Teresa Robeson's Blog, page 14

And now for something completely…music

So we sometimes channel-surf (except we’re streaming now, so it ends up being Youtube channel-surf) after watching Jeopardy, and one night, the Spousal Unit comes across this video from a guy we’d never heard of before and for some reason he chose to start watching it.

The first weird part about this is that the SO, who always prided himself on being “too cool for fools” in his youth and eschews anything that smacks of pop, actually picks a video with the title, “The most complex pop song of all time.” (emphasis mine)

The second weird part is that while our kids have taken piano and guitar lessons for years, SO and I have nearly zero professional music training…and yet we chose to watch this (what ended up being a) complicated musical analysis.

And, folks, I am not kidding you: it was the funniest, most riveting video lesson I have watched in a long time! In fact, I watched it again just now when I pulled it up to write this blog post.

This guy, Rick Beato, is absolutely hilarious and a terrific musician. Check out the video; subscribe to his channel! If you’re more musically inclined than I am, you might even want to pay for his lessons. You can thank me later. (No; I’m not getting paid to say any of this. He doesn’t even know me or that I’m writing this blog post.)

SO not ready for the holidays…

Once upon a time, I had holiday cards ready to be sent out by Thanksgiving. And sometimes, I even create my own art for those cards…

As I got older, I started lagging behind. This year, I may not even send them out (except to a few older relatives). Or I may be late.

I need to keep this post short, too, so I can get back to a book deadline.

I hope your weekend won’t be as harried as mine will be!

Cloudy with a chance of a book

Hey, hey! Guess what? My upcoming book, CLOUDS IN SPACE: NEBULAE, STARDUST, AND US, illustrated by Diana Renžina, is available for preorder!

I can’t tell you how excited I am! I wrote this story back in 2014. My first 2 agents couldn’t sell it but my current agent found it the perfect home with the perfect editors!!! And I also feel like my 44 years as an amateur astronomer has finally borne fruit.

If you’re on Goodreads, I’d love it if you could add the book to your “Want to Read” list! Thank you!!

It’s a sign(ing)!

Ever since October, I have been feeling like I’m hurtling towards something and yet never quite reaching the goal. It’s a lot like what an outside observer sees of someone who has gone beyond the event horizon of black hole: the unfortunate black hole victim is seen falling in but at a rate slower than glacial advance (back in the day before the warming climate started melting them at an alarming pace), seemingly never to reach the center of the hole where they will eventually end up being mauled to death.

Yup, that’s my t-shirt; I’ve had it since 1986.

Of course I have a science metaphor for stress and panic.

One of the things I was busy prepping for was the National Council of Teachers of English Conference which happened last weekend. I’m pleased to report that it went just fine, despite my usual hand-wringing.

There weren’t a lot of people in attendance at the panel, but my panelists are brilliant and I loved hanging out with them regardless of who was in the audience. From left to right: Patricia Valdez, Jennifer Sniadecki, Laurie Wallmark, me, and Jen Swanson.

Me, during my portion of the presentation.

While I only spent 21 hours total there, I was able to meet up with a couple of online friends I’ve known for several years–in person, finally! There was Vicky Fang, author extraordinaire (seriously, check out her books)…

…and Annette Hashitate who has the coolest graphic novel coming out! The absolute sweetheart that she is, Annette picked up dinner for us from Yoshi Sushi to eat at my hotel room. This is because, despite your seeing me in photos without a mask, I was masked up the whole time except when I was giving my panel talk or getting my photo taken. Covid or flu, doesn’t matter; I didn’t want to catch either. Yeah, I’ve had my shots for both, but germs are sneaky.

I was thrilled when Union Square, my publisher for Queen of Physics, invited me to do a book signing after my panel appearance. A big shoutout and much gratitude to Chris, Hayley, and Jenny for making it a most delightful event!

The next morning, I awoke to this beautiful view from my hotel room, and it was time to say good-bye to Columbus, OH. I just might attend NCTE again next year.

Hope those of you in the U.S. are having a lovely Thanksgiving weekend!

When is a pumpkin not a pumpkin?

What most people tend to think of as pumpkins–those beasts that some folks try to grow to several hundreds, if not thousand, pounds–are not what are used in cooking.

Image from GIFPHY but it wouldn’t actually “gif” for me.

Sure, there are pie pumpkins which are smaller varieties that don’t require elephants to move around, but their flavor is also bland at best. If you want to know what you’re actually getting when you buy a can of “pumpkin” puree, head over to this interesting post on All Recipes.

For us, we usually grow acorn squash or butternut squash (my fav) and use them in place of any and all recipes calling for pumpkin or sweet potato. It works every time.

Our squash harvest for this year…

This one is the earlier harvest; the picture above is of the last of the harvest right before the frost. There are a few kabocha squash in the back.

We roast a whole bunch at a time, and then we freeze the pulp we can’t use right away in 15oz containers to mimic the amount often asked for in recipes (1 can = 15 oz). We’ve eaten the seeds in the past, but mostly, we give them to the chickens who appreciate it.

One of our favorite things to make with the pulp is “pumpkin” pie…me, because it’s dang easy, and the Spousal Unit because he actually likes the taste.

I love a good decorative edge on my pie crusts All baked, plus a loaf of sourdough artisan bread. Bon appétit!

Bet you can’t guess what we’ll be having for Thanksgiving. But it’s nothing special; we have this pie probably every 3rd week.

For those readers in the U.S., what dessert do you have planned for your Thanksgiving meal?

Pivoting an art challenge to science

Because I like to torture myself, I occasionally take on art challenges. If I wasn’t stressed enough because I’m always pressed for time, the public humiliation of posting online adds an extra bit of spice!

Okay, slight hyperbole. I don’t have enough followers online to get a lot of eyes on my art, and therefore, that part of it really isn’t stressful. It’s only the “adding one more thing to my already full schedule” that is a PITA.

In October, for no reason besides trying to be supportive of SCBWI’s (the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) outreach efforts, I participated in #scbwiArtober. No one affiliated with SCBWI even noticed of course, but it did push me to do some art daily. And, I was particularly happy with the idea I came up with to pair women in STEM with the daily prompts.

Here’s a sampling of them. If you want to see them all, you can hop over to my Instagram account.

I plan to turn these into coloring pages for educators to use. I’ll first share them with teachers who attend the panel I’m on at NCTE (November 18), and then maybe next month, I’ll open them up to the rest of the world.

If you’re a teacher and will be attending NCTE, come check out the panel I’m on and the pop over to the Union Square booth (#725) where I’ll be signing Queen of Physics. Hope to see you there!

Picture book biography giveaway!

Nancy Churnin is part of the Kid Lit for Growing Minds group I’m in and she is on fire! It seems like she has a new book out every other week. This biography looks sweet and inspiring.

Mining for Heart: “You’ve Gotta Have Heart” by Nancy Churnin

NaNo(vember)WriMo

It’s that time of year again where I’m either tortured by attempting NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) or tortured by FOMO. I just can’t win.

I’m doing NaNo this year because an editor loved an opening chapter of my novel and requested that I send her the full manuscript. The problem is, I don’t have the full ms yet. I have the storyline in my head but I’ve not written the rest of it. So, no time like the challenge to throw myself into it, right?

The only problem is that I also have a book deadline this month and I don’t want to let my editor down. So. Much. To. Juggle.

Are you doing NaNo? If so, please do Buddy me there. I’m TeresaRobeson. Tell me what you’re writing!

Ignore day 3…I’ve not added my count today yet; I’m still on track.

Editing services from a pro

My very smart critique partner, Tanya Konerman, has been writing for a long, long time. Her grammar and writing are impeccable and have been invaluable to me, as well as the Indiana SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators) where she is the Newsletter Editor.

Well, she’s now offering proofreading and copy editing services! I highly recommend her if you need to hire an editor for your book or other writing project. Just pop over to her blog post below and find out how you can get her services.

November 2023 Newsletter

Who’s afraid of the big, bad pie crust?

I recently read a post on the Saveur magazine site that said, “It’s not only casual bakers who fear pie dough. Gifted chefs and talented home cooks are among those who leave the pie baking to their local supermarket or bakery.”

How do I love thee, lemon meringue pie?

Ummm…what? There are many things I fear to bake–croissants (and anything full-puff), choux pastries, and angel cakes–pie crusts are not one of them. They are easy as…well, pie!

Mmm, croissants.

I’ve tried many, many pie crust recipes over the years. I used an oil crust recipe for years with great success until, suddenly, it stopped working well. I still haven’t figured that one out but I suspect the laws of physics for this universe did a recent upgrade and now glitch for my oil crusts (how can you tell I write science fiction?)

Have rolling pin, will travel…or bake.

These days, my tried and true crust is the shortening crust in the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

This has yet to fail me…but then again, I’ve not upgraded to Universe 9.5.42 yet. Just feast your eyes on the beauties that were not very hard to make!

Do you have a favorite pie or pie crust?