Category Archives: The Eternal Rose

Good food and good books

Because the fella is on this gluten-free diet, I get all excited when I find new stuff that he can eat that’s really good. I have probably a year’s worth of Southern Living magazines in the house–I read them, and then set them aside to go back through later and pull the good stuff out–and sometimes (most of the time) it takes me a while to go back through. I think this particular magazine was around a year old. Don’t think it was more. (I hope.) Anyway, the recipe was sort of Italian-Southern-Southwestern, because it was browned polenta slices topped with black-eyed peas heavily laced with fresh cilantro and tomato. Basically, you slice up one of those pre-packaged tubes of polenta, brown it in olive oil (they call for a non-stick skillet and cooking spray, but since I don’t have a non-stick skillet…). Then you cook a can of black-eyed peas and chopped onion, and a little salt and cayenne, till the liquid’s almost gone, add in some cilantro and tomato and top the polenta slices with it. Very simple. Very good stuff. I don’t know that anyone but a Southerner would have thought to put black-eyed peas with polenta–but hey, fried polenta is just a fancy name for a round, flat hushpuppy! Maybe it’s Texas cuisine, since it’s peas plus cilantro and tomato, which has a lot in common with “Texas caviar.” Anyway–good stuff.

I’ve been reading some good books lately too. Picked up DARK MOON DEFENDER by Sharon Shinn. I liked it better than THIRTEENTH HOUSE–which I liked, just not as much as DMD. This one takes place in the same universe, and is Justin’s story, about how he comes into his own, and falls in love. There are TWO happy endings in this story. Very good read, IMO.

I need to make maps for Eternal Rose. I have paper and everything, just haven’t done it yet. Going to Galveston and the beach for a day or two beginning tomorrow…don’t know as I’ll take the paper with me. I wonder if I need to use the legal-sized paper for the maps… I’ll ask. Also need to write a short bio. I hate writing bios. I want to sound cute and clever, and just can’t seem to do it. At least I don’t sound clever to myself. Maybe it sounds better to other people. I’d post two bios here and let y’all vote on which one sounds best–but that would require that I WRITE two bios. I don’t even want to write one. But I will do it! I am brave.

Okay–have to share this with you. When the boy was still at home and studying WWI history, they were doing some kind of project looking up the early efforts at propaganda, and he stumbled across a cache of French WWI war posters online, the “Loose Lips Sink Ships” sort. One of these posters showed a chicken sitting atop a pile of eggs and said in large print: “Je suis une brave poule de guerre!” Which translated means: “I am a brave war chicken!”

And now, every time I think “I am brave,” I also think “I am a brave war chicken!” Je suis une brave poule de guerre!

So there. :)

Procrastination

Yes, I am one of those people who, if you look up procrastination in the dictionary, will be pictured there. I am the queen–nay, the Empress of Procrastination! At least when it comes to blogging on my own blog.

Okay, I have excuses. Like, I left town. And then when I came back the computer was still in the shop. For the rest of the whole week. But I could have blogged. I could have used to backup computer, even if it doesn’t have any bookmarks to find places, and I’m not sure I even have the e-mail set up. I could have done it. But I procrastinated. I read. I read and read and read.

I also wrote. I learned a long time ago that if I want to get all the way to the end of a book, I need to Write First. So I came into my office and wrote every morning last week. Some days I only got 2 pages done, but I got them done. I need to remember the No excuses mantra. I want to finish the book this month. I’m getting close to the end. And unexpected things are still happening, so it’s all good. But I need to get more than 6 pages in 3 hours.

Anyway, that’s where I’ve been, and that’s where I’m at. Oh, I’m all excited. C.E. Murphy (of Urban Shaman fame) got an advanced reader copy of Eternal Rose and she wrote me this wonderfully incoherent e-mail all about how much she loved it. If you’ve ever met Catie, you will understand how wonderfully incoherent she can get about all sorts of things. So it was nice that my book was one of them. I’m all happy.

Off to sleep now. After writing time in the a.m., will go let the dermatologist look at my skin cancers tomorrow (WEAR SUNSCREEN!!!) and see how they’re doing with the cream treatment. Then I will go paint. I drew off a picture of one of the grandboys I love, so I’m going to give it a whirl. If I can successfully paint three portraits that don’t suck, I may donate one to Brenda Novak’s diabetes auction fundraiser next year. This is number two. Wish me luck.

ISBN for THE ETERNAL ROSE

One of My Lovely MySpace friends told me that they pre-ordered The Eternal Rose from Amazon.com today. (Or maybe yesterday. Time is relative in cyberspace.) Anyway, I was totally shocked and thrilled, since I hadn’t known until then that the books were available for pre-order. (Yay!!)

ISBN stands for something blah like “International Standard Book Number” (which might be right, or might not, because I’m totally guessing) but that is what makes a book “real.” It’s not the paper or the cover, tho those totally help in the “real”-making, but e-books, which have covers and type, but no paper, have ISBNs. The ISBN identifies the book to the public, and to bookstores and to anybody who wants to know about a book. Two books can have the same cover. Two authors can have the same name (which is frowned upon, but happens). Many, many books have the same plots. (FYI, there are only 16 plots. Or maybe only three. Depends on who you ask.)

But no book will ever, ever, ever have the same ISBN. It identifies one book and one book only. MINE. What is this secret number, you ask? Well, first of all, it’s NOT a secret. (Share this news with your friends.) And secondly, there are actually two numbers. There are so many books, the ISBN people are switching from a 10-digit number to a 13-digit number.

That said, Here they are:

  • ISBN-10: 080957165X

  • ISBN-13: 978-0809571659

Go forth and pre-order. If you want to.

Oh, and I’ll be posting a pre-pre-order excerpt from the book for my newsletter sometime next month, probably (depending on when I can remember to do it, and if I don’t, nag me, ‘kay?), so if you’re not signed up for the newsletter and you want to be, send me an e-mail with “Subscribe” in the subject line, and I’ll sign you up.