All About ME...Or Not

Hey, Megan here. Earlier this week a reporter wanted to do an interview. I said sure, what's the focus of the article and how do you want to set it up? Got an answer on how we'd do it (via phone call). I checked out her articles, which were well done. So...
After exchanging pleasantries, she asked how old I am. [insert crickets chirping] Now, this isn't a secret among my family and friends, but... Is it relevant? Which is what I asked. She said absolutely. I countered with my many years of marriage being more relevant to my writing, my belief in HEA and working hard at marriage to make that HEA a reality. These things I bring to my writing.
I got a lecture on journalism. She got a...an explanation, lol, about privacy. I also wouldn't tell her the year of my graduation, although I did tell her my hometown and high school. She balked again and had to go to her editor for permission to continue.
So I emailed her my thanks for the offer and said, "also tell your editor that while I may tell you I have two kids, I won't tell you their names or ages either." Their lives are theirs to protect or flaunt as they wish.
There's not going to be an article. I can't be sorry about it except... EEKS I just turned down publicity. It makes me uneasy, to say the least. While part of me insists the important thing about me is my determination to improve my writing and my struggle to get published, there's that internal editor (nag) that says I should have just told her. My age is not a big deal, nor the date of my graduation. The kids, though...I draw the line there.
What do y'all think? Is a person's age that vital to an article? Should I submit all the details of my life for public consumption? Or is there a line?
Megan Kelly
The Marriage Solution, May 2011
www.megankellybooks.com

Monthly Favorite Recipes

Are you a fan of kale? I've always loved this leafy green vegetable. When I was a child we had it regularly, usually with hamburger steak and mashed potatoes. I often mixed my kale and mashed potatoes together, in a truly "child friendly" manner. It made my parents cringe but at least I was eating my veggies!

As an adult, I still love kale and buy it regularly at the grocery. Usually I wash, trim and boil it in a saucepan, then add a little salt and pepper and some lean bacon bits in lieu of the bacon grease my mother used when I was a child. I discard the stems in my compost heap.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the compost bin one day this spring and found two kale plants growing up toward the thin shaft of light coming in! I carefully dug the plants, which had rooted from those discarded stems, and transplanted them into the little garden area I'd planted with my granddaughter, Lilly. The plants took off and I now have my own fresh kale.

When I saw this recipe in Country Living Magazine, one of my favorite subscriptions, I couldn't wait to try it. However, I had to make a few changes. Here's the original:

http://www.countryliving.com/recipefinder/sauteed-pork-chops-kale-recipe-clv1010?click=recipe_sr

Here's the way I fixed the dish:

Sauteed Pork Chops with Kale

(Victoria Chancellor version)

In a large skillet, heat about 2 T. olive oil or a good vegetable oil, like canola

3 medium "sirloin cut" boneless pork chops (Note: These were on sale at Target but you could use any type of pork chops. If you use thick chops, however, make sure to increase cooking time.)

1/4 c. (approx.) chopped or thinly sliced onion

2 cloves garlic

Salt & pepper to taste (I also used some Old Bay Seasoning just because I like it!)

Approx. 2 cups or more kale, washed and trimmed

Add kale to about 1 to 1 1/2 cups water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover and cook until just tender while you are preparing the pork chops.

Add seasoned pork chops to hot oil in skillet and brown on both sides. Add onions and garlic and continue to saute until onions are transparent. (Do not overcook garlic.) Drain kale and add to skillet. Saute kale with pork chops until fully cooked/wilted.

I served my dinner with Appaloosa Beans, a novelty type of dried beans I soaked and cooked. (They were very similar to Black-Eyed Peas.) Also, I served cornbread, with blueberry pie and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Note: If you don't like kale, you could use fresh spinach or another green leafy vegetable.

I prepared this meal while I should have been finishing my July, 2011 Harlequin American Romance, The Texan and the Cowgirl, so I'm really glad my husband enjoyed it! I hope you like it, too. Best wishes for a wonderful October.

SEPTEMBER WINNER!!

CONGRATULATIONS Julie Hilton Steele! You’re the September winner. To receive your free autographed books please contact Dominique Burton and Barbara White Daille through their Web sites.

To enter the contest simply leave a blog comment and your name will go into the drawing. Simple and painless. And FREE BOOKS.

So check back often and be sure to leave a comment. Good luck!

Here, Kitty

It’s a jungle out there. In my back yard.

When we moved from beachside to mainland eight years ago, Dear Hubby and I made the decision not to clear the back half of our one-acre lot. I have to admit, initially I envisioned something a little different from a wild abandon of palmetto and pepper trees. My original plan for the back yard included paths winding through the wilderness, hostas edging the line between grass and growth. Maybe a tree house and a swing. But since neither DH or I particularly like working outside in Central Florida’s ever-present ninety degree heat, yard work is, yeah, a problem.

Instead, we’ve decided to let Nature do her thing and hired people who mow the grass and keep the jungle behind a line that ever wants to creep forward. Some of my neighbors have clear-cut their back yards. They mow an acre of sod in straight rows. Not us.

We love the birds, I exclaim to anyone who bold enough to ask why. Our plot of overgrown jungle is on the map handed out to various species before they take off on their annual migration. So, twice a year—coming and going—every tree limb fills with robins, and the ground becomes a carpet of tiny little butterbutts. (See my Tipsy Robins post from 2/25/10.) We enjoy watching the squirrels, I tell neighbors who complain about torn screens and furry animals that can outwit the smartest bird feeder. I’m not so crazy about the raccoons, but once we wrapped our enormous hobo in bungee cords, those scavengers left the garbage alone.

Lately, there’s been a new addition to the menagerie of birds and opossums, armadillos and raccoons, squirrels and the occasional red fox that live in our back yard. A bobcat. Who, apparently, thinks we’ve laid out the welcome mat. He’s certainly made himself at home. This week, he prowled through the back yard, sniffed at the screen door, and bounded into the woods.

Pretty, isn’t he? I hope he doesn’t expect a bowl of milk ‘cause that’s one kitty who won’t be invited indoors.

Coming of digital age

It used to be that readers wanting to purchase a Harlequin after a few months might have trouble finding a new copy. A year or so later? Only if the publisher decided to reissue the book.

Now, our books will stay in print virtually forever thanks to the digital age. It came a lot faster than many of us expected.

I’ve heard statistics that, a mere three years ago, less than one percent of book purchases were for ebook readers. Today, that hovers around 12 percent, and in 3-4 years, it may go as high as 50 percent.

You don’t even have to own an ebook reader to enjoy digital copies. My son announced that he was reading Kindle books on his smart phone, downloading them while traveling in Japan. Although he’s since bought a Kindle, you can download a free app – a small program – from Amazon.com so you can read these digital books on your computer or smart phone.

My son, who’s 24, says he’s reading more books than ever. Isn’t that great? Another friend is buying more books now, too, and reading them on his phone. I can’t imagine wanting to read on such a small screen, but he loves it.

If you’ve checked my Web site recently (www.jacquelinediamond.com), you’ll see that I’ve uploaded two of my non-Harlequin books onto Amazon for $2.99 each (I’ve posted the first chapters on my site, so you can read them for free). One is a paranormal romantic suspense that nearly got published in print and technically got published digitally, but both times the publishers went bankrupt. Not my fault, honest! The second book is a darkly funny mystery that was published in a beautiful hardcover edition – but with a very small print run aimed at libraries.

Now, they’re both available for anyone who wants to read them. I’m getting some of my other older books scanned into Word, including my Regency romances. I plan to re-edit them as needed, attach new ISBNs (tracking numbers) and design new covers. No more languishing on remote, dusty shelves for them!

So if you missed a Harlequin American from a few months ago or even last year, you can find it there. If your favorite bookstore runs out, you have options. Isn’t the digital age great?