New Year's Eve Sangría

"Y aunque para las uvas hay algunos nuevos, a los que ya no están los hecharemos de menos."

Mecano, Un Año Mas.

As you may have noted, I love folktales, urban legends, and superstitious traditions. One of my favorite ones is the Twelve Grapes of Nochevieja.

In Spain and many Latin American countries its customary to serve green grapes on Nochevieja (Old Night, a term for New Year's Eve). When the clock strikes twelve guests hurriedly consume twelve grapes. The superstition is that, if you manage to get the twelve grapes down before the year ends (when the last clock chime rings) you will have good luck in the new year. Also, if you make a wish while eating the grapes you'll wish will be granted. If you really want to have good luck you should travel to Spain's Puerta del Sol and eat the grapes there. Alas, those of us who can't afford that settle for listening to Mecano's Un Año Mas.

I haven't found a source for this custom. Spanish Wikipedia says that it started in the eighteenth century either as a way to mock rich people or as a clever grape marketing technique.

In any case, it's a very popular custom and one of the few Latin American traditions that I've seen gain popularity as the years go by. American customs like Santa Claus have taken over the holidays, but there is no American equivalent to the New Year's grapes.

So throughout Latin America the grapes have taken over. People now make New Year's Eve menus with a grape theme, serving cheese tray with grapes, grape tarts, grape skewers, and lots of wine (of course).  Martha Stewart has several grape recipes to choose from (I love the grape and couscous salad) and so does Food and Wine magazine (that flatbread looks amazing).

But my favorite grape recipe is (of course!) sangría. I serve this every New Year's Eve (with a bunch of grapes on the side) and it's always a hit.

Sangría de Nochevieja 

1 bottle of gold prosecco or cava wine (I know it's heresy but I actually prefer prosecco)
1/2 cup of Liquor 43 (this is a Spanish liqueur. You can substitute orange liqueur or brandy)
1 can of Sprite
1 cup of apple juice
1 sliced, peeled peach (preferably a golden color)
1 bunch of green grapes
1 sliced starfruit

Stir, add ice and chill.

The sangría has a beautifully festive gold color, perfect for New Year's Eve. Enjoy.

Happy New Year!

Link Fiesta

The fabulous Rhonda Helms on how to write romantic and sexual tension. Great post!

Brendon Marrotta on How to Make a Character Likeable. There's a checklist! I love checklists.

Lindsay Buroker has a post on how to increase sales at iBooks, and Rachel Aaron did a post on how sales beget sales.

I made coquito this weekend and a bunch of people asked me for the recipe. Here it is!

Link Fiesta!

J A Huss on the importance of marketing. Wow, this post makes me feel like a total slacker even thought I busted my butt for the Banshee Creek launch. She has more posts on self-pub advice here. I love her post on book trailers. It's so useful! She's also running a Christmas promo (mostly New Adult) this year and has invited authors to join.

Excellent advice from a bricks and mortar bookseller. Applies to all walks of life.

Halloween Margaritas!

Link Fiesta

Should I give up my writing?

How to write your book blurb.

Great post on technical debt and how to future proof your business. It's aimed at trad pubs, but I think a lot of it applies to self-publishers as well.

What cocktails can you make with Unicorn Tears?

Link Fiesta

The best item to protect you from Sasquatch attacks is a camera. In other news, Reddit Sasquatch thread devolves into beef jerky recipe exchange.

How I made $500,000 self-publishing romance novels. Great Kboards post with lots of crunchy numbers.

Nigella Lawson makes Halloween cupcakes (or faery cakes, as she calls them).

Penny Reid's newsletter advice. Yes, I'm about to release a new newsletter. You should subscribe. You'll get the first Ghost Hunters After Dark story right away and the second one (Scottish Egyptologist, pyramids, mummies!) before the end of the year.

Coquito Recipe

Coquito is a traditional Puerto Rican holiday drink. It's basically a coconut eggnog with copious amounts of rum. Puerto Rican families make a batch and distribute it among friends. Coquito makers have their own carefully guarded recipes and flavors vary from spiced coquito to Amaretto or various chocolate concoctions.

Unfortunately, my family recipe is a pain to make. It requires eggs and boiling and the final result has to be carefully handled to it doesn't go bad. But it's a fabulous drink and I love giving it away for the holidays, so I came up with a simpler version. The great thing about this recipe is that it can be easily super sized. I can (and usually do) make up to sixty batches of this recipe in one night. It's easy and tasty.

1 can of evaporated milk

1 can of condensed milk

1 can of coconut milk 

(Do not use coconut water, and try to get the "Light" or "Lite" coconut milk that way you won't have chunks of coconut in your coquito.)

fill up the can of condensed milk with rum, about 14 oz.

(I hate admit it because they no longer produce their rum in Puerto Rico, but Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum is the best choice. The spices go really well with the coquito.)

a squirt of vanilla extract

cinnamon

This recipe will make a jar of coquito. It should be kept refrigerated and it's usually best after one day in the fridge (that way the rum can permeate the drink). You can used shaved coconut or a fresh sprinkle of cinnamon as a garnish. Enjoy!

Easy-Peasy Mojito Mixer

I love the mojito! It's fresh and citrusy with a light, sweet flavor. It's one of my favorite summer drinks.

But it's also a pain to make.

The measuring, the muddling, the mixing... it's all a big hassle. I like making it for parties, but I often end up in a corner, mixing drinks, for a sizable portion of the evening. I love to have mojitos at home, but seldom do. It's just too much work.

So I decided to brainstorm. A couple of friends came over last weekend and we started to experiment.  The goal was to develop a mixer that could be kept in the fridge or freezer. We boiled and stirred and muddled. We also tasted.

There was also a lot of tasting. Yum.

This is what we came up with, a mint-infused simple syrup that can be chilled or frozen. It's super easy and delish.

Here's what you need:

1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of lime juice
zest from half a lime
two mint stalks

Put the water in a saucepan. Add the sugar and heat until boiling. Stir the syrup until the sugar dissolves.

Turn the heat off.

Muddle the mint stalks and put them in the pot. Add the lime zest. Let them steep in the syrup for an hour.

When the syrup cools, add the lime juice and stir.

Chill or freeze into ice cubes.

This syrup makes mojito-making a breeze. Just put an ounce of mixer (or an ice cube),  an ounce of rum, and ice in a highball glass. Fill with seltzer and enjoy. You can garnish with a mint stalk or a piece of sugar cane if you're feeling fancy.

I hope this recipe makes your summer a lot more enjoyable.

Cheers!

Image from Morguefile.

Link Fiesta

Jalapeño Popper Grilled Cheese. I die. (H/T to SmexyBooks)

Jennifer Crusie on Character and Context (or to fix Lauren Lance). I love how Jenny is dissecting Green Arrow. I learn something new every week. And I love her post on how to evaluate the first draft. My favorite piece of advice is "trim the chat so it becomes conflict." It makes a huge difference.

Ilona Andrews on false starts. She also has a fabulous post on the editorial process.

Marjorie Liu on creating a new routine.

Christmas Sangría Recipe

This is my Christmas sangría. It's very sweet and spicy and has lovely green and red apple chunks swimming in it. Very festive.

1 bottle of cheap red wine (Don't use expensive wine. You want the cheapest, sweetest red wine you can find. I use Chilean Merlot. Trader Joe's is also good.)
1 cup of lemon lime soda (like Sprite or 7up)
1 cup of spiced apple cider
1/2 cup of Licor 43 (This is the key ingredient. Buy it. It makes a huge difference.)
1 Granny Smith apple, chopped
1 Red Delicous apple, chopped

Mix all the ingredients together and serve over ice. You can add a cinnamon stick as garnish.

Photo via Morguefile.

Harvest Sangría Recipe

This is my Thanksgiving sangría. It's light and fruity and festive and has a lovely golden peach color. The Licor 43 gives it a spicy sweetness that's perfect for autumn.

1 bottle of Prosecco wine (I use Lunetta's rosé prosecco wine)
1 cup of lime-lemon soda (like Sprite or 7up)
1/2 cup of Licor 43 (sometimes I use more)
1 cup of apple juice
1 nectarine chopped
1 Gala apple chopped
ice

Mix all the ingredients and serve.

Photo via Morguefile.

Link Fiesta

A tablescape for a book club meeting. This is beautiful. I'm googling World Market for crocheted table mats right now. Here's a Christmas tablescape, also featuring books. Very creative.

Jennifer Crusie on creating exciting antagonists.

Deb Werksman on how the print book isn't dead.

A fall sangría: Honeycrisp Apple Sangría. This looks delicious.

The Easy-Peasy Minecraft Birthday Party

My kids are Minecraft crazy. The game has taken over our computer, our house, and our life.
So, of course, when we made birthday plans for the kids they had only one request, Minecraft birthday party.

I'm not a crafty person, so I panicked when I realized that there are no pre-made Minecraft party supplies. (Hello, Mojang, fabulous licensing opportunity here). A google search did not calm me down. People do make home-made Minecraft parties, but the ideas I found on the 'net were far beyond my meager crafting and baking skills. There's a lot of very creative parents out there, but, sadly, I'm not one of them.

But, after much brainstorming and googling, I did manage to put together a relatively simple Creeper-themed party. So, here it is, the Easy-Peasy Lemon-Squeezy Minecraft Birthday Party.

I found lime green supplies at Target and Party City. I bought bags, plates, napkins, and cutlery.

I printed out a creeper face template and used it to make the bags. I used black construction paper and pasted it on the bags with rubber cement. I also ordered a bunch of green balloon (half are transparent and half are opaque).

 Then I made a creeper cake. It turned out beautifully.

I'm not a good baker by any means. I found the square cake molds at Michael's.  The supermarket carried black frosting and green frosting paint.

I used two boxes of chocolate cake mix. I made two square layers and put the one on top of the other with chocolate frosting in the middle. I then covered the cake with plain white frosting. I laminated one of the creeper face templates and placed  it in the middle of the cake.

Then I sprayed the white frosting with green spray-on paint and prayed.

It worked!

I added some dark green sprinkles to give the green frosting a pixilated look. Then I took off the creeper face template. That left me with a white creeper face. I covered the white parts with the black icing.

Voilá! Instant creeper cake. It was super easy.

Next, I made some laminated bookmarks and keychains with printed creeper figures. I found the keychain kit and the lamination paper at Michael's.

This wasn't an elaborate party, but it was Minecrafty enough. My kids were happy and their friends were pretty impressed.

Luckily, the kids are now getting into Pokémon. I'm pretty sure I can find Pokémon party supplies at the party store. Whew!

Minecraft (and all associated images) are owned by Mojang Inc.

Link Fiesta

How to make sangria without a recipe.

A literary dinner by A Bloomsbury Life.

Jennifer Crusie on dialogue.

Gorgeous modern craftsman living room by Emily Henderson. I love the Danish modern plaid chairs. Love.

The caramel apple jello shot. Wow.

What six TV homes would cost in real life. Apparently, Big Bang Theory and Castle get their real estate right. I'm not surprised. I love the Big Bang Theory sets (Nerdvana!) and Richard Castle is ultra loaded. Castle's loft would cost about $7 million today, but the real estate agent says the character probably bought it for $1.5 million fifteen years ago and put in $700,000 in renovations. Scroll down and browse through the comments. They are pretty interesting.

Link Fiesta

Aperol cocktail. I don't even know what Aperol is (sounds like a Campari cousin), but this looks delicious. Can't go wrong with Prosecco in a cocktail. Via Anthropololgie.

Chuck Wendig on editing. On the you-learn-something-new-everyday front: "All things in your book should probably have three beats."

A list of books featuring historical heroines who sew. I like this trend. I want to read the Bayeaux Tapestry book. That sounds fascinating. Also, the rentier historical hero seems to be out of fashion.

And here's another trend I wholeheartedly support: recipes as book marketing. That crabmeat pizza looks really tempting. Now this is author branding I can get enthusiastic about.

Link Fiesta

Mojito Fruit Salad by Jamie Oliver. Maybe for next summer.

A fabulous game room makeover with Ikea furniture. I think I spy an Ektorp sofa.

How to avoid episodic writing. Also, how to create transitions between scenes.

Author branding and creating an author tagline. This blog has more on author branding with an emphasis on developing your industry brand. That's interesting I wouldn't have thought that the industry brand would be different.

Making inspiration boards, by Cottage and Vine. I've never done one of these, but Jennifer Crusie swears by them. Maybe I'll try one next time.

Recipe - Red, White and Blue Sangría

This has been a summer staple for me. I've made it several times, because it's delicious, but also because it's easy to make and pretty to look at.

1 bottle of prosecco wine
1 cup of chopped strawberries
1/2 cup of blueberries
1/2 cup of raspberries
1/2 can of lemon/lime soda
1/2 cup of apple juice or white grape juice
1/2 cup of orange liqueur

Photo via Mourguefile.

Link Fiesta

How shoes contribute to character development. Interview with Scandal's Kerry Washington.

Financial Times interview with Jodi Picoult. Interesting take on the U.S. and U.K. book markets. I didn't realize Picoult was so popular in the U.K.

Bourbon sangría from Bon Appétit.

Spanish beach house by María Lladó. This house is gorgeous. It's a very sophisticated take on beach style. I love the encaustic tile.

I found that house through the a new decor and lifestyle site, Domaine Home. I love this site. They feature posts on luxury vacation homes and recipes for spicy watermelon margaritas. It's like they built it just for me.

Recipe - Chimichurri Sauce

I've made this several times this summer. It's easy to make and it's a fabulous condiment for grilled meats (specially churrasco and chorizo) and vegetables. It also makes a great hostess gift. I bring a jar of chimichurri whenever we're invited to a cookout.

My mom got the recipe from a friend who was the owner of a fabulous Argentinian restaurant in Puerto Rico. I've tried many chimichurri recipes, but this one is till the best.

Recipe:

1 head of garlic (smushed in the mortar and pestle until it forms a thick paste)
1 tablespoon adobo seasoning
1 red onion (you can use yellow, I like red because it looks pretty)
1 bunch of fresh curly parsley
1 bunch of fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons dried oregano (this is the secret ingredient)
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (you can add more if you like it spicy)
1/2 cup of olive oil
1 1/2 cups white vinegar.

Chop the onion, parsley and cilantro. Make sure to chop them finely, you don't want big chunks.

Mix all the ingredients together. You may want to increase the oil and vinegar if the sauce looks too thick.

Add grilled meats and enjoy.

Link Fiesta

Anatomy of a Kristen Ashley book cover.

Jennifer Crusie explains the Oliver-Felicity chemistry in Green Arrow. A great post on how a character can get away from you.

Ilona Andrews on common query issues. This post is very helpful. She also wrote a sample query and explained all why the sample works. Very interesting.

Jessica Faust posted her checksheet for slush pile readers. This is really useful.

The art inside Amanda Sun's Ink book. I love this cover, it's beautiful.

Bobby Flay's Grilled Corn with Manchego Cheese recipe. This looks delicious.

Link Fiesta

Chuck Wending on writing what you want to write.

Nathan Bradsford on why you should query in batches. I'm still not sure how you decide which agents to query first. Dream agents first? Alphabetical order? Random? I need to do more research on this.

Agent Jessica Faust on word count. My WIP is clocking in at 80,000 words and that seems to be fine. Whew.

Author Mary Kay Andrew's mint green beach cottage was featured in Better Homes and Gardens. This house is absolutely gorgeous. I love her kitschy lamps. Also, I think I spied an Ikea Ektorp sofa. You can rent the cottage here.

Ingrid Hoffman's alfajores recipe. My husband brought me alfajores from Argentina, but we already ate them all. This recipe looks surprisingly simple. I'm going to try it!