New from the Dashing Dish

Courtesy of the Dashing Dish

HOW GOOD DOES THIS LOOK?
I love food blogs. I regularly check in with PunchFork, a site that picks the best of the best. Today this recipe for Crispy Baked Parmesan Green Bean fries for the Dashing Dish caught my eye.
I am a reformed junk food junkie but like any recovering addict the taste is still there. This looks like a recipe that will curb my cravings but won't leave me feeling guilty.
Dashing Dish was created by Katie Farrell  for the sole purpose of finding healthier alternatives to unhealthy food choices. The recipes sound incredibly yummy and I can't wait to try out some of them. (Almond Joy pancakes anyone?)
Katie sells memberships to her site so not all recipes are accessible, but what you can see for free is pretty great.

Coming Soon--Interviews with Lowrance, Laity and more

Heath Lowrance is blog-hopping this week to talk about his new book, City of Heretics. He'll be here on Saturday.
Kate Laity, who is currently editing her anthology Weird Noir, will be here soon.
Kattomic Energy interviews with writers Christine Pope and G. Wells Taylor are in the offing as well, and the multi-talented Julie Robitaille, writer and artist, will drop by soon too.

READ is a four-letter word

I grew up in a house of readers. My mother read mysteries; my father popular history with an emphasis on Civil War biographies. My sister preferred non-fiction as well, especially social histories and examinations of culture; my brother is a more eclectic reader who bounces back and forth and often recommends books to me. I read everything and have turned my love of reading into a career. Who knew?
Unlike a lot of people I know, I am a big proponent of phonics because that's how I was taught to read. I didn't know how to read when I entered school but I could recognize some words because one or the other of my parents read to me every night. (And more often than not it was my father, who loved, loved, loved words.  He knew that kids like the sound of silly words and he was a lawyer, so he taught us all phrases like posse comitatus and delighted in hearing us parrot them back. He also taught us the meaning. How many eight year olds can define the term? Which may explain why my brother became a lawyer, so he'd have a chance to use all those ornate Latin phrases.)
I was thinking about reading today as I read about the Teacher's Strike in  Chicago.
Education begins with reading  and reading needs to begin in childhood.  There are some great organizations out there to help encourage childhood reading and all of them are hurting for money in these difficult (understatement of the year) economic times. If you have a little spare change, consider donating it to Reading is Fundamental or Kids Need to Read.
For me, supporting causes like that is enlightened self-interest. Kids who read turn into people who buy books. I think of it as job security.

Cat and Snark--Internet goodness

Noir at the Bar--LA

Hope to see you there!

Saturday Sample Story--Boundaries

Photo by Dani Simmonds

I am re-editing the stories in my Twelve Nights of Christmas collection, which I had in the Kindle Prime program. As soon as the term runs out (two weeks from now), I am going to republish it with a new cover, re-branded as the 12 Nights of Christmas.  It'll be interesting to see how it does. I've been asking people how they liked their Kindle Prime experience and the answers have been amixed bag. Dani at Blog Book Tours (on FB) pointed me toward some people who were very, very happy with their results, but among my friends and colleagues, there hasn't been that much enthusiasm. I think for me, it comes down to the old, "Why leave money on the table?"  It's not that I sell large numbers of books at Barnes and Noble and Kobo, I don't. But I do sell some. And I just don't see "borrowing" translating to "sales." Thoughts?
Anyway, this is one of the stories from that collection, my version of "A Partridge in a Pear Tree." Enjoy.

Boundaries

Five families came west to Kansas, searching for a better life than the lives that had been shattered by the war. To begin with there were 16 adults and 14 children, three dogs, six goats, two cows, a small flock of chickens, three pigs and a stray kitten one of the children had picked up when the group passed through St. Louis.

The families arrived in summer and built their sod houses and planted small gardens for the kitchen and plowed their land to make it ready for the coming year.

They’d all been farmers back in Maryland, so they knew how harsh farming life could be.

At least they thought they knew until their first winter on their new land when the temperature reached minus 34 degrees and nearly one hundred inches of snow fell between October and March.

The flock of chickens didn’t survive, and one of the cows died too—even though the family that owned her kept her inside with them to keep her warm.

Feminist Friday: Equal Opportunity Political Iconography

We've all seen the iconic image of "Rosie the Riveter" rolling up her sleeves and proclaiming, "We Can Do It."  The image we know was created by Pittsburgh artist Howard Miller. the model was Geraldine Hoff Doyle, a 17-year-old working as a metal stamping machine operator in Ann Arbor.
It's such a powerful  image that even though Norman Rockwell later painted a "Rosie the Riveter" cover for Saturday Evening Post, the Miller poster is the one we remember.
And it's also the one that has been used ever since as a symbol of female empowerment by candidates and others on both sides of the political spectrum. During the 2008 campaign, there were several versions using GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The visual fit the candidate's roots and persona as a "can do" kinda gal, and you saw a lot of it.

In 2012, there being no women in the running, Michelle Obama has inherited the "We Can Do It"  image, which is sometimes captioned "Yes We Can," to echo the motto of her husband's 2008 campaign.
This campaign season, in one way or another, it has been all about the women. Both the Republicans and the Democrats showcased an amazing parade of smart women who represent the best their parties have to offer. It was thrilling to see all of them.
In the immortal words of Dirty Dancing--"Nobody puts Baby in the corner." Women voters will mostly likely decide who will be President come 2013. We can do it. Yes we can.