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MFRW (Marketing For Romance Writers) is organizing a Summer Camp  in July. What a great time to kick back and learn, learn, learn about promoting the books we’ve worked on since Winter. Some of us are sharing recipes in advance, so we can all be noshing on the same goodies while meeting on line. Naturally I volunteered since I enjoy sharing recipes almost as much as sharing information.

Bet you thought I’d be bringing out a new low carb recipe.  Instead I’m sharing one of my favorite party dips.  I’ll be

The finished dip will look something like this

taking this to Lompoc later in July, where Saluki people gather to show dogs, meet old friends, and in general escape from the summer heat. This is the original recipe, with a few suggested variations

Terry’s Chorizo Dip

1# ground beef
½# Chorizo (a rich sausage, either beef or pork)
1 Can (12 oz) Chili, no beans. I’ve used Wolf brand…look for one without textured vegetable protein
1# Velveeta, cubed Yep, Velveeta
1 Medium Onion, chopped
1 Bell Pepper, chopped (actually I’ve never added the Bell Pepper, though next time through I might, or might add roasted chopped Green Chile)

Brown the Onion, add the Bell Pepper, then the Ground Beef and Chorizo, breaking down the lumps. Drain off the grease.
At this point I go to the slow cooker, if you’re in a hurry you can do it stove top. Pour the drained mix into the cooker along with the Velveeta and Chili. Let it all melt together. Enjoy with the chip of your choice, I’ve seen some people eat as a thick soup. Really.

Possible additions or changes:
You can do the browned part ahead of time, and finish it up later. The recipe does keep well for a couple days in the refrigerator, if you have any left.
I started using Ground Turkey a while back, the flavor is marginally lighter and it’s less greasy. We have a fabulous local restaurant, Los Quatos, with a spicy cooked salsa…I’ve been known to add a half jar or so. Let your imagination run wild.

NOTE: I looked at this recipe for a long time. I know how delicious it is, but I also know it’s contrary to much of what I’ve come to believe about food these last couple years. Velveeta is tasty but processed, and it’s so difficult to find

decent canned chili. Soooo…yesterday I started to look up alternatives. Step one was making my own chili, with fresh ingredients. Then there was the big stumbling block, the extremely processed Velveeta, which is after all a cheese food

Making the chili base, which was yummy on its own

Fortunately I’m not the only one who likes that creamy yumminess but worries about the ingredients. Sure enough I found a recipe for home made Velveeta.  Looks like I have some recipe challenges ahead of me, yes of course I’ll be sharing.

Hmmm, looks like I can even make my own chorizo sausage. Hmmmmm

As exciting as these plans are, they take a back seat to creating new worlds, but there are parallels. Originally the story of Gabriel (Mykhael’s brother from My Killer My Love)was a novella about a gorgeous hunk of an arrogant Atrahasis, who needs to learn humility and in

My Killer My Love

the process meets his future, a woman with her own ideas about life. But, what if…what if instead of using the gorgeous hero/sexy-woman-who-doesn’t-know-she’s-gorgeous heroine, I took away some of that exterior, and made Gabriel in particular more ordinary in appearance though he starts out with the innate arrogance of someone who has grown up beautiful, and also remove his ability to enhance his attraction. Maybe make him less…processed…and more real?

I might be on to something here. Anyone else want to see an experienced seducer fall flat on his well toned rear?

Right now, while we’re all thinking about it, block out July 12-14 for MFRW Summer Camp. You’ll have a blast, and you won’t have to use sun block or bug spray!

Who remembers Dark Crystal…A Jim Henson production, with all the characters puppets? Ambitious, a lot to like, and one of my husband’s favorites.  What I mostly remember were the hunched over characters trudging across the landscape, heading for the convergence. One. Slow. Step at a time.

Progress on Gabriel’s story is reminding me of their journey. One word after another dragged out of my creative self. Which is proving to be something of an advantage since my original thought was to have Gabriel in all his Alpha handsome glory partner up with Clair, my plucky plus size heroine…scratch the plucky part, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be alliterative. Then I started thinking about Gabriel needing to learn humility What better than to send him among humans minus his charisma.  Hmmm.

In the meantime I haven’t been sitting around contemplating the walls, and I’m not even trying real hard to improve my win percentage on Free Cell.  Honest.  Here in New Mexico we have a really short growing season and I have some ambitious ideas about what I want to grow this year.  So I’ve been busy outside.

There’s this chain link dog pen we’d been using as an outside play place for cats. It was set East/West and I wanted it

the old dog pen

North/South.  A 90-degree turn, and that pen had been in place for six years…coming up to

kind stuck into the ground

seven. Yikes.

Needed to dig it out, then start the turn. Since it’s mostly me and the dogs, I decided to try it

SUCCESS

on my own. Dug it out, then inched it around a little bit at a time. Until it was between the posts instead of next to them.

It wasn’t as difficult as I’d thought, just took a bit of time. And of course the dogs were NO help whatsoever.  Their job, they tell me, is to be lovely. My job is to make their world as lovely as they are, when I’m not tending to their every need.

Besides, they don’t much worry about the planting end of our lives, though they’re quite fond of the end result, especially zucchini.  If only we could grow avocados here.  Ah well, those we can get at the store.  Once the pen was shifted around, and the inside rearranged, I started

collecting supplies and starting the process

moving in all the various tubs and pots I’d had stashed around the place.  Those nifty green tubs will probably be used to hold pots instead of planting them directly, and there’s a stack of earth boxes ready to be assembled.

We just might have a garden this year. Even better, the pen can be wrapped in heavy plastic for a greenhouse come winter.

So I have been busy at something. The problem, other than writing blogs and going to the Book Fiesta and dog shows, is the basic distraction of living here.

How to concentrate with this sort of distraction?

Here I am dithering away trying to get myself back into the writing groove after a couple of intense weeks, in both my

Showing Kerovan

writing world and my “dog” world. Neither of which brought me huge immediate success, so it’s not like I can point to euphoria as a reason not to be writing up a storm.  It’s not like I didn’t have a slew of great ideas and it’s not like I don’t think I can put those ideas on paper.  Sometimes I thought so hard about what I was intending to write, I thought I’d already written many words of deathless prose.  Yeah, not so much. And along comes Kristen Lamb with another Suck it Up, Buttercup post and danged if I didn’t give myself a Gibbs slap and get back to work.

What Are the Odds of Success? …Really?.

Kristen explains the true odds.  It’s not me against the world of those who want to be published writers. Not even me against those who are more or less actively seeking publication.  It’s me (or you, or your Aunt Harriet) against those assumptions or fears we’re hauling along with us every time we sit down to write. Or every time we finish a story and immediately think it’s not worth editing. Even worse when we try to compare our writing to anyone else’s.  Because the reader is the final judge and there’s no telling what’s going to appeal to readers.

As long as I can keep offering them the best stories  I can write, then I’m stacking that deck in my favor.  And I can state I am the 5% of the 5% of the 5%…coming down to that small, intense group of writers who intend to become published and stay published. As Kristen says many times  WE ARE NOT ALONE. We’re in this struggle together, and we’re winning.  Yes, we are.

We’re into Day Two of the Book Lover’s Buffet , where you can fill up on goodies to your heart’s content, and never worry about carbs or calories.  Dream time, don’t you think? The link will take you to their phenomenal website, where books are grouped into sub genres.  What an amazing job these wonderful people did organizing this blowout.  Just in time to load up e-books for Mother’s Day, or heck fill your own for a Summer of fabulous reading.

We have supporting blogs telling you more about the available books and at the same time offering an opportunity for writers to share blurbs and information about their books. Kara Ashley has been exceptionally generous, offering several locations to promote Paranormal, Fantasy, Sci Fi, Horror or any other book on the buffet table

I’ve invited the other participants to add information on their books to this post.  Some jumped in yesterday (THANKS!!) and I’m hoping more will come along today.  You have until tomorrow midnight to shop till your fingers drop.  And the weekend to read, read, read.

I’m spending my weekend getting in closer touch with Gabriel so you’ll have his story to read after My Killer My Love

And if you happen to read about Bethany, Jonathan, and Baron the goofy Irish Setter in Teach Me To Forget you might be happy to know Paul’s been bugging me to tell his story.  All these great people populating my life!

Happy Reading

Let’s fill the Mother’s Day Kindles with a multitude of wonderful books. The IRI Book Blowout is about to begin.  I’ve put both My Killer My Love and Teach Me To Forget into the mix, and they are among 150 books available for the amazing price of .99 from May 1-3. That’s right over one hundred and fifty books in multiple genres.  Check it out: Bouquet of Books Sale. Not only a massive collection of wonderful books but also CONTESTS WITH PRIZES.  Very Very Cool Prizes. As in First Prize is a $100 gift certificate.

Lots of wonderful new books to download and read, wonderful contest prizes, and a chance to fill someone’s reader with new authors.  Looks like a win-win-win situation.

Teach Me To Forget
May 2012

Black Opal Books has helped me have  Teach Me To Forget and My Killer My Love available for this event. If you don’t have a copy, now is the time to grab one.  Enjoy, and happy reading

Have you ever noticed how plans you made months ago seem to float along blithely then turn around and LEAP on you? As a writer for a boutique press, I’m aware the bulk of promotional work falls on me (often shared with my wonderful fellow Black Opal Books Authors) And I’m good with that especially since there is a multitude of opportunities available for anyone willing to take the time to learn.

That Suit

So when my local RWA Chapter Land of Enchantment Romance Authors decided to participate in the upcoming  it only took me a few breaths to agree to be a “featured author” and sign books, even though LERA is populated with a wealth of multi published award winning writers. We all start somewhere right?  Then Sarah Storme upped the ante with an opportunity to promote our books on Good Day New Mexico. That one took more than a few breaths.  Sure, I’ve lost weight, but not enough. And my days of makeup, killer shoes, and fancy clothes are long past.  Though I could dredge up my suit, give it a brush off since the last dog show… it’s dark, and makes me feel professional.  And doggonit how often does this sort of chance show up?  Right, pretty  much never.

The taping was yesterday, and airs May 8, just before the Fiesta (great timing!!) And except for the shock of the close up (who’s that old woman with wrinkles on her face?  Ooops, that’s me??) quickly forgotten, I think it went well.  We’ll know soon enough.

But for now, I’m participating in the IRI Book Blowout from May 1-3.  For those three days, both My Killer My Love and Teach Me To Forget  will be reduced to .99 on Amazon.  Here’s your opportunity to grab a copy of each, maybe gift some to friends. I’ll have all the links up tomorrow to make it even easier for you to access. And I’ll be Tweeting up a storm, helping to promote the others participants, who will also be helping me. Truly, we are not alone.

I have a spam filter on this blog which seems to be extremely effective. At least I’ve never seen any offers for knock off knockout performance enhancing drugs show up in any blog comments. Once in a while I visit the spam files and delete everything that looks wrong which lately has been everything in the folder.

Sometimes I’ll read a few as I’m mass deleting, and wonder what is in my blog that would ever give a spam program the idea I’d be tempted in even a minor fashion to want any of these products. Knock off designer purses? I tend to carry one purse until it falls apart, and usually buy that purse at a marked down store. Fake Oakley sunglasses? My glasses have that self tinting addition.  More money and worth every penny. I am truly stymied by the messages offering great deals on makeup. My skin routine consists of washing my face at night (when I remember) and covering it with avocado oil.  Works great for life in the high desert, I use it on my  hair also.

So what gives on the spam choices? Who knows.  Since most bloggers have the same spam controls I have to admire the tenacity of those burrowing digital beasties. I guess there must be an occasional success or the hackers would stop trying. Apologies to my brilliant friends who understand the digital world, for me the Internet is mostly magic anyway. I see the hackers as this era’s version of door to door sales people who want you to buy their fabulous photo albums or take a lifetime encyclopedia subscription.

No, she’s not spoiled. Photo by her doting person, Linda P

But wait! There’s more! I promised recipes yesterday.  The first one comes from Linda in Colorado who is owner and protector and companion and slave to one of the puppies from our last litter.  How Dragon Queen (aka Kinkee) came to live with Linda is a story for another time. I’d been making training treats for the dogs by dehydrating various kinds of liver, but wanted something not quite as special for everyday cookies. I’d been handing out animal crackers but wanted a bit more control of what the ‘lukis ate.  This is from what Linda suggested.

TREATS FOR THE QUEEN

From Linda: I really don’t measure anything and I make it up as I go along. The only constant things are about 2 cups of oats that are ground up to a flour in food processor (cheaper than buying oat flour) and two eggs with the shell. Comment from Mona: Oops, I ground up the oats then measured.  Helps to read the recipe more closely.

Then I added
1 can of salmon (everything in the can) whirl everything in the food processor until it’s smooth. If it seems thick, add water. {Mona: The first time I made these I added the eggs separately from the salmon…not a good idea!}

Spread out on a cookie sheet with either parchment paper or olive oil to avoid sticking. Bake around 350 for about thirty  minutes (Linda is definitely my kind of cook!!) When the batter is semi hard, use a pizza cutter to cut into the desired size, and bake some more until they’re crisp enough for your needs. I let mine sit in the oven as it cools, and they get nice and crunchy.

Second batch, I added some ground Parmesan cheese, a particular favorite of mine.  You can experiment with the additions, depending on your dog’s tastes: shredded carrots or other veggies, bananas, spices, vanilla, wheat germ. Most of the time they love these nuggets. Every now and then Gwyn (Kinkee’s mom) practices how far she can spit them out. But that’s Gwyn…and here’s Kinkee when she was just a few hours old…she’s the black one with the white collar