Friday Recommends

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Friday Recommends – Sarcasm

February 17, 2012 in Food, Friday Recommends | No comments

It takes a genius to poke herself in her own eye.

It takes a genius to poke herself in her own eye. <--sarcasm

Reader Charles Green asked, in last Friday’s comments, if my recommendations were sarcastic. Because I’m nothing if not helpful, I went out into the wilds of the interwebs and found The Sarcasm Society. The Society (a footnote says it’s actually just one guy) is packed with funny, useful information. <–not sarcasm He has a wide range of material, including a scholarly article on sarcasm detection and a flow-chart on how to identify sarcasm.

Okay, now I also want to recommend a site I just found out about this week: The 5-2, a weekly crime poetry publication presented by Poetic Justice Press. The editor is Gerald So, which means it’s professionally done, courageous and thought-provoking.

I’ve just subscribed to The Fairy Tale Asylum blog. BEAUTIFUL art. WONDERFUL words.

Finally, please join me in visiting — repeatedly — Fine Cooking, where you can plug in your ingredients and find a recipe using them. Maybe even a video showing you how. And the pictures alone are good enough to eat!

Tags: art, cooking, crime poetry, food, sarcasm

Friday: Pinterest and Other Things of Interest

February 10, 2012 in Friday Recommends, SIDESHOW IN THE CENTER RING, Writing | 1 comment

Lotta buzz going around about Pinterest. ~~It’s one of the many social time-wasting~~ It’s one of the many social-networking sites Holly Jahangiri has roped me into. It’s great, and most useful for a writer. If you don’t believe me, read this GalleyCat article on Pinterest Tips for Writers. Then come back and request an invitation. You’re welcome. Just make me proud. If you want to see how I’m ~~wasting time~~ using Pinterest, here is my profile/boards page.

I found the web site of the great and magnificent Roger Dean, album cover designer for Yes, Uriah Heep, Cream and others. He also designed the most … indescribable architecture, that first broke my mental mold about houses having to be boxes with rectangular holes in them. Here is one of his concepts in design in actual fact, linked to from his site.

Roger Dean’s design was in my mind when I imagined the architecture of the “resort planet” in my forthcoming novel, SIDESHOW IN THE CENTER RING, especially the actual tourist resort out away from the city. Wouldn’t you imagine people living here seeing things as more of a continuum than as a confrontational duality? Don’t you think they would have a diet heavy on a wide variety of noodles? Maybe just the occasional bit of bipedal sentient flesh, just on special occasions? Not, you know, EVERY day.

Whether you’re a vegan or not, a good recipe is a good recipe. Chocolate-Covered Katy serves ‘em up healthy and delicious. She specializes, as you might surmise from the title, in desserts, but she has non-dessert recipes, too. Oh, um, yum!

WRITING PROMPT: Under what circumstances would you knowingly eat human flesh? Would it make a difference if it were covered in chocolate?

Tags: architecture, food, the writing process

Friday Recommends – Sorry I’m Late!

February 3, 2012 in Friday Recommends, Grab bag, Writing | No comments

Slept in until after 7, then got all internetted up and lost track of the time.

Found SO many good places this week!

First, the April A-to-Z challenge is open for signing up. I participated in this last year and met the fabulous Damyanti, who wrote a flash fiction Every. Single. Day. No, I won’t be doing that.

2 Little Hooligans is what I guess you would call a “mommy blog”, filled with crafting and cooking and fun stuff, like this post on making ice cream in baggies.

I can’t categorize Treehugger. It’s about alternative stuff like … Well, go have a look. It’s all kindsa stuff that makes your dear old MomGoth go into a happy fugue state. Like crab art. Like these transforming tables. Like keeping food fresh without refrigeration. Like this bookshelf/workstation. I mean … .. ! Is it any wonder, I’m late posting today? This is great stuff for my tiny houses stories!

Then there’s the awesomely awesome Medieval Castle website. Not just everything you wanted to know about castles, everything I wanted to know.

Finally, spend the rest of the day being amazed at Julian Beever’s fantastic pavement art. Wow.

Hope you enjoy my finds for the week.

Oh! I almost forgot– I have a new BFF website this week. It’s called Polyvore, and I can put together my very own Pretty Lady Outfits. I find it oddly invigorating in the way of writing. Maybe it gets the creative juices stirred up, or maybe putting together stuff I want to go together gets the left-brain organizational circuits whirring, but fifteen minutes on Polyvore gets me hitting on all cylinders. Whatever works, right?

WRITING PROMPT: A character is walking down the street in a town he or she has never been to, and a pavement artist is drawing a scene from the character’s life; something that happened just before he or she left home, that no one witnessed.

Tags: art, crafts, history, inspiration, technology

Friday Recommends – Tools and Time-Wasters

January 27, 2012 in Friday Recommends | 8 comments

Sometimes they’re the same thing, yeah?

But first, a repeat of a FANTASTIC tool for anybody who has to write anything. It was designed for the fiction writer, but would be great for a report, a speech, a non-fiction book, and anything else that needs to be free AND structured. You could probably use it to plan a web site. Anyway, it’s yWriter5. It’s kind of complex, but there’s an ongoing help forum on the web site, lots of help documentation, and working with it opens up its possibilities. I am SO NOT an outliner, but this program makes outlining work for me as part of the flow. It’s amazing. And it’s FREE. Did I mention it’s FREE?

If you have any questions about spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, or usage, Dan Persinger is your man. He does not suffer fools gladly, but he does suffer them, which is why he tolerates me. He writes mysteries under the name of Jack Hardway. The fact that that name totally cracks me up probably says something analyzable about me. Anyway, Jack Hardway also has a blog (or, as he correctly calls it, a web log) with the subtitle A Lot Of Writers Are Dopes.

While at WordCamp last year, I met Niles Flores, a woman who loves blogging, social media, web design and Egypt, not necessarily in that order. Her business site, blondish.net, is the mostest funnestest business site EVAR.

My new BFF is HootSuite. That’s what I’m using to schedule promotional posts on FaceBook and Twitter. I can schedule three at each place at different times a day, then relax and just use the social networks to be social. I like it because it works on both networks, and I can write the promos that make sense for each. No Twitter hashtags in MY Facebook stream, (oops! I think I just did that by askident. My bad.).

[By the way, many grammarians ~waves to Dan Persinger~ dislike multiple sentences inside parentheses inside a sentence. Tough.]

My best time-waster is Pinterest. It’s invitation-only, so, naturally, Holly Jahangiri invited me in order to waste my time and distract me from the Race to the Hugo Award. Nice try, Holly. Won’t work. yWriter5 has foiled you. Ha HAAAAA!!

WRITING PROMPT: A character “wastes” a lot of time on something that becomes suddenly useful. An oldie but a goodie.

Tags: writing productivity

At Larst – Friday Recommends

January 20, 2012 in Friday Recommends | 2 comments

That means, “At last,” in case you didn’t know. My internet service provider has been down all morning, and I was reduced to typing messages to myself.

Anyway, here are some cool places I’ve been this week.

Because of all the SOPA/PIPA hoo-hah, I looked up some information on Intellectual Property. I also read a most interesting article by Cecilia Tan, a publisher, on Digital Book World, entitled “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Ebook Piracy“. Intriguing title, yes?

Author Lois Winston has a good article on Five Scribes on the subject of rejection, with a list of the top 10 reasons a manuscript is rejected. Some are beyond our control, but most are not. It’s probably a good idea for all of us, whether we write or not, to take a dispassionate look at the reasons people do poorly in our chosen line of endeavor and another dispassionate look at our own practices. We don’t need to be defeatist because some things are matters of chance or circumstance until we’ve optimized everything WE can.

The How To Write Shop is chock-full of information and resources. Check it out!

Crabfu Steamworks has a super-fantastic post on how to draw Steampunk Machines. That car at the top? I have that car in a story! Only now I know how it works! Is that cool, or what?

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a cold, and I’m going to crawl off somewhere and sneeze.

WRITING PROMPT: Give a cold to a very dignified character.

Tags: book piracy, Intellectual property, rejection, Steampunk machines

Friday Recommends – Pogo, etc.

January 13, 2012 in Friday Recommends | 4 comments

Friday the 13th falls on a Friday this month, so it behooves us to beware lest we be befuddled. If you don’t know Pogo, my first recommendation to you is to read the Wiki on Pogo and then read some of the strips. You’re welcome.

flag by Nick Piche

I can’t remember if I recommended this guy before, but I’m recommending him now: Nick Piche. Besides being a fan of the Oxford comma (a comma after EVERY “and” and “or” in a series), he writes killer fiction.

If you’re seriously locavore and have the room for some structures (and your neighborhood codes allow it), have a look at Suburban Hobby Farmer by Bill Brikiatis. Lots of good stuff there!

Our #4 daughter showed me this video and I have to share it:

It snowed here overnight, so I went looking for programs to make my own snowflakes. Here’s a fun one. Or, if you’re old-skool, you can cut some out of paper with Martha Stewart. With Martha Stewart’s instructions, I mean. You wouldn’t actually use Martha Stewart in place of scissors. If she were that sharp, she wouldn’t have done time, am I right? (Sorry, Martha! I love ya, gal!)

WRITING PROMPT: If you love cold weather, write a character who hates it. If you hate it, write a character who loves it.

Tags: cat, gardening, Pogo Possum, snowflakes, writing

Friday Recommends – Quick & Easy Cooking

January 6, 2012 in Food, Friday Recommends | 7 comments

New follower Dean has asked for recipes for a new cook, so I’ve scoured the internet (which is more than I’ve done to my sink) and come up with these links. How you all work me! (Points to anyone who gets the reference.)

First, a list of recipes “For the Beginner Cook” from Food.com. They have a bunch on that page and more in the sidebar. They look WOW.

Lots of new cooks are students, so you might look into Student Recipes, if you can stand the “I think this funkiness will appeal to students” design of the web site. It looks pretty good, actually, very well organized and easy to use. On the first page, in the pictures on the left side, the middle picture in the bottom row, the picture of the toast with butter on it, is labeled “Quick” and takes you to a page of many quick and easy recipes. I plan to check this one out at greater length. Dude.

[Note: Did you know that if you're on Twitter and you mention Lebowski, Dude, the Duderino or Duder, you automatically get a reply quote from THE BIG LEBOWSKI? I found that out yesterday.]

You can usually count on About.com to help you out, and this was no exception. They have a Busy Cook site with a Quick and Easy section.

AllRecipes has three sections that I’ve found so far: Quick and Easy Recipes, New Quick and Easy Recipes and Convenience Cooking.

The Food Network has some recipes it calls Quick and Easy, but their idea of quick and easy may not be mine. They don’t claim they’re cheap, either.

Last but I hope not least, check out my Alligator Sandwiches here on this blog. As I explained to Dean, they aren’t really recipes for alligator sandwiches. I just call them that because they’re so quick and easy you can make them when somebody says, “Let’s eat! And let’s make it snappy!”

Enjoy your weekend!

WRITING PROMPT: What is your main character so obsessed with, all his or her dreams contain some reference to it?

Tags: quick and easy, recipes

Friday Recommends – How-To’s and a Hearty Laugh

December 30, 2011 in Friday Recommends, Writing | 6 comments

First, spend some time at Life Just Is. Beautiful photographs, beautiful — and sometimes pointed — musings.

Single Dad Laughing is sometimes, as the name suggests, funny, but it’s often what the French call a cri de coeur (a cry from the heart) for a better world for this dad’s child and all our children to inhabit. The Nine Words That Just Might Fix Us All is one of those posts. It’s long, but it’s worth your time.

C.M. Stewart writes wonderfully disturbing short fiction, but she also knows her way around a kitchen. Her Quick, Easy & Vegan Hot Chocolate Recipes are just what you need, with the winter moving in.

While you’re picking up tips, pop over to The Daily Buzz for these 25 clever ideas to make your life easier. Then go to their home page and look at their other great ideas for more. Their focus is on “babies, kids and maternity” but helpful tips are helpful tips, right?

Spunk on a Stick is still the go-to spot for writerly motivation, promotion advice, unique book news and writing/speaking tips.

While we’re on the subject of writing, here’s a little how-to from New Media Rights on finding images, music and video for use on a book cover and/or book trailer.

A company called DirectContactPR has graciously posted for sharing this nifty Publicity Calendar for 2012 packed with holidays, both usual and unusual, to help you in your marketing and/or blogging. Rubber Ducky Day? International Literacy Day? May 23 is World Turtle Day!

Finally, you need a laugh. You know you do. So enjoy this video. If Bud Blossom had a sense of humor, this would be Bud.

WRITING PROMPT: What does your main character care enough about to rant?

Tags: humor, photographs, publicity, writing help

Friday Recommends – A Very Vegan Christmas

December 22, 2011 in Food, Friday Recommends | No comments

I admit it. This past week, on Tybee Island, I was not vegan. I was not vegetarian. I fell off the turnip truck so hard, Mahatma Gandhi bounced. So Imma make up for it by taking vegan dishes to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. That way, I know our vegan daughter will have something she can eat.

What will I make? Well, maybe a bean cassoulet, though not the kind I made before, since I don’t have the same stuff in the pantry and fridge. Maybe something else.

I’ll have plenty to choose from. I found these nifty sites, great for finding recipes to please the vegan in your family or, if you’re the vegan in your family, great for finding recipes to please the omnivores who don’t know who good vegetarian food is.

Vegan.SheKnows has a selection of Top Vegan Christmas Recipes

The Veggie Table presents a full menu, with recipes, for a Vegetarian Christmas Dinner

Veg Kitchen has a variety of Vegan Christmas Dinner Recipes

If you’re British, or are partial to marmite and such, try the Vegan Family’s Vegan Christmas or Yule recipes.

And, if all those fail you, you can’t go wrong browsing Vegans Eat Pencil Shavings.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go rummage in the kitchen and decide whether I want to make a lentil and mushroom risotto or maybe a vegetable shepherd’s pie or….

WRITING PROMPT: One member of your main character’s family has dietary restrictions. How does your main character deal with that?

Tags: Christmas, recipe sites, veganism

Friday Recommends – Happy News

December 16, 2011 in Friday Recommends | 4 comments

First, I have a new short story out! It’s a hard-boiled cozy called “Crumb”, in which a tough broad who opens a tea shop (naturally, there’s a cat in it–I said it’s a cozy) is invaded by a hit-man hired by her daughter’s no-good ex. “Crumb” appears in DARK THINGS II: Cat Crimes: Tales of Feline Mayhem and Murder (Volume 2). All proceeds are being donated to animal rescue charities.

SPEC THE HALLS is still available, with my story “Evergreen Gaze” in it, benefiting Heifer International.

2012 DAILY FLASH is out from Pill Hill Press, 366 daily doses of flash fiction (Leap Year edition), containing my micro story “The Perfect Boyfriend”. Also 365 stories by other people.

And The Book Trailer Showcase is open! This site will … well … showcase book trailers. Today is the Grand Opening, so pop on over and browse around. I don’t think any of my trailers or books are up there yet, but I’m in the queue.