A Writer Has to Eat: Madras Lentils

I recently went to Denver and visited the Penzey's Spice Market. Penzey's is a great source for spices. The spices are high quality, they have a great selection, and you can order them online. Here is the link: http://www.penzeys.com/ While I was at Penzey's I bought two types of cinnamon, Mexican and Turkish oregano, sweet curry, hot chocolate mix, peppercorns, and garam masala.

Today I decided to try out some of the spices! So I made:

Madras Lentils

Ingredients

1 pound dried lentils
2 bay leaves
6 cups water
salt

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 diced onion
1- 4 ounce can of green chilis
2- 15.5 ounce cans of red kidney beans (or 3 cups of prepared dried kidney beans)
4- 14.5 ounce cans of diced tomatoes
3 tablespoons of minced garlic
2 tablespoons of minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoons of garam masala
2 teaspoons of sweet curry
2 carrots, washed, peeled, and diced very fine
salt

1. Wash the lentils and pick through to remove any stones. Put the water, lentils, bay leaves, and salt into a pot on the stove top. Bring to a boil and simmer until the lentils are soft. Usually about a half hour.



2. In a large frying pan place the olive oil and diced onion. Saute the onion for 7-10 minutes, stirring constantly. Saute until the onion in translucent and beginning to brown. Pour in the can of green chilis. Put in the garlic, ginger, garam masala, and sweet curry. Stir to mix.



3. Add the diced carrots and continue to saute over medium-high heat.

4. Pour in the diced tomatoes and the kidney beans. Stir and heat for 10 minutes over medium heat.



5. In a crock pot place the cooked lentils and the tomato mixture. Stir and salt. Cook on low for 3-4 hours to meld all of the flavors.



6. Serve with brown rice and naan bread.

A Writer Has to Eat: Pumpkin Cornbread

Cornbread is a great addition to many meals. It is fab with chili or with Madras Lentils and brown rice. I was thinking about how wonderful pumpkin cornbread would taste and I created this recipe. I have included the ingredients to make vegan pumpkin cornbread and the alternatives to make non-vegan.

Pumpkin Cornbread

Ingredients



2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup honey
3 teaspoons egg replacer and 4 tablespoons water to mix it with OR 2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree (awesome use for the jack-o-lantern that was cooked down last October, pureed, and frozen)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup almond milk OR 1/2 cup cow's milk with 2 teaspoons sugar dissolved into it
1 1/2 cups cornmeal

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a cast iron frying pan on the stove top (don't turn on the heat yet). Place the 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in the cast iron frying pan.




2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

3. In a large bowl mix together the honey, egg replacer mixed with water until frothy OR the eggs, the pumpkin puree, the vegetable oil, the molasses, and the almond milk OR the milk and sugar. Beat together with a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer until smooth and consistent.

4. Mix in the corn meal.



5. Mix the flour mixture in and beat until the batter is consistent.

6. Heat the cast iron frying pan with the 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium to high heat on the stove top. Pour in the cornbread batter and distribute it around the pan. Let it "fry" only a couple moments to create a crust. Turn off the stove top.



7. Put the cast iron frying pan with the cornbread batter in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.



8. Yum!

Growing Carrots is a Matter of National Security

If you walk into any super market in the industrialized world, chances are good you will see a produce section overflowing with a wide and colorful assortment of fruits and vegetables. Aisle upon aisle in the store will be fully stocked. The worldwide phenomenon of these stores symbolizes the fragile times that we live in. It represents an almost taken-for-granted abundance and an alarming disconnect from the natural world as well as evidence of the achievement of a global economy. But what would happen if distribution lines failed, and those grocery store shelves were suddenly empty, as happens often in the developing world?

The United States and the rest of the Eurocentric world has traditionally been very resource rich, capable of producing great quantities of food stuffs, and supporting complex food systems. At present China, India, the European Union, and the United States are the four largest producers of wheat. However, no country should assume how it will provide basic necessities for its people in a time when the world population is exceeding 7 billion, global warming is changing climates in many bioregions, and the time of peak oil has passed.

A food system includes many diverse activities. The food has to be produced, processed, distributed, sold, prepared, consumed, and the waste has to be disposed of. It should not be assumed that the current abundance will be perpetual and thought needs to be put into planning for the upcoming centuries. One of the duties of a national government is to plan to head off disasters that could weaken its position and make life precarious for its citizens. Before disaster strikes, thought should be put into national security and disaster aversion plans to ensure the provision of food for all people. Among other considerations, the plans should include promoting the growing of local, organic food. Further, money, time and manpower, education, and attention should be given to programs that could subsidize small local farmers, create green zones, and promote individual and community gardens. Currently, food supply chains rely too heavily on the long distance transport of food, the use of non-renewable resources to grow food, and a vulnerable system without enough extra flexibility that may be necessary to be able to respond rapidly enough in a quickly changing world.

In the present time, most food that Americans buy in the store is better traveled than they are. In a curriculum guide distributed from www.agclassroom.org/ok by the state of Oklahoma it is estimated that any given food item in a grocery store “travels an average 1300 miles from the farm” to a table. The American Automobile Association estimated in the fall of 2011 that Americans would travel on average 706 miles during the 2011 holiday season. In the October 2011 edition of BBC’s “Good Food” magazine Clare Hargreaves wrote that while 38% of the apples consumed in the United Kingdom are grown in the U.K., 12% of the overall fruit eaten in the country is imported. In part because of European Union grants distributed in the 1970’s that encouraged the conversion of orchards to other uses, the U.K. lost an estimated two thirds of its traditional orchards over a 60-year period. Joanna Blythman writing for “The Independent” wrote in an article published in 2007 about how far food has to travel to be consumed in the U.K. Examples of her listing of where fruits and vegetables are typically imported from includes the following: apples that have traveled 3700 miles from the United States; beef that has traveled 6900 miles from Argentina; pineapples that have traveled 3100 miles from Ghana; and blueberries that have traveled 5600 miles from South Africa. Without even discussing the addition of greenhouse gases that add to global warming because of the use of cargo planes to transport the produce; the worldwide health effects on individuals from particulate matter polluting the air from the use of these jets; the political ramifications of agribusiness monoculture plantations exporting produce from societies unable to feed local peoples; or any of a collection of the other dire issues, transporting food stuffs across the planet uses rapidly depleting oil reserves. Rich Pirog and his co-authors from Iowa State University’s Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture in a report titled “Food, Fuel, and Freeways: An Iowa perspective on how far food travels, fuel usage, and greenhouse gas emissions” wrote that “In the past 30 years there has been a significant global increase in fossil fuel use. One reason for the rise in U.S. fossil fuel use is the increased use of trucks to transport goods. In 1965, there were 787,000 combination trucks registered in the United States, and these vehicles consumed 6.658 billion gallons of fuel. In 1997, there were 1,790,000 combination trucks that used 20.294 billion gallons of fuel. Many of these trucks transport food throughout the United States.” The metropolis of New York City has over 8 million people. Without being alarmist, a case could be made that an alternative plan and long term preparation to ensure there is adequate food supplies for an urban area of this size is important. Many what if scenarios such as what if severe fuel shortages occur should be considered. Further implementing plans now would conserve shrinking oil reserves.

While millions of acres are farmed across the United States and any developed plan may not be able to fully move this food production away from the reliance on agribusiness farms, having a reduced dependency on these farms may make a difference and save precious resources. If food were to be grown closer to urban areas or in specially zoned green zones within the cities, there would be a supply of food more readily available with much less fuel consumption. Further, if individual and community gardens were promoted and people were taught to grow and preserve their own food, currently unused space and resources such as rooftops, vacant lots, and lawns could be converted to gardens. Community supported agriculture enterprises could be given contracts to farm in urban areas and sell shares to community members. All of these measures would create locally grown food and reduce consumption of finite quantities of oil. Both of these aims are desirable.

Statistics from the United States Environmental Protection Agency show in the United States alone, corn is grown on 72.7 million acres distributed across 400,000 farms. That means that each farm would average over 181 acres. Over 350,000 farms in the U.S. covering 73 million acres of farmland grow soybeans. Farming these large land areas as monocultures maximizes profits. Modern farming techniques involve adding nitrogen to the soil early in the spring before seed is planted and administering chemical fertilizers and pesticides throughout the growing season. Disregarding what constant use of pesticides is doing to the environment or the effects of runoff containing excess nitrogen, the use of chemical fertilizers depletes nutrients from the soil. Research in recent years has shown that an ever-increasing amount of fertilizer is necessary to maintain annual crop production because most chemical fertilizers only augment the soil with three main elements—nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. Micronutrients are not added back into the soil. Also over time the soil becomes acidified and requires the addition of lime to free up essential nutrients that plants need.

In addition to actually depleting the soil over time with constant use, chemical fertilizers also use up another resource. To make chemical fertilizer natural gas and steam are pumped into a large vessel. After this air is pumped into the system and the oxygen is removed by burning off the natural gas and steam. Nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide remain. The carbon dioxide is removed and an electric current is used to produce ammonia. The ammonia is mixed with nitric acid and the result is ammonium nitrate to be used as fertilizer. Natural gas, which could be used for heating or other uses, is a limited resource that is being consumed to make fertilizer.

In making an alternative disaster prevention or security plan, all resources should be considered precious and used or conserved accordingly. The United States Environmental Protection Agency reported in 2010 Americans generated over 250 million tons of garbage and 85 million tons of refuse were recycled. Composting is a way to recycle organic garbage. It is organic and soil that is augmented with organic matter does not become depleted, it becomes richer and better able to sustain plant growth. In addition, crops that are fertilized with sewage have been shown to be safe for consumption and successive purifying of wastewater through successive plantings purifies the water. The future of agriculture may require a return to more and smaller organic farms that are less resource depleting and more capable of producing greater yields. Further, agriculture practices such as permaculture techniques examine the way that producing food interacts with the whole of society and its needs. The building and maintaining of soil quality, fostering beneficial insect habitats, creating a beautiful environment, considering the mutual enhancement of cooperative plantings, and planting indigenous plants capable of thriving without added irrigation are all aims of permaculture in addition to producing food.

Across the globe climate change is happening. Final frost and first frost days, minimum and average daily temperatures, and rainfall patterns are changing. These shifts directly affect how and where food is grown and things cannot be done without thought and planning. Having too great of a focus on one region to produce food for a country or on one or two gigantic corporate agribusinesses to grow and distribute food globally creates a scenario of vulnerability. For instance 50% of the total corn crop in the United States is grown in the state of Iowa. What happens if because of climate change Iowa can no longer grow corn? It would be devastating if the breadbasket of any nation suffered a climate disaster such as a severe drought at a time when the ever-burgeoning population of the planet makes sustained food production a necessity. Or what happens if after a corporate agribusiness moves into an area, effectively removes the growing of local indigenous food, and then leaves because doing business in that country is no longer profitable due to shrinking world resources? International aid should not solely aim to export western modern agricultural methods, it should also work to maintain and protect local ownership of land and native land cultivation methods and crops. Hybrids that require chemical fertilizers and pesticides may increase yields for now, but a diversity of seeds need to be banked to give greater flexibility.

Flexibility needs to be strived for in the types of farms. Small farms where the people directly working the soil are connected to the decisions about what to plant are more nimble and can make decisions about what to plant season to season. If traditionally a region was optimal for growing tomatoes and peppers but suddenly no longer has the sustained warm temperatures to do so, the farmer may have to switch crops in order to remain solvent. But if the entire farm is not planted only with tomatoes and peppers this switch is easier. Smaller farms that do not grow monocultures may not have great resources available but can make a shift to new crops easier. The large agribusiness farms have many more obstacles to overcome to change what crop they are growing but they can sustain greater losses. If a region that was dependent on irrigation from hundreds of miles away no longer has the water resources to grow strawberries, they have to change to growing something else if they want to remain farming. Retooling and changing what is grown on a massive scale will require a huge investment. For the agribusinesses this investment might be profitable. In an era of climate change, both of these types of farms may be important and flexibility to deal with unimagined crisis needs to be created. Any disaster prevention plan should create conditions and subsidize a diversity of types of farms to give the most options to respond to unforeseen negative circumstances.

The world is changing. The future will not look like today. The grocery stores of the future may not exist. To prepare for the future, thought should be put into national security and disaster aversion plans to ensure the provision of food for all people. The plans should include promoting the growing of local, organic food to make food more readily available without being transported hundreds of miles and to better use resources to grow the food. Further, many options should be created and encouraged for the growing of food to make the whole system more resilient.

References

American Automobile Association (2011, November 17). AAA Projects 42.5 Million Americans Will Travel This Thanksgiving, Four Percent More Than Last Year. AAA.com. Retrieved from http://newsroom.aaa.com/2011/11/aaa-projects-42-5-million-americans-will-travel-this-thanksgiving-four-percent-more-than-last-year/

Blythman, Joanna (2007, May 13). Food miles: The true cost of putting imported food on your plate. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/food-miles-the-true-cost-of-putting-imported-food-on-your-plate-451139.html

Environmental Protection Agency (2009, September 10). Major Crops Grown in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/cropmajor.html

Hargreaves, Clare (2011, October). Bearing Fruit. BBC Good Food Magazine, page 84.

Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom. How Far Did It Travel?. Retrieved from http://www.agclassroom.org/ok

Pirog, R., Van Pelt, T., Enshayan, K., & Cook, E. (2001). Food, Fuel, and Freeways: An Iowa perspective on how far food travels, fuel usage, and greenhouse gas emissions. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.

United States Department of Agriculture: Economic Resereach Service (2009, March 17). Wheat. Retrieved from http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/wheat/background.htm

I am taking hiatus from today through next Thursday

There are big things happening this next week and I am struggling to keep posting at the moment. So rather than giving you chinzy content to read, I am going to take a week's hiatus. I may pop in and post if I have time, but consider this a surprise treat! See everyone in a week.

In the meanwhile please check out these blogs and sites:
Empires of the Mind
The Singularity Sucks
Inarticulations
Toad's Corner
Dark Continent's Publishing Blog
D. Thomas Minton's Blog
The Haiku Foundation
AND...
Schlock Magazine!

Artist: Louis Comfort Tiffany

Louis Comfort Tiffany was the son of Charles Lewis Tiffany. He began his artistic career as a painter but then became interested in stained glass. Originally he worked with cheap jelly jars and bottles because the mineral impurities in the glass he found compelling. He later made his own glass because he was unable to convince glass makers to produce opaque glass and glass with the impurities he sought. His work followed the ideas of the Arts and Crafts movement and William Morris.



Tiffany's family money and connections allowed him to found Tiffany Studios. Tiffany not only created stained glass lamps and windows, his company had a full line of interior design items, metalwork pieces, jewelry, mosaics, and potter. He directed a full team of designers that created his beautiful floral patterns, art nouveau designs, and other decorative elements. Tiffany not only created single pieces, he designed private and public interiors. He redecorated the White House for Chester Alan Arthur.

Tiffany's leaded-glass brought him the most recognition. Tiffany and one of his rivals, John La Farge, revolutionized the look of stained glass. Since medieval times craftsmen had utilized flat panes of white and colored glass with details painted with glass paints before firing and leading, Tiffany and La Farge experimented with new types of glass. By creating a more varied palette capable of richer hues, they could get a different level of realism in their depictions. Both Tiffany and La Farge patented an opalescent glass. The opaque glass was internally colored with variegated shades of the same or different rainbow hues. The piece titled "Magnolias and Irises," was made by Tiffany Studios around 1908. It was created as a memorial window based on the "River of Life." It depicts magnolias composed of opalescent drapery glass, heavily folded or creased glass, and irises in multihued tones showing off Tiffany's innovations and ability to paint with glass.

Beautiful dragonflies adorn desk lamps, multi-panel scenes decorate churches, and a riot of color and illuminating innovation are Tiffany's legacy.

Monday: Six Sentence Stories!

Just for the fun of it, I wrote a few six sentence stories to share for tonight.

She had made pumpkin cornbread-- a unique variation of a back country staple complete with the crunchy crust that can only be achieved by frying the batter in a cast iron skillet and then baking the bread in the oven. But the cornbread called out for more, something unique. She made creole sauce, dirty rice, beans and mushrooms, and braised kale. Every pan in the cupboard was utilized. A feast worthy of artistic merit and decided immense proportions was laid out across the stove top in front of her, enough to feed a platoon. The children stared at the glistening greens, the deep red aromatic sauce, and the succulent beans and then asked for fish sticks and french fries.

It was an odd hissing noise. Jumpman Jones focused on the panel display that told him his rate of acceleration, speed, orientation, and trajectory. The computer complacently whirred and flashed green numbers that stained his cheeks a viridian hue. Jones thought of the spring migration of the fragile butterflies within the biodomes of the red planet. They lived at the mercy of an artificial environment. A loud cracking noise interrupted his waking dream reflections on the lives of butterflies, the computer flashed a red warning as the shuttle began to decompress and the breathable atmosphere rushed out into space.

Andrea's scalp tingled and she knew that the genetic hair restorers were working, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and nervously took Richard's hand. Richard's feet itched where the webbing was growing between his toes, he imagined how his lap speed would decrease and improve his time in the triathlon. They entered the fertility doctor's office and were ushered to smooth leather chairs. Dr. Ottman looked up from the file he was reading and said, "I have identified why the two of you cannot conceive a child." Andrea and Richard sat forward in their chairs to receive the diagnosis. The doctor said, "The two of you are phenotypically human, but genetically you are two entirely different species."

Christine laid on her stomach as the masseuse pounded the muscles of her back until they unknotted. She laid her chin on her forearms and dozed off and on. Thinking she was half dreaming, she watched a bathrobe lift off a bench, float onto a nonexistent body form, and begin walking towards the mirror that reflected the thick terry cloth. A tall dark man walked past her towards the mud baths. She thought to herself, that was odd. It was odder still when the man turned, looked at her with blood red eyes, and smiled a toothy smile that featured long canine teeth.

Sunday Writing Discussion #11: Starting Points

The last two weeks have been challenging weeks and I have been sick. I said that the writing discussions would be back this week but I am going to cheat a wee bit. I am going to post three ideas for starting points to get ideas rolling. I am working on future post about self editing, crafting a creative life worth living, and banishing wimpy verbs.

Starting Point 1
Pick 5 words that you like and begin to play with them to see what ideas might come about. I also read haiku and write haiku. This kind of random starting point sometimes gets ideas flowing. For instance what would you do with the following 5 words:
1. ghost
2. luscious
3. mercantile
4. warping
5. thread

Starting Point 2
Pick any proverb or saying and begin playing with it. For instance today on the BBC News page for Africa the following African proverb was posted:
“He who does not want to see a ghost should not move in the night.”

What ideas might that spark?

Starting Point 3
Lester Dent's Plot Formula-- can you use it to formulate a basic story? How might you alter it? How far can you push the formula?

Here is Lester Dent's Plot Formula for reference:

This is a formula, a master plot, for any 6000 word pulp story. It has worked on adventure, detective, western and war-air. It tells exactly where to put everything. It shows definitely just what must happen in each successive thousand words.

No yarn of mine written to the formula has yet failed to sell.

The business of building stories seems not much different from the business of building anything else.

Here's how it starts:

1. A DIFFERENT MURDER METHOD FOR VILLAIN TO USE
2. A DIFFERENT THING FOR VILLAIN TO BE SEEKING
3. A DIFFERENT LOCALE
4. A MENACE WHICH IS TO HANG LIKE A CLOUD OVER HERO

One of these DIFFERENT things would be nice, two better, three swell. It may help if they are fully in mind before tackling the rest.

A different murder method could be--different. Thinking of shooting, knifing, hydrocyanic, garroting, poison needles, scorpions, a few others, and writing them on paper gets them where they may suggest something. Scorpions and their poison bite? Maybe mosquitos or flies treated with deadly germs?

If the victims are killed by ordinary methods, but found under strange and identical circumstances each time, it might serve, the reader of course not knowing until the end, that the method of murder is ordinary.

Scribes who have their villain's victims found with butterflies, spiders or bats stamped on them could conceivably be flirting with this gag.

Probably it won't do a lot of good to be too odd, fanciful or grotesque with murder methods.

The different thing for the villain to be after might be something other than jewels, the stolen bank loot, the pearls, or some other old ones.

Here, again one might get too bizarre.

Unique locale? Easy. Selecting one that fits in with the murder method and the treasure--thing that villain wants--makes it simpler, and it's
also nice to use a familiar one, a place where you've lived or worked. So many pulpateers don't. It sometimes saves embarrassment to know nearly as much about the locale as the editor, or enough to fool him.

Here's a nifty much used in faking local color. For a story laid in Egypt, say, author finds a book titled "Conversational Egyptian Easily Learned," or something like that. He wants a character to ask in Egyptian, "What's the matter?" He looks in the book and finds, "El khabar, eyh?" To keep the reader from getting dizzy, it's perhaps wise to make it clear in some fashion, just what that means. Occasionally the text will tell this, or someone can repeat it in English. But it's a doubtful move to stop and tell the reader in so many words the English translation.

The writer learns they have palm trees in Egypt. He looks in the book, finds the Egyptian for palm trees, and uses that. This kids editors and readers into thinking he knows something about Egypt.

Here's the second installment of the master plot.

Divide the 6000 word yarn into four 1500 word parts. In each 1500 word part, put the following:


FIRST 1500 WORDS

1--First line, or as near thereto as possible, introduce the hero and swat him with a fistful of trouble. Hint at a mystery, a menace or a problem to be solved--something the hero has to cope with.

2--The hero pitches in to cope with his fistful of trouble. (He tries to fathom the mystery, defeat the menace, or solve the problem.)

3--Introduce ALL the other characters as soon as possible. Bring them on in action.

4--Hero's endevours land him in an actual physical conflict near the end of the first 1500 words.

5--Near the end of first 1500 words, there is a complete surprise twist in the plot development.

SO FAR: Does it have SUSPENSE?
Is there a MENACE to the hero?
Does everything happen logically?

At this point, it might help to recall that action should do something besides advance the hero over the scenery. Suppose the hero has learned the dastards of villains have seized somebody named Eloise, who can explain the secret of what is behind all these sinister events. The hero corners villains, they fight, and villains get away. Not so hot.

Hero should accomplish something with his tearing around, if only to rescue Eloise, and surprise! Eloise is a ring-tailed monkey. The hero counts the rings on Eloise's tail, if nothing better comes to mind.
They're not real. The rings are painted there. Why?


SECOND 1500 WORDS

1--Shovel more grief onto the hero.

2--Hero, being heroic, struggles, and his struggles lead up to:

3--Another physical conflict.

4--A surprising plot twist to end the 1500 words.

NOW: Does second part have SUSPENSE?
Does the MENACE grow like a black cloud?
Is the hero getting it in the neck?
Is the second part logical?

DON'T TELL ABOUT IT***Show how the thing looked. This is one of the secrets of writing; never tell the reader--show him. (He trembles, roving eyes, slackened jaw, and such.) MAKE THE READER SEE HIM.

When writing, it helps to get at least one minor surprise to the printed page. It is reasonable to to expect these minor surprises to sort of inveigle the reader into keeping on. They need not be such profound efforts. One method of accomplishing one now and then is to be gently misleading. Hero is examining the murder room. The door behind him begins slowly to open. He does not see it. He conducts his examination blissfully. Door eases open, wider and wider, until--surprise! The glass pane falls out of the big window across the room. It must have fallen slowly, and air blowing into the room caused the door to open. Then what the heck made the pane fall so slowly? More mystery.

Characterizing a story actor consists of giving him some things which make him stick in the reader's mind. TAG HIM.

BUILD YOUR PLOTS SO THAT ACTION CAN BE CONTINUOUS.


THIRD 1500 WORDS

1--Shovel the grief onto the hero.

2--Hero makes some headway, and corners the villain or somebody in:

3--A physical conflict.

4--A surprising plot twist, in which the hero preferably gets it in the neck bad, to end the 1500 words.

DOES: It still have SUSPENSE?
The MENACE getting blacker?
The hero finds himself in a hell of a fix?
It all happens logically?

These outlines or master formulas are only something to make you certain of inserting some physical conflict, and some genuine plot twists, with a little suspense and menace thrown in. Without them, there is no pulp story.

These physical conflicts in each part might be DIFFERENT, too. If one fight is with fists, that can take care of the pugilism until next the next yarn. Same for poison gas and swords. There may, naturally, be exceptions. A hero with a peculiar punch, or a quick draw, might use it more than once.

The idea is to avoid monotony.

ACTION:
Vivid, swift, no words wasted. Create suspense, make the reader see and feel the action.

ATMOSPHERE:
Hear, smell, see, feel and taste.

DESCRIPTION:
Trees, wind, scenery and water.

THE SECRET OF ALL WRITING IS TO MAKE EVERY WORD COUNT.


FOURTH 1500 WORDS

1--Shovel the difficulties more thickly upon the hero.

2--Get the hero almost buried in his troubles. (Figuratively, the villain has him prisoner and has him framed for a murder rap; the girl is presumably dead, everything is lost, and the DIFFERENT murder method is about to dispose of the suffering protagonist.)

3--The hero extricates himself using HIS OWN SKILL, training or brawn.

4--The mysteries remaining--one big one held over to this point will help grip interest--are cleared up in course of final conflict as hero takes
the situation in hand.

5--Final twist, a big surprise, (This can be the villain turning out to be the unexpected person, having the "Treasure" be a dud, etc.)

6--The snapper, the punch line to end it.

HAS: The SUSPENSE held out to the last line?
The MENACE held out to the last?
Everything been explained?
It all happen logically?
Is the Punch Line enough to leave the reader with that WARM FEELING?
Did God kill the villain? Or the hero?

A Writer Has to Eat: Vegan Moussaka

When I first moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan there was a Greek family restaurant on Liberty Street named "The Lamplighter." I grew up in restaurants. My grandmother owned a chain of broasted chicken restaurants, one uncle owned a restaurant that specialized in lake perch, and another uncle owned a bakery. I would go into The Lamplighter to sort of feel at home. On their menu was moussaka. Over the years I have created recipes for many different vegetarian versions of moussaka. This one is the best.

Vegan Moussaka



Ingredients

Basic Casserole
2 medium eggplant
salt
3 large zucchini
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 pound of mushrooms, chopped
4- 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
12 ounces soy protein crumbles
3 tablespoons garlic
2 teaspoons oregano
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
salt

Vegan Bechamel Sauce
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups almond milk
1 tablespoon cornstarch diluted in 1/2 cup water
salt and white pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 9 inch by 15 in baking pan with non-stick spray.

2. Peel the eggplant and slice it into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Sprinkle salt on the rounds and lay them out on paper towel or put the slices in a colander. This will "bleed" the bitterness and excess water out of the eggplant. Let them sit with the salt for 10 to 15 minutes. Rinse the salt off with cool water.



3. Peel the zucchini and slice it into 1/4 inch thick long slices.

4. Pour the 4 tablespoons of olive oil into a deep frying pan or a dutch oven. Put the onions in the pan and saute for 2 minutes or so. Add the mushrooms, soy protein crumbles, garlic, cinnamon, and allspice. Saute until the onions are translucent and the mixture is thoroughly mixed. Put the 4 cans of diced tomatoes and the tomato paste into the pan. Simmer, stirring constantly for 10 minutes.



5. Layer the eggplant slices into the bottom of the pan. Place half of the onion, mushrooms, soy protein crumble, and tomato sauce over the eggplant slices. Layer the zucchini slices over this layer of sauce. Pour the remainder of the sauce over the zucchini slices.



6. Heat the 1/2 cup of olive oil in a sauce pan. Whisk in the 1/2 cup of flour. Keep whisk until the flour begins to brown. When the flour and olive oil roux has become a caramel color add the nutmeg, almond milk, cornstarch dissolved in water, salt and white pepper. Whisk over medium heat until the mixture begins to thicken and you can see the trail that the whisk makes through the bechamel sauce. Turn off the heat. Pour the bechamel sauce over the casserole as the final layer.

7. Place the casserole into the oven and bake for 1 hour.



This moussaka is wonderful! Enjoy.

Dangerous Women: Queen Nzinga Mbande

Queen Nzinga Mbande was said to have been born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. This was an omen that she would be a proud woman. It was prophesied that she would become a queen.

In 17th century south west Africa, the Portuguese sought to colonize the region in order to control the trade in African slaves. They attacked many of their trading partners including the African kingdom of Ndongo where Nzinga's family ruled. At the time her brother King Ngola Mbandi was forced to flee his country when the governor of Luanda invaded the capital as part of an aggressive campaign to conquer and colonize the area. Thousands died. Thousands were taken captive.

The king sent Nzinga to negotiate a treaty with the Portuguese. When she met with the governor, Joao Correia de Sousa, he did not offer her a chair. Instead he asserted that she was a subordinate by placing a floor mat where she was to sit. Refusing to bow to the governor, Nzinga summoned one of her servants. She had him kneel on the floor and she sat upon his back placing herself at a similar stature to the governor. Rumor has it that at the end of the negotiations she had the servant beheaded in front of the Portuguese to show her fearlessness. The Ndongo people did not submit and assume vassalage under the Portuguese.

The treaty with the Portuguese was never honored despite in a show of good faith Nzinga Mbande had converted to Christianity. The Portuguese never withdrew and never returned their captives. Nzinga Mbande's brother committed suicide and she became queen. Rumors abounded that she had poisoned him and the Portuguese used the rumors to not honor her right to succeed him.

Queen Nzinga Mbande refused to be subjugated under the Portuguese. She made an alliance with the Dutch and with Dutch reinforcements she routed a Portuguese army in 1647. She laid siege to the Portuguese capital of Masangano. When the Portuguese recaptured Luanda in 1648, she retreated to Matamba and continued to resist Portugal. She and her two sisters personally lead their troops into battle.

In 1657 after a decade of battle, she made peace with the Portuguese and included in the treaty that they would supply support to her family as allies to maintain them as the ruling family. She devoted her later years to resettling former slaves. Legends abound that she had a male harem that she required to dress as women, that men were beheaded after one night of pleasure with her, and that to show her ferocity she ate human flesh. Despite numerous attempts to dethrone her, Queen Nzinga Mbande remained in power until her death at the age of 80.

Thursday Writing Prompts: Fever Dreams

I have not been feeling well all week. I came home this evening and climbed into bed. My thoughts are a little random and so these writing prompts are coming straight from not feeling so great and very tired brain. I hope they can spark some creativity!

1. What kind of monster lives at the bottom of "surprise casserole" in the dormitory cafeteria? How does it survive?

2. What if light poles were a type of sentience and wandered the streets looking to be illuminating? What might this alleviate? What other impacts might there be to this?

3. What if a certain type of running shoe could stimulate something in the human physiology and genuinely improve the athletic ability of people who trained in them?

4. What if the dreams that we dream are really tuning into the thoughts of other alternate universes and this is what is ultimately discovered via theoretical physics? What does this say about flying dreams? Dreams where the physics of the dream defy the laws of ordinary physics?

5. If your point of view character could step into any painting, which painting would they step into? What would be the story behind this?

Poetry: Angela Carter

A year ago news broke that several poems by feminist writer Angela Carter were discovered in her former London home. Carter has always been known for her sharp witted short stories and novels written with a touch of magical realism and a hearty helping of skepticism regarding relationships between men and women among other subjects. The poems are said to have her same passionate language and fantastical sense.

Here is an extract from one of the poems that appeared on March 12, 2011 in the Observer:

extract from The Magic Apple Tree

In the West,
the apple-trees grow
under a blue sky.
The apple trees founder
on their knees in the grass,
Toppling with fruit.


Apple is round as the round world, red
as heart's blood, fat
as my two fists together. This,
the very first apple of all,
wet, still,
with the first of the dew.


Snake made the first apple,
laid a red egg and said:
"Eat me."

This is supposed to be a very short extract from a much larger poem. I have been looking online for the poems and have not been able to find them. I am hoping that they will be published soon so that I can read them. If anyone knows about these lost poems and where I can read them, please leave a comment/link!

Artist: Kay Nielsen

Many years ago, I stumbled across a book of color plates of the illustrations of Kay Nielsen. They transfixed me. I bought the book and for a long time it resided on the shelf next to my bed. I would pull it out and look at the beautiful and fantastical illustrations. The style was so cool and otherworldly. It fit with what I imagined the faery world under the mound must look like. Those paintings inspired more than a few dreams.



Nielsen was a Danish illustrator who lived from 1886 until 1957. His first English commission from Hodder and Stoughton publishers was to illustrate a collection of fairy tales titled In Powder and Crinoline, Fairy Tales Retold by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch in 1913. He did a series of 24 color plates and 15 monotone illustrations. These were so well received that that same year he went on to do illustrations for a collection of Charles Perrault's fairy tales. In 1914 he completed 24 color illustrations and 21 monotone illustrations for the children's story collection titled East of the Sun and West of the Moon.



After this Nielsen painted scenery for the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen. He also worked on a vast set of illustrations for a translation of Scheherazade's Arabian Nights that had been undertaken by the Arabic scholar, Professor Arthur Christensen. This planned edition of the Arabic fairy tales never was published and the illustrations were forgotten until after Nielsen's death. Nielsen did the illustrations for an edition of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. A year later he did the illustrations for another collection of children's stories titled Hansel and Gretel, and Other Stories by the Brothers Grimm. A last collection of stories that was illustrated five years after this titled Red Magic was also published.

Nielsen moved to the United States and worked for Walt Disney for four years. His work was used in the "Ave Maria" and "Night on Bald Mountain" sequences of the movie Fantasia. He known at Disney for his concept art and he worked on a proposed film adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid." The film was never made during Nielsen's lifetime, but his work was dusted off and used to create the film that was released in 1989.

Nielsen's final years were ones of poverty and desperation. His illustrations were no longer in demand after he was let go from the Disney studios. He returned to Denmark and could not find work either. He died in 1957 at the age of 71.



His work is a window in to the world of faery and will always inspire dreams.

Poetry: Natsume Soseki

Natsume Soseki lived during the Victorian era. He was a novelist, a teacher, and a zen practitioner who observed nature with an unflinching eye. He also wrote beautiful and insightful haiku. Personally for me, the last few days have been very trying. The haiku of Natsume Soseki are like refreshment for my soul.

Over the wintry
forest, winds howl in rage
with no leaves to blow.

Now gathering,
Now scattering,
Fireflies over the river.

The crow has flown away:
swaying in the evening sun,
a leafless tree.

SUNDAY WRITING DISCUSSIONS WILL CONTINUE NEXT SUNDAY

At the moment big things are stirring in my life and this weekend I have been wrapped up in them. I am sorry for the hiatus for the last few days. Regular programming will resume tomorrow and I will post extra vegan/vegetarian recipes, thoughts on art and poetry, and writing ideas throughout the week. For tonight, I need to sleep and see if I can get even two very tired brain cells to make sparks. :-)

Thursday Writing Prompts: A Few Questions to Consider in World Building

I was thinking about an exercise that I once had to do for a cultural anthropology class. Our assignment was to take an ordinary object (like a paperclip, hair tie, or empty thread spool) and pretend that it was 3000 years in the future and we had no idea what the object might be for. We were to create a scenario for the use of the objet and tell its cultural significance. So if a site had hundreds of paperclips, what might be made of this? Were the paperclips a type of currency? A symbol with some sort of religious significance?

I also recently read an article by Michael Moorcock where he described having a kind of pre-created bank of fantasy items that could populate his stories and give them everyday realism. Today's writing prompt is an exercise to do just that. Here are some questions to consider to help build a realistic fantasy/science fiction world:

1. Look around your bedroom. What would have not been present in the room 200 years ago? What forms of technology are present in the room? What do they do? How might those pieces of technology move forward and become changed/advanced? Technology having to do with transportation, communications, and information storage have changed dramatically in the last two hundred years. How might these change over the next two hundred years? What about medical technology? Might it become more independent and less dependent on the oversight of doctors? More oriented towards people taking care of their own health? What might it look like?

2. What might ordinary things like pencils, clothing hangers, books, a printer, a bed, a table, a chair, or headphones look like in a future setting? How could they be transformed?

3. What materials might clothing be made of?

4. What might an ordinary citizen in your created world have in their pockets? What routine objects might they use through out the course of a day?

5. Mobile smart phones are almost indispensable at this point in history. Seven years ago almost no one had even heard of them. Think of some gadget/device that might be indispensable in the world and time period of the fictional setting you are creating. What does it do? Why is it indispensable?

6. What does the food look like? What kinds of things do your characters eat in a day?

In thinking about these questions, go beyond your first thoughts. First thoughts are usually obvious thoughts that have been seen/read/stated previously. Delve deeper and explore creating the rationale behind the setting and objects that you create. Make it seem as real as possible.

Writing is cool because we get to be wizards of words and make realities! Have fun creating!

Poetry: Ogden Nash's "Common Cold," "The Purist," and "The Firefly"

Tonight. Just for fun. I am posting some of the wonderful poems of Ogden Nash. I hope they lighten folks' hearts and bring smiles.

Common Cold
by Ogden Nash

Go hang yourself, you old M.D.!
You shall not sneer at me.
Pick up your hat and stethoscope,
Go wash your mouth with laundry soap;
I contemplate a joy exquisite
In not paying you for your visit.
I did not call you to be told
My malady is a common cold.

By pounding brow and swollen lip;
By fever's hot and scaly grip;
By those two red redundant eyes
That weep like woeful April skies;
By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff;
By handkerchief after handkerchief;
This cold you wave away as naught
Is the damnedest cold man ever caught!

Give ear, you scientific fossil!
Here is the genuine Cold Colossal;
The Cold of which researchers dream,
The Perfect Cold, the Cold Supreme.
This honored system humbly holds
The Super-cold to end all colds;
The Cold Crusading for Democracy;
The Führer of the Streptococcracy.

Bacilli swarm within my portals
Such as were ne'er conceived by mortals,
But bred by scientists wise and hoary
In some Olympic laboratory;
Bacteria as large as mice,
With feet of fire and heads of ice
Who never interrupt for slumber
Their stamping elephantine rumba.

A common cold, gadzooks, forsooth!
Ah, yes. And Lincoln was jostled by Booth;
Don Juan was a budding gallant,
And Shakespeare's plays show signs of talent;
The Arctic winter is fairly coolish,
And your diagnosis is fairly foolish.
Oh what a derision history holds
For the man who belittled the Cold of Colds!

The Purist
by Ogden Nash

I give you now Professor Twist,
A conscientious scientist,
Trustees exclaimed, "He never bungles!"
And sent him off to distant jungles.
Camped on a tropic riverside,
One day he missed his loving bride.
She had, the guide informed him later,
Been eaten by an alligator.
Professor Twist could not but smile.
"You mean," he said, "a crocodile."

The Firefly
by Ogden Nash

The firefly's flame Is something for which science has no name
I can think of nothing eerier
Than flying around with an unidentified glow on a
person's posteerier.

Artist: Henri Matisse

This evening I was thinking of the green leafy tops of strawberries. I love the way that they contrast with the red of the berry, the almost joyous motion of the curl of the leaves, and the way that they form around the ring of the stem. To my mind, the strawberry tops are an organic dance in miniature. This put in a frame of mind and I remembered Henri Matisse's second version of The Dance.



I could almost envision the strawberry leaves touching delicate tips and dancing.

Matisse first studied law but then found his joy in painting when his mother brought him a set of art materials while he was recovering from appendicitis surgery. He was influenced by the work of Manet, Pissaro, and Chardin. Early in his career he made four copies of Chardin paintings that he studied in the Louvre. Matisse immersed himself in the works of others. He put himself into debt by acquiring such works of art as a plaster bust sculpted by Rodin, a drawing by Van Gogh, a painting by Gauguin, and Cezanne's The Three Bathers.

While Matisse's early work was very somber, he was one of the primary artists involved in Fauvism. Fauvism expressed emotion with wild, often dissonant colours, without regard for the subject's natural colours. The movement lasted from about 1900 until 1910. Matisse opened one of the Fauvist exhibitions that he participated in with Woman With a Hat.



In 1906 Matisse met Pablo Picasso. The two became lifelong friends and rivals. They inspired one another and refined one another's ideas of painting and composition. Their social circle also included Gertrude Stein and Henri Rousseau.

Later in Matisse's life he published a book of his paper cutouts titled Jazz. In this book can be found his Blue Nude.



Matisse left a body of work that spans fifty years. His influence on the use of color and shape cannot be understated. His paintings and cutouts held a joie de vivre and true experimentation. Joyous as red strawberries in March.

Six Sentence Story Monday

I received a six sentence story from Aurelio (who has a fab name that I think is going to become a character in one of my stories!). Thank you Aurelio for sending this story to me. Allow me to present Aurelio's six sentence story:

You don't meet nice girls in a place like Atlantic City, not without a run of luck and a well pressed suit. And even then, he told himself, what are the odds. But this girl with her red bandana and Annie Oakley buckskin jacket didn't fit the decor or the odds. It was the final calculation he would ever make there. She smiled as he crossed the lobby. He cashed in the last of his chips and his vowels and w th t s m ch s wh sp r he sm l d nd sd h ll.

I heard a magnificent one sentence story today. It was broadcast within a podcast on the BBC which can be found at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/openbook. It went as follows:

"The flames spread faster than the little bastard could run."

I think this is packed with meaning and I want to practice writing a few stories of this type and see if I can get the words to sing with meaning.

Sunday Writing Discussion #10: Choosing the Right Point of View

Composing a work of fiction requires a dizzying number of choices. But it is also cool. The writer has total control and responsibility for the entire composition. A basic idea needs to be expanded into a plot sequence, characters must be created to tell the desired story in the best way possible, the setting needs to enhance the overall story, the conflict needs to make everything vibrate with tension, and the tone and theme must create subtle waves that move along the reader's neural paths to stimulate further thought. So many things to consider. A basic aspect of writing a short story or novel is figuring out the right character to tell the story through and the right point of view to tell the story in.

We all derive our identity through the stories of ourselves. When we tell a personal anecdote to someone else we tell it in the first person point of view. For example:

"When we found our campsite, I pulled the car onto the paved pad. There was only a small clearing for me to set up the tent. The picnic table was near the fire ring. Everything was lush and green. I was so tired but I had to get the tent set up before I could make dinner and go to sleep."

The first-person point of view expresses the personal point of view of the speaker or author. The pronouns used are I, me, mine, we, us, and our.

Often when people first undergo the metamorphosis into writers, they use the first person point of view. Their stories tend to be fantasies or "movies of the mind" that they transcribe. This is a great place to begin, but as a writer practices and advances their skills they begin to get a feel for all the artistic decisions that go into a composition. The more they write, the more aspects of writing they become aware of and how this influences who will be their point of view character and which point of view should be used.

Initially it is not unexpected that beginning writers create characters who are too powerful, too strong, and too much of a fantasy. These kinds of characters are called Mary Sues. A Mary Sue is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, who lacking any real flaws, and primarily functions as a wish-fulfilment fantasy for the author or readers. Mary Sues are usually thought of as characters whose positive aspects overwhelm their other traits. They don't come off as authentic because they feel so one-dimensional. Often these characters kind of overwhelm the stories that they are placed in and subjugate the story to the character. The story must always come first. It is important to think through during the development of a story which characters might be likely to be in that setting, which of those characters might be best positioned to see the action of the story, what the psychological makeup and history of the point of view character might be that could best see and interpret the action of the story in a meaningful way, and what kind of character would be the one that readers could relate to most strongly. Sometimes it is necessary to keep adjusting the characters until the composition feels right. This is one of the really cool parts about writing because as authors we can do this.

Once the writer has a feel for which characters to use, they have to decide what point of view to tell the story in.

First person point of view is the second most prevalent point of view used in fiction. It traditionally is thought of as being more intimate and personal. J.D. Salinger used the first person point of view in his novel The Catcher in the Rye in this very traditional sense and fearless portrayed Holden Caufield in such a way that the book is beloved by many. Holden Caulfield is so authentic within the pages of the book that his story is a example of a coming of age, identity finding story.

This very personal type of story is not the only type of story that can be told through a first person point of view. If a writer thinks about the intimacy that can be established via the first person point of view, consciously uses the strengths of this point of view, and is creative, they can reinforce their themes in unexpected ways. Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita is also written in the first person point of view. In this case the story is about Humbert Humbert who becomes obsessed with Dolores Haze. She is twelve years old and when she becomes his stepdaughter, they have a sexual relationship. The first person point of view is disturbing and distancing rather than producing intimacy. Further, the narrator is an unreliable narrator and this compels the reader to analyze his words and be drawn further into the book. The first person point of view is used to brilliant effect to create ambiguities that make the book compelling.

There are limitations to think about before using the first person point of view. If a writer uses the first person point of view the natural expectation that most readers bring to this point of view is that the story is being told by a knowledgeable narrator who is past the events and relaying them after the fact. After years of conversation in which anecdotes are told in this manner, readers will bring this expectation to the text and the author either has to remain within the parameters of this context or clearly and strongly with intent and rationale deviate from this. First person perspective is also difficult in that the story is told from the point of view of only one character who cannot see everything that might influence the story and the narration must stay "in character" to maintain the illusion of the fiction. First person point of view is not as easy to create well crafted fiction in as one might first think.

Third person point of view is the most commonly used point of view. In the third-person point of view material is expressed from the point of view of a detached writer or characters within the story. Third-person pronouns include he, she, him, her, his, hers, they, them, their, and theirs. The third person point of view can be either a limited or omniscient point of view. A limited third person point of view follows the point of view of one character much like a camera on that character's shoulder. The narrator reports the facts and interprets events from the perspective of the chosen single character. An omniscient third person point of view uses an all-knowing narrator who not only reports the facts but may also interpret events and relate the thoughts and feelings of any character.

The third person point of view is the most flexible point of view to write a piece of fiction in. Limited third person can be quite intimate and personal and allow the reader glimpses into the personality of the narrating character. If the third person limited point of view is chosen, it is very important to chose the most advantageous character to tell the story. The story will not be as intimate as if the story were told from first person point of view and this often implies a slightly less emphasis of characterizations to drive the story. The story may still be character driven but there will be more external action driving the plot rather than internal dialogue. As stated previously, the author needs to pick the right character. The narration still needs to stay within the characterization of that character also. For instance, if the story is about medieval times the limited third person narrator would not compare the speed of an arrow to a airplane because they would not know about airplanes.

Second person point of view is rarely used in fiction. It is used in letters, speeches, and directions. Second-person pronouns include you, your, and yours, and material expressed in the second-person point of view directly addresses the listener or reader.

If for some reason a story feels stuck, sometimes it is a useful exercise to either switch the point of view being used or tell the story from the point of view of a different character within the story. This can jog things and give insights that might help to move the story forward. Also just because a particular character was initially chosen to tell the story or the story started in first person point of view, does not mean that it has to stay the way it was begun. It might be a daunting prospect to completely rewrite a story, but this might be the action that makes the story better.

So many choices to craft a story, so many things to consider, so many bits to the overall composition! It is exhilarating! Have fun writing!

A Writer Has to Eat: Basic Crock Pot Vegetarian Chili

This is a basic recipe for a kind of standard vegetarian chili. This chili can be mixed with cheese and macaroni to make a type of 5 way chili, put on smart dogs to make chili dogs, or just eaten to warm up a cold day. I do use pinto beans in this recipe and I make it in the crock pot. It is better if it can simmer longer on the low setting. I like to get all the ingredients for this chili into the crock pot early in the morning and let it cook all day.

Ingredients



1 pound dried pinto beans (soak overnight before putting them in the crock pot in the morning)
4 15 ounce cans of stewed tomatoes
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons dried cilantro
1 tablespoon oregano
1/2 to 1 teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, minced
2 green pepper, diced
1 pound tube of "gimme lean" vegetable protein sausage variety or other vegetable protein substitute
3 cups water
salt to taste

1. Drain the beans that have soaked overnight. Rinse them and place them in the crock pot.

2. Put the cans of stewed tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, oregano, and chili powder in the crock pot with the beans.



3. In a frying pan, put the 2 tablespoons of olive oil, minced onions, and diced green peppers. Break up the tube of vegetable protein into smaller 1/2 teaspoon pieces and place these into the frying pan. Saute these ingredients for 5-7 minutes until the onions become translucent. Put this mixture into the crock pot.



4. Put the water and salt into the crock pot. Stir everything to mix, put the lid on the crock pot. Simmer on low for ten hours or on high for 6-8 hours.

5. Enjoy!

Dangerous Women: Mochizuki Chiyome

Do you remember the James Bond movie Octopussy? Maud Adams played a woman who was the head of a secret organization of women thieves and spies. There is little known about her but Mochizuki Chiyome was a Japanese noblewoman from the 16th century who was the head of a secret organization of female ninjas.

Chiyome was the wife of the warlord Mochizuchi Nobumasa who was from Shinano and the head of Mochizuki Castle. Whenever he was off making war, she was in charge of the castle. After his death in 1575, it is rumored that her husband’s uncle approached her and offered her the chance to be in charge of an underground network of kunoichi agents. Kunoichi means “deadly flowers” and he was offering her the chance to be at the head of a group of female warriors.

Medieval Japanese aristocratic politics were corrupt and ever changing. Samurai were more than warriors, they were spies, disseminators of subversion, and assassins. Despite that they did the noble class’ dirty work they weren’t paid very well. As popular as they are now in modern culture, during their time they were paid a wage akin to that of someone who works in a fast food chain. Chiyome who was recently widowed had the skills of a ninja, but to become a ninja was unacceptable. She decided to become the sensei to the kunoichi.

Locked away in her compound, Chiyome began to recruit. Those taking note thought that she was simply taking in unfortunate girls and women. Her recruits were orphaned and abandoned girls, runaways, and downtrodden women. Nobody on the outside seemed to hear the whistle of sword blades cutting the air or the zing of throwing stars hitting targets.

In Chiyome’s Kunoichi School for Wayward Girls, the girls were trained in the martial arts. They learned to use knives, swords, spears, and halberds. They also learned the art of disguise, how to use their feminine wiles, how to escape, and to improvise. Sometimes a fan would be sharpened to have a razor sharp edge or a hairpin would be dipped in poison in order to bring death to a target. It is rumored that at the height of Chiyome’s power she had 200-300 agents that were working for the Takeda clan and kept the daimyo Takeda Shingen informed of all happenings within the countryside. Her women could be anywhere. A washer-woman, actress, maid, market seller, or geisha might be one of her deadly flowers. Madame Chiyome was truly a dangerous woman.

Writing Prompts: Stages of Life

All of these writing prompts have to do with various stages of life that people go through.

1. Your point of view character is an 80 year old woman who is writing what will be the last entry in her diary before committing suicide because she feels she has lived her life. Where is the story set? What things does this character write to loved ones? What are her remembrances? What moments or thoughts does she want to make sure are passed on for others to read?

2. Your point of view character is a worldly explorer who dies suddenly and his/her consciousness is transported into a new born baby. How does this character approach this experience? What do they notice?

3. Your point of view character is a middle aged man who becomes aware that while he is successful, dependable, etc. he has not lived his life how he had always dreamed of. What are his dreams? What does he do about these dreams?

4. A homely girl fantasizes being beautiful after being snubbed and bullied by the popular girls in her high school. She goes home to sulk and a strange magical woman steps through her closet. The woman invites the girl through the closet to a place where she is beautiful. What happens?

5. A young boy who was bullied grows into a man. He learned the techniques of bullying and how to be ready to defend on the school yard. Can he learn to be kind? Can he learn to be vulnerable? Does he? What motivates him?