Spicy Spaghetti sauce -- recipe

Josh Aterovis’s Spicy Spaghetti Sauce

2 Quarts of crushed tomatoes
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 Cup Parsley
1/2 tsp Thyme
1 tsp Oregano
2 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp red (cayenne) pepper
1 large clove of garlic
1 medium onion
1 pound of hamburger

Combine tomatoes and spices in a large pot. In a skillet, saute onions and garlic in oil until the onions begin to turn translucent. Add to tomato sauce. Brown hamburger in skillet and add to sauce. Cook over low heat for several hours to allow the flavors to blend. Serve over pasta.

Contributed by Josh Aterovis, author of Bleeding Hearts...Quiet unassuming 16-year-old Killian Travers Kendall has always known somewhere inside himself that he was different from other boys... Then an openly gay youth becomes a student at his school. For the first time Killian has met someone who understands how he feels. When the new boy is murdered during a hate crime, Killian is also attacked and vows to himself to find the killer.

Anachronisms, anyone? -- writing tip

Questions: I hate to admit how stupid I must be, but someone in my writers group said I had "too many anachronisms." The dictionary -- "a person or t hing that is chronologically out of place, especially one from a former age..." didn't help. I don't write historicals OR time travel. Help?

Answer: In historicals it is easy to do. I once got into trouble with coin collectors who s were into sailing, when I gave a character in a story I sold to CHESAPEAKE BAY, a coin that wasn't minted until later.

But it can happen just as easily in modern stories. For instance how many cop shows still work to keep the person on the line long enough so t hey can trace the call? Come on? Can't the cops afford caller ID??

Or it can mean using a word that wasn't coined until later, as well. Okay, for instance was not in use until the late 1800s. Ken Kesey worked very hard in one of his novels to find the word "jacinth" which is what "orange" was called before the 1700s. The color existed, as did oranges, but the name for the color, and the gem stone it was derived from, was jacinth.

In a World War II novel, nobody can go on the Internet to contact someone, they will need a telephone. They can't punch buttons on the phone, or DIAL, becayse they will not hear a "dial tone" but someone saying, "Operator. Number please?" and getting through long-distance could take them hours. Though they can "rant" about the delay to friends, they can't do it on Facebook.

But it doesn't have to be a historical story. In writing, it can be anything that is out of place in the time of the story. A character who goes upstairs, when he woke up in the attic two paragraphs ago. A character who lights a cigarette, when he has just lit one and not yet put it out (unless that's the point).

This is very easy to do and often slips past editors and copy editors alike. One of my own early stories was set in San Francisco and had a character that jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge!!!

Once I was reading a historical romance set in Elizabethan England. Later, I realized that the feeling of ill-ease I had while reading was because the author had written it first as a modern story, then set it back in time, because the dialog was all modern English.

There was a wonderful wedding scene. It had whole roasted pigs, jongleurs (what the hell is a jongleur, anyway?), lute players and troubadours singing bawdy songs of wedded bliss. Wonderful jewel-encrusted costumes, too. Then a minor character praised the cheese served in the wedding "buffet," saying to the bride's father, "Where did you get this wonderful cheese?"

To which the bride's father replied, "Oh, I'm glad you like it, okay? We had it flown in special."

"Buffet" and "okay" would have been bad enough, as in Elizabethan times "buffet" was a cupboard not a selection of food and "okay" didn't come into use until the 19th century. But "flown in?" How?

Please help me Catch up....and newspaper writing tip

My list of "print books to do next" got filed by the cats. I have searched, but to no avail. I may have missed doing paper editions for some of you. If you have been waiting a long time to hear from me about a paper edition, please, please contact me at arline@mail.com with a reminder. These most probably would be books that debuted last spring and summer....

Auntie Arline's Recipe for writing a newspaper article (or press release)

INGREDIENTS

The e-mail address for the newspaper or TV/Radio station can usually be found on the web site, masthead or the editorial page.

1 Headline (You can suggest one, but they will probably change it due to space limitations.

1 bottom line (What happened or will happen?) What? Where? When?

2 or 3 quotes, from someone who says something interesting, given accurately as to facts, but cleaned up as to grammar.

3 to 5 facts to do with the bottom line. (Who? and What? Why?)

1 byline and/or contact information, your e-mail, phone number etc.

1 reminder

1 Blank Page

.jpgs as available


On Blank Page, type the contact information at the upper right hand side: Your name, address, e-mail address and Phone number.

Type Headline Centered

Place bottom line first -- always give the most important information first!

Follow with a quote, choose the most positive one you have if it's a press release.

Distribute facts liberally throughout, putting in the most important ones first. Editors only have so much space and will simply highlight the bottom of the text and delete enough to make your information fit.

Garnish with quotes, that are attributed and qualified. But be careful never to make anyone look a fool. Plug local people and businesses whenever possible. Local outlets like this, it helps with advertisers. If the president of the hospital board says, "Me and Doc Rogers run over to see where the accident happened so as to give first aid." Type it in as, "Doctor Rogers and I went to the scene of the accident and offered first aid," said hospital board president Homer Hapwell, a local businessman and owner of Homer's Used Cars, and qualified as a volunteer EMT with Rescue Fire Company.

Add or attach .jpgs and put captions for them at the bottom!

Catching UP!

Books that went to press, or back to press, in Paper this week:

SNOW ESCAPE by Roberta Goodman

Paper Galleys that went out or went back out this week:

CLASS REUNION by Michael E. Field


Work continued or began this week on the following in paper:

PORTALS by Eleanor Cross
SNIPER ON THE ROOF, by Warren Graffeo
HIDDEN GOLD OF MU, by Milton Brown


Work on e-book files continued or was updated on the following:

A GHOST AT STALLION'S GATE, by Elizabeth Eagan-Cox
LOOKING FOR MIDNIGHT, by Helen Chappell
A FRIGHT OF GHOSTS, by Helen Chappell


Manuscripts we're still waiting on, that are being corrected by the authors:

COLLECTED STORIES OF VICTOR URIBE, by Victor Uribe
A GRANDFATHER'S GIFT, by Hugh Carter Vinson
DRAGON-SPEAKER, by Ray Morand


OUR Ebooksonthe.net best-seller list for January at NOOK. This is just for the highest-selling titles for our small company at Nook, not for the whole NOOK web site. It does, however, make those on the list, officially, "Best-selling Authors."

1. A GHOST AT STALLION'S GATE by Elizabeth Eagan-Cox
2. A GHOST MEETS AN ANGEL, by Elizabeth Eagan Cox
3. A GHOST FROM THE SHADOWS, by Elizabeth Eagan-Cox
4. A GHOST OF A CHANCE, by Elizabeth Eagan-Cox
5. SLOW DANCING WITH THE ANGEL OF DEATH, by Helen Chappell
6. A MEDIC IN IRAQ, by Cole Bolchoz

Why won't my characters behave? -- writing tip

Question: I wrote an outline. I know my story inside and out. But the characters keep going off and doing something else. What am I doing wrong?

Answer: The good news is, in writing there's no wrong way to do it. However works best for you, is the Right Way. There are two kinds of writers. Those who plan everything. And those who work on instinct. Most writers have a bit of both. For myself, I am never able to plan everything, though I taught thousands of students that outlining is a MUST, because that was in the curriculum I was hired to teach.

In the beginning I wrote lots of outlines. Then my characters, like yours, had minds of their own. Finally, I gave up trying to outline everything and settled for knowing where the story began and how it ended, then wrote my way, scent-by-scene, until I got there.

In my novel, GHOST DANCER, a New York debutante travels west for her health and meets a Medicine Man. The main character’s sister was used only as a impetus to get her to travel west. I had no plans for Elaine to be in the BOOK at all. She was a catalyst to get her sister on the road west, nothing more.

To my surprise Elaine walked into a scene in Montana, saying she'd had a "perfectly horrible trip." I started over. She came in again and refused to leave. I gave up and wrote a whole other scene. But Elaine wouldn't let me rest. She insisted on arriving, meeting the hero with some trepidation, and immersing herself in a steam-heated bath in the train's private car.

Later, I figured out that I needed Elaine badly to take over some action that would have made my main character look like a nitwit. But Elaine knew that all along. That’s why she kept showing up and making a nuisiance/fool of herself.

Trust your instinct. Give your characters room to take over. When they do, they may have a better story in mind that you could imagine.

Hush Puppies -- recipe

Tonya Ramagos’s Hush Puppies

2 cups yellow cornmeal
2 tbsp. Flour
1 tbsp. Salt
½ tsp. Baking powder
2 tbsp. Chopped or grated onion
2 ½ cups boiling water

Mix all ingredients, except boiling water. Slowly pour ingredients into rapidly boiling water, stirring constantly. Cook until mush-like. Remove from heat. Shape, while warm, into 2-inch balls or patties and place on waxed paper to cool. Brown in deep hot fat. May be made ahead and kept in refrigerator several hours before frying.

Contributed by Tonya Ramagos, author of the Stockland Firefighter Series

What is sub-text? -- writint tip

Question: What is sub-text? Someone said mine was "unclear?" Huh?

Answer: Subtext is what the reader understands from what is said, though it isn't really said.

Sounds a bit difficult, I know. But we all hear it and understand it every day. Usually, in dialogue, it's what the reader infers from what the character has said.

For instance:

In dialogue and narrative both there is always both text and subtext. First there is what is said, and second what is implied by what is left unsaid. Often, subtext, which the reader picks up on, is as important as what is actually said. Look at the following:

“Oh, is that slide show at the library with the nature photographer tonight?” John grimaced. “I’ll go if you want, but I’m really tired. After all, I was out to the Bible Study at church last night and you stayed home and read. This makes two nights in a row, for me. Of course, I don’t like to mess up your plans....”

Sounds like a nice husband trying to be understanding, right?

Wrong.

Of course he wants to mess up her plans. If he didn’t, he’d say, “You go ahead, hon; I’m too tired tonight. The subtext of the above dialogue is, “You couldn’t find time to go with me last night, so I’m NOT going to be nice about what you want to do tonight.”

The reader understands that the husband is being crappy on purpose and so does the wife. Though she can't very well say so, out loud.