Tag Archives: fatal foodies

Just to get back in the habit…

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As my friends and family know, I’ve been buried in work the last few months. Work work and writing work.  I’ve been plowing through the WiP That Wouldn’t Die and have watched two self-imposed deadlines pass by at a speed that’s frightening.  My only social life has been Thursday night wine tastings at Vin Debut and the occasional quick hello to friends, the social equivalent of hit and runs.  And I’m STILL not done with the WiP.  Oh, I can see the light at the end of the zombie-infested tunnel … but there is still work to be completed. 

In August, however, I plan on being back in the blogging habit. Not only here at the Den, but the bi-weekly Ravenous Wednesdays on UnBound, my Monday posts at Fatal Foodies and my bi-weekly Sunday posts on Make Mine Mystery (if the latter two haven’t replaced me in disgust by now). 

I’m hoping to have good news to share in a few weeks, but in the meantime… I write.  I walk on the beach. I play with kitties… and I write some more.  

I miss you, world!!!  See ya soon!

 

Blogging on Fatal Foodies Today

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28 weeks later

Finally coming out of blogging quarantine, getting my butt in gear (or my butt in the chair and my FINGERS in gear) and posting again!  Today it’s about the difficulty of getting back into writing when one takes a break and whether or not recipes in the middle of a murder mystery are a GOOD thing or not!

http://tinyurl.com/y86wvvs

Ahhhh…

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I just finished up with my part of the rewrites for WHAT WOMEN REALLY WANT IN BED, co-written with my dear friend and amazing writer Cynthia Gentry. I thought these rewrites were going to take much longer than they did…but the process wasn’t too bad at all.  I’ve also read Cindi’s rewrites so far and have to say they are fantastic.  But then, I expect no less from my talented pal.  I don’t think I’ve read anything by her, fiction or non-fiction, that isn’t engrossing and at a very professional level.  Plus she’s a wine lover too, so what’s not to like?

I also have finished my posts for Make Mine Mystery (up tomorrow, which is Sunday), Fatal Foodies (up Monday, which is the day after tomorrow), and The Book Wenches (up April 3rd, which is next Friday).   I’m ahead of the game instead of scrambling to get something up three hours after I should have posted.   It’s a good feeling…and an increasingly rare one these days.

Next up on my plate is assembling the posts for the Ravenous Romance Dirty Dozen Blog Book Tour, 14 stops of erotic romantic fun starting mid-April and wrapping up on May 2nd.  Deets to follow as I get this puppy scheduled!  I’m about halfway there and now I have an extra day (tomorrow) to make some headway!  Wheee!!!!

I also have a new blog to add to the list – this is the Ravenous Romance author blog.  Not the one on the RR website, but a new one here.

Aside from the writing, you ask?  Well, it was gorgeous here in San Francisco this morning, so I went for a two hour walk on the beach.  I wore a sundress and got color on my arms and shoulders, collected some prime pieces of beach glass, and then enjoyed the sight of the mist rolling back in to semi-shroud the shore and Outer Sunset District.  It’s sunny again now, but I’m sure the fog will be back.  I love this weather.

Now I’m going to have a glass of Brutocao 2005 Reserve D’aregenta Pinot Noir, watch Tom Cruise get sucked into the anus of an alien warship (War of the Worlds, if you must ask) and work on CHAMPAGNE, my next book for Ravenous Romance.  I feel…relaxed.  I like the feeling and hope I can keep it around for a while.

Author Blog for Ravenous Romance Now Up!

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Okay, I’m excited.  Just got my new Inara LaVey author blog page at Ravenous Romance and wrote my first post.  Actually I wrote it twice – my first one, a longer, funnier and infinitely more thought out post, died when the site timed out.  No composing online!  BAD Dana! 

Anyway, this gives me yet another blog to post for in addition to Make Mine Mystery, Fatal Foodies and my own author website blog.  So I’m gonna be a very busy writer.  I’ve got the deadline for my half of What Women Really Want in Bed (co-written with the lovely and talented Cynthia Gentry, who also has a great story up on Ravenous called Just Friends) coming up on President’s Day, so I’ll be running home from work every day and hitting the laptop.  Which is better than hitting the sauce, I suppose! 

Rather than being stressed about this, I’m revved up and excited.  Which is a very nice change from last year’s ‘oh my god, oh my god, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die!’ mentality.  2009 is going to be a great year for writing, even if it’s just satisfaction with my own productivity and creative output.  But hell, let’s go for some nice royalty checks too. 🙂

So please go over to Ravenous, check out my new author page blog and leave comments there! 

Happy Halloween!

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Happy Halloween

I survived the week and am alive.  ALIVE!!!  Picture Dr. Frankenstein standing over me screaming, “It’s alive!” and you have the right idea.  It’s Friday and while I have a busy day at work, it’s an unpacking/sorting/organizing sort of day, which is just the thing when you don’t want to have to think too hard.  We also have a massage therapist coming today as a treat for the team and I have a half hour massage after all of this lugging/sorting/etc.  Sweet!

And today, of course, is my favorite holiday, Halloween.  And tonight our friends Aldyth, Brad and Maureen are coming over to watch scary movies (well, Zombie Strippers may not be scary, but it should be entertaining and hey…zombies!) and hand out candy if we have any trick-or-treaters.  I’m making jack-o-lantern shaped pasta and we have Zombie Zinfandel to serve with it.  Works for me!

We don’t get a lot of trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood, which is a shame. It’s mainly families so I would think they’d be out and about, but for whatever reason our street is devoid of them.  Bums me out because I love looking at all the adorable little rugrats in their costumes.  Nothing cuter than a butterball toddler bundled up in a furry lion or ladybug costume.  My brain melts when I see them, just the same way it melts when I look at kittens. 

In Glendale, Brian and I used to have mobs of trick-or-treaters.  We’d decorate the front porch, Brian would wear costumes and lurk in the shadows to give the kids a good scare (the teenagers trying to be tough cracked me up; hard to be tough after you’ve screamed like a five year old girl), and we’d play Night of the Living Dead loudly in the living room.  My new Halloweens in San Francisco are different and it took me a while to reconcile myself to the changes, but this year promises to be a good one. 

My favorite Halloween, though, was the year Beezle showed up.  Halloween of 1996.  Brian finished carving the jack-o-lantern into a grinning cat face, set it out on the porch and lit the candle.  I heard a loud ‘Doh!!’ and went outside to see what happened.  Brian pointed to the bottom of the porch stairs.  I looked and saw the tips of little black ears, then big gold eyes followed by nose, whiskers and the rest of a tiny black kitten.  The brain melting commenced as the kitten crawled up the steps straight to my feet.  I scooped him up and Brian said, ‘well, hey there, little Beelzebuddy!’  He started purring and that is how Beezle came into my life.  I have a pictures somewhere of him sitting in the jack-o-lantern after we took the candle out looking as cute as any Halloween card kitten; I wish I had it to post here today.

Beezle is now a grumpy 12 year old alpha male, but still his mother’s little darling. And still the best Halloween present a gal could ask for.  And because I got such a good present for Halloween, I’m gonna share one with you as well – as part of the Fatal Foodies Halloween Trick-or-Treat event, if you leave a comment at my blog from today through November 8th, you will be entered to win a copy of Murder for Hire: The Peruvian Pigeon.  Be sure to go to Fatal Foodies as well as other members are doing the same thing!  You’ll find links to their blogs at Fatal Foodies, which is a very cool blog all on its own!  Also be sure to go to my friend Marvin’s blog and check out his Halloween story, based on five silly elements I gave him.  I’ll let you go over there to check out what I did to him.  Heh.  AND check out Make Mine Mystery for Free for all Friday fun!

Happy Halloween from me and Beezle! 

Next Week

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Next week is going to be a bit intense at my day job – overtime will be the norm, not the exception for at least three days.  One day will be 8am to 8pm, then the next will be 6am till 8pm, then up to be at work by 7am the following day.  I will be spending one night at a hotel up the street from work to save the commute time.  This weekend was supposed to be an intensive writing weekend, but today has been so far spent at the vet’s with three sick kittens, one in critical condition.  We’re hoping the little guy will pull through, but it’s time intensive.  We’re also bottle feeding one of the other babies ’cause his nose was so stuffed up he couldn’t find his mom’s milk dispenser via smell.

So I’m taking a break next week from blogging other than my Monday post at Fatal Foodies and a short post at my new group blog Make Mine Mystery, started by Morgan Mandal.  I post at Fatal Foodies every Mondayand will be posting at Make Mine Mystery every 1st and third Sunday (tbc).  Look for the Den to be back in action next weekend!

Note:  Since writing this, we lost our little sick boy…  he fought a brave fight, but his lungs weren’t strong enough and he slipped away in his sleep a while ago.  I can definitively say I lack the necessary detachment to be a truly effective foster parent.  This just hurts so badly…

Gelato

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I actually have several book reviews in progress, but haven’t had the time to sit down and flesh them out (and make sure I have things right, like the characters’ names or the spelling of the author’s name, little details like that!) as I’ve been busily working on an outline/synopsis for a novel.  I’ve had a story accepted for publication and the editor wants me to expand said story into a novel, hence the outline.  I suck at outlining, so it was a bit of a trauma getting it written.  Outlines have always made me feel hemmed in creatively and I either have a huge block towards them or lack the ability to plot without starting at chapter one and laboriously following my characters through the story.  Either way, I did get a short and VERY basic outline finished and sent off.  Yay me!

 What, you ask, does this have to do with gelato?  I just finished a cup of dark chocolate and Tahitian vanilla bean goodness before writing this post.  It was on my mind, doncha know.   And OH so very very very decadent and yummy…  For those of you not in the know, I will quote from the Caffe Gelato website here: 

Gelato is Italy’s version of ice cream, with three major differences.

First, gelato has significantly less butterfat than ice cream’s typical 18 and 26 percent. Tests conducted by Delaware’s Department of Agriculture confirmed Caffé Gelato’s vanilla and chocolate gelato both have less than 10 percent butterfat.

However, less fat does not mean less taste. With the lower butterfat content, gelato is less solidly frozen than ice cream and melts in the mouth faster.Therefore, the customer will taste gelato’s full flavor immediately.

 
 

Second, gelato has a much higher density than ice cream. Ice cream is produced by mixing cream, milk and sugar, then adding air. Manufacturers add air to ice cream because it nearly doubles the quantity of their product. But, it cuts their quality in half. No air is added to gelato. The result is a higher quality dessert with a richer, creamier taste.

Third, gelato is served slightly warmer than ice cream. While both gelato and ice cream are served well below the freezing temperature of 32 degrees Fahrenheit, gelato is served 10 to 15 degrees warmer than ice cream. Because it is less solidly frozen, gelato’s taste is further enhanced as it melts in the mouth.

I will be reviewing a book this weekend,  as well as posting on Fatal Foodies.  Do check out that blog (there are five of us currently posting each week) if you’re into mysteries and food!  Or just food.  It’s a very droolable read!