Reviews, Recipes, and Random Slices of Life

05/25/2008 - Sunday, no work
* penthius freewriting - a trite little framework about wannabe colonists forced to live in the slums of their new home.
* Transferred new revision of "The Unkindness of Ravens" to desktop computer, changed status in spreadsheets.
* Processed new status of "Salvaging Scottwell" FKA "Police Bot"
* Processed Fictitious Force's rejection of "The Radiator Burped."
* Added "steampunk" to my definition of Vicesteed on the various places that I talk about it. Just a small change, but keywords and tags are important, and I can't think why I didn't change it before. Also, I totally need to create a document wherein I track the various places I need to change/update my writing info when such changes occur--a new project, a new publication, etc.
* Printed off Critters crits of Vicesteed Ch. 13.
* Sent one repeating critter Chapter 14 of Vicesteed for editing.
* Updated Vicesteed rough chapter summaries and submitted Chapter 14 into the Critters queue, where it will eventually bubble up to the top.

05/24/2008 - Saturday, no work
* Updated OpenOffice on laptop.
* Went through and marked up "Salvaging Scottwell" for edits again, using douglascole's notes for part of it. That story rocks on toast. It will be even more awesome once I finish these edits. Robots! Adaptive programming! Ghetto uprising! Beating the man at his own game! Gah! I want it to succeed so much that just thinking about its future gives me butterflies. Right now I have three stories that I'm really proud of, and none of them are out there yet: "Ice Mother," "Salvaging Scottwell," and "The Unkindness of Ravens" (which was out there but had been recalled for further edits).
* Finished making editing changes to "The Unkindness of Ravens." Hope I've fixed the bad beginning, but am not sure it's actually good yet. At least it doesn't involve flashbacks!

05/23/2008 - Friday, full+ work at NgithOwl
Read WritersDigest newsletter - excellent article listing 101 best sites for writers (http://writersdigest.com/101BestSites). Created syndicated livejournal feeds for a couple of the winning blogs that I found to be interesting--bransford and lperkinsagent. Also started following another agent blog that already has a livejournal, arcaedia.

Yogurt-Chive Biscuits, made using fresh chives from our CSA.

Recipe based on this one: Cooking Light's Buttermilk-Chive Biscuits.

3 c. flour
1 bundle (about 1 c.) minced fresh chives
4 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1/3 c. chilled butter, chopped into pieces
1 c. yogurt
1/2 c. milk

Preheat oven to 425 deg.

Combine flour through salt ingredients. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add yogurt and milk; stir until just moist.

Turn dough onto floured surface, knead until it all holds together--about 4 times. Pat dough out to a 3/4 inch thickness. Cut into roughly 2" circles (using a cookie cutter or glass). Place on buttered baking sheet. Melt extra butter and brush over tops of biscuits.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes or until golden on top.