Hot Sauce, Hunchbacks and More Hints

Gifts of Food

I received a delightful surprise in the post the other day. Bruce, a long time friend – an ex, actually, who DJs in Columbus, OH, sent me a present from the Tabasco Company. Yes, I'm still in touch with some of my exes. I've been fortunate to keeps some great friendships with a few. Anyway, back to the sauces. These were some sauces I’d never heard of: Sweet pepper sauce and hot Worcestershire sauce. In addition to that, there were wood chips made from the barrels used to age Tabasco sauce. I haven’t tried the wood chips yet, but the sweet hot sauce is excellent in marinades for poultry. I like to use a cup of white wine, a tablespoon of soy sauce, a bulb of roasted garlic and now, a few shots of the hot sauce for about six boneless chicken breasts. I’m planning on using the Worcestershire sauce in a red meat marinade (same recipe just replace the white wine with red). I think it’ll be great as well.

I adore it when attractive men send me gifts of food. I’ll also accept gifts of diamonds, yeah like that happens. I’m also trying to figure out how to give a gift of food. My Grandmother is turning 90, and she loves my sweet potato pie (a grand compliment from a Southern lady). I’m trying to figure out how to Fedex one and have it arrive whole. Keeping the filling separate from the unbaked pie crust in a tin pan seems to be the way to go. We’ll see...

Bookfair

Cross posted with the Sybpress Blog

We’re all busily prepping for the Book Fair. Jon is making new singage while I’m making dozens of book cover magnets (if we have a book cover, it likely has a magnet). Our newest author Len Richmond’s contribution to the promo giveaways is a bucket of tubes of lube with his title, Naked In Paradise, emblazed on it along with our web address (I should have never opened that e-mail at the day job. Suddenly everyone needed to be hovering over my shoulder). Our Exhibitors Schedule is up on the Official Site for the West Hollywood Bookfair . It sort of runs into the Tokyopop schedule, but, what can you do? We don’t know where our booth will be this year. Last year it was next to the LA Coronor’s Office (a cool booth, believe it or not). I’d like to stay where we were, but I’d accept being next to Tom of Finland or the aforementioned Tokyopop. Each has a lot of traffic. In addition to our authors, we may have Nikulainen and Sarianna in costume. We may even have our very own booth hunchback. No, I really can’t explain that, but I’m certain the photos will be really interesting.

Speaking of The Gift of Surrender

When I wrote the first novel, part of how it was written was influenced by the fact that I thought it would never be a film. I wanted to write something as racy and sexy as I could with lots of castles and opulent clothing and jewelry and surroundings without giving a dang about how to fit that into a given budget. I just wrote what the story needed and enjoyed the lack of contraints that writing a script always has. In fact, when Randy would ask about making the book into a film, I’d say ‘First, it would cost a bloody fortune and , if you hadn’t noticed, it’s a big ol’ sex romp.” And then, we start developing Hidden Passions Films. We needed something in the fantasy genre that was well developed enough to do a script for a short presentation. Our leading man and lady have sparked so much heat that I have to find a way to capture it all on screen. I do it all for the readers and viewers and not for my own twisted reasons. Hah! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Now, I have to figure out how to do all these castles and opulent what-nots. Whoohoo!

A Soldier’s Fate Contest

We had not even one guess at who inspired Percival in A Soldier’s Fate. I’ll give one more clue, and it’s a big one contained in this short passage. Again, I want the author who created the inspirational character. Read on:

I ordered beers for Vincent and me. It had been a long week and the Base Bistro had a very nice micro brewed ale that we enjoyed. Bobby’s edginess evaporated when Percival entered with his friends in tow. They were tall, gangly an overtly geeky guys. The only thing bobby had in common with those specimens was the permanent blush on his cheeks. Bobby went to greet them as Percival approached us.

“If you have no further need of me, I shall take my meal in the diningroom, sirs,” he said.

“Afraid you can’t handle the intense action?” Vincent asked.

Again, there was that ghost of a smile. “Indeed, sir.”

“Enjoy your dinner, Percival,” I said.

The man inclined his head then ambled into the diningroom.

“How come when he says ‘indeed, sir,’ it sounds like ‘says you’?” Vincent asked affably.

“He’s exceedingly polite,” I replied. “Let’s order some food for the pool hustlers.”

Remember, the prize is an e-book version of A Soldier’s Fate.