Recipe: Butternut Squash with Cashew and Pumpkin Seed Sauce and Caramelized Apples
geardrops

I impulse-bought some butternut squash ravioli when I saw that it didn’t have any egg or dairy in it. When I got home, I was like, Well, shit, now what? So I grabbed some stuff I had on hand and whipped this up.

Ingredients

  • butternut squash ravioli
  • 3/4c raw cashews
  • 3/4c raw pumpkin seeds
  • 1 gala apple
  • 1 tbsp vegan butter, like earth balance or something
    • Instructions

      1. Bring a cup of water to boil.
      2. Run the cashews and pumpkin seeds through a food processor until they’re a fine powder.
      3. Put the powdered nuts and seeds into the boiling water. Reduce heat and let boil for at least three minutes. Let boil longer for a thicker sauce.
      4. Season the sauce with salt and pepper, to taste.
      5. Melt the butter in a pan on medium-to-high heat.
      6. Peel and core the apple, then slice it thinly, then cook it in the butter until the slices are nice and soft.
      7. Cook the ravioli as the package describes.
      8. Combine and enjoy!

      Originally published at geardrops.net. You can comment here or there.

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Short Story Sale: Genius Loci
geardrops

The conversation that happened with my friend who was sitting next to me when I got the email:

Me: AHMIGADAIJUSOLASTRY
Doc: … what?
Me: ISOLASTRYASOLASRA [banging on the ceiling of the car]
Doc: Are you okay?
Me: I SOLD A STORY! I SOLD A STORY!
Doc: There we go, that’s a sentence. OH WAIT, SHIT, HIGH FIVE!

I’m thrilled to announce my short story titled “The Forgetting Field” will be published in the upcoming anthology titled Genus Loci, edited by Jaym Gates.

About the Anthology

The theme is the Spirit of Place. Some places just seem alive with their own moods and interests, from foggy coastlines to dark forests, or cheerful meadows. Many cultures have sacred places, often guarded by their own spirits or manifestations, powers in their own right, from volcano gods to dryads and their trees.

This anthology will contain stories about those places and their genius loci, but inspired by real-world settings. Creepy forests, forgotten towns; surly deserts and restless oceans; black dogs and swamp monsters; spirits and voices in the wind. Fantasy and horror in mingle real-world settings. Let the land and its spirits speak.

Table of Contents

Santa Cruz–Andy Duncan
And the Trees Were Happy—Scott Edelman
Blackthorn—B. Morris Allen
Ouroboros in Orbit—Jason Batt
Reef—Kathleen Miller
Scab Land—Wendy Wagner
The Forgetting Field—Caroline Ratajski
The Town the Forest Ate—Haralambi Markov
Imperator Noster—Sonya Taaffe
The Other Shore—Rebecca Campbell
The South China Sea—Z.M. Quynh
Iron Feliks—Anatoly Belilovsky
Forest For the Trees—Steven S. Long
Drowning Again—Ken Scholes and Katie McCord
The Grudge—Thoraiya Dyer
Twilight State—Gemma Files
Coaltown—Heather Clitheroe
In the Water, Underneath—Damien Angelica Walters
Afterparty—Chaz Brenchly
The Gramadevi’s Lament—Sunil Patel
Blue & Grey and Black & Green—Alethea Kontis
Heartbeat—Laura Anne Gilman
Long Way Down—Seanan McGuire
The Snow Train—Ken Liu
The City–Vivienne Pustell
The Crooked Smile Killers—James Lowder
Threadbare Magician—Cat Rambo
Serenity Eternal–Steven Silver
Beer and Pennies—Rich Dansky
The Sleck–Keris MacDonald
The Transplant Specialist–Sarah Goslee

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Originally published at geardrops.net. You can comment here or there.


Fuck It, Pen Names are a Pain in the Ass Anyway
geardrops

So, I’m dropping my pen name.

My legal name is Caroline Ratajski. I’d apologize for my last name, but it’s not really my fault. Perhaps in the future a publisher will demand I switch to something actually pronounceable. I hope it’s something cool, like “Stark” or “Laser” or “Shields.”

I hope people don’t struggle too much with pronouncing it. My name is actually not too hard. Honest. I know it’s got that surprise consonant in the middle there, but trust me, we’ll get through this.

I’d told quite a few people that I’m doing this in the months leading up. There were some common questions, and I anticipate perhaps you’ll have those questions too. If you do, read on. If you don’t, well, thanks for your time and good luck with that Polish surname. (To be fair, it’s pretty tame as far as Polish surnames go.)

Why are you dropping your pen name?

I’m a writer and an engineer. For awhile I kept these worlds pretty separate. By day I was Caroline Ratajski, Professional Engineer and Master of Science. By night I was Morgan Dempsey, Fledgeling Author and Expert Flailmonkey. The two boxes were incredibly neat and well-divided. Nobody in one world knew of the other world.

That changed… pretty quickly.

I feel like I can’t go to a social event with half the room calling me one name, half the room calling me another, everybody stumbling over everything forever, asking me “How do I introduce you?” So I’m saying fuck it. Call me Carrie.

I only ever introduced myself as Morgan because I figure, well, these people will likely talk to me more online than in person, and I don’t want to cause confusion for anyone. Inadvertently, I caused confusion. I’m fixing that, simplifying.

Really? That’s it?

Well, no, that’s not entirely it, but the rest ties into why I had a pen name in the first place, so I’d have to explain that first.

Okay, I’ll bite. Why did you want a pen name in the first place?

Usually I give flippant reasons for the pen name. People can neither spell nor pronounce my last name, and I’d really like something that at least got one of those two. I like to keep my dayjob and my writing life separate. People are silly and I have an incredibly google-able name. Stuff like that.

It’s not that these things aren’t true. It’s just that there’s a little more to the story.

I’ll keep it brief and say that, when I first started actually trying to get published, I was coming out of a not-great time. I didn’t have much in the way of a support network, creatively or otherwise. In fact, there were people who should have been supportive being actively destructive, tearing me down, telling me I shouldn’t bother because I’d never get published anyway. So I had to create this little safe space in which I could operate, where I knew these people could not find out what I was up to via google, or via others googling and gossiping.

But you know what? I don’t need that safe space anymore. I have both the self-confidence and the support network to deal with negativity flung my way. After all, haters gonna hate, ain’t nothin’ truer in life. So now what was once a great help to me has become a great hindrance. And I am, above most anything else, a tool user. Once a tool has outlived its usefulness, I put it away.

How did you even come up with your pen name anyway?

Random Name Generator. I picked the first gender-neutral name.

Really. That’s it.

Originally published at geardrops.net. You can comment here or there.


Danse Macabre Giveaway Winners
geardrops

Wow, I’m really impressed with you guys. Some creative stuff. You didn’t make it easy for me.

Because the entries were so great, I’m going to have to tell you what I loved about all of them because, yeah, wow. Great job, everybody! The winners will be listed at the very bottom (so I guess you can cheat and scroll to the end if you want, but isn’t the tension more fun?).

Kat Powell

I love how this entry was a non-entry-entry limerick. It made me smile.

Kaolin Fire

This entry was a poem and he sent it to me on the side, presumably because he wants to sell it. I think he should! I liked the atmosphere and feel of it.

Crow Tomkus

What I liked about this one is that even though I knew how it would end, I still wasn’t bored, because it was well-written and engaging. And it wasn’t like the ending was dull or obvious, it was just the logical path of the story, and it worked very well.

Imriaylde

My favorite thing about this entry was the voice! It came through clear, and I like when people do non-standard voices for things.

Nick Johnson

There were some very clever lines in here that made me smile. I also really enjoyed the whole “nobody died until I did, because we didn’t know we could” thing, that was awesome.

As you can see, I really liked everybody’s contribution. However, I had to pick a favorite. It was really hard.

Also, I rolled my magic dice to get the random-raffle winner.

So… the winners!

Creative Contest Winner: Crow Tomkus!
Raffle Contest Winner: Cheryl!

Crow, I have your email address. Cheryl, I don’t have yours, can you please contact me? (Contact page link at the top up there).

Congratulations you two! And thanks to everybody who participated!

Originally published at geardrops.net. You can comment here or there.


Danse Macabre Giveaway Contest
geardrops

I’m in an anthology coming out soon, titled Danse Macabre, which is a collection of stories where Death is a character. In fact, it’s coming out this week. I poked Twitter about what I might do to promo, and there were some really good ideas, and it all tumbled into being this contest idea right here.

What is this contest for?

This contest is to win a copy of Danse Macabre, a collection of short stories about Death, which I will also sign for you. (est retail value $9.96 USD)

How do I enter?

This is a creative contest! Mostly!

My story in the anthology is a retelling of Godfather Death, a story about a boy whose godfather is literally Death itself. In the spirit of the story, I’m wondering how you think Death got the job of being Death in the first place. Did he interview for it? Did he just stumble into it by accident? Maybe his application for the mail clerk position got routed to the wrong department and he just went with it?

You can write a short story/flash, or take a photo, or film a video, or draw an illustration, or make a comic, design a cross-stitch, whatever you like. Just leave a comment with a link to your youtube video or your flickr page or your tumblr post or wherever you are hosting your entry.

Please to note I will only click on links to places which I know, so if you link to some place I do not know, I will attempt to notify you that you need to host elsewhere. This is because obvious reasons. Also this is where I am obliged to tell you that there is no purchase necessary to enter. Also-also if you are the winner please to note I will be posting your winning entry on the blog, and perhaps other entries which make me really happy, so if you enter you are telling me that you are okay with that.

But what if I’m not a creative type?

That’s okay! Just leave a comment below, and you’re still in.

How will you pick the winners?

There are going to be two winners. One winner will be picked based on how happy their creative entry made me. The other winner will be picked by the power that is my pink d20 (aka, random winner). So this means if you do a creative thing, you have two chances to win.

When do I need to enter by? When do I find out if I won?

The last day to enter is Sunday, October 28, 2012, by 5pm California time. I’ll be announcing the winners here the following day, and I will also send you an email after I make the announcement.

What information do you need from me?

I will need your email so that I can contact you in the case that you win, and we’ll work it out from there. (In the case that I can’t contact the winner, I’ll just keep picking new winners until I have winners, because someone is going to win this contest.)

But wait, I already preordered/bought Danse Macabre. What do I do?

Wow, really? That’s awesome, thank you! In that case, you can request to get a copy of Broken Time Blues instead. (And if you already have that, then wow, sheesh, that’s really amazing, and you can have any Edge book of equal-or-lesser retail value.)

Good luck! I hope you enter!

Originally published at geardrops.net. You can comment here or there.


Reviewing My 2011
geardrops

So let’s see what happened in 2011…

  • First sale(s) and first publication(s) for fiction.
  • First sale for a non-fiction piece, which I’d never really written one before, and now I’m slated to write another and that’s pretty cool.
  • I’m now one class away from finishing my master’s.
  • Got a job with a team I really like that’s been stressful but largely rewarding.
  • Finished massive edits and started a new one. New Novel will be 10K by the end of today, which is a good start for the new year.
  • The Valkyrie thing started up, and while that’s small still, I’m pretty proud of it.

That looks like a decent list of things. So I guess I’ll outline goals for 2012 here.

  • First will be to keep on keeping on with the goals I listed over at Inkpunks: Focus on the writing, and ignore all the other BS.
  • Graduate. It’s prettymuch in the bag, but still.
  • Throw a fucking huge graduation party.
  • Finish New Novel.
  • Read at least 30 books.

So here’s to a good 2012!

Originally published at geardrops.net. You can comment here or there.


Un-Recipe: English Toffee
geardrops

How not to make English Toffee, in thirteen easy steps.

Step One: Put two cups of butter, two cups of sugar, and a quarter teaspoon of salt into a medium saucepan. Turn heat between low and medium.

Step Two: Decide butter takes too long to melt. Go log in to Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Step Three: Wait until smoke alarm reminds you that you were making toffee.

Step Four: Run into kitchen muttering oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck. Cut the heat.

Step Five: Disable smoke alarm. Show no mercy.

Step Six: Take a moment to appreciate the aroma of slagged butter and sugar, and the thick plumes of smoke occupying the upper third of your kitchen. Then open all windows and turn on the fan.

Step Seven: Contemplate your bubbling pot of black tar. Realize you cannot pour it down the sink, because it will cool and everything will be awful. Realize you cannot let it sit in the pot because you will ruin the pot. Come to grips with the fact that you are not prepared.

Step Eight: Remember the silicone cookware your aunt gave you. Take back all the bad things you said about it. Pour the black bubbling demon blood into the silicone cookware.

Step Nine: Decide now is an appropriate time to return to SWTOR.

Step Ten: Return to the scene of the crime before bed. Attempt to replace the smoke detector. Realize you are no good at this. The smoke detector will confirm your ineptitude by beeping right in your ear, twice.

Step Eleven: The smoke detector will hang askew in its little cradle. Convince yourself this is fine and you totally did not break the smoke detector.

Step Twelve: Plop the now-hardened sugarslag in the trash. Marvel at your cleverness over using the silicone cookware. Realize it’s probably the only thing you’ve done correctly all night.

Step Thirteen: Turn of all lights, lock all doors, go to bed with a distant haunt of shame in your soul.

Originally published at geardrops.net. You can comment here or there.


Birthday Weekend
geardrops

Holy cow what a weekend.

Friday, I played far too many hours of SWTOR, hit lvl 12 on my Sith Assassin (Caprice, Helm of Graush) and rolled a smattering of alts. I did zero other things on Friday except that, and wound up playing until 2:30 in the morning.

And then on Saturday I woke up at 8:30a and simply couldn’t fall back asleep. So, six hours of sleep before I launched into birthday party day. First I went to Red Rock, my favorite local cafe, where I got an eggnog latte, my favorite latte, because they started eggnog lattes just that very day and that was nice of them to do that for my birthday. Then I went ice skating in downtown San Jose. Ice skating under palm trees in 70 degree weather. Welcome to California. After that, a walk through Christmas in the Park (cotton candy!), then Pizza My Heart, then Loves Cupcakes and Psycho Donuts, and finally Sherlock Holmes.

I was really amazed at how many people came. I said I was going to be lucky if I managed to break 10, but over 20 people showed up, and that was really rad. I got some epic gifts. I have amazing friends, which shocks me every time I think about it. I also have a really nice MrMike.

Sunday was more of a relaxing start, bit of SWTOR, and then off to Jew Food Night where the Bay got even smaller as I met people who knew people I knew from all over the country and seriously this world is tiny folks.

So now just to survive the holidays and then a week of nothing to do but work on my new novel. I’ll hardly know what to do with myself!

Originally published at geardrops.net. You can comment here or there.


In Which We Solve Problems with Fire
geardrops

We begin the start of the delve-proper, fighting religious lizard people, you know, like you do. When we enter the first room, we see a flaming arrow on the floor…

Donny: Hey look, an arrow! Let’s go that way.

Jarrod: I just changed my icon.
Me: Are… are you a Niyan Cat?
Jarrod: Yes. Yes I am.

After a long evening of rolling less than 10s…

Me: We form a DnD party. It’s super-effective!

[at the start of Jarrod's turn...]
Ventrillo: [chaos, madness, yelling]
Jarrod: My dog just jumped on my desk and knocked everything off!

Once we finally empty the room of baddies…

Jarrod: I want to eat the body.
DM: You’re eating the body that’s been spitting poison at you?
Jarrod: I don’t know any better! I’m a dumb cat!

Me: Guys, I think I solved the puzzle. The DM is reading shit.
DM: Yes, burning the talisman opens the door. I’m glad you remembered.
Me: I didn’t, I just like setting things on fire.

Donny: What’s that red stuff?
DM: If you’re in a DnD campaign and you see red on the floor, pretty safe to say: it’s blood.

[party has probz connecting to maptools]
DM: Well if you guys want to play with your imaginations — as ridiculous as that may sound…

Jarrod: Puppy! You don’t drink beer! You’re too young, you’re only seven months!

And thus another Friday evening of Dungeons and Dragons.

Originally published at geardrops.net. You can comment here or there.


Broken Time Blues: Review Roundup
geardrops

Two really nice reviews of Broken Time Blues! This makes me a happy bunny and as such I am blogging about them. Don’t worry, this probably won’t be a regular thing.

Lillian Cohen-Moore reviewed each story individually, as well as commented on the actual physical edition of the book, with Galen and Evan’s lovely art, and even noting the interior design done by Janice Blaine.

J R Murdock — who read the Kindle version, so yay, a review for each edition — discussed the overall anthology, unable to pick a favorite from the bunch.

Yay!

Originally published at geardrops.net. You can comment here or there.


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