Ann Haut
Author, Editor, Speaker
BOOKS
Times are good, and 1950s moms are hungry for pastries to serve their baby boomer families. Icky's Cookies fly off local grocery store shelves, and with each new variety, the neighborhood is filled with the enticing aroma of Saigon cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, and molasses.
Soon, national grocery chains and distributors want to buy his product, too, and Icky thinks he's made it big in the commercial baked goods market. But just as he's ready to expand his bakery, an editorial in the local newspaper suggests cookie "fumes" could pose a danger to nearby Marcus Park.
Will all good things crumb to an end? Perhaps.
Baking Second Chances is a local-guy-bakes-good story about a faithful man who follows his call to reflect God's glory even when the world seems stacked against him—and family and friends who are willing to put their cookie-eating mouths where their hearts are.
A tough town like Olean offers a guy only so many job options: sweat in the stench of oil refinery crude, like his immigrant father does, suffer boredom in a factory job, or apprentice in a trade. Icky Haut chooses the latter and works his way up, one crumb at a time, in a commercial bread bakery.
Haut loves everything about baking bread: the smell and taste of yeast, the softness of flour rubbed between fingertips, the intense heat of ovens, the anticipation of a loaf's rise, and the comfort of its promise of sustenance. But after his second child is born, he realizes he's been mixing, proofing, shaping, scoring and baking dough half his life. Is this it?
Maybe not . . . but then his great idea to expand the bakery jams him up with his boss, and he's toast. How Haut relies on family and faith to start his own bakery is the center of this real life, local-guy-makes-good story set in the 1930s and '40s. Haut's boss calls bread the "staff of life" feeding his bottom line; the Hauts are nourished by their faith, and that shift in perspective recasts the story to hope in the Bread of Life.
Jesus is Risen: Theology for the Church is comprised of two volumes based on Walter R. Bouman's lec- tures at Trinity Lutheran Seminary. In Volume 1, Dr. Bouman's claim that Jesus is God begins by telling why the Gospel is literally, the "good news" of the church.
Following chapters describe the historical mission of Jesus, reveal the meaning of the crucified messiah, explain why Jesus's resurrection is the power of the future, explore the idea that a loving God suffers, introduce the presence of the Holy Spirit, and investigate Trinitarian language for God.
Volume 2 provides several models on what it means to be a church, and then lays out the importance of the Holy Eucharist, distinctions between law and gospel, the meaning of justification by faith, the gift of Holy Baptism as initiation into the Christian community, and the Christian doctrine of creation as an affirmation of our duty to care for the world.
The link below goes to Volume 1; Volume 2 is available from the same publisher.
Praise for
Baking Second Chances
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“In Baking Second Chances, Ann Haut continues her husband’s family memoir which began with Listen to Your Bread. The author’s writing style brought back memories of stories told around my own family’s table, and just like a good slice of sourdough rye smeared with butter, I was unable to put down this book. Entertaining and poignant, Baking Second Chances is an engaging and nostalgic delight that satisfies with each turn of the page.”
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"Baking Second Chances throws open a welcoming door and invites you into the heart of a family by way of their journey from a make-do lean-to bake-shop to the commercially suc- cessful Haut’s Cookie Shoppe. Haut takes her cues from Icky’s cookie creations, baking a narrative that is subtle, familial, and warm—a narrative in which hardship is overcome by grit and grace, and a generous Christian faith provides sustenance through- out. A delicious read."
Martin J. Brunner, professor of culinary and pastry arts, Sandhills Community College
Crystal Hardin, author of
Prophetic Preaching:
The Hope or the Curse
of the Church
“
"In Baking Second Chances, Icky Haut struggles to grow from a small-town cookie baker into the owner of a major business. But for him, baking is more than a job or even a profession; it is a calling, a vocation. As a Lutheran pastor and theologian, I am grateful that the author has woven throughout the narrative a well-grounded understanding of vocation. And as a reader who craves good stories, I sure enjoyed Ann Haut’s book. It’s great entertainment with a serious core."
Wolfgang D. Herz-Lane,
Lord of Life
Lutheran Church
CURRENT PROJECTS
I'm currently working on books set in Olean, NY, a small mountain town located halfway between New York City and Chicago. The area’s storied past has included a variety of real-life characters—from oil exploiting magnates, John D. and William Rockefeller, to rum-running bootleggers and union/criminal masterminds, such as Al Capone and his cronies.
The books are born out of stories from my husband Mark’s family, for like many Oleanders, their lives were linked to both the town’s influential upper crust and its unfortunate underbelly. His paternal grandfather was a fireman for Socony (an acronym for Standard Oil Com-pany of New York), his maternal grandfather was a machinist foreman for Luther Manufacturing (and repaired stills for Jack Hoard’s speakeasy), and his father, who as a young man dealt cards in an illegal gaming operation to earn enough money to pay off doctor bills arising out of the delivery of his firstborn daughter, later had his own business infiltrated by an arm-twisting union with connections to crime lords.
People who grew up in post-WWII Olean still brag about their town's proud history. They point to four-lane downtown boulevards lined by specialty shops, fine restaurants and favorite hangouts, tree-lined neighbor- hood streets, an abundance of city parks and community sports facilities, an incredible public library . . . the place sounds ideal, right? What could possibly go wrong? (heh, heh, heh. . .)
The Haut Family. Top row: Alma, Idka (Icky), Minnie (Herta), and Erna. Bottom row: Henry (Pa Haut), Henry (son), and Emma (Ma Haut).
If you're from Olean, you might wonder whether or not you, your family, or your favorite spots are mentioned in the Haut's Cookie Shoppe stories. Maybe you shudder at the thought. Or maybe you have a few details to add. Even if you've never been there, you probably know people and places just like the ones in these books.
BIO
For as far back as I can remember, I've been told that I was born with ink in my blood. My grandfather was a typesetter for The Toledo Blade, and my father was a sports reporter who covered the Detroit Tigers during the years in which Denny McClain and Mark Fidrych were on the mound.
My own writing career began at The Detroit News, and eventually moved into corporate public relations, where I wrote executive speeches delivered before audiences such as The New York Society of Security Analysts. I also contributed to a script delivered by George C. Scott on the NBC television special, Happy Birthday, Bob (Hope), and generated pre-game Super Bowl content that aired on the Today show.
After earning a PhD, I edited two volumes on the lifework and teaching of The Rev. Dr. Walter R. Bouman entitled
Jesus is Risen: Theology for the Church. While I never questioned my calling to write, I also felt drawn to teaching and became an associate professor of business writing and ethics at John Carroll University. Working with the wonderful students in The Boler School of Business have been among the happiest years of my career.
When I married Mark Haut, I began writing books set in his home town of Olean, New York. Listen to Your Bread and Baking Second Chances are the first two, and I'm working on a third.
People sometimes ask if I write every day. Yes! I'm at the computer before dawn and keep going until the herbs and flowers call. While I'm tending to my garden, my thoughts wander through the work-in-progress on my desk. Research and writing inspire me and energize my soul, perhaps because wherever I am, I am at home in someone's story.
Welcome to my world!
UPCOMING EVENTS
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July 12, 2024 - Trinity Landing, Wilmington, NC
October 10, 2024 - Botanical Garden Club, Carthage, NC
November 20, 2024 - CCNC - 1, Pinehurst, NC
February 20, 2025 - Linden Garden & Book Clubs, Pinehurst, NC
March 12, 2025 - Olmsted Garden Club, Southern Pines, NC
March 19, 2025 - CCNC - 2, Pinehurst, NC
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CONTACT
For media inquiries or to schedule speaking engagements, please email:
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