Giftmas Blog Tour 2017 - Shining a Light

In case you hadn't noticed, the holiday season is upon us! Again! It's this time of the year when you exchange gifts with the people near and dear to you have too much food, are warm and happy, while outside, the cold of winter tries to creep in.

But not everyone is quite this lucky; some people in this day and age know what it means to be hungry. This is why Rhonda Parrish gathered a group of writers and friends around her to raise money for the Edmonton Food bank. Let me be clear, one dollar buys three meals for hungry people. The people that give can also hope to win fantastic prizes, signed copies, Tuckerizations, and more, go here to find out more. There is no excuse not to give, because every dollar counts!

For the Giftmas Blog Tour, I'm giving a warm welcome to Doug Blakeslee (@simms_doug). Enjoy his post.

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Being a Light

By Doug Blakeslee

2017 has been a rough year for a lot of folks, especially in the realm of personal health. I have two friends that have had major issues that have severely affected their lives. In one case, the person was close to having a cardiac incident and thanks to some very observant nurses, the person survived. With their current regimen of medication, they’re thriving and look better than they have in months. Not to say there aren’t rough patches, but there’s hope and that’s nice to know. It’s good to hang out with him and being able to engage in activities.

Another had cancer surgery and spent the better part of two months down for the count between recovery and radiation treatment. In both cases, they had a big support network so even at their lowest, they both had places to turn. Their life got turned upside down and they’re not out of the woods yet, but again, a great deal of determination and support. They’re been very transparent about their illness, the side effects, and even the low point of the recovery. Some might have given up. Hell, I’d have not blamed them for doing so, even if it meant future health issues. But they plowed through it and is on the mend.

I got to spend time with the person at a recent con and found that while they’ve taken a pounding, the spirit is still there. I figure it was the first they’d really been out in public and being social since the surgery. While fatigued, they powered along and made it through four days without much of a break. At one point, we were at dinner and while there’s difficultly talking due to the surgery, we carried on a conversation for over an hour. Afterwards, they mentioned their jaw hurting but worth it for connecting again.

It didn’t seem like much, but the boost to their spirit for such a small thing left me with a good feeling. I didn’t think about it at the time, but as I thought on their words, it struck me that its quite often the small things that mean the most. Being there. Saying hi. Asking how their day went. Listening. Being interested and invested in the person. That can do so much more than anything else.

Find someone. Talk with them. Reconnect. You never know how much you can influence someone’s life until you reach out.

 ~

The author lives in the Pacific Northwest and spends his time writing, cooking, gaming, and watching hockey. His interest in books and reading started early thanks to his parent. From time to time he blogs about writing and other related topics at The Simms Project at http://thesimmsproject.blogspot.com/. He's been published in such anthologies as: “Someone Wicked”, “Stomping Grounds”, “Fossil Lake”, “A Chimerical World: Tales of the Unseelie Court” and others.  His current project is an urban fantasy novel about a war between the Fae. He can be reached on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/doug.blakeslee] or simms.doug@gmail.com.

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As this is a blog tour, I'd like to invite you to go here and read my guest post. I'm wondering whether we need the holidays, or a version of the holidays. Enjoy!

NaNoWriMo Wrap-Up Post

This year, I finally decided to do NaNoWriMo (that's National Novel Writing Month for those who are unaware.) The goal of NaNoWriMo is to produce 50,000 words of the first draft of your novel. However, I knew that that was just not gonna work for me, it just felt too constricting, both the word count and the fact that you are supposed to work on one ms at a time.

So I changed the goal somewhat, primarily my focus was to Get Stuff Done. I roped in my alter, Ms. Piper, to help out, and the results were pretty good. Let's have a look:

• One novella completed (21k)
• One novelette completed (7.9k)
• Another novelette completed (14k)
• One flash story completed (600)
• One short story completed (1.5k)
• Two blog posts completed (2k)
• One novel rewrite almost complete (about 50k)
• One novella about one third complete (about 12k, this might eventually become a novel)

This looks good. I'm very pleased with myself!

Another achievement I am very proud of is the regularity with which I managed to pursue daily designated writing time, especially because this month was so very busy at the day job. Because of that, I didn't manage to write every singe day, sheer exhaustion just didn't allow that sometimes, but those wordless days were just a handful, and for the most part, the habit of daily writing stuck.

This is something I cannot recommend highly enough by the way, it's a huge sacrifice, particularly if you have a day job, but the output was really worth it, at least for me. It's not a habit I want to let go anytime soon.

That being said, every month is a good writing month, December just started, and I got words to put on the page!

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Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yume1004.jpg

From the Vaults: Turns, Twists; Lost Things

Turns, Twists; Lost Things

By Alexandra Seidel

Around the first corner--left--

you find the sylph that governs the western winds

hair and limbs spelling out abandon

the sylph--neither man nor woman--

tells you a story

and half of that is lost on the breeze

another left

and a stone found lying on the ground

plain as onyx or jade

too heavy for your pocket

but warm in your hand

--some stones hold breath or life--

Your third turn is a right

and almost finds you tumbling down a well

set like a grave into the ground

the echo haunts you as you retreat

already lost. You take

another right (which might be left)

and find a beggar, open-handed

squatting there, eyes staring empty

you part with the warm stone

and you go right again

there is a dark cup

brimming with wine

thirst makes you drink (thirst? really?)

Back again and left

scattered peacock feathers on the floor,

and the shed scales of a snake, a leopard's skin

you take the skin and take a right

warm cake awaits

fresh from the oven that you cannot see

baked by no-one, filled; you lick

warm berry juice from your fingers (berry juice? really?)

and then again you turn--right or left, no matter--

and find a bed or a bench or a throne; a hat

or a crown; more warm things

filling your stomach

and the leopard's spots on your skin

and all the walls around you softly closing in

~~~ 

This poem was first published in 2010 by Labyrinth Inhabitant Magazine which is unfortunately a dead market now. If you enjoyed the poem, do click on the woman in white to the right, she'll lead you straight to the Tip Jar. Thanks!

 

A Fall Dessert

Desserts are the best things ever, aren't they?

I think I figured out one that is ideal for the season of shorter days and longer nights, it simple and pretty healthy at the same time, so here goes!

Apple-Mango Pudding with Ginger 

You will need:

1 medium apple, Gala or similar
1 cup Mango (I used frozen but fresh would also work)
1 small carrot
about 1 tsp fresh ginger
3 tbsp chia seeds
1 cup plant milk of your choice
cinnamon


Directions

Put the chia seeds in a bowl together with the milk. Let sit for at least 10 Minutes. Then add the apple, mango, carrot, and the soaked chia seeds to a blender, also add the ginger. You can play with the amount of ginger you use of course. Blend everything for a minute or so. The result will be a fluffy, delicious fall favorite. Sprinkle some cinnamon on top to serve and enjoy!

The Best Vegan Eggnog

This eggnog, or vegnog, is not just easily prepared, it is also super delicious, creamy, and quite versatile; add a shot or two of espresso or coffee to it, and you have a delicious vegnog latte. It's good cold, or warm. And compared to most recipes, it's comparatively healthy due to the fiber content.

For this vegnog you'll need:

666 g (23 oz) almond milk
400 ml (14 oz) coconut cream
3 to 4 dried figs
2 ripe bananas
0.5 to 1 tsp ground cinnamon
0.5 to 1 tsp of freshly ground nutmeg
3 tbsp rum or spiced rum
additional rum to taste

Put the figs in a bowl, jar, or in your blender, then add the almond milk. Ideally, let this soak for 5 to 10 minutes. Now, add in all the other ingredients and blend well until creamy. If you need to make a non-alcoholic version, simply leave the rum out. Otherwise, add the 3 tablespoons now and add additional rum (we used 73 vol% for this) when you serve it, stir, and sprinkle some more nutmeg and/or cinnamon on top.

If you like your seasonal coffee based beverage, you can add one shot of espresso to about 200 ml of the vegnog, or you can adjust the ratio to your taste of course.

If you serve this warm, you will get a stronger banana flavor, serve it cold and you'll taste more of the coconut.

If you don't like your nog as creamy as this, just use coconut milk (or almond milk) in lieu of the coconut cream.

Enjoy this vegan Xmas drink!

D is for Dinosaur Cover Reveal

There it is! Let's have a look at the official release:

For the fourth installment of Rhonda Parrish’s Alphabet Anthologies, contributors were challenged to write about dinosaurs. The resulting twenty-six stories contain widely different interpretations of the dinosaur theme and span the spectrum from literal to metaphoric.

Within these pages stories set in alternate histories, far-flung futures and times just around the corner, dinosaurs whimper and waste away, or roar and rage. People can be dinosaurs, as can ideas, fictions and flesh. Knitted dinosaurs share space with ghostly, genetically engineered and even narcotic ones.

Teenagers must embrace their inner dinosaurs in order to find peace and belonging, a dying woman duels a God in a far future city that echoes aspects of our past, an abused wife accompanies her husband on a hunt for an ancient power and finds more than she could ever have imagined and a girl with wonderful magical powers stumbles across the bones of a giant long-dead lizard. And so much more!

My story in this anthology is L, meaning I'm still working my way through the first half of the alphabet (I'm not complaining.) My L story happens to be a sci fi story, but of course it's also a dinosaur story which for some reason just happened. Hopefully readers will enjoy the result!

For now though, keep looking at that gorgeous dino cover with me!

~

The Intimacy of Writing--Beta Readers

Do you know the feeling of making something all by yourself, finishing it, being very proud of it? At that point, have you ever wondered whether the thing you made is really actually any good or as good as you first thought it was?

Most of the time when you write something, this es exactly how you feel. And worst of all, you know you're not being objective, you can't be, because the story you just told is your baby after all. At this point, the beta reader is invaluable. First of all, a trusted beta reader will actually agree to spend some of their time reading through what you wrote. This is not a small sacrifice for most people, and I very much respect and appreciate that. Secondly, they will tell you the truth about what they think of what you put on the page. They will take it apart. They will show you what and why things don't work. They'll be straight with you.

It is this honesty that always makes me think how much you expose yourself when you ask someone to beta read something for you. Sure, submit your writing anywhere and get rejected, keep doing it over and over, that is a certain kind of exposure as well, but the thing with a beta reader--in many cases a first reader--is that your story just came into being and is probably full of faults and rough edges that still need to bee smoothed out or sharpened to a point, so it is much more personal than submitting finished work anywhere.

The tough thing thing is that only honest criticism can show you how to move forward. The beautiful thing is that being open to such criticism will get you moving forward, for sure.

So if you're a writer, pick your beta readers well. My experience is that the people who do find what's not working and tell me make the best beta readers. Someone who goes easy on you may make you feel good, but it doesn't help you improve your writing much.

And when your writer friend asks you to read something of theirs, don't take it lightly: know that it shows a lot of trust on their part, and know that in most cases, it took them some time to actually decide to ask you! Because showing someone your words for the first time is not an easy thing.