Food Love Friday: Korean Ox Tail Soup

I know that, for most people in the country, September is still summer. Not so in Alaska. Gardens and flowers are in their last days. Gloves are necessary for the morning trek to the bus stop. And we'll have snow before the end of the month.

Which means it's a perfect time to shove the summer recipes into mothballed crates under the bed and pull out the winter comfort foods. I've been considering stews lately, like spending whole afternoons staring out the window thinking about which stock to use - the rosemary and red wine, the onion base, or the tomato? My seven year old went in another direction. He wanted beef, specifically beef tails (ox tails, per the olde school labeling at the butcher), specifically Korean Ox Tail Soup.

It's called Kkori Gomtang and it's perfect for cold days. It does take a couple of days to make, unless you wake up reaaaaally early in the morning and don't eat dinner until midnight.

The ingredient list is crazy simple:
ox tails
water
daikon radish
green onion
salt and pepper

(I added that picture so you could see how simple the prep is, and also to show off my favorite knife. Love ya, little Katana)

I may have accidentally dropped some garlic into the stock pot toward the end, because I seem to always be doing that. I used THIS recipe for the soup and THIS recipe for accompaniment kimchi (which we may have accidentally dropped into our soup bowls because we seem to always be doing that as well). That's a quick kimchi recipe, so there's a little less tang to it if you eat it fresh. The tang comes from the fermentation process, as do the naturally occurring probiotics, so you might want to go for a more mature kimchi, but plan ahead for that. Oh, or buy it from the store.

The cooking process is simple. The results are rich and satisfying. If you're worried about whether your family's western palate might have trouble with this, consider the simplicity of the ingredients and maybe tone down the amount of chili you add to the kimchee. Or eat it when it's fresher. The soup itself should appeal to anyone who enjoys fall-off-the-bone beef or wild game.

Find Me Elsewhere

As you can see, I've fallen off the bloggin' wagon. The bloggon. But (!) I am still around.

Find me on Tumblr - pictures, memes, books, amusements

Twitter - updates, comments, recommendations, amusements

or Goodreads (yes, under the other name) - books, book recs, book talk, amusements

DANGEROUS LITTLE HALLOWEEN

TRAVEL PICS: NAPA, CA

Last week my husband and I took a trip to Napa, CA to celebrate out tenth anniversary several months after the fact. It was gorgeous - clear and bright and mid-nineties. Everything was delicious. Some pics.

View of Napa Valley

Vineyard Hobbit Hole - Probably the best Hobbit Hole

Flower at Rombauer Vineyards - gorgeous little hillside garden

Pool cat

My spirit animal, at Hope & Grace 

NEWS: NEW SHORT FICTION PUBLICATION

I assume most people who read this oh-so-infrequent blog are like me: insatiable readers who, no matter how deep and precariously stacked the to-be-read pile gets, are always looking for more stories.

I'm a binge-reader, a re-reader, and an adventurous reader. Point me toward words you're passionate about, and I'm off to the site or the stacks before you're done describing the new literary love of your life. Anthologies and literary journals/periodicals are brilliant for when I'm not sure what to read next or when I've had a bad run of stories that weren't meant for me. Or when I'm dipping my toe into a genre I haven't widely read before.

Apropos of that, today Fireside Fiction starts their third year. Fireside is a pro-paying market that hosts brilliant fiction (please forget I said that in the next paragraph) that tends toward but isn't exclusively speculative* fiction. It also features glorious art, which this year will be created by Galen Dara.

My flash fiction piece "The Cutting Yield" will be in the opening issue. I'm especially stoked that this year's serial novel was written by Lilith Saintcrow. I'm a huge fan. Last year's serial author, Chuck Wendig, was no slouch either.

*What if?

THE CARNIEPUNK MIDWAY

So this is pretty freaking awesome. My CARNIEPUNK publisher, Simon & Schuster, set up a freaky-pretty website to celebrate the release of the individual short stories.

Come one, come all to The Carniepunk Midway. The release schedule for the shorts, which I believe will be available simultaneously as digital shorts and audiobooks, is as follows:

September

Each published individually on 9/8/14

CARNIEPUNK: THE COLD GIRL

Rachel Caine

CARNIEPUNK: THE DEMON BARKER OF WHEAT STREET

Kevin Hearne

CARNIEPUNK: PARLOR TRICKS

Jennifer Estep

CARNIEPUNK: A DUET WITH DARKNESS

Allison Pang

CARNIEPUNK: THE SWEETER THE JUICE

Mark Henry

December 

Each published individually on 12/15/14

CARNIEPUNK: DAUGHTER OF THE MIDWAY, THE MERMAID, AND THE OPEN, LONELY SEA

Seanan McGuire

CARNIEPUNK: THE THREE LIVES OF LYDIA

Delilah S. Dawson

CARNIEPUNK: RECESSION OF THE DIVINE

Hillary Jacques

CARNIEPUNK: A CHANCE IN HELL

Jackie Kessler

CARNIEPUNK: HELL'S MENAGERIE

Kelly Gay

January

Each published individually on 1/12/15

CARNIEPUNK: PAINTED LOVE

Rob Thurman

CARNIEPUNK: THE WEREWIFE

Jaye Wells

CARNIEPUNK: FREAK HOUSE

Kelly Meding

CARNIEPUNK: THE INSIDE MAN

Nicole Peeler

FUN, FUNNY & A LITTLE BIT VIOLENT: MEET ABNER SENIRES, AUTHOR OF THE KAT & MOUSE SERIES

Hey, all. I'm a slacky blogger lately, but even a slacker jumps at the chance to delve "behind the scenes" of a dynamic author. I'm happy to have Abner Senires here chatting about the influences that percolate in the KAT & MOUSE coffee pot of the mind.

I started reading KAT & MOUSE a few years ago as a subscriber to the serialized cyberpunk story, and I love it. The ladies had me hooked from the get-go. It's fun, it's funny, it's a leetle beet violent. (If you know me, you'll see the appeal)

Before I start, I'd like to thank Hillary for hosting me today for this stop on the KAT AND MOUSE SEASON TWO book blog tour. Hillary has been one of the biggest supporters of Kat and Mouse and their adventures so I'm honored to be here today.

Now, on to our topic...

Movies, TV, and Writing Fiction

I grew up watching TV and movies. From the Johnny Weismuller Tarzan movies, to the Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials, to Thundarr and Thundercats and Robotech, to Robocop and Star Wars and Ghostbusters, from The A-Team to Star Trek to Next Gen to Xena and Buffy and Firefly, to Raiders of the Lost Ark and Aliens, to Terminator 2 and The Mummy and Jackson's Lord of the Rings, to Underworld and Resident Evil and Serenity and Pacific Rim.

And everything in between.

While a solid drama could be a good watch, what made my blood race was a well-done actioner. And if there were sci-fi and/or fantasy elements in the movie? Bonus.

Had I taken a different turn early on, I think I may have ended up in Los Angeles working in film and/or television.

But that's not the road I took.

I chose to go down the prose writing road.

And even on that road, TV and movies--sci-fi/fantasy action-adventure in particular--color the kinds of stories I come up with. Kat and Mouse owe a lot of their flavor to those sorts of movies and TV shows. Roller coaster rides in prose. Running gun battles with combatants twirling and twisting and leaping and wielding twin pistols. Walking away from an explosion in slow motion.

Fellow writer Joshua Roots describes my stories like this: "It's John Woo stuffed between two slices of Michael Bay and wrapped in hand grenade-flavored bacon."

Yeah. It's like that.

"But why movies?" you ask. "You're a fiction writer. The written word. Surely you're more influenced by fiction and other fiction writers rather than celluloid fantasies."

I probably should be, right? Influenced by fiction and other fiction writers?

Don't get me wrong. It was fiction that got me started on the writing road. Had I not read what I later learned was Fredric Brown's short story "Arena" or Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall," I would never have decided to try my hand at writing prose and fallen in love with it. Asimov was my gateway author to written science fiction. J.R.R. Tolkien was my gateway author to written fantasy.

But my favorite science fiction and fantasy writers were my favorites not so much for their writing but for what they had done with that writing. Asimov's prodigious output. Tolkien's massive worldbuilding. Heinlein's time-spanning future history. Howard's and Lovecraft's creations.

Oh, there are a couple of writers whose actual writing stick in my consciousness. David Eddings continually wows me with his character interactions, especially the group of main characters in his Belgariad and Mallorean series. It's one of the reasons those are my "go to" comfort books. And Robert B. Parker's minimalistic prose, particularly in his Spenser novels, always floors me with its understated punch. Raymond Chandler is another user of punchy prose although his always has a hint of lyricism that makes me smile.

But more often than not, when I'm writing about Kat and Mouse--or writing other stories for that matter--I inevitably think to myself "Oh, this part here is like the news reports in Robocop and Starship Troopers" or "She's very much like Xena" or "It's Buffy and Scooby Gang patter" or "Then they end up like Jack and Wang in the bowels of the Wing Kong Exchange."

Back to movies and TV.

Which brings us back to the question: "Why movies and TV?"

For me, I think it's two things.

First, the audio-visual aspect. Visuals mixed with music, voice, and sound that puts the viewer smack dab in the middle of the action, engages their senses, and stirs up their emotions. A vicarious thrill. 

Second, it's a story told within a defined and confined space. A TV episode is either 20 minutes long or 45 - 50 minutes long, not counting commercials. A feature film is between 90 minutes and 2 hours long. It's an immediate, exhilirating experience and then it's over. Like riding Space Mountain at Disneyland.

I try to add that audio-visual aspect into every story. It works out that way in my head. Yes, I realize it's probably missing the music and sound effects but I hope it translate to the written version to some degree.

That "story within a defined space" also speaks to the part of me that likes structure. And TV episodes and movies have an inherent structure. Whatever needs to be told, it has to be done in that space of real-time and it requires several underlying aspects for the whole thing to work.

So yes, I am a reader and I do read. Because that's one of the things writers do.

But I also am an avid TV and movie watcher. Sometimes, more so than reading.

Books may turn on the movie in your mind.

But sometimes the onscreen version is better.

One more thing: that "story within a defined space"? I really think that's why I tend to work short. Easily digested in a sitting. Even my two early trunked novels were on the shorter end of the word count scale. And the majority of my stories average between 8,000 and 12,000 words.

To me, it seems more natural to work shorter. Or as Gimli puts it in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: "We dwarves are natural sprinters! Very dangerous over short distances!"

See that?

Back to movies again.

AUTHOR BIO
Abner Senires writes sci-fi pulp adventure and probably drinks far too much coffee. He lives just outside Seattle, WA with his wife and a pair of rambunctious cats.
WEBSITE: www.AbnerSenires.com
BLOG: blog.AbnerSenires.com
TWITTER: @abnersenires

KAT AND MOUSE, GUNS FOR HIRE: PAYBACK
Things are heating up for near-future female mercenaries Kat and Mouse as they tackle even more hair-raising jobs for shadowy clients and run afoul of terrorists, freedom fighters, hired assassins, a Japanese crime syndicate, and warring punkergangs. And smack in the middle of this, an enemy from the past is back and wants revenge on the duo.

Now these two sassy sisters-in-arms must fight back and survive...and still get their jobs done.

Available from:
Kindle
Smashwords/epub

Secret Gardens, Secret Lakes

My son wanted to grow pumpkins this year. I told him that summers probably aren't long enough here. He was startled when I showed him the seed - it looked just like a pumpkin seed.
Every day I run to the back yard to see if we've achieved orange. Not yet.

 Secret gardens, secret lakes

I planted beets in tall, thin containers, without considering how much depth they'd need for roots. The first few I pulled had curled roots, spiraling at the bottom of the pot. This is the first to bolt.

CRANK. COMPLETE. REPEAT.

I'm not of an artistic disposition. Not of a stereotypical artistic disposition, at least. I'm only spontaneous about the most mundane of things. I keep a tight rein on my moods (they do swing, but since they tend to veer toward "rude" and "nuclear" more than "whimsical", I don't feel that they're generally fit for public consumption). I'm idealistic, but also practical because I interact with other humans daily and those fuckers know how to keep a girl's feet solidly on the ground, if not buried ankle deep in mud.

I love to create and, when I'm really in the swing of things, I truly do think and view everything differently (read: better, more interestingly and on a more encompassing basis). But I also work full time at a demanding, analytical job, and have a spouse whose job creates some political friction for us, and am raising a child in a society that doesn't seem to have much regard for encouraging children in their growth and learning. In other words, I'm spread too thin and generally tired and frustrated. Not the best mental environment in which to grow stories, with the exception of depressing stories about exhaustion and frustration. Because everybody wants to read those, right???

No? WEIRD. :P

So I'm putting myself back into the rigid routine that allows me to produce two novels+ a year, the same routine that makes me write even when I don't particularly feel like it or there's a better offer to be had (sleep, usually, or books that other people have made themselves finish). The nice thing about the routine is that I don't have to give myself deadlines; they're organic to the process. If I follow the routine - 1-2 hours a week night and 3-4 hours a weekend day - then the stories will be finished. They'll get edited. They'll get into the greedy, outstretched, clawed dove-wing soft and glorious hands of my beta readers. And they will get themselves into various submission queues. After that? It's out of my hands, but at least I'll have gotten to that point.

That's my trick. My muse is dedicated time and quiet. Boring, I know. But I currently have four complete novels in various states of polish that were produced by this process, and it's time to do something with those. Then, of course, there are all the other Shiny New Babies to be plunked into the routine for shaping.

That metaphor sounded gross, like I'm starting a new job on a glossy baby conveyor belt, which I am not.

So I have a bit of news that I'll share later on, and I'm hoping to fit in some time to revise one of those novels and release it in an experimental fashion. And another novel, one that I'm so proud of that I can't even talk about it (anyone else have that? the things we like the most are the things for which we have the most heart-palpitating trepidation), will be published later this year.

So, yeah. Routine. Cranking. Production. Completion. Repeat. That's the wave I'll be riding.

BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER.

Christmas was pretty sweet this year. My mom gave me, from my late grandmother's kitchen, the Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking by Meta Givens. If you don't know about this things, it's epic. I've always experienced it as two hard-bound volumes full of classic recipes and food preparation/storage techniques and the science behind from-scratch cooking. This version, published in 1953 (its original copyright date is 1947) is a single volume. 1700 pages, illustrated and full of opinionated musings and straight-up strategy on how to work your kitchen like a tasty machine.

It also contains a menu for a full year, breakfast lunch and dinner. If I had the time, I'd attempt to follow it, starting with the first night's dinner: stuffed beef hearts.

I don't have that kind of time, but I'm going to explore this thing at every opportunity. Starting, of course, with appetizers. After all, who can resist morsels described thusly:

Canapes are midget open-face sandwiches charmingly decorated.

GENUS: Elves SPECIES: Not Santa's

Backstory:

1) My kid is obsessed with Youtube. He thinks it contains all earthly knowledge. It’s like the apple given to Eve, but with a kick-ass soundtrack.

2) My husband is currently reading The Hobbit to my son.

Story:

Over the weekend, I get out of the shower to find my kind on my laptop. He gives me a guilty side-eye and sinks in his chair. I check it out and find that he’s muted and paused what appears to be a “behind the scenes” clip from Lord of the Rings.

Me: You know you aren’t supposed to be on my computer, and you’re never supposed to use Youtube without permission.

Him: I know. *squirms* But, Mom…what is this?

Me: You know The Hobbit?

Him: Yes.

Me: This is Rivendell. Where the elves lives.

Him: We haven’t gotten to that part yet. *leans in closer, examining the details of the architecture, then glances up* The elves that help Santa?

Me: No. Bigger elves. They’re bigger than hobbits, as tall as or taller than humans. More swords, fewer toy workshops. Now, off my computer.

Him: Okay. *runs off*

I checked his search history. He’d searched for “The hobbit” four times – misspelled each time – then  “Mario and Luigi” – spelled correctly – then “Luigi wins”, then "Mario gets mad", then “funny cat videos, no swords”.

YEAR END, BEST OF

Thrilled to share that Suspense Magazine has named CARNIEPUNK a "best anthology of 2013".

Their review is here, or you can pick up the magazine at their website.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Be thankful, be grateful, and be ready to fight for the things you love.

BARGAIN BOOKS FOR NYCC!

This weekend I'll be at home, vicariously enjoying New York Comic Con through Twitter with a plethora of mopey friends. Luckily one of my publishers, Simon & Schuster, had taken pity on us non-conners and put some of their fantasy and science fiction e-books on sale for NYCC! They'll also, I believe, be selling them at the Con.

Click HERE for sales links.

Happy Reading!

ALIENS AMONG US

On Friday we decided to run away down to Seward, AK. It's the end of the season. Boats have sailed south and been pulled out of the water. Restaurants and other businesses are closed until spring. We were going to hike to the glacier but it was about 37 degrees, with the additional unpleasantness of drizzle and a breeze (also the name of my '70s Sonny & Cher tribute band: Drizzle and Breeze).

So we went to the Sea Life Center. In addition to having wonderful sea lions and seal exhibits, tons of educational material, the Sea Life Center has an amazing rehabilitation program.

The highlights for us today were the octopus, who was crazy active, and the moon jellies. The latter mostly because the harbor had been full of jellyfish, and while my son found those "icky" and "looking like floating brains", the moon jellies are tidy, elegant little creatures. Their dark enclosure makes it look like they're circulating in space. All very cool.

BIG THANKS FOR A SHORT STORY

The act of writing may be solitary, a single brain in a single body in a lonely chair in a dark corner. But stories rarely make it to the shelf without help.

CARNIEPUNK is an anthology which includes 14 authors. Behind those 14 authors are an editor - Adam Wilson - assistant editor, all kinds of lovely bookish people and artists at Simon & Schuster, a stellar agent in Suzie Townsend, and enthusiastic first readers and supportive (or at least begrudgingly accepting) families and friends.

Huge thanks to the early readers of my short story, Recession of the Divine:

Brent Swanson

Alex Reagan

Joshua Roots

Jolanda Jongedijk

Tiffany Allee

THERE'S ART IN HERE!

The five year old happened upon CARNIEPUNK. While I'm thankful that he can't yet read all the words, he was pretty thrilled with the look of the book ("there's art in here!"). You, too, can be thrilled by the look of the book on July 23rd. :)

HOT TIME SUMMER IN THE CITY

My husband has been telling me that we haven't had a good summer in Alaska in ten years. He moved here ten years ago, and that was a good summer - plenty of sun, some heat, some fish if I remember correctly - but since then they've been cloudy and dismal and cool. And we haven't gone fishing in a long time. Last year we broke the record for rainiest summer. That was a proud day. :/ Global warming seemed to have passed us by.

However, suddenly we are beset by hordes of mosquitoes

I am writing - from the linoleum floor of the downstairs bathroom - this in the heat. Like, the INTENSE heat. Our house faces south and its ugly face is splashed with windows, to make the very best of the paltry light and heat Alaska normally has to offer. Now it's like a convection oven, only instead of cookie pie we're cooking people.

As you do.

However, winter (It was still snowing in the middle of May) fled in a hurry, to be replaced by its bigger honey badger punk sister, summer, and now we're mobbed by mosquitoes and fainting from the heat while walking to the mailbox at ten in the morning. In reality, it's about 85 degrees. But that's like 595 degrees for Alaskans, because we do temperature like dogs do years. Also, we don't have air conditioning.

I'm ignoring the heat and the ungodly bug bites by writing, sneaking it in between 9 p.m. and midnight. And yes, it is still light the entire time. I'm reaching the tail end of Night Runner 2.0. I wrote Don't Bite the Messenger as a kind of wish fulfillment novella in the dark days of a rough winter saddled between two bad summers, when all I wanted was to get the hell out of Alaska. I would not surprised if Sydney and Mal end up at the North Pole by the time I'm done with this story.

So what are you all doing to beat the heat of summer? Are you plopping down in kiddie pools with sangria and books? Dipping into the darkness and icy A/C of movie theaters* Gorging on sriracha popsicles?




*I recommend The Croods. Slapstick family fun. Gorgeous animation. A little scary for smaller kids, particularly those raised on the geographical Ring of Fire and who have developed phobias thanks to earthquake and volcano drills.

STEP RIGHT UP...CARNIEPUNK ARC WINNER

Thanks for all the comments and tweets about the CARNIEPUNK ARC giveaway. This is a stellar urban fantasy anthology, featuring some good friends and great authors. I can't wait for all of you to read it, but as the Highlander says, there can be only one! ... winner of the ARC giveaway.

Hope Evey is the winner. Hope, please email me at writerjakes AT gmail DOT com with your mailing address, and I'll get his posted to you.

To everyone else, thank you for the interest. Do stay tuned because there are a few upcoming announcements related to the anthology, and I may just have another ARC or copy up for grabs prior to release.

A DAY AT THE ZOO

Today is gorgeous. It's over 60 degrees. No snow. No gale force winds. A perfect day for an outdoor activity, like chasing the five year-old all the hell over the zoo - which is full of hills and stairs and loose gravel - while wolverines and baby musk ox watch.

Actually, we couldn't find the wolverine, but that doesn't mean the wolverine wasn't watching us! (This is how I make zoo trips more exciting, by pretending I can see cut wires or tunnels burrowed under the enclosures that are empty. The kids love it, I tell you.)

We did get to see a few beasties on the move that we normally only find sleeping. Also, camels sound like wookies.

Prayer Bear (Grizzly)

Polar Bear, every day hustlin', hustlin'

Snow Leopard, moving with intent

Bactrian Camel, sounds like wookie

Happy Bear is Happy...also fatal (Grizzly)