Olga Núñez Miret's Blog: Author Translator Olga, page 89

Si os apetece algo dulce y artículos interesantes (Pastel reina de Saba y unos blogs fascinantes)

Hola a todos:

Como ya os conté estoy en pleno NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) y algo ocupada, así que este mes el plan es dedicarme a rebloguear o republicar varios posts, pero me quedaban cosas pendientes, y como programo los posts antes, decidí ponerme un poco al día y aprovechar.

La receta de la crema catalana suscitó bastante interés, así que decidí traeros otra de las recetas que comparto en mi último libro I Love Your Cupcakes (Me encantan tus cupcakes), el pastel Reina de Saba. Hay muchas versiones por ahí, aunque la receta que comparto yo la he usado y queda muy buena.

Fotograma de la película Julie & Julia que recomiendo, especialmente si sois blogueros y os gusta la cocina

Pastel Reina de Sabá

Ingredientes:

125 g. de mantequilla

125 g. de azúcar

125 g. de chocolate

2 cucharadas de leche

3 huevos

125 g. de almendras tostadas

50 g. de harina

1 cucharadita de polvo Royal (levadura)

Se trabaja la mantequilla con el azúcar y se añade el chocolate, previamente derretido al baño-maría con la leche; luego se agregan las yemas de huevos, las almendras trituradas, la harina y el polvo Royal, y, finalmente, las claras a punto de nieve mezclándolas suavemente.

Se pone la masa en un molde untado con mantequilla, y se mete en horno suave por media hora aproximadamente.

(Del libro: Sabores. Cocina del Hogar de Victoria Serra, 15 Edición, p. 366)

Me di cuenta al buscar versiones inglesas de algunas de las recetas que la receta original (o la más conocida) de este pastel es de la famosa Julia Child (si habéis visto la película Julie & Julia sabréis de quién hablo, y si no, os la recomiendo, especialmente si os gusta cocinar y los blogs), así que por si os apetece ver su receta, os dejo el enlace:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8clrnFM3Ys (funcionaba al publicar la novela, en Septiembre 2014)

Éste de wildcranberryhookedrugs.wordpress.com se parece mucho más a los que hago yo

He visto premios a blogs también en blogs en castellano (aunque no lo he notado tanto como en inglés) y yo he tenido varias nominaciones. Llegó un momento en que debido a la cantidad de premios que circulaban y al tipo de cosas que tenías que hacer, decidí que no me daba tiempo a hacerlo todo bien, e inspirada por otra compañera de blogs (Teagan, que si leéis inglés os recomiendo ya que crea historias con la ayuda de ingredientes que le ofrecen los lectores, cada semana) decidí en lugar de hacer eso, de cuando en cuando compartir algunos de los blogs que he ido descubriendo por si no los conocéis.

Net World Network Image courtesy of Vlado / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Y aquí van, sin orden ni concierto:

Blog del autor Josep Capsir (Capi) Os hará reír, llorar, y pensar.

http://autorjosepcapsir.blogspot.co.uk/p/inicio.html

(Los libros de Puri) Puri Estarli. Compartiendo libros y opiniones.

http://loslibrosdepuri.blogspot.co.uk/

Nómada (Álvar Camero) Poesías maravillosas

http://alvarcam.wordpress.com/

Buscando las palabras en un tintero (Erik Quezada)

http://buscandolaspalabrasenuntintero.blogspot.mx

Gatos por los tejados (Lola Mariné). Lola, que ha hecho de todo un poco, comparte sabiduría, escritura, opiniones e información.

http://gatosporlostejados.blogspot.co.uk/

El rincón de los noctámbulos (Yorvis J. Rivas). Escritura, imaginación, poesía. Un blog para los que disfrutan leyendo y pensando.

http://yjrivas.wordpress.com/

Blog histórico bien informado con artículos fabulosos sobre todo tipo de cosas (Francisco Javier Tostado):

http://franciscojaviertostado.com/

Soy Mi Palabra (Mercedes Pinto Maldonado). Mercedes nos habla de sus libros, de la vida y de todas esas cosas que nos depara. Aprenderéis mucho.

http://mercedespinto.wordpress.com/

Aquileana (os lo recomiendo especialmente si os interesa la Mitología, la Filosofía y los Clásicos. Un gusto exquisito en escoger clásicos y bellísimas imágenes y obras de arte para complementar las historias). Y bloguea en inglés y español, así que…

https://aquileana.wordpress.com/

Me quedan muchos por compartir, pero irán llegando. Para muestra un botón.

Por si acaso, os dejo los enlaces a los posts donde compartí algunos otros de mis blogs favoritos:

http://olganm.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/no-os-perdais-estos-blogs/

http://olganm.wordpress.com/2014/05/06/4656/

Gracias a todos por leer, a mis amigos blogueros por visitarnos, y ya sabéis, si os ha gustado, dadle al me gusta, comentad, compartid, y ¡haced CLIC!

If you fancy something sweet and great content (Queen of Saba cake and star blogs)

Hi all:

As you know I’ve started NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and I promised you I’d be taking blogging easy and reblogging or reposting some old posts, but before that, I had some things pending that I tried to fit in (yes, I pre-program some posts).

As people seemed quite keen on the recipe I shared for Créme Catalane, I decided to leave you another one of the recipes I share in my book I Love Your Cupcakes, this time a good old-fashioned cake. This one I’ve actually baked myself, although some time ago, and the recipe I used is slightly different to this one, but I must say this one looks awesome:

Still from the film Julie & Julia that I recommend, especially if you’re a foodie and a blogger

Reine de Saba

(Chocolate and Almond Cake)

Yield: One 8-inch cake

Recipe by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking

For the Cake:

4 ounces or squares semi-sweet Chocolate

2 tablespoons of Rum

4 ounces softened butter

⅔ cup granulated sugar

3 egg yolks

3 egg whites

¼ teaspoon of cream of tartar

Pinch of salt

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

⅔ cup pulverized almonds or 1 cup of almonds to pulverize

¼ tsp almond extract

For the Glaçae au Chocolat (Chocolate-Butter Icing):

2 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate

2 tablespoons of Rum

5 to 6 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup cake flour (scooped and leveled) turned into a sifter

Pre-heat oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter and flour the cake pan.
Set the chocolate and rum in a small pan with a tight cover, and place (off heat) in a larger pan of almost simmering water; let melt while you proceed with the recipe. Measure out the rest of the ingredients.
Pulverize your almonds in your food processor, about a cup. Add a tablespoon of sugar to avoid the almond oils to lump up.
Cream the butter and sugar together for several minutes until they form a pale yellow, fluffy mixture.
Beat in the egg yolks until well blended.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt  until soft peaks are formed; sprinkle on the sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed.
With a rubber spatula, blend the melted chocolate into the butter and sugar mixture, then stir in almonds, and almond extract.
Immediately stir one-fourth of the beaten egg whites to lighten the batter.
Delicately fold in a third of the remaining whites and when partially blended, sift on one-third of the flour and continue folding. Alternate rapidly with more egg whites and more flour until all egg whites and flour are incorporated.
Turn the batter into the cake pan, pushing the batter up to its rim with a rubber spatula. Bake in middle level of preheated oven for about 25 minutes.
Cake is done when it has puffed, and  2½ to 3 inches around the circumference are set so that a needle plunged into that area comes out clean; the center should move slightly if the pan is shaken, and a needle comes out oily.
Allow cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run knife around the edge of the pan, and reverse cake on the rack.
Allow it to cool for an hour or two; it must be thoroughly cold if it is to be iced.
For the Icing, place the chocolate and rum in the small pan, cover, and set in the larger pan of almost simmering water.
Remove pans from heat and let chocolate melt for 5 minutes or so, until perfectly smooth.
Lift chocolate pan out of the hot water, and beat in the butter a tablespoon at a time with the help of a rubber spatula. If the mixture starts to cool off too fast, place the chocolate pan again in hot water and beat in the butter until it fully incorporates.
Then beat over the ice and water until chocolate mixture has cooled to spreading consistency. This will take about 3 minutes.
At once spread it over your cake with spatula or knife, and press a design of almonds over the icing.

Notes:

You can replace the rum for coffee: 1 tablespoon of instant coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons of boiling water.

http://www.thefoodieskitchen.com/en/2013/02/reine-de-saba-chocolate-and-almond-cake/ (downloaded in June 2014)

Here I leave you a link of Julia Child baking the Queen of Sheba Cake. I must admit the version I have baked myself had neither coffee nor rum and it did not add any frosting, although her version looks Amazing! (And if you’ve never watched the movie Julie & Julia I can’t recommend it highly enough, especially if you’re interested in cooking and blogging.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8clrnFM3Ys (it was working at the time of publishing my book in September 2014)

This one from wildcranberryhookedrugs.wordpress.com looks much more like mine

As you can see from my blog (and thanks to Sarah Vernon from whom I “borrowed” the icon for award free blog. Don’t miss the chance to check her fabulous blog First Night Design) I’m an award free blog. For a variety of reasons. A bit over a year ago there were so many awards making the rounds that I could no longer find people who had the time to keep the chain going or to comply with some of the requirements, and I felt I was spending more time doing that than actually blogging. I wanted to focus more on may writing so I decided (after seeing what great friend and blogger Teagan Geneviene did), to do regular posts sharing some of the blogs I’d come across that I thought might be of interest to some of my readers.

Net World Network Image courtesy of Vlado / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So far I had only done a couple of these posts and kept a list going. The list is getting quite long now, and in the last few weeks I’ve been nominated for a number of awards. Although I’m not going to follow the rules (sorry, I’m award free), I wanted to thank Jo Robinson (who was on my next list and you must visit as she’s extremely entertaining in showing us life on the wild side, and she’s tremendously generous with her advise on writing, interviews and has joined a team doing great job to promote other writers, that now I’m a part of too, although not very active until after November), Lord David Prosser (a gentleman who shares his life, writings, reblogs and interviews his fellow authors, actually, me just last week) and Elaine Canham (who makes me laugh often when she shares funny stuff, and can write about the trade, about a bus trip, or reflect incisively on everyday life, and who was also in my list of new blogs to recommend) for their nominations. Do check them out, they’re amazing.

And here I leave you some other blogs I’ve discovered recently and I hope you enjoy too (if you haven’t met them yet):

Smorgasbord – Variety is the Spice of Life (Sally Cronin’s blog: great blog full of information on health related topics, personal experiences, special features like the Sunday interviews, where Sally interviews writers, artists, musicians, and she’s also fabulous at discovering and sharing other people’s blogs. She reblogs fabulous content too and I rely on her to keep me up to date with great content I might not have come across. Unmissable!)

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/

Cyndy Noke (pictures, books… Cyndy keeps making me add to my long list of places to visit. She has a wandering heart and itchy feet!)

http://cindyknoke.com/

Inesemj Photography (photography with a wonderful eye for spots and places you would not have thought about, Irish themes, and wonderful and interesting information, including tips on photography)

http://inesemjphotography.com/

Janet Weight Reed (artist who shares her work and experiences related to art. I love her love of colour and her hummingbirds! And don’t miss her posts on her process of creation and her videos. And she’s even gone where no other people do, and read my cupcake book and left me a wonderful review. Thank you Janet!)

http://jcrhumming.wordpress.com/

Confessions of a writer (James Naith. Just go on and check)

http://jamessnaith.wordpress.com/

Ronovan Writes (Ronovan not only interviews other authors, and thanks for the wonderful interview, Ronovan!, but also offers his advice and experience in promoting others. He has teamed up with our friend Jo Robinson and keeps building up a group of people invested in promoting writers. Yes, he’s also decided I might be able to help with reviews and other content.He bogs his own content but shares most advice for writers in this great resource. Do not miss!)

http://litworldinterviews.wordpress.com

Chronic Conditions and Life Lessons (Kim Goselin. I met Kim through Sally Cronin and she’s one of a group of bloggers who regularly meet in Twitter and we keep each other going. I hope we can all make it in person one day.)

http://kimgosselinblog.com/

Cate Russell-Cole (I’ve know Cate for quite a while now but she had to take a bit of a break from blogging. Now she’s back offering comprehensive advice on writing, sharing any useful information she comes across and also taking part in NaNoWriMo. We’re writing buddies, so she’s having a bit of a breather in November, but go and check all of her advice. Go Cate!):

http://cateartios.wordpress.com/

 

Billy Ray Chitwood (he has quite a few blogs going, but he’s a prolific writer and juggles them very well. I appreciate his reflections on life, love his very short fiction, and recommend that you check the comments too, as recently he even offered us a masterful rendition of a song in the best crooner style):

http://www.thefinalcurtain1.wordpress.com

http://www.billyraychitwood.weebly.com

 

C-Dog and Company (Because dogs and cats are family…) by Debra Levy. (I started reading her posts about her pets but it didn’t take me long to realise the whole universe meets there):

http://cdogco.com/

Aquileana (I reccomend this blog especially if you enjoy Mythology, Philosophy and the Classics. Exquisite taste in choosing classics and gorgeous images and art works to illustrate the stories). The blogs are in Spanish and English so if you want to practice…

https://aquileana.wordpress.com/

I’ll keep noting down blogs, because there are so many great bloggers around I think this will go on, and on…

Ah, I did promise I’d do the workplace/writing place blog (thanks Jo) but due to my current circumstances it might be a while, but if anybody wants to take it up and show us (pictures are more than welcome) their writing place, consider yourself nominated!

And just in case you didn’t come across my two previous post about blogs to check, here are the links:

http://olganm.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/blogs-i-follow-come-and-have-a-look-today-blogs-on-writing-and-personal-blogs/

http://olganm.wordpress.com/2014/05/06/and-more-great-blogs-10-best-insight-technology-photography/

As an aside, I Love Your Cupcakes is now available in paper. Anybody needs any presents?

I Love Your Cupcakes by Olga Núñez Miret. Cover by Lourdes Vidal

 

Thanks to all of you for reading, to the fantastic bloggers for visiting, to my friends and fellow bloggers for the nominations, and you know, like, share, comment, and of course, CLICK!

 

Buy a Book for Christmas from around the World – Olga Núñez Miret – Spain

olganm:

Thanks to wonderful Sally Cronin for making my book ‘I Love Your Cupcakes’ part of her series ‘Buy a Book for Christmas from around the World’. Plenty of great books and don’t miss her wonderful interviews, videos…and everything!

Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:

I have loved meeting so many extraordinary people this year from the world’s of music, art and of course writing.  As we approach Christmas I thought I would give you a hand with your shopping list and showcase some of my guest’s work.

Today a writer who has become one of a group of bloggers who also share and support each other on other social media sites. It is often said that the life of a writer is solitary and that books are hard to market in this modern publishing environment.  I don’t agree.  I see blogging in particular as a community with like minded people supporting each other and developing relationships. There are many writers here on WordPress who do just that by interviewing authors or offering guest post opportunities.  The author today does just that with her Friday interviews.

Olga Núñez Miret was born in Barcelona and moved…

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¡Es Halloween! ¿Os gustaría conocer a un vampiro? ¡Os presento a Blaine!

Hola a todos:

Como sabéis los viernes normalmente os traigo novedades literarias o un autor invitado. Aprovechando que es Halloween decidí que hoy era el día idóneo para traeros esta novela, Blaine, ahora veréis por qué, pero cuando empecé a echarle un vistazo (me he comunicado con el autor, Micky Bane, a través de Facebook y hace tiempo que quería traérosla) me dí cuenta de que probablemente a vosotros también os entraría la curiosidad, así que aparte de la novela os dejo algo de información sobre el autor y otra de sus obras, que también suena muy adecuada para estas fechas.

Pero primero, lo prometido es deuda:

Blaine de Micky Bane

Blaine (Crónicas de un vampiro real nº 1) 

“Los vampiros existen y puedo asegurar con completa certeza que mi afirmación es un hecho. ¿Cómo puedo comprobar lo que manifiesto? Muy sencillo: yo soy un vampiro”.

Con esta poderosa afirmación, y cansado de la falsa imagen que han proyectado los suyos debido a la literatura, el cine y la televisión, Christian Blaine, nacido a mediados del siglo XVIII en el Virreinato del Perú, decide contar su vida.

La vida de un vampiro real.

Una vida que mano mortal jamás podría escribir ni mente humana imaginar.

Reseñas:

Review

“Me encontré ante una obra épica, una narrativa fluida y una historia original”. - Blanca Miosi (autora de bestsellers como “La búsqueda” y “El manuscrito”).

 

“Un libro imaginativo y diferente. “Blaine” brinda una excelente panorámica histórica de toda la literatura vampírica con el ojo crítico de un “vampiro verdadero”. – Eriginal Books.

Del autor:

Comencé esta novela en el año 99, mucho antes de la “fiebre de los vampiros” que invadió los medios a nivel mundial. Por azares del destino ha sido concluida tras quince años.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J71D3D4/

http://www.amazon.es/dp/B00J71D3D4/

Autor Micky Bane

Un poquito sobre el autor, Micky Bane:

Micky Bane es un escritor, comunicador y músico peruano nacido en Lima.

 

Ha publicado “Blaine”, primer volumen de la saga “Crónicas de un vampiro real” así como la novela breve:”La hermosa historia de un hombre horrendo”. Ambas se encuentran disponibles a través de Amazon en formato impreso y digital.

Además, Bane se desempeña como músico.

 

Es bajista de la banda de punk / hard rock Arcana en su ciudad natal desde 1997. Cuentan con tres álbumes de estudio en su haber. Acutalmente se encuentran produciendo el próximo, que verá la luz a finales de 2014.

 

De profesión, Comunicador Audiovisual. Ha ganado el Primer lugar en el Festival Nacional de Cortometrajes (FENACO) en 2011, en la categoría de documentales, por su obra “Restaurante Bar Cordano”, que fue seleccionado entre más de un centenar de trabajos en todo el país.

Entre los años 2003 y 2005 se desempeñó como locutor radial en CPN Radio y Vive el rock. Todavía es requerido por su voz para anuncios publicitarios y eventos deportivos.

 

Actualmente se encuentra trabajando en su próxima novela, que formará parte de la saga “Crónicas de un Vampiro real”. Se espera que sea publicada a finales de 2015.

Página de Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Micky-Bane/e/B00JFZKUNS/

Y su otra obra publicada hasta ahora:

La hermosa historia de un hombre horrendo de Micky Bane

La hermosa historia de un hombre horrendo

“La locura es un punto de vista” asegura Román, protagonista de esta novela breve, donde la locura y la verdad se entremezclan y se dividen apenas por un tenue hilo de ecuanimidad.

En “La hermosa historia de un hombre horrendo” no podemos saber con certeza dónde nos hayamos: si en la mente perturbada de un cruel asesino, o en la terrible realidad retratada por sus propias víctimas”

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KBA8UR4/

http://www.amazon.es/dp/B00KBA8UR4/

Gracias a Micky por su visita, gracias a vosotros por leer, y si os ha interesado, ya sabéis, dadle al me gusta, comentad, compartid, y ¡haced CLIC! ¡Y a asustarse que ya toca!

Por cierto, os recuerdo que a partir de mañana estaré tomando parte en NaNoWriMo y no voy a tener tiempo para mucho. Si puedo intentaré seguir trayéndoos invitados y libros, pero si no, puede que me dedique a revisitar posts antiguos o a traeros algún reblog de post interesantes que encuentre por ahí. ¡No digáis que no os he advertido!

Gracias a Cate Russell-Cole from http://cateartios.wordpress.com/ por la imagen

Have you met Lorna Lee yet? What are you waiting for?

Hi all:

As you know on Fridays I  usually bring you guest authors or new books. Today, I go one better and I’ll do both. I read about my guest today, Lorna Lee, in one of the blogs I follow, and found her spontaneous, fascinating, and refreshingly honest. She confessed that although she enjoys writing and sharing her thoughts in her blog, she hasn’t explored social media and is relying on word-of-mouth to get her book to the attention of the readers. I though you’d like to meet her and when I contacted her, she kindly agreed to share some information about herself and her books.

And without further ado, I leave you with Lorna Lee!

Author Lorna Lee

In her former life as a sociology professor, Lorna published many academic and research papers. Creative writing is a new path taken since her premature disability retirement in 2006 due to Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome.

Never Turn Back is her second book and first novel. Her first book is a memoir entitled How Was I Supposed to Know? That book was awarded Best Memoir, 2012 by the Adirondack Writing Center in their Annual Literary Award Contest. In 2010, she was a finalist in the memoir genre of the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Contest with her short story, Monkey Business.

Lorna currently lives with the man of her dreams and the dog of her dreams in the home of her dreams in the Portland, Oregon area. She keeps herself busy by writing, quilting, walking, meditating, and blogging.

To find out more about Lorna and her current shenanigans, visit her blog, lornasvoice.com. She can be contacted via a page on her blog dedicated to this novel.

And here, her new book:

Never Turn Back by Lorna Earl

Meri Vaarsara had a dream and something to prove. She also had incredibly bad fortune and even worse timing.

Her dream was to become a famous fashion designer in Paris, a dream born from a need to prove herself worthy of love and a happy life, something her stern Finnish mother never fostered but her seafaring father always knew was hers for the taking. So at the tender age of sixteen, Meri left the security of her family and her home for a country where she didn’t speak the language and she didn’t know a soul.

Paris in the late 1920s was not friendly to immigrants, even those with extraordinary talents. Forced to find work as a domestic, Meri forged ahead through turns of fate and misfortune as Paris braced for Hitler’s invasion. By choice, Meri becomes a single mother caring for her half-Jewish daughter throughout the occupation of France. Once the war was over, she used her feminine wiles to find her way to America, the land of milk and honey, with the hope of finally being able to work as a designer in a New York fashion house. But that too was not to be, until fate and a kind stranger stepped in to help.

What Readers Should Know

The “bones” of this story are real. What happens in the story happened to real people. I simply didn’t know all the details that linked all the events, so I had to make up a great deal of the narrative to form a story that flowed. I changed names and places in America to protect the privacy of my family, mostly my mother (who for some reason doesn’t want to be famous).

Where You Can Buy the Book

Amazon. com for U.S. customers

Amazon.co.uk for customers in the U.K.

Amazon,fr for customers in France

And here a few reviews by some very discerning pens:

“Never Turn Back by Lorna Lee is the remarkable journey of Meri, a young Finnish woman through the 20th century.

Brought up by a critical mother and a mostly absent but philosophically minded father in the quiet Finnish countryside Meri dreams of bigger things and she leaves for Paris soon after the Civil War and WW1, to pursue a career in Fashion abroad.

Immigrant life in its harsh reality falls short of her expectations, but she proves determined to keep going. Her life is a series of choices, of exploiting and being exploited, friends and foes. An impressive life story, a loving tribute to a strong woman and a masterful illustration of life’s many obstacles on a war torn continent.

Woven into the narrative are great details about the historical setting and the times. The book covers a lot of ground, geographically and historically, and focuses on many different aspects of Meri’s life as she grows as a person and as her life and priorities change: Her ambitions, her ideas, old and new emotional scars. The book is a moving and enlightening journey.

Meri is a fascinating character and her story demonstrates the element of chance and faith excellently. She stayed with me long after I had finished reading this remarkable book.” Review by Christoph Fischer, author of The Three Nations Trilogy (historical fiction novels), Time to Let Go, and Conditions.

“Dreaming of becoming a famous designer, the protagonist, Meri, burns through on the page in a once vibrant Paris bracing for Hitler’s invasion. Faced with a pregnancy by a Jewish man, Meri is intent on keeping the secret and surviving at all costs in an increasingly hostile environment. Never Turn Back is a captivating narrative, a metaphor for the longing and conviction of youth that surmounts horrors and tragedies. In one heart-wrenching turn after another the brilliant writing of Lorna Earl weaves a compelling tale—based on real people—that glues the reader to the page and keeps the imagery of this story in our minds, and hearts, for days after the last page is shut.” Review by Paulette Mahurin, author of The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap and His Name was Ben.

Thanks so much to Lorna Lee for this her first visit to my blog (I hope there will be many more) , thanks to all of your for reading, and you know the drill, like, comment, share, and don’t forget to CLICK!

Ah, and from tomorrow I’ll be taking part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), a challenge to write the draft of a novel (at least 50000 words) in 30 days. I hope I’ll still have the time to share new books with you, but might also reblog some favourites, or just talk about the process. And if you don’t see me very often, I’ll just be writing. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Thanks to Cate Russell-Cole from http://cateartios.wordpress.com/ for the image

Welcome to an Interview with (the wonderful) Olga Nunez Miret

olganm:

Thanks to my dear friend, great author and awesome blogger, Lord David Prosser, for interviewing me for his blog! Start following him and don’t forget to check his books. You’ll have a good laugh!

Originally posted on barsetshirediaries:

Welcome to an Interview with : Olga Nunez Miret

Author of. I Love Your Cupcakes

A brief synopsis.

Dulce, Adelfa and Storm, the protagonists of I Love Your Cupcakes are business partners, friends and share some “interesting” family connections. All the men Dulce meets only ever talk about her cakes and she’s tired of it. Her friend Adelfa, although she’s a Chemistry Professor, can’t manage to find the recipe for the perfect relationship. And Storm, the third of the partners of their bakery/coffee shop/bookshop/art gallery and ex-fire station, is an artist who is not a master in the art of love. How could they imagine that at the studio of the contest “Do You Have What it Takes to Be the Next Baking Star?” they’d find sexual harassment, cheats, fights and also love?

With dogs, fire trucks, London double-decker buses, school buses, artists, chemists, engineers, architects, intrigue, scandals, bigamy, and…

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¿Se os dan mal las imágenes? Probad Canva. Y unas cuantas fotos.

Hola a todos:

Los martes suelo publicar…variedad de cosas. A veces os cuento lo que estoy haciendo, en qué estoy trabajando, cosas que veo, leo, o me pasan. Y de vez en cuando se me ocurre intentar crear un post que le pueda ser útil a la gente que me lee. No me hago muchas ilusiones, pero por probar…

Como recordaréis hace unas semanas intenté crear algo parecido a un video de mi novela ‘I Love Your Cupcakes‘(Me encantan tus cupcakes) (con mucha ayuda de You Tube). Como ya os he dicho muchas veces, manipular imágenes (y sacar fotos) no es lo mío, así que decidí hacer algo simple. Por suerte, a través de otro post, descubrí Canva.

Con Canva se pueden crear una variedad de cosas que tienen como base una imagen: banners, posts de Twitter, de Facebook, para el blog, cabeceras de Twitter, post en Pinterest, cubiertas para CDs, invitaciones, posters…Y sin tener que preocuparse de las medidas, ya que se encarga de todo, aunque también os da la posibilidad de ajustarlo a las medidas que queráis.

Aquí os dejo uno que había preparado antes:

Un poco de todo

Hay plantillas, iconos, marcos que podéis usar, podéis subir vuestras propias imágenes, aplicar filtros, cortar y seleccionar partes de la imagen, cambiar el tipo de letra, el color…Ofrece bastante variedad de opciones gratuitas y también muchas que podéis acquirir por $1. Y luego las podéis descargar como imagen o en formato PDF.

Y lo que más me gustó a mí, que soy bastante torpe, es que ofrecen tutorías de diseño que ilustran los distintos tipos de cosas que podéis hacer. Aunque no se os de el inglés muy bien, no son nada complicados y tienen el formato de una serie de ejercicios prácticos (se tarda unos minutos en completar cada uno), y si no sabéis com hacerlo también podéis ver un video muy cortito que ilustra cada ejercicio. Si os apuntáis a Canva os irán enviando enlaces a los tutoriales de vez en cuando, pero también podéis acceder a todos cuando entráis en la página.

Lo que usé para el video fueron una serie de imágenes con texto que creé en Canva,  usando la portada final del libro, algunas imágenes de posibles portadas (que me preparó mi amiga y gran diseñadora Lourdes Vidal), y…pasteles.

Y hablando de imágenes, os había prometido compartir algunas de las fotografías que mi amiga Christelle tomó en Florencia, porque ella tenía cámaras mucho mejores (yo solo el teléfono) y además en mucho mejor fotógrafa que yo.

Aquí van.

Un techo decorado fabuloso

A los señores les había prometido una Venus. Aquí la de Tiziano.

Instalación escultórica callejera cerca del Ponte Vecchio

Ésta me encanta.

Gracias a todos por leer, a Christelle por las fotos, a Canva por las imágenes y

Me gusta

Are you bad with images? Try Canva. And other bits and bobs.

Hi all:

On Tuesdays I bring you…who knows? Whatever comes to my mind, novelties about what I’m doing, things that have happened, reflections, and sometimes I try to bring you something possibly  useful.

A little while back I share with you the video (sort of) that I created (with plenty of help from You Tube) for my new romance, I Love Your Cupcakes.  I’m not an image person at all, and I decided to try and keep it simple. Thankfully, through another post I discovered something called Canva. You’ve probably already heard about it, but just in case…

Canva offers you the option of using their templates to create all kinds of things, from covers for CDs, cards, invitations, Twitter, Pinterest or Facebook posts (so you don’t need to worry about the different sizes of images required), banners, blog posts…

Like this one I prepared earlier.

You can change colours, letter sizes and types, upload and use your own images, crop, use filters, etc. They have a fair amount of free resources and quite a large amount of paying ones (it’s $1 per image or paying template or element). Then whatever you make you can download as image or PDF. And it also saves it there.

And the best thing about it is that it offers you a variety of design tutorials where you can learn how to use the different features. And those are short and practical (it gives you 5 or 6 exercises to do that take only a few minutes and you have the option of watching a very brief video if you don’t know how to do it).

Having tried a few of the programmes for manipulating images and being quite clumsy with images, I find this one easy to move around. Do give it a go. I used it to create the slides that I put together in the video (that and images Lourdes Vidal, the designer and I had considered for the cover of the book).

And talking about images, I had promised you to share a few more of the images my friend Christelle took in Florence, as both her camera and her skills are much better than mine.

So here….

Fabulous ceiling

I had promised the gentlemen a Venus. This is Titian’s

Street sculpture installation near Ponte Vecchio

This one I think is so good…

Thanks to you all for reading, to Canva for being, to my friend Christelle for her pictures and…

Thanks Canva!

‘Hijos de Atenea’ de Mercedes Pinto Maldonado. Cuando el espíritu humano no se puede esclavizar.

Hola a todos:

Como sabéis, los viernes normalmente os traigo novedades literarias, y últimamente la suerte ha dictado que haya una muy buena cosecha. De hecho me estoy planteando si debería empezar a presentar varios libros a la vez para dar cabida a todos, pero ya veremos.

Hace unas semanas descubrí que una de las escritoras que había sido mi invitada hacía algún tiempo, Mercedes Pinto Maldonado ha publicado una nueva novela que suena fascinante, y sabía que os la tenía que traer. Y sin daros más la lata, os dejo con:

HIjos de Atenea de Mercedes Pinto Maldonado

Hijos de Atenea

En la Angola de 1855 nace Bahati Pasolargo, un bosquimano educado en la sabana por un misionero jesuita heterodoxo. El legado de sabiduría recibido de su amado maestro durante la infancia lo convertirá en un nativo con una formación excepcional en el África austral. Sus conocimientos comenzarán a dar fruto en la travesía que hará como esclavo en 1870 en el último barco negrero que llegó a La Habana. En la bodega del buque, en la situación más hostil e inhumana imaginable, nacerá Ojosdeagua, un niño que desde su nacimiento será el eje de la existencia del joven san. Ya en Cuba, siendo parte de las posesiones de un amo singular, el vínculo afectivo entre el muchacho y el niño forjará el destino de ambos.

La vida de los dos protagonistas encarna un gran paso en nuestra historia. Ellos, como los últimos esclavos vendidos bajo la legalidad y convencidos de que el conocimiento es la llave de la libertad, cierran una puerta que nunca debió abrirse. Bahati y Ojosdeagua representan la lucha y la superación desde la perspectiva de la sabiduría. Son hijos de Atenea.

Enlaces:

http://www.amazon.es/dp/B00NE5T5OU/

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NE5T5OU/

Aquí os dejo la página de la escritora en Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Mercedes-Pinto-Maldonado/e/B0070O0YQY/

Y un par de enlaces más por si os queréis poner en contacto con ella:

Mantiene contacto con sus lectores desde hace años en su página web:

http://www.mercedespinto.com

También puedes seguirla en Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/mercedespintomaldonado

Muchas gracias a Mercedes por traernos una obra tan interesante, gracias a todos vosotros por leer, y si os ha interesado, dadle al me gusta, comentad, compartid, y sobre todo, ¡haced CLIC!

Come and meet Chris Rose! Writer, translator and…

Hi all:

It’s Friday and after our culinary interlude, I’m going back to writing about guest authors and their books. Today, it’s the turn of Chris Rose, who is a member of one of the groups of authors I belong too and visit often, ASMSG,and who shares with me his love of translating (in his case mostly French and in a more professional capacity) and a cracking sense of humour. (We’ve also discovered I’ve worked in the city were he was born for quite a few years).

But well, enough chit-chat, here is Chris:

Author Chris Rose

Born and bred in the city of steel: Sheffield.

Spent – or misspent, whichever your viewpoint – the majority of his ‘young’ years on the Northern Soul circuit. It’s around this time and place that his novel is set – ‘Wood, Talc and Mr. J’

His academic education came much later, from scratch, in a sense. In time, he fell in love with the idea of languages, French in particular, and went on to get a BA Hons in French Language and Literature with subsidiary Spanish, at The University of Sheffield. He was a ‘mature student’, though maybe not as mature as he would like to think, looking back…

After which, he moved down south – mid 90s – and eventually further still to the South of France for a few years, where he taught English. He then moved up to northern France to do much the same thing.

But it was here where he also began to write, or experiment with writing.

He came back to England in the mid-00s and lived in North London for five years, teaching and writing again.

And for the last four or five years, he’s lived in Norwich, where he’s completed a Masters in Literary Translation, at the UEA – he likes to believe he’s most definitely mature now!

He’s now working his way toward making a living by writing, with a little translation on the side…

He tends to be picky about books, and take his time reading them; he expects each word to count; something he can go back to, read again – and again. Things witty, satirical, poetic… Moving. Favourite writers of late? Maybe Markas Zusak. Anna Funder, her ‘All That I Am’. Actually, he’s only just discovered Kurt Vonnegut, and read ‘The Slaughterhouse Five’.

Soulful writers, and their soulful things. And maybe he tries to emulate them.

Same goes for his taste in films, music… and people.

Chris is currently working on a sequel to his debut novel, Wood, Talc and Mr. J, but the title of which he prefers to keep a secret for the time being. he is also collaborating with his illustrator on a series of children’s stories…

Here are some of his links:

Amazon author page:

http://www.amazon.com/Chris-Rose/e/B00LW3RIRM/ 

Website – please like my home page!

http://woodtalcandmrj.com/

Goodreads: 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7868651.Chris_Rose

Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/WoodTalcandMrJ

 Twitter:

https://twitter.com/WritingOnACloud

 Rebelmouse:

https://www.rebelmouse.com/Chris_Rose/

Authorsdb:

http://authorsdb.com/authors-directory/14198-chris-rose.

And this is his novel:

Wood, Talc and Mr.J by Chris Rose

A look back. Without the rose-tinted spectacles, but with hindsight and humour, and with poignancy and affection. 1978. The North. Phillip sees life in a simplistic if passionate way: up or down, us and them, black, white and nothing in-between. When not doing his ‘thing’ in Wigan’s Casino Club – voted ‘The Greatest Disco in the World’ by Time Magazine – Phillip hates the world. Or at least he thinks he does. He longs for the weekend, or a greater, permanent escape from the daily grind of factory life in an industrial town. With a little imagination, he might realise things midweek aren’t that bad: there’s the loving family, the secure job amid mass unemployment, a relationship with the perfect young woman… Or maybe he realises too late. And all he’d deemed important was only ever an illusion, his reflected image included. Coming full circle by way of loss and more loss, you would hope lessons are learned… The book progresses through myriad dream sequences, interwoven song-themes, a father’s philosophical ramblings, ever blackening wit, leitmotif – or seemingly recurring scenes; is someone laughing at our hero? And Phillip’s own, lyrical, strut-like, black or white manner. Dancehall adventures via train rides to Heaven, scooter cruising almost coast to coast. Beneath the pier encounters with the opposite sex, et al… set against the birth of Scargill and Thatcher feuding…

Link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LOWZJTK/

Thanks so much to Chris for visiting, thanks to you all for reading, and you know the drill, if you’ve enjoyed it, like, share, comment, and please, CLICK!