Heather Fraser Brainerd's Blog, page 3

A visit from author Iva Valentino

Today we welcome Middle Grade author Iva Valentino for a visit. Her book Black Cats and Ballet Slippers looks awesome!

Brainerd & Fraser: Hello, Iva! We understand that you live in Arizona. We live in upstate New York, which rather resembled Siberia this winter. What���s it like to live someplace warm and sunny? We���re having trouble grasping the concept.

Iva: It���s getting pretty warm and toasty here already, and it���s only March! My husband and I were just talking about turning on the air conditioning. But I have to say that I really love living in the desert! I���m a true desert rat. I am a big weenie about cold weather. If it gets below 80 degrees, that means a long sleeve shirt and pants for me. Or a cardigan���I love cardigans. Haha! I like visiting cold places, but I get a bit grumpy if I have to stay there too long. Clear skies, sunshine, and warm weather for me, please!

B&F: You used to teach middle school science, which is so cool! What was your favorite part of teaching?

Iva: Teaching science was awesome! I really loved a lot of things about it. One of my favorite things was teaching lessons to my classes. I would make every lesson into a show, and I would do jokes, crazy voices, songs, dances, and cheers��� just about anything to get my students into the topic! I also enjoyed doing science experiments with the kids. I loved to see them figure things out on their own and learn what science was all about.

B&F: In your book, the science teacher is suspected of witchcraft. Is this, by any chance, based on personal experience?

Iva: I���ve never had a witchy science teacher! Nor have I ever been a witchy science teacher. The idea for Black Cats and Ballet Slippers came around when I moved into a different classroom during my last few years of teaching. The prep room had a LOT of stuff that had accumulated from previous teachers���no one had ever really bothered to clean it out. They just kept shoving new junk on top of all of the old junk. So this is when I started imagining that all of the crusty old unlabeled bottles were potions, crushed unicorn horn, lizard brains, and all the other good witchy things. And then��� TA DA!!! Black Cats was born!

B&F: We can totally picture that! What���s the most amazing place you���ve ever visited?

Iva: Trakoscan Castle, in Croatia, is absolutely amazing. It���s up there as one of my favorite places ever. It���s surrounded by a forest and lake, and it looks like a fairytale castle. Whenever I visit my brother in Croatia, we���ll go and I feel like I���m Snow White, traipsing around in the Enchanted Forest!

B&F: That sounds amazing. What���s your favorite quote from a book or movie?

Iva: ���Are you not entertained?��� ~ Maximus from Gladiator.��I thought Russell Crowe (Maximus) was very entertaining indeed!

And now for the rapid fire round!

Cats or dogs? Both! I have a dog, and I���d like to have cats. Unfortunately, the dog thinks cats are tasty.

Ballet or break dancing? Ballet. But I think ballet break dancing would be cool, too!

Bill Nye or Beakman���s World? Bill Nye the Science Guy

Explore a new city or lounge on the beach? Explore a new city���and take a million photos! And then spend the next day lounging on the beach. (Taking more photos.)

Chocolate or vanilla? Vanilla. All the way. VANILLA.

Gemma Mayfield feels like middle school is a lot to bite off and chew. School, ballet classes, and planning on how to get Trevor Davis to ask her to the Halloween Dance are a tough balancing act. On top of that, Gemma is convinced that her science teacher, Ms. Pruett, is a witch.

When things start getting fishy at school, Gemma knows that Ms. Pruett is behind it all! Students are getting spells placed on them and start to go missing. Gemma and her best friend, Izzie, vow to stop Ms. Pruett from doing any more damage. Will they be able to save Middleton Middle School from witchcraft?

Find Black Cats and Ballet Slippers on Amazon and MuseItUp Publishing.

Find Iva Valentino on her website, blog, and Facebook.

Cleveland Rocks. Fashionably.

If you’re like me, March is your favorite month of the year. You’ve had enough of cold and snow. March is when things start to change for the better. On television, we find baseball Spring Training games, telling us that up here in the North, we’ll see grass soon. We start having rain instead of snow, meaning that the temperatures are finally up above freezing. Most importantly, we have Fashion Week Cleveland, so we know that it’s almost time to pack away our parkas and get out our booty shorts.

When I think of Fashion Week Cleveland, I think of supermodels. When I think of supermodels, I think of the sausage, French fries, and coleslaw that they’re always eating. Coincidentally, those are the primary ingredients of Cleveland’s signature dish, the Polish Boy sandwich. In honor of Fashion Week Cleveland, why don’t we make a Polish Boy in our Easy Bake Oven?

So what exactly is in a Polish Boy? We start with a roll. Throw on some kind of sausage. Layer on some French Fries. Next is barbecue sauce. Top the whole thing with coleslaw. Before getting to the sandwich proper, I started with the barbecue sauce, since I wanted to make it as Cleveland-authentic as possible. I cheated a little bit here and made the sauce on the stove. I justified this by saying that it wasn’t strictly for the Polish Boy. The plan was to use it the first time the snow on my patio receded enough to cook some chicken on the grill. I used Cleveland chef Michael Simon’s recipe, going so far as to order Bertman Ball Park Mustard (a staple at Cleveland’s Progressive Field). When it was finished, the taste test resulted in a puckered mouth and watering eyes. There was way, way, way too much vinegar. Adding a ton more brown sugar helped, but not completely. Also, the Coriander was too much for me. Maybe it’ll be fine when I slather it on some chicken and grill it, but I didn’t care for it as a stand-alone condiment.

Chopped Keilbasa and Supermodel-Sized Fries

Without having to Easy Bake the barbecue sauce, the tough part was going to be the French fries. It takes forever to bake them in the regular oven using a big sheet. How long would it take using the Easy Bake’s tiny tray? The solution came from one of my kitchen gadgets, a slicer that can make Julienne cuts. Using these little mini-fries (okay, so they were really more like hash browns), I could fill the tray and cook them in 25 minutes per batch. They cooked a little uneven (crispy on the bottom and slightly soggy on the top), but after stirring them up a bit, they were fine. Next, I chopped up some kielbasa and ran that through the oven. I made my own coleslaw as well, using nothing more than pre-shredded cabbage, mayo, and sugar.

Finally, it was time to put everything together and have some lunch. It was awesome. Almost. What was the problem? Kielbasa, fries, and coleslaw sounds pretty awesome. You know when you throw a party and you’ve got that one friend who’s kind of a downer, but you invite them anyway, and they ruin the party and make everyone want to leave early? That was the barbecue sauce. I’d like to try this again and use sauce from a bottle (gasp!), but, honestly, I don’t think I have it in me. Do you know how long it took to make one sandwich worth of Julienne fries? I don’t, but it’s probably easy to figure out. Four batches, twenty-five minutes per batch. That works out to something like sixty-five minutes.

Ready to be Eated

So there’s March’s entry in our salute to the United Nations International Light Celebration Technology Thing, or whatever it’s called. Up next: we honor the Netherlands’ Koningsdag (April 27) by making…I don’t know. Something Dutch.

Horno Fácil… or however you say “Easy Bake Oven” in Spanish

So you’ve probably been sitting around, saying to yourself, “Hey, February is almost over. Shouldn’t Dave have put up a blog post about the United Nations International Year of Light Technology, or whatever the heck it was called?” Well, if you thought that, you were right. February is almost over and I should have a blog post about the Light Year thing. Also, no doubt your calendar, like mine, has today marked as Dominican Republic Independence Day. So how about some Dominican inspired fried mini meat pies?

Hang on a second. Let’s back up. Forget the fried part. We’re using the Easy Bake Oven.

We’ll start with the filling. Our little meat pie (or pastelito) can have just about anything we want inside. Personally, I’d go with something bacon-oriented, but I couldn’t find a good Dominican recipe with bacon. So we’re going with beef. I used this recipe as a basis, but changed it a little, using one large tomato, pepper, and onion, along with a pound of beef, about half a head of garlic, salt, and pepper.

Easy-Baked Meat Filling

Once this was nice and mixed in the food processor, it was time for the crust, which came from here. The amounts listed would make way more than I needed, so I halved everything.

The pastelitos were assembled, brushed with oil, and thrown in the Easy Bake for ten minutes. They came out paler, not to mention a little drier, than if they had been fried, but they were still darn good.

Easy-Baked Pastelitos

Stay tuned next month as we travel to the distant, exotic location of Cleveland, Ohio… Same Easy Bake time, same Easy Bake channel.

 

Horno F��cil… or however you say “Easy Bake Oven” in Spanish

So you’ve probably been sitting around, saying to yourself, “Hey, February is almost over. Shouldn’t Dave have put up a blog post about the United Nations International Year of Light Technology, or whatever the heck it was called?” Well, if you thought that, you were right. February is almost over and I should have a blog post about the Light Year thing. Also, no doubt your calendar, like mine,��has today marked as Dominican Republic Independence Day. So how about some Dominican inspired fried mini meat pies?

Hang on a second. Let’s back up. Forget the fried part. We’re using the Easy Bake Oven.

We’ll start with the filling. Our little meat pie (or pastelito) can��have just about anything we want inside. Personally, I’d go with something bacon-oriented, but I couldn’t find a good Dominican recipe with bacon. So we’re going with beef. I used this recipe as a basis, but changed it a little,��using one large tomato, pepper, and onion, along with a pound of beef, about half a head of garlic, salt, and pepper.

Easy-Baked Meat Filling

Once this was nice and mixed in the food processor, it was time for the crust, which came from here. The amounts listed would make way more than I needed, so I halved everything.

The pastelitos were assembled, brushed with oil, and thrown in the Easy Bake for ten minutes. They came out paler, not to mention a little drier,��than if they had been fried, but they were still darn good.

Easy-Baked Pastelitos

Stay tuned next month as we travel to the distant, exotic location of Cleveland, Ohio… Same Easy Bake time, same Easy Bake channel.

 

It’s Up to You, New York, New York

Today’s blog post is brought to you by Stuart R. West, author and owner of several pairs of pants. At least, that’s what we’re led to believe. Take it away, Stuart.

Stuart R. West doing his uncanny Frank Sinatra impression

Well, author David Fraser threw down a geographical challenge and, like a fool, I accepted. Really dumb after the last ���interview��� Dave composed with me. I should���ve known better. But I don���t.

Dave lives in New York, which in itself gives him a sense of entitlement worthy of teenagers. And I���m like, ���why?��� All I really know about New York is what Frank Sinatra tells me and that ain���t much. ���It���s the city that never sleeps.��� Really? Why would anyone want to live in a city full of insomniacs? Scary.

Anyway, in honor of David Fraser and Heather Fraser Brainerd���s new release, Act of Abduction (the third entry in their marvelously entertaining Jose Picada mystery series), Dave decided to investigate Kansas. I tossed on my journalistic cap and dug into the important things about New York to return the favor. What I found out may shock you���

Okay���New York boasts sixteen (identified) serial killers. Kansas was host to a mere six. New York is approximately 469 square miles large while Kansas is 82,282 square miles. You do the math. That���s one serial killer per every 29 square miles. Must be something in the water. I guess since no one sleeps in New York, something has to occupy your time. (Which reminds me, check out my new book, The Secret Society of Like-Minded Individuals, for everything you���ve ever wanted to know about serial killers. Go get it. Do it: The Secret Society of Like-Minded Individuals. It���s practically a text-book. But fun.).
First, our cyber-tour takes us to Amsterdam, New York, where you can enjoy the lovely Professional Wrestlers Hall of Fame (personally, I think ���Hall of Shame��� might be more appropriate, but hey, I���m from Kansas, what do I know?). Here you���ll get to enjoy a tasteful display of famous midget wrestlers, women wrestlers, and then, midget women wrestlers. Look carefully and you���ll spot Andre the Giant���s jock-strap. Fun for the whole family!

Pictures perfect for memorabilia or hitting your opponent in the head

Next stop brings us to Oneida, New York, home of the World���s Smallest Church. This ���outhouse��� is in the middle of a pond on an ���island.��� There���s only room for three people inside. Standing room only. A preacher, a sinner, a soloist? Look out if you gotta��� genuflect.
Let���s mosey on over to Cooperstown, New York, and take a gander at the Cardiff Giant. What is a ���Cardiff Giant��� you ask? It���s a ten-foot long statue of a giant that an atheist carved in 1869 to dupe religious people into believing it���s a ���giant in the earth��� as mentioned in the book of Genesis. Guess what? Sharp-minded entrepreneurs are STILL using it to dupe the rubes.
Over in Binghampton, New York, step right up to see Blossom, the Black Angus Bull. Blossom is a large fiberglass statue of a bull, painted with flowers, a true acid flashback sure to give children nightmares. What���s it mean? Dunno.
Don���t forget to check out the Brain Museum in Buffalo, New York, which boasts the ���biggest display of brains you���ll ever see.��� That is, if you WANT to see brains. Unless you���re a zombie, I imagine it���s a pass. There���re all sorts of brains on display, pickled, sliced and displayed with loving care. You can���t miss it. It���s right next to the Gallstone Museum.
Moving on to Flanders, you gotta��� see the Big Duck. You can���t miss it. How could you? It���s a 20 foot long, 30 foot tall building in the shape of a duck. Step inside the duck to buy all sorts of duck souvenirs (���Duck taffy?���). The real kicker is the duck���s eyes glow red at night, a sure sign you���re at the gates of Hell.

It’s…a big duck

LeRoy, New York, is home to one of the best (worst?) NY attractions, the Jell-O Museum. Here you���ll learn about everything you���ve ever wanted to know about Jell-O. Five minutes in, you���re done! (Psst, ask to see the special ���Blob��� room when you���re there. Just do it. Wacky antics are sure to ensue). Sadly, the Bill Cosby exhibit has all of his images cut out and replaced by photos of Justin Bieber.
A moment of solemnity is appropriate when you visit Wantagh, New York, where the grave of Checkers, Nixon���s dog, is located. On Checker���s tombstone, it says, ���I am not a crook���s dog.��� Toss a biscuit on the grave, shed a tear, get back on the bus.

There you have it, folks. Our cyber-tour of New York has ended. I suppose ���Ol��� Blue-Eyes��� had it right after all, ���It���s up to you, New York, New York.��� (And I STILL don���t know what that means).

Oh, and one final thing that New York has wrought? Dave Fraser and Heather Brainerd, writing siblings extraordinaire.

Thank you, Stuart, for your touching words about New York. If you enjoyed this post and want to learn more about Stuart R. West, Kansan Literary Ambassador to the World, click here. There, you can find our return salute to the great state of Kansas.

Are you a Stuart West reader? Then you should check out his latest novel The Secret Society of Like-Minded Individuals. It’s his best one yet. Not a Stuart West fan? Check it out anyway. You will be.

 

The latest Josie P. Cates mystery is here!

To celebrate the release of our latest book, Dave and I would like to share the forward with you. Enjoy!

Jos�� Picada, P.I. Book Three

Forward

By Josie P. Cates

There seems to be a bit of confusion. Family, friends, and complete strangers have asked me several times why this series is titled Jos�� Picada, P.I. Yes, there is a character by that name, but he���s not even real. I, Josie, however, am.

Wow, there are a lot of commas in that last sentence. It looks wrong. I guess I���ll just leave that for the editors to sort out.

So back to my rant. If you���ve read the first two books, you know about the mix-up with all the promotional junk that led to me using the Jos�� name for my detective business. Well, wouldn���t you know, it happened all over again. The series was supposed to be called Josie P. Cates, P.I. Somewhere along the line, there was another mix-up. It wasn���t caught until right before the first book was going to be released. By that time, the cover was done, all the proofs had been put together, and promotional stuff had already been released. Jos�� strikes again.

By now, the damage is done. Everyone considers it ���the Jos�� series.��� Everyone but me, that is. Somewhere between my eyeballs and my brain the letters get changed so that I read the covers as Josie P. Cates, P.I. every time. It looks pretty.

Find the rest of the story on MuseItUp, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. And to further celebrate the occasion, we invite you to try a Jos�� Picada Margarita. Cheers!

The Jos�� Picada Margarita. Recipe by Al Simpson. Photography by 2eat2drink.com

The Jos�� Picada Margarita

2 oz. reposado tequila
1 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2 oz. Ancho Reyes liqueur
1/2 oz. Grand Marnier
1/2 oz. agave nectar

Shake and pour over crushed ice. Garnish with jalape��o and lime. Salud!

Throw Another Shrimp on the 100-Watt Incandescent

G’day mates and matettes. Today marks the first stop on��our Easy Bake tour of the world. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please��read this prior post.

So anyway, January 26 marks Australia Day, the official national day of Australia. And what food is more Australian than “shrimp on the barbie?” Well, maybe a koala burger, but my local grocery store didn’t have any koala meat, plus my daughters would probably never speak to me again if I ate a koala.

I used this recipe for the sauce, with a few changes. First of all, I used pre-cooked shrimp.��I wasn’t in the mood for sushi and��didn’t know��how well it would cook them. Along with koala meat, my grocery store didn’t have shallots, so I substituted half a small sweet onion. It was easy to make, but it took a long time to chop everything up. We’ll blame that on below average knife skills.

Shrimp marinating for an hour, which just about gives the Easy Bake time to warm up.

The recipe called for grilling the whole batch at once for about two minutes per side. That, if my math is correct, is roughly four minutes total cooking time. I didn’t have a nice hot grill, however, I had an Easy Bake Oven. That means that instead of cooking them all at once, I could only do three at a time in my little three-inch round pan.

Three shrimp, fresh out of the Easy Bake. Now for three more.

After a few tries (and, of course, having to snack on all the early attempts), I decided to give the shrimp a good ten minutes. Maybe it was overkill, especially considering that the shrimp was pre-cooked, but they seemed better nice and hot. The downside of this was that, to make a plate with four servings, it took forty minutes. That gave most of them plenty of time to get back down to room temperature. So the only workarounds would be to either eat them as soon as they come out or keep your room temperature at about three hundred degrees.

Forty minutes to cook, forty seconds to eat.

So is this an effective way of preparing shrimp? No. Would I do this again? I doubt it. Did I have fun doing this? Absolutely. It’s a great recipe that I’ll try again once my outdoor grill is no longer under two feet of snow.

But for now, Australia, shrimp, and light-based technologies, I salute you.

 

The newest Jos�� Picada cover is here!

The third installment of our Jos�� Picada, P.I., series will release on February 3, 2015. We just received our cover art, and it’s killer:

Josie P. Cates, P.I., springs back into action when an old colleague from her insurance days calls in desperate need of a detective. A number of his claimants have gone missing, and the police are eyeing him as a suspect. Josie embarks on the case while simultaneously juggling friends and relationships, only to find that the case leads her back to a former adversary. With another foray into the dark and mystical looming before her, will Josie find the strength for one more supernatural battle? Or will she just go for a pizza with her new boyfriend?

Preorder Act of Abduction now from MuseItUp Publishing��or Amazon��for the special price of $2.99.

So, what do you think of the cover? Let us know in the comments.

Let There Be Light(bulbs)

The United Nations International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies 2015 Logo

In 1945, with a world still reeling from a globe-spanning war, the United Nations was born with the hope that it could avoid another major conflict. In the decades since, the organization has taken on the objectives of peacekeeping, human rights, economic development, and humanitarian assistance. 2015 will mark perhaps the high water mark of their accomplishments: the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies.

It promises to be quite an eventful year, with light-related stuff happening Paris. I don’t know exactly what stuff is happening, but, hey, it’s in Paris, so it’ll probably be pretty cool. And if not, you can always ditch it and go to the Louvre.

The International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies has caused me to contemplate light and light-based technologies. It is, after all, something that we tend to overlook, with the exception of early December, when I spend hours upon hours wrestling with miles of tangled Christmas lights. So I asked myself, “Self, what is the epitome of light-based technology?”

“Self,” I answered, “that’s easy. Easy bake, that is. As in, Easy Bake Oven.”

While I never had one myself, I recall using them as a child. My sister had one that was shaped like an old-fashioned cast iron stove. The “cakes” that came from it were usually edible. I’ve since graduated to using real ovens, and the results are generally much better. But that’s not to say that it’s any more fun.

Unless they can get their hands on an old one, today’s youths are deprived of baking with light bulbs. A few years ago, the government got into the business of regulating light bulbs. As a result, the Easy Bake Oven’s design was changed to eliminate them. Sadly, the current model has a heating element built in.

So in 2015, I managed to get my hands on one of these old, inefficient-but-fun ovens (thank you, eBay)��to make something at least once a month. For example, January 26 is Australia Day, so I’ll make “Shrimp on the Barbie” in the Easy Bake Oven. February is still up for grabs, though. I can’t decide between Dominican Republic empanadas or Estonian pirukad. The only requirement is that the country of origin has a holiday in the month of the blog. So…any suggestions for the rest of the year?

My New (to me) 1978 Model Easy Bake Oven

Chatting With Author James Crofoot

Brainerd & Fraser: Welcome back, James! When will your next book be out?����

James Crofoot: Thanks for having me again. My next book is due out the first week of February. I���m really excited about it. The cover art for it is really cool.

B&F: Cool cover, indeed. Let’s check it out:

B&F: We know you���re a fan of The Hobbit. What do you think about the latest movie?

JC: Man!!! It was great. Saw it with a good friend in 3D. There was enough change from the book to keep me on the edge of my seat. I could go on for hours but don���t want to spoil it. I will say they did an excellent job in tying it into the Lord of the Rings movies.

B&F: If you were to travel ���there and back again,��� where would you most like to go?

JC: Actually, I���ve already done some of the ���there and back again���. But I would still like to see Ireland and Japan. But I think I���m gonna write for the time being. No place like home with the family.

B&F: So true! Suppose you could have one magic power. What would it be?

JC: That���s a tough question. You know there���s always a downfall. I would probably say invisibility. Of course I would like to choose when I become invisible.

B&F: Of course. What are your goals for 2015, besides invisibility?

JC: Write. Get my books out to a larger audience. Putting more resources together in these endeavors.

And for the rapid fire round���

Coffee or tea?��Coffee first thing. Maybe tea after.

Fancy cuisine or comfort food?��Mostly comfort food, but do love that occasional porterhouse.

Elves or Dwarves?��Elves, especially after Legolas. Lol

Magic or martial arts?��Martial arts. I���m rather biased though because I studied a couple different styles.

Great answers, James! Best of luck with your upcoming release!

Thomas must use all he knows to get back his wife, the beacon in his insanity. Preorder now at MuseItUp Publishing.

James Crofoot, a recent graduate of Gotham Writing College, has written stories all his life. Holding two degrees, he’s now starting to put his works out. For more reading visit his website.