Release Party Recap

Yesterday was both Easter and the day my first novel, Shell Shocked, came out, so I had to celebrate. I baked a phallic cake and have a little recap for those who missed it on Twitter:

I started out strong with my supplies and a generous helping of Spumante + pomegranate juice, ready to bake the best penis cake the world had ever seen.

Then came the boring steps: mixing and pouring. It all fit in the mold, and I was feeling very good about my cake making skills.

While my cock cake was baking, I decided to give myself the fun I never had as a child. All $1 of it. Watching those dinosaurs hatch from little celebratory pill eggs was magical.

Unfortunately, the smell of burning alerted me to a cocktastrophe in progress. The cake was speedily removed and tended to, and then I ate the evidence.

While the cake went back in the oven to get nice and hard, I moved onto egg dyeing. I sadly had no red, so shades of green it was!

Finally the cake came...out of the oven. I set it to cool near my amazingly artistic eggs.

And there you have it! A cock cake and egg-themed release party. Yes, I did bite into this cock cake. Yes, it was pretty all right. Yes, I did drink all that Spumante.

Cheers!





 
 

A Pie for Pi Day

I hope everyone is having an excellent Pi Day! Unfortunately I have to confess that I am not participating this year, even though it's such a great reason to eat all the pie. But I can blog about pie, and so I will.

Recently I've been spending a lot of time working on the sequel to my upcoming novel, and I wanted to keep offering recipes like I did in the first (spoiler: there will be recipes!). Which of course means I have to develop the recipes. It's delicious work, but somebody's gotta do it.

What all this means it that I ended up making two whole pies last month to get a couple of good recipes for more summery dishes, and I just really wasn't about to make yet another pie to celebrate today. I will just have to let the memory of pie suffice.

This pie was a really fun (and easy!) one to make--it's supposed to be Dom's recipe. He's not a good cook. And really, the pie itself doesn't look that great, but trust me, it tastes like summer. Which is just what I was going for.

I guess I'll have to live pie-cariously through it for now.

Cheers!

Shell Shocked Novel Announcement

Happy Leap Day! I'm using my "extra day" to finally post again and announce something I'm super excited about--I have my first novel coming out!

I won't go into the boring lengthy backstory of how it happened, but I will give a little description of what it is, and it's a mouthful: M/M Easter/Spring-themed cozy mystery. I am thrilled about this--it has everything from over-the-top small town-ness to a pet goose and of course a cute couple.

In part this is so exciting because it's a step outside my normal scifi/fantasy genre preference, where I normally write, but then I often read cozies and I love the light, cute feeling of them, so it only seemed natural to write one of my own. And so, a little about the book...

There's Dom, who's on vacation in small town Wisconsin when he figures out his boyfriend is cheating on him. Even though he breaks up with the guy, he gets stuck there for the duration of the town's spring festival, and that's where Kiko comes in. A Latino man who owns an egg-themed store called Yolks on You, Kiko's a bit of a nerd who really sticks out in a small town. He and Dom are brought together by an exploding cow--and soon find they work well together. Dom's cynicism + Kiko's upbeat nature make their amateur sleuthing a bit of a balancing act that they both find they enjoy.

But I wouldn't want to spoil it, at least not all at once. It'll be out on--you guessed it--Easter, the 27th of March, from JMS Books.

Cheers!

Bathrooms of the Northwoods

Warning: this post will be full of pictures. I get a little click-happy now and again.

Over the weekend we just so happened to venture up a little farther north for a few days. I of course took the opportunity to do as much geocaching as possible, though it was a little chill. See the lovely cold lake above? It was so. clear.

Anyway, when you're out and about in the Wisconsin northwoods, you have to stop for a drink. Now, normally I try to avoid bar bathrooms, but I didn't completely this time. And so I ended up with some pictures of some fun bathrooms that I had to share.

The first is from a place called Club 45. I thought the painting on the stalls was fun!

Next up we have Dublin...now the bar itself was very themed looking, but when I got to the bathrooms...I think I could just camp out in there. I admit this is the first time I've ever seen a fireplace in a bathroom.

At first glance it does look like a nicer bathroom with one of those fun leaf basins. But then...

...is that a fireplace?

Yes. Yes it is. Right under the T.V.

Uh, this is because I thought the ceiling was also worth noting.

The sink lit. up. I can't even. I want my bathroom to do this at home. Entertainment, fireplace, light shows? Yes please. But I think I'm going to leave you with the art:

Wonder what's in the men's room?

Cheers!

Covers over Coffee

Today I wanted to muse a little about covers over my coffee, because, well, covers! And I have coffee, and am waking up still, so this should be interesting. Join me as my mind wanders.

I've entered the point where I'm starting to get personalized covers for my stories every now and then, which turns out to be a great feeling. It's been fun to see what the artists come back with, and very exciting to know that it's specifically for a particular story. And so, coffee in hand, I present to you a couple covers for some upcoming stories.

The first is for a steamwestern coming out next month! This is my first cover that is just for my story alone, and I love it. Hopefully I'm not the only one. The second one (bottom) will be out in December, a holiday-themed science fiction. The cover reminds me of those Original Star Trek episode openings, which makes me smile for some reason.

I've also been thinking about what it is about covers that makes us like or dislike them...Is it color palette, extensive detail, lack of detail? Definitely the font is something I personally notice, and I do tend to be drawn more to covers that convey atmosphere rather than detailed images of the characters. I think the story feels more real to me if I can believe the world actually exists.

What does everyone else look for in a cover? It's always interesting to me to know that the very things that draw me can be things that other readers don't care for! Aaaand, I'm out of coffee! Time to go forth and write.

Cheers! 

 

A Healthy Obsession

Recently the cards have been indicating I need to focus on my health. Annoying but true--my exercise over the summer had more or less ground to a halt. I had to take the message as a kick-in-the-pants, so I did!

I had been eyeing trying out geocaching for a while now, but a book I recently read put it back in my mind again. I figured now was as good a time as any to try out something I'd been meaning to do. (And as an aside, has anyone else ever taken up a hobby or tried something after reading about it? Funny how inspiring a good story can be.)

Surprise surprise, I am perhaps slightly obsessed. Geocaching is like a tremendous scavenger hunt played over the entire world. Not only did it serve its purpose in getting me out from behind my computer and into the world, I've found I'm seeing places in my town I would have never even known existed. There are far more little parks, wooded nature trails, and beautiful scenic overlooks than I would have imagined. Now it's becoming fun not only finding the cache, but seeing something new, too.

I've learned so much about the community, from info about geological formations to history. Recently I stopped at a cache in a cemetery for the old county mental health facility, which was fascinating. But I think my favorite discovery so far was the lock on the bridge, not part of geocaching, but a wonderful little find nevertheless. Someone had fastened a lock on a bridge, the words "when she said yes" written on its front. That had me smiling the rest of the day, and inventing little stories about this mystery couple.

My main concern is that this will be difficult to do in the winter--but winter is not yet here, and I'll deal with that when I get to it. For now, I'll let the community inspire me. And try not to get too obsessed with my new hobby (doesn't help that it counts on my day zero list!).

Cheers!

Sunflowers

I meant to post about this ages ago...The summer just flew by here!

I first saw the sunflowers when I was out riding along my favorite bike path near the river. There were these gorgeous stretches of sunflowers, all golden and happy in the morning sunlight. I had no idea why this year there were suddenly sunflowers in the fields, until I saw someone sharing this Buzzfeed article.

The first thing I thought was that I really need to keep up with the local news better!

But beyond that I was touched...I went back not long after to get a good picture, but the sunflowers were already bending and the weather was not in my favor. It's been a rainy summer here!

If you're in the area and interested about where you can buy any of these sunflowers, Babbettes Seeds of Hope has a list on their site. 

Cheers!