Author: mariacatalinaegan

Saturday, March 3, 2018

On Saturday morning at SleuthFest mystery writers’ conference, I listened to Gregg E. Brickman talk about book interior design for indie authors.

Then I hung around chatting with friends until lunch. Here is literary agent Evan Marshall from The Evan Marshall Agency with myself and historical mystery author Alyssa Maxwell.

The Saturday luncheon had Guest of Honor Andrew Gross give his inspirational speech on “Career Transitions: Meeting the Challenge of Change.”

Following the GOH’s talk, our chapter’s winner of the prestigious Flamingo Award was announced. Guess what? It was ME!!!!! I was thrilled and excited to receive this honored service award.

In the afternoon, I heard Dr. Katherine Ramsland, Al Hallonquist, Dirk Wyle, and Richard Wymer discuss the Natalie Wood case and all the conflicting theories about what happened that fateful night.

Next, book reviewer Oline Cogdill interviewed all of the guest authors. Then…

I felt the need yesterday to write a new story that did not involve Fairy Queens and Irish shenanigans… WIP. And I was also chopping onions for lunch. I must state at this point that this is a work of fiction and my own husband chops his own onions, does not have halitosis and is generous in the extreme…….

Onions by Sally Cronin

Olivia chopped the onion carefully, avoiding the cut on her knuckles from yesterday’s little escapade. She hated cutting onions, having tried every trick in the book to stop herself crying copiously onto the culprits in question. She had popped the handle of a silver spoon in her mouth and clenched it with her teeth, worn her son’s snorkelling mask, cut the onions under water in the sink, and had even frozen them for 20 minutes before attacking them with a very sharp knife. Which is why she…

I just love cooking with citrus fruits not only are they healthy but they add such a lovely zing to a dish don’t you think?

Today my dishes includes either Orange or Lemon and when I was thinking about this and don’t ask why because I haven’t a clue my brain just wanders at times and goes off on a tangent.

But the Children’s Nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons, said the bells of St.Clements sprung to mind…Who remembers that? We used to play that game at parties and in the school playground…Did you?

Today I give you a recipe which was originally given to me by my friend Mamik who comes from Indonesia… she makes the most awesome Beef Rendang which I will share with you another day…

These chicken skewers are lovely and moist and making them on lemon grass skewers just enhances that lovely lemon flavour.

Lemon grass…