Banned in Boston (and elswhere), Slanguage and Updates

 A book of mine was banned this week. It was only banned for 24 hours, but it was banned in Boston and everywhere else Amazon.com services. It was a sudden kerfuffle with Digital Manga Publishing over explicit content that was quickly resolved after a whole lot of hell was raised from all quarters of the manga community. This comes on the heels of Paypal demanding that certain erotic content be pulled from Smashwords.com. This, too, was reversed when the policy ignited a fire storm of protest. I am not a fan of rape, incest or bestiality as content. However, the wording of the policy would have affected classic literature like Lolita or any shape shifting fantasy that involved werewolves. It was also loudly pointed out that Paypal had no problems accepting money from Craigslist and other sites that sell porn and facilitate prostitution. Likewise, Amazon is in a glass house where content is concerned selling everything to 'inflatable friends' to toys that even I've never heard of before. I'm not going to link them here. Just search the site for any sort of kink, and there is a book, DVD and/or product that caters to it. I always thought I'd be banned or stoned by Trek fans because of The Secret Logs of Mistress Janeway, not for a sweetly sexy and funny collection like Again Tomorrow [Now available on Amazon Kindle at  http://amzn.com/B007FN03L6;
On Barnes and Noble Nook at:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/again-tomorrow-nabako-kamo/1109212837 and And On EManga at: http://www.emanga.com/books/Again_Tomorrow]  that was legally published in another country and properly licensed here. I'm glad that the issue is resolved for DMP. I'm really glad that I didn't have to battle to keep my books widely distributed. It would be hard for Sylvia Beach to champion banned authors in an era where one or two companies control so much of either online payment processing or actual content distribution.

Manga Editing – What DO You Do?

The book banning brings up the question of what does this company do and what do I do for it. I know my gentle and curious readers. Digital Manga Publishing is a US distributor of manga, light novels and soon literature from Japan. The Digital Manga Guild is a group of translators, editors and typesetters who work in teams called localizer to convert Japanese title into English. My team consists of LW Hubbard, an ex-pat professional translator who lives in Japan, Hentai Tenshi, an independent music producer who lives in the LA area and little ol' me. Our team works under the name Haven's Blade. I thought that we would be working largely independently of each other save for proofing the final pages. It has been far more collaborative, and it calls on skills and knowledge that are far beyond the manga stories on the pages. There needs to be a broad knowledge of past and current Japanese culture and pop culture. We've had instances where we've had to figure out what to call a product mentioned that is a parody of a wildly popular snack food in Japan. In the last week, we've come across popular TV shows and a catching hit song that had to be factored into the translations. Then we had to figure out what would be a stateside equivalent for those things while not making them too American. The author or mangaka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangaka has to recognize the work. That was why I was listening to the RubberDucky Song earlier this week. What's been more challenging is making the dialogue sound natural and realistic when the characters are 20-something guys. Though the audience is certainly not 20-something guys, the characters have to sound as real as their Japanese counterparts. Since none of us are members of this demographic, that takes a bit of effort and all three of our brains. Among this weeks puzzlers was whether or not young punks would use the term German aphrodisiac and what could be used in its place. I couldn't find any reason for the substance coming from Germany, and I really looked hard. 

The other thing we had to be really careful of was trying to be too current with the slang. The readership has a really wide range in age, and dialog that is too set in a particular time gets dated and looks sill in just a few years. The slang has to be something that has passed into the general lexicon of speech. My rule of thumb is whether or not the Hubs uses the slang. He is so square, he's a cube (that's his description of himself). If he uses it, the term has been around for some time and is likely to stay in use. Overall, the team is aiming at a loose, informal way for the characters to speak that reads as natural to anyone that may pick up the book. I'll talk about the joys of sound FX translation and proof reading on another day. This is just a taste to show that our work is challenging but above board despite the occasional banning. It's also cool to work with some really interesting people that I wouldn't have known otherwise. We all enjoy sharing creative energy and solving each new and often amusing puzzle.

Updates

I do apologize for being such a tease about what's going on in the background. I don't mean to be. I'm torn between wanting to convey a reason for my very upbeat demeanor and just keeping mum until I can spill the beans. I can say that the schedule for these projects is holding firm, so that they day for announcements is coming as promised. Also, I have been taking notes, so I will have detailed blogs about every aspect of the mayhem that is coming.

Stay tuned.

Waiting Game and Simple Pleasures

It was approximately two years ago that I spent nearly 21 hours tangling with the ER at LA County USC Hospital or, as it is really known, General Hospital. I still recall that grueling day and night and day again. I still really hate anything airing on the CW network. I still lament not having THS TV. It's a free premium channel that shows some epically bad action films from the 70s. The film that Craig is ranting about over the phone on any given day typically is airing on that channel. Alas, it is on every cable and satellite provider but mine. Most of all, I remain amazed at how many people that facility treats on any given day and how good that care can be. In my case, it was excellent. The only problem is one that is unavoidable. There is a lot of waiting involved in being seen at General Hospital. To quote the always profanely elegant Nadia G of the Cooking channel's Bitchin' Kitchen, 'when you're a broke-ass, you wait in a lot of lines.' Now, I must amend that a little. The wait times at the ER are considerably shorter than that 21 hours. After my visit, there was a big news expose about that. The county cracked down and the time got way shorter on average. My last trip to that ER ha me in and out in four hours! Thankfully, I haven't had to visit an ER in well over a year.

Waiting Game

This week, I had a two part wait. The first part was at the oncology clinic. Then, I had to wait around an hour and a half before going to wait at the primary care clinic. In between the clinics, I had to climb up then down then up these stairs to the left. There is another set of stairs beyond those to reach the building where my clinics are. It was a grueling experience to put it mildly. The Popeye's Fried Chicken  helped a little – but not very much. The time that I have waiting in the clinic or inching along the 10 west freeway to and from the hospital has been an opportunity to read. I don't think I've read this many books since Grad School. I've read most of Anthony Bourdain's bibliography, including his delightful fiction and an amazing book on Typhoid Mary. I've read all sorts of food fiction and non-fiction. I've also read enough literature, literary history and lit criticism to teach a course (though I really don't want to). I've tried to study Japanese, but that requires a book, a notebook and far too much room than I have on the express bus or the clinic waiting room. Reading is also less stressful while I'm waiting.

Simple Pleasures

The current book I'm obsessed with is The Table Comes First by Adam Gopnik. It is a history of the restaurant and the cookbook as well as the history of the kitchen table primarily in French culture. This all sounds like the height of food nerdom, but Gopnik's gift as a writer is to make any topic very personal and accessible. His writing is always amusing and engaging. He wrote one of my favorite books ever, Paris to the Moon. It was a touching memoir about how he came to be a columnist in France and what his life was like there. But it was about so much more than that as this book is about so much more than food. Though Gopnik proclaims that this book is not a cookbook, his incredibly sensual descriptions of preparing and eating food have caused me to make a couple of the meals he detailed. One description involves a revolution in the way I make scrambled eggs. Yes, scrambled eggs. Gopnik is correct when he says that simple cooking is never really simple. He has made me look at myself as a cook in a new way that's rather exciting. Beyond that, I'm enthralled with his wonderfully elegant way of connecting with the reader. It made the waiting almost joyful! Of course, I recommend it and Paris to the Moon as highly as possible.

Fits and Starts

This week was a throwback to earlier days in my illness. I'm not ill, mid you. But my physical challenges were more pronounced last week. I can say that the acupuncture is having a positive impact on the pain. And I am getting more and more miles in with each walk. The throwback was the fatigue. I went from being able to write or edit until right before going to sleep near midnight to being unable to focus on anything but rudimentary TV shows after dinner around six pm. There were a couple of days when I didn't do anything at all. I think I'd having a period of adjustment to new meds. Strangely, I did manage to accomplish many things on my list. The editing proceeded in a timely fashion. I uploaded corrected versions of two titles. And I uploaded a new video in my Yaoi cooking webseries, Cook Like a Uke. Any one interested in learning about an almost basic Japanese breakfast (almost because I substituted sausage patties cut into cute shapes for natto beans and grilled horse mackerel. The reasons for this and for the technical glitches make for a comedic blog. You can find that and a link to the video HERE.

Updates

I cover all that I'm allowed to publicly talk about in the paragraph above. More news is hopefully coming soon as I am bursting with surprises.

Stay tuned.

Plans, Pin Cushions, Publishing and Updates

I'm not sure where last week went. It got gobbled up though I can't seem to remember how. It was all a blur. There was a lot that I wanted to get done as I recall. Only some of it was accomplished. My reach exceeded my grasp on a few of those goals. Trying to edit and post three videos in a weeks was not realistic, especially when I had to do re-shoots on one of them. I've been doing cooking videos as exercises to learn how to light a set, shoot, edit and do minor post production FX. Now, an exercise is sort of boring to produce and even more boring to watch. I had to make it interesting for me to make. And to attract views, I tied it to an aspect of anime I found interesting – food. The food that appears in anime and manga are accurate depictions of Japanese dishes. Since my characters are food obsessed, I decided to do videos themed around dishes that appear either in my favorite anime or are cooked by my characters. You can check out the videos on DraggonTV's youtubechannel.

Middling to Poorly Laid Plans

Last week, I was to post my long overdue video on the perfect breakfast to the typical crazy male leads I follow or write. However, I also wanted to do a video response to one that Ochikeron, one of my favorite youtube chefs, put up just before the Super Bowl. She did Kara Age fried chicken, a nugget style chicken that is marinated in garlic, ginger, soy sauce and sake before deep frying. I have an oven fired Buffalo chicken that I liked to make for the Super Bowl and other occasions. I figured that my recipe would taste even better by first marinating it in soy sauce, sake, ginger and garlic. So I did a video of my KaraAge Buffalo Wings. Of course, it took longer than I planed, and involved re-shooting that I hadn't planned. By the end of the week, I had no energy to finish the video I had originally planned to upload. Hopefully, I'll get that done tomorrow.

The other monkey wrench in my plans was a complication in editing the current manga I'm working on. Bousou Kareshi or Wild Boyfriend is jammed packed with action. The panels on the pages are jam packed with dialog bubbles, caption boxes, FX sounds and character asides. On top of translating the Japanese and smoothing out the translation in editing, we had to figure out how to label every element so the letterer knows where to put everything. All three of us had to re-do the first 50 pages on the script while moving forward with new pages. That really through my schedule off as far as creative output, because the work was so slow going. We managed to develop and efficient by the end of the week. I'm all caught up on that. I'm way behind on everything else. The delay was worth the trouble, I believe. I learned a lot in going over those pages. For those waiting for book related corrections, I'll get to those this week, for sure!

Pins and Needles

Now that I have been declared cancer free in the latest round of tests [YAY!!!], it was time to really address the body I have post treatment. The yoga and walking have kept me mobile, but it didn't help with the pain caused by the damage chemo left me with. Every manner of medication comes with side effects that are way scarier than the pain. I decided to try acupuncture. A friend of mine had starting having treatments to manage her arthritis pain. There is a very reasonably priced and highly praised clinic nearby, so I thought I would give it a shot. I don't think I've ever met a group of mellower or softly spoken people. It was fascinating. The first treatment only involved my knees and some points to help me relax and sleep. I have to say that my knees to feel markedly better, and I have been sleeping a full eight hours a night since the treatment. I haven't slept like that in well over a year. I can't wait to see what happens when they treat my chronically painful back. I'm far more optimistic about the new normal of my body than I was even a few weeks ago.

Updates

The countdown continues to the launch of our projects and leeway to talk about them. So far, the dates are holding firm. We haven't gotten carried away with excitement yet, but I must confess to making all sorts of preliminary lists for when I do. Meanwhile, the fancy dancing of adaptation continues. We've had a few missteps which is to be expected, but the work continues at a reasonably good pace. There is also a pitch in the works of a project that is closest to our hearts. That is coming up in a week or two. Good thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

I'm a Published Editor!

As reported in recent blogs, I've been working for the Digital Manga Guild as an editor. Well, here is the first tile I've edited. It's called Again Tomorrow. Here's the synopsis [Warning!! This is some serious yaoi]:

Shunya’s office is buzzing with wild rumors. Vice President Yuusei Saotome, son of the President and heir to the company, is missing! Most believe he ran off to escape an arranged marriage that would benefit his father’s company. Only Shunya knows that the VP has amnesia and is staying with him in his apartment. The Yuu that Shunya knows is not the coldly handsome VP who barely noticed his underlings. This Yuu is easygoing and likes to cook for Shunya. Yuu even seems to want Shunya in his arms as much as Shunya wants to be there. For a while, Shunya lives in a dream with Yuu. But doubts nag at his conscience. What if Yuu has another love who is searching for him? What will happen when his memory returns? Would Shunya be forgotten or hated by Yuu?
Translated by Vincent Ho; Edited by D.L. Warner; Lettered by Hentai Tenshi

You can buy it on Amazon Kindle at  http://amzn.com/B007FN03L6
On Barnes and Noble Nook at:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/again-tomorrow-nabako-kamo/1109212837
And On EManga at: http://www.emanga.com/books/Again_Tomorrow


Read my spoiler free blog about it! Go to:  http://www.sybpressyaoi.com/2012/02/secret-side-of-seme.html

For all the rest, stay tuned!

Lent and Craig, Souffles and Updates

Craig turned a hose on JJ Abrams  recently. Apparently, the man walked across Craig's yard en route to a writer who lives in the same building. Craig gave him a hard stare in response to the startled sound Abrams made. It could be that Craig has grown tired of finding either A-listers or large Macaw parrots in his yard. We never did find out why Jack Nicholson was in there. Craig had been in too much of a hurry to hose him at the time. He always regretted that. When I asked why he hosed Abrams, Craig said it was in part for wasting Karl Urban in Star Trek but mostly for Super 8. Strangely, that wasn't why he called on Wednesday. He was making sure I was properly ashed for the holy day. Despite his carefully constructed persona of a remorseless heathen, Craig is fairly religious. He was not very impressed with my pledge for Lent. I go meatless on Fridays and sometimes more days a week. I responded that he has no idea how much I like bacon. This is a hardship. I almost blew the pledge on Ash Wednesday because I was on automatic pilot making breakfast. I managed not to blow it. And since it was also National Margarita Day (who decides these things?), a good time was had by all.

Meatless Dilemmas

I do a lot of prep for my meatless days during Lent. I soak and cook all different kinds of beans. I make mushroom and vegetable stocks for soups. I've become really picky about soups. I really prefer a homemade stock. It's the snacks that make meat free days difficult. Sandwiches are just too easy. Especially the Jambon et fromage on a baguette (ham and cheese). I can make a tray of mini sandwiches That will tide Jon and I over until dinner. I have to think to remember to replace the filling with fig jam and soft cheese. I try hard to make dishes that Jon and I both would eat. And he doesn't eat a particular dish, I try to find ways of making it so that it could be frozen for later. I really enjoy savory souffles, but my hubs does not. Most recipes call for servings of four or more. I had a recipe for chocolate souffles that c45+0an be frozen and baked later, but I had had no luck finding a cheese souffle recipe that could be done ,the same way. Then, one day I was up at 4am watching Sara's Secrets on the Cooking Channel. She made a twice baked goat cheese souffle. I figured that if it could be baked twice, maybe it could be frozen in between. I even wrote Ms. Moulton to ask her. She told me to try and let her know how it worked. It worked beautifully! And she praised me for the discovery, to boot! Jon is convinced that I will write a cookbook someday. He's also certain that I will be making him bento box lunches at some point. Both are probably true.

Juggling Genres

So far, I'm successfully switching my brain back and fourth between scripts and manga and business proposals. I even have a schedule for when I work on what to keep things moving forward in some fashion and have time for cooking and other shiny objects that get my attention like Mannix turning up on Murder She Wrote. That's been distracting me for at least twenty minutes. At any rate, I find I need significant breaks between projects to shift fully from one into the other. My brain gets really tired when I try to take on too much too quickly. On fun benefit about editing manga that I didn't expect was the impact on my learning Japanese. My team was trying to figure out what a sound effect was. It was written in thin, tiny characters. I wrote them out to figure out what it was. Then, I realized it was the name of the leading man. Jon read it and confirmed. “When did you start writing in Japanese,” he asked. I replied, “Just now!” I had been practicing the characters of one form of writing, but had yet to really write words. It's very exciting.

Updates

There still isn't anything that I can discuss freely. As far as I know, it should be only a few more weeks of secrecy.

Stay tuned.

Brevity, Fancy Dancing and Updates

This has been a strange and really challenging week creatively. I'm really weary mentally, and there is still a lot to do. I think there will be a lot to do for quite some time to come. This is in no way a complaint. The work is exciting and fun for the most part. Even the not fun parts of the past week's work will lead to something really exciting. It was just that every task was daunting in some way. I was slowed down by the constraints that came with every task. I was also dealing with a difficulty physically that I have not seen in quite some time. It's not anything to worry about. The legacy of chemo can be a new 'normal' life that comes with occasional obstacles. This was such a week. I'm hoping to make up for the sleep I lost coping with those difficulties. But that's no fun to blog about. Let's begin with the challenges.

Distillation

I have found that authors and screenwriters who ask me for advice generally have a hard time distilling their work down to a short synopsis. The best high concept pitch ever, according to Hollywood lore, was for the ill-fated Cop Rock. It was just two words – MTV Cops. Brevity is an asset in both industries. Yes, I believe that this is true for any sort of publishing. With all the diversions vying for the attention of readers, it behooves a writer to distill their work down to a tantalizing concept that can be tweeted easily (140 characters – not words – or less). This skill is useful not just because producers and publishers have short attention spans. I have found that if a writer cannot distill their story down to it's simplest explanation, they usually don't have a good handle on the plot. One of the reasons Sybaritic Press remains largely dormant toward outside submissions is that I don't have the patience to read rambling query letters and equally rambling novels.

I learned to distill plots when I was a film and TV critic in college. And I've had a lot of practice over the years writing script pitches or blurbs for books. Still, the constraints placed on me for writing pieces over the past two weeks has made the tasks much more daunting than usual. For example, I had to turn my complicated romantic comedy into a two sentence summary that explains the film completely has some 'zing' in it. Zing, he says. Next, I had to do short bios on all the partners involved. Let see, how do I take decades of work experience in divergent fields and explain how that experience applies to a film project in a convincing and very brief paragraph. That was for our partners. For Jon and I, it was a matter of morphing our bizarre work histories into short paragraphs that showed we were an asset to the production. That was a long afternoon. Speaking of constraints, I had to write a cover blurb for the manga I've been editing. For that I had to describe the plots in the book in an enticing manner without giving even the tiniest whiff of a spoiler to avid fans. Avid fan geeks have hyper sensitive thresholds when it comes to spoilers. I spent a whole lot of time writing and re-writing that as well. All of that effort yielded less than two pages of actual text.

Blog Monsters

Goodness knows I enjoy writing this blog. It has kept me connected to friends and family during difficult times, and it has spread my writing and general quirkiness all over the internet. I started this blog to promote my writing. It soon drifted to my crazy life in LA and to observations on pop culture. And I was happy with that. However, to successfully market books and build a brand, I needed something much more specific that could be easily found on a search engine. Thus, Yaoi at Sybpress  and Romantica at Sybpress were created to talk about and promote yaoi and romantic erotica respectively. So, this means writing separate blogs for these sites with some regularity. Fine. The new books have been selling rather well, and these sites are visited quite often by my readers and by new readers. Then, I realize that Digital Manga, the company for which I edit manga, wants its guild teams to promote their books among their fellow fans via twitter and blogs. I had no problem with that. I figured it would draw more readers to the yaoi blog. Then, I find out that the company would prefer the teams have blogs and twitter accounts under the name of the guild team and tagged in such a way that a search for Digital Manga would bring it up.. That's completely understandable and absolutely reasonable. Setting up these social media accounts is relatively easy when there is a team working at work. The difficulty came with actually writing the first blog for the manga, Again Tomorrow. I had to entice and titillate without revealing plot twists or or character spoilers. I had to be conversational but mindful that I am representing a company. And I had to not promote my own work. I have never been so nervous and tentative about a blog before. For those interested, the result is HERE. 

Geez, I just realized I'm blogging about blogging. Time to move on.

Fancy Dancing

On occasion, Jon and I have helped other filmmakers shape a pitch and a business plan for investors. I've even been paid to do budgets and schedules for film business plans. These are really easy, because they don't involve re-writing the script. The one time we were given a script to re-write, we were told to strip to the idea and start over. That script came out reading like a Deb and Jon script. Recently, we took on adapting a story into a pitch from TV. The story was not written for the camera. It was created for another form of media. Yes, I know this is terribly vague, but it is as specific as I can be. The creator has decades long experience and a large, avid following. The fans for this particular title numbers in the hundreds of thousands, and they are passionate about it. This adaptation is a daunting challenge. We've gone through weeks of pouring over the original works and asking questions of the author. The idea is to make the new material fit into the original seamlessly. I've had the treatment for the pilot a week, but have only written a a handful of lines. It's an intimidating proposition, dancing in someone else's shoes. But with the editing of the first manga out of the way, I can really focus on writing the additional material. At least, that's my plan for the upcoming week.

Updates

I've been giving them during this whole blog. Haven't you noticed?

Stay tuned.

Waiting Rooms, Craig and Vague Updates

The funniest part of the last diagnostic test of this cycle was presenting Craig as my responsible adult to the charge nurse. I wasn't sure if they were going to accept him as such after he said that his relationship with me was high priest. As she detailed the things that I shouldn't be doing under sedation(working with heavy machinery or making big life decisions), I could see his nimble, twisted mind thinking of how he could perhaps get me to do all of those things. There were a few construction sites in my neighborhood that left bulldozers unattended. I have no idea what happened after they wheeled me away on the gurney. What I do know is that something happened that everyone in reception knew who 'Mr. Craig' was and that he was with me.

The most interesting part of the the test was the wait for the doctor. I was on the gurney all drugged up and ready to go while he was hunched over the PC screen riveted by something. I should have known what the hold up was. I've seen this behavior often in the two years I've been coming to LA County USC for treatment (yep, it has been two years already). He was reading my entire history. Since I've been involved in the Appendix Caner community and hear a lot of stories similar to my own, I forget how rare this illness and the treatment are. The doctor looked stunned when he turned to me. He talked about how much I had been through. That surgery wigs out a lot of surgeons. He said with amazement that I was doing very well. He even revealed that all my tests were clear (I don't actually see my oncologist for another two weeks, so I didn't know until just then). The test itself was anti-climatic. 

On the way home, Craig entertained me with 1950s songs about coal mining (16 Tons) or the way mob nicknames are generated. The latter he'd learned from a textbook on organized crime he got from the Archive. It seems that they don't just come from one's demeanor (bugsy) or weapon of choice (bats) or body part one likes to remove (thumbs). My favorite was a nickname given to an enforcer with a missing finger. The judge put the nickname 3 Fingers Brown on the court papers. He really didn't like the baseball player who had that name. Unfortunately for the mobster, it stuck. Apparently, I was still loopy enough to find all of this highly amusing.

I still have a set of blood tests and a couple of doctor appointments, but the bi-annual evaluation is over. I now have to push for my docs to deal with the side effects from the treatment that are still keeping me from a life filled with more normal activities. There are a whole lot of exciting things coming up in which I would like to fully participate. But overall, that day and the news was very, very good.

In Other News

This week had a whole lot going on. There was a lot of running around assembling legal documents and writing bios and reviewing all manner of reports and proposals. My Manga team finished the first draft of the title we've been working on since December. I'll be blogging about that this week. Jon and I are collaborating on a pitch with another writer. That means Jon and I are doing our usual dance of balancing the scifi minutia with the character development and the core romance. It was really interesting doing that dance with a third writer involved. It's going very well though it involves a whole lot of emailing.

I know that none of the above was specific, but that can't be helped. We're still prohibited from publicly detailing most of the projects going on right now. I have a tentative start date on one of them. If that holds, I will be free to talk about at least one of them very soon.

I'll have some cooking videos and other stuff up by next week.

Stay tuned.

Yummy Veggies, New Title and Bistro Reviews

I have food on my mind right now. It's been a busy week, cooking wise, so there is much to report. I even ate out at a couple of very enjoyable places this past week. I'd like to talk about those experiences. Also, today is super Bowl Sunday, a day for eating, drinking and watching the last professional football game until pre-season many months from now. Those are reason enough for thinking and writing about food. But there is one more reason food is on my mind. I have to go on a liquid fast on Monday for a diagnostic test I have on Tuesday. After a frenzy of Buffalo wings, sides and beer, there will be naught but clear liquids for me on Monday. That's no solid food until sometime Tuesday afternoon. It's been almost two years since I've had to do this kind of drastic fast. Back then, I didn't have an appetite to battle against. Oh, how times have changed. This will be fun. I wonder if beer or white wine count as clear liquids? Probably not.

Biscuit Battle and Other Skirmishes

I have made many attempts at baking buttermilk biscuits. The results have been satisfactory at best. I continue the fight, because I want to get away from fast food or supermarket biscuits and their applications (breakfast sandwiches, for instance). I am certain I have been following the directions in the recipes closely and correctly. Yet they would never be quite right. And then one day, Natalie Dupree announced on Facebook that her new book, Southern Biscuits was on sale for $1.99 on Kindle. This did me absolutely no good until she also announced that there was a free PC app for Kindle out as well. I uploaded the latter and downloaded the former immediately. This book is a revelation about the proper ingredients and techniques involved in making biscuits. Everything is simply but very carefully explained, including how to substitute ingredients that aren't available anywhere but the south. Because I viewed it as a simple dough, I don't think I took the same care with it as I would croissants or puff pastry. Truth be told, the methods for kneading and shaping are very similar just not as time consuming. I can see that one could make them quite quickly and easily with practice. This batch still didn't rise as much as I would have liked, but they were flaky, tender and melty. Jon found them to be a great accompaniment with the buttermilk fried chicken (I had a lot of buttermilk to get rid of). I've always like Natalie Dupree's shows on PBS. In fact, it is her recipe I use to make my Thanksgiving Turkey over 20 years after learning it. I was delighted that it was her book that put me on the path to biscuit righteousness.

I returned to the Culver City Farmer's Market on Tuesday. This time, I didn't have anything in particular in mind. I just wanted to really explore the tables. I was fairly certain that I would get more heirloom tomatoes, but that was all I really had in mind. I really wasn't expecting to get collard greens. I didn't expect to see any there. This isn't the south, so I didn't expect them to be grown widely at local farms. But I had forgotten that this hardy vegetable that was a staple for poor folk had become chic in Los Angeles. That's why it's selling at high class markets like Gelson's in Marina del Rey for nearly 4 bucks a bunch (crazy, I tell you). Well, I found collard greens at more than one booth. I bought the cutest little bunches I've ever seen – baby organic collards! My grandmother would have never stopped laughing, but I found them adorable at a quarter the size of a regular leaf. They were also incredibly tender when cooked with a little olive oil, garlic, onion and a cup of chicken stock. Lovely. The price was really great, too. They were about the same per bunch as at my favorite discount market. I will definitely look for those again. Being chic can have an upside, I suppose. The other meatless dishes I made this week was a French Onion soup. I like mine pureed and without the cheese and crouton topper. I did make a goat cheese souffle to go with the soup though. It's one that is baked twice thus I can freeze them and finish them later. This is important for me with these specialty dishes that only I like. If I can't freeze them, most of the batch would go to waste. I think I'm well set for yummy meatless dishes going into Lent.

Great Eats

I had errands to run in downtown Santa Monica early last week. It was a lovely day for strolling about, and I enjoyed just doing that a great deal. I don't get to that part of Santa Monica often anymore. Most of the reason is that I don't work there anymore. But part of me also has a negative association with the area. It's usually full of tourists who are problematic when you have stuff to do. And then the downtown is often teeming with the very entitled folks from Brentwood, the Pallisades and Malibu. They were all difficult customers for me when I worked at the Borders there. They aren't any better when I need to get a bunch of things on a list accomplished. But it was a chilly Monday, so the area was only sparsely populated.

Ozumo's Bar

Once I finished with my tasks, I was hungry. Once there were a lot of inexpensive restaurants of all types in downtown Santa Monica. They were a great resource for retail workers and tourists on a tight budget. As the area became more popular, everything changed. All those little food joints were replaced by upscale clothing shops. There is very little in the way of choices for retail workers now. I was not very hopeful. Still, I made my way to the rooftop dining deck on the poshly renovated Santa Monica Place. There, I found something quite unexpected. There was an Izakaya  (a Japanese bistro) called Ozumo. I found this intriguing as I had read about Izakayas but didn't think I'd run into one outside of Little Tokyo. There were Japanese tourists looking very happy in the outdoor beer garden. The bartender told me it was happy hour (2:30pm!) and there was a menu of appetizers. There was one item that I had yet to find outside of my kitchen, Karaage Fried Chicken. And then there was an Udon noodle soup that looked very much like one Anthony Bourdain had on his last show in Japan. They were very inexpensive, so I took a chance. The bartender also suggested the beer special, Primo Beer from Hawaii. Everything was delicious. For appetizers, the portions were generous. Those items with the beer were more than enough for me. Incidentally, that beer was amazing. I was stoked to find it at my nearby Beverage Warehouse, because it isn't carried in many places. Ozumo's servers were very sweet and knowledgeable. The place was gorgeous. It was a pleasant enough experience to possibly lure me back to that area for something other than an errand.

Updates

Ensnared Volume Two is Live! All versions of e-book are available at Smashwords HERE. There is also a full synopsis on that page. For those who prefer to order directly from Kindle, that should be live tomorrow or Tuesday. The print version will be live by the end of the week (hopefully). The print distributor has been on the slow side of late. Thank you for you patience. Fans of the Soldiers and Ensnared books may want to check out the blog on my yaoi page that covers why my characters are obsessed with food HERE. Don't worry, there aren't any major spoilers.

I don't have much else for this week. My mind is on that last test and the oncology appointment that follows. I have every indication that things are still clear, but it's impossible not to think about it. I am working with more speed on the latest Soldiers book and my Manga editing is coming along nicely. I'm actually being encouraged by my bosses at Digital Manga to blog about that experience. I'll be doing that starting next week.

I'm certain I'll have some tales to tell about the appointment Tuesday. Craig is my escort.

Stay tuned.

The Intern, Jingle Craig and Updates Galore

I woke up Friday to an early morning serenade by Craig of the jingle for the perfume, Wind Song. That's made by Prince Matchabelli  (a real Prince), don't you know. It seems someone thought it was a good idea to give Craig a DVD compilation of 1000 classic commercials. That was such a bad plan. Craig will be my escort to the longest (and last) diagnostic test I have to do for the six month check-up. I sense there will be much in the way of jingle singing in the car and perhaps the waiting area. I don't know the results of the other tests per se; however, if something were truly amiss, I would have been called in to see my doctor weeks ago. These facts have not stopped me from having anxiety about the whole business. I'll have to wait until almost the end of February for my next appointment. Ah well, it is better than having to go in every other week.

New Title – The Intern!

Long time production partner, Marguerite Lliteras has completely taken leave of her senses and started writing. Her first title is The Intern, an erotic romance set in the tony trenches of Beverly Hills Real Estate. Marguerite hales from that high class yet cutthroat background. Like a wise writer should, she wrote what she what she knew in telling this sexy but sweet tale. To summarize:

In the cutthroat world of Beverly Hills real estate, Lisa is the undisputed queen. She has a network of operatives that would be the envy of the CIA. Though she can see the vaguest signs and portents that will point to a fat commission, Lisa did not see William in her arena until it was too late. Her boss – and former lover – Phil saddled her with an Intern who was all wrong. He was too well put together. He knew too much way too soon. He was way too good looking. And worst of all for Lisa, he seemed to see beyond her mask and into her soul. Who was William? What did he really want? These questions plague Lisa, but the one that troubles her most is the one she asks of herself - Why can't she stop thinking about him?

The Intern is available on all formats at Smashwords . You can also download up to 20 percent of the book as a sample to check it out. It's also available on Kindle HERE It's some really tasty fun, and the first of many, we hope. You should also check out Marguerite's very amusing blog on Romantica @Sybaritic Press. Check it out! Share it with friends!

Updates

We are still hanging off the same cliff as last week. The only real drag about that is I still can't talk about what's going on. Everything seems to be on track. The people actually overseeing the process are mellow and fairly confident, so I will just chill until I can blab. It's going to be awesome though.

Ensnared Volume Two will be out this week. If Jon's PC hasn't croaked on me, it should be out tomorrow as an ebook. The paperback will be a week later most likely. I'm dealing with a lot of mental fatigue this week. I didn't manage to make anywhere close to the headway on many of the projects on my plate as I had hoped. I made some, but not very much. It's likely that I'm churning up the stress over the last test and some other things over which I have no control. It'll work out. I'll probably sleep a week after my next appointment with the Docs. Meanwhile, as long as I'm not hallucinating much, it's all good.

My Japanese was put to a field test last week. It was the first time I'd been to Mitsuwa since before Christmas. The young clerk who usually scurries away from me walked up as I was examining produce and wished me a Happy New Year in English. He was very pleased. I responded in English and then asked him where they'd moved the Miso in Japanese. He was surprised and tickled. We didn't go any further as I also learned the phrase 'I don't speak much Japanese.' I also said no thank you in Japanese to another clerk who was offering me a sample of something. That was so cool! My reading is getting better, too.

Thanks to a wonderful gift from an Internet Archive bud (thanks, Carrie!), I found a great recipe for buttermilk fried chicken. We had it last night, and it was awesome. I'm going to try an intriguing recipe from the same magazine for onion bisque. And I continue to struggle with basic southern biscuits. But those stories are for the next blog.

Stay tuned.

Food Feats, Hat Tricks and Teasing Updates

The Hubs pointed out that I missed something really big in my blog last week. I'm a silly billy. After posting my fried zucchini flowers on the Facebook, I also tweeted a photo to Giada DeLaurentiis via the Twitter. She then re-tweeted it to her followers – that's a big compliment! Yes, I'm on Twitter. I'm on almost every social media that my readers and potential readers use. In Twitter's case, it's also where a lot of my favorite chefs hang out. I have kibitz with many of them. This has been my biggest reaction yet. I was really jazzed. I have no idea why I forgot to put it in the blog last week.

Speaking of cooking, I did a lot of it this week. I don't think I've done this much advanced cooking (that is cooking done in advance of the week as opposed to cooking that requires advanced skills) since April of 2010 prior to my second surgery. There was a lull in my editing gigs that coincided with a streak of cool weather for LA. Those occurrences gave me the opportunity. And then, there were some huge sales on all sorts of meat. Thus, I made vats of chicken and beef stock and slow roasted a lot of meats and even made a big pot of chili. I had really slacked off on the practice which makes life so much easier day to day where getting meals prepared is concerned. Since I cannot predict my energy levels on any given day, being able to defrost a tasty protein is more than half the battle for meals. And not to sound like too much of a carnivore, I also soaked and cooked three kinds of beans! Now I have to package all that food for the freezer. Geez.

Too Many Hats

I was two kinds of editor last week. There was the prose editing of Marguerite Lliteras' book, The Intern and then there was editing manga with Again Tomorrow. They were polar opposites in what they required. Switching between them was challenging. I'll get into more details about the obstacles I had to deal with in the manga in a separate blog. Let's just say that there a whole lot of ways to interpret the word freeloader, and the context is really important. At least with The Intern, I could call the really patient author and ask questions. I also had to do a final set of corrections on Ensnared Volume 2. My head was swimming in words from different eras and cultures. And then I had to wear the screenwriter hat and the producer hat to figure out how to make a change in shooting location for one of the projects on the front burner work. On at least two days last week, I was wearing all of those hats. Everything I needed to accomplish got finished to my satisfaction, but I am really mentally exhausted at this writing. I haven't even been able to think about the ramifications of the film project's progress. That's probably a really good thing. I think I would be really freaking out (from happiness and panic). As I have said before with film 'Oohh, Aahh, that's how all of this starts, but then later there's the running and screaming' – Dr. Ian Malcom Jurassic Park- The lost World.

Updates

Some big ones are coming soon. I have to go now. There's more football, and I need to just veg out for a while.

Stay tuned!

Veggie Fun, More on Writing and Scary Updates

I am not a tightwad. I believe we are on this Earth to live as well as we can and enjoy what life has to offer. That said, I am not a spendthrift either. Ever since I received my first paycheck at age 15, I understood how to equate a purchase with the number of hours of work it took to buy it. Eating out on my own was always a matter of considerable thought no matter the restaurant. I look for quality in every establishment from diner to haute cuisine. I was lucky to grow up in a city like Philadelphia where even the dives are considered worthy of national attention. My luck continues in our current neighborhood in LA. Aside from a really groovy diner in a nearby bowling alley, Pepy's Gallery (I am beyond surprised that they have a website ), there are some really good eateries that are garnering a lot of praise foodie set like The Curious Palate and A-Frame. These are walking distance from me. A little further away is Ford's FilingStation which is one of the best restaurants I've run into in a long time. I do enjoy having a fine eating out experience. However, I've never had the extra cash to try dishes I'm not reasonably sure I'll enjoy.

But eating out is expensive compared to eating at home. And the added issue of deciding on whether to go out or not – especially for Jon – is whether the food will be significantly better than what he can get at home. I forgot to mention. Jon is a very proud tightwad. And in some instances like food, I can't blame him. For the price of a check at Ford's, I can get a week's worth of high quality groceries. As I wrote in a blog over the past summer, I had been long curious about lobster rolls. Theoretically, I should love them. They looked awfully tasty on the TV. But I just couldn't bring myself to spend $12 on a sandwich I wasn't certain I'd enjoy. I got to have three for that price when I made it at home. This was the situation with fried zucchini flowers. They always looked so good, but were a very pricey appetizer. I knew I like fried zucchini and vegetable tempura, but I've never actually eaten a flower. Thus, I was reluctant to order them in a restaurant. I decided to have a go at making them at home.

I decided this roughly two years ago. What in blazes took me so long to make it? Mostly, it was laziness. I knew that a couple of stalls sold them at the Sunday Farmer's market near here, but I couldn't get up and over there early enough to get them. The New Year rolled around and with it, the pledge to eat better. Not that we eat badly, I just want to do more to support local growers. This time, I found a Farmer's market with reasonable hours. If I couldn't make a 3pm start, I could consider myself pathetic. But lo, I did get off the sofa and hustle my butt to that market. I found the flowers in the second stall I looked at. I bought six of them and a beautiful cauliflower for well under 5 dollars. I also bought some beets (I've never cooked with those) and some Swiss chard (I've never cooked those on purpose though they tasted great in my pot of collards). It was a great market for a lot of things. The rest of the recipe was simple – a little cream cheese, a little goat cheese and a few spring onions. The batter was plain flour and cold club soda. I was all delicious! And we have a bunch of veg for the rest of the week. All for the cost of the one appetizer in a restaurant. But now, when I next go to eat out, I would order the dish with confidence the next time we eat out.

Slogging Through the Morass

I think the thing I get asked most about is how I keep writing if I have a block or I don't feel like writing. There is this notion about the muse and how creative people are slaves to one. This is not the correct way of looking at being a writer. It would be unwise for a football player to take to the field after weeks without workouts or practices. The same would apply to a dancer. There are creative muscles, if you will, to writing or any other art. The way I can keep writing when I don't really feel like it is that I have practiced a lot over the years. The best thing about Grad School was being compelled to write a lot every week. I had short stories to write for classes and chapters of my thesis novel to write for my Moderator. I also had to write notes on other people's stories and papers on the books we were reading. We were always writing something. That put me in the habit of writing. Post grad school, I wrote spec scripts for TV shows I liked. I started writing fanfiction. I had a demanding readership for my fanfiction that kept me churning out material. Currently, I have an array of books I'm working on in addition to the various blogs I write. The blogs are very much a writing exercise as well as a way to stay in touch with my readers. A prolific TV writer who was an early landlord of ours advised that a writer should write every day and write anything. He wrote fan letters to his favorite performers if he had nothing else to write on a given day. So, when I have a problem with one piece I'm working on, I write something else. Usually, it's a blog. Sometimes, I still write fanfiction (I'll be putting that up on the old NovaD site at some point). There is always a new script in the works. Sometimes, I'm foolish enough to start a different piece of fiction. That's how Ensnared happened. Since it was often the work providing the least resistance, it was finished before the book I was working on. That wasn't a muse issue though. The latest Soldiers book was giving me plot problems that I've only recently resolved. One of my characters, Simon Molinar from Demon Under Glass, was a difficult fit with my soldiers. During my most recent bout of insomnia, I finally figured out how to make him work organically in the Soldier's universe. But I digress. The point is that writers who want to do this professional can't depend on inspiration or a muse to keep them going. Those can certainly get you started, but it takes a lot more than that to write professionally under a deadline. That takes proficiency, and that comes with a lot of practice. So, if you are looking to become a writer – and I haven't actually said that that is a good plan – the best route is to write, write and write some more.

The other thing I'm asked a lot about is how to handle rejection. I must admit that I don't handle it well. There is a lot of bad writing that is published and sells millions of copies. That makes me angry. I get even angrier when my work is rejected over something I think is drivel. Yes, I know that sounds arrogant. You need a bit of that trait to get anywhere in LA. I do think there is a lot to be learned from submitting one's work to publishers. It's always a good thing to know how to write a pithy submission letter or what makes a good book or film presentation package. If you are getting the same feedback from most places you submit to, that particular piece may need to be re-worked keeping the feedback in mind. I also believe strongly in independent production of film, music and books. If a mainstream outlet isn't interested in your work, there are many venues now to get it seen and find an audience. A rejection isn't the end of the world for me. What is worse than rejection to me is a phenomena that is particular to the Entertainment Industry in LA. Because no one wants to be blamed (and then fired) for rejecting a work that goes elsewhere and becomes a hit, they won't actually reject a script. You just never hear from that individual again. A casting director said it started with Star Wars but became routine in the last decade or so. We have a script that went directly from a very A list actor to his reps nearly 15 years ago. We recently learned that they still have it and are still considering it. Infuriating! That's worse than studios paying for a script to squash it in favor of a similar idea (not that I don't hate that). At least, the writer gets some cash, and though it can't count on a resume, because the script was not produced, word will get around that you sold a script to so and so. That will open some doors. The non-rejection does nothing to advance a career or line the pockets. Why do we do this again?

Updates

The projects are definitely on the front burner simmering. In a couple of cases, we've gotten farther than we ever have before. I'm getting questions about issues that sound like they will be on a contract. In fact, I'm afraid to go to the bathroom for missing an important call. Usually, I have to find something or someone and get back to our partner immediately. No, I will not take a cell phone there. I'm told I can talk about details once we're in pre-production. I'm getting really excited but trying to to.

Stay tuned!

Blog Delay -- First of the Year!

I'm digging my way out of a lot of editing this weekend. The blog is being written, but it's slow going. I probably won't post it until tomorrow. I think it's worth a little wait.


Stay tuned.

Missed Update, Big Thanks and Craig's New Thang

I wasn't sure there would be a blog this week. My plan to attempt a fancy crepe dessert (filled with tiramisu cream filling and drizzled with a chocolate and coffee ganache) before today was thwarted along with most of my plans. I was having one of those rough weeks were a task that required more than a keyboard, a remote or anything I could reach from the sofa, didn't get done. The projects in motion beyond those parameters still can't be discussed. I was thwarted even today. Reading Food Rules and the horrifying Tomatoland has made me more determined than ever to support the Farmer's Markets around here. But I am still having trouble with pain and sleep, so an early morning start is not in the cards right now. Truth be told, I never liked an early start on a Sunday. I always made sure that one of the says off during my shoots was Sunday. Fortunately, there is a Farmer's Market a short ride from here that doesn't start until 3pm on Tuesdays. That I can handle.

Deb vs Japanese Update

But my readers came to the rescue with an initial topic. I forgot and update in my epic year end round up. How is my Japanese coming along? The short answer is that it is coming along. I have not been actively practicing since before the holiday craziness began in November before Thanksgiving. However, I have been passively working on it. The manga editing has me doing a lot more reading of Japanese than I ever thought. Though I'm using a script that is translated into basic English, there are things that are untranslated that the Letterer and I have to figure out. Sound FX Like a door slam or a beating heart were often left in Japanese. The symbols for the sounds turn up in all sorts of words I see in the manga or Mitsuwa Marketplace. I can hear and understand more and more as well. Aside from relying less on subtitles when I watch anime, I was really excited when I understood what an elderly Japanese lady was saying. I was in a Ralphs Market  (no, there is no apostrophe, that's a family name) I frequent, I heard the lady ask her son how much some nuts were. That was a really cool breakthrough for me. I really surprised the pair by reacting at all. Then, I threw in a pardon me and have a good day. That was unusual as I am very shy about speaking the language. I desperately don't be another fangirl mangling the accent. Getting the accent right is tougher with Japanese than it was with French, because I don't have an instructor to guide me. Still, it's coming along. I'll be actively studying and practicing again starting this upcoming week.

Big Thanks

Speaking of readers, I send a big thank you to all who commented publicly and privately to the last few blogs. Many of them made me cry and in a happy way! And to those looking for another Soldiers excerpt, I'll post something soon.

Updates

As I said above, most of what happened during the past week with the film projects is top secret. All indications are that we're about to be crazy busy. Meanwhile, I seemed to have volunteered to shoot Craig while he commits his latest art project. Yes, I said commits. However, I have so far refused to film him by light of a full moon.

Needless to say, stay tuned.

Geeky Rec' of the Day -- Durarara!!

Happy New Year! I've been sitting on this review for a a couple of weeks waiting to see if Adult Swim  would repeat the entire run of the series. Happily it begins again this Saturday night or actually 1 am Sunday.

Durarara!! (DRRR!!) is a an anime set in the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo, an area of commercial and entertainment that surrounds a major train station – sort of like the neighborhood surrounding the New York Port Authority. It's the first place that noobs to the big city end up. The story follows Mikado, a teen from the country who just moved to the city to attend a private academy with his long time friend Masaomi who moved there a few years earlier. Their lives are much like any modern teens. They are faced with bullying, stalking, gang violence and the threat of molestation all while trying to desperately to fit in somewhere. This sounds very dark, and sometimes it is. But I don't get drawn in to things that are merely dark. It has to up end the usual teen drama for me to give it even five minutes of time. Did I mention that the title is a mispronunciation of the word Dullahan shouted in a panic. A Dullahan is a headless fairy that is similar to the grim reaper. She is from Irish folklore. In DRRR!!, her name is Celty, and she rides a motorcycle. She has a job as an underworld courier, an apartment and a roommate who is a very strange and somewhat creepy doctor. That only begins to explain how very twisted and surprising this series is.

There is nothing in the helmet.

I've long had a fascination with cobbled together families. I often do that with characters in my work. My bizarre family units are not as stabby or homicidal as the group in DRRR!! But they are a lot of fun to hang out with though a viewer is often fearing for their survival. I won't say anything about the various plot threads. The spoilers are very dangerous. No character is what they seem – not even the young, country boy, Mikado. I will say that dark themes shadow every character, and these threads are not easily tied up. One of the elements of the series that I admire the most is that even with all that mayhem, there is time found to credibly have small, quiet moments with the characters as individuals or groups. It is clear why they are drawn to each other and why their little, strange and faintly psychotic family is worth rooting for. The best example of this is Celty herself. She arrives in Ikebukuro searching for her stolen head. (there is nothing in that motorcycle helmet but black smoke). Somehow, she makes friends and has some very significant relationships. She has some highly amusing fears for a death fairy. She even has crushes. She is incredibly dangerous but somehow manages to be sweet and endearing. Likewise, Celty's best bud, the insanely homicidal former bartender, Shizuo. This is a man with frightening anger issues on the one hand. On the other hand, there is a side to him that creates deep attachment and loyalty amongst his many friends. Even the reason for his choice of bartending attire is incredibly touching. Strangely, he reminds me strongly of Craig (the endearing side, not the rage monster).

I had heard about DRRR!! a long while before it came to the US. Shizuo and his nemesis Izaya are the subjects of a great deal of yaoi fanfiction despite the fact that they literally try to kill each other every time they meet. That speculation even made it into the show as some hilarious fan service both pro and con about the relationship. This image sums the reality up. That is a traffic barrier. Usually Shizuo prefers traffic sign javelins. So take this ride. It is a rip-snoting good time that is never dull. Also, DRRR!! has some of the best opening and closing music I've ever heard in television. I usually don't like rock in a foreign language, but Theatre Brook's Treacherous Sunset (here's the link for their official video) is what rock should always be – hard driving and heart felt. Here is the link to the opening (the Adult Swim version has no subtitles). Likewise, I'm not a huge fan of hippity hop, but I adore Yuya Matsushita's Trust Me. Here's the link to his official video, because he's simply adorable. And here is the link to the series' closing. Anyway, that's my geeky two cents for the day.

2011 in Review, Many Updates and New Works

It is New Year's Eve as I write this. Last year at this time, I was on my 10^th round of chemo and anxiously taking my temperature every fifteen minutes. I was running a temperature and did not want to spend the evening in the ER. Well, there was no such luck. I had a fever of 102 and was watching the count down to the new year in an exam room while a bed was being prepped for me on the cancer isolation floor. I spent several days there while they fought the fever. I left the hospital with nerve damage in my feet from the chemo. The numbness from that persists to this day though it isn't as bad as it first was. 2011 did not begin well at all. But I learned a great deal about perspective since my diagnosis. As bad as that New Year was, it was far better than the one before when I still faced a major operation just months after the first one. Chemo loomed after that. I began 2011 damaged but cancer free. I've tried to treat each day of this past year as a gift to be appreciated as much as possible. On the whole, I believe I have succeeded. I still have a lot of hurdles to overcome physically, and the spectre of the disease is always lurking in the background. But I feel I've turned a corner and am looking forward to an even better year to come.

Culinary

Since I still spend a lot of time at home and still have a lot of stress related to recovery, I have the opportunity and motivation to work on my culinary skills. I took on some really crazy things this year. For the most part, the results were good. Some were even great. The baguette still eludes me though on the last pass, the flavor and texture were there. I'm still having trouble getting it to rise properly. There is something I'm missing somewhere. I plan to look at more videos and recipes. Strangely, I thought that either puff pastry or croissants would be more difficult. They are time consuming recipes for sure, but the results were just sublime! The upside to both the croissant and puff pastry is that it freezes perfectly, so there are baked goods for quite some time after whipping up a batch. The other interesting dish that was good though I couldn't call it successful was tiramisu. Incidentally, after searching high and low for lady fingers and ending up at a specialty shop to find them, we've been finding them everywhere. Last week, we found them in a drug store. Jon believes the lady fingers are now mocking us. That could be true. I'm not sure when we'll try the recipe again. It makes such a big tray. We'll need to have an event with lots of people to eat it before making it again. In fact, there is a challenge I'd like to beat next year. There are recipes for souffles and tiramisu that make many servings and do not freeze. I'm searching high and low for recipes that work well for individual servings or that freeze well. I'm open to any suggestions.

Aside from enjoying the food my obsession is producing, I got some recognition that was really exciting. My tiramisu effort was recognized by the authors of the recipe, Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar of The Cooking Channel's Extra Virgin. My Sugar Plums – a new treat I made at the last minute this year – was praised via Twitter by Alton Brown himself! But strangely, it's been the interaction with some Japanese chefs that has most jazzed me. I think it's because I had never cooked anything in that cuisine before. I was very thrilled that my first effort at sushi got a thumbs up viaTwitter from a host of a major cooking show in Japan, Your Japanese Kitchen. That was really cool, but I've been as jazzed by interactions with Japanese chefs who have shows on Youtube. They are widely followed there. I've tried many dishes by Ochikeron . She's been very encouraging, and she's been recognized by the original Iron Chefs! And I was beyond thrilled when the wildly popular host of Cooking with Dog deemed my version of her pumpkin soup delicious.

2011 was a good year in the kitchen for me. In 2012, I see some inevitable things happening. I will try to make my own pasta from scratch. I've had fresh pasta over the years. There was one spot in Philly's  Reading Terminal Market  that sold astonishing ravioli and tortellini. But it hasn't been until recently that I've been convinced that it's a recipe I can pull off. And I can see myself grinding my own meats for burgers and sausages. I was on my way to that practice anyway, because it's difficult to find the kinds of coarse grinds in beef that I like for chili. And I have been profoundly influenced by Michael Pollan's FoodRules . He advocates eating foods that are as little commercially processed as possible. Beyond that, I'm exploring two new cookbooks (Micahel Symon's Live to Cook and Anne Burrell's Cook Like a Rock Star ) that strongly recommend making both homemade pasta sausages for their recipes. I can't wait to report back with all that I am learning!

A Quick note on kitchen disasters. I will try the mango pitting device suggested by a kind reader though I've seen Bobby Flay nearly lose some fingers with one. I am still deeply suspicious of mangoes. And I have yet to poach an egg successfully. I've tried so many 'fool proof' tips. Obviously these chefs have never met me! Still, I will continue to try. There are so many dishes I like which include poached eggs.

Creatively

The year did not begin that well creatively. I found that doing even the shortest of shoots was beyond my reach physically. Some of the difficulty simply comes from being older. Wearing that many hats in a production was a lot harder in 2011 than it was in 1998. I'm also missing my most trusty production coordinators, Randy and Phil. Not that I'm heaping guilt upon them. Even if they were available, there is the second reason that I have slowed down. In the wake of the two surgeries and ten rounds of chemo, I have changed. My 'new normal' leaves me far slower at many things than I used to be. And I can never predict when I will tire easily or have other, more unpleasant problems. Thus, I had to shelve plans to shoot the web series I had planned. That was a tad depressing. But there was a yin to that yang. I was suddenly writing fiction again. The guys came alive for me in two story lines. I'm still working on one, but the other – Ensnared Volumes 1&2 – is out and well received. My Soldier boys are giving my Vampire a hard time. It's fun to write though a bit odd for me. More on that on http://sybpressyaoi.com . Oh, and a special shout out to my talented cover artist, Adrianna Ferguson. You were the find of the year!

Aside from the books going well, I was challenged creatively by a solicitation for stories by one the edgiest genre writers I've run across in a very long time. He is best known as Made in DNA. His content is way out on the fringe most of the time. Many of the titles are Not Safe For Work. His work seems offensive at first blush. But there is so much more going on than cybersex. Brent has a way of using the sparest of prose to speak volumes. His worlds are often as dark and scary as they are sex-charged. But his fiction is always smart, and it can be wickedly funny. To write for him was quite a challenge as I am not prone toward darkness. I pushed myself in directions I had never gone with my work while adhering to a rigid word count. The results were pieces that I would not have thought of were it not for the challenge in Brent's guidelines. It was an exasperating and exhilarating experience that left me in a different space as a writer. I look forward to pushing myself like that again sometime soon. I'm also very pleased to have found an inspiring and thought provoking writer like Brent.

I found that an awful lot of my creative experiences and opportunities came from the copious amount of times I spent online in 2011. While I was laying the groundwork for networking my next books and indulging in my geeky past times, I was making some important connections. My late night on line discussions and diatribes lead to speaking at two really cool conventions. And those events lead to the suggestion that I try for a freelance position at Digital Manga as an editor. This was a huge step for me, and it is an endlessly fascinating challenge to take someone's work and make it sound like natural English yet still have the author's voice and intent clear in the dialogue. This is done without being able to read Japanese fluently – thus I must rely on the translator – and without ever interacting with the author. Strangely, I am enjoying the process. The conventions also allowed me to meet and have protracted conversations with writers I have long admired like Jane Espenson, Wendy Pini and HamletMachine. Who knows where all these connections will take me creatively, but I can't wait to find out.

Project Updates

The web series (Demon Under Glass and Blood Oath) remain on hold as far as new shoots. Aside from the physical problems I've already mentioned, Jon's availability is now very limited. I haven't figured out how to make that work. I am hoping that the short for Blood Oath will be finished this year. It requires new artwork and a lot of focus. With Jon's limited availability, I'm not sure how that will work either. In far better news, there are four films from our catalog that have become active in recent months. One may actually move to pre-production in January. Our partners in Dragoncor/EarthDraggon have had a year of extraordinary connections as well. Some of them may bear fruit very soon. I can't give details, because we all had to sign agreements to not talk about anything. That's quite exciting,

In the book arena, Ensnared Volume Two will be out in January. There will finally be a third Soldier's book and a third Surrender book. Both of those series will feature a relaunch of the first two in each series and a big advertising and social network push. We will see some new authors in the latest Demonspawn collection along with some favorites. And Sybpress will be launching a new author in the red hot romantica (romance/erotica) genre. Our very own Marguerite Lliteras will debut the very naughty The Intern very soon. You can read all about her history as a writer and the enticing origins of The Intern at http://sybpressromantica.com.

2012 is going to be fantastic in many areas.

Stay tuned!