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“Things Every Southern Woman Should Know How to Make”

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Alice clicked on the headline, mildly curious about what yet another stranger thought should be in her kitchen repertoire. Pictures of China plates mounded with crispy fried chicken, greens, cobbler, and a pile of biscuits a mile high flooded the screen, all set off with a pitcher of sweet tea beaded with condensation. The table was set; an apron draped off to the side next to a box labeled “Gramma’s Recipes” in fine calligraphy. She closed the browser and put away her tablet. She was born a Georgia peach, but she couldn’t make a cobbler to save her life. Did that mean she wasn’t southern? Or maybe just not “Southern.” For Alice, there was no recipe box full of family traditions. Her younger years were filled with rental homes in different states and her father’s voice coaxing her toward a text book rather than a cookbook. Metalworking and fabrication held more interest than learning to flambé or sauté. Did it make her less of a woman that her cooking skills consisted of fresh salads...
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COVER REVEAL! THE BEST LAID PLANS by Tamara Mataya

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Fangirl Time! I love raving about things that excite me, and this is definitely one of those things! The lovely Tamara Mataya   is revealing her debut novel, THE BEST LAID PLANS, coming soon from Swoon Romance!  Before you scroll down for a look at the shiny cover, find out about the awesome story of Malcolm and Jayne!   Jayne Griffin isn’t looking for Mr. Right. She’s looking for Mr. RTFN and a toe-curling good time. She’s got the brains, the powerful job as a futures broker, and thanks to a makeover and a thin book of dating advice, the confidence to turn any man’s head.                         Malcolm Black notices his high school crush, Jayne, from the stage of her company’s work party. His adolescent feelings for her died beneath months of abuse at the hands of bullies. Abuse that was Jayne’s fault. Though this scorching hot studio m...
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Writing Ramble: My Adventures in Plotting

I am a hardcore pantser when I’m writing. I know a mood and a general direction I want to go in, and I write. But that’s not working for this one particular WIP. My general roll-wherever-the-words-take-me method worked for about twelve pages. Then I got stuck. I knew where I wanted to go; I even had the basic plot written down. However, I couldn’t see the details within the picture. It was like trying to do a connect-the-dot puzzle with only two dots. (The thing’s supposed to be a bunny, y’all.) So, I did the thing I never thought I’d do. I made an outline. Yes, an orderly, structured, numerated document of information to guide me along my way. The thing I never wrote in school until I’d already finished my paper. And once I had it nice and neat, I saved it as a separate document, and I added details in subsections until the dots started looking somewhat bunny-shaped. It’s terrifying and so unlike me. My critique partner thinks I’ve been replaced with a pod person. B...
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That Time I Tricked My Creative Nonfiction Classmates into Thinking I Was a Dude

I think I've mentioned somewhere on here that I used to be part of a sword fighting club back in the day. Well, once many years ago, I took a creative nonfiction writing class in which I wrote about it. That particular assignment called for anonymity. After the critiques were done, we had the option to claim our works. To the shock of many of my classmates, the following story was indeed not written by a dude. Warmongers   We were mighty.   We were a band of warmongers, at times forty strong, battling to the death with swords of PVC pipe, padding, and duct tape.   We were the UCA sword-fighting club, and our battleground was Old Main.   Our founding father and great leader was Steven.   With a sharp eye and careful hand, he fashioned weapons for those of us that recently joined the ranks.   With the help of the veterans such as Cyrus and Matt, he kept us in line and trained us in the laws so we didn’t get thrown off campus.   Our rule...
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Ramblings of a Casual Gamer: Final Fantasy X Epiphany

Since the death of my 60GB PS3, I’ve been a little burnt out on games. None of my newer games have been able to pull me in. Trouble was, I wanted to play something. Anything. But the God of War games my new machine came with just couldn’t hook me. So, one day I thought, Why not an old game?   I switched on my old-school PS2. And I popped in Final Fantasy X. It’d been just long enough since I’d played it that I forgotten enough about the gameplay for it to be interesting. It took a bit to adjust my vision to the lower graphics, but then I was off, immersed in the story and enjoying some turn-based battle. As I played, I started thinking about the reasons I was enjoying FFX so much more than I had newer Final Fantasy games. Here’s what I’ve come up with:   Random Encounters They can be annoying as hell when you’re rushing across a map to reach a destination, but they add a sense of danger that non-random encounters lack. Random Encounter—I’m just gonna stroll ...
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Casual Webcomic Roundup

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The badass Ashley Cope just finished another chapter on Unsounded . Now that my horror of having to wait an entire month for the new chapter to begin has abated, I thought I’d introduce a few other comics that have caught my fancy. First up is Ever Blue.    A fascinating story of a genius girl mechanic named Luna, a free-spirited sailor named Ten, and their adventure across a world of endless ocean. The artist/author, Michael Sexton, has created an intriguing world where diving for old technologies is forbidden, and his wonderful artwork really brings it to life. Updates tend to be slower, but the pages are worth the wait. I recommend a monthly/bi-monthly check for new updates on this one.   You can check it out yourself here .   Strays is another excellent fantasy.     Meela is a young Lupian out on her own. Orphaned, she teams up with the mute Lupian mercenary Feral, who’s somewhat reluctant about his new charge. Beautif...
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Victim Blaming Needs to Die

I was listening to the radio on the way to work this morning when the morning hosts said something that sent me into a ragey tailspin. The radio went off. I spewed a lot of expletives. There were several entreaties from the fiancé to calm down. I am still very, very angry. They were discussing the controversial comments of Serena Williams in regards to the Steubenville incident. If for some reason you haven’t heard the basic story about this and the hellfire that has ensued since, here you go. There was a party. There was underage drinking. An unconscious girl was raped. The guys who participated joked about it in a video on the internet. The guys were convicted. Some people feel sorry them. I don’t. The particular comment this morning that lit my head on fire was one that’s not new. But it should be dead. The comment was that the girl should take some of the responsibility for her rape because she was drunk and passed out.   NO SHE SHOULDN’T. No, simply no. N...
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Unsounded: All the FEELS

I’m gonna keep this as spoiler-free as I can, but if you haven’t read Ashley Cope’s Unsounded, then be warned. (And then go read it because it’s awesome. I’ll even link it for you here .)   If you want to know a little about Unsounded before you click that above link, then settle in. Unsounded takes place on a continent called Kasslyne. It’s filled with political intrigue, various well-developed cultures, and a mind-blowing magic system that hold the whole thing together. And in this world of thief-kings, dog-riding soldiers, and wrights lives a girl with a tail named Sette. Ferocious and sticky-fingered, Sette is on a quest to collect a debt from her cousin. She’s accompanied by Duane Adelier, a zombie wright whose patience is as great as his skills. Which is a boon because Sette would try the patience of the most zen person in the world. Sette has a knack for finding trouble and dragging her zombie bodyguard into the fray. Things get even stickier when Sette and Duan...
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