Category Archives: On Being a Writer

Aztec Diet, Diet, Food, On Being a Writer

Aztec Diet Day 36: Zucchini Chips and Big Moments

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Weight Lost: 18 pounds

Pre-Breakfast: 1/2 ruby red grapefruit; Breakfast and Lunch: All Day Chocolate Cherry Banocado Plus; Snack: low-fat cottage cheese and 3 ribs celery; Dinner: Tuna Sandwich on sprouted grain bread; Snack: air popped popcorn

Today Jane posted the first 15 minutes of the audiobook of A Shot in the Bark. I was so nervous, I put off listening to it until after I was able to settle myself. Turns out the woman is an even bigger genius than I thought she was. And no, I’m not sharing her last name until I get both books out of her. I wish there was some way to share the recording with you. So I was having a “WOW” moment today.

I used to celebrate big moments with chocolate. Or cheesecake. Or chocolate cheesecake. If it was a really big moment, a fillet, followed by a Chocolate Stampede. I haven’t figured out what to do instead. I don’t drink, so champagne is out. Getting a massage would be great, except you can’t get a good massage on the spur of the moment. At least, I can’t. Maybe you can. When I have an answer to this problem, you’ll be the first to know.

I made it through work without anyone flinging chocolate at me. I suspect I’ll be okay for the next couple weeks, as long as I keep appropriate snacks on hand. No need to worry until the project winds down. Then, one of two things will happen. Either we will be ahead and the work will come slow, with lots of down time conducive to boredom snacking (not good), or we will be behind, and the bowls of chocolate and assorted candy will be passed around from station to station to give us a little something help us keep our focus (also not good).

I need something to chew on that won’t make me fat. Like a piece of rope soaked with hickory smoke.

Today I made dehydrated zucchini chips, thinking this would make a good snack for work. They taste like potato chips, but are sweeter. There’s no frying or oil involved. Zucchini is low in carbohydrates and calories and contains fiber. I popped the first batch into the dehydrator about noon, and they were ready after I got home from work at 10 p.m. I miscalculated, though. I thought 5 zucchinis would make enough chips to last the rest of the week. These are addictive. I’ll be lucky if they last more than 24 hours.

My neighbors, Mike and Marti Dourson (source of Peter Dourson’s name), gave me a t-shirt for Christmas. They had it made up special. It says, “Careful, or you’ll end up in my novel.” I wore it tonight. So Eric, my team leader, asked me if he was going to be in my novel. I told him he might. I have not shared with him what I do to the people I put in my novels. He’d have better odds for survival as a Red Shirt on Star Trek. And a cleaner end, should it come to that. I’ve been thinking he’d make a really great stalker. Maybe I’ll let him choose his own demise. That would be the polite thing to do.

Zucchini Chips

    Slice zucchini thin, about 1/8″. A food processor is fastest, but you’re likely to wind up with paper-thin chips. A mandolin works fine and gives more control and consistency. You can slice them by hand as well.
    Lay out on dehydrator trays (if you have one) or on baking sheets lined with parchment (if you don’t).
    Sprinkle lightly with salt or other spice of choice, such as cumin, pepper, curry, etc.
    Dehydrate at 115 degrees for about 6 – 10 hours, depending how thin your slices are. you can flip these halfway through. It’s not necessary, but it will prevent sticking. If baking, bake in a warm oven for a couple hours, keeping an eye on them. Flip when the tops are crisp and continue baking until done. I can’t give you exact times, because I’ve never made them in an oven.

Excalibur Food Dehydrator

I use an Excalibur 4 tray dehydrator. It’s a decent machine, though If I were to buy another, I’d get the 9 tray. It’s got a more reliable thermostat and you can dehydrate twice as much food. This is the one I’d get: http://www.amazon.com/Excalibur-3900B-Deluxe-Dehydrator-Black/dp/B004Z915M4/


All Day Chocolate Cherry Banocado Plus.
Banocado means the base is a banana and an avocado. Plus means I added a big handful of spinach. This is perfect for two servings or for an all-day smoothie.

    1/2 Cups frozen sweet cherries
    1 banana
    1 avocado
    1 large handful of baby spinach
    1 heaping TBSP cacao powder or cocoa
    2 – 4 TBSP ground chia seeds
    1/2 TSP ground ginger (optional)
    Water, to desired consistency
Aztec Diet, Diet, Food, On Being a Writer

Aztec Diet, Day 35: Chocolate Pudding

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Pounds lost: 18; Inches of belly fat lost: 5.5

Saturday
Breakfast: granola with almond milk; Lunch: venison stew; Snack: low-fat cottage cheese; Dinner: Blue Hawaii; Snack: none

Sunday
Breakfast: Dr. Bob’s Kale Blueberry, made with coconut water; Lunch: venison stew; Snack: Chocolate Pudding; Dinner: Miso Green

I stopped off at the Library on my way home from the dog park Saturday morning. This is what I saw when I walked in the door:

DSC00257

I knew it was going to happen, but I didn’t know it had happened. Sarah was not around for me to hug. I stared stupidly, and said, “That’s my book.” I pointed for the benefit of Chuck, who was sorting the reserved books. Chuck thought I was pointing at M.C. Beaton, and probably wondered why I didn’t just pick it up off the display if I wanted it. After I stupidly kept repeating, It’s my book, he noticed my name on the cover to the right and I got an “Oh, wow, cool!” out of him. Then I ran home (okay smart ass, I drove) to get my camera. Being that I was starving, I had a quick cup of granola instead of the nice leisurely smoothie I had planned. It was a moment.

I spent much of Sunday writing. Poor Lia. All she wants to do is find a missing dog. Little does she know what kind of trouble THAT’s going to cause.

I feel stalled out on my diet. Which means it’s a good idea to get back to basics. This weekend I started thinking about calories more. I may need to re-tool my recipes. Or quit eating venison stew. I’ve been looking at the charts in Dr. Bob’s book, and I find it frustrating that his food lists are so limited. I want to know what he thinks about bean thread as a pasta substitute. And homemade zucchini chips for snacks. Kale chips can be flavorful, but they just don’t satisfy.

Meanwhile, I have had a request for chocolate, so I made some chocolate pudding. Not for every day, but better than stopping off for a hot fudge sundae.

Chocolate Pudding

    1 Cup almond milk
    1 ripe banana
    3 TBSP cacao powder or cocoa
    4 TBSP ground chia seed

Blend the banana and almond milk. When you have a nice whirlpool in the blender, open the lid and add the cacao and the chia. pour into 2 cups and refrigerate until set (If you can last that long. I didn’t).

Blue Hawaii

    3/4 Cup blueberries
    3/4 Cup tropical mix (pineapple, mango and strawberry)
    large handful of baby spinach
    1/8 Cup cashews
    water, to desired consistency
Aztec Diet, Books, Diet, Food, Lia Anderson Dog Park Mysteries, On Being a Writer

Aztec Diet: Out of the Office

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My New Blender
I missed posting yesterday. Looks like I won’t be able to get back here until later tonight. I’m still on my diet. I got a new blender, which I LOVE. http://www.amazon.com/Oster-BVCB07-Z-Counterforms-7-Speed-Stainless/dp/B002RBXHSC/ And it looks like the last several days of stalled weight (and my chocolate binge of yesterday) were due to a normal influx of hormones. Drool Baby is even back on the top 100 list for Mystery Series at Amazon. Things are back on track.

I’ve been tied up because I contracted with a narrator to produce an audiobook of A Shot in the Bark. I’m terminally jazzed. She’s got a terrific versatile voice and is very professional. I think she’s going to be perfect for Lia. AND she got right on it. So I had to put everything else on hold while I got production notes together. I have high hopes for release before the end of May. If all goes well, Drool Baby will be close behind.

Today’s Saturday, the day I usually plug a couple fellow writers – Give them a look-see!

First Book in the Julie O'Hara Mystery Series

When her best friend is murdered, Julie O’Hara, a body language expert, packs up her suspicion and flies to Boston for his funeral. Who could have killed rising artist Marc Solomon, and what does Castle Cay, the Solomon’s mysterious Caribbean island, have to do with it? Before long, Julie’s sixth-sense pulls a hidden string that unravels a deadly conspiracy…and her own troubled past.

http://amzn.to/13IRzNi

As if one murder weren't enough. . .

Nightmares of a horrific car accident haunt Amber, and the scars go deep. As she struggles to regain memories of the past few years, Amber receives a phone call from an old high school friend, a woman who has been missing for three months. The call is disconnected as her friend pleads for help.

With her neighbor at her side, Amber digs into the disappearance, but sinister men are watching and they don’t like Amber’s meddling. While danger lurks, Amber discovers secrets that may unravel her life.

Someone wants those secrets buried…

“A twisty, intense mystery that scares, surprises, and satisfies” Traci Tyne Hilton (Mitzy Neuhaus Mystery series)

http://ow.ly/fL9oB

I’m off to the dog park, because Poo waits for no man. Or woman. I’ll catch you up as soon as I can. Promise.

Keep Chugging that Chia!

Aztec Diet, Diet, Food, Lia Anderson Dog Park Mysteries, On Being a Writer

Aztec Diet Day 13: Do I or Don’t I?

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Stats: -2 pounds; Net Loss: 9 pounds; Waist: – 4″

Breakfast and Lunch: All Day Blueberry Smoothie; Snack: none; Dinner: Peanuts, ceviche, 1/2 pound Angus burger, 1/2 side of fries, skin on, water with lemon; Snack: none

We already know I’m going to cheat this evening, so the big question isn’t that. That’s a done deal. The only question about that is how much I cheat. I’ll address that experience after I get back this evening.

Nope, today’s quandary is this: I need to go shopping. Sunday is my 14th day, the end of the Chia Challenge. So do I stock up on Phase II lunches, or do I keep going on?

I’ve lost 9 pounds in 14 days. There’s a good chance I’ll make it to 10 pounds by my Monday morning weigh-in, even with the cheat. I’m thrilled, but I have more to go. Continuing with Phase I makes sense. Yet, I’m a little tired of every meal having the same texture. I’d like to chew something. The kelp noodles have helped a bit. I figure, since they are 100% raw seaweed, they’re okay.

My options are: 1. Stay on Phase I; 2. Go onto Phase II; 3. Stick with Phase I, but allow myself one or two solid meals a week while keeping close to Aztec Diet guidelines.

What would you do?

Later: Terry’s was packed, with people, with servers, with retro neon signs. Brightly lit with high tables and peanut shells all over the floor. Even at 5 p.m., there was a thirty minute wait. There’s no room to wait inside, so Terry’s constructed an ante-chamber with plastic sheeting, old stadium seats and hanging outdoor heaters.

We sat outside and had an energetic discussion about my WIP, Maximum Security. Pat kept proposing different ways in which my victim could bite the dust. I had to keep reminding her that the cause of death was a done deal, since the body has already been found in Mount Airy Forest, and the question was who done it, and why. This caused the woman sitting next to me (who thought we were chortling about a real event) to make an inquiry. Whereupon Pat and Anna enthused about my books. So maybe I have another reader.

I ate a small handful of peanuts while we waited and skipped the beverages in lieu of water with lemon. The appetizers were tiny, artful creations. I had the ceviche, which was spicy, skipped the accompanying saltine crackers. I ordered my 1/2 pound burger medium rare, with Swiss cheese and the Burgundy sauce with wild mushrooms and truffle oil. I ordered it sans fries. When it came with, I went ahead and had some, with ketchup. I ate about half the bun.

I’m no saint. I’m not proposing myself as a model of dietary perfection. I had a good time. I don’t feel either deprived or guilty, and I’m happy to get back on the wagon. And, If I allow myself the occasional exceptional treat, it helps me pass by ordinary temptations. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

All Day Blueberry Smoothie
1 avocado
1 banana
1 Cup spinach, packed
1 – 2 Cups blueberries
2 TBSP cacao
4TBSP ground chia seeds
1/2 TSP ground ginger
1 TBSP green powder
Water to desired consistency

Makes 5 – 6 cups

Lia Anderson Dog Park Mysteries, On Being a Writer

Help! I Misplaced My Inner Psycho

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I have this problem.

Since 2010, I have been gleefully knocking people off in as many ways as I can imagine. Many of them deserved it. Some were no loss to society. Others I didn’t know well enough to care. And this has all made for great fun. My stuff has certainly kept my mother amused, even if it does have my stepmother worried about my mental health.

Suddenly, I’ve lost my mojo.

You see, I fell in love. I wrote this character. She’s a nice lady. Middle aged, a bit lonely, and reaching out to grab a bit of happiness for herself. Just an ordinary woman given new life by an affair she shouldn’t be in. I created her to be the victim in my current Work In Progress. So she has to die. If she doesn’t die, there’s no body. And if there’s no body, there’s no mystery to solve and no book. I guess someone else could die, but if they did she would have no reason for being. And that would be worse, because I really love her.

I love who she is and where she’s been. And I really, really, really wish there was some way to give this poor woman a happy ending.

I can’t think of one single, solitary reason why she should die. Everything in me rebels against it. She’s a nice lady and doesn’t deserve it. I tried to find a way around it. She’s not really dead, just missing. It’s some other body they mistook for her. I worked that one in my head, played it off Mary Ann at the park in as many variations as we could conjure. We failed to find a solution. We came to the conclusion that there is no (reasonable) way to plot this book unless this unfortunate woman bites it.

And I can’t bring myself to do it.

It’s got me stalled. I can’t do it, and I haven’t been able to create the character who’s going to do it for me. Is it the cold wife? The perfect daughter? The slacker son? The housekeeper’s unemployed brother? The milkman, who is really the twin she was separated from at birth?

I listed the players. Invented a few more potential peripheral characters. I’ve been brainstorming motives for all of them, looking for my killer. Nothing resonates. Nothing gets me excited. My reaction to all of it is “Meh.”

I’ve got to get over this. What’s a mystery without a murder?

Dog Park Culture, Interviews, Lia Anderson Dog Park Mysteries, On Being a Writer

Welcome to the Hop!

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Finally, the election is over.  I can turn my phone back on because the endless barrage of political calls (I live in Ohio) has stopped.  The arguments that had us declaring “Red” and “Blue” areas at the dog park have been reduced to mutterings and will die out in a few days.

Life goes on.

If you’re new to this blog, it may be because you are following the trail of “The Next Big Thing” blog hop.  Follow the trail backwards and check out the work of Joy Sydney Williams  Follow it forward to discover . . . Who knows?  But before you go on, stop a while and find out about my latest release, “Drool Baby.”

Q & A

1. What is the working title of your book?

I just published My second novel, “Drool Baby.”  We’ll be talking about that one since book three is still a vague glimmering in the back of my mind.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

There were issues that needed to be addressed from my first book.  This book wraps up the storyline in “A Shot in the Bark.”  But the underlying premise came from my disgust that in every series I’ve ever read, the main character trips over dead bodies and fends off murderous villains and it never affects them.

So Lia, my main character, is traumatized by her brush with death in the first book, and she’s in therapy because of it. She’s also in serious denial, because one of her dog park friends has been doing truly awful things.  And I thought, if it was me, and someone said my friend was a killer, how would I react?  I wouldn’t believe it.  Period.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Dog park cozy romantic mystery thrillers?

I’m an amalgamation of genres.  I take everything I love about different books and jam it all in there, like the sandwiches I made when I was a child.  It’s got romance, suspense and mystery.  It’s also got a bit of thriller in it.  One reviewer referred to it as a cozy mystery with back-bone.  I liked that. My model is the TV show, “Bones.”  I like the warmth of the relationships contrasted by the heinous crimes and the ‘yuck’ factor.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Christian Bale to play detective Peter Dourson.  Probably Keira Knightly for Lia, but she’d have to change her hair to a streaky chestnut.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Peter is at his wits end trying to protect a disbelieving Lia while a killer hones her craft.

6. Is your book self-published, published or represented by an agency?

Self-Pubbed, and loving it.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Seven months?  Maybe a little more.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Nora Roberts meets John Sandford, maybe?

9. Who or What inspired you to write this book?

Thousands of hours hanging out at the dog park.  I was compelled to expose the seething passions underlying all those monotonous conversations about the weather.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Mount Airy Dog Park is a real place and I go there every day with my three rescues.  Most of my characters are based on my dog park buddies.  Almost all the dogs in the books appear as themselves. Alas, Peter Dourson is only a figment of my imagination.

That’s it for this stop on “The Next Big Thing.”  For the next author on the trail, check out my friend, Stephen Scott. He’ll be blogging about his work next Wednesday.

Happy Trails!

Lia Anderson Dog Park Mysteries, Life, On Being a Writer

What Now?

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Drool Baby
My Latest Release

This morning I pushed the button on “Drool Baby” over at KDP, and the book went live on Amazon after a year of wrestling with it.

So what did I do after that? I took a nap. A long, glorious, don’t-have-to-do-anything-or-be-anywhere nap.

I’m looking forward to spending the next week catching up with all the things that I’ve neglected during this last, long push to publication.

I’m excited that it looks like I’ve won the race to finish the book before a cold snap kills all my basil and parsley. I may get to make pesto this year, after all. And a big batch of tabooli.

The dogs can look forward to getting a bath. Chewy is getting groomed one last time before winter.

My mechanic doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to see me next week for an oil change.

I’m going to read books somebody else wrote.

I swear I’m going to call my mother. And my stepmother, and my sister . . .

I might even get my hair cut.

I’m going to relax and enjoy the little things. Like clearing the biology experiments out of my refrigerator.

Then, after I’ve had a chance to start feeling human again, I’m going to take a deep breath, look around me, and figure out who I can knock off next.