Marian Allen's Blog, page 452
November 30, 2011
Ravioli con Espinichio
That's a term I just made up because it's 9:00 am already and I haven't posted my post and I don't feel like looking up the real Italian for these words. "Ravioli" is right, anyway.
RAVIOLI CON ESPINICHIO
ravioli (this is cheese)
spinach (this is frozen)
olive oil infused with garlic (or with garlic toasted in it then removed)
capers
good cheese, grated
Cook the ravioli and spinach together. Drain. Toss gently with olive oil. Put on plates. Sprinkle with capers and cheese.
Yum!
WRITING PROMPT: Does your main character speak/understand more than one language or heavy dialect?
MA
November 29, 2011
A New Trailer
Not to live in, to watch. I already posted this one for eBooks for Christmas, and now I've made two more, one for EEL'S REVERENCE and one for FORCE OF HABIT, each only 30 seconds long:
I made the Christmas one through Animoto, and the other two with Windows Live Movie Maker. Is fun! 
So I ask you: Do trailers intrigue you enough to want to find out more about a book, maybe even buy it? If I made a trailer of myself talking about something, would you watch it?
WRITING PROMPT: If you had to pare down your book/story/product to a 30-second spot, what would you say or show about it?
Posting today at Fatal Foodies with a recipe for almost-instant guacamole.
November 28, 2011
Guest Post by Floyd Hyatt – Online Critique Group Part 1
F. A. Hyatt, veteran of online critiquing, has sent a wonderful post on how to set one up. Here is Part 1:
Why Me?
The impetus to start your very own online writing circle is usually Manifold. Regardless of the availability of Writing Clubs in your area, having a small group of concerned and participating writers available online is its own blessing. Personal pride, of course, does not enter into it, and the ability to participate with other writers at liberty 24/7 rather than once a month or whatever, is irrelevant–sure enough. Plus, Yahoo groups are free of charge to Yahoo members. The process of creating one is accessible from the Yahoo main page, under "Groups". It is well documented, and simple, So I won't deal with most of that here.
However, the fact of group management and the idea of creating one, differ – somewhat.
First off, there are some mechanics. Although Group sites provide a format and some tools, these are general, if not remedial. Your group will need a structure specific to the needs of active writers. Do not assume the members will organically create a framework as they participate, or you will end up with a welter of difficult to manage and incompatible structures and site litter; I.E., a mess. Under the left side "Files" menu item, set up an area to contain folders for your writers. This is done by creating a Members File folder in that area. Have your members each establish their own work folder within the folder you create there. (Yes, you can have folders inside folders, just like on your PC) Ask that they place (upload) their Works-In-Progress into the folder they create.
The member's file folder directory should look like a list of names at that point, with no documents peppering the folder directory itself. Each writer can then add, delete or change the work they store in these areas, and collect critiques in them, as they see fit, without dropping files at liberty hither and yon.
In fact, it is a good idea to establish a directory area for every aspect your club engages in. A review area to collect member reviews, an area to post announcements of author releases notices, whatever activities your site will specialize in. I find using the list's general post area for any of this a bad idea. Usually work gets completely un-formatted in attempting such use – extremely bad for critique. Instead, use the post area for member Yak, as was intended. Besides, after going to the effort of uploading a document, who wants to have it available to the club for only a few hours until it scrolls down into oblivion? Be sure members have full rights to manage their own folder areas. This will save your assigned moderators (and you) a lot of maintenance work. All these setups are accessible from the main screen "maintenance" prompts, that appears magically on the owners and moderators menus when visiting the site. If you are currently a member of a Yahoo Group, you likely will not see these items, as you are not the Owner or a Moderator.
Here is Mr. Hyatt's open group:
Established – for Serious and Casual writers, since 2007
Plotters of Dreams
WRITING PROMPT: Write about a critique group in which one member argues against any suggested revision and another member tries to incorporate every suggested revision, even if they're contradictory. Your mission is to be neither of those members.
MA
November 27, 2011
#SampleSunday – Little Brown Dog
A true story today. Another #4 Daughter one.
Little Brown Dog
by Marian Allen
I'm driving down the road, Baby Girl in the car seat behind me. We're on our way from our house on a back country road to a meeting at the high school.
Baby Girl is old enough to ride facing forward, so I can glance at her in the rear-view mirror, which she commands frequently:
"Look, Mommy! Mommy, look a' me!" And I look, and she's making a face, or showing me the toy I've seen constantly since it became her favorite, or she's covering her head with her blanket and I have to pretend she's invisible.
I get my eyes back on the road just in time to see a little brown dog run out in front of me. I slam on the brakes and the engine dies.
Did you know that, when your engine dies, so does your power steering and your power brakes? Well, they do. They do in my car, at least.
The dog trots on, oblivious, while we slide across the gravel, up an incline and through a barbed-wire fence.
Baby Girl whoops and cackles, fan that she is of swoopy rides powered by Daddy Arms Airlines. The cows in the next field come over to investigate.
I'm okay. Baby Girl is okay. Two or three fence posts have gone to Jesus, but that's about the extent of the damage.
The car starts and backs up with no disturbing noises. The meeting cannot be missed, so I back onto the road and go on.
When I get home, I call Paul, who owns the field I invaded.
"Was that you that done that? If I'd 'a' knowed that, I wouldn't 'a' been fussing about it. I heard something, and then I seen them cows go over to see what it was happened. By the time I got over there, whoever wrecked the fence was gone, and I just fussed! But if I'd 'a' knowed it was you, I'd 'a' knowed you'd make it right."
I was rather proud of that, and repeated it to my husband. "I may get a reputation around here as a fence-killer, but at least folks know I'm honorable and trustworthy."
And, for months afterward, if anybody asked Baby Girl what she wanted to be when she grew up, she answered, "I wanna be a fence-killer, like Mommy."
I love where I live. Small town life has its drawbacks, but there's never a dull moment.
WRITING PROMPT: If a dog blocked your main character's path, what would he or she do? Fear it? Run over it? Risk life and limb to spare it?
MA
November 26, 2011
My 7 Links
The fabulous Holly Jahangiri, who is not the Godzilla of NYC, though not through any lack of trying, nominated me to carry on this meme. So here I go.
Here are the My 7 Links rules, and here is a list of some of the already-nominated bloggers. I say "some", because I wasn't on there, the last time I looked. I'm a ninja! Imbizibal!
- Your most beautiful post
This one, on the term Sky-blue pink, because it's about my late grandfather and has a picture of a sky-blue pink sky.
– Your most popular post
The one on how I self published.
– Your most controversial post
That would probably be Bejection Dancing. A publisher felt I was unfair to publishers in it, and decided he didn't want to be my publisher, if that was my opinion. Either that one, or this one about okra. My commenters, by the way, convinced me to try okra in soup and I'm a total okra convert. I can be taught.
– Your most helpful post
Has to be the one on formatting for Smashwords and Kindle.
– A post whose success surprised you
For years, I got masses of hits on this short story. I'm vain, but I'm not that vain, and I couldn't figure out why this story was so popular. Then I looked at the title, looked at the flood of hits coming all together, and looked at the origins of the hits. People taking English as a Second Language were ripping it off for assignments with the same title. So I changed the name of the page, and the hits stopped. Boo-hoo for me.
– A post you feel didn't get the attention it deserved
The Friday Recommends post with the link to Spec the Halls, the winter-holiday speculative fiction anthology benefiting Heifer International. There were very few click-throughs, and that was disappointing. Yes, it's pricey for an eBook–more than I generally pay–but ALL the proceeds go to buying animals/birds/bees for people in third-world countries. A milk cow or a flock of chickens can lift a whole village out of poverty.
– The post that you are most proud of
This review of a two-fisted Kentucky Opera Association production of Madama Butterfly. It was a wicked good production, and I think the review nailed it. If I didn't like opera, that review would make me want to go see one.
Now, I need to pass the torch. Here are five bloggers I read every day, or should:
Well, Holly, obviously, but I can't tag her back.
Marion Driessen's Figments of a Dutchess. I met Marion on Twitter, which illustrates one reason I love the interwebs. How else would I become friends with this wonderful woman in Holland?
Jennifer Burke's Jen's Bookshelf. Again, how else would I have met a woman in Australia who shares my detestation for possums? At an I Hate Possums worldwide convention?
Leah Porter's On Capitol Avenue. In contrast to the first two, Leah is a face-to-face friend who lives right here in my own beloved town, but she's a citizen of the world in the best possible sense.
Bodie Parkhurst's Magic Dog Press. Bodie is another long-distance friend. We met in Dani Greer's blog book tour class. We've read each other's blogs, guested on each other's blogs, read each other's books and reviewed them. She's extraordinary.
Steve Saus's Ideatrash, with its essays, reviews and information on writing. Great reading for writers, readers and/or thinkers. I've actually been lucky enough to meet Steve a few times at conventions (speculative fiction ones, not I Hate Possums ones), and he's the publisher of the Spec the Halls anthology.
There are SO many more, but I'm following the rules or I'd be rummaging around forever.
WRITING PROMPT: What animal or insect does your main character hate, and why?
MA
November 25, 2011
Friday Recommends and Free Story
Whether you're a writer AND reader or a reader only, #amwriting is a great site to visit. It's jam-packed with posts about the writing process and the writing life, musings about this and that, and free flash fiction stories. Free! My favorite kind! The one today is mine. Prodigal is the result of my wondering what it would be like to see my father again. Nothing in the story is factual; none of it really happened except the emotions of the main character.
I've been messing around with Windows Live Movie Maker, and created a 30-second spot for FORCE OF HABIT, my crime/sf/farce. I could have made it as long as I wanted, but I liked the drive-by quality of the 30-second spot I did in Animoto for "Christmas eBooks", so I made this one 30 seconds, too.
Now I'm addicted, and I'm working on trailers for my other books.
There's a new link in my blogroll under the category Snort Coffee Out Your Nose. It's The Oatmeal. You're welcome.
WRITING PROMPT: Imagine being a grownup meeting someone who was grown when you were little, and whose actions you didn't understand then. How would you act? What would you do? How would that person be toward you?
MA
November 24, 2011
What I'm Thankful For
Johnny Depp. 'Nuff said.
I also refer you to this story, the link to which lives on my Free Reads page:
The Cautionary Tale of Silas Rockport
Written in response to Paul Molyneux's (editor of Laughter Loaf) remark, "It's hard to commercialize a holiday based on gratitude and humility."
WRITING PROMPT: For what is your main character thankful all the time? On one particular day of the year?
MA
November 23, 2011
Other People's Blogs, Other People's Recipes
Today is food day on the old bloggerino. We have Thanksgiving coming up in the USA tomorrow, then my little family is celebrating two birthdays on Saturday. So we'll be all about cooking for a good, long while. Yes, I will make fruitcake at some point. We love fruitcake. Most of us, anyway.
Here are two of my favorite things, other than bourbon, to use in cooking:
Smoked paprika. I just discovered this. I usually use sweet Hungarian paprika, but this smoked stuff is DA BOMB! For best results and to drive your taste buds insane with joy, toast it a little in oil or butter or margarine before adding it to the dish. Lord have mercy!
Garlic-infused olive oil. I'm always telling you to use this, but I don't think I told you how to make it. Did I? Anyway, here's how: Open a bottle of light-flavored olive oil. Pour it into a container you can cap TIGHTLY. Peel a clove of garlic or two. Drop the garlic into the oil. Cap it and let it sit on the counter until you can open the container and smell the garlic. Refrigerate. After a few hours, the oil will turn white and solid. You can scoop out as much as you need to melt in a pan or a pot or you can spread it on bread and toast that up under the broiler. Lovely.
In addition to that, I direct you to my Recipes tab, where you'll find all kindsa food stuff, and to my blogroll over there in the sidebar, where I have links to Food websites.
Also, Pat Bean has a great post today with a writer's recipe for chicken and rice.
I have a guest post at Leslea Tash's The Fabulousness. It's a pitiful dream of what I would do with a Kindle Fire in the kitchen, supposing I had one. A Kindle Fire, I mean. I do have a kitchen.
WRITING PROMPT: What are the main cooking tools in your WIP or your favorite book? If the main cooking tools aren't mentioned, what would you imagine them to be?
MA
November 22, 2011
Murder With White Flag
The time has come to declare my surrender — okay, my failure — at my National Novel Writing Month project this year. MURDER WITH WHITE SAUCE is not straining toward the finish line, it's just straining.
I was SO EXCITED, coming into NaNo this year. Champing at the bit and r'aring to go. I've tried to figure out why, but the best excuse reason I can come up with is that it's time for me to do what I've been saying I need to do: go through the books and stories of this series and put together a bible of who lives where and what each one's general backstory is. Any time I wrote a scene with Mamie interacting with one of the Spadena Street residents, the scene took off like a dead parrot with a million volts going through it.
So NaNo didn't work for me this year. There's always next year.
Meanwhile, I'll be wandering around my fictional neighborhood, Spadena Street, gawking at the Storybook Style houses and getting talked to death.
Worse things could happen.
p.s. I'm posting today at Fatal Foodies on the topic of Murder By Cook.
WRITING PROMPT: What is the neighborhood like where your main character lives?
MA
November 21, 2011
Playing with Fire…or Burning down the Kitchen?
Leslea is a woman after my own heart. And I don't mean that in a monstery, axe-and-spoony kind of way. Leslea is the one who got me hooked on blogging (blame her). She's one of my greatest cheerleaders, and she doesn't hesitate to tell me things I don't want to hear: the mark of a true friend who respects your reactions and trusts the friendship.
Leslea recently sprang for a Kindle Fire. Tell us about it, gurlfren!
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Brrr…do you feel that cool breeze outside? Time to curl up inside and warm up next to a hot, roaring Fire. Yes, I said "Fire," as in the new Kindle Fire.
I confess I am rather late to the ebook party. While my dear friend Marian has been actively publishing ebooks for years, I have remained a bit snobbish about an ebook's lack of moldy, dusty, yellowing pages. My public library hasn't stocked ebooks with brittle, crackling plastic covers. There were no ebooks lined up prettily on display tables at Books-A-Million, either. No boxes of ebooks to sort through at yard sales. What was in an ebook for me?
Turns out, a lot.
So what has changed, the past few years? A better question might be, "What hasn't?"
The Kindle, Nook, and other assorted ereaders debuted, and promptly caught on like, well, wildfire. Having been an anti-consumerist, work-at-home underpaid journalist for years, (read, minimal disposable income), my first thought about the Kindle was "Great, that'll just make it easier to blow ten bucks on a whim with every instantaneous download."
But that was when all ebooks were the same price as hardback books. Times, oh, how they have been a-changin'. This past September, I finally made the leap into epublishing, myself, and it wasn't long before my eyes were opened about the number and types of books that are available for free and cheap to the casual reader.
There are literally thousands of free books available online, as well as low-priced/high rated, as well. One doesn't have to go broke to enjoy the convenience of an ereading device. When you think about the trade-offs of gas & time & shipping expenses, ebooks can be a choice that puts you money ahead, even. Did I mention I am frugal? Okay, I'm a TIGHTWAD, I admit it.
Economics aside, I started thinking of all the cool things I would do with my new Fire. Of course *food* sprang to mind, and when I think about bloggers who write entertaining posts about food, I think of Marian. If you're still planning your menu for Thanksgiving, you probably shouldn't miss her recipe for roast veggies on my blog on Wednesday. Read her post to see an example of how the new Fire tablet (with cooking apps and web browsing capabilities) could change the way you use your kitchen, every day.
I personally cook with my iPad in the kitchen all the time (every time I try a new recipe!), so I'm really looking forward to seeing what cooking with Fire will be like.
Here are some cookbooks I'm keen to try out on my new Fire:
Recipes Tried and True, by the Presbyterian Ladies' Aid: Hey, if anyone knows a thing or two about cookin', it's church ladies. Price: Free, as of this writing.
Dishes and Beverages of the Old South: Guess what! Paula Deen did not invent Southern cooking.
Price: Free, as of this writing.
Circle of Friends Savory Pie Recipes: Most of the time when people say "pie," we think of dessert—but this book takes us through Chicken Pot Pie and beyond. Spaghetti Pie? Really? I'm game to try. Price: Free, as of this writing
Then, there is my old stand-by, the Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham, which, unfortunately is not yet available in ebook form. But you know what I can access with my Fire tablet?
How about the lady herself, Ms. Cunningham, in the kitchen with Julia Child, making Buttermilk Crumb Muffins?
Are you hot for cooking yet? If you're anything like me, make sure you proceed with caution. I've been known to drop phones into bathtubs and toilets before—I'll probably be wearing my new Fire on a strap around my neck, until I've proven myself trust-worthy in this venture. Just remind me to stay away from the stock pots, would ya?
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Leslea Tash is a writer in Southern Indiana & a full-time homeschooling mom of four, currently working on a collection of her nationally syndicated parenting/family life columns entitled Guerrilla Mothering. Lately she's blogging about the new Amazon Fire, among other topics, at LesleaTash.com. When she's not cooking with Fire and fiddling with other electronics, she publishes top-rated dark fantasy fiction under the name Red Tash. Visit RedTash.com for more details, and if you see her on Facebook, Twitter, or Google plus, please say hello. She chats back!
* * *
Thanks, Ms. Tash! I hope you love your eReader as much as I'm lovin' mine!
Leslea is giving away a copy of her new eBook, THIS BRILLANT DARKNESS on these terms:
I will be happy to give away an ebook copy of THIS BRILLIANT DARKNESS to a random commentor on your site who knows the answer to the following trivia question:
What character from Stephen King's The Stand (movie) says "Doctor told me to cut out the coffee, I only have one cup a day… no, two cups a day. Besides, he's dead and I'm still living."
WRITING PROMPT: Does your main character cook from memory, from stained and dog-eared recipe cards, from cookbooks, from the backs of the microwavable packages or not at all?
MA
