The Writing Life For Me: 2010.12

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

My pumpkin pie disaster

So, I like to make pumpkin pie. My family won't
eat it unless it's made from canned pumpkin, but
I like it made with fresh pumpkin. It tends to taste
a little bit different from canned, but I don't mind
that.

Well, this year it turned out terrible. I boiled the
pieces of "neck pumpkin" until they were soft, and
then mashed them up and made a pie. (It never
smells very nice while it's boiling. It smells rather
like squash. LOL)

Anyway. I made a pie that looked and tasted
lovely, and lacked the ingredients in normal pie
(wheat, sugar) that I can't eat. It tasted great--
but it was stringy. Sooo stringy. Gag-reflex
stringy.

I had to throw it away. I wasn't even able to eat
half of it. What a waste! It actually had a good
flavor.

Maybe if I'd forced the pumpkin pulp through
a strainer, I could have gotten all the strings out
and it would have turned out perfect....

Live and learn....

But till next Fall, I'll be using canned pumpkin
for pumpkin pies.

~Alice~

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Ready for Christmas.... :)

I'm ready for Christmas! :-) This year I sent out some cards (a first for me), and streamlined my present-buying (also a first).

In the writing department, I sent out my novel submission for _Watch Over Me_ to Muse It Up Publications. I finally had it ready to send and didn't want to wait till after Christmas.

I also finally updated my website (http://sites.google.com/site/aliceroelke/) to reflect the fact that I'm having a novella published next May, and show off the lovely cover art that Delilah K. Stephans (http://www.delilahkstephans.com) made for me!!

I feel accomplished. That's nice for a change! :)

I've made some plans for next year already, but I'll have to try not to get carried away with it. Making too many plans can become counterproductive for me.

Oh, and in the reading department, I'm enjoying Daily Science Fiction. (http://dailysciencefiction.com/) They send emails every day with a short science fiction or fantasy story. Some days I ignore them, other days I get pulled into reading them. They keep them short and readable, which is nice for a quick break. I'm impressed with the quality of the ones I've read so far.

~A.M. Roelke~