Well Placed Words

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 00:51:00 +0000

Excerpt from the New York Sun editorial, Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus:

The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

I wish you all the wonders seen and unseeable, and the joy that comes from believing in them.

No Cats Were Injured and ... a Different Book Marketing Technique

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:13:00 +0000

The tree is up. So are our outdoor decorations. Check the photos and you'll find our dog, Mattie, helping set up the outdoor decs (notice the lack of snow). Our cat Abigail is holding court under the tree. She and the other cat fight for space, but they have no inclination to climb the tree.

On to a writing topic: Yesterday I received a "re-gifted" book in a white elephant exchange at my Toastmasters club. It is a motivational book by Dale Henry. I haven't had a chance to read the book yet, but the marketing approach is fascinating. (I'd call it unique, but I don't know if it has never been tried before or since.) The paperback came packaged in a tin can. The title is Ten Cans, with the tagline "Are You an Opener?" Pretty clever. Instead of nutritional information, the can has "Inspiration Facts," with for example a 100% daily value of optimism, enthusiasm, wisdom, etc.

I think this is a terrific approach to marketing, but I'm worried about bookstores finding shelf space. What do you think?

I had a terrible time getting to the dashboard on Blogger, part of the reason for my delay in posting. Still, I'm grateful for all these wonderful new social media. I hope to conquer my blog and post more in 2012.

Christmas wishes to all.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 03:50:00 +0000

I hope your Thanksgiving (if you're in the U.S.) was wonderful and filled with gratitude.
Ours was.
We tried a couple of new recipes -- cranberry relish made with Port and a fabulous cornbread - cranberry stuffing from the Boise Co-op's blog. Both were delicious!

I am so grateful that we love to cook, love to eat and have the stamina to cook, eat and clean up!
It was an altogether good day, spiced with exploring my new subscription to Cook's Magazine and a couple of Christmas mysteries by Anne Perry.
Blessings to you and yours.

EVILLE: Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:47:00 +0000

Many would classify EVILLE by first time author Holand Peterson, a sci-fi fantasy adventure. I classify it as fun and worth reading.

Alex Hobbs, alone, loveless, jobless, and very recently homeless, accepts a job that appears almost too good to be true. Of course it is. He is plunged into the bizarre world of Eville, employed by a deranged inventor, mercilessly picked on by her cynical, crabby housekeeper. And facing constant, terrifying threats to his sanity and his life.

Encountering an assortment of even odder characters, Alex and his employers begin a journey that is at the same time frightening, absolutely funny and oddly compelling.

This is a great start of a fun series. It took me a chapter or two to be hooked by the story, but stay with it and you’ll be rewarded. Peterson’s quirky humor outweighed some grammatical issues that might have been caught with one more round of editing. Go get EVILLE. It's in print and on Kindle.

NaNoWriMo in an Hour?

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 22:31:00 +0000

At my Toastmaster’s meeting today, I was asked to fill the role of a missing club member, that of Table Topics Master. For Table Topics in Toastmasters, we must speak for one to two minutes on a topic assigned by the Topics Master.

Without time to prepare questions, I decided to let the club do the work. I explained that November is National Novel Writing Month and told them I’m participating in the challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

I gave them the assignment of creating a novel. The first person I selected chose the era and setting, the next the protagonist. Others contributed to the convoluted plot.

What fun! I was fascinated by the creative embellishments of each speaker. Because I just completed a class on conflict from WriterUniversity, I thought afterward about how the direction of the “plot” changed according to the personality of the speaker. Some added humor, others romance, others a rational, logical touch.

Oh, did I mention I started out as the heroine and ended up a murderer on the lam?

When we write, when we speak, when we’re forced into improvisation, our personalities and style come out, whether we try to use them or hide them. Guess that’s why my mysteries tend to be humorous and why my efforts to write romantic scenes often end in a tangle of arms and laughter rather than passionate declarations of love.

Trying to force ourselves into a genre or a writing style that doesn’t fit may be less comfortable than donning a pair of jeans that is two sizes too small.

What are your thoughts? Can you write against “type?” How does it feel when you try?

And, are you answering the call of NaNoWriMo this year? Here’s to deadlines and friendly competition.

Passion Pays Off

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 23:32:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I passed a local community theater and thought, “Maybe I should just give up writing fiction and try out for a play. That would be fun. Or spend more time volunteering with the Boise Bicycle Project. Maybe no one will ever read my novels.”

But I kept working on my latest humorous mystery and on my articles about business writing and on my editing assignments. I signed up for another class on fiction writing. Because, you see, I’m passionate about words.

The good news is that someone agreed. I now have a contract for MUSTARD’S LAST STAND. It will be published in print and electronically by L&L Dreamspell in the 3^rd quarter of 2012. Hooray! Woo hoo. At long last, someone agrees that my story should be shared. I am delighted. And honored and inspired and frightened and all those wonderful emotions that I’ve shared with many of my writing friends. L&L Dreamspell is the same publisher that has published my friend Conda Douglas’s story in one of their anthologies and will be bringing out her mystery, Starke Naked Dead in the spring.

So I shall continue my writing journey, following my passion for words. As you should. If you are passionate about writing, keep writing. Keep learning. Keep practicing and discovering ways to improve.

And when you are crafting your characters, consider their passions. What will they give up for their passion? How far will their passion drive them? Are they single-mindedly passionate or do they spread their interests? Do they feel more passion for animals, people, things, causes? Giving some thought to what drives your characters will help you make them real to your readers.

You may notice that my characters care a lot about food. I think that’s one way another of my passions sneaks into my writing.

How about you? What are your passions and how do they find their way into your writing?

Point of View Matters

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 21:42:00 +0000

It's harvest time. Here's a picture of the dry bean harvest from my garden. I have a lot to learn about gardening, but it sure is fun. Right now I'm seeking recipes that need 1/2 cup of beans. Aren't they pretty?

Advice to writers who announce a return to posting on their blogs: Don’t do it the same week you buy a new laptop and are then forced to buy a new printer and get everything working again.

I have been reading and editing a lot lately, perhaps more than normal since I will soon be working with Barbarian Books to consider manuscripts being submitted for publication. Yes, the new ebook publisher is accepting novel length mysteries/crime, thrillers, horror, and romance. And they know how to market genre fiction, a big help to beginning authors.

Back to what I’ve seen lately that helps make a book a great read.

A good plot’s important. You bet. More important to me, however, are the characters doing whatever they’re doing and their reasons for doing it. Understanding and establishing the right point of view (or points of view) for your story will help you portray these characters and their emotions. The right point of view helps you show emotion and establish conflict. It also allows you to let the reader inside the head of your characters and thus feel more committed to discovering what’s going to happen to them.

It’s the easiest way to move from telling about something to showing what’s going on. When you reveal a scene through the eyes of the character who cares most about its outcome, the scene takes on power and emotion.

A story can talk about a hanging, let’s say. It can show a crowd of onlookers, and tell us they are watching because they’re pleased that a notorious killer is meeting justice. Tell us, however, from the eyes of the daughter of the killer’s third victim, and we care more. Tell us from the eyes of a woman who escaped his knife and helped in his capture and we perhaps care even more. We’ll see different details and feel different, stronger emotions. If we’ve had the chance to meet the daughter or the would-be victim before, seen her do something that endears her to us, we’re likely hooked. She need not save a kitten. She could simply exhibit a few natural emotions and frailties that we can identify with. We’ll want to know what happens next.

A strong, close point of view helps tell a stronger story.

I think first person point of view is easiest to work with when you’re new to writing.

What are your thoughts?

Back in the Blogsaddle

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:21:00 +0000

Any number of reasons, read excuses, come up for the long hiatus in posts to my blog. Time is a limited resource, as we all know, and for a few months I chose to spend that resource elsewhere. I'm back, eager to post and start browsing other blogs. No saddle sores anticipated.
What's new? I have started a column on business writing for our local paper and am seeking other outlets for it. I’ve been busy editing some fascinating books and learning a lot, one of the benefits of editing business books. When I edit fiction, I get to help a good story become a better read. Fun job!

For this blog, I’ve chosen to focus on my love of words and my passion for writing fiction, with the occasional rant about faulty grammar and writing mishaps. I continue to work on my own fiction and submit it for consideration.

I took an online class from Laurie Schnebly Campbell that I found invaluable. Called Plotting via Motivation, she guides students through a book using the protagonist’s (and others') motives as guideposts. Hint: Dig MUCH deeper than you have before. I highly recommend it and other workshops by Laurie. You can find more at her site and at Writer University, started by Laurie and Mary Buckham. Next month’s class on “Conflict with a Capital C,” taught by Mary using Laurie’s content, is on my list.

For my next post, I’ll let you know about the book on social media I edited last month. It has some valuable information. And I'll announce a new publishing venture by friends of mine that should interest you.

Have you any classes or books to recommend? I’ll be speaking about mistakes made by beginning fiction writers next week and would welcome your ideas on those, as well.

Lose the Dialect or Vive la Difference?

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Wed, 11 May 2011 00:31:00 +0000

Today I gave a speech on the power of words and how we can use that power in our writing and speaking. I LOVE words and love to help others make their words work for them.
However, this morning I read a question to an advice columnist asking how one might get a new friend to lose his north Michigan "Fargo" accent.
No, no, no!
Getting words right, helping our words sparkle, doesn't mean the objective is that we all write/speak the same way. It means we celebrate our uniqueness with joyous (or sorrowful, should that be the emotion of the moment) clarity and concise, appropriate words for our audience.
Unless that man wishes to become a public speaker or cannot be understood by anyone, his new "friend" should leave him and his distinct flavor of Americanese alone.
I love meeting people with accents and dialects different from mine. They serve as great conversation starters.
So, what do you think? Am I crazy in celebrating the differences? Or have I simply not met someone whose dialect served to isolate her or him?

Celebrating Creative Women

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:37:00 +0000

Last weekend I went to LunaFest, a film festival by and about women sponsored by Luna Bars. These are short films, between four and twelve minutes long. Four are animated, several have already won awards, all are wonderful: moving, disturbing, amusing. I left feeling inspired and amazed by the creativity of women. Check the calendar at LunaFest.org and if there’s one scheduled in your area, go. You will not be disappointed.
Locally, the authors of An Eclectic Collage have a signing this Saturday in Eagle. Twenty-eight women contributed to this book. And the publisher, Jane Freund of Freundship Press, found a way to celebrate this varied creativity.

I’d love to see you. And the cookies are great, with the cover of the book as the icing. More creativity!

Made Up Words: Love Them or Leave Them Alone?

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:12:00 +0000

What’s your take on made up words?

In my last post, I played around with a description for the stories I was reviewing and came up with eerilicious to describe them.

A couple of years ago I won a contest on addictionary.com for making up, with the assistance of my husband, the word conflictipated. Adjective, meaning seriously unable to make a decision due to too many conflicting choices; indecisive to the point of pain.

In 1961, Yi-Fu Tuan, introduced the term topophilia, the feeling of affection which individuals have for particular places, from a room to a nation.

I like that one a lot. How about tapaphilia, a feeling of affection for the incredible small plates of Spain? The tapas alone made me a Spain topophiliac after our visit earlier this year.

My husband recently introduced another word to our lexicon. We live in a sub-division with parkways and walking paths between homes. When we walk our wonderfully silent dog we are greeted by a symphony of barks from the neighbors’ dogs. So my spouse renamed those paths, barkways. Perfect.

I’m reading True Detectives by Jonathan Kellerman. At one point he describes the leggings worn by a character who has taken up painting as “paint pollocked.” An apt tribute to the abstract artist, and a made up word.

Do such new words work for you? Or should they be stomped out to retain the purity of our language?

Two Recent Reviews: Eerilicious Short Stories

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:38:00 +0000

I recently reviewed a story and an anthology of stories on Amazon. This was my first venture posting a review on Amazon. Wow. Easy. Fun. Cool.
Here are my two reviews. I will have to come up with my own system of rating, if I continue this. Until then, I'll just say both deserve high ratings. And that the cover for Changing Woman Ways is absolutely spellbinding.

This review is from: Dreamspell Nightmares (Paperback) Also available on Kindle.

Don't let the cover, not my favorite, stop you from opening this remarkable collection of short stories.

This anthology of twenty horror stories takes you from Bali to Baghdad, from the streets of L.A. to the Louisiana bayou. Some of the stories are about bad choices, very bad choices, and their consequences. Some are about revenge. Some have twists at the end that I didn't see coming, but that satisfied.

If you like horror, you'll like these stories. Several, like one about a man bent on saving himself through sacrificing another, or another written "from the grave," are chilling and eerie. Each story takes time to develop believable characters, some we like, some we like to see lose.

These stories deal with the evil one person can do to another. Or one being, in several of the stories. Scary, eerie, satisfying, on occasion humorous and satiric, all around good reads, well-edited.

Here's my review of Conda Douglas's short story. Since Conda of Conda's Creative Center is my good friend, I may be a bit biased, but should you choose to buy it (and you should), I bet you'll agree with me.

If you haven't been to the Navajo reservation, this story will take you there, from the realistic picture of a hogan to the images of those who live there.

In this story, a visitor, a want-to-be Navajo white woman (called an inside-out apple)gets involved in an eerie tale of greed and superstition, if superstition it is, centered on a loom and the Changing Woman pattern. From the first sight of Coyote to the ending lines, this one kept me wondering and the hair on my neck tingling.

The author obviously knows Navajo tales and how to twist them into a good tale of horror.

Enough is Enough

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:35:00 +0000

I’ve been sick since the first part of February. Two colds one after the other and then deafness in one ear from the cold. When the deafness set in, my husband said “Enough is enough.” Not sure if he meant enough of my being ill or enough of my complaining. (I’m not a great patient but I am a champion whiner.)

Made me think of writing. When is enough, enough?

Elmore Leonard said he tries to leave out the stuff people skip. His writing is a joy: terse, with exquisite, realistic dialog and believable action. He includes the right amount of description, setting the scene but leaving something to the reader’s imagination. I’ve been reading a lot of John Lescroart’s novels recently. Lescroart provides more description of San Francisco and the offices of the cops, lawyers and investigators who populate his stories. However, the details he provides invariably give me much more insight into the workings of the city and his characters than a bare recounting of the space. One character’s office has a dart board; another’s memorabilia of her murdered fiancé. Be sure your details count.

One way to be sure your writing has “just enough” is to prune adjectives and adverbs, sticking to powerful, precise verbs and nouns. Another trimming technique is to avoid too much explanation. Renni Brown and Dave King, in Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, suggest we Resist the Urge to Explain (RUE). If a character says, “I warned you not to yell at me,” there’s no need to add “Bonnie was furious.” We can guess that, especially if her next action is to hit said yeller with a chair.

Mystery writers make a mistake when they underestimate their readers. When sprinkling clues, once is almost always enough. If you show your sleuth discovering something momentous, the reader is there with you and will discover it, too. No need to add needless words telling us how pleased your sleuth was to find the clue, or worse, to recap the discovery for other characters. “Tim shared his morning’s discovery with his brother over Reuben sandwiches.”

What are your favorite pruning techniques?

It's National Grammar Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 16:41:00 +0000

National Grammar Day was established in 2008 by Martha Brockenbrough, founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar(SPOGG). Michele Fogarty, the Grammar Girl, is hosting National Grammar Day 2011 to remind us that wrestling our words until they’re the right ones is worth it. Words used well help us say what we mean. The correct words can reduce barriers between people, persuade, entice, convince and entertain. Probably not all at once.

Making sure you’ve used the right words can also eliminate embarrassment. You don’t want to send a cover letter like one of mine that touted my decades of experience in pubic relations. (Okay, I found it before I clicked Send.) It makes scents. Oops, sense. It could mean the difference between making some cents and none.

Thus I’ll continue to write and rant, because I believe words are the next best thing to a hug to convey your feelings.

Celebrate National Grammar Day, wherever you may be. Speak, sing, write with your heart and with correct syntax!

Just Is a Four Letter Word

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:17:00 +0000

At last Saturday's meeting of The Pixie Chicks Writers Group here in Boise, one woman told us that "just" is a four letter word. She said it when one member commented that it's been hard for her to escape the trap of saying, when meeting someone, "I'm just a homemaker." Same thing applies to me, when I meet a published author. I risk saying "I'm just a writer."
Loved the concept.
Just is not only a four letter word we need to omit from our vocabulary of self-description, it's another of those wimpy words we need to purge from our writing. Others? Almost, nearly, very, hopefully, about (as in "just about as tiny as a pistachio), well (unless it's deep).
What other words might we omit to strengthen our communication?

Do Real Writers Write EVERY Day?

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:31:00 +0000

I've been sick. Missed posting and commenting and did very little writing. So today I'm posting a few promised photos from Spain, all from Barcelona, a city I must revisit.

Living Statue, Placa de Catalunya

Living Statue, Barcelona

La Boqueria, Barcelona, Spain

I've heard many writers, among them Ridley Pearson and Michael Connelly, state that they write every single day. When they came to Murder in the Grove in Boise, they got up very early and wrote. I've tried to follow their advice, but when I'm sick, my writing sticks in my throat like an undissolved aspirin and looks like upchuck on the page. Why bother? I'd rather immerse myself in getting better, read a great escape book, and come back strong.

I've finally concluded that we're at risk when we compare ourselves, our writing styles and writing habits to others. We should learn from their advice (my favorite of Ridley's is "keep your butt in the chair") but chart our own paths.
What's your opinion?

Beginning, Middle, End

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:24:00 +0000

Toastmasters has an element in most meetings called Table Topics. Someone is charged with calling on different members to speak extemporaneously for one to two minutes on the assigned topic.

I hate Table Topics. I love Table Topics. I rarely do a good job although I can elicit an occasional chuckle.

Articles on how to succeed in Table Topics tell you to have a beginning, a middle and an end. Nerves generally cause me to forget where I started by the time I get to the end. But good Table Topics speakers put a structure on their speeches, and the great Table Topics speakers probably know where they’re going to end before they begin. And they generally captivate their audiences.

I’m back in Toastmasters after a hiatus and I intend to impose order on my Table Topics offerings.

Those brief speeches are extemporaneous. But they are a microcosm of what longer speeches and written works of word should be. They need to have structure, to give a sense that the author knows where she is headed. And knows when to stop.

“Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” Those wise directions to Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland still apply.

It’s surprising, but even in a two minute extemporaneous speech, the middle can seem endless, both to speakers and listeners. We start out strong and lose the thread, only to pick it up with a witty word or two at the end. What’s lacking in the middle is direction, and perhaps, tension. In fiction, tension comes from conflict, between characters and against “the odds.” In a short speech, we hope it comes from curiosity, wondering where the speaker is headed. Some speakers maintain the tension by rollicking from one pungent line to another, ripe with humor or pathos.

I’m going to study how the best speeches maintain tension, because I think it will help me control my sagging middle as I work on my novel.

Do you have problems with sagging middles? How do you control them?

Update 2/3: Even though I missed referring to the article Richard suggested, I won Table Topics yesterday. Sometimes you just get the right topic. I got to tell the tale of Fritza, the almost frozen pet rat. Made me think I should write a little book with stories of our animals.

Quotable, Memorable Words Work Well

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:50:00 +0000

Last Saturday, I joined other authors of An Eclectic Collage: Creative Works by the Women of the Pixie Chicks Writers Group for a signing. I decided to create a postcard to promote my two essays in the book and my editing services.

Working on it, I wished I’d had a strong, memorable tagline, a quote to pull from it that would stun readers with my wit, eloquence and editing expertise. Alas, even though both articles were informative and well structured, neither contained a pearl to pluck and preen about. So I went with what I had. And tried to think how I might blog about that.

Then I heard an interview with speaker and consultant Sam Horn where she told speakers to create a memorable phrase an audience will remember. Her advice was to use alliteration, rhythm, and rhyme. I used alliteration in the previous paragraph: “eloquence and editing expertise,” “a pearl to pluck and preen about.”

Okay, some uses are better than others.

You could do a long study of the use of rhythm and cadence to make your written words memorable. Poets know it. Novelists whose books you can’t put down may have used the rhythm of their words to enchant you. Rhythm, cadence and vocal variety distinguish the compelling speaker from one who puts her audience to sleep.

Alternating short and long sentences provides a good start to adding rhythm to your work. So does reading it aloud.

Rhyme works well when you’re creating a slogan or a tagline or a poem. However, inadvertent rhyme in serious writing might bump your reader. I’d chat more about rhyme, but I haven’t the time.

Next time you’re editing an article or some pages from your fiction, take the time to make your words memorable by adding alliteration, rhythm and rhyme.

But remember: a smidgeon of these devices suffices.

Unique is Unique!

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:40:00 +0000

I wish I could say I had a unique opportunity today to see an example of poor writing. Sadly it happens all too often, and often in unexpected places.

A friend shared with me an invitation to representatives of large organizations to attend a conference where they “can network with other organizations that have the same unique challenges that you do.”

Um. Pardon me, but if I have a unique challenge, then, by the meaning of unique, it is mine alone. The only one of its kind, sole, according to the dictionary. Think uno, Spanish for one.

Misuse of unique may be my number one rant. What's yours?

BSP: My Words in a Book!

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:44:00 +0000

Okay. BSP could stand for "But She Procrastinates." My friend Conda of Conda's Creative Center wrote that BSP was hard and I blithely commented that it could stand for Basically Sharing Progress. THEN I had to do some of my own and faced the fact that it isn't easy.

This book is a compilation of poems, essays, stories and recipes by a group of women who love to write. It includes two articles by me on writing. I'm proud of my work, and promoting this book will give me practice for promoting my fiction.

I need your help. I'm creating a card to hand out with succinct writing and editing advice. Care to share any you love?

If you're from Boise, I'd love to see you and visit with you Saturday morning. No pressure to buy the book, it would just be fun to meet you!

Times Have Changed Stew

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 01:04:00 +0000

Unlike my friend Conda, of Conda's Creative Center, who today shows you how a recipe can be a publicity tool, I'm simply sharing a recipe and reflecting on how rooting up an old favorite can also bring to light some minor historical revelations. (Very minor, okay?)

Saturday I decided to make an old familiar recipe, one that was on my table far too often in the days when my wallet and my hips were leaner than they are today.

When I went shopping for the ingredients, I realized just how long ago that was.

The original recipe called for a one pound can of stewed tomatoes. Whoops! That one pound can has become 14.5 ounces these days. And stewed tomatoes? Well, did I want them stewed with roasted garlic and rosemary, or sweet peppers or Mexican style? In puree, whole or diced? So many choices that weren’t there a few decades ago.

Since I was short on tomatoes, I decided to add a few sun-dried tomatoes, something I’d definitely not heard of way back when. Choices again: in oil or dried, ready for some hot water? I plumped up some dried ones with boiling water and added them to the stew. By the way, I can’t think of sun-dried tomatoes without recalling Bailey White’s essay about her mother’s efforts at sun-drying their home grown tomatoes. I used to hear her read those essays on NPR and can’t tell you which book that one’s in, but her writing is a delight.

The original recipe also called for margarine. My ADD brain can’t quite recall, but I don’t think I had easy access to olive oil in the 1970’s. Did you? So I used half olive oil, half butter.

What else has changed since I first served up Lentil and Barley Stew? Okay, besides husbands. I’ve had the chance to hear Chef Doughty on our local NPR station tell us that every soup and stew recipe improves with a dash of hot pepper sauce, a bay leaf, and some Worcestershire sauce if you’re not vegan. (It has anchovies.)

Discovering just how much the world of cooking and shopping has changed in only a few decades (consider the choices of breads I could buy to serve with my stew), increased my admiration for writers of historical fiction whose search for accuracy must be time-consuming and challenging.
Here's the recipe. It's quite good, healthy, and thrifty, especially if you forego the sun-dried tomatoes.

Lentil and Barley Stew

2 – 3 T. olive oil, butter or margarine
½ C. lentils, well-rinsed
1/3 C. barley
½ cup chopped celery
1/3 C. chopped onion
½ tsp. salt
1 14.5 oz. can stewed tomatoes
dash pepper or hot pepper sauce
2 cups water
1/8 tsp. crushed rosemary leaves

1/3 cup shredded carrots

Melt butter. Add onion & celery and cook until onion is lightly browned. Stir in tomatoes, water, lentils, barley, salt, pepper and rosemary.

Bring to a boil.

Cover tightly and boil gently 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add carrots and cook 5 minutes longer.

What lately has reminded you that the times have changed?

Old Friends and New Year's Wishes

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:47:00 +0000

Belated Happy New Year wishes to all. We’ve just returned from a lovely holiday in Spain. Yep, that’s a long way from Idaho, and some thirty degrees or more warmer (Fahrenheit).

I used a lot more of my very rusty Spanish than I’d anticipated, but most folks were patient with me.

We got lost one day in a tiny Andalusian town similar to the photo, searching for a restaurant recommended in a magazine article. These little villages in the hill country have white buildings and winding, often cobbled or brick streets too narrow for our car (and my nerve). We parked at the mirador (viewpoint) and walked down, only to discover the restaurant we sought was closed that day, alas. Not sure which street to take to get back to our car, I asked a gentleman, probably in his seventies, for directions, and also enquired about a restaurant. He indicated the correct path and told us that the restaurant we sought was the only one in town.

Yesterday evening I got a phone call from a friend I had not seen in more than 25 years, even though we had been good friends during and after high school. He lives in the Bay Area, and other high school friends now live throughout the country (and no doubt the world). It was a joy to hear from him, and despite my ADD deficient memory, his voice brought back memories of so many good things. Some have become family legends: each time we attend a pot luck, I take a “hoddish.” As I recall it, one of our friends’ parents slurred the two words together and it’s something that stuck with me, like the concept that eating onions on a camping trip will keep you regular.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I imagine the gentleman who gave us directions had lived in that small Andalusian village for a long time, and knew many of his neighbors from the time they played freeze tag on the town square.

Yes, the declining economy in Spain, as in small towns throughout the world, has no doubt caused the emigration of many of its younger residents, but still, there’s something wonderful about not just staying in touch, but staying within touch of those childhood friends.

Call me a sap, call it the nostalgia provoked by my old friend’s call, call it jet lag, but I ponder what we’ve lost in this huge, mobile, society. And maybe that’s part of the reason for Facebook and other social media. To help us stay in touch with those old friends.

When you’re writing fiction, remember to utilize such contrasts. Would your characters rush to confide secrets with someone who’s known them forever, or a new acquaintance? (I’m working on that one for my new novel.) Could nostalgia or old friendship cloud a person’s judgment? Do the roads, lack of street lights, early closing hours in your fictional town affect events?

Puck the Puppy's Christmas Wish

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 01:50:00 +0000

Just had to share this adorable video of my dog's BFF Puck, enjoying his first snow and wishing you a Merry Christmas!
My friends Conda and Bruce have a new video company, Rat Terrorist Productions. Please share this fun message and have yourself a merry little Christmas!

Big Trees and Clichés

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:30:00 +0000

My husband and I took a quick trip to the Bay area to visit my sister and her husband (fun) and to re-visit Union Square, a place my daughter and I loved to visit each Christmas to see the windows. It's not as cool these days, but we had a good time. Here we are in front of the big (very big) tree on the square.

The photo reminded me of a fun tree story.
The first year we moved to Boise my husband, daughter and I decided to cut down a tree in the mountains. My daughter was born in Idaho but we’d moved to sunny California when she was four. My husband had been too long in California, as well. I suggested they might want to dress warmly because we’d be in snow by the time we climbed a few thousand feet into the hills. But no! The weather was sunny and balmy in Boise and they didn’t heed my advice. (Not for the first time, nor the last. Sigh.)

The snow was deep by the time we reached an area where we could cut our own tree. The rules said we had to find our tree at least 300 feet from the road. However, not for us those puny trees within sight of the road. We blundered through snow as deep as our blue-jean clad thighs searching for the perfect tree.

There is no perfect tree in the wild. Christmas tree farmers groom their trees.

Time passed.

Teeth chattering,with toes near numb despite good boots and wool socks, we eventually settled on a tree probably not nearly as nice as those we’d seen in the first minutes of our venture. Sawing it down (you have to dig beneath snow level so you don’t leave a large stump) provided another half hour of chilling thrills. The effort of dragging it back to the car at least warmed us a bit as we shared the task.

Back at the car, we drank the hot cider I’d prepared early that morning in temperate Boise. My daughter, stripped of her wet clothes and wrapped in a blanket, and my husband were appropriately grateful.

The tree looked as scruffy decorated as it had in the hills, but we loved it.

When you’re writing, seeking a word choice or a plot direction, it’s often a good idea to brainstorm several options and select something that falls later on the list. I’ve been told that the first several are often clichés.

Would that we had settled for the first, clichéd, Charlie Brown tree we saw.

Any tree stories?

Happy Holiday Wishes Plus a Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Kathy McIntosh) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 10:49:00 +0000

Here are a few winter scenes from our life in the hills outside Boise. You'll see our Christmas tree, cut from the front "yard," a hillside of trees. Next to it is a view of our front entry awaiting the snow shovel and below is a view from our back deck in winter.

Cutting a wild growing tree from your front yard is a lot easier than braving the snow and cold to find one on public land. After a couple of Christmases, we even got so lazy as to tie a cloth on the likeliest tree in the fall before the snow fell. Tromping up the hill to cut it down took little time. (Of course, trimming it to fit in the house was another matter!)

I’ll tell the tale of our hunt for a tree on public lands on Thursday. Today I want to share a recipe you might want to try for the holidays. I found it several years ago on Epicurious.com. It’s still there! They gave credit to Bon Appétit Magazine, November 1998. My only adaptation is to substitute pecans for parsley.

Maple-Glazed Yams with Orange and Cranberries

4 3/4 pounds yams (red-skinned sweet potatoes), peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces

3/4 cup pure maple syrup

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, melted

1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel

6 tablespoons dried cranberries

Pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cook yams in large pot of boiling salted water 3 minutes. Drain; transfer to 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish. Blend syrup, butter and peel in small bowl; pour over yams. Sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss to coat. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Bake yams uncovered until just tender, stirring and basting occasionally, about 30 minutes. Mix in cranberries. Continue baking until yams are very tender and juices form thick glaze, about 15 minutes longer. Garnish with pecans, halved or chopped, and serve.

Warm wishes to all of you on this winter solstice!