Lost in Another World

For a couple of days, I've been lost in another world--the Navajo culture, specifically, because I'm reading Anne Hillerman's Spider Woman's Daughter, which picks up her father's characters of Leaphorn and Chee and carries on their stories, with Bernie Manuelito, Chee's wife, as the main character. It's one of those novels that keeps me reading, draws me away from the other things I should be doing.
All my life, I've been blessed by the ability to get lost in a book. Not all books, but that's my criterion for a good novel: I have to move so completely into that world that I am immersed and almost removed from my own daily world. I remember years ago it was the Frances Parkinson Keyes novels that first introduced me to that feeling. I dived into the world of steamboats and post-bellum New Orleans. Steamboat Gothic held me captive for a long time, since it was a longish book for a young girl.
Even before that, I remember in grade school riding to the public library on my bike every summer morning, coming home with four or five books, and spending the day reading on the front porch. The neighborhood kids thought I was nuts but they remained friendly.
Today it is mostly mysteries that drag me into their worlds. I can get lost with Diane Mott Davidson's Goldy or July Hyzy's Grace and Olivia or Deborah Crombie's Duncan Kincaid and Gemma Jones. Confession: sometimes I even got so entwined in the world of my own fictional characters that I hate to come to the end of a story. You know that rare and wonderful feeling when you hate to finish a book?
I worry about people who don't read, about how they spend their time. I read listservs by crime writers discussing TV shows and I think, "When do they have the time? Why aren't they reading instead of watching TV?" Most but not all of my children are serious readers--and that's what I'm talking about here, serious reading. Not picking up a magazine and reading an article or two, but spending hours in the world of the book.
It's a blessing. I see one of my grandsons doing it. When his cousins are playing, his nose is buried in a book, and when I gave him two Rick Riordan books for his birthday he was ecstatic. I love it. I'm trying to make a reader out of Jacob, my local grandson, but it's an uphill battle, and I don't want to push so hard I turn him from it. One day recently he began The Boxcar Kids and was enthralled. "I see why you love to read," he told me. But he hasn't brought it over since, and he wants to watch TV or play on my iPad most of the time. I'm hoping things will improve.
Meantime, blessings on all of you who can get lost in the world of a book. Excuse me, I have to go see what Bernie Manuelito is up to.

Losing yourself in a fictional world

Writers should read--seems a simple enough thing. I learn a lot by reading other writers' mysteries--they give me ideas, they make me think of things I could do in my books, and they reveal some things I seriously want to avoid. But I don't read much these days--it's partly a matter of time and partly, as I think I've said before, that it's hard for me to move from one fictional world to another. So when I'm writing, I rarely read--though it would probably do me good to read non-fiction.
The last few days I've been caught up in novels--Julie Hyzy's Grace Takes Off, which smoothly does something I've worried about: she takes a series character out of her normal setting, at least for part of the novel. I've wondered--can I send Kelly out of Fairmount on a trip? I may just do it when I get back to the work in progress. Now I'm in the midst of The Little Black Book of Murder, by Nancy Martin, who has created the wackiest ever blueblood family of sisters from Bucks County, now fallen on hard times. Watch for a review, but it too is a good read, and I'm stealing time to go back to it. And thoroughly enjoying losing myself in someone else's fictional world.
I did take time to cook today, which always relaxes me--German potato salad, which will have hot dogs in it, for tomorrow night. I'll serve corn and baked cabbage--shh! Don't tell my guests about the latter. Cooked cabbage is coming back into vogue but some people may not react well. I changed the menu partly because one of the guests said he loves spinach salad, doesn't eat cooked spinach (I had a delicious dish of polenta with cooked spinach in mind). But I also changed because I'm pushing hot dog ideas in order to publicize Danger Comes Home, with its Bun Appetit haute cuisine hot dog café, and I need a picture of this dish for a blog. At least the appetizers--Gouda and crackers--and the dessert--ice cream with raspberry appertif/chocolate sauce--should be hits.

For myself tonight I made an abbreviated version of salade Nicoise--with hard-boiled egg, avocado, roasted green beans, and Tonnino tuna packed in garlic olive oil. Tonnino is a brand of tuna I've just discovered (and my pocketbook wishes I hadn't)--several interesting varieties, like one packed in olive oil with oregano. For tonight's salad, I sprinkled it with capers, drizzled a bit of the oil from the tuna over it, added a bit of salt and pepper, and squeezed lemon juice over all. So good. Sometimes it's fun to make an elegant meal just for you. First time I've roasted green beans, and they were great.
Happy weekend, everyone.

Life without a computer

My computer went crazy about four o'clock last Friday. The cursor took on a life of it's own, darting all over the screen and ignoring my mouse efforts, both remote and on the laptop. If I did manage to coax it into position, clicking on the close sign did absolutely nothing. I called a friend's computer guru who recommended a shop that seemed halfway to Weatherford to me. Took it in Saturday--and there, oh sob! was a weekend without a computer. I literally live at my computer when I'm home and not doing household chores; I read with the email on; if I eat alone I do so in front of the computer. I start my day with emails and Facebook. OK, I'm a junkie, but this was pretty tortuous.
I made do with the iPhone and the Nook, emailing and reading Facebook on both, and spending a lot of time reading mysteries. Finished Julie Hyzy's wonderful Affairs of Steak, the newest in the White House chef series, and started Lucy Burdette's debut novel, Appetite for Murder, about an aspiring food critic--and a murder--in Key West. Hoped the computer would be back Monday but no such luck.
Monday night, the Nook and the iPhone both ran out of battery at the same time; the Nook takes 15 or 20 minutes before it can power up again, and it had the book I'm reading on it. Five minutes later the TV in my office went out. I was stranded in an electronic wilderness!
Today, I got a great review by Terry Ambrose at http://www.examiner.com/crime-fiction-in-national/skeleton-a-dead-space-would-be-realtor-s-nightmare and I could't print it, etc., a friend emailed to be sure I was not sick (nice that people notice when I'm missing) and another, by phone, said, "No wonder you were so quiet all weekend." I got an email that I have a guest blog due in two days. And I had by today compiled a little list of things to clear up once I got the computer back on.
Hurray! this afternoon Jacob and I drove in one of those cold drizzles all the way out Camp Bowie past Cherry Lane. With my back-roads routes, it was a bit of a journey and a cold one because it's one of those days when the car fogs up and you have to defrost with the a/c. Besides, Jacob complains about the heater, says it smells bad.
There's always, for me, a bit of trepidation when I first re-hook my computer, but all is in order, except of course my GoogleSearch history is gone, there's no list of recently viewed files. Oops, I have to see if all my stored email addresses are gone--so far I've just been replying.
But I'm back in the electronic world and happy about it. Tomorrow, I'm staying home and talking nice to my computer all day.

The gift of a day

This morning I worked myself up to go for a long overdue eye examination. I always hate going to the opthalmologist--don't get me wrong.  He's a good guy, a friend of many years. But reading those charts makes me feel like I'm failing a test, and when he tilts me back and uses those prisms to look deep into my eye I hold my breath lest he say, "Omigosh!" or something equally scary. (Actually a previous eye doctor did say, "I don't like what I'm seeing" which I thought was really poor handling of a patient, especially a nervous one, and I never went back to him.). Anyway, today I had gathered my courage and was changing clothes when the doctor's office called to say he was ill and cancelling appointments for the day. So I got a three-week reprieve for which I am only partly grateful--I'd just as soon get it over with. Actually I'd rather go to the dentist.
But there I was with the gift of a day. I worked at my desk all morning and finished final edits on No Neighborhood for Old Women which will be out in April. In the last read-through I found several small inconsistencies and things that needed explaining or clarifying. I'm sure there are more small points and lots of typos--someone pointed out the typos in Skeleton in a Dead Space to me and I replied honestly that there has never been a book published without a typo. But we all keep trying.
I piddled the rest of the day--groomed Sophie with Jacob's not-very-helpful help (she play bites), watered plants inside and out, did a good yoga workout, forced a stubborn Jacob to do his homework ("No,  you're not sick--don't try that"; next minute he was grinning and trying to play a joke on me.). His attention span is still pretty short, and he wants to be outside playing. But it was a lovely day, an unexpected gift.
Betty and I had supper at The Tavern, a great restaurant that I always want to call The Ranch for some reason. We split their huge BLT salad--good, but there are other things on the menu I like better. Like their deviled eggs and their black beans.
Tonight, though I have a list of things to be done, I'm going to start Julie Hyzy's new book, Affairs of Steak, in her series about a White House chef.
Isn't it nice every once in a while to be handed a free day?

A good mystery, Civil War reenactments, and the puppy wars

After several mini-crises this morning--a water leak somewhere in the house (plumber coming tomorrow), a hurried trip to the grocery, and so on, I decided to take a break today, not that I've gotten much done this week. But I spent much of the afternoon reading Julie Hyzy's newest mystery, Grace Interrupted. Grace is a young woman who has taken over as director of a historic house that is a tourist site and includes hotel accommodations. I thoroughly enjoyed the first in the series, Grace Undeer Pressure, and am enjoying this one. The plot revolves around Civil War reenactors who have rented a remote portion of the mansion grounds, and that fascinates me. Over a  year ago, I edited Monte Aker's book, The Accidental Historian, which has a lot about reenactments--from the Civil War to the Alamo. Monte tells it all with wry pokes of humor at himself (which sometimes made me laugh aloud) but I finished that project with a much better understanding of reenactors--and why they do what they do. So that knowledge is increasing my enjoyment of this mystery.
The puppy wars continue. Sophie has learned to climb out of her playpen, so today we had a contest of the wills. I vowed every time she climbed out, I'd put her back in and scold her. I can't figure a way to puppy-proof the thing, although a friend sent some suggestions, but I decided training was the best approach--she's this super-smart dog, right? Cooking dinner tonight, I must have pulled her down off the edge of that playpen a dozen times--and of course each time I had to wash my hands. They're going to dry out and become prunes. I will say she no longer whines and yips but that's because she thinks she can get out. I figure when I'm working in the kitchen and can talk to her, she should be content--she doesn't see it that way. She and I spend most of the day in my office, where she plays with her toys, tries to chew on magazines, books and wires--my friend Sally recommends Tabasco on the wires, which I think is a super idea. Sometimes Sophie wears herself out and sleeps at my feet--then I can get stuff done. We are making a little progress on housebreaking--mostly because I am now trained about when to take her out--or pretty much so. Jacob plays with her in the afternoon, which she loves. I do too!
Yep, I'm still tired.

Searching for adverbs on a sunny day

Jacob had his first ride in the convertible with the top down today. When I put it down, he said, "Oh! My! Gosh! I didn't know your car did that, Juju!" And when I had to maneuver his suitcase between the car door and a tree (I hadn't been smart about where in the driveway I stopped), he said, "You can do it, because you're so strong!" Then, this child who's always telling me I'm old, looked at me with new respect and said, "You're not old, Juju!" There, that's the whole reason I bought the car (well maybe not entirely)--I didn't want to be a stodgy old grandmother.
Aside from that trip to meet his mom and an outing to the Botanic Garden late this afternoon, I spent the day inside, at the computer, searching for adverbs. Turquoise Morning Press sends out a most helpful style guide, with a self editing section on things to do a gobal search for: "ly," "ing," "had," "to be," (I didn't have many of those), and "was." Folks, if you don't think that is mind-numbing work, you don't realize how many times we all fall into those traps. Sometimes it's a challenge to find, for instance,  you've used an unnecessary adverb and then figure out how to write around it. But the biggest surprise to me was to search for exclamation points. I know you shouldn't use them, I've removed them by the thousands from other people's works, and yet I can't even begin to estimate how many times I found them in my own manuscript. This is not a one-day job--more like a week or two, but I'm plugging away at it and keeping the Food Network on while I do it.
One of my most favorite blogs is "Mystery Lovers Kitchen" where several mystery authors share recipes. Sure, they promote their books along the way--fair practice--but I've gotten some wonderful recipes from them, especially a beef company casserole from Riley Adams. But tonight I fixed myself creamed spinach--thank you, July Hyzy. The neat thing about this fairly simple recipe is that you don't have to use cream--I used chicken broth and white wine. Meant to add a dollop of sour cream, but it was out of date so I poured in a bit of 2% milk. You saute the spinach with garlic in olive oil, remove, and make a roux of butter and flour. Then add liquid, stir until smooth and the right consistency, and put the spinach back in the pan. With it I had a loin lamb chop, seasoned only with salt and pepper, grilled medium rare (more rare than medium). It was so good, since no one was watching, I gnawed on the bone. Right now, spaghetti sauce is simmering on the stove, and my house smells lovely.

White House mysteries

I've been a fan of Julie Hyzy's White House Chef mystery series for all four books. They have everything I like in a book--cozy mystery, cooking and food, and a likeable heroine, albeit with a messed-up love relationship. Ollie Paras starts her career as executive chef of the White House in the first book and holds on to it through a series of murders and mishaps, always sure she's in jeopardy of losing her job. There's enough White House lore for history buffs, and the details of cooking and planning a state dinner will intrigue wannabe chefs like myself. I recommend you read them in order--State of the Onion, Hail to the Chef, Eggsecutive Orders, and the brand new Buffalo West Wing.
The newest book comes perilously close to home--a new president moves his family, including two pre-teen children, into the White House, and Ollie must adjust to working for a new administration, especially a new First Lady--and to having young children in the mansion for the first time in years. The parallels to the Obama administration are clear though Julie agreed that Michelle Obama would be a lot more fun to work with than the fictional Mrs. Hyden, who is made difficult for the sake of conflict to keep the book going. In her first move, an attempt to protect the presidential children, Ollie refuses to serve the children a box of chicken wings that mysteriously appears in the kitchen. If Ollie doesn't know where the food came from, it's not going to the First Family, but that move sets her off on the wrong foot with the new First Lady and it only gets worse from there.
Mrs. Hyden brings in a personal chef to cook the family meals, and the tension is immediately obvious. Virgil thought he was going to be the executive chef and is not pleased that he reports to Ollie. Mrs. Obama also brought in a personal chef, but  current White House chef Cristeta Comerford reports they get along very well. Once again that doesn't make as good a story as unpleasantness and conflict.
The threat to the children is obvious from the beginning of this book--and leads to some hair-raising suspense that kept me reading late into the night. But it also got me to wondering about White House reaction. Not that the Secret Service isn't already always on the alert against kidnapping, but how did they react to this fictional version? So I asked Julie Hyzy about the degree of cooperation, if any, with the White House.
She replied that she has had no cooperaton. She contacted the Bush White House when she was working on the first book and was told to send them a list of questions about the kitchen. She did, but never got a response. She was able to talk with former executive chef Walter Sheib (author of White House Chef), and she has talked to Secret Service agents and former aides.
Julie Hyzy has never stepped foot into the White House kitchen--she hopes to soon, but she has studied pictures, floor plans, and watched every recording filmed there. Her dream? An invitation.
As for the Secret Service being disturbed by her plot, she can't imagine they bother reading her books. She says she may have raised a few red flags when she started writing the first book, but by now they have to know that she writes fiction.
Even if the Secret Service doesn't bother to read Julie's White House Chef books, you should. They're pure delight for mystery lovers, and they do give a good glimpse, well researched, into at least some of the workings of the White House. Warning: you may stay up too late turning pages.

Who Let the Dogs Out?

Jacob is still fascinated by this video, and the first thing when he came in this evening was that he wanted to look at "Who Let the Dogs Out?" This is a picture of him singing along with it, belting out "Who, Who, Who?" The Burtons came for the Japanese chickenburgers they missed earlier in the week, and it was a pleasant evening, even though Jacob got kind of whiney.
Other than that it was an ordinary but pleasant day--I had lunch with my friend Fred, who said he's just read Jonathan Alter's (no relation) The Promise, an assessment of Obama's campaign and first year in office. Fred says although Alter is clearly biased toward Obama, he is also clear about the mistakes he's made and the problems he's run into--mostly Congress, both sides of the aisle. The subtext, especially throughout the last half of the book, is that Obama is clearly smarter than most members of Congress and they resent that. It got us off on a discussion of the general resentment of intellectuals in this country--while not counting myself as an intellectual, I clearly see that as a problem in our society. Then again, think of Socrrates--civilizations have always resented the intellectuals among them. Fred better watch out, because he is one. We ate at Nonna Tata, a country Italian place where I had my favorite dish: brasola.
I did a bit on my mystery tonight--slightly under 400 words but enough to keep me in touch with it--and decided what would be my next exploration in the Texas foods book, so I'm moving ahead. I looked forward to a long, fairly lazy weekend, so maybe I'll get some work done. As always, I'm distracted by reading--this time its Julie Hyzy's Grace Under Pressure.

A lovely lazy day--and more cooking

Today I putzed--it took me most of the morning to read the paper, straighten the house and kitchen, do my yoga, start a laundry, shower--you name it, and it was almost lunch time. I spent much of the afternoon reading July Hyzy's new Eggsecutive Orders, the latest in a series about a White House chef that I really enjoy.I love getting lost in a book that I don't want to see end.
Tonight Jacob brought his parents to supper. When he got here, he was in a foul mood, and he and his dad soon tangled, with the result that Jacob ended up in time-out. Then he declared he didn't like what I served for dinner, until I gave him a special treat of a bowl of blueberries. Then he brightened up, ate the rest of his dinner, and was a delight. It's hard to be three years old, and it's also hard to be the parents of a three-year-old.
I fixed a recipe that had intrigued me but then left me uncertain. You line two baking sheets with foil (should have sprayed Pam on the one with potatoes and carrots). Chop leeks (did you know they cost like gold?) and sweet onion,toss in a tiny bit of oil, put on one rimmed baking sheet, and put it on the top rack of the oven; Cut Yukon Gold potatoes and carrots into chunks, toss in oil,  and put on the other pan, on the lower shelf. Bake at 500 (that's really right!) for 15 minutes. Take out the onions, add a turkey kielbasa in chunks to the potatoes and carrots and bake another 15 minutes. Mix it all together and serve with a sauce of country Dijon, low-fat sour cream and a bit of water to thin. So good! Jacob finally decided he really liked it, especially the sauce.  He and his daddy earned Sandie cookies. And then they put Christmas back up in the attic--Jacob was thrilled to be in the attic.
My desk is almost empty. I've read some manuscsripts and done some snooping and thinking for TCU Press. My agent sent a tip sheet last week that he'll send out with my manuscript, which I take as a good sign, expecially since he hasn't said it needed any editing--maybe that's still to come. So it's time for me to start a new project--and I have a second series in mind. Just need to stop reading other people's books and concentrate on my own--but not tonight.

Working from home

Today there would be no one else in my office and I had portable work, so I decided to work from home. But then a couple of things popped up that needed to be done at the office, so I went to the grocery and then the office. Then I came home and spent the morning at my desk, doing both office work and my own. But my well planned day went awry when Jordan called at noon and asked if I wanted to nap at her house. Jacob was a school reject, "not feeling well." I said no, but he could nap here, so that's what happened. After he got here he seemed to brighten up and drank milk and water, played a bit, and watched the Disney channel. But good thing that he is, when I said nap time, he toddled off to his bed--and slept not quite three hours. I got in a little more work and a nap, and then his evening babysitter came to take him home.
Good dinner tonight--a lamb chop, which I love anyway. I had seen somewhere something about topping steak with horseradish and goat cheese, and I figured it would work just as well on a chop. It was good but next time I think I'll just stick to goat cheese--great topping for lamb. I think I made it on my Weight Watchers points today.
The mystery that I just finished is State of the Onion, by July Hyzy. The protagonist is an assistant chef at the White House, hoping to be appointed Executive Chef when the current chef-in-charge retires. But events and people keep putting her on the wrong side of things. She runs into terrorists and eventually becomes the target of a hired assassin. Her love interest, one of the president's CIA detail, disapproves of her involvement, even though he also wants to protect her. It's a good mystery, but the glimpses into the White House kitchen are fascinating. If memory serves, author Hyzy eventually got a private tour of the kitchens in the mansion, and she appears to have done her research well. One of the points she makes clear is that the staff begins preparing for state dinners weeks in advance--researching food laws of different cultures (in this book some of the guests are Muslim and some Jewish and for on the actual night their personal chefs are brought in), allergies of the guests, etc. Then sample dishes are presented to the First Lady. Hyzy also points out there are two very different kinds of cooking done--state dinners and the personal preferences of the First Family then in residence--the Kennedys liked haute cuisine, Presidents Carter and Johnson preferred southern cooking, and George W. Bush requested very simple food.
At the back of the book there are recipes--I particularly liked stuffed cucumbers--it's hard--or tedious--on KIndle to go back to the last chapter where the recipes are but I got some ideas. You "stuff" cucumbers for an appetizer, by putting filling between two slices. Sort of a cucumber sandwich without bread! Add garlic and I think pine nuts, though I'm not a fan of the latter.
There is a second book in the series, Hail to the Chef, but I have a sneaky feeling I've read it and will have to wait for the next in the series. A nice thing about Kindle is that you can order the first chapter free to peruse, so I ordered the first chapter to see if I've read it. I've spent way too much money in the past buying books I've already read.
After finishing that book (honest I did work today!) I looked at a sample I'd ordered and decided I didn't want to read it. So no charge incurred--I simply erased it.