Writer's block

Can you cook with the oil that comes off people's skin and hair? I wouldn't expect it to taste good, and certainly am not advocating for some new cuisine, but I just wonder if it's actually possible. I tried looking it up last week and found all sorts of info on something called gutter oil, which is absolutely disgusting, but also not at all related. I found someone else had asked on one of those public question forums and received no useful replies. I really don't want to figure it out firsthand. Not now, at least. I wish I had thought of this question in college. I would have been much more likely to try to figure it out. Probably could have enlisted some adventurous friends to lend a greasy hand, too.

For my story One Cold Day: A Zombie Story, I needed to look up how to operate a handgun, and found a wealth of information. For another story that is not yet available, I looked up some info about car crashes and again, plenty of info. So why can't anyone tell me if it's possible to rub a potato through my hair and over my face on a hot day and get enough sebum to potentially improve the cook time versus a naked potato?

I really don't want to be the first astronaut on this topic.

I miss bookstores

It’s weird. It’s been gone for a month or so now, but I still can’t believe it’s gone. No, that’s not right. I can, I just don’t want to. Of course, I certainly didn’t help. And apparently enough people also didn’t. Oh sure, I enjoyed going, but not buying. I’d browse, peruse. Hell, I even went three weekends in a row to read a book. Seriously, I’d go to Borders, read for an hour or so, head next door to the sushi place to get an eel bowl and some sake, then head back for another hour of reading. I never bought the book. Even when I started to really get back into reading, I wouldn’t buy anything except the cheapest of bargain buys. The Wise Man’s Fear (amazing, btw) came out and I bought it from Amazon. It was half price (hard cover for essentially paperback price), and shipping was free (thanks Amazon Prime trial). How many hours did I spend in there, killing time before a movie in the last eleven years? More than a hundred? I wouldn’t doubt it. How much money did I spend there over the last eleven years? Probably five hundred. Most of it on non-books. I’ve read some people blame it on the rise of the e-reader. I’m sure that contributed, but I really think it started with the internet offering HALF OFF. There are few things I need immediately. And even if I absolutely desired getting a book today, there’s no guarantee that a store would have it in stock. I recently ordered a bunch of books from (you guessed it, Amazon) and just selected the free shipping option (I didn’t keep the Prime, but I’m sure it’s a great deal for some) and waited 10 days.

Fuck, where’m I gonna get Secret Santa Christmas gifts now?

BTW: This is an old blog entry from 2011 or so that I had saved before the host went away. I am presently very happy with my Amazon Prime. Speaking of Amazon, have you checked out my  zombie e-book on Amazon?

Writing on Writing

So this blog is like an ongoing first draft of this story. I realized that the commander gets referenced entirely too much to not have a name, but I didn't want to go back and update multiple entries to correct it. Should I ever consolidate and publish, I will definitely give him a name.

I feel like I've run into a dead-end right now. There's more story not yet published, but it may take more than a little handwaving to get the characters past where I have them right now. I'd rather not, but I'm just not sure where else to go. And that sucks, because I really like Stephen King's approach of always writing the truth. Sure, there's magic and a pseudo-medieval world going on, but still, there's an internal logic to the story. Or I might go GoT, which could potentially solve the issue. Maybe that's why they all die in his stories?

In my zombie story (available now on Amazon) I kill off a character pretty quickly and I had some backlash from some of readers. Others liked it, but I get not everyone wants to get invested in a character only to see him or her die.

Any thoughts from you, the reader at home? Let me know in the comments!

Flavor, texture, breakfast

I read this article online from a man that had lost his sense of smell in an accident and explaining how it's changed parts of his life that we normally would not discuss in polite company. The article itself was interesting enough, but it's the comments I care about right now. Someone asked him various questions about food, and he remarked that without his sense of smell, food had lost its nuance. He finds colors and textures more interesting now. I had enjoyed textures in my food before, crunchy taco shells, soft pudding, crisp lettuce, etc. but they were not the primary reason for me eating something.

I'm at breakfast this morning with my lovely girlfriend at one of my favorite diners and she asked how my food was. I say everything's wonderful. Then I noticed that while the hash browns are indeed great, it's really the texture I'm referring to. They have almost no flavor, but I don't care. They are crispy on the outside - audibly crunchy, no less - and soft (in a good way) in the inside. It's not something I've ever articulated or thought about until after reading his comments. But there I was, enjoying flavorless texture.

As I'm telling her my thoughts, she hears the passion in my voice. She says I'm excited about hash browns, and I murmur I like food. She laughed and said I should write about it. So here I am.

The whole breakfast was wonderful. They do a variation on eggs Benedict with a biscuit and sausage patty instead of the traditional English muffin and ham. The biscuit is fluffy, though structurally unsound. I found myself needing to use a spoon to eat my meal after the gravy soaked in. The sausage patty was particularly spicy this morning, which may be due to my cereal Renaissance at home. Seriously, I haven't eaten this much cereal since I was ten (Tiger Flakes, yo). The hollandaise and poached eggs were marvelous, if not terribly unique.

The other gem on my plate was the jalapeño bacon. I've bought a few different brands of jalapeño bacon over the years, but they are often not spicy in the least. Also, I've yet to master getting bacon crispy when I cook it. It's always good, but a little disappointing to pick up. Anyway, this bacon is spicy, meaty, and crisp. As we're talking, we both fall silent each time one of use takes a bite. I even reflexively close my eyes and my head drops a little. She's similarly enjoying her own strips of paradise.

My food starts to grow cold and I hurry to eat it before it turns inedible. The biscuit is losing all identity, the previously runny yolk is congealing, the hollandaise loses its zest, the hash browns cold and limp. But the jalapeño bacon, oh that glorious jalapeño bacon remained delicious even in that final bite.

Intro

In 2014, I participated in the National Novel Writing Month for the first time. I worked on my novel (placeholder name: The Mercenary's Path) and had a lot of fun writing. And while I did not reach the 50,000 word mark (managed just over 10k words) the story was engaging to me. I'm presenting it here, with the intention of finishing the piece over the next however many posts it takes.

I'll probably include random thoughts, experiences, and snippets of other stories I'm working on.

I hope you enjoy.