Are you kidding me????  It’s the end of March!!!  We’re under freeze warning for tonight!  It got down to 36 last night.  That’s unbelievable for this time of year.  I’m going to have to cover the plants even though it’s the end of March.  I actually have three or four tomatoes already  growing.  I need to demand a refund on this weather.

To add insult to injury, it’s windy–blistering up to 30 mph or so.   This is not nice weather for a gardener, no siree.  It wasn’t that great that we got hail two days ago either–most were 1/4 inch, but there were some as big as an inch.  Took the tops right off two of the tomato plants and one of the beans.  What a ripoff that was…I know.  Could have been worse.

Time to batten down the hatches.  I’m lucky.  The neighbor that has very fine grass cut his and gave me 11 bags of the stuff.  It’s light and fluffy, like straw (zoysia).  The little guys will get buried in the stuff to protect them.  Probably the larger ones too before getting a blanket thrown over the top.

Cats have an uncanny ability to go right where you’d rather they not.  Junior’s latest favorite place is right smack in the middle of the phlox outside my work window.  Of course, as long as he isn’t planted inside my veggie garden, propped up on top of a tomato plant, I probably shouldn’t complain!  He has finally learned that the veggie garden is not a litterbox–that takes a while, but once the cat figures out it is a place that people play and cats can too, they tend to want to do their business elsewhere!

So Junior sits in the flowers and pretends to hunt birds.  His mother, Scamp, is completely embarassed by his lack of diligence in this area.  She has been known to mutter, “That can’t be my kitten,” while stalking away after watching him:

1. See bird.

2. Focus on bird.

3. Crouch.

4. Wind up back legs.

5. Stay in the ready position until something else captures his attention, letting the bird go about its business and eventually fly off.   It is at this point that his mother gives a gruntle (a cross between a hiss, meow and howl) of dispair and stalks away.

Scamp is an excellent birder and was probably able to stay alive by stealing dog food, the occasional bird, lizards and garbage.  Her son…enjoys the chase, but hasn’t put his mind to it.  Worse, he lazes out and fades from the ready crouch into…nap.  No, we aren’t overfeeding him.  He looks fat in this picture, but that’s just because he has oozed all over the flowers.  The aforementioned “crouch”  has faded to “couch potato.”  It’s part of a cat’s natural ability to spread out when they are in an area where you’d rather they not be.  This is most commonly seen indoors when you take off your expensive wool pants.  Even if you put them on the back of a chair, they will somehow end on the floor.  The cat will not just sit on a single corner and shed.  NO, the cat will roll himself up in the pants, wiggle so that the maximum amount of fur is shed, unroll, flip the pants over and reroll on the other side.  It’s amazing, really.   You would think that with such talent, you’d be able to teach a cat to iron, but so far, I’ve had no luck.

This is a copy of my news column found over at BookSpotCentral .   I cross post it here to get the news out.

In Crime News—For a Criminally Good Cause (Yeah, I really did type that. Sorry.)

Criminal Tendencies, a collection of 26 short stories, will release in the UK April 4. One pound sterling for each copy sold goes to the National Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline. In the USA it’s released in September and one US dollar per copy sold will go to the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

It’s crammed with short stories by some of the best and most popular crime writers around: Val McDermid, Reginald Hill, Andrew Taylor and a whole lot more – including Zoë Sharp.

All the authors donated the stories and the publisher, Crème de la Crime, ran a contest to look for new talent to include as well. It’s available at Amazon UK for pre-order in the UK. So far as I know, it’s not available for pre-order in the states just yet, but it’s available via The Book Depository.

PodCasts

An interesting new podcast pulp magazine out: Well Told Tales: I listened to The Official – VERY pulpy with a spec edge. The reader does an absolutely fabulous job with it—one of those deep voices, great performance. Here’s the story byline: Written by Eric Sandler, read by Bryan A. Robinson. “A barfly tries to protect a marked girl from a beautiful but deadly assassin.”

Well Told also does films, comics and some artwork, although those appear to be just starting. I’ve only listened to the one story so far, but I’m impressed. This one has promise.

Magazine Economy

Ralan.com is The Place to go to find the most comprehensive list of speculative magazine markets. (He also lists anthology markets, book publishers, and other useful information about the speculative genre). Ralan does a great job with the listings, and if you’re looking to get published, check the page out. If you’re looking to read some good magazines, it’s not a bad place to start. There’s a quick description of what each magazine likes to publish.  Ralan is also an author; his illustrated story book, Tales of Weupp: Little People Must Surrender, a fantasy action/adventure for all ages can be found at (www.weupp.com).

I asked Ralan a year ago if he had seen listings drop off because of the economy. He hadn’t. I asked again last week. Predictably, the economy is taking its toll:

Looking at the figures in my 1 April 2008 Monthly Report and comparing them to now, I see a small drop. Four less Semi- and Pro Markets. Twenty-two fewer on the Paying Markets page, although the pay requirement has changed and several (certainly not more than ten) markets were moved to the 4theLuv Markets page, which is up by twenty. Of course, 4theLuv Markets are not as affected by the economy, in fact some former paying markets have opted to not pay authors as a reaction to the recession. There are two fewer markets on the Anthology page, but that really doesn’t have much meaning since I don’t see any real variance from before in the pay rates. And finally, two more Book Publisher Markets than last year.

The garden is growing.  You’d think I could stop planting things, but every time the weather is good, the planting bug strikes.  I finally see that one of my cucumber plants (what are we on now?  The sixth planting???) has come up.  This is the most plantings I’ve ever had to do, but we’ve not had a late cold spell like we did this year.  Here’s hoping this cuc takes.

Oh, all right.  It’s not just cucumbers.  Today the peanut seeds arrived in the mail.  I ordered them long ago and frankly, I’d given up on being able to plant them this year.  But today wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t too cold.  Maybe there is still time…even though germination time is quite long (11 to 18 days.)

For a legume, they supposedly handle the heat better than most bean types.  We’ll find out because it gets hot here!

Book Covers

There’s an interesting discussion on book covers over at author Mindy Klasky’s blog.  Not only did I take the poll, I read the comments.  I found them very interesting.  It seems I’m not the only one that isn’t partial to real photographs–especially of people.  I like landscapes, cartoonish people or drawings, colorful fun covers with no people–but I really don’t like a defined, real live person on the front.  I didn’t mention it in the comments because I figured I’d said it enough before, but I am not partial at all to half-dressed women (that are supposed to be great fighting heroines–in heels and a bra, mind you.  As I’ve said before, if there is an emergency and us women have to respond, we are not going to grab a trench coat and throw it over the lace bra and panties we just so happen to be wearing.  No, we’re going to show up in our cotton PJs and end up looking like the grandma brigade in Tiger style.  Or maybe that will just be me and everyone else will actually throw on those heels to run to the rescue.)

I’m not fond of heavy tatoos either, and that type of cover seems all the rage.

Put some realistic painting on the front, and I’m sold.  I love many of those.  Scenery?  I like that also.  A person that is in the shadows and not completely defined?  Excellent.  A scene from the book?  Very nice touch.   I noticed several people go back and check the detail on the cover to make sure it matches said scene.  Can’t say that I’ve done that.  If an artist gets the general details, I’m fine with that.  I’m not going to go checking the color of someone’s boots to make sure that the protag owns that color.  Shoot, I don’t even care if the exact scene occurs in the book so long as the look and feel are close to the story line (a medieval setting should be reflected in the general detail in the cover.  Don’t put a space opera cover on a fantasy novel.)

Part of the poll was color.  I’m not choosy about color on covers, but yes, I tend to lean towards blues and purple.  I don’t like angry red or angry orange.  I think pink and yellow have their places (fun, zany, cozy).

What is your favorite cover?

I’m on an oil kick–exploring the virtues of various oils.  I use a lot of different oils when I make my own lotions/creams and many of them are edible oils.  Today I made Caesar Salad Dressing (something I make a lot, especially during the summer).  The recipe is below, only I substituted about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of walnut oil in place of some of the olive oil.   It’s high in Omega-3 oils.  I’m pretty sure I need those.  For something.  I would have used more walnut oil, but it’s a pretty expensive oil.  Next I’ll be experimenting with grape seed oil.

Here’s my version of Caesar Salad Dressing:

Open and drain 1 can (2 oz) of anchovies. Place the anchovies in plain water. This removes some of the salt and since the oil in the anchovies is permeated with the fish, it also keeps the anchovies from being too strong in the recipe.

Soak the anchovies for five to ten minutes and drain the water and oil off.

Mince four medium to large cloves of garlic and put in bottom of blender with 2 tablespoons of olive oil
Blend on low speed (you won’t get much blending at this stage).

Add to blender:
1 scant tablespoon capers
8-10 anchovies (1 can) –or 1 1/2 tablespoons anchovy paste
Blend on low speed until completely mixed.

Add:
1 and 1/2 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp sugar
Blend again on low speed.

Add:
3 egg yolks with a little of the egg whites
Blend on low speed until everything is creamy and well-mixed.

After everything has mixed well, continue blending on slowest speed and drizzle slowly into the blender:

1  cup olive oil (in this case about 1/4 cup of it was walnut oil)
Adding it slowly allows the mixture to “cream.”

When everything is well blended:
Add 8-9 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce
juice from 1/2 medium lemon

Blend

Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup grated (not packed) romano or asiago cheese and blend again.

For the salad, tear romaine lettuce and slice fresh mushrooms. Toss. Use about 2 tablespoons of the salad dressing per salad serving. Serve with extra romano, parmesan or asiago cheese on top!

Much to my surprise and Delight, BookSpotCentral added a Dealer’s Choice category for their March Madness tournaments. Much to my distress, the very first category contains two books I really liked–pitted against each other. That means one book will drop out in the first round. That means I am very sad. It was bad enough that John Levitt’s New Tricks didn’t go to the third round, but now I have to pick between two books I like and essentially vote to eliminate the other.  It is a sad day indeed.

I know I reviewed both books either here or over at BookSpotCentral.  But here are the titles.:  Deader Still by Anton Strout and Magic Bites by Illona Andrews.  They are both good…

There are sixteen paranormal/urban fantasy titles in the Dealer’s Choice.  Even if you don’t want to vote, you should check out the titles (no registration required to just browse through the titles and see what is being said about them!  There are some really good books in this list.

On the good news front, Goblin War (Jim Hines) made it to the third round of the regular tournament without a problem.  It still needs votes to continue the march upward!!!  Jim has been posting some amusing “campaign” posters each time the book advances.

Well poo. The cukes took a late dive, likely due to the four plus days of 38 degree temperatures. Had I known they were that finicky, I would have covered them. Although because the cold spell lasted so long, the ground got just as cold. Covering likely wouldn’t have changed things. I replanted with a note to self to plant at least one on the warmer/sunnier side of the garden. Only one cantaloupe on that side died (and well, Junior sort of dug that one up early on and it had to be reseated. I would imagine the cold was adding injury to insult.) The tomatoes handled the weather okay and the Celebrity even set at least one tomato. Of the varieties I have, Celebrities did the best–but overall I’d say they were the strongest/biggest going in. I expected the Opener to do better than it did. The Siberian did fine–looks about the same as going in. The roma types took it the hardest, but I’ve noticed in the past that they don’t handle cold well.

Lest I bore you with plants, make another note: When cleaning rain barrels for the season, it is a good idea to wait until after the first rain. If it hasn’t rained in ages and then some, when the first rain appears, all the dirt and debris from the roof ends up in the rain barrel despite the screens. This results in the rain barrels needing cleaning again…

The book tournament is still going on at BookSpotCentral. I highly recommend votes for:

New Tricks

and

Goblin War (Jig the Goblin)

Of course, if you are actually purchasing the books, you might want to start with the first books in the series:

Dog Days (Ace Fantasy Book)

and
Goblin Quest

The book world version of March Madness–68 books against each other in a process of elimination to determine the most worthy books. There are two books in the early rounds that I had to vote for:

New Tricks

and

Goblin War (Jig the Goblin)

I didn’t know these books would make the tournament, but boy was I happy to see them there! I even voted on some books that I hadn’t read (if I had read anything by an author, I figured that made me practically an academic expert on that author’s work, right???) Anyway, it’s a fun tournament. There’s a lot of books to choose from, all from the fantasy persuasion. I enjoy reading the reader comments and thoughts on why a book is good.  I think every book in the tournament has been reviewed by BookSpotCentral also.   Here’s a direct link to the tournament page:

http://www.bookspotcentral.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=88

The first round ends tonight.  Then there’s the other rounds (process of elimination) as well as some “all time great” tournaments coming up.  Go see if there is a book or three that you want to vote for.  It’s fun!

UPDATE: BOTH books made it through the first round of voting yesterday!!   Round two today (3/17)!  Go Vote!!!  Woot!! Voting Ends on this round 3/20. Vote early, vote often!

After my huge success in finding a mousse pie recipe, I decided to try the Scharffen Berger Pudding recipe–as a pie. Now, it might have been my fault because I didn’t have Scharffen Berger chocolate this time and I wasn’t certain of the percentage of cocoa in the chocolate I was using. I know it wasn’t 70 percent so I cut the sugar in half (and probably could have done without any additional sugar.)

As pudding goes, it was okay. A little…well, it was just pudding. It wasn’t really smooth and creamy, it was more gelatin than that. So from a texture standpoint, it was just okay. Taste was pretty good, nothing to complain about there. I would definitely have preferred more chocolate flavor (ie a darker chocolate) but that was probably my own fault for starting with an unknown.

For pie, I also tried this French Silk Recipe that I obtained from the very helpful MuttonChops over at BookSpotCentral

French Silk Pie
9″ baked pastry shell (the oreo crumb shell is good for this)
3/4 cup butter (1.5 sticks)
1 and 1/8 cup sugar
1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon of cocoa
1.5 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
Add cocoa after creaming butter & sugar, mix
Add eggs mixing 3-5 minutes after each
Add vanilla
Spoon into shell; chill 2 hrs; top with whipped cream

The French Silk is the fastest and the easiest. For taste? I’d stick with the Mousse Pie Recipe I told you about the other day. It’s a bit more work to make, but it was the lightest, fluffiest and best tasting. When I’m in a hurry, I’d make the French Silk, because it really is a close second. I might try substituting some of the butter with whipped cream to fluff it some. I might even end up using all cream. The beaten eggs do fluff it up some, but I thought the overall consistency of the mousse was the best and the most elegant.

Mind, the one that has the most nutrition would be the pudding.

I recently finished Elizabeth Peters’ Laughter of Dead Kings the sixth and last book in the Vicky Bliss series.  It’s been over ten years since the fifth book came out.  I was so pleased to hear this book was out!   I read it and loved it.  It’s a great little cozy caper.  My full review can be found at BookSpotCentral.

I skimmed two other reviews of this book before reading it–there were some minor complaints about the book being rather drawn out.  I didn’t find this to be the case, but perhaps I just so enjoyed being around the characters again, I didn’t notice any slow spots.  What I did notice was that when looking for a cover shot of the book, the website that seemed to go with the author was woefully short on info about the book–no cover, no hoopla, no mention of the book.   That website was dedicated to the Amelia Peabody series (also a delightful series).  There was a mention of the Vicky Bliss series, but the list hadn’t been updated to include the latest title.  I then found the author website, but it just described the various series–it didn’t even list the names of the books!

Maybe there is another website out there with author info that includes info about this series, but I didn’t find it.  It’s disappointing to see that not much marketing is being done to draw new readers to the series.  It’s a wonderful little set of cozy mysteries with a unique voice.  But unless you were already a reader of the series, I doubt you’d ever hear about this title.   I don’t know if the older titles are still in print, but it seems to me that they are more likely to go back into print if the new book helps create demand.  With the little research I did, I’m guessing that the series will fade into general obscurity due to simple neglect.   It’s too bad.  All six books brought a smile to my face when I read them.

I’ve listed the titles in order below. I linked the first one to Amazon.

* Borrower of the Night: A Vicky Bliss Novel of Suspense (Vicky Bliss Mysteries)
* Street of Five Moons
* Silhouette in Scarlet
* Trojan Gold
* Night Train to Memphis

For anyone that likes Janet Evanovich’s series–Plum Boxed Set 1 (1, 2, 3): Contains One for the Money, Two for the Dough and Three to Get Deadly(Stephanie Plum Novels) and so on, I think you’d like both the Vicky Bliss and Amelia Peabody series.

I wish I could say this recipe was mine. I wish I could say that I tweaked it. But other than possibly adding more chocolate than it called for (and forgetting to add vanilla), I didn’t change much. I did bake a pie shell and pour the mousse into it, so that is a bit different, but it’s all in the mousse!

Here’s a link to the original Scharffen Berger page where I found it.  As I’ve mentioned before, I use the Scharffen Berger cocoa for hot chocolate and cooking.  It’s a wonderfully rich cocoa and perfect for baking and drinking.  This recipe was my first try using their 62 percent chocolate bars (it was a freebie sample, but it was good so I wouldn’t hesitate to order more!)

Here is the recipe, reproduced for those that want to check it out without following the link.

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE/62%

Ingredients:

* 8 oz. Scharffen Berger 62% Cacao Semisweet baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
* 1/2 cup water, divided use
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 3 large egg yolks
* 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
* 1 1/4 cups heavy cream, whipped
* Method:

1. In a microwave or double boiler, heat chocolate, 1/4 cup water and butter until the chocolate and butter are melted. Cool for 10 minutes.

2. In a small heavy saucepan, whisk egg yolks, sugar and remaining water. Cook and stir over low heat until mixture reaches 160*F (70*C), about 1 to 2 minutes.

3. Remove from the heat; whisk in chocolate mixture. Set saucepan in ice and stir until cooled, about 5 to 10 minutes.

4. Fold in whipped cream. Spoon into dessert dishes.

5. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

I wasn’t certain why I had to get the eggs to 160 degrees. I’m not sure if that was a kill possible salmonella or if getting the temperature right keeps the chocolate from setting up.  I know other recipes complained about how difficult it was to keep the chocolate from seizing.

This mousse was light and fluffy–melt in your mouth, delicious!!!  I highly recommend it.   I’ll be trying their pudding recipe soon.

A while back, I downloaded and read a copy of the first Hal Spacejock book by author Simon Haynes. I have been following the news that the others in the series would be made available as downloads too. Well, here they are:

As of today the rest of the series is available in DRM-free ebook format at a super-low price of A$5 each. (Approx US$3.50) That means you can grab the entire series for A$15 (approx US$10), which is less than the price of a single paperback, and way less than the international postage on one book.

There’s also an opportunity to win a free download of the second book–by talking about the books on blogs.

I enjoyed the first Hal Spacejock adventure — it’s really quite weird and zany, but fun. Hal is incompetent, lazy, sometimes annoying, but always entertaining! Given that the first is still a free download, it was even better–trial book, no purchase necessary!

Here’s details on how to get the others:

Download Hal Spacejock (or http://tinyurl.com/sjbook if space is tight.)

You’ll also find a custom mission patch for this very important launch.

Why important? Well, if these DRM-free ebooks prove a big success then other publishers will follow Simon Haynes’ lead. That’ll lead to a bigger choice of titles to read anywhere.

A vote for Hal Spacejock is a vote for cheap, DRM-free ebooks. To place your vote, buff up the credit card or Paypal account and dance on over.

FINALLY the inoculate arrived. What the heck is that, you ask? It’s basically rhizobium bacteria–organisms that allows peas and beans to fix nitrogen from the soil and air. My peas weren’t high producers like I expected, so I got some inoculate and planted some fresh snap peas. It’s late in the season, but I planted them near the existing plants, hoping the inoculate might help them also. We’ll see how they do. I’m constantly mixing in new soil and mulching, but I garden year-round and that means that the plants are constantly eating up soil and nutrients. Let’s hope this helps my crop come in stronger.

As you may recall, I wasn’t too happy with the delay in getting the inoculate, but the seed place made up for it a little. They threw in two packets of free seeds (as advertised) and also added two extra trial packets of different seeds (unexpected delight!) One of the unexpected surprises was a nice mix of basil. I hadn’t planted my basil yet because I’d half-forgotten being so busy planting and watering everything else. So while planting the new peas today, I threw the seeds from the trial basil around. It grows quickly here. It will be a nice addition to the garden. I’m already thinking about fresh bread with basil/cheese/tomato!!!

The lettuce is still coming in and that handful or two of peas each week. The cucumbers are just starting to take–can’t wait for those. Cucumbers in the store are running about 87 cents a piece!!! Grow, cucs grow!!!

The tomatoes have blossoms on them–two plants have blossoms that are opened up! A few more weeks…

Went to get my passport photo today. This is actually the second try. Got up, remembered to “do” my hair instead of just wash and wear bag lady look. So yeah, that was me in the garden with rollers in, why?

Did my make-up too. Yeah, it took a while to find it in the bottom of the cupboard. No, I did not poke my eye out with the mascara brush. Did you know that mascara can get so old it actually dries up? Me either. Good thing there were two tubes and one was new. Well, it wasn’t dried out. “New” is kind of a relative term here.

I got to Walmart to have the photo done. Hmm. There were some awfully big 35 mile-an-hour gusts that hit me on my way inside. Guess it was windy today.

I headed back to the photo/electronic area.

“We don’t do passport photos back here. They do them in portrait in the front.”

“That’s weird. I was just in a Walmart yesterday and they told me to just go back to photo/electronics when I was ready to have it done.”

“Gotta go upfront. It’s cheaper at Walgreens, by the way.”

I frowned. “But the store yesterday said it was $7.50. Walgreens was $8.50!”

“It’s 10 bucks up front.”

*Sigh.* I go upfront. There is a line in portraits. Could all these people really need passport photos? I don’t think so. Who cares why they are here? I’m not waiting. I go shop. This Walmart doesn’t have a pill cutter–the one yesterday was also out. Okay, now I’m looking at having to stop at Walgreens. It’s fate.

I finish getting a few things and then visit my local HEB. It’s really windy out. I shop and while I’m at it, I check their pill cutters. SIX BUCKS? I’ll use a knife. Or scissors, or hell, smash it with my fist. I’m starting to get pretty annoyed.

I get done, and head back to the car. It’s still *really* windy. I wonder what I look like. I look in the mirror. Not so great. I comb and fluff my hair with my fingers. Okay, good enough.

I have to stop at the library because I have books on hold waiting for pick-up. More wind. They don’t have pill cutters either, but we all knew that. I check my hair again in the bathroom. It’s starting to look seriously lopsided. For gusting wind, it seems to be catching me all on one side. I used hairspray too, so it kinda stuck over that way. Well…So I’ll just tilt my head.

On to Walgreens. I get a spot in the shade, close to the store. Less wind!

I get inside. There’s no mirror, but what can you expect. It’s Walgreens. The guy pulls the white background screen down and leaves me standing there. And standing there. I use a glass window to check my hair. Hm…really not that great, but what can I do at this point?

Guy comes back. “I need to go get some new batteries.”

“Okay.”

He leaves. He’s gone. Walgreens isn’t that big. Maybe he had to go to Walmart. Their prices are cheaper. My hair is getting flatter by the moment. Or maybe it’s static from the white screen pulling on it.

He finally comes back. “On three.”

He doesn’t start counting. He gets closer. Than further away. “One, two…three.” Nothing. He looks at the camera. He holds it back up. “Okay, one…two…that’s pretty good.”

Yeah, thanks. Whatever.

He walks to the counter. He hands me a piece of paper. “Name and phone number.”

“For what? Don’t you just–”

“There’s a huge order in front of you. It’ll be at least 2 hours.”

I stare down at the paper. It flutters when someone opens the door. Windy. “Never mind. I’ll do this some other time.”

I can take a hint. It takes a while, but I can take a hint, already.

There’s a new voice in town:

SFZINE.ORG

As always, I wait for these new zines to come out, mainly because I like to submit to them–but also to check out the overall quality and to find shorts for road trips.  Sometimes it takes a new zine a while for the audio to be clear or to get the background music just right.  Then there’s the actual performance to check out–how is the voice–steady, professional or needing work?

In the case of SFZINE, it sounds like they procured a professional reader–or at least someone with some experience!  Deidre Green does a good job–clear, easy to listen to, good enunciation, all that stuff.  This would be a good one for the car.  Overall, out the gate, this is lot better than many other starting podcasts!  My only complaint is that for the first episode they chose a story that has long since been published and also done in Podcast:  HP Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls.”    It’s hard to go wrong starting with a classic–unless your listeners are already familar with the work.  In that case, the only thing to listen to is the performance.  They did a good job with the story, so I hope that means good things to come.   It’s a weekly podcast–I’ll check it out next week to see if I can start getting a feel for the depth of their selections.

Will you look at this???  I planted these last fall and had given up on them!  They are supposed to be very cold tolerant and early.  My hyacinths have long since bloomed, along with most of the daffodils.  The spot where I put the crocus bulbs?  Barren.  Until today!!!  This little beauty was staring up at me out of nowhere.  Once I looked carefully, I could see a few more green twills peeking out.  Okay, so it’s nowhere near the 15 bulbs I planted, but what a beautiful flower.  It made my day.  That’s the great thing about bulbs.  You put them in the ground and then one day, Surprise!

I think the lack of rain is the main reason I won’t be seeing too many of these bulbs.  I did water the spot, but with all the other watering I do, I’m pretty conservative with the water, so this area didn’t get a lot.

The variety I planted are just colorful and cute as can be.  They aren’t tall–I happen to love a short, neat flower.  I am hoping to eventually plant the crocus variety that produces saffron (Crocus sativus).  Saffron is a spice made from the orange staman that you see inside the purple flower.  It takes something like six or seven flowers to get enough saffron to make one dish.  I’m not even certain I like saffron as a spice, but since it is so expensive, I figured the only way I’d get to try it was to grow my own.  We’ll see how it goes.  I had planned on ordering the bulbs in the spring–but it turns out I have to order them in September.

Meanwhile, I’m pleased to have the flowers from these beauties!

As I am wont to do on occasion, I mention stories I really enjoyed.  There’s a Really Fun Story out at  The Town Drunk this month.  Check it out:

A Natural History of the Pancake Badger by Matthew Bey.

I’ve been talking to Jay over at BSC about doing a column once a month or so about short story and magazine finds.  He said I have to come up with a snazzy name and do it on a regular basis. I have no trouble doing the column–so long as I can keep finding these short story gems!  But what to call it?

Dribbles and Bits

Short Wonders

White Elephants

Buried in the Attic

Any thoughts?  Any good magazines I should be looking at or favorite stories?

Anyone that doesn’t believe in telepathy, doesn’t own a pet. At least they don’t own Junior. Have you ever noticed that you can be sound asleep when…Something. Disturbs. You. Not a noise. Not a movement. Perhaps it is the very lack of movement. Or perhaps it is: The Stare. Yes, pet owners everywhere know of The Stare. It’s that telepathic thing that cats (and dogs too, I think) do in the morning when they have determined it is time for you to get up. They Stare.

Soon, even though you are asleep and cannot possibly see The Stare, your sleep is disturbed. You don’t open your eyes right away, no, you turn over, wondering why you are awake. It’s quiet. There’s no reason to get up. Except…what is that feeling????

Eventually, your eyes open. It’s not really light out. What has disturbed you??? Why…And there it is. Maybe at the side of the bed. Maybe at the foot of the bed. No, he isn’t moving, but…he is Staring. It is at this point that dogs give a hopeful little whine and duck their head. Cats…stare. They don’t blink. At best, they might lick their front paw before returning to The Stare.

You can try to go back to sleep. You know it won’t work. The Stare is glaring at you. It’s filled with Hopefulness. It’s filled with Encouragement. If ignored for more than, say, thirty seconds, it’s filled with Demand. It might give a punctual SIGH and lie down, head on paws, but The Stare doesn’t stop.

You may as well get up and let the cat/dog out, feed it, whatever. THEN and only then, will the cat stop sending you telepathic messages.

In my trolling, I came across this valuable advice from a slush reader (otherwise and often known as editors.)

Clarkesworld Editor

Most of it is pretty obvious. I laughed at the one about changing the file name because I am always careful to make sure and not send my file names with version numbers. In my case, it is because I don’t want the editor to know that, yes, I really have made 26 major changes to versions of this story…and you should see how high the version number gets for a novel! Yikes!

One of the things that makes it difficult to follow guidelines to the last nitty-gritty detail is that every single e-zine and print magazine has different guidelines. Yes, there is a “standard manuscript format” but that usually only includes one inch margins and double spacing. After that, it gets a little hairy–some want no author name on the manuscript. Some want author name, title of manuscript and page numbers. Where they want this info can be split between top and bottom of the page–or all in one place. Some really do specify that they want the page number in the top right only. Not just put a page number somewhere, but top right, please.

Yes, these things can be done. And one change isn’t a big deal. But it’s always more than just one thing–because there’s the font that must be checked and changed, there’s some that want the first page of the story on a fresh page…and so on. I kid you not, I’ve seen at least two guidelines that had a requirement of, “Do not put two spaces after a period. Use only one.” Maybe it’s only old-farts like me that understand why a lot of people put two spaces, but I find it strange that an editor actually cares so much about submissions at the early stage to request extra spaces be taken out.

I can think of one e-zine that has a list of guidelines and then a sample submission–that doesn’t follow said guidelines!

The hardest requirements are those that want “Standard” EXCEPT they want it in the body of an email, single-spaced with double between paragraphs…

It’s a mine field, I tell you, a mine field. It can be a harrowing journey just to submit the thing…

The best news is that most e-zines and print now accept email subs. When I started this journey about 7 or 8 years ago–very few, if any, took email subs. Now, all but the top circulated take them so even with all the “non-standard” requests, submitting is a lot easier than it used to be!