Marian Allen's Blog, page 411

Mmmmmmm, Salmon!

With my ever-present Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Guide in hand,  I bought some frozen salmon and baked it. I baked extra, for leftovers.

As I posted Saturday, some of it was microwaved to death and was mourned by all (except the cat).

The remainder, I broke into small pieces. I added minced onion, salt, an egg, and Italian seasoned breadcrumbs. I heated some oil, formed the salmon goop into patties, dredged them in more breadcrumbs, and fried them.

Meanwhile, I sliced some leftover baked potatoes and fried them. I tore a couple of huge kale leaves into pieces, tossed them in a little oil and seasoned salt, and baked them at 350 for about 20 minutes until crisp.

A most delicious meal!

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character visits an aquarium.

MA

The Sound Of One Hand Knitting

You thought I forgot, didn’t you? You thought I gave up. You thought I quit. You thought I got tired of unraveling everything I’d done, like Penelope, and just stopped trying.

Well, yer wrong! I’ve been knitting and knitting and knitting! My first piece is at the cleaners’ getting blocked, which is not a dirty euphemism, but means something you do to even out imperfections. And, believe me, that piece has imperfections!

Meanwhile, I’ve made four ruffled scarves and I’ve started another muffler. It’s a great way to feel productive while listening to Teaching Company lectures or waiting for Mom to finish her therapy or sitting in a meeting.

But here’s the thing: Today, when I got home from the therapy place and took out my knitting to work while listening to a lecture on Macbeth, I discovered I was one needle shy. I must have dropped it in the waiting room.

There was nothing I could do but take out a different size needle.

Mom was all, “No! You can’t do that! It’ll be all wockerjawed!”

So I said, “I’ll pretend it’s A Look.”

I’m knitting this piece very loose, anyway, so I think it’s looking okay. What do you think?

It’s Tuesday, so I’m posting today at Fatal Foodies on the subject of potatoes.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character has to make do when an essential piece of equipment goes missing.

MA

Creating Logical Characters

Once again these are stolen — er, I mean, these are my notes — from a panel I attended at RiverCon science fiction convention in 1997. The panelists were: Jack Williamson, Stephen Leigh, Diann Thornley, and Maureen McHugh, author of some of my favorite sf stories and novels.

~ * ~

Q Of what does a culture consist?

A Williamson: What a group does and thinks and believes. Their adaptation for survival to environment, etc.

Leigh: I start with one fact. Why is this so? I construct the rest from that one fact, and that makes it all hang together.

McHugh: Create a logical culture, then muddy it up a bit. Cultures are maddeningly inconsistent. Cultures are full of vestiges of things that were once important, but aren’t anymore. Still, the vestiges hang on. (Gave example of when she lived in China. People on bicycles were supposed to dismount and walk their bikes past a checkpoint. Gradually, by the time she was there, they would just barrel on through without slowing, but would swing a leg over and touch the ground with their toes in a sort of symbolic dismount. One day, she didn’t bother to touch down, and she got stopped and reamed out for it.

Diann Thornley, ex-military, said that the salute originated with men in armor lifting their visors so their superiors could identify them. Now there’s no armor, but it would be unthinkable for a soldier to fail to lift his hand to his forehead in the presence of a senior officer.)

Thornley: I start with the environment and then ask what it would take to survive in this, and build the culture from that.

Talk turned to cultural differences clashing, different cultures of the same species, and Terran/alien cultural clashes.

Williamson: Many “alien” cultures in literature are actually based on real ones. Mike Resnick does Africa.

All agree they crib bits from other earth cultures.

McHugh: Most sf novels over-explain. You only need to suggest; put in a detail here, a bit of history there, and the culture builds itself in the reader’s mind.

~ * ~

So McHugh gets the last word, because I like her bestest. I love her points about cultural vestiges and about suggestion. When I teach creative writing, I emphasize that the antidote to the info-dump is the telling detail: Instead of telling the history of a society and its change, her China anecdote only told three things: People were supposed to dismount at a checkpoint, people now only touched down in passing, failing to do that symbolic and essentially pointless thing was absolutely unacceptable. A reader could spend many happy hours extrapolating from that.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: There’s a village in the forest where the people build their houses of red clay. Not the blue clay, which is on this side of the river, but red clay, on the opposite side. Even a small streak of blue defiles the house and its builder. Think up three characters who would logically live in this village.

MA

#SampleSunday – Corvina’s Gift

I’ve been tagged three times for the 77-7 meme, in which one goes to page 77 of one’s work-in-progress, counts down seven lines, and copies and posts the next seven or so lines. Then one tags seven other authors.

Having been tagged three times, I’m posting 21 or so lines from Book 2 of the SAGE trilogy, BARGAIN WITH FATE.

~ * ~

BARGAIN WITH FATE, Book 2 of SAGE – excerpt

Slowly, Mistress Brina untied the bundle, unwrapped it, and held it in her hands.

It was a cordial bottle, cobalt blue, etched with the arms of the House of Sarpa: a lion standing on his hind legs, front claws extended, looking back over his shoulder.

“Shifty beast,” the Mistress said. She jiggled the stopper, breaking the red wax seal, and opened the bottle. She sniffed at the bottleneck and at the stopper. “Burnt sugar.” Brina capped the bottle again, her eyes unfocused, her fingers twiddling on the desk-top.

For ten years, the old Waymistress had waited, hoping to see Landry over-reach himself, while the Way insisted she accept each day that he did not. Appeasing the House of Sarpa by keeping the last of the House of Onagros under ward had seemed so practical… so simple. If Landry established right of rule, cooperation with him now might buy the Way some tolerance in time to come. If Landry toppled, the House’s shelter of the rightful heir of Onagros (renunciation or no renunciation) would glorify the Way in the eyes of the people.

Still, such philosophy in the face of Landry’s inferior rule had not been easy. Brina remembered a tale told by the storyteller, Farukh, involving a unicorn, a snake, and indirect deliverance. It would have taken a duller mind than Brina’s not to see Layounna in that story, and herself in that unicorn. But what more must she do to wake Sorcha from her lethargy? Flirt with snakebite?

Which brought her thoughts back to her recent visitor. If ever a reptile lived in human form, Corvina was that reptile. Those unicorn stories of Farukh’s…. Alicorn and poison made a pair, so often. And Corvina wanted all the Station’s alicorn, the same day she asked to give an over-sweet elixir to the throne’s true heir.

~ * ~

Don’t have a firm release date for Book 2 but Book 1, THE FALL OF ONAGROS, is available for Kindle and at Smashwords (for multiple formats including Kindle).

Seven authors whose work I recommend are:

T. Lee HarrisJoanna ForemanKatina FrenchMichael WilliamsRed TashHolly JahangiriMitchell Allen

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Someone is given a questionable present.

MA

#Caturday – The Happiness of the Cat

SALMON SONG
by Katya Graymalken Allen

Can you see what that is?
Tell me, can you see?
It’s a plate of salmon
All for me, me, me!

Missus made it yummy,
Salty and divine.
Mister overcooked it.
Now it’s mine, mine, mine!

Two cooks in the kitchen:
That’s my fav’rite treat.
Now, if you’ll excuse me,
Time to eat, eat, eat!

The Author

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: An accident in the kitchen and its consequences.

MA

Mom’s Friends

It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows her, or to anyone who reads this blog regularly, to hear that Mom has some really great friends.

How great?

Well, one of them just had an operation the other day, and went out and got Mom a cake and brought it to her.

What kind of a friend would bring a cake to a woman who can’t eat anything? A really great one. Here’s the cake.

How awesome is that? Pretty damn awesome, that’s how!

Another friend came by and brought her a little pot of crocuses. A little pot of croci. A little pot of spring flowers.

And look at those cards. Those are not ordinary birthday cards. Those are cards for somebody whose friends hold her in pretty high esteem.

So she had a pretty nice birthday, all in all, and she hasn’t even had her party yet.

Just in case you can’t see the full effect of the “cake”, here’s a shot of it from the side. I think this is a terrific idea!

So happy day-after-your-birthday, Mom. You’re a quality Mom.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character comes up with a thoughtful and creative way to celebrate something that can’t be celebrated in the traditional way.

MA

A Very Special Day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

Yes, today is that special day when my ever-lovin’ mama was bornded. She was very young at the time, and doesn’t remember much about it, but she’s fairly certain that her mother was present.

She’s ~mumblety mumblety~ years old, but you’d never know it. Followers of this blog or of my Twitter feed know she started collecting conditions and incidents about ten years ago, and is thinking of submitting her list to the Guinness Book of World Records. Her list includes:

appendicitiscellulitisshinglesdysphagiasciatica

And she can still run rings around me! She’s like the Rasputin of the medical indisposition world, only without the beard or the drinking or the bad character. I’m hoping I’ve inherited some of her stamina and drive. Those, coupled with my own innate indolence, ought to keep me going for a good, long time.

I hereby invite you to leave birthday wishes in the comments for my super-duper mom.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character confounds bad expectations.

MA

I Can’t Think Of a Title That Wouldn’t Sound Naughty

Thank you SO MUCH, Leslie R. Lee, for helping to corrupt my innocent brain.

ANYWAY, this is what I took to my SAGE release par-tay. It comes from THE TEEN’S VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK, although I altered the recipe somewhat, because that’s just the kind of hairpin I am.

Becca’s Chocolate Nutty Truffles

1/4 cup sliced almonds1/4 cup cashews1 cup favorite nut butter: almond, cashew or peanut4 Tablespoons maple syrup1/4 cup dates, chopped1/4 cup chocolate chips1/8 cup powdered sugar2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa1/4 teaspoon cinnamonIn a skillet containing no oil or liquid, combine the almonds and cashews. Heat over a low flame, stirring frequently, just until you start smelling a toasty, warm aroma. (Keep watching and don’t let them burn.) You can also toast them for 2 minutes in a toaster oven set on a low setting.In a bowl, mix together nut butter, maple syrup, and chocolate chips. Add nuts and stir to combine. Set aside.In a small bowl, mix sugar, cocoa, and cinnamon.Make teaspoon-size balls of the nut butter mixture and roll in the sugar-cocoa mixture until evenly coated. Place on wax paper and eat, or harden in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Makes 25 to 30 truffles.

Now, here are my differences:

- Did you notice that Becca called for dates but didn’t instruct you to add them? Well, I added them.

- I chopped the almonds and cashews before toasting them.

- This is the important bit: I used Nutella for the nut butter. Can I get an Amen?

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character is a bad influence on another character.

MA

The Sadness of the Season

I was sick, and then I was still sick, and then I was busy, so I didn’t take down the Christmas decorations until yesterday. Yes, I know it’s the middle of January. I was sick and I was busy, I told you!

Anyway, the result was that I got used to the decorations. Those cards belonged on display. Those Santas and angels belonged where they were. That tree lived there by the window. Now that they’re gone, it’s amazing how bare plain everything looks, even though I still have winter decorations.

Life is just so sad without glitter all over everything. No wonder people visit Las Vegas.

Oh, well, it’s Tuesday, and I’m posting today at Fatal Foodies on the subject of seeds.

Also, I have another five-star review for SAGE Book 1, The Fall of Onagros including:

Sage: The Fall of Onagros, is a fine example of Marian Allen’s beautiful ability to craft a telling vignette, tailor dialogue to character, and carefully weave the profound with the ordinary.

~MomGoth does a happy dance~

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: What makes your main character particularly sad when it’s over or gone?

MA

 

 

Words of Life For Characters

Did you ever read or write a character who was well put-together, but just laid there on the table and wouldn’t live? Like, “Mate, this bird wouldn’t “voom” if you put four million volts through it!”

Well, you know what I always say — okay one of the things I always say — “Everything is about writing.”

So, it should come as no surprise to hear that I picked up a useful tool for helping bring those imaginary critters to life during the sermon at church yesterday.

It was about wise men and women to whom people would make pilgrimages. People would go to these wise guys and say, “Give me a word to live by.” One word the pastor quoted was, “Ah!” and another was the phrase, “Thank you.” The idea was that one would live with this “word to live by” in one’s heart and mind. One would approach everything in life with that attitude and view everything from that perspective.

So I thought it might be useful, whenever I’m poking at some creature on the slab, to give him or her a word to live by and see what happened. It would be a start, or possibly a necessary layer or key. Some kind of useful tool, anyway.

One could begin by thinking about a strong character in literature or movies or television and seeing if one could identify the word that character lives by, then go on to one’s own (one hopes) successful characters. Like:

Leroy Jethro Gibbs: justiceBertie Wooster: honor
Bud Blossom: Idiots!

Like that. Could be surprising. The word could change over the course of a story, or the character’s understanding of it could change, or the reader’s understanding of it could change.

Worth a try.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: What I just said.

MA