Going bananas with peanut butter and two slices of bread! by Jenn McKinlay

 First, Happy Father's Day to all who celebrate. Yay, Dads!!! 

Second, congratulations to Bibliophile (Diana) the winner of Mimi Lee Cracks the Code the book giveaway by Jennifer J Chow. Email your address to me at: jennmck at yahoo dot com and I'll forward it to Jennifer. Congrats!!!

And now, today's adventure begins with a postcard. Way back when I was a part-time librarian, working for the city of Phoenix, single, and broke ass poor, I used to make myself peanut butter and banana sandwiches to eat for lunch at work. My dear friend and co-worker Sheila remembered this (either because she hadn't seen anyone eat this since childhood or she'd never seen anyone eat this concoction at all) and when she recently went to Graceland, she felt compelled to mail me this postcard 😀: 

Now, being a lover of Elvis, I knew he was a PB and banana sandwich guy. In fact, when I was laboring to bring Hooligan 2 into the world, it was the 25th anniversary of Elvis's passing and H2 came very close to being named Elvis -- coincidentally Sheila is also H2's godmother. Fear not, Hub made sure that didn't happen. 

Still, on TV all during my labor were, you guessed it, a million recipes for Elvis's PB and banana sandwich. I never felt motivated to try those recipes as I liked my untoasted two slices of bread, spread with peanut butter, and filled with sliced bananas. But when I got this postcard, I thought it was time to give the Elvis Special a try. 

Ingredients: Bread, butter, peanut butter, and bananas!

Cooking: Most important part mashing the bananas and 

peanut butter together! Radical!

Final result: Toasty goodness!

Verdict: Much more filling than my non-cooked PB and banana sandwich and the toasted bread adds a nice crunch and the butter a bit of salt to the sweet. More work than my recipe, which means you actually have to use a pan. Will I make it again? Probably not, unless I become poor because this really is a full belly (and potentially a heart attack) on the cheap. 

All right, foodies, what odd celebrity recipes have you tried? How did it turn out?

Overcoming Fear by Karen McCarthy

LUCY BURDETTE: I met today's guest Karen McCarthy years ago at a writing weekend, and was delighted when she contacted me to say she'd finally finished her novel and decided to self-publish. She wondered if you all might be interested in hearing about the biggest obstacle she faced: fear. I said of course, as we all face this in some way, whether we're writers or not. Lead on, Karen!

KAREN MCCARTHY: Become someone no one thought you could be.  Even you.

I just did this.  I became a published author.  Even though people said I was too old, the writing had dragged on too long, and I knew nothing about the publishing business. The committee in my head chimed in to say you are a lawyer not a writer, you have no talent, you aren't good enough, you can't do it.

This may sound all too familiar to those who witness the writing success of others and, though they may have achieved in other fields, think publishing a book is an unreachable goal.  The thing standing in the way of me doing it was fear. The thing that beat the fear was tenacity and never giving up.

The hard part was already over.  Since my murder revolved around Elvis Week in Memphis, I had already visited all the Elvis sites, attended the candlelight vigil at Graceland where the murder occurs and written elaborate backgrounds for all the characters who come together for their own reunion at this event.  I had put all this together in a first draft and that's where the fear began.

Sending this fledgling attempt for anyone to actually see, I imagined a terse reply to throw it all in the trash.  Yet the editor I hired found much to like, while making copious use of the red pencil. Numerous rewrites, revision, tweaks and edits ensued.  This took a number of years, not months.  Life kept getting in the way. My friends quit asking when the novel would be finished.

Yet I persevered, through death of a spouse, divorce from a second, a year long illness and just big, messy life in general.  And when it was done and I began the long and sometimes bewildering process of self publishing (without which this book would never have seen the light of day) the fear returned.

Putting it out there, saying this is what I've got.  Here it is.  The sense of vulnerability, of people thinking surely she could do better than this, this is mediocre, fear of not measuring up.

But I was not getting any younger. I had passed the social security and Medicare age. I didn't want to lie on my deathbed and regret I never did this.  So I pushed the Publish button on Amazon and pushed the exit button on fear.  And my book is doing well.  I have received praise from many quarters. This is lovely of course, but it is really the coming to grips with my own fear that has given me the most satisfaction of all.

Is fear standing in your way?

About the book:  It's August in Memphis, and August means Elvis.  For decades the fans have come from all over the world to pay tribute to the life of the King of Rock and Roll. Elvis Week will be capped by the famous candlelight vigil at Graceland, his mansion south of the city.  Among those attending are “The Magnificent Seven,” baby boomers who were Elvis fans and classmates in college thirty-five years ago.  

One of these women will not leave Memphis alive.  One of them is her murderer.

Mac McCalla, the Memphis lawyer who finds them all on her doorstep,is uneasy with the murky undercurrents between her old classmates as they tour the Elvis sites. Her fears are borne out when a clash of past and present leaves one of them dead. Which of these seemingly ordinary women has crossed the line and become a killer?  

As the zany, carnival atmosphere of Elvismania unfolds around her, Mac discovers that the answer lies in who these women were so long ago. The secrets that have followed them through the years are revealed one by one until finally Mac finds herself in a near-fatal confrontation with a friend is unmasked as a murderer.

About Karen: 

Cross an attorney who practiced law in Memphis, TN for twenty-five years with a lifelong Elvis fan and you find Karen McCarthy, an author who knew it would be fun to set a mystery novel with a legal twist amid the bizarre and captivating atmosphere that pervades Memphis every year during Elvis Week. Her pro bono work with the Abused Women's Shelter and Legal Services gave her the idea for the plot and helped create the courtroom scenes. Having visited all of the hallowed spots favored by the King, Karen piloted her characters through the swirling fans that mob the city every August. The ghost of Elvis provided the crucial clue. 

Karen divides her time between Memphis and her home in Key West, Florida where she can be found out on her boat, the Dragon Lady, or kayaking and scuba diving. She makes flying visits to Dallas to see her son and his family who live with a dog named Presley. Presley is featured in the book under an alias.

Glitter and be...Barbara Cook

ROSEMARY HARRIS: Two musical Barb(a)ras held court in New York this past week.

I was out of town for Streisand's return to Brooklyn but happily I was home for Barbara Cook's 85th birthday celebration at Carnegie Hall.

 I fell in love with the music from Candide long before I knew that a very young Barbara Cook had originated the role of Cunegonde on the stage. All I knew was that Glitter and Be Gay was the music on The Dick Cavett Show and I wanted to hear the rest of the score.    ("Wow, Leonard Bernstein. He did West Side  Story.") Hey, I was young.

I wore out albums, cassettes and cds before I had a chance to see Candide, first on Broadway, in 1997 with Jim Dale, Harolyn Blackwell and Andrea Martin (hysterical as the Old Woman who was "so easily assimilated!") and then again in London.

It would be more years before I got to hear Glitter and Be Gay performed by the original Cunegonde. My husband is a big fan so we've seen her a few times. When he asked if I wanted to see her again I thought - again? Really?  Inwardly, I thought I was making a big sacrifice but to paraphrase another Broadway lyric, this is what I did for love. 

I'm so glad I went!

First off, we should all be as funny, energetic and ready to try something new at 85 as Barbara Cook is. This was not her typical show filled with theatre music - nary a Sondheim tune, sorry to say. It was swing, and jazzy with some totally unexpected songs. House of the Rising Sun? Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks?

After a terrific set which included some standards that I bet the other Barbra also sang, the birthday celebration began with special appearances by opera singer Susan Graham, guitarist John Pizzarelli, Sheldon Harnick and Josh Groban. I left Carnegie Hall feeling like I had just seen a living legend.  I was lucky enough to see Judy Garland a number of times (my mom was a fan) and Pavarotti, but it made me sorry that I had never seen Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney or Elvis Presley live.

Which living legends have you seen or want to see ?

Just want to be...your teddy bear

ROSEMARY HARRIS: Okay the day you've been waiting for - dolls, book giveaways and your teddy bears. Let's kick things off with the king - Elvis at his youngest and hottest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhdUucs8AlY

Drum Roll...
Monday's winner (Slugfest)- Thelma Straw
Wednesday's winner of Zoe Sharp's book - Jack Getze
Friday's winner of Vicki Delany's book - Karen in Ohio

and ...all the pix were wonderful but the the top teddy bear/doll/doggie pix are

KAYE'S TEDDIES

 

DRU'S Babies

 

MO'S Gigi

JOAN'S Sparkles and Brownie

DARLENE'S Bill

 

                                                                         LESLIE's teddy

REINE'S

 

PAULA'S.

 

.. andTuesday's winner of The Other Woman

 

                                                             SANDI'S Twicket!

Sandi, pls contact Hank at hank@hankphillippiryan.com
Jack, authorzoesharp@gmail.com
Karen, vicki@vickidelany.com

 
Enjoy!

Hair's the thing...

HALLIE: Justin Bieber... what is it with the hair? A comb-forward with heavy bangs and feathered tresses.

Watching him on the Grammy Awards I was mesmerized by that hair in motion, reminded of the cast spell over me by Dorothy Hamill. Remember the figure skater whose apparently effortless hair sent us all to the hairdresser in about 1970 asking for THAT CUT. I gather it was called a Wedge and it was an aerodynamic masterpiece. Never mind that only about on percent of women had the incredibly thick, straight hair required to pull it off.

And five years earlier, perfect hair was Mary Tyler Moore's and "that girl" Margo Thomas's flip. Recently my husband found my high school yearbook for me on eBay. Here was my version of the flip: the helmet-head with wings.

Achieving this look required great determination, fortitude, and an unhealthy dose of masochism.

First you had to wash your hair. Then comb it out and divide it into segments. Piece by piece, each segment had to be rolled over wire mesh rollers that had prickly brushes stuffed into them. Stab the roller with a long, pink plastic anchors to keep it in place. Then put an enormous shower-cap hair dryer contraption on your head, tucking in bits of tissue around my ears. Turn the thing on high and the cap ballooned out with hot air.

Sit there, ears tingling despite the Kleenex, for at least 40 minutes to dry thick hair like mine. By the time you turned off the hairdryer, it felt like a thousand red ants are feasting on your scalp.

Then came the only part that actually felt good -- pulling out the anchors and taking out the rollers so that sausage curls sproinged out.

Now brush, brush, brush, brush, brush and back comb (aka rat, tease) the hair until it looks like a frizzy mess. I must have looked like Brillo on a Popsicle stick. Then smooth and shape it and Aquanet it to within an inch of its life.

To keep it in place required walking without moving the head.

What hairstyle tortured you. Was it Bo Derek's beaded cornrows? Farrah's feathered layers? Cher's long, parted in the middle, ironed straight? Meg Ryan's eggbeater? Mia Farrow's pixie cut -- the one that sent Sinatra (hard to believe she was married to Frankie) into a rage? Audrey Hepburn's French twist?

Did guys suffer from the same torture trying to emulate Elvis or the Beatles or Jimi Hendrix?

Fess up.

What Happens on Jungle Red, Stays on Jungle Red

It's good news Friday!




HANK: We love it when good things happen to wonderful people. Dear dear FO JRW Karen Olson's just got some terrific news...
NAL has just picked up two more books in Karen's tattoo shop mysteries. The third will be DRIVEN TO INK, with a possible pub date of late 2010 or early 2011. The fourth is tentatively titled INK FLAMINGOS.



And now, journalist Karen has forsaken the chic Connecticut life..and sets her new mysteries in VEGAS. Have you been there? I haven't...but Karen has!

KAREN: Vegas. Everyone knows it. Even if you haven’t visited, you’ve seen it on TV, in movies. It’s got an allure that was born of mobsters and celebrities and scandals and gambling. Bugsy and Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin and showgirls and casinos like the Sands and the Frontier and the Four Queens and the Sahara.
When my editor and I were discussing the setting for my new tattoo shop mysteries, she originally suggested Miami or southern California. Those are the places where those TV tattoo shows are located. But as I reminded her, those are also settings for great crime novels, too, and those novels are written by writers who actually live there. I was concerned I’d be exposed as a fraud, since I haven’t strayed too far from my native Connecticut. My editor said they were just looking for palm trees and heat.
So I suggested Vegas.


No, I don’t live there, either. And I’d only visited Vegas once, for a total of two days, 12 years earlier. But Vegas seemed easier to fake somehow. Since so much of Vegas really is fake. Like the canal and gondolas at the Venetian Grand Canal Shoppes, where the tattoo shop in my books is located. And the Eiffel Tower at the Paris resort. And the Brooklyn Bridge at New York New York. And the Roman statues at Caesar’s.


Halfway through writing the book, I realized I needed to actually visit Sin City. So my husband and I took our daughter out of school (yes, bad parents that we are) and flew to the desert in June, where it was a scorching 105 degrees every day. But it’s a dry heat. Ha.

There’s something about the desert that I’ve always loved. It was too hot to hike, but we took a drive up to Red Rock Canyon, just outside the city. It’s spectacular; the red rocks rising high into the clear blue sky, the brown desert floor speckled with the green of Joshua trees and banana yuccas.

Yes, I’m a New Englander, but I feel so comfortable in the desert.
We also spent a lot of time at the Venetian, where I took myriad photos so I could remind myself of the ambiance. We ate at Bouchon, Thomas Keller’s French bistro. We wandered through the MGM, where we stayed, and I took in the gamblers at the slots and the table games. We saw the Bellagio fountains.

When I started writing my books, I loved setting them in New Haven, the city I was born in. When my editor wanted me to move out of my hometown, I was a little nervous. Could I do it?

It was a lot easier than I thought. And I got to go to Vegas.

If you were to pick a completely different setting for your next book, where would it be?


Karen E. Olson
SHOT GIRL, NAL/Obsidian, now available
THE MISSING INK, NAL/Obsidian, July
www.kareneolson.com
http://firstoffenders.typepad.com