Rachel Cotterill

Pide, Turkish Pizza

2012-01-28T16:00:00.000Z

I first had Turkish pizza in Brussels, of all places, when we ended up staying across the road from a Turkish pide restaurant - it was cheap and tasty, so we went back and ate there a couple of times.

So when we got to Turkey, I was curious. Would it be the same? Or even better?

In the end, I'd say the best pide we had (pictured above) was maybe slightly better, although very similar in philosophy: huge chunks of fresh vegetables (onion, tomato, and pointed green peppers in this case), smothered with a generous helping of cheese, and fired in a wood-oven. A simple and perfect combination of flavours. I was half way through eating before I even noticed the lack of tomato sauce, such as you'd always find on pizza in the UK. Plus, it always makes a meal more fun if you can watch your food being made. Technique seems to vary between pide chefs, on whether to stretch the dough with your hands or just roll it out (it didn't seem to affect the taste, either way).

I haven't found any recipes that look exactly like what we ate, but this spinach pide does look similar to one on the menu in Brussels.

Beehives on the Lycian Way

2012-01-26T16:00:00.002Z

Never before have I felt bees. On some sections of our Lycian Way walk, surrounded by hives, the air buzzed with such force that you could feel the vibrations. Parts of the path had even been re-routed to avoid walking through clouds of bees.

You can buy the delicious honey from various places along the route, as well as on the market in local towns like Fethiye. We couldn't bring any home (I think honey counts as a liquid for carry-on luggage!) but we did have toast and local honey for our breakfast a few days.

Social Screenings

2012-01-24T16:00:00.003Z

We don't have a TV at home: a conscious decision which almost certainly leaves us with more time for doing other things, as there's less temptation to just switch on the box and watch something indiscriminate. One added advantage is that by the time we come to watch a series on DVD, we can take recommendations from friends who've already seen it.

Over the last couple of years, catching up on good TV has evolved into a regular social occasion with a group of friends. We get together and watch two episodes from a series, punctuated with a meal between the two, and then come back the next week for the next installment. Sometimes someone cooks, but more often than not we grab the Domino's pizza menu (I love the stuffed crusts, or the 'Double Decadence' base, which has cheese between two thin layers of dough... ahem, I'm making myself hungry now!), and because Andy has such a sweet tooth, we usually also take along a little something for dessert (whether that's a box of chocolates, freshly baked cookies, or - last week - a popcorn machine).

Given my travel habit, it probably doesn't come as much of a surprise that our selections had an international feel - not that I can claim any credit for the choices, as I just turn up to watch. But I do enjoy getting some insight into what's popular around the world.

We started off with The Wire, a crime drama set in Baltimore. I loved it for its greyscale morality, where the police were often prepared to be as unethical as the drug dealers, but also for the laugh-out-loud moments such as when a couple of police pretend that their photocopier is a lie detector, to intimidate their suspect into a confession. The production used a lot of local casting, with genuine Baltimore residents and even some genuine drug dealers on the cast, which gives it a lot of authenticity.

For a little light relief after working our way through all five series of The Wire, we then moved on to watching Icelandic sitcom The Night Shift (or Næturvaktin). This is a fairly dark comedy set in a Reykjavik petrol station, and concentrating on the lives of the three men who work the night shift. It was interesting for the glimpse into Icelandic humour, as well as being funny in its own right.

We've just finished Series 1 of The Killing (or Forbrydelsen), a Danish crime drama which has made as much of a splash in the UK for its fashion (gorgeous Faroese knitwear) as for its drama. I wasn't completely won over by this one at first (there are a lot of false leads and sudden about-turns, even by crime drama standards) but it got really good in the last half-dozen episodes. I'd quite like to watch the second series at some point, but not straight away!

We haven't decided what our next series is going to be, so if you have any recommendations for excellent television, please let me know in the comments.

An Easy Recipe for Twice-Baked Potatoes

2012-01-22T16:00:00.004Z

I've really rediscovered the joy of jacket potatoes this winter. I've loved them since childhood, but for a couple of years they sort of fell off my list of regular eats (for no reason other than my forgetfulness). This year, though, I've been baking them regularly.

I don't like to waste energy, so when I've put the oven on I try to fill it up. Usually this means baking a dozen or more potatoes, even when there are only two of us eating. Which means leftovers. Thankfully, this leftover potato dish is one of my very favourite comfort dishes, whether as a side dish or a light main meal.

Twice-Baked Potatoes

4 large baked potatoes
1 leek
1 large red onion
100g grated cheese (I used cheddar)
1tbsp olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Meanwhile, slice the leek and onion finely, and fry in a little olive oil.
Once the leek and onion have softened, slice the potatoes in half and carefully scrape the potato out of the skins.
Add the potato to a large mixing bowl with the leek, onion, and grated cheese. Mash until combined.
Stuff the potato skins with the mixture, pressing down firmly as it will be a tight fit.
Place on a baking tray in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the top is beginning to crisp.

Fethiye Market

2012-01-20T16:00:00.000Z

Fethiye market runs along two sides of a canal (or really well walled-in river), and is covered by huge tarpaulins and tents that make it hard to see out once you're inside. Not that you would want to, when there's so much produce to attend to, but it's easy to get disoriented. The prices for fresh fruit and vegetables in Turkey are quite low, and there's an interesting array of spices, nuts, and snacks on display. Yoghurt is sold from huge vats, and cheeses are carved from the block or - in the case of soft goats cheese - scraped out of goat-skin bags. Definitely a fun place to wander, and after we'd picked up some groceries we stopped to enjoy stuffed pancakes for lunch, which made the day even better.

Lycian Rock Tombs in Fethiye

2012-01-18T16:00:00.001Z

Carved into the hills above Fethiye, there's a second "city"... of tombs. Created by the Lycian civilization, there are loads of these scattered around this area of Turkey, but those in Fethiye are particularly famous - and reasonably well-preserved - examples. We didn't pay to go right up to them, as you can't actually go inside and there's a pretty good view from the road. Some of them are very grand, with pillars carved into the rock face; presumably to house the bodies of the more important members of society, compared to those which are just little square windows.

Kid Transport

2012-01-16T16:00:00.000Z

We were walking the Lycian Way and we'd just paused for a sip of water, when a local goatherd came past. I might just have squealed when I caught sight of the adorable cargo in his backpack, and I rushed for my camera. Definitely the cutest thing I'd seen in a while.

Gözleme, Turkish Pancakes

2012-01-14T16:00:00.004Z

It should be obvious by now that I really love to try different foods, and I always look out for fun things to eat when I'm travelling. This isn't always the easiest thing as a vegetarian: some countries aren't that veggie-friendly, and even in those where veggie options are plentiful, you need some grasp of the language to make sure you order the right thing. Turkey falls into the latter category. There's plenty of vegetarian food around, and you just need to learn a few key words to be able to order it. And we were lucky to be travelling with my dad, who'd already picked up the critical vocabulary.

Gözleme was one of my favourite finds. Generally translated as 'pancakes', they're made of a very thin dough, stuffed with good stuff like potatoes, cheese, and spinach. We found a few good gözleme places on our travels, and it's also a great spectator sport, as they're rolled in front of your (hungry!) eyes and traditionally cooked on a special wood-fired oven.

I really must get hold of a recipe and see what I can do to recreate these at home.

Kayaköy Churches

2012-01-12T16:00:00.002Z

Two of the most impressive buildings in the abandoned village of Kayaköy are its churches. They're Greek Orthodox, which means that even in ruins they're more spectacular than many churches I've seen! And they're still in a surprisingly good state.

Around the back of one church lurks another surprise: a bone house, where the bones were kept when the grave was to be re-used. I was quite astonished to hear they washed the bones in wine (not the good stuff, I hope).

Kayaköy, The Abandoned Village

2012-01-10T16:00:00.002Z

The village of Kayaköy, in southern Turkey, used to house a Greek population. When the Greeks returned to Greece, no-one moved in, and the village has gradually fallen into disrepair.

The site is run as a museum, with a small entrance charge, but it's worth it to wander through these deserted streets. We were there "off season" so it wasn't swarming with tourists, either.

Why pay for a gym membership...

2012-01-08T16:00:00.001Z

... when you can keep fit on these outdoor gym machines?

We found these up a hill in Kemer, the little town near my dad's place in Turkey. I'd definitely go to the gym more often if it had views like these! (Though probably only on nice, sunny days... I think I can see why this makes more sense in Turkey than England.)

Before I'm 30 - two year review

2012-01-06T16:00:00.005Z

It's two years since I sat down, on my 27th birthday, and made this list.

That means I only have one year left to make as much progress as I can against the goals I've set myself. And that means I have to get organized, and get ruthless.

Some of these are big goals, like my PhD, towards which I'm making slow but steady progress. Will I finish in time? It's virtually impossible to predict, and not entirely up to me (there are examiners, after all, to examine me...) but I'm still hopeful. I have a reasonably concrete plan, and none of the steps feel too huge.

For others - like learning new juggling tricks - I'm simply going to have to find some time to set aside. But that's a large part of why I made the list in the first place: to encourage myself to set time aside for things that I wanted to work on. Time to stop procrastinating and start doing stuff...

	Previous 6 Jul 2011	Latest 6 Jan 2012
Academic
Complete my PhD	First tranche of experiments	Changed topic & conducted more experiments
Publish in an academic journal	Not started	Papers in draft
Present at a conference	Presented a short paper & poster in January 2011
Home
Install a woodburning stove	Fitted August 2011
Redecorate the house	Completed in August 2011
Install solar water heating	Idea scrapped - not cost effective
Build raised vegetable beds	Not started
Travel
Go to Greenland	Visited in June 2010
Visit the southern hemisphere	Probably New Zealand in 2012
Have visited 30 countries	Started at 20; up to 23 by Jan 2011.	27: added Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Turkey.
Writing & Speaking
Have a novel published	Independently published my first two novels (Rebellion & Revolution) - getting great reviews so far, and reasonable sales
Finish the Charanthe series	Rebellion (#1) published	Completed & published Revolution (#2)
Finish writing one standalone novel	Odd first-drafts lying around
Record and podcast an audiobook	Done some test recordings
Have articles printed in 10 different publications	1/10 so far; a few further queries ignored.	Writing a travel series for a local talking newspaper/magazine
Average 5,000 hits a month on my blog	Started ~1,500, avg. ~2,200 in early 2010	Over the past six months the average is ~4,000
Get a slot on the local radio station	Took a short course in radio production and broadcasting, but decided not to proceed.
Take at least 5 public speaking engagements	One completed talk	Two further bookings for 2012
Crafts & Skills
Hand-knit a jumper or cardigan for myself	Knit myself a cardigan
Learn embroidery	Various projects
Learn 10 new juggling tricks	Not started
Use manual camera settings most of the time	Currently rather erratic	Started a Project 365
Get my Guiding warrant	Around 1/2 done
Develop a board game	Made an initial prototype (lots of work still to do!)
Make all my own Christmas cards	Succeeded in 2010
Complete a triathlon	NEW July 2011 Started training
Sew a dress for myself	NEW July 2011

Project 365 (on manual)

2012-01-04T16:00:00.008Z

One of the things I put on my "Before I'm 30" goals list was to learn to use manual settings on my camera. But there's one problem with this as an aspiration: when I want to take a photo, I usually want to take it NOW, straight away, while the light is perfect or the bird is poised... not after however many minutes of fiddling around and consulting textbooks and thinking about apertures.

I've been toying with the idea of doing a Project 365 since I first saw some of my blogger friends posting their results. (For anyone who's unfamiliar with the concept, the idea is to take a photo every day for a year.) This seems like a good way to get to where I want to be. Every day, I'm going to take a photograph. But here's the catch: I'm going to take it with my camera set to M. I expect the results to be dreadful, at first, but hopefully this will force me to improve, with the hope that I'll eventually get to the stage that I can pick settings without feeling like I'm faffing for an hour. Unfortunately I already missed one day, due to being fast asleep most of yesterday, but it'll be good to give myself a bit of extra structure to my practice, even if I don't manage to complete it perfectly.

December Book Reviews

2012-01-02T16:00:00.001Z

I deliberately picked out a lot of Christmas reads for December (in fact, I'd been saving them up over the summer), so there's a seasonal theme to many of these books. There also seemed to be a fair few Christmas freebies on the Kindle, particularly short stories, so I read somewhat outside of my usual genres this month. Of course, I also managed to fit in a couple of fantasy and sci-fi books, and one (wintery) murder.

The Makers of Light by Lynna Merrill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the second book in the "Masters That Be" series, and an excellent continuation. Like many fantasy series, this is more like reading sections of one long book than individual novels. Compared to the first book, this volume has slightly less focus on Linden and Rianor, and more on Dominick and Merley, but in terms of ideas there is a continued examination of science and religion, control and independence. And there's plenty going on, of course, which makes it a very quick and fun read.

Sugar Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This story was much shorter than most in this series, so there wasn't much complexity in the mystery, but it was an enjoyable - if simple - Christmas read. It's also absolutely packed with recipes (savoury as well as the usual cookies), but I don't know if I'll use any of them.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

One day, I accidentally gave myself something like migraine by running a command that caused huge amounts of data to scroll (very fast) on my computer terminal. It was a long file, and I was smart enough to look away after a few seconds, but for a couple of hours after I couldn't actually stand up straight. "Sounds like snow crash," said a sympathetic friend, and then he had to explain this book, and of course I had to read it. There's actually a lot more action (and swordfights) than you might expect from a book about a computer virus, and it's entertaining, but the style annoyed me a bit and the ending was a bit inconclusive, so overall I'm ambivalent. I enjoyed it, but probably not enough to reread.

Fear not by Anne Holt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a fairly tense mystery with a snowy Norwegian backdrop that's just perfect for this time of year. The themes, however, are grim and not at all merry - a good read, but by no means a light one. In the beginning the style felt a bit jumpy as the story moved between many viewpoint characters, but gradually the plot-lines started to converge and make sense as a coherent and satisfying whole.

Twelve Days of Christmas by Trisha Ashley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought it would be fun to read some Christmassy books during December, and this one was in the Kindle sale, so I picked it up without any real idea of what to expect. It's a very sweet book, with an entertaining cast of characters snowed in at a country house, and I really enjoyed it (although the style bugged me a bit - too many exclamation marks! Everywhere!). And then, just as I was finishing it, I learnt that this is going to be one of my mum's PhD texts - I can't wait to hear what she has to say about it.

The Quaint Christmas by Darren Craske

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Although perfectly readable, this short story was really disappointing. Quaint is described as a witty and cunning man, and he sets out to con his way to some birds for Christmas dinner - but no detail is given as to how his plan is meant to unfold, and then the ending was rather sudden and unsatisfactory.

All I Want for Christmas is You by Lisa Mondello

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a gentle Christmas romance, but it didn't really grab me; everything fell into place rather too easily. But then, it's also quite short, so I suppose that's understandable. A pleasant enough way to spend an evening, but not a favourite.

Six Geese a-Laying by Sophie Kinsella

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a microscopic short story, that I grabbed as a seasonal freebie on Kindle. It takes place in an ante-natal class, filled with largely unlikeable characters who really need a bit of Christmas cheer.

A Winter's Tale by Trisha Ashley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this because I enjoyed Trisha Ashley's Twelve Days of Christmas, and I think I'm spotting some common themes: country houses, enigmatic sculptors, and fiercely independent, slightly snappish heroines. In this book, Sophy inherits a large house with money problems, and sets about making it profitable, with help and hindrance from a variety of relatives and local characters. Great fun.

A Simple Amish Christmas by Vannetta Chapman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a very sweet, gentle story about an Amish girl who returns to her family after a period away, which she spent 'rebelling' by becoming a registered nurse. Although it's set around Christmas (as per the title), there wasn't a heavy emphasis on the time of year, but there was a great sense of Amish life as Annie tries to settle back into the ways of her community.

Draykon by Charlotte E. English

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a sweet fantasy novel with a pleasing mix of fantasy and adventure. For the most part, the book follows two characters: a young and anxious jeweller, Llandry, and a cynical High Summoner, Eva. When Llandry finds an unusual new gem - and Eva buys a piece of the resulting jewellery - they are both sucked into the mystery of where the stone has come from and why someone is prepared to kill for it. I love a good mystery, and I love a well-developed fantasy setting, and this book has both in spades. Definitely one of my favourite books of the year.

The Baby Trap by Sibel Hodge

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I suspect this is the perfect novel for someone who's struggling with infertility. Unfortunately, as I've never tried to get pregnant, I'm not immersed in that world and consequently spent a lot of this book feeling slightly sick at the descriptions of bodily functions and medical procedures. The story was sweet, and there were laugh-out-loud hilarious moments, but I just couldn't get past the "ick!" for long enough to love it.

2011 Retrospective

2011-12-30T16:00:00.000Z

It's a new year, and that means that - in what's fast becoming a blogging tradition - it must be time to look back at the past twelve months.

In January we said farewell to an old car, which had been sitting on our drive for much too long, and waved it off to its new life as a racing car.

February was a busy month, in which we hiked up icy mountains and started volunteering for the National Trust, and we also got our bedroom back after four months of complete redecorating chaos. (It would take until August to get the downstairs finished.)

We had a weekend in Devon in March, where I learnt to shoot with surprising success, considering I can barely make out the target at that distance.

In April I baked a traditional Simnel cake for Easter - which turns out to be a great all-purpose fruit cake recipe, which I've used several times since.

May took me to the US East Coast for a conference, and we headed to Virginia's Great Falls for a day off.

Then in June, another conference sent me to Portland, Oregon, where I spent a lovely afternoon wandering (and sipping tea) in the Chinese garden.

We spent the first two weeks of July touring the Baltics, a trip that I still haven't finished writing up here (though it's on my to-do list, I promise...)

In August I tried adding ginger to my favourite chocolate brownie recipe, with delicious results.

September's baking adventures took a more savoury turn, with the invention of a cheese and onion cookie recipe, now a lunchbox staple in our house.

We had an unexpected visitor in October, when we hosted the winner of a local poetry competition.

In November we went to Turkey to visit my dad, and I was impressed by the way that pomegranates fall apart on the tree.

December is always a busy month in "real life", and consequently rather quiet on the blog front, but I did have the pleasure of interviewing Melissa F. Miller, one of my favourite new authors.

Happy new year, everyone. Are you looking forward to 2012 yet? If you've written a similar retrospective post, I'd love you to share it in the comments.

Christmas Greetings

2011-12-24T16:00:00.001Z

Merry Christmas!

Wherever you are this Christmas, and regardless of whether you're celebrating or hiding from the festive rush, I hope you'll have a lovely time surrounded by your family and friends.

I won't be blogging much for the rest of the year, but this is always a quiet time of year for the blogosphere. Normal service will be resumed on January 2nd with my now-traditional review of the past year's posts.

The photo is from a couple of years ago - no snow yet this year!

Experiments in gluten-free baking

2011-12-20T21:36:00.002Z

My mum is vegan and wheat-intolerant, so on a recent visit it seemed like a good time to experiment with one of the more challenging parts of baking. I wanted to have a go at some cookies, and my mum recommended the chocolate cupcakes from Erin McKenna's Babycakes book. She also had a recipe for choc-chip cookies, so we tried those too.

It's a bit of a novelty for me to follow a recipe, but we kept reasonably close to these ones. There was a lot of emphasis on apple puree and coconut oil, in both recipes.

I had a taste of the cake mixture as we were spooning the mix into paper cases, and my initial analysis was that it tasted of beansprouts. We could only guess this was down to the chickpea flour, which is after all raw and bean-like. I hoped that taste would go away after cooking, but although it was less noticable, I still thought the finished product tasted strange. Perhaps it would have been better if we'd iced them?

The cookies, on the other hand, were pretty tasty. You could really taste the coconut, but since coconut goes nicely with chocolate, I don't see this as a problem! I might even have been tempted to throw in some flaked coconut to make it seem more deliberate. The texture was a little unusual, a bit more bouncy than you'd usually expect from a cookie, but they were tasty and I'd be happy to eat more.

I'll have to experiment a bit more to find something I'm really happy with, but it was interesting to try someone else's recipes, and to know what I'm trying to improve on.

Shakespeare & Company

2011-12-18T16:00:00.002Z

"On Wednesday 14th December, 2011, George Whitman died peacefully at home in the apartment above his bookshop, Shakespeare and Company, in Paris. He died two days after his 98th birthday."
— from shakespeareandcompany.com

On my first visit to Paris, my mum took me to see Shakespeare & Company. In a lovely spot overlooking the Seine, this is no ordinary bookshop. Tucked in amongst the rows of shelves, beds and blankets wait for any stranded writers who may need a place to lay their head. In exchange for this unorthodox accommodation, visitors simply have to give a few hours of their time, helping in the shop. I've always sort of wanted to stay there, just for the romance of the idea, even though I can perfectly well afford a more comfortable bed in a hostel or hotel.

So it was sad to hear of the passing of George Whitman, who founded this Parisian institution. However, his daughter is continuing to run the shop in the same manner, and for as long as the tradition continues, I'm sure George won't be forgotten by the literary community. And if you're in the city, why not pop in and enjoy the atmosphere for yourself?

Sigara Borek - A Turkish Recipe

2011-12-14T18:00:00.002Z

This recipe is entirely thanks to my dad, who reconstructed it from some sigara borek he'd eaten, and taught us to make them, in his kitchen in Turkey. The hands in the photos (below) are also his. I really want to make these again now we're home.

We also tried making a few with jam, as we had some spare wrappers, but I don't really recommend that - the jam leaked out all over the pan, and was too sweet for anyone except Andy!

Sigara Borek Recipe

1 green pointed pepper
1 white onion
1tbsp olive oil
2in cube white cheese
a handful of fresh herbs (we used dill and flat-leaf parsley)
3 yufka sheets
More olive oil for frying.

Chop the onion and pepper as finely as possible, adn sautee in a little olive oil until soft. Set aside to cool.
Chop the herbs, grate the cheese, and add to the cooled onion/pepper mixture.
Cut each yufka sheet into eighths, radially. Spoon a little of the filling mixture onto the wide end of each triangle.
Fold in the corners and roll up to make a 'cigar' shape. Moisten the end of the triangle with a little water or oil to seal.
Heat a little olive oil in a pan, and fry the borek in batches, turning occasionally until golden-brown. Eat immediately.

Notes on ingredients:

* The borek wrappers are properly known as yufka, a kind of very thin bread/pastry sheet made from flour and water. This may be hard to get outside of Turkey, but you could use filo pastry as a substitute (and the result will probably be a little more crispy). Yufka comes in large, circular sheets so you'll need to experiment with the size of your triangles if you're using something else.

* Turkish white cheese comes in a variety of forms with no obvious names (at least, at the market). The type we used tasted a bit like feta, but had a firmer constituency and grated more neatly than feta would.

Matsutake Mushrooms in Turkey

2011-12-12T18:00:00.003Z

In the small town of Kemer, in southern Turkey, is a shoe shop with a sideline in mushrooms. This is my dad's local shoe shop while he's in Turkey, so he's got to know the owner a bit, and asked why there was a sign outside the shop with pictures of mushrooms. Not just any mushrooms, mind you: matsutake are a Japanese favourite, selling for prices in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars per kilo. Which, quite frankly, sounds rather a lot for even the tastiest funghi. They grow up in the Turkish mountains, and Hasan exports them - via Fethiye and Istanbul - to Japan. Well, of course we had to try some to find out what all the fuss is about. Apparently it's the closed-cap ones that are the most valuable, so we got some of the opened-out-and-slightly-cheaper ones.

We cooked them up with loads of garlic and some fresh thyme that we'd picked in the nearby mountains. The flavour wasn't much to write home about, in my opinion, but they did have a very good, solid texture so I can see why they might be good as a base for other flavours and sauces. But the top Japanese prices still seem a bit excessive to me! I'd love to know more about what Japanese dishes they're used in, and whether they really are worth the price.

Author Interview: Melissa F. Miller

2011-12-10T16:00:00.001Z

I recently had the pleasure of reading Melissa F. Miller's first novel, Irreparable Harm (available in paperback and ebook formats). Heroine Sasha is a hot-shot young lawyer, but the novel has as much high-kicking martial arts action as it has complex legal arguments and courtroom battles. I really loved it, and was delighted to have chance to ask Melissa a few questions about her writing.

I see from your biography that, like Sasha, you're a lawyer. Are you also a secret Krav Maga ninja? And if not, where did you get the idea to give Sasha that particular skill set?

I wish! No, I can’t kill you with my bare hands. I knew I wanted to make Sasha a physically small person, because I find it really interesting how small women are often underestimated. Some of the most formidable female attorneys I know are diminutive--but, they don’t live the life of the legal thriller. I needed Sasha to be able to kick physical butt, despite her size. And I wanted it to be believable. As it happens, I have a good friend, who is not an attorney, but who is a small woman who practices Krav Maga. I’ve always been fascinated by it and she carries herself with a great deal of authority. So, the Krav Maga scenes are the result of picking her brain, watching YouTube videos, and reading about the self-defense system. That said, I wish there were a Krav Maga class near me, but the closest is over an hour away. I will jump at the chance to learn it, though, if the situation ever presents itself.

Did you find it hard to fit in writing a novel alongside your legal career? How did you juggle your time?

Oh my goodness, yes. Running a law firm with my husband takes a great deal of time, between practicing law and doing all of the administrative work that comes with owning a business. But, it also gives me a lot of flexibility as to when I work. So, my schedule is pretty fluid. The juggling really comes in with the kids. We have three children, who are currently 6, 4, and 15 months. So, a lot of my writing time is grabbed piecemeal—twenty minutes here, 250 words there. In addition, I have an extremely supportive husband, who holds me to a schedule of writing two mornings a week (unless some child-related activity interferes). He takes the kids to do something fun and I go into the office for a solid three hours. The rest of the time, I steal from sleeping. I stay up after the kids go to bed and/or get up before the sun rises to make a big push on word count when I don’t have to feel guilty about neglecting my family. I may not practice Krav Maga like Sasha, but I definitely rely on coffee to function just like she does!

How would you describe your approach to the process of writing? Do you use any specific techniques for plot or character development?

In a word, scattered! The way it has worked so far, is I have gotten the idea for a novel either in the shower or while driving. This is more frustrating than it sounds because the idea comes complete with entire scenes, lines of dialogue, etc. written in my head. By the time I can safely write it down, though, the specifics have evaporated and all that remains is the idea. But, using that idea, I start sketching out a really barebones plot. I’ve learned not to outline in any detail because I end up scraping almost all the original plot, with the exception of that initial nugget of an idea.

Character development is really an interesting process, for me, at least. Sasha was originally going to be a female commercial pilot named Grace. But, I couldn’t write her. I resisted having a protagonist who was so much like me—i.e., a female attorney, but Sasha was fairly insistent and forced me to scrap Grace. As an aside, I am aware that I sound like a crazy person when I talk about my characters. But, it is completely true that my characters don’t necessarily develop the way I want them to. I sketch them out in broad strokes, but then they take on their own personalities. I have learned that if I try to force them to act in ways that they don’t want to, I end up with a mess of a scene that I can’t use.

Approximately how many books will you need to sell to match the starting salary of one of Prescott & Talbott's junior associates?

If I sell 80,000 books at $2.99, I would match the $160,000 starting salary of a first year associate at Prescott & Talbott. That’s before bonus, of course!

Will there be more from Sasha in future books?

I am putting the finishing touches on Inadvertent Disclosure, which the second book in the series. Here’s the blurb for it:

When Sasha goes to rural Clear Brook County to argue a plain vanilla discovery motion, she's not planning to stay long. Aside from the wealth of natural gas trapped in the Marcellus Shale beneath the town, there's not much there. But when the county's only judge appoints her to represent a cranky old man at his incapacitation hearing, she's thrust into the middle of a bitter dispute over hydrofracking.

Then the judge is murdered. Sasha sticks around to bring the killer to justice. The only problem is, in a town hotly divided, she's not sure who to trust and who to take down.

Inadvertent Disclosure will be available before the holidays.

I have future plans for Sasha, too. I’m working on the first draft of her third book, Irretrievably Broken. Then, I guess, I’ll just keep at it, until I run out of legal doctrines that begin with the letter “I”!

That sounds great - personally, I can't wait for the chance to read Inadvertant Disclosure. Do you have any other projects up your sleeve?

Non-Sasha projects that I have kicking around are a YA suspense novel and a woman’s fiction novel in the style of Karen McQuestion or Jodi Picoult. I also have a crime fiction novella and a crime fiction short that are clamoring for attention. I could definitely use more hours in my day, but I guess that’s true for all of us!

Thank you so much for reading Irreparable Harm and for inviting me to connect with your readers, Rachel.

Thanks Melissa!

Peeling Pomegranates

2011-12-04T16:00:00.001Z

I'm sure that if you live where pomegranates grow, you've seen this a thousand times. But until last week I'd only seen them in supermarkets, so it came as a surprise to see what happens when the pomegranates stay on the tree beyond ripeness, and start to burst open and peel apart, scattering seeds onto the ground like fragrant red raindrops. I'm not that keen on eating pomegranates, but it was great fun to see them "in the wild" like this.

November Book Reviews

2011-12-02T16:00:00.005Z

The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I'd heard a little about this series, and almost the whole lot were suddenly on sale for Kindle, so I picked this up for 99p with the idea of working out (before the end of the sale) whether I want to read the rest. Turns out, I don't. I found it really hard to get interested in the plot, the characters were shallow stereotypes who I didn't much care for, and I ended up skimming to get to the end.

66 Degrees North by Michael Ridpath

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a fairly good read, but the story skipped around a lot in time and place. I read (and enjoyed) Where the Shadows Lie earlier in the year, so I was familiar with a number of the characters, but I felt that the balance was really off between the 'main' murder mystery plot of this novel and the ongoing sub-plot of Magnus' father's death. Too much time was spent on episodes from Magnus' family history, considering that this sub-plot hasn't been resolved yet; I would have prefered to read more detail on the current case, instead.

Shereen Travels Cheap by Shereen Rayle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a mixture of general principles and useful websites. The principles will remain useful, but I worry about the longevity of the web information. I also found that several useful websites were listed under multiple chapters (for example, a booking site which handles flights and hotels); this wasn't inaccurate but started to feel a little repetitive. Another minor niggle, as I was reading in ebook form, was that I rather wished the sites had been hyperlinked.

That said, there's a lot of good stuff in here. I'm fairly obsessive about getting good travel deals, but I still hadn't heard of all these sites. I found the chapter on cruise savings particularly interesting, as we have been considering booking our first cruise - but only if we can get a good enough deal. And Shereen is good at focusing on 'value' and not just headline costs.

Of course, if you really wanted to save your pennies, you could find all these ideas online - but this is a handy compendium and would be a great starting point for a beginning traveller. This is probably a really great gift for someone who's always saying that they would like to travel but can't afford a holiday.

The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was recommended to me, with the caveat that I should "ignore the homeopathy". That did sort of make me wonder what I was letting myself in for, but once I started reading, I realised that the homeopathy in this novel is just a type of fantasy magic - leading to some interesting discussion with the friend who suggested the book to me.

The novel focuses on Ariel, a PhD student studying thought experiments (in an English department). But her supervisor is missing, the university is falling down, and things only get weirder after that. Somehow everything is connected to an obscure book called The End of Mr Y, which Ariel finds in a second-hand bookshop. This is a really quick read with plenty of action, but along the way it manages to sneak in some interesting ideas about the nature of thought, language, and the universe. Definitely a bit different to standard fantasy fare, even while remaining basically a story of magical journeys to other worlds.

The Diva Runs Out of Thyme by Krista Davis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a fun mystery which I struggled to put down. The cast of characters with the complex relationships of the narrator and her family made for a classic 'country house' scenario - even though the first murder seemed to have nothing to do with Sophie. The ending was rather chaotic, but most of the loose ends were eventually tied up.

Shadow by Karin Alvtegen

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book takes a very dim view of human nature. The story is intriguing but ultimately just depressing, with its focus on anguished writers, and subtext that art can only come from the unhappy and tortured soul. There are very few smpathetic chatacters -and those who appear,do so only briefly. Also, the Kindle version is entirely in italics, making it very hard to read.

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anyone who has already invested hours of their life in the first two Song of Ice and Fire novels will almost certainly want to read this one, and anyone who hasn't would be lost within a few pages, so I'm not sure who I'm writing this review for. This is a good continuation of the series, although it loses focus for a while as everyone wanders around looking lost. But intricate schemes continue to evolve in all quarters, and we're left in an interesting position ready for the next one. (I still feel this is more like one very long book than a series with individual story arcs.)

The Secret Mandarin by Sara Sheridan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a gentle historical adventure written, so far as I can tell, for people who don't like adventures. The setting is beautifully drawn and I very much enjoyed the rich Chinese backdrop, but most of the potential dangers stayed very much potential (in the head of the narrator-heroine) and those which materialised were then averted with ease. A pleasant read, but it could have been much more dramatic.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is another classic, the plot of which I've always known, but which I'd somehow failed to actually read until now. Wilde's prose is easy to read, and it's packed full of oft-quoted phrases, but sadly this wasn't really a gripping read. The beginning and end are enjoyable, but in the middle it wanders off into extensive descriprion of Dorian's obsessions with gems and embroidery, which lost my interest completely. I'm glad I've read it now, but I doubt I'll need to read it again.

Plague & Poison by Steven J. Pemberton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the second novel in Steven Pemberton's "Barefoot Healer" series, and continues with the theme of magical mysteries. Our heroine Adramal has barely recovered from her adventures in the first book when things start to get "interesting" for her again, and a new sequence of adventures takes her to new places and new friends. This time her aptitude for trouble gets her to a plague-ridden village where her healing magic is seriously tested. I really enjoy this series, and can't wait for the next one to come out.

Chili Con Corpses by J.B. Stanley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don't usually start a series in the middle, but this was a Kindle freebie, so I thought I'd give it a try. Apparently the 'Flab Five' have some experience of solving murders, but that didn't seem to help them much, and the whole thing rather stumbled towards its conclusion. The characters were quite engaging and the Mexican recipes made my mouth water, but I'd need to be convince the mystery would be better before I'd buy another.

Lye in Wait by Cricket McRae

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a cute and enjoyable mystery that I picked up when it was free for Kindle. I liked the characters, and the precise unfolding of events kept me guessing to the end, though I was a little disappointed by the way it was resolved. I would read more in the series if they were less pricey (the sequel is currently £8!)

Another Empty Room

2011-11-30T16:00:00.001Z

I was just sorting through old (ish, from a few weeks ago) photos and realised that I'd never got around to posting photos of our newly-decorated downstairs. So here they are: photos from before we got any furniture moved in. It'll never look this uncluttered again, that's for sure. Note the amazing woodburning stove, which is currently our main source of heat, and upon which we've already cooked many dinners. Yep, the upheaval of decorating is now feeling distant enough that I can start to think in terms of why it was worth it! (If you saw the equivalent empty-room pics of our bedroom, you now know approximately what half of our house looks like.)

Welshcakes Recipe

2011-11-28T16:00:00.001Z

Welshcakes have long been on my list of things to learn to make, so I was happy to come across a recipe leaflet. Of course, I can never just follow a recipe without tweaking it, so this is my variant - but it worked pretty well.

We made them in a frying pan, but now it's winter I really want to try doing them the traditional way on top of our wood-burning stove.

Welshcakes
Makes about 30

500g self-raising flour
75g sugar
2tsp mixed spice
250g butter, chilled
200g raisins
1 egg
a little milk or water

Combine the flour, sugar, and spice in a large mixing bowl, breaking up any lumps.
Cut the butter into small cubes and rub in to the flour to make 'breadcrumbs'.
Stir in the fruit.
Break the egg and add, along with a couple of tablespoons of liquid, and knead into the flour.
Add just enough extra liquid to form a stiff dough.
Divide into small balls and flatten to about ½-1cm thick, and about 4cm diameter. Of course, you could roll out the dough an use a pastry cutter, if you care about getting neat circles.
Heat a heavy saucepan over a medium heat, without oil. Cook the welshcakes until lightly browned on each side - this should take about 4-5 minutes per side once the pan is hot.
Cool before serving.