Wit, Words, and Joie de Vivre

Food Tips 2: Consider Small Changes

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:12:41 GMT

2nd in a series of posts on eating better and cooking more.

Have you seen those shows where the host goes into someone's pantry and throws out all their Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and Fruit Loops and forces them to make tofu steak and steamed vegetables for dinner?

I've noticed people often go overboard when they get the itch for change, whether it's because they are trying to lose weight, they had some sort of health crisis, or they saw a documentary on some scary aspect of the food industry.

In my experience, going overboard only works for a little while. You might consider it to cleanse your system or something, but over the long-term, consider the baby step.

For example, three years ago I didn't drink much, maybe 2-3 glasses of juice a day and maybe a little water at bedtime. I never liked water growing up. I wanted to drink more, and I could have just gone straight to dropping juice forever and trying to drink eight glasses of water a day, but I bet that wouldn't have worked. So over a three-year period I made the following changes:
1. Stopped drinking juice that had additional sweeteners, and limited juice to 2 glasses a day. Otherwise, drank herb tea with honey.
2. Limited juice to 1 glass a day.
3. Started sweetening tea with just a smidge of juice instead of honey.
4. Cut sweetener out of tea altogether and tried to drink at least 2 cups a day.
5. Tried to drink 4 cups of unsweetened tea or water a day, and the only juices now allowed are not-from-concentrate organic orange or grapefruit juice, or high antioxidant juices like pomegranate, which I try to drink less than 4 times a week.

As you can see I'm still not up to the ideal half-my-body-weight-in-water. But I am drinking more water, less juice, and I stick to it. I might lapse back to stage 4 some days but I am definitely not going to suddenly go back to stage 1 because it was so gradual.

You can try this with anything you know you're doing wrong in your diet. What can you do that is just ONE STEP better? Like, say you're living on McDonalds. You could try stocking your kitchen with easy food like microwave meals that contain one little vegetable, some organic hot dogs, whatever is just a smidge better. And when you get used to that, just go one step farther. Commit to eating a piece of fruit with your meal, or go for only natural convenience food, or make macaroni and cheese and add peas or something.

How do you know when to move on? I usually just know because I start to feel like the latest change has become routine and I'm itching to eat just a little better again.

Food Tips 1: Subscribe to Cooking Magazines

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:51:17 GMT

childings commented yesterday about weaning herself off of junk food, learning to cook (in vain) and whether I had any cookbooks or recipes to recommend. I've been meaning for awhile to make a general post with tips on eating and cooking, as she is not the first person to ask, so today is the day.

Cooking and eating, mind you, are sort of like writing a novel. There are people who talk about wanting to be writers and write, but who like to talk about it more than do it, or who seem to think it should be easy. Also, the same method won't work for everyone. I can only speak from personal experience.

--Cookbooks. If you're trying to motivate yourself to cook, cookbooks are a good way to have things sitting on your shelf that you can stare at and think, "I should make something out of that sometime." I only use cookbooks when I already know what I want and I just need a more specific recipe or some advice on technique. If you're just starting out, I recommend getting a few general cookbooks with notes on technique like Joy of Cooking and maybe How to Cook Everything or something.

Then, I say, subscribe yourself to some magazines!

One of the reason I became a great cook in a very short period of time is because the health food store where I work stocks the following cooking magazines: Cooking Light, Eating Well, Fine Cooking, Cook's Illustrated, Saveur, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Vegetarian Times, Taste of Italia, as well as some nutrition/wellness magazines with more recipes, and two free handout magazines that contain recipes every month. Sometimes the store is DEAD and I am watching the register so nearly every month I read nine cooking magazines.

Cooking magazines are more fun than cookbooks, I find. They have lots of flashy full-color spreads and fun articles and tips. You can stick them in your bathroom. Don't feel you have to necessarily cook with them, just read them and see if you don't soon see a recipe that makes you think, "Ooh, I want to try that". Even if you just cook a few recipes from them every month, do read the articles on cooking technique, and look over recipes that sound interesting even if you know you'll never make them. What did they use? Lemon? Paprika? What was the technique? Did they marinade? Did they brown? You'll start to absorb this stuff into your subconscious eventually.

Also, if you have no sense of how to cook with the seasons, this way you'll start to pick up on what foods are in season when.

If you just get one, I like Cooking Light--it has a LOT of recipes in it, and they're very practical for just about anybody. Fine Cooking is probably next best for a general magazine. After that, they all sort of serve different needs. Saveur is fancy but fun to read, Vegetarian Times is good if you're vegetarian (I know, shock!) and has good suggestions for anyone who wants to eat less meat, Cook's Illustrated takes recipes and explains in detail the best method for making it and what doesn't work, which can be very interesting.

This got long so I'm breaking it into separate posts for separate tips.

Sunday Dinner-ish post: Legume Love

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:51:12 GMT

I ate very very badly this week, by my standards, so today it was time for fruits and veggies, yes indeed.

For lunch I chopped two zucchinis and one tomato, tossed in extra-virgin olive oil with salt, oregano, and granulated garlic, and baked at 450 until they were almost done. Then I threw in a handful of raw pine nuts for a little protein and let them toast a bit.

For dinner, a quick salad that really came to life with help from good ingredients. I got a bottle of good-quality olive oil last week, and a can of Eden chickpeas, which in my mind are the best canned chickpeas going.

Salad:
1 Romaine heart, washed and torn into small pieces
Half a can of chickpeas
2-3 oz. feta cheese
Juice of a lemon
Drizzling of good olive oil
Sprinking of salt

I also tossed in some avocado I had leftover from something else. It wasn't even necessary. Great salad. I really tasted the fruitiness of that olive oil... I think I might just replicate the salad for dinner tomorrow.

I actually considered spending some of my tax stimulus whatever money on $70 worth of Eden canned beans. I was getting all a-flutter at the thought of being so stocked up on delicious beans. But then I kind of came to my senses. I'll wait for a sale at Publix. Sigh.

I have been frequently craving beans lately. It doesn't help that I recently read the average American only eats 6.5 pounds of beans annually. How...minimal! I love beans, from the rich-but-delicate cannelini, perfectly paired with dark greens and chicken broth in a soup, chickpeas tossed into a salad or fragrant with Indian spices in chana masala, black beans or pintos paired with sweet potatoes, cheddar cheese and cumin, black-eyed peas cooked up Southern-style with some good organic bacon (I would say ham hock...but try finding a naturally raised ham hock around here...)...

I also ate 2 peaches and half a pineapple! And I bought a jump rope at Target and I have been jumping away...I am so much more inclined to exercise when I can do something simple and playful.

The strange customers that almost were

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Sun, 11 May 2008 04:17:30 GMT

Today at work we had a pair of sandhill cranes wandering around outside. (For anyone not in North America, or perhaps in an area that doesn't happen to be a crane hangout, they are big gray birds, as tall as a small child, and according to Wikipedia "the Florida subspecies...seems little afraid of human approach"--well, THAT's for sure!)

They kept coming up to the windows, where the male would proceed to rap his beak like he wanted our attention.

At one point they walked right up to the sliding door and he tapped on it like he wanted in. It looked so funny and so--human! Then the door suddenly flings open and both cranes turn and scurry a few feet away like naughty children who got caught at something, their feathers vaguely ruffled.

But they quickly regained their composure and strolled off to go dig up some of the landscaping across the street.

Too cute!!

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:14:56 GMT

Last night I dreamt of supposed occurrences in "the original" version of Magic Under Glass. In the dream, the automaton was originally owned by Seventeen magazine, there was a rapper named "Cudge" (which was a mangling of "Cuz") who seemed like a Boondocks character, and Al Gore saves the day at the end of the story.

Apparently this was my idea filtered through an Adult Swim program.

Teaser Tuesday: Magic Under Glass

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:30:35 GMT

I have not posted much since I figured out my problem with MUG *and* how to fix it (with a little help from watchmebe). My MCs emotional arc just wasn't quite THERE. It was an improvement over the original and first rewrite, to be sure...but not there. I knew that Nimira does grow over the course of the story, but she kind of grew in random, unconnected ways...some coherence and emotional impact was lacking.

So here is what I did. I printed up the story so far and basically wrote a scene-by-scene synopsis in my notebook, only instead of writing out the plot itself, I just wrote down what Nimira was feeling and thinking in each scene. Forcing myself to articulate this really helped me see how to make this HER story, and how she changes.

I'm back in the thick of some very contented revising now!

Meanwhile, here is a teaser, taking place in the afternoon after Erris has come to life:

Miss Rashten brought us lunch without a word. We looked at her, and she looked at us, and she hurried out, like her mind simply wouldn’t stand for an automaton coming to life. I picked up my fork, but Erris only stared at the food.

“Can you eat?”

He stared at the meat, and a terrible anguish dawned on his face. “I don’t think I can.”

“Are you sure?”

He stood, shoving his chair back, and stood at the window. “You eat. I can’t.”

“All right.” I sliced my beef, and poked it with my fork. I pushed it back and forth in its own bloody juices. I usually loved beef, but just then I couldn’t imagine why I had ever wanted to eat the stuff.

Erris patted his pockets, like he hoped to find something—cigarettes? Snuff? Some fairy vice? He came back empty, and gnawed on his lip.

I had started to forget that he still was, in some ways, an automaton. I remembered that I was supposed to wind him. I had liked to do it before, when he was just a stiff doll. Now I imagined myself sticking a key into living flesh. It seemed a violation.

“Erris, do you know how long it takes before you wind down?” I asked.

“No. I’ll tell you if I feel it coming on.”

“You never stayed wound this long before.”

“Thank goodness, I’d be passing out every half an hour.” He returned to his chair, with a certain reluctance. I raced through a hundred uncomfortable thoughts—would he age? Would his hair grow? Could he have children? If he was hurt, would he heal? If he was cut, what was under his skin?

He must have been thinking the same things, but we didn’t talk about any of it. He watched me poke at my food. I forced down a few bites.

He stopped watching, with a soft sigh. From the tray he selected a pastry dusted with sugar, and licked the top. The sweet sugar melted in his mouth, just as it should—I knew by the flash of yearning satisfaction that crossed his face.

He looked at that pastry like he was wishing a lover farewell, then he dropped it on the plate. “I’ll be in the library,” he said.

Novel meme

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 02:14:17 GMT

Saw this at sora_blue's. Figured it's a good warm-up for plunging back into some editing tonight. I will also steal her line that it's mostly for my own interest...but, just so it IS interesting, I'm including my childhood attempts to write "real" novels. I will only mention the ones I got near the finish line on.

1. Mellissa (1992?)--I've mentioned this one before. It was about 20 pages handwritten, which I thought was pretty much novel length because it seemed like it took FOREVER, and I started to hand-write it formatted for submission to editors, but gave up. I wrote it for "the market". That is, it was about a girl and a horse even though I didn't like horses, but other girls did. Also I couldn't spell "Melissa".

2. (1994) I think this was called something like "Ones From Night's Darkest Shadow", or something pretentious, but it was a comedic (in theory) tale that ripped off of Xanth, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Final Fantasy games copiously.

3. Finding Faress (1995). Strange novel. Sort of an attempt at epic fantasy, but it was all over the damn place. We had racial tension between the cherubic cherads and their darker counterparts the derads, an undead guy, a healer woman, an annoyingly precocious child dumped on the undead man's doorstep, a missing world leader who was supposedly going to fix an entire world of ills...a lot of my classic themes, executed in a haphazard fashion.

4. The Characters novel (1996). I'm not sure it ever had a title. My first foray into writing about Det, Stan and Leslie. I had just met rusalkatrix, who was at that point the first person I'd ever met who had actually FINISHED a full-length novel, and she was very encouraging, so I actually managed to write an end to this. (Albeit an ending where the bad guy says "Time to take out the trash!") Of course, it pains me to even look at this now, but there were some good jokes in it.

5. The Life and Times of Det Arianni (1998). My most emo novel attempt. Young Det cuts himself, says stuff like "I like pain", drives a knife through his unfeeling hand just to show how bad-ass he is, draws broody art, and loses pretty much everyone close to him, plus an eye. The only thing that made it remotely tolerable was that it was from the perspective of the more sensible Veruvisa, his half-sister turned lover....except she wasn't originally his half-sister, only after she was reborn to save...um, yeah, nevermind. Just forget it.

6. On Borrowed Wings (1999-present). This idea had some real merit, as I am still trying to get it sorted out, now called "Wingless". It was just too ambitious for me at 17. I didn't have the plotting skills. But the characters were good and a couple of people who read what I had around 2001 really liked it, which was encouraging, because neither of these people were really my friends, so I suspected they were being honest.

7. Selkie Rock (2000). My first completed novel that went out on submission, about a small town of vampires, faeries, etc. undercover in America, particularly changeling faery Becky MacArthur. I still like this story but it was probably too quiet to sell, and no one told me NOT to start with a prologue of backstory.

8. My Dear Leslie (2005-present). Updated Det/Stan/Leslie novel. Still trying to puzzle this one out.

9. Magic Under Glass (late 2005-present). You all know this one!

10. Something That Sings (2007). You probably all know this one too.

Back to editing now.

Pimpin' my sister

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:02:13 GMT

My sister is an artist. She just posted on her Livejournal that she has a new blog. Which isn't a Livejournal. Boo. Now I'll never remember to look at her blog again.

But check it out: she has a lot of nice photography of Florida and new art posted, including bird prints. I really like this one: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10576638

Once in awhile I just like to talk her up. She doesn't ask me to, but that's what sisters are for!

www.pencilshavings.net/wordpress

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 02:06:45 GMT

If you want to procrastinate for just a bit, this was hard, but not impossible:

http://www.robmathiowetz.com/

Oh, StumbleUpon... Usually I forget you're there, and then I spend too much time looking at silly things.

I just feel stuck, stuck, stuck with MUG. I'm so close to done. The emotions right at the end just aren't right. This is the stage where one SHOULD just relax and wait for it to work itself out, but...oh, I'm not very patient! *throttles manuscript*

I swear, this is the only time food and male anatomy will meet on my LJ

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:25:55 GMT

Swiss Chard with Pine Nuts, Golden Raisins and Italian Cheese

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:25:37 GMT

I made this for dinner last night with that fancy parmigiano butter. Damn, that butter was good! It gave it this velvety, rich taste almost along the lines of bacon fat. But different. I posted the recipe to vegrecipes but I thought I'd post it here too, although I'm increasingly suspecting that I need a dedicated food blog so writing and food aren't all muddled together...

Toast about 3 T. pine nuts. You can do this in the toaster oven in a pan or in a heavy dry skillet. Just keep an eye; they go from toasty to burned in seconds flat. And shake the pan once in the middle to get 'em even.
Meanwhile, soak about 3 T. golden raisins (I prefer hunza) in some water.
Trim and cut the chard leaves into strips and cut the stems into chunks. Keep them separate.

Melt in a pan:
--1 T. butter

When the butter is melted, add the chard stems. Salt to taste. Saute until they begin to soften. Add leaves. Stir, pushing uncooked leaves under the cooked leaves, until just wilted.
Drain raisins. Serve chard mixed with raisins and pine nuts. Shave some hard Italian cheese like parmigiano or asiago with a vegetable peeler.

With the fats and protein from butter, cheese and pine nuts, this 15-minute dish is basically a meal in itself. To do a vegan version, just leave off the cheese and use olive oil...I'd probably cook the chard in a little olive and drizzle some high-quality olive oil on at the end.

Books and food

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:45:12 GMT

It's March 31st and I have already finished reading 35 books this year!!

My usual yearly goal is two books a week, or 104 books. So I'm well on my way to making up for last year, when I read a dismal 78 books.

The latest book recs:

Miss Spitfire by Sarah Miller was a story told with passion and fascinating detail. It tells how Annie Sullivan taught language to Helen Keller, basically covering from Annie's arrival to the famous moment at the water pump. Snippets of Annie's past are woven through the narrative. I was already interested in the story of these two women, as it touches on both issues of disability and language, which I find fascinating, but Sarah knows and loves her subject, and she brought something fresh.

Sold by Patricia McCormick is a moving verse novel about a young Nepalese girl sold into prostitution to India. Like other good verse novels I've read, it packs a serious emotional punch, especially considering the tragic subject. I can read some pretty upsetting stuff without getting upset, but considering how many women are in this situation in the world, and how hopeless their lot in life generally is...well, it's really sad. Still, Lakshmi's story does have as happy an ending as such a story could have.

In other news, our printer gave up the ghost this week. I am now the proud owner of a laser printer. This means I am SO prepared to send out manuscripts for MUG when it'd done!

In food news, Saveur just had an issue on butter. Naturally, page after page extolling the deliciousness of butter got a real craving for the stuff going, and might prompt one to become a butter connoisseur. Especially since the latest (ever-contradicting) nutritional news has been saying that butter is better for you than was previously thought. Today I bought some parmigiano-reggiano butter to try (the butter from the milk used for making the cheese). I also have to note that Saveur's suggestion to dip french fries in kecap manis, the sweet soy sauce from Indonesia, was a good one indeed. Kecap manis tastes like a rich, molasses-y soy sauce and I've been dipping roasted veggies in it too.

I also made this very basic mango lassi (an Indian-style smoothie) yesterday and it was PHENOMENAL.
Blend:
Flesh of 1 mango
1 c. whole milk yogurt
A little ice
1/2 t. cardamom

It sounded so simple. I didn't expect it to taste like heaven. The rich yogurt and the sweet creamy mango were good enough, but the cardamom gives it a lingering aftertaste of spice...it was almost as decadent tasting as a good chocolate bar.

So I'm not a morning person, but...

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:06:24 GMT

Here's why I hope Carrie Jones will be elected to state legislator in Maine:

1. She is the fabulous author of books like Tips for Having a Gay (Ex) Boyfriend, Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape), and the upcoming Girl, Hero (hey, it's the first one without parentheses!) and Need.
2. She is a kind and gracious person.
3. She is funny!!
4. She deeply CARES about things and she is not afraid to say-so, to remind us all to be more aware of the issues that matter to us.
5. She's just cool, okay?

Vote for Carrie! Or buy her books, at least. And even if you are, like me, rather poor, Tips will soon be available in paperback! Yay!

I'm practically ready to survive in the wild

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:01:50 GMT

Today was gorgeous outside. GORGEOUS. Usually in March the weather is already hinting it would like to burn your face off and also mosquitoes would like to eat you. But today never hit 70. The sky was as blue as blue can be, the sun was shining, the breeze was blowing... You could practically burst into song without half-trying.

So my sister and I went to the Spring Hammock Reserve and walked around for almost two hours.

I was hungry and thirsty, at least a little, while walking, and we spotted some orange trees laden with fruit out of reach. Like some kind of divine intervention, there also happened to be a very long, very sturdy stick on the ground with a prong on the end. It was practically MADE to yank out-of-reach oranges from trees. I managed to wedge the prong around a tempting orange and with some serious tugging, it fell to the ground on the nearby creek bed.

I scrabbled down the sandy, grassy ledge and retrieved my prize. Nature's snack! Produced by my own ingenuity!

The thing was a real bitch to peel, dripping all over my hands, including the serious cut on my thumb from a bad encounter with a blunt knife and an onion last week. But finally, finally, there it was, my orange, smelling delectable, and...

Well, tasting like a semi-astringent lemon.

Oh well. I still felt pretty triumphant.

A southeast Asian Easter; Vietnamese chicken recipe

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:18:11 GMT

I hit 40k on Magic Under Glass. The end looms on the horizon! At least, gosh, I hope so. I'm exploding with eagerness to work on the mermaid book, or...something.

I've been reading almost twice as many books this year as I did last year. A couple good recent YA reads: Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale. I could not get into Goose Girl to save my life, but I had to read this book, since the setting is based on the Mongolian steppes, which is so unusual and intriguing to me. The plot drew me in, too: a girl and her maid are locked in a tower with food reserves for a number of years because the girl refuses to marry this jerk from another region. (Forgive me if I'm not describing this in the best detail.) Anyway, it didn't disappoint. I tore through it. It's a page turner with a lively voice.

I also loved Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell. The characters are just over-the-top enough to be hilarious, without losing the heart of the story. It's another page turner, about a overachieving, perfectionist girl who travels in Southeast Asia with her crazy grandmother. It also has a fabulously quirky love interest: an Asian "cowboy" named Hanks with fake sideburns. Somehow this is more charming than one might initially suppose. It's hard to predict which books are going to go on my "Top 10 YA Reads of the Year" list, but I can almost guarantee this one will make it because the characters and predicaments are so memorable.

Changing subjects...

My mom's birthday is March 22nd. It didn't seem right for her to make Easter dinner on what is practically her birthday, so I volunteered to handle dinner this year. It was not the traditional menu, but it was a hit. Mom made Vietnamese summer rolls and my sister handled the simple dessert of strawberries, whipped cream and ginger thins. I made the rest (with sister as most-crucial kitchen aide): ga xao sa (Vietnamese lemongrass chicken), browned green beans in soy sauce and honey, and Jasmine rice. For mom and I, the sole avocado-aficionados in the family, I also made a simple salad of avocado and mango dressed with lime juice and olive oil, black sesame seeds and cilantro.

Then we had an easter egg hunt. Since some of us are trying to eat healthy *cough* she filled them with loose change and stickers.

I've shared my recipe for Ga Xao Sa before, but I'm sharing it again because I've figured out, over the many times I've made it, how adaptable and delicious it is. (Of course, if you adapt it, it's not exactly called Ga Xao Sa anymore...)

The basic foundation of what makes the recipe good is the marinated chicken. I always marinate it in the following, per 1 lb cubed chicken:

--1 T. fish sauce (available at Asian markets or Asian sections of better grocery stores)
--1 t. sugar
--2 t. cornstarch
--1 T. dark sesame oil (ditto w. fish sauce, also often available at health food stores)

The recipe also calls for it to be marinated with lemongrass stalks, but I have done it with minced ginger and/or garlic for other delicious results.

You can easily add vegetables. Saute them first in a wok or wok pan on med-high heat, in a little peanut oil, unti their colors come out and they're softening a little, and set them aside. I usually do broccoli and red pepper. You could do mushrooms, green beans...anything you like.

Next, the recipe calls for heating peanut oil and adding 2 T. minced scallions or shallots and 2 cloves minced garlic. I usually do scallions, and I do a LOT more than 2 T...like half a bunch of scallions. But you could also do onions, or you could leave that out entirely. Last night I had no scallions, and I added the garlic in later so it wouldn't burn or get lost on the sides of the wok somewhere.

Cook the chicken at a high-heat and stir it *constantly* until you don't see ANY pink. A thick crust of brown stuff will form on the bottom of the wok, which is good. When the chicken is cooked, you can add minced garlic at this point if you like, and cook just 30 seconds or so to soften the flavor.

Then, add the finishing sauce. Per 1 lb. chicken:

1 T. fish sauce
1/3 c. water
1 T. brown sugar

Pour it in, lower the heat. Your wok will have a thick crust of brown stuff on the bottom. Now that you have liquid in the pan, you can scrape all that stuff up and it becomes part of the sauce. (Add a little more water if the sauce evaporates too fast.) Add the veggies back in and stir so they can get some of the sauce on them too. At this point you can also add fresh herbs like sweet Thai basil or cilantro if you like; let them cook just enough to wilt. And, you're done!

To sum up (optional steps in parentheses):

--Marinate chicken for at least 2 hours
--(Stir-fry vegetables)
--(Briefly saute aromatics)
--Stir-fry chicken at high heat in peanut oil until done
--(Add aromatics)
--Add finishing sauce
--(Add back in vegetables and fresh herbs if desired)

It's very easy and to this day, the only recipe I've found that tastes like food from a good Asian restaurant.

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:30:29 GMT

ravelda nominated me for a Roar award. Thanks, Karen!

However, I'm going to be a party pooper about it and not nominate anybody. I'm sorry, but choosing 5 of you to nominate means NOT choosing 195 of you, and there are some days I might be in the mood; today (or should I say lately?) isn't one of them.

I used to keep this LJ just as an easy way to maintain a diary. After all, I'd never been able to keep up with a paper diary. Typing is easy, posting gave me a funny sense of being "accountable" even if hardly anyone was reading. Moreover, I was always bubbling over with the need to babble about my characters, and the LJ gave me this feeling that while no one was probably reading these long-ass boring posts, somebody MIGHT be.

However, that was a different time, when my f'list was a fraction of the size and most of the people on it came from the thriftwhore comm or were old friends of mine.

These days, whether I like it or not, my Livejournal has become a place where professionals might see me and potentially judge me. And you know? Sometimes that's kind of a scary environment to blog in! I miss being able to ramble about my characters for three pages and get 0 comments and not care, but I would feel strange if I did that now. I don't make a huge effort to be entertaining to a broad audience. At this point, that just isn't my style. But I at least try not to embarrass myself.

I have respect for anyone who keeps a regular Livejournal and says what's on their mind under these circumstances, knowing their LJ has become a semi-professional forum. I guess, with my own blog-anxiety, I just can't possibly single anybody out!

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:46:11 GMT

Sometimes I can't sleep in the middle of the night and I'm thinking about something incredibly pointless.

Like, last night. I was thinking how, in movies and TV, whenever people go to a restaurant, 70% of the time it's one of those really NYC/LA type of restaurants that is dimly lit and people are dressed up and there is an extensive wine list and such. And very very chic lighting. (If the characters are on a date, that figure jumps to 90%.)

If they are not in a fancy restaurant, they are probably in a diner or a sandwich shop or some slice of Americana type restaurant.

I would like to see characters in a movie go to some hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese restaurant that is playing that cheesy, strangely soothing crooning Vietnamese pop music.

That led me to think about restaurants in novels. Dining scenes are usually knocked in books in general, but if you do end up with one, restaurants can be a great character on their own.

I have a number of recurring made-up restaurants in the Arestin stories: Tabemono, Lucci's, Moondreams, The Cherry Coffeehouse (which also serves food), and the Irish pub. My favorite is probably The Pompous Pomegranate, a chain bistro with a monocle-wearing pomegranate for a mascot, where female servers where cheongsams for no real reason, and all the food is pretentious.

"Do they have a kabob or something?" Alfred asked.

George skimmed the menu. "They have the 'Down South Kabob'. 'Made Tlah-style, these kabobs are grilled tender in a spicy-sweet mango chipotle marinade, served with pink salt plantain slices.'"

"Oh, good God, whatever."

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:24:35 GMT

Today I stumbled across some Youtube videos of Bryan Ferry singing a cheesy duet with Twiggy on her show. That made me wonder if any of my characters were ever on a cheesy 70's talk show.

ONE CAN ONLY HOPE.

But most weren't born yet. Except...Det! And he was in a musical in 1969 wherein he played a brooding albino pianist ghost dude. NATURALLY you would follow that up by an appearance on a cheesy 70's talk show. Right?

Thus, here is Det circa 1972* singing a duet that probably includes a 40's standard, a song from Motown, and something from a British Invasion band:

*The fashions aren't really that correct for 1972 actually. So who knows and who cares.

Phew.

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:58:14 GMT

I made it through the weekend, and the biggest shindig I've ever pulled off: Dade's surprise 35th birthday party.

The hardest part was keeping the secret. I tell Dade everything, and I was practically bursting with it, but I managed not to make a peep and he was very surprised. I made way too much food and cleaned the house in 5 hours, leaving me totally exhausted by the time the party actually began, but it was so worth it to surprise him with all his closest friends. Awesome.

Yesterday we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for his low-key birthday dinner, that was a nice break for ME. Grandma and Grandpa's house is so relaxing and obviously the food was good.

I've been on a Japanese study kick this week. I started trying to learn Japanese when I was 14 and just beginning my anime geekdom. Most anime geeks go through the "learn Japanese" phase at some point, but I was really serious about it back then. I guess it appeals to both my aesthetics and my fascination with language. Every couple years I pull out all my books again and spend a few weeks studying. It keeps me from forgetting it, and actually, I do build on what I know every time. I especially love studying the writing. It would be a huge pain if I actually NEEDED to learn it! But as a hobby I love kanji. Once you start to learn how many of them are actually little pictures relating to the word, it becomes like a game to figure them out.

Last night I helped Dade figure out what some of his Japanese books on modeling say, and I even impressed myself...!

Teaser Tuesday for Magic Under Glass

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:45:51 GMT

The germ of a dangerous idea began to form in my mind.

I reached for a book on Hollin’s father’s shelf: Mastery of Man: the Perils of Sorcery and the Summoning of Demons, Illustrated with 32 Color Plates, by the Reverend Abram Crane. The Queen of the Longest Night came up in the second chapter.

“The great fairies, as one shall find past the warded Gate, are ruled by the King of the Longest Day, otherwise known as the Day King or Sun King. The underworld has an equivalent fairy ruler, The Queen of the Longest Night; however, she holds much more power in her realm than the Day King does in his own, as all the demons of the underworld follow the rule of the fairies. All sinners fall under the cruel sway of this treacherous creature.”

An illustration showed a woman with flowing hair whose scowling face reminded me of the ukuki, the trickster spirits of Tiansher. She carried a sword aloft, and rode in a chariot formed of skulls and bones, pulled along by emaciated black horse-creatures with bat wings and ram horns. Dying men seemed to be pleading for mercy just before she ran them down with her chariot.

However, could I trust the Reverend Abram Crane? Indeed, he did not find anything magic very pleasant, it seemed, as I continued thumbing through the pages. Unicorns were good for hunting, mermaids were “immodest” and “cruel”, winged people were “hideous thieves”, and page upon page was devoted to the dangers, evils, and trickery of fairies.

I thought of the fairy woman, pleading to me in her musical accent, kicking her slippered feet, before Smollings and Melsing dragged her away. Who from the race of men could call another people evil?

“The necromancer lights candles…he whispers a plea into the dim room…the ghosts stir in their graves, while the demons blink eagerly from the shadows… She is coming, they whisper. The Queen may appear to those who call her, and that is why righteous men and women dare not even speak her name.”

I read on, nervous but fluttering with excitement. The Reverend Abram Crane gave instructions for summoning the Queen of the Longest Night, although his sneering tone left no question that he disapproved. He went on for page after page about the damnation that fell upon those who summoned her.

I had no fear of damnation, only of the spirits who had claimed Annalie’s life.

Picture Post!

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:51:51 GMT

I haven't done a picture post in awhile. And the other day I spent a few hours on a comic about Alfred. I still miss Alfred even his story had to be shelved for the moment.

But, for starters, I noticed I haven't added a new picture of Det Arianni, my all-time favorite character, to the "Det" folder since September '05. I don't draw Det much anymore. How many times can you draw a guy in 14 years? But here is a sketch, just 'cause.

Leslie and Gideon, characters from "My Dear Leslie" of course. Gideon is Leslie's gay best friend who turns out to not actually be gay (maybe). Kind of the reverse of the boyfriend who ends up being gay...

Another Gideon shot. I love this picture except his torso is too long and something just went wrong there, but...uh, he's very dapper. (I take style cues from Gideon. Well, and we agree on music too.)

I am thinking about the mer book a lot. I am not allowing myself to write anything on it, so it's just is that magical thinking-time where you can entertain possibilities. This bat-winged dude wants to be in the book, too, so I'm trying to decide if that's feasible. I do like bat-winged dudes. Except, I've never really had a good bat-winged dude character. Still, I've been laying the groundwork in MUG for these to take place in the same world where there are humans and three non-human humanoid species, the fairies, the mers and the winged dudes ("dudes" in the unisex sense of the word). I won't drone on about that, but anyway, maybe there should be a winged dude in some book or another.

Here's a picture of Ril Vestren (the doll person guy from Something That Sings) when he was younger in the traditional clothes of Farnanna Province:

Finally, the Alfred comic. I just drew out a normal day in Alfred's life. This is not Something That Sings teen Alfred, but the grown-up married Alfred (which is still how I generally think of him). He's working for his gangster dad, but in a semi-legit side business. He and Olivia live in a farmhouse in Hannabury, a suburb of Morningdale.

Description Research

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:31:58 GMT

watchmebe seems to be good at winning things. Hence, I am eternally grateful to be her Blingo friend. I woke up this morning to another $5 Amazon gift cert or movie ticket. Now I have an excuse to buy something I don't need.

I spent the afternoon researching for Magic Under Glass. I have a decent stack of Victorian photograph books by now, thanks to an ambitious building of my library over the last few years. The book of photographs of interiors I got in Sarasota last fall was particularly helpful, as authentic decor photography is very elusive.

I made a slew of little notes to work into the text as I perused the photos, like:

"the cobblestone street wound around the river, with shops bordering the lapping waters, boats creaking at their moorings"
"steps to row house lead up"
"overstuffed furniture trimmed in fringe that hid the feet"
"hall often preceded by a vestibule"

One of my favorite bits of writing advice was to be specific. Seems obvious now, but the best writing advice usually is, in retrospect, obvious. In the past, I tended to default to my imagination, but more and more I've been looking deeper, to the real world, for concrete language from "gasolier" to "damask", and to surprising details, like a bridge under construction or the women at market clad in dark shawls.

Since Nimira is also from a foreign country (based on different aspects of Asian countries), I also try to think how this world would look to her. Even though she's been there for some years, she's never been exposed to wealthy homes. One of my notes is "the rooms had a lot of lonely space, while in Tiansher empty space is calculated".

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:01:00 GMT

I figured I'd return to my Magic Under Glass icon because I am definitely ensconced in it again. I'm halfway through. Excitement is high. It feels like a whole new book in many ways; this rewrite is major but I really really like it so far.

Anyway, I'm trying to stay away from the internet so I actually came on here just to say that I saw PERSEPOLIS today and it was super excellent and I recommend it. Visually striking, heartfelt, sad, funny.

Sunday Dinner: A beef eater in soy land

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 04:56:37 GMT

I am trying to stay away from the internet because I want to finish Magic Under Glass, but I realize I need to make a Sunday Dinner post if I'm going to stick with this. And it's important to me!

I'm going to make a series of posts addressing some of the major obstacles to eating healthfully, ethically, environmentally:
--I don't like it (or I like junk food better).
--I don't know how to cook...
--I don't have time to cook!
--I don't have the money.

While I have no miracle solutions, I can, at the least, offer some tips. So today I will address "I don't like it!"

When I was a kid, I loved certain fruits and vegetables, like apples and sweet potatoes. But I hated a lot of my mom's cooking. Steamed broccoli? SO BORING! She tried to pay me to eat tofu once. Most of my mom's friends, and subsequently my friends (the children of her friends), were hippie-ish homeschooler-y types who were vegetarian, pescatarian, macrobiotic, vegan, or some other manner of...thing, along with having large crystals and picture of dolphins and wise Native Americans in their homes and smelling vaguely, perhaps, of Nag Champa.

I remember quite distinctly the strange blend of shame and defiance I felt when I unwrapped a ham sandwich on white at a homeschool group picnic when everybody else had sprouts on sprouted wheat bread, because my mom wasn't as strict as a lot of the other mothers. Don't even get me started on potlucks. Only other carnivorously-minded children in "new age" social groups can understand the alienation and dismay I felt at the array of nutritional yeast flavored foods.

Some of my favorite foods as a kid: cheeseburgers, baby back ribs, bacon, ham.
Some of my favorite foods now: beef goulash, fresh kielbasa. Bacon. Ham.

I was flabbergasted and envious as a child when I went to 2nd grade, visited the homes of "normal" children, and discovered that THEY ATE MEAT EVERY DAY. While they would be all "meh" at their mother's cooking, my eyes would be widening hungrily at grilled chicken or some glop resembling stroganoff. In my house, that was special food, like for holidays or at least weekends.

When I first moved out of the house the first thing I did was indulge in all the foods I could never have as a kid, like Marie Callender's microwave meatloaf. (We never even owned a microwave growing up.)

Of course, as I turned all adult and sensible, I realized why my mom didn't want to feed me meat all the time. The organic/natural/humane/grass-fred/antiobiotic and hormone free meat movement was incredibly minimal, and reading about conventional meat can give you nightmares REAL fast. Who wants to eat sick cows and chicken bathed in chlorine? I really don't.

So, I tried to get healthy, to cut way back on meat, maybe a couple times a week. I also ate beans and edamame and some cheese and yogurt, so I shouldn't have exactly been protein deprived.

What happened?

Well, I ended up reaching for a lot of carbs, to be specific, refined sugar and flour. I often felt tired and vaguely unsatisfied even though I found the food I was eating tasty at the time. I also noticed that meals containing grains or cheese are more likely to give me indigestion. Free-range meat was becoming more available, so I simply vowed to give up the conventional stuff and eat free-range meat to my little heart's content, ideally paired with vegetables and nothing else, although I often fail there.

Just this last year, trying to give up sugar, meat was one of my lifesavers. It was delicious and satisfying and after a good, hearty, comfort food meal of meat and lots of vegetables, I always feel fantastic--stomach happy, brain happy. And I didn't want sugar nearly as much.

The moral of this story is NOT that you SHOULD eat meat.

However, it is this. Before you listen to the latest hot nutritional advice or long-running diet, from vegetarian to Atkins, figure out what your body actually wants. Some people, like my sister, give up meat and don't miss it too much. Everybody needs lots of fruits and vegetables but everybody doesn't necessarily need the same ones. Gluten makes some people sick, and others can't handle dairy. Nutritional advice is ever-changing. Avocados and chocolate were bad news yesterday, but good news today. The low-fat diet will be with us for awhile, but "sensible fats" seem to be the wave of the future. Some people say soy is awesome and some people say it's horrible; the same for milk.

Eat the whole foods that make you feel good AND satisfied. They'll help you avoid the temptations of stuff everybody agrees is bad, like high-fructose corn syrup. Or trans fats. And you'll be stomach and brain happy too!

fabulousfrock@mac.com — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:46:16 GMT

For some completely random reason Dade and I had like, a two second conversation on leprosy today (um, yeah, I can't remember how that got started) and I was like, "I think there's a YA book coming out about a leper colony" and lo and behold, there's a contest going on to win said book, HEALING WATER, (which sounds really fascinating) along with chocolate covered macadamia nuts and a kukui nut necklace! Cool! Books, chocolate, nuts and adornment, all in one glorious package! Don't enter! Because I want to up my chances! But if you MUST, go here:

http://joycemoyerhostetter.blogspot.com/2008/02/spreading-aloha.html