Too busy to write today

Feel free to make your own captions... I'm exhausted!

Automatic blog updating, Vacation, and Painful Sushi

Dees auto blog update thingies… I needz to figurz it outz.

I suppose that also goes with, you know, writing blog posts ahead of time, too.

Yeah… working on that.

I'll keep you posted. Assuming this damned hotel WiFi lets me…

Meantime, one of the many particularly cool things of this trip:

My husband is a Bushido Legend!!

No, he hasn't been playing with swords, but he did beat the Spicy Tuna Maki Challenge at the Bushido Restaurant in Charleston, SC.

(My very important role in this matter was cheering him on, documenting, and making sure the waitress kept him stocked with tea.)

I'm very proud of him!!

Now… to bed!

Meet the Voices in my Head

I'm far too distracted to do any useful blogging right now. My mind knows I'm going on vacation (next few blogs will be coming from Myrtle Beach (there's a reason for that particular link - you'll see next week!) and Wiscon!), and my characters are already fighting for who will get the time I don't dedicate to horseback riding, painting, or -gasp!- perchance… relaxing!

First things first: A giant THANK YOU! to K.S. Augustin who already donated towards the BSER Blogathon! You've met her here before for the Great Broad Blog Out, but now I get to ask even more fun questions of her… Homework: Go buy her books! They are HOT!

Now, thanks to second hand advice and conversations from my friend, Victoria Durm, per her meetings with Mark David Gerson, I'm going to introduce you to a few of the people who are contending for my attention.

Heather MacArthur is an 12-year-old with the good fortune of living in a haunted and magical castle in Scotland with her crazy family, and the questionable luck of… living in a haunted and magical castle in Scotland with her crazy family. She lives in a potential series of novels that started off as an idea for a short story.

Aurelio Sangreleyes, a vampire of more than a few centuries, is torn between the duties of protecting his race and a blood promise to protect a 15-year-old orphan (Sophia Marquez) - whose duty seems to be driving Aurelio crazy. Aurelio lives in a comic I'm writing with my friend Stef Gannon in which the story wouldn't manifest itself in any good writing until I realized the comic book medium.

Thomas is a "biomech" who dares challenge the status quo of human-android relations by falling in love and risking everything for the human he loves. And, if that's not bad enough, he insists has a soul and has the data to prove it. He lives in two different novels, one that's about 2/3 drafted, the other only a synopis. (Thomas also looks like David Tennant.)

Alec Bradshaw is having some "issues" with immortality and immortal beings. During the Apocalypse. Oh, and he's supposed to help stop said Apocalypse with the unattainable girl he loves. Alec lives in the novel (and potential sequels) that I'm currently working with Christy on.

Kyra Starbard is meant to continue the family legacy of interpreting the future from the stars' songs. Her deafness, incurable by the best medics, breaks her mother's heart and pushes her father to explore anything to help his little girl--including the expensive purchase of a telepathic alien servant to help Kyra communicate on a planet inhospitable to unfixable genetic defects. She is currently querying agents with her best friend, Marne.

Lily Minor knows that graveyards are safe because her mother never locks the doors there - and when decision proves dangerous, the cemetery angels come to life and dead relatives come to their aid. Lily lives in a short story that is basically done with some minor edits from my correspondence writing group.

… And those are just who is on my mind right now. Demanding immediate attention. I tallied it up and I've got about 15 worlds in my head, with 2-4 (or more - Heather's 1 of 5 siblings and has two "interesting" parents!) major characters in each.

So, if you're wondering why I may seem distracted, it's THEIR fault!

To my writer friends, who is on your mind??

Writing overtaken by nommm…

I make money as a food writer, so my Writerly Wednesday is will be infused with the awesomeness of dinner tonight.

Y'all get a restaurant review. J

We went to Natalie's in Camden, Maine tonight.

The short version:

Oh.

My.

God.

It's been a few years since I've been to a real gourmet restaurant, and my one big request for this vacation was to go out to a fancy restaurant. My treat.

If you watch Food TV or read food magazines, then you know it's almost a no-brainer to go with the chef's sampling dinner.

Perfect choice.

Bread course included the best sourdough we've ever had, along with a great multigrain bread. The bread had a nice chew and crumb and was served with a butter salted with Maine sea salt.

Our server was excellent, and it was clear that he was paying attention to us in our conversation and beyond. The first hint of this was when he offered us more bread – and then brought us a whole loaf of it that we used to sop up the amazing dressings and sauce from the following courses.

Our first course was a mushroom bisque with a porcini garnish. It was served in the equivalent of a double shot glass, but with a cool bow and bend to the sides. It was so rich that there didn't need to be more; it was all I could do not to lick out the soup that coated the sides.

The next course was raw oysters served with tarragon butter with mini-salads of microgreens. The oysters were perfect, meaty and the microgreens had a nice bite to them with a slight bit of balsamic dressing them up.

After the perfect oysters, we had marinated salmon with microgreens and poached quail eggs. I hate to be redundant, but: perfect. The salmon could be cut with the fork, it was so tender. It's texture melted on my mouth, and the quail eggs, microgreens, fresh pepper really complimented it.

Soft poached eggs followed the salmon. They were silky, smooth, and dressed with another garnish of porcini mushroom with a broth and Worcestershire sauce. As our server explained, soft poached eggs are a big trend in the gourmet world. No surprise. It was quite the luxurious texture to go with the richness of the broth, sauce, and porcini.

Tangerine sherbet cleansed our pallets before the main entrée. Scott's comment: "I think I will dream in tangerine." The clementines we had back in the hotel were weeping in shame compared to the sherbet.

Throughout the meal, our server chatted with us about various food and wine topics. We asked for a bottle of wine that would go with the meal. The chef recommended a 2007 California Chardonnay that was not heavily oaked. I love Chardonnay, and it was a perfect match for all the food. However, Scott is not a big fan of Chardonnay, and he had mentioned in passing to our waiter that he preferred red wine. With the dinner, the waiter brought over a steak knife for Scott and a fresh glass of Pinot Noir.

That meant different entrées. Which was quite the surprise because we figured we'd both have exactly the same thing – as we had for the other courses. Scott also had mentioned a few times when we were looking at the menu that he was looking forward to duck. Well, that's what he got. Me, I got monkfish cheeks with scallions and porcini mushrooms. We both found our dinners heavenly. I did taste his and it was phenomenal, melt-in-your-mouth-while-still-having-crunchy-skin excellence. As for my monkfish cheeks… I love fish, I never knew how much one could potentially love fish until that moment, though. It also had this soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture but also had a good chew on it. It was lightly crusted and seasoned, napped in rich broth, contrasting with the crunch of the scallions and chewiness of the mushrooms.

Ok, I have to repeat:

Oh.

My.

God.

And then there was dessert.

Soufflé. Vanilla crème soufflé.

Just sayin', Julia Child would be proud.

We finished up with espresso and coffee – and homemade chocolate truffles sweetened the bill.

Ok, so it was a LOT of money… so much, I'm not even writing it here.

But it was worth every penny.

If you're in Camden, Maine – save your money so you can spend it at Natalie's. Really!

Vacation!

Some people would complain if it snowed on their vacation. Not me.

Snow is falling outside, Husband-of-Awesome is sprawled on the couch watching the Pat's game, and I'm having some quality time with Rosie. It's kind of funny, because he's paying as much attention to me as I am to him – though we keep talking to each other.

(The exception is during my moments of maximum expletive vocalization because I keep screwing up on my slightly smaller keyboard – or I can't remember my damned bank security questions. That seems to get his attention.)

Anyway, falling outside is lovely snow that we have to neither shovel nor move nor drive in. And a beautiful grey and white-capped ocean outside our balcony. The heat works great, and while I miss the crackling wood stove, it's very nice to not have to get up every 20-30 minutes to maintain it.

We have plenty of wine and alcohol, and I brought all my beta reader comments to Starbard, my sketchpad, pencils, and watercolors. Scott also picked me up Heat Wave – because I wanted it. I have many choices of what I will do in this welcome snow-in: all things I WANT to do – including editing Starbard.

Breakfast food and leftovers from yesterday's family Yule party sustain us for the night. It should be cleared up tomorrow – and we may attempt a winter hike or ocean walk. Just because. Or we may visit some distilleries or vineyards or galleries. Or we may stay in again.

It's up to us.

We don't HAVE to be accountable or organized.

We're on vacation.

Life is good.

xx

Decided to work on Kyra, so I spent a good 9 hours or so going through the hefty pile of feedback I'd gotten over a year earlier. I took extra special care on the Husband-of-Awesome's comment because one of the things I've always appreciated about him is his honesty.

I'm okay if he says a pair of jeans isn't flattering on me. It means I don't look bad going out.

I'm even better when he tells me a scene isn't working. It would be something an editor or agent would definitely catch.

Also, his enthusiasm for the Starbard has been a great push. He wouldn't be excited if there wasn't anything to be excited about.

So, now, I have a good 6 inches of commented pages between him and others to work on… and he's perfectly comfy watching TV while I type away.

Yay!

xx

Oh, and an aside cool thing about this place is the nifty journals they keep in the room. I took a few breaks between versions of Starbard to look at the other entries and add some of my own.

Analog blogging!

Would it be bad form to leave a business card in the pages?

I was too excited to work on Starbard to take pix today, but I did yesterday before the snow fell.

Why bring this up?

Because the other really cool thing about this place is the ocean is outside my door.