I don't know about all y'all, but I really do love to cook and yet rarely have the time or energy to make an interesting meal. When the Kid was home, I would try to do some more elaborate things - stuff chicken breasts, homemade wet burritos, from-scratch spaghetti sauce. I baked cookies from recipes and made cakes that weren't from a box. I even made lasagna that wasn't Stouffers.
Now that it's just Hubs and I, not so much. I want something I can throw in the oven or the crockpot and just go. (Stouffers is big here now - with their bagged meals I can just whip together in one pan.)
Still, I crave something home-freaking-made every now and again. So, to that end, here's a quick and easy recipe that tastes like it took a lot of time, but didn't.
South of the Border Chicken
2 boneless chicken thighs
1 cup thick and chunky salsa
1 cup Mexican-blend finely shredded cheese
1 package Uncle Ben's Original 90-second rice
Preheat oven to 375F. Place thighs flat on the bottom of a 9x13" baking pan. (I cover it with aluminum foil first to laze-out on clean-up.) Spread a half cup of salsa over each thigh. Sprinkle liberally with shredded cheese. Bake for approx. 30 minutes or until thighs are cooked through at the thickest point. Serve over rice.
If you're not familiar with that Uncle Ben's rice, it comes precooked in a packet. All you do is nuke it for 90 seconds and it comes out perfect every time. I use the original, but you can use any of the flavored ones you like.
You can also use colby-jack cheese or 'fiesta' blend. Whatever sounds Mexican to you.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Sunday Update - Week 11
Hello All. I'm a little cranky-pants this morning. My back hurts and the butt cheek I fell on last year hurts and it's foggy out and I have to bathe Max today and...
Well, you probably didn't come here to listen to me bitch so let's just get to last week's accomplishments, eh?
I finally got Wrongful Termination read and tweaked all the way through. And I only missed my self-imposed deadline by one night, so it's all good. It's in the editor's hands now - we'll see what she has to say sometime around the 29th. I do know that the last scene choked me up. :sniffle:
And I think I'm pretty close to having a cover image I can be proud of sending out into the world. Now I need to figure out how to turn the ecover into a print cover. It's all a learning curve. And if I can't do it, I'll pay someone to.
The other day Hubs and I had an impromptu business meeting / interesting conversation wherein we discussed the future of B.E. Sanderson Publishing (not a real company and not even what I would call it if I was going to make this a LLC, but you get the gist.) The goal here is to have the published books funding the publication of future books by the end of the year. If I can do that, it's a win. If I can't do that, I'll still be publishing books but probably with a limited budget. And just so ya know, that's me saying that - not Hubs. He's been super good about all this and would rather I not scrimp on anything. But I'm a scrimper. Anyway, I'll talk more about the future on tomorrow's post at B.E.'s Writerly Space. K?
Since it looks like winter is finally giving up and going away, it's time for gardening news to show back up again in the Sunday Update. Last week, I took the protective leaf barrier off the rosebed garden so the crocuses could stop growing up warped and retarded. Now they're happy and they're blooming. Today we're supposed to clean of the other beds, but like I said at the top of this post, my back's hurtiful so I might push that to tomorrow.
That's about it - at least that I can remember this morning. How are things in your world?
Well, you probably didn't come here to listen to me bitch so let's just get to last week's accomplishments, eh?
I finally got Wrongful Termination read and tweaked all the way through. And I only missed my self-imposed deadline by one night, so it's all good. It's in the editor's hands now - we'll see what she has to say sometime around the 29th. I do know that the last scene choked me up. :sniffle:
And I think I'm pretty close to having a cover image I can be proud of sending out into the world. Now I need to figure out how to turn the ecover into a print cover. It's all a learning curve. And if I can't do it, I'll pay someone to.
The other day Hubs and I had an impromptu business meeting / interesting conversation wherein we discussed the future of B.E. Sanderson Publishing (not a real company and not even what I would call it if I was going to make this a LLC, but you get the gist.) The goal here is to have the published books funding the publication of future books by the end of the year. If I can do that, it's a win. If I can't do that, I'll still be publishing books but probably with a limited budget. And just so ya know, that's me saying that - not Hubs. He's been super good about all this and would rather I not scrimp on anything. But I'm a scrimper. Anyway, I'll talk more about the future on tomorrow's post at B.E.'s Writerly Space. K?
Since it looks like winter is finally giving up and going away, it's time for gardening news to show back up again in the Sunday Update. Last week, I took the protective leaf barrier off the rosebed garden so the crocuses could stop growing up warped and retarded. Now they're happy and they're blooming. Today we're supposed to clean of the other beds, but like I said at the top of this post, my back's hurtiful so I might push that to tomorrow.
That's about it - at least that I can remember this morning. How are things in your world?
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Scatterbrained
So I woke up at around quarter after five and my first thought was 'it's Friday'. My second thought was 'good thing I woke up early because I have the rest of that book to edit before I send it to my editor'. I was out here sitting at the computer through a cup of coffee and a cigarette before I realized that it is, in fact, Thursday. So now I have two days to get my work done. Yay.
Yes, a writer has to edit their books before they send them to an editor. Look at it as tidying up the house before the cleaning crew arrives. Sure, they're coming to clean, but there are things you'd rather have tucked away before they get there. (Not that I've ever paid anyone to clean my house, but I certainly wouldn't want my scanties laying on the bedroom floor, dirty dishes in the sink, or my piles of papers scattered around where they might be mistaken for garbage.) So I'm cleaning before I send the manuscript off to the person who will look into the cracks and crevices - rooting out writerly dust bunnies and wiping down smudgy prose.
Speaking of house cleaning, it still looks like a disaster area in here. I'm cleaning a little at a time. Which probably means that once I get to the end of the cleaning, I'll have to start over. But that's all I have time for right now. And Hubs has been furiously sanding every non-precipitating day he can.
To that end, here are pics of his work:
By the end of today, he'll have all the orange gone from that last picture, too. Then all that's left is the back of the house and cleanup work.
I spent some time this morning researching book review sites here at The Indie Book Reviewer. Most of the ones I looked at don't do suspense, but I'll keep going. If I ever get a book review, I'll let ya know.
And now, I really need to get my scattered brain on track. This book won't edit itself.
What things have you scattered lately?
Yes, a writer has to edit their books before they send them to an editor. Look at it as tidying up the house before the cleaning crew arrives. Sure, they're coming to clean, but there are things you'd rather have tucked away before they get there. (Not that I've ever paid anyone to clean my house, but I certainly wouldn't want my scanties laying on the bedroom floor, dirty dishes in the sink, or my piles of papers scattered around where they might be mistaken for garbage.) So I'm cleaning before I send the manuscript off to the person who will look into the cracks and crevices - rooting out writerly dust bunnies and wiping down smudgy prose.
Speaking of house cleaning, it still looks like a disaster area in here. I'm cleaning a little at a time. Which probably means that once I get to the end of the cleaning, I'll have to start over. But that's all I have time for right now. And Hubs has been furiously sanding every non-precipitating day he can.
To that end, here are pics of his work:
I spent some time this morning researching book review sites here at The Indie Book Reviewer. Most of the ones I looked at don't do suspense, but I'll keep going. If I ever get a book review, I'll let ya know.
And now, I really need to get my scattered brain on track. This book won't edit itself.
What things have you scattered lately?
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Writer Strangelove
Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love 2-Stars.
It was bound to happen. Sooner or later, I would get 2 stars. I was prepared. I fully admit Dying Embers isn't going to be everything to everyone. Still, when it happened, it was a little depressing. Like when I found a dead hummingbird in my iris garden last Spring. I don't know what killed her - I certainly didn't do it - and there wasn't a darn thing I could do about it, but it made me a little sad.
First off, the two stars was not a review. It was a rating - this thing Goodreads lets readers do where they can give their flash opinion without getting into the reasoning behind it. It's not a bad thing. I use it from time to time when I can't seem to put into words why I felt how I felt about a book I read.
So there it was Sunday night. Sitting amidst my 4 and 5 star reviews. Naturally, I did what any self-respecting writer does - I went to bed.
Yesterday, I sorta forgot about it. I mean, I knew it was there. Any time I went to Goodreads, it showed a dip in my average. But I had better things to do. Until last night when I scrolled down the Dying Embers page to check where I'm at in this 'Beach Reads' list (154th out of 428, tyvm) and I saw the person with the 2 stars. So I clicked the name.
I couldn't help myself. I mean, I'm not stalking or even all that invested. I was just curious. I figured I'd have a looksee and go on about my evening.
Well, Goodreads has this thing where you can compare the books you and another person have in common. So I clicked it. And I found something interesting. Pretty much everything I've read and loved, they've read and hated. In fact, one author I absolutely adore consistently got 1-star ratings from this person.
Suddenly I found myself wishing I'd gotten a 1-star rating, too, because then I'd be on the same level as this bestselling author. Silly, I know, because when it comes to that other author, I'm totally Wayne and Garth on my knees going 'I'm not worthy!' All at once, though, I felt proud of myself.
So, yeah, that's how I came to stop worrying and love my little 2-star rating. If it was a physical thing, I'd put it on a shelf and pet it nicely.
When you see a low rating on a book, does it have any effect on whether you purchase the book? Do you ever 'consider the source' (as my mother always put it)?
It was bound to happen. Sooner or later, I would get 2 stars. I was prepared. I fully admit Dying Embers isn't going to be everything to everyone. Still, when it happened, it was a little depressing. Like when I found a dead hummingbird in my iris garden last Spring. I don't know what killed her - I certainly didn't do it - and there wasn't a darn thing I could do about it, but it made me a little sad.
First off, the two stars was not a review. It was a rating - this thing Goodreads lets readers do where they can give their flash opinion without getting into the reasoning behind it. It's not a bad thing. I use it from time to time when I can't seem to put into words why I felt how I felt about a book I read.
So there it was Sunday night. Sitting amidst my 4 and 5 star reviews. Naturally, I did what any self-respecting writer does - I went to bed.
Yesterday, I sorta forgot about it. I mean, I knew it was there. Any time I went to Goodreads, it showed a dip in my average. But I had better things to do. Until last night when I scrolled down the Dying Embers page to check where I'm at in this 'Beach Reads' list (154th out of 428, tyvm) and I saw the person with the 2 stars. So I clicked the name.
I couldn't help myself. I mean, I'm not stalking or even all that invested. I was just curious. I figured I'd have a looksee and go on about my evening.
Well, Goodreads has this thing where you can compare the books you and another person have in common. So I clicked it. And I found something interesting. Pretty much everything I've read and loved, they've read and hated. In fact, one author I absolutely adore consistently got 1-star ratings from this person.
Suddenly I found myself wishing I'd gotten a 1-star rating, too, because then I'd be on the same level as this bestselling author. Silly, I know, because when it comes to that other author, I'm totally Wayne and Garth on my knees going 'I'm not worthy!' All at once, though, I felt proud of myself.
So, yeah, that's how I came to stop worrying and love my little 2-star rating. If it was a physical thing, I'd put it on a shelf and pet it nicely.
When you see a low rating on a book, does it have any effect on whether you purchase the book? Do you ever 'consider the source' (as my mother always put it)?
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Sunday Update - Week 10
Gah. It's Sunday again. And the freakin' time change again. Let's all spring forward for no rational, objective reason. K?
Last week was an interesting week and once again, a blur - which means I'm sitting here this morning trying to rebuild it in my head. Here are the highlights:
I slipped and fell on my ass. Nothing was bruised but my pride.
Max at a big breakfast and then proceeded to throw it all up on the office carpet.
I had some shithead try to steal several hundred dollars from me through Paypal. The joke's on him - I don't have several hundred dollars, so even if Paypal had let that go through, it would've bounced like a Super-Ball. I'm a debut, self-published writer here. There are no funds in my account. I won't even see a disbursement for the books I've sold until sometime in April, and as it stands, that won't even cover a week's grocery bill.
And that ^ was just Friday.
I spent yesterday cleaning and then reading.
In other news, last Monday was my first day of my allotted 5 free ebook days. It went well, and netted me two new reviews, but not an upsurge in sales yet. Monday I also guest blogged at my friend, Laura Bickle's place. Tuesday I did a paid promo with Kboards. Didn't see any sales from that either.
I got all the books I needed to mail mailed on Monday, so if you were expecting one, it's on its way. And my local postal gal said the next time I stop in, bring a paperback with me and she'll buy it.
In writerly news, I'm working on cleaning up Wrongful Termination because my editor said she has a spot open after the 13th of this month. I have until Friday to make this as non-nauseating as possible. I fixed the ellipses addiction I have yesterday. Now I need to read-through again to make sure I don't have any glaring errors. She'll find tons anyway, I'm sure, but I want to do what I can before I send it.
I'm also working on the rewrite of Fertile Ground (SCIU #2) and I think I have the path so that Frank slides in seamlessly. Of course, I have to trash quite a bit of what I've already written, but them's the breaks.
I was working on the edit notes for Bloodflow - and I still am, kinda - but the plot holes are deep with this one. I knew that. This book has been like walking through a field of jacks barefoot.
In house news, Hubs only has two walls left to sand. I've been remiss and haven't taken progress pics, though. The last two walls are the hardest and the highest, but he's way ahead of his self-imposed schedule, so it's all good. LOL, you should've seen him out there in 20 degree weather sanding away. Or the day he set the ladder in the snow and worked. The man's committed.
Anyway, that's about it for me. What's new in your world?
Last week was an interesting week and once again, a blur - which means I'm sitting here this morning trying to rebuild it in my head. Here are the highlights:
I slipped and fell on my ass. Nothing was bruised but my pride.
Max at a big breakfast and then proceeded to throw it all up on the office carpet.
I had some shithead try to steal several hundred dollars from me through Paypal. The joke's on him - I don't have several hundred dollars, so even if Paypal had let that go through, it would've bounced like a Super-Ball. I'm a debut, self-published writer here. There are no funds in my account. I won't even see a disbursement for the books I've sold until sometime in April, and as it stands, that won't even cover a week's grocery bill.
And that ^ was just Friday.
I spent yesterday cleaning and then reading.
In other news, last Monday was my first day of my allotted 5 free ebook days. It went well, and netted me two new reviews, but not an upsurge in sales yet. Monday I also guest blogged at my friend, Laura Bickle's place. Tuesday I did a paid promo with Kboards. Didn't see any sales from that either.
I got all the books I needed to mail mailed on Monday, so if you were expecting one, it's on its way. And my local postal gal said the next time I stop in, bring a paperback with me and she'll buy it.
In writerly news, I'm working on cleaning up Wrongful Termination because my editor said she has a spot open after the 13th of this month. I have until Friday to make this as non-nauseating as possible. I fixed the ellipses addiction I have yesterday. Now I need to read-through again to make sure I don't have any glaring errors. She'll find tons anyway, I'm sure, but I want to do what I can before I send it.
I'm also working on the rewrite of Fertile Ground (SCIU #2) and I think I have the path so that Frank slides in seamlessly. Of course, I have to trash quite a bit of what I've already written, but them's the breaks.
I was working on the edit notes for Bloodflow - and I still am, kinda - but the plot holes are deep with this one. I knew that. This book has been like walking through a field of jacks barefoot.
In house news, Hubs only has two walls left to sand. I've been remiss and haven't taken progress pics, though. The last two walls are the hardest and the highest, but he's way ahead of his self-imposed schedule, so it's all good. LOL, you should've seen him out there in 20 degree weather sanding away. Or the day he set the ladder in the snow and worked. The man's committed.
Anyway, that's about it for me. What's new in your world?
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Free-king Out
Yesterday was my first ever free day at Amazon. And here's a summation of how it went:
Me: :crawls out of bed, powers up 'puter, gets coffee: "La la la, let's see how the freebie thing is going. Wow, eleven books. Cool. Hey, honey, eleven new people are going to read my book."
Him: "Wow. Cool."
Later...
Me: :blink blink: "I'm up to 54 books now."
Him: "Fifty-four books? Imagine if those people actually bought the book..."
Then the roads finally got good enough for me to venture out where I mailed books to some people, talked about Dying Embers to the postal gal and the ladies at the bank and the gal at the convenience store. Snagged some foodage. Came home around 1:30pm.
Me: "Holy shit. 124 books."
Him: :visibly cringes: "So, this is supposed to help with sales?"
Me: "From everything I've read, yeah."
This goes on several more times until bed - except by then we were both cringing as books walked out the door. Flash ahead to this morning...
Me: Final tally 356. And one new sale. :drinks coffee, smokes cigarettes, waits for Hubs to get up:
Him: :snags coffee, pets Max, lights a cigarette: "So what was the count? Hundreds?"
Me: :cringe: "Do you really want to know?"
Him: "Yeah."
Me: "You sure?"
Him: "Yeah."
Me: "356"
Him: :silence:
This had better work in the long run. Or I'm going to have serious egg on my face. Fried. With scalding hot butter dripping down my cheeks.
Looking on the bright side, there are 356 new people who could potentially read Dying Embers and then recommend it to their friends who might buy a copy. Or they could like it so much they buy a paperback to keep on their shelves (cuz it's pretty). Or they could like Dying Embers so much they purchase the next book and the next and the next.
This morning, though, I'm kinda freaking out a little.
Oh, and because who doesn't like free things, my Goodreads giveaway contest started yesterday. There's a widget on B.E.'s Writerly Space if you're interested in the chance to get a hardcopy of Dying Embers and some swag. (It's on the right side, underneath the 'Dying Embers is for sale' doohickey.)
Me: :crawls out of bed, powers up 'puter, gets coffee: "La la la, let's see how the freebie thing is going. Wow, eleven books. Cool. Hey, honey, eleven new people are going to read my book."
Him: "Wow. Cool."
Later...
Me: :blink blink: "I'm up to 54 books now."
Him: "Fifty-four books? Imagine if those people actually bought the book..."
Then the roads finally got good enough for me to venture out where I mailed books to some people, talked about Dying Embers to the postal gal and the ladies at the bank and the gal at the convenience store. Snagged some foodage. Came home around 1:30pm.
Me: "Holy shit. 124 books."
Him: :visibly cringes: "So, this is supposed to help with sales?"
Me: "From everything I've read, yeah."
This goes on several more times until bed - except by then we were both cringing as books walked out the door. Flash ahead to this morning...
Me: Final tally 356. And one new sale. :drinks coffee, smokes cigarettes, waits for Hubs to get up:
Him: :snags coffee, pets Max, lights a cigarette: "So what was the count? Hundreds?"
Me: :cringe: "Do you really want to know?"
Him: "Yeah."
Me: "You sure?"
Him: "Yeah."
Me: "356"
Him: :silence:
This had better work in the long run. Or I'm going to have serious egg on my face. Fried. With scalding hot butter dripping down my cheeks.
Looking on the bright side, there are 356 new people who could potentially read Dying Embers and then recommend it to their friends who might buy a copy. Or they could like it so much they buy a paperback to keep on their shelves (cuz it's pretty). Or they could like Dying Embers so much they purchase the next book and the next and the next.
This morning, though, I'm kinda freaking out a little.
Oh, and because who doesn't like free things, my Goodreads giveaway contest started yesterday. There's a widget on B.E.'s Writerly Space if you're interested in the chance to get a hardcopy of Dying Embers and some swag. (It's on the right side, underneath the 'Dying Embers is for sale' doohickey.)
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Sunday Update - Week 9
Eight weeks into 2015. Where'd the time go? (ETA: yeah, this was actually nine weeks in.) I could blame it on being busy, but the time flies just as fast when I'm not busy, so I'll just claim some sort of temporal disturbance and leave it at that.
Last week saw the arrival of my hardcopy books and my bookmarks. The books are awesome, but the bookmarks were tragic. Never create and order bookmarks when you're tired. I uploaded files that should've been 160% larger and when I looked at the preview my brain said 'hey, those look spiffy!' instead of saying 'hey, aren't those supposed to go all the way to the edge?' :shrug: Anyway, I enlarged the images and ordered a new batch. Those arrived Friday and they really are spiffy this time. The front says 'Revenge is better hot' in a red to orange gradiation on a black background. The back says 'Dying Embers by B.E. Sanderson' and a ways to contact me, along with a bit about the book being available at Amazon, B&N, Createspace and 'other fine retailers'.
Now that I have all my swag in place along with my books, I'll be packing them in their padded envelopes and sending them off. I'm shooting for shipping tomorrow, but I have to see how the roads are.
In actual writerly stuff - as opposed to marketing stuff - I finished this round of edits on Wrongful Termination, and began making edit notes for Bloodflow. WT is shaping up nicely, and BF is a hot mess. Today, I'll be starting the rewrite of the second SCIU book - Fertile Ground - which I'll be changing into Frank Carruso's book. (For those of you who haven't read Dying Embers yet, Frank is a secondary character in there.) Now I have to remember what Frank looks like.
On a personal note, my freakin' hand is killing me. The accident that screwed up larger portions of my body left me with a deep scar pattern on the back of my left hand. And every once in a while, those scars hurt like the dickens. Or maybe is the mostly severed, but totally healed, tendon for my left flipping-off finger. Either way, soft tissue damage should not hurt after 20+ years, but there it is. Makes typing fun.
In other news, because of the cold here, Max is back in the office at least through today. He's living the high life. He's also a major distraction. Lucky for me, most of my work up to today has been in the living room with a notebook and red pen.
Coming up this week, I'll be a guest blogger on Laura Bickle's blog. Stop on by, learn about how I ended up self-publishing, and get a surprise announcement. (Which will also be announced on FB and Twitter - but Laura's blog will be more fun.)
What's going on in your life?
Last week saw the arrival of my hardcopy books and my bookmarks. The books are awesome, but the bookmarks were tragic. Never create and order bookmarks when you're tired. I uploaded files that should've been 160% larger and when I looked at the preview my brain said 'hey, those look spiffy!' instead of saying 'hey, aren't those supposed to go all the way to the edge?' :shrug: Anyway, I enlarged the images and ordered a new batch. Those arrived Friday and they really are spiffy this time. The front says 'Revenge is better hot' in a red to orange gradiation on a black background. The back says 'Dying Embers by B.E. Sanderson' and a ways to contact me, along with a bit about the book being available at Amazon, B&N, Createspace and 'other fine retailers'.
Now that I have all my swag in place along with my books, I'll be packing them in their padded envelopes and sending them off. I'm shooting for shipping tomorrow, but I have to see how the roads are.
In actual writerly stuff - as opposed to marketing stuff - I finished this round of edits on Wrongful Termination, and began making edit notes for Bloodflow. WT is shaping up nicely, and BF is a hot mess. Today, I'll be starting the rewrite of the second SCIU book - Fertile Ground - which I'll be changing into Frank Carruso's book. (For those of you who haven't read Dying Embers yet, Frank is a secondary character in there.) Now I have to remember what Frank looks like.
On a personal note, my freakin' hand is killing me. The accident that screwed up larger portions of my body left me with a deep scar pattern on the back of my left hand. And every once in a while, those scars hurt like the dickens. Or maybe is the mostly severed, but totally healed, tendon for my left flipping-off finger. Either way, soft tissue damage should not hurt after 20+ years, but there it is. Makes typing fun.
In other news, because of the cold here, Max is back in the office at least through today. He's living the high life. He's also a major distraction. Lucky for me, most of my work up to today has been in the living room with a notebook and red pen.
Coming up this week, I'll be a guest blogger on Laura Bickle's blog. Stop on by, learn about how I ended up self-publishing, and get a surprise announcement. (Which will also be announced on FB and Twitter - but Laura's blog will be more fun.)
What's going on in your life?
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