(almost) 100th follower contest and GIFT GIVEAWAY

wow. and by that we mean WOW!! (almost) 100 followers. we're speechless. well, we would be speechless if we were sitting here looking at (almost) 100 people who didn't want to listen to something we said. but in this case, if we're speechless, well, we wouldn't exist, right?! so, here we are, semi-speechless, wanting to send a personal thank-you to each and every one of you.

thank you x (almost) 100

now. one of (almost, jeesh) 100 of you will get an even more personalized thank you in the mail.

all you have to do is answer this question (in our comments or via email--see contacts tab) and your name will be put into a "hat" and then we'll draw ONE lucky follower's name out and voila!  we'll announce the winner (and of course send them a basket box filled with goodies! (um, please be kind and only enter if you have a US address. we're teachers. in Wisconsin. and not published. thanks!!!!)

and the question is: Who do you wish was your sidekick? (you can't say either erica or christy.)

enter by SUNDAY, november 14, 2010  at midnight (CST)



we have the BEST followers
all (almost) 100 of you are TOPS!



it's a monday. so here's a mealtime madness post.

(possibly with a little more madness than mealtime)

I travelled around a bit as an exchange student in college.  Then, addicted to travelling, I continued to fly over the ocean until I got married and had kids.  Now I'm afraid to fly.  How does my family life affect my travelling, you ask?  I'll tell you.  (This is Christy's post, I might as well warn you now.  I'm the babbler long-winded one of the two of us, so you can skip skim the post (I said SKIM, not skip) for the least dorky interesting parts (of COURSE there will be an interesting part) or just go straight to the recipe. If my four year old will eat it, anyone will eat it--and enjoy it, I might add.) 

As I was saying before I rudely interrupted myself, I no longer fly because I'm afraid I'll get in a plane crash. After the birth of my first son, while I was still in the hospital after having him, I had the most vivid dream I'd ever had.  In it, I sat in an airplane with my husband and child while the plane dove into an ocean. I can still see the scene. The thought of crashing with my children on a plane with me is unbearable.  The thought of crashing in a plane without my children, leaving them behind, is also unbearable.  I know there are many other accidents  and illnesses that can have the same effect.  This, for me, is just one of those phobias I haven't gotten over yet.  We've flown with our kids, but not over an ocean and not often.


this is harlaxton manor and the naked mile that
stretches out in front of it. 
yeah, we ran it naked.
(see the post for the part where
 i mentioned we drank a lot of beer)

 If you're skipping skimming until you get to the recipe, then keep scrolling because I'm still babbling discussing my travels in this paragraph.  I studied overseas my sophomore year in college.  Where?  Well, have you ever seen the movie The Haunting?  With Catherine Zeta Jones and Liam Neeson?  They filmed it the semester (or maybe two semesters) after I left the campus I lived on while studying in in Grantham, England (where Isaac Newton grew up). If you've seen the movie, you may remember the manor the film was set in.  We lived in that very manor.  (Not in a traditional British home with a British family.)

(i'm still on the topic of my studies travels  drinking beer in college, meaning-scroll on if you must) So, basically, I lived with 40 Americans while learning about England's history (from British and Scottish professors) and travelling around on weekends.  We truly learned a lot. About drinking good beer.  (I gained 12 pounds while there.)  (We were only 20 at the time. House parties in the US only offered Busch and wop and jello shots in one hundred year old basements.)

If you haven't seen the movie, it may very well be due to the fact that it came out at about the same time as The Blair Woods Project.  (My husband and I watched the history channel recently and learned all about the history of Halloween, including the histories of many scary movies.)

(getting very, very close to the food portion of this post) So, I've had lager in England, wine in France and Italy, beer in Germany and Canada and Ireland and Scotland and Austria, and Tequila in Mexico.

My point?  I've never been to Argentina, but have recently declared it my next vacation destination.  Why?  The other night I watched Dancing With the Stars and decided the Argentine Tango is my favorite dance.  AND, most importantly, my favorite, newly discovered wine is from Argentina.  MALBEC.  It's the smoothest red wine I've ever had.  Diseno is my favorite brand of Malbec.  It finishes with a hint of mocha.  MMMM.  (This is probably not the best way to decide which country to visit next, but the backs of wine bottles make the countryside sound delightful.)

(um,just to be clear, i don't excessively drink alcohol.  i did many, many other culturally relevant things in each of those countries besides drink alcohol.  after reviewing this post, however, i may agree with you that i may be a parenthesisaholic, however.)

And this FINALLY brings us to the real purpose of this post.  So, if you were skipping everything else, (yeah, I can be a realist) STOP HERE.  Pair tonight's menu item with a great glass of Malbec.

Porkchops.








(note the link...and click)
*****************

while you cook, drink, and/or eat enjoy a little present from me to you

shattered dreams

the dream of being repped by nathan bransford died yesterday at 8:54 pm when i read this post

November Author Series

We are very excited to announce our second author interview this month! Again, this is someone erica met through ABNA and has enjoyed ever since (er, their work, that is). We asked the same questions of this brave soul as we asked the last one (click here if you missed it). Our questions are in blue, her answers are in black. This time we're talking to. . .

**cue drumroll** 

Hart Johnson! aka Alyse Carlson! aka The Watery Tart!

1. Tell us about your book/s. I've really been immersed in two of them. One is the Cozy Mystery for my contract with Berkeley Prime Crime (BPC). It is a Garden-themed story with an MC who is the public relations representative for the Roanoke Garden Society in Roanoke, Virginia. I don't actually garden and have only been to Virginia once, but BPC had a theme they wanted and it was that which I auditioned for, so there you have it. The characters really spoke to me though. My first degree was journalism so both the MCs Public Relations, and her boyfriend's newspaper backgrounds are very familiar to me, plus, anyone who has read it recognizes that the MC's best friend Annie channels me directly.

I had a great time writing this—cozy mystery is more playful than the other genres I write, and mystery has more formula to it... a checklist to work from, so it is easier to not veer off course, at least for a digressionist like me.

The other book—LEGACY (cover designed by my friend, Joris Ammerlaan)—I just finished the middle round of edits for—needs a few new sections written and a few strands of plot woven in, but what needs to be done is all on paper now. Once I get those in, I will polish it again. I will run it by my agent for the Cozy (she is a project specific agent right now, but I like her, so I'd love to convince her to take me on more broadly), and if she doesn't think it's her thing, I will give it a go with the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for 2011. It is about a trio of siblings left alone when their mother is abducted and their father is murdered, and a runaway who ends up joining forces with them to find the missing mother. The plot immerses them in a ring of art thieves and espionage, and the children find out their lives were intertwined long before they met... Or that is the scoop until I polish my hook, anyway... (can I tell you how badly I hate writing hooks?) (erica says yes, tell us anything)

2. What's the best thing about writing? I like the puzzle solving... pulling things together that don't GO together into a coherent plot. The writing itself is sort of release, and I'm not sure I think so much of the mechanics of it—it just is something I sort of feel compelled to do, but I adore that puzzle part.

3. What's the worst thing about writing? How do you deal with it and keep writing? Querying would be the REAL worst... but any summarizing... I worked in advertising once upon a time and I HATE HATE HATE the idea of taking my fabulous, complex plot and putting it in a soundbite. I feel like a sellout. Every. Time. (plus, I'm not all that great at it)--but besides that, I prefer READING complicated books that can't go in a soundbite, so I certainly don't want mine to... yet they are supposed to, in this short-attention-span society we live in.


4. What's your favorite food/recipe? Please pair it with a complimentary (or your favorite) wine/beer/beverage. Okay, I'm going backward here... because I can. I love a lot of foods, but if I am pairing, I am going to pick my favorite beverage and then choose a food that really goes with it fantastically. I LOVE a really hoppy beer—an India Pale Ale or a red, medium-bodied bitter (Hammerhead, from McMenamin's in Portland is actually my favorite, somewhat comparable to Arbor Brewing's Red Snapper, where I am... see... a person should ALWAYS drink locally...) WITH THAT, because the hops are strong and bitter, they need a relatively strong taste with them. I would go with a sandwich that had roasted red peppers and goat cheese—the goat cheese is a little salty and sort of sticks on your tongue and the red peppers are a complimentary aromatic—sweet and savory at the same time... Zingermans, locally, has a roasted veggie sandwich that also has roasted asparugus—that seems like a nice third ingredient on that sandwich (nice, toasty sour dough bread).

5. What else do you want our followers to know about you and your journey towards publication? This is hard. I don't keep any secrets, really, so anything anybody wants to know is fairly out there. My greatest strength is persistence, and I think my decision to just be me, in spite of thinking it would pose my biggest obstacle initially (heck, who would take me seriously?) has turned out to be the boon that takes me out of the mass of bloggers a bit. I have no clue whether it will help sell books or not, but being myself and keeping going just seem like a big 'duh' on the 'secrets to my success'--still--who knew it was that simple?

6. What are your future goals as an author? My only SPECIFIC goal is to find a route to supporting myself by writing. The gig like I've got is well and good, and I am THRILLED to have it, but at that rate, I would need to write a book and a half a month to support myself and family (make up for my day job income + insurance and retirement). I need to figure out what works to reach those bigger audiences (hopefully my suspense stuff will get there, or maybe I will master the thriller—though they largely seem to lack character depth, which I love)... I love the writing... I want to write... I would REALLY like to not have to work 12 hour days to GET to write—right now I usually do—9 hours at the day job and 3 between writing and typing (never mind where I fit in the blog stuff).

7. How did you break it to your family/friends/etc. that you wanted to be an author? What did they say? What do they say now?  When they first noticed me writing in the bathtub, I was writing fan fiction, which earned no respect whatsoever (even from my kids). When I started writing my own book, the kids were excited in an 'I don't get it' kind of way, but my husband was sure it was 'the same stuff' –he insisted it STILL had to be 'plagiarism' (never mind that even the fan fiction wasn't plagiarism) and made all sorts of sweeping statements about not liking fantasy (of my seven books, one has a ghost—that is as much fantasy as I EVER have) so... not feeling the support, really... though he was a little better with the chance to audition for the cozy mystery series (not A LOT better, mind you)--he DID buy a bottle of champagne when I GOT it. My mother, I think, doesn't have a lot of hope that there is a living to be made in fiction. (it's possible she's right) She has always encouraged me to write, but would like to see me write magazine articles or something. So yeah... not so much...

8. What is the planning process like for your novels? Do you outline? Do you jot down notes? Do you get naked and do the novel dance beneath a full moon? (note: erica actually got the novel dance idea from reading about Hart's naked writing!!) I think my biggest quirk here, is the idea has to stew a while. I get ideas from dreams, things I see or read, I jot them down... but they have to rattle around in my brain, really for MONTHS for the ingredients that should go together to find each other and the start of a plot begins to solidify. Usually I know the 'set up' and I write a scene or two to get to know the characters, set it aside, then I don't outline so much as TIMELINE. I have the big plot points and put them in order. As I work through a book though, the upcoming details come to me and need to be added, so by the time I reach a given chapter, it is far closer to an outline... I just don't do the whole thing at once.

9. Who is your writing mentor and why? Or, alternatively, who do you emulate?  Mentor, eh? I guess I think of this in a couple ways. I attribute my ability to FINISH a novel to JK Rowling and the Potterverse. Those were the first books I read MULTIPLE times and DISCUSSED with people in such detail that I really got the joy of a PLAN... the foreshadowing and groundlaying for the ending. I had always thought writing should be this organic start... write what comes... thing—and I had always abandoned my stories before the end because I couldn't figure out HOW to end. If you KNOW the end though, writing your way their becomes a completely different kind of task, and one I am up for.


As for real mentors and helpers, I am part of a writer's group, The Burrow, and this group, my favorite people on the planet, has nurtured, supported, beta read, critiqued... they are my core helpers.


10. If you had a pet elephant, what would his/her name be? How do elephants influence your writing style? How does the movie Dumbo make you feel?  *snort * Elephant, eh? I should let you know I live in a shoe box, but if we assume enough space for more than the short-legged dog and the cat we have... I'd call her Olivia. It's among my favorite names anyway, but I also like the juxtaposition of 'olvidar' (Spanish: to forget) and the reputation of an elephant for never forgetting. I'd take her on lots of walks, because it has gotten hard for me to up the ante on just how strange the locals already think I am. (I recently added reading out loud to 'reading+walking+editing+in the dark). An elephant would probably succeed in convincing them I'm not just eccentric, but full-out nuts.


As for the writing, my Thursday Twin has an elephant patronus, so I'm pretty sure elephants were complicit in my invitation to the Burrow, without which, I'd be nowhere.


Dumbo makes me cry... like so bad I can't WATCH to the end. I'm more a llama kind of gal, myself.


Yay! Oops, sorry about the blue, no more questions. But yay for the fun interview. You guys know Hart, right? If not, click here. And don't forget Hart's a NaNo girl, so let's all cheer her on to the finish line!!

IT'S A BLOGAPALOOZA blogfest!!

It's Blogapalooza! A chance for you to meet some exciting new writers AND score some exciting prizes. All you have to do is read my post, and then visit the 7 bloggers below and read their entries, and try to find the common phrase used in all eight. NOTE: It WILL be a phrase, so single words like "the" or "and" don't count! Once you think you have it, email it to Mike Wood and you will be put into the running for a great gift "basket" comprised of prizes personally selected by the eight bloggers. A random drawing from all correct entries will be conducted one week from today, with special preference given to those who choose to follow all eight of us!

And so, with no further ado, my (erica's) entry:

I felt bad that I pushed Monday Menu Madness onto Mike's Tuesday interview - I could have done it anyway - there was really no rhyme or reason for me to skip it.

Besides, Mike's recipe is too complicated for me to even ponder in the morning. I'm naturally a night person, forced into getting up early because I'm a teacher and a mom. So, yes, Mike, I can hear you right now saying "So make it at night, ya' weirdo." But I'm boycotting your recipe on general principal. How you like them apples, buddy? (I can say that to him. We're friends like that.)

So, I present my own version of a recipe. One you can make any darn time you want.

Those of you who are not from the Midwest probably don't eat pickled red herring every holiday season. But here, it's tradition, and sits on just about any Christmas hor'd'oerve table in a tristate area. Of course, the best way to do it is to catch your own fish and follow this recipe:

4 prepared fresh herring
juice of 1 - 1 1/2 lemons
salt
4 tablespoons flour for coating                                      
6 tablespoons oil
2 cups mild wine vinegar
2 cups water
3 bay leaves
8 peppercorns
2 allspice berries
1 cup onions

1. Wash the fish well inside and out in cold water and wipe dry. Sprinkle the stomach cavity with lemon juice and sprinkle with salt inside and out. Leave them to dry slightly, then dip them in flour.

2. Heat the oil and fry the fish one after the other for 3 minutes each side, turning carefully as they will break easily. Transfer them to a large shallow dish and leave to cool.

3. Bring the vinegar and water to the boil with the bay leaves, peppercorns and allspice. Cut the onions into rings, add to the pan and boil for 5 minutes. Leave the liquid to cool before pouring it over the herrings.

4. Cover the dish and leave to marinate for 24 hours in the refrigerator.
 
5. Cut into chunks and can if using later, or pour into jar and transfer directly to the holiday table. Enjoy!

Happy start of the holiday season to everyone. And, um, if you're wondering why exactly I'm writing this blogpost, check out these links and see if you can find the common phrases:

http://meganbostic.blogspot.com/
http://thejourneytowardpublication.blogspot.com/
http://mikesshot.blogspot.com/
http://chrisbwritin.blogspot.com/
http://joannastjames.blogspot.com/
http://eviebalos.blogspot.com/
http://www.badboyscanbefun.com/blog/