Alex Gordon's Blog, page 12

A Jani Kilian Incident

Way back in 2005, at the World Fantasy Convention in Madison, Wisconsin, writer Eric Flint approached me about contributing a Jani Kilian story to his new online magazine, “Baen’s Universe,” which was one of the talks of the convention because 1) New Market! and 2) great pay rates.

I was so happy to be asked, as I was feeling a little out of the loop at that time. A couple of years had passed since Contact Imminent‘s release, and I was just starting to pull out of the writing drought that followed my father’s passing in late 2003. The idea of writing a shorter Jani Kilian story was one of the spurs I needed to get going again. Because short was not my natural length, I knew I would need to narrow the focus, concentrate in a single plot, and take care to not let Jani’s backstory slow down the story.

I decided to write about an event from Jani’s “lost years,” the time between her fleeing the idomeni homeworld of Shèrá and the events in Code of Conduct. She tries to lay low, yet can’t help getting involved when someone needs help.

As for the title, it’s a spin on every “incident” title you’ve ever seen as well as a take on A Small Town in Germany, the title of a novel by John Le Carré, whose Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People influenced me so much. It was accompanied by a cool stylized illo by Lee Kuruganti, and appeared in the December 2006 issue.

It received some very nice reviews, and remains one of my favorite works. It will be available on Tuesday, 20 August, from Book View Café, and on Wednesday 21 August from other ebook vendors.

Synopsis: Jani Kilian—broke, tired, and on the run from the Commonwealth Service—hopes that a short stint working at a shipping company on an out-of-the-way colonial station will provide her some things she badly needs. Money. A place to hide. A little peace.

But all too soon, she is drawn into the staff’s habit of making the payroll by diverting cargo, and her offers to help smooth the process only feed her coworkers’ suspicions that their unusually competent documents technician is a government spy. 

Then there are the hallucinations, a side effect of Service brain augmentation–Jani assumes she’s seeing things when she first encounters a young girl in the station bathroom. But not only does the child turn out to be very real, she is on the run herself and in need of serious medical treatment. As Jani is drawn into the deepening crisis, she realizes yet again that no matter how far she runs, her past is never far behind.

“The tech stuff is neat, the atmosphere tense, with vivid description and convincing detail, the action pretty much non-stop, and the emotional tension builds inexorably. Three whammies before the end, all different: the thing that makes memorable stories is not just nifty skiffy, great pacing, but the electricity between human beings. ” –“Tangent Magazine”

 “The action never slows – even the one or two intentionally “quiet” moments are tense and ready to explode.” –365 Shortstories

Voted a “Notable Short Story” in 2006 by Story South

A Great New Storybundle

My novella, “Incident on a Small Colony,” is my only Jani Kilian short work (so far). It first appeared in the December 2006 issue of Baen’s Universe. Ten years later, it was a featured reprint in Lightspeed Magazine. At times, it’s been featured on my website and offered as a thank-you to folks who sign up for my newsletter. It’s one of my favorite pieces, and I’m thrilled that it’s now part of a Storybundle curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, featured along with novels and short stories from some dandy SF writers.

Another nice thing about StoryBundle is that you can earmark part of your payment to a worthy cause. For this bundle, the cause is The AbleGamers Foundation.

Check out the bundle here: https://storybundle.com/space

A Summer Book Fair

Code of Conduct is one of the books being offered at the latest Bookwrapt Book Fair. The fair is filled with 99 cent bargains on sale for a limited time in contemporary romance, paranormal romance, thrillers, fantasy, science fiction, women’s fiction, romantic suspense, and more.

Plus, each day of the fair we’re giving away a $15 Amazon gift card and 12 books from the fair via Amazon instant giveaways!

The giveaway runs through June 8.

Java 2.0

(A.K.A. Mr. Stinky)

Earlier this year, I completed the coursework portion of the Master Gardener program at Chicago Botanic Garden. In addition, I need to complete a minimum of 60 hours of volunteer work to get certified. One of the things I can do to meet that requirement is help staff public events. This past Friday, I was lucky enough to help out at the Corpse Flower exhibit as Java 2.0 was in full bloom.

I’d never seen a Corpse Flower–real name Titan Arum–in bloom before, which means I’d never enjoyed the distinctive scent that gives it its name. The smell definitely wasn’t pleasant, but…it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared, either. After I finished greeting visitors, I got to be a visitor myself. I went inside the Semitropical Greenhouse, talked with the Master Gardener who was answering questions about Java, and took some photos.

Java 2.0. The opening near the bottom was made so it could be pollinated. In the wild, pollination would be carried out by insects.



Inside the semi-tropical greenhouse with the star of the show.

After getting my selfie-with-Java, I visited the Arid Greenhouse, where the century plant was blooming for the first and, as it turns out, only time in its 27 years.

The century plant’s swan song

Despite the name, it’s not true that the plant–Agave ocahui–blooms once every hundred years. The plant lives an average of 25-30 years, and blooms just before it passes on to that big greenhouse in the sky.

So, this past Friday I witnessed two singular botanical events. Not a bad way to spend the day.

A Spring SF Giveaway

Yeah, I know–another giveaway.

But hey, dystopias. Biohazards. Alien wars. Maybe a little romance. The chance to learn about new-to-you SF authors, including some bestsellers. And the chance to enter a giveaway and maybe win ebooks or an ereader. What better way to start your week?

And if you follow me on Bookbub, you’ll receive a few extra chances to win, along with the occasional book recommendation from me, and news about new releases.

You don’t have to buy anything, and if you do sign up for any pages, you can unsub at any time. The giveaway runs through May 8.

Finally, Spring!

Hope I’m not speaking too soon.

We had quite a snow here in the Midwest this past Sunday. My immediate area received 5-6 inches of the heavy, wet stuff that compressed to about 2 inches of semi-soft cement as temperatures rose and the melting commenced. It’s all melted now. The greening had picked up where it left off, and that means flowers!

Daffodils with ant





Most of the crocuses are solid purple, …but a few stripedy ones have survived…the ravages of winter, squirrels, and time



The Anna’s Red hellebore hasn’t opened yet, but the Pink Fizz has exploded

Storybundle!

I’m thrilled to have The Jani Kilian Chronicles Books 1-3 offered as one of the books in a nifty Space Opera Storybundle. This bundle includes works by authors I’ve followed since I first got started in the 90’s, like Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith, and new to me authors like Blaze Ward, Michael D. Britton, Meyari McFarland. Check out the Storybundle page for links to excerpts and info about the authors.

As an added coolness, the charity that will receive a portion of the sales is AbleGamers, some great folks who provide people with disabilities modified gaming equipment and assistive technologies so they can continue to have fun with their friends and families.

Your ereader’s bored. It wants some Space Opera!

Tales of derring-do–and a few don’ts–and the ability to help others. I think it’s a pretty good deal, and I hope you do, too.

Baba Ganoush

I like saying it over and over again. It sounds like the name of a character in a Russian fairy tale.

It’s not, though. It’s a roasted eggplant-garlic mash-up of Levantine origin. The first baba ganoush I ever ate was a horrible jarred concoction from the supermarket, and I do mean horrible. With a capital HORRIBLE. It didn’t even taste like food, more like an industrial adhesive. IIRC, I swallowed that first bite and trashed the rest. I was turned off the idea of further testing, much less attempting to make a batch myself, for years.

The thing is, though, I love eggplant. And when I checked recipes online, they all contained items I like and use in hummus and some salad dressings–varying amounts of tahini, olive oil, lemon juice. A chopped green herb like parsley or basil. Salt. Red pepper flakes or other heat source. The only issue seemed to be that a smoked flavor is a characteristic, so recipes required grilling or roasting the eggplant over the flame of a gas burner. I have an electric stove and it’s currently too cold to break out the charcoal grill, so those weren’t options.

After a little searching, though, I found a recipe over at Minimalist Baker for Simple Baba Ganoush that called for broiling the eggplant–that, I could do. If I wanted to add a smoky flavor, smoked salt would have to suffice. So I sliced up what I thought was a medium eggplant, maybe 8-9 inches long, arranged the slices on a baking sheet, and sprinkled them with smoked salt and a drizzle of olive oil. No, I did not pretreat the eggplant beforehand by salting/draining/drying. It already seemed fairly dry, and I figured any excess liquid would be driven off by the broiler heat.

Pre-broiled eggplant

After a few minutes, some flipping, and a few more minutes:

Broiled eggplant

I bundled the slices in the foil to steam a bit so the peel could be removed more easily. The eggplant was very dry, with a consistency that reminded me of bread. There also wasn’t enough of it to allow use of the full-size bowl of my food processor, so I added everything to the small insert. I’m not crazy about that insert–the sides are curved instead of straight and the baba ganoush was thick, which meant that I had to repeatedly stop the blending and push the spread down around the chopping blade. Nevertheless, I eventually processed it to a spreadable consistency. I didn’t have any fresh herbs on hand, and made do with a teaspoon and a half of dried basil.

The finished product

The verdict? A world away from jarred supermarket stuff. Not very smoky, I do confess, but mild, fresh-tasting. Next time, I will use a bigger eggplant as I used the zest as well as the juice of a whole medium lemon, and the cup or so of final product was maybe a bit too lemony. But now I can add baba ganoush to the list of items–hummus, mayonnaise, salad dressings–that I will likely always make from scratch from now on.

The final product topped with homemade roasted cherry tomato spread
and a sprinkle of za’atar

Adventures with Mayo

Mayonnaise, to be exact.

I don’t use mayonnaise that often–one of those small jars lasts me for months. But I was in the middle of making some tuna salad today and realized I’d none at all. I considered making do with Dijon mustard, lemon juice, and herbs, then thought, why not make it from scratch? I’d often thought about it, but never tried. This snowy, indoor day seemed a good a time as any.

Because I never use much, I searched online for a recipe that would result in no more than a cup, and found this one on the Epicurious site. I dug out all the ingredients–Dijon mustard, cider vinegar, lemon juice, egg yolk, olive oil. Debated breaking out the immersion blender or the food processor with the small batch insert, and decided heck with it. I’d go old school and wisk it by hand. So I broke out the small hand wisk and got to work. 10 minutes active time, according to the recipe. I had always found those estimates laughably short, but hey, there’s always a first time.

Olive Oil Mayo (the black flecks are pepper–no white pepper on hand)

Well, guess what? It did indeed take 10 minutes or so of wisking time. I added the oil carefully, and had no trouble with the oil refusing to blend or later separation. My arm did get a little tired, but that was about it.

As for the results, well, note the color. Definitely not white. I used a green, grassy olive oil that had a bit of bite, and that proved a mistake. I tasted the mayo expecting a mild, lemony flavor, and all I tasted was the olive oil. I now understand why past mayonnaise recipes I’d read advised use of flavorless oils like vegetable or canola oil.

That said, I don’t consider this a total failure. I did use some of the mayo in tuna salad, where the taste of the fish and dried herbs balanced the olive oil. And next time I make it, I will use a flavorless oil.

Capricon!

I will be attending Capricon 39 next Friday and Saturday, and am looking forward to some fun panels.

Also, fingers crossed for decent weather.

Monster Hunters Willow A Theme Fri 11:30 AM
Forget the monsters, let’s celebrate those whose lives are dedicated to bringing the monsters down. From Van Helsing to Buffy to Solomon Kane, how is the role of a monster hunter portrayed in literature and media?

Themed Reading: Space Opera Birch B Reading Fri 2:30 PM
Authors read rollicking action adventure stories… IN SPACE!

Writing While Life Rolls Over You Botanic B Writing Fri 4:00 PM
How do you survive Life Events while trying to juggle day job and a writing career? How do you stay organized? Recover from
massive distractions? Get back to the project? Overcome imposter syndrome? Let’s figure this out together.

Autographing: BMAN/Erlick/Smith/Shoemaker Autograph Table
Sat 10:00 AM

Monsters on Vacation Birch B Theme Sat 11:30 AM
What does a zombie do after it’s eaten its fill of brains? Does Godzilla ever take a day to just kick back at the beach? In stories
we usually only see monsters when they’re busy terrorizing the countryside, but you can’t do that ALL the time…Our panelists
discuss how various monsters might spend their downtime.

The Monsters of Doctor Who Botanic A Media Sat 2:30 PM
What scares the Doctor should scare you! From Adipose to Zygons our panelists discuss their faves and flops. And is there such
a thing as too much exposure: do the Daleks scare as much now as they did in 1963?