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Fictionista, Foodie, Feline-lover

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Kattomic Energy Holiday Gift Guide--part 3

This one's for the foodies...
The best thing about giving gifts to your favorite foodies is that the range of options is wide. One of the best gifts I ever got was from my best friend's mother, who gave me one of those little cylinders you roll garlic cloves in to remove their skins easily. I use that practical, low-tech little gadget almost every time I cook. (Yes, I use a lot of garlic. Not only is it good for you, it keeps vampires at bay.)

Stocking Stuffers--You can get little gadgets at any grocery store or drug store, and that's a good place to start--a jar of some exotic spice mix; color-coordinated citrus squeezers--but don't stop there. San Francisco chef Ranjan Dey has developed a whole line of spice mixes for sale through his New World Spices company.  The authentic Indian blends include a variety of heats (I am in love with their Madras Tamarind Hot Curry blend), packaged in attractive canisters. Individual spices are priced at $3.99 (which is cheaper than those large containers of chrome yellow, generic curry) and sets are available.

Once you go beyond vanilla and almond extracts, it's almost impossible to get pure flavor essences in even the best-stocked grocery store. If you want coconut, for example, you have to make do with artificial coconut flavoring. Unless... you know about a site called Avanti Savoia. This is a place where good foodies go when they die.  Their goal is to provide "the world's best food from the world's smallest producers" and the items available are one of a kind and all of them sound droolingly delicious. (Low Country Sweet Potato Butter? I am SOOO there, at less than $8 for a jar.) But they also carry a full line of natural extracts including coconut, cherry and peach (all available for $10.50 a bottle, which is about what Madagascar vanilla costs.)

The riddle of steel--the worst cuts I ever got while cooking weren't from sharp knives but from dull ones (and one incredibly sharp tuna fish can lid). Most of the knives in my drawer are the kind you buy at supermarkets, which is to say, pretty low quality.  Any serious cook would be thrilled to get a really good knife--the kind of knife you register for when you get married. You've got your choice of German or Japanese here, and one place where you'll find pretty much anything you want is at Cutlery & More.

From: Frankencutter
For the baker-- Years ago, Martha Stewart Magazine ran a cover with a series of fabulous oversized cookies--glittery crescent moons and a penguin. You could buy all the cookie cutters (she had a full range of cutters that were gorgeous but  hideously expensive) EXCEPT for the penguin. I coveted that penguin cookie cutter. Now, if I want one, I can have it. (This is why I love Etsy.)  Ashley Wehrman will custom-make a cookie cutter from any design you send her, for only $18. You can also order custom cutters from Frankencutter in Michigan. As you might expect from a business located in Michigan, they do cutters shaped like cars as well along with more traditional designs. They already have a full line of Greek Letter Cutters (ranging in price from $18 to $28 depending on how elaborate they are). My favorite though--and I can see these cookies at a Valentine's Day party--is the broken heart cutter.

Gourmet Bacon Assortment from Nueskes
For the love of bacon--I did not know that there was a site called Bacon Today that is "all about the world of bacon." It features bacon news, bacon recipes (today's is "Bacon eggnog" but one of their favorites is bacon cinnamon rolls) and a bacon shop where you can buy Maple Bacon lollipops (which sound kind of tasty and priced for impulse buys at five for $3.75) to bacon-flavored soda (urk). For the hard-core bacon lover, consider a gift from Nueske's. You can sometimes find their bacon in high-end grocery stores (with a price tag to match), and it's worth sampling. A gourmet assortment of bacon will run you about $28.  If you love the taste of bacon, but can't eat it, check out Bacon Salt, a vegetarian, zero calorie product that the sellers claim "makes everything taste like bacon."

Food of the Month Clubs--Back in the day, before every little town had a farmer's market and grocery stores stocked a bewildering variety of fruits and vegetables year round, companies like Harry and David  were great options for sending festive fruit gifts to friends and clients. (My parents always got pears from one far-flung relative.) These days, though, food of the month clubs have gone way, way beyond fruit. There's even a gateway site, Amazing Clubs, that has links to a bazillion "gift of the month" clubs that include cigar of the month, dog treat of the month, and beer of the month. There's the Jam and Jelly Club ($19.95 a month) and Ice Cream Club of the Month; Hot Sauce of the Month Club ($18.95 a month).



Cooking by the book--I basically just use a couple of cookbooks (including my mother's favorite, Joy of Cooking), but I love reading cookbooks and they always make terrific gifts for cooks because they're often kind of expensive and these days, when every dime has to stretch to a dollar, it's hard for cooks to justify the indulgence of yet another cookbook purchase. So maybe instead of buying a lot of little stuff, buy a book like Julie Richardson's Vintage Cakes (one of Epicurious' best cookbooks for 2012 and available on their site for only $115.11. Diane Morgan's Roots made a number of "best cookbook" lists this year, and while not cheap (around $27) it is billed as "the definitive

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

The Next Big Thing

Nuyorican Noir writer Richie Narvaez tapped me for The Next Big Thing (read what he had to say about HIS next big thing here). If you haven't read his outstanding short story collection Roachkiller and Other stories, do yourself a favor and buy it for Christmas. Or you can sample his story "Hurricane" for 99 cents.

The idea is that everyone on the blog tour answers the same questions, then taps another five writers to move it forward. Here are my answers:


1) What is the working title of your current/next book?  Misbegotten.

2) Where did the idea come from?  Several years ago I wrote a story about a vampire with senile dementia for John Donald Carlucci's Astonishing Adventures Magazine. The protagonist of the story was a crime reporter named Kira Simkins and I really enjoyed the world of the story (a not-so-normal Los Angeles), so much so that I've written around 20 or so stories set in the world since then, some with Kira and some without, but all about supernatural crime.  I decided I wanted to write a larger story for Kira, who is a "misbegotten," a not-quite-human born of a mother who was bitten by a vampire while pregnant with her. That's where the title came from. 

3) What genre does your book fall under? Urban fantasy melded with mystery with a dash of noir.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?  Liv Tyler or Selma Blair for Kira. The vampire in charge of L.A. in my story is a folksy, avuncular guy who hides his evil under a bland exterior so that you only get glimpses of what he's really like. Scott Wilson or Beau Bridges would be perfect. For Michael Etebari, the head of a security company and the alpha wolf of a local werewolf pack, I'd love Oded Fehr. Kira is older than she looks (a benefit of her "Misbegotten blood" that means she's slow to age), so her on-again/off-again love interest, John Dannon (head of LAPD's paranormal crime unit) is the same age but looks older. Idris Elba would be wonderful.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?  A paranormal crime reporter is caught up in a power struggle when war between vampire factions breaks out in Los Angeles.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? I've had a nibble of interest from an agent but the book will be published under the Dark Valentine imprint that I run jointly with Joy Sillesen. (Dark Valentine's latest books are the Nightfalls anthology and Christine Pope's fantasy romance Dragon Rose.)

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft?  I've been working on it off and on since forever, it seems like, but once I got started in earnest, about six months. I hope to have it done by January 15 at the latest.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?  Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series; Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series; Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville books.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?  Well, isn't everyone writing a novel? Basically I wanted to stretch my boundaries. I'm  pretty comfortable writing short stories, but I really wanted to explore my supernatural city and my characters. I also wanted to write a paranormal book that made these creatures seem real and not just fantasy objects with tattooed shoulders and shimmering skin. That was how the first story about the senile vampire (called "Tired Blood") came about. I wondered how a really old vampire's mind would hold out.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?  I think I've created a spin on the tired old tropes, offering an Urban Fantasy about characters that have a ring of reality about them whether they're human or not. There are no tramp stamps here and no emo longings for forbidden love. Kira has a very practical attitude toward the paranormals in her circle (who include shape-shifters and were-bears and goblins and fire demons, not just the usual vamps and weres)--they're all monsters. Sleeping with monsters never ends well, in her opinion. You either end up a monster yourself, or you end up dead. 

The writers I'm tagging are:  Canadian horror writer G. Wells Taylor, whose vanpire novel Bent Steeple is one of my favorite books.

Christine Pope, whose lush fantasy romances and zippy contemporary novels are entertaining and smart. Check out her latest, Dragon Rose.

Kat Laurange who's a double menace--a writer and an illustrator who balances a career, a life as a wife and mother, and half a dozen other responsibilities. I'm a hard worker but she makes me look like a slacker. 

Steven Luna, a friend of a friend whose story for the Nightfalls anthology ("Last Shift") was just superb. Check out his Joe Vampire stories.

Joanne Renaud, also a writer and illustrator whose romance novella, Question of Time, has just been published by Champagne Press.

I can never spell graffiti right the first time...


Sunday, December 9, 2012

Holiday Freebies--the Kattomic Energy Edition

I will be participating in my colleague Dale T. Phillips' holiday book give-away. I'm offering three different books--Toxic Reality, The Poisoned Teat, and 12 Nights of Christmas. All you have to do is post a comment, letting me know which book you'd like and I'll pick winners on December 20!  Be sure to leave me a valid email address.
And bop over to Dale's site to see who else is participating and what else you could win! Tis the season and how better to celebrate it than with some dark fiction?

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Chocolate Bread Pudding Recipe--You're welcome!

Every holiday,the upscale grocery store I live near adds a couple of seasonal  items to their already much-too-tempting take-out offerings. For about six weeks you can get a pumpkin trifle, a pumpkin pudding, noodle kugel, and my favorite, chocolate bread pudding with caramel sauce. Yes, it tastes just as decadent as it sounds.

Every time I buy a chunk of this deliciousness, I feel guilty though.  Because I make an incredible chocolate bread pudding.  If you want to dress it up, you can hit it with some whipped cream, but adding sauce would just be gilding the lily.  Here's the recipe.

INCREDIBLE CHOCOLATE BREAD PUDDING RECIPE

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Enough bread to fill a baking dish—torn into small pieces
2 cups milk
¼ cup butter
2/3 cup light brown sugar
3 eggs
¾ cup chocolate chips
2 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine the milk and butter in a saucepan, stirring until the butter is melted.  Cool slightly.

Beat the sugar and spices into the eggs until frothy.  Add the vanilla extract.

Combine the egg mixture and the milk mixture slowly.  (Make sure the milk isn’t too hot or the raw eggs will curdle.)

Mix in the bread and turn everything into a baking dish that has been greased or treated with non-stick spray.

Don’t pack the bread down too tightly or the “pudding” will compact and get really dense instead of staying moist and fluffy with those delicious buttery, crunchy bits.
Bake for 45-55 minutes until the “pudding” is set. 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

I've Been Tagged!

Over at his blog, Nuyorican Obituary, writer R. Narvaez (author of Roachkiller and other stories) is participating in The Next Best Thing blog tour. Read what he had to say here. And tune in next week for my answers. (Also, there's an interview with Narvaez coming soon to Kattomic Energy.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Find me Under the Tuscan Gun

Yes, I've just been added to the team writing about all things Tuscan for the terrific website Under the Tuscan Gun. My first post isn't up yet but if you love food, and love Italian food, and love Tuscan food in particular, you owe it to yourself to visit this site often. Uup now, Wendy Hector's review of Stir: Mixing it up in the Italian Tradition by Boston chef Barbara Lynch.

Freebie Fiction Sample

This story is from 12 Nights of Christmas, available here and here in your choice of e-formats for the bargain price of 99 cents. Whatever happened to the "cents" sign on a keyboard? Was it never on a computer keyboard or was it lost in the transition from typewriters to computers? I miss the cents sign.


Four Birds Calling
Reg could see the two birds out of the corner of his eye. They were looking at him and giggling, being none too subtle about it.
He knew what they were thinking.
Is it him?
Could it be?
The resemblance really was quite striking. He had the same blond mop-top, the same bedroom eyes, the same succulent lower lip.
He even styled his wardrobe after Thomas, the photographer his doppelganger had played in Blow-Up. The white pants and powder-blue shirt rolled up to the elbows. It was a good look for him.
The shirt matched his eyes.
And eyes are the windows of the soul.
Reg never looked birds in the eye though; he always focused on their lips. Eventually they’d notice and ask, “What?”
He’d always say, “You have the most beautiful lips.”
It worked a treat, that line.
Is it him?
Could it be?
He glanced over at the girls and flashed his second-best smile at them, which was enough to make the fat one blush but the spotty one looked back at him boldly and licked her lips while making intense eye contact.
Well hello, Reg thought.

More Frenchy Christmas-ness

I love this card--the Eiffel Tower draped in a garland with a Joyeux Noel greeting. You can find it on Etsy. a package of ten will run you $17.50 plus postage, which is not cheap, but purchasing the cards will make you a patron of the arts!

Monday, December 3, 2012

Woo Hoo--the Sapphires has been nominated....

Congratulations to everyone who worked on The Sapphires, a real-life Dreamgirls tale about an Australian girl group that entertained the troops in the Viet Nam war. It's been nominated in multiple categories for the Australian Academy of Cinema Awards. I was part of the development team on the script (based on a play by the son of one of the real-life songstresses) and could not be more proud of the movie. See the article here on Deadline Hollywood.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Best of the Holiday Gift Guides

I love gift guides. That's why I decided to put together my own. (And wish lists, I love them too.) This is the time of year when every site and magazine/newspaper is putting together a gift guide and looking them over will give you some ideas on what to give that family member who's so hard to please.

Over at Wired Magazine, the Geek Dad list is up and it's got everything from game system point cards to iPhone cases to links to other parts of the list. See it here.

Over at Ain't It Cool News, Quint's three-part holiday gift guide is up, with offerings running the gamut from inexpensive to pricey (like that box set of Dark Shadows episodes that comes in a casket-shaped box).

Real Simple has a multi-part gift guide that splits off into gifts for women, men and children, for foodies and gadget-lovers.

Engadget's list is all about eReaders, a guide to the best of what's available right now. SlashGear has a list of "oddities" that would make great stocking stuffers. Gizmodo has put together a witty list divided up into categories like "For your sainted mother" and "Holiday Gifts for Ryan Gosling, Idris Elba and Other Guys You Love."  Then there's ESPN's guide.

InStyle Magazine has a guide that's not just for the girly-girl or the fashionista. Included are sections for kids, "upgrades for men," gifts for "9-5 friends" and gifts under $25. You have to love a list that includes  Nail polish for pets ($8.95); a python printed sleep set ($220 for both pieces); and customizable headphones ($179).

The Kattomic Energy 2012 Gift Guide will be back tomorrow with gifts for your favorite foodies.




Nightfalls is available

You can buy it here as an ebook for $2.99; the print version will be available soon. Twenty-nine writers, half a dozen genres, one good cause.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

The Best Geek Gift for a Foodie EVER!

This may be the best novelty chocolate item ever made.  By rights, this should have gone into the Foodie section of the gift guide but it is so cool it needs a post all to itself. You can buy a chocolate replica of Han Solo in the carbonite slab. You can buy it from Think Geek.  It costs $11.99 for one 4.5 ounce bar. 

Kattomic Energy 2012 Gift Guide--Part 2

One of the labels I assign myself is that of "feminist" and I'm not ashamed to identify with my sisters. But my feminist credo is, "Feminism is the radical  notion that women are people," and as I've gotten older, I don't feel that the term "feminist" is particularly inclusive, even when men proudly claim it. (My father was a feminist by trade, an Army lawyer who fought for civil rights and women's rights before it was actually fashionable.)  So I prefer to think of myself as a "humanist" and define that term as someone who cares about his/her fellow human beings. This part of the gift guide will focus on gifts for people who want gifts that matter. With the occasional feminist t-shirt thrown in.

Gifts for people who have everything they want or need to give on behalf of people who live in want and need:
Heifer International

Heifer International. Their mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth.  Who doesn't think that's a good idea?  You've probably seen their gift catalogue; filled with suggested donations in every price range, from a flock of chickens or ducks for $20 to a gift ark ($5000) that provides mating pairs of many different animals. This year the catalogue includes items like "a gift of women's empowerment" (helping women become self-sufficient and more efficient at producing food) for $1000 (or $100 a share); a gift of a healthy home for $50 (construction materials to make shelter safer); a gift of clean water ($300 for water purification equipment) and "the gift of transformation" which provides herds of heifers, llamas and goats, flocks of sheep and chickens, a pen of pigs, a school of fish, a gaggle of geese and the training to take care of the animls. (Price tag is $25,000.)

Kattomic Energy's Holiday Gift Guide--Part Une

Joyeux Noel everyone. In the first part of the2012 Kattomic Energy Gift Guide, the focus is on Francophiles.

Books:  French cooking began, at least for most American cooks, with Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Snag the 50th anniversary edition for $24 at your favorite bookstore. Find it at Amazon here. David Lebovitz's The Sweet Life in Paris (subtitled "Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious and Perplexing City") is a great introduction to the food culture of the French capital. (There is a right and a wrong way to work your way around a cheese plate.) You can buy it new for $23 or used for as little as $5. (I often use the "buy used" option from Amazon's sellers and most of the books I've purchased arrive looking brand new.)

All of the Barefoot Contessa's cookbooks are wonderful and her Barefoot in Paris is one of those cookbooks that's as fun to look at as it is to read. It's just a beautiful book and the recipe for pear clafoutie is to die for. Available for under $20 in both print and ebook.

If you're frustrated that you can't order anything from Amazon France unless you're actually in France, check out French Books Online, a source for French language books in many genres as well as audiobooks, some of them bilingual. Authors in their policiers (crime thriller) section include Pierre Simenon (fils de Georges), Jean Amilia, Brigitte Auber, and Tonino Benacquista.

Chocolat is everybody's favorite French movie starring Johnny Depp. Buy the novel by Joanne Harris it's based on. 

Movies: The French invented the term "film noir" so as you might expect, they also perfected the art. The 1943 film Le Corbeau (the Raven) is arguably the best example of the genre. There's a fabulous Criterion Collection edition available, but it's pricey ($70) and according to Amazon, they only have four left in stock.

Paris Je T'Aime is a cinematic love letter to the city, and stocking stuffer priced at under $8.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Paul Bishop Photograph--November Rain in Paris

Photo by Paul Bishop
Isn't this image by Paul Bishop (originally posted on Facebook) gorgeous. I am a sucker for Eiffel Tower images.

Time to weed out that TBR pile?

If you're in Los Angeles, you can donate books to Books For People, who will sell them and use the proceeds to fund charities serving homeless children. And they PICK UP your books. (They also accept DVDs, CDs, and records. Any books they can't sell, they donate to local libraries. Check them out.

Because not everyone is going to be home for the holidays

There are men and women serving on behalf of me and every other American in places that are inhospitable and downright hostile. Some of these soldiers are stationed far from a PX (post exchange) and some of them can't afford even little luxuries. Military Connections is a non-profit organization that sends care packages (more than 600 a month) to soldiers stationed overseas. They're now putting together Christmas stockings. They have a wish-list of items from unopened, unexpired OTC meds like Tums and Tylenol to packages of athletic socks and AT&T calling cards to extra Christmas cards they can send. You can also sponsor a soldier or marine's stocking for a $10 donation and include a note or a picture. Giving a little could mean a lot.
For more information, check out the Military Connections website here.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Cityscape: Richmond, Virginia

I lived in Richmond my last two years in high school and during the summers I went to college. It's a very scenic city and there are things about it I miss, like the James River. This is a view of downtown from the James. All those rocks were really enticing. I've sunbathed on them. And every year, some kid gets stranded and has to be rescued.  My parents' house was only two blocks from the river, we could always hear the helicopters flying back and forth. Some summers it was like the Fall of Saigon out there.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Another reason to embrace your inner Frenchwoman...

Seems the French village of Bugarach is going to survive the Mayan apocalypse. Who knew?