Of course, anything that tastes that good must go into my book. So I researched how to make cream cheese and came up with this fantastic video.

While the cook in the video made her cream cheese spicy, I will be adding maple syrup and pecans to mine.

Sweet Dreams At The Goodnight Motel
is women’s fiction at it’s finest as the book explores Claire, who hits middle age and finally grows into herself. As Claire enters her forties she finds she’s not passionate about anything. She would like to be, but is stuck in placid contentment, instead. Two years after her divorce, she still has fantasies of making her old relationship work, but the sparks just won’t fly. Her job is same ole’, same ole’. Ex-wife and legal secretary sums up her whole existence. Her life is nothing bad, nothing good, just plain nothing.
Then, out of the blue, a phrase about looking for life that she reads on a truck stop’s bathroom wall worms it’s way into her psyche. Claire decides to look for her life where her life began, a little town in Oklahoma. She stops living for everyone else’s dreams and starts learning to dream her own dreams.

What makes this book stand out among all the other ‘woman finding herself’ books is the author’s skill.  You don’t just read Ms. Matlock’s writing, you live it.   Being a writer, I make a point to take special note of how another writer crafts their stories.  Reading this book, I forgot all about the craft and got lost in the story.   Going back to look, I found Ms. Matlock’s skill and technique to be a creation of great depth and beauty, so strong the story keeps me reading way past my bedtime, but so artful, it takes me to depths of Story that a less skillful writer can take me–without me even realizing it!

Sweet Dreams at the Goodnight Motel is one of several books written in Valentine, Oklahoma.  You don’t have to read the earlier works to feel a part of this book.  No boring backstory here!

I am ordering her latest June 2010 book as we speak.  I’m hopeful that Little Town, Great Big Life
will reward me as much as Sweet Dreams At The Goodnight Motel
has.

(The links go to Amazon.com if you want to read an excerpt of the stories.)

My Grandfather Was…

My grandfather was a man who instilled lasting memories.  Memories that lasted beyond his lifetime, beyone his world, beyond all reason.   Having only met him in the memories of my mother, I gave him mythical proportions; all the swagger of John Wayne, the philosophy of Thomas Jefferson and the righteousness of Damocles.

I, his lowly descendent, could never live up to his reputation from the grave.  And neither could my father, or stepfathers no.s 1, 2 and 3.  Finally, my mother stoppped marrying them, stopped expecting them to be her Atlas in this world gone wrong.  Shrugging was too painful for both of us.

After all these years, as I date and discard, I cannot banish the ghost of the grandfather I never knew in the flesh.  These memores are cast in the hardest concrete I’ve ever seen.

Still, I look for a chisel.

This is my dog, Molly.  Like most dachshunds, she is a very active puppy.  I take her on frequent walks, but most days, she begs to go in her stroller instead.   Riding seems to calm her, even hypnotize her.    What do the neighbors say?  I think I’ve overheard them talking about the eccentric writer on the block.  Could they mean me?

If  you want a dog stroller of your own, write me and I’ll tell you where I got mine.

I first saw this installed in the Writer Unboxed blog and it was love at first site.  From the WordPress plugin page, here’s what CommentLuv is all about:

This plugin will visit the site of the comment author while they type their comment and retrieve a selection of their last blog posts, tweets or digg submissions which they can choose one from to include at the bottom of their comment when they click submit.

You can try the plugin out on my blog, if you like.  Just leave a comment and check the CommentLuv box.  Of course, you’ve got to be using the same email address as you use on your own blog, tweet or digg.

One of my greater joys (I call it research so it doesn’t feel like I’m playing instead of working) is reading comments.  With this plugin, for the really interesting comments, I can see what else the commenter as to say.  I’ve found lots of interesting posts, that way.

To install on your own WordPress blog, just search for CommentLuv wherever you usually pick up your plugins.

My Crochet Mess

This is my second attempt at crocheting a sweater.  On my first attempt, the pieces didn’t fit together right at the shoulders.  So I remade each part at least three times, then ended up ripping out the whole thing and making a boatload of scarves and winter hats, instead.

But I love this pattern and bought the wrong yarn for one project but just enough for this project,  so I’m trying it out.  As you can see above, I’m having the same luck, so far, as with the first ill-fated sweater.  This was hours and hours ripped out in seconds.

Much better now

I had problems with what the pattern calls a V-stitch but is really a combination of one front post forward slanting stitch and one front post backward slanting  stitch.   My count kept coming out with stitches added, until I figured out that  I should be skipping a stitch on both the left slanted and the right slanted crossover stitch.

After I figured out how to make this work, I looked through a lot of videos until I found these.
How to Make a Front Post Double Crochet

For lefties–How to slant the stitch back

For lefties–How to slant the stitch forward

Darkship Thieves combines the best of space opera with the strongest of love stories to become a book that kept me reading from start to finish, sans break.  And with my overhyper schedule right now, it takes a lot to hold my skittering attention.   Kudos for a great book, Sarah!

In a futuristic world, a young woman escapes from her father’s spaceship during a mutiny.  She takes a lifepod and travels into a tangle of energy production networks where she is rescued by a very dashing man from another planet who sees no other option but to take her back to his home.  Yes, it’s a cool and adventurous plot with lots of swash and buckle, but what makes this futuristic romance stand out above the others is the world building.  From the smallest of details to the largest of cultural philosophies, this book is air tight.  (Yes, air tight–I hear all you space opera junkies snicker about the perils of vacuum leaks in space.)

Oh, I have a thing about covers and it extends to this book.  The cover looks retro, 1950-ish maybe?  And doesn’t look anything like the book.  So, don’t judge this book by it’s cover, unless you’re totally into retro bookcover art.

If  you are fans of Patricia Brigss or Ann Aguirre, you are sure to love Darkship Theives by Sarah A. Hoyt.

All thumbs up!

This link will take you to this book on Amazon.com–DarkShip Thieves–so you can get your own copy.

Have you heard the one about new writers not being able to break in?

Total bunk.   My friend and Monday morning writing pal, Liz Talley has proven that rumor untrue.  She sold her first book this year, and–before it even hit the shelves–sold two more on a vague outline.

Now, it’s true that not just anybody can sell a book.  That privilege is reserved for only the best writers.  Liz has been writing seriously for a couple of years, ever since she joined my local writing chapter, NOLA STARS and she was a Golden Heart finalist last year.  She’s got real talent, and she’s got the moxie to go to conferences and schmooze with industry professionals.  That’s were she met her editor.  The rest of the story comes from a little bit of luck and a whole lot of persistence coupled with talent.

The result–her debut book, Vegas Two-Step, is on sale now.  Since I happen to have inside knowledge, I can tell you that this is a fun and sassy story set in Las Vegas and in the very small Texas town of Oak Stand.  For anything more, you’ll have to read the book.

So, for all you writers out there who say the market’s just not buying, you have been misinformed.  Want to see the book Liz’s  editor snapped up?  Use this link to Amazon:   Vegas Two-Step from Harlequin Superromance or ask for from your favorite bookseller.  Don’t wait too late to buy it.  This is part of the Harlequin Supperromance series and is usually available for only a month or so.

Note the bright yellow yolk--it makes all the difference

Boiling an egg is easy, right? Right! As long as you do it right. Yes, there is a wrong way to boil an egg.

Note-the grayish yellow yolk (yuck) and the white straggly solid goo (ick)

The wrong way is to take the egg out of the fridge, drop it into a pot that already has a lot of eggs in it, then crank the stove burner as high as it will go so that soon, the eggs are chucking and jiving like it’s Saturday night down at the local Drink ‘n Drown. Let them do their thing until the water’s all gone, then crack those babies open. Sound familiar? That’s the wrong way to boil an egg.

Here’s the way to boil an egg. (I’m putting this under recipes so I don’t have to search so hard to find it when I need it.)

By the way, sea salt DOES taste better on eggs than regular old table salt, don’t you think?