativity, as well as technical preciseness.

Burton, who lives in western Henrico County, started writing while her two children were napping or in preschool. Her first book was published in 2000. Now her kids are in high school, and she's written 15 novels and four novellas -- and no telling how many cupcakes she produced.

Find out more at http://www.mary burton.com.
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