Hank Quense's Blog: Hank Quense's Blog, page 98

Shopping Rant

I do most of the food shopping (and cooking) in our house.  Here are lists of my pet gripes and anti-gripes:

Supermarket shopping: least favorite people:

1: Those who count out exact change on a express checkout lane: "here's a quarter . . . three dimes . . . four nickels and, just a minute, I'm sure I have two pennies somewhere."

2: Folks with 25 items who check out on the express line

3: Drivers who take short-cuts by driving through parking spaces

4: Shoppers who block an entire aisle with...

Author Interview: Philip J. Lees

Philip is a British ex-pat who lives and writes in Greece.

1) Can you give us a brief bio?

I was born. I haven't died yet.

2) When did the writing bug bite and in what genre(s)?

Although I didn't see it that way at the time, my interest in writing dates back to a single-figure age. My great grandmother taught me to read when I was three, and more or less from then on I was a regular reader. I can't remember writing anything specific, but I have clear recollections of scribbling stuff down. My...

New Jersey Politicians

The media often covers the trials and incarcerations of New Jersey's corrupt politicians and, indeed, the state has a lot of officials doing hard time, standing trial or awaiting sentencing.  There are so many of them that folks in other states think New Jersey is the center of political corruption.  Not true.  New Jersey's politicians are no more corrupt than other politicians throughout the world and history.  What gives the state a bad name is that we investigate and prosecute more...

Fiction Writing Discussion

Starting today, (1/6/10) I'll be a guest on the Writebuzz website to discuss various aspects of fiction writing.  This week's topic is Story Construction. The remaining schedule is as follows:

1/13: Motivation

1/20: Characterization

1/27: Plotting.

Stop by and check out the discussion.  You may like the site and elect to join it.

Guest Blogger

Hiya.

My name is Burga and I'm a guest blogger here today.  I guess the so-called author is runnin' out of interestin' things to say.  I'm a warrior-cook and I've had the lead role in two short stories that have been sold.  I agreed to do this 'cause the author gave me a big role in new novel he's writin'.  Not the main role, but a big part.

Iffen I gotta write stuff here, I better tell you about myself.

I graduated a few years back from the College of Combat and Culinary Arts.  After that I...

Tunnel Vision Press Release

A recent press release on the Tunnel Vision collection of short stories listed a series of 5-star reviews the book has received.  Read the press release

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Fool's Gold gets 5-Star Review

Fool's Gold by Hank Quense is the retelling of the ancient myth of the Rhinegold with a unique twist. Quense's version takes place in a dark future after society as we know it has been destroyed by hostilities, pestilence and contamination. This novella is filled with aliens, primeval

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Fool's Gold Cover

supernatural beings, beautiful Norse goddess, out-of-date conquerors, scheming aristocracy, treachery, insatiability, incest, a mysterious gold hoard.

I found this story unique. Quense is a...

Valle Pintado Writing Contest; Part 2

Here is the second winner of the December contest.A Painted Mountain Life

[image error]by Jacki Donnelly

It was almost a month since I resigned as Editor in Chief of New York's most popular fashion magazine "Moda", but my mental alarm clock was still sounding off promptly at 6 a.m. For the past 29 days this annoyed me, but today was different. Today I started my new life- I left my upscale life and the chaos in NYC. I traded it all in for what I hoped would be a more peaceful and meaningful life.

***

My...

Support for our Troops

As a way of showing support for our armed forces, I put together a collection of ten previously published short stories and made them available to our troops as an ebook.  I did this about 18 months ago and I have been sending out the ebook as an email attachment whenever I get an email address.  I have also sent out hundreds of snail mail letters to troops telling them how to get a copy by downloading it.

I'd like to expand the program as much as possible.  If any of you know the military...

Beef & Barley Soup

This recipe is great on cold winter nights.

Ingredients:

1 pound chunk of shin beef
4 small cans of tomato sauce

2 cans beef broth
Dried soup greens
2 large potatoes cut into small pieces
2 large carrots cut into slices and halved
3 stalks of celery cut into small pieces
1 onion diced
¾ cup pearl barley
Black pepper
Bay leaf

Preparation:

Place shin beef in a large pot
Add 4 cans of tomato sauce and 2 cans beef broth
Fill pot with water.
Add soup greens to loosely cover the top of the...