All posts by Melanie

#AtoZChallenge, bashit neeps, champit tatties, haggis, Robbie Burns

#AtoZChallenge – H is for Haggis

April 9, 2014 Melanie 5 Comments

Haggis

How to make haggis…

Ingredients:

Set of sheep’s heart, lungs and liver (cleaned by a butcher)
One beef bung (intestine) or sheep’s stomach
3 cups finely chopped suet
One cup medium ground oatmeal
Two medium onions, finely chopped
One cup beef stock
One teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
One teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon mace

Trim off any excess fat and sinew from the sheep’s offal (heart, lungs and liver) Place in a large pan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for an hour or possibly longer to ensure that they are all tender. Drain and cool.

Finely chop the meat (or put through a meat grinder) and combine with the suet, oatmeal, finely chopped onions, beef stock, salt, pepper, nutmeg and mace in a large bowl. Make sure the ingredients are mixed well. Stuff the meat and spices mixture into the beef bung which should be over half full. Then press out the air and tie the open ends tightly with string. Make sure that you leave room for the mixture to expand or else it may burst while cooking. If it looks as though it may do that, prick with a sharp needle to reduce the pressure.

Haggis is traditionally served at Burns’ Suppers along with champit tatties and bashit neeps (mashed potatoes and turnips).

#AtoZChallenge, anatomy, Gastrocnemius muscle

#AtoZChallenge – G is for Gastrocnemius muscle

April 8, 2014 Melanie 3 Comments

Gastrocnemius muscle

Never heard of it before? I’d never heard of it’s proper name until this past Saturday when I spent between three and four hours in the emergency department of the local hospital.

You’ll know the muscle I’m talking about when I say charley horse . Yup, your calf muscle. How many times have you woken in the night with one of these, then struggle to untangle yourself from the blankets to stand and get your calf muscle against something cold to help relieve the cramp? Usually, the following day there’s a bit of discomfort in the area of the leg where your nocturnal cramp struck your Gastrocnemius muscle and it soon goes away.

But what if the damage is worse than just a leg cramp? What if you tear that muscle? I can vouch for what happens as I experienced such an event early Saturday morning.

I was walking down the stairs into my kitchen, en route to the back door to let the dog in from doing his business (about 6:00). Well mid-stride, I was struck by a charley horse in my leg but in the midst of descending the stairs (and had a bit of momentum -aka head of steam – built up) wasn’t able to stop. I continued and as soon as my foot hit the stair tread, the searing pain sliced through my leg with a pop and that was me, no longer able to put any weight on my foot.

Not realizing the severity of my injury, I hobbled back to the front room and made myself comfy on the couch with my leg elevated and waited for someone else to get up. I spent a few hours with my leg resting on an ice pack but when it wasn’t getting any better, my husband had our son drive us to the emergency department.

So, after a short examination following a shorter than expected wait, it was determined that I had torn my Gastrocnemius muscle.

Prognosis: it will heal – in time. How much time? 3-4 weeks. Try not to use the leg – aka crutches, Tylenol or Advil for the pain.

Under normal circumstances, 3-4 weeks would be fine. Just not right now. But I’ll save that for another #AtoZChallenge post.

#AtoZChallenge, fudge

#AtoZChallenge – F is for Fudge

April 7, 2014 Melanie 5 Comments

Fudge

This was a “festive season only” staple in our house when I was growing up. My mum made chocolate fudge (recipe below) and brown sugar candy. Both were mouth-wateringly delicious but I think the best thing of all was getting to eat what remained on the spoon and on the sides of the pot after it was made.

Carnation 5 minute Fudge

Ingredients
2/3 cup Carnation Milk
1 2/3 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups marshmallows
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Mix milk, sugar and salt in a saucepan over low heat. Heat to boiling then cook 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the marshmallows, chocolate chips, vanilla extract and chopped nuts. Stir 1-2 minutes or until the marshmallows melt. Pour into a buttered 9-inch square pan.

You can find more fudge recipes here.

#AtoZChallenge, Extraterrestrial

#AtoZChallenge – E is for Extraterrestrial

April 5, 2014 Melanie 7 Comments

Extraterrestrial

For years, we’ve been led to believe in ‘little green men from Mars’ and lifeforms from other planets. But what if there really is something to these claims? The movie industry taken advantage of this and have made films to both entertain and frighten us to death.

E.T. was probably the best known of all the extraterrestrials to hit the big screen. Another loveable alien in the movies is Paul who hit the screen in 2011.

And The War of the Worlds on radio back in 1938, narrated and directed by Orson Welles. It caused quite the stir back then. More recently, Jeff Wayne set the program to music. It was serialized on the radio while my husband and I were on holiday in England in 2005. We were so enthralled by it, that before we flew home we purchased the CDs.

Here’s a portion of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds.

So is there life out there on other planets? What do you think?

#AtoZChallenge, Dumpsie bite, Roly Poly

#AtoZChallenge – D is for Dumpsie Bite

April 4, 2014 Melanie 13 Comments

Dumpsie Bite

Some of you may know them as “roly poly” but my grandmother always called them dumpsie bite and the name stuck. She made hers out of leftover pie crust because in her time, nothing ever went to waste. My mother followed in her tradition, as did I.

There is always a bit of crust left over after it’s been put in the pie pan and trimmed, so why waste it?

How to make a dumpsie bite…

Combine the leftover bits of pie crust then roll out flat. Depending on how much crust you have, is how big your dumpsie bite will be.

Spread butter evenly over the rolled out crust.

Sprinkle brown sugar over that.

dumpsie bite — Photo courtesy of everydaysisters.blogspot.com

Roll it up jelly roll fashion.

Seal the ends and put the dumpsie bite in a pie plate – bending it if necessary to get it to fit.

Bake it in the oven along with your pie and you’ve got a tasty treat to have with a glass of milk.

Check out more recipes at everydaysisters.blogspot.com.

#AtoZChallenge, anthology, King Park Press, short stories, short story, The Consequences Collection

#AtoZChallenge – C is for (The) CONSEQUENCES COLLECTION

April 3, 2014 Melanie 1 Comment

“If you could see the consequences – would you?”

Special thank you to Madliz Coles whose kind permission made it possible to use her evocative photograph as the cover image for my collection.

Blurb:

The Consequences Collection is an eclectic compilation of twelve stories ranging from non-fiction through creative non-fiction to pure fiction, in prose and poetry.

The story of a Scottish Home Child is based on fact and told from the child’s point of view; The Mystery Woman of Kinettles is a non-fiction article on the appearance and subsequent disappearance of a woman’s body near the Wellington County House of Industry (Poor House) in 1879 Southwestern Ontario.

Some of these stories are lighter than others, and some might even beg you to leave the lights on.

Excerpt from the cover story Consequences: But before I get into that, this was written during the one and only storefront writing contest held in Brockville. We all wrote to the same prompt (I think we were thirteen in number) and it was amazing the different ways our stories went.

Splat! The mail landed on the ceramic tile floor of the foyer. Usually, the noise was followed by the snap of the mail slot door closing. Today it wasn’t.

Something must have stuck in it. Sylvia put her coffee down on the counter and walked to the front door. A large white envelope remained suspended in the door. She pulled it the rest of the way through. The flap snapped shut and even though she was used to hearing the metallic sound, it startled her.

She’d expected a letter from her solicitor regarding her divorce from Bill but it wasn’t there. However, that one in particular had piqued her curiosity. Emblazoned on the top left corner was an official-looking crest. The addressee’s name and address were correct. It was her. Why would this person or agency be sending her a letter? She’d never heard of them before.

Sylvia turned the envelope over and worked her thumb under the flap. Those self-sticking envelopes are a bugger, she thought as she tried to rip it open. Finally, she gave up and tore down the side and yanked the contents out.

She skimmed over the letter but it didn’t make any sense so placed it on the small table by the door. It could be dealt with later. In the meantime, she looked at the rest of her mail. Nothing else untoward – just the electric bill, gas bill, and the usual assortment of junk – mail. She dropped them on top of the letter and returned to the kitchen.

The coffee she’d poured earlier had gone cold. She dumped it down the sink and turned the water on to rinse it away before getting a fresh one.

Drawn by some inexplicable force, Sylvia went back to the foyer and collected the letter and the mangled envelope. She returned to the kitchen, flipped on the radio and sat down at her small table. Why had she opened it in the first place? She should have just binned it. That’s what she usually did with unsolicited mail. But there was something strangely familiar about it. The addressee information was on a computer printed label so there was no clue there. The sororities from University had crests or emblems to differentiate one from another. She wracked her brain trying to remember what they looked like. It had been over thirty years since she’d attended. Sylvia never belonged to a sorority because she thought the girls who did were snooty and stuck-up.

She’d call her friend, Laurie and tell her about the letter. They’d been friends since childhood, attended the same elementary and secondary schools and even the same University. She could tell her anything, couldn’t she?

I’m almost Janet Jackson but not quite… but my ‘almost’ reveal was purely accidental. That’s what happens when you sit on the tail of your corset and try to skooch higher up the rock.

Where to buy The Consequences Collection:

Paperback:

Epub:

Kindle:

#AtoZChallenge, bagpipes

#AtoZChallenge – B is for Bagpipes

April 2, 2014 Melanie 8 Comments

Bagpipes

Some people relate the skirl of the pipes to that of a cat (or a roomful) yowling after having its/their tails squashed under the rocker of a rocking chair. Not me. I love the sound. Maybe it’s just my Scottish heritage and its importance to me.

Shhh… don’t tell anyone but I have my own set of bagpipes and took piping lessons. Fortunately, for the neighbours my pipes are languishing in their box in the basement where the conditions keep them from drying out. I have to admit never being able to get the squeeze the bag, blow in the mouthpiece coordination down.

Did you know that the bagpipes have their own holiday? July 27 is Bagpipe Appreciation Day.

Have you heard of the Red Hot Chilli Pipers? I bet most of you haven’t. You can check them out here.

And here they are on YouTube performing their cover of Avicii’s Wake me Up among other tunes. Enjoy.

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#AtoZChallenge, 4RV Publishing, A Shadow in the Past, Authors, Book covers, Books, ebooks, Writing

#AtoZChallenge – A is for A SHADOW IN THE PAST

April 1, 2014 Melanie 11 Comments

A SHADOW IN THE PAST

a debut novel by Melanie Robertson-King – aka moi.

Blurb:
When a contemporary teen is transported back through time to the Victorian era, she becomes A Shadow in the Past…

Nineteen-year-old Sarah Shand finds herself thrust back into the past. There she struggles to keep her real identity from a society that finds her comments and ideas strange and her speech and actions forward, unlike Victorian women. When Sarah verbally confronts confining social practices, including arranged marriages; powerful enemies commit her to a lunatic asylum. After falling in love with the handsome Laird of Weetshill, Robert Robertson, she must decide whether to find her way back to her own time or to remain in the past with him.

A Shadow in the Past is available as a paperback from Amazon, Chapters, and local bricks ‘n mortar bookstores.

If you’d prefer to buy it as an ebook, all you have to do is click on the logo of your choice to download it. The link for all the amazon domains is the same, you just have to change the .co.uk to your own.

So what are you waiting for? It’s your opportunity to get a great read in print or ebook format!

Authors, Blog Tour, Novel covers, Novels, Paranormal YA, Publicity, Publishing, YA fiction

Intangible by DelSheree Gladden

March 25, 2014 Melanie 4 Comments

Intangible (The Aerling Series, #2) by DelSheree Gladden

Blurb:

Mason is not imaginary.
He’s not a ghost, either.
And he’s most definitely not a hallucination.

Mason is an Aerling, and the Sentinels’ number one target.

Separated to keep each other safe and alive until Mason’s eighteenth birthday when Olivia is expected to guide him back to the world of the Aerlings, neither one was prepared to be stripped of their best friend, of the person they love most. The pain being away from each other causes is the least of their worries, though, as the Sentinels intensify their search for Mason and bring the threat of danger to a whole new level.

Oddities – Guest Post from DelSheree Gladden

I will be the first one to admit that I am weird. We all are, but not everyone is willing to admit it. Just for fun, stop whatever you doing and list five things about yourself that make you a little bit odd. Try to think of things other people might not already know. I’ll do it too. Ready? Go!

I am a big Star Trek fan and I have watched just about every episode of all the different series, and every movie. Yes, there were movies before the ones with Chris Pine and Benedict Cumberbatch.
I like to put my socks on first when I’m getting dressed because I don’t like having to push my pant legs out of the way to get them on.
I like spinach, a lot. I don’t get why other people hate it so much. It’s great in spanakopita.
I kill the majority of plants I try to plant every year. I really do try to keep them alive, but apparently I’m just a terrible gardener.
I can’t stand eating the same food more than once every couple of weeks. Except hamburgers. Those are pretty much always good.

Did you make your list? Feel free to share it in the comments below!

Now, why did I just tell you five strange things about myself? To make a point. Everybody has issues and weird idiosyncrasies. Real people are not perfect. Characters in a book should not be perfect either. If you can’t name five weird things about your character, they need a little more depth. You want the characters you write to remind your readers of someone they know, whether it’s a person they like or don’t like. They need to feel real enough that readers can develop a relationship with your characters.

Once you have five oddities about a character, then go back and figure out where they came from. Why does your female lead hate cereal? Is it because it gets soggy in milk, or did she grow up in a home where she never had the type of parents who took the time to make her breakfast as a child? Why does your main love interest never wear blue? Is it because his mom painted his room Robin’s Egg Blue as an infant and made him keep it that color even through high school? Or is it because that is the eye color of the man who hurt someone he loved?

This is something I try to practice in my writing, not only with my main characters, but with every side character, and especially with the villains. Every character should make readers wonder about their past and how it has shaped them. They’ll keep reading to find out the answers to questions like: Why does Evie insist on skirting the rules so often? Why is Olivia so amazingly bad at sports? Why does Mason not remember more than bits and pieces of his life before Olivia? Where did the Sentinel chasing Mason get his scars? If you want to know the answers, grab a copy of Intangible and find out.

What are the stories behind your list of five weird facts?

About the Author

DelSheree Gladden lives in New Mexico with her husband and two children. The Southwest is a big influence in her writing because of its culture, beauty, and mythology. Local folk lore is strongly rooted in her writing, particularly ideas of prophecy, destiny, and talents born from natural abilities. When she is not writing, DelSheree is usually reading, painting, sewing, or working as a Dental Hygienist. Her works include Escaping Fate, Twin Souls Saga, The Destroyer Trilogy, and Invisible. Look for, Wicked Power, the next book in the Someone Wicked This Way Comes Series, and Soul Stone, book two in the Escaping Fate Series, coming 2014.

Website / Blog / Twitter / Amazon / Goodreads

Invisible (The Aerling Series, #1) by DelSheree Gladden

Blurb:

Olivia’s best friend is not imaginary. He’s not a ghost, either. And she’s pretty sure he’s not a hallucination. He’s just Mason.

He is, however, invisible.

When Olivia spotted the crying little boy on her front porch at five years old, she had no idea she was the only one who could see him. Twelve years later when new-girl Robin bumps into the both of them and introduces herself to Mason, they are both stunned.

Mason couldn’t be more pleased that someone else can see him. Olivia, on the other hand, isn’t jumping at the chance to welcome Robin into their circle. Jealousy may have something to do with
that, but honest fear that Robin’s presence will put Mason in danger is soon validated when a strange black car shows up outside Olivia’s house.

The race to find out what Robin knows in time to protect Mason from whatever threats are coming becomes Olivia’s only focus.

blizzard, General, snow, winter

Winter, winter go away…

March 12, 2014 Melanie 1 Comment

Winter 2013/2014

Ugh! I’ve had it with this winter. It’s lasted waaaay tooooo looooong. Enough already, I say!

Family and friends in the UK are posting pictures of daffodils, crocuses and snowdrops in bloom. Even the magnolia trees are in flower. What do we have here?

Just another blizzard. What else is new this winter? The wind is high enough (and the gusts even worse) that the snow is falling horizontally. Couple that with the blowing snow on the ground and you don’t see very much.

The drive home from work was far from fun. The snowplows haven’t been out so about all you could do was keep it between the snowbanks (ice banks is more appropriate since we had a thaw before this latest freeze) and hope you were on the pavement.

There are two places along the highway where it’s easy enough to drop your wheels off the asphalt in perfect conditions and lucky me, I found them both. Oh, and I had some yahoo driving a Ford Super Duty 4×4 that rode my ass most of the way. I was so tempted to jam on the brakes a couple of times to shift him, but that would have only succeeded in having him and his truck in the car with me.

I’ll leave you with this comment…

L’hiver et la neige… PHOOEY!