G.G. Andrew's Blog, page 21

Mr. Melty Curried Carrot Concoction

Requirements to make Curried Carrot Concoction: a dash of curry, a dollop of courage

I’m continuing my adventures in making ice cream flavors mentioned in SCREWING MR. MELTY with Curried Carrot Concoction. I figured it was an easy one to concoct, given I usually have both carrots and curry on hand.

Here’s where it’s mentioned in the book:

“He’d figured it was money lost, had counted on the business bankrupting, given its creepy logo and the fact that the store served flavors no sentient being should ever desire, like Curried Carrot Concoction.”

Wondering how to make it? Here’s how:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 tablespoon curry powder

3/4 cup carrot (about two medium), cooked/steamed and pureed

Directions:

Cut the carrots and cook or steam until soft. Then puree them into a smooth, baby food consistency.

While the carrot mixture is cooling, combine the cream, milk, sugar, curry, and vanilla in a bowl with a mixer on low for a minute or two, till well combined. Once cool, add the carrots and blend another minute.

Turn on your ice cream maker (I use this Cuisinart machine; consult your particular maker for directions.) Pour it all into the machine to freeze and combine for 20 minutes.

Serve immediately for a soft-serve consistency, or put in the freezer in an airtight container for a couple hours to harden.

Yields:

Two or three big servings, if you’re an ice cream glutton like me. Maybe more if you eat normal, healthy amounts of food.

Is this flavor edible?

Maybe? The flavor reminded me of the rice pudding I’ve eaten in Indian restaurants, but with a grainy texture from the carrot puree. The curry aftertaste was a little weird. I think out of the two I’ve made so far, I prefer the Frozen Fruity Flaxseed.

Future Recipe Revisions:

I’m curious how this flavor would taste with the addition of fruit, like maybe raisins.

Tags:  ice cream, SCREWING MR. MELTY




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 Top Ten Signs You're Reading Literary Fiction  Manscaping on Book Covers  Making Mr. Melty Ice Cream: Frozen Fruity Flaxseed  Top Ten Romance Releases in 2014  Top Ten Signs You're Reading Genre FictionCopyright © G. G. Andrew [Mr. Melty Curried Carrot Concoction], All Right Reserved. 2014.

Top Ten Signs You’re Reading Genre Fiction

I started binge-reading Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mysteries in 2010. Sookie Stackhouse remains the fictional character I’d most like to get a pedicure with.

Are you reading books of literary fiction? Or do they instead fit into one of the genres like sci-fi, fantasy, or romance? Here are ten ways to tell if you’re reading genre fiction. (Please note that any gross stereotypes and snark here is meant with a big dose of bibliolove. Proof: last year I read and enjoyed both The Great Gatsby and Beautiful Bastard.)

1.) You would describe a character in the book you’re reading now as your “book boyfriend.”

2.) You’ve read six books this week, and it’s only Wednesday.

3.) You feel a little gleeful and guilty reading your book, like you’re about to consume an entire plate of brownies.

4.) You cannot recall the countries on the west coast of Africa without consulting a map, but you can render the fictional forests and hills of your book on a cocktail napkin.

5.) The book you’re reading has spawned a film trilogy, game app, Broadway show, and theme park, and is rumored to have a companion hair style manual soon released based on the heroine’s signature look.

6.) You were embarrassed to borrow this book from the library because it features a half-naked man, so you grabbed a bunch of unrelated, serious-looking books to check out as well, hoping it will distract the librarian (much as you hid your recent purchase of yeast infection medicine at the drugstore under a pile of gum, shampoo, and Kleenex boxes).

7.) You understand the underlying grammar of the imaginary language in the book you’re reading better than your native tongue.

8.) Describing the premise of your book requires you to use the phrase “oh my God” repeatedly while waving your hands in front of your face like you’re a thirteen-year-old girl at her first rock concert.

9.) You can explain the basic conflict of the book you’re reading by yelling to your friend over loud music at the bar using short sentences and hand gestures.

10.) You suspect the author you’re reading is an alien, because the frequency of his book production in a given year contradicts your understanding of an Earth human’s need to sleep, eat, floss, and binge-watch Scandal.

Enjoyed this? Read Top Ten Signs You’re Reading Literary Fiction… because all’s fair in love and books.

Tags:  books, fantasy, genre fiction, libraries, reading, romance, sci fi




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Comments:  1 (One) on this itemYou might be interested in this:  
 Mr. Melty Curried Carrot Concoction  What Good Books Do  Weird Writing Research  SCREWING MR. MELTY Cover & Teaser!  Romance Flash FictionCopyright © G. G. Andrew [Top Ten Signs You're Reading Genre Fiction], All Right Reserved. 2014.

Manscaping on Book Covers

Give me a bookshelf of romances, virtual or real, and I’ll show you dozens of manscaped men. Naked torsos totally devoid of hair, sometimes gleaming with sweat, almost always sculpted.

When did this happen? Where did all the hair go? Is it being knitted into sweaters? Is it clogging our drains?

The other day I saw a romance cover where the guy on the front actually had a chest of hair, like most men do. It looked unnatural.

I read some of these books with manscaped men on the front, and someday I’ll probably have a book with a hairless guy on the cover too. But I’m not sure I always like it. Sometimes a bare hairless chest is hot, and sometimes it screams “newborn gerbil” to me.

Ladies, can I get an amen? Or would you rather I pass your boyfriend a razor?

Because, if the prevalence of these covers is any indication, it’s just me sometimes bemoaning the loss of all that hair. Whatever happened to a hairy chest being equated with virility?

Perhaps younger and/or cooler people reading this can inform me. Maybe in the ebb and flow of cultural trends (wax and wane?) male body hair is going out for good. At least on our book covers.

You may be thinking, women shave and wax and pluck; shouldn’t men be subject to the same standards and torture? To which I’d respond: Is this really a new step in equality? Must we now fight our men for spots at the salon?

Sometimes we need to draw the line. I recently saw a nearly hairless man on the cover of book about a werewolf. If any man should have chest hair, it’s certainly a man who turns into a dog.

Tags:  books, manscaping, reading, romance




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Comments:  2 comments on this itemYou might be interested in this:  
 It's Not Just Me. Right?  Top Ten Signs You're Reading Literary Fiction  Top Ten Signs You're Reading Genre Fiction  SCREWING MR. MELTY Cover & Teaser!Copyright © G. G. Andrew [Manscaping on Book Covers], All Right Reserved. 2014.

Weird Writing Research

Writers: what’s the weirdest thing you’ve done while researching a novel or other project?

I’m not talking about strange Google searches, although those can be quite random and hilarious. I mean actual things you did so you could accurately describe an event or experience.

My weirdest writing research assignment so far involved me giving myself an ice cream headache. A character in SCREWING MR. MELTY experiences one of these brain-splitting pains, and, while I’d eaten enough frozen concoction in the past to burst my noggin, I wanted to remember exactly how it felt so I could describe it in detail. Just how much ice cream did I need to eat? Where did it hurt? How did the pain feel? How long did it last? I ate enough ice cream to cause myself considerable pain, paid attention, then wrote it all down.

For this same story I’ve also called a genetics company (and felt kind of silly, but the nice woman who picked up said they get lots of strange calls) and also sat in a graveyard while the sun set for a chapter I later cut.

For my second writing project, which is currently in-between revisions, I’ve taken a couple shots of whiskey so I can know the exact taste and feeling of alcohol burning down my throat. I’ve also watched a lot of British television–it’s a hard life, I know–so I can learn the nuances of British English.

Would my life have continued much the same without these experiences? Probably. Did I absolutely need them for my writing? Maybe. But I definitely feel that they are examples of something so wonderful about writing: not only can writing prompt you to imagine people, places, and events, but it can motivate you to have new experiences–or old experiences you can consider anew as you’re aware in the moment of how they look, sound, feel, and sometimes smell.

Tags:  British television, GRAFFITI IN LOVE, ice cream, research, SCREWING MR. MELTY, television, writing




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 Top Ten Signs You're Reading Literary Fiction  Top Ten Romance Releases in 2014  Manscaping on Book Covers  Writing & ParentingCopyright © G. G. Andrew [Weird Writing Research], All Right Reserved. 2014.

Top Ten Ways to Create Readers

A wonderful little library I visited in my friend’s neighborhood in Alexandria, VA.

I’ve been reading a lot of posts lately from writers bemoaning the author discoverability problem. With thousands of books coming out each year, it’s hard for any author to stand out and sell books. A lot of these posts have suggested how to be more visible by being the loudest, coolest, or smartest writer on the block, but few have pointed out a key reason we have this problem: there are not enough readers. If we could get people who don’t read to pick up one or two novels a year, or the people who read only two novels to start reading four or five, we’d have a lot more books and authors being discovered, a lot more people falling in love with reading (and growing their brains), and, yes, probably more books being sold as a result.

So how do we do this in a world of reluctant readers and addictive HBO programming? Here are ten ideas:

1.) Make more Little Free Libraries

These are fantastic, and they seem to be spreading, but I’ve yet to see one in my own town. The little free libraries are a great way to create readers because they are easy, open invitations for anyone who walks by them to grab a book–kids strolling home from school, a woman walking her dog, that guy down the street bringing home his hoagie from the convenience store. Build one, and they may come. Sure, you make get the occasional used tissue thrown into your library, but isn’t that a small price to pay for supporting literacy?

2.) Create, join, and advertise more book challenges

Doing a book challenge is a fun, focused way to get people to read more. Check out this Pinterest board of 2014 challenges. There is something for everyone here–parent books, sci-fi, zombies, classics, nonfiction–even something called the “Real Men Do It Better Reading Challenge.” My own romance reading challenge has inspired me to read more. Create a 2014 challenge or join one–it’s not too late!–and recruit a friend. Aren’t you a bit curious how real men do it better?

3.) Support and utilize workplace incentives to read

If you’re in charge at your workplace, look into ways to foster reading among your employees (for its aforementioned brain-growing powers, at least). Do a book round-robin gift exchange at the holidays. Let everyone out a bit early on Friday to join the work book club at the bar. Let some workers take book breaks while others are taking their smoke breaks. (Note: since I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for the past several years, some of these ideas or better may already be happening; feel free to chime in if that’s the case!)

4.) Support local libraries

Libraries are places were you can walk in, grab a book, and borrow it FOR FREE. Think about it for a minute, because it’s pretty amazing. Support your local library with your presence, your praise to your friends, perhaps your volunteer time, and your wallet. My own library system has a page with links to OverDrive WIN Affiliated Retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble; if I go to that page and click through to an online book retailer and then make a purchase, a portion will be credited back to my library to expand their collection. Your library may have something similar, and it’s worth checking out. More books means more chances for readers to find what they want.

5.) Engage in less book shaming

Let’s just all make a pact to read what we want, whether that’s a classic work of literary fiction or something with a half-naked cyborg man on the cover. People should be allowed to make their own reading choices without feeling embarrassed or judged, as if book choice dictates their intelligence or personality. Among all the wonderful, quotable things Neil Gaiman said in a speech last fall to The Reading Agency was the following, which I think also applies to adults: “Every now and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point at a subset of children’s books, a genre, perhaps, or an author, and to declare them bad books… It’s snobbery and it’s foolishness. There are no bad authors for children, that children like and want to read and seek out, because every child is different. They can find the stories they need to, and they bring themselves to stories.”

6.) Adapt more books into movies

This is already happening a fair amount lately, probably due to the financial benefits of releasing a movie with an existing fan base, but I think it’s a good move in terms of creating more readers. It generates buzz around books and authors, which is a good thing, and also makes people want to be able to say to their friends in the theater lobby, perhaps with a certain look of smugness on their popcorn-butter-smeared faces, “The book was better.”

7.) Create and attend book clubs

Book clubs are, yes, clubs centered around reading books, but they’re also opportunities to hang out with friends, meet new people, and have a dinner out that doesn’t involve getting sneezed on by a toddler with a mouthful of Goldfish crackers. Advertise your book club, mention these benefits, and you many find some non-readers tentatively dipping their nose into your monthly book selection. Starting my local moms’ book club nearly five years ago helped me not only get friends and get sane, but get reading more on a regular basis.

8.) Create and join more awesome book clubs

But, wait, there’s more! To grab more people, pimp your book club. Make it themed, like a club that reads only books set in New York, books with fairies, or books related to a term popped out by a random word generator. Take a look back at that reading challenge Pinterest board for inspiration and let your imagination and freak flag fly. Making your club unique and quirky will make people take notice–and maybe they’ll want to discover for themselves how many books do actually feature an aardvark.

9.) Create more flexible book clubs

Yes, I’m still writing about book clubs. If you’re feeling pressed for time, short on cash to spend on dinners, or simply unable to go out, make it flexible. Create or join an online group on Goodreads or Facebook. Make a Skype book club date with far-flung buddies. More people may be willing to join a reading group if it’s super-convenient for them (and they can watch Downtown Abbey in the background). My own Facebook classics book club has been humming along for a few years now, and it’s been a wonderful way to talk about books with friends all over the country.

10.) Listen to audiobooks and book podcasts while driving friends around so THEY CANNOT ESCAPE

This is a legitimate way to make more readers and totally not me trying to come up with a tenth point. Totally not that at all.

I know I’m missing some awesome ideas. How else can we make more readers?

Tags:  book challenges, book clubs, books, libraries, little libraries, reading




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Comments:  0 (Zero), Be the first to leave a reply!You might be interested in this:  
 What Good Books Do  Top Ten Signs You're Reading Literary Fiction  SCREWING MR. MELTY Cover & Teaser!  Top Ten Romance Releases in 2014  It's Not Just Me. Right?Copyright © G. G. Andrew [Top Ten Ways to Create Readers], All Right Reserved. 2014.