Silk & Shadows

Currently working on: A new story!
Mood: Follow that plot bunny!

Did everybody have a fun holiday? Here are my highlights:

I totally screwed up the frosting for my Christmas Eve party cupcakes. I’d decided to use a sour cream frosting for my blackout cupcakes but when I followed the glossary at the back to page 462 and started making the recipe…  It was the WRONG recipe. It was a fluffy chocolate frosting. The actual sour cream frosting was on page 463. Catastrophe! That might not seem like the worst thing in the world… Unless it’s 2:30 pm Christmas Eve Day and the party starts in mere hours. You CANNOT go to the grocery store on Christmas Eve Day, as you all know.

So I totally winged it. (Wung it?) I kept the ingredients I’d already mixed together and just added sour cream. And it totally worked.

Christmas Lesson Learned: You can’t go wrong with pretty much any proportions of cocoa, whipping cream, sour cream and vanilla.

Christmas Corollary: Double check the name of the recipe before you start mixing ingredients.

After thankfully not ruining the Christmas Eve party cupcakes, I spent Christmas Day with my XY and dog. Ah, bliss. Pictured right are the gifts he got me. Which apparently have been wrapped by monkeys. Monkeys with access to all my Christmas ribbons and yet somehow have managed to NOT use the Christmas wrapping paper but birthday wrapping paper instead. Which would be fine if Baby Jesus was getting this particular present, since it’s his birthday, but this was my present.

Happily, one of the presents was a double boiler so I can more easily melt chocolate like in the first picture.

Christmas Lesson Learned: Bows and ribbons and wrapping paper — or the lack and/or incompetent wielding thereof — can’t hide the love.

Christmas Corollary: Men require inordinate amounts of tape.

I eat a lot of chocolate at Christmas, as is obvious from my posts, but not so voraciously as Christmas seems to eat my time. The prep, celebration and cleanup always leaves me blinking in surprised confusion at the end of the month. But life continues and I am finally back at my computer, writing words. Phew.

Christmas Lesson Learned: Don’t forget to enjoy the days. They are particularly short in December.

Christmas Corollary: The dog still needs to be walked. But now I’ll be doing it in boots that don’t have holes!

So Christmas is over, but I have one more gift to give away. Want an Advanced Reading Copy of DARKNESS UNDONE? Leave a comment with your Christmas Lesson Learned — or just say hey on any post this week — and you’ll be entered for a chance to win a copy of Sid and Alyce’s story:

Coming March 2012

The war between good and evil has raged for millennia,
and as a powerful new enemy ascends, the Marked Souls
are pushed to the ragged edge…

Sidney Westerbrook has always studied darkness and damnation from a sensible distance. Now, to earn his place as a league Bookkeeper, he must discover why Chicago is such a battleground of soul-linked warriors. But the research becomes personal when he finds himself over his head and under attack — and at the mercy of a waif with demon-lit eyes and a deep yearning in her heart.

Alyce Carver has been alone longer than she can remember, battered by the living nightmares that haunt her city. Cornered by yet another gang of demons, she unwittingly joins forces with a handsome scholar who can salvage her past, and she in turn may be the key to his investigations. But she won’t let him go until he shows her everything she’s been missing.

What begins as an experiment in possession becomes a trial by desire so powerful it threatens both their lives, even as it binds their souls.

Read Chapter 1

Pre-order at:

Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble
Powells | Indie Bound | Indigo | Blackstone Audio

*And by “goose,” I mean “writer.”

Currently working on: Finding the worst white elephant gift
Mood: Hunting

Too much butter and sugar is slowing me down. I only have a few days left to find a white elephant gift for my tribe’s annual Christmas Eve bestest party in the whole wide world. As a stereotypical introvert, I’m not usually into parties, but this party is one of my favorites and I want to do it right. Or wrong, as is the right way to do a white elephant.

A good white elephant is, of course, a bad white elephant. For those who aren’t familiar with the tale, the term white elephant came from a story that Siamese kings gave these giant, hungry, pooping, occasionally rampaging animals as “gifts” to people who really “deserved” them. Horrible art, eye-searingly ugly clothing and excessively large items of any sort are perfect white elephant gifts. But I’m having some trouble this year.

At my day job white elephant exchange, one woman got a can of Spotted Dick. There was much adolescent snickering. (Yeah, my day job isn’t too worried about sexual harassment cases, apparently.) Since I do marketing work in my day job, I was horrified to read the instructions on the can and snapped a picture to share with my Twitter friends.

(What? You don’t follow me on Twitter?! Find me there and say hey, so I can follow you back.)

Now you can snicker at Spotted Dick too. I mean, seriously, who uses “spurting” in ad copy?

I thought about getting a can for my giveaway, but it seemed like a cop-out. I need something worse…

So while I was researching/surfing the web for white elephant ideas, I found porcupines instead. So for your Christmas cookie-eating pleasure, here’s Teddy:

I’ve decided to get a talking porcupine in a Santa hat for my white elephant gift. Perfect, don’t you think?

But if you have another suggestion, please feel free to share and save my friends from either of these terrible gifts.

Currently working on: Last bits of Christmas prep
Mood: Festive

Last week, my XY who had been gone, out of the country, for two months finally returned home. And there is joy in Whoville!

He was touring Europe — Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy and Poland — as Rainstick Cowbell. Just a boy and a guitar, wandering narrow alleys to dive bars, literally singing for his supper. He hates the dry sound of club recordings, but here’s a glimpse of the life of a touring musician:

He got home just in time for the holiday madness. We went and cut our Christmas tree on Friday. And it was actually a sunny day in the Pacific Northwest!

I have almost completed our transition for regular tree lights to the new LED lights, which are super-trippy when I shone them on the walls. (Uhm, yes, there might have been spiced cider spiked with Hot Monkey Pepper Vodka involved.)

Since we don’t have much room in our house, we get the classic table-top Charlie Brown skinny tree. (Yes, the tree is slightly crooked; again, I blame the vodka cider.)

Having my sweetie home, my holiday madness under control, and a pretty tree decorating my picture window is reason enough for joy. What’s yours? Besides vodka cider

Currently working on: Christmas
Mood: Deck the freakin’ halls

Every single year, Christmas comes around*, and every single year I am shocked. Already?! Seriously? This year is no exception, although I did have the added bonus of turning my work calendar from November to December and being greeted by a 12×12 glossy of a tropical beach at sunset. The lounge chair was empty and calling my name. Thanks, calendar, I needed that little dig.

Every year, I tell myself, “Next year I’ll start earlier.” And every year… “Already?! Seriously?”

Because here’s my dilemma, and I’m sure you all face it too. My choices are:

#1. Sacrifice time earlier to do my holiday tasks. Take my sweet time to do the tasks well and without undue stress.

Or, #2. Hoard my earlier time, let the clock tick down, then do massive freak-out and get holiday tasks done as quickly as possible despite the need for late nights, cursing, and excessive chocolate consumption — because, please, who are we kidding, the last item — and probably the first two too — was going to happen anyway.

Is it my imagination, or does #2 just make more sense?

It all gets done, but in scenario #2, it gets done faster. I think this is why I DON’T get started earlier. I’ve seen what I do to any opening: I expand to fill available space. If I started in September, I’d be obsessed with finding “the right thing.” Instead, in mid-December, I say “Is that the thing? Right” and we’re good to go.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’d be happier (and more in tune with the alleged seasonal moods of peace, love and joy) if I didn’t indulge the freak out. But I’m not even sure I’d know how to start.

Probably with chocolate.

How do you handle the holiday rush? Or are you an expert at the hush? Please share! Anyway, I’m giving us all a Gold Star for trying.

*Apologies — or maybe congratulations — to those who don’t do Christmas. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa, Blessed Solstice, and many butter cookies to you all!

Currently working on: Burning off dessert
Mood: Sweet

I had an early Thanksgiving party yesterday, so I made butter cookies. Then, since this holiday is about giving thanks, I decided to dip the cookies in chocolate. Nothing says thanks like chocolate.

But even when I’m surrounded by chocolate (as I often am) it’s so easy to forget to be grateful. Yes, the solution might be to eat more chocolate, or maybe I just need to remind myself more than once a year. Studies have shown that people who take the time to keep a gratitude journal listing their reasons to be thankful report fewer illness symptoms, a greater sense of optimism about the future, and a brighter feeling about life overall.

I’m thankful I live in a country that has issues but always seems to be trying to better itself even when the definition of better is contentious and changeable.

I’m thankful I have family and friends who are always around when I need them and are supportive of my dreams. I hope I’m that to them!

I’m thankful that I’m in a sustainable place financially, physically, emotionally, creatively and whatnot.

I’m thankful it was sunny for part of the day Sunday, long enough anyway to go to the dog park where there’s a huge old maple that is just turning bright yellow.

What are you thankful for? And if you have any recipes for chocolate desserts suitable for Thanksgiving (which is so often dominated by earthier spices) please share or link!

Currently working on: Revising sci fi novella
Mood:  Spacey!

The idea of demonic possession freaks me out. I know that’s kind of strange, considering my Marked Souls series is based on my characters being possessed by demons. But I write romance, not horror, so my demons learn their lessons — thanks to true love — and everyone/thing lives happily ever after*, I promise.

I’ve decided I can’t watch American Horror Story, the new FX series about an evil house, because there isn’t the promise of goodness and light winning out anytime soon. (‘Cuz then the series would be over.) I need my horror in manageable doses. I have to read Dean Koontz only when I have a full day to read the whole book in one sitting because I have to get to the ending where evil loses and goodness overcomes.

I don’t know if demons are real or if evil is “just” another angle of humanity’s many-faceted expression, but as my dad once told me as he handed me money to put in a Buddhist prayer jar, “It’s good to cover your bases.”

Most people know that pumpkins — and in older days, turnips — carved into scary faces were meant to ward off evil that was able to more easily move around our world at this season. Pictured is our blue hubbard squash, carved earlier this year. Stars are often used as a symbol of protection and good luck.

Other instances of apotropaic magic (apotrope being Greek for turn away or avert) include charm bracelets, the gargoyles on the peaks of buildings, painted eyes, and scattering salt.

My personal favorites, though, are old horseshoes, mirrors, and hag-stones — river pebbles with natural holes worn through them.  I picked up almost a dozen new hag-stones walking at Ruby Beach in Washington earlier this month, so I have extra wards for this Halloween. What are you using to keep the ghosts and goblins away? (Besides turning off your porch light and scattering empty candy wrappers in the driveway?)

For all the warding, though, it IS Halloween, and while I am freaked out by wandering unrepentant demons, I don’t mind a good evil movie (that ends in 2-ish hours with me rushing out of the theater on a sugar high and preferably with at least ONE of the characters alive). I don’t know how many characters survive in the upcoming movie The Devil Inside, but the preview certain freaked me out.

Wishing you a safe, sugary, as-many-scares-as-you-like Halloween!

* They live HEA if they deserve to, that is.

Currently working on: Shiny new idea!
Mood: Squawky

October here is the darkening month, heading toward Halloween when spooks and specters and Pixy Stix come out to play. I find Halloween very interesting because on the one hand, it is so child-oriented, with Disney princess costumes and reminders to trick-or-treat with a flashlight so cars don’t squish you on the street — emphasizing safe and fun — while on the other hand, ghastly monster masks hang next to fake blood in capsule size, spray can “for covering larger areas”, and gallon o’ blood, presumably for the buffet table.

Researchers suspect people like to be scared because of the emotional thrill of “surviving” a dangerous encounter. The mingled “happy plus horror” experience is on wild display at Nightmares Fear Factory photo stream.

This haunted house takes pictures of people at the heights (depths?) of their fear. And a surprising number of times, they are smiling. And you get the feeling that all of them are giggling wildly when they finally escape.

Fun and fake fear seem to go together like… um, Halloween candy and running around wildly. Maybe that’s why blood and gore and belly guffaws appeal to me. One of the most fun mixes I’ve seen lately is the new movie Tucker & Dale vs. Evil. The movie takes a classic horror scenario — murderous hillbillies stalking innocent college students — and flips it all around.

I don’t know what my biggest fear is. I mean, I’d be scared if I was audited, and I wouldn’t want to be chased by a grizzly, but I don’t think those are unnatural fears. I like spiders well enough, pitch darkness doesn’t frighten me, and I can speak in public without throwing up (although I do sweat a little). But even though it might be useful to have a personal experience with terror to apply to my writing, I don’t think I want any real fears. I’d rather stick with the fun fear where I can giggle afterward.

Do you have any truly terrible fears? And if you’ve ever experienced anything horrifying, did that change your tolerance for fun fear?

First off, congratulations to Sharon Ashwood for her RITA win with UNCHAINED! The RITAs are the Romance Writers of America’s Oscars, so this is wonderful acknowledgment of her Dark Forgotten book. AND she gets a golden statue!

Currently working on: My tan
Mood: Summery!

Summer doesn’t officially arrived in the Portland area until the first week of July, but it’s here now! I’m typing this outside, sitting in the shade, actually, because it’s finally warm The raspberry bushes are kickin’ out the berries so of course I had to use them in a holiday dessert.

Happy Fourth of July! (For those in the U.S.) Happy Summer! (For those in the Northern Hemisphere.) Happy Monday! (For pretty much everybody, I think.)

Red, White & Blue Cupcakes

Start with a box cake mix. I’m sure there are times when baking from scratch is called for. Mixing up festive cupcakes for people who will be drinking beer all day is not one of those times. I’ve enthused before about the Cake Mix Doctor‘s cookbooks. I recommend the chocolate cake mix cookbook and choosing one of the recipes with pudding in the mix as well as sour cream/yogurt for extra scrumptiousness.

The fun of cake mix doctoring is the doctoring part anyway. For these, I injected the cupcakes with a raspberry/strawberry coulis and then made a barrier wall of buttercream frosting around the top of the cupcakes and backfilled the interior with the coulis.

Berry Coulis

• 1 cup of raspberries
• 1 cup of strawberries (or whatever berries you have)
• 1 cup of sugar
• Juice of 1 lemon (about 4 Tablespoons)

Mix all ingredients the day before to let the flavors blend if you have time, then blender/food processor it all together into berry soup. Sample repeatedly over vanilla ice cream, because you’re the cook, and cooks deserve to sample. (Some people take out the seeds, but the beer drinkers won’t notice such niceties so I don’t bother.)

While the cupcakes are still warm from the oven, make a hole in the centers with a chopstick or similar implement. I used a cookie gun/cake decorator to aim the coulis into the hole, but you can just spoon it in too, as long as you have decent aim.

Let the cupcakes cool. Sample a few just to make sure there’s enough coulis in the middle.

Buttercream Frosting

• 1 stick of butter (room temp)
• 1 8-oz package of cream cheese (room temp)
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 2-4 cups of sifted confectioner’s sugar (the recipe calls for 3 3/4 cups of sugar with more for spreadability, but I think you lose some of the cream cheese flavor to the sweetness if you use all the sugar. So I just add enough sugar to make enough to cover the cupcakes. Plus, the less sugar/slightly thicker frosting works well in the cookie gun/cake decorator.)

Make a monk’s tonsure/barrier wall in a circle around the cupcakes’ tops. Usually I am a “more frosting is better” gal, but this ratio works out nicely with the strong mouth feel of the buttercream. Plus, the barrier wall gives you room to spread more of the pretty red berry coulis.

To thicken the coulis for the top of the cupcake, mix corn starch with just enough water to make a thin paste. Gently warm the leftover coulis and add the starch/water mixture until the coulis thickens enough to stay on top of the cupcake.

Spoon the thickened coulis behind the barrier wall, top with a berry (I might have used a blueberry instead of a raspberry, but I don’t share my blueberries with anybody), add a light dusting of blue decorator sugar, and eat.

Happy Cupcakes!

Currently working on: Another round of editing
Mood: Determined

Yesterday was Father’s Day, and since romance novels are all about heroes, it seems only right to take an extra day here to mention the first hero many a kid– hopefully — encounters: a father.

From my dad, I inherited enough engineering DNA to make me a plotter rather than a pantser. I got from him a love of deserts (“eroded dirt” as my tree-loving mother calls them) and desserts. He taught me how to catch garter snakes — and taught me to leave them alone. He passed on to me a hefty dose of his sense of humor which I in turn pass to my heroes.

He also gave me good advice over the years, which I’ll share with you:

“Always pursue your dreams, or at some point your dreams will end up pursuing you.”

Inspiring yet mildly menacing, like all the best advice. It contrasts poignantly with the advice a friend got from his father when we were all in our early 20s: “Fergit yer dreams.” (My friend’s dad wasn’t a hick but he was intoxicated at the time of the advice, hence the slurring.) What kind of bitter sorrow drives a man to say such a thing to his son?

“Success will come with patience and persistence.”

This advice made me laugh because my paternal DNA lacks the chromosome for patience. I wish I’d listened anyway. Persistence is probably the more critical component of success, but patience makes the wait more pleasant.

“We love you and will always be here for you. But don’t move back home.” (Paraphrased)

I figure he saw a nature show about the papa bird kicking the baby bird out of the nest. But really, giving his kids the space to spread their wings and the freedom to fall must be a scary moment for a loving father. But then he gets to remodel the empty bedroom into a home office, so it’s probably worth a few sleepless nights.

“The key is to enjoy life while you work to reach your dreams. That way, the path becomes as rewarding as the objective.”

This is advice I struggle to remember every day. Or at least every other day. Once a week, minimum. Enjoy. Work. Dream. Good balance. Thanks, Dad.

Having a loving, supportive, smart, interested father is a great gift. What’s the best advice your dad gave you?