Responsibility of Writers & Readers

Last week a friend posted a poem on his weblog that sparked a discussion in the comments of what a writer's responsibility is. Someone worried that a skilled writer could convince a reader of a viewpoint the writer doesn't hold. Or a reader might copy a villain because you wrote him too well. And someone else said that authors should only write stories that uplift people or else they're promoting evil in the world. Lastly, someone said writers are responsible for how readers respond to their writing.

I do think a fiction writer can convince a reader of a viewpoint the writer doesn't hold, if a character holds that viewpoint and is written convincingly enough. I also think a writer who writes an engaging villain can cause people to want to be like him in some way or other. Look at how many kids dress up as Darth Vader on Halloween. But you also notice that people aren't going around killing their subordinates because they didn't follow orders exactly and promptly enough.

The next comment is a bit tricky, because the person who wrote the original made it clear he was referring to a particular set of religious beliefs. I don't want to go into which religious beliefs because they're irrelevant to my point. My point is that the person was telling the author of the poem what he should write about. He felt he had the right to do so because they have exactly the same beliefs, which is an assumption I'd not make about anyone else. No two people, even if they attend the same church hold exactly the same beliefs, down to the smallest detail. Therefore, he was telling the poet what to write based on his beliefs, not on the poet's. Only the poet knows what he believes and whether his beliefs include the stricture on his writing that the other person wanted him to make.

More generally, I don't think anyone has the right to tell someone else what to write unless they're hiring the writer to write something specific. And vice versa--it's wrong for writers to write what someone else says is their duty to write. If they do, they're shirking their responsibility to themselves, because it shifts the responsibility for their words onto the shoulders of that "moral authority". Nope, I think writers must take complete responsibility for their own words. Take both the heat and the kudos for them. Write what they stand for, whether it agrees or disagrees with other people who infer that they must believe exactly the same way the writer does because he may have said something at one time the people agreed with.

The other side of this discussion was whether a writer is responsible for the response a reader has to his words. Words are powerful. And we choose our words to have an effect on the reader. A fiction writer is usually going after an emotional reaction, a visceral reaction caused by temporarily living in the world of the story. The expectation is that the reader will put the story down and go back to his everyday life. He may think about the story, talk about it with friends, but he's no longer living it. That's the reader's responsibility--to keep the world of fiction separate from real life.

I think we were given a brain to use it, both writers and readers. We're not supposed to just take life in and blindly accept everything. We're supposed to think about what we experience. Life might be easier if you live in a world where writers write only "uplifting" stories, because you'd only experience the small bits of life that person thinks are "good". But I think life is richer if we allow ourselves to embrace ideas that aren't our own. I think it's richer if we think about those ideas and weigh them against our moral code and value systems. That's how we grow. And I think "good" shows up in the most unexpected places--places you may never hear about if you stick to a restricted world, fenced in by rigid beliefs that don't allow you to question anything.

Another "You Know You're From" meme

I was hoping to get the essay I've been working on done, but I've got a cold and slept this afternoon instead of finishing it. So, here's the Bay Area meme.

I'm posting the memes from the broadest geographical area to the area where I actually live. The San Francisco Bay Area is next in line.

Bay Area

You Know You're From the Bay Area When...

You get the same off-color email joke from 17 people in the same hour, and one of them is your wife. Your "personal shopper" has become engaged to your "career coach". You know that "taking the Nerd Bird" means you're flying to L.A ... for the 3rd time in a week. You have a daughter named Meg and a son named URL. You bought stock in Starbucks just for the free chocolate-covered coffee beans. You recently built your children their first "tilt-up" concrete playhouse. Almost all of the companies featured on your resume are no longer in business. You make $120,000 a year, yet still can't find a place to live. Your commute time is 45 minutes and you live 8 miles away. You live an hour or more from the office so that you can afford a larger house. You spend more time in your office and car than in your house. You stop asking how much things cost, but instead ask "how long will it take?" Two-thirds of the people you know are from Boston or New York, but you are living in PST. You know vast differences difference between Thai, Vietnemese, Chinese, Japanese, Cantonese, and Korean food. Your home computer contains mostly hardware/software that is not on the consumer market yet. You go to "The City" on weekends but don't live there because you like your car. You think that "I'm going to Fry's" is an acceptable excuse to leave the office for a while, and your boss does too. You lost your alarm clock, but you'll get to work when you get there. You go to an industrial-heavy-metal bar and see two guys get into a fight over what flavor of Unix is better. You own more than 10 articles of clothing that have hardware/software companies printed on them. Bonus for embroidered stuff. You know where Woz Way, Resistor Avenue, and Floppy Drive are located. You know who and where Woz is. You know that 280 North goes west and that 680 North goes east. It rained ... and your birdbath fell over ... or your tree fell over ... or a utility pole fell over. It rained ... and the spiders came in ... and the ants came in ... and the mice came in. You realize that even though Microsoft employs quite a few programmers in the Bay Area, they only work on PowerPoint. You see a billboard that says "FPG2ASIC" and understand what it means. You can get the updated Diamond Monster 3D drivers by just walking across the street. The phone company installed fiber-optic cable to your home but they can't afford to light it up. You have more bandwidth inside your home than there is in most major universities. Your wireless LAN is interfering with your wireless phone and your home automation system. None of the people you work with are bible thumpers. You get email from a co-worker at 10:00PM ... and you are both still in the office. You scan yardsales for back issues of "Dr. Dobbs." Your favorite computer reseller speaks only Cantonese. Your workplace vending machines dispense "100% natural twig-bars" right next to Jolt cola and Instant Espresso mix. No one brings radios to work because they listen to RealAudio. There are more than six Z3s parked at your office during weekdays. There are more than six Z3s parked at your office during weekends. The Z3s are gradually turning into SUVs. You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from the Bay Area.

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Something Fun on a Strange Day

Before I post my fun thing, I want to mention that since I'm done with my hiatus from writing, I put a progress bar for the WIP over on the left, at the top, where I can't miss it if I try to procrastinate by writing weblog posts. If anyone's been noticing my signature on FM, you'll notice that there's more words on this bar. Apparently I wrote more words after my last update on FM and forgot to do the update.

The Fun Thing #1

California is the first of four of these "You know you're from" jokes that apply to me. All have to do with the area where I was born and lived most of my life. So, what does it say about Northern California that there are 4 lists that apply to it? We're a bit over the top, maybe? A bit obsessive? I don't know, but they're fun. A lot of the jokes in the California list apply more to Southern California than Northern California, which are totally different from each other. It's a big state. So, I've bolded the ones that apply to me, but you'll see in parts 2-4 that as you home in closer to my exact location, the number of bolds goes up.

You Know You're From California When...

The fastest part of your commute is down your driveway. You were born somewhere else. You know how to eat an artichoke. The primary bugs that you worry about are electronic. Your car has bullet-proof windows. Left is right and right is wrong. Your monthly house payments exceed your annual income. You can't find your other earring because your son is wearing it. You drive to your neighborhood block party. Your family tree contains "significant others." You don't exterminate your roaches, you smoke them. You see 25 lawyers chasing an ambulance. More than clothes come out of the closets. You go to a tanning salon before going to the beach. More money is spent on facelifts than on diapers. Smoking in your office is not optional. You pack shorts and a T-shirt for skiing in the snow, and a sweater and a wetsuit for the beach. When you can't schedule a meeting because you must "do lunch." Your children learn to walk in Birkenstocks. Rainstorms or thunder are the lead story for the local news. You'll reluctantly miss yoga class to wait for the hot tub repairman. You consult your horoscope before planning your day. A glass has been reserved for you at your favorite winery. All highways into the state say: "no fruits." All highways out of the state say: "Go back." The Terminator is your governor You can't remember . . . is pot illegal? It's barely sprinkling rain and there's a report on every news station: "STORM WATCH" You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from California.

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Threads of Malice

Dubric Byerly, head of security at Castle Faldorrah, has seen many horrors in his life--he is literally haunted by the ghosts of those whose death demands justice. And in the kingdom's far reaches, young men are disappearing into thin air, leaving behind ghosts that bear witness to unthinkable cruelties. Racing against time, all Dubric knows is the latest victim to vanish is still alive--and that he won't be for long.

Threads of Malice is the second book in Tamara Siler Jones' three-book series starring Dubric Byerly. Her first book, Ghosts in the Snow, introduced us to the main characters and the rich world Tamara has developed for her stories. In that book, Dubric has to figure out who in the castle is responsible for killing the people whose ghosts haunt him. The second book takes place in a more remote part of the kingdom, the Reaches. Again, Dubric must figure out who murdered the ghosts, for it is his curse to see the ghosts of murdered people and his job to bring their killers to justice. If you want to read excerpts, you can go here for chapter 1 and here for chapter 2.

I know I tend to be gushy when I recommend books because I don't recommend books I'm not crazy about. These are the books I'd shove in customers' hands if I still worked in a bookstore. They're books I shove in my friends' hands, when our family income is greater than zero. This book is one that belongs on that list. I'm lucky to have received an ARC of this book and be able to read it, and recommend it, before it's released in October. It's available for preorder now.

Tamara writes about horrible things that happen to decent people. She writes about good things that happen to decent people. Ditto for the bad guys. Because Tamara shows the whole range of everyday life, the horrors are more horrible and the good things stand out in bas relief. The characters make mistakes. They do things right. Mostly, they do what you and I do, take the life they're given and deal with it the best way they can. You and I, however, don't have to deal with the horrors Tamara's characters do. We don't stumble on dead bodies and see ghosts of murdered people. We don't have to worry about horrors happening to the people we love if we're too slow in our duty to bring murderers to justice. Because Tamara brings you deep into the lives of her people and makes them face the consequences of their actions, you can't assume anyone will come out unscathed, or even still alive. She doesn't flinch from inflicting physical or psychological harm on people. That makes for a tough, but satisfying read.

This book has difficult themes in it. I wouldn't recommend it for kids or even young teens. Keep it on the shelf and give it to them when they're old enough. But you grownups? Go! Preorder! Set aside a long stretch of time or pick a night when you don't have to get up early. This is a "stay up because I can't put it down" book. It's a haunting, nightmare-inducing, emotional roller coaster.

(Note: I'm going to leave this at the top and wait until Monday to write new posts so as many people as possible can learn about this book. See you Monday.)

A Book Rant--Part Two

Book Two

This book is a bestselling thriller. (No, not the Da Vinci Code.) It's the author's first book, so he gets some leeway for lack of experience. I like the premise and the storyline. I do want to know how it all turns out. The plot has some interesting twists. But I keep stopping and wondering if I want to know badly enough to follow these characters to the end. I'm not sure I care enough about them.

The main characters used to be married to each other. It's obvious that the author is going to get them back together by the end of the book. I think I'd be rooting for that to happen if he'd switched their genders. The woman is written like a man and the man is both so feminine and so wimpy I want to smack him. I wonder if the author was trying to avoid writing cliches or stereotypes. Or if someone told him it would sell better if he made the lead mc a woman and the backup a man, so he switched their names and pronouns, but didn't change their reactions, backgrounds, etc. At one point, one of the villains tries to seduce the female lead and I was rooting for him to win her, even though he wants to kill her not wed her.

These people have two kids. I wonder if the author is a parent because these parents dismiss their responsibilities to the kids way too easily. I don't think that the mom's grieving for her father and being impulsive is enough motivation for her to up and leave her kids. The kids are grieving for their beloved grandfather. The parents don't seem to care. First the woman runs off chasing after the McGuffin. Then the guy thinks the woman is in danger and runs off after her. We aren't told what arrangements he makes to care for the kids when he takes off and she doesn't ask when she sees him. All the grandparents are dead and no other relatives are mentioned that you could assume the kids were left with. They're in Europe and never call whoever is looking after the children to see if they're OK. They never even talk about the kids. I don't buy that. I don't know of any good parent, and these are portrayed as being good parents, who could ignore the fact they have children the way these characters do, which brings me to what I see as being the biggest problem with the book--stakes and character motivation.

If the stakes were high enough, I'd believe the characters behavior and care about them more. At the end of the first part, the woman and the man debate whether she should go chase the McGuffin. She wants to, he says she shouldn't. Her only motivation is that her dead father was looking for it. Her dead father specifically says she should let it go. She goes because she WANTS to, not because she HAS to. She leaves her kids and chases this McGuffin more on a whim than because there's a real reason for her, and no one else, to take this chase on. Her ex follows her because he's learned she's in danger. That's high stakes. The mother of his children, who he's still in love with, may be killed if someone doesn't stop the killer. Fast forward to the end of the second part. It ends like the first part--the characters debating whether to keep chasing the McGuffin or go home. It's clear that if they go home, they'll be out of danger and everything will be fine. The woman, stating she's loving having an adventure, insists she's going to keep going and he decides to stay with her. I'm OK with his motives. He has a strong goal, with high stakes--keep the mother of his children alive and try to win her back. She comes across as TSTL*.

The villains are more interesting than the heroes. I find myself rooting for them, while hating them at the same time. They're evil. They kill, with no regrets, just to make sure the people won't tell anyone else what they know. But they have motives for their actions that make sense. The stakes for them are high because they stand to get what they want and what they want makes sense for who they are.

This doesn't read like a thriller. There's not enough ongoing, escalating danger to the main characters. For example, one of the villains fails to kill the woman. When he discovers she's still alive, he shrugs and decides she's not a threat anymore, so he's going to leave her alone. The villains are more of a direct threat to each other. But they're TSTL in one way--they kill too quickly and easily. They're supposed to be extremely smart and clever, but all they do to solve problems is kill people. One note solutions like that get boring after a while. Oh, another dead person. Yawn.

I read the rest of the book and was as unimpressed with the end as with the first parts of the book. After they find the McGuffin, the rest of the book is supposed to surprise you with the explanation. The explanation is mixed in with danger to the characters, but the mc becomes a damsel in distress by that time. She gets rescued and does kill one of the bad guys, but only after a silly bit where she sees the gun and doesn't do anything, emphasizing the impression of her being TSTL. It was an attempt to make it suspensful, but it didn't work.

I think the main problem with the characters is that they seem to have been invented to serve the plot. They were moved around like chess pieces. The events in the book could have easily happened with a totally different cast. I never got the impression that what happened was because these particular people did these particular things and the events were the consequences of those actions. Nor did it seem like these, and only these, characters could be in this story.

But I finished the book. Why would I finish a book that had so many problems? Because the premise and the main story question were so intriguing. This could have been a spectacular book. I hope this guy keeps pushing himself to write better, but this was a NYT bestseller. Do you think anyone's going to tell him he could be better? I doubt it. They're going to want more of the same, to try to keep those megasales going. His next book is out and it, too, has an intriguing premise. But I think I'll pass on it.

*For those unfamiliar with the term: TSTL=Too Stupid To Live. It comes from the Romance genre--the heroine who grabs a candle and goes up to the attic to explore the strange noise when she knows there's a killer after her.

Avast, Me Hearties!

Ahoy! It's International Talk Like a Pirate's Day.

Hoist yourself some grog. Dance yourself a hornpipe. Git yourself a pirate's name.

My pirate name is:

Iron Anne Cash

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

And ye'll be talkin' piratical in no time.

Don't Want to Wait Until Monday

I subscribe to Williams-Sonoma's emailed newsletter. Today's was about one way they're helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Because they're only doing this for one month--from September 16-October 16--I wanted to get the word out ASAP.

Williams-Sonoma has a cookbook series called Foods of the World. One of the books in that series is New Orleans. During this one month time period, they're donating the full retail price, excluding sales tax and shipping costs, to the American Red Cross. Details can be found here: New Orleans Cookbook Donation Info.

Enjoy!!

Another Quiz

I found this one on Jean's blog a while back. I don't like the picture, because it's gross in that male kid way that always bugged me, probably because I had two younger brothers who never let up. I just got tired of it and then went and had two sons, who filled my adult life with this stuff. (sigh) But the sentiments expressed fit me, so I thought I'd post it on a day like this one. A TGIF day.

What Your Dreams Mean...

Your dreams seem to show that you're a bit disturbed... but nothing serious. You may have a problem you're trying to work out in your sleep. Overall, you are very content in your life. You tend to be a very productive thinker. You have a very vivid imagination and a rich creative mind. You secretly want to hide your dreams from your waking mind.

What Do Your Dreams Mean?

Oops! & Spreading Gratitude

I know I said I'd post every weekday, but yesterday was weird. We went to do errands and I forgot I hadn't posted. I didn't remember until this morning. Oh, well. That's life sometimes.

This week has been a weird one. I've had a lot of different things happen that have sent me on a roller coaster ride of emotions. The news about the hurricane reminds me how much better I have it than a lot of people, including some who had the resources to evacuate. But a complaint on a weblog about how much time one's job takes away from what we'd rather be doing made me depressed because I know my husband would give just about anything to have a job to fill his time and pay the bills. He's busy learning the stuff to get an A+ Certification, but he'd rather be working and doing that in his spare time.

If I were to put it on a scale, the balance would fall more in the things to be grateful about than things to be depressed about category. I wish it were true for everyone. So in the interest of helping some folks get closer to having more to be grateful for, I'd like to post some more ways you can help the victims of Katrina.

Nora Roberts is matching donations for Habitat for Humanity. Here's a link to the details: ADWOFF.com.

Alison Kent's crit partner, Larissa Iona, lost everything in the hurricane. An ebay auction with items donated by authors, editors and agents is worth checking out. If you're a writer, many people have offered manuscript crits. If you're a reader, there are lots of autographed books to bid on, some of which aren't out yet. Here's a link: ebay auction.

The Victorian Trading Company is donating part of what you spend on their site to the American Red Cross. Here's a link: Victorian Trading Company. It's my understanding that the donations for the hurricane victims is on through September, but they donate to various charities year-round.

On the Greater Houston Community Foundation web site you can find a link to donate to the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Disaster Relief Fund. New Orleans was such a mecca for foodies and many of the people who lost so much were from the restaurant industry. I never got a chance to try the wonderful New Orleans food I've read about for years. Maybe some donations will help keep these people afloat so they can go back and revive the great food so many people talked about.

Donations list: I checked my donation links and discovered that some are no longer valid. I recommend checking the links and editing your donations list weekly, if you have one on your site. Some sites change their links or it gets to their deadline and they take it down.

BTW--for anyone who might be wondering, I will get to the second book rant I mentioned. I have some other things I want to write about first. Like I said, this is a mishaculanza and it means "mixed up" as much as it means "eclectic".

Another Fun Quiz

This one's via Jean's Blog.

What obsolete skill are you?


You are 'Gregg shorthand'. Originally designed to
enable people to write faster, it is also very
useful for writing things which one does not
want other people to read, inasmuch as almost
no one knows shorthand any more.

You know how important it is to do things
efficiently and on time. You also value your
privacy, and (unlike some people) you do not
pretend to be friends with just everyone; that
would be ridiculous. When you do make friends,
you take them seriously, and faithfully keep
what they confide in you to yourself.
Unfortunately, the work which you do (which is
very important, of course) sometimes keeps you
away from social activities, and you are often
lonely. Your problem is that Gregg shorthand
has been obsolete for a long time.
What obsolete skill are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Unlike Jean, I used to know Gregg shorthand. It's totally useless in business. It's a great skill for notetaking. If I ever need to interview someone who's reluctant to be tape recorded, for example, I could brush up my shorthand skills and get as complete a transcript. So, obsolete doesn't have to mean "useless". It can also mean, useful for something other than its original purpose.

Hmmm . . . I bet that reasoning doesn't work for slide rules, though.

That "Something"

Tambo asks in her blog entry for September 11, 2005, Why Do You Write? It's a question writers ask all the time because it fascinates us to find out why other people write. I think there are a lot of layers in this question. I've seen people answer it as "Why do I put words on a page?" I've seen people answer it as "Why do I want to be published?" I've seen people answer it as "Why do I want to write stories?" The answer seems to depend on how the question is interpreted.

I don't know why I write. I know that when I was 10 my best friend and I read a lot of Nancy Drew. We played Nancy Drew, pretending there were secret passages and clues in our suburban mass-produced tract homes. AHA! "If we can play new Nancy Drew stories, I could make up my own," said my child's mind. It was a short leap from there to the non-Nancy Drew mystery story I wrote for a classroom assignment. And an even shorter leap to writing a story just because I wanted to.

I wrote the usual angst-ridden poetry many teenagers wrote. I also wrote a song or two. I conned a couple of teachers into letting me write fiction instead of a standard research paper. I did the research and turned the results into stories about the people I'd researched. It was fun and I always seemed to get As on that stuff.

It took me a few more years to decide I wanted to try my hand at novels. Thank Star Trek reruns for that one. I didn't like Star Trek when it first came on. I used to give my brother a hard time for watching it. But a few years later, I was watching every rerun I could find and buying every novel in the stores. I decided to write a Star Trek novel. I wrote a very bad outline. I wrote notes for an even worse story. I wrote the usual three chapters people who don't know what they're doing write before they run out of steam. Then Paramount stopped taking unsolicited manuscripts and I stopped writing Star Trek. I moved on to original fiction.

I got married. Wrote bad stuff. Read writing books. Wrote more bad stuff. Had kids. Got busy. I kept writing. Not every day. I wasn't anywhere near as disciplined as the pros I know do. I'd go for months or years without writing anything. I kept everything. Every so often, something made me pull it out and write some more on it. Or put ideas in my file for writing when I finished whatever project I was sporadically working on.

The reason I write is that mystical "something" that caused me to pull out my writing and write. It's that same "something" that caused my books on writing collection to expand. It's that same "something" that caused me to scour the Internet for an online writing group when life stuck me in a town I didn't want to move to. I found Forward Motion and avidly read every article Holly Lisle wrote. You can find them on her web site: HollyLisle.com.

I met a lot of wonderful writers, some published and some not. Becoming active on FM got me evaluating my goals, what I wanted from my writing. I still wrote and more regularly. Things got weird. We had the layoffs and moved in with Mom. That's a difficult situation and we'd expected to be back on our own by this time. Didn't happen. I'd taken a hiatus from writing this summer. I didn't think I could handle living with Mom and arranging to move and write my novel. And I was fine with not working on the book for a couple of months.

Life intervened again. We're back to not knowing when or if we'll have enough income to rent an apartment in expensive Silicon Valley. I'm not fine with not writing under those circumstances. That "something" is calling its siren call. I'll be miserable if I don't listen, so it's time to rearrange the schedule and get back to work.

A Book Rant--Part One

Today I wanted to rant about a couple of books I recently read. I so wanted to recommend both of them, but I can't. I'm not going to say what they are because it's irrelevant to what I want to write about. I want to write about my opinions as a writer, not a reader. And it would be a disservice to them to imply they're not worth reading because I think nonwriting readers might enjoy them more than I did. I decided to do rant number two in a separate post, since the two together were way too long.

One writer is a woman's fiction writer. I don't read a lot of women's fiction, but I like this woman's books. This book is several books into a series. In woman's fiction and in genre Romance there seems to be a convention that you have to summarize the previous books in a series, bring the reader who comes into the series late up-to-date on the character's lives as told in the previous books. This works fine, if the series is short, up to three books, maybe four. When the series is open-ended, though, the backstory sections interfere with the reader following the current story, especially if she's read the previous books in the series.

To complicate things further, she spends a lot of the book setting up the story for the next book. All of that takes page space away from the current story. You're waiting for her to get back to the story the setup from the last book promised and don't really care much yet about this new storyline.

The format of the book is a bit unusual, too. She tells ongoing stories about the series characters. The only connection between the stories is the characters' relationships. There's no connection between the events themselves. It's just the life events of the ongoing characters who live in the same place. It reads like a bunch of novellas, but instead of being an anthology, they're broken up and sections of each story take turns being chapters in the novel. This format makes the stories feel disconnected, both as individual storylines and from each other. The story she set up in the previous book doesn't get any more weight or page space than any of the other stories, so it doesn't feel like a main plot. That would be OK, if it hadn't been promoted as the "big" question for this book by having that huge setup in the last book. But the way it's written, it feels like a letdown because so little of the current novel is given to that particular story.

If I were asked to make suggestions, first I'd suggest that the author defy the convention of putting in all that backstory. It doesn't work for long series. Put in whichever aspects of it are pertinent to this story and leave out the rest. If people want to know the details, they can buy the earlier books.

My second suggestion would be to omit the elaborate setup of the next book's story. Rather than setting up the events of the next book, introduce us to the main character. Instead of having that character start to deal with the problem that will be the main one for the next book, involve her in the main problem of the current story.

My third, and strongest suggestion, would be to tell the current story in the current book. Strengthen that story and make the other stories subordinate to it. Better yet, connect the individual story events in more than one way, not limiting the connections to the characters knowing each other, being relatives, or living in the same place.

Food Meme--Parts Four & Five

Cooking

This one's not really about a specific food, but it was important to me being able to cook the way I do now. When I was between my sophomore and junior years in high school, I made a deal with my mother. I'd cook all summer if she'd teach me how. She hated to cook. She made the deal. It was a fun summer for me. I learned how to cook all the meat and potatoes dishes my dad liked. I learned to make spaghetti, which was about the only Italian dish my dad would eat. She taught me some good prep techniques.

I don't cook very many of those dishes anymore. The ones I do make, I don't cook the way she taught me. She was so afraid we'd get sick if food was undercooked that she overcompensated. We got lots of leathery meat and mushy pasta when she manned the stove. Even though the result she taught me wasn't that good, her training gave me something to build on when I got my own kitchen to play in.

Onions

During that summer of cooking, I discovered I'm extremely sensitive to onions. I'd invited my boyfriend over for spaghetti. I'm chopping the onions and my eyes are watering. Poor guy. He thought I was crying. I milked that for a hug and kiss or two.

I've tried several things over the years to keep the tears away. Sharp knives and eyes blurry with tears are not exactly the safest combination. I tried chilling the onion. That kind of works. Freezing it works a bit better, but the onion gets a bit mushy. During that time cooking shows had gotten a lot more interesting. No more boring home economists. We got Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet. I lived for the Galloping Gourmet. What I saw was that the pros didn't take their knife and keep chopping away at the bits on the cutting board until they were the size they wanted. They sliced onion halves in three directions to make cubes the size they wanted. I tried it and, voila, no tears. The pros technique doesn't splash the juice around, which stops the irritation that causes the tears. I'll never be as fast as Graham Kerr, but I don't need to be. I just need to be proficient enough to chop onions instead of fingers.

Food Meme--Parts Two & Three

Baskin-Robbins

When I was a kid, one occasional treat we used to go out for was Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream. I remember everyone trying to decide what two scoops they wanted. My brothers read all the weirdly named flavors-of-the-month. The baseball-themed ice cream was a big hit. My dad coached their Little League team. I was different. I always had the same thing--Chocolate Fudge and French Vanilla on a sugar cone.

I still like Baskin-Robbins, but I eat kid-sized scoops these days. I wonder if the scoops were smaller in the '60s than they are now. I don't think the French Vanilla is all that good anymore, either. I guess I got spoiled making my own custard-based ice cream with vanilla beans to flavor it. These days, when we go for Baskin-Robbins, I'm more partial to Jamocha-Almond Fudge.

Birthday Memories

This one isn't really a food memory, but it involves food. I remember a birthday party when I was four or five. The food part of the memory was a birthday cake my mom made. It had a red-and-white striped cardboard top and animals around the sides to make a carousel. Mom invited the neighbors. My great-aunt was there. My cousins. A few kids from the neighborhood. I don't remember a lot about the party besides what the cake looked like. What's odd is that the memory is in black and white. The photos were in black and white because they didn't have color cameras for the snapshot photographer yet. But the image in my head isn't the same as the photos. Isn't it odd how our memories work? Maybe that's why all the movie makers who do movies about the '50s and early '60s are all in black and white. That's how they remember them.

Food Meme--Part One

I read a food blog meme that looked like fun yesterday. I wasn't tagged, not being in the food blog circuit, but I thought I'd like to do it, anyway. The meme is to write about five favorite food memories from your childhood. Or, if you want to do a writer's meme--do five food memories one of your characters has.

Ravioli

Ravioli has to be the first on my list. Nonee, my grandmother on my mother's side, made these incredible ravioli. They were about three inches square, with a nice, large mound of spinach and ground beef filling. She made the filling and her meat sauce in advance. Even in the freezer, they got that deep flavor you get that makes leftovers better than the first day. She made the pasta dough fresh on Christmas morning.

I remember her spreading out a large cloth on the kitchen table. She sprinkled it with flour and rolled out this huge mound of dough. Papa, my grandfather, had made a special rolling pin just for rolling out pasta dough. She put the mounds of filling the same distance apart on the half of the dough closest to her. She folded the other half of the dough over the top. Then she used a long stick to press the dough down between the mounds of filling. She had one of those serrated-edged ravioli cutters to cut the ravioli apart. She piled them on a plate and dumped them in boiling water to cook them. I don't remember how many batches she made, but for over 20 people, it had to be two or three.

We ate them, along with the traditional American turkey dinner, every Christmas. We always told her to forget cooking the turkey stuff and just do ravioli, salad, and garlic bread for Christmas. She never would, though. My mom and her sisters always squabbled over who got to take the leftovers home. YUM!!

Periodically, I try to make them myself. I get a little closer to her recipe each time, but I have to make them more often than every five years if I'm going to get it right.

Because I'm a writer, not just a foodie person, I think my blog will be way too long if I do all five today. So, tomorrow, part two.

Labor Day

It's the Labor Day holiday. I hope you whose jobs allow a holiday enjoy it. I hope those of you who must work today take your regular day off and give yourself a holiday. I hope those who are without jobs find one soon.

Chris had a good first day. He gets today off because the restaurant doesn't open until the 12th. His next training session is tomorrow and he gets his schedule for his first week then.

We're hopeful that the job hunt may be shorter this time because there are more openings listed on the job boards.

Have a great holiday, whenever you celebrate it.

Spammed & Stuff

Spammed

So, does the spam indicate my tiny blog has grown up? I only have a few readers, as far as I know, but I got my first spam. I don't want to deal with it, so I guess I'll have to do what so many people are doing--put the thing where you have to type the word in order to post a comment. I guess I was hoping that I could avoid doing this since my blog is so small.

Stuff

I'm a bit heartened by the fact that this time there are more jobs on the job boards than the last time we did this job hunt thing. So, I hope that means maybe the time between jobs will be shorter.

Chris starts his job tomorrow. I wish you a good first day, Kiddo. (I doubt he'll read this, but you never know.)

Katrina--Part Four: Yet More Ways to Help

Sheila is compiling a list of ways people can help. Some of them are in the comments, so be sure to read them, as well as her post. Here's a link: Something. Her next post, PayPal Donations to the Red Cross, has a link that people overseas or who don't have credit cards can use to make donations. She also is compiling a list of links. It's in the top right hand column of her site.

Locally, the Red Cross is doing quickie training for people who have some time and can volunteer to go to the site and help. Contact your local Red Cross to find out if they have a similar program, if you're interested. KPIX, the local CBS station has a page of links to ways people can help.

A caveat I wish I didn't have to post, but it has to be said: Given the nature of people, there will be some who will try to take advantage of folks' generosity and will set up charities that are scams. If you've never heard of a charity, check it out before you donate. Three places to look for information before you send money:

1. Charity Navigator.org
2. The Attorney General's website
3. The Better Business Bureau's site--Give.org

This is going to be with us for a long time, folks. People will need help long after we've moved on with our everyday lives. If you can't donate now, please, donate later. They'll still be needing help.

Katrina--Part Three: More Ways to Help

I've been reading weblogs this morning. I have a few more ways you can help the victims of Katrina.

From Jennifer Jackson's weblog:

Jennifer challenges people to donate $25.00 to the Red Cross. You can donate to the Red Cross online here: Red Cross Donations They're really busy, so it may take several attempts to get the page to load.

A commenter on Jennifer's site noted that Coinstar has machines that allow you to donate to the Red Cross when you bring in your change. There's a list of locations on their website.

Alison Kent has a story about one of her critique partners on her weblog. It includes information about how you can help her, if you'd prefer to help a specific person, rather than make a general donation.

I wish I could do more than get the word out and pray, but it's all I can do with our family having no income and no idea how long this job hunt will be.

Katrina--Part Two

Sheila posts about a way that anyone can help the victims, even if you don't have money or stuff to donate. Here's a link to her post: How to Help. I hope people who can donate, whether you're donating blood, money, or stuff, won't let time slip by without them getting around to it.

I have a correction from yesterday. My more science savvy husband pointed out that satellite cameras could only show the tops of the clouds. But they could put remote cameras in storm areas so they could get their video without needing to risk the lives of reporters.

Feeling Frustrated

So, why are we putting manpower and money to save dolphins when there are people who could have been saved, if someone had taken the time to find out who they were and get transportation to them? I get saddened by the people I wrote about yesterday. But I get sickened by the callousness of a culture that can't be bothered to create a database of people who are too poor to have transportation or too old, sick, or frail to be able to get themselves out. And can't be bothered to set up a system of minivans, buses, or other multiple-person vehicles to go around when evacuation is necessary and get these people to safety. I get frustrated by the sympathetic faces on the reporters when they report those deaths. If the people who are in a position to set up a system would stop overthinking the reasons against it and just do it, the death toll could be reduced.

I think my frustration comes from living in earthquake country. We're lucky in that we don't get them very frequently and they're rarely big enough to cause damage, hurt, or kill people. But we're unlucky in that we can't predict when an earthquake will hit. You can keep the necessary stuff for an emergency around all the time. And you hope that if there's a devastating earthquake, it doesn't make it impossible to get to your emergency kit. That's all we can do.

But the folks in storm country do get advance warning, and it just seems to me that they should do whatever it takes to make the most of that warning period. I think if they ever get to the point where they can predict earthquakes, I'd take the warnings seriously and do whatever I could to make sure as many people as I could help would survive. And I don't understand why the people in storm country don't do that. Maybe they do and I'm just uninformed, being several thousand miles away. I'd sure like to hear that I'm wrong.

Katrina

Like most people, I'm praying for the safety of people living in Katrina's path. But, I gotta say, it saddens me when people refuse to head to safety. Last night one of the local radio talk show hosts got a phone call from a man whose brother lives in New Orleans. He refused to leave. The talk show host called him and he and the man's brother tried to talk him into leaving. I don't know the final outcome, because they were planning to keep talking with him after they went off the air.

What struck me was the guy's reason. He wanted to see the show. He seemed to view the hurricane as a once-in-a-lifetime bit of entertainment. His attitude was that he was somehow immune from the potential effects of riding out a hurricane. He never seemed to have considered the possibility that he could die. It was almost like it was some giant amusement park ride. I can't see where that's worth risking your life over. It seems ultimately an extremely selfish act, considering the grief your family and friends might be put through because you wanted your "fun" over protecting yourself.

Most of those stories are about people not wanting to leave their homes or their stuff. Do they think that staying there will act as a magical talisman to keep the hurricane from doing any damage to them and their stuff? Or maybe they can't stand to be gone and have to come back not knowing what will be there. But if they die, it won't matter what happened to their stuff. Better, I think, to save yourselves and deal with whatever happened to your stuff after it's over.

Then there's the reporters. They send reporters off to report disasters as if the fact that they're "doing their job" makes them immune to death. And they and the crew stand in the weather and report the same stuff the folks back at the studio are saying, but with a more exciting backdrop. By the time the hurricane really hits, the on-the-spot reporters can't interview people or even send a live feed. They're lucky to get a cranky cell phone transmission once the storm really gets going. How about taking pics from the satellites and putting them up as videos behind the people in the studio? Again, I don't think reporting the weather, no matter how bad the weather is, is worth risking your life over. Is it worth the possibility of causing all that pain to loved ones just to get a bad cell phone report from the middle of the "action", if you're lucky?

I hope and pray that people get saved from themselves and their own poor decisions. I hope their guardian angels are working overtime. I hope and pray that everyone affected gets what they need to start over, repair what's broken, and that another one doesn't hit this year.

Friday

It's Friday. You know--the TGIF, kind of "take it easy" day? In the Sprinkle household? Nah!

We got up this morning planning to go to breakfast and get clothes for Chris's new job. Two errands. Simple. The restaurant was across the street from the store, so an hour and a half, two hours tops, and we're done.

That was before the tribbles started to spawn. We realized we had to go to a different store for his shoes. A small check came yesterday, which added a trip to the bank. We now have four tribbles--um-- errands. Do tribbles multiply exponentially?

Just as we were headed out the door, David called. He needed a ride to the computer store to get more RAM and a video card. Of course, they only had the RAM. So it was off to computer store number two to locate a good video card. That makes six tribbles. We came home to pick up some stuff Chris forgot to bring to David's and sodas. Oops! Seven.

We went to David's to have a sandwich and take a break. We watched some of the documentary about Lucas' making the original Star Wars. The part where they show the actor who played Darth Vader speaking the lines was hilarious. The guy moved perfectly, but just didn't have that menacing voice Vader needs. Good thing they hired James Earl Jones.

While we were eating, David installed his video card. Works perfectly. He opened up the RAM package and discovered that--yes, the numbers on the paper and the box were correct. He'd signed the paper saying so in the store. But the clerk had given him a RAM chip for a notebook, not a desktop. Off to computer store number three. And tribble number eight.

The shoes for Chris? They got added to the regular tribbles--groceries, etc.--we do every Saturday. And that's what the Sprinkle house has been like the past two weeks. Tribbles anyone?

Been Reading a Lot

I've been reading a lot lately. I've read three books I want to comment on. They're really different from each other. I know a lot of people who read the same type of book over and over. They read only Regency Romance. Or only Romantic Suspense. Or only Cozy Mysteries. Or . . . . I can't do that. I get bored. The last three books I read are a fantasy, a mystery, and a Regency romance.

Urban Shaman by C. E. Murphy

This urban fantasy is a wild roller coaster ride. Don't expect to put it down once you start it. You just have to find out what's next. Joanne Walker's whole life changes just because she had to help. There's magic and mystery in this book. If you like strong heroines and urban settings, you'll like this one. This is also one where I can't think of anything to say that doesn't give away too much, since this book's surprises are part of it's appeal.

Cat in an Orange Twist by Carole Nelson Douglas

I've been a fan of the Midnight Louie mysteries from the first book, Catnap, which apparently is no longer available new. This book is the 17th book in the series and I'm not bored yet. You don't have to read all of the books or read them in order to keep up with the series. She does a great job of sneaking in what you need to know to follow the ongoing mystery that she started in the first book. Each book is a part of that overall mystery, plus she has shorter stories that cover several books, and each book has it's own mystery. It's a complex project that the writer in me admires a lot.

This book twists and turns as any good mystery should. I didn't figure out whodunnit and it wasn't the author's fault. She gives us the information we need to figure it out. I just didn't make the connection. Carole Nelson Douglas has a clever way with words and a wit that sometimes has me laughing out loud, but the books are not comedies. Her characters run the gamut of human emotions, as all good characters should. Traditionally in series books, the main characters don't change. This isn't a traditional series. The characters do change, but slowly, the way people do. Worth a read. Worth picking up the older books and getting the whole story. She has 8-10 more books planned, I believe. It's going to be interesting to see how she keeps it going.

The Rogue by Celeste Bradley

This is the latest in her Liar's Club series. You don't have to read the series from the beginning because each book is a separate story. However, since she carries the characters from book to book, if you do read the whole series, it's fun to meet old favorites again. The Liar's Club is a spy organization in Great Britain at the time of the war between Britain and Napoleon. The stories are pretty complex because there are the personal tales of the hero and heroine mixed in with the spying and saving England from the French. This is fun, light reading. Take it to the beach or read it on your lunch hour.

Side Dishes

It's getting close to dinnertime here, which may be why posting a couple more recipes seems like a good idea today. Remember the Oven-Fried Mustard Chicken? Well, today I thought I'd give you a couple of recipes that go well with it.

Sauteed Green Beans w/Bacon & Onion

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 pound green beans -- snapped or 1 package frozen green beans, thawed and drained
2 slices bacon -- cut in 1/4" pieces
1/2 medium red onion -- sliced
1 ounce sliced almonds

Instructions:
1. Toast almonds in a dry nonstick skillet.

2. Heat a large skillet. Saute bacon and onion until onion is soft. Add beans and saute until done. Serve. Sprinkle 1/4 of the almonds over each serving.

Note:
You don't want the onion slices to be too unwieldy to eat, so if the onion is large, cut the slices into smaller pieces.

Broiled Oregano Tomatoes

Serving Size : 4

Ingredients:
2 large tomatoes or 4 medium tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 clove garlic -- minced
2 tablespoons scallions -- sliced thin
2 tablespoons Italian parsley -- minced
4 tablespoons fresh bread crumbs
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 pinch salt and pepper -- to taste
2 tablespoons Feta cheese -- crumbled
4 whole, pitted Kalamata olives -- sliced

Instructions:

1. Preheat the over to 350º.

2. Put the bread, garlic, Italian parsley, oregano, salt and pepper in the blender and grind it up.

3. Cut large tomatoes in half or cut the top off of small ones. If necessary, cut a tiny slice from the bottom to make it stand up. Scoop out most of the pulp and place in a bowl. Add the bread mixture and mix well.

4. Divide up the tomato mixture among the tomatoes. Pile it up by pressing it together. Bake until the tomatoes are cooked, about 10 minutes.

5. Sprinkle the cheese over the top. Press the slices from one olive into each tomato. Broil until the cheese melts.

Notes:
1. You can prep the tomatoes in advance, except for the cheese and olives. Cover them with plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator until you're ready to bake them.

2. You can use fresh oregano, if you want. Use 1-1/2 tablespoons of fresh oregano leaves.

3. If you don't want to fuss with making it "look pretty', dice the olives and mix them into the tomato pulp along with the bread crumb mixture.




Mangia!

More Fun Stuff

It's late today. I'm kind of tired. We've been running errands almost every day for over a week, what with getting the computer fixed, the car fixed, taking Chris for job interviews (he got the job. YAY!), etc. So, I'm going to post another of those fun quiz things.

Which LOTR character are you?

You scored as Gandalf. You are Gandalf! This wise, old mage is loyal and brave. He is known for his counsel and advice to his friends and allies during tough times.

"All you have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to you."

Which LOTR character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

Ok. So, being a good little writer and web lady, I don't want blatant spelling errors caused by my bad typing to punctuate my weblog. I spellchecked. I hit "replace" instead of "ignore". And the computer obediently changed "You are Gandalf!" to "You are candelabra!" Maybe it's a reference to Gandalf's penchant for magical fireworks?

Not Plot Challenged After All

I'm a member of a small online support group for writers. We've been discussing plotting a lot lately. I used to think I was plot challenged because I couldn't take my characters and figure out what was supposed to happen in the story. You know, figure out the story arcs? Or the beginning, middle, and end? I tried Holly's index card method*. I tried Sheila's plotting template**. I managed it twice. Once was when I was doing an exercise in the cause and effect aspect of plotting. But it was a horrible plot and I never was able to write the story. The second time was when I was working on a novel for the Wizards of the Coast challenge. The characters really didn't matter that much. WOTC novels are essentially an RPG in a book. Doing an outline of the external plot was fairly easy because the point of the book is external plot.

This past week we've had the week from hell. After Paul was laid off, our computer died, as I posted earlier. Then the car needed a repair. Yadda, yadda, yadda. So, my novelist's brain has been creating scenarios for a better ending. Some are realistic. Some are total fantasy. Some would work as fiction, with some changes to protect the guilty. I started to think about book I'd read, The Perfect Rake. The author could have changed the external events and still told the same story. The plot was the reaction of the characters to the events and to each other. The external events were a catalyst for the plot, not the plot itself. My personal life was the catalyst for the endings I was imagining. Without the specific people involved, the "story" wouldn't have worked.

AHA!! I get it. I'm not plot challenged, after all. I just approach plot from a different path. I start with the basic characters. I know the main conflict. I know the general ending. But, instead of figuring out the three-act structure or main complications or story arcs, I created a list of possible events, things the characters cared about I could create events from, potential general complications, possible clues, etc. Some of them must happen in order for the story to work. The rest I can pick from or use to springboard solutions to problems that come up as I write the book. I figured out the beginning. Then I looked at how the characters reacted and what their responses were to what I'd written. Then I figured out what needs to happen next. I'm using the list to keep the plot from meandering aimlessly. So far, it seems to be working.

To me, the important thing is to have a whole story when I'm done, not that I follow a particular process. I recommend that all writers try different things until they find what allows them to get their stories on the page. We can't assume that so-and-so's process is the only way to do it, even if so-and-so is a bestselling author. We can only try and see which, if any, of his processes work for us. The more I write, the more I think every writer has some things in common with every other writer, but no one is exactly the same as anyone else. We all have to find our own way in our writing, just like we do in life.

*Holly's Index Card Workshop

**Sheila's Plotting Template

Note: You have to be a registered member of Forward Motion to see Sheila's template. It's on a public board, but it's old so you need to be able to change the date limit in the member's preferences menu to maximum in order to access the template.

Talyn by Holly Lisle

Holly writes: "For Sheila Kelly, who liked this one best." I agree with Sheila, who said the same thing to me in an email way before the book came out. Talyn is the best book I've read in a long time. I couldn't read it straight through without stopping, no matter how much I wanted to. I kept stopping to think about what I read. And to deal with the emotions the book brought out. It deals with hard themes. What's good? What's bad? Who's right? How perspective matters. Is love enough? What is love? But it's not a preachy book because Holly lets her characters wrestle with the questions and figure out the answers that are right for them. I think it deserves to be a huge book, so go--read. Tell your friends. Post on your blogs. Spread the word about this book. It may be the best book I read this year, even with the new Harry Potter having come out and I'm a huge HP fan.

You can read an excerpt on Holly's website. Click on the link to the chapter you want to read. She has posted chapters 1-3 and some "extras" like a map and the Tonk calendar.

I'm Back with a Nearly New Cool Computer

Well, I didn't keep my promise, but I didn't break it, either. I'm writing at the first opportunity I've had this week. We've been troubleshooting and swapping parts and swearing a lot at the box that allows us to go online.

Turns out we must have had a destructive power surge. We had three major parts get fried--the CPU, the video card, and the RAM. We'd swapped out the motherboard and power supply, too, so we ended up keeping them. It was very frustrating to keep changing parts with the result being sometimes it beeped before it died and sometimes it didn't. Everything we thought of that could have gone wrong should have been fixed by changing the part. But, eventually, my hardware techie, troubleshooting genius husband, figured out we'd lost more than one part. Then he and I worked out a system to find the right combination of parts to get it running again. It was one of the toughest computer problems we'd worked out since we built our first computer together. (Yep, I'm a geek.)

While we were at it, we replaced the case fans because we'd filched them from an old case and they were the wrong size. Their rattling was getting annoying. We wanted quiet fans. So, we got some that were designed for gamers. Not only are they quiet, but they have LEDs on them. They light up with lots of pretty colors. The case has a design on the side that resembles a daisy. The petals and center are transparent. My computer now looks like a cross between a 60s flower power T-shirt and Las Vegas. When we told Chris to boot it up last night after dark, he shook his head and said, "Parents aren't allowed to have things that cool."

Posting to Keep a Promise to Myself

I promised myself that if I started a blog, I'd post every weekday. Today, I don't feel like posting. That great job Paul had ended today. His contract was up. Monday we revise the resume and start the job hunt process all over again. Anyone who might be reading this, wish us luck, please. Say prayers, light candles, cross fingers, send good vibes, do whatever you do to wish good for people. Thanks!!

Wanna Be in a Book?

And support First Amendment Project? The following sixteen bestselling authors are auctioning on eBay a chance to have your name in one of their books.

• Stephen King
• John Grisham
• Amy Tan
• LemonySnicket
• Michael Chabon
• Neil Gaiman
• Dave Eggers
• Nora Roberts
• Dorothy Allison
• Peter Straub
• Jonathan Lethem
• Rick Moody
• Ayelet Waldman
• ZZ Packer
• Andrew Sean Greer
• Karen Joy Fowler

Hidden Talent Quiz

I wanted something fun to cheer me up so I looked at my notes for possible weblog topics and found this:

Your Hidden Talent

You are both very knowledgeable and creative. You tend to be full of new ideas and potential - big potential. Ideas like yours could change the world, if you build them. As long as you don't stop working on your dreams, you'll get there.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

I thought that result was pretty cool for where I am in my life right now.

Electric Skillets and DVD-ROM Drives

I'm not replacing my electric skillet until at least September. I discovered that someone else had the same problem with her Circulon skillet that I had with my old one. I thought it was the old wiring in the apartment we were living in, but, apparently, the temperature control burning up is not an unusual circumstance. So, that one's off the list. I looked for 20 minutes to a half hour and couldn't find a bad review of the Cuisinart skillet. So, that's the one I decided to buy. I'll let you all know how I like it sometime in September or October, after I've had a chance to use it well.

As for why I'm not replacing my skillet until September, well, that's a budgetary matter. Our housemate is moving tomorrow. His friends found a place on Monday and got a Thursday move-in date. The DVD-ROM drive in our computer is his. Since he and my son were using our DVD player and TV, he lent us his drive so we could watch movies in our room. So, we got used to having one and are going to buy one of our own. Add that to our other expenses for the rest of August, and I cannot afford my skillet before September. No problem--we're cooking almost everything on Paul's new grill. Last night I did the simplest thing you can do--sprayed the chicken with olive oil, sprinkled a little salt and pepper, and grilled them. Yummy!

I'm really enjoying my reading jag. I think not writing is allowing me to read the way a nonwriting reader does again. And I'm enjoying books on a different level. I think it's important for a writer to be able to just read a book without analyzing the writing. Just read and enjoy. Which is what I'm going to do after I post this blog entry.

Difficult Day

I'm not going into details, but today is a difficult day for a lot of my friends. All of you know who you are and what your difficulties are. I send you all lots of {{{hugs}}}. I'm thinking of you. I'm praying for you and your loved ones who share the things you're struggling to deal with. If there's anything I can do to help any of you, you all know my email. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel more like posting my normal stuff. Meantime, anyone who pops in, send good vibes, prayers, etc. to my buddies. They need it today.

Oh, But

I nearly forgot there is one good thing I must say today:

Happy Birthday, Donna and Sylvia!!

(I don't know if they read my blog, but I want to wish them both the best of birthdays.)

"Afterburn"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAUL!!! (who won't see this because he doesn't read weblogs)

Afterburn By S. L. Viehl

This book takes place on K-2, an aquatic world. There's a peace summit. The whole cast has its own agenda, including those who want the peace summit to fail. And that's all I'm saying about the story. The characters in Sheila's books are always unique. They don't agree with each other and they don't play nice. That allows her to explore deeper themes than people expect in a space opera-style science fiction novel. She deals with racism and prejudice. She asks the question, "Is it really so easy to tell who the good guys are?" She explores the nature of friendship and romance. The plot twists and turns and keeps you guessing all the way through. She lays the clues out, and you don't put them together until she's ready for you to know what they mean. As usual, I'm going to let you find out who, what, where, when, why, how, and the answers to all the other questions by reading the book yourself. Go, buy, read!!

Talyn

Next up will be Talyn by Holly Lisle. It's going to be a while before I finish this lush fantasy. It's 500+ pages of small text. Or maybe the text just seems small because my eyes are no longer so young. I'm enjoying it so far, which I expected. Holly is a master of creating complex, deep fantasy worlds and the complex, deep stories that fit those worlds.

The Weekend

I love my family. They're smart, funny, and a joy to be with. I adore opportunities to get the whole gang together. So, we went to The Country Gourmet for breakfast to celebrate Paul's birthday. We had a great time. It was a nice break between all the errands and chores that fill up our weekends.

I found, but decided not to buy, the electric skillet. It was a good price at Costco, back when I bought my original one. But it wasn't made well enough to justify spending $20.00 more just to get the same brand. I can get a higher-quality skillet for the same price. But I may spring for the Cuisinart. It's more expensive, but it's also bigger and has a higher wattage, which means it gets hotter. That's a plus for browning meat and Paul's great breakfast potatoes. I'm going to see if I can find some magazine articles or reviews on the pans before I make up my mind.

On the writing front, I had a couple of revelations over the weekend that will make my story better. I keep reminding myself that we will get moved and I will get back to a regular writing schedule again. Meantime, I'm doing a lot of reading. Studying the craft of writing. Doing some exercises to practice things I want to improve in my writing. All in all, I'm making progress, even if it's not actual words on this specific draft.

Help for Rebuilding a Life after a Fire

Marianne Mancusi was off at the Romance Writer's Conference. She came home to discover her house had burned to the ground. She lost everything. Here's a link to the Literary Chicks website. They're friends of Marianne who are spearheading a drive to help her rebuild her life. There are several relevant posts, so I linked to their main page and you can scroll through to get the story and find out what you can do to help.

Other things

I googled. Kohl's online has what looks like the same pan I used to own. I'm going to check out their local store this weekend. I want to check it out in person because it might not be the same pan. The company makes another one that looks the same in a picture, but is actually smaller and with shorter sides. If I can't find the same pan, I did find two others that have the features I want. The Cuisinart is a bit pricier than the Circulon. The Cuisinart is oval-shaped, which means it holds more than the round Circulon pan. So, I have some decisions to make about what to get. Being a cook means I'm extremely picky about what goes into my kitchen.

I'm almost finished reading Afterburn and Talyn came yesterday. My friend's publishers release their books all at the same time, so I can't keep up. I'll probably have a recommendation for you tomorrow.

I need to get Chris to pull out his chess set today. I like playing chess, even if I almost always lose. When we move, we're going to find a way to display the chess set. It's gorgeous. The board looks kind of like a castle. If I had the money and the space to display them, I'd collect chess sets. There are so many beautiful sets that are works of art.

We're going to take the family to breakfast to celebrate Paul's birthday. We didn't want to plan dinner and then have our friends call wanting to do their celebration on the same night. My family loves going out to breakfast, so it works out fine. There's a local restaurant, The Country Gourmet, that makes the best Eggs Benedict. They put it on their homemade biscuits instead of on an English muffin and they make the hollandaise themselves. All of their food is fresh, so whatever you order, it's always excellent. If you're ever in the San Jose area and are looking for a superb breakfast, I recommend this place highly.

Nothing in Particular & Another Recipe

I've been reading some good books this week, but I need to finish before I write a recommendation. No wallbangers in this bunch, though.

I'm looking forward to next week. We have more birthdays to celebrate. I need to find out what my family wants to do for Paul's birthday. And my friends need to get their schedules worked out so they can tell me what we're doing for the three people whose birthdays are in August. Paul's is on the 8th. Two of my friends were born the same year on the same day, the 9th.

We're due for another heat wave. I think it's time for some different sandwiches besides the deli meat ones we've been eating this summer. I also think I should do a potato or pasta salad because I'm getting tired of chips. My husband dropped my electric skillet and broke the plastic leg. That means I can't do fries or one-skillet meals because using the stove or oven heats up the kitchen too much.

I'm looking for a new skillet, but not having a lot of luck. I loved this one because it had 3"-deep sides and a glass lid. Most of them have 1-1/2"-2" sides and these high dome lids. I don't need a high dome lid. I need the bottom to be deep enough to put the stuff in and not have it splash all over the counter when you stir it. It figures that replacements for mine seem to have disappeared about the time I need one. (sigh) Hmmm . . . here I am using the internet to talk about this irritant in my life and I didn't use it to look for a new skillet. I guess it's time to google.

Meanwhile, I'm going to share one of my favorite summer desserts. It goes really well as a finish for a spicy meal. It's from the book Chocolate and the Art of Lowfat Desserts by Alice Medrich. I love this cookbook. She has lots of excellent lowfat treats. But she also includes the building blocks so you can experiment and make up your own treats. Unfortunately, the book is out of print, but you might be able to find a copy used.


Lemon Bars

Makes 16 bars

Ingredients:

Crust:
3/4 cup unbleached flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 pinch salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons unsalted butter -- at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk (reserve the white for the topping)
1 tablespoon nonfat yogurt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:
2 large eggs (+ reserved white)
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice -- strained
zest of 1 large lemon, grated
1/4 cup unbleached flour
powdered sugar for dusting

1. Position the rack in lower third of the oven and preheat to 350º F. Place a sheet of aluminum foil in an 8" baking pan, leaving the edges hanging over the edge of the pan. Butter the foil or spray it with vegetable spray.

2. Crust: Stir the flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking soda with a whisk to combine. Set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat at high speed for about 1 minute, or until mixture begins to form a mass. Beat in the egg yolk, yogurt, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and beat on low speed just until combined. Scrape bowl and beater. Knead the mixture briefly with your hands to mix thoroughly.

3. Press the dough evenly into the pan and prick all over with a skewer or fork. If pan is lightweight, place on baking sheet. Bake until brown on top, 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and turn oven temperature down to 300º F.

4. Topping: Whisk eggs and the egg white with the remaining sugar until combined. Whisk in the lemon juice and zest. Whisk in the flour. Pour topping mixture over hot, baked crust. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until topping barely jiggles in the center when you shake the pan gently back and forth. Cool on a rack. Chill before cutting into 16 pieces. When you're ready to cut it, use the foil edges to take the bars out of the pan and place on a cutting board. This makes it easier to cut and to separate the slices.

5. Serve cold or at room temperature. Dust them with powdered sugar immediately before eating. The sugar gets absorbed into the topping when they sit overnight. Can be kept in the fridge for 2-3 days. Do not freeze.

Mangia!

Source: Chocolate and the Art of Lowfat Desserts
Copyright: © 1994

A Book Recommendation & Something Fun

The Ghost Writer

I just finished a totally amazing book. It's The Ghost Writer by John Harwood. It's creepy. Nothing is what you think it is. The writer carries you along, deeper and deeper into a morass of lies and secrets. Just when you think you know where it's going, it goes somewhere else. You can't stop reading because you just have to know what's next. This one's going on my reread shelf. I know I missed nuances and little details that will enrich the story when I give it a second read. If you like ghost stories, especially ghost stories that aren't exactly like any ghost story you've ever read, give this one a read.

Another "just for fun". My friend Andi, a romance writer, found it. The interesting thing is how accurate it is. Not perfect, but accurate. (Scroll down a bit. I tried everything I know and I can't get the extra blank space to go away. Any suggestions?)

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.

In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved.

You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please.

Your ideal relationship is open. Both of you can talk about everything... no secrets.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.

In this moment, you think of love as something you can get or discard anytime. You're feeling self centered.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

Who is Your Audience, Anyway?

Recently, I've been thinking about books and audiences. There's not a writer on the planet who doesn't want his words to be as popular as J.K. Rowling's. Even though it may seem like absolutely everyone is mad about Harry Potter, I know they're not. I know people who have given the books a chance or seen at least one of the films, but aren't enthralled. They're not her audience. Ditto for all of the other best-selling authors. Their audiences may be huge, but no one has an audience that encompasses every reader.

It seems like I'm needlessly stating the obvious. But if it's so obvious, why do so many writers, particularly writers who haven't yet been published seem not to know it? People make themselves crazy trying to figure out what "readers" want and trying to write their story for that mythical audience. So, they get critiques and try to please all of the critiquers because they assume the critiquer knows what the reader wants. They sit in writer's chat rooms discussing whether readers will like this or that. They worry about whether it's realistic or logical enough. Sometimes I wonder if they've ever read a book.

Why do I wonder if they've ever read a book? Because the best books have unrealistic and illogical things in them. The best books have all the things they tell each other to leave out. For example, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum destroys at least one car per book. No one in real life destroys that many cars, but everyone reads those books and one question they want answered is, "How will she destroy a car in this one?" And, "What car will she end up replacing it with?" If Ms. Evanovich had asked a lot of the unpublished writers I know to crit that idea, they'd tell her not to do it. They'd say it was too unrealistic. But she's one of the top-selling writers today. This leads me to conclude that the book audience is not looking for the same thing the critiquers and unpublished writers think they're looking for.

I think anyone who wants to find an audience needs to read what's selling right now. Ask why it's selling? What's appealing about it? Think about what you're reading. Read books more than once. You learn more from a book the second or third or fourth time through. Read more than just your favorite genre. Reading can give you clues to what's selling, but copying what you've read won't make you sell the way the top sellers do.

The biggest thing I've noticed is that the top-selling writers stick to their stories. They have a vision of what they want to say. They have stories that they're passionate about. They've studied the writing craft and learned to use its tools to polish up that story until it shone. But the main thing they have that most of the people I know who haven't published yet have is a clear image of the story they're telling. Everything else is subordinate to that image. Everything is judged against that image. If it fits, it stays. If it doesn't, it goes. That clarity of vision is one of the keys to writing a story people will want to read, one that resonates with a lot of people, a story that will find its audience.

Books, Books, Books

I have two huge bookcases full of books I haven't read. A lot of them are books people passed on to me because they liked them, but I know they're most likely not my taste. My plan was to go through the bookcases and pass those books on to the library before we move. I also intended to read as many of the ones that interested me, but wasn't going to keep to reread later. But I have a whole bunch of books written by friends I'm dying to read. And a bunch more my friends recommended I'm dying to read. Plus a few I picked up because they just looked so interesting. It would have been a good plan, if I had a definite date for when we're going to move. We still don't know when we're moving and I don't have enough discipline when it comes to reading to wait indefinitely for the treat of reading books my friends wrote, so I caved and started reading that pile. My published friends are an awesome bunch of writers. Give them a chance and see if I'm not right.

Last fall, Tamara Siler Jones, invented her own genre. Ghosts in the Snow is "a forensic procedural in a medievalist fantasy setting". This book will appeal if you're a fantasy fan or a mystery fan. She deftly weaves the strengths of both into a wonderful story about Dubric's efforts to get rid of the ghosts that haunt him by finding their killer. Tamara plays fair with us, planting the clues we needed to solve the puzzle, but I got so caught up reading the story that I forgot to play the game. Usually I figure it out by halfway through the book, but not this one. She kept me guessing all the way to the end. The next book, Threads of Malice, will be out in November. I'm looking forward to it. I know some people who have read the manuscript and they all say it's awesome.

Sheila writes in five genres, with five pseudonyms. Today, I'm talking about two of them. The first is Lynn Viehl, the pseudonym she uses for her Darkyn series. The first book, If Angels Burn came out last April. I told Sheila I don't like vampire books, but I was going to read hers because I love her writing. This turned out to be no exception. It's a great twist on the vamp mythology. Sheila is a master of making you think the story is going one way, then sending you off in another direction. Yet, you never feel like it's random. It always makes sense and you're left with the feeling that you should have seen it coming. This book is marketed as a romance, and if you like romance, you'll like this one. If you're more of a dark fantasy fan and don't think romance is for you, give this book a chance. There's plenty for the dark fantasy fan to like. I'm really looking forward to Private Demon, the next installment in the series, which will be out in October.

The second book of Sheila's I wanted to mention is Afterburn, a sequel to Bio Rescue. Bio Rescue is due to be released in paperback this month. They're set in the same universe as her Star Doc series, but involve different characters and stories. These books are written under the pseudonym "S.L Viehl". I got a nice surprise because I was expecting Afterburn to get here tomorrow, but it got here this morning. I'm looking forward to it, but I haven't read it yet, so more to come after I'm done with it.

I enjoyed Holy Lisle's first paranormal romantic suspense, Midnight Rain. So, of course, I preordered Last Girl Dancing . I couldn't put it down, even though I'd read an early draft and knew the story. Holly does a great job of keeping you guessing, as the story twists this way and that way. If you like romance, you'll like this one. If you're more of a mystery fan, you'll like this one, too.

Holly has a fantasy coming out from Tor this month. I can't wait for my copy of Talyn, but I hope it doesn't get here before I finish Afterburn.

Two other books worth mentioning are Urban Shaman by C.E.Murphy, which I haven't read yet. And A Brother's Price by Wen Spencer. I've read a manuscript version of that, but haven't read the actual book yet. They're both on my TBR pile, near the top, but I can only read one at a time. I'm not one of those people who has books scattered all over the house--the bathroom book, the dining room book, the kitchen book. . . . So more on those after I read them.