Anna Jeffrey's Blog: I'm Just Saying..., page 5

THE REAL HEROES

THE REAL HEROES

I watched the movie Act of Valor last week. This is the movie that was made starring Navy SEALs. The plot—dealing with worldwide narco-traffickers—was woven around the SEALs doing what SEALs do. Amazing physical feats, bravery and fearlessness, dedication and selflessness, efficiency and organization you can’t believe. And clean-cut good guys to boot.

US Navy SEALS being exfilled in a single hoist (Photo credit: AN HONORABLE GERMAN)

It was rated R for violence. But then, war is violent.

The critics gave it 2 stars, whining that the SEALs couldn’t act. Well, duh.They aren’t actors. Even so, I thought they did a decent job. But then, I’m biased in favor of the SEALs. It doesn’t even need to be said that the critics and actors have never seen and will never see the day they could do what the SEALs do.

Task Force K-Bar SEALs at one of the entrances to the Zhawar Kili cave complex (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I thought it was great. Just as entertaining as any of the action flicks that are phony. And it was reality-based. I don’t know how anyone could watch it and not feel a prideful swelling in the chest. It’s amazing to know that we have men and women this smart and this capable and this self-sacrificing serving in our military.

Of course, the special operations forces are not the only heroes in our military. As far as I’m concerned, each and every one of our volunteer army is a hero. I’ve met very few that I can’t respect and admire. All of you who have sons and daughters and spouses and even cousins serving should be very proud.

The movie is for sale now. If you buy it, part of the purchase price goes to fund a homeland support group. So give it some thought.

US Navy SEAL students (Photo credit: AN HONORABLE GERMAN)

On a side note, my Anna Jeffrey mainstream romance novel, THE LOVE OF A COWBOY will be a free download in

LEST WE FORGET…

Happy Memorial Day, everyone…..One thing we do not want to forget on this opening summer holiday is the reason for the day. We want to remember that it’s more than the opening of summer or the end of school or a long weekend at the lake.

When I was a kid, my grandparents called it “Decoration Day.” In the tiny community where they lived, there was no one to look after the only cemetery. In a showing of respect for those who had passed on, volunteers hoed weeds, repaired fences, pruned trees and did anything else that was needed to make the cemetery looked cared for. And some honored their own loved ones by decorating their graves.

This custom wasn’t confined to where my grandparents lived. It did and still does take place all over the country. Unfortunately, however, to a great degree, we’ve gotten away from it. These days, too many of us don’t have time or are too far away. And there are a hell of a lot of us who don’t even know what Memorial Day is about. That’s sad.

In these days when we’re losing or have lost so many of our young men and women to causes that no longer seem worthwhile, let’s don’t forget them. There’s a famous quote and I’ve been searching for the origin all week, but haven’t found it. It says, “All gave some, but some gave all.” Let’s don’t forget that either.

On another topic, I’m making a few changes to the blog. Some you might have noticed, some you might not have.

You might have noticed the book list is missing. I had this great slide show through a site called www.slide.com. Around the first of the year, they announced they would be taking their site down at the end of March and we who had slide shows created through them should do something different.

So far, I haven’t found a user-friendly site on which I can create a slide show that WordPress will accept. WordPress recommend a site and I put together a slide show there. But then WordPress rejected it and continues to reject it. I can’t figure out how to get past their rejection.… Like everything in the computer world, if you aren’t a guru, anything you do has a steep learning curve. Did I say I’m not a guru?

The other thing you might notice is a link in the right-hand column to The Anna Jeffrey Times. This is a baby newspaper. It features headlines and a few articles about current events. I would like to give it its own page in the blog so that you don’t have to leave the blog to glance at it, but so far, WordPress hasn’t let me do that either. I suspect it can be done and I hope to eventually figure it out.

The last thing I’ve done is put the archives in a drop-down box. It’s all still there, so if there’s a past blog you want to view, you can find it by using the drop-down box.

Blog Map

“Figuring it out” is how I have to approach everything I do on the computer. I’ve owned a computer of some kind for twenty-five years, so you’d think I’d be smarter, wouldn’t you?

But I’m nothing, if not determined. Eventually I’ll get that book list back up there as a slide show and eventually I’ll get The Anna Jeffrey Times on its own page.

Meanwhile, while I struggle with it, if any of you *are* gurus and want to make some suggestions, I’m certainly receptive.

Related articles

Top 5 Memorable Memorial Day Poems – #4 (gravewords.wordpress.com)
Let’s Not Forget What Memorial Day Weekend is Really All About – The High Cost of Freedom – Forbes (myspanishtranslator.wordpress.com)

A RANT ABOUT CELL PHONES…

About a million words have been spoken and written about what cell phones are doing to us, i.e., giving us brain cancer, making us unable to communicate verbally, walling us off from each other, yada, yada, yada…..

Something happened recently that made me start to think more about this. I was in a parking lot, walking from my car into a store. I was walking along with car bumpers close by on my right side. Directly ahead of me was a guy walking toward me, deeply absorbed in texting.

I could go no farther to the right without running into car bumpers. “He sees me,” I told myself and continued my path. He came closer and closer and never looked up, so he simply ran into me and almost knocked me off my feet. I couldn’t believe it. He had feet and feet of space where he could have gone to his right, but he was oblivious to it and oblivious to me. His arm hit my shoulder and he looked up at me as if I had just landed from Mars. He didn’t hurt me, but he jostled me. And he didn’t even have the decency to apologize.

I work with a young man who is on his phone every minute of every day—texting, Facebooking, shopping, messaging or whatever else he does on the phone. Even when I’m trying to talk to him, he’s only listening with one ear. His eyes are glued to his phone screen. Why management doesn’t land on him, I don’t know, because he behaves that way not just to me, but to everybody.

I work with a young woman who keeps her cell phone hidden, but who has FaceBook open at all times and constantly refers to it.

I work with yet another one who plays gambling games all day long, even while we’re at lunch and trying to have a simple conversation.

When I walk into the break room, almost every person there is texting or doing something on the phone. Nobody even says hello anymore.

I have another acquaintance who pulls her cell phone from her pocket or purse every few minutes to check for something. It’s impossible to have an uninterrupted conversation with her. I never have her full attention.

I have yet another friend who weaves from lane to lane while driving while she’s either trying to get the phone out of her purse or trying to punch in a number or read a text. At least, I haven’t seen her text while driving, but she might do that. I no longer know, because I’ve quit riding with her.

Person using cell phone while driving. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Just last week, I heard a young woman talk about dropping her cell phone in a cup of Coke when she was texting while she was driving on a major highway.

I’ve seen two teenage girls standing a foot from each other and texting each other.

These days, you hardly see a young person who doesn’t have a cell phone in his or her hand. Only older people have them in holders attached to their belts or secured in their purses. But they still have them with them. Even if you’re on welfare, the government will provide you with a cell phone, and it isn’t just *any* cell phone. It’s an iPhone or an Android if you want it.

So do any of you recall the days when if the phone rang at your home and you weren’t there to answer it, you simply were not home? And if the caller wanted to talk to you about something important, he or she would call you back when you were at home? Do you remember the days when we didn’t have voice mail?

Mobile phone evolution

When I was in the real estate business, I had “Call Waiting.” But I hated it. I thought nothing was ruder than abandoning the person or person with whom I was talking to answer the phone. But, for some reason, it was a tool I thought I needed.

Angel with mobile phone (Photo credit: Akbar Sim (terribly busy))

So now that we’re to the place where almost no one (and I mean no one) is without a cell phone, especially if one is under 25 years old, where are we really? We’ve exponentially compounded rudeness. We’ve almost eliminated verbal communication. We’re encouraging young people, who are already easily distracted, to have the attention span of a gnat.

And I could go on and on. Am I just an old fuddy-duddy who can’t adapt to the times?

What comes of all of this? Does anybody know?

By the way, for you who are interested, THE LOVE OF A STRANGER will be a free download on Amazon on the 17th and 18th. You can download it to your Kindle, your computer, your iPad, your iPhone or most other devices if you get the Amazon app. I don’t, however, think you’ll be able to get the Amazon app on Nook, but I don’t know for sure. So if you want to read it for free, there you go. 

A NEW DEVELOPMENT…

Earlier this week, I turned on one of my favorite TV financial shows and there was Barnes & Noble’s CEO announcing that Microsoft had purchased 17.5% of Barnes & Noble. Their stock immediately rose by 10%. I’m posting some links at the end of the blog to articles about the deal.

This was huge news, I think, because just after Christmas, Barnes & Noble had reported a terrible Christmas season and a 20% stock drop. Most people had pretty much written them off, or at least the brick-and-mortar part of that business. And I already knew that Amazon had owned the 2011 Christmas season with their digital readers.

This is a definite game-changer for B&N. And it might be a game-changer for the whole digital book community. A cash infusion from a rich company like Microsoft might well be the balm that soothes all of B&N’s ills. In addition, Microsoft will be releasing Windows 8 at the end of this year and no doubt some of that technology will find its way into the Nook.

On the same day, I surfed over to B&N’s Web site and saw where they had announced a new reader. The Simple Touch with Glow Light and it retails for $139. Glow Light will enable a reader to read in bright sunlight. No other tablet—not even iPad or Kindlefire—has this feature and I suspect B&N probably owns it. You can learn all about it at B&N’s Web site.

So can a whole new generation of tablets and e-readers soon hit the market?

The DOJ suing Apple and the major publishers for price fixing and then the publishers settling with them is also a game-changer. At this point, I’ve lost track of what Apple has done. I don’t know whether they settled, too.

All of it bodes well for readers. The B&N CEO reported that 57% of books are now purchased as e-books. No one knows how much that number will increase this year, but unquestionably, it will. Shoppers continue to buy tablets and readers, even though it isn’t Christmas. And most of the readers who already have them are huge fans of them. Not only do they love the readers themselves, they also love getting books at a cheaper price. No telling what will be for sale by the time the 2012 Christmas season rolls around. It’s so exciting.

In my house alone, we now have 2 Kindles. And in the past 2 weeks, I’ve downloaded half a dozen free books..

Speaking of free books, I want to also remind you that THE LOVE OF A STRANGER will be a free download in the Kindle store on Amazon on May 14th and 15th. That’s a Monday and Tuesday. You don’t have to have a Kindle. You can download it to your computer, to your iPad or even to your phone if you pick up the Amazon app. I don’t think you can download it to a Nook. Amazon and B&N are in fierce competition on these machines.

So that’s my exciting news for this week. What do you think? I know everyone is happy to see Barnes & Noble saved. But being in bed with Microsoft, what will it become now?

Related articles

Barnes & Noble chops e-reader prices for Mother’s Day (news.cnet.com)
Microsoft and Barnes & Noble take on Amazon’s Kindle with $300m deal (telegraph.co.uk)
Will Microsoft’s Barnes & Noble deal save the ebook business? (billbennett.co.nz)
Microsoft takes a gamble and spends $300m on e-book readers (theinformativereport.com)

HECTIC, HECTIC, HECTIC…

AND AN EXCERPT…

Hectic week. Up to my neck in writing. Don’t even have time for opinions.

I’m trying so hard to get THE TYCOON ready to market. I did find some beta readers, but I still haven’t settled on a copyeditor. As it turns out, that appears to be the most expensive part of this e-book project. When I start to get it put into print, I expect that, too, to be expensive.

But I do have the cover! So I have to claim progress. Since I discovered the awesome Kim Killion, the covers have become the easiest part of this.

Here’s an excerpt from the heroine’s first encounter with the hero:

“Her family’s bucks aren’t a temptation to a high-roller like Drake. He’s a lone wolf. And if she hasn’t figured that out, she’s dumber than I think.”

Lone wolf. High-roller. The words stuck in Shannon’s mind as if they had been thumb-tacked. If they were true, the guy was even more dangerous than she had first thought and that idea sent another potent surge through her. “How is it you know him so well?”

“I just do.”

As Shannon puzzled over that non-answer, the beautiful couple and the short man were joined by a slender middle-aged woman. She, too, was tall, with silver shoulder-length hair and draped in silver lame that fell to the tops of silver cowboy boots. She wore chunky Southwest style jewelry. Boots and turquoise were not choices Shannon would have worn with that particular dress, but the look had an old-world panache and screamed I’m-from-Texas-and-proud-of-it.

“And there’s his mommy,” Jordan said snidely. “He’s a mama’s boy.”

Shannon gave Jordan a look. “You really don’t like him, do you?”

“Like I said. He’s an asshole.”

The silver-haired woman and the blonde moved away together, but Drake continued in conversation with the shorter man, seemingly unaware that half the women in the room must surely be drooling over him. Then, he raised his head and for absolutely no reason, turned Shannon’s way. His eyes locked on her for the briefest moment and her heartbeat stuttered. His gaze moved over her and though the whole thing happened in a matter of seconds, Shannon felt as if she had been undressed and thoroughly examined and her whole body grew warm. She turned quickly toward a server and exchanged her empty champagne glass for a full one.

Besides THE TYCOON, I’m starting work on formatting THE LOVE OF A LAWMAN. (This is the original print cover.) I’m getting more proficient at this, so hopefully, I’ll be able to do it a little faster. LAWMAN first came out in print in 2005. I can’t believe it was that long ago. How time flies when you’re having fun.

I say that, but then I get a couple of readers posting on Amazon about all of the mistakes in THE LOVE OF A STRANGER. So I’m also going back through *that* book to see what went wrong there.

Mistakes are very bad. I hate them. I dislike them enough in books I read by other authors, but I absolutely abhor them in books I write myself.

I offered THE LOVE OF A STRANGER free in the Kindle Book Store a couple of weeks ago. Had very good results, IMHO, and a lot of downloads. It climbed to #3 on the Top 100 Free Books in the Kindle store. Hopefully, Anna Jeffrey found some new readers.

Last, I just want to say that I know you probably grow weary of my comments about writing and what I’m doing with it, but now that I’m my own promoter, I can’t let it slide. Just have to keep blatting about what I’m doing.

I wish I had the time to post on other authors’ blogs, but I just don’t.  So far, the only one I post on is THE NAKED HERO the 2nd Tuesday of every month. In April, I posted about heroes to laugh at, who were Buddy Overstreet and Vic Martin from the Dixie Cash books. What’s not to like about those two guys? Tall, dark and handsome and tall, bald and tough. LOL

And speaking of Dixie Cash, my sister and I are underway with the next Dixie Cash book. No official title yet, but when I took the poll on this blog, the title most people seemed to like was “You Can Have My Heart, but Don’t Touch the Dog.”  …..  It’s already emerging as a very funny story.

Oh, and one more thing. I’ll be offering THE LOVE OF A STRANGER free again in the Kindle store on May 14th and 15th. The link will take you to the page. Hopefully, by then, I will have found the errors and fixed them. So if you would like to read STRANGER, there’s an opportunity to get it free for your Kindle or your computer.  …..  If you have an iPad, an iPod or an iPhone and have the Amazon app downloaded, you can get it there, too.

Related articles

Work on the Book Goes On… (annajeffreyauthor.wordpress.com)
ON TO TITLES (bugle blaring in the background)… (annajeffreyauthor.wordpress.com)

FREE E-BOOK DOWNLOAD!

On Monday, April 23rd, THE LOVE OF A STRANGER will be a free download at Amazon. You will be able to download it to your Kindle or to your computer. So if you haven’t read STRANGER and want to, you can get it for free on that day.

Here’s a short blurb:

“THE LOVE OF A STRANGER is a novel of approximately 100,000 words. When Doug Hawkins and Alexandra McGregor meet, sparks fly. Both have been emotionally damaged by life-altering events and both are survivors. Unexpectedly united in a fight for justice and to save Alex’s property from a greedy logger, gradually, they learn to trust. And eventually, they fall in love.”

I placed this book in the Kindle Select program, which allows Amazon Prime members to download it for free any time. (I think the program’s policy is one free download per month of *any* book.)

I didn’t know what to expect from this program, so I experimented and offered STRANGER free a couple of weeks ago also. It  climbed to #3 on the Amazon Top One Hundred Free Book List. It also climbed into the Top One Hundred Paid Romance Book List.

I was really thrilled at those statistics because Amazon now has somewhere around two million e-books on its site. It’s getting harder and harder for a book to get *found.*

I now need a little help from you, fellow bloggers. I would so appreciate it if you would go to STRANGER’s book page and click “Like” if you like it. Of course, I don’t expect you to click on “Like” if you *don’t* like it.  ….. Also, scroll on down the page and click on the tags. And if you’re so inclined, by all means, write a review, especially if you enjoyed the book. ….. All of these activities elevate the book in the Amazon statistics. Here’s a link to the page: http://www.amazon.com/The-Love-Stranger-ebook/dp/B005TMV7QU/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1334849647&sr=1-1

Aside from all of that, I want to acknowledge the passing of music icon, Dick Clark. All of us of a certain age remember American Bandstand and the role it played in our lives.

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Dick Clark, host of American Bandstand (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As a kid growing up in West Texas, I lived in a fairly isolated world. Many things that others took for granted were unavailable to us simply because of where we were. Among them was TV reception. It was sketchy at best, depending on if the wind was blowing, if a tornado was passing through, if the sun was in the right place, if the antenna on the roof was high enough, if the booster was working and blah, blah, blah.

But one thing that was available,  when we could get TV reception, was American Bandstand. In our new-found connection to the outside world, it was somewhere in there with wrestling and Liberace. From those days, I distinctly remember a young Dick Clark and watching kids dance as we had never seen them before.

I also remember him from his days as a TV game host, yukking it up with Betty White. From what I saw of him, he was always a gentleman. His contribution to the dissemination of popular music far and wide can never be minimized.

I’m sure many of you followed Dick Clark, right?.

Related articles

Dick Clark, American Bandstand, (drses.wordpress.com)
‘Bandstand’ Alum Remembers Dick Clark (myfoxchicago.com)
Ode to Dick Clark (lifeandcrimesofmistressrosie.com)
Dick Clark’s legacy (myfoxny.com)

AN EXCERPT

My sister and I are pounding away on the next DixieCash epic. We're up to Chapter 5.

Midland, Texas, where most of the story takes place

One of the main characters in the books is a dog named Wafflle.

And here's a short excerpt from Chapter 1

The last thing Trudy Coffman wanted on a blistering July day was a trashy alley. As a specialty pet food merchant and the owner of the only pet food bakery in Midland, Texas, she insisted that the area around her shop's back door be kept neat and clean. LaBarkery did not need an open invitation to bugs and vermin. Trudy had been known to rent a high-pressure hose and blast the alley.

Recently, to her everlasting consternation, the City had placed a Dumpster almost directly behind her back door. The other shop owners up and down strip mall claimed to feel the same about the alley, including the owners of the mom and pop burger joint two doors away. But so far, they hadn't contributed much physical effort to keeping the Dumpster area clean. As far as Trudy could tell, they hadn't even reminded their teenage employees who closed at night and took out their garbage to have a care whether they hit the Dumpster.

So after she finished her lunch, she gathered her trash and stepped out into the sunlit alley to dispose of it. To her horror, the area around the Dumpster looked as if a garbage bomb had exploded. Trash cans were upended, including hers. Debris lay everywhere. She knew that unfortunately, she had no choice but to pick all of it up. Besides her personal stake in keeping the alley clean, her neighboring tenants had come to depend on her as the "alley policeman."

Her shoulders sagged. The temperature hovered around a hundred. "Oh, hell," she mumbled.

She recognized some of the refuse as coming from her own shop, but sure enough, most of

it had come from the burger joint. On a sigh and a grumble, she righted the garbage cans, placed her plastic bag of trash inside one, then bent and began to pick up the surrounding litter.

Just as she reached for a sack of discarded French fries, a large scruffy dog came from behind the Dumpster and began to wolf down everything in sight. Common sense told her to give a stray dog a wide berth, but he was so thin his sides were sunken and her heart went out to him. Among the things she had never been able to ignore was an animal in need. And for proof, she had two rescue cats, two dogs, an opinionated parrot, two hens and a one-eyed rooster at home.

As she replaced the lid on the trash can, she said to the stray, "Hey, sweetheart, are you friendly?"

The dog looked up at her with soulful brown eyes and wagged its tail, but kept its distance, as if it feared a blow or some other cruel response. From the looks of it, it had been on the street a long time.

She felt a stab in her heart. "Awww, don't be afraid. I won't hurt you."

A soft voice seemed to work. The dog inched toward her. Wagging its tail more, it began to dance around. Trudy noticed it was male. She didn't know when she had seen an animal so starved since a weekend trip to Juarez with her friends. Down there, mongrels ran free, but they were timid and scared, slinking around with their tails tucked between their legs.

The dog wore a collar, so he had belonged to someone. She saw no tags. Unfortunately, now he had fallen on hard times and was getting by the best he could. A heaviness filled her chest. She related all too closely. Been there, done that. Not that long ago, she, too, had belonged to someone, then been abandoned.

Sand storm that passed over Midland, Texas, February 20, 1894 at 6:00 p.m. Windmills and houses visible just below the whirling sand. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

BOOKS AND EXCUSES

I now have the cover for THE TYCOON. And it's gorgeous.

I've already posted the blurb and the trilogy arc a few weeks back. I don't know when I will get this uploaded. I was hoping for March, but now it might be May. This is taking me so much more time than I originally thought.

I've also finished and uploaded THE LOVE OF A COWBOY to Kindle and to Barnes & Noble. This book has been on a journey. I thought I would never get the copyright back. I'm so happy to now have it available again.

The  cover for it is gorgeous, too. The cover designer's name is Kim Killion. And she's awesome.

Work on these two projects, as well as some more personal demands on my time, is what has kept me from blogging for the past couple of weeks. There's just so much to do. I'm trying to figure out how I can give up my day job so I can spend all of my time writing new books and marketing the old ones.

Also, my sister and I are hard at work on a new Dixie Cash epic. We're up to Chapter 5. Here are some title ideas we're kicking around. Let me know if you like any of these. Or if you have some ideas of your own, throw those out there, too. Bear in mind a dog and a loud-mouthed parrot will play prominent roles in this story.

1.  "Paws for Love (instead of Pause)"

2.  "You Can Have My Heart, but Don't Touch My Dog"

3.  "My Heart is Yours, but the Dog is Mine"

4.  "Milk Bone Triangle"

5.  "The Bride Was a Beauty, but the Best Man was a Dog"

6.  "Canine Cupid"

7.  "Canine Custody"

Thinking of titles for these books has always been fun. In the New York publishing houses, selection of titles is done by committee. So please be our "Committee" and help us select a title.

Some of you might have noticed the book movie in the upper right hand corner of this blog has disappeared. The site where I designed it went offline and I haven't yet mastered another method of putting up the covers. Another time-consuming task. New movie coming soon.

Hang in there with me, folks. Sooner or later I'll get it together.

TOO MUCH INFORMATION…

The density of a social network. This should scare all of us.

I've noticed a few authors expressing political and even religious views on Facebook and other social networks. This has probably always gone on, but I just spotted it lately. Perhaps the political season is bringing opinions out of the woodwork. I wonder about the wisdom of doing this by someone who wants to sell books.

One poster I'm thinking of is an author whose books I've liked. But after reading her posts about various topics, I find that I don't like her. So I will probably not buy any more of her books.

An author's stock-in-trade is his voice. I've always contended that you can't create voice. You can become a skilled grammarian, you can possess a broad vocabulary, you can be an expert at structuring interesting and complex sentences, but the one thing you have no control over is voice. It manifests itself in an author's writing without him even knowing it. I believe that happens because it's a tacit expression of an author's true personality. Sort of like a deeply embedded sub-plot.

So when an author mixes voice over which he has no control, with strong vocal opinion, an image emerges. And it might not be an image a reader particularly likes, especially if an author unwittingly steps on someone's toes. That's bad news for most authors. This is not the same as giving a book character negative traits to show who he or she is.

I'm thinking that if someone is so in love with his own words that he just can't contain himself, perhaps he should initiate a blog. And use another name rather than the name he wants to sell books under. Just a thought.

No one has stronger personal opinions than I do. But being a naturally over-cautious person, I'm very careful about what I say on the social networks. I try to be a diplomat and keep my comments as innocuous as possible. The last thing I want to do is alienate a potential reader with some dumb thing I spouted that's important to no one but me.

I don't even criticize books I don't enjoy. And there are many. Believe me, more than half the books I start to read I never finish because I just can't stay interested long enough to last for 300 pages. I subscribe to the notion that if I can't say something positive in a public forum, I don't say anything at all.

Nor do I often endorse books I do like, although I give very brief opinions of them in my newsletter. (By the way, if you want to get on my monthly newsletter mailing list, just go to my Web site and sign up for the Yahoo group. www.annajeffrey.com )

Having said all of that, fellow-bloggers, I want you to know that I am not wishy-washy. If you and I are having a personal, private conversation, I'll most likely express my true opinion, come hell or high water.

So I bring this up because I have a question: Am I wrong about this? How do you feel when you read one of your favorite author's comments that would have been better left unsaid, or at least reserved for another venue? Does it change your opinion of the author or his work?

Just wondering…

Chili Verde Recipe

For anyone who's interested, here's a chili verde recipe my daughter uses and loves.  It's from a Web site called Simply Recipes (simplyrecipes.com). I haven't made it myself, but it appears to be fairly easy and not too spicy. She cooks it in a Crockpot.
The recipe recommends it be served with rice and tortillas and since it's Mexican food, I suppose that's proper. But I like it with cornbread. What can I say? I'm just a country bumpkin. Where I come from, cornbread goes with everything.
Simply Recipes is a great Web site for recipes, by the way. Lots of larrupping food.

Chile Verde Recipe


Cook time: 3 hours



Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds tomatillos
5 garlic cloves, not peeled
2 jalapenos, seeds and ribs removed, chopped
2 Anaheim or Poblano chiles (optional)
1 bunch cilantro leaves, cleaned and chopped


3 1/2 to 4 pounds pork shoulder (also called pork butt), trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1 to 2-inch cubes
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
2 yellow onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 Tbsp of chopped fresh oregano or 1 Tbsp of dried oregano
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
Pinch of ground cloves

Method

1 Remove papery husks from tomatillos and rinse well. Cut in half and place cut side down, along with 5 unpeeled garlic cloves, on a foil-lined baking sheet. Place under a broiler for about 5-7 minutes to lightly blacken the skin. Remove from oven, let cool enough to handle.

If you want the additional flavor of chiles other than jalapenos, you can add a couple Anaheim or poblano chiles. Either use canned green chiles or roast fresh chilies over a gas flame or under the broiler until blackened all around. Let cool in a bag, remove the skin, seeds, and stem.

2 Place tomatillos, skins included, into blender. Remove the now roasted garlic cloves from their skins, add them to the blender. Add chopped Jalapeño peppers, other chilies (if you are using them), and cilantro to the blender. Pulse until all ingredients are finely chopped and mixed.

3 Season the pork cubes generously with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium high heat and brown pork chunks well on all sides. Work in batches so that the pork is not crowded in the pan and has a better chance to brown well. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, lift pork out of pan and place in bowl, set aside.

4 Pour off excess fat, anything beyond a tablespoon, and place the onions and garlic in the same skillet and cook, stirring occasionally until limp, about 5 minutes. If your skillet is large enough to cook the entire batch of chile verde, with the sauce and meat, then add the pork back to the pan. If not, get a large soup pot and add the onion mixture and the pork to it. Add the oregano to the pan. Add the tomatillo chile verde sauce to the pork and onions. Add the chicken stock (enough to cover the meat). Add a pinch of ground cloves. Add a little salt and pepper. (Not too much as the chile verde will continue to cook down and concentrate a bit.)

5 Bring to a boil and reduce to a slight simmer. Cook for 2-3 hours uncovered or until the pork is fork tender.

Adjust the seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with Spanish rice and warmed flour tortillas or freshly made corn tortillas.

Yield: Serves 8.

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