Gwen's Ink

WHEW! Finally back now, though without my car (long story).

Prompt-call is closed and the Plastic-Cup-O-Doom (tm) will soon be selecting the words that will be used. I MAY have to run out again to deal with the car situation (assuming I can get a tow truck on Christmas Eve), in which case I may not have time to finish the story.

But have no fear! If I can't get it up tonight (the story, you filthy-minded elves! :P), I'll post tomorrow. I don't think that'll be a problem since nobody's got the comm for Christmas Day! (This would mean the comment-for-a-chance-to-win portion of the contest would be extended. Likely to noon on the 26th).

Okay. That said... here's a wee snippet of my holiday sip, Nice: A Change of Pace.

( Those boys are at it again... )

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I'll be back in a little while with more stuff, though I don't know what. :P

~Tis

You guys knew it was coming, didn't you? :P

First, let me thank everyone who's offered up prompt-words and remind those who haven't that the call is open until 5 p.m., EST. Just over an hour!

Second, I may have mentioned my holiday single shot Snow & Mistletoe before (I know I did *hee*), so here's a snippet under the cut, totally work safe! It's a sweet little story (I think) and I hope you'll enjoy the excerpt!

( Meet Richard! )

I'll be back in a little while with another snippet, this time from the holiday single shot... and maybe even a sneak peak at The One That Stayed, book 3 in the One and One series, which should be released sometime in Februrary if I'm remembering correctly!

See you guys soon!

~Tis *wanders off humming Jingle Balls*

COOKIES, right? *hee*

I'm not sure why, but for me, the two go hand in hand.

That said, here's a little recipe I use as a general, all-purpose cookie dough base. I've added all sorts of ingredients to this before. In fact, when I had a big, industrial mixer at work, I used to multiply this recipe by 10, then separate out smaller portions to combine with different additions.

I usually make the cookie dough and once everything's mixed in, I'll roll it into parchment paper, making rolls about an inch and a half across and a foot or so long. They freeze really well and I can just remove one roll of dough and slice it into discs, peel off the paper and they're ready for the oven. *grins* About 325 degrees until brown at the edges (usually 7 to 10 minutes).



2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt


1 cup (2 sticks, 1/2 pound) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated white sugar

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

* * *

Combine dry ingredients and set aside.

Cream butter and sugars together in stand mixer then add vanilla and eggs. Combine.

Slowly add dry ingredients to wet, a little at a time (to avoid the huge dusty flour cloud).

* * *

Some of my favorite things to add are white chocolate chips and pistachios, or dried cranberries and chopped pecans, or chopped dried apricots and slivered almonds. The possibilities are endless.

You can also not add any nuts or chocolate and instead sift in a tablespoon of ground cinnamon with the flour and such for a very basic cinnamon cookie. Or two tablespoons cocoa powder for chocolate ones. :)

And there you have it. Tis's cookie dough recipe. *hee*

That's right, I've managed to claw my way from the strangle hold of sleep and here I am! *hee*

It's just about 11:30 a.m. now, so I think this would be a good time to put out the call!

I think you guys know the drill by now, but if not... leave me anywhere from one to five words in comments here between now and... let's say 5 p.m. EST. I'll use at least one word from each of you in the fourth part of the ongoing saga of "The Irregular Regular", which I'll try to post before I finish up here tonight. :)

Each person who offers words or comments later on the finished product will be entered into a random drawing, courtesy of the Plastic-Cup-O-Doom (tm), the winner to be announced tomorrow, noon (which is when I'll close this contest).

CLOSED FOR PROMPT-WORDS!!!

If that's not clear, prompt-words 'til 5 p.m. today and comments 'til noon tomorrow (EST) will all be eligible to win. Prize is a 'pdf copy of either my Holiday single shot "Snow & Mistletoe" or my Holiday sip "Nice: A Change of Pace" (or if the winner already has those, something else from my backlist).

In case anyone doesn't feel like navigation my wordpress for the first three parts of the continuing story:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Have at it, people! *grins* Oh, and it's not actually the Holidays in the story, so don't feel as though you have to be holiday-themed. :) As usual, anything goes!

~Tis

I know for a FACT that Tis won't mind if I sneak in here and announce my winner from yesterday. How do I know this fact? I just do. She'll even vouch for me.

stormwever!!

Yay for you. Email me at ragingpixie at gmail dot com with the name of any title from my back list and I'll send you a free download.

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

Good morning (though it's barely that where I am, what with it being... 2:30-ish a.m.)!

Welcome to my advent calendar day!

I don't have anything particular planned for those who actually manage time away from friends and family on this very special day of the year, but I've gotten fairly good at winging it here.

One thing I DO plan is to continue my prompt-story that I started way back when, "The Irregular Regular." Previous parts can be found on my site Here!

Click on the links for parts one through three on on the right, under free reads.

I'm also thinking I'll have a contest or two to celebrate the releases of my new holiday single shot and sip.

There might even be a recipe or two, from my cheffing days. *grins*

So, welcome. There's coffe around here somewhere and lots of pretty boys just waiting to serve you. Do try to behave until I get back. *grins*

Oh, and if you guys have any questions at all, feel free to ask. I'll answer as soon as I can!

~Tis

Night, everyone. Thanks so much for hanging out today. I'll pick a contest winner and announce it tomorrow morning, and in the meantime, check out the books that Torquere put on sale today. Thanks again!

Chasing Victory, Keeping Karma and The Sound of Cicadas on sale for 20% off.

Even though my family celebrates Hanukkah, I do NOT get away with a Christmas-free holiday. Most of my friends and neighbors celebrate Christmas, and the husband and I usually exchange stockings on Christmas morning. (He gets Hanukkah presents, but he is not of the Chosen People. Double presents for him! Lucky.)

So anyway, just now I was downstairs trying to wrap up some of the munchies and baked goods we'll be taking to neighbors, and I realized that ALL of the baked stuff was everything I like to eat myself. I thought I'd just give you one of my favorite holiday recipes so you can try it out, too.

( Millionaire's Shortbread Bars )

Two of the three emails I got this week asked me if I was planning on doing more with Chris and Morgan from Tinder. The answer is yes, although the project got stalled for a few months while I dealt with some day to day real life stuff. Things are slowly getting back on track for me now, so I expect to resume work on their third and final installment.

This one is coming from Morgan's POV, so it's a bit different for me. Here's a little taste of what goes on inside Morgan's head.

( Morgan knew, even before he opened his eyes, that Christopher was not going to let this birthday pass unnoticed. )


I can take any questions you guys have about Chris and Morgan, or anyone else from my catalogue! All questions and/or comments to this post will be thrown into the hat and I'll pick a winner by tomorrow. The winner gets their choice of a free download of anything from my backlist.

Go on, ask. :)

Good morning! I'm sure the day is well underway for anyone not on the west coast, but it's just a little after seven in southern California, so I congratulate myself for being this early on a non-workday. You all should congratulate me, too. ;) No coffee, even!

Well, I was debating a few days ago what to actually post about, but then I got THREE emails just this week about my Oceanside Fire series, so. Firemen it is! I have a couple of snippets for you later and a super easy contest, but for now I'll leave you with one of my very favorite things to watch on the web. It's pretty NSFW because of language and sexual situations, but those are always the best kind, aren't they? It's also not very complimentary toward police officers, but the two cops I've shown this to found it hilarious. And all the firemen I know think Jake is their hero.

Here, watch and judge for yourself.

Policeman Perry and Fireman Jake are best friends who work in competitive industries...

Day 23 -- Tory Temple will be hosting.

To celebrate we've put Chasing Victory, Keeping Karma and The Sound of Cicadas on sale for 20% off.

Day 24 - TC Blue will be hosting

To celebrate we've put Lemon Yellow: Making Lemonade, Making it Up and Trine on sale for 20% off.

Day 26 -- Winnie Jerome will be hosting.

To celebrate we've put Spikenard: Freedom to Fly, Yuppie Blues and Blank Canvases on sale for 20% off.

Day 27 -- CC Bridges will be hosting

To celebrate we've put Bite Me, Down the Chimney and Cat's Eye on sale at 20% off.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Icons created from real images & illustrations of snowflakes, includes vintage photos and drawings.
*Click the "icon" tag to view all created.

❄ credit: theidolhands
❄ comments appreciated
❄ no hotlinking
❄ icons aren't bases


Set I [100 icons]


Set II [50 icons]

And the winner is: marasmine!

Email me at molly/anne/church at gmail/com (replacing the / with dots), and let me know if you'd prefer a copy of "A Hope in Hell" or the upcoming (in April) "Color Box: Brown".

I'm going to go have a (very) late dinner, and then I'll be back to answer the recent comments - thank you all for participating today, in the posts, and the prompts, and the poll. You guys were great.

I'm sorry I didn't get to finish my story in time (prompt story and planned story ended up clashing), but I will finish it tomorrow (unless acts of god or war, etc), and post it on my livejournal, if you're curious.

Speaking of which, obviously, I have an lj - but I also have a blogger (pretty much the same as my lj), and a facebook. But I'm one of those "just shy/not antisocial/(you can talk to me)" people, so I never know how to approach others, even where you're supposed to, you know, network. So! If you have a facebook, and like the whole social networking thing, and whatever, feel free to add me. You can find me here.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun, and I hope you guys did too.

Written to the prompts supplied here.

( More Dylan and Xavier - not work safe )

Back in a bit with the winner!

Edited for, you know, editing. *facepalm*

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

I should have perhaps mentioned in my prompt/poll post that I would be putting up two male/male excerpts and a male/male story written for the occasion - I'd go back and edit the post, but I'm pretty sure that would screw the poll up.

So, if in light of that your preference has changed slightly, you can let me know here or indeed, in the other post.

Anyway, on to the excerpt (sexcerpt?)!

This one is from my color box novelette which will not be out until the end of April, and is still in edits - I must emphasize this! - so it may yet change. But like the Ghost of Christmas Present, it's here for you to enjoy, as it is, in the moment.

( The working title is Grisaille in Brown. )

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It is also available as an option for the winner of the prompt-post draw - and I should probably also add a plea to get your prompts in in the next three hours if you can. (I will try to include late submissions too, but I'll be starting writing in three hours.)

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

    25 classic hollywood icons ( il m'a dit je t'aime )

As I was saying last time I was here, I love the winter holidays.

And as hbkurtzwilde mentioned yesterday, there are a lot of them. It seems like everyone has something to celebrate around now.

That's a large part of why I love it.

Although I was raised Christian (Catholic - the American version of Irish Catholic, not the Irish version of Irish Catholic), I was fortunate to go to a school which genuinely, lovingly, celebrated diversity. There was no effort in it on the kids' parts (though in retrospect, I'm sure it required a lot of thought on the parts of our teachers and administrators). We even had something of a school song for the holidays (it was written by our music teacher), which we would preform for the parents on the last day before the winter break. "Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays" did not seem trite or politically correct, or even overly thought about. It was just naturally inclusive.

We were taught about Kwanzaa and Hanukkah (again, in retrospect, I realize that our school was made up of predominately Christian students, hence no need to inform us what Christmas was about), and it was wonderful.

Later, as I got older, I would discover that there were more than those holidays - Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism all have winter holidays. And I also learned that given the lunar basis of some of the holidays, like Hanukkah, the holidays could fall quite early in the winter (Diwali for example, sometimes even falls in the fall). Movable feasts, indeed. But I do not let that stop me. They're winter holidays now, and I always like the ghost of Christmas Present best (especailly this one).

As hbkurtzwilde was telling us yesterday, yesterday was the winter solstice - known also as Yule (mainly, though it does have other AKAs). This is the holiday I celebrate now, and it appeals to me not just as a pagan, but part of the excitement for me is that it is all inclusive. It's astronomical. We're all celebrating a solstice - winter in the north, summer in the south - it's all of us. The shortest day of the year is the longest one, somewhere else. And there's a great symbolism - both natural and human - in that.

And speaking of great symbolism, both natural and human, I should mention Newgrange.

A long time ago - a very long time ago, indeed, back before the ancients raised Stonehenge or the Great Pyramids - on a small island at the very edge of Europe, the ancient people of Ireland built a temple of incredible complexity and beauty. We can't know all that Newgrange meant to them, or why they did it. But even today, five millennia later, at dawn, between the 19th and 23th of December, it is illuminated, for a brief time.

So, greetings of the season, and the solstice, to your and yours.

And all of us.


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(Edited for word!fail.)