So here’s what I came up with, while playing around with the blood oranges: mixed baby green salad with vinaigrette dressing, thin-sliced shallots, and blood orange segments. I also made salmon with shallot-citrus-butter sauce, but it got eaten before I had a chance to photograph it :)
Blood oranges! I saw these at the grocery store today, and decided to try them out. They taste just about identical to regular oranges, but are a nifty crimson color. (The one in the photograph is an orange section with the skin removed, which is the way I wanted to prep them to go with tonight’s dinner — had I been thinking more photographically, I probably would have cut some cross-sections. Oh well.)
One of my Clarion classmates came over for dinner today (yay!!), so I whipped up some jerk chicken (spicy marinated Jamaican-style chicken) with mango salsa (mango, red pepper, red onion, cilantro & lime juice). Then, after dinner, vanilla ice cream and the cookies from my last post. Yum!
I don’t do a lot of baking, but tinaconnolly and I made these as a team the last time we got together, so I thought I could pull it off. For some reason, last time they were puffier, whereas this time they are flat and crinkly. I’m puzzled as to what made them come out so different, but at least they still taste good!
Electric Velocipede has accepted my short story “Setting My Spider Free.” The story was originally written at Clarion West, and it is my third sale (with both of my previous sales being to Fantasy Magazine).
Yay!!
Lately I’ve been working on a fun little side project, turning some of my photographs into book covers for AnthologyBuilder.
For those who haven’t heard of it, AnthologyBuilder is a print-on-demand service with a library of short stories from which people can create their own custom anthologies. Once people have chosen the stories they want, they can pick out the cover art for their book.
A few of my personal favorites:
Underwater – http://anthologybuilder.com/cover_demo.php?cover_id=195
Forest – http://anthologybuilder.com/cover_demo.php?cover_id=190
Cat – http://anthologybuilder.com/cover_demo.php?cover_id=192
Fire – http://anthologybuilder.com/cover_demo.php?cover_id=267
Tentacles – http://anthologybuilder.com/cover_demo.php?cover_id=265
My designs are in good company. Other …
A friend of mine is looking for people to fill out a survey so that she can get data for her dissertation. Data is important. It helps all those academic types write non-fiction, which I can later twist around into fiction. So go help advance science — it only takes 20-25 minutes!
http://baerdissertation.jlauser.net
Description from the researcher: “This survey has to do with jury decision making. It includes a case summary and excerpts from the ensuing trial. It takes approximately 20 to 25 minutes to read through the information and answer a few questions.”
I recently did my first interview! ktempest asked me a few questions for Fantasy Magazine’s Author Spotlight, including:
What author do you admire yet hope never to be compared to?
Do you find that your photography affects your writing?
I also talk about the inspiration for “Time to Say Goodnight.”
Also, don’t forget to vote for your favorite Fantasy story of 2007. Voting is open until the end of January, and you can pick up to three stories as your favorites. There are some excellent stories on the ballot, …
While I was home for the holidays, tinaconnolly came to visit, and we made Quiche Florentine. Our version featured eggs, cream, spinach, onion, bacon (optional, obviously, if you wanted a vegetarian version), and gruyere cheese — in a homemade crust (Yay pastry chef Tina!).
Fantasy is running a poll where you can vote on your favorite stories of 2007. You can vote for up to three stories, and the poll will be open until the end of January.
If you liked “Time to Say Goodnight,” go vote for it :)
