Beth Cato's Blog, page 124

Sunday Quote notes that it’s the Dalai Lama’s birthday

“If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like Old Faithful. I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting. I wake early and hear my morning voices leaping around in my head like jumping beans. I get out of bed to trap them before they escape.”

~Ray Bradbury

Bready or Not: Crock Pot Pesto Ranch Chicken Thighs

I present to you one of my very favorite chicken crock pot recipes, one I previously shared at Novelocity.

Seriously, I’ve been making this about once a month for a few months now. My husband even requests it. This is impressive since he 1) does not like ranch dressing 2) does not eat pesto.

There’s something about the combination in this recipe, though, that is just plain savory and delicious.

This is my go-to meal when I’m on a writing deadline. It mixes up in five minutes and cooks itself over the afternoon, and produces chicken to feed us–quite happily–for days.

Modified from Picky Palate.

Print
Bready or Not: Crock Pot Pesto Ranch Chicken Thighs

Ingredients

8 boneless skinless chicken thighs (2-3 pounds, thawed or mostly thawed)
6-8 ounce jar of pesto
1 packet ranch dressing dry seasoning mix
1/2 cup chicken broth or water mixed with chicken/vegetable stock concentrate or water

Instructions

Place chicken thighs, pesto, ranch dressing (dry from the packet) and liquid into crock pot. Stir gently to coat chicken and combine everything.
Place lid on top. Cooking tip: It tends to cook in half the time you set on the crock pot, i.e., a 6-hour high setting means the chicken should be done in about 3 hours, depending on how many thighs are in there and how thawed they were to start. Leave thighs whole or chop. (If you chop, add them into the pot again on warm for 15 minutes so they can soak up more flavor! It's also a great way to make sure they are cooked through--just chop the meat and cook on high a while more.)
These thighs are great with veggies, or in a salad, or cold out of the fridge. They also freeze wonderfully.
OM NOM NOM.
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Churros and Gorgons

Links to mischief elsewhere!

At the Holy Taco Church, I posted my recipe for stuffed churro nuggets. They are fast, delicious, and a total make-ahead-for-a-party snacky dessert.

Meanwhile, I had a new story published at Every Day Fiction. “Bad Snake Day” features your typical gorgon-next-door with a misbehaving head of snakes and a blind date mere hours away.

A Shout Out for THE GOLDEN CITY & THE SEAT OF MAGIC

Today my friend J. Kathleen Cheney’s second book is released. The Seat of Magic is pretty awesome (I read an ARC!) but I wanted to draw more attention to her first book, too. That’s where you’d want to start reading, after all! It just came out in mass market paperback, too.

For two years, Oriana Paredes has been a spy among the social elite of the Golden City, reporting back to her people, the sereia, sea folk banned from the city’s shores….

When her employer and only confidante decides to elope, Oriana agrees to accompany her to Paris. But before they can depart, the two women are abducted and left to drown. Trapped beneath the waves, Oriana survives because of her heritage, but she is forced to watch her only friend die.

Vowing vengeance, Oriana crosses paths with Duilio Ferreira—a police consultant who has been investigating the disappearance of a string of servants from the city’s wealthiest homes. Duilio also has a secret: He is a seer and his gifts have led him to Oriana.

Bound by their secrets, not trusting each other completely yet having no choice but to work together, Oriana and Duilio must expose a twisted plot of magic so dark that it could cause the very fabric of history to come undone….

Of course, I have to show the cover of The Seat of Magic as well because it’s so pretty.

If you love historical fiction with a dash of mystery and magic, do seek these books out. I’ve read some 160ish books over the past year and a half, and these are among my favorites.

Sunday Quote says Happy Canada Day and Independence Day week

“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.”

~Jane Yolen

A Mention to Mention

With my book coming out soon, I can’t help but be paranoid about people talking about me. But this isn’t junior high–I want them to talk about me. Book sales are all about generating buzz. However, Google Alerts haven’t worked in years.

Lo and behold, I was keenly interested in an SFWA blog on Finding Replacements for Google Alerts by Caren Gussoff. She listed two replacement options, and I decided to give one a try: Mention.

I’ve been using Mention for a week now and I am very pleased. Every day it’s sending me links–a few are old, but most are new. I’ve found out about a number of book blogs spreading the word about two upcoming anthologies I’m in, FAE and A is for Apocalypse, and there’ve also been some positive mentions of The Clockwork Dagger on Absolute Write, Twitter, and major fan sites.

If you want to monitor key words online, you might want to give Mention a try.

[Now I'm curious if Mention will alert Caren Gussoff that I mentioned her name. I hope so. I want to tell her thanks!]

Bready or Not: Oreo Fudge

‘Tis the season. The season when I am keenly aware that air conditioning is the greatest invention in the last century.

This also means I’ll be pulling out a lot of non-bake sweet recipes, because 1) the oven makes the house hot, 2) I have a gazillion other things to do than stand in the kitchen for an hour, 3) fudge is awesome.

Some purists say this isn’t kind of fudge isn’t fudge because it’s not made on a stovetop, with a candy thermometer, with the proper animal sacrifices. I say they’re rather silly. All fudge is good and worthy.

This recipe is so easy to throw together. It’s great for potlucks because it makes a ton of fudge. It also keeps well in the fridge.

This is a good time to point out a similar recipe I posted a few years ago–Oreo Bars, featuring three ingredients. Oreos. Marshmallows. Butter. It’s like Rice Krispie Treats, but uses Oreos. Also non-bake, and makes a smaller amount.

Just in case, you know, you’re wanting to make something without chocolate and, uh, healthier.

Tweaked from Shugary Sweets.

Print
Bready or Not: Oreo Fudge

Ingredients

3 cups white chocolate chips
20 Oreo cookies, crushed/chopped/maimed
7 oz marshmallow fluff jar
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract

Instructions

Prepare a 9x13 pan by lining it with foil and applying nonstick spray.
Either in microwave or on stovetop, carefully melt chocolate with canned milk and marshmallow cream. If microwaving, do it in short bursts because it can burn fast. Stir often.
When the mix is smooth, add the vanilla extract. Fold in the Oreos.
Refrigerate 3 hours until firm. Cut into bite size pieces. Keep stored in fridge.
OM NOM NOM.
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Sunday Quote has opened a lot of people

“There is even a touch of decent reluctance about privacy but writers and detectives cannot permit the luxury of privacy. In this book I have opened lots of people and some of them are going to be a little bit angry.”

~John Steinbeck, Journal of a Novel

Cool Stuff! Plus a note regarding my recipes.

John Scalzi’s Whatever Blog is such a major site among writers, so I was thrilled to see that my book is in his stack of new acquisitions this week! I was gobsmacked. Thanks again to Erica Wagner for the heads-up!

My poem “Mad Scientist’s Lament” will be in issue 2 of Lakeside Circus. It’s scheduled for July 2nd.

If you’re having trouble finding a recipe on Bready or Not, it’s because the recipes are now split between two sites. All the old recipes are still over at LiveJournal and the new ones show up there as well.

To find all the recipes in one place, take a look at my Pinterest board. My trick for searching there: scroll all the way to the bottom to force all the images to load, then do a search by keyword. Or just skim the pretty pictures and drool. I do that, too.

I’m sorry that they aren’t all in one convenient spot on BethCato.com! I don’t know if I’ll ever have the time or opportunity to port them all over. To my amazement, I’ve put almost 150 recipes online. That boggles my mind.

An Interview with Lydia Kurnia

I’ve known Lydia for years, since we were critique partners on Online Writing Workshop. I still hope to see her book Stealing a Dream in print someday. She’s here today to talk about her experience working on Unburied Treasure as both a writer and illustrator.

- First of all, you just attended Supanova Pop Culture Expo, where your work on a friend’s book cover and trailer was shown in public. What was that like?

It was amazing. I always love these events, so much energy and fun. My husband and I should have come as Sherlock and Dr. Watson but blame it on my poor planning.

Isaia and I actually worked on an artwork for my friend’s website: 3 Dragon Ladies, which is currently in construction. It will be a site where the three dragon ladies – Ciara Ballintyne, Dionne Lister, and Melody-Ann Jones Kauffman – join forces to share their honest thoughts on various published fiction. Quite an exciting project, it will be awesome when it’s up.

It was wonderful to see our artwork on display there, along with the book trailer which Isaia and I created for promoting Ciara Balllintyne’s debut novella ‘Confronting The Demon’. It was surreal to see it play on loop where people can watch. We’re really proud of this trailer, cause it took a lot of planning and care to get right. These creative projects are always fun to do.

- What was your artistic process like for this book? How did you and Isaia decide on who illustrated what?

Isaia and I have collaborated on so many artwork, we hardly ever need to discuss anymore who does what. He is the master of landscapes and buildings, so he gets to be in charge of those; whereas I get to focus on the characters in the scene. For the anthology, I became like a bridge between authors and artists. Lovely Erika Wilson who collected and edited the submissions would send the stories to me and I would read them then discuss how to visually present the tale with Isaia. He would then do his magic with mountains, rocks and trees, and I would fill the scene with dragons, leopards, bears, whatever the story needs. It worked out well for us. I certainly enjoyed the process.

- You have a story in the anthology as well, one that’s very unique because it draws on Balinese mythology. Are there other creatures from Indonesia that you would like to write about (or that others should know about)?

Oh yes, there are many! I grew up reading Indonesian folklores and I don’t think the world knows much about Indonesian mythology, I should really be the ambassadors of these legends. Ha.

Indonesian folktales like to draw on animals as characters of moral (or immoral in some cases). There is kancil, which is also known as mouse-deer because he has body of a deer and face of a mouse, although he is neither a mouse or a deer. He is a trickster, very smart and quick especially when he is due to become someone’s food. I would love to write a kid’s story featuring kancil. Other mythology creatures include battling monkeys, magic golden snails, sisters of garlic and shallot, vain peacocks… many exciting heroes and villains which I would love to use in stories one day.

- How do you divide your time between art and writing these days?

To be honest, I don’t. I’m rubbish at multitasking. These days, the ratio of drawing vs writing is disproportionately for the first. I guess it’s due to the demand which is currently more in illustration space. I know I should be writing more. I do miss the good old times when I could easily churn out 2000 words/day. I do hope I get back to it one day.

- What personal projects are you working on?

I have plans to publish ‘Stealing A Dream’, I really do. I just need to edit a few (difficult yet awfully important) parts of the story, and I’m suffering a major roadblock on those. But I’m doing it. Slowly. I’m also working on the illustrations. In fact, I finished all fifty of them, just they look kinda sucky so I’m retouching and redrawing from scratch.

From the desk of ‘Worlds Beyond’, Isaia and I are currently in contract for illustrating a serial fiction and two book covers. We’re also working on a portfolio showreel to put on our website so people know how we work and what we offer.

Busy time. I’m absolutely loving it.

- Are there plans to do another anthology like this?

Yes. The plan is to publish one every year. This anthology idea is actually not mine; the credit should go to our friend Leslianne Wilder who gathered us all and published ‘Trespass’ last year. I just wanted Isaia and I to illustrate this edition so the publishing job went to me, ha. I would love to invite more authors to join us as we grow. We will see how we go.

Thank you, Lydia! I wish you all the best with Unburied Treasure and all of your other projects!