Catch A Star As It Falls

Contrary to popular belief, I do leave the house on occasion, and not just to hit grocery sales with a stack of coupons in my fist.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I'll be attending Phoenix Comicon. I'm not on panels or anything. I'm there, a fan in the mob. I will be wearing a pink shirt with a slime on it, and switching between a slime hat and a Jayne hat depending on my mood. I'll be favoring the writing panels, but I might try and catch some steampunk stuff, too. Or the William Shatner talk. Dangit, they have too much good stuff going on at once.

Then there's the other big scary thing I've signed up for: my first writing workshop.

I will be attending the Cascade Writers Workshop in Vancouver, Washington the last weekend of July. I'm excited and scared petrified. Honestly, the travel to and from is what has me the most anxious. I haven't flown at all in ten years, and only by myself once. But, I've made a commitment to this writing thing, and I need to challenge myself. So...! I'm challenging myself.

I'll be over here, hyperventilating into a paper bag for the next two months.

In all seriousness, the workshop only has a seat or two left. Take a look. It'd be nice to know more folks there.

Bread. It's my weakness. I love the smell of it, the taste, the texture. If fresh bread candles existed, I would burn them all day long. I also admit to some vanity. I like pretty bread. Pictures of artisan bread make me say, "Ooooooh" out loud. Add to that a caption that says the bread is, 1) not kneaded at all, and 2) takes 24-hours, and my curiosity is piqued.



The ingredients are simple: bread flour, a very small amount of yeast, salt, and warm water. This creates a dough that slowly grows and becomes very... slimey. The texture is very different than the usual roll or sandwich sort of bread because it grows differently.

Therefore, it also creates a very different texture in final form, and also requires a particular kind of pot for that whole "artisan thang." You need a five-quart of larger pot with a lid that is oven safe to high temperatures. I used my lidded Pampered Chef stoneware.

The bread at the end has a very thick, crunchy crust (and it's harder when it's fresh than the next day, oddly enough) and an interior that is hole-filled and chewy, with a slight tang like sour-dough.



The recipe is available on many sites, but I like the version on Steamy Kitchen because she uses the phrase "it's so easy a kid can do it," and has her kid make the bread.


24 Hour No-Knead Artisan Bread

Ingredients:
3 cups bread flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon fine table salt (or 3/4 tablespoon of kosher salt)
1 1/2 cups warm water

a lidded, oven-safe pot

Directions:

Mix the dough:
The day before, combine all ingredients in a big bowl until the dough just comes together. It will be a shaggy, doughy mess. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit 12-20 hours on the countertop. Just as with a Chia pet, sit back and watch it grow.



Shape & preheat:
The dough will have grown a lot and be very sticky and wet. First of all, prep a work surface by flouring it well. Also flour or wet your hands. To one side, set a floured cotton towel or floured parchment paper.



Dump the dough onto the flour surface; it will be very blobby. Fold it over a few times to coat it as you shape it into a ball. Transfer the blob to the floured towel/parchment and cover the top. (In my case, I had it in parchment and tented the top with a towel.) Let the dough nap for two hours. After an hour and a half has passed, put the empty covered pot in the oven and preheat at 450F.

Bake:
The dough should have doubled in size. Remove the pot from the oven. Dump the gelatinous dough into the pot, using your hands to get the dough off the material (and if you're like me and missed a few spots while flouring, it will stick a bit). It doesn't matter how it lands, and it'll likely flow out to fill the space of the pot. If not, use a floured spoon to even it out, or hold the pot with mitts and shake it even.

Cover the pot. Bake for 30 minutes. Uncover, then bake another 15-20 minutes or until the crust is beautifully golden and middle of loaf is 210F.

Remove and let cool on wired rack for 20 minutes or so before digging in. This stuff is amazing sliced thick and covered with melted butter.

OM NOM NOM.

That's right, I get a book title with an exclamation point in it! Yay!

Most Chicken Soup books follow a basic format of 101 stories, organized by themes. This book is a little different. It has fewer essays, and instead has nonfiction content by a neurologist that discusses the brain and memory in layman's terms. It's all easy to understand, but not dumbed down, either.

Now I have a story to tell about my story.

Despite my tale's inclusion in this book, my brain doesn't always operate that well. Yeah. Big shock, I'm sure.

I was pretty excited to find out my story "Book Brain" was a finalist for Boost Your Brain Power! When the publisher notifies a writer of that status, they send along the contract and ask that it be printed, signed, and mailed back. Okay. I always try to do this right away, because I'm a goody two shoes like that. I got everything prepared, but I needed a stamp and an address label from my bedroom.

One minor problem: my husband was on night shift and sleeping during the day.

I could wait a few hours, but why? I knew where everything was in the dark. I crept in and got what I needed and applied it to the envelope. There!

Then I walked into the light of the hallway and found the stamp was upside down. *big anime-style sweatdrop*

Yeah, that's the way to make a good impression about my Boost Your Brain Power! story. Fortunately, I was able to pry it off and get it on right. The publisher never had to know about my brain blip... until now.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Boost Your Brain Power! is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers.

"Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and, therefore, the foundation of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and relevetory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared." ~ J. K. Rowling

I'm talking today with author Cassie Alexander. Her debut urban fantasy, Nightshifted, is published by St. Martin's Press on May 22nd, with other books in the series forthcoming. I was lucky enough to read an advanced copy of Nightshifted, and I enjoyed it immensely. I love urban fantasy. I love medical realism. Bring those elements together, and I'm one happy reader.



1) Congratulations! First of all, can you tell everyone about Nightshifted and what inspired the book?

Nightshifted is the story of Edie Spence, a nurse who works on a ward for vampire exposed humans -- and I happen to be a nurse in real life, so the medical parts are real.

The first inspiration for the book was me being freaked out by my first year of nursing -- writing Nightshifted helped me to process the almost PTSD you get when you're thrown into a critical care situation that no one could have prepared you for. Your nursing school tries to prepare you, but it can't really, your parents/friends/husband have no idea what you're actually seeing at work, nor do they want to hear about it really, and your coworkers are so blase because they've already seen with and dealt with everything, for years, that it's pretty lonely being new on your own. (Even if you do like weird things, like seeing people's lungs. God help you if you don't like weird things, you'll never make it as a nurse.)

The second inspiration was a doctor blowing me off. When I realized that no one ever believes nightshift, a book was born.

2) I'm curious about your journey to publication. How is it that the book was released in Germany first?

Nightshifted was supposed to be released in the US in Dec 2011, but they pushed it back to June (don't ask me why, no clue ;)) but since everything was turned in Germany, they went ahead with their publication schedule.

3) You must work long hours as a nurse. How do you balance the job and writing time?

Nursing is very physical, it's exhausting, and I do work nightshift, so I lose out on a lot of time sleeping in before shifts, or sleeping up after them. I wrote Nightshifted during my first year as a nurse while I was working full-time, but luckily I'm part-time now, which helps immensely. Other than that, I'm pretty possessive of my writing time, and my husband and cat are very supportive and understand I need to be at the computer a lot ;).

4) Okay, now to shift the topic somewhat. What were your favorite books and authors when you were a kid?

When I was a kid, Andre Norton was like unto a god. Other biggies included CS Lewis, David Eddings, anyone who wrote a Star Trek tie-in novel ;), and when I ran away from home I took a copy of Neuromancer with me.

5) What was your most recent favorite book?

I'm reading Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire right now, and loving it. Any book that can keep me on the elliptical machine for an extra twenty minutes sheer magic.

6) What comes next after the release of Nightshifted?

Moonshifted comes out in late November, and then Shapeshifted next summer, and then after that, we'll see! :D

Thanks, Cassie!

If you want to learn more Cassie, you can take a look at her web site and Twitter. On May 22nd, Nightshifted is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell's, and other booksellers.

Each Wednesday I share a recipe. Feel free to print it out or pin on Pinterest. Recipes are meant to be shared, just like the good food they inspire.

I love experimenting and trying out cookie recipes, but in recent years this particular recipe has become one of my stand-bys. It's rather odd at first glance: a chocolate chip cookie recipe that includes a block of cream cheese. But let me tell you, that cream cheese is some awesome stuff. It embodies these cookies with a soft, doughy texture and just the slightest bit of creamy flavor. They tend not to spread a lot: these cookies are thick, moist, and I bet they'll become one of your stand-by recipes, too.



Originally found on BakeBakeBake here on LiveJournal.

Philly Chippers

1 cup butter (two cubes), softened
1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream together the butter, cream cheese, and sugars. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Sift dry ingredients together and slowly incorporate them with the wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips (and nuts, if included).

Use a scoop or tablespoon to place rounds of dough on the cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Leave them on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before moving to a rack to cool.

OM NOM NOM.

As an author, you write and labor and hope the stars align and grant your writing some extra attention.

I now have that attention... thanks to my "toilet story."

My local, regional newspaper, the West Valley View, has an article in today's edition about my flash fiction "Brains for Breakfast" and Uncle John's Bathroom Reader presents Flush Fiction. The article can be read on page 11 of the PDF.

To anyone dropping by because of the article... Hi! Thanks for visiting.

Edit: Here's a direct link to the article.

"If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like Old Faithful. I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting. I wake early and hear my morning voices leaping around in my head like jumping beans. I get out of bed quickly, to trap them before they escape." ~Ray Bradbury

I was chatting with a friend recently. She was discouraged about her writing and rejection and everything else. I had to be honest with her: it's not easy, and it doesn't really get easier. It changes--the scope of the rejections will change--but I always battle that fear, "This sucks. People will hate this. They'll hate me for writing it. I'm embarrassing myself."

And yet, despite all my fears and pain, I keep writing. Maybe I'm just masochistic like that.

I asked my friend a question: why do you write? Just as we're told our book characters need motivations for their actions, authors need to know their motivations, too.

We don't do this for money (and if you do, you're delusional), though the money is awfully nice when it comes. Most writers feel a need to write, a compulsion. (If you're interested in the science behind that, there's an amazing though dense book called The Midnight Disease by Alice Flaherty.) We need to tell stories. We need to let the voices in our head have an outlet. We need to feel validated and intelligent.

Our conversation reminded me of another talk I had with my husband a while back, when there was a big lottery jackpot in the news. I bought some quick-pick tickets, and then found out my husband also bought tickets--not something he usually does. So, we had that nice little dream chat about what we would do when we won big.

We agreed on the obvious things. Pay off the house. Move someplace pleasant within easy drive of my parents--hello, central California coast! My husband would quit his job and likely seek employment as a math teacher, as money would no longer be an issue. That got me thinking about my own job, my own motivations.

If I won that mega jackpot, I would continue exactly what I am doing now. I would still send out short stories. I would still collect rejections the way some people collect Beanie Babies. I would still have an agent. I would want my novels to be published through traditional means, rejections and all; I don't want to buy my way into a book contract, I want to earn it. But, I told my husband, when I did finally get a contract, I would use our money and hire the most awesome publicity team on the planet!

Alas, we didn't win big. But the dreams are still there... and I still hope to hire a PR team someday, even with a much more modest budget.

Tell me... what motivates you to write? What would change (if anything) if you won that lottery jackpot?

Each Wednesday I share a recipe. Feel free to print it out or pin on Pinterest. Recipes are meant to be shared, just like the good food they inspire.

Chipotle is one of my very favorite restaurants. The food they serve up is fresh tasting and super delicious. However, I haven't eaten there in over six months. Why? I've been more careful about what I eat, and their portion sizes are huge. If I go there, I have to go for lunch and then I'll only need a light snack for dinner, and probably finish my leftovers the next day.

So when I saw a recipe on Pinterest that claimed to replicate Chipotle's shredded beef, I was all over that. But the recipe needed tweaking. It was for a pressure cooker, and I don't have one of those. I needed it to work in a crock pot. All the risk was worthwhile. The recipe was so good that my husband told me I had to make it again. This one's a keeper.



A note about the chipotles in adobo sauce: if you like a lot of heat, blend the peppers and sauce beforehand, or leave the peppers in when you eat. As for me, I can't handle the heat. I placed three chipotle peppers in the pot and then removed them near the end; if you don't want any heat, don't use the chipotles at all, or add a few sprinkles of red pepper flakes. Adapt the recipe to the level of spiciness you like.

Recipe adapted from Six Sisters' Stuff.

Slow Cooker Chipotle Shredded Beef

Ingredients:

3 pounds beef eye of round or bottom round roast, all fat trimmed
5 cloves garlic
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 lime, juiced and zested
2-4 chipotles in adobo sauce (to taste)
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground oregano
1/2 tsp ground cloves
salt and pepper
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon oil
1 can low-sodium beef broth

Directions:
Place the garlic, onion, lime juice and zest, cumin, oregano, ground cloves, and beef broth in the slow cooker and stir together.

Trim all the fat off the meat and cut the roast into 4 inch chunks. Season with salt and pepper and brown on high heat in 1 teaspoon oil. Once it's browned on all sides--not cooked, just browned--add the meat to the crock pot. Add the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and bay leaves.

Cook for 8 hours on LOW or 4 hours on HIGH.

Once it's cooked and the meat proves tender enough to shred with a fork, remove all of the meat and place on a platter. Discard the bay leaves (and the chipotles). Shred the meat with two forks and then return it to the pot. Simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes to let the flavors penetrate.



There are several ways you can serve this at the end. I ate it like a Chipotle burrito bowl, layered with salad greens, shredded cheese, pico de gallo, cilantro lime rice, and sour cream. My husband ate the meat and rice. It's also really good (fresh or as leftovers) as a quesadilla. Wrap it in a tortilla. Mix it with a simple salad. Freeze it and pull it out again later. However you decide to gobble it up...



OM NOM NOM