Deliciously Happy New Year! (Recipe included.)

Guest Post by Ruby Dee

Things have been getting a little crazy around here, what with my book poised for release and all the media attention I’m getting. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the great reviews and interviews- folks have been so kind (so far!). But what happens is I get fatigued after focusing on making sure I make sense, or cooking up dishes for the photographer. And by the end of the day, it’s all I can do to stop myself from collapsing and calling out to my husband to just order a danged pizza.

Instead, I’ve taken to cooking up nice big pot au feu style dishes- not necessarily with beef, but using that means of cooking up dinner: a solid iron pot filled with fresh, locally grown winter vegetables, pork belly, beans, white wine and stock, all simmered for hours until the scent reaches out and grabs you by the throat, screaming “eat me!” Well, maybe not THAT intense, but so so tasty, you get the idea.

Pot au feu is a regional French style of cooking, dating back to when the home was warmed by hearth, and the one daily meal just simmered and cooked all day long there as well. While we don’t warm our home that way any longer, I envision the hearth turning to heart, and maintaining that style of feeding our family and home from there.  So big cast iron stock pots of loving goodness in the new year it is!

For new year’s day, I cooked up a pot of black eyed peas in chicken stock with sauteed greens, bacon drippings, peppers, and bourbon-glazed ham. You just can’t have a bad year with those ingredients to start you off right! What I do is sauté a shallot and garlic in bacon drippings until they start to sweat, then add black eyed peas that have soaked for a day in water with a dash of baking soda thrown in. I add enough chicken stock to barely cover the beans and all that to cook for an hour, then add chopped ham (leftover from the holidays of course!). Last, in a separate pan, I cook down some chopped up greens (of any kind- mustard, kale, whatever you like) in lime juice, cider vinegar, a spoonful of brown sugar, diced red pepper and chile flakes.  Once the black eyed peas have simmered away for another hour or two until the beans are cooked through and the flavors all melded together nicely, I add the greens to the beans and call that a healthy and happy new year dish.

And right now, I have a stockpot of leeks, sweet potato, caramelized shallot, green beans, bacon, and flageolet beans simmering away in a vegetable stock with curry, raisins and peanuts. It’s all I can do to not tear myself away from my desk and run downstairs this very instant! Though I’ll wait. As with all things that simmer, the longer I wait, the better it’s going to be.

Deliciously happy new year to everyone! Keep it tasty, and I’ll see you somewhere down the road.

Ruby Dee, from Ruby Dee and the Snakehandlers, brings many years various life experiences along for the ride. Ruby grew up traveling back and forth from Northern California foothill ranches to the cotton and oil fields of the Texas panhandle. She enrolled in college at 15, and dropped out to hit the streets as a punk. Later, she spent years fishing in Alaska, driving big rigs, and owning restaurants in Seattle, Washington, until she finally gave all that up to settle down back in Texas, where she is at long last furthering her career as a writer and singer/songwriter. These experiences are reflected in Ruby's writing style, and in the band's hopped up high-octane successes on stage and on the road.

Ruby’s latest release, “Live From Austin Texas”, out on Dionysus Records, is currently on the AMA and Texas Third Coast Music charts and has earned the band a Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album. Her cookbook, “Ruby’s Juke Joint Americana Cookbook”, shares 120 of Ruby’s original recipes, and includes a CD of music to cook by, including original songs by Marti Brom, Two Hoots and a Holler, Lloyd Tripp, Teri Joyce, Earl Poole Ball, and others (and Ruby, of course!).

Where is Robin Hood?

Guest Post by Barbara Lunsford

Now that tax season is upon us, I would like to clarify a small but significant misconception about Robin Hood, the guy who “stole from the rich to give to the poor”.

Robin Hood did not steal from successful, creative, industrious, and thrifty citizens to give to the less fortunate.  He stole from the greedy and powerful Prince John (Congress) and his tax collectors (the IRS) to give money back to the citizens who were being drained financially by the prince’s heavy taxes.  And as a result, the prince had to increase taxes (plus penalties and interest) to pay for the ever-increasing need to enforce the tax laws as resistance and rebellion grew (tax evasion, cheating, non-reporting, poor record keeping, non-payment, late filing, etc.).

Prince John’s system didn’t work then and it isn’t working now.  It robs us of our incentives to be successful, creative, productive and thrifty.  It encourages laziness, cheating, fear and rebellion.

“The Communist Manifesto”, Tenet No. 2, by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, calls explicitly for “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax”.  Amendment XVI of the Constitution of the United States (1913) gave Congress the power “to lay and collect taxes on incomes, for whatever source derived….”

In 1950 a family of four paid only 2 percent federal income taxes.  In 2010 they paid almost 18 percent.  (Large corporations paid up to 39 percent.)  Would an increase of 2 percent to 18 percent in federal income taxes for a family of four in the last 60 years be considered a progressive and graduated income tax?

Don’t you know the authors of “The Communist Manifesto” would be very pleased to see that we have come to tolerate and embrace one of their major doctrines to expedite the conversion of a free-market nation to communism!

Where is Robin Hood?

Born in Big Spring, Texas, Barbara Lunsford has been a bean counter (accountant) for over forty years. She has one published book, Killer for Hire – The Final Chapter of the Alabama Twins Murder Case, a true crime case of judicial malpractice. She also has several blogs with one specifically devoted to all aspects of mystery crime at Mystery Crime Blog.

Keys to a Million

Guest Post by Douglas Misquita

When I received sample copies of my debut novel and held the first book in my hands, I realized the implications of the sentence “over a million copies sold”. I realized that a million people had to buy what I was holding in my hand for me to get that branding on my books. At that point I could not fathom how other authors had reached that staggering as-far-as-the-moon-is-from-the-earth figure! But there had to be a way and I began to think about how to attain that end goal. No easy task because I was going to have to fund all this on my own.

The easiest and quickest thing to do was tell everyone I knew about the book. But all those ‘viral uplifts’ don’t amount to anything if people don’t click ‘Like’, and you cannot put a gun to people’s heads and say, ‘Click like!’ (though I can recall at some points I was very dogged about it with whoever I caught online) but there’s no other way. Persistence is key!

But even among my online friends, a subset of them ‘Liked’ the social page I created for my book and even they had not read the book. So how could they enthusiastically recommend it? What next? Move beyond friends. Quick Google searches found me reviewers within the country who will give publish an unbiased review. Here’s where the anxiety comes in because this is the first acid test. You’re opening yourself to someone whose credibility rests on how objectively they review your book. But there’s no other option: you’ve run out of friends and it’s time to step into the big bad world. After all these are the real ‘million’ fans you could have. Courage, belief in your work, and an objective reaction to criticism are key!

Meanwhile, I was traipsing around LinkedIn and joined a number of groups and found out that while a few ideas were good, and there are some ostensibly knowledgeable and extremely critical people on those forums, many of those groups amount to debutants trying to campaign their books which doesn’t work. I mean all we’re doing is one telling one and another about our books but no one is contributing to a sale or review. But all said and done, those forums did prompt me to get a book video created and some of the people out there are really nice and encouraging. I did make some good online friends who I think I will turn to for advice and tips in the future. Extracting what works for you on a forum and being humble is key! It sets you apart; people will remember that you weren’t just a vulture.

After my LinkedIn days, I listed my book on goodreads.com and even tried online advertising. Advertising is something that I was very finicky about because of the return on investment, especially if you’re not in the US and once again how many times do you click an advertisement when you don’t know the product or the product owner? Anyway, advertising is important and so I decided to dabble in a small campaign just to see what it would return. Conclusion: unless you’re already famous or you spend like a million bucks (exaggeration) advertising isn’t very helpful. But at least I know now, where I should put my money next time. At about the same time after a lot of debate I signed up for a discounted virtual book tour. This was my most expensive investment because shipping books internationally (one reviewer was from the Bahamas!) will definitely lighten one’s pocket. But the good thing here is that I exposed the book to an international audience and it worked well with them, so I know that my style of writing is internationally accepted and my stories are good and entertaining and I know that there are great discounts happening during the year! Trying out everything is key!

And then my publisher stepped in. And I don’t know why – I’d like to attribute it to fate, divine intervention and the fact that perhaps they saw what I was trying to do for the book. One day they said, ‘Douglas, go ahead and get reviewers, anyone willing to create a buzz around your book, doesn’t matter if it’s bad. Get those people; we’ll ship copies of the book to them.’ Freed from financial constraints I went on a head-hunting spree and also got bold enough to list a giveaway on goodreads.com. And bang! Suddenly a lot of people were interested in the book. Freebies are key!

I know I need to tour and have book signings but I will do that when I’m confident I can draw a crowd on my own and don’t need a celebrity to launch me. That’s what’s left. There are lots of videos of famous authors at signings and on talk shows. Watching and learning from the greats is key!

So here I am 1 year of experimenting with marketing my book. I’ve learned a lot and am confident that I now know exactly what to do with the next books in terms of spreading awareness. I may not hit my million (so soon) but I know that I’m doing the right things and am on the right path. Knowing that a million will not come overnight and you need to fight for it is key! 

Douglas Misquita is a thriller writer from India. His debut action-thriller Haunted has been well received by fans of the genre. When he isn’t writing or playing guitar with a rock-n-roll band, Douglas works in the wireless communications industry. Find out more at http://www.douglasmisquita.com

Wishes (Short Story)

Guest Post by George Arthur Davis

The salesman sees her examining items on display. He recalls they once were lovers until she revealed she had another lover she loved more than him. She drifts towards him and will soon reach his station. He braces himself mentally for the encounter because she is still his only love. She looks at him then after a double take asks.

"Michael is that you?"

He stutters. "Yes. It’s me. How are you?"

"I’m fine."

She still looks good, even better than the last time he saw her.

"Shopping?" He inquires.

"Not really, I’m just window-shopping. You work here?"

"Yes. Floor manager." Then off her questioning gaze. "I gave up the starving artist thing," he says to satisfy her curiosity.

That is how he met her in Rittenhouse Square Park; he was attempting to sell a painting to her and then convinced her to pose for a portrait. And then, in the privacy of his apartment, she posed partially nude and later modeled nude after they became lovers.

"You stopped painting?" She asks.

"No. I just stopped trying to buy food with my paintings."

She smiles.

He does not see a ring on her heart finger. "How have life been treating you?"

"No complaints, and you?"

"Other than not being a starving artist, I’m okay."

"That’s good."

He glances at the wall clock. "I got lunch in a minute," he says, "would you like to join me in a goblet and sandwich?"

He recalls it was their thing when they were lovers to enjoy a glass of wine with a sandwich and a bowl of fruit.

She hesitates with an answer.

"Just to go over our old time together," he says.

"Well. Okay."

Not seeing the ring encourages him to believe that the guy who got between them as lovers is no more in her life. She has not stopped being in his life, and he wish, he can no longer wish she would return to being in his life.

They eat their sandwich in a slow pace, share grapes from a bowl, while sipping wine during their conversation of their time together until her announcement that sadden him to this day, but encourages him to ask her. "What did he do, leave you?"

The question surprises her and her expression tells him it did, and he stares at her finger. She sees his stare and understands his question.

"We’re married," she tells him. "He is having the ring replaced for a more expensive one like he promised me."

He looks into the crowd of restaurant patrons to avoid letting her see him holding back tears.

"Well, it has been nice seeing you but I have to go now to meet my husband."

"Yes. Sure. Of course," he mutters in a sad manner.

He watches her leave and tears flow to his chin. He still has her portraits but he will always wish he had her. END

George Arthur Davis born in Philadelphia PA (presently resides in Tampa FL); recipient of the Community College of Philadelphia Fall 2001 Judith Stark Creative Writing Award for Script work; Third Place in Scripts – Tampa Writers Alliance 23rd Annual Writing Contest; Black Short Stories Editor's Pick: Fiction Writers Platform Editor's Choice Award and Number One Most Read Story; http://gadavis-writergeorge.blogspot.com