Happy Holidays!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Trees

after our weekend noreaster ...

And the one inside ...

FAR FROM YOU

Lisa Schroeder, author of I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME, is celebrating the release of her upcoming YA novel, FAR FROM YOU, and hosting a contest with LOTS of great prizes!
For three days leading up to the book’s release date of December 23rd, you can watch VLOGs and hear some excerpts read from the book. The VLOG schedule is as follows:
Sunday, December 21st – Liv’s Book Reviews - http://livsbookreviews.blogspot.com/
Monday, December 22nd – What Vanessa Reads - http://whatvanessareads.wordpress.com/
Tuesday, December 23rd – Lisa Schroeder, author - http://lisa-schroeder.livejournal.com/ AND http://myspace.com/writerlisa
Help spread the word, and you might win a fabulous prize!
Copy and paste THIS entire blog entry into your blog between now and December 21st, then come back to Lisa’s blog at either Livejournal OR Myspace and leave a comment with the link to your blog and you will get TWO enteries to win a number of prizes.
Wondering what you might win? Here is the list (there will be multiple winners):
~ An Advanced Review Copy of THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, by Carrie Ryan
~ An Advanced Review Copy of SOMETHING, MAYBE, by Elizabeth Scott
~ Young adult novel GIRL, HERO by Carrie Jones
~ Young adult novel, THE POSSIBILITIES OF SAINTHOOD by Donna Freitas
~ Young adult novel, UGLIES by Scott Westerfield
~ Pair of YA fairy tale retellings by Cameron Dokey (BELLE and BEFORE MIDNIGHT)
~ TWILIGHT movie soundtrack
~ $15.00 Barnes and Noble gift card along with some Harry & David’s chocolate moose munch
~ And of course, a signed copy of FAR FROM YOU
For more chances to win, watch one or all of the VLOGs and leave a comment on that vlogger’s page, and you get another entry. That means if you post the schedule on your blog AND comment on all three VLOGs, you can have FIVE entries for the contest!
A live drawing with winners announced will be done by Lisa Thursday morning, December 24th, in a special holiday VLOG.

Library list

Since I’m not going to be able to write much starting next week, I’m off to the library to get a huge pile of books to sink my teeth into. YA and MG books I’ve been planning to get to for a while – The Adoration of Jenna Fox, The True Meaning of Smekday, Chains, Octavian Nothing etc. and a whole lot of research books. It’s becoming clear that I need to read translations of everything from Al Biruni, Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo to Chand Bardoi and who knows what else (oh, and anything on monsoon traders in the Indian Ocean) to really get a feel for 12th century India …. FUN!! Meanwhile I’m starting Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies …

* picture of chinese junk by Maurice Koop through Flickr.com creative commons

Snow Dog

Who would have thought a puppy from Puerto Rico would love snow :-) ?

long day ...

This has been a crazy day …

So far I
1. ... woke up late and realized that my son has his 4th grade band concert today and must be at school half an hour early … with his snare drum and bells - GAH!
2. scrambled madly to get there – took lots of pictures and video clips, choked up at the cuteness of it all
3. ran home to do my daughter’s hair since hubby cannot be trusted to achieve a ponytail (never mind a braid) and what with lice you cannot send her to school with open hair
4. got daughter to school just on time, went home, let out the puppy, and rushed to Panera to catch up with two school moms who invited me to a cuppa after the band concert – why? I haven’t been at school as much, have no clue what is happening in son’s class, and therefore have guilt
5. went home, took the puppy for a long walk, went over obedience school homework, cancelled daughter’s piano class (she has brownies), read e-mail and rushed to Panera for lunch with local writer friend/school mom (and lifesaver) for help and advice on synopsis
6. rushed home, picked up the puppy, went to school to pick up kids

and it’s not over yet – I’m pausing NOW for a deep breath before

7. taking daughter to brownie meeting – with gifts for her secret santa child
8. cooking dinner
9. nagging son and daughter to work on their long term assignments (due Friday!) and
10. taking the puppy to obedience class, two towns away, before finally coming home (hopefully to kids that have bathed, eaten and done their homework)

Tomorrow I plan to sit in my pjs after dropping the kids off at school and simply write (alas - walking the puppy cannot be avoided) before school pickup time. Thank heaven hubby and cats can look after themselves.

Onwords and upwards

That’s the new name of our SCBWI critique group. Onwords and upwards of central Mass. We’ve been meeting for years, but recently, Kate, a dedicated and talented writer, and a good friend, decided we needed a name, a mission statement, guidelines, monthly goals and what not. Thanks to her we now have all of these, and start meeting at our newly booked spot at Debbie’s temple in Jan 2009. I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved and look forward to working together in the New Year.

Kate, BTW, is also the guiding force behind a weekly online novel critique group I’ve joined – ACT (Authors Critiquing Together). Full of vim and vigor, our Kate!

I’m really grateful for all of them and for my other online writer buddies at UA, Uma’s Alumni.

Onwords!

Cat monologue - part 2

CAT'S LOG : Stardate: Dec 14th 2008

The blob is growing, devouring everything in its path. It has increased its total weight by 6 lbs in the last month. I have been separated from Commander Sona, I can only hope she went to get help.

I have retreated to higher ground ... where I wait, and watch, until someone, or something, comes to the rescue ...

Math manual

I'm reading an ancient manual on mathematics; the Lilavati. It is research for my current WIP. The faces of a succession of my old math teachers, wearing identical incredulous expressions, keeps popping into my head ... though whatever I once knew about quadratic equations and deferential calculus seems to have vanished completely ...

Those who hold at their throats the accurate Lilavati, illustrating elegant sentences, whose parts are adorned with excellent rules for reduction and multiplication and squaring [etc.], attain ever-increasing happiness and success.

Bhaskaraacharya 1150 AD Ujjain

Cat monologue

I am the great and mighty Rakhan, killer of mice, keeper of catnip, listener of 80's rock, king of the house, Fabio of cats ... and they replace me with,

THIS

shocking ... I tell you, shocking.

Kahani sighting

My son was home with a cold yesterday. Funny how, when you’re dying for everyone to go back to school/work after a long break, they get sick on you. What’s up with that?

Anyway, we worked on his 4th grade biography project. He’s doing Nehru. We scanned the library network to find a Juvenile biography on Nehru, and put the only one near us on hold. Then, after picking up my daughter from school, we drove over to Wellesley to pick up the book. I love the Wellesley library (after the Natick library of course) but I was in a hurry to get home. The puppy was probably howling his head off in his crate. I was shooing the kids out of the kids section, when my daughter yanked hard on my fancy shawl (nearly asphyxiating me in the process).

“MUM,” she said, “look!” She pointed at the stacks. There were copies of Kahani Magazine on the shelf. Kahani is a magazine I’ve had a couple of pieces published in. It is an excellent magazine, but since it caters to a niche market (South-Asian American kids) you don’t normally see it in, say, the dentist’s office.

“Where’s your story?” Kiki scanned through the back-issues. The issues with my stuff were not there. “Someone’s checked it out!”

Ravi was completely underwhelmed. His aunt (my sis) has thousands of copies of her book in print, after all. But Kiki smiled all the way home. I think she finally believes I’m an honest to goodness writer.

Pumpkin with five spices

We don't do turkey for Thanksgiving.

My Mother-in-law makes a huge, awesome, Indian meal. But it's completely vegetarian.

And we make another meal at (our) home. I usually cook a chicken dish, but never a full roasted bird. This year it was chicken biryani, a layered rice and chicken curry casserole.

If you want to try something different, here's a simple way to make butternut squash, Indian style.

Wrap the squash in foil and roast until soft. I usually have other things baking and can just stick the squash in the oven at the same time.

Mash the squash. Add salt and sugar.

Now comes the fun part! There’s a blend of whole spices, available at all Indian grocery stores, called pachphoran. Pachphoran means five spices. They are cumin, fennel, mustard, onion and fenugreek seeds. The picture I took is kind of blurry, but you can still see the different kinds of seeds.

So, melt some butter in a pan, and add a spoon of pachphoran. Cover with a lid immediately! Because the mustard seeds pop right off the pan. When the popping stops, add the mashed squash. Stir. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Enjoy!

This works really well with puri, or nan. Or chicken biryani ! Oh, if you like things spicy, add some cayenne pepper.

I know I haven't given any carefully measured directions (just like my Mum!) but this is hard to mess up.