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Author Jennifer Quail

Fantasy, Steampunk, Science Fiction, and More

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Fantasy

Food and Fiction

Hopefully the folks who frequent this passes-for-a-blog and my author Facebook page have read some of my work. (If not, you can visit my Amazon Author page and see what strikes your fancy. Strange Roads is hovering at that 19 reviews threshold…) And especially if you’ve checked out A Kiss and a Promise you might have noticed I like writing about food. If you saw me on Jeopardy! you can probably guess I like food with my wine, too. One of my collection of degrees is culinary school, after all, and while I don’t get fancy all the time, I definitely like writing about food and cooking.

Given how many of my characters are Slavic, that’s probably not surprising. I’ve been working on expanding my story “Storm-Spun” (Tales of the Siblings Not-So-Grim) and keep wanting to veer off into things like the Slavic love affair with berry picking. 105699900_1135846986773986_1015250223524311536_n

When you find something edible in the woods and suddenly “I’m Katniss Everdeen, y’all!”

It IS berry season. I already have plans to torture characters with gooseberry picking (I have the scars to prove it), strawberry stands are open, and (see above) wild raspberries are ripening. I have “volunteer” sunflowers growing in my garden beds, and my gooseberry bushes produced almost nine pounds this year. The apricot, cherry, and pear trees are still too young, sadly. All of it had me thinking about what characters like Masha would be picking and preserving in a fantasy-Ukraine village, or what kind of fruit bushes and trees Eva would want from her real-world Crimean home to transplant to Denmark.

Of course, with Masha, I’ve run into a problem: when I’m writing a fantasy universe based on a Eurasia before the time of travel to the Americas . . . what would they really eat? Tonight for dinner I made a Moldavian fish casserole that involves a sauce of tomatoes (no), peppers (no), and is served over polenta (nope.) Sunflower seeds, the go-to snack of eastern Europe? Nope. North American native (though made into a commercial crop in Russia and re-imported.) All those fantasy Europes full of potatoes and pumpkins? They’re trading with the Americas somehow. No peanuts (South America.)

I ran into the opposite side of this working at the museum. I had to double-check native sources of sugar, to find that they didn’t in fact have honey. Honeybees are native to Eurasia and arrived, it’s thought, some time in the 1600s. They were alien enough some tribes referred to them as ‘white man’s flies.’ While there are maples native to Eurasia, sugar maple is a New World tree.

Maybe if I really want to make my characters do drudge work, they can try boiling birch sap. (I’ve done that research. Okay I ordered birch-sap drink from RussianFoodUSA. It’s not going on pancakes any time soon.)

So Back to Trying To Finish Things

After another miserable NYCMidnight Short Story Contest first round where, for the third year straight, I drew Horror as my category (your randomizer is broken, NYCM), I’m back to trying to get things written that I want to write. For those who enjoyed “Storm-Spun” (and if you did, please review, and if you haven’t read it yet, please grab a copy!) I’m playing around in the same universe with the same characters.

Which of course means I’m looking up riddles. I’m thinking of borrowing this one:

In the marble walls as white as milk, lined with skin as soft as silk, within a fountain crystal clear, a golden apple does appear. No doors are there to this stronghold, yet thieves break in and steal the gold.

Too obvious?

And in other news, baileyback

Bailey isn’t speaking to me because I didn’t agree that 3:30pm was suppertime. When the silent treatment didn’t work, she went and got the Corgi as backup.

We have a Winner! Actually Two Winners!

Maggie has chosen! (Because Bailey was busy stealing Maggie’s other toys.) Through the extremely scientific method of writing down all the names on slips of paper, burying them in the toy bowl, and seeing who got knocked out first when Maggie yanked her Bark Box Turkducken out, we have two winners of our drawing for paperback copies of Tales of the Siblings Not-So-Grim featuring my story “Storm-Spun”!

The winners are:

Susan Depping

Clarawayne Starrett-Wolford

Please contact me via Facebook or using the comment form here about where you’d like your book sent and if you’d like it signed to anyone in particular or to you!

Everyone else, thank you for all your shares and likes and comments! I may be doing more contests in the future, and as always a lot of my work is available via Amazon and Lulu! If you’re interested in a signed copy of any of the books, let me know via the comment form here.

So Let’s See Who’s Still Paying Attention…

I know I’ve picked up plenty of followers thanks to Jeopardy, and I appreciate the appreciation! But of course, this sorta-a-blog and Facebook are really about the whole writing thing. So in hopes of keeping some of you folks around, I’m going to have a little contest!

I have in my hot little hands paperback copies of Tales of the Siblings Not-So-Grim from Hollow Hills.  This anthology, featuring stories inspired by fairy tales with not-so-downer endings, includes my short story “Storm-Spun”, a Slavic tale involving talking horses, magic spindles, and Koshki the Deathless (and some altered/fantasy-fied spellings, obviously.) As I would really love for people to read what I write I’d like to give away a couple copies, and find out if y’all are actually reading my Facebook page.

So here’s what we’ll do!

1. Like My Author Page On Facebook

2. Like and SHARE the post for this blog entry.

3. ?

4. Profit! Okay, maybe win one of two paperback copies of Tales of the Siblings Not-So-Grim, with my story “Storm-Spun”, signed by me. I may not be a famous author, but hey, I’ve got an entry on the Jeopardy Contestants Wikipedia page. (I would add stuff like where I’m originally from and went to school, but I honestly can’t be bothered figuring out how to edit it. Also it’s hard to cite things when, well, it’s me. I am my own citation.)

5. I will choose two winners at random from people who, again, like My Author Page , and like AND SHARE the Facebook post for this blog (and I’ll even give you an extra entry if you comment on it, too.) I’ll probably do something crazy like put the names on dog treats or tennis balls and let Maggie the Corgi and Bailey the Beagle (#dogsofjeopardy) pick. Since I like Christmas only slightly less than the Nostalgia Critic, and love stretching out the season I’ll do the drawing on Boxing Day (December 26, 2019.)

Winners will be contacted by Facebook message from the Author Page and announced here, if you want to be. Postage is on me for one book to your location (so sorry, you have to live somewhere the post office ships to.)

Winners are not obligated to leave reviews on Amazon, Lulu, or Goodreads, but it would be nice for me and my fellow authors if you wanted to!

 

 

5000 words a day doesn’t have to be one document, right?

So while I should be either really getting going on the novel-length story featuring Aleksandra and Mattias (who’ve so far cropped up in  three flash fics and a lot of notes) or maybe that food-theme fantasy sequel to “Storm-Spun” with a December 31st deadline.

Instead I’ve got two lines for what MIGHT be an adaptation of “Ghost Life” to something a little brighter and more upbeat:

“Our arrangement probably seems strange, or it would if anyone knew about it. For the record, his being dead since before we met has only been a problem in a few, tiny ways.”

Just In Case You’d Like to Buy Some Books!

While you can always check out my Amazon Author Page for books by me or featuring my stories, there are a few other options.

For Tales of the Siblings Not-So-Grim featuring my story “Storm-Spun”, besides Amazon, you can find links to other ebooks at the universal link below. For paperback copies, click the Lulu link!

Universal link – https://books2read.com/talesofsiblings

Paperbacks – http://www.lulu.com/shop/product-24352918.html

If you’d like a paperback version of Machinations and Mesmerism: Tales Inspired by E.T.A. Hoffman, it’s also available on Lulu.

If you’d like to skip Amazon and order direct (or are in the UK) for Urban Crime Short Stories, You can shop direct on Flame Tree’s website.

And please, if you read, consider dropping a review at Amazon, Goodreads, or other sites! Authors love reviews. (Well, when they’re nice. Okay, even if they’re not nice, at least you noticed us!) For example, here’s the first first Goodreads review for Tales of the Siblings Not-So-Grim!

Well, This is Exciting

First, Hollow Hills Press has released Tales of the Siblings Not-So-Grimm for Kindle! This anthology includes my story “Storm-Spun” and fairy-tale-inspired stories and poems with a little more upbeat tone than is maybe trendy these days. (Seriously, did Fantasy Island need a darker, grittier reboot?)

Second, today (Wednesday, December 4th, 2019) is my Jeopardy! episode!

Jennifer_Quail_AD_12-04-19_SN8108 - Copy

Check your local listings!

The Fun of ARCs!

Nothing like opening your e-mail to see a notification that the ARC for the anthology your story is in is available! I can’t wait to see what Hollow Hills Books has done with “Storm-Spun” and what else is going to be along with it.

And it’s a good day for writing, since we’re currently going through Snowpocalypse Now here. The sun IS out, the goats are freezing, the drifts are over the Corgi’s head, but it’s a nice day to stay inside with more of my August Uncommon teas (not sure whether to fire up another cup of Golden Arrow or switch to Passage), writing Gorey-inspired suspenseful horror. Though it would be nice if the sun kind of went away for a bit to set the mood a little better. Bright sunshine’s killing the winter-isolation vibe here.

However that wasn’t a request for more snow out there. 12″ is more than enough, thanks.

Hollow Hills Press: Tales of the Siblings Not-So-Grim

Check out this upcoming release note from Hollow Hills Press! Their new anthology, Tales of the Siblings Not-So-Grim, will include my Russian-inspired short story “Storm-Spun.” I’ve been looking for a home for this one for quite some time, so I’m glad it’ll be out there (and I can start thinking about sequels and expanding.)

You can also take a look at my interview with Hollow Hills on their blog: Author Interview

Tales of the Siblings Not-So-Grim is due out November 29, 2019.

 

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