Lou Harper's Blog, page 8

Santa Reading Kindle Papyrus

Secrets and Charms is live at all the usual retailers. It's the second book of the "Secrets" series but not truly a sequel. Charms tells the story of Olly, who was a supporting character in Secrets and Ink . However, to those who enjoyed Ink, Charms delivers a similar package: humor, romance, smexy times, and a dash of mystery. Plus a highly fictionalized take on the movie business.

Writing this story I had a good time making up fictional movie titles for various genres from slasher flick to Oscar-bait. But my favorite is Olly's beloved gay porn flick from above. I put real research into this. No, I don't mean watching gay porn! Not this time, anyway. What I mean is, that I had to use math (!) to figure out when the movie was produced, then look up the popular mainstream movies of the time to come up with a spoof title. (The research probably ended with me either watching gay porn or youtube videos of cute animals. I don't remember, but that's how most of my researches end.)

The next Secrets book, Secrets and Bow Ties , is scheduled to come out in May. In it we'll find out more about the "plot" of Dildo Menace, and Brian Rockwell's anatomy.

Vintage Monday: Holidays

Right ho, as Bertie Wooster would say. Let's get this holiday thing over with. I still haven't wrapped presents, and will start baking cookies tomorrow or so, but currently I have a lot of work to finish before I can take a breather.

Free Stuff!!

Secrets and Ink is currently free on All Romance eBooks. Grab it while it's hot!

The next book in the series, Secrets and Charms is coming out next Tuesday. Lots of naughty boys to warm your Christmas stockings. :)

Vintage Monday: One Fine Dandy

I considered posting something wintery or even holiday but in the end decided to keep up my resistance of the seasonal madness and picked this fine gentleman instead. Just look at him! He's the cat's meow and he knows it. I wonder how long it took him to get dressed and if he had help.

Wednesday Word: Pugnacious

pugnacious |pəgˈnā sh əs|adjectiveeager or quick to argue, quarrel, or fight : the increasingly pugnacious demeanor of politicians.• having the appearance of a willing fighter : the set of her pugnacious jaw.DERIVATIVESpugnaciously adverbpugnacity |ˌpəgˈnasətē| nounORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Latin pugnax, pugnac-(from pugnare ‘to fight,’ from pugnus ‘fist’ ) + -ious .

Poor pugs, they are really not all that quarrelsome in general, but chihuahuanacious would be too much of a mouthful.

Vintage Tuesday--because I missed Monday

Well, hello there, Mr. Blast from the Past. Is that a bear rug?

Holiday Demon

Europeans might not have Thanksgiving but they make up for it with St. Nick's Day. You see, there Christmas used to be more about the Nativity and such. On the night of December 5th you left your boots on the windowsill. St. Nicholas stopped by during the night and if you were nice he left candy and fruit in your boots. But he didn't travel alone.

 The jolly fat man's companion was a hair, horned demon, with cloven hooves and an obscenely long tongue. He beat the naughty kids with a willow switch—if they were lucky. Alternately, he stuffed them into his basket and took them to hell.

Lovely, isn't it? Men dressing up as Krampus and scaring the living daylight out of little children was a popular activity in the olden days, as this old photo illustrates:

Krampus fell out of favor sometimes after WWII. I guess people had bigger, scarier things in their lives. It's gaining popularity again, though.

Hungarians added an extra letter to the holiday demon's name, because they just like to complicate things. My holiday themed short story, Krampusz takes place in Budapest, and is available from Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks, and Barnes & Noble. 
Regrettably, it does NOT contain monster porn. But it's only my list. Right after tentacle sex. 

Creative Baking

It's my belief that all human beings have a creative urge, and creativity can take many forms. One of mine is baking.

I had leftover homemade cranberry sauce and search the internet high and low for a recipe to use it up. When I couldn't find anything I liked, I made up my own:
Chocolate Cranberry Sauce Banana Bread
Ingredients2 cups of flour2 tsp baking powder4 eggs4 oz (one stick) of butter at room temperature1 cup (packed) brown sugar1 ripe banana smashed3/4 cup cranberry sauce4 oz dark chocolate1 tbs blackstrap molasses (optional)1 tsp vanillaA bit of crystallized brown sugar or white sugar
Preheat oven at 350ºF.Rub the insides of a loaf pan with butter. Drop in some sugar and shake it around to coat the bottom and sides. Shake out the access.Melt the chocolate in a double boilerMix butter and brown sugar till smooth and creamy.Mix in molasses.Add eggs one by one and blend with electric mixer, fully incorporating each.Add melted chocolate, mix it in.In separate bowl mix flour and baking powder together.Add flour mix to wet ingredients, incorporate fully.Add banana, cranberry and vanilla. Mix.Pour it all into the loaf pan and bake till a tooth pick or skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.Let it cool for a bit. When cool enough turn it upside-down—it will smoothly slip out of the pan.Eat plain or with jam, by itself or with coffee, tea. 

Whatever Friday

I'm not someone who rushes to the stores on Black Friday. I hate malls on a good day and bargain-mad crowds freak me out. Consequently, this is the day when I rather don't even leave the house. Perfect day for reading and sipping hot cocoa.

Fortunately for those of use suffering from chronic mob-aversion, nowadays you can shop in the safety and your privacy of your home, wearing pajamas and fuzzy slippers, and still not miss out on the deals. All Romance eBooks is having a HUGE sale. Two of my own books, Dead Man and the Restless Spirits and Dead in LA are FREE for the day.

Gobble, Gobble

My plan for today is to make hot apple cider and cheese straws and go over to my friends' house later. I usually bring desert, but I suspect there will be pie overload, so I had to find alternatives.

To be honest, while I don't hate pumpkin pie, it's not on the top of my list of deserts. I have a pretty easy but delicious recipe for and apple-cranberry pie, which I probably got off from a can of cranberries or such.