The Secret of Stone Cottage

The new Mick Malone Mystery is now available for Kindle and in Paperback on Amazon.com.  The Secret of Stone Cottage takes Mick back to Scotland for his latest adventure. 

I had a lot of fun writing this one, including doing research on Tarot Cards (anyone want a reading?) and many of the mystical stone circles in Scotland. The more I read about these incredible man-made monuments, the more intrigued I got about what they were actually used for.  It has been over thirty years since I first visited Stone Henge near Salisbury, England. And there was an even more primitive stone circle in Avebury, England, a village only ten miles west of where I lived. Next to the stone circle, Avebury is a charming village with many activities that display what life was like in rural England many hundreds of years ago. Well worth a visit if you are ever in that neck of the woods.

In the middle of the circle, is a pub, the Red Lion. The locals, here, will tell you that the stones are identical to a ring of stones on Mars, lending fuel to the theory that these monuments were built by ancient aliens.  Well, honestly, there is a lot of evidence that makes this theory viable.

But back to the book. Mick and Jock are unraveling not only a current murder but also the disappearances of young women over the past twenty years. Detective Sergeant Galen Cullen joins them on another adventure, this time, based in the Aberdeenshire countryside.

Available in paperback and kindle versions. If you do read it, please let me know what you think. I am always interested in reader's feedback. Or better yet, please review it on Amazon. I would really appreciate your help to increase the number of reviews I have.

Thanks again to all of you that continuously send me good wishes. I really appreciate the support!!!

Regensburg and Kelheim

After another night of cruising, and more locks, we arrived in Regensburg which is a very interesting medieval city.  Another walking tour....sore feet but good for us since they feed us so well....through the narrow cobblestone streets, to see the ancient buildings and life along the river.

 And of course, another beautiful church, this time St. Peter's.

 We are learning much about the history and how south of the river was "civilization" brought by the Romans; north of the river were the barbarians. The oldest bridge in Germany is the Old Stone Bridge built in the 12th century. Unfortunately, this bridge is under renovation, so we couldn't cross it, but it was very interesting, nonetheless.  All along the bridge there are signs of the high water of the floods of 2012, when all the residents spent months cleaning up mud after the flood.  Where you see the plaster was washed away on the gate house shows how high the water was.

Near the bridge is the oldest restauraunt in Germany as well, the sausage house which is still in operation today (the green building).

After a great tour of Regensburg and lunch, we took a bus about thirty minutes outside of town to a small village of Kelheim. This was a village of very rich merchants, rich in the salt trade and breweries.  After a visit to another beer garden, we took a small boat down the Danube narrows where the river cuts a deep gorge and is only 80 meters wide to Weltenburg Abbey, where six monks still live and brew beer.

Atop the hill as you sail into the narrows sits a magnificent building, Independence Hall.

Nuremberg

From Prague we were bussed to Nuremberg. I must say, we were not looking forward to four hours on a bus, but we were pleasantly surprised.  The bus was only about half full, allowing everyone to spread out. It was very new and comfortable and the countryside in Czech Republic and later, in Germany was beautiful.

In Nuremberg, we boarded the Viking Idun for our river cruise down the Danube. If you are thinking about doing a river cruise, don't think twice.  The long boats are great, rooms nice, and service and food outstanding.  After a nice dinner and good night's sleep, we headed out the next morning for our tour of Nuremberg.  I must say, I was a bit sobered by the ruins of the Nazi stadium and meeting halls. Our guide was very knowledgeable and told the story of how Hitler was able to influence so many young people due to the dire economic circumstances that Germany found itself in after WWI. The Nazi party and flags and symbols are all illegal in Germany today.

After a sobering start to the tour, we were taken to the old town, to see the castle and look out over this pretty city.

In the afternoon, we returned to the boat for lunch and to start cruising through the many locks in the Main-Danube Canal. It is eerie and interesting at the same time, to sail into a huge concrete lock and then have the back door close and the lock fill with water.....slowly, slowly rising to the next level.

Prague

From London, we flew to Prague for a three-day visit before our cruise. Prague was largely spared during WWII and so much of the city is hundreds of years old. My first lesson learned, and the advice I will give is get a good guide!! We had a long, long walking tour of Prague on the first morning. More than once, during the 4+ hour tour, I thought I couldn't keep walking. But I did and I will always be thankful for that.  Prague, was occupied by the Nazi's during WWII, then liberated by the Russians after the war, only to be occupied some twenty years later by the Communists, and then, again liberated in the late 1980s. Now the economy is predominately based on tourism, and Viking has a huge presence there. Some of the things to see in Prague include Old Town Square:

This includes a lovely cobblestone square with small streets and shops all around.  One of the most interesting things to me was the market, which has been there since 1232 A.D.

Other must see sights are the Charles Bridge and Lobkowitz Palace. The Lobkowitz's were exciled during both WWII and the Cold War. The current owner, who was born in excile in Boston, moved back to Prague in the 1990's and was able to reclaim his family home. He and his wife are working hard to restore this beautiful palace and have opened it to the public. We were honored to be able to have a private lunch of goulash which was delicious and a private concert at the Palace.

Also a must is a walk over the Charles Bridge which is lined with statues of saints. This was the first bridge in Prague over the river Vltava and takes you from the edge of Old Town to Lesser Town which is at the bottom of Castle hill. Lesser Town floods often and you can see high water marks above the doors often on these old buildings.  Here, in Lesser Town, you will find the Kafka Museum, a very sobering visit if you are interested in his life and writing.

Don't forget to include the local pilsner, very nice! and goulash, sausages or duck. Yum!

London

Our son has been living in London for nearly three years. He works for an American company headquartered in Silicon Valley, so he does get home often on business. But we hadn't yet visited him in London until last week. What a glorious trip. I lived in England many years ago and so have wonderful friends that I hadn't seen in over 6 years. It was a great trip and we enjoyed great visits with our son and friends.

We stayed at a hotel in Westminster. The St. Ermins is a very nice boutique type hotel, and although a bit pricey it is within walking distance of Buckingham Palace, which was very convenient for my husband, Tom, who awaited anxiously the whole time we were there for an invitation to tea with the Queen.  She must have been otherwise engaged, however.......Here is a pic of our hotel.

 On the left, that's the hotel.....the picture on the right is New Scotland Yard which was right across from our hotel. While Tom was waiting for the Queen, I was hoping for a tour. No such luck. LOL.
We did a lot of the tourist things, many of which I had done years ago, but it was even more fun this time. London is still bustling and vibrant, and there are some new additions as well, such as the Eye, which I actually did get on and didn't pass out. (I am afraid of heights).

 That's Big Ben, of course, on the right.
We spent a whole afternoon in St. Paul's Cathedral. What a gorgeous and impressive place. During WWII, Churchill stationed artillery around it to protect it. The Germans wanted to destroy it because it is such a national symbol for England. But although one bomb did hit it, the damage was not total and the beautiful dome, designed by Christopher Wren, was saved. Probably one of the most touching parts of the trip so far, was finding my husband's uncle's name in the book in the cathedral that honors fallen U.S. soldiers from WWII. Tom's uncle, see below: Peterson, R. G. Pfc, was killed in the English Channel on Christmas Eve in 1944, right before the war ended. Incredibly moving!!

An Interview with the Narrator

Turning my first published book, The Mystery of Glengarron, into an audio book was easy and fun for me. But for the talented young narrator, it was a lot of work. As I mentioned in my last post, Patrick Peterson is the narrator and we collaborated via the tools available online at acx.com (an Amazon company) and email. But I was curious to learn more about him and how he works. In this interview, Patrick answers some questions about what inspires him and what it takes to be a narrator of audio books. 

Sallee:  How did you get interested in narrating audiobooks?

Patrick:  Ever since I was a child I have loved cartoons. Even into adulthood I am still a fan and am working toward my dream of voicing a cartoon one of these days. I have two bachelors degrees in English and Theatre so narrating audiobooks was something that would allow me to use both of my talents. Though my love of voice over and cartoons is what got me started. My teacher worked with me in setting up a demo and introduced me to various audiobook websites that I could work to be a part of.

Sallee: Do you have a dedicated studio? and, Was it hard/expensive to set up?
Patrick: I do have a studio that I built in my basement. It was fairly expensive spanning roughly $2,000  once complete for work, though I still add new things here and there for better quality. Setting up was not hard at all. Just a matter of finding a sizable room to sit in comfortably. I have a deep side closet. The room is laced with quiet brace, a material that helps to keep in sound, that I found a Home Depot. So with some dedication I raised the money and bought the materials and now I have my own private studio.

Sallee:  How do you choose which books you'd like to narrate?

Patrick: Well as a narrator you have to get comfortable with rejection. I'm still working on that, but I digress, for every book I land I probably have about 15-20 auditions lost. Mostly I look around in categories that interest me, fantasy, sci fi, children's, then there are some that I learn about. I work at a library as my day job and so I have a first hand kind of cheat when it comes to seeing what people are reading. Mystery, Romance and Nonfiction are the big audiobooks, those are usually the ones that will sell. So from all those categories I pick a few from each and see if someone likes me enough to offer me the job. 

Sallee:  What's the hardest part of narrating a book?
Patrick:  EDITING!!! Most people ask me how I change voices and if i do it all together, and the answer is yes, I do switch immediately between voices, it has always been fairly easy for me, ever since I would imitate Red Skelton as a child i have been good at imitation. The theatrical aspect of standing in a room by myself and talking to my self in 20-30 different voices is the most fun I have, especially when there is a character that you just love the voice you have for him/her and whenever you do that voice you smile. (For me that character was Harry in your novel) He was just so Billy Connelly over the top!!! Editing on the other hand is terrible, my least favorite part. Aside from being only ok at it which is not fun because it then affects your performance, it takes forever. For every hour you listen to this book I listened to that hour a minimum of 6 times and editing it took at least 8 hours. Sometimes it is just very tedious. You get better as you go, but my dream is to leave the editing to someone else, walk into my or someone's studio and recording and get paid and leave. HAHA that would be awesome.

Sallee: What are your long term goals?
Patrick: Well to be a cartoon voice someday is a big one. Also I would have to say work with the greats like Tom Kane, John Dimaggio, James Arnold Taylor, Jim Cummings, and Tara Strong, and if I kept going it would take forever, so many great talents out there that I idolize. Outside of audiobooks I can't wait to start a family and if my voiceover career takes off perhaps try to be a stay at home parent. If none of that pans out, or if it does I would like to do something with Shakespeare, his work is awesome!!

Producing an Audio Book

The popularity of audio books is definitely on the rise. I still read a lot. But there are times when an audio book just fits the bill. Commuting to work and exercising come immediately to mind. So it just seemed logical that I would offer my own books in an audio version. But I really didn't know where or how to start until I turned, once again, to ACX.com, which is Amazon's platform for connecting authors with potential narrators and producers. As an author, list your book and the rest is easy. Really. The rest is a matter of making a few decisions, do you want to pay the narrator a fee or split the royalties? The platform even estimates the number of hours your finished audio book will be.

You can look through potential narrators and send them a note asking if they would be interested in narrating your book. At the same time, narrators can see what books are available to narrate. In my case, a narrator contacted me. Patrick Peterson (no relation) saw my book and sent me a message. Through the platform, we communicated a couple of times, settled on a price and then ACX even had all the contracts available for us. 

The process was fun, at least for me. I know Patrick worked very hard on this book, especially since my books are set in Scotland. We had several initial discussions, via the messaging capability of the ACX platform, mostly about what these characters might sound like. After the first initial weeks, we settled into a routine. Every couple of days, Patrick would send a few more chapters for me to review. I must say that Patrick was a joy to work with. Any changes I requested were quickly and cheerfully completed. And all the communication and work was done over the platform. Really, within a few months, I had an audio book offering through both Audible.com and Amazon. Easy. 

If you are an Indie Author, I highly recommend you consider looking into producing your own audio book. There are several companies out there, but I do recommend ACX.com. Check it out. And if you love listening to audio books, like me, here's a deal for you: Audible.com is a subscription based audio book service. You pay one monthly fee and get a certain number of credits, each good for an audio book of your choice, and it is more cost effective than buying each audio book separately. But the best part of Audible is that they offer you a daily deal. Yes, you will get an email every day.....but, these are offers for popular audio books usually for $3.95 or less. They are a great way to build your library without breaking the bank. And they have really great periodic sales as well. For instance, they are offering their members a sale right now for hundreds of titles for $4.95. Great deals on audio books!

Oh, by the way, I was curious about what the audio book production was like for Patrick, so I asked him. In my next post, I'll share his perspective in an interview with him. He's really a remarkable and interesting young man.

Self Publishing with Amazon and Smashwords

Writing a novel is hard work. But if you love telling stories and you subscribe to the B-I-C (butt-in-chair) method of slogging through it, you will eventually finish it. And let me tell you, it is a wonderful feeling, after weeks or months of doubt that you actually did finish it. I'll talk more about the B-I-C method in another post. But for now, let me just say, it means actually sitting down in the chair and writing, even if you are not sure the words will come.

If you are an Indie (independent) author, now is when your phase 2 begins. Get the best editor(s) you can. You can pay a professional, but for most full length novels, that's going to cost you around $1500. Not the best decision before you've sold your first book, unless you happen to be sitting on a pile of cash. And it will also be the first of many obstacles that may make you toss in the towel. DON'T!!! Enlist the help of two friends and ask them to read it and give you honest feedback on the story. Did you leave a character hanging out to dry half-way through? Did you call a character Sue for the first half and Sally for the second. Believe me, these things happen. Don't ask them to do the spelling and grammar editing, but if they like to point them out when they see them, all the better.
Then, turn your book over to Word for spelling and grammar.

I actually took an online class on self-publishing and I highly recommend it!! You can find them at your local college or at ed2go.com.  I learned a ton about kindle formatting, MSWord editing and also book covers. My class was $99. It was the best investment I've made yet in self-publishing.
The writing and editing can all be done before you decide to publish it yourself, and if you do, which company to use.

I publish first with Amazon. They have tons of tools to help you. If you publish with createspace.com (Amazon's paperback publisher) first, you can use their cover designer to make professional covers that can be used with both the paperback and as an image for your ebook. They will step you through the whole process, including getting your ISBN (id number for books, essentially). Then once your book is approved, they will also take care of the Kindle version for you.

They are the world's biggest bookstore and nearly the world's biggest everything store now. People shop there. You can also take advantage of their lending library and their subscription service if you enter into an exclusive deal with them.  They pay authors well, pay on time, give you reports and tons of visibility into your sales and your rank. They have an author's page and will link to your blog. And they have a lot of marketing help if you search for it and follow the suggestions. They also recently bought an audio book company and now audio book production is also fairly easy. (More about that in another post.)

Smashwords is the second company I have published with. The biggest advantage of Smashwords, by far, is that they distribute to nearly all other ebook sellers, including B&N, Apple, Sony, and the smaller or international companies. They also have a list of resources of professional companies that will edit and format your book as well as do the cover. These services are reasonably priced, but certainly not free and, again, can be financially restrictive before the first book sells. The biggest disadvantage that Smashwords has vs. Amazon is eyes on your title.  Through Amazon, by book sales have been good. Through Smashwords, practically nil.

So if you're new to this, and you want to self-publish, I would recommend Amazon as your first partner!! I personally think they are great!

Why I Chose Independent Publishing

With the debate raging between Amazon and the big publishing houses over ebook publication and price, I thought I'd weigh in on why I chose independent publishing.

First, let me get the big question out of the way....Did I have any traditional publishers interested in my work? Honest answer: No. I didn't even try to find a traditional publisher. Question 2: Are you afraid of rejection? Honest answer: Yes. And I'm too old to deal with the mashugana (how do you spell mashugana, anyway?) MESHUGANA: a crazy person. I don't know what the plural is, so if you know, please pass it on!

The honest truth is that I didn't set out to publish a book. I set out to write one. To finish it. Writing a novel is a journey and it's really easy to give up half-way through. I know. I have a whole file of half written novels. But finishing one was on my bucket list. And now that I'm living my last act, it was time to start crossing things off my bucket list. Or at least try to cross more off than I add to it. So I wrote a whole book, and finished it, and it was pretty bad. But the characters came alive for me. And as I finished the first book, the characters' stories had just begun and I wanted to tell those stories. So I shelved the first one, and started the second, which eventually became The Mystery of Glengarron. And when I was almost done with it, the next one started materializing in my brain. And that's the way this series is coming together. I want to know them and live vicariously through them and see how their lives unfold..

At some point, during the writing of the second book, I started considering publishing. I looked into some traditional publishers and I did some research into self publishing. It all boiled down to my list of pluses and minuses. Traditional publisher: editing and marketing. A publisher has editors that will make sure your book is nearly error free. I say nearly, because I have read books from big publishers that do have spelling or typo errors. But for the most part, they are not plagued with the occasional punctuation or spelling error that self-published books often have. (My own included.) The biggest advantage is that big publishing houses have big marketing budgets and they will use part of that to market your books. That means more sales for the author. The big questions here, though, are how much does the author really get? (Usually around 16%) and how much marketing? And marketing for how long? (A small window of opportunity). The other disadvantage is that the publisher will usually print a small run (around 4,000) books for a new author and if they don't sell, well, sayonara. Book out of print and they still own the rights.

In self-publishing, the author retains all rights. For most markets, the author gets about 70% of the sales in e-book royalties and 40% for paperback and audio. These numbers refer to self-publishing with Amazon. There are companies that will publish your book for a fee (usually several hundred to several thousand dollars) and they will take smaller cuts or none at all.

I chose Amazon for all my books and am piloting three of them through Smashwords, an ebook company that distributes to most other ebook formats. The advantages of using these companies are that the book never goes out of print. The other advantage is that I will continue to collect royalties for my books until 70 years after my death (that is, my heirs will) when my work becomes public domain. That was a big deal to me. The disadvantages include that the author has to do formatting and cover art work themselves (although Amazon has some good tools that help here). Editing requires bugging friends and family to help read the books and having a good understand of the editing capabilities of Word. The big disadvantage is that the author has to market his or her own work. Not so easy and it takes time away from writing. But it is a learning experience. In the next post, I'll discuss the pros and cons of Amazon vs. Smashwords.

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts or questions.

The Mystery of Glengarron now on Audio!!

While commuting on Cal Train some months ago, I met a woman that was knitting a blanket. I commented on her beautiful work and only then, as she smiled at me and took an earbud out of her ear, did I notice she was listening to a small iPod she had clipped to her lapel. 

Graciously, she thanked me for my compliment. When I apologized for interrupting her music, she told me that she was listening to an audio book and that she always enjoyed her commutes on the train knitting for her family and friends and listening to books for herself. I told her I am an author and she became quite interested and we talked for a long time about my books and other authors we both like. Before I knew it, we had gotten to San Francisco and our commute was over. While I never knew her name, she gave me some of the best advice I've ever gotten as a writer.  She told me  I should put my books on audio for people like her that love to read but just don't have the time or really want to be able to listen to books while doing other things. (In her case it was knitting.  In mine, I discovered, they're great for listening to while exercising.)

So here it is!  The first Mick Malone Mystery, now on Audio via Audible. com or Amazon:

Link:The Mystery of Glengarron Audio Version

If you're not already a member of Audible, you can get the audio book free with a trial subscription. I love Audible and they have great daily deals if you listen to a lot of audio books like I do.  Or if you go to my Website I am giving away free copies to the first 25 people that contact me. Just email me and I will send you instructions to download the audio version. Okay, enough advertising.

To the lovely woman on the train that gave me such wonderful advice, I thank you sincerely.  And thanks to all my readers for all your continued support.

Road Trip!!

We moved to California from Ohio when I was six years old. Every year after that, as long as my grandparents were alive, we drove from Santa Clara, California to Ohio. As a young man, my dad would drive straight through, kept awake by caffeine and once making the trip in 48 hours. As he got older, he realized it wasn't entirely safe to make the trip with no sleep. By then, we had a camping trailer and we would camp all the way there and all the way back. The trips were always memorable and never without drama. Like the car breaking down in Iowa across from a hog farm in 100 degree heat. Or the midnight picnic outside of Omaha. Or the time lightning struck 30 feet from our car.

My sisters and brother and I learned to occupy ourselves QUIETLY in a car for hours on end, as my father was continually listening to the sound of the car engine, worried for car trouble. But we always made it and we always, in the end, had fun. To this day, all of us love road trips, although, we didn't all marry the road trip types.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my sisters, Julie, said her son was competing in a bowling tournament at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nevada. (Who knew that among other national treasures, we actually have a Bowling Stadium?) She asked if I would like to go with her. I looked at her and smiled devilish and then we both burst out in: "ROAD TRIP!". We live just south of San Francisco so it's not that far to Reno. But on the way, our sisters Chris and Jenny live. Jenny couldn't go, but Chris was game and so we stopped in Lincoln and picked her up.

After spending a couple of hours driving around Auburn looking at houses (Julie might move up there) we headed to Truckee, where I got us lost trying to navigate to the old town via a bunch of new round-abouts. We did finally make it:

 This is Julie and Chris sitting on the patio of a Mexican restaurant where we stopped for chips and a cold drink. It was a short stop and then on to Reno, where we stayed in the Peppermill. The Peppermill, once a very small restaurant and lounge is now a HUGE casino and hotel. We got lost every time we left the room. But it was not without its nostalgia. The Peppermill used to be a chain with restaurants in California, one right down the street from where I live now (right next to Apple's headquarters). As we wandered around the casino, looking for a smoke-free bar, we found one named "The Fireside Lounge." When we walked in, I was stunned. It was exactly like the lounge that used to be here in Cupertino. If you were ever at a Peppermill back then, they all looked alike. The sunken fireplace on the left and the dark, low booths. Julie is finding us a glass of wine in the bottom photo below:

When we got to the National Bowling Stadium, we were impressed by the size, it's HUGE!! and comfortable and makes us want to take up bowling.

It rained quite a bit, which was somewhat of a treat for us, since we haven't seen rain in what seems like years.

But the best part was spending time with my sisters. On the way home, we met our other sister, Jenny for breakfast and then it was the two and a half hour ride home. Many times, along the trip we would remember stories of those road trips to Ohio so long ago. And we were reminded how lucky we are to still have each other and we vowed to do it again, soon. Next time? I vote for Monterey!

Being Grateful and Letting Go

Yes, I am grateful for what I have. My family, my friends, my circumstances. But why is it, then, that so often I find myself wrapped up in a bundle of negative emotions over something that I really can't do much about. Case in point: I have lived in California most of my life. Every 7-10 years, we have an extraordinary drought in California and it is so front and center on the news that it eclipses all but the most tragic stories about real human suffering. This is one of those years. Reservoirs are dry, we are seriously draining the underground aquifers, we are all going to become dehydrated, crazed zombies if we don't cut our water usage, NOW, damnit! Next year, or the year after, it will pour buckets for five months and they will be letting water out of the damns at an alarming rate. Honestly, water has always been a major issue for California, a state that is basically pretty arid and gets all its precipitation in three or four months. Here are some dramatic pictures of one of our local reservoirs:

Lexington Reservoir in Spring After a Good Rainfall Year

The reservoir, which is visible as you drive over Highway 17 between San Jose and Santa Cruz looks like this in late Spring after the winter rains.  By the end of Fall, it usually looks more like the picture below:

This year, in the middle of a severe drought, in the middle of July, it looks like this:

So, I definitely get it. Next year it will look like the picture on the top. Again. Maybe. Or maybe not. So I did some research. In our area, average rainfall is 15.86 inches a year. Since 1893, 66% of the years we got less than 15 inches. Only a third of the years did we get 15 inches or more. And the distribution of dry vs. wet years was pretty even over the last 100 years. Here's another newsflash. California's biggest industry is agriculture and, in fact, we produce something like 50% of all the food produced in the U.S. Farmers need water to grow food. So it's not surprising that their water rations are not cut. And I really can't argue with that. 

Here's my beef: Today, it was announced that Alameda County was one of the few counties in the bay area that actually cut their water usage by 20% like we were all asked. But now the water agency has a revenue shortfall, so they are raising the rates. That is really ridiculous. And here's my other beef: All over the bay area, politicians and city managers are approving horrendous high-density housing on every available square inch of land. Drive around and you cannot avoid these monstrosities. They are literally everywhere creating much worse than just vista pollution. California doesn't have enough water, but let's shove 3,000 more people on every other street corner along Stevens Creek Blvd. from Cupertino to San Jose. Let's add 10,000 more people across from Santa Clara's Central Park in a site that was the old Kaiser Hospital. (Okay, it may not really be 10,000, but it sure looks like it. And oh, BTW, look at the pictures on the website. This ugly, ugly massive block of concrete doesn't look anything like the small individual homes they show on the website. What gives?)

And then I got it. Cover up all the ground with concrete and we won't have any need to water our gardens. Oh, wait, but what are we going to drink? Martini's!  Okay, I'm in. And I'm grateful once again!

The Truth About Zucchini-Tinis

Recently, I forwarded a post from Food Network about a Zucchini-Tini that Claire Robinson did with an Asian Fusion dinner with Sake Steamed Sea Bass With Soy Buerre Blanc.  I tried the dinner a week ago and it was awesome!!  Here is the link:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/5-ingredient-fix/300-series/asian-fusion.html

I used halibut instead of sea bass but it was really out of this world. I had never made Buerre Blanc Sauce before and I must say, first: it is easy and incredibly silky and delicious.....and second: the Weight Watcher Police were at my door within minutes. But it was worth it, and you just can't feel that guilty about indulging in a few tablespoons of heaven on a fish that is already delicious. I had dreams about that sauce all night and was really upset when I found out my husband threw the leftovers away. I had visions of it on my egg the next morning.  Oh well.  Try it, you will love the whole meal.

I saved the Zucchini-Tini for the weekend and made them for my sister and niece and I.  It's not that I don't drink alone.....as many of you know....it's that I don't drink gin alone. In fact, I don't drink gin much at all since my going away party when I moved back to California from England (and that was 30 years ago!!!). But here it is:

Zucchini-tini

Looks good, doesn't it? Well to be honest, I was so excited, thinking I could use up all my garden zucchinis with this refreshing drink. The recipe called for one large zucchini. I used two huge ones and got one half cup of juice out of it after putting it through an industrial squeeze. Also, it called for simple syrup made 1:1 sugar and water. Too sweet! It also calls for both sake and gin. Well, I kept adding gin, and that improved it. But in the end, it just tasted like sweet zucchini juice. I poured some unsweetened lime juice into it which cut the sugar and masked the zucchini juice and voila......we drank rather fancy, doctored up gin gimlets. They were very refreshing. Honestly, I think this one was a bit of a dud. But do try the fish dish. It is outstanding.

Stuffed Trout

I love beef. Given my choice of meat, beef wins every time. But I like fish and, as I am trying to lose some weight, I recently decided to try to eat more fish. In the past, I have pretty much stuck to the two S's, salmon and shrimp. Safe enough. But when we were kids and went camping, we'd often go fishing with our Dad and enjoy the spoils for dinner. I watched Nancy Fuller, the chef on the Food Network show, Farmhouse Rules, catch and cook trout for her dinner one night. I was inspired to modify her recipe below.

Meet My Trout

I got butterflied trout at Whole Foods, then seasoned them and stuffed them with chopped mushrooms, shallots, dill, parsley and lemon zest mixed with a tablespoon of olive oil and the juice of half a lemon.

Then I placed sliced lemons on the trout and wrapped them with bacon.

I

I cooked them in a cast iron skillet that was lightly oiled on the stove on medium high for 3 minutes and then in a 425 degree oven for 25 minutes.  It was really delicious.  For you Weight Watchers, this was 8 points.

More of these kinds of recipes, and I might not even miss beef.....NOT.  But really, how can you go wrong with anything wrapped in bacon?????

The End Result

A Rose Between Two Thistles

The thistle is the floral symbol for Scotland.  While doing research for my books, I am learning so much more about this lovely country.  Immediately charmed by it, I became more intrigued each time I visited.  I don't get there much anymore, but continue to live vicariously through my books and research.  I am hoping to get there for a few days this fall when I am taking a trip to Europe.  But I am definitely planning a longer trip next year.  In the meantime, I thought it would be nice to share some of the symbolic history of this lovely country and perhaps you can understand why I choose to make it the center stage of most of my books.

Thistle grows abundantly at Coyote Creek Golf Course in San Jose

The symbolism of the thistle stands for nobility and in Celtic folk lore, damaging a thistle was cause for punishment.  Although the details of the punishment were not explicit in the tale, try grabbing one around the neck and believe me, your hand will be punished!!

The thistle has been the flower symbol of Scotland since the reign of Alexander III (1249-1286) and the symbol for the Scottish police force for many years.  One of the legends about this beautiful plant is that when the Vikings tried to invade Scotland, they crept close to the villages at night to overcome them while they slept.  They crept quietly, on bare feet. Unfortunately, they did not see the thistles surrounding the village and some of them let out cries of pain, waking the Scots and bringing them to battle, victoriously.

Thistles are biennials, which means they flower in the second year and then die. They do reseed easily and each year, it seems they get more abundant and beautiful along the cart path at Coyote Creek's Tournament Course.  They are a beautiful sight here, in the dry hills, seemingly unaffected by the drought.

Plum Crazy

I started canning last year.  I'm no expert and I don't can a lot.  But I do like taking advantage of preserving some of the fresh foods of summer, and now that I am growing some of them myself, it's especially rewarding.  Last summer I canned tomatoes, put up lots of different kinds of jams and preserves, chutneys and sauces.  

My sister's neighbor has a plum tree that works in overdrive this time of year.  She calls my sister to tell us that the plums are dropping and we go over with a big box and pick up the undamaged ones on the ground and then start picking the ones off the tree.  Here's one big bowl that were not quite ready for prime time.  This was what was leftover after we made a plum crisp for dessert.  More about that in a minute, because as you can see, the first order of business, before we got started cooking, by the way, was the plumtini.

As you can see, I almost forgot to take the picture before I had the thing polished off, but well, here was the second half of it.  We made a simple syrup with sugar and water and added a few meaty plum pits to the concoction and let it steep.  That's what made that beautiful color.  To mix the plumtini, we used one part vodka, one part marshmallow vodka, one part simple syrup.  It was pretty sweet, so we tried it without the marshmallow vodka but it didn't taste nearly as good.  So we added ginger ale to it to cut the sweetness.  Much better.  Still a bit on the sweet side, but very refreshing!  Next time, we're going to make the simple syrup with one part sugar to two parts water to cut the sweetness, instead of one to one.  If you try it and build on it, let me know.

Here's the plum crisp, which was delicious, but a bit runny.  We made the recipe up.  Plums, sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon covered with a standard crisp topping of oats, brown sugar and butter.  The ripe plums were pretty juicy and I think we should have drained them longer.  But still, very good. 

I haven't had a chance to do it this year yet, but last year, with the overabundance of the plums, I made plum sauce and it is out of this world.  This recipe makes about 4 pint jars.
 2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 T. finely chopped chili pepper (I used a jalapeno which I seeded)
2 T. mustard seeds
1 T. salt
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 T. grated ginger root
10 cups finely chopped pitted plums

Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil.  Continue to boil gently for 1.5-2 hours until it is thick.  Fill sterilized canning jars with the hot sauce, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace.  Remove bubbles and clean the jar rims if necessary.  Screw tops on finger-tip tight.  Process in your canner for 20 minutes.  Remove canner lid, let rest 5 minute.  Remove cans from bath and let cool.
This makes a great sauce for any kind of grilled meat and can be used as a barbecue sauce as well.  

Fetteresso Castle

I always knew I was meant to live in a castle.  This intriguing place is Fetteresso Castle.  It just so happens that my maiden name is Fetter.  This castle is in Scotland, outside of a town called Stonehaven, south of Aberdeen.  The castle is steeped in history, with the original structure having been built in the 13th century.  The area around the castle is covered with Bronze age cairns (thought to be burial grounds) and stone circles.  Sounds like just the place to set the next Mick Malone Mystery, doesn't it?  I've already started!

I would like to thank so many of my readers for their wonderful encouragement and kind words.  In the last book I took an idea sent to me by one of my readers and wove it into the story.  So if you have an idea, speak up.  And if you haven't read it yet, you can get it at the link to my Author's Page.

All four books are now available at Barnes and Noble as well as Amazon.  And the third book, The Mystery of Loch Duny, is now available at Smashwords and will be available soon on all major e-readers.

I recently did an interview with Smashwords, a large e-publisher.  Here is an excerpt from that interview:

Who are your favorite authors?

I love to read all kinds of books. Not surprising, though, mystery series are my favorite. Martha Grimes, Caroline Graham and Elizabeth George are among my very favorite authors. I also like Dorothy Cannell and of course the classics like Agatha Christie and Dashiel Hammett and many more. But I also love Stephen King and most recently have become quite a fan of David Rhodes.

What inspires you to get out of bed each day?

I feel very grateful for all the things I have been given in life. But there is so much I still want to do that I am anxious to get as much of it done as possible before the runway runs out. I have a sign in my office: "What are you waiting for?" I look at that every day and it inspires me to keep doing new things. 

What is your writing process?

I am a very visual person, so I draw a line similar to a graph on a piece of paper and fill in the major ideas for the story from beginning through to building suspense, then the climax and conclusion. Since I write a series, I also write down the big things that are going on with my characters. Once I have a good visual outline, I start writing and usually the story details unfolds pretty readily as I go. The most important thing for me is to sit down and start writing. Even if I think I have writer's block, if I just sit at my computer and start to type, the story usually comes.

If you're interested in reading more, here's the link:Interview with Smashwords