Monthly Archives: June 2020

Finally! A completed writing project!

book cover for The Incomplete Book of Retirement Wisdom

What are the best parts of this book being on the Amazon shelf?

  1. I finished a project!
  2. There’s nothing like seeing my book available publicly…to spotlight glaring necessary fixes.
  3. Offshoot projects resulted from this one.
  4. I have more time to create my mini-course on ‘acts of kindness’ writing.

If you’re writing memoir…free course

I’m currently taking the non-fiction course offered by scribewriting.com. With a number of resources and ample instructor expertise, the logical and methodical approach been very helpful in addressing audience and outlining the larger project. [Tomorrow, we will cover more of the actual writing of the book and on Friday, they are offering a Q. and A. session that will last at least an hour.]

These same folks will be teaching a free course on memoir next week.

Follow this link to sign up: https://scribewriting.com/bookschool/

Just thought I would pass along the info for those considering a new non-fiction project.

I should have been writing. Instead, a kitchen marathon

This is me…except he is smiling, has tons more hair, and his kitchen is clean. [Oh, yeah, I don’t wear that dorky hat. It would fall into the Instant Pot anyway.]

So, back to procrasticooking... Result: 35 new recipes in 30 days. Note: A few sites were repeated. Hard not to fall back on epicurious.com.

Discoveries:

1. I’m not sure I followed any of the recipes to their exact specifications. More and more, I’ve been treating recipes as general guidelines rather than strict instructions.

2. I ‘created’ a few of my own — simple ones where I combined new ingredients/seasonings. Example: Avocado oil-roasted potatoes with a favorite Moroccan spice mix, ras-el-hanout.

3. New cooking questions arose in that vast abyss otherwise labeled ‘my brain’, like…if I oil the veggies before seasoning them for roasting, will the oil serve as a barrier to absorption and reduce the flavors? And no, I stillhaven’t looked it up. Sometimes, you just want a mystery to linger.

4. Oh, lord, some of those recipe sites take *forever* to load up all the ads and videos. I know these folks want to make a little money, but I had no problem just closing them up and looking for faster-loading alternatives.

5. Despite the physical separation from my writing tools and settings, I did get some good prewriting and first draft material churning as I cleaned up afterwards.

6. Speaking of clean-up, yep, even with my wife doing her part, dishes and counter mess were the bane of my existence. I even took a couple of days off in mid-challenge just to dodge the scrub-and-soak-rinse-and-repeat detail. Plus, the horrors of dishwater hands…

7. Some utensils, pots, and dishes never really made it back to the cupboards. They were used, washed, air-dried or towel-dried, and put back to work.

8. Based on my ratings below…well, I’m easy to cook for.

9. Even after the challenge, I can’t seem to stop cooking new stuff. Just yesterday, on a whim, I baked a mango pound cake from Pati Jinich and made my version of Mexican street corn grits . Someone! Please stop the madness.

10. There was an added challenge this year…My gastronomically-devoted ‘shoo! chef’, Buddy.

black dog looking up at the counter

Passing through the work area, my wife would step around our furry child and mutter, “not quite a certified kitchen, I see.”

Here are my first five recipes with a few added comments, a letter grade, and a ‘Yes’ [would repeat this recipe] or ‘No’. Note: The letter grade is just as much a comment on how well I delivered as a cook as it is on whether I liked the recipe itself.

  • Bear Batter Bread by way of New Tastes from Texas by Stephan Pyles. B+ — Yes.
  • Slow-Cooked Garlicky Greens by way of Bon Appetit. A — -Yes.
  • Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
  • Added dried cranberries and some almond flour to give them a little structure. In four of them, I added generous dabs of cold-hardened chocolate sauce. Result: Downright ugly, but cooked just right and resembling florentines. A- — Yes.
  • Savory cheese pancakes with half almond flour and half all purpose flour and the rest of the traditional pancake ingredients. I liked the nuttiness of the batter and the Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute. B+ — Yes.
  • Southern Fried Cabbage B+ — Yes

Links to procrasticooking:

https://www.instagram.com/procrasticooking/?hl=en

https://procrasticooking.wordpress.com

http://www.bakingequalslove.com/2014/10/procrasticooking-grilled-paneer.html

Curation Corner: Writerly Wisdom


Henry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing

Thanks to Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings for this excellent page that includes Miller’s ‘daily program’.

My favorites: 

  1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.
  2. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
  3. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.

This 21 Authors Share One Piece of Advice for Writers post by Robert Lee Brewer from Writer’s Digest could easily be a springboard for 21 separate posts. The word cloud above offers a few items from the article. Take a look.

Inventive writing for profit…questionable profit

This kind of thing has been on my mind lately. I recently unsubscribed from emails from a content provider. The follow-up screen asked for my reason for leaving.

Names and specifics have been omitted because the person does offer value and it’s not as if we are witless pawns in these transactions, but still…these folks are making lots of money and I really don’t think once they’ve hit it big they need to resort to subject line tricks…

Am never thrilled with the subject line of “Join — for $97!”.

Since that ‘$97’ is actually the first of twelve $97 payments, it feels disingenuous coming from someone who emphasizes authenticity. You are likable and for the most part genuine, but those subject lines make some of us feel like you or your employees are wanting to ‘cash another check’. Keep up the good work, but have your writers rethink their wording for those last-ditch, ‘last chance to join’ emails.

I’m curious. Do other folks share my reaction?

Also on my mind lately…

“For it isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.”

Eleanor Roosevelt