Things to Do Today

• Go to the gym.
• Read through at least 100 pages of Out of the Frying Pan.
• Answer various work-related e-mails.
• Do dishes/make big salad for lunch/cut up watermelon/do dishes/make dinner (Trader Joe’s curry chicken over brown rice with Thai soup, the latter already meade)/do dishes again.
• Scoop cat boxes.
• Update GWW packing list/meet with Morgana, Brian, and Robin to make GWW plans.
• Cheer for Ken as he runs the LOE Rally.
• Answer various personal- and SCA-related e-mails.
• Try not to be sad that nobody wanted to see James Marsters and Ghost of a Robot tonight. Curse my evil bad eyesight. Sigh.
• Snuggle with kitties, and write a blog about them.

Prepping for the fun

October already. The season of The Most Wonderful Time of the Year! Except I think I shan’t be decortating for Hallowe’en this year, because I’ll be gone for most of the month. It’s going to be a fun and busy 31 days!

Here’s what I’ve got on the schedule:

Great Western War, October 8–10. I’m only going for the three days, because Ken’s out of town. Luckily we have a cat sitter! Also, I’ll be carpooling/sharing a hotel room with a friend who’s never been to War before, and she’s thrilled about that arrangement. Makes me feel good I can help her out!

New Technology Workshop & Two Book Signings, October 14–17. I’m sooo excited about this Oregon Writers Network workshop: all about how publishing is changing at a mind-bogglingly fast rate, and how to jump on that speeding bullet train of publishing via Kindle, Smashwords, CreateSpace, and more. I’ll also be doing book signings in Lincoln City and Portland with Shanna Germain and Kristina Wright, promoting Fairy Tale Lust and Alison’s Wonderland. Join us if you can! At the Portland signing/reading, there will be a contest for best fairy outfit!

Styx shows in Florida, October 20–25. I barely get home from the Oregon trip before I turn around and fly out to Florida for not one, not two, but three Styx shows! They’re doing a series of special concerts, the entire albums of The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight back-to-back, and I for one cannot wait to experience such a smorgasbord of incredible classic rock! Plus I get to hang out with the most fabulous Helen, and hopefully get the chance to see Zan, Rik, Rowdy, Dean, and even a friend from high school!

Rick Springfield book signing, October 29. He’s written an autobiography, and is doing a talk/signing in LA. This is why I love love love living in southern California!

Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog charity event, October 30. Another reason why I love living here! Dr. Horrible on the big screen, to raise money for Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, which “keeps music alive in our schools and communities by donating musical instruments to under-funded music programs, giving youngsters the many benefits of music education.” Even if I didn’t care about the event (which I do, I do!), I’d want to support a fantastic charity like this.

Hallowe’en (you know the date). Oddly, I have no specific plans for the evening. Morgana and Brian will be out of town… What I want to do is borrow a child or two and go trick-or-treating slightly south of here because I’ve heard a certain celebrity dresses up to hand out candy near where a friend of mine lives, but…I’m so not a stalker. Really. Honest.  ;-)

So, yeah, October’s kinda packed. November is looking pretty mild by comparison; the only hard-scheduled things of note are Coronation/Queen’s Champion and Thanksgiving, the latter which we shall be hosting for my sister, brother-in-law, two kids plus one friend-of-kid, and possibly Ken’s mom. I’m pondering NaNoWriMo, but if I do it, it will be unofficially, because I’ve already written the first 2.5 chapters of the novel I’d like to do.

What are your plans as the days turn colder (well, everywhere except southern California, where we’ve been having record-breaking temperatures, and the southern hemisphere, that is)?

Book signing in Lincoln City, OR!

And another one!

Along with the Portland book signing/reading on Saturday evening, October 16, I will also be doing a signing in Lincoln City that afternoon, again with Shanna and Kristina!

Where? North by Northwest Books, Streetcar Village, 6334 S. Hwy 101 #9, Lincoln City, OR 97367, 541-994-3087

When? Saturday, October 16, 1–3 p.m.

Why? To promote Fairy Tale Lust and Alison’s Wonderland, two fairy tale erotica anthologies

With Whom? Author Shanna Germain and Fairy Tale Lust editor/author Kristina Wright

Hope to see you there!

Portland, OR, reading/signing!

Portland-area friends! I’m doing a book signing and reading in your neck of the woods next month! (Actually, probably two signings, but I’m still hammering out the details of one, so stay tuned for that.)

Where? She Bop, a female-friendly sex toy boutique, 909 N. Beech St., Portland, 503-473-8018

When? Saturday, October 16, 8:30 p.m.

Why? To promote Fairy Tale Lust and Alison’s Wonderland, two fairy tale erotica anthologies

With Whom? Author Shanna Germain and Fairy Tale Lust editor/author Kristina Wright

What Should I Wear? I’m so glad you asked! If you’re so inclined, wear fairy tale or fairy-themed clothing/accoutrements, for there will be a contest! (Not required, of course, but how can that not be fun?!)

More Deets? Check out She Bop’s website and events page.

Hope to see you there!

** Celebrate! **

Happy Birthday

to my Beloved,

Ken!

(You can e-mail him at ken.meese AT mac.com if you want to tell him happy birthday yourself!)

Who am I today?

This question has come up in different forms: Why do I have so many pseudonyms? How do I find your non-erotic stuff/how do I tell the difference between your erotica vs non-erotic works?

Here’s a handy reference guide!

I have different pseudonyms because I write in different genres. It’s to help my readers easily find what they’re interested in. I also try very hard to be clear when I’m promoting something, what genre it’s in. If I say fantasy, I mean fantasy, not erotica. And so forth.

Dayle A. Dermatis – fantasy, science fiction, occasional non-fiction. I did sell one short, sweet romance story under this name, but it appeared in small presses a long time ago. When I put it up for sale as an e-book soon, I’ll use my sweet romance pseudonym (and if anyone is confused and buys the story and then realizes they’ve already read it, I’ll happily refund their money because if they’ve been a fan of mine for that long, they totally deserve it!).

Andrea Dale – erotica and erotic romance

Sophie Mouette – erotica and erotic romance co-authored with Teresa Noelle Roberts

Sarah Dale – spicy romance co-authored by with Sarah J. Husch

Kendra Wayne – erotica and erotic romance. An alternate name for Andrea Dale, really, for when I’m going to have two stories in the same anthology. Also the name I write under for Custom Erotica Source.

Andrea Loewen – romance, some with paranormal elements. There may be some sexual scenes, but if there are, they’re not full-on erotic. I haven’t yet sold anything under this name, but I have several things making the rounds.

All of my publications are listed at my website, divided up by pseudonym with the genre noted.

Questions? Comments? Fire away!

Dayle’s Version of Thai Soup, More or Less

Some of you asked for the Thai soup recipe I mentioned here, and it made me laugh and laugh. Do you know me? I’m the one who doesn’t cook. I just flail about in the kitchen trying not to poison anyone. I don’t like recipes. Recipes are like rules, and I really hate rules unless I understand their underlying purpose. (See, e.g., (a) why I don’t like Regency romances and (b) why I feel the need to research the history of any ritual.)

This may explain why it just took me 10 minutes to figure out where I’d saved this recipe on the computer.

This is cobbled together from several recipes I found online,* with my own preferences clearly noted. All amounts are arbitrary.

Dayle’s Version of Thai Soup, More or Less

Ingredients

• 2 containers of that organic vegetable stock. The rectangular cardboard kind, not the cans. You could use chicken stock, too, from the cardboard thingies. Or you could make your own stock.
• 1–2 stalks of lemongrass. The original recipes say to mince them, but I hate hate hate accidentally chomping down on an unchewable piece of lemongrass. So I treat them kind of like bay leaves: I whack them in half, and leave them floating in the soup, and throw them out towards the end when they start to get in the way and annoy me.
• 1–2 tsp chili sauce. I think I used at least 2½ tsp, and it was marginally hot for me. Ken liked it. He doesn’t like things as spicy as I do. I’d probably use 3 tsp if I made it when he was out of town.
• 1 tsp curry powder. Or more, if you like it.
• 4 cloves garlic, minced. Or more. I love garlic. Mmm, garlic.
• 2 cups cabbage. Or more. I’m fond of cabbage.
• green onion. I like green onion, too, so I’ll throw a goodly amount in.
• tomatoes. Chop one or two up and throw them in, to your taste.
• 1 can coconut milk.
• 3–4 Tbsp soy sauce.
• 1–2 Tbsp fish sauce, if you like it. Note: Do not grab the fish sauce when you’re putting in the soy sauce, or the final product will be rather salty. It was still edible and didn’t bother me much, but it might be too much for you. So remember, the fish sauce bottle and the soy sauce bottle look different, and you should pay attention to them.
• 2–3 Tbsp lime juice. The original recipes said fresh-squeezed, but damn those limes are wee and don’t give much juice. The hell with that.
• ½ cup fresh basil, roughly chopped.
• 1/3 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped. Don’t add this if you think cilantro tastes like soap, like Morgana does. I like cilantro, so I add it unless I think I’ll be inviting Morgana over to dinner. But why do they sell cilantro in such huge bunches? No matter how hard I try, I can never use it up before it gets all slimy.
• The original recipes called for mushrooms, and if you know me, you can visualize me shuddering in disgust now.
• shrimp. I love me some shrimps. I couldn’t have them during the cleanse, but I’ll add them now. Quantity is unknown due to lack of experimentation. I also wouldn't add shrimp if Morgana was coming to dinner. But I might add chicken.
• tofu. See shrimp. I wonder if I should fry it up first? No idea.
• cauliflower.** Since I couldn’t have shrimp or tofu during the cleanse, I steamed some cauliflower and threw it in, and it was yummy. I don’t know how much I used. Don’t say I didn’t warn you re: not liking recipes and rules.

Directions

• Pour the veggie/chicken stock into a big pot. Add the lemongrass, lime juice, chili, garlic, and green onion. (If you’re like me, you’ll space and add the coconut milk and other liquids here. Not sure why you’re not supposed to, except maybe you’re not supposed to boil the milk. I dunno.) Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes, “or until broth is fragrant.” I have no freaking clue what that last part means. It was smelling pretty damn good all along. If you're like me, you'll use this time to frantically chop everything else.
• Add the cabbage and tomatoes, and probably things like mushrooms and shrimp and tofu and cauliflower. I didn’t cobble this together in a coherent fashion, okay? Gently simmer 1–2 more minutes (cabbage should remain on the crisp side, and not go over to the Dark Side. Which is a good rule of life, really.).
• Reduce heat to low and add the coconut milk, soy sauce, fish sauce, and lime juice, unless you were like me and automatically added them earlier.
• Taste it. If it’s not spicy enough, add more chili sauce. If it’s not salty enough (really?), add more soy sauce or fish sauce or a stock cube/powder or salt. If it’s too salty or sweet, add more lime juice. I’m not holding your hand through this, okay?
• Ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with the basil and cilantro. Or, if you’re lazy like me, you’ll just throw the basil and cilantro in towards the end. Presentation is for wusses. Just give me my soup.  ::clutches bowl close to chest, slurps, makes omnomnom noises::

---

*This is my usual way of finding things to make. I go online and search various websites, and copy several versions of what I want, and then sort of randomly cobble them together into a Word document. My oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe (which can also be an oatmeal cranberry cookie recipe) is three different recipes on the same piece of paper. Each time I make them, I try to remember which bits from which recipe I used. So they’re never the same twice. Fun!

**Thank goodness for spell check, because apparently I don’t know how to spell this.