Scott over at Me and My Big Mouth has a mystery to solve. Friends of his recently bought an old house (Presumably in the UK, although I don’t think Scott said in his post) and found this book plate nailed over a hole in the floorboards (oh, the things we will use in a pinch to make repairs!) At any rate, I found the image intriguing.

Maybe it’s because I’m a writer, but I had to wonder about the history of this book plate. Did the book ever get published and circulated? Who came along later and thought the best use of the plate was to repair a floorboard? The frustrated writer? A careless relative?

The image itself is very interesting. Here’s my guess: The book was written during the war when the end date was not yet known. The author was writing his/her opinion of the war or a personal experience. You know the person lost someone dear. That question mark makes me wonder if the person wasn’t certain the war would ever end. What did the author lose? Were they doing the book in secret? Did they ever finish it? Did they live to tell their story or did the war end and things begin to change so quickly that the author never finished the endeavor?

What do you see when you look at the book plate?

Seems like everyone is jumping on the bandwagon–another new e-reader was introduced yesterday (snazzy looking, but with a 500 dollar price-tag). The Entourage Edge bills itself as a reader on one side and a netbook on the other. Someone at the company might have been reading the Amazon Kindle boards–they put in an SD card (a common request of those owning the K2), a user replaceable battery (another common request) and it can read EPUB and PDF files. No, it doesn’t read Kindle DRM files or Nook DRM files. However, so long as a file isn’t DRM protected, you can use free applications such as Calibre to convert the books to EPUB. (For the record, my books are DRM-free at Smashwords.com and at Amazon. They can be purchased in EPUB format from www.smashwords.com or you can buy them from Amazon and covert them to whatever format floats your e-reader.)

This Entourage device appears to be offering some real competition (if you ask me!) The iPad announcement was flat. It didn’t grab my interest, but maybe it wasn’t ready for prime-time. I think its failing was that the price tag was that of a netbook, but without the functionality. The Entourage seems like it might offer netbook capability and the e-ink screen for reading.

If anyone happens to buy one and has an opinion, let me know what you think! Be happy to provide a free coupon for one of my books in exchange for your analysis of the device!

I’m also very interested in the Mirasol technology I keep hearing about.

I have a couple more reviews for Executive Lunch over at Amazon and one new review at Smashwords. I point this out as my way of saying thanks–getting a review from a total stranger is always a huge treat. Since I can’t thank people personally, I’d like to say thanks here–The time you spent reading and commenting on my books is very much appreciated!

Thank you!

Yeah. Uh-huh. It’s the end of February folks. I usually have tomato plants blooming in the garden. They’re certainly IN the garden and growing. The snow “flakes” that are falling for the second time this morning are well over an inch in diameter. They’re huge.

Here I thought we were the only ones that had neighbor pets trying to move in. Pets must like vacationing and visits as much as the next human:

My parents live in rural NM–pretty darn rural and in the middle of nowhere. When they do things like go to Albuquerque to pick me up from the airport, Smurfie (the lab) stays with a neighbor that lives about three miles away. No big deal. The neighbor has a couple of dogs and they’ve played together before. Well apparently Angel (misnamed if there ever was one) wasn’t ready for Smurfie to go back home. After mom went and retrieved him, a few hours later, Angel showed up at the door. Since it was a bit late, Angel was allowed to spend the night.

Mom took Angel home in the morning. So far she hasn’t come for an extended visit again. But you just never know. We still have the neighbor’s cat showing on a regular basis…

The blog will be quiet this week as I am off to visit the parental units in NM. BMHusband will be monitoring kitty cats and the blog for spam (so don’t get any ideas that I’ll suddenly be allowing “medical” enhancement commercials, unbelievable investments in another country or buy your pharma here…)

It’s not supposed to be wonderful weather yet, so curl up with a good book. That and a cup of cocoa should tide you over!

Scamper got a scare the other night when she was in here and another cat got in. Yes, the neighbor cat that thinks he’s everyone’s buddy had to come prancing in after she came in to eat. It didn’t help that I yelled at the neighbor cat (not that it made him leave–in fact, he decided it was an even better opportunity to run around.) Scamp freaked out and in the end, they both ran for their lives. I think I managed to scare the neighbor cat badly enough that he forgot to chase Scamp (He does this at every opportunity for no good reason. I don’t think he would hurt her, but you never know.)

At any rate, since that episode, little Scamper has been afraid to come inside. She came in once to eat, but now sits pathetically outside staring in the new cat door. Yes, we have a new cat door. Q, I mean BMHusband, decided that we needed a way to lock other cats out when she or Junior come IN. Step one was to build a more rigid (and see-through) cat door, rather than the heavy, colored flexible plastic one we had.

Once BMHusband had that cut out and attached, he also attached a one-way lock. Thus if Scamp ever decides to come in again, and if she doesn’t fritz when we move towards the door, we can actually keep other cats from following her in. She can still hop out at her leisure. The only problem thus far is that she refused to believe us when we told her the new door was better and that she would be perfectly safe inside. She comes by and will eat if we put food out (which we did as soon as we discovered she would not come back inside.) We have to monitor it closely though because we do not want other cats to find out when feeding time is. It must be mating season or prowl season because we’ve seen about 6 cats, three of which we’d never seen before. One is a very aggressive (male, we think). He chases Junior, sprays everything whether it moves or not–and gets chased out of the yard by us. I get tired of constantly hosing down wherever he has been, the bugger.

The neighbors on our other side also adopted a cat. It’s young, probably a fixed female. She hasn’t made any friends or enemies yet. Like all their other pets that are “inside only,” she escapes on a regular basis and visits. We have returned more dogs to that home (of various sizes, including a Great Dane, a boxer and a small fluffy dog about the size of a chihuahua) than we see on a week of walks.

It’s been a busy two weeks at the Schneider Pet Hotel.

I’m starting to see searches on the blog for tomato plants and gardening. Usually by this time, I either have a few tomato plants out or I’m thinking about it seriously as I check weather forecasts. Not this year. I have the plants in the window and there they will stay for at least two more weeks, probably three. It’s cold all over the nation. If you have the urge to plant, probably better keep it indoors.

I even have cucumber plants in the window. I don’t know how well they will transplant, but I do know they can’t handle temps below about 40. They get very stressed and freeze easily.

The onion starters I put out don’t look especially good. Those that I planted last fall are actually coming around and looking spiffier. The leek and green onion seeds that I put down last fall look pretty good. I think there is still time to throw onion seeds down if you hope for onions. I threw some more down at the same time as the onion starters. We had nice weather for one day, but then it rained and got dreary. I don’t know if seeds will do particularly well in water-logged and cold conditions. I’ll keep you posted. I don’t recall such a lashing of cold rain after planting seeds.

The snap peas…are actually in good shape, but I don’t know if I can keep them there. We have some freeze warnings for most of the nights this week–along with rain, sleet and possible snow warnings. It’s a little difficult to cover for all of those things, especially if the rain comes first and douses the covers so that they are nice and freeze-worthy!!!

But despair not. Start your little tomato seeds inside. Give them eight weeks or so. The weather will likely be friendly to plants in four to six weeks. Probably. No matter what that little ground hog guy says.

In the past I’ve posted about my one to three or sometimes four favorite ads. This year? We are talking commercials that might as well have been on AM radio only many AM radio commercials are shorter, to the point and not as annoying. Dockers: I had no need to hear a bunch of men singing about their pants–or lackthereof while traipsing around without them. Beer commercials: Yikes. Those were bad. Worse. And then bad again. Go Daddy: Must you always have some chick ripping her shirt off? Get over the Hooters type commercials and get some class. Even Budweiser with their horses went rather wild and weird by having a COW as the “cute.” Hmm. That didn’t work for me. Cows and horses as friends? Hmm. A giant Longhorn cow?? I was worried the five-foot horn was going to spear a Clydesdale.

As far as car commercials went, seeing a bunch of guys stand around in a coma while we ‘heard’ them make promises to do laundry so they could own the car of their dreams…no. The guys looked like idiots–just like the guy following around his girlfriend while shopping. Zombies. They all must be part of the zombie invasion.

Volkswagon had a fair commercial, but nothing standout. At least they didn’t embarrass themselves like Coke did. I have no real idea what any of those coke commercials was supposed to be about, but the one seemed to be a spoof of Madoff (or some wall street thief) losing their billions and being stripped of his belongings. The idea that handing a suicidal wall-street type a Coke would somehow make everything better…huh? There were other coke commercials, but they were so painful, I finally turned the sound off and just went for more snacks. And no, I wasn’t inclined to grab a Coke while I was in the kitchen.

There was another commercial with office workers running around without pants…something about casual Fridays. This was possibly the best of the commercials (as in mildly funny) but I don’t remember who did the ad. And since there was virtually no competition for “Best of” it’s hard to say how this commercial would have fared against a better field.

These are a little messy to make, but they freeze well and are great snacks! This is a modified recipe–I used less margarine (half) and I substituted ground oats for some of the breadcrumbs.

Spinach balls

1 16 ounce bag of frozen spinach, thawed and drained (press as much water out as possible)
1 1/4 cups shredded Asiago or Romano cheese
1.5 cups shredded breadcrumbs
1.5 cups ground oats (take regular oats and grind them in a food processor)
1/4 cup butter or margarine
4 small green onions chopped fine
1 clove minced garlic (optional)
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp oregano
1 egg

Mash everything together, form 1 inch balls and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes. Spray your cookie sheet or used sprayed foil! These will try to stick to the pan.

That’s it! The recipe makes about two dozen.

…Because it’s not just about the game! This year is colder than most at the Texas home of BMBooks. I really wanted sushi, but who wants to eat cold fish and cold rice on a cloudy, cool day???

Rather than make a stupendous meal, I prefer to nibble my way through the game:

Spinach Balls (I thought the recipe was on my site, but obviously I forgot to post it. I will post this recipe soon. In the meantime, you can check through other recipes and see if there is some dip or snacks to your liking!

Deviled Eggs
Potato Chips — Sour Cream and Onion, of course. You may think this is a lame choice, but us cholesterol, low-salt diet people don’t get to eat chips very often. We will try not to consume the entire bag during the first quarter, but no promises.

For the entree, I made a simple pasta dish. I like it; BMHusband tends to think it is on the bland side. It has Italian sausage in it. How can it be bland, I ask?? But if you find it bland, I recommend adding fresh chopped basil when the tomatoes go in.

At any rate, here is the recipe for Sausage Pasta:

Boil about a pound of pasta (bowtie, macaroni or other)

In skillet saute:
3 cloves minced garlic in olive oil
three to four crumbled sweet Italian sausage — about 3/4 of a pound

When the sausage and garlic are almost cooked, add:

sliced green onions (about 5 to 6–one bundle)
1/2 tsp pepper flakes (to taste)
sliced fresh mushrooms

When the sausage is completely cooked and the veggies tender, add:

2 cans of diced tomatoes (or fresh–close to four cups diced). This dish is actually a little better if at least one can of tomatoes is drained of excess juices.
1 cup of cream

Stir and heat through. Mix in the pasta. Serve with garlic bread and grated Romano cheese.

I’ve been following a few forums and blogs concerning the Amazon/Macmillan and pricing of ebooks. What amazes me is not the argument itself, it is the hatred some have for ebooks. Okay, I get that not everyone wants to read digital. But why be angry that others do? There’s also some very angry people that authors are republishing their backlist (books that are now out of print) to Kindle and other readers. They’re angry about people like me, pricing my books at 5 dollars and under.

Seriously folks. A few thousand books at 99 cents, two and three dollars is not going to cause the world to end.

I’ve seen posts that rage about low prices–”You’re ruining the industry. Your stuff is sub-standard!” Well, again, if you don’t want to buy or read it, don’t. It isn’t as though paper books are going anywhere. Ebooks aren’t even at fault for the rising costs of print books. Ebooks aren’t the cause of lower author advances either. In fact, one might argue that ebooks could result in more sales (to a different demographic) and generate interest in books that isn’t there for heavy hardbacks, trade paperbacks or POD or other printed versions. But even in the creation or catering to a new market, ebooks are not exactly a threat to the quality or longevity of regular books. The only threat to the existing structure is not giving the customer what she wants at a price she can afford. If publishers can’t or won’t produce books (in hard copy or digital) at a price people will pay, then yes, the industry will fail until someone does. If small publishers produce a satisfying book at 5 dollars and customers like it and buy it–then a market has been created for those books at those prices.

The industry is changing. Save the anger for something that matters. If ebooks become the new sliced bread, mankind will endure. If an independent author or three put out good books and the public buys them, it isn’t going to mean that existing authors suddenly go broke. There will always be formats if there are buyers. There will always be newbies that come in with a lower price that give the big guys a run for their money–no matter how temporarily, no matter how good, bad or otherwise in quality. That’s the nature of the beast.

I’ve mentioned before that BMHusband shares some cool qualities with Q, the James Bond character. Namely, he tends to solve problems by inventing things. Where you and I might hang a bell on a door so that when the cats try to get in, the bell would rattle, BMHusband looks at the door and sees wires, lasers, lights and…a fancy, hi-tech doorbell. Which is what has now been invented and installed!!!

This is your basic…well, okay, NOT so basic garage door opener style device. When the cat crosses the beam on his way to the door, a chime sounds on the wireless (yes wireless–why would we even consider a boring old wired speaker???) speaker in the bedroom. “Ding!!! Junior is home!” Well, it doesn’t really say “Junior is home,” it just chimes. And we can then investigate to make sure it is, in fact, Junior or Scamp and open the door. When it is one of the invader cats, we tell it to go home (the neighbor cat is still trying to convince us to let it move in.)

“Our” cats took less than a day to figure out that they don’t even have to tap on the cat door anymore. They simply sit in front of the door and wait. Magically the humans appear and let them in!!! Junior was convinced that he could now send us mind-messages. He was so pleased! Except we still don’t give him treat every time he sits at our feet in the kitchen. And this morning when he hopped on the bed and began “the stare” we did not immediately shower him with food, let him out or otherwise give in to “the stare.” But when he wants in on a rainy morning, we hear about it.

Working Girl Reviews has reviewed Executive Lunch! What a thrill! Okay, anytime someone reviews my book, my first reaction is a bit of tummy-roil. What if…they hated it? What if..they liked it??? What if…they meander around and talk about their dog, their cat or their raincoat and somehow people think my book is about walking the dog in the rain???

Of course, I do try to be choosy about who I offer the book to for review purposes. I like a review site that is thoughtful, has reviewers who know how to spell and of course, has reviewers who love to read!!! It’s also nice if I like the same types of books they do–that way I also find new gems to read. Working Girl Reviews fit the bill for me, so I sent along a review copy and lo! I got a four-shoe review!

Here’s my favorite part:

To be honest, I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this book by self-published author Maria E. Schneider. I work from home and I’ve never been in the corporate world. Mysteries aren’t my favorite genre and I’ve never been much into sleuth capers. So, why did I even decide to read this book? I took a peek at Maria’s blog and online postings at bearmountainbooks.com. After a little reading there I felt like I knew her and wanted to give her book a chance. She is down to earth and realistic. She isn’t expecting her works to be on Oprah’s next book list but rather is writing for the enjoyment it brings to her.

That pretty much sums it up. All most authors want is a chance to be read!