Book Review: Telling Lies for Fun & Profit

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I hear this book has been around for eons and is a mainstay of writers’ canon. Shrug. Who knew? LOL. Not me. Not until Norwescon this past year when one of the panels referenced Telling Lies for Fun & Profit by Lawrence Block.

I very much liked this book. It’s broken down into section about the market and craft specific things. I found some of his market information and opinions felt very out of date. But his comments on craft were spot on. I took a ton of e-notes, 7% of the book in fact or so the rights management software informed me. (The book allows 10%.)

One of my fave stories he used to demonstrate the importance of close first person narrative with some story lines. He talks about how in the story you are right there with a band of rebels. Their country has been taken over by a neighboring country. They develop a plan to kill the dictator in charge in the hopes of gaining their freedom. The story is told so close in that as a reader you are rooting for the assassin to kill the dictator. Rooting for the rebels right up til the moment when the assassin kills the dictator and you see it’s Abraham Lincoln he’s killed to your cheers.  That story line would never have flown told from a distant omniscient third person POV.

Maybe that’s what makes this book so much fun and informative, the great stories Block tells to demonstrate his points. The chapters are short and the reading easy.

℘℘℘℘ – Four Pages. I have to be honest, I’d never heard of this guy or read any of his fiction works, but if he’s as funny in fiction as he was in non fiction…I’ll definitely check him out.

 

Sunday Sup: Paleo Ice Cream

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I’m pretending it’s summer. I am ignoring the sub 60 temperatures, the freezing wind, and the pouring rain. It is summer, darn it.

I recently got the kiddo to agree to go dairy free for a year to help his nose dry out. Snot faucet over here. So he asked me to make him ice cream. There may have been some British Baking Show involved as well. LOL

Cashew Butter Ice Cream

Mix one can full fat coconut milk (14oz) with 1/2 c coconut sugar until the sugar is incorporated. I use my immersion blender for ease of clean up. Add 1/2 c cashew butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ( I like bourbon vanilla).

Pour into your ice cream maker after it is already on. After 12 minutes it was at the thickness point to add 1/3 c Lily’s chocolate chips (vegan and sugar free). I also tossed in two big spoonfuls of no sugar added raspberry jam. Let the mixer roll on.

Five more minutes brings you to soft serve consistency where the paddle is just rolling about the edge of the bowl and the ice cream is in the center. If you are expecting some Ben and Jerry’s style jam swirl through the ice cream, don’t. It combines but tastes yummy. Scoop it out into a close-able container and pop it in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours before consumption.

Just let me put on a sweater and wrap up in a blanket and I’m ready to eat summer ice cream. LOL

Fiendish Friday: To you

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Yes, you. The lovely soccer mom driving the monster Escalade through a crowded Saturday afternoon parking lot with her face glued to her cell phone. I know you didn’t see me, hello all you saw was your cell phone. But that was me, jumping back to keep from getting run over by you. I have just one thing to say to you….

Please tell me you were looking at pictures of a naked Chris Pine from Wonder Woman.

I hate to think my life is only worth a boring old text telling you not to forget the milk….

Wednesday Words 6/14

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With the editing of others:

Not editing. Quiet peace right now, although three of my students tell me I will have reading to do soon. In the mean time, I’m reading a lot of other books, like 5 of them right now. The 3AM Epiphany, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu, Tyranny-Lessons from the 20th Century, Barking Up The Wrong Tree, The House of Spirits(gift from my SIL, might as well try to read it).

With my own writing:

Editing is going ok. I keep going back and forth a bit. I sent out my new first chapter for a read through. Two liked it, one thought I needed to add more back from the original version to up the tension. sigh. I’ll get it right at some point. LOL. Maybe.

Emotionally: I got this email this week:

I just wanted to let you know that I got a kindle for my graduation this year, and I hooked it up to my family account.  I was scrolling through the my books section and I found your book, scripting the truth.  As of this morning at 6, I haven’t been able to put my kindle down.  I’m on chapter 36, 73% through the book.  It is truly a work of art, and I’m sad not a lot of people know about it.
 I cried.
Topic for debate on my writing:

Hrm, I’m not sure I have anything to debate. I registered for that conference. I booked a sit down with an agent and an editor. I can book more when arrive if they have slots left open. I’m ridiculously nervous about it. But it’s on the line now, I need to get this book done or I will have nothing to discuss in my appointments. I am an excellent pressure player. My sitter has not found a summer job yet, so I added a couple of mid days each week to my regular sitting schedule, more time to write.

Book Review: The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

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I breezed through the life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo during a sick morning on the couch. It was an easy read. Kondo cycles back through most of her ideas more than once, so if you don’t catch them the first time, you’ll have nine more opportunities on average. LOL.

The basic tenant is that you should LOVE and find JOY in everything in your home. Discard or donate everything that does not fall in that category. Hrm, that sounds good but I don’t know. What about my running shoes? I don’t love them. They don’t bring me joy, but walk/jogging the dog 15 miles a week would be rough without them.

But I thought the idea was intriguing enough to give it a whirl. And Kondo stresses starting with your clothes. Which I have been desperate to purge and reorg for a while now. Ok, why not. Yeah, five hours later. Ugh.

I have to admit my closet is beautiful now. And things are organized nicely. But I’m not sure how maintainable her “standing clothes” organization is going to be. I’ll give it a few weeks to see how it goes.

Now then….the rest of the house…sigh…that is going to take a bit longer. Her second step is your bookcase. But I actually just did that in the manner she suggested a couple of months ago when we moved the bookcases down to the front room so the little man could have a play room upstairs. (Lego explosion on only one floor of the house, thank you very much.) We had to empty every shelf, bring the cases down, then figure out what to keep as we purposely wanted to go from 3 cases of books to 2.

I get to skip the paperwork one as well as the hubs handles that.

Which brings me to the “stuff” portion of the book. sigh. We have so much stuff. And the stuff is not helped by my FIL who spent the year after my MIL’s death, bringing truck loads of things to my house and putting them about. Yeah, seriously, the man redecorated my house, with my MIL’s things. Don’t get me started on that. It’ll be a while. In fact, I plan to spend the summer on “stuff.” LOL

℘℘℘℘ – Four Pages. Easy Read. Liked what she had to say but I am not sure I bought it all. I plan to read a couple of other organization books on my TBR list. Maybe I’ll upgrade her rating after that. LOL

Sunday Sup: Zucchini

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The hubs wanted curry this week. Which I’m cool with. Super easy peasy the way I make it. Yes, there’s a recipe for it here on the blog. The problem boils down to this…TJs sells their zucchini in a package of 4 or 5. I need 2 for curry. The other 2 inevitably rot before I figure out something else to do with them.

So I was standing in my kitchen, four kiddos playing upstairs, it was raining yet again, and I thought, not this time. This time I cook those zucchini.

Double chocolate with a kick, zucchini muffins.

Grate two medium zucchini and get them draining on paper towels. You don’t have to get complicated, the extra moisture isn’t a huge problem in this recipe. Just lay them out there.

Pre heat to 350.

In a big mixing bowl add: 3 eggs, 6 tbsp melted butter(I use salted good quality butter, makes a huge difference in taste),  2 1/4 cups almond flour, 2 tbsp coffee flour (the cherry coffee husk thing ground up), 1/2 cup honey, 2 teaspoon baking powder, 2 teaspoon vanilla, 6 tbsp cocoa powder, 2 mashed super ripe bananas. Mix it all up. Add your zucchini.

Ladle into muffins cups. I use silicone so I don’t have to paper them. This batch also made 6 donuts. Top with chocolate chips.  Bake.

The donuts needed 30 minutes. The muffins 45.

Fiendish Friday: The crack

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I was mistakenly cruising my home “news” page on facebook. It was a fairly low politics day so I got to check out people’s plans for the weekend and what their cute kids had broken now…then I came across this video. Of a construction guy putting plaster into another man’s pants because his crack was showing.

The crack guy gets really mad and starts yelling at the plaster guy.

All of the comments on the video were about how it served crack guy right and he shouldn’t get so mad.

WTF? When did assault become funny and the victim’s fault? I’m kind of horrified by man kind right now…

Book Review: War and Peach

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Ok I admit it, I was sucked in by the cutesy name. I was. War and Peach by Susan Furlong is the third book in her Southern Girl series. I call it than by the way because she starts each chapter with a Southern Girl Secret, most of which were pretty funny.

“There are inly two reasons someone new comes into your life. They’re either going to be a blessin or a lesson.” 

Ain’t that the truth. LOL

or “If someone’s tryin to bring you down, it’s just cause they know you’re above them.”

ROFL.

Or my personal favorite. “Don’t be one of those women who follow their hearts and forget to take their brains with them.”

So, standard cozy mystery set up. Murder. Someone important or friends with the protag is suspected, so they get involved to solve the case and end up almost getting killed for their trouble but getting credited with solving the mystery by the town folk at large.

℘℘℘ – 3 pages. It was fine. I might pick up another one if I’m bored but I decided to devote the summer to emptying my TBR shelf above my desk and my virtual one at the library, little boredom to be found I hope.

Sunday Sup: Guacamole

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Good morning! Today’s recipe falls into the category of “that’s ridiculously easy.” I would fully agree but people keep asking me to teach them how I make guacamole. So alright here you go….

I use red onion or shallots depending on how much guac I am making. 2 avocados worth? Use a nice fat shallot. Minced small. It’s worth the time. 4 or 5 avocados worth, say for a party, a red onion, minced small. I’m talking 1/4 inch square is not too small here.

Jalapeño. 1/2 for the small batch. whole for the large. or to taste. But also minced small, think 1/4 inch again.

Tomatoes. One for the half, 2 for the whole, or to taste. Chopped not minced. Tomatoes should be several orders of magnitude bigger than the onion and jalapeño.

Add lime juice. Depends on your limes and your taste, but essentially after you add salt, this is a basic salsa. Do enough juice to really get into the flavors. I might use 1 & 1/2 limes for a half batch, maybe 2 if they aren’t very juicy.

Now add your avocado. Just plunk it in there with the seed and skin removed. Don’t pre mash or chop or anything. Mash it into the salsa. It will make all your other ingredients release their oils and juices giving everything a deeper flavor. I think this part might be the secret. The beating down of the veg already in the bowl.

Eat up!

Fiendish Friday: More Love Please

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

I’ve been seeing lots of posts and blogs and articles about who people choose to love. The most recent one….

If as a woman, you like masculine women, why don’t you just date a man?

Really? People burn lean tissue trying to ponder this cruddle? Why does it matter?

As long as everyone participating is an adult capable of making decisions for their own life, why do you care who people love?

I think more love is good for the world. More love might just lead to more acceptance which might just lead to more love which might just lead to solutions…

poverty, famine, war….we got bigger problems than who someone else loves.