Marian Allen's Blog, page 369

O Sammich, I Loved You So!

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I loves me a sammich, for lunch, for supper, for snicky-snacks, even for breffriss. Here is a sammich I had for lunch one day.

My Sammich

What is on him?

On one bread, home-made mayonnaise. On the other bread, bleu cheese dressing. Sweet red and orange peppers (raw), raw mushrooms, sharp local organic cheddar-style cheese from Red White and Blush in Corydon.

Was it good? Oh, my, yes, it was good.

And, yes, that’s a Christmas plate with holly printed on it. They’re happy little plates, and I didn’t feel like putting them away all year, when they could be out in the kitchen being happy all year long.

What are some good sammiches you’ve made?

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: What does your main character have for breakfast? JANE, IF YOU COMMENT ABOUT CALLIE, DROP A LINK SO OTHER READERS CAN GO GET YOUR BOOK, YOU GOO-GOG!

MA

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New Friend From An Old Friend

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I bought this new friend from an old friend at the 4th Annual That Book Place Authors Fair this past weekend. I also bought books (naturally), but more of that on another day.

My New Friend:

Ain’t he cute? It’s a Steampunk owl! It was made by my friend Lisa Carroll, also a photographer: Owl Be Seeing You Photography. Will you have that song stuck in your head for three days? I know I will.

I think I’ll name him Jeff.

I’m posting today at Fatal Foodies on A Vegetarian Dinner Of Delicacy and Beauty.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character learns that an old friend has an unsuspected talent.

MA

 

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Thank You, Sara Marian

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Sara Marian is my favorite new writer and THE LIFE AND DEATH (BUT MOSTLY THE DEATH) OF ERICA FLYNN is my favorite new book.

The picture immediately below is a photo of the original artwork done by the amazing Zakary Kendall.

A modern, down-to-earth skeptic like Erica never expected to end up in an afterlife somewhere between Greek mythology and quantum theory gone haywire.  Despite the allure of the Underworld and a happy reunion with her deceased Uncle Jeff, Erica can’t rest in peace until she resolves her ante-mortem argument with her husband, Dominic.  Against all advice (which is how Erica usually does things), she pits herself against monsters, mortality, and an angry god of the dead, determined to make things right.

So one wonders: What’s the down-and-dirty, streetwise skinny on avoiding rookie mistakes in the hereafter?

Sara Marian’s
5 Things Every Newlydead Should Know About Hades

1. Don’t drink the water.  Much safer to stick to alcohol or milkshakes.  Further explanation would involve spoilers, so I’ll leave it at that….

2. Be wary of large groups of kids.  Their version of reality relies on cartoon physics and lots of explosions.

3. Be careful what you wish for.  Reality is what you make it in the Underworld.

4. Revenge is a dish best served live.  If you were waiting till the afterlife to get back at someone, you might as well give that idea up on arrival–you can’t hurt anyone but a masochist here.

4. No hunting, no fishing, no trespassing.  These aren’t rules, that’s just death.

5. The Underworld is like a grave – what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.

Hrmm…. Where does a mind like that come from?

In her own words:

Sara Marian was raised in the woods by wild English teachers (Marian Allen being one of them), and has been writing for as long as she can remember. Her novel, The Life and Death (but mostly the death) of Erica Flynn, was released 2/18/14 by 3 Fates Press.  Sara is pursuing a degree in anthropology from University of Louisville (minoring in Russian studies), with plans for a career in archaeology.

3 Fates Press is delighted and honored to have published your first book. We’re eagerly awaiting the sequel. Thank you, Sara Marian.

Follow Sara Marian’s blog.

Buy Sara Marian’s book in print or for Kindle.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Imagine a character in the underworld who immediately messes up on one of the rules. Or more than one.

MA

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Sledgehammer on #SampleSunday

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“Sledgehammer” is the result of be careful what you wish for. I was on Facebook one day, and I said the urge to create was upon me, but I didn’t know what to write about, and I called for suggestions. The result was this surreal piece which included a parakeet, the lost colony of Roanoke, and a battle on ice between zombies and donkeys.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you an excerpt from:

SledgehammerP { margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: left; widows: 2; orphans: 2; }P.western { font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; }

A sweet trill of song, so out of place it turned my stomach, drew my eyes to a branch above my head. My parakeet, Smudge, flickered down and gripped the shoulder of my coat.

Oh, Smudge! Whatever brought me here, you don’t deserve to share my fate!

Smudge pushed aside my earflap and foraged for seed in my ear. He had never found any there, but he never gave up hope.

I picked up my pace a little, heartened to see a clear space ahead. The woods dropped behind me as I stepped out into a snow-covered landscape. The snow was deep—the tops of bushes stuck above the surface like the hair of drowning men—but the surface was crusted over. A thin powdery fall lay over the crust and whirled in the wind.

It was impossible that I should not look back to see if my company would follow me into the open.

They did: a troop of shambling, shuffling, gray-faced animated corpses—a rotting double-handful of zombies kicking through the snow powder like so many sullen toddlers. Their clothes hung from their meat-crusted bones in rags and tatters, but a shoe-buckle here and the ruins of an apron or cap there spoke of the sixteenth century.

Another howl, closer.

I turned from the woods, and saw a wonderful thing: a heavy wooden sledge harnessed to a pair of sturdy donkeys. I knew those donkeys from a picture on my great-grandfather’s wall. They were his grandfather’s, Nicolai and Gogol, from the old country. The sledge was a platform of planks nailed to wooden runners, just big enough for a man to stand with a load of supplies tied behind him. Donkeys and sledge formed a single dark figure against the snow, like a piece of paper with a pictograph for “survival” calligraphed in the center.

The donkeys hoofed the snow and blew ice crystals from their nostrils, ready to go as I scooped up the reins and stepped onto the sledge. I braced myself and, before I could slap the traces against their hides, Nicolai and Gogol were moving. The sledge jerked as the harness took the strain, and we were off and away!

~ * ~

For the rest of this story and more besides, cough up a mere 99 cents and buy LONNIE, ME AND THE HOUND OF HELL from fine electronic bookstores everywhere.

Read about it and sample it.
Buy it for the Kindle at Amazon.
Buy it from iTunes
Buy it for the Nook
Buy it in other electronic formats at Smashwords.

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Caturday With Katya–Bad Mom Is Gone Again

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Katya Graymalkin here.

Mom is gone again, to Madison, Indiana, this time, to the annual Authors Fair. I can’t believe she left me again! I feel like somebody in that movie she likes so much, Casablanca: I wait … and wait … and wait.

Oh, well, maybe she’ll bring me a cat toy to ignore.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR ANIMALS: Do you play with toys? Why or why not? Do you play with toys when your human isn’t watching?

KG

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Three Fates Press

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Three Fates Press is what happens when Marian Allen, T. Lee Harris, and K. A. DaVur get together and have a baby. Wait ….

ANYWAY, Three Fates Press and Line by Lion Publications (an imprint of Three Fates) are our bebbehs.

If you want to rack up some good reads, visit those web sites and blow the rent money. Not really, but yes really. ~evil laugh~

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: If you had your own publishing house, what kind(s) of books would you publish?

MA

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Authors Fair in Madison, Indiana 3-15

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The 4th Annual That Book Place Authors Fair is set for March 15th, 2014. Guess where I’ll be?

AUTHORS FAIR
March 15th, 2014
40+ Authors doing signings all day!

337 Clifty Dr
Madison, Indiana 47250
(812) 574-4113

NOTE:  The Madison bridge is CLOSED, so you need to go in another way.

TENT SALE
March 14th – 15th
8000+ Books really cheap for you to look through

Current list of Authors Fair authors:

Tony Acree
Matt Adams
Lyndi Alexander
John F Allen
>>> Marian Allen <<<
Gary Braunbeck
C Bryan Brown
Molly Daniels
Dawn Donahue
Jeff Donahue
Stefan Duncan
Ginny Fleming
Ren Garcia
D C Garriott
Eric Garrison
Kenn Grimes
T Lee Harris
Selah Janel
Etta Jean
Anne Marie Lutz
Brick Marlin
C S Marks
Kayelle McClive
Amy McCorkle
D McEntire
Jay Noel
Mysti Parker
James William Peercy
Carol Preflatish
Rachael Rawlings
Katheryn Ragle
A.J. Scudiere
Terri-Lynn Smiles
Lucy A Snyder
RJ Sullivan
Stuart Thaman
Linda Thomas
Tom Wallace
Larry Weill
Michael West
Michael Williams
Stephen Zimmer

Lotta good folkses, and a WAY lotta books!

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character goes to an Authors Fair and meets his/her favorite author. How does it go?

MA

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O Pizza, My Pizza, How Tasty Thou Wert

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Yes, wert. Look it up.

Every so often, Charlie and I take a hankerin’ fer pizza. When we do, we don’t go out and buy some. I make it. Because we’re cheap hippie weirdo freaks particular.

Pizza

Mix 1/3 cup flour, about 1/2 tablespoon salt, about 1/2 tablespoon yeast, and enough water to make a dough. Knead flour into it until it doesn’t stick to the bowl. Cover lightly and let it rise while you fix the toppings.

Also, preheat the oven with a pizza pan in it to 450F.

Cut up mushrooms and onions, and cook them in a little olive oil until they’re soft. Do bell peppers, too, if you want to. I wish I’d had some. Add some chicken or, as in our case, vegan “chicken”, sliced olives, and some fresh spinach.

When all that is hot, I stirred in some cream cheese so it would all hold together.

Then I rolled out the dough as thin as I could and spread some garlic-flavored olive oil on it. I carefully lifted it up and slapped it onto the pizza stone.

I distributed the toppings all over the dough and topped it with Parmesan, asiago, Romano, and mozzarella cheeses.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the bottom is browned and the cheese on top starts to toast.

Oh, MAN, this was good!

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character makes fast food at home. Is it successful, or chaos?

MA

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Messing About With My Blog. Please be patient.

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I’m messing about with my blog today — possibly for several days. Things may get a little raggedy around here until I figger out the new theme.

Why am I messing about with my blog? you ask. Or, rather, you ask, “Why are you messing about with your blog?”

It’s because of that new smartphone I got. I looked at my blog on it, and none of my sidebar widgets show as a sidebar. They’re slapped onto the end, where nobody would look for them. That’s just, you know, bogus, dude.

So I’m attempting to switch to another theme. It’s liable to get a bit bilious as I experiment with colors, or I might find what I like right away and spare the psychedelics.

Catch you on the flip side!

Oh — It’s Tuesday, so I’m posting at Fatal Foodies today. Come on over and say howdy.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character gets or gives some kind of makeover.

MA

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Tag A Book Monday Meme

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Tag a book? ONE book? –Oh, three books; that’s more like it.

I’ve been tagged by the lovely, charming, courageous, funny, and multi-talented Jo Robinson, so I’ll begin by showing you one of her books. This doesn’t count as one of my three. It does not! Shut up!

Buy on Amazon

For many years Suzette has managed very well to live her life without actually taking part in it, avoiding any possibility of pain by very carefully ignoring reality. Until something happens. Something so terrible that she has no choice but to abandon her cocoon of safety.
After the brutal beating of an elderly domestic worker, Suzette takes her in, and sets off a chain of events that leads to devastating heartbreak. And an unexpected hero changes everything. Finally finding her voice, she speaks out, and her world explodes, culminating in the death of a very special man.

On her path to make amends, she discovers the story of his life, connects with the people of his past, and finds the chance to fully live her life once again if that’s what she chooses to.

Thank you for tagging me, Jo, and for all your wonderful posts.

The rules of this tag are to answer the following four writing questions, and then tag three other authors. Next week, March 17, 2014, these three authors will answer the same questions if they want to, and tag three others, and so the chain continues to grow larger. This will enable readers to get to know more authors and their books. It will also allow everyone to get to know these authors a little better.

1.  What are you currently working on?

Rewrites of two previously published books, two cozy series, a bunch of short stories. I’m gearing up for the A-to-Z blog challenge, in which participants blog every day in April except Sunday. I blog every day anyway, so my challenge is to keep ‘em short so other participants have time to read ‘em. I might do Story-A-Day in May again this year. That was fun!

2.  How does your work differ from others in the same genre?

I like to think I go a little deeper than the surface of the tropes of whatever genre I’m working in. I like to think I get into the individuality of my characters and the specifics of my setting so that something unique grows inside the generic structure.

3.  Why do you write what you do?

‘Cause. That’s the short answer. The longer answer is that I write what I do because of everything I’ve ever read, done, experienced, heard, felt, or thought about. Asking why I write what I do is a bit like asking me why I choose to breathe air. It’s that or nothing.

4.  How does your writing process work?

With a piece of grit. Something starts the process: a character jumps into my head, or I hear or think of a catchy piece of dialog, or I see a place that intrigues me, or I read about something that starts my thinking, or I’m told about a call for submissions on a particular theme. I mess with that piece of grit for a while, turning it over and over and thinking about it, pulling bits out of the rag bag that passes for my mind, until there’s enough to start writing. After that, it’s a balancing act between free-writing and outlining until I have a rough draft. Once I have the rough draft, it’s shape and polish, shape and polish, shape and polish. I have a critique group and several beta readers, and then I send it out to be edited.

Now it’s time to Tag A Book

I picked books I love AND whose authors have an active internet presence, so you can go look ‘em over as well as read their work.

Buy it!

1.  The Life and Death (but mostly the death) of Erica Flynn by Sara Marian

I truly love this book. Sara is my #4 Daughter, and I was there when she first got the idea for this book. I was there when she was speed-writing her rough draft. I got to hear her talk herself through rough spots and rewrites. I’d like to take all the credit for this book, because it’s just so good, but I can’t; all I can do is read it and wish I’d written it myself! She’s talking about a sequel, and I can’t wait!

Erica Flynn never expected to die in a car crash just minutes after a fight with her husband, Dominic. But then, a modern, down-to-earth skeptic like Erica never expected to end up in an afterlife somewhere between Greek mythology and quantum theory gone haywire. Despite the allure of the Underworld and a happy reunion with her deceased Uncle Jeff, Erica can’t rest in peace until she resolves her fight with Dominic.

Just when it looks like haunting a medium might give her a chance, Hades–ruler of the capitol city of the Underworld–forbids her to make contact with the Upper World again. Against all advice (which is how Erica usually does things), she pits herself against Hades and faces the treacherous road back to the Land of the Living, determined to make things right.

The Sky Behind Me

2. The Sky Behind Me by Byron Edgington

My idea of a great plane ride is an imaginary one. So imagine my astonishment at how much I enjoyed this memoir of a career helicopter pilot. From his first adoring close encounter with an aircraft to his heartbreaking decision to retire, I was with him all the way on a journey I wouldn’t have taken myself in a billion years. People, that’s writing!

In The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life the author overcomes a childhood setback to find a career in aviation, a position that allows him to soar. The author’s childhood aim is to be a Catholic priest. Abused by a member of the clergy, he is dismissed from the seminary. Drafted out of college in 1969, he enters Army helicopter flight school and serves in Vietnam. After the war he finds work in commercial aviation where his compassion, humor and skill converge for a marvelous career. With a helicopter, he herds bears in Alaska, flies VIPs in Ohio, counts power poles, hovers across O’Hare airport at rush hour, reports news and traffic in several midwestern cities, rescues more than 3,000 medical patients in Iowa and winds up his career flying tourists around the island of Kauai. The Sky Behind Me is rich with human stories, tales of loss, fear, insight and surprise, tragedy and triumph from the unique perspective of more than 12,000 hours in a helicopter cockpit.

Past Lives

3.  Anything by Bodie Parkhurst

Oh, let’s just pick one at random. How about … oh … Past Lives.

Heartbreaking to joyful, it’s cleansing and healing to follow this writer’s journey through these vicarious (or allegorical?) explorations of experiences of one person’s oppression by another.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Pick three books you love and write down why you love them.

MA

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