No Self-Promotion but a Recipe Anyway

It's been raining in Los Angeles for what seems like a month. (It took a day off on New Year's by special arrangement with the Rose Bowl Parade committee.) And I was working at one of my least-favorite editing gigs and craving chocolate. So you know that recipe that keeps showing up in your in-box like the million-dollar cookie from Neiman-Marcus? The five-minute chocolate cake in a mug? I made it.

Right out of the mug, the cake is pretty tasty. Don't let it get cold, though because it gets kind of dense and tastes like a chocolate tire.

Five-Minute Chocolate Cake in a Mug

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons chocolate chips ( optional )
3 tablespoons oil or melted butter
a small splash of vanilla extract
1 coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add a dash of salt.
Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Put your mug into the microwave for three minutes at 1000 watts (vary the time just a little either way according the the wattage of your microwave). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t be alarmed. Allow to cool and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT! (This can serve 2 if you want to feel sightly more virtuous).

I have to say, this is hard to beat for instant gratification. And I did attack the afternoon's editing with a whole new attitude.

I'm 5'1" and you're not. Nyah. Nyah. Nyah.

I've been a working writer since I was 16. I've studied and practiced and written thousands of words. And yet, I've still never finished a novel. Perhaps I should have taken a different route to mastering my craft. Who knew that all I had to do was star in a reality show and get arrested for disorderly conduct?

I present to you a first look at A Shore Thing, the first novel from Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi. Complete with quotes taken from various chapters.

Console yourself with the knowledge that although she published a novel before you did, you're probably taller than she is. That's what I'm doing.

Yeah, that's right bitch, I've got four inches on you!! (Sorry, my inner Jersey Girl slipped out for a moment.)

More shameless self promotion and another recipe

I figure if you're kind enough to stop by and check out my latest work, you deserve something for your trouble. January is National Soup Month (you know these things when you write about food) so here's another soup recipe. It's a great transition recipe for going vegetarian full or part-time because it's very hearty.

Curried Lentil Soup

2 fat carrots, peeled
3 leeks, cleaned
1 large brown onion
½ package green lentils, picked over
Handful kosher salt
2 tsp. black pepper
2 tsp. garlic powder (or 1 Tbsp. crushed garlic from jar)
3 Tbsp. curry powder

Prepare the lentils:

If you have one of those colanders meant to rinse rice, use that. Otherwise, pour the lentils into a bowl, making sure there aren’t any rocks mixed in.

Run cold water over the lentils until the rinse off water is clear. Leave the wet lentils soaking up moisture will you prepare the rest of the soup.

Prepare the broth:

Fill a large soup pot two-thirds full of water and put on the stove to boil.
Add the salt, pepper and garlic to the water. You can add a dash of olive oil if you like (but not butter).

Chop the carrots into coins. Peel and roughly chop the onion. Chop the white part of the leeks into disks. Note: leeks are sneaky vegetables. They tend to hold silt in their tightly packed layers. You might want to peel back the first layer to make sure they’re free of grit.)

Add the vegetables to the broth. Allow to boil for about 10 minutes, then add the lentils and the curry powder. Cover the pot and reduce heat. Simmer until the lentils are tender, stirring occasionally.

Enjoy.

And now the self-promotion part. My story, "Nine Ladies Dancing" is now up at Dark Valentine Magazine's "Twelve Days of Christmas."

My next story out there will be "Corazon," number 668 at A Twist of Noir. It's going out to Christopher this week. Stay tuned for promo on that and who knows? Another recipe.

Shameless Self-Promotion with a recipe

The holidays are over. If you're thinking of something a little healthier than your recent dietof eggnog and cookies, start with this soup. It's easy to make and extremely healthy. Substitute vegetable broth if you want.

JADE SOUP

4 cans low sodium chicken broth
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into thin "coins"
3 green onions, diced
2 Tbsp. reduced sodium soy sauce
2 tsp ginger (or 1-inch piece of ginger root, peeled and grated)
20 smallish spinach leaves
Small square firm tofu
1 Tbsp. dark sesame oil
Dash crushed red pepper flakes

Optional:

1 small leek, white part only
enoki mushrooms
shiitake mushrooms
snow pea pods

Open cans of broth and put in soup pot. If you can’t find low-sodium broth, just use two cans of broth and dilute with two soup cans of water. Add ginger and soy sauce.

Add carrot coins and green onions.

When soup is boiling, add spinach leaves, which will wilt.

Cut up tofu into little chunks and add.

Stir in sesame oil and red pepper flakes at this point.

Enjoy. This is a richly perfumed soup that keeps well (it can even be frozen)


Now, on to the self promotion.

Here it is Sunday and that means another NoHo Noir episode. My editor, Craig Clough, did a nice update article on the series featuring quotes from me and also from Mark Satchwill, the artist. Check it out.

Check out "The Hook-Up."



In this episode you'll meet two people who will be pivotal in the stories to come...Lyla is an accountant who does pretty much everyone in the series' taxes and turns out to have connections to everyone. (And as we all know, when you want to know what's going on, you follow the money.) Keep reading!

And while you're at it, admire the fabulous detail in the illustration. Fingerless lace gloves? Check. Billy Idol photo on the wall? Check. Wilting flower petals? You got it.

Let the Year of the Rabbit Begin

1/1/11--2011 is here. An not a minute too soon, I might add. I can't really complain about the year just passed, it was great creatively: the launch of Dark Valentine Magazine with my friends and colleagues Joy Sillesen and Joanne Renaud; the launch of the NoHo Noir series with Mark Satchwill; the publication of my collection of fiction, Just Another Day in Paradise; a personal best in the number of short stories written and published. Still, like the mother in the Prince song, I'm never satisfied.

I don't make resolutions but I do set goals and this year is going to be my year of saying "no" to projects that don't advance those goals. I have been unfocused. Last year I was fortunate enough to sustain a full-time freelance career. As you know, freelancers can't always be choosy but I took on some projects I really shouldn't have. I'm not going to do that any more. And to solidify my commitment to that goal, I sent off an email to a potential client and turned a lucrative job down. The client was lovely, the money was great but I just wasn't seeing a good outcome. And I couldn't help but think that the hours I would spend trying to wrestle the project into shape could be better spent working on one of the two novels I nearly finished this year, or the two screenplays languishing in their neglected files on my computer.

I'm making lists. I'm getting motivated. And next year at this time...I'm going to have something to show for it.

Thanks for all your support throughout the year. Happy New Year and Happy Writing to you all.

Do You Know This Woman?

I am not a true crime buff. There are crimes that intrigue me--who really killed Jon-Benet Ramsey for instance--but I am not one to purchase thick books by reporters with theories. (For the record, I think Patsy Ramsey took the secret of her daughter's murder to the grave with her.)

I was mugged once, in the city of Brotherly Love. My assailant was a very tall man with a very large knife. His attack took place in full view of an escalator full of people, many of whom watched with avid interest, none of whom notified security.

The guy wanted me to open my purse and hand over just my wallet. I had on bulky gloves--it was January in Philadelphia, it was cold. My fingers kept slipping off the catch on my purse and I remember, distinctly, thinking, "I am going to die because I can't get my purse open." I didn't die, of course, and was fortunate enough to walk away from the encounter with just a bruised knee from where he pushed me to the train station floor.

But I had two friends who were not so lucky. One worked at a nearby mall the summer between high school and college. One night, a man followed her home and stabbed her 27 times. He was later picked up and hanged himself in his cell.

Ten years later, I was living in Richmond, Virginia taking care of my mother when a serial killer who'd done some carpentry at a magazine I worked for tracked down the receptionist and murdered her. It was a notorious crime at the time (It formed the basis for Patricia Cornwell's first Kay Scarpetta novel), and the killer was only caught by accident. The case was the first in Virginia to use DNA evidence.

All to say, I am not fascinated by murder, I don't batten on true stories of pain and death and grief. Which is why I really can't explain the impulse that led me to look through the 180 photos LAPD has released from a stash they found in the possession of the alleged serial killer they have dubbed "the Grim Sleeper."

The owner of these photographs stands accused of the murders of 10 women but the police suspect he is "responsible for" other deaths. They've released the pictures (and they all appear to be live women, although there are two photographs that are a little iffy) in hopes that someone out there knows one of these women.

I do not. But I could. The women range in age from gray-haired to very young. Almost all are African-American. Some are beautiful,some not, but all are vital. Most of the pictures seem to have been taken with the consent of the woman, even the ones where their expressions are wary or hostile or skeptical. In most of the pictures the women are smiling.

It's not completely clear that the accused took the photographs but they were found in his home. How did these women cross paths with this man? Why are so many smiling? How many were lucky enough to walk away with their lives, as I did?

A Publishing Success Story

Yes, there are some out there. Read this interview over at Galley Cat.