Alex Gordon's Blog, page 9

An Odd Noise

Folks all over the ‘net are posting about strange encounters, weird occurrences, or spooky stories they have heard. So, after pondering for a bit, I decided to write about something that happened to me when I was a kid.

I grew up in Florida. For a time, my folks and I lived in an unincorporated area. Our house was a cinder block ranch, a common style in the mid-to-late 60s. Given the times and the location, nights were pretty quiet. Homes were scattered across several streets, often separated by one or more vacant lots. There were no businesses except for a small motel and a combination beauty parlor-convenience store located maybe a half-mile away.

It’s been over 50 years, which is a scary thought in itself. I was still in grade school, maybe 9 or 10. It was late, definitely after 11pm, possibly a little later. The house was quiet, and by quiet, I mean 1960s quiet. No electronics, alarms, or appliances inclined to go off because of a power outage or dying battery. No air conditioner–I don’t recall the time of year but there may have been a fan. Trucks and other large vehicles didn’t beep when in reverse.

So, late. Quiet. I’m lying awake–I don’t remember if I awoke after sleeping for a time or if I couldn’t sleep, period, but given my age I think it was the former. I’m listening to the quiet when I realize that I could hear something. A very faint rapid beep, like the ones in hearing tests.

I don’t remember if it was steady or beeps-pause-beeps, but it was persistent. I tried to ignore it, but it just wouldn’t stop and it was just loud enough. So I got up and went to see if I could find the source. Out of my room, down the short hall, and into the living room. The TV was off. The room was dark. But my mom was there, lying curled up on the loveseat, asleep. I went to her, and saw that she held a lit cigarette in her hand. I woke her up, she stubbed out the cigarette, and we both went to bed.

Before I fell asleep, I realized the beeping had stopped.

And zip goes the summer

The hickory leaves are turning gold, and the sugar maples are entering their brilliant vermilion phase. Other trees have faded to that olive shade that precedes more profound color change. Occasionally, the nighttime temperatures drop into the 50s (F), and all the grocery stores are selling pumpkins. Autumn is here, and while I’m looking forward to the cooler days and (fingers crossed) a little rain, I’ll miss the flowers and the longer days.

Still working on Echoes of War. I’ve made vague mention in other places that the ending had been giving me problems. In fact, I had reached the point when I thought I was only a week or two from finishing when the story. Just. Stopped. I was halfway through a scene featuring the secondary POV, and it died.

Derailment happened in each of the previous Jani books, but it did so in the beginning. I would hit around page 200, and the story would grind to a halt. I tried try to reuse what I had written, but the bulk of it invariably wound up in the ‘gone and soon to be forgotten’ file, the virtual cutting room floor. Sometimes I thought of it as pulling out all the packing material from a package and shoving it in the trash. The real goods were still in the box.

This time, during what would be the climax, I apparently tried to force characters into reactions and actions that didn’t fit. I also realized that I hadn’t thought through the details of the politics, the action. So I’ve spent the last too many weeks picking at that roadblock scene, and thinking. I’m pretty sure I have it now. Three plot points flipped. The ending changed somewhat. Right now, it all feels better.

That’s the thing with being a pantser who occasionally plots. I have a general idea of what goes where, but there’s just enough that doesn’t become evident until it’s written out, and that’s what gets me most every time. But it means that I can still be surprised–one argument I’ve heard from pure pantsers is that if they plot too much ahead of time, the story dies on them. They’ve already answered all the questions. They know how it all ends. No point in writing it.

I can still manage to surprise myself.

While Echoes has been kicking my ass, I have still managed to get some writing done. The result appears in the latest edition of Boundary Shock Quarterly. Each edition has a theme–for this one, it’s “Wandering Monsters”:

Kaiju and blobs and science gone wrong. Monsters from deep space come to destroy us all or the ones quietly hiding below as colonists and Terraformers arrive.

My story is entitled “Nest.” It about a small team sent to establish a settlement on a recently terraformed world.

Sometimes, it’s not the Big Bads that are the problem.

The short story is not my natural length, and two in a single year is a record for me. This issue is packed with great tales by writers who are new to me and others I’ve known for years. Check it out!

Substitution…Mass Confusion…

I had bought too many zucchini for a casserole recipe and needed to use the extra before they devolved into a puddle state at the bottom of the crisper drawer. The usual habit was to fall back on roasting, but I was in the mood for something different and had run out of muffins, so when I stumbled over this Food & Wine recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bread with Pepitas over on Instagram, I had to check it out.

So I read the list of ingredients to make sure I had everything on hand. All basics–flour, cocoa, cinnamon, leavening agents. Then as I neared the bottom of the list, I stopped.

1 cup oil

At first I thought that had to be a misprint because I don’t recall ever seeing a single loaf recipe that called for that much oil. Then I remembered that this was Food & Wine, which, like Epicurious, seems to follow the guideline that there’s no such thing as too much salt/sugar/fat. Ordinarily I’d accept that and find another recipe–I know that it’s cake for crying out loud, but I’ve eaten oily baked goods in the past and find the consistency weird. Add to this the fact that sweet or savory, I have developed a real dislike for oily food. But I liked everything else about this recipe and I wanted to bake something NOW, so I did what I’ve often done on the past and hunted online for possible substitutions. This page over at Bob’s Red Mill lists a number of possibilities along with discussing the reason for using oil in the first place and what the various substitutions bring or take away from the party.

I settled on whole milk Greek yogurt because that’s what I had on hand. I also had applesauce, but I preferred to use something with some fat and also thought a little sour cream-like tang might be nice. I also added 2x the cinnamon and a half teaspoon or so of cayenne pepper, replaced 1/4c of the regular sugar with golden coconut sugar, and replaced 1/2c of all-purpose flour with white whole wheat flour. Finally, I used pepitas that were roasted and salted because I thought the salt would add a nice touch.

End result below. Not as dark and glossy as the Food & Wine cake, but nicely dense, moist, and chocolatey and lacking that greasy “I need to wash my hands now” feel that is one thing I dislike about oily baked goods.

When it’s still warm from the oven, the chocolate chips sprinkled on top are almost like frosting.

A New Short Story

If you enjoy tales of ghost ships and legends and eerie happenings around spaceports, well, there’s an anthology coming out on July 15th that you might be interested in and hey, I have a story in it. The book is entitled Derelict, one of a trio of anthologies coming out this year from Zombies Need Brains. It’s edited by Joshua Palmatier and David B. Coe, and along with my story, “Symbiote,” it has stories by Gina Koch, Julie E. Czerneda, Jack Campbell, and Sharon Lee & Steve Miller.

“Symbiote” was fun to write. Short stories are a challenge for me because the novel is my natural length and I constantly need to battle the urge to add backstory and side plots. I have to focus, and after a while I find I enjoy being able to concentrate on that single track.

So what is “Symbiote” about? It’s an SF tale of a scavenger team that needs a good score really badly. So they get a tip about the Morecombe, a ship that disappeared a dozen or so years before. There’s not a lot of information available about this ship other than it was a laboratory ship, and lab ships usually have a lot of salvageable stuff.

Usually.

Preorder now: Amazon B&N Kobo ZNB

Wildlife Season

Some of my favorite birds have returned to the neighborhood over the last couple of weeks. Baltimore orioles have been eating the orange slices. Ruby-throated hummers are visiting the nectar feeder. Rose-breasted grosbeaks battle the cardinals for the right to park on the seed feeder bar for minutes at a time and pick at the offerings like fussy eaters at a buffet spread.

And then there’s this guy.

This will be the third year, iirc, that I’ve had a planter chipmunk. I don’t know if it’s the same one as in previous years–Eastern chipmunks live 2-3 years in the wild on average, so this widget would be on the geriatric side if it is the same one. On the other hand, it would’ve been residing in a semi-secure location with plenty of food, so who knows? They can apparently live up to 8 years in captivity.

I also have a baby bunny scooting about the place. I startled it yesterday as it hid among the tulips; this morning, I watched it scoot from the safety of the Starry False Solomon’s Seal–the greenery in front of the planter in the above photo–to the yew hedge nearer the house. It is very small, like, I think it could fit in a teacup. I don’t know if its siblings are around, or if it’s already old enough to go off on its own. It’s not big enough to do a lot of damage–the hostas are already pretty big and I don’t have a vegetable garden for it to raid. But to play it safe, I did spray the smaller cinnamon ferns with repellant. I’m not sure how well it will do if it’s on its own. There are feral cats, foxes, and coyotes around, and a Cooper’s hawk zips through on occasion to check out the action around the bird feeders.

In closing, here’s another shot of chipmunk. I had been planning to chop that branch since it’s just one of those short ones that occasionally pops out along a tree trunk. But now that I know it’s a designated observation post, I may leave it alone.

Flower Time: Spring Ephemerals

In a burst of giddy optimism a couple of weeks ago, I shoved the heavier fleece-lined pants in the dresser drawer. This apparently attracted the attention of Mother Nature, who responded with the weather equivalent of “Oh, yeah?” This was capped off last night with a Freeze Warning, frosty rooftops and greenery, and a frozen birdbath.

Through all this, the flowers have hung in there. The daffodils perked up after the sun warmed them, the crabapple buds appear to have survived, and a couple of native spring ephemerals bloomed.

My little spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) started out several years ago as a single tiny plant on the edge of my driveway. Since then, it has multiplied–there are three more plants, each with multiple buds. I look out for them every spring.

Spring beauties

White trout lilies (Erythronium albidum) turned up in my shady sideyard years ago. Most of the plants are nothing more than a single mottled leaf–if lilies grow from seed, it can take 5-7 years for them to mature and bloom.

White trout lily

These flowers are called ephemerals because they don’t stay around very long. But they announce Spring, and I am so, so ready for the warmth and greenery.

Spring?

The winds are currently roaring, but it is sunny. Chilly, but not too unreasonable. Monday’s snows melted quickly, and I admit surprise at how quickly our formidable snowpack disappeared. Daffodil and tulip greenery is emerging, and shrubs are budding. Looking forward to the pussy willows blooming–they’re the first things to open in my yard and the bees and butterflies swamp them. We had a cold snap last year that killed off some of the blooms, so there weren’t as many visitors as in previous years. Hope that doesn’t happen again.

Still working on Echoes. Will need to juggle with tax prep. Second round of edits for “Symbiote,” my story in Derelict, one of this year’s upcoming Zombies Need Brains anthologies, was completed a couple of weeks ago. Planning other things. Planning how to work those things around house things that need doing–yard clean-up, junk clean-out, general repairs and boy would I like to have some work done in the kitchen.

In closing, hey, first outdoor flower of the year! The Pink Fizz hellebore is spreading and has so many buds. I took this photo just after Monday’s snow. We have a few days of 50s coming up after this wind blows out, and I am looking forward to some big pink and white flowers.

Hope all is well with you, whoever and wherever you are. Until next time….

Several things make a post

Still battling Echoes of War. It’s so bloody close. Then it will just need editing, beta reads, a cover. Cover copy. A marketing plan.

It doesn’t help that mentally I’ve jumped ahead to the next works. The first chapter of Jani 7. A couple of short stories, one of which is a promised thing, the other of which would be my first cold short fiction submission since, oh, 1993. Nope, I don’t write much short stuff, and what I have written has been commissioned in one way or another. But I want to write this thing, so. It will get writ.

In other news, I have been enrolled in a clinical study to evaluate a two-shot regimen of the J&J Covid vaccine. Got my first shot this past Thursday–could be either a placebo or the actual vaccine. The injection site is still tender, so of course I am hoping for the latter. That said, I do have the option to leave the study if it turns out I was given placebo and later have the option to get vaccinated elsewhere. Whatever happens, I’m glad I was enrolled. My 26 years in Big Pharma were spent working in OTC and tableted product development, support, and analysis, so it’s interesting to get an in-depth look at the clinical side of things.

Finally, it wouldn’t be one of my posts unless food and/or flowers were included, so how about a favorite recipe. I have made this Food & Wine Eggplant Lentil Stew w/ Pomegranate Molasses several times, but had to tweak yesterday’s batch because of lack of ingredients and wanting to save steps. No Anaheim chiles, so I added a sweet red pepper. Green lentils instead of brown. Canned diced tomatoes instead of fresh. Dried spearmint leaves. I added harissa paste and advieh for heat and depth. Chopped up the eggplant instead of layering it with the tomato-onion blend. Finally, instead of cooking the lentils separately, I dumped them dry into the stew, and added a cup of water.

Two directions I have never followed with this recipe: 1) I never salt and drain the eggplant because why would I discard veggie juice when I can boil it down if necessary and 2) I don’t add the massive glug of olive oil because I don’t like oily food. I use 2-3 tablespoons to saute the veggies and that’s about it.

I left the stew on vigorous simmer, covered, for the required time, about 1.5 hours. Served it over couscous with pita bread on the side. So good, with a lovely red-brown sauce that was slightly thickened thanks to the lentils. I will continue to toss them in dry from now on.

I love this stew. I added some chicken to this batch as it cooked, and it absorbed the overall flavor. I’d like to add chickpeas to a future batch. More lentils. Different vegetables, like corn. I am thinking that shrimp might work as well.

Good stuff on a chilly day

So, that’s all for now. Until next time, take care. Eat good food.

Working

Pushing myself to finish Echoes in the next few weeks. I’ve been wrestling with the Editor-On-My-Shoulder, telling myself that the important thing now is to just get the words down. I know I’m overwriting in spots. Explaining too much, which slows down the action. I have the remaining chapters plotted, which is a pretty big deal for pantser me, and I know the ending. It’s a matter of getting down the words. Writing by direct mental transference still isn’t a thing.

It’s been a long day, so I decided to give myself a treat. I had heard of microwave mug cake for years, but never tried any recipes because the ones I found all contained so much oil and I don’t like oily baked goods. Then I found this recipe last year–milk and just a dab of butter–and it has become my go-to chocolate cake. I add a quarter teaspoon or so of instant espresso to boost the chocolate flavor, and cinnamon and a dash of cayenne if I’m in the mood for spice. I usually use white whole wheat flour, but this time I opted for Francine Bio, an organic white flour from France. I bought it in order to hit the free shipping amount for an online order, and darn it, I think it resulted in the best cake yet.

I usually eat the cake by itself or with a scoop of ice cream, but this time I opted for a couple of Traverse City brand cocktail cherries with a little of the syrup. Fresh cup of coffee. Good way to end the day.

Cake!

Trying something new

A week or so ago, I decided to clean out the refrigerator and freezer because I am expert at forgetting what I have on hand and buying stuff I don’t need. Among the things I excavated was a pack of four baseball-size beets that I roasted way back in September 2018. My first thought was to toss them into the compost bin as I assumed they would taste freezer-burned, stale. After all, they had been frozen for a long time, gone through at least one defrosting/refreezing, and weren’t particularly well-packaged. But I smelled them, and, well, they smelled just fine. Very beet-y. Then there’s the fact that I really hate to waste food.

My initial plan was to slice up the beets in a cold salad with red onion and vinegar, but I decided to search for recipes in case they contained suggestions for spices or other additions. During the hunt, I came upon a recipe for Spiced Beet and Red Onion Jam.

I’ve had mixed reactions to savory jams in the past. I’ve tried the tomato jam sold by a popular grocery chain, and found it excruciatingly sweet. Then I bought a jar of hot pepper bacon jam made by a boutique condiments company and again, I found it way too sweet. One reason I decided to try making the beet-onion jam was to see if I could make a savory jam that actually tasted savory, not like a fruit spread.

Chopped up and ready to goCooking away

I read the jam recipe, and immediately hit a speedbump–it called for 2 cups of golden sugar. For one thing, I had never heard of golden sugar. For another, I didn’t want to add 2 cups of any kind of sugar to this jam. So I improvised–I decided to use the light brown sugar that I already had, and to cut it back to half a cup, which is a bit more than I use for fruit spreads. I also decided to add a scant teaspoon of the Pomona pectin, which gels by reacting with calcium instead of sugar (I added a teaspoon and a half of the Pomona calcium suspension). That way, I wouldn’t have to cook the jam as long or monitor the temperature. Since the beets had already been roasted, they didn’t need much cooking anyway.

The final product

The beets were still frozen, so I grated them using my Cuisipro box grater, which worked like a charm. The red onions, I just chopped. I added the spices, and boiled the mix for a few minutes. Since I wound up with about 3.5 cups total, I didn’t bother with full-blown preserving. I just packed the jam into glass containers and stuck it in the fridge to set.

Lunchtime!

Verdict? I liked this more than I thought I would, and will definitely make it again. Reducing the sugar allowed the flavor of the beets to come through, and the cayenne pepper added just the right amount of heat. I first tried it on crispbread atop my homemade hummus, with a few pieces of pecorino romano on the side. It made for a nice change of pace from my usual sun-dried tomato spread.

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