On Turning 33…

The majority of my birthday was spent between a writing conference and bed, sleeping - or trying to.

You see, I was up early (for me) at around 6:30-7:00 AM. to go to the Women's Words conference at WPI on Saturday.  I managed, while at the conference, to not entirely appear plagued, fall into coughing fits, and even not cough over any of the other poor human beings in my vicinity.  In fact, I even managed to not exceed my tissue quota.

My presentation was at the end, and I still managed to be coherent, if not mostly well-spoken!

Once I made it back home, my body said, "That's it.  You had your conference!  I'm throwing in the towel."

And did it.

I spent the next three or four hours between fits of coughing, chills and sleep.  Around 8 or 9 PM I dragged my sorry butt out of bed because I was hungry.  I hopped online, utterly confused as to why I had well over 200 new messages.

Oh - it was still my birthday.

There's nothing like a couple hundred well wishers to scare away germs!  Most were Facebook wall posts, some were personal emails, some were on other social networking thingies that I use.  I pulled myself together to enjoy the delicious dinner Scott cooked and catch up on the rest of the week's television - including the latest Doctor Who.  Score for positive thoughts!

Of course, most people posted earlier, so I'm crediting my good show at the writer's conference to all those wonderful friends and colleagues of mine who sent me well wishes.  The Universe concentrated them into the time I needed them most.

It was an excellent conference.  All of the presenters were great, and I was very happy to moderate the last panel on getting published, where we tried, in the small space of 90 minutes, to give everyone a 101 Intro course on the business of publishing: differences, some pros and cons for indie publishing vs. small press publishing vs. "traditional" publishing; professional groups (Yay Broad Universe - here, take a pamphlet!); query letters and nonfiction proposals; copyright fears - justified and not-so-much (No you cannot copyright ideas; no, a publishing house isn't going to hand your idea to another writer; yes, when you publish on your blog it's publishing and someone can just steal it); and way more than I can possibly remember right now.  Afterword, I chatted the pros and cons of fan fic with some sisterly geeks.  And during lunch, children's author April Jones Prince and I sat with some college students and discussed more genre stuff as well as informal publishing stories.  I am truly glad I managed to stave off illness for this conference, and I truly hope my constant hand-cleaning prevented me from afflicting any of the wonderful folks with the current plague.

For pretty much all my life, I've been sick on my birthday.  I think I've managed a few years where I've managed to only be afflicted by controlled allergies… and spring sickness has come back with a vengeance.  Regardless, it was a good birthday overall - because I say so and I feel so. 

Thank you everyone for all the happy energy!  I'm plowing forward and feeling better today than I did on Sunday… which, for the sake of happiness, we won't discuss.  I had a happy birthday!

Birthday Fabulosity

I have the most awesome and caring friends & family! J

I was offline all of Friday and Saturday, then panicked today seeing that my inbox was wellllll over the 200 messages - way more than my usual weekend load.

The majority was all birthday wishes!!

So, despite waking up with nasty asthma issues today (heat and humidity spike), once I got to email, I was feeling as happy as I was on my birthday and on Saturday.

For those of you who want to know how all of your positive energy was put to good use, here's how my days went:

My friend, Aimee Weinstein, let me go to bed early by covering my Foodie Friday blogpost! Here are 2 pix she sent me while she was making her Shrimp Parmagiana for her hubby-of-awesome:


Apology: Those are the only pix I have to share. I was too busy with everything to stop and remember to take pictures.

Friday started with the usual chiropractor appt. that Scott and I go to. (Writers, a good chiropractor is golden - especially since we spend so much time on our butts!) Since our chiro is already westbound from our house, I just headed right to my mother's place (where I grew up), in Springfield. Now, breakfast was great, but the strange and interesting thing is I agreed to go through some of the crap that was still in my attic bedroom that my mom (very kindly) has continued to hold onto for me since "I have no room in my house" or "I don't wanna go through old stuff now and then have to cart it home and find places for it!"

I was actually in the mood to do it this time, for some strange reason (Note: No, it's still not carefully put away in my current house.). So, besides reliving most of my pre-teens and teens via my EXTENSIVE (read as: I could open a friggen store) collection of costume jewelry. In addition to the jewelry and craft items I didn't bring to the house because I have craftier and even-more-artistically-inclined friends to whom I gifted some really cool stuff that I just don't have time to play with, I found even more of my art. More comic book creations (HOW did I forget how much I loved comics and comic art?) and some pretty cool still-lifes that I'd drawn in classes I took.

Lesson: I need to make time for my art. Maybe not all the extensive crafts I did when I was younger - but it's a part of my creative self I need to honor.

In fact - thought! - I found some beautiful cameo lockets that would look fabulous in steam-punk inspired necklaces. I asked Renée, Sean and Stef - the professional artists - if they could design necklaces for me… but, why couldn't I do it on one of my next visits to the glass studio? It doesn't have to be a long commitment to regular beading, but it would honor that part of me that needs to create beyond the keyboard.

:D See - even personal blog posts can be a discovery method if you're willing to listen to yourself! :D

Besides my stroll down pleasant memory lane with my mom and thinking creatively outside of words, I indulged in a long afternoon nap, and then went out to dinner with the husband-of-awesome (at a restaurant I also get paid to review - so, damnit, it was productive, too!). Dinner was fabulous. We came home to drop off some stuff (because the carload of "stuff" isn't something you want to park in Worcester), and then condensed ourselves to just one car (Yay! I didn't have to drive anymore!), and headed off to Sweet!, a great dessert-only café with fancy drinks and fancy coffees. I ordered a chef's selection.

The cheese cake was good, the fancy bread pudding was delicious, the bites of the spicy hot-chocolate sundae Scott had were great, coffee was most excellent!

But:

Croissant Donuts. Filled with Peanut Butter. Deep Fried. Sugar Coated. With Chocolate Sauce.

-Let's pause a moment in deep, meditative appreciation.-

Where was I? Oh - yeah. Fabulous birthday!

My Beltaine (May 1st), was also exceptionally great. We spent it in CT and it included grilling, more jewelry perusal, and another 2-hours of killer psycho-tennis that exercised our laughter muscles as much as anything else.

(For those unfamiliar with psycho-tennis, it's basically try and keep the ball moving and can include up to 6 people in the same game while equally trash-talking and supporting each others' fragile egos… while trying not to soil ones panties due to extreme laughter and horrible, horrible puns about balls.)

So, the moral/purpose to this post? Besides hopefully entertaining some of you … Don't forget to enjoy life. I have more writing fodder, more energy, and more overall jubilation from being disconnected from my e-life for those days. Also, though I didn't get to read all of your wonderful messages on my actual birthday - they manifested anyway. :D

Thank you - and spread the love!

Birthday Special!

Special thanks to Aimee Weinstein for this guest blog on my birthday so I don't have to write late! And it sounds sooooooo delicious!!!

Did you know that it’s Trish’s birthday today? It is – today, April 30th. I’m not telling how old she is – but she’s YOUNG! Especially compared to me. Today also happens to be my husband Marc’s birthday and every year he makes the same birthday dinner request. So in honor of Trish’s birthday, I thought I’d share the process, especially since I can’t make the dinner for Trish myself because I live in Tokyo!

Ingredients:
30 or so jumbo shrimp – prawns to be exact. Get them as big as possible! (Note from Trish: Below gives serving of 3-4 shrimp per person. Aimee throws the most fantastic parties, but if you're doing a much smaller gathering, plan accordingly. :) )
1 cup to a cup and a half of panko spread on a plate
a few eggs – beaten in a large bowl
oil
Italian red sauce – on the thin side, not too chunky
mozzarella cheese

The hard part of this procedure is peeling and de-veining the shrimp. The peels often come off in whole pieces if the shrimp are large enough, but not always. Then you have to take each shrimp and cut it in half lengthwise as evenly as possible – but DO NOT cut it all the way through. Butterfly it – cut it so it opens up and flattens out into one big piece. There is usually a big, dark vein that runs the length of the middle of the shrimp that must be removed as gently as possible to preserve the shape of the shrimp.

Heat oil in a large frying pan – but not too hot or you’ll burn the shrimp

Dip then dip each butterflied, de-veined shrimp into egg, then the panko. Some people repeat the process and double-bread it, but I do not. I like the shrimp taste too much to do it that way.

Lay the breaded shrimp in the oil in the pan and fast-fry them so the outside is golden brown, turning once.

After you take the shrimp out of the pan, lay it on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Slather each shrimp with sauce and mozzarella cheese. Bake until the cheese melts, 5 or 6 minutes.

I serve the shrimp over or beside pasta, making a full plate for each person. In general, each person eats 3-4 shrimp. It’s a filling enterprise.

This is the dinner that Marc requests every year. I make it only once a year because it is not difficult, but time consuming. But for everything that he does for me over the year, it’s the least I can do for him on his special day.

Someday I hope to do it for Trish too! (That would be sooooo fabulous!!) Happiest of Happy Days, Trish! (Thank you, Aimee! HUGS!! Please check out Aimee's blog at tokyowriter.wordpress.com)

Organizing April

If you receive my newsletter, you may have seen that I tried to keep April pretty free because of birthdays. If you don't get my newsletter… and want it… let me know, and I'll add you to my list.

Anyway, so, April. My birthday is the 30th, the H-of-A's is the 3rd… and there's a bunch in between and around. H-of-A & I throw a huge party in the middle of the month to celebrate them all. It's a very busy month… but a whole lot of fun!

It's not quite as "easy" as I planned, though.

This April, I've also got a few non-fic deadlines too, which will take some time. I'm also doing a Tarot event at Stained Glass Creations and Beyond. I've also got to do more recording for the April Broad Pod intros/summaries. And put it together. And then watch the tutorials of how to make them smaller. And try it… and post them. You get the picture.

I've also got a new adventure this month. I'm sharing a blog tour with several fabulous members of Broad Universe. I'm starting next week, and I'll open with more details for the next Manic Monday… but here's a little taste…

Jaleta Clegg will kick us off on April 11th.

"I live in Utah with a horde of my own children, my husband, and one elderly, toothless cat. Cats are required for SF/F authors, aren't they?"

Lynn Flewelling will appear on April 12th.

"The weirdest fan letter, if you can call it that, was definitely one I got from a man who wrote to tell me, at length, in tiny hand printing, over six sheets of paper, how I was 'destroying the fabric of the American family.' The return address was a state prison."

Brenna Lyons will appear on April 13th.

"Starting at about age 11, my teachers insisted on me entering anything they found for me. One even took my work to a local newspaper without telling me and suggested they publish me. […] I’d been published in recognized venues since I was 13."

Tracy Morris will appear on April 14th.

"My best known work is the Tranquility series, which is sort of what you would get if Jeff Foxworthy wrote the X-Files and set every episode in the town of Cicely, Alaska."

Pauline Baird Jones will appear on April 15th.

"I had so much fun writing Doc, my kick-butt genius heroine. And my hero is a redeemed, semi-bad guy from THE KEY. I did NOT plan that. He wouldn’t leave me alone until I gave him a girl to love. What’s an author to do?"

Kaz Augustine will appear on April 16th.

"I also cook. I love cooking, I adore cooking, although I don't have enough time to do much of it. In our library at home, we must have at least 200 cookbooks and I sit down and read through them in much the same way as I read a novel, from start to finish."

I'm wicked excited to have gotten to know these women more through these interviews - and I'm happy for the opportunity to share and spread their audiences. We've got a few different interviews floating around out there, so check out all of our blogs!

Hooray, April!