Adventures in Japanese, Cookery and Writing for Reals

Once again, I began this blog days ago and have been kept from finishing. But it as just was well this time around. Some really fun things happened days after I would have finished. Jon turned up with The Dreaded Summer Cold this weekend. I was thus sent forth to find stock fixins and meds for my poor Hubs. And thus, my Saturday adventures began! I left almost two hours earlier than my norm on the weekend. Jon and I tend to amble about our day, so there is no hurry about anything. This time, I had to get moving. The Hubs needed some real soup and really needed some 'tussin (cough medicine with decongestants). And as men tend to be, he was really a sad and miserable thing. The best chicken stock comes from collagen rich parts like chicken wings or feet. I have a special source for those. Also, my favorite Japanese market usually has whole carcasses from the pieces and filets they've trimmed from the whole bird.

Pop Japanese Quiz and Drunken Proposal

My favorite clerk at Mitsuwa does not typically work on the weekend. Yet there he was bagging for one of the female cashiers that is also a Japanese transplant (I can tell by the way she says thank you like every anime character I've ever heard). He spoke to the cashier as I ambled up. I heard something about Japanese and me while I put my items on the conveyor belt. Before I could remember the sentence that informs native speakers that my Japanese is terrible, she was speaking to me about the transaction. I kept saying sorry, sorry as I managed to tell her that I had three pennies (the number 3 keeps coming up in anime) and I remembered how to say your welcome before saying good afternoon and goodbye. I turned on my young bagger friend wanting some English from him for all of my trouble. All I got from him was 'sup? He seemed very pleased with himself when I responded with an exasperated 'really?!' En route to the regular supermarket, I passed a red faced man sitting at a bus stop. I thought he was red faced because it was crazy hot for this part of town, and the man had no hat. He looked at me with bleary eyes as I passed. I got a little bit away before he shouted 'marry me' in a heavy slur. The exercise is working. The first thing that comes back when I lose weight is the rack. Maxi informed me during the shoot that I could give Beyonce's butt a run for the money. I yelled back in my best Rhoda Morganstern voice, “I'm Maaarreeed!' This sort of weird never happens when Jon is with me. Then, I run into a whole different kind of weird.

I made stock for a couple of different soups, and I made grilled cheese sammies. And I gave Jon his 'tussin' every six hours. I worked on this blog and the other writings I need to get done while Jon dozed in his chair while working on his chess pieces. He's making full blown sets on commission! Can an Etsy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etsy account be far behind?

And Now, We Join the Blog Already in Progress

This week finds me cranky and a tiny bit desperate. And that is because I lost almost an entire week of work last week. I think all I managed to do in seven days were the blogs and a few emails. I was more productive during chemo! What happened? I ignored something that was incredibly important, and it took me a while to figure out what that was. You see, after the first surgery I had in 2009, I could no longer process vitamin B-12 through food or pills. That part of my intestines is gone. I'll need injections for the rest of my life. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Once a month, I get a small injection. It's even stored in my liver for up to two months before there is a real problem. And I think that was my problem – that it was a very minor problem. Because of my recent schedule, I found myself postponing the shot two Fridays in a row. Last week, was the beginning of week three. I was dropping off to sleep in mid sentence by Monday. All week long, I'd start badly awake not realizing that I had fallen asleep. I was constantly apologizing to people who were on chats with me for disappearing without replying. I'm not sure if I was believed my excuses in some cases. It took Jon to figure it out by Wednesday that it was likely lack of B-12. I don't sleep very well on at least 3 days out of seven in any given week for no rhyme or reason. I probably wouldn't have connected it to B-12 on my own. The theory proved correct when I was nearly back to normal as soon as I had the shot.

This lapse in judgment about my meds put me even more behind in my obligations at a time when I was having almost an existential crisis about how much I should be trying to get done. All of the kitbitzing that I've been doing in the run up to the book fair has had me questioning whether I should take off my filmmaking hat permanently and focus solely on writing fiction. That was my original dream for many, many years. And now with Indie publish and marketing opportunities, I could make a reasonable amount of money from my work – enough to push Jon and I beyond just getting by. On the other had, Jon and I have sacrificed so much for so long to get the film career off the ground. I had long talks with the Hubs and with Marie and other factions during the week that I was more fully awake. The consensus was that I could keep both jobs with some reorganization of my time and some selfishness about giving up any of it. Given that I start my day when Jon leaves and end it 12 hours or more later, and work seven days a week on creative things, I should be able to keep both hats and make some head way, Thus, I have a schedule of work each week starting with this week. We'll see how it goes in a week or two.

Food Stuff

During one of my Sunday calls, my father asked me what it was I was putting up on Facebook that my http://www.marthastewart.com/972476/basic-pasta and tips from the episode http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/may/03/martha-stewarts-cooking-school-pasta/ to roll out strips of pasta into sheets. We let the dough rest for an hour between rollings until it was super thin. Then, Jon cut it. He is far more precise than I am with that kind of thing. We didn't get anywhere near angel hair pasta in thinness nor was it as long, but the texture and taste was great. We're still not sure about buying the attachment yet, but it looks promising. [See Photos below] I've also been having huge successes with desserts and breads as I've been making a lot of them. I've actually begun taking orders for pay! I'm still not sure what to charge, but this is really cool.

relatives were going on about. That could be any number of things that would be bad all bad where my 70-something former cop father is concerned. Thankfully, it was all related to the new recipes I'd been trying. Of particular note, was the pasta that Jon and I made a couple of weeks ago. We're trying to figure out if we want to invest in a pasta making attachment for the standing mixer by making pasta on our own. Coincidentally, Martha Stewart and another cooking show we watch were doing hand made pasta. We used her basic recipe

Writing Round-up

My plan is to get the latest Soldiers Book done for Bent-con in November. I would like to have some short stories from the Ensnared universe and Vincent's Cookbook (finally). I also want to have some sample chapters of the Proposal ready for Bent-con as well. I'm also prepping a schedule for next year of an ambitious slate of titles and an intensive marketing campaign. I really think I can make my writing a real source of income in the next year. I'm feeling really positive about that.

Next up-- The blog about the book launch and the Nin-fizz!

Stay tuned!

Pasta in basically the correct order.

More fun sthings:

A Sage Margarita in North Hollywood.

A spa water at home.

Christmas ornaments at Costco in August.

A fraction of my expanding art supplies.

Birdthday buffet a la Deb part one.

Birthday buffet part 2.

Tired chef.

We are now special guests at the Culver Hotel.

Fear and Loathing in the Hollywood Hills

I've begun this blog every day for almost two weeks. I'm not sure why I have such a hard time with it. I'm certainly chatty enough on the phone and I'm moderately witty on Facebook on a routine basis. I think I've been reluctant to blog, because I have to sum up how I feel about what's been happening with my life. I have had trouble doing that without sounding like I'm complaining unduly or I'm really pessimistic. I'm not actually. I realized today that I have very little patience for idiocy of any kind anymore. It's cliché, I suppose, but it's true. After being so close to death, I feel like I should be making the most of the new chance I've been given. I don't have time to waste on anything that isn't going to get me where I want to go or is less than satisfying for me in some fashion. For instance, there are times when I'd rather watch a rerun of Ironside (Perry Mason as a 1970s era police detective in a wheelchair) than deal with people that are a waste of my time. I find watching that show strangely fascinating. In the last few weeks, I've had a few encounters where I have expressed my impatience in no uncertain terms. They've overshadowed how I've felt about what has been a very interesting and potentially momentous few weeks. I can even tell you about most of it.

We now return to the blog that was already in progress.

I look back on the last two weeks with excitement and exhaustion. I've had trouble doing a blog about it, because I still don't know how I feel about it. Let's start with the good stuff. I survived almost a week on shoot that was 12 hours overnight (6pm to 6am) in a 4 story location where use of the steep staircase was mandatory. The whole prospect was frightening. I can have so many issues that can keep me from really getting out of bed on any given day. I still never know when that day will be. But there were many reasons that I very much wanted to work this shoot. The most important reason was to prove to myself that I can do the work in some fashion. I knew that I couldn't run around as I once did, but I could do some things. I was very grateful to the producers to be given the opportunity.

No Place Like This Home

Some of the crew remarked that it would be cool to live in that mansion way up in the Hollywood Hills. I Demonspawn there. Most of the rooms that faced the east had these gigantic electronic black out shades. I could see Simon Molinar totally renting a place with that many large windows as a lark and because no one would think of him renting such a place. I actually had a chat with the very nice young men who were running the location about a short shoot there. That kind of location can really sell the notion of a hero with deep pockets. One scene goes a very long way. Here is the house in all of its glory though there are many rooms not shown. http://www.coldwellbankerpreviews.com/property/280715974 Where the sister property is the one I think would be more to Simon's tastes because it has more woods and darker colors. I just see Simon as liking that more. http://www.estately.com/listings/info/6451-weidlake-drive

was not among them. It wasn't a house that was built to live in, actually. It made absolutely no sense as a house that one lives in. I later found out that it was built as a location. I mean, even the most vain individual would not have a four station professional make-up room with a pro wardrobe room attached. There were even two private toilets off the make-up room. It was set up for actors. But that's good, because there was a lot for the director to work with. The setting even made me want think about how we could do bits of

I set up in the suite of rooms commandeered for make-up, wardrobe and the green room. (See Pics Below) This suite was on the third floor. That meant that I only had to walk or down one floor to get done anything that I needed to do. My job was to coordinate a campaign on social media to raise awareness amongst Trek fans about Unbelievable!!!!!, a sci-fi spoof starring actors from almost all of the Trek series. I took some photos, but I mostly chose amongst the hundreds of shots being taken by the set photographers. In addition to that, I did some on the spot interviews and some short acting bits to run on the film's Facebook page, blog page and Twitter page. It's a lot of grabbing what I need in between takes or during down time. It's also a lot of monotonous photo sizing and color correcting. It was an easy yet strangely demanding job that was stressful around the edges. And then there was the over night shift. I do not like working hours like that. Despite being a long time night owl and often suffering from insomnia, there is something about having to stay awake all night long that is really grueling.

But Deb, aren't you a gigantic Trek fan, you might ask. Weren't you in a documentary for being a gigantic Star Trek: Voyager. The producer, Brannon Braga, mentioned the stories while being interviewed for the documentary. The stories could have been about anything at all. They just happened to be about characters from a Trek series. And while I am a fangirl, I've also been a filmmaker for a very long time. Actors need space to get ready to work. You interact with them strictly on their terms. This seems especially true of the younger Trek actors. Every one of them was cordial but distant until they figured out that someone identified as a fan was paying no attention to where they were in the room until they needed to communicate with them. That was easy enough for me to do. I had too much to do on location and at home to follow every move of an actor. All of my projects were on going, so I had to keep an eye on them as well as stay on top of things on set. I was actually keeping track of chats on Facebook, Skype and my phone while doing everything else. This is a very funny position for me to be in. I fought having a smart phone up until last year. Now, there is that, the laptop and a Kindle Fire in my life. Very bizarre. The upshot is that after the first day of the shoot, the Trek actors were comfortable enough with me that one was sharing a bedroom with me and I was in the bathroom with three others while they got their make-up done. They talked freely about a surprising array of things around me. It was most pleasing to this fangirl!

Trek fan? Yes and yes. But there are caveats to those facts. I was in the documentary because a writing experiment I was working on got put online by a friend and it was discovered by cast members and producers who worked on

The job was fun and interesting and I did what I could to mitigate the physical impact of the job. But that building and that shift kicked my ass. In addition to the hours, I had to commute downtown and meet Ralph for the drive to the location. That meant getting up a couple hours earlier than I would if I were going to a regular job. Add to that, winding down enough to sleep when I don't normally sleep (vodka comes in handy). I never got more than 3 or 4 hours sleep before I was due to start it all over again. Meanwhile, our fridge was dying. That threw a huge monkey wrench into the lunch and dinner situation and stressed me out even more. I really can't function without a working fridge. By the end of the work week (Saturday), I was shell shocked. My eyes were continuously burning. I still had hundreds of photos and a dozen videos to process. We also had enough money to get a new fridge without incurring anymore debt. Sweet! And I survived to fight another day. All the work I did for that film is for naught, but the fact that I was able to do any of it was the more important thing for me. And we found some major locations for the web series. Here's the latest on that: http://demonspawntales.blogspot.com/2013/08/updates-from-hollywood-mansion.html .

Meanwhile, Back at Sybpress

Sybpress has released its latest title, an anthology in tribute to Anais Nin. From the Four Chambered

Heart: In Tribute to Anais Nin is our best reviewed and best selling book of poetry, essays and fiction we've had in our history! You can find it on Amazon here: http://tinyurl.com/mgsx4v3 . Find out about our super fun book launch in the next blog. I promise that will be only a few days from now!

Now, go and enjoy the photos of our adventures from the last couple of weeks! I'll post more photos and even some video of my adventure next time. And, as always, Stay tuned!

Photos

Me and Nichelle Nichols!!

Maxi now!

Maxi during the Demon Under Glass Shoot.

My desk at the shoot.

Another view of my office at the shoot.

Mansion Kitchen.

My office view from the desk.

Film shoot at the Farmers Market.

Marie's  birthday buffet a la me!

Jon made the chess set out of cardboard and paint.

A croissant/doughnut combo called a cronut. I made it.

Farmers Market Tomatoes.

 

Battles Not Joined - Anime Expo 2013

In the end, I was not allowed to fight any of the battles I had planned to fight at Anime Expo 2013 (AX2013). That wasn't because anyone tried to stop me. No one would dare try to do that. The Hubs was unsure how I could pull off establishing a magazine while picking fights. I had one angle figured out really nicely – I made my beefs part of the interview questions for the first quarry, Crunchyroll.com. I had just joined their subscription service last month when I needed to follow a new anime that this service was simulcasting. I got really irritated to find that they didn't carry Junjou Romantica, one of my favorite yaoi anime. I assumed that they didn't carry yaoi after I tried to find a couple of series on the site. Well, I got steamed at the idea that they didn't run some mild yaoi erotica but were running some terrifying, blood spewing horror and supernatural stuff. Since I had just done an essay about that very type of hypocracy in books, I was ready to take on the entire company over the issue during the interview. Well, the first thing I see is a banner for the spinoff series to Junjou Romantica. While I was getting information on how to set up an interview from the helpful young man at the counter, he had me sign into my account. There I found the spinoff series on the banner. So, no fight there, but I am setting up an interview with a cool company.

The next battle hadn't been planned until I saw the list of vendors. Among them was SmithMicro, creators of

Manga Studio, a comic drawing program I've been experimenting with. Or, I'd been trying to. It's been giving me a devil of a time despite many distress calls to customer service. The last problem was so vexing that I had abandoned it entirely in favor of pencils and inks and manual work. And while I have found that productive and satisfying, I had paid for the program. Well, when I saw they had a booth at AX2013, I thought I'd confront them about this so-called user friendly program and get some answers. Well, the very nice young people at the booth asked me if I had left on the beginners tutorial feature that turned off many of the typical aspects of the program. I had heard that at some point before, so I conceded that may be the problem. They were so nice and earnest, I just had to. Thus, another battle was thwarted.

The last battle was over before I got to say anything. I was thus left to enjoy the convention, make my magazine connections and do my interview. It was a relief, frankly. I hate being openly combative despite owning a whip and other such implements. Those, however, are never used in anger. And what about all of those internet rows I start? They aren't anger fueled. They are more intellectual or philosophical disputes. There is no heat behind them. I was glad that baggage was cleared and cleared quickly. We had a lot of ground to cover – two football fields of ground to cover.

Our mission was three fold. First, take photos of the cosplayers for my Facebook page, Yaoi a GoGo. It has

a weekly feature called Cosplay Friday. Since the cosplayers can turn up anywhere we might be, I had to point out the ones my page fans would be interested in seeing so Jon could snap them. Then, I was recruiting subjects for interviews for upcoming issues of YGG Magazine, the publication from the Facebook page. All of this is to promote my novels and the books I edit. They are a lot of work with the upkeep, luckily, I do enjoy the content quite a bit. Third, was to enjoy the convention with our friend and publishing partner, Marie. She is fluent in many forms of geekiness and really enjoys the weird. There are few that I can think of whose company we enjoy more.

On all accounts, the day was a smashing success. We got to re-connect with some of my favorite writers and publishers. We made introductions with some established and popular publishers we hadn't seen at Anime Expo before. And we found some brand new to the yaoi scene whose work looks amazing. I can't wait to include them in upcoming issues. I really want to read everything they've done. I felt so jazzed by their talent that I was thrilled to be a part of the genre. All of this work was being produced in the US, and it had the same quality of what I was seeing in Japan. It was awesome and lots of fun to interact with. Of course we dropped in on all of the many booths under Digital Manga to say hello to the lovely ladies who supervise our localizing gigs. We usually only see them in a twice monthly web conference. Most of our communication day to day is via email. I think it's always good to occasionally see people in person to forge a good working relationship. We also brought them cookies. Jon and I gave them to most everyone we interacted with. It was inadvertently Japanese of us to give a little gift to the people we either do business with or wish to do business with.

The interview was with a Japanese manga artist named Toshi Maeda who was a special guest of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshio_Maeda . He was a fascinating and charming individual that I really enjoyed spending time with. I will save the specifics of the interview for the magazine article. However, I can say that he was very thoughtful about his work and his legacy. He was also very appreciative of the fans of his work. I spent nearly an hour watching him do custom pieces of art for fans while he talked to them about the art of drawing manga. Since I have taken up drawing once again, I was very interested in his techniques. I've even been trying them on some of my sketches.

convention. He also happened to be friends with Brent Millis, a translator on the localizing team and one of my favorite indie publishers. Maeda-sensei is the father of a manga genre called Tentacle Hentai . He was a fascinating and charming individual that I really enjoyed spending time with. I will save the specifics of the interview for the magazine article. However, I can say that he was very thoughtful about his work and his legacy. He was also very appreciative of the fans of his work. I spent nearly an hour watching him do custom pieces of art for fans while he talked to them about the art of drawing manga. Since I have taken up drawing once again, I was very interested in his techniques. I've even been trying them on some of my sketches.

In the midst of all of this, there was a lot of fun to be had. There are two football fields worth of vendor

booths with all kinds of merchandise. This stuff is far more sophisticated than the pins with characters from the shows we like. All manner of crafts are used to make geeky collectibles of all types. And then there are all kinds of combinations of genres or shows. These mashups provided some of the most interesting merchandise at the convention. Luckily, Jon and I didn't have a lot of money to spend on such things, because we also don't have enough room for all this stuff. It was a very pleasant outing. I even made a real Parisian style lunch of a jambon et fromage sandwich on a baguette with some lovely white wine. That gave us a great respite from all that walking (four miles inside the building). A very good and productive time was had by us all!

To see what we saw at AX2013 go to:
 http://dlwarner.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_2814.html
 http://dlwarner.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_10.html
 http://dlwarner.blogspot.com/p/cosplay-at-ax-2013.html

Cancer Graduation and Deb & Jon vs the Summer Blockbuster

No long march to radiology until 2014.

The breakfast after being told my test results, not even a second cup of coffee could keep me from nodding off not even an hour after waking up. This was after a deep and peaceful twelve hour sleep. It seems I had a great deal of sleep dept built over the last few weeks. You see, the same creative mind that conjures new civilizations and real people that can live in my head is really good at conjuring the most dire result with the thinnest shreds of evidence. Was I being silly, maybe. I recall a time after the surgery when my blood work was good yet it was decided I should have 12 rounds of chemo as a 'precaution.' I am in no way second guessing my treatment. I'm just saying that indications looked fine before, and I still ended up having ten rounds of chemo before I could go no further.

It should be easy to understand how I could get really wound up in the wake of some abnormalities in the March tests. It wasn't a constant state of anxiety. I barely spared the tests a thought save for how they would impact my schedule in June. It hit me where I was sleeping or where I was supposed to be sleeping. I got wound up subconsciously and spent two weeks or more hardly sleeping. How I was functioning and reasonably polite is a wonder. Not that I was the most efficient at my work as I would have been well rested. I've found that past dinner time, I was fairly useless save for some social networking.

The B-12 shots go on but no Oncology appt until Dec.

Things were getting done, but it was like walking on eggshells for those weeks.

When the doctor told me that I wouldn't need to test until next year this time, I promptly burst into tears. I had no idea I was that wound up. After the tears came the sleepiness. Immediately afterward. I was zonked out on the train home. Luckily, my stop was the end of the line. Even more lucky was the bus driver knew my stop (it's a very short route and I see this kind soul often). Napping all the way home and all the excitement of being free didn't blunt the sleepy. I was even falling asleep during phone calls. My apologies to anyone that I drifted off on.

The upshot is that I am clear of PMP cancer. My overall health (heart, blood pressure, etc) is very good. I am so grateful to all my family and friends who have helped Jon and me get to this point. I honestly don't know what we would have done without such steadfast support. We feel very fortunate about so many things in our lives. Our hearts are very full. However, there are ongoing problems caused by chemo. I'm still working out my pain management and nerve damage issues through nutrition and exercise. I'm ecstatic about being cancer free, but I am not the same as I was before. I can deal with that. I have support systems in place for everything that I have planned. And there are a lot of exciting things in the works – if only I could stay awake to put the plans in place. Seriously.

I've been fortunate in some things. The editing contracts I have are all done for the moment. I could be hit with another half dozen books any time now. I've only got one short story with a hard deadline on the horizon. Unfortunately, I have a heap of work that I created myself that is absolutely essential for my various projects. This stuff is time consuming and leaves me with little time for my more popular and widely awaited works. This won't be going on for very much longer. But it is very important. Believe me, I wouldn't take on more work when I am so very tired if the work weren't essential. I do hope to be able to talk about some of it soon. My life is weird. I admit that.

Deb & Jon vs The Summer Blockbuster

I shift gears dramatically to talk about a problem the Hubs and I have had with family and friends and the films coming out this summer. It happens every summer, but this summer is especially bad. There have been movies coming out that all indications show that there have been films that we would want to talk about with family and friends. We have been approached with puppy like excitement that pains us to rebuff. But before I go further, let me tell you a little bit about our experiences pitching films. Jon and I write good, solid scripts that get us meetings. We've gotten meetings when there is no logical reason that we should get meetings. But that is not to say that these meetings have been easy on us. Studio types have fragile egos. The idea that nobodies could waltz through their office and into a film deal is something that cannot be tolerated. So, we would be given notes demanding that we explain the links between characters until all suspense was gone or challenging the logic of our universe to the point we wondered why there was ever a meeting. This was often a condescending and demoralizing experience, because, after all, they are studio suits and we are nobodies. After all of that humiliation, we wouldn't get the deal. This does make a body bitter. We know that if we had written material like those of many of these summer blockbusters, we'd be tortured and ridiculed if we were ever seen at all. Yes, we still like sfi-fi and action movies. Iron Man 3 http://youtu.be/Ke1Y3P9D0Bc was a hoot and a half AND a very smart film. And we can't wait for Pacific Rim http://youtu.be/5guMumPFBag (GIANT ROBOTS!!). We even root for dreadful films, because if the genre falls out of favor we lose our chance to sell our work.

But we don't look at films the way normal viewers do. We generally don't get lost in the snazzy special FX.

We're thinking about all the cynicism involved in the deal. We think about how much the suits prefer reboots and retreads to new material. We think about how they prefer to dumb down a script to get the wides audience age range possible. It is discouraging for us and it is also infuriating.

So, no. We are not insulting your intelligence when we rail about how inane the latest blockbuster is. We're not thinking about your reaction at all. We're thinking about those meetings and the scripts not sold in favor of studio hacks with fraternity connections. We are glad that you were excited that there was finally a Star Trek film you thought you could talk to us about. And we do apologize for turning purple and screaming at you. It wasn't personal. How do you talk to us about films? Let us bring it up. If we loved something, we let everyone know it. And for goodness sake, if you've never done it before, don't ask Jon what he thought of that sci-fi film you really enjoyed. He will tell you what he thought, no matter the carnage that causes. I can't tell you how many screenings I've dragged him from to keep him from insulting someone or everyone. The man just can't lie.

The next blog will have project updates!

Stay tuned!

Month of Fun 2013 Wrap Up

The Month of Fun for 2013 is now over, but as last weekend illustrated quite graphically, there is always spill over into June an beyond. That is a teas and a half, but I'll go into more detail about the weekend's shenanigans later. Let's get to the recap of last month's big fun!

A quick note from last week's blog: Whitey Bulger, it turns out, was hiding in plain site at the Borders Books and Music that I worked at along with Craig, Marie and Phil. I always thought so. It just stood to reason given the general insanity of that store.

For more photos from the MoF 2013, go here: http://dlwarner.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_8369.html

Rock Star

There was nothing crazy like zip lines or hang gliding going on in my life. However, I was able to do a lot of things that I haven't been able to do at all in years. The biggest feat for me was to be useful on a full production set for a whole shift and it didn't put me in bed for a week. Now, I couldn't run around all over the place like a hummingbird the way I could ten years ago. Let's be clear about that. I had to keep my gear in my little rolling cart most of the time. I needed to have a home base where I sat a lot of the time though I was within easy reach of the main action and everything else. There was a great deal of stress from moment to moment along with the crazy surprises that can happen during a shoot. I even managed to find a nice set of crayons for some children who were with visitors to the set and found a nearby restaurant that delivered in that neighborhood for a crew member that only ate salmon (I will never mock the need for a smart phone again). You have to be a rock star every moment on a set, because the only thing anyone remembers is the one time you fail. It was a really fun day. I just wish I could share what I was working on. Alas, that is still top secret.

On a side note about smart phones and filmmaking, they are a miracle. There is so much available from my laptop (they are so in sync that it is scary), I can be on the road and access answers to a problem almost like I was home. I am in easy reach in the laundry room or at the courtyard garden. My paranoia about missing an important call has diminished all the way down to just the bathroom. I am not taking a phone in there!

Food Round Up

I did get to the number one restaurant that I really wanted to try during the Month of Fun, but I'll get to that in a moment. I also did a lot of run cooking and there were many small treats as well. Somehow, I wasn't nearly as decadent as I would have liked. I've become a responsible snacker, I suppose. For instance, I made an effort during the MoF to get up early enough to enjoy a half dozen doughnut holes from my favorite doughnut shot. This man is an absolute genius with sweet dough. Toward the end of the day you can see racks of croissants and other treats proofing for the next day. The down side of his genius is that he is typically out of everything by 10am. To snag something from this heavenly shop, I have to get up and out of the house in time to dash into the doughnut shop and get on the road to wherever I'm going. This MoF, I managed to get there three times! Joy! No, I haven't mentioned the name of the joint, nor will I. There are too many hipsters trolling the neighborhood. They've already found my favorite market and buy up my soup stock fixings. I must draw a line! The other early morning snack I adore is the Sausage Biscuit with Egg breakfast at McDonald's. I don't usually get to have that very naughty meal because it's hard for me to get through my appointments before the end of breakfast at McDonald's. There is nothing worse than taste buds

set for breakfast when the restaurant is set for lunch. Even though they are rare treats, I still make sure I pay for them. I walk two miles for each order of doughnut holes. The breakfast sandwich costs four miles. I never have them on the same day. It's not that I'm no longer a Sybarite. I'm just one that likes to stay healthy.

There were many tasty beverages that I managed to have during the MoF along with the nearly weekly martinis at the Culver Hotel. There were the margaritas for Cinco de Mayo and the Mint Julep and Sweet Iced Tea for the Kentucky Derby. I also got to partake of some lovely Vampire Merlot. And of course, there was a lot of champagne. I am so lucky to be born during the same month as Mother's Day. Champagne is on sale for the entire month!

And then there were the restaurants! The big one that I've wanted to visit for some time was Waterloo and City. It is on the same block as super star chef Roy Choi's A-Frame. The theme is British pub grub. The atmosphere is casually elegant. We went on a Monday, because it's the night of a special menu that includes one of Jon's favorite items, Fish and Chips. My party was convinced that I'd go for the Beef Wellington. I was convinced that I'd order it as well. It was the dish most often mentioned on the cooking/travel shows that included restaurants. However, it had been very warm that day. Somehow. Meat covered in puff pastry wasn't that appealing on a hot day. Instead, I went for a delightful squid ink pasta with shrimp and lobster. It may sound strange, but it was amazing. We all had the sticky toffee pudding. That was really good, but Jon and I liked the same dish at the Culver Hotel Better. Overwall, the restaurant was good, but the company made the evening great.

Cooking during the MoF was all about the tagine. I'm glad that I became a more experienced cook before getting one of these. I would have only used it for Moroccan dishes. That means, it would have had a lot of dust on it between uses. Now, that I know it to be a cooking vessel for tough cuts of meat and a low temperature, I've used it for all sorts of things. Most notably, I roasted baby back ribs in that puppy. They were so good that they needed no sauce. I've used them for chicken parts for the slow cook in a relatively quick time. The possibilities are mind boggling and I haven't really cracked open the cookbook that came with the thing! That was a very good gift for the MoF. But then, all of the lovely, thoughtful gifts this year made me so very happy. They mostly showed that my family and friends really know me well. That's always a fun thing.

For more photos from the MoF 2013, go here: http://dlwarner.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_8369.html

Wrap-up

All in all, it's been an excellent Month of Fun personally, professionally and emotionally. And this was very fortunate as I now have an inbox so scary that it should have me cowering in a fetal position in the nearest closet. How will I work my way out of this?

Stay tuned!

But wait, I haven't explained what Jon and I were doing sketching nekkid people last weekend. I don't want to short change the event, so explanations will have to wait for the next blog. Believe me, it's worth it.

Month of Fun 2013 - Part One

Me lately.

Month of Fun 2013 - Craig

Craig called me to find out what Whitey Bulger's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitey_Bulger defense strategy would be. Of course, he was right that I would be keeping track of the legal proceedings. He often contacts me about sudden developments in the world of organized crime when he's out of contact with the media. I do the same when I'm a bit off the grid. This time, Craig was harassing rattle snakes during a hike into the mountains. It's rattlesnake season. Yes, we have that season in California. Craig and I are from an area and an era of the last big mob wars. Thus, such news is just something we keep track of when media watching. At the time that Whitey went on the lamb, I joked that he had to be in Santa Monica. And he had to be a denizen of the 3^rd street Promenade. I was just as certain that he had to have been a frequent guest of Borders Books &Music, store #93. When it was discovered that the FBI's Most Wanted was in Santa Monica and that his hideout was full of books, we weren't surprised.

The conversation with Craig was riotously funny and completely inappropriate at times. My sides ached from laughing hours afterward. Sometimes, I think he senses that I could use a good belly laugh. Craig seems to call when I need it most. I count his calls as a gift to me. Thus, Craig is always a big part of the Month of Fun. I make sure to make time for as long as the sometimes rambling conversations take. I find chatting with him is always worth the time.

You see, indulgences during the Month of Fun are not always tangible things. The thing they all have in common is that they make me feel good. Sometimes, it's a conversation with Craig or an encounter with a favorite actor. Sometimes, it's happening by when the guy two doors down leaves for the beach shirtless and wearing tiny swim trunks. I think that is a present for everyone! Sometimes, I do a good deed as part of my Month of Fun. I won't talk about those save to say that sometimes it's good to slow down and notice things that need to be addressed and help where possible. Most of the time, that costs nothing but a little time. Now, don't get me wrong. Most of my MoF indulgences have been just that and with a capital 'I.' More on that later.

MoF 2013- Birthday Blahs

The actual birthday was really low key. I awoke with a painfully sore, raw throat and the fuzzy headed feeling that heralds the onset of a cold. I was not having that. I did let it set me back for the weekend, but I had other weekends. I decided to rest with hot toddies made from the fine bourbon and brandy I bought for the Kentucky Derby the week before. I consider a well made soup and long naps indulgences as well. I made a glorious cream of chicken soup to go with the onion flat bread I had left over from pizza dough. That was great for the light meals I could tolerate. I had flavorful clear broth when I couldn't cope with more than that. It was a restful day and weekend. Another reason that I began celebrating the entire month was to keep from putting pressure on any given day. 

More photos from the past few weeks can be seen here: http://dlwarner.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_4232.html

Big Book News

One of the reasons I started working for Digital Manga was the hope that I could one day get them to distribute my Yaoi novels. That plan was hatched almost three years ago. Look at what's happened now!

The image in the right hand corner are two of my characters!

We're proud to announce that creator-submitted content is now available on eManga.com!
A fabulous variety of web comics, American manga, novels, and more from talented independent authors and artists is now available on eManga. Choose from over 50 newly launched indie titles! Chapter One Special Edition of Madeleine Holly-Rosing and Emily Hu's steampunk mini-series, Boston Metaphysical Society, begins the thrilling tale of an ex-Pinkerton detective and his new spirit photography partner in the backdrop of late 1800s Boston. Madison Hawthorne and Bryan Golden bring an intriguing tale of high stakes and royal bloodlines with their comic series, King of Sweden: Last Bloodline. In the charming comic One-Shot!, Rejena Smiley tells the story of an author struggling to find her way out of writer's block. In A Soldier's Choice, D.L. Warner writes a tender novel about two “Altered” soldiers battling the militaristic system they live in and their forbidden love for one another.

So much is happening so fast this month that I have to end the blog here or it would never get done. Next time, I have some film stuff to talk about and some exciting meals to talk about. Like - What is going on here with this Star Trek Character actor?

I'll leave you for now with the strange dream that I had.

I had the strangest dream about my MOAS. I dreamed that it was being done as an outpatient procedure at an office in a strip mall. For some reason, the surgeon sent Jon to the sandwich shop next door to borrow their tongs. But the sandwich people couldn't spare the tongs. They sent him away with a 'goopy' turkey sandwich instead. I woke up then. All I had to eat before dinner was a lovely piece of tiramisu cake. I hadn't even had any wine! Maybe that was the problem.

Stay tuned for more Month of Fun 2013!

Month of Fun 2013 Begins, Cooking Harvests and Critiquing Critics

The window box garden has had its challenges. The plum tomatoes had a fungus. Somehow, the whole lot of them had a gnat infestation. My Dad is really handy for this sort of thing. I wouldn't have thought of matches and a light dusting of plain flower took care of the former and the latter. I've had lots of questions about what I've been doing with the yields from the garden. I've been inspired by having such lovely herbs and fresh tomatoes to make foodstuffs worthy of them. I've been using the thyme in soup stocks. I made herb stuffing for a couple of chickens with the thyme, sage and rosemary. I've used the basil in pasta sauce.

And I've been making pizzas. This has really excited me, because it was the one simple food that eluded me. The doughs seemed too complex to be worth the trouble. I never liked the sauces. I couldn't get the crust thin enough to be like the ones I had in Cannes. This time around, I began with the dough. I decided to try one by a Cooking Channel star who lived in Italy. I figured that an everyday dough by a guy who lived there would be simple. And this one was. It was also delightfully chewy when baked and rolled as thin as I liked. It also kept for days in the fridge for my lunch or dinner needs. I made pizza Margarita. I made pizza cannibal (tomato sauce, cheese, finely ground beef and thinly sliced onions. That was my favorite pizza in Cannes. I also made a type of French onion pizza that is great with soup or a salad.

I've made the tomatoes into pickles along with jalepenos. I plan to make herb butter and flavored oils with them. And then there are salad dressings and marinades. I think I've just begun to figure out what can be done with them. I've been really enjoying the gardening itself. I even bought gardening gloves!

I want to talk about the incredible homemade meals I've been making and share photos on the social networks, but it seems that I make people hungry or fill them with longing or guilt. I certainly don't want to cause that. So I thought I'd share the love here where you expect to be tortured.

Month of Fun 2013

I have a lot of new people following the blog and my other social networks. Many have been confused by the references to the Month of Fun. Because of my challenges in life, I've been celebrating my birthday for an entire month of a number of years now. For that month, I try to follow the philosophy of Special Agent Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks and give myself a present every day. That present can be as small as a 'damned fine cup of coffee' or as large as a trip to France. The average gift tends to be lunch with a long missed friend or a bottle of bubbly. I am a five minute walk away from a beverage warehouse that contains all manner of wine, beers and liquors that I don't usually run across in the super market. I can get some real French bubbly for under $10. Presents needed be extravagantly priced to be valid for the Month of Fun. There should be no stress during that month. My wish list isn't too crazy. There are some books that I'd love to read, some restaurants I'd love to try. There are some long neglected procedures that I need to have like a mani-pedi and a facial. And there are some trinkets I'd like to have. To keep it simple and ever so modern, I've organized some of them on my Pinterest. Here's the link: http://pinterest.com/deborahlwarner/month-of-fun-2013/ . Most of these little 'pins' have info on the place, so you can check it out if you'd like. It's been a really stressful winter and spring. I look forward to a month of great food, conversation, exploration and revelations!

Critiquing the Critics

On many occasions, I have repeatedly witnessed this situation. Newly published author is over the moon that

the tome they worked on so hard is live. Within a day or two or even a week, they are posting to their supporters that an inexplicable review had popped up on Amazon or Goodreads or where ever. The critic has been generally kind to the story with some reservations and nit picks. Still, they give the title only one star! Now, either the reviewer didn't know that the one star designation that doesn't match the review is devastating to an author. They would expect one star rating if the review was ripped them apart limb from limb. This is different. It seems to the author that the reader liked the book, but because it wasn't perfect they get one star. It seems spiteful and mean. And for writers that are wound really tight to begin with, this sort of mixed signal can derail them from writing for as long as weeks or even months. It's not being melodramatic. A one star review really hurts sales and makes achieving a high overall rating extremely difficult. Don't get me wrong, writers want reviews of our books. We are often desperate for reviews of our books. We are hugely grateful for reviews of books. We just ask that reviewers carefully consider something like a rating system. Make sure the rating matches the review. I also might add, read the book before reviewing or rating. Yes, I'm still bitter about that. How can you review something that has been on sale for TEN minutes??!!! It sure wasn't actually read first. There were no recorded sales, and I hadn't given out advanced copies. Deep breath. And say, you find a book that is really cool but riddled with problems. Contact the author. Sometimes you'll find that the wrong file was uploaded and that the author and publisher are deeply grateful that the error was caught before too many copies were sold. Sometimes, you are so grateful to this kind soul that you have them look over text before uploading as they have a great eye and a fast turn around. Such a kind act could result in a great friendship with a really cool, vastly read person. I'm not giving away any names like Yvonne or anything. I'm just saying to not be so quick to cut down an indie author – if you see something good in their work. If their really bad, let them know that as well. Just be a very thoughtful critic. We really do appreciate it.

There is a lot coming aside from the month of fun.

Stay tuned.