Wednesday Words 10.11

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 3 Comments

Greetings my darlings. Much is afoot today so stay close because this blog is going to meander.

First off, I guest blogged over at Dan’s, again.   I was moderately funny and definitely baring my soul. Go take a look. Halloween is almost here, what better time to be scared, right?

Speaking of which….

If you missed it before, The Box Under the Bed, is free today through

https://www.freebooksy.com/

When I looked we were the 3rd one on the front page!

GET YOUR COPY NOW!

And finally a few bits of news.

Ostrich Mentality,  my sophomore novel will launch in November!

It will be ready for ARC in the next week or two. Message me now if you would like a free copy in exchange for an honest review. Also let me know what format works for you? PDF? Kindle? Word? I’m happy to oblige.

The weather is turning cold and crisp. I know for many people this is when they hibernate. Not for me. I perk up when the weather does this. I am raring to go. Third novel in the works. Yup, third novel, in the works.

Thank you, thank you very much. LOL

 

Book Review: I’m Traveling Alone

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My friend K dropped this book at my house and said, “This is super creepy, I think you’ll like it.” LOL I love my friends.
I’m Traveling Alone by Samuel Bjork is an interesting read and definitely a bit of creepy going on. At least once I thought, no I don’t want to read this in bed, alone, at night, thank you very much.
Basic plot line, detectives track a nasty serial killer. A nasty serial killer who is playing games with them. And eventually targets them.
I liked the characters. I felt there was some interest in the team outside the two main detectives. The plot was, well, typical of detective stories. I did feel like the ending came a bit “poof-magic-all better now.” But at the same time, not everything was tied up. A couple of major plots points just hang in limbo.
My biggest complaint is regarding circular thinking. The author repeats phrases, demonstrating the circles a character, or five, are thinking in. But it’s not similar words on the same vein. It’s the exact same words, exact same sentences, 3 or 4 times on the same page. I eventually started scanning past those portions. I never considered abandoning the book though.
℘℘℘ – 3 pages, reasonably good entertainment. I’d read another book about this detective team if the author published one.

Sunday Sup: Another Delicious Mistake

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A couple of weeks back I made this recipe, lasagna stuffed chicken. So good. I had planned to make that again but when I opened the chicken it smelled…odd. Off. Like I might seriously regret cooking it. So I threw it out. Now what to make? Hubs will be home in 45 minutes, I have no defrosted meat and I need to make something to feed us all. Hence….

Italian Layer Pie

Rummaging in the freezer and cupboards I came up with a few things. A bag of gluten free chicken strips and a can of  eggplant, onions, and tomatoes. Oh look, I have half a bag of quinoa pasta left. I can do this.

Cook your chicken strips first, so 425 for 20 minutes on the gf ones I had.

Boil the pasta. Drain the pasta.

Assemble in a pie dish or other casserole container:

Pasta on the bottom.

Then the can of eggplant, onions, and tomatoes.

Take the 1 cup ricotta, handful of mozzarella, and handful of parm you already mixed to put in the original chicken breast, and put that on top.

Next the chicken strips.

Then some marinara.

Top with more moz and parm.

Slide into the 425 oven for 10-15 minutes, til the cheese is brown and the whole dish is warmed through. You can use broil for a minute to get a good browning if you need it.

I bet this would be super tasty with meatballs. I just didn’t have any in my freezer. LOL

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Fiendish Friday: Way out there

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The other day I was chatting with a mom from co-op. I don’t really know her very well but she was telling about the health thing she was doing and so I mentioned I just started a couch to 5K program. Not because I think it will make me healthier but because it will help me get through the 3 miles my dog needs each day faster. LOL. So I can do other things. Like eat breakfast.

She says “oh where do you live, I’d love to run with you.”

“I live in the middle of no where.”

To which my friend says, “I just had to pick something up at K’s house. Now she lives way out there. It can’t be that bad.”

Through laughter so great I almost fell down, I choked out “She’s my next door neighbor.”

Life is so flippin amusing sometimes, I can’t make this stuff up.

Third Quarter One Page Reviews

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On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy D. Snyder

I grabbed this book because I am teaching 20th Century world history this upcoming year and I love new perspectives. Yeah, this was a total bait and switch book. It’s not actually about  20th century world history. It’s about drawing as many parallels between Trump and Hitler. The author adds all sorts of inappropriate commentary. This was not a historical work. This was not a political work. This was not even an academic work. It was a 100 page op ed piece. I don’t like bait and switch. Hence, a one page review.

The Swans of Fifth Avenue, Melanie Benjamin

I really tried with this book. The opening was pretentious and irritating beyond belief but I pushed on because 2 pages was not a fair opportunity. I made it to 67 when I found I would rather listen to Princess Label Maker on audio book (for the 116th time) with my son that read this. It just wasn’t compelling to me.

The Chemist, Stephanie Meyer

Um. Yeah. So someone told me the Twilight madame’s adult stuff was way better. So I downloaded this one from the library late one night when I couldn’t sleep. Worked like a charm. I was out in about five pages. But since I had it on my kindle I endeavored to read it for several weeks until the library took it back. It’s about a chemist on the run. I don’t know why. I don’t know who the chemist is. In fact however many pages I got in to the book, I did not care. It was so in the present moment, all exposition because she’s on the run and never speaks to anyone, but there was NO tension.  I totally did not care.

The Art of Character, David Corbett

Another craft book I picked up because someone recommended it to me. Could not get engaged. It’s written like a long philosophy lecture.  If you like philosophy lectures, you might find this book super useful. It wasn’t even a good cure for insomnia – every time I tried to read it, I got so frustrated, I was angry in minutes.

Addressed to Kill, Jean Flowers

Sigh. This is the third in the series, so I hoped the author would have reached her stride. I guess she has but it’s more of a zombie lurch with body parts falling off than a lope. LOL. The writing is stilted and awkward. The dialogue totes ridic. LOL.  

 

If you’re looking for something good to read, pop over to Amazon and grab a copy of our horror anthology, The Box Under The Bed, number 1 in new releases.

Sunday Sup: Philly Cheese-steak Casserole

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Be forewarned this is not healthy by any stretch of the imagination. And I know I’ve been posting a lot of Philly Cheese-steak lately. I don’t know what my deal is. I just want food with peppers and onions right now.
Preheat your oven so you can cook your tater tots. Yup, tater tots. If you want to pretend this is a nod to healthy, you use sweet potato tater tots. LOL
Slide those tots in the oven.
Thinly slice two medium sweet onions and one large bell pepper, your color choice. Saute over low heat, in the fat of your choice, until soft and caramelized. Thickly slice 12 oz roast beef and add to onions and peppers. Splash a healthy 3 shakes of Worcestershire sauce into the pan. Stir until warm.
Pull the tots when baked.
Put half the tots in the bottom of an 8×8 dish. Add half the meat/onions/peppers. Add four slices of provolone. Repeat.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until cheese is bubbly and browning.
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Fiendish Friday: Because she said so

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My eye was caught by a long reads title “Is Joss Whedon a bad feminist?”

Of course I clicked. I adore Joss, I can’t imagine anyone who grew up watching Buffy not adoring Joss. But the article isn’t about the feminism or lack there of in his work.

In fact, it’s more of an introduction to a list of other articles. I stopped reading after the intro.

Apparently Joss recently got a divorce. It happens, to what 60% of marriages now? Anyway, his ex decided to write an open letter lambasting him for being a horrible human. Everything he accomplished was because she built it for him and he cheated on her.

The blogger said she didn’t even feel surprise reading this, it made perfect sense to her. Huh? A spurned ex lover makes accusations and you accept them without any further thought to bias?

I think it’s where society is now. Of course, a woman was secretly the driving force behind Joss Whedon’s amazing body of work, because only women are capable of greatness. Men are worthless cheats.

Makes total sense. To someone, some where. To too many people too many places.

Not to me though.

 

Wednesday Words 9.27

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments
I am a crazy woman. How’s that for some words? LOL
Things are just this side of total insanity and I hope it’s just start of the co-op year drama and will settle down shortly. If not, well … let’s not go there just yet.
BIG WORD: The Box Under The Bed, the anthology I contributed to, is doing mad work on Amazon, in and out of the top ten and it isn’t even out yet. Our entries are being considered for inclusion in the year’s best horror. And you can still get it on e-book for the pre-order price of 99 cents. Yup, 99 cents. 
Corollary to the big word: Despite extensive efforts by our editor, my name was not working correctly as a contributor for the book. When I tried to claim in, that didn’t even work. So I had to contact Author Central Support.
duh-duh-duh
They have this little form you fill out. You can call, snort, or email. As I am filling in the email, the little box says, are you sure you don’t want to call, less than a minute of wait time. Hrm, I have 19 minutes until I have to be in class, ok. I click call me. They call and put me on hold. Suddenly the average wait time is 2 minutes. ok. After nine minutes they hang up on me. LOL. I emailed. And Amazon actually fixed the problem within 24 hours! Note the date.
I am part way through the oral recitation of my spy novel. I know what you’re thinking, oral what? So I read my work out loud to my hubs who follows along on paper and points out all my mistakes as well as all the times I read something other than what is on the paper and when it sounds better. LOL It is time consuming but it catches a lot of oops and my dialogue is always better for it.  It’s one of the last things I do before publication.
The cover design is jamming along. I actually think it’s almost perfect which means I need to get my s-h-i-t together and write the back blurb and get new author pics taken. I want to do something fun that goes with this genre.
I am aiming for an early November release date. More on that when a few more t’s are crossed.