hyphenated words

 An Atlantic Fisherman's Life by B.R. Lynch 

Every work day could be their last. Nine to five is just a dream. Freezing spray, driving winds and menacing federal regulations aren’t the only things hitting them in the face.

Question from the e-mail:  Our reader's group spent most of the hour last week arguing about whether good-looking should get a hyphen or is just plain words. Thought I'd ask you, my old writing teacher, before going next time...

Answer: Nice to hear from you Corina. I'm no expert at grammar, as these posts will surely show, but to me it certainly gets a hyphen. A person can be described as good, but not as looking (a verb).


Hyphens are used to join words that would otherwise be individual, but that take on new meaning when hyphenated. Words like self-esteem, no-nonsense, and, yes, good-looking. One way to decide if a hyphen is needed is to ask yourself whether the phrase would make sense if you applied the two words individually.   



 

Scallops Provencal Recipe

Time Shadows: Shadows Chronicles Series, Vol. 1

by Sharon Jordan 

Even though she's a scientist with a Ph.D., Jacqueline Devore is so desperate to escape her vivid dreams that she will even consult a psychic.

Each time she closes her eyes, she finds herself inside the body of another woman, pregnant with twins and living in WWII France, where she is a caught up in the holocaust and moved from one Nazi prison to another.

Scallops Provencal

Ingredients

1 pound fresh bay or sea scallops
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
All-purpose flour, for dredging
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup chopped shallots (2 large)
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 lemon, cut in 1/2

Directions

If you're using small scallops, keep them whole. If you're using large scallops, cut each 1 in half horizontally (to make them more tender). Sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss with flour, and shake off the excess.

In a very large saute pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the butter over high heat until sizzling and add the scallops in 1 layer. Lower the heat to medium and allow the scallops to brown lightly on 1 side without moving them, then turn and brown lightly on the other side. This should take 3 to 4 minutes, total. Melt the rest of the butter in the pan with the scallops, then add the shallots, garlic, and parsley and saute for 2 more minutes, tossing the seasonings with the scallops. Add the wine, cook for 1 minute, and taste for seasoning. Serve hot with a squeeze of lemon juice.

SERVES 3

by Philip F. Harris

POLARIZING YOUR LIFE TOWARDS PERFECTION™ shows how duality consciousness can actually become your servant and a major tool in transforming your life. It provides you with the “fine print” that is often overlooked when trying to use the Law of Attraction to make your dreams a reality. By viewing your life holistically, you can use this book in a practical way to achieve a “total life make-over!” By using the “polarizing” techniques, you will come to the realization that perfection is not something you develop; it is something that you already are.

Question from the E-mail:  What's an anachronism? 

Answer:  Something out of place in time and space.  Like you're writing a Civil War Cavalry charge and one of the characters is riding a motorcycle instead of a horse.  Essentially, it's anything that the reader will know is wrong on the face of it. Anything that wakes your reader from the "dream" of the story.

Of course that's an exaggerated example, but I've seen some real "wake up calls" even in commercially published material. Once I was reading a historical romance set in Elizabethan England. Obviously the author had written it first as a modern story, then set it back in time, because.... There was a wonderful wedding scene. It had whole roasted pigs, jongleurs (what the hell is a jongleur, anyway?), lute players and troubadours singing soulful songs of wedded bliss. 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 a "buffet" was a cupboard, not a spread to eat from and "okay" didn't come into use until the mid-19th century.. But "flown in?" How? Carrier pidgeon?

Jupiter Cookies, recipe

by Celine Rose Mariotti

A story of two young friends who e-mail aliens on Jupiter! When their space ship arrives, so does a lot of adventure. When the space ship leaves-a special bond has been formed.

Jupiter Cookies

Original recipe makes 6 dozen Change Servings

• 2 cups butter
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups cornflakes cereal
• 1 tbsp Pineapple flavoring 
• 1 tsp. coconut flavoring 
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups flaked coconut
• 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
   
2. In a large bowl, soften or  melt butter in microwave, cream together the margarine, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Then mix in the corn flakes cereal, rolled oats, coconut, and chocolate chips.
   
3. Line cookie sheets with release, aluminum foil.
4. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto foil covered cookie sheets.
   
5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are lightly browned. Cool for five minutes on cookie sheet, the lift off the foil and allow to cool thoroughly.

Catching UP!

By Josh Aterovis

Winner of the Stonewall Society's 2002 

Pride in the Arts Literary Award 

in the Whodunit Category!

Killian Kendall is used to being overlooked, even in his own family. That's about to change. With the arrival of a new kid at school, Killian's whole world is about to be turned upside down. The new guy is openly gay and, for reasons he can't really understand, Killian finds himself drawn to him. When the boy is killed in a brutal attack, and Killian is injured in the process, Killian begins to questions everything around him.

Catching UP!

No books went to press this week.

One Galley Went out this week:

THE STORYBOOK, by Elena Dorothy Bowman
   A collection of short pieces, both fiction and non-fiction by favorite author, Elena Dorothy Bowman.


Work began or continued on the following titles:

EXIT PLANS, by Terry L. White

What happens when a group of senior citizens decide to manage the way they are treated at the end of their long and useful lives? Will they go along with the state of the art status quo – or find new reasons to get up on Thursday mornings to discuss their possible fates? Will they continue to live with loneliness – or find kindred spirits to share their journey?

THE MORGENSTEIN MURDERS: Jonas McCleary Series, Vol. 2, by C. M. Albrecht

Sequel to the popular SAND BLUFF MURDERS, detective Jonas McCleary moves to the city and finds himself facing a serial killer.
 
BLEEDING HEARTS: Killian Kendal Mystery Series, Vol. 1
   Winner of the Stonewall Society's 2002 Pride in the Arts Literary Award in the Whodunit Category! 

REAP THE WHIRLWIND: Killian Kendall Mystery Series, Vol. 2,  by Josh Aterovis.
   Suicide, or murder? That's the question in the second Killian Kendall mystery. Will Smith suspects murder when an old childhood pal drowns, and asks his friend Killian for help in solving the mystery.

TRUTH OF YESTERDAY,  by Josh Aterovis

ALL LOST THINGS, BY Josh Aterovis

CHANGE  OF WORLDS, by Josh Aterovis 

THE PROMISE, by Kaarina Brooks

Question from Virginia Winters

by Virginia Winters

Dangerous Journeys Series, Vol. 3

Genealogist-detective Anne McPhail is on holiday in Bermuda, visiting her sister. She stumbles upon a murder in progress and this time, she is more than just a witness, she is a suspect, dealing with a police officer who decides Anne is guilty, and sticks to it in face of all the evidence, or lack of it. But more is going on than a random murder. Anne is caught in the middle a dangerous assassination plot. When she inadvertently upsets the killer’s plan, he turns his attention to her. The risk spreads to her family and friends and then Thomas Beauchamp arrives on Bermuda.

When his role is revealed, Anne’s life takes a dangerous turn.

Question from the e-mail from Virginia Winters: 

My critique group brought this website to my attention http://www.general-ebooks.com It has all my books listed and the content available. I think it is all for free. Would you have a look at the site? It has a link to Smashwords which allows the books to be read online. They are in copyright violation, I think and I know that at least one of the other members of my group has told them to take his books off, but I thought I would check with you first.

Answer: 

Dear Virginia:

This is only one of the new Outlets that SmashWords recently added. As a distributor site, SmashWords sells our authors' books on many other sites and in formats that will work on almost any  brand of reader device, phone, and tablet.  SW lists our books for sale on their own website, and also -- if the files are correctly prepared for their "meatgrinder" distribution system -- distributes them to be listed at many other sales sites, like the one you mentioned, www.general-ebooks.com 

I have checked out the web site as you suggested and the Free Download gives them only a few sample chapters. That is all the customer can see, whether they read it on line, or ask for the "free download."  Then if they want to finish the book, they must come back and pay...

I chose one of my own books to try, the one I'm giving away free on our own web site right now,  and actually downloaded the 20% sample, and the sample ended at the same place as the screen sample, right in the middle of a sentence!

Most sites, including our own at www.writewordsinc.com are set up to show a sample of the work to the reader. This one is a bit longer than most, but at 20 %, it's certainly not enough to give away everything that happens.

As you know, Shelley and I are working very hard to make your books available to more and more customers, and so we have been concentrating on distributor sites that share titles with still more sites, such as SmashWords, and Kobo.com.

Happy New Year  and the best hopes for better returns for all of us in 2014!



 

Black Eyed Pea, Recipe

What would you do if you uncovered evidence of a 70-year-old murder? Would you notify the authorities or would you “let sleeping dogs lie?” These are questions that Cathy Billings must answer in Go Tell Aunt Rhody. When Cathy discovers Lynette’s hidden diary, it changes the rest of her life with it’s tale of love and death. As she reads, Cathy becomes obsessed. She cannot rest until she finds out what happened to Lynette and her long ago family intrigue.

NEW YEARS IN THE SOUTH

Calls for Black-Eyed Peas

The tradition is that the more you eat of this dish on New Years Day, the more prosperous you will be in the coming year.

6-8 strips of bacon
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 pound dried black-eyed peas
Water

Serves 4. Recipe may be doubled...

In a dutch oven Fry the bacon until crisp, remove. When cool, crush into small bits and reserve for later.

Add chopped onion to bacon drippings and brown lightly.

Turn heat on high.

Add water to fill dutch oven 2/3 full.  Add dried peas and bring to a rolling boil for 15 to 20 minutes. (The high heat will release any gases the peas may produce and make life much more pleasant for your luck-seeking dinner guests who may overindulge.)

Season to taste with Salt, pepper, and 1 tsp. sugar.

Reduce heat and simmer until soup thickens and peas are soft. May be kept warm on the back of the stove, or cooked ahead, refrigerated, and reheated in the microwave.

Garnish servings with  bacon bits. Serve with hot biscuits dripping with butter.

Some folks add dumplings at the simmer stage. Feel free to do so, if you are a dumpling lover.