Marian Allen's Blog, page 433
June 8, 2012
There Are Fairies At The Bottom Of Our #2 Daughter’s Garden
Click for a honkin' big image
Not really. But she does have a fairy garden. I took a picture and considered leaving my husband’s elbow in the picture to show the scale. Of course, if you don’t know the size of my husband’s elbow, I didn’t suppose it would help a great deal, so I cut it off. Of the picture, I mean, not off of my husband.
I particularly like the tiny little tree next to the Storybook Cottage.
And, my being the age I am (never mind), the words “fairy” and “garden” together make me think of Beatrice Lillie, who always cracked me up. I caught her at the end of her career, thank you very much.
Here is her veddy veddy sedious rendition of “There Are Fairies At The Bottom Of Our Garden”. Enjoy.
The blog book tour for THE CORNER CAFE continues today at Heidi Thomas’ blog. THE CORNER CAFE will be free this weekend, June 9 and 10. Wheeee!
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: If someone told you there were fairies at the bottom of your garden, how would you react, depending on who told you? Try out three or four scenarios.
MA
June 7, 2012
Thanks, Dog
That was sarcasm, by the way.
Okay, so it isn’t enough that Joe the dog rolls around on the hostas, and it isn’t enough that he digs out wallowing places in the hosta bed. This morning, I am sitting here at my desk and I look out the window and what do I see but this:
A beautiful young buck with fuzzy little antlers. So precious — BUT EATING THE HOSTA BUDS!
And where is Joe? Good question. The culprit fled on foot. I guess I should be grateful he ran behind our car instead of over it or through it, as deer are wont to do:
Because Joe was after him? No, because #1 daughter drove past on her way to work.
About twenty minutes later, Joe ambled past the window, probably looking for that diner who left without paying.
Speaking of diners, THE CORNER CAFE blog book tour continues with author/artist Mary Montague Sikes being interviewed by our cover designer/author/artist Bodie Parkhurst over at Magic Dog Press.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Write about a denizen of nature who gets a little too close for comfort.
MA
June 6, 2012
Not At MY Corner Cafe
What food and drink you can get at your friendly neighborhood corner café depends, of course, on where you live. Here in small-down Midwestern America, what you get is pretty generic.
HOWEVER, we have a discount grocery — sort of a scratch’n'dent shop for food instead of furniture — and I scored big today, getting some stuff that’s available other places but is not often seen around these here parts.
I got some Nestlé Aguas Frescas Horchata. Horchata: a milk-and-rice drink flavored with cinnamon that is heavenly! I mean it is divine! The angels drink horchata! Alas, the web site says Aguas Frescas have been discontinued, so I’ll just have to enjoy what I have.
I also got some Irish Moss Drink, with ginseng. Irish Moss Drink is very popular in Jamaica, and I had some once at a Jamaican restaurant in Louisville. It’s really made of Irish moss and algae and seaweed and nasty stuff like that, but I remember it as being delicious. We shall see.
Now all I need is a local source for Dr. Brown’s sodas, specifically Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray Tonic. I used to get this at a deli in downtown Louisville, many long years ago, when the world and I were young. Cel-Ray Tonic is a soft drink made with — yes — celery. Very refreshing. If celery soda is a little too exotic for you — although, you must admit, it sounds downright homey after seaweed and algae and moss (say it with me: OH, MY!) — Dr. Brown also makes root beer and cream soda and so on.
One thing we CAN get here that one can’t get just anywhere is a cherry phosphate, and I wouldn’t trade that for one of each of those others. It’s what I used to drink at the corner cafe where I grew up. 
The blog book tour for THE CORNER CAFE continues with an interview of Project Mom/Drill Sergeant Dani Greer at the blog of Red Tash.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Find a corner café. What special beverages do they serve? What special beverages can you imagine for them?
MA
June 5, 2012
Tattoo Of Love
Mom and I were in one of our favorite restaurants the other day, and the waitress had a brand new tattoo — so new it was still raised, like embossing, and very bright. I asked if I could take a picture of it, and she gave me permission.
Isn’t that pretty? And the flowers each represent one of her children, with the colors of the flowers being the colors of the kids’ birthstones. Every time she looks at that tattoo, she’ll think of her precious children, although I suspect they’re always in her mind and in her heart.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: The next time you go to a store or a restaurant, really LOOK at your service worker and deduce or find out something specific about him or her.
p.s. The blog book tour for THE CORNER CAFE continues at Bob Sanchez’ blog.
MA
June 4, 2012
THE CORNER CAFE IS OPEN!
click to view larger image
Sweet, dreamy, steamy, and sometimes slightly seamy, this multi-genre collection of short stories includes something for every taste. Prepared by the BBT Café authors: Marian Allen, Shonell Bacon, Karen Casey Fitzjerrell, W.S. Gager, Helen Ginger, Dani Greer, S.B. Lerner, Audrey Lintner, Morgan Mandel, Maryann Miller, Bodie Parkhurst, Bob Sanchez, Mary Montague Sikes, Red Tash, Christine Verstraete.
And we’re doing a Blog Book Tour!
June 4 Blog Book Tours Kick-off http://blogbooktours.blogspot.com
June 5 Bob Sanchez http://bobsanchez1.blogspot.com
June 6 Red Tash http://RedTash.com
June 7 Magic Dog http://www.magicdogpress.wordpress.com
June 8 Heidi Thomas http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com
June 9 Blog Book Tours blog Free day
June 10 Blog Book Tours blog Sunday Free Day
June 11 Marian Allen http://www.marianallen.com/
June 12 W.S Gager http://wsgager.blogspot.com
June 13 Chris Verstraete http://candidcanine.blogspot.com
June 14 Helen Ginger http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com
June 15 Kathy Wheeler
June 16 Saturday
June 17 Sunday
June 18 Morgan Mandel Double M http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
June 19 Pat Bean http://patbean.wordpress.com
June 20 Shonell Bacon http://chicklitgurrl.blogspot.com
June 21 Alberta Ross http://albertaross.wordpress.com
June 22 Karen Casey Fitzjerrell http://karencaseyfitzjerrell.blogspot.com (possible free day? Not sure yet.)
June 23 Saturday
June 24 Sunday
June 25 Pat Stoltey http://patriciastoltey.blogspot.com
June 26 SB Lerner http://www.susanblerner.com
June 27 Maryann Miller http://its-not-all-gravy.blogspot.com/
June 28 Mary Montague Sikes http://marymontaguesikes.blogspot.com
June 29 Stephen Tremp http://breakthroughblogs.blogspot.com
My story is “The Catfish Enchantment”, a story featuring Bud Blossom, who turns up on this blog and in my stories like a bad penny, and Alexander “Cosmo” Mitchell, who has also been in several stories. He’s a nice boy with lots of tattoos and piercings. This story tells how the body art got started. To read an excerpt of “The Catfish Enchantment”, click here.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: If you don’t have any tattoos, and you were to get one, what would it be and why? If you have tattoos and they all vanished, would you replace any or all of them or would you start over? Why?
MA
June 3, 2012
#SampleSunday – Blood of Mermayds
Taking the easy way out today and pointing you to the story I put up on Friday: “Blood of Mermayds”. Enjoy.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Outline the story of how two of your characters met. Not two major characters, but lesser ones. Maybe even extras. Say, those two women at that table over there in the background in the coffee house scene. Or those teenagers at the bus stop. Or the elves who made that magic bridle. How did they meet?
June 2, 2012
Caturday Infographic
I made this for you. You’re welcome.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Mash up two vastly unmashable things.
MA
June 1, 2012
June Update – Hot Flash and Mermayds
It’s the first of the month, so I have a new Hot Flash for you to read. It’s also the first month of the Summer Reading Trail, so I have a new full-length story, “Blood of Mermayds”. It’s the story of how two of the 
characters in The Novel Which Might Possibly Still Be Named EEL’S REVERENCE Or May Not first met. Uncle Phineas is in it, too. Brrrr!
I’m currently reading That Book to Mom. She says she never did like the title, so I’ve challenged her to come up with a better one. NO PRESSURE, MOM!
The cover for the story is a design by T. Lee Harris, with a bit stuck on by me. My bit is a manipulation of a picture of coral, gotten from Wikimedia Commons and posted there by Nick Hobgood. I told T I’d like to use her gorgeous and creepy background for all the mermayd stories and novels, with bits stuck on as appropriate. What do you think of that idea?
I also need to do a new trailer for That Book, once I know what its name is going to be, using T’s design and our #1 grandson’s gorgeous music.
Those of you who have read the book, what do you think I should stress: the tension, the humor, the fantasy or the spirituality?
No, of course I’m not trying to trick you into doing my work for me. I am not!
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Look at the covers of five books you’ve read. What element of the book is stressed by the cover? Is that what you would have chosen, if you had planned the cover? Why or why not?
MA
May 31, 2012
Unappetizing But Oh, So Good
NO, I’m not talking about my cooking. –Shut up.
I’m talking about a restaurant my friend Jane and I went to last month … or maybe the month before. I lose track. Anyway, it’s a Mexican restaurant on Frankfort Avenue in Louisville, Kentucky: Sol Aztecas. Not LOS Aztecas; that’s a different one.
So we went there for lunch, and the food was standard items but MOST tasty, and the beer was good, too. But check out what was staring at me over Jane’s shoulder. Jolly, eh? The writing at the top, in case you can’t read it, says, “El Dia de los Muertos” — The Day of the Dead. Just what any customer wants to see in a restaurant, am I right? Still, the dead guys do look very festive, and it is written in Isaiah 22:13, “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Makes you want to order dessert. Or at least another beer.
When I’m dead, if somebody in some anthropology lab somewhere is working on my bones for some reason, she — or he — has my full permission to paint bright patterns all over my skull. Be sure to stick a Hello Kitty in there, somewhere.
There was also this detail on the wall next to me. It is NOT appropriate that it was cracked! Stop that!
This is a faked-up detail intended to make a place look older than it is, as if the stucco had crumbled and exposed the underlying brick. Very Storybook Style. Just one thing, about this one, though: It’s a plastic panel of brickwork glued on OVER the paint. Looks great from a distance, but kind of surreal up close. Maybe skip that second beer, after all.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character is unexpectedly reminded of his or her mortality.
MA
May 30, 2012
Chard, Pard
We joined a CSA, which is kind of like sharecropping in reverse. We pay folks and they grow stuff and give us some. One thing they’ve been giving us lately is chard.
iStockphoto/Suzannah Skelton
Now, I haven’t had a lot of contact with chard up to now. If it weren’t free, I wouldn’t be eating it now, and I’ll tell you why: it smells like beets. That isn’t surprising, since they’re in the same family, along with spinach. But you know what? I really really like it. I love spinach, hate beets, and really really like chard.
It’s pretty, too. The leaves are green and the spines are yellow or red. Look at that: Isn’t that pretty?
You can use the leafy bits in salad. In fact, I like to cut the spines into the salad, too.
And you can hold your nose and ignore the nasty beet smell and cut the chard up into salted water, add some garlic and olive oil and onion and cook it until it’s tender. Tastes like spinach, only milder. Mom doesn’t like it much; she says it doesn’t have much flavor. I think it DOES, and I likes it, precious!
Imma try making chard chips: tossing the leaves in salted oil and cooking it at 450 for 10 minutes.
One of these days, I may even try beets again.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character likes one sibling, hates another and really, really likes another. Could be the character’s siblings or not.
MA
