A week without Internet

We finally got back online last Thursday night after being without Internet since the Friday before. I was surprised that I didn't go through withdrawal from not having internet. Well, okay I did have it at work, but I am limited on what I'm allowed to do online there. I was able to check my Facebook and Twitter on my phone, but even on there, I'm limited. But, my poor husband, he couldn't get online anywhere and I think he was very happen when we got our new modem/router.

We've had a deluge of storms pass through for the last couple of weeks and we are always faithful about unplugging the computer from both the power and the phone line for fear of getting hit with lightening. It turns out that when you take a direct lightening hit, it doesn't matter that they are completely unplugged. That's what happened to us.

Thursday night one of those storms came through and, as always we unplugged the computer. We were watching the severe weather reports on tv when the lightening hit. In addition to our modem and router, it also got our DVD player, toaster, an electric heater, my printer, answering machine, and my husband's ham radio power supply, antenna, and antenna turner. He is also faithful about unplugging his ham radio equipment, but it got some of his equipment, too. Luckily, it didn't get his new radio or any of our televisions.

Everything so far has been an inexpensive replacement and the storms did no damage to our house, although our cellar has been filling up with water. We have a pump that takes care of that and this time the water heater in the cellar was not effective. We turned it off at the breaker and waited for the water to stop rising before turning it back on yesterday. Viola, we had hot water again.

There's more rain and storms predicted for today and I'm hoping none will be severe. My prayers go to the people in the southeastern United States. Their devastation has been unbelievable. I feel fortunate that so far the really bad storms have missed us.

Carol

"I'm a Rock Star!"

I wanted to talk a little today about my 'day job," which is working as an Administrative Law Judge. Fancy title, eh? Not so fancy job, though. What I do is conduct administrative hearings for people who have appealed an adverse decision made on their public assistance cases. For instance, someone is turned down for not meeting the definition of disability for a government medical assistance program. They file an appeal and I hold a hearing and determine if they did or did not meet that definition. That's just one example, there could be hundreds more.

What does this have to do with my writing? Even though the hearings are for government assistance programs I deal with people of all economic classes. If a hearing is held for an elderly person in a nursing home, they might be represented at the hearing by their adult children or even an attorney. Because of the wide range of people that I might work with, I have learned so much about the different class levels and can incorporate this into my writing work.

I suppose at this point I should introduce my disclaimer. I have never written about, or will ever write about anyone specifically that I have dealt with during my 25+ years of working in social services. Everything I do is considered confidential and I cannot discuss it with anyone outside of my co-workers.

That being said, it doesn't mean that I cannot use what I have observed in meeting with people. Don't we all do that with anyone we meet? The current manuscript that I'm working on is about a middle-class girl who meets and falls in love with a millionaire. They come from different sides of the track and both have their own specialized survival skills when it comes to life. It's been a very interesting story to write.

Today, I visited with some former co-workers and someone mentioned about what day it was today, Wednesday. Because I am on the road three days a week visiting different offices in my region to hold hearings, it seems I never know what day it is. I told them I felt like a rock star on tour, never seemingly to know what my schedule is. I only know what town I'm supposed to be in the following day.

Rock on, ♫
Carol

Allergies and a Special Offer

I had planned on writing about my day job and how it relates to my writing, but my hayfever has taken over my life today and I can barely see to write this on the computer. I have been sneezing all day with swollen, watery, burning eyes. Seriously, I look like I have one black eye. The eye drops the ophthalmologist gave me have helped some, but not well enough. I am trying to avoid taking an allergy pill because it will completely knock me out and I really don't want that. I'm already sleepy, even after taking a short nap earlier. So, I will suffer through it and hope that it will run it's course so I will be bright-eyed for my day job tomorrow. I'll have to save my post about that for another time.

I know the heading on my blog says I write mystery, suspense, and romance, which I do, but before that I wrote a cookbook, Masters & Disasters of Cooking. There's a photo of the book on the lower right side of the blog. The publisher of my cookbook is having a special from now until the end of this month for free shipping when ordering my book. For more information on this special offer and how to order, please visit this page on my web site.

Thanks,
Carol

Wine Research

This article would probably be more likely to appear on my other blog, Carol's Food Bites, but since it's writing related, this the perfect place for it. One of the manuscripts I am writing is about a culinary arts student who has a chance meeting with a millionaire who is in need of a cook for a party. Since this is a romance story, of course there is chemistry between them and they start seeing each other. I don't want to give away the ending, but we all know that romance novels end happily ever after.

I'm not a wine connoisseur so I had to do a lot of research to write the scene where they go to an expensive restaurant and order wine. I had to figure out what wine would go with the type of food they ordered for their meal. I have to admit, it was so much fun reading and learning about the different types of wines. Not letting that research go to waste with just one story, in the mystery novel I am writing, I have the main male character going to dinner with a woman who is a connoisseur.

The best place I found for that research wasn't on the Internet. It was in my new Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, which had a chart in it defining the different types of wines.

One of the more interesting things I also learned about wine is that different wines should be served in different style glasses. For instance, the glass in the picture above is not the correct glass for the white wine. It is the perfect glass for the red wine and burgundy wines. White wines are served in a similar style glass, but a bit smaller. Who knew?

Sparkling wines and champagne should be served in a long stem flute glass, like the champagne cocktail shown on the left. The first wine I started drinking was a sparkling wine, Spumante. This can be very dry to sweet and fruity. The one I liked had a fruity taste. I've never like champagne, which I find too tart.

One thing that I was amazed to find out is that sherry is a type of wine. Remember watching the television show, Frazier? He was always drinking sherry with his brother. Dry sherry is considered an appetizer wine and served cold, or it can be sweet and served at room temperature after a meal, like on Frazier. On that show, they usually drank it from a very small sized glass, but according to my research from the Wine Glass Guide web page, it should be served in a glass similar to the red wine glass, but shorter. I'm anxious to try sweet sherry, but haven't been to a store where they have any yet.

So, there is my short lesson on wines. Oh, my favorite wine? My favorite is French Lick Red from the French Lick Winery near me in Indiana. I think I'll go have a glass right now.

Carol

Absence

Sorry about my absence. Many things have been going on. To start, I had a combination of a sinus infection and bronchitis. I would move my eyes and it hurt so bad, I thought the top of my head was going to blow off. So now, I am on the mend with just have a little lingering cough. Second, my day job is taking up most of my time, including an overnight, out of town business trip to Indianapolis. By the time I get home at the end of each day, I'm bushed and just want to crash on the couch. Needless to say, my writing has suffered. I have not written or edited anything in weeks. I hope to change that in April. I checked on my To Do list for this year and I am falling behind. I have lost weight, so that is one goal I'm achieving.

Today, I visited the new Books-A-Million store that opened recently near me. Wow, what a great store. I loved it and wish I could have stayed longer to browse their stacks, but I was with someone and couldn't stay. I did buy a couple of magazines, Writer's Digest and RT Book Review. I can't wait to go back, if I ever have time again.

Carol

Read an Ebook Week

March 6-12 has been designated as Read an Ebook Week. Have you heard of Kindles, Nooks, Kobos, or Sony Ereader. These are all electronic devices that you use to read books in electronic format. The photo on the left is of my book, Love, Lies and Deceit on my Kindle ereader.

I've had my Kindle since October and I love it. I taken it to work to read over lunch, to the doctor's office to read while my mom was at her appointment, and on long trips. I have over 25 books on my reader and can carry it in one hand. How many of you can say you took 25 books with you on vacation to read?

Ebook are usually cheaper than their hardback counterparts and you can find just about any book that is in hardback in an electronic version. The question that I get a lot is which ereader to buy. As I said, I have a Kindle and am partial to it. It is sold by Amazon.com and they have thousands of ebooks to buy and hundreds that are free. Each ereader has it's own format, but as far as I know, they all accept PDF files.

Do you think you'd like to try an ereader, but don't think you can afford one? There are other ways to read ebooks. I started out with Kindle for PC, a free app program from Amazon.com that allows you to download Kindle books to your PC for reading. I also have a friend who downloaded an app for her cell phone from Amazon.com so she could buy and read my book. I can't imagine reading an ebook on a phone screen, but she did it.

If you are interested in my book, Love, Lies & Deceit, you can visit my page at Red Rose Publishing. While on the Red Rose Publishing page, please take some time and check out all of the great authors on there.

You can also visit my Author Central Page at Amazon.com. A few of my friends also have books available in ebook format and I highly recommend them, Marian Allen, Kenzie Michaels, Michael Williams, and T. Lee Harris. Also, please check out my list of author friends whose web pages and blogs I have listed on the right side of the page.

Carol

Publicity Photos

I need some publicity photos taken, but oh my, I don't like being in front of a camera. My job was always behind the camera where I am very comfortable. With spring coming, I find that it's the perfect time to have some photos taken. I'm ashamed to say how old the photos I have are that I use online. If you look at the photo I use on this blog, the one where I am wearing a purple shirt. I think that is my most recent photo and it's probably at least five years old. The one I used before that of me sitting at a computer was older than that! Then, there's the first photo that I put up on my Amazon.com Author's page. It's the one where I am wearing blue. While I think it's a pretty good photo of me, it's probably over 15 years old.

The hardest thing about getting some photos taken is what should I wear. In addition to a photographer, I think I need a stylist to dress me, too. So, the search is on to find a good, but inexpensive photographer for some good photos. Any suggestions?

Carol