Wednesday, April 24, 2013

What's in a name?

By now I hope you've all heard that Unbridled is now live on Nook and Kindle. It's still processing on Kobo, and I may republish it because of formatting issues. The Smashwords edition was a real pain to format, so those versions may be a bit longer in coming. I hope to have book 2, Uninhibited, ready to go next month.


Indie publishing is risky, but Sourcebooks has struck again. I received word yesterday that they're retitling Rascal as Renegade (which, as you may recall was the original title of Virgin) and have set a publishing date of July 2014. I'm not happy about either of those things, but since they've ignored every other issue I've had, I'm sure they'll ignore me on this one, too.

Happy Hump Day!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Tasty Tuesday Shoyou Chicken!

I think I'm out of recipe ideas, so I must dip into my files for one that Donna sent me a while back. Haven't tried it out yet, but it looks quite tasty! I didn't even fix dinner last night. We had Chinese takeout--per Sam's request as opposed to because I didn't have time to cook.

Well... maybe I didn't have time. I've been working on getting Unbridled published and getting fallen limbs out of the yard and getting the weed trimmer started (Budley did it with 3 pulls. Grrr...) and then he had to start the chainsaw for me and get it out of its chain break mode so I could cut the dead limbs out of the trees--at least the ones I could reach. But the lawn mower started right up, thanks to its new battery, and the yard is starting to look decent again. Ah, the joys of spring...

Take it away, Donna! 

"Shoyou Chicken is  Hawaii's answer to Teriyaki Chicken. Chicken thigh meat is marinated in a sweet spicy soy sauce marinade, then grilled and served with rice.

SHOYOU CHICKEN(12 servings)

Ingredients

  • 1 cup soy sauce
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root
  • 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon ground paprika (optional)
  • 5 pounds skinless chicken thighs

Directions

  1. Whisk together the soy sauce, brown sugar, water, garlic, onion, ginger, black pepper, oregano, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, and paprika in a large glass or ceramic bowl. Add the chicken thighs, and toss to evenly coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
  2. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat, and lightly oil the grate.
  3. Remove the chicken thighs from the marinade. Discard the remaining marinade. Grill the chicken thighs on the preheated grill until cooked through, about 15 minutes per side.
And in case anyone is interested, Unbridled is now live on Amazon!
http://www.amazon.com/Unbridled-Unlikely-Lovers-ebook/dp/B00CHFGK82/ref=sr_1_25?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1366719304&sr=1-25&keywords=Cheryl+brooks

Monday, April 22, 2013

Monday Moons!

I could probably post more Florida pictures, but while I was camping with Suzie, I found something even better in my inbox--the covers for the Unlikely Lovers series! I'm doing one last read-through of Unbridled before publishing it, so it won't be long now!

Check out the cover!


I'm  very pleased with all of them. Dragonfly Press Design did a fabulous job, and it was so nice to have input throughout the process. I may not make a fortune self-pubbing, but whether I succeed or fail, I can at least say that everything was done the way I wanted it to be done. *:D big grin

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Thursday Thoughts

This trip was a lesson in why I should post blogs to go up the entire time I'm on vacation. Figuring I'd have good web access, I'd done a week's worth, but I was gone a lot longer than that, and I'm not even sure when I'll get home. I was supposed to visit my sisters this weekend, but we had to postpone it until the first weekend in May. I'm okay with that, actually. As a native Louisvillian, I really should be in Kentucky for the Derby. I miss getting the all-day Derby coverage, which was the best part for me--even more so than the race.

And here's the kicker! A lady came up to us while I was posting blogs and asked if Suzie and I were together. Stupid me, I said yes, and she handed me a card about a lesbian something or other. I'm like, "We're not together that way." Turns out she writes lesbian erotica. Suzie gave her one of my cards. You just never know what people will think when they see two women sitting together in McDonald's....

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Tasty Tuesday Tequila Lime Chicken!

Here's a quickie recipe for the grill!

Tequila Lime Chicken

2 Boneless Skinless Chicken breasts, butterflied
Olive oil
Mrs Dash
Seasoned salt
Juice of one lime
1 oz tequila (Quervo Gold if you've got it!)

Marinate the chicken for about six hours and throw it on the grill and cook until done and feed it to the Sea Goddess of your choice!

Nah! Better to feed a nice, young beach hunk!

Monday, April 15, 2013

Monday Moons!

I've got to hurry this post up before I lose internet again. Blogging on the go is the pits with a glitchy computer and cellphone hotspot. So, without further adieu, here are a few pics.

This fellow visited our campsite Saturday morning. He seemed uninterested in crackers, but was curious enough to almost come inside our kitchen tent. 
Suzie went for an early morning walk and took some sunrise pics. Here's a nice one!


 I'm not gonna press my luck on Micky D's internet, so I'm logging off!

Enjoy your Monday!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Tasty Tuesday Jalapeño Popper Dip

I spotted this recipe somewhere. Facebook, probably. Anyway. I'm not taking credit for it, nor have I had the chance to make it yet, but as much as I adore jalapeño poppers, I'm thinking this will be a favorite for many years to come! 


Jalapeño Popper Dip

6-8 slices of bacon, diced and cooked crispy
2 8-oz packages of cream cheese, soft
1 cup of mayonnaise
4-6 jalapeno's, chopped and de-seeded. The seeds will make it fiery hot.
1 cup of cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup diced green onion

Topping:

1 cup of crushed crackers ( I used Ritz)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 stick of butter, melted


Preheat oven to 350.
Combine all of the ingredients into a medium bowl. Stir well.
Transfer to an oven proof dish. The size of the dish depends on how thick the dip is. The thicker the dip the longer it may need to warm up. I used this stoneware dish that is round and measures 12 inches across. My dip is usually about an inch thick.
Combine the topping ingredients and sprinkle all over the top of the dip.

Bake the dip for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly and enjoy with the hot tamale of your choice!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Tasty Tuesday Two Ingredient Lemon Bars!

I made a rather strange concoction for Easter. A friend of mine posted a recipe for lemon bars on Facebook. All you had to do was mix a box of angel food cake mix with two cans of lemon pie filling, spread it in a greased 9x13 pan and bake it at 350 for 25 minutes.Then let it cool and dust with powdered sugar.

Unfortunately, when I went to the grocery, they were out of lemon pie filling, so I bought cherry. It tasted okay, but 25 minutes wasn't nearly long enough. I'd give it at least 45 minutes, maybe longer, until the middle doesn't jiggle anymore. I had to bake mine twice. It comes out sort of spongy, but sweet and very moist. You can dust the top with powdered sugar if you like, although whipped cream would've been better.

I won't post the picture of the cherry. It was kinda ugly. The lemon version is prettier. I need to get the stuff to make it sometime when Mikey's home from college. He's a big lemon bar fan.

Then again, I'm not sure he's ever going to graduate. He says he'll finish in August, but he's been saying stuff like that for the past two years. Maybe I'll hold off on the lemon bars until he actually graduates.

Monday, April 1, 2013

April Fool!

Hmm... Easter was yesterday, April Fool's Day is today... I can't recall that Easter has ever fallen on the first of April, but apparently it will in 2018 and 2029. Just imagine the fun you can have with your kids! You can put rocks in their Easter baskets and tell them the Easter Bunny is on strike, or fill up those little plastic eggs with spiders and hide them in the yard.

On second thought, better not. Some kids would be scarred for life.

Still, while that alignment might not prove to be earth-shattering, something happened on this date five years ago that forever changed my life.


That's right. Today is the fifth anniversary of Slave's release. I was excited, of course, but I will also admit to feeling as though I'd been slightly jinxed. Would people think my writing career was a bad joke? Considering everything that's happened since then, I still haven't decided whether or not that jinx is still in effect, or if it ever existed to begin with.

Not long after Slave reached the bookshelves, I was talking to an astrologer. She told me that since Pluto had entered Capricorn, my life would undergo a series of changes (as I recall, the word she used was "upheaval") for several years. When I asked how many years this would continue, she replied, somewhat apologetically, "Fifteen." To say that there have been changes is putting it mildly. For one thing, I'm now a romance writer as opposed to a nurse. I can't say I didn't intend for this to happen, but what I can tell you is that it didn't happen quite the way I thought it would.

To further illustrate, I pulled this off a site called Alpha Life Trends: Pluto in Capricorn (November 2008 to2023)

CAPRICORN - Pluto moving into Capricorn causes you to shift your focus and opens up your intuitive insight. You have grown your own inner world and grown those qualities that truly matter. Your inner world has grown in deepening the values and power that naturally come with a Capricorn's ambitions and goals. Pluto moving through Capricorn, your own sign, pushes you into the type of directions that you have wanted, however your journey will have plenty of twists and turns. Ultimately, Pluto's movement into Capricorn shifts the type of journey into being one that is least expected. You will find that you have to run just to keep up with this new pace of your life. Pluto empowers and forces you to expand you energies into so many directions at once and you'll have to eat and sleep on the run. Your life will take off into a new direction and it won't return to anything that resembles "normal" in a long time. You will be running at a faster and faster pace. Then with Pluto continuing to transition through Capricorn, you will find that the spotlight is on you and you have become the important person overnight. This takes you into a ball game that you least expected, but yet one that has you in your field of expertise. Your confidence level is strong, but you are in a whole new league. You will find that your ambitions and goals will become very visible and you will become the spotlight of leadership according to the inner qualities that you have grown while Pluto has been in Sagittarius. Many Capricorn's will come into positions of leadership from situations experienced while Pluto shifts through Sagittarius and continues to unfold the Capricorn opportunities to meet issues of ethics in business dealings head on in order to show your true capabilities.

I can't honestly say that I'm "in the spotlight," nor have I become an "important person overnight," but I can certainly relate to that part about "running at a faster and faster pace." I've slowed down a bit in recent months, but I have a feeling even that will change before long--particularly in light of that part about all the "twists and turns" on my journey.    

Just hope I don't get washed away in the flood. *:D big grin