Writing Update

I have so many updates to provide, but first with all the current devastation with the hurricanes in Texas and Florida and the major earthquake in Mexico I want to share some ways for you to help.

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Catholic Charities USA–Long term recovery and support click here

Red Cross–Immediate support click here

Caritas (Caritas International)–International relief outside the US click here

These agencies do amazing work and already have people in the areas helping.  There are many other non-profits who help as well.  These just happen to be the ones I tend to support when disasters hit.

When it comes to my world of writing a lot has been happening since my last writing update. 

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Firstly, I now have three books (two short stories and one novel) being published by NineStar Press it’s very exciting and I can now share release dates with you (so mark your calendars):

 

So, as you can imagine things are crazy busy with editing and working with the publisher on cover art and all that good stuff.  I can’t wait to share the cover art with you all.

Secondly, I’m still one of the judges over at the Rainbow Awards.  There have been so many wonderful entries and I’m excited to still be part of the process.  The awards will be announced in December 8, 2017 click here for the Facebook page with more information.

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On the writing front (yep, I’m still writing new stuff) I recently finished my novella T.A.D and it’s started to make its way around my writing group, so this is exciting. The feedback and suggestions I’ve been getting are wonderful and are really helping the story.  Also, I’ve been editing ‘A New World – Conspiracy’ there is still writing to do, so this project hasn’t been getting the love it deserves these days.  I hope to change that over the next few weeks.

I have a few personal things I want to share with you all.  On August 21, 2017, I became a Granduncle, my nephew and his wife had a bouncing baby boy.  Eric and I have gotten to meet the newest member of the family, so that has been really quite exciting, I’m very happy for my nephew and his wife. Also, I know some of you still ask and yep, Eric and I are still doing our weekly meals.  It really has been wonderful and super easy.  We love it.  On a bit of a sadder note, both Eric and I have family members who aren’t doing well health wise. It’s not easy, of course, when you live in separate states so you can’t be there for them. However, with the help of technology we get to talk and check in so that is something.

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If you haven’t noticed I’ve made a few changes to my website, nothing major but there have been some additions and modifications.  We’ll see what more needs to be done, but for now we’re making tweaks here and there.

Lastly, some of you have been asking about the headshots, well the short answer: it’s a process.  The long answer; we’ve taken two rounds of photos and we still want to take a third.  We’re trying to get various looks and moods, so it’s taking a bit of time.  I would like to have the headshots all done by the end of this month.  That is my goal, however, the photographer, and the others involved on the project may have other plans.  Either way, the photos are moving along and what I’ve seen I like, so that’s good.

That is about all I have this week.  Next week I have an amazing author interview coming out, so that is exciting.  Have a wonderful week everyone and if you’re in an area of the country or world affected by the hurricanes or earthquake, please be safe and take care.

Our Experiment with a Meal Delivery Service (Part3)

Welcome to Part Three of our experiment with a Meal Kit Delivery Service. If you haven’t read Part One click here if you haven’t read Part Two (I’m gonna cry) click here.  As you should be familiar with by now, I’m hopping, we’ve been doing the Meal Service for three months and things are swimming along.  The food is still great. We’ve enjoyed everything, even things I wasn’t so sure about.
 
Shall we start?

As teased last month, I’m gonna tell you about how we save 20% on our meals and provide you some general advice and s few tips and tricks that we’ve learned.  So here goes.
 
Our trick for saving 20% on our Meal Kit Delivery Service is to buy gift cards.  We go to Costco (if you don’t have a Costco Membership talk to a friend who does) and buy the gift cards for the service it saves us an instant 20%.  Not very exciting and maybe a bit anticlimactic but that’s how we save money.  Every couple of weeks we head to Costco for whatever we need and pick up the gifts cards.  We don't make a special trip so getting the gift cards makes sense.
 
Another way you can save money on these services is to try a different one for the length of the free trial period.  I’m not a big fan of this method, but people do it and it works for them. There are several different meal delivery services out so bounce around and try different ones. Just don’t ask me what they do when they’ve tried them all and have to pay for it, cause I’m not sure.
 
Anyway, moving on.
 
What we’ve found with our Meal Kit Delivery Service is don’t be afraid to shake things up and experiment with what they give you.  We’ve got several spaghetti (red sauce) type dishes, and they were all right.  When we got the next one I decided I was going to shake things up, and I added my own Italian spices and it took the sauce to the next level, which really made me happy.

Don’t be afraid to add a little butter, yes it’s bad for you. Yes the meal services are trying to present you with a healthful meal option. Still, a little butter goes a long way for flavor. So, if you want to add some buttery flavor to what you're cooking or to vegetables go for it. I won’t tell.
 
Two of my co-workers, who are on the same plan as us, will put the spice rub or marinade on the meat the night before they cook it.  They say it adds a lot more flavor and I believe them.  I tried it once, and it really does amp up the flavor of the meat.
 
The other trick I have is, watch the salt.  Almost ever step instructs you to ‘salt and pepper to taste’ remember it’s ‘to taste’ so if you want to cut down on the salt do it.  To me this seemed like a no brainer, but you would be surprised at how you get caught up in following the step-by-step directions.
 
Speaking of directions.  Do yourself a favor and read through the direction at least twice before you start.  Then decide the steps you can combine and the ways to lower your pan and bowl count, cause you’re gonna use a lot of them.
 
When it comes to the oil always use olive oil or extra virgin olive oil.  It’s really the best way to cook everything.
 
When it comes to pans we use non-stick or cast iron.  So if you don’t have non-stick pans or cast iron get one.  It makes clean up so much easier.
 
When it comes to clean up, do it while things are cooking.  You’re gonna go through a lot of pains, bowls and knives so clean as you go.  Otherwise you’re gonna have a lot of clean up at the end.
 
And there you have it.  Everything I’ve learned about our Meal Kit Delivery Service.  If you want to try it, go for it.  The options are great and the food is good.  Even the stuff you may not love. We plan to keep going.  If we stop I’ll let you know and tell you why.
 
As with Part One and Part Two here are photos from our dinners. 

I hope you enjoyed this series and found it interesting and fun.  Feel free to ask questions.  In fact I encourage it.  I love hearing from you. 
 
Until next time have a great week.

Writing Update?

Over the last few Blogs I’ve talked about various topics, the most recent was about Slow Burn Books if you haven’t read it check it out here.  Anyway, I thought today I would provide an update on all my writing endeavors and surprisingly there are quite a few.

To start, I was recently asked to work on a training video project ‘Know Your Rights’ for the nonprofit I work for. It was a series of vignettes about what to do when ICE confronts you.  Each video would be a different scenario.  First, ICE comes to your home. Second, ICE comes to your work. Third, a police stop. And, fourth, how an agency is to respond when ICE comes to investigate clients.  We did an English and Spanish version.

Know Your Rights!

We spent a few weeks working on the script and in rehearsals.  The thing to point out here is none of the people were professionals.  So, they were relying on my limited experience.  Regardless, I spent whatever time I had with them running lines, rewriting and changing the script and working on blocking and preparing them for taping day.

The day of the video shoot came, and we spent a full day in studio with a crew of five.  I had designed the sets and costuming as well as handled make-up (I was wearing a lot of hats that day including directing).  With the shoot finished the next week I worked with the editor to pull it all together.  The finished product is something I’m exceedingly proud of, and the videos already hit over 600 views (in just a week).  Click here to go to their channel.

I’ve been asked to work with the Editor and take the vignettes and turn them into an actual DVD that other agencies can purchase.  So, that will be cool.

Channel trailer for Tall Tale TV.

My second update is if you follow me on Facebook and Twitter (which I hope you do), you should’ve seen my interactions with Chris over at Tall Tale TV. Chris takes short stories and converts them to audiobooks that you can listen to on his channel.  It's a great way to hear about new and upcoming authors. The channel is new so there isn’t a lot of content yet, but he’s growing it.  Anyway, he had a call for short story submissions and he selected one of mine.  I recently, the last few days, got word that my story ‘The Reunion’ will be airing in the next couple of weeks.  Once, I’m given the date you can be sure I’ll be letting you know.

My next major announcement is that I have a new work in progress underway, ‘T.A.D.’  This new story is set to be a novella and much shorter than my other works.  I don’t want to give away too much because things may change, but this story has elements of time travel and focuses on angles.  I’ve gotten some positive feedback from the first chapter so I’m excited to bring the outline to life. 

My final update is about my other works in progress.  ‘A New World – Contact’ is back with a couple of Beta Readers.  ‘A New World – Conspiracy’ is still in the writing process however, I’m happy to report that Act Two is now complete, which means I’m on to the final act; Act Three.  Yay!

This leaves me with an update for ‘The Calling’ it is complete and has gone through edits.  The rest I’m going to be a little cagey about because I’m hoping to have a big announcement about ‘The Calling’ in the next few months.

Those are my updates for now.  I'd love to hear what questions you have for me ask them in the comments and I'll answer.  Feel free to share this blog with others who will find it interesting.

See you next time.

Our Experiment with a Meal Kit Delivery Service (Part 2)

This is Part Two of our experiment with a Meal Kit Delivery Service.  If you haven’t read Part One click here. We’ve been doing the Meal Service for two months now and things are moving along nicely. We’re still enjoying and looking forward to getting our weekly box with our food and menus for the week.

In this installment, I want to talk about portions and value for the dollar.  This is a big topic online and even amongst my coworkers, family and friends.  They ask or say things like, “Is it really filling?”, “That doesn’t seem like a lot of food.”, “Oh, I’ve heard of that but it seems kind of expensive.”, “It looks really complicated, is it?”, etc. So, let’s get to it. Shall we?

When it comes to portions and meal size, you need to understand one thing about me (and my hubby, but me more so) I love food.  I love to eat and I really love good food.  As I tell my friends, “you don’t get a body like mine, but passing up on seconds or sometimes, if the meal’s really good, thirds.” So, I was worried about portions.  When we got our first box, and I looked at what they said was three meals I thought, “well crap, that doesn’t look like near enough food.” We got things like two sweet potatoes as a side dish, or a quarter of a head of cabbage, or basically a cup of dried rice.  Those were the side dishes?  Ugh. Then I looked at the proteins and I almost laughed. Ten Ounces of ground beef for two grown men. Who were they kidding?

Anyway, our first meal was Burgers and Slaw with Roasted Sweet Potatoes. We skeptically followed the directions and put the meal together.  After it was altogether and looked similar to the picture on the direction, we sat down to eat.  As I’ve mentioned before the meal was excellent, but the big question came when we finished and looked at each other.  I asked Eric, “So, are you full?”  he looked at me and said. “Actually, yes.”  I nodded my agreement.  To our surprise we were both full.  Sure, we could have both had another burger, but we didn’t need it.  We were satisfied.

And satisfied is how I would describe every meal thereafter.  Have we been stuffed?  No.  But after each meal we were full and comfortable.  Which, I’ll admit was a nice feeling.

What the Meal Service does well is portion control.  What you think might not be enough food actually is.  Are there leftovers?  Nope.  Not in my house.  But I have a co-worker who only eats half her meal and saves the rest for lunch the next day.  She’s not a big eater.

A foreign concept to me.

One of the side benefits of the Meal Service is we’re not eating as much, which has the additional side benefit of us both dropping a few pounds.  Not a lot, but still I’ve noticed.

Major Disclaimer and I want to make this very clear.  The Meal Service is not a diet plan.  Not by a long shot. So, don’t confuse the two.

Now, let’s talk about value for the buck.

This is another big area that people question, and I did too.  But, what I’m finding is that for the quality of the ingredients (organic, locally grown, blah, blah, blah) we’re getting the cost seems right.  “But, how can you say that?”  I hear all the collective yells.  Very simply, our Meal Service costs $60.00 a week (three meals $20 each, six servings $10 each) Eric, and I have made two receipts on our own, using the exact ingredients from the provided receipts.

When we went to the store to buy everything for the meals it actually cost us more per person.  One, was $10.75 per person (this was for the Fried Rice) and the other was just under $11.50 per person (this was for the Chicken Enchiladas).  So not a lot, but that is how it broke down on the days we bought the ingredients.

Now, I’m sure if we bought the food on a different day the costs might have changed, but considering how close everything was cost wise it all worked out and I’m not that much a penny pincher.

When it all comes down to it, the quality and the quantity of the meals is worth every cent we’ve paid. However, we’re not paying full price for our Meal Kit Delivery Service plan.  

“What?” you ask.

“How?” you say.

Well, you’ll have to wait for my next installment to find out my cost saving tips and tricks. As well as some overall general advice for how to make the most of the Meal Kit Deliver Service.

As with Part One here are my photos from our dinners.  Yes, we really did make all of these. I’m quite impressed with how good they all look

Hmm, maybe I should be a food photographer. Have a great week everyone.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet…

Twitter is the question.

I just don’t know Twitter.  I’ve spoken with a bunch of folks (writers and bloggers) and they all say the same thing.  Open a Twitter account, it’s easy, fun and a great way to get connected with your fans and followers.  Not to mention a good way to get out there.  All of that sounds good, but I believe in connect. I’m not saying I have great connect, or that it will change the world, but I do have things to share with my Blog.  It’s only once a week to not bombard people, and to date the feedback has been positive.

The idea of a Twitter feed.  Do I have enough to say?  Am I that interesting (I don’t think I am)? Would people really fallow me?

I don’t know.  It all sounds so “me, me, me” and there is so much noise out there already.  Do I really need to add my voice to the masses? Granted I all have, with the Blog, but somehow that feels different to me.

There are pros and cons to everything, including tweeting.  It does seem like the next logical step in connecting with people, building a brand and creating a following.  The purpose of the Blog, the Facebook page, the website, and a potential Twitter account is so that I can show publishers that people are interested in my writing.  So, that eventually, one lucky publishers will pick up my manuscripts and help me get my novels out there.

Another purpose of the Blog, the Facebook page, the website, and a potential Twitter account is that it will make things much easier if I self-publish, because I will be published one way or the other.

Look how happy you all are that I get to interact with you.

Look how happy you all are that I get to interact with you.

The big bonus for me is reaching out to my followers and fans.  I would get to interact more with you, but is that something you really want?  You poor things.  You must have more interesting things to do then listen to me, don’t you?  Isn’t Dancing with the Stars starting up soon?  

All teasing aside, I’m interested in hearing what you have to say.  So, Twitter or no Twitter? Let me know in the comments below.

Our Experiment with a Meal Kit Delivery Service (Part 1)

My hubby and I have been experimenting with a Meal Kit Delivery Service. I know, I know, we’re late to the game and I’m sure this has been talked–blogged–about to death.  Still, several people have been asking me about our experience (and even asking for pictures of the cooked meals. Yes, I’m including photos.) Considering the interest I decided I would do a multi-part blog series on the subject.

This is the first installment.

I realize this has nothing to do with writing, but I figured it’d be fun.

My hubby and I started our meal kit delivery service because of a gift card we got for Christmas. The gift card covered about 90% of the cost.  I wasn’t so sure about the idea, but I didn’t want the gift card to go to waste.  So, we signed up.

We got to pick three meals (each meal was two servings) for a single week.  They give you a total of six different meal options to pick from, which is nice.  When I saw the dinners, and I wasn’t sold.  A lot, of the food seemed to be stuff I wasn’t keen on eating.  But, then I remembered gift card and away I went.

Waiting almost four days for the delivery was a bit annoying, but I get it.  They deliver all over the country, so waiting for the delivery to our area was fine.  Finally, our meals showed up. It was on a Wednesday (that is now our delivery day).  The meals arrived in a medium size box.

I was yet to be impressed.  I can’t say what I expected for the deliver but seeing the box arrive as is was a disappointment.

So, I brought the box home, and we unpacked it.

This is where my opinion started to change.  They included everything, and the food was still cool because of how they packed it (they had it wrapped in an insulated blanket-type-thing with the meats on the bottom packed between two chemical ice packs).  To my surprise, the meats were still frozen, and the veggies felt like they had been in the refrigerator.

We couldn’t cook anything that night because nothing was thawed, so we had to wait till the next night to cook our hamburger and our red cabbage slaw.

We waited.

The next night once we got home we started to cook.  The vendor included easy full-page directions with color photos of each step (nice touch on their part).  They couldn’t have made it any easier for us unless they came over and prepared it.

We cooked our way through the directions (the hardest part was cutting the cabbage for the slaw).  The service provided everything we would need to cook with the exception of pans, pots, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

That impressed me.

The cooking experience was a blast. We enjoy cooking, so that was an easy sell for us.  The whole process, from prep, to eat, to clean up, took us about an hour and a half (when we cook this is about how much time it normally takes us), so that wasn’t bad.

When we sat down to eat, the meal was excellent. It was different from how we normally eat a burger, but it was still good, really good (sorry no picture of the burger and the slaw).

The rest of the meals, to date, have gone much the same way, with little variation in prep to clean up time.

Here are the pictures of our first seven meals.

I’ll stop here.  In the next part I’ll talk about portions, and the value for the dollar.  Stay tuned

When did you Know

People ask and are curious about my coming out.  I get asked this a lot by my straight co-workers and friends.  It’s kind of funny because if you flip the questions ‘when did you know you were straight?’ it’s silly.  Anyway, I don’t mind sharing my story, so here it is.

I always understood I was different at least on some level.

I grew up in the 80s, so yep, I’m old.  Anyway, I never gave much thought to sexual feelings or identity in middle school.  Sure, I was ‘sensitive’ but I had a good group of ‘nerd’ and ‘stoner’ friends so I never suffered from any personal angst.  I couldn’t figure out what the big deal about girls was.  Yes, they were pretty, and some were friends, but I wasn’t interested in kissing them or anything like that.

I suppose there were a few girls who liked me, but honestly, I had no clue.

I wasn’t super popular in school but I wasn’t an outcast either.

I didn’t really deal with my sexual identity until my later teens and early twenties.  I had a few girlfriends and even was engaged to be married, but something didn’t seem right.  Again, I didn’t really know, clueless as I was, what the ‘it’ was.  I found guys so much more attractive than girls but I just thought I was normal.

Once, my engagement fell apart (her doing and not mine) that was when everything crashed in around me.  I realized I had all these fake walls and barriers up.  For the first time I had to take an honest look in the mirror and accept that I spent my younger years in deep denial.  I had major crushes on guys and I denied it ¬– hid it.  I had even fooled around with a few friends, but again it was all pushed behind these walls I created, and this life I wanted to live – I needed to live in.  For me it wasn’t so much an outside source, but internal ones.  No one told me to be one way or the other, it all came from me.  Anyway, when all the walls crashed down, I fell to pieces.  It wasn’t until I thought about killing myself that I figured something needed to change. I couldn’t be like this anymore. I had to pull myself together.

Of course, no one realized any of this because by then I was amazing at hiding my drama.

I found a therapist and spent about a year going to treatment once a week.  She helped me face who I was and where I needed to be.  After that I was able to come out to everyone.  First, my friends.  Then my sister. And finally, my parents.

I was lucky, very lucky, because I was my own worst enemy.  Everyone in my life supported me and was there for me. I was the hurdle. I was the one that created all my problems. I tried to make myself fit into this perfect image that I had in my head.

I guess what it boils down to for me, is that I always realized I was gay. I always understood, but I wasn’t willing to face it.  I never blamed society or anyone (as I said my family and friends were way more accepting than I was) and I don’t judge it as a failing of the time period I grew up in, it was more what I was willing to accept.  Maybe, if there were more positive gay male figures when I grew up things would have been different, I honestly don’t know, but like I said, for me, it wasn’t so much the outside influences, but my own internal thoughts that caused me the most trouble.

Part of why I write is to provide positive queer characters with a voice, because I do agree we need more of them.  My goal is to show them without this ‘struggle’. I want them facing other issues, the queer part of things is just a part of them and not the focus.  My opinion is that the more people/society can see us and relate to us on a non-sexual identity level the better.

I share my story because people ask about the ‘gay struggle’ and it’s different for everyone. As I say, I was lucky.

New Year Update

First Off.  Happy 2017.  I hope you all have a wonderful new year.

A lot is happening on the writing front.  I have a short story coming out this year.  ‘The Reunion’ is a dark short story about ten friends reuniting in their old home town. Stay tuned.  Also, ‘A New World – Contact’ is fishing up it’s editing cycle and will be moved on to Beta Reads in the next few weeks. I’m excited to share that book two ‘A New World – Conspiracy’, is in process and moving along faster than I thought.  Initial feedback has been positive so more information will be released on ‘Conspiracy’ later this year.  Lastly, ‘The Calling – Book One’ is going through its editing cycle and feedback and comments have been extremely positive.

So, with the end of 2016 I’m jumping right into 2017 with plenty of iron in the fire, as they say.

One final update, as some of you has been asking, I plan to release some new poetry in January.  Keep your eyes open