Marian Allen's Blog, page 406
March 13, 2013
It Doesn't Have To Be Either/Or
Here, in Publishers Weekly, she tells how and why she did it, and how "doing it yourself" doesn't mean "going it alone".
Like everything else she does, the article is well worth reading.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by...
Sweet As A Cabbage
As a what? As a cabbage! Get the pickle outta yer ear!
I know we usually think of cabbage as either sour or meh. But you have to make it sour, and it’s really a very yummy veg. Has lots of history, too.
Cabbage, botanists believe, is one of the oldest cultivated vegetables, and originated in northern Europe, where the cool and moist climate is hospitable to it. It spread to the south and east from there.
The ancient Greeks didn’t seem to care for it, but the Romans considered it a luxury item, leading to its cultivation by Roman farmers. Corned beef and cabbage, which I always considered an Irish dish, was a favorite with the Emperor Claudius.
Pickled cabbage, a mainstay before refrigeration, canning and quick long-distance transport, was popular wherever cabbage could be grown. Sauerkraut has always been a particular favorite of mine. My mother says that, when I was little and pretending to be a goat, I praised the grass in our yard by saying it was “better than sauerkraut.”
Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, collards, kale and kohlrabi are all kinds of cabbage, though most of us don’t think of them that way. In fact, the head cabbage most of us think of as “cabbage” is probably a mutation or hybridization of a plant more like collards. How weird is that?
A really good fresh cabbage is sweet, in case you don’t know. That may be why a French endearment is, “Mon petit chou,” meaning, “My little cabbage.”
When I fry or boil cabbage that is NOT good and sweet, I cheat by adding a little sugar to it. It makes it surprisingly good. 
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Write a scene between a mother and child.
MA
March 12, 2013
Flahrs
When #4 daughter (now a soon-to-be-published author) was wee, she was a big fan of pitty flahrs. If you speak weeish, you know that means pretty flowers.
I’m very partial to them, too, and always look forward to spring, in part for their sake. Or sakes, if you prefer. First come the snowdrops, but they’re aptly named. When the snowdrops bloom, you still have two freakin’ months of winter comin’ atya.
THESE are the guys I really look forward to. Yes, it may still frost, it may still freeze, it may still snow, but spring is really just around the corner when crocuses (croci?) bloom.
Aren’t they beautiful? They make me so happy!
We have a bazillion little tiny baby ones, too, spreading around like weeds. They, too, make me very happy.
I’m posting today at Fatal Foodies about something else that makes me happy: my friend Carol Preflatish’s book A KITCHEN AFFAIR.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: What makes you feel that Spring is really, truly, actually just around the corner?
MA
March 11, 2013
My Favorite Nerd
No, not Dr. Sheldon Cooper. Not even Tim McGee. Here is my guest today:
GENEVIEVE PEARSON
In addition to being a television personality, she’s also a writer! A pen-monkey, just like me!
Genevieve Pearson was a contestant on TBS’s King of the Nerds. Having collected action figures and comic books from a young age, she always dreamed of being an action hero. When she grew up, she decided writing about them would be the next best thing. She now divides her time between Southern California and the Pacific Northwest. She hopes one day to have a room big enough to show off all of her Batman toys.
Tell us about your books, Genevieve!
~ * ~
Nerds, nerds, nerds! Anyone who’s read my books will soon discover there is a special place in my heart for a nerdy boy or girl. I’ve always been drawn to a pair of glasses, and favored brainy minds over brawny arms…though there is no rule that says you can’t have both.
Chasing Power started when I had the thought: What if you were a nerd and you had super powers? But, they turned out to be kind of lame? Al, Lane and Harry don’t exactly have Mystery Men (remember that movie?) low-level abilities, but I tried to make their Talents have the kind of ‘catch’ that traditional superheroes don’t, handicapping the very thing that would make them super. Harry, movie geek and grouchy introvert, can call down lightning but only at great physical cost, and only once every day or so. Funny and socially inept Al’s ability to fiddle with the mechanics of machines only works with things he can touch. And brainy Lane may be a little more socially adept than his buds, but his empathic abilities can hurt him almost as much as they help. Samantha, the heroine and, probably, the nerdiest nerd of them all if social awkwardness figures into your definitions (which it does, in most), can’t even figure out what, exactly, her Talent even is. Just that it tends to manifest in ways that screw up her life.
Putting nerds into the superhero game—making my heroes not the naturally most handsome, outgoing, charming millionaires on the block, but actual people who were actually ostracized—was one of my goals in the Powers series of books. Only the first in the series is out so far, but there are many more planned, starring both Samantha and her guy-friends but also starring a number of social outcasts who have to deal with the realities that super powers aren’t exactly as awesome as comic books make them seem. Just like how, in the real world, we nerds sometimes have to deal with the fact that brain power isn’t always the boon we might think it should be.
Chasing Power:
When business student Samantha Gibson finds herself cornered by a euro-trash Darth Vader wannabe in a dark alley, it�’s a nightmare end to a terrible week. Of course super powers aren�’t real–until someone’�s using theirs to bash your head in.
It turns out that a one-in-a-million accident has caused her to catch the attention of the Talents, a group of humans with amazing abilities. And a surprising number would rather have her dead than competing with them. Sam�’s happy to tell anyone who’�ll listen to her that she doesn�’t actually have super powers. The problem is getting anyone to listen to her.
Enter Lane, Al, and Harry, three nerdy best friends and Talents. While their powers may not be glamorous, or even all that super, they�’re determined to do the right thing. They grab Samantha and hit the road, racing cross-country towards a group offering protection.
To independent Sam, each minute of being a damsel in distress is like an iron spike in her foot. It’�s possible that friendship and love aren’�t the liability she thought they were, but it�’s also possible that she might not live to find out. Because with stronger and stranger opposition barring their way, safe haven may be a pipe dream in a world where everyone is chasing power…
Revelations:
As plagues descend on her tiny town, Kyrie finds herself facing down Death, Pestilence, Famine and War in a fight for the survival of the small town she calls home. But as myth becomes reality and discoveries are made that shake her to her core, she begins to waver in her conviction of right and wrong. Temptation waits in the dark of stormy Texas nights, and if Kyrie can�t find the will to fight any longer, the end of days are only just beginning.
Social Media links:
Website: http://www.genevievepearson.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/vivinthevalley
Tumblr: http://vivinthevalley.tumblr.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/genevievepearsonwriter
Where to buy my books: http://www.amazon.com/Genevieve-Pearson/e/B005EYW0UK/
~ * ~
Wow! I’m hooked! Imma put some tape on the bridge of my glasses and READ THESE BOOKS!
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Think of three marginally useful super-powers and inconvenient limitations for them.
MA
March 10, 2013
#Sample Sunday – Cat from BARGAIN WITH FATE
Yesterday, I posted about tortoiseshell cats, so it seems only natural for me to post a sample about a tortoiseshell cat. This is from Bargain With Fate, Book 2 of SAGE. Book 1, The Fall of Onagros, is out in print and electronic formats (links in sidebar), and Book 2 is coming soon!
from BARGAIN WITH FATE
by Marian Allen
A cat leaped onto a dune just out of her reach. It sat amid the clumps of tough grass, staring at her through half-closed eyes.
Nerissa had never seen a cat like it before. It was a mixture of black and red-orange, with pale orange eyes, and it was bigger than the cats of Granitz. Although it was thin, it wasn’t half-starved, which was also different from the cats Nerissa had known. Its coat was dull and staring, as if it had never learned to groom itself.
It gave another miaouw, a deep and demanding sound, and Nerissa at once began thinking of the cat as “He.”
“Are you hungry?” she asked. “Hungry, little man?” She scraped the scant leavings out of her bowl and the stew pot into Tartarus’ bowl and set it at arm’s length. Then she turned a little away from the cat and went on with her work, watching out of the corner of her eye.
Her experience with the cats of Granitz led her to expect the cat would creep up to the food and eat if she pretended disinterest. This cat yawned, stretched, and walked up to the bowl as if he had never had to dodge for safety.
Nerissa wondered if the cat belonged to somebody or if, on the contrary, he had had too little dealing with people to know he should be careful of them. She stopped working and turned back toward the animal. He went on eating. She reached out and touched the tip of his ear. He put his ears back and hissed off-handedly, but didn’t move away.
When the cat had finished, Nerissa scoured his bowl and washed the sand out in the sea.
“Goodbye, cat,” she said, as she started back up the slope to Tartarus’ shack.
When she had put her load away, though, she found the cat had followed her.
“You’d better not stay.” She regretted having fed him; Tartarus, she felt sure, would disapprove of an animal around the place. He might drive the cat away. He might kill him. “Shoo!”
She made a half-hearted flap or two in the cat’s direction, and couldn’t tell whether she was glad or sorry when he ignored her and curled up just outside the door, where the sun was beginning to warm the rocky ledge.
Nerissa came back out and sat beside the cat. He got up, moved two inches away, and lay down again.
The girl sighed. “Won’t you let me pet you?” She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, her cheek on her kneecaps. This was the only embrace she had ever known and, as always, it was less than satisfying.
“I’m glad I ran away,” she told the cat. “But I wish…. I thought my bird was leading me to someplace better.” She raised her head and looked out to sea. “Well, this is better than home. Tartarus doesn’t beat me. I think he’s going to let me stay. I believe he’s going to let me sleep indoors every night, even if he does tease about it. He acts like he cares whether I eat or not. That’s better.” She sighed again and returned her gaze to the cat, who had his head turned away from her. “I just wish…. Everybody belongs somewhere. I don’t. Do you think Tartarus will let me belong here, if I stay long enough and don’t make him too mad? He doesn’t seem to mind getting mad, though.”
Slowly, as if she knew better but couldn’t help herself and didn’t really want to, Nerissa reached out and stroked the cat’s back.
He turned in a flash and caught her hand between his jaws, his eyes slitted, a high-pitched snarl coming from the back of his throat.
Nerissa jumped, but held her hand still, meeting that narrow glare with a calm regard, one wild animal at another’s mercy.
The cat bit down just hard enough to nip the skin, then released the child’s hand and leaped up, back arched, tail bushed, screaming with what sounded like rage. He bounded away and was gone.
Nerissa inspected the pin-pricks on her hand and smiled. “You didn’t bite me. You wanted to, but you wanted not to, more.”
~ * ~
So.
There are only a few days left to contribute to the Kickstarter campaign for the SAGE series. It’s fully funded, but a couple hundred more dollars will put SIDESHOW IN THE CENTER RING on the fast track for republication. Also: swag. So spread the word about the campaign and sucker invite your friends.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character meets a cat who doesn’t seem very friendly.
MA
March 9, 2013
#Caturday – When Is A Cat Like A Turtle?
WHEN IT’S A TORTOISESHELL, of course!
Don’t tell Katya, but my favorite cat ever was Miss Tiffany, my torbie (tabby tortoiseshell). I had her for 19 years before she passed. She died 13 years ago, and I still miss her.
Here is a wee little Wiki article about tortoiseshell cats.
Here is a longer About.com article about tortoiseshell cats.
Here is WAY MORE than you want to know about tortoiseshell cats.
It’s partly in honor of Tiff that I have a tortoiseshell cat in SAGE. Partly not.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character happens on an unusual cat.
MA
March 8, 2013
Faces, Places, Bases, and A Word That Rhymes
It’s been a good week, buckaroos. Book 1 of SAGE went into print. My car is fixed. I bought a mug with my SAGE Kickstarter logo on it.
Oliva beren Audre
I also made this coolio avatar of Oliva beren Audre, the mother of the usurper in SAGE. Fun, huh? Hard to get a sort of late-Anglo-Saxon-ish look to this, but it came out fairly well. And it was fun. I used FaceYourManga to do it. I was particularly pleased that you could add age lines. I managed to get her to be doing that “mice in the pantry” look.
I’ve mentioned this place before, but I just love the Curious Places blog! Here is a post about Amaze Space in New Zealand. I would SO LOVE to visit! And also (this is me we’re talking about, after all) these fantastic public toilets across from it.
Are you a reader looking for a writer to read? Are you a writer looking for a publicist to hire? AUTHORSdB is a database of authors and authors’ services. Perty cool, I thought, and, of course, I stuck myself right in the middle of it.
Now, this is something I haven’t jumped into, and I’m not likely to, cool as it is, and I’ll tell you why. Well, first I’ll tell you what it is: It’s JukePop Serials, whereon authors publish stories a bit at a time, with comments and feedback from readers. The reason I don’t want to post anything there is: I muck about with my stories A LOT, and don’t always know what needs to be in the front until I get to the back. That being so, I would need to have the story finished before I put it up. If it’s finished, I don’t want a reader suggesting a different storyline. That would mess my head up real bad. But, for writers who work and play well with others — if there is such an animal — this looks like a world of fun!
Time is running out to back the SAGE Kickstarter campaign. Books. Swag. Tell your friends.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character goes into a maze.
MA
March 7, 2013
The Happiness of the Car
So my car has been in the shop for a couple of days and I got it back today. Yay!
Anyone who has ridden with me in the past few years has been alarmed at the growing number of warning lights active on my dashboard. I’ve taken the car in for check-ups and tune-ups and had things fixed, but the lights remained merry and bright.
So we finally bit the bullet and took it to Merritt Auto Service & Tire Service in Georgetown, Indiana. Mr. Merritt has been fixing our cars for us for many years. I’ve been taking the car to a local place — a very good local place — but Charlie likes Merritt, so we took the car there.
Cost. A. Bundle. Not an unreasonable amount, since a lot needed to be done. The lights were on because two sensors were broken and both hub assemblies needed to be replaced. Does that make any sense? Anyway, they did what they did, gave it a tune-up and an oil change, replaced the front brakes, and it runs like a dream.
My only complaint is that my jolly little lights are now gone. In my head, I know this is A Good Thing, but I rather miss them.
I’ll get over it.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character takes a car in for repair.
MA
March 6, 2013
Pertaters Stuffed With, You Know, Stuff
This is what we had for supper last night. There’s a spud under there, somewhere. On top is a mixture of onions, mushrooms, peas, and margarine, topped with cheddar cheese.
Look good? WELL, IT WAS!
It took dang long enough. You can cook potatoes in the microwave, you know. Just remember to pierce the skin in several places. Because you know in the movie, Gremlins, when the gremlin got microwaved, remember what it did? Because potatoes do that, if you don’t pierce the skin enough.
Yes, I know from personal experience. With potatoes, I mean, not with gremlins.
ANYWAY, I prefer to bake my potatoes in the oven, because I like that crispy, crackly skin it gives them.
While they were baking, I chopped up some onions and sliced some mushrooms, and I cooked them verrrrrry slowwwwwlllly in margarine at a very low heat. It makes the onions sweet and mild, and it concentrates the flavor of the mushrooms without desiccating them. Then I roont it by dumping in some canned peas. Never claimed to be Martha Stewart, so don’t say I did.
Also yesterday, I sent a post to Dianne Gardner of the Ian’s Realm Saga and she put it on her blog. It’s a musing on hope and writing, and includes a pitcher I tuk and a pome I writ.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: What inspires you?
MA
March 5, 2013
Guess Who’s IN PRINT?
Print, as in PAPERBACK! It’s ME, ME, ME!
I’ve had a lot of short stories in paperback anthologies, but this is my first print novel. Wow wow wow! I don’t have a copy yet, myself — I’ll be picking some up at the Authors’ Fair in Madison, Indiana on March 16, so just think how cool you would be if you bought a copy before the author has one!
Only at Amazon at the moment, including outside the USA, The Fall of Onagros, Book 1 of SAGE will also be at That Book Place in Madison and, after I get home, at Arlston’s in Corydon and, if he agrees, Destinations in New Albany.
I am so stoked!
Meanwhile, life goes on, and I’m posting at Fatal Foodies today about my awesome new cookware.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character gets a wonderful surprise, then has to do something ordinary.
MA
