Healthy Recipe: Texas Turkey and Taters

I fell off the healthy eating wagon for a week or so there, but am back on track now! Last time I checked, I was down 5 lbs, but I'm afraid to look again because I get so hung up on numbers. I think I just need to take one day at a time, eat good, healthy food and let the weight come off as quickly or as slowly as it wants to. I want to change my diet and health permanently and am not interested in losing 20 pounds in 6 weeks or whatever number the latest diet guru is promising in order to sell more copies of her new book.

I also want to get busy with the exercise starting this week. We have Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus, which are really a lot of fun. I will do at least 15 minutes of cardio 5 times this week to get myself motivated. I know once I turn on the game I'll do more than 15 minutes.

This was a simple, easy and very tasty recipe for one of those nights when you don't really feel like cooking much. You could make the turkey part and store it, then just make a fresh baked potato when you'd like to have some. My 9-year-old son made most of the recipe as one of the requirements for his Bear badge. We left out the chiles because we like the linings of our stomachs where they are, thanks.

This is from Betty Crocker's New Choices Cookbook:

1 lb ground turkey breast
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 medium stalk celery, sliced (1/2 cup)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup barbecue sauce
1 can chopped green chilies (optional)
4 baked potatoes

Cook turkey, onion, celery and garlic in 10 inch nonstick skillet over med-high heat about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until turkey is no longer pink and vegetables are tender. Stir in barbecue sauce and chilies. Cook uncovered about 3 minutes, stirring frequently, until heated through. Spoon turkey mixture over baked potatoes.

I added a sprinkle of shredded cheese and a dollop of reduced fat sour cream, too. Yum!

Hubby is out of town next week and I think I'll make up another batch to have for dinners while he's gone, since I don't generally cook for just me. The kids prefer peanut butter sandwiches, turkey hot dogs or chicken nuggets, so dinner should be easy this week (and easy on the budget!)

300 Calories, 2 g fat, 4g fiber

Week in Books 2/5

Good gravy! February already!!??



TBR on Sony: 81




New Acquisitions:



Got my new Blaze download from Harlequin, which is automatically deducted from my bank account. Then I found out that the Sony Reader store sells the same thing for $3 less. Grrr. Cancelling subscription, because $3 means another new ebook!





Blazing Bedtime Stories volume IV by Kimberly Raye and Samantha Hunter


Lone Star Lover by Debbi Rawlins


Knowing the Score by Marie Donovan


Too Hot to Handle by Nancy Warren


His Little Black Book by Heather McAllister


Possessing Morgan by Bonnie Edwards


The Darkest Pleasure by Eden Bradley (library ebook)

The Golden Season by Connie Brockway--so glad she's done another historical!


Ecstasy Unveiled by Larissa Ione-4th installment of the Demonica series



Reading:



The Darkest Pleasure by Eden Bradley: In progress
This is a collection of stories. The first one, about a couple trying to get their marriage back, is pretty good so far. Might be a little too heavy on the BDSM for my taste, but I'll give it a try.



Too Hot to Print by Stephanie Bond: finished
This was a really sweet, sexy short read. I think it was a sort of epilogue to her Red Tote series, which was good, too.



The Charmer by Kate Hoffman: in-progress



Rita Entry #2: finished
Not bad. Not stellar, but pretty good.




Her Infinite Variety by Pamela Berkman: no comment. Time to move on, I think.



Rita Entry #3 finished
This was an historical from an established author. Extremely good. Love the writing, love the love story.



Writing

I've been working on a 15K short I intended to submit to an e-press, but in looking at the book and the characters' conflicts and motivations, I think it would be a good category length novel, which is about 50K. So now I'm working on a proposal for the book-length version, which is a synopsis and first three chapters. I want to be finished with that in the next few days, which shouldn't be difficult since I've already written about 60 pages of the book and always work from a synopsis/outline.



As soon as that's in the mail, I need to switch into high gear on my next contracted book, Nashville Bound. I just ordered a couple of research books--one on being a roadie and one on the music business. Hopefully they will arrive by the time I'm ready to nail down my outline and get busy writing!

Happy Reading!

Red Sage Updates and News

There are lots of good thing going on at Red Sage! Here's a run-down of all the upgrades and goings-on:

If you haven't checked out Red Sage's website lately, be sure to stop by and check out the new look! It's much easier to navigate and I love how they've done the author pages. Not only is there a bio and book list, but links to any Red Sage blog posts tagged with the author's name. There are also book trailers and we've been told we can add pictures of writing or book-related things to our profile pages. It's going to be a very cool, interactive and functional site.

Secrets 23, which contains my novella, "Educating Eva", is now available in ebook. I've been told there will be a much faster turn-around time for print-to-ebook conversion regarding the Secrets volumes. In fact, all the past Secrets books are now available in electronic formats. So if you missed one, you don't have to order it or go slogging around in the snow from bookstore to bookstore trying to find it. Since I read primarily ebooks, I was glad to hear it--there are a few Secrets on my to-buy list!

I just turned in final revisions for my next Red Sage book, Wicked Illusion. The hero is a not-quite-human immortal posing as a Vegas illusionist and sentenced to hard time on earth for sins he's committed against humanity. The heroine is a rookie PI hired to discover his secrets. She certainly discovers way more than she bargains for! I will share the cover and release date as soon as I get them.

Red Sage authors will be doing a blog-fest and giveaway all during the month of February on the Red Sage Revealed blog. Be sure to check out the blog each day for a new post and opportunity to win. I'm up February 5th and will be giving away a copy of The Secret Confessions of Lady H. !

Happy Reading!

Week in Books 1/29

Acquisitions:

Unbridled by Delilah Devlin

The Gingerbread Tryst by Nichelle Gregory

Make Mine Midnight by Anne Marie McKenna

TBR on Sony: 80

Enchanted Dreams by Nancy Madore: in progress (trade paper)

Still hit and miss for me on this anthology. I really liked the story Expecting, though. It's one of those stories in which you're really not sure how reliable the narrator is. Did she really get abducted by aliens and become impregnated by them with an alien fetus, or did she get pregnant and freak out, then have an abortion?

Rita Entry #2: in progress (paperback)

Pretty good so far. Paging through the end matter of the book, I realized I had read another of the author's books. Or at least I bought it. I don't think I finished it. Very clever, though, and different.

Everlasting Badboys: finished

I really liked 2 of the 3 stories, so I might go back and try the one I abandoned mid-story again. All in all, a really great antho. Hot, different and well-written. Kind of sad, though, too. Kensington Brava's Kate Duffy was the mastermind behind the bad boys series of books and she passed away in September. So sad. I would have loved to write for her some day.

Her Infinite Variety by Pamela Rafael Berkman: in progress (trade paper)

Just can't get into this one, but sometimes those are the ones that resonate once you do finish. I'll give it one more week, then I'm moving on.

The Gingerbread Tryst by Nichelle Gregory

An online "reviewer" trashed this one a couple weeks ago on Twitter then again on the website, but I liked this little story. It was cute, light fare, really imaginative and different. And hot. I mean if women in erotic romance have sex with vampires and weres and space aliens, why is a cookie that comes to life as a man so awful? It's a sexy fantasy, meant to be part of a fairytale series and I look forward to the next installment.

Make Mine Midnight by Anne Marie McKenna : finished

This story was a hot menage, but what I really liked about it was the there was conflict. Most menages don't have it--once the heroine decides to let her fantasy of being with two men become reality, that's it. The rest is hot love scenes and the story invariably ends with the trio deciding to make it permanent. In McKenna's book, the heroes have second thoughts after finally luring the heroine into bed. Not because they don't want her anymore, but because they are afraid what her choice of a plural lifestyle might mean for her. Being deemed an outcast by traditional society is number one on the list. McKenna injected a note of reality into this hot fantasy and gave the characters a bit of something to think about and overcome on their way to love. I'd like to see more of that--give me a menage, but make it compelling, and complicated and romantic, too. Megan Hart did a threesome story that was messy and complicated, which I enjoyed, but like most of her books, it had sort of an ambiguous ending, rather than a HEA.

With 4 1/2 Cherries on Top

I woke up to another positive review for Nashville Naughty yesterday!

Even though I'm happy with the book by the time I turn it in, I always feel like I dodged a bullet when I get compliments or a nice review. Is it because I'm still a relative newbie and still can't believe someone actually pays me to write? Do I need to develop more self-confidence? Is this just part of the whole writers' neurosis thing? Don't know. Nashville Naughty was my 11th published work and I'm still nervous every time I get a Google Alert referencing a review site.

Here's what Holly from Whipped Cream Reviews had to say:

Rebecca “Becca” Shaw is a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of girl, except there is no love involved. Becca’s dysfunctional family background has made her decide love is for saps, and she is no sap. When her roommate and best friend finds the love of her life, Becca is one roomie short.

Nice guy Dillon Phillips is a guitar player in the band Road Kill, and the only male in Nashville that hasn’t seen Becca naked. When they decide to share Becca’s apartment, things seem to be working out terrific. At least Becca thinks so. But Dillon has started to feel things for Becca, things she will want no part of if she finds out. Can Dillon keep his growing feelings to himself to keep Becca’s friendship? Can Becca ever change, and return Dillon’s feelings? Will Dillon live down to Becca’s expectations and disappoint her, like everyone else has in her life?

Becca Shaw is definitely a character. Strong and independent, she takes no prisoners. But there are flashes of the vulnerability she tries so hard to hide, throughout the story. Dillon is the classic Mr. Nice Guy; sweet, dependable and honest through and through. Bethany Michaels has created a wonderful twist on the love story. Instead of the “nice” girl changing the bad boy, she gives us the reverse. And it works. Becca is wonderful and fun, and Dillon is a surprise to her as well. The sparks between them are hot, and when Becca finally gives in to Dillon and her own urges, the action is volcanic. There are some twists on the way to the happy ever after, but they do get there.

I love Becca and her dysfunctional sister and mother, and the story is one I really enjoyed. I would recommend this to anyone who wants something just a little bit different. It is a terrific reading experience and hot, hot, hot.

The Week in Books 1/22

I was off for several days in a row this week while Hubby was out of town, so got lots done on my WIP. Always time for reading, though!



New Acquisitons:





Rita contest entries: (free books, yay!) 6 historical and paranormal, a mix of established authors and ones I'd never read, so that's good. I don't want to give titles because that's supposed ot be confidential.



Satisfaction Guarenteed by Lucy Monroe (ebook from library)




Reading:



Slightly Dangerous by Mary Balogh (paperback) --finished
Still as good as I remember. So romantic. I love it when a really, really strong man is helpless against falling in love with a woman who seems all wrong for him. I really love the heroine's internal conflict in this one, too. She was married previously to a husband who was jealous and always accusing her of infidelity, so she was a bit skittish when it came to marrying again, even though she had fallen in love with the hero.



Her Infinite Variety by Pamela Rafael Berkman (trade paper)--haven't made much progress on this one, unfortunately.




Enchanted Dreams by Nancy Madore (trade paper) in progress
This is an anthology of erotic takes on fairy tales or fairy-tale like stories. I read her first fairy tale book and really loved it. This one is pretty good, but very uneven for me. SOme I really like and some just don't do it for me. It's very well-written, though very lyrical and almost literary in tone. I will definitely keep reading untilt he end.



Switch by Megan Hart--finished
I liked this one, but not as much as some of her others. My favorites of hers are Stranger and Tempted. Both really get into the heorine's head. I have Deeper on the Sony, too, but havne't gotten into that one, yet. Switch ended on a positive note, but I wouldn't call her a really upbeat storyteller.



Rita Book #1 -finished
Paranormal by an author I haven't read before. The writing was outstanding, really lyrical, especially some of the descriptive passages. But I foudn the story realy hard to follow, as well as the rules of the world she was trying to create. Also, she had a lot of shirt scenes and even whole chapters where nothing important happened--nothing to drive the plot forward. So I would say pacing is an issue, too. A book in which the author gets the pacing right is almost impossbile to put down. This one didn't quite hit the mark.

Rita Book #2-in progress
Time travel--so far, so good!

Everlasting Badboys -in progress
This is an anthology. I think this is going to be another case of hit and miss for me. I like paranormal, but not the really dark, hard core stuff, generally. We'll see.


This next week, I'll be reading more Rita entires, the ebooks I got from the library and that danged Berkman book.

I should also finish up my WIP in the next couple of days and start on the next one.


Happy reading!

And That's Why I Write Fiction

So I'm working on this short story. It's paranormal and involves a zombie cult. Zombie cults, according to my research, are most commonly associated with Haiti. Haiti, as you might have heard, had a major natural disaster recently. Tons of people killed, orphaned children everywhere and people dying in the streets. It's truly an awful situation and of course everyone feels enormous sympathy for the people of Haiti and want to help in any way possible.

While I'm just as heart-sick about it as everyone else, it presents a creative dilemma for me, too. I realized that I won't be able to submit my story as it is now written. It's just bad form to submit a story with a Haitian villain after what's happened and no publisher in their right mind would buy it, anyway. Heck, I feel bad even writing it after seeing all those pictures on CNN.com.

I pondered this for a couple of days and wondered if I should even waste time finishing it or just move on and maybe come back to it later. But I really like this story. It still needs work, but I think it's going to turn out pretty good. I want to finish it and I really would love to find a home for it. I had hoped it would be a foot in the door with a particular publisher I'm targeting. So, what, I asked myself, should I do?

That's when I remembered that I write fiction. Made-up stuff. All imaginary, from the characters in my head to the conversations they have to the settings they do it in. I can't make the villains Haitians. That's a given. So I'll just make up a place. An small island somewhere in the Pacific from which my baddie hails, maybe. I don't have to alienate anyone or kick a people while they're down just to tell a good story. Only took me two days of pondering to figure that out! Sheesh.

That's the thing I love about writing fiction, though. I'm not writing an anthropological study or a travel piece or even a memoir. If I don't like something, especially in the paranormal sub-genre, I can just fabricate something else. Make it up. Lie. Invent new islands, new worlds, new religions, even. How cool is that!?

I took a news writing course in college because I knew I wanted to write and getting a degree in journalism seemed like the best bet for finding employment after graduation. I hated it. It was so boring just reporting the facts, and I wasn't any good at it. I didn't want to write about what actually happened. I wanted to write about what might happen, what was possible. What I wanted to have happen. What I wished would happen. That's when I knew I was a creative writer rather than a journalist. If a journalist lies, she's in big trouble and will lose all credibility. If a novelist does it and does it well, she's a huge success with thousands of fans and an income.

I think I'll stick with the fiction.