Weirdness Rules the Writing Life

Festival Madness  has advanced to the second round of Amazon's ABNA contest, which is a first for me, after three tries.  Two years ago I was dumb-founded when World of Mirrors didn't go anywhere.  Last year, my great pitch for Promiscuous Mode didn't make it.  I almost didn't submit this year, but in a fit of white heat wrote an over-the-top pitch for Festival Madness.  This year I made the cut.  For now, that is good enough.  Promiscuous Mode is with an agent.  Whether he will take it on is anybody's guess, but at least somebody is reading the manuscript. 

That leaves World of Mirrors, which has a huge problem, in that it has now become a  historical mystery of technology. This is likely a genre whose time has not yet come.  I could do a story within a story like I did for the published Shadow Warriors,  I even have an idea, Of course, then the word count, so excruciatingly pared down) goes up again.  I'm thinking of publishing it online scene by scene in a new blog with photos of the scenes and historical commentary.  

That would be like, well, work.  Worthwhile?  Dunno.  As things stand now, I don't think it's publishable.  The moment has passed.  That's the thing with writing about technology. 


In the meantime, I've been slaving over another short story.  Man, are they ever hard.   It will be a submission to an anthology, and therefore has to have a crime and some other stuff.  I have decided not to solve the crime.  Since, with the exception of the crime, the story is based on some more or less true experiences, it was fun to write.  A good, i.e. exciting and interesting experience can be endlessly milked.  


My WIP, In Flight, is languishing on the computer but I did write two scenes this month, and once the short story is put to bed, I can return to it and  finish before summer.  This has also  been a fun novel and when I go to Reno this spring I can get the final details.  We made a trip to Woods Hole and the boat show for the short story, and again, I find myself writing about technology.  Just can't help it.  Everything revolves around technology now. 

My next work, the 1928 California novel, thank heavens has no technology, well, just the invention of waxed paper and the new Los Angeles city hall.  Not much.  Of course the research is humongous, but I don't have to worry that 1928 Southern California is going to change while I'm writing.  Actually, writing  a historical novel is scary.  I am wondering if it will be literary.  Maybe a little.


Last night I cooked up a steak and potato soup from a recent Gourmet.  Couldn't seem to get enough salt and pepper added.  Finally, at the table, we did.  Leftovers for today, too.  
Steak and Vegetable Soup 
Add some extra seasoning like smoked paprika; we found the soup a little bland.  It was filling and of course all the veggies are good for you.  I chopped up some leftover cabbage fine instead of using the kale.   You could easily double the garlic.   


One of my (few) short stories is going to be nominated for an award.  This is totally unexpected and a great honor.    Sometimes characters just arrived in your head and start talking to you, or else they have been standing around the periphery for ages and step into the spotlight. 

There is no doubt about it.  Writing is weird, but then the inside of one's head is weird.
After all, I've got two women on the run, conflictd drug lord, a crack whore, a pimp and a flapper churing around in my head.  And I manage to live a pretty normal, some would say boring life. 


Nope, not really. 


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Cake to Die For

Here is a link to the recipe I mentioned in my last post.  Sooo good.  Pretty simple, too.  I made it in a loaf pan and it took one hour and 15 minutes.  Yum!  Not too sweet.

Chocolate Walnut Pound Cake

Give the blog a look-see too.

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The Writing Life

Every February, the Guppies group from Sisters In Crime issues their "Chocolate Challenge."  The idea, February being a mostly dull month, is to write as many words as possible in the month of February, and the winner gets chocolate from the other participants.  Hence the name.  It's sort of like NaNoWriMo with treats.   The challengers also eat chocolate to speed them on their path.

I signed up hoping to get a leg up on the final chapters of In Flight, my fem jep novel.  And indeed I started well and wrote two scenes, one from the drug lord's point of view and another from the main character's.

Then, an idea that had been percolating in my head for years, actually an idea for a novel, came bubbling to the surface and I am writing it as a short story for submission to an anthology.  Probably won't get in, but I can submit it elsewhere.  So I'm 6500 words into the story, endlessly reedited while I write, and have made a winter weekend trip to Cape Cod, and a trip to the New England Boat Show.

I never know anything cold enough to write it off the top of my head.  If I wrote a story about scrubbing floors, I would be in the supermarket cleaning products aisle reading labels.  Maybe this super-picky attention to detail comes from my days as a computer programmer where you sure-as-hell better pay picky attention to detail. 

Anyway, this has been what they used to call a high-forceps birth, not easy in other words, and I've been laboring mightily.  6,000 words in a novel is nothing.  6,000 words in a short story are everything.   

Back to the salt mines.  Of course it is fun.  And gratifying.  I'm not expecting any chocolate for 10,000 words this month.  On the other hand, they may be 10,000 good words or 10,000 words I wouldn't have produced.

Long live chocolate.  The chocolate pound cake was soooo good.    Not too sweet.  The lemon squares are good, too. 

Life is uncertain.  Eat dessert first.

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The best ever Lemon Squares

A week ago, needing a quick desert to take to a friend's house, I dug out my mom's recipe for lemon squares.  Hers were always The BEST, and they still are.   The other good thing is that the ingredients are almost always in the kitchen and the squares are not expensive to make.  Tasty, cheap, easy. Wow!  Here is the recipe.


Earla's Lemon Squares

First Part:  Cream  together 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 cup flour and 1/8 t. alt.  Press mixture into bottom of an 8 by 8 pan. Dimension is important! Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Second Part:  Combine and pour over hot crust:  2 beaten eggs, 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and the grated rind of one lemon.  Return to oven and make 20 - 25 minutes at 350 degrees.  Do not overbake.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Cool thoroughly before cutting into squares. 


Do not even THINK about using bottled lemon juice.  Yuck!  Double-yuck! 

What could be easier than that?  Lots of bang for the buck.  Now, back to my short story.

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Agatha Award Nominees at Malice Domestic

Congratulations to all the nominees!

Agatha Award Nominees
2009

Best Novel:

Swan for the Money by Donna Andrews (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
Bookplate Special by Lorna Barrett (Berkley Prime Crime)
Royal Flush by Rhys Bowen (Berkley Prime Crime)

A Brutal Telling by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)
Air Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan (MIRA)

Best First Novel:
For Better For Murder by Lisa Bork (Midnight Ink)
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (Delacorte Press)

Posed for Murder by Meredith Cole (St. Martin’s Minotaur)

The Cold Light of Mourning by Elizabeth Duncan (St. Martin’s Press)
In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (Minotaur Books)

Best Non-fiction:

Duchess of Death by Richard Hack (Phoenix Books)

Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James (Knopf)

Blood on the Stage by 1925-1950 by Amnon Kabatchnik (Scarecrow Press)

Dame Agatha’s Shorts by Elena Santangelo (Bella Rosa Books)

The Talented Miss Highsmith by Joan Schenkar (St. Martin’s Press)

Best Short Story:
“Femme Sole” by Dana Cameron, Boston Noir (Akashic Books)
“Handbaskets, Drawers and a Killer Cold” by Kaye George,  Crooked ezine
“The Worst Noel” by Barb Goffman, The Gift of Murder (Wolfmont Press)
“On the House” by Hank Phillippi Ryan, Quarry (Level Best Books)
“Death Will Trim Your Tree” by Elizabeth Zelvin, The Gift of Murder (Wolfmont Press)

Bird Watching 101

Thisbe watching birds.  A cat's most cherished activity.  Annie enjoys the same pursuit.  The birds seem oblivious to the presence of a cat just a few feet away.

I haven't been posting, alas and alack.  I've been writing.  I did yet another rewrite of Promiscuous Mode, and it is now (whole MS) with an agent, but no great hope.  I've done some more on In Flight and am almost 5000 words into a crime short story.  Sent another story into a contest.  So the writing goes apace.

Also cooking up a storm.  Big Valentine's Day menu which we ate on for days.  Then S.O.'s birthday dinner of stuffed cabbage.  Finished it last night.  Mega-yum.

I've also been working on a writing group's web site, dieting, working out, working on finances, yada yada.  The diet is just a calorie count diet, which means I have to enter every bite into this web site which helps figure out the calories.  It took a long time at first, but I'm kind of into the hang of it now.  Total loss:  3.5 pounds, but hey, that's something added to the 3.5 pounds I lost before the formal diet.

The thing about a simple calorie count is that no food is forbidden.  A lot of diets say that but weight watchers will penalize you a gazillion points for a tablespoon of butter, but you can eat a whole can of beans.  The more something is portrayed as forbidden, i.e., foodstuffs, the hungrier I get for it.

So I take my lumps with 1/4 cup peanuts and the St. Andre cheese and  eat less of something else.  I haven't been hungry, by the way, in spite of the fact that I'm trying to stay around 1200 calories on days when I don't work out.  Turns out I wasn't eating THAT MUCH to begin with. 

I made my mother's recipe of lemon squares to take to a friend's house.  They are so good I will post them here soon.  And I also made crepes with a sweetened cream cheese filling and a strawberry sauce to go on top.  This gave us dessert for  4 nights, 2 crepes each.  A lot of bang for the buck and also cheap.

Tomorrow I'm baking a chocolate/walnut pound cake to take to another event.  I would rather take a salad but it has to be something easily transportable.   Doesn't sound like a diet, does it?  Small portions are the key.

Tonight, we're back to chicken breast, and I'm doing the Boston Globe Saturday/Sunday recipe with  one main dish and then another made from the leftovers.  Not high cal and very tasty looking.  First Spanish, then Mexican. Spanish Style Chicken

Then you make the Mexican Recipe with the leftovers:
Chicken Chilaquiles

 Off to work on my short story.  It's a lot of fun, and I'm visiting Mattapoisett today for research.

Ta Ta

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Lake Massapoag

I drove by frozen Lake Massapoag in Sharon today, and was astounded to see no signs of ice-fishing, ice boating or ice skating. 

In my day (the ice age) such a skatable and ice-sailable piece of ice would not have gone unutilized.  There were not even any signs of ice fishing.

On one of the lakes the slough feeds in our neighborhood there are hockey goals and a spot cleared for an icy hockey rink.  Boys play there on weekends.  Assume boys.

So I guess the question is:   why isn't anyone using the vast frozen lake?  It seems like a natural place for winter sports when the winter has been so cold.  In days of yore Lake Massapoag was a huge summer resort with hotels and the like.  Some of the former lake cottages are now year-round homes.  I'll bet in the old days kids skated on the lake, played hockey and adults fished.  It probably looked like an animated Breugel scene.

Today it's a vast frozen deserted space.  The question is not "where are the snows of yesteryear?" but where are the people of yesteryear?  I guess they're indoors with their gameboys.  Sad.